Patreon Poem/Prayer/Song 68: For Feasting

If you want to submit a request for a prayer, poem, or song to be written to you privately or to be posted on this blog or my Patreon for a God, Ancestor, or spirit, sign up for the Ansuz and above level here on my Patreon.

This request was made by Emi For Feasting.

Thank You Gods and Goddesses

Thank You Auðumla*

Thank You Gulinkambi*

Thank You Gullinbursti*

Thank You Heiðrun*

Thank You vaettir

Thank You farmer and field

Thank You animals and plants

Thank You landvaettir

Thank You Ancestors

Thank You to those who gather here together

Thank You to those who have gathered, cooked, and share this meal

Thank You for your heart, your work, and your presence here

We gather here in frið today

We gather in respect for guest and host alike

We gather in sacred feast

May each of us be nourished

May each of us who wishes to be heard, seen, and known be so

May each of us leave in frið

The first of the meal is for the Ginnreginn

The first of the drink is for the Ginnreginn

The first of the good words is for the Ginnreginn:

May each of You be held in good Gebo, Ginnreginn

May each of You be respected and honored

May each of You be full of joy at this feast

Ves þu heil!

Let the feast begin!

*If the animal is present in the meal, whether the animal’s meat itself or products produced from the animal such as cheese, butter, or lard. Where a suitable animal name is not known from the sources, a close equivalent is used. When we eat turkey we tend to pray to Gullinkambi. If another animal were found, given, or revealed to us as more appropriate we would pray to Them.

Patreon Poem/Prayer/Song 67: For Safe Travels

If you want to submit a request for a prayer, poem, or song to be written to you privately or to be posted on this blog or my Patreon for a God, Ancestor, or spirit, sign up for the Ansuz and above level here on my Patreon.

This request was made by Emi for Safe Travels.

Blessed Earth and blessed ground

Walking beneath my feet

Rolling beneath my tires

Hold me up, hold me up

Bless my journey

Blessed vaettir all around

Walking with me

Journeying around me

Know me, oh know me

Blessing each others’ ways

Blessed Gods of traveling

Watching me

Guiding me

Help me, oh help me

Safely finding my way

Blessed Ancestors who wandered

Wandering with me

Protecting me

Guide me, oh guide me

Coming home in joy

Blessed walkers and road-wise

Crossing paths with me

Seeing me

Speak with me, oh speak with me

Sharing wisdom and stories

Blessed keepers and sentinels

Guarding the roads and passages

Watching me

Sheltering me

Bless me, oh bless me

Securing the journey I make

A Lay for the Wild Hunt

The horde roaves roads of forests,
Roaming the wild of the world
Across field and fen, frost and flame
The host fairs forth

Gods and great Dead are the vanguard,
Wolves and wild things follow and watch the ways
Above come ravens and crows in the wake
Between are those borne and brought into stride

The sunsets are stained dark with blood
Shadows teem and swallow the night
The sound of their sumons are hooves and howls
Carrying the calls of the Wild Hunt’s host

Offer, lest the door be darkened
Good beer, bread, or blade freely given
For many are the mouths of the might Hunt
And satisfaction ever They seek

Join, if you are of a mind to journey
To scout and slaughter, by blade, bow, or bite
Among man and monster one may find their kin
Blessed by the ways of the Wild

Patreon Topic 64: On The Pack Spirits

If you want to submit a topic you would like me to write on for this blog or my Patreon, sign up for the Ansuz level or above here on my Patreon.

From Maleck comes this topic:

“Now that you’ve finished the prayers to the Pack Spirits, what have you learned?”

I was honestly surprised when Maleck approached me to do the prayers for the Pack Spirits. I had been introduced to Them as spirits belonging to an initiatory tradition and had not ever thought they would be a group of spirits I would have interaction with, let alone be able to write prayers for Them. When I reached out to Them, not only did this group of spirits respond, They were eager for me to write prayers for each of Them.

The Pack Spirits are just that, and while the particular mysteries and training of the Pack Tradition are closed to initiates, the Pack Spirits Themselves are quite accessible. So, I have learned how these archetypal and yet communal/collective/individual spirits operate, and at least some of my own ‘placement’ with Them as an outsider. Sometimes you need an outsider, and while I connected very readily and well with these spirits, connecting with Them and writing prayers for Them just confirmed that remaining on the outside of this particular initiation is a good thing. It allows me to see aspects of Them others would not from the inside, and it allows a kind of fluidity in relationship with Them that I may not feel were I an initiate.

