Also Available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music, and more! Licensed Shinto Priestess of the Konko Faith, Olivia Kimoto, calls in from Japan to talk about religion, spirits, and Shinto practice. https://www.livingwithkami.com/ — Time Stamps 00:00:40 Introduction 00:01:25 Opening Prayer 00:03:00 Welcome 00:11:00 Interview 01:58:00 Closing — Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/around-grandfather-fire/messageSuggest […]
AGF 112 – The Kami Bring Us Together
Landvættir
Patreon Topic 72: On Sacred Herbs
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:
“Localizing practice and sacred herbs. What do you do when your tradition’s sacred herbs aren’t native or are even invasive to your locale? How about finding new sacred herbs native to you (while avoiding appropriation)?”
I think part of localizing our polytheist and animist religions is a bit of a balancing act. It also requires us to ask a profound question, and at least to find a working answer: What makes a particular herb or group of herbs sacred?
What differentiates a sacred herb from another herb is that I hold relationship with that herb in a way that is fundamentally different than other herbs. It is similar to why I may find a rock or grove of trees sacred and not every tree sacred. I also recognize that certain herbs, just as with certain trees and rocks, carry megin within them that facilitates or is itself a carrier of a sacred relationship. An example of a sacred herb is Ama Una, Grandmother Joy, aka mugwort. She is sacred because it is a cleansing herb and we hold a powerful relationship. She acts with my souls in ways that are profound, whether in Her work of cleansing, in providing space and means of communication with Ginnreginn, or in blessing people, places, and/or things. Something that struck me awhile back was that mugwort was known as “poor man’s tobacco” and more recently “sailor’s tobacco”. In the lessons I have been given by Ojibwe friends regarding tobacco’s place, this seems to be a similar way that Ama Una works with me and with most others I have spoken with. That is, She is a cleansing herb, an herb of communication, an herb that assists with sacred dreaming, and a blessing herb.
Now that we have an idea of what a sacred herb is: “What do you do when your tradition’s sacred herbs aren’t native or are even invasive to your locale?”
I have yet to actually grow my own sacred herbs, particularly the Heathen Nine Sacred Herbs as laid out in Nigon Wyrta Galdor (Nine Herbs Charm) in the Lacnunga manuscript. For my part I generally buy my herbs cut and dried locally where I can such as through Twisted Things, or through Adventures in Homebrewing, where they are sold as an additive to brewing. When I need larger bulk orders of herbs, such as when I am going to be tending a Sacred Fire and will need lots of offerings, I go to Starwest Botanicals.
When I was planning on growing sacred herbs they were going to be grown in pots for the most part. Given we have a lot of patio space I may do that this year. I am still looking at what will be the best options for growing them and keeping them from taking over my yard and out of the woods behind our home. Sometimes nonnative plants can be quite useful to the local ecology. However, when they’re invasive or just plain crowd out native species, it’s best to do what you can to avoid that. If all you can do is get the sacred herbs from someone else that is fine.
“How about finding new sacred herbs native to you (while avoiding appropriation)?”
If you want to avoid appropriation then educating yourself on what appropriation is would be the first step. Websites like this one here can be a good starting point. What appropriation is not is noticing the similarities of things such as how my Ojibwe friend and I understand and know tobacco and mugwort. It is not learning from folks how to live well with the vættir. I covered this quite a bit back in January 2021 in Topic 39: Decolonizing Magical Practice vs Honoring Ancestral Traditions. An example of appropriation vs exchange from that post is illustrative here: “Smudging is not merely the burning of herbs in a shell or other fire-safe holder. It is a ritual, one I have not been taught or cleared to do. Offering tobacco, so far as I know, is open to everyone, and a good gift to almost every vaettr I have encountered.”
If there are sacred plants to Native folks that live in your area that you want to establish a relationship with and/or are stepping forward in your útiseta or other method of spiritual contact, then asking a representative of that tribe how best to interact with these plants, if you can in a respectful way, is best. I am lucky in that I was shown sacred ways to interact with tobacco, cedar, sweetgrass, and sage by an Ojibwe friend. While I am grateful for all my friend has shared with me, this is neither a culture I belong to nor can I teach about. In addition, the way I was shown may not be correct for all places or vættir.
For Heathens, finding new sacred herbs native to your area may be as simple as sitting on the land and listening. Because útiseta, ‘sitting out’ is opening yourself up to vættir I find it best to have at least some good understanding of Heathenry, magic, and good relationships with one’s Ginnreginn. I certainly do not recommend folks new to Heathenry do it, by any stretch. It is a powerful spiritual working, in my experience, one that can leave you quite vulnerable. By doing útiseta in a field or a forest you make space for a plant vættr or several vaettir to make Themselves known.
