About Us
Our background and aims
Gylden Community is a magickal and spiritual group. We support, promote and organise pagan events within the Surrey, Hampshire, Sussex and Berkshire areas. It's a place for all those who feel drawn to nature-based beliefs and for meeting like-minded folk. You’ll find us at spiritual events throughout Southern England, celebrating sabbats, publishing regular magickal help and having lots of laughter at gigs, picnics and socials too.
Gylden Community is not a traditional pagan group. We link to our friends in Basingstoke, Portsmouth, Bracknell, Farnham and anywhere else that hosts magickal or spiritual groups. We visit to share fellowship – and they can visit us too.
As a pagan library, we share knowledge and experience with others, not only via monthly publications or online files, but also at themed discussions or fayres where we can put aside time to show others what each of us can do or have learned along our specific pathways.
Gylden Community works with Guildford & Godalming Interfaith Forum, Woking Action for Peace and other Interfaith bodies to promote spiritual tolerance. We raise funds for charity whenever possible via our presence at public fayres, including Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice and Step By Step charities.
Gylden Magick magazine
Our regular monthly magazine is also on: www.facebook.com/groups/gyldenpaganfellowship/
Our December 2024 issue includes the following features:
- Yule magick
- nature: flooding in Sussex
- science: coffee and health
- gemmology: Reliquary crown of Namur
- science: cold drops in weather
- nature: Earthshot 2024
- Kwanzaa celebrations
- magick: blowing on knots in Islamic tradition
- geoscience: ley lines
- celestial forecasts for December (also published in full on Facebook)
- folklore: Sandford Orcas Manor.
Visit our Gylden Magick magazine archives for past issues.
Working with others
Pagan/ spiritual groups in the Gylden Community area - all are listed on meet-up or Facebook.
Arun Traditional Witchcraft (Arundel)
Association of Sussex Pagans
Basingstoke Pagan Circle
Basingstoke Pagan Moots
Berkshire Witches & Wiccans
Blackthorn Witchcraft UK (Havant)
The Circle of Ankerwycke (Staines)
CoA Southampton Witches
Colours of the Oak Moot (Bracknell)
Crawley and Horsham Pagan Moot
Godalming and Villages Moot
Guildford Mantra Meditation
Guardians of the Grove (Chichester)
Hampshire Pagans for Environmental Change (Southampton)
Horndean Positive Living Group
Horsham and West Sussex Pagans
Moon Rituals Portsmouth
North Surrey Pagan Circle (Weybridge)
Pagan Federation South Central
Reading Berkshire Pagans
Rollright Circle of Friends (Chipping Norton)
Rowan & Thorn Druid Grove (Alton)
Seasons of Albion Moot (Farnham)
The Witches' Inn (Redhill)
University of Portsmouth Pagan and Spiritual Society
University of Southampton Pagan & Witchcraft Society
Worthing Pagan Moot
ALBAN ARTHAN/ YULE/ WINTER SOLSTICE 2024 ©
“At Yule, we celebrate the birth of the new sun, make solstice resolutions for the new year and anticipate the rebirth of our active selves. It is a good time to reflect on our achievements since Litha.”
Alban Arthan, also known as Yule, celebrates the winter solstice, the shortest day and longest night, after which the days lengthen and the march of the sun towards spring is begun. For some druids, Alban Arthan means the light of winter (Welsh), while others believe it means the light of Arthur – this could be King Arthur Pendragon, who was seen as the sun god, reborn at the Winter Solstice. In 2024, the solstice falls on 21 December.
The word, Yule, has been attributed to an ancient Norse word, Hjól (yoh-l) meaning wheel, i.e. when the wheel of the year was at its lowest point awaiting the sun’s return. At Yule, we celebrate the turning of the year towards the light and warmth of summer. This is the night on which the hope of life and the promise of spring is given, to give us courage in the coming cold.
Though the winter solstice is a time when darkness reigns supreme, the sun is almost over the southern horizon and the earth lies wrapped in sleep, no-one need fear the winter’s dark and cold. When the new light of solstice day dawns on 21 December, it will be stronger. The wheel turns again, awakening the earth and our potential for life, love and joy. The members of the Gylden Community area celebrate their own Yule rituals and solstice celebrations. We look forward to Imbolc (1-2 Feb) and the first stirrings of spring.
Quite a lot of suggestions for Yuletide blessings and activities have featured in past Yule issues of GYLDEN MAGICK, but here’s another one that’s easy to do when it’s far too cold and icy to venture outside…and that’s building a solstice altar.
Each year, when it comes to Yule, I set up a Yule altar, which includes natural decorations, such as holly, ivy, pine cones, etc, all of which are readily accessible from the garden. The rationale is to set aside a place to reflect other seasonal bits and pieces, namely candles, crystals, statuettes, herbal ingredients, etc. Traditional altar colours are white, silver and black, decorated with red, gold and green ribbons or baubles. Sometimes, there’s a small Yule tree, but this may be replaced by a bowl of potpourri.
Your altar should be located in the north, as this is the correspondence direction for winter and the element in Earth. Good scents for the altar at Yule include orange, frankincense or sandalwood. It’s up to you, which rituals can be done at your altar – if you’re a solitary practitioner, a Yule ceremony on 21 or 22 December is good, but other activities might include reflective practices, such as meditation.
© 2024, Written by Gylden Fellowship
Blessings for Yuletide