Patreon Poem/Prayer/Song 72: For The Saginaw River

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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 Topic 60: On Cleansing Tools

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From Lisa comes this topic:

“An idea for topic/post: if you do any sort of craft and use stuff you make for devotional purposes, what would you do to cleanse any tools you use?”

The cleansing techniques I use most often in my spiritwork also work well for my crafting tools. These are:

Cleansing by breath. Breathing in deeply, then exhaling slowly. While I do this I visualize connecting with Yggdrasil. As I inhale and exhale, I breathe with Yggdrasil. I remember my connection to Yggdrasil by our Ancestors Askr and Embla, Ash and Elm, and to the first breaths that Óðinn gave to us. When I have cleansed myself, I then breathe over my items in a similar way. By doing this I become the conduit for cleansing.

Cleansing by fire. I make the Fire Prayer, a simple prayer that goes like this:

“Hail Sons and Daughters of Muspelheim. Hail Fire Itself! Hail Sunna! Hail Loki! Hail Glut! Hail Lögi! Hail Surtr! Hail Sinmora! Hail Eldest Ancestor! Hail Eldrvaettr! Ves Þu heil!”

I then light a candle, and circle it over myself in a sunwise direction, thanking the eldrvaettr, fire spirit, for cleansing me. I then either repeat the motion over the items or pass the items through or around the fire sunwise to cleanse any items before me that need it. Fire does not have to directly touch the items, particularly if they are flammable, so raising them well above the fire or raising the candle and making three circles sunwise over the item to be cleansed will do well.

Cleansing by smoke. I start with the Fire Prayer and then, I give thanks to the vaettr of the plant or substance I am going to burn. I burn whatever is going to work with me to cleanse the item/area by smoke in a fire safe container. I make sure not to make it too smoky and make myself or others cough. I most often work with Ama Una, Grandmother Joy, aka Ama Malurt, Grandmother Mugwort. As with cleansing by Fire, I pass the smoke over or the items through the smoke three times in a clockwise manner. Be sure if you are doing this that you or others do not have allergies to the mugwort or related plants, such as wormwood, or other plants that hit on similar allergy points like ragweed, sunflower, or feverfew. If you do, working with another plant may be advised. Working with a given plant in water as opposed to burning it may also be needed for folks who are traveling, partners or pets with sensitivities, and/or a change of pace.

Cleansing by liquid. Whether this is a suspension of herbs in oil or oil on its own, a tincture, a tisane, cleaning chemicals, simply adding water and herbs together to make a cleansing holy water, or sprinkling an area/item with water after prayers, there are a variety of options to choose from. A given crafting tool may be easier to clean/preserve/sharpen with one method vs another, eg sharpening a wood chisel with a blessed oil to cleanse it and keep it well. As with the other methods I make simple prayers, thanking the vaettr of whatever the liquid is in helping me cleanse the item. I then clean or wipe the tool down as is appropriate. Depending on what item I am making and what is required to make it, I may do this process before and after the time I dedicate to crafting.

To a certain extent the limit is what medium(s) you are working in, what is most appropriate to the long-term care of your craft and tools relevent to it, and if anything, what care needs to be taken with the items you are crafting and the area it takes place in. Cleansing before and after a crafting session is highly recommended, even if all you are doing is sitting in a chair and crocheting, knitting, or beading. Keeping the process and tools clean, particularly if you are crafting items for ritual use, will keep the focus of the items and area, and can prove both powerfully meditative and connective with various Ginnreginn.

These are just a few examples of what you can do in order to cleanse and prepare tools and areas for work. A lot of what I have found works really well in both small and large jobs are the simpler ways that, if need arises, can be made more complex. Starting with simple ritual actions, like the three breaths to cleanse yourself then another object and a simple prayer, connects the dots of spiritwork you have done up to this point and the Ginnreginn you carry relationships with into the work at hand. Adding on layers, like cleansing with three breaths, then making the Fire Prayer and working with a candle as Sacred Fire to cleanse the work space, and finally, finishing cleansing and preparation by marking tools with oil to cleanse and consecrate, are ways of building up from these basic techniques that carry over into deep, good work.

Patreon Poem/Prayer/Song 55: For The Great Mother Below

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This request was made by Maleck for The Great Mother Below.

