RGMS End of Year Retrospective: 2024

 

In Gävle, Sweden, every advent season its people erect a giant straw goat in their city center, the gävlebocken. There, this beautiful and distinct goat sits majestically, symbolizing old yule traditions and modern holiday spirit. The goat is the chariot on which elves would ride to deliver gifts, and the charioteers of the ancient Norse god Thor. Yet, pristine and merry as this yule goat may be at the start of the season, its destruction happens rather frequently. In fact, since its inception in 1966, the goat has been burned down to the ground more years than not. In recent years, security has increased and the penalties for arson rise. Last year, however, that did not stop Jackdraws from partially destroying the goat by pecking at its straw. Watching from afar and overseas, we find ourselves strangely rooting for the destruction of this straw goat, checking in on the Wikipedia page with a curious heightened anticipation. 

On the surface, the semi-ritualized burning of the yule goat may seem like mere merry trickster angst, but perhaps there is something deeper lurking in this escalating standoff between destruction and preservation at the time of yule. These continued efforts of arson are perhaps not without precedent and symbolize something raging within us wanting to be ritually cleansed at the portal that is the winter solstice. In fact historically, in the ‘Juleoffer’ one dressed as a goat would be symbolically sacrificed and brought back to life the next day to represent the death of the sun on the solstice night. As we collectively awaken to the commercialization of this festive season and begin to reattune ourselves to the celestial spheres, perhaps the burning of the Gävle Goat symbolizes the deep longing within the human spirit for ritual and harmony with nature. 

As we descend into fall and the days grow shorter and shorter, the trees gradually let their yellowed leaves fall, stripping them bare for winter. However, humankind, it seems, has a harder time letting go of those yellow leaves of sorrow that languish on the branches of our hearts. Thus, at this time of year, often we are called to let sorrow prepare us for joy, by allowing that which has withered to be shaken off and make room for new verdant green to bloom. Yet, the emotions speak a language different from mere materiality. It is not as simple as thinking the rotten roots within gone, for the emotions speak in ritual and ask for symbolic gestures to catalyze rebirth. 

Therefore, these adamant attempts at destroying the Gävle goat might just indicate this long repressed, yet innate yearning to die symbolically with the sun on its longest night, so as to be reborn and free of our past darkness in the new increasing light. It seems that some of the most profound wisdom is to know when to let something go, that no longer serves the whole, in order to foster new growth and find out what more life asks of us. With this in mind, RGMS prepares for a metamorphosis, leaving behind the leaves that once brought us joy, but now seek to be reborn. In 2025, we will transform into an experimental collective, disbanding the record label, to promote collaboration and expression in its rawest forms. It is after deep and long consideration that we realize the role RGMS prefers to serve, and so we carry on knowing we hold the blessing of the majestic Gävle goat.