My Little Pony Magical Artifact Cards are collectible trading cards that feature various magical artifacts and tools from the world of My Little Pony. These cards are highly sought after by fans of the franchise and are often used in gameplay. Each card showcases a different magical artifact, such as the Elements of Harmony or the Crystal Heart. The front of the card displays a detailed image of the artifact, often accompanied by sparkles and other magical effects. The back of the card provides information about the artifact's powers, history, and its significance in the My Little Pony universe. These cards are not only visually appealing but also serve a practical purpose in the My Little Pony gameplay.

Pagan yule tree topper

Look around etsy, you might find a suitable valknut or hammer, or other design that fits your needs. There's folks out there making and selling some really cool shit for us folks.

Heathen, huh? How about.

Bonus points if the eyes glow red.

Quoted:
Looking for something other than a star or angel for my yule tree. Not interested in pentagrams. A sun would be nice, Any ideas?

Would that be that Christmas originated as a celebration of the sun returning after the shortest day of the year? Because that is what the celebration early Christians tagged Jesus onto actually was.

Take a beer can, cut the bottom off, stick the can over the top branch and call it a topper.

We use a star, and it in no way disturbs my atheist sensibilities. Do Christians get their panties in a wad because they are participating in a pagan ritual when they put up their tree? Nope, they say "fuck it, its Christmas" and drive on, pagan tree and all.

I've taken to making my own. This year is a combination of red hydrangeas, poinsettias, gold glitter eucalyptus, and other gold glitter-covered plants.

Look on Pinterest for ideas.

Well. if your not already sitting down.

Quoted:
How 'bout this?

How about this one?

First place I lived after high school we used a Jack Daniels bottle. Get a short string of lights and stick them in the bottle with the plugs left out. True beauty

Yes, I like that. I was looking but there is a ton to go through.

Yes, I like that. I was looking but there is a ton to go through.

Don't I know it. I've spent hours looking through cool stuff on there.

Etsy's where I got my arm ring.

Quoted:
How about this one?

That frickin AWESOME

I got this Swarovski Crystal Tree Topper on my tree. looks good and really sparkles

Last year my wife bought a very nice victorian era Christmas Angle as a tree topper. It's about the size of a 12 inch G.I. Joe. About 2 days after Christmas, while visiting, one of my adult kids asks "Why is she holding an MG42?"

My wife never noticed.

It's going up again this year.

Dr. Who angle maybe?

Nothing says Christmas like a shiney spent .50 BMG case, OP

(20 mm works too if the top stalk is too big)

Last year my wife bought a very nice victorian era Christmas Angle as a tree topper. It's about the size of a 12 inch G.I. Joe. About 2 days after Christmas, while visiting, one of my adult kids asks "Why is she holding an MG42?"

My wife never noticed.
It's going up again this year.

One year, my wife's Dickens Christmas village, on the coffee table and RIGHT in front of the TV, had a 16" tall Cthulhu in the middle of it. which she didn't notice for about two weeks.

Would that be that Christmas originated as a celebration of the sun returning after the shortest day of the year? Because that is what the celebration early Christians tagged Jesus onto actually was.

Quoted:
Looking for something other than a star or angel for my yule tree. Not interested in pentagrams. A sun would be nice, Any ideas?

Would that be that Christmas originated as a celebration of the sun returning after the shortest day of the year? Because that is what the celebration early Christians tagged Jesus onto actually was.

It's actually a bit more complicated than that. SOME early Christians felt that when God created the earth (in Genesis) He did it on the first day of spring and decided Jesus had the same birthday.. At the time they thought it was March 25. Then they decided that perhaps he was conceived on March 25. ADD nine months and what do you know?

Pagan yule tree topper

We have a Yule Tree. Calling it that is a good compromise between calling it a Christmas Tree and calling it a Solstice tree, seeing as variations on the name 'Yule' are used to refer to Christmas in many languages, and Yule is also what a lot of Neo-Pagans call the Winter Solstice. As I mentioned before, our household does Solstice out of faith, and Christmas out of tradition. The decorations are mostly gold for the returning light, red for the kinds of food that last into winter, and white/clear for the snow and ice of winter. For the most part, it is like the average Christmas tree, as Christmas trees are themselves of Pagan origin - the only difference with ours is that it has a few more deliberately solar decorations. Most people these days put up a tree as an entirely secular festive ornament, an element of tradition that may be divorced from its roots in some ways (much like the average 'live' tree in that respect. ) but I think it is a beautiful thing that we keep doing them, and I love how many people use their trees to express themselves, or as a creative medium on which family traditions are built. As such, I would like to share with you all our tree. It's possibly a bit self-indulgent, but as the tree is probably one of my favourite things about the festive season, and this is my blog, here we are!