This giving of space and connection with the vættir, waiting to come to know Who steps forward and wants to establish relationship, is animism in action. It respects the agency and Being of the vættir, and allows for Them to make the first steps in choosing to establish a relationship, and how that will initially unfold. We begin engaging with the vættir we hope to establish relationship with in a sacred way.
Ethics and Animism in Polytheism Part 3
So nine years ago (wow, where did the time go?) I began to write this post. Recently, Snow asked me where Part 3 was. It had been long enough that I could not remember if there was a Part 3. It was a bit of a surprise when I found this, with the first couple of paragraphs written.
In Ethics and Animism in Polytheism Part 2, I left off here:
When we light the Sacred Fire there are prayers and offerings made to Fire Itself, to the Gods of Fire, to the spirits of Fire, to the wood, to the landvaettir, Ancestors, and other spirits. The Gods, Ancestors, and spirits all deserve our respect, especially the Fire Itself since the Sacred Fire is the heart of the festival for three days it is on. We keep it day and night; to do otherwise is to extinguish the heart of the festival, and to insult the Fire, the Gods, Ancestors, and spirits we have asked to be with us in Its heat and light, to sit with us by it and to speak with us when They will. To extinguish It on purpose before it is time is to break our word that we will do all we can to keep It lit throughout the weekend. To throw litter in It is to treat the Sacred Fire as a garbage disposal, which is inhospitable to the communities the Fire represents, and inhospitable to the Fire Itself. To speak disrespectfully of the Fire is an insult to It and the community whose Fire It keeps as we keep It. To treat the heart of the festival, the spirit of Fire Itself, the particular Fire spirit that is the Fire with disrespect, is insulting to the Fire Itself, to each person connected to the Fire, to those who form the community that the Fire is the heart of, and to the Gods, Ancestors, spirits, and so on that have been called by and to the Sacred Fire. As with people, Fire too can be worked with when insulted, and amends can be made, but it is far easier and more respectful to not have to rectify insults and problems in the first place.
This is really where the rubber meets the road. You cannot treat the Gods as if. You cannot treat the Ancestors as if. You cannot treat the spirits as if. The as if is a defense against what truly considering the Gods, Ancestors, and spirits as real Beings unto Themselves would imply. That not only that They have agency, and in that agency is preference, but that there are right and wrong ways of understanding Them, interacting with Them, and being in relationship with Them.
The ethics of animism of and in polytheism ask us not only to consider those Beings we worship, venerate, and interact with. We must do well by Them. To do honor to Them is to do our best to understand Them on Their terms and act accordingly.
Animism in polytheism requires that each Being be treated with respect, in respect to Its Nature, Its Self. I would no more offer a white tail deer spirit a slab of venison than a leaf of grass to the landvaettir. Yet, to certain Ginnreginn, these would be quite acceptable offerings. The acceptability of these offerings, the honoring of giving them, and the good relationship gained in furthering connection through them, depends on the given Being at hand.
Polytheism must be lived; one cannot embrace ethics nor religion solely in the head. To be ethics rather than rules alone they must be lived. To be religion rather than reenactment or mental exercise, the polytheist must acknowledge the Gods as real, and worship Them. To acknowledge the Ancestors, and the spirits is to not only believe They are real, but to act on those beliefs and to hold Them in honor, and venerate, to worship Them.
Polytheism is a lived theology. It is a theology in which mere recognition that there are many Gods renders the person holding the position inhospitable as a polytheist. Hospitality is arguably the foremost of ethical considerations for polytheists. This hospitality exists in lived understanding, both in terms of the personal connections one has and the wider communities one exists in. This hospitality exists in relationship with the Ginnreginn through negotiated relationships, contracts, oaths, and other ties of relationship, such as as in ancestry, through blood relations, adoption, marriage, initiation, and a variety of possible spiritual bonds.
