I’m always at a loss as to what to do for Yule. Not being a sun-aligned person I just don’t get with the whole “welcome in the sun” thing. However, this year I was given the notion that I needed to be more welcoming of the sun, so for the first time I found a suitable place to welcome the sun back at Yule – Castlerigg stone circle.
When I had been trying to find a suitable location I had first considered some of the sites listed on the Aenigmatis.com we site:-
- Newgrange
- Crick Barrow
- Harold’s Stones
- Long Meg and Her Daughters
For various reasons these were not suitable on this Yule day, either due to the distance I would need to travel. The only one that seemed a likely candidate was Long Meg in Cumbria. I made note of the useful information about the Winter Solstice at the excellent TimeandDate.com web site. Here are the sunrise times for the Winter Solstice as taken from the west of England:
| Date | Sunrise | Sunset |
|
Dec 20, 2012 |
8:24 AM |
3:55 PM |
|
Dec 21, 2012 |
8:24 AM |
3:56 PM |
|
Dec 22, 2012 |
8:25 AM |
3:56 PM |
|
Dec 23, 2012 |
8:25 AM |
3:57 PM |
Just before I left, though, I found out that Long Meg’s Solstice alignment is with the setting sun! Oh no! A quick change of place, then. Same area, but now I would go to Castlerigg – a circle that held particular resonance for me this year, being the site at which I had freed and merged with a Merlin energy. With a time and place set I now began to consider what this particular Yule sunrise signifies for me this year.
