Calypso’s Temple

11/25/2025

DIY Yule Smudge Sticks

Ingredients:
* Dried herbs of your choice (e.g., sage, lavender, rosemary, cedar)
* Natural twine or string
Instructions:
* Gather your herbs: Choose a variety of herbs that resonate with your intentions.
* Create a bundle: Arrange the herbs together, securing them at the base with twine.
* Wrap tightly: Continue wrapping the twine around the bundle, ensuring it's secure but not too tight.
* Hang to dry: Hang your smudge stick upside down in a warm, dry place for a few weeks to allow the herbs to fully dry.
Once dry, you can light one end of your smudge stick and use the smoke to cleanse your space or yourself

11/24/2025

The Pagan Roots of Christmas & the Yule Tree

Christmas, as we know it today, is a blend of pagan and Christian traditions. Long before the celebration of the Nativity, the peoples of Northern Europe marked the Winter Solstice with rituals honoring light, rebirth, and the return of the Sun. This festival is known as Yule, one of the most important celebrations in Pagan and Northern European traditions.

Yule: The Return of Light

Yule celebrates the longest night of the year and the gradual lengthening of daylight. Pagans viewed this point in the cycle as a time of death and rebirth for nature.
Common Yule symbols included:
• Green branches, representing life enduring through winter
• The Yule log, burned for protection and prosperity
• And the sacred tree, brought indoors or decorated outdoors

The Ancient Yule Tree

Long before the Christmas tree existed, Pagan tribes in Germany, the Celtic lands, and Scandinavia honored evergreen trees—fir, pine, cedar. These trees were believed to hold the life force of nature through the darkest season.
People decorated them with:
• Fruits, as symbols of abundance
• Branches or ribbons, for protection
• Lights or candles, to call back the Sun

The Yule tree served as an axis between worlds, connecting heaven, earth, and spirit. It also symbolized the World Tree (Yggdrasil) of Norse mythology.

From Yule Tree to Christmas Tree

With the spread of Christianity in Northern Europe, many local traditions survived, blending with the new celebrations.
The Yule tree became the Christmas tree, retaining its pagan essence:
• Evergreen branches symbolize eternal life
• Ornaments were originally charms of fertility and good fortune
• Lights represent divine light—whether of the Sun or of Christ

Today, the Christmas tree may be seen as a Christian tradition, but its roots are deep, pagan, and intertwined with the magic of nature.

The Message of the Tree

Whether called a Yule tree or a Christmas tree, its essence remains the same:
In the darkest time of the year, we light a spark and honor life that persists, awaiting rebirth.

05/09/2024

05/09/2024

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05/03/2024

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05/01/2024

Blessed Beltane to all 🫶🏼✨

10/31/2023

Blessed Samhain to all who celebrate 🖤👻🎃🦇🐦‍⬛

10/13/2023

Isn't it odd that once upon a time in Europe a woman could be killed for making potions from the plants around her.

Isn't it insane that once upon a time wise women were burnt or drowned for helping birth babies, knowing their herbs, gathering in groups of more than two, being outside alone, being strong, being beautiful, being ugly, being different, being sexual, being non sexual or touching a nettle, smelling a rose or drinking wild teas.

Isn't it madness that a woman who knew her body, her mind and her heart was cast aside as evil, as a sinner and her life taken away.

Women! Do not let the ancestral memory of this that is held in your make up, in your bones and blood hold you back.

Rise dear sweet sisters, rise so that our daughters and daughters daughters don't have to wonder when we lost our tongues and denied our hearts.
Grow a new tongue, invite the wolf in, awaken the witch and dance under the moon.

Embrace your heart, your womb, your gut and your wisdom.

Roar dear sister, break the silence and take back your power so the young ones won't have to.🖤🔥🖤
~ Brigit Anna McNeill

10/13/2023

Research…

09/28/2023

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