Pagan Yule cooking recipes are centered around celebrating the winter solstice and the return of the sun. These recipes often incorporate ingredients that are in season during this time of year, such as root vegetables, citrus fruits, and spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. **One popular dish** that is often prepared for Pagan Yule celebrations is roasted root vegetables. This dish can include a variety of root vegetables, such as carrots, parsnips, and sweet potatoes. The vegetables are chopped into bite-sized pieces and tossed with olive oil, salt, and pepper. They are then roasted in the oven until they are tender and golden brown.
Additionally, each deck is built around a single, legendary creature, which is your ‘commander’ (hence, the name of the format). This gives each deck a unique personality.
Starting out playing commander and never dipping your toes into other 1v1 60 card formats is certainly something that can be done, but I honestly would not recommend it. For example If you want to build a 60 card zombie, cat or dragon deck, having a gander at the theme pages for zombies, cats and dragons will definitely provide some inspiration.
They are then roasted in the oven until they are tender and golden brown. **Another traditional recipe** for Pagan Yule is spiced apple cider. This warming drink is perfect for cold winter nights.
Want to Quit Smoking? Eat a Magic Mushroom, New Study Says
E arlier this month, Johns Hopkins researchers published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology a stunning success rate in a pilot study using psilocybin, the psychedelic compound in magic mushrooms, to help heavy smokers quit. The 12 of 15 recidivist smokers who managed to stop smoking for six months after three psychedelic sessions represented an 80% success rate—unheard of in the notoriously difficult treatment of tobacco addiction. The most successful current treatment—the drug varenicline, which reduces nicotine cravings—only has a 35% success rate.
This is big news as attention increasingly shifts to the use of psychedelic drugs for improving mental health. In the past decade—after thirty years during which research into possible benefits of psychedelics was virtually forbidden—clinical studies of drugs, including psilocybin, Ketamine, MDMA and LSD, have accelerated. (Never mind the now widespread medical applications of marijuana.) Food and Drug Administration-approved pilot studies and trials have shown such oft-maligned drugs could be used safely under controlled conditions, delivering promising, even extraordinary results, and not just in the treatment of tobacco addiction, but also for disorders such as autism, anxiety, depression and opiate addiction.
The use of MDMA (better known as Ecstasy) to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder has had an 80% success rate in early trials. With as many as half a million service men and women returning from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with debilitating, life-threatening PTSD, better treatments for the disorder are urgently needed. Yet legal prescription of psychedelic therapy is almost certainly more than a decade away.
But for a quirk of history, it might not have been that way.
Before popular abuse of psychedelics exploded in the 1960s, prompting authorities to impose harsh criminal penalties for possession and halt all scientific investigation of medical use, psychedelics were considered the most promising psychiatric drug in history. In fact, in the Johns Hopkins findings on smoking cessation, there is an unmistakable echo of research done in Canada a half century ago.
Consider this from the lead author of the Johns Hopkins study, Matthew W. Johnson: “Quitting smoking isn’t a simple biological reaction to psilocybin, as with other medications that directly affect nicotine receptors.” Instead, Johnson said, it was the subjective experience the smokers had when taking the psilocybin that changed them— more like a religious conversion than getting a shot of penicillin to cure an infection.
This was exactly the conclusion psychiatrists at a Canadian psychiatric hospital, Humphrey Osmond and Abram Hoffer, reached back in the 1950s when they had great success using LSD therapy to help alcoholics stop drinking. LSD is a synthetic drug, not a natural psychedelic like psilocybin, but the user’s experience of the two is similar, if not identical. Hoffer and Osmond’s LSD treatments proved successful enough that the Canadian government would eventually issue a report saying the method was no longer an experimental treatment for alcoholism, but one that had proven effective.
The new Johns Hopkins smoking study prepped its 15 subjects with four weeks of pretty standard cognitive behavior therapy – things like visualization, keeping journals, focusing on intent to quit and reasons for quitting, etc. But it was the psilocybin that did the heavy lifting. Each participant had three psilocybin sessions, the first a moderate dose, and the final two a high dose. The subjects were encouraged to focus on their anti-smoking intent before taking the psilocybin in each session, otherwise they were simply encouraged to wear eyeshades and earphones (piping in music) and “go inside.” Therapists were there for safety and reassurance if necessary, but there was otherwise little direction—and no negative physiological outcomes. Five of the participants expressed moderate fear during the session (of losing control, losing grip on sanity) and one expressed extreme fear. The researchers reported that all of the anxiety reactions were successfully resolved before the end of the session, and did not preclude a successful outcome.