Ever-deep dark den

Swallowing maw of the Mother

Ever-birthing Body

Blessed Singer who swells in Silence

Hear the songs of Your scions

Howling cant of the Canid

Ever-roaming rangers

Pack playing upon You

Whisper to us Wise One

Whole-hearted we hear

Ever-speaking Sacred

In Stillness we seek

Death is duty and doom

Home’s hail to heed

Ever-patient promise

Blessing bears the broken Below

Bodies buried and born

Cycles’ ceaseless steps

Ever-turning truth

The Goddess gives Her Gifts

Bring blood and bone

Praise and power to prove

Ever-great Goddess

Right relation our rule

Seiðr Song

Rocking, rocking

It begins small

In the seed, in the seiðr

It erupts from below

The power unleashed

In the seed, in the seiðr

It builds up through the middle

The being grows

From the seed, from the seiðr

It extends to the Worlds

The hamr is strong

From the seed, from the seiðr

It bears fruit to the Worlds

The megin is mighty

From the seed, from the seiðr

Its fruit leaves seeds

The cycle renews

From the seed, from the seiðr

The Importance of Being Visible

My arms are covered in Runes and I wear three necklaces, a valknut, a Mjolnir, and a stylized wolf when I am out of the house. What this has done has allowed me to connect with folks wherever I go. They ask questions, they want to know “What do these mean?” Even in the case of folks mistaking my Runes, which are the Elder Futhark, for ancient Hebrew, it is still someone saying “I see this and I want to know more.”

My necklaces and my tattoos are public invitations to have a conversation. I display them for my own reasons, namely as a form of devotion and mindfulness of my relationships with the Ginnreginn. However, I would not have a reason to display them publicly if that were the only reason. I could just as easily carry my valknut, Mjölnir, and wolf necklaces in my spiritwork bag and cover up my tattoos. I wear necklaces, rings, and tattoos to display to others. So that, in some way, what I am is seen. I could just as easily have had the Runes tattooed on my back, my upper arms, or somewhere else easily hidden by clothing. Instead, They asked, and I accepted, that They be tattooed on my lower arms.

My tattoo artist was amazing and let me have a full-blown ritual starting before the session, and lasting throughout it.

Recently, fellow Heathens including Maleck, Snow and Gunny, both of whom are wonderful folks, have talked about aesthetic and how it relates to Heathenry, Heathens, and our place in communities. I can tell you from personal experience that aesthetic can also key into being accessible to others in our communities, both in terms of fellow Heathens and those outside our religious communities. Especially being so outward facing in our aesthetics like this, it allows us to be able to be good and approachable sources of information for those who, otherwise, may not learn about Heathenry or Heathens.

It is also why I tend to stay away from the Vikings TV show aesthetic when it comes to my regular online content. No issue with those who do it as part of their own regular content. However, the aesthetics of the show, and cosplay in general, clash with the Heathenry I want to portray, which is historically-informed and modern. What this does not mean is that I lack for ritual aesthetics, historical Nordic outfits, and only wear t-shirt and shorts to ritual. It just means that everyday wear tends to be my most common worn items because most of my rituals do not require specific ritual wear. My most frequent rituals are hearth cultus, so my ‘ritual wear’ tends to be whatever I have on at home. If I have been working out, doing yard work, or am dirty, I clean up, switch the clothes out, and then do hearth cultus.

Our aesthetics, both what we wear for everyday wear and for ritual, can say a lot about us to ourselves, to the communities we live in, and to our relationship with the Ginnreginn. Perhaps over time as we develop from just religious communities into full-blown cultures we may develop varying ways of dress. However, for the moment, most polytheists blend in to the overculture they are living in.

When we step outside of that blending that is a statement. It can be one for ourselves, our communities, and/or our Ginnreginn, but if we wear something, whether it is our hair, tattoos, or clothes that takes us out of the everyday, it is a statement. It is a powerful act, and a powerful responsibility not only for myself, it is equally so for my family, community, and the Ginnreginn. Even more so than wearing my Valknut or Mjölnir openly, my tattoos have opened a lot of conversational doors that likely would have stayed shut. They are vaettir, power, and magic, embodied in me, a living relationship. They are an invitation to others to conversation, understanding, and wisdom carved into my flesh.

