Where have all the pagan carols gone?

Reclaiming winter song for the wild ones

I have this picture in my mind of an ideal past, before our solstice celebrations were branded so powerfully by the Christian narrative to the exclusion of all others, before December’s delicate sparkle was harnessed by capitalism, when we had one another and the frost and the fire and the starry mystery that lies at the centre of this winter dark, and we felt compelled to sing together, because winter is sacred and so is our song.

This is an idealized picture, but it’s also a true one. We have always had song, and our common repertoire of winter song was once, perhaps, a little wilder and freer than it is today.

I feel a little grief in knowing that homogenizing forces have wiped a lot of the cultural texture off our experience of tradition, and of celebration in company at this, the ritual height of the year.

Nevertheless I strongly believe the essential quality of animistic and pagan midwinter reverence is still available to us if we heed its call and appear as humble wassailers at its doorstep, offering our blessing.

Though it may be obscured somewhat behind a flashy commercial display, the firelight still shines within the hall. The way in can be found in the archive, in songs old and new that invoke sacred plants, love, winter weather, ritual drinking and feasting, care between neighbours, and visions of the supernatural.

The bright doorway of winter reverence remains inside you as well, in the expansion you feel when a carol of any sort lights up a dream or a mystery in your heart.

I want to share some carols with you that embody the old pagan and animistic magic of midwinter in an online singalong event this Sunday the 15th at 12 pm Pacific time, 8 pm UK time.

Will you sing to the winter with me this December? Sign up here before December 15th!

The recording will be available to those who have registered until January 1st.

This is a low-key event where I will share songs so you can carry them with you in your mouth and your heart through this winter season. Everyone (and their dog/cat/baby/partner) is welcome, whether or not you think of yourself as a “singer” or a “pagan.”

I sincerely hope you are blessed with a visitation from sacred song this month, in whatever form it manifests.

All my love,

Danica Boyce

PS: You can still sign up for tomorrow’s Cave of Dreams workshop, where we will hold a container for pagan creative visioning and practice in line with the potent magic of this time of year. Come one come all!