These considerations of hospitality extend not only to the Ginnreginn who we worship, it also extends to the community ties we may make, what things we may or may not accept in our lives, and even on to dietary choices. If a given God who one desires to worship requires adherance to a vegeterian diet, then to accept and follow that, to honor that requirement, is a form of hospitality that invites that God into one’s life through that choice. If a God one worships has been explicitly forbidden from worship in a given venue then, in order to be hospitable one must avoid that venue. This hospitality extends to the God, in that one would not honor one’s Gods by choosing to go to such a space which is actively hostile to Them, and to the community, by not bringing one’s relationship into a space where it is not desired. If such a choice is made with the Ginnreginn in mind/under the Ginnreginn’s guidance, then the community has extended hospitality to their own Ginnreginn and members through this exclusion. Through informing potential guests of venue rules, taboos, and the like, that community also extends hospitality to any visitors who may come into their space by allowing them to self-select whether they can or wish to be involved in that venue.
For good relationships with the Ginnreginn and one another to flourish requires hospitality. That hospitality, then, entails respect. That respect is grounded in ongoing acknowledgment of the personhood, agencies, needs, and desires of the parties in that relationship. That hospitality, then, entails reciprocity between those involved in the relationship. Whether the Being at hand is a blade of grass or a God, a Sacred Fire or a friend, while these ethics may apply in different ways and in different levels of coniderations like ritual protocol, many of these follow similar lines of thought.
Is this choice a hospitable one? Is it one that respects the Being before me? Is this choice one that honors the reciprocity between us? Does this action further good relations between us? Am I being a good guest/host? Am making amends when I fall short of that in a way that is done in respect and restores honor? Am I engaging in good reciprocity?
In my view polytheism, and the animism found within it, is lived based on the answers we receive from the Ginnreginn, and how we answer these kinds of questions.
Reflections on Norfolk Southern
We can clearly see a chain of causality between the decision of the Trump administration to gut Obama-era safety measures that were themselves watered down and then never reinstated by the Biden administration while stopping a strike in which these very concerns were raised.
It is not conspiratorial thinking to look at all of this and think “Someone is benefiting from this!”
It is a natural outgrowth of profit at any cost. Safety measures and routine maintenance are routinely ignored or slashed to the barest minimum so profit soars. Norfolk Southern has made money in the billions of dollars in profit, a feat that most people will never get within a fraction of inside of their own lifetime, or indeed, in several lifetimes. This is intergenerational warfare by the worst actors in our human communities. These communities, mind you, most of these people will never visit, and if they do, will give the thinnest of lip service to.
This is the poisoning and provisioning, the colonization of the earth, sea, sky, and all that lies beneath them for the sake of numbers going up in someone’s portfolio. When the philosophical question of “To what end?” is asked, then folks look, wild-eyed, as though the person in question has proposed the end of the world. Which, in effect, is precisely what is being instigated by such questions. It puts to question that such a paradigm has any right to exist. That its reach is so devastating, so powerful, so crushing, that it has the ability to outright kill the ability of the land, the sea, and the sky to support life, and all in service to something so banal as to make someone’s stock prices rise, someone makes a little bit more money.
When the question “To what end?” is asked, it holds “Why?” within it.
Why are we working so damned hard when we have the ability to automate so much labor? Why are we working harder than generations before us and seeing none of the benefits? Why are we unable to afford food, clothing, shelter, the very basics that allow life to be lived, and further, the things that make life worth living? Why is healthcare, comprehensively including physical, mental, dental, eye, and any other aspect that affects our wellbeing, paywalled when we have the technology and means to provide it?
When these questions are interrogated it ends with the grim determination that the system has been uniquely arranged so a few benefit while the massive amounts of humanity have to work to afford to put food in their mouths, clothes on their backs, shelter over their heads, and beds to sleep on. It speaks directly to the inherent injustice in a system that requires everything of a person and gives just enough to keep them alive, at least, to a certain point. It points to the arrangement of white supremacist ideology as a hoodwink to use those deemed white to keep the other people in line, lest they unite and fight the systems together. It points to the arrangement of antisemitism, transphobia, homophobia, and others forms of extreme hate in this same bargain. You cannot ask why the system exists if you’re actively killing would-be allies because your inculcated ideology demands it. You cannot ask why when you have never been taught how to ask the very question of “Why?”
There is no good point to capitalism. There is no good point to the rampant destruction of nature, and us, who are part of it. There is no good to be had here when the result is our waters are unfit to drink or swim in, when our air is choked, when our lands are poisoned and cannot bear animals, insects, or plants. Capitalism itself is at odds with our future.
So, we do what we can, even as this system rages around us in its death throes working to be something better. To be better Ancestors. To live better with Jörð. To live well with our loved ones, our kin, our clan, our tribes, our communities, our descendants, and leave something better than we started with. We do what we are able, as we can, where we can. We live our best in goood Gebo with one another, with the Ginnreginn, and do our best tomorrow. Take hope from Ragnarök. Yggdrasil burns, yes, and yet, Líf and Lífþrasir emerge in life. The Ginnreginn survive and thrive after the Fire. The Worlds live on. Another, better cycle is possible. We may make it so. Let us weave and grow this new pattern in Urðr together with our Ginnreginn, and with each other.
