[Editorial note: last year, for the first time, I ran one of my music posts for the Winter Solstice. It seemed to be well-received so I thought I would update and expand it, by adding a few more words and tunes].
Today in the Northern Hemisphere is the Winter Solstice, aka Midwinter, aka the Shortest Day – we enjoy the princely amount of 7hrs 46m of daylight. If you’ve read any of my previous posts you will probably have noticed that science isn’t my strong point, so if you’re looking for an in-depth analysis of what that means you’ll need to look elsewhere, sorry! I did try researching this – that is to say, I took a look at Wikipedia – but the article lost me after a sentence or two. Briefly, the Solstice is ‘an astronomical phenomenon marking the day with the shortest period of daylight and the longest night of the year. It occurs when one of the Earth’s poles has its maximum tilt away from the Sun.’ Although the day has been given the name of the Solstice that alignment of the poles is actually at 10.23pm UK time. I don’t think there’s much to see though: unlike an eclipse, there is no obvious visible sign. So now you know – don’t say I don’t enlighten you! And I’m pretty sure that those poles to which reference is made have nothing to do with dancing – or maybe dancing is the order of the day? To be safe don’t quote me on that, just in case……
[Editorial note 2: one of the responses to last year’s post was from a very helpful chap by the name of Steve Hurley, whose blog is called Explaining Science. He had recently posted about the Solstice and gave me the link to his post. I’m sharing it for you here, as it is very informative and tells you all you might want to know. Most importantly, it is very readable (i.e. even I could understand it!)]
My interest in this day is its significance in a cultural and spiritual sense. Apparently this goes back as far as Neolithic times, when it was seen as the most propitious time for planting their crops and mating their animals – I wonder what those cave paintings were like? This time of year is important in many cultures, dating back long before it was appropriated by Christian faiths as ‘Christmas.’ The Wikipedia article also tells us that the pagan Scandinavian and Germanic people of northern Europe celebrated a twelve-day “midwinter” (winter solstice) holiday called Yule, amongst many names. Many modern Christmas traditions, such as the Christmas tree, the Christmas wreath and the Yule log are directly descended from ancient Yule customs. The underlying theme is how important this time of year is in the natural world, as a time representing rebirth and the beginning of more fruitful seasons.
While I was playing around on YouTube the other day looking for new Christmas songs to share with you, I came across one of their playlists which introduced me to modern day music – some of it pagan – celebrating this time of year. As you might imagine, much of this is what would be termed ‘folk music,’ though there were elements of jazz and heavy metal in there too. I knew nothing of this before, but my interest was piqued. I’ve dabbled a little further and have added some of these artists to my Apple Music library, as I rather enjoyed what I’ve heard so far. I thought this might be of interest to you, too, as I’d bet a fair amount that most readers will know no more about this than I do! So here are just a few examples. Firstly, from a guy based in Brighton, here in the UK, known as Damh The Bard:
There’s a warmth to his voice which I find appealing: his words give a very good explanation of what the pagan midwinter season is about, and draw the comparison with Christian beliefs. An interesting song.
This is far from just being a British thing, though. I also came across an Australian pagan band called Spiral Dance, who played gigs here with Damh The Bard in 2017: small world, eh? This is from their 2006 album The Quickening:
Again, there is a real warmth to the voice of the lead singer, Adrienne Pigott, which makes the music feel very welcoming.
Moving across the pond to the US I came across this one from Denise Jordan Finley:
That is from an album called Solstice. According to her bio Denise is very much involved with the church, so I think it would be wrong to describe her as ‘pagan,’ but this illustrates well for me how inter-related these apparently different sets of beliefs actually are. And her voice is a thing of beauty, putting me in mind of Jacqui McShee, of Pentangle – in my eyes, that is high praise!
My next selection takes us slightly further north into Canada. The Wyrd Sisters are very much under the radar, selling albums direct from their website and at live shows, festivals etc. The song features on Leave A Little Light, the first of their six albums, all of which were issued independently and seem to be unavailable except via their website. Again, like Denise Finley, I’m not sure that they are fully into the pagan tradition, but the lyrics of this ‘carole’ very much are:
That was where I left my first dip into the hitherto unknown – well, unknown to me, at any rate. I recognised at the time that it had been a superficial introduction to some music which is representative of customs going back thousands of years, but I wanted to give you a taste of what I had found, and to encourage you to think about the meaning of Yule. As I also said last year, I had only just got going with this style of music, and had no doubt that someone more versed in it would ridicule my lack of knowledge. [Editorial note 3: so far, no one has ridiculed my lack of knowledge. I guess there’s still time, though…]. But it interests me, and the limited research I did last year broadened my musical horizons, and that for me is no bad thing. On refection, I felt I had been a little stingy in sharing only four songs, so I’m going to rectify that by adding a few more.
The first additional song is a bit of a change in style: it is more of a rock song than the previous four, but no less suitable or enjoyable for that. It is by a British band called Inkubus Sukkubus, who are described on Wonkipedia as being a ‘Pagan/Goth band.’ I almost didn’t go any further, but I’m rather glad I did. See what you think:
Despite the fact that the song is from an album called Vampire Erotica, with whatever images that might conjure up in your mind(!), I think it is an interesting take on Yule: and it can’t be denied that they are sincere in their musical affiliation, as they have been recording and performing for 30 years and have released 21 albums in that time!
My next newer song is another folk-rock treatment. I must admit to never having heard of the band – The Dolmen – before, but again this is clearly a song by a band who are committed to their art. To underscore my ignorance, a quick search found that they are from Weymouth, in Dorset, and have also been going for around 30 years, during which time they have released 19 albums and have twice performed at the Glastonbury festival. They are an independent band, which explains why I couldn’t find any of their releases on Apple Music! Taken from their eighth album, Winter Solstice, this is Frosty Solstice Morn:
My third, and final, addition for this year is by another band previously unknown to me: Ravens. Try as I might, I can find nothing about this band. There are several other bands with the same name, including an early version of the Kinks before they hit the big time, but none that I can see as having released anything like this song. One of the comments is from Catt Kingsgrave, who apparently wrote the song. I have found several references to her as an author, but again the trail towards the song dried up. If anyone knows more about her, please do tell! This is very much in the folk tradition, and has some pleasant harmonies which I think round off this post rather nicely.
I hope you’ve found something here to enjoy and to broaden your musical horizons. There are plenty more musicians out there in the pagan style, so I may well do this again at some point.
See you again on Christmas Day, for my final collection of seasonal songs.
Take It Easy 