In Southwestern Wisconsin, preparation is underway for Circle Sanctuary’s 50th annual Yule festival. For the pagan members the church serves, it marks winter solstice, the longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.

On Sunday night, High Priestess Selena Fox gathered spiritual leaders on Zoom to light candles and honor the full moon.

“We draw down the power of the moon into this sacred circle, into ourselves, and into this season,” she said, before breaking into song. “Yuletide joy, Yuletide cheer, Yuletide spirit, welcome here.”

She invited those watching to call to mind joy from sacred seasonal plants: evergreen trees, holly, ivy and mistletoe.

On Saturday, she and several dozen others will gather around a bonfire at the sanctuary’s nature preserve and throw a decorated Yule log into the fire, symbolizing the returning sun.

Fox is a Wiccan priestess, but Circle Sanctuary is inclusive of a range of pagan traditions, focusing on a spiritual connection with nature. Amid the depths of winter, Fox said Yule is a celebratory occasion to plant seeds of hope for the coming spring.