We have had our Yule Tree since Raven and I have lived together, always topped with the radiant sun. I think I made a post about our Yule Tree in 2011, or at least intended to, because I found an old collage of the Yule Tree from when we still lived in the apartment! Raven and I have been together for a decade now, and I like how we have formed our own mini-traditions for our mini-family. Every year we have celebrated Christmas day with found-family, some of whom have strained family relationships and painful memories of the festive period like myself. Solstice has often been celebrated with the broad group of friends met through the Highland Open Circle. The Yule tree has glittered through all of that, a symbol of both festivals, and of Raven and I merging our ideas.

I have a second, smaller tree in my study, known as the 'Gothmas' tree or the 'Cryptmas' tree which is black, purple and silver with sklls, bones, black cats and tomb-stones, but it will get its own post as it is an entirely secular festive decoration - and very much an aesthetic suited to the main Gothic theme of this blog rather than a Pagan thing.

The main difference between our tree and the average Christmas tree are the solar decorations. As well as gilded plaster decorations of the sun and moon, there is a large sun on the top of the tree instead of a star. I think it was actually manufactured as a starburst, but being gold and amber, and with so many radiating points, it certainly looks very solar.

I am on the look out for more sun-themed decorations for our tree, especially gold ones. It is not, as is to be expected, the most popular motif among mainstream sellers of decorations, however gold decorations in general are pretty popular. Plain gold baubles can look pretty solar, as can translucent ones if they are the right texture and carefully illuminated - I think they are the most 'realistic' solar depictions on our tree. We also have the other kind of solar decoration, the sun-face design reminiscent of Sol made popular in medieval heraldry. It's an image that hangs on our tree, but is also in the Solstice decorations around our house and on our altar, as visible on the altar post.

I bought the sun, and it's twin - a gilded moon - secondhand on eBay. I buy a LOT of things secondhand, online on eBay, in charity shops, from Facebook sales groups, etc. mostly because it is cheaper, but also because it seems you find more unusual things, especially older things, if you shop in those sorts of places. I know folk are probably tired of hearing me yammer on about the environment, but it is very important to re-use the stuff we have already made, or recycle where possible, rather than constantly use up more and more of our natural resources to make new things by energy-intensive and polluting processes (it's also worth noting that some forms of recycling are high energy, too). If you are feeling crafty, there are plenty of craft projects for tree decorations that are also recycling projects; maybe next year I'll put some on my blog.

We have a moon bauble as well as a sun one, because while we celebrate the returning sun and coming of warmer weather, we also celebrate the longest night and those cosy evenings indoors, the snow on the hills and importance of winter in the cycle of things. The balance is important, and although there are a lot of harsh things about winter weather, that harsh weather kills off harmful pests and parasites, the frost can be what triggers some plants to grow, and snow-sports are a big part of the local economy in some regions of the Highlands. Winter is not inherently a bad thing, just as summer is not inherently a good thing; they both have their benefits and also bring problems (eg. summer can bring drought, wild-fires, sunburn, heat exhaustion etc.). In my form of Paganism I try and celebrate the seasons as they come, and while there is always something hopeful about the returning light in darkness, sometimes it's important to appreciate that darkness too (a familiar mentality for Goths!).

Our Yule Tree has decorations that aren't solar, like owls (getting a new owl each year has become a tradition in our household, too), a blown-glass witch, some skulls, lots of tartan and deer, a fuzzy wolf to represent our friend 'Sarge' and a lot of pine-cones, some glass, some real, as well as snowflakes and snowy things of various designs; it's a seasonal tree at its heart; the ever-green pine (in our case because it's plastic and thus literally can't die) decorated with symbols of winter, much like most festive trees. and unlike my Gothmas tree, which is more a touch of Hallowe'en in midwinter! But the Gothmas tree will get its own post next!

Pagan Christmas tree ornaments?
December 10, 2005 7:17 PM Subscribe

I'm seeing a lot of pendants with pagan symbols, but they tend to be heavy and kind of small, so not really ideal Christmas tree ornaments. If you know of anything that might be more appropriate, in a similar vein, please suggest it. We especially need a tree topper that's not an angel.