What others will get from conversation prompted by the Runevaettir differs. For a lot of folks I am the first and only open polytheist they have ever met. For some folks this prompts a flood of questions, ranging from “What does that word mean?” to “How can you worship so many?” to “What are the Gods? The Ancestors? The spirits?” For others there is a few moments of contemplation, and then appreciation that lights up their face. For some, fear and apprehension strike their body like lightning, and something about the notion of living ancient Gods, Ancestors who listen and speak with them, and spirits all around absolutely terrifies them. For some, just sharing what these living Beings are opens whole Worlds to them. Others will shrink back.

My body becomes a gateway of conversation. My words become a conduit. My demeanor shares connection. Making the choice to take on the tattoos I have, the Valknut and the Runes, I am not my own, alone; I am also my Gods’, my Ancestors’, my vaettir’s. I am, in a very real sense, a vé walking in the world. That is the importance of being visible.

Patreon Poem/Prayer/Song 48: For Jarnsaxa

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This was requested by Vixen for Jarnsaxa.

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The iron sax gleams free from the sheathe

Drawn thirsty

Its cut is wide, its bite deep

The mighty arm falls with the bright fang

Drinking greedily

Felling the doughty foe

Great is the battle-Goddess

Steel-spined

Victory claimed in strength

Patreon Topic 49: On Jarnsaxa and Angrboða

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From Vixen comes this topic:

“Maybe you could talk about what you know about Jarnsaxa, or maybe even Angrboða. I know they’re two Jötunn’s I don’t hear may people talk about. I’m assuming it’s because they’re Jötunn but I think they’re important and I’m trying to learn more about them.”

Part of the reason we do not know much is because They are Jötnar, and another is because They are Goddesses. Much of what is known of Jarnsaxa comes from Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda, Hyndluljóð, Skáldskaparmál, and Harbarðsljóð. Much of what we know of Angrboða is from the Hyndluljóð, Gylfaginning, and the Völuspá. These are relatively scant passages; there is just not much to go off of here.

With regard to Jarnsaxa, I do not know much about Her. I have not held cultus to Her, though I am not opposed to it. I just have had no reason to engage in it with Her so far. She and Þórr have a son, Magni, and I believe also Móði, though I have found no reference for His Mother. Her name is supposed to translate to ‘Iron-dagger’, ‘armed with an iron sword’ (Orchard and Lindow respectively; thanks Wikipedia!) or ‘the one who holds the iron-knife’ from jarn meaning iron and saxa meaning a single-edged blade or knife . Unfortunately, no one I know holds cultus for Her, so I could not refer to others on Her modern day cultus either.

Angrboða, whose name means ‘the one who brings grief’, ‘she-who-offers-sorrow’ and ‘harm-bidder’ (Simek, Lindow, and Orchard respectively, thanks Wikipedia) has a fairly active modern cultus. Among the heiti I call Her is Chieftain of the Ironwood, Úlfmóðir or Wolfmother, Mother of Monsters (which may translate into Old Norse as Foraðmóðir), and Fostramóðir. I have held cultus for Her for quite a while, not too long after becoming a Heathen. She is powerful, formidable, and can be quite ruthless. In a way I look at Her and Óðinn as being very similar, though She wears Her wolf/monster face far more prominently than Óðinn.

How have I experienced Her?

Angrboða is very much a take-no-shit Goddess. She wants you as you are, and if you want to improve, expects you to work on it. She does not waste Her time, so if She is reaching out to you then She has good reason even if they are Hers to know. While She has understanding of weakness and frustration, I find Her patience like that of a mother wolf: She will abide a lot until you overstep and then She will bark or nip so you remember your place.

I find Her to be more animalistic and primal than a lot of Gods. When I have seen Her when I have hamfara (faring forth in my hamr), She sometimes appears to me as a woman in a simple tunic, trousers, and sometimes with a couple fur pieces wielding a spear. Other times She is a huge wolf, and others a great half-wolf half-woman. Her voice is commanding, deep with power and wisdom, rough. She smells of forest, and various animals, trees, and good earth.

I have held cultus for Her for most of my time as a Heathen, and this is in part by introduction through Loki. I came to know Loki through His blood-brother. For a long time I held cultus with Her the same as my other Gods: offerings, prayers, and devotional time at the Gods’ vé. In night prayers with my family, we thank Her for protection. In knowing and getting to understand Her I came into a better appreciation of the wolves that She has given birth to, and I began cultus with Fenrir a few years back. I also grew to appreciate Hati and Sköll better in this, and while I do not yet have a devotional relationship with Them yet, I can appreciate the work They do that keeps Sunna and Máni on Their ways.

