Modraniht (Mothers Night)

Tonight is known as Modraniht, or Mothers Night, by Saxon Pagans - the start of Yule. My ancestors were predominantly Anglo-Saxon, that is, of English and Germanic descent, and I've done some research into modern Saxon Paganism in an attempt to reclaim some of my heritage and better connect me to my ancestral roots.

When Anglo-Saxons first began to settle in England they brought Yule with them. We don’t know too many details about what this festival entailed: They cut a Yule Log to provide fuel and gradually pushed it into the fire as it burned. They decorated homes and halls with evergreen leaves and branches. They feasted. Some records say it lasted 12 nights.

Modern Pagans celebrate the start of Yule on either December 20th or 21st. On the first night of Yule they pay tribute to the ancestral mothers who protected and watched over the family, helped with childbirth, and healed illnesses.

Agenda today:

1. Love meditation

2. Read a novena

3. Make lemon Sun biscuits

4. Mothers Night Fire and Prayer

1. Love meditation:

This fall I began a set of practices that brings me to love and receptivity every month after the full moon, in the quiet-energy yin time of the waning gibbous moon.

I practice this Love Meditation for a few days each month to help open a door to bodhichitta - a completely open heart and mind.

1. 1 minute - Relax your body, and focus on the tender emotion of generous love. Allow a smile to settle on your face and in your heart.
2. 1 minute - Visualize love as soft, tingly, warm, pink light, and see it move from your heart to every part of your body so that every cell is glowing and vibrating.
3. 1 minute - Now see the pink light of love radiating to fill the whole room, then the whole city, and the whole planet earth.
4. 1 minute - See that all people, plants, and animals feel warm and happy.
5. 1 minute - Send an extra dose of love light to those people you want to have a better connection to.

On this third day, I journal about generosity with time and attention - start with ideas for being generous with myself, then my family, my neighborhood, community, and the earth. I might decide to give money or a gift, or simple acts of helping and sharing my time.

2. Read a novena:

Today is the fifth day of the Christmas Novena, a Catholic ritual of a prayer recited or sung during the nine days leading up to Christmas Day. I've been reading this Creation Novena from the Indian Catholic Matters site:

Day 5: A Prayer for Water

Creator God, we give thanks for water. We thank You for the rich depths of the seas, their unimaginable variety. We thank You for the rivers and lakes in our communities, for the sparkle of light that dances on their surface.

We thank You for all the ways that water sustains us. We give thanks for the clean water that we are blessed to drink. We give thanks for the moisture that rises from the seas to become the rain that waters our crops. We give thanks for the power of the waves that stay within their shores.

As we pollute and warm Your waters, give us foresight. Help us see the consequences of soiling Your waters and changing their ancient compositions.

Help us protect our children and grandchildren now, by taking even small steps to preserve the great gift of water.

We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

5. Make lemon Sun biscuits:

Lemon Shrewsbury Biscuits have been popular British cookies for hundreds of years - this is probably not an original Saxon recipe, but a pretty old one.

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. butter
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar or granulated sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• zest of 2 lemons
• 1 c. plus 1/2-c. all-purpose flour
• Powdered sugar and lemon juice for glaze

1. Let the butter warm to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 350°F, and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. You will also need to find a chop stick and a comb to make the patterns.

2. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks and the lemon zest. Gradually add 1 cup of flour. Then slowly add as much of the ½ cup of flour , using just enough to make the pliable dough come together. You want a non-sticky, soft dough that can be rolled out. (I used all the flour and still had a sticky dough, so I added some more as I rolled them out.)

3. Prepare a sheet of parchment paper sprinkled with flour, and roll out half of the biscuit dough to ¼-inch thickness. Use a round cookie cutter or a glass to cut the dough into round biscuits. 

4. Use the tip of a chopstick to make a small dot at the center of each circle, then  a comb to create dotted lines radiating outward, like a sun. Transfer the cookies onto a prepared cookie sheet to about 1-inch apart, using a spatula.

5. Repeat with the other half of the dough, and the dough scraps.

6. Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes until just beginning to turn golden brown on the edges. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Cover with glaze. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.

5. Mothers Night Fire and Prayer:

This first Yuletide evening, we sometimes have an open house, and a solstice fire. I invite family and a few friends to drop in for hot chocolate, cookies and a fire ceremony.

I ask each visitor to add two sticks to the fire: One for something light, and one for something dark. We might share out loud, or we might not.

This year we are on social overload, so tonight I will go outside alone and have some quiet time to honor my ancestral Mothers, those wise female ancestors who hold the authority of my lineage as a whole; I choose to honor those women who transcended the racism of their times, and who knew how to live sustainably on the earth. We all come from a mother, so it seems fitting to start the Yule festivities here. 

I thank the spirits of all the wise and well women who came before me, back to the start of time, for your gifts of life, love, and light. 

Grandmothers: I honor you, and thank you for giving me the strength to be a good mother, grandmother, wife, daughter and sister, and for passing on a legacy of kindness, hope & strength of spirit to me and to my descendants. Thank you, thank you, thank you.