Writing for The Pack, The Pack Ancestors, Earth, Silence, Pack, Howl, Sky, Hunt, and Prey has allowed me to connect with these Míkilvaettir (Big/Power Spirits) and has given me insight into connections that They carry with many of my own Ginnreginn, and myself. It has allowed me to feel those connections, eg through the Earth, in new and dynamic ways that differs from connecting to Jörð. She is distinctly Her, and yet, through these different vaettir, a new understanding and connection with the Earth emerges. Likewise through each Míkilvaettir and the associated Beings I could name in conjunction with Them. It broadens and narrows the scope of Who I am interacting with, experiencing, and coming to know.

Something that emerged through the prayers as I wrote them was personal connection. Many of them are written in “I” format, as I experienced many of the prayers directly before I wrote them down. Sometimes it was being taken in my hamr, my second skin, to another place and made to experience Them. Sometimes it was a personal revelation that They brought forward in me, whether through an inborn experience of something that They hit in me or something that really struck me in experiencing it in my hamr. Sometimes it was the feeling of wildness that I reveled in and had to somehow bring that experience forward in the poem, prayer, and/or song. Sometimes it was the conflicting emotions, or even the various vaettir I experienced within the experience of the individual Míkilvaettr. Each brought something forward in me, each called in to me as it were, and brought something out of me to put into the poems, prayers, and songs that I wrote. Though each is a powerful initiatory Being unto Itself each gave a non-initiate powerful insight into Them in dynamic ways.

Through the experience of each of these vaettir, and the experience of having to translate each of those experiences into poems, prayers, and songs, I have learned new understanding of and appreciation for these Beings, and the connections that each brings forward. The connections each brings with/to us is dynamic, and if we let it build, can be quite powerful whether the connection is found within us personally, through the old Ancestors like the first ones to have domesticated wolves, or in new ways with Gods we have worshipped for a long time. They bring a kind of ancient yet fresh wisdom, power, and ferality I think could be a source of profound experience for folks, whether or not they initiate into Pack Tradition or Pack Magic.

Patreon Poem/Prayer/Song 66: For The Pack

If you want to submit a request for a prayer, poem, or song to be written to you privately or to be posted on this blog or my Patreon for a God, Ancestor, or spirit, sign up for the Ansuz and above level here on my Patreon.

This request was made by Maleck for The Pack.

We are countless billions of voices

Canidae, Wolf, Dog

Jackal, Coyote, Fox

Pup, Juvenile, Adult

We are the Ones who found your first Fires

Our first shared Ancestors

We are the proud guard and misshapen pets

We are the ‘yotes living on the fringes and dark places of your cities

We are the haunters of graves and crossroads

We are the salvation of humanity and we are its outstretched hands

We are feared and beloved

We are hunters and warriors

We are carriers and seekers

We are predator and sentinel of prey

We are the snapping jaws

We are the slathering tongues

We are the steady paws

We are the howling maw

We are Magic

We are of the Wild Hunt

We are beloved of Gods

We are Gods

We are Ancestors

We are Spirits

We are Ancient and New

We are Many and Whole

We ARE The Pack

Patreon Poem/Prayer/Song 65: For Sobek

If you want to submit a request for a prayer, poem, or song to be written to you privately or to be posted on this blog or my Patreon for a God, Ancestor, or spirit, sign up for the Ansuz and above level here on my Patreon.

This request was made by Josie for Sobek.

I am the Beloved of the Waters

I am the Walker of Silt Roads

I am the Ever-Flowing, Ever-Undulating

I am the Beast of Two Lands and All Waters

I am the Coming of the Inundation

I am the Watcher of Reeds

I am Gifter of Fertility

I am the Open Jaws that swallow the Foe

I am the Iron-Backed Hunter

I am the Ever-Patient Predator

I am the Drowning Maw

I am the Still Waters

I am the Meditative Pause

I am the Cleansing Current

I am the Receded Depths

I am the Blesser of the Sacred Drowned

I am Sobek

Patreon Poem/Prayer/Song 64: For Garm

If you want to submit a request for a prayer, poem, or song to be written to you privately or to be posted on this blog or my Patreon for a God, Ancestor, or spirit, sign up for the Ansuz and above level here on my Patreon.

