Mothers’ Night & the Winter Solstice.

Holy Módraniht. Mother’s Night.

Many are familiar with the Season of YULE, and/or the Winter Solstice, as poignant times in the Wheel of the Year. However, many are NOT so familiar with Módranhit.

Are You?

I wasn’t! Until a few years ago when I started aligning my life and spirituality even more to the old ways, to my ancestral pathways that would have followed the Wheel of the Year, which organizes time and ceremony with the natural seasons changes. Nature based spirituality aligns with the natural order of life; death and rebirth cycles; and esoteric philosophy that supports the fact that all life is interconnected and a there’s a source of “intelligent living energy”, within and between the celestial, ancestral realms and earthly realms.

I began exploring the origins of the various celebrations within the Wheel of the Year, and as I learned more about Old World Celtic, Germanic, and Norse traditions relating to the Winter Solstice I discovered Módraniht, Mutternacht, Modranecht.

A lesser known sacred time otherwise known as "Mother's Night" - Dec 20th - the night before the Solstice. A tradition of Scandinavian, Anglo-Saxon (Old Germanic) & Celtic origin, was a night to honour the Ancestral Mothers and Grandmothers, who in ancient times were revered for their blessing, protection, and who as “SEERS” provided prophetic council to the clans and villages. They were the “Spinners”, the Mother Goddesses who held the power of prophecy and could reveal elements of fate, love, marriage and birthing of new life.

Their care and guardianship was heavily present with pregnant mothers, children, farmers and the land itself. There are Modraniht stone altars and votive stones discovered across Europe depicting the sacred mothers, often laden with offerings to honour and thank the mothers. A votive stone is a spiritual, or religious, stone that is left at a sacred site as an offering. Not to be removed again, which act as way to gain the favour of the spirit energies, supernatural beings, and/or ancestral ones beyond the veils of time and space honoured at that site. In this case, the ancestral mothers and mother goddesses. Such as Frigg (Norse), Danu (Irish), Demeter (Greek) and others.

The Temple of Three Matrons, Nettersheim, Germany.

There is some conflicting information of whether the actual Matrone feast day was held on the evening of December 20th, or on the eve of December 24th. The consensus of what I have researched aligns it with the night before the Winter Solstice, December 20th and is the first day of Yule Tide, which lasts for 12 days. Although in some Celtic Druidic traditions the 12 days of Yule begins prior to the Winter Solstice and the Solstice marks the midpoint of Yule Tide (time).

I love learning about these ancient traditions and each one feels like it weaves me tighter into the tapestry of my ancestry, even if I don’t know all the details or assume all the original practices. I feel it in my bones. There is a remembering that occurs that is palpable but not explainable. Perhaps you feel this too, as you read this and explore in other ways.

All human life grows within the mother, the dark womb space of creation. The nurturing energy and fierce protection at the core of the mother’s primal nature is revered in cultures across the globe. Mother Goddess archetypes are many. The Cosmic Mother and the Earth Mother bring us all to life, through the vessel of the human womb, and has for thousands of years. The miraculous strength, bravery, otherworldly phenomenon of childbirth is most deserving of great respect, honouring and celebration. May you find inspiration to acknowledge Módraniht in your own special way. Even if your own direct mothering experience was not one of nurture, and/or protection, in the way you deserved and needed. Much compassion for your tender heart, if this is the case. However, you are part of the greater web of ancestral and ancient mothers and grandmothers, who exist in the liminal spaces gracing everyone with all seeing protection and guidance for all that wishes to birth through each one of us. Not only humans, but dreams, visions, gifts, skills, art, music, community and more.

Blessed Módraniht to you.

A few ideas for a future personal ritual are listed below for you.

Bake a sweet bread, with honey. (Bees represent the Feminine, Goddess, and life giving matriarchy) - offer some outside to the Earth Mother as a gesture to the mother energy.
Replace & Light 3 fresh candles in honour of the 3 Mothers.
Also a solstice traditions, dance or walk a SPIRAL (anticlockwise in/clockwise out) and as you exit the “spiral” embody an energy of rebirth. Spiral dance takes you within, into the dark, and spirals you out renewed, reborn just like the sun on the Winter Solstice.
Cleans your home & Ring bells throughout to honour the turning of time towards the birth of the coming Solstice light, akin to the crowning of all human life by the foremothers.
Make an ancestral altar (want guidance here? Check out my home ritual Samahin Workbook. All you need to know to get started creating your own home ancestral altar.
Add evergreen, holly, rosehips, and pomendars (see image below) as seasonal energies to your home, personal and ancestral altars.