Green Women Gathering
Providing spiritual community since 2008
The Green Spiral
Welcome to The Green Spiral, Green Women Gathering's Newsletter!
Hello, beautiful community!
As the seasons shift and new energy flows in, we’re thrilled to bring you the latest updates, inspirations, and opportunities from Green Women Gathering. This newsletter is your space to reconnect with the heart of our mission - to foster a community of strong and supportive women, honor the Earth, and empower one another on our journeys of growth and discovery.
Inside this issue, you’ll find exciting announcements, upcoming events, and ways to get involved. Whether you’ve been part of GWG for years or are just finding your way to us, we’re so grateful to have you here.
Let’s continue to grow, gather, and ground together.
What We’re Up To
Planning is underway for our Spring Gathering, happening March 21 - 22, 2026! This year’s event will take place at a cozy lodge in Adams County, PA, just outside Gettysburg - a beautiful setting to welcome the turning of the season.
Registration opens January 1, 2026, so mark your calendars and start dreaming of spring renewal, connection, and magic!
Poetry Corner
The Shortest Day
~Susan Cooper
So the shortest day came, and the year died,
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive,
And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us—Listen!!
All the long echoes sing the same delight,
This shortest day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!
To Know the Dark
~Wendell Berry
To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,
and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.
Yule
Yule is an ancient Germanic festival, rooted in Norse traditions (Jól), that celebrates the Winter Solstice, marking the shortest day and the rebirth of the sun as days begin to lengthen. Key Yule themes are celebrating the rebirth of the sun, the return of light, and new beginnings after the year's longest night, focusing on renewal, fire, feasting, introspection, and honoring ancestors.
Common Yule traditions include community gatherings with spiced drinks (wassail) and hearty foods; honoring the battle between the dark (Holly King) and light (Oak King) forces, leading to the sun's victory; burning a Yule log (often oak) for days, sometimes saving a piece for the next year, with ashes believed to bring luck; singing carols; exchanging thoughtful, sometimes handmade, tokens of appreciation; feasting; and welcoming the first light of the returning sun.
Old Fashioned Wassail
Ingredients
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8 cups apple cider
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2 cups pulp-free orange juice
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2 cups cranberry juice cocktail
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2 navel oranges, divided
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2 red apples, divided
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1 teaspoon whole cloves
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2 cups fresh cranberries, divided
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6 cinnamon sticks
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6 star anise
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1 to 2 cups bourbon, optional if you are of age
Instructions
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Pour the apple cider, orange juice, and cranberry juice cocktail into a 5-quart pot. Set over high heat and bring to a boil.
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While the mixture heats, slice the oranges and the apples crosswise into thin slices. Remove apple seeds.
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Press a few cloves into the flesh of each apple slice until all the cloves are accounted for.
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When the mixture boils, reduce the heat to maintain a gentle simmer.
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Add half the apple slices (including all of the ones studded with cloves), half the orange slices, half the cranberries, four of the cinnamon sticks, and three of the star anise to the pot.
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Simmer for 30 minutes.
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Strain the wassail through a cheesecloth-lined sieve into a large bowl. This removes any accumulated foam along with the spent fruit and spices.
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Pour strained wassail back into the pot or into a slow cooker. In either case, set on low heat to keep warm.
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Place the remaining cinnamon sticks and star anise into the pot, along with some of the apple and orange slices and cranberries. Reserve some of the fruit to garnish individual servings.
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To serve, ladle wassail into mugs, and garnish with fruit if you like. Stir an ounce or two of bourbon into the mugs of any takers.
Slow cooker directions
Follow all of the instructions above, but cook the wassail on low for about six hours before straining as directed and returning to the slow cooker to keep warm.
Winter Solstice Welcoming Spell - 12 Days of Returning Light
As the Winter Solstice approaches and the sun begins its slow return, this spell helps you welcome new energies and intentions into your life—one day at a time.
You’ll need:
• 12 small strips of paper
• A pen
• Glue or tape
• A place on your altar to hang your chain
How to do it:
For 12 days, take one strip of paper each day. Write one thing you are inviting into your life as the light returns—anything you want to grow with the coming sun.
Examples: peace, abundance, creativity, confidence, healing, joy.
Fold or roll the strip gently toward yourself (to draw the energy in), then glue or tape the ends to form a ring.
Each day, add the next strip by linking it through the previous one—creating a growing intention chain.
Hang this chain on your altar so it can soak in your energy and the shifting season.
On Winter Solstice:
Take the chain down, hold it in your hands, and acknowledge everything you’ve welcomed over the past 12 days.
When you’re ready, burn the chain safely—offering your intentions to the returning sun and releasing them into the universe to grow.
Let the smoke carry your invitations upward as the light begins its climb back into the world.