This is my first post since Covid! I feel like I've just come out of a coma.
Have a blessed Yule!
Maryte Danute
The Baltic bit is a bit wrong. Saule dies during the solstice and it is through our songs she is reborn.
The Lithuanian word for December, Gruodis, means death as that is when the sun dies.
THE DEER MOTHER * Written by
Freyja Mae Lomas
In a time long before Santa flew across our skies, it was the female reindeer who drew the sleigh of the sun goddess at Winter Solstice. Today it is not Rudolph that adorns our Christmas cards and Yule decorations but the deer mother’s beloved image. Because unlike the male reindeer who sheds his antlers in winter, it is the doe who retains her antlers, and it is she who leads the herds in winter.
The Northern tribes in the Neolithic era depended on reindeer to survive, the earth was much colder then and the reindeer more widespread, the female reindeer was especially venerated by the northern people. She was the “life-giving mother”, the leader of the herds upon which they depended for survival, and they followed the reindeer migrations for milk, food, clothing, and shelter.
Through the lands of Scandinavia, Russia, Siberia, Britain and across the land bridge of the Bering Strait, the deer mother was revered as a spiritual figure associated with fertility, motherhood, regeneration, and the rebirth of the sun. Her antlers adorned shrines and altars, buried in ceremonial graves, and were worn as shamanic headdresses. Her image was etched in stone, woven into ceremonial cloth and clothing, cast in jewelry, and painted on drums. And across the northern world, it was the Deer Mother who took flight from the darkness that engulfed the northern lands to bring light and life to the new.
The red and white colors of Yule are thought to descend from Siberian legends. Folktales tell how shamans, dressed in red suits with white spots, would collect the Amanita Mushroom (the archetypal red and white mushroom) in large sacks, then dry them over a fire and deliver them via his reindeer sledge to the community as gifts at the winter solstice. The extra spring in the steps of the reindeer due to them feasting on these mushrooms is the reason the reindeer are said to have taken flight.
While many historians observe the link between Santa’s garb and the red and white amanita mushroom ingesting shaman, few mention that it was the female shamans of Siberia who originally wore red and white costumes trimmed with fur, horned headdresses or felt red hats. The traditional ceremonial clothing worn by the Sami women healers of parts of Sápmi (Lapland), were green and white with a red peaked hat, curled toed boots, reindeer mittens, fur lining and trim. Sound familiar?
The Reindeer was a sacred animal to our ancient ancestors of Northern Europe. The doe was seen as the giver of light and life and is linked to many ancient goddesses of these areas.
Beiwe is a Sun Goddess of the Sàmi, the indigenous people of whom the Northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, and most of the Kola Peninsula call home. The Sàmi are reindeer herders who rely on the reindeer for their survival. In Sàmi folklore, Beiwe nourishes them and their herds and helps her people maintain mental health during the difficult months of darkness. In their stories of her, she flies through the heavens on the Winter Solstice with her daughter, Beaivi-nieida (sun maiden) in a ring of reindeer antlers flinging fertility and life back onto the land. At the Winter Solstice, warm butter (a symbol of the sun) is smeared on doorposts as a sacrifice to Beaivi so that she could gain strength and fly higher and higher into the sky.
Rozhanitza, the Slavic Winter Goddess is associated with reindeer and the Winter Solstice. She is depicted as a horned Goddess with reindeer antlers. Folk art of red and white embroideries were made of her for solstice celebrations. On her feast day, December 26, cookies made in the shape of deer were given and eaten for good luck.
Saule, the Lithuanian and Latvian goddess of light and the sun, took to the skies on the Winter Solstice in a sleigh pulled by antlered reindeer. She journeyed with the aid of her smith, who forged a golden cup in which to catch her tears which then transformed into amber. During her flight through the heavens, she threw these pebbles of amber, like little bits of sun to the world of humans below. She was a spinning Goddess who used her skill to spin the rays of sunlight onto the world.
Horned Goddesses are found in the Celtic world also. Ellen of the Ways, in her most ancient form, was the Guardian of the Leys, the ancient track ways. As a Horned Goddess, she led the way on the migratory tracks of the reindeer.
Esther Jacobson in her book, The Deer Goddess of Ancient Siberia, concludes that the deer images found throughout the early nomadic and semi nomadic cultures of the vast steppe and mountainous regions of Eastern Europe and Asia are evidence of a Deer Mother as the source of life and death.
"We can learn from the wisdom of the past, a time when humans understood more clearly our tiny part in the cosmic web of life. and the necessity of honoring the earth and all its life. At this time when the shadow side of human nature once again seeks dominance through naked self-interest and the promotion of fear and hatred of others, let us remember and honor the ancient’s belief in the Reindeer Goddess, the Sun Goddess and the Mother’s Night when She both flies high in the sky and dives deep into the earth to nourish and promise a renewal of life in the coming spring. Though it may be dark now, the light will return”.
In the cold Arctic north, it was women who were the original shamans and healers, and it is likely that their traditional wear is the true source for Santa’s costume. It is also very likely that they were the first to take shamanic flight with the reindeer on winter’s darkest nights. My hope is that these women are not forgotten today and that they live on in the Deer Mother who still appears on our Christmas cards, seasonal decorations, and tales of Santa’s flying reindeer. And while we may not recognize her, I believe some deep, old part of ourselves still remembers the original “Mother Christmas” who brought light and new life to this Earth.
So, this solstice and Yule take a moment to remember the forgotten winter goddesses of old and their magical reindeer. Look out from your warm cozy home into the cold of the darkening eve. And on the sacred night when the sun is reborn, look for the Deer Mother flying across starry skies, tell the story of the ancient Deer Mother of old, after all it was she who once flew through winter’s longest darkest night with the life-giving light of the sun in her horns.
