Yule Ritual

Had this draft ready to go and forgot to schedule it! Sorry it's late. 

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Here is the Phantasmagoria Tarot Yule Ritual, written as a shadowed solstice rite — part séance, part dream, part rebirth. It keeps the ancient light of Yule but refracts it through the gothic lens of Phantasmagoria: the long night as theatre, the light as revelation, the self as both ghost and dawn.

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🕯️ Phantasmagoria Yule Rite: The Longest Night

Theme:
The Sun dies, but the soul dreams.
The world stands still, and the unseen stirs.
This is the turning — where endings whisper to beginnings, and the heart learns to see in the dark.

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I. The Setting: The Theatre of Midwinter

Prepare your space as if you were about to host a midnight performance for spirits and memories.

You’ll need:

• A single black candle (for the death of the Sun)
• A small mirror or bowl of water (the dreaming portal)
• Your Phantasmagoria deck
• A strand of evergreen or sprig of rosemary (the promise of return)

Place the candle before the mirror. Let the reflection of its flame become your twin sun — one burning in this world, one in the dream.

Whisper:

“The light sinks into the underworld.
The year exhales its final breath.
I enter the phantasm —
to find the flame that never dies.”

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II. The Spread — “The Ghost of the Sun”

A 6-card spread shaped like an inverted flame — a descent before ascent.

      (6)
    (5) (4)
   (2) (3)
      (1)

1. The Shadow of the Year – What part of me has died or dimmed in this cycle?
2. The Phantom Flame – What remains of my inner light, even in the void?
3. The Mirror of Winter – What truth do I see when the world stands still?
4. The Voice Beneath – What message rises from the depths of silence or grief?
5. The Pale Sun – What light begins to return — fragile, spectral, real?
6. The New Dawn – What awakening waits beyond the longest night?

Read the cards as a vision in the mirror, not a list — imagine each image flickering to life, one after another, like scenes in a silent film.

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III. Integration: The Whisper of Light

When your reading feels complete:

1. Choose one card — the one that feels like the heart of your vision.
2. Hold it before the mirror flame and say:

   “From shadow you return to light.
   From ending, beginning.
   From death, dream.”

3. Place that card beneath your pillow or beside your candle overnight.
   Let its imagery weave through your dreams.

In the morning, extinguish the candle and whisper:

“The Sun is reborn — and I am remade.”

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IV. The Archetypal Echo: Cards of the Solstice

In the Phantasmagoria lens, these Major Arcana act as your solstitial guides:

• Death – The longest night itself, the stillness between heartbeats
• The Hermit – The candle carried through the dark
• The Moon – The dream and its distortions, the theatre of the unseen
• The Star – The return of distant hope, fragile yet eternal
• The Sun – The revelation of dawn, the triumph of light through shadow

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V. Closing Words: Benediction of the Black Sun

“I have walked through the theatre of endings.
I have watched my shadow dance in candlelight.

Now, beneath the black sun,
I rise unseen but luminous.
The phantoms fade, but their wisdom remains.
The year turns, and so do I —
endless, eternal, ever reborn in smoke and gold.”

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