Patreon Poem/Prayer/Song 74: For Chamomile
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 Chamomile.
Hail Chamomile
Whose scent is warm and sweet
Whose taste is cozy and inviting
Whose touch is tender and kind
Hail Chamomile
Who eases nerves
Who brings peace
Who brings sleep
Hail Chamomile
Whose name is Baldsbrá and earth apple
Whose flowers bloom white and yellow
Whose body is green and soft
Hail Chamomile
Who soothes spirits
Who smoothes conversation
Who relaxes the mind
Hail Chamomile
Who opens the ways of communication
Who eases the souls for travel
Who heals and helps the spirits’ recovery
Blessed Chamomile, help me to know peace
Blessed Chamomile, help me to listen and be heard
Blessed Chamomile, thank You for Your every gift
May good Gebo always be between us!
Ves Þú heil!
Patreon Poem/Prayer/Song 72: For The Saginaw River
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 Saginaw River.
Hail to the Sagniaw River
Who the Alongquin peoples call Sagenog, the place of the outlet
Who I call Vatnausastaðr, the place where the water flows
May Your waters ever shine
May Your banks ever hold
May Your path ever be clear
Fed by the Tittabawasee and the Shiawassee rivers
Who feeds the mighty Lake Huron in turn
May You ever flow, beautiful river
You, Who has ever seen boats up and down Your length
You, Who have carried canoe, steamer, and industrial ships
You, Who have carried generations on generations of fish
Hail to You, O Blessed One
Whose Waters quench, transport, cleanse, and bless
Whose Waters are holy and full of good megin
Mighty Goddess, may we live in good Gebo
Patreon Poem/Prayer/Song 63: For Prey, Partners in the Great Cycle
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 Prey, Partners in the Great Cycle.
The grass guides Us
Waving in the cooling air
Strands of hair we shave down with soft bites
Chewing, chewing, chewing
We have walked ahead
Far behind you lope
Wind hides your scent with wary steps
Padding, padding, padding
No sign betrays you
The hunt is on
Fear grips the herd with furious panic
Running, running, running
One stumbles down
The Pack descends
Death brings life in dragging bites
Eating, eating, eating
This is the Cycle
Each balances the other
Prey eats of the Earth, Pack of Us
Dancing, dancing, dancing
A Lammas Thanksgiving Prayer
Hail to Freyr, Gerðr, and Freyja!
Hail to Gulinbursti and Hildisvíni!
Hail to the Álfar!
Hail Ancestors all!
Hail to the landvættir!
Hail to the sow that shared her life with the community!
Hail to the plants, rice, squash, green beans, and beets that shared their lives with us!
Patreon Poem/Prayer/Song 61: For the Honeybees
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 the Honeybees.
Flowers reach out to you in a riot of color
Asking you to dance and roll
Asking you to rest in petals
Returning laden, home
The buzz and dance
Droning rhythm
of Home
Home
Where honey ages
The caps full and fermenting
The children grow and shift and spring forth
Their movements and wings filling the air with song
Growing in the mothers’ patient care, the generations rise
Some to guard, some to forage, some to breed, and some to rule
How good it would be if we humbled ourselves
Knowing, by your work we live and eat
That your labor brings sweetness
To all you bless with bearing
Flower and orchard blooms
Life breathes deep
Our Home
Home
A million living miracles
Brought forth by your multitudes
Life in all its striking colors and shapes
Honey and mead, apples and cider, grape and wine
Blessed by your ever-blessed dance, your ever-blessed work
May you ever be thanked, ever-hailed, ever-honored, ever-loved
Patreon Poem/Prayer/Song 57: For the Sewing/Growing/Planting Season
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 the Sewing/Growing/Planting Season.
The Sun and Moon have danced with Their Wolves
Winter is behind and Spring is here
Let the Earth wake and warm
Bearing seeds to sprout
The hands have worked and the mounds are made
The land and seeds are ready
Rain falls from swollen skies
Roots hold soil steady
Root and stem and leaf wax well
Watchful eyes and careful hands
Let each be great and graceful
Living in community
The land and its spirits are hospitable hosts
Blesses seed and sower alike
Thriving in the good ground
Blessing all comers
Sarenth Odinsson 