This request was made by Josie for Garm.

Your bloodied muzzle moves before Gnipahellir

Cleaning the faces of the fallen

Who pass the Helgrindr

Great Wolf Who Guards the Gate

Whose Tongue cleanses and comforts

The newly-arrived Dead

You lead the good Ancestors to the Gjallarbrú

To greet Their seeking scions

Who wait outside

You herd the harmful Dead back to Hel

Éljúðnir welcomes the wanderers

Whose hearthfires glow warmly

Hail to You Garm, Worthiest of Wolves

Praise and gifts to You, Holy Hound

Hel’s beloved companion!

Patreon Poem/Prayer/Song 62: For Hunter, Will Made Manifest

If you want to submit a request for a prayer, poem, or song to be written to you privately or to be posted on this blog or my Patreon for a God, Ancestor, or spirit, sign up for the Ansuz and above level here on my Patreon.

This request was made by Maleck for Hunter, Will Made Manifest.

I am the keen nose that tracks the scent of My Prey

I am the paws that range over the smooth snow and sucking mud

I am the heaving chest that powers the pursuit

I am the tireless legs that carry the Hunt

I am the rippling jaw that makes the kill

I am the teeth that tear the skin and rend the flesh from bone

I am the tongue that laps the blood and cleans the carcass

I am the mind that sets the Hunt in motion

I am the heart that sees the Hunt finished

I am the Spirit Who Wills the Hunt to be

I am Will Made Manifest

I am the Hunter

I am the Prey’s End and Beginning

I am the Hunt Itself

The cycles will continue

Patreon Topic 62: On Writing Prayers for the Pack Spirits

If you want to submit a topic you would like me to write on for this blog or my Patreon, sign up for the Uruz or Thurisaz level or above here on my Patreon.

From Maleck comes this topic:

“What has it been like, writing these prayers for the Pack Spirits?”

It has been interesting, that is for sure. It is like….touching something, Beings, who are so close and yet are far away. It is being invited into Them and They into me. When I do sacred poetry I do cleansing, grounding, centering, and shielding. Sometimes I am guided to certain songs by Whoever I am writing for, and sometimes I write in silence. Sometimes I get imagery and visual experiences that makes it into the poetry, sometimes I get feelings, sometimes I get full-body experiences, sometimes I get words, smells, sensations, and other times just a fierce, bone-deep knowing that this, this is what I have to write.

The Pack Spirits are quite close in terms of proximity but far away because I am not initiated, nor do I think that is in my wheelhouse for this lifetime. Yet there is…something there. There is connection and power, a fierce connection that I make every time I interact with one of the great Pack Spirits. There is a depth of feeling that goes into my soul and yet there is something held back. I am touching the periphery and yet I am delving deep, and that thing holding me back from fully grasping Them that also makes doing this poetry so fascinating and powerful for me is that lack of initiation.

My most recent experience with Hunter, Will Made Manifest was a full-spirit experience. He took me with Him on a Hunt, on a Hunt where we were separate and one. I was the Pack and the Wolves, I was the Hunter, and I was the Prey. Now, the line “I am the Prey’s End and Beginning” originally read “I am the Prey” but it was not right and I had to look back to my experience of Hunter to realize why. Prey is something Else and Other, part of the sacred cycle but not Hunter Itself. Mainfestly needed but also necessarily not Hunter. I felt the loping as the Hunt began, felt my lungs expand, the snarl of excitement, felt felt felt. I was. In a very real sense my sacred poem, prayers, and songs invite me into union with Gods, Ancestors, and/or vaettir I may not otherwise have the call to, and with these Spirits Who are present but to whom I am not initiated They have a powerful pull.

It has been…experiences…writing for the Pack Spirits. It has been interesting, insightful, powerful, beautiful, and familiar while also being distant. The contrast between familiarity and distance has been fascinating. In a very real sense the Mysteries of these Spirits keeps Themselves because without that inititation there are things that I cannot reach, and yet because I do not have that initiation there are thins I can reach to, express, understand, and share that initiates just…cannot. It is fascinating. It is a privelege. It is good.