Back at the end of 2002, I was a frustrated Pagan.
Why was I frustrated? Because 99% of all the “Yule Carols” I was hearing & singing were either already existing Christian ones with rewritten lyrics, or they were tuneless chants that might have been helpful for inducing a trance state, but weren’t particularly cheerful.
So I set my mind to writing a brand new Winter Solstice Carol, explicitly Pagan from the start (because Pagan religions can and should exist on their own without appropriating anything from anyone else’s traditions). Almost 20 years later, I still think it‘s one of the best things I’ve ever written.
[Image description: the musical score for “Raise All Your Voices” by Ann Magill, with lyrics. Description ends]
RAISE ALL YOUR VOICES
By Ann Magill
Come gather together and sing with glad hearts.
Sing for the sun's return out of the dark.
The wheel, it is turning, the dance, it goes on.
So raise all your voices, fill the air with sweet song!
Oh, sing with the Goddess*: "The world is reborn,
shining as bright as the very first morn!"
The old year has ended. Let go of old wrongs
and raise all your voices, fill the air with sweet song!
Though winter will bring us cold nights and fierce wind,
know by this dawning that hardship will end.
And like the sun's rays, may our hearts all grow strong.
Come raise all your voices, fill the air with sweet song!
Give thanks to the Goddess, the sweet living Earth:
thanks for the cycle of death and rebirth.
She lives in our hearts, and the love that we share.
So raise all your voices, may sweet song fill the air!
You can find a simple midi for this song here (It’s title is listed as “Raise up your voices,” because I was still tweaking the lyrics when it was added, way back when. The pop-up midi player plays it real slow for reasons I do not understand, but all the notes are right).
*for those atheists out there, the lyric “The Planet” scans just as well as “The Goddess,” as does “All Nature.”