I'm also interested in cool wall hangings with a pagan bent, or similar. I'm not pagan myself, but I've always liked the imagery. This one looks pretty cool.

Not very helpful but. isn't the christmas tree itself a pagan decoration?
posted by -harlequin- at 7:28 PM on December 10, 2005

Response by poster: Why yes, yes it is. And you're right, that's not very helpful. Since a Christmas tree is a pagan symbol, wouldn't it be cool to put ornaments on it that were pagan symbols too? A glittery ball isn't a specific pagan symbol, afaik. Not especially looking for Santa Clauses either, although it's said he was originally a pagan symbol too. A star might be considered a pagan symbol, but when Christians use it as a Christmas ornament, it's supposed to symbolize the star that the wise men followed to find Jesus, so that doesn't help much either.

Thanks though!
posted by agropyron at 7:34 PM on December 10, 2005

When I think pagan, I think of wiccans, and anything Celtic.

You could also go with natural symbols, like moons, trees, etc. Or magical symbols like cups and daggers. Or, best of all--fertility symbols like eggs and phalluses.
posted by frykitty at 8:09 PM on December 10, 2005

Brigid's crosses or other woven straw ornaments. Pentagrams or crossed circles made from twigs and tied with red thread. Sprigs of holly. Pinecones spray-painted gold. Strings of cranberries and popcorn (why not -- give them to the birds after Yule). Ornaments shaped like apples, moons, or stars. Mirrors, crystals, sparkly things.

Especially appropriate is anything with a solar motif -- a big gold sun would be great for the top of the tree.
posted by ottereroticist at 8:12 PM on December 10, 2005

Eww, why does my Brigid's cross link go to Microsoft.com? Here it is again.
posted by ottereroticist at 8:27 PM on December 10, 2005

How about an original Roman soldier's Sol Invictus ring? The Sol Invictus cult was the deity that Constantine pimped up in Rome as a final attempt at a compromise cult that would satisfy Christians, Mithraists, and old-school pagans. The Sol cult bequeathed many of the totems now taken as "Christian": the cross as a religious symbol of triumph over adversity, Sunday as sacred, and most especially for your interests, a birth festival on December 25th (the "Festival of the Birth of the Unconquered Sun").

If you are feeling especially flush, you could splash out for this ceremonial Sol Invictus goblet.
posted by meehawl at 8:42 PM on December 10, 2005

I like gold suns, birds and little red apple ornaments. I also have a set of gold plastic musical instrument ornaments which work well. As for a tree topper, I once made one which was a pentacle made from red thread wound in a gold ring - there are instructions for making something of the sort here.
posted by andraste at 8:44 PM on December 10, 2005

There are a lot more Green Men out there (Wikipedia link). We have a few around the house. I haven't seen ones suitable for an Xmas tree though.
posted by Aknaton at 9:03 PM on December 10, 2005

Brigids crosses are Christian- Brigid was a bishop. Yule logs (the fireplace kind), holly and ivy and mistletoe are all pagan AFAIK.
posted by fshgrl at 9:32 PM on December 10, 2005

Here is some info on solstice rituals and traditional decorations.
posted by fshgrl at 9:35 PM on December 10, 2005

Like many other local goddesses, Brigid was co-opted into sainthood. That doesn't make her symbols any less pagan, IMO.
posted by ottereroticist at 10:06 PM on December 10, 2005

Response by poster: A lot of excellent responses! Thank you everyone. Keep them coming if anyone has more.
posted by agropyron at 2:16 AM on December 11, 2005

Brigid was a bishop

Really? Go tell that to Maman Brigitte.
posted by meehawl at 6:38 AM on December 11, 2005

I made a yin/yang mandala in red and green. Fiddly to make, but nicely non-Christian.
posted by KRS at 8:18 AM on December 11, 2005

meehawl, Brigid's Crosses are associated with Saint Brigid, not the original pagan deity.
posted by ubersturm at 8:38 AM on December 11, 2005

Which is to say, legend has it that St. Brigid was accidentally consecrated as a bishop during a ceremony intended to consecrate her as an abbess. Maman Brigitte, who you mention in your link, was probably associated with St. Brigid, and not the pagan goddess. This does make more sense than an association with the original Celtic goddess, since vodoun was stronly influenced by Roman Catholicism, not Druidism.
posted by ubersturm at 9:03 AM on December 11, 2005

