Winter Solstice essences oil

How to Use It

Witchcraft & Folk Magick

• Anoint a red, green or gold candle on the solstice night and keep it lit until dawn if you can do so safely.
• Dress the Yule log or a sprig of evergreen before burning or hanging it.
• Anoint gifts you are giving to bless them.

Hoodoo & Rootwork

• Add to a floor wash to bless the home for the new year.
• Dress a candle on an ancestor altar during the long night.

Ceremonial & Occult Magick

• Anoint the altar and solar candles for a rite of the reborn Sun.

A Simple Working

• On the night of the solstice, put out all the lights in the house.
• Sit for a while in the dark and think about what the year has taken and given.
• Anoint a gold or red candle with the oil.
• Light it and greet the returning Sun.
• Light other candles from it around the house.
• Share food and drink with family or friends, and set aside something to give to someone in need.

Pairs Well With

• Evergreen boughs, for life in the dead of winter.
• Gold candles, for the reborn Sun.
• Cinnamon and clove, warm spices of the season.
• Holly, a traditional protective winter plant.
• Garnet, a deep red stone of the hearth.

What You Receive

Winter Solstice perfume oil, in a 1/2 oz bottle, blended in cosmetic-grade oils.

Origin & Lore

The winter solstice, around 21 December in the northern hemisphere, is the longest night of the year, after which the days begin to lengthen. Across Europe it was celebrated with fires, feasting and gifts, traditions that flowed into Yule and Christmas. This oil is made for hearth, home and the return of the light.

At Newgrange in Ireland, a passage tomb older than the pyramids, the rising sun on the winter solstice shines down a long stone passage and lights the inner chamber for about seventeen minutes.

In Rome the festival of Saturnalia was held in December with feasting, gift-giving and the reversal of roles between masters and servants, and 25 December was celebrated as the birthday of Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun. The Yule log, burned through the midwinter nights, was a custom across much of northern Europe.