(This is the third of four posts on the “Magical Giftbringers of Yule.” The first one was Rozhanitsa, and the second one was St. Lucia.)
Saule is the Baltic Sun Goddess. I learned most of what I know about her from Patricia Monaghan’s wonderful book O Mother Sun. I wrote the following lines for a woman playing Saule to speak in a ritual or guest appearance at a Yuletide party.
The woman who portrays Saule should wear amber necklaces and a crown of gold. She carries a basket of golden apples. She can pass out butterscotch candies to the guests, which stand in for tears of amber.
Oh, you have risen early, my darling ones. Do you see the rosy sky beginning to brighten over the eastern hills? I am coming to you, my sweets. I am your beloved Saule, Mother Sun.
How I love to hear you sing your songs to me! Sometimes you sing that I am a red apple setting in the west. Or that I make my bed in an apple tree, where my sacred serpent, the zaltys, twines around my arms. In the late evening, I board my golden boat and travel beneath the world to my rising place in the east. When I am very sad, I sit in my apple orchard and weep tears of amber. But on the morning of Winter Solstice — or Kaledos, as we call it — I am reborn as my daughter the Morning Star, the year’s young sun.
I have also heard you whisper that the magical smith Kalvis forges a goblet of gold, and that it releases me from the dark of night. I charge over the mountains of dawn in my chariot drawn by two silken horses. Oh, I do love the exhilaration of the race — just as I love my children!
I shine on all of you — there is no limit to the love I have for you. Even though you tease me when you sing: Saule, you seem to be rushing! Go slower! Stay late in the sky! We have much work to do and need the extra light! Oh, my dear ones! There is always tomorrow! I will rise for you again.
Dance for me on the morning of Kaledos! Sing my songs and carry the golden apples of the sun throughout the town! Greet each other with wishes of health and prosperity — on this morning, your prayers will be answered and your wishes fulfilled, Oh my beloved ones!
(This is an excerpt from my eBook, A Crown of Candles: How to Throw a Fabulous Lucia Party. The photo above is from one of our Lucia Parties, when Saule made a surprise appearance.)
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