Pagan Christmas: The Plants, Spirits, and Rituals at the Origins of Yuletide

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 224 pages
• Published by: Inner Traditions November 4, 2006
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1594770921
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1594770920
• Book Dimensions: 9.9 x 8 x 0.6 inches
• Weighs: 1.5 pounds

Product Review
"The authors and the translators richly deserve congratulations on what is without doubt one of the finest books about Pagan Christmas written in recent times."
(Lee Prosser, Ghostvillage.com, Dec 2006 )

"The illustrations and photographs are excellent. The text is concise, and accurate. Pagan Christmas is a fine reading experience!"
(Lee Prosser, Ghostvillage.com, Dec 18, 2006 )

Product Description
An examination of the sacred botany and the pagan origins and rituals of Christmas

• Analyzes the symbolism of the many plants associated with Christmas

• Reveals the shamanic rituals that are at the heart of the Christmas celebration

The day on which many commemorate the birth of Christ has its origins in pagan rituals that center on tree worship, agriculture, magic, and social exchange. But Christmas is no ordinary folk observance. It is an evolving feast that over the centuries has absorbed elements from cultures all over the world--practices that give plants and plant spirits pride of place. In fact, the symbolic use of plants at Christmas effectively transforms the modern-day living room into a place of shamanic ritual.

Christian Rätsch and Claudia Müller-Ebeling show how the ancient meaning of the botanical elements of Christmas provides a unique view of the religion that existed in Europe before the introduction of Christianity. The fir tree was originally revered as the sacred World Tree in northern Europe. When the church was unable to drive the tree cult out of people’s consciousness, it incorporated the fir tree by dedicating it to the Christ child. Father Christmas in his red-and-white suit, who flies through the sky in a sleigh drawn by reindeer, has his mythological roots in the shamanic reindeer-herding tribes of arctic Europe and Siberia. These northern shamans used the hallucinogenic fly agaric mushroom, which is red and white, to make their soul flights to the other world. Apples, which figure heavily in Christmas baking, are symbols of the sun god Apollo, so they find a natural place at winter solstice celebrations of the return of the sun. In fact, the authors contend that the emphasis of Christmas on green plants and the promise of the return of life in the dead of winter is just an adaptation of the pagan winter solstice celebration.


Reader Reviews
Kudos to the author! At last a book about pagan winter celebrations and the origins of Christmas that a thinking pagan can sink his or her teeth into! The author is an anthropologist and an ethnopharmacologist. This book goes far beyond the fluffy books on Yule that are on the market and shows you amazing things! Of course you really need to read the whole thing. A cursory glance will cause you to think it's all about magic, mushrooms, and sex, but, hey -- it's pagan isn't it? I picked it up with the ho-hum attitude of "I probably know everything it's going to say," and was immediately mesmerized with the layout, the pictures, the information, everything! And the little known esoterica brought out here makes it really worth reading. Worth reading on many, many levels.