The 13 participants (80%) who managed to quit and remain smoke free for six months were asked to identify the reasons for their success. The most frequently chosen answer was, “by changing the way you orient yourself toward the future, such that you now act in your long-term holistic benefit, rather than acting in response to immediate desire.”
The answer chosen as the most important was, “by changing the way you prioritize values in life, so that reasons to smoke no longer outweighed reasons to quit.”
These rather basic changes in personality orientation are usually extremely difficult to achieve, in daily life, and in traditional therapy. The fact that such a high proportion of participants managed these perspective shifts is most likely attributable to life-changing mystical-type experiences catalyzed by the psilocybin. Astonishingly, all but two participants (87%) rated at least one psilocybin session among the ten most meaningful experiences of their lives. This tracks with the results of earlier work by the Johns Hopkins team, published in 2006, in which 70% of three dozen healthy people who were given psilocybin with no therapeutic goal described it as “one of the five most significant experiences of their lives.”
Johns Hopkins researchers concluded — just as had their Canadian predecessors half a century earlier — that this was more than incidental to the outcome of the therapy: Those who had a transcendent experience tended to have more success.
Inevitably, the success of studies using psychedelics to treat dangerous conditions like alcoholism, tobacco addiction and PTSD will raise fears that positive news coverage will promote illicit and uncontrolled use. Researchers on these studies are always quick to point out that uncontrolled, self-administration of psychedelics— still a criminal act— not only present the danger of psychological damage, but are unlikely to be effective in treatment without medical supervision.
Still, the dramatically positive experience that so many people in these closely monitored and supervised experiments have had, even healthy people with no psychiatric issues, do raise some interesting questions about the future potential of psychedelics in our culture.
Tom Shroder is an award-winning journalist, editor, and author of Old Souls, a classic study of the intersection between mysticism and science. As editor of The Washington Post Magazine, he conceived and edited two Pulitzer Prize-winning feature stories. His book, ACID TEST: LSD, Ecstasy and the Power to Heal, is out this month.
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Other formats you might hear about are:
To make spiced apple cider, apple cider is simmered with cinnamon sticks, cloves, and orange slices. The spices infuse the cider with a warm and cozy flavor. **For a sweet treat**, Pagan Yule celebrations often include gingerbread cookies. These cookies are made with molasses, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg, giving them a rich and spicy flavor. The dough is rolled out and cut into shapes, such as stars or moons, before being baked in the oven. The cookies can be decorated with icing or left plain. **Lastly, a dish** that is often prepared for Pagan Yule feasts is roasted turkey or ham. These meats are often the centerpiece of the meal and are served with a variety of side dishes, such as mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and roasted Brussels sprouts. These dishes are hearty and comforting, perfect for a winter celebration. In conclusion, Pagan Yule cooking recipes celebrate the winter solstice and the return of the sun. The ingredients used in these recipes are often in season during this time of year and include root vegetables, citrus fruits, and warming spices. From roasted root vegetables to spiced apple cider and gingerbread cookies, these recipes are a delicious way to honor and celebrate the winter season..
Reviews for "Embrace the Magic of Yule with These Pagan Cooking Recipes"
1. Karen - 2 stars - As someone who was looking for new and interesting cooking ideas for the holiday season, I was really disappointed with "Pagan yule cooking recipes". The book lacked variety and innovation in its recipes, offering basic and uninspiring dishes that I could find anywhere else. It felt like the author didn't put much effort into creating unique and delicious recipes for the festive season. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone looking to spice up their holiday cooking.
2. John - 1 star - I was really excited to try out "Pagan yule cooking recipes" as I wanted to explore different culinary traditions during the yuletide season. However, I ended up feeling unsatisfied and underwhelmed. The recipes in this book were overly complicated and required many hard-to-find ingredients that are not readily available in most grocery stores. Additionally, the instructions were poorly written and lacked clarity, making it difficult for me to follow along. Overall, I found the book to be impractical and not worth the effort it took to try and recreate the recipes.
3. Ashley - 2 stars - "Pagan yule cooking recipes" fell short of my expectations. I was hoping for a collection of unique and flavorful dishes that would add a touch of magic to my holiday celebrations. Unfortunately, the recipes in this book felt rather mundane and didn't capture the essence of pagan traditions. The lack of detailed explanations and suggestions for substitutions also made it challenging for me to adapt the recipes to my dietary restrictions. Overall, I was left feeling unsatisfied and wouldn't recommend this cookbook to others looking for a truly magical culinary experience during the holiday season.