Emma Kathryn Wild Witchcraft

Samhain feels like so long ago doesn’t it? Gone is the spooky season, the spirits and thinning veil, or so we seem to think as the wheel turns towards Yule and the winter solstice.

And yet, I often wonder if the winter solstice is the time when the veil between worlds is truly at its thinnest. Think about it, it is longest and darkest night of the year, the land is quiet, the trees have shed their leaves after giving their energy to the world from spring onwards. We stand on the precipice of the old year almost done and the year that will soon come. Yes, a veil not only thin, but almost worn through.

Perhaps this is why there is a long tradition of ghost stories at Yule and Christmas, something made popular by the Victorians (you know what they were like).

Ghost stories tell of times past and new beginnings, and the blurring of the two. Sometimes they are happy tales of completing business and moving on to peace, other times they act as warnings to us in the land of the living. Other times they horrify and frighten. However they end, ghost stories themselves are liminal things, stories of past times and people, unable to escape this earthly realm stuck within the present, or perhaps colliding with it!

Ghost stories at this time echo the melancholy feelings of winter that we try to disguise with merry making, decorations, shining lights and baubles. But there’s also something primal about sitting around the fire as the Yule log burns, telling tales that carry within them lessons to be learned. For me, this duality echoes the turning of the wheel from one year into the next, we are the bridge that spans the divide between the two, and this is where magic can be found.

For me, duppy stories echo this feeling of duality. I grew up with many a duppy story, my Jamaican dad would often exclaim “the duppy ah come” whenever we watched anything vaguely spooky. A duppy is a spirit that was once human, but were unable to ascend to the next life and so were doomed to remain in this earthly realm. In the research for my latest book (I’ll tell you all about it as soon as I can!), I read and was told many duppy stories, and all of them carry a sadness within them, sitting alongside true fear. So while at Yule, I bring to mind stories like A Christmas Carol and those of M.R James, I can’t help but think about the stories of the lost and troubled souls of the duppy.

So this Yule, perhaps burn your log, invite your friends, enjoy a spiced drink or two and tell stories of the lost and forgotten, perhaps the perfect activity for the longest and darkest night of the year!