Everyone is giving such great ideas. I just want to add that anything hand-made is more "authentically" pagan than not. Not that you'll have much choice, if you want a string of popcorn or cranberries, you are going to have to make it yourself. Tie some small twigs or large coniferous needles into a five-pointed star, and you have yourself some cheap ornaments. Brightly coloured string will make them stand out more.
posted by arcticwoman at 10:22 AM on December 11, 2005

I have a long horned sheep skull that I keep in my living room. This time of year, it gets promoted to mantelpiece and wrapped with greenery & lights. It looks good. Also, when the nativity scene comes out (yes, the classic 1950s style American/Irish Catholic plaster nativity scene with the camel with the broken leg and Mary inexplicably in red instead of blue and Joseph and the shepherd boy and the three kings and all) we add to it: Buddha gets a place in the barn along with Santa Claus and a couple of dogs and Krishna, Ganesha and Kwan Yin and, when my son was smaller, Spiderman.
posted by mygothlaundry at 10:27 AM on December 11, 2005 [1 favorite]

If you want to go a completely different route, our tree is trimmed with skeletons and flying pigs and fish and blimps -- in other words anything not normally associated with Christmas or Jesus. We have a beautiful Christopher Radko Frankenstein head that was my husband's first Xmas gift to me, and everything else is the absurd or unusual that has caught our eye.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 11:25 AM on December 11, 2005

Brigid's Crosses are associated with Saint Brigid

The earliest "life" of St Brigid was by Broccan Cloen, around 650, and was barely two stanzas and almost 150 years years after she is alleged to have set up Cill Deara. In the Christian version her father is "Dubthach" (Dark One). In the pagan version her father is "Dagda" (Great One). Later chroniclers, such as the 8th century Cogitosus and Coelan, who seem to have competed to create the most extensive Brigid story.

The St Brigid Cross is so similar to the classic Indo-European lauburu swastika motif as to defy belief that it was not grafted onto the Brigid myth by early Celtic Church mythmakers. At any rate, similar celtic swastikas can be found back to around 200 BCE. It seems to have been Middle Eastern in origin, possibly arriving with one of the new cattle technology cultures. In point of fact, you can see a struggle in celtic symbolism between the triskele, or three-pointed swastika, and the four-pointed swastika. Initially, the three-pointer seems to have been more prevalent. The four-pointer gained greater currency later, especially with the new christian dominance.

St Brigid's Feb 1st feast day corresponds with the Drudic Imbolc festival. I have no doubt that in the rapidly modernizing Ireland of the 5th and 6th centuries many earnest young women called some version of "Brigid" lived and proselytized, some for the old religion, and some for the new. Their efforts were syncretized, synthesised, and sanitised into a "St Brigid" story suitable for future use.

At any rate, the cross is easy to make, and can be ritually burned afterwards while saying prayers, which neatly recapitulates its use as both a pagan and a christian totem.
posted by meehawl at 2:25 PM on December 11, 2005

agropyron - go to your local craft store (Michaels? Here?) and there'll be an aisle with fake birds covered in real feathers. There should also be fake fruits and other "natural" type stuff. Most, if not all, of this stuff can be made into ornaments, wreaths and displays.
posted by deborah at 5:32 PM on December 11, 2005

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These cards are not only visually appealing but also serve a practical purpose in the My Little Pony gameplay. Players can use these cards to summon the corresponding artifact's powers and abilities to aid their ponies in various quests and challenges. The cards act as a strategic tool, allowing players to strategically choose which artifacts to use in different scenarios.

Collecting and trading these cards has become a popular hobby among My Little Pony fans. Some fans enjoy the thrill of finding rare and limited-edition cards, while others enjoy building a complete set of all the different artifacts. Trading with other fans is a way to expand their collection and add diversity to their decks. One of the most important aspects of My Little Pony Magical Artifact Cards is the sense of magic and wonder they bring to the players. The cards allow fans to connect with the fantastical world of My Little Pony and immerse themselves in its enchanting lore. Players can feel like they are part of the magical adventures alongside their favorite ponies. In conclusion, My Little Pony Magical Artifact Cards are a treasured collectible for fans of the franchise. They offer both visual appeal and gameplay value, allowing players to tap into the magical powers of various artifacts. Collecting and trading these cards adds to the sense of excitement and connection to the My Little Pony world..

Reviews for "The Magic Continues: New Releases in My Little Pony Magical Artifact Cards"

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Delving into Darkness: My Little Pony Magical Artifact Cards and their Villainous counterparts