A few years ago I found myself working for Her and coming to understand Her as Fostramóðir as a result of an agreement between Her and Óðinn. Some of the work is to visit Her in Járnviðar, the Ironwood, Her home in Jötunheim. Sometimes this is to just go there and experience it, and other times to run or hunt with the Jötnar there that call it home. The work She has for me is ongoing, and I have yet to fully uncover all the things She wishes me to do. She has done a lot of work with me on my inner nature in the meantime, exploring different facets of being a spiritworker, an úlfheðinn, and bringing lessons there into how I live my life and do my spiritwork.

I find folks who recoil at Her but not at Óðinn a bit odd. Their temperaments, particularly around the accrual and use of power and knowledge a lot alike. They share an association with wolves, bears, shapechanging, and in my experience, also with faring forth in these forms and spiritwork associated with these things. It makes little sense to me that folks would seek to have a good relationship with Hel, or Hela, our Goddess of the Dead, and villainize Her Mother.

While the sources tell us little about Her that is no barrier to developing good cultus with Her. If anything, it pushed me to get to know Her in ways She wanted rather than having the relationship first mediated or sieved through the written word.

Through worshiping and coming to understand Her, She has helped bring me into a new appreciation for the various Jötnar that are intertwined with other Gods and through Them, our lives. She has blessed my family, Kindred, tribe, and I. She protects, She empowers, and She emboldens. She pushes us to see our monstrous selves, to embrace Them fully and without shame. My devotion to Angrboða has provided no small amount of challenge and growth in my life. She has pushed me to embrace myself fully, and in doing that, to better and more fully embrace others. Through devotion and work for Her, She has pushed me to improve myself and the spiritwork I do as a Heathen. Hail Angrboða!

Patreon Topic 42: On Godspousery

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From Maleck Odinsson comes this topic:

“Godspousery.”

Of the topics I could talk about this is one of the most fraught in Heathenry. There are fierce opponents to the notion of Godspousery. There are those who are fierce proponents of it. I am neither. Godspousery is a real spiritual phenomena and relationship, and whether or not it is modern in origin is beside the point. Far too often in Heathenry whether something ‘has pedigree’ in the lore dictates its acceptance in our communities. I would far rather we accept that our relationships come through a myriad of ways, and that, though rare, Godspousery is one them.

Godspousery is what it sounds like: a God takes a human consort. This has plenty of precedence throughout human cultures, and the one most people look to when they think of this as an example is that of Catholic nuns who take an oath to be a Bride of Christ. In my understanding of Godspousery this is one example of many, but probably the most accessible so folks can gain an understanding of the phenomenon. For another Heathen’s exploration, Erin Lale wrote an excellent piece posted here in Eternal Haunted Summer that is both accessible and a non-judgmental exploration of it.

What are we to make of this as modern Heathens? Godspousery is a real spiritual phenomena. Like a lot of spiritual phenomena and initiation, it should only be entered into after a lot of thought, prayer, personal exploration, divination, and conversation. That conversation should not only be with the God in question, it should be with the communities that person has ties with. Why?

An oath to a God or Goddess of marriage is perhaps one of the most serious that could be made with the most dire of consequences for a person and their community should that oath be broken or harm made to the relationship. Ties of hamingja, communal luck/power and the ties that bind a community, and the expression of megin, personal luck/power are bound up in the oaths we take and keep. It is not to be made lightly. Dependent on the community a Godspouse may or may not take up a unique role within that community. In such a case there are responsibilities and demands as a change in relationship also turns into a change in their job within their community.

Being a Godspouse takes a lot of forms, and rather than exhaustively go over every iteration, suffice it to say, they are relationships that develop over time. Unlike a Catholic nun, a Godspouse in Heathenry may have changes in how their relationship expresses itself. The relationship in its youth may be like a new fire, blazing and passionate, and over time this transforms into a bed of embers, warm and comfortable. The relationship may be quite regimented and become less so over time, or vice versa. It may remain the same throughout a person’s life. For whatever reason a God has chosen a human to be Their consort, and at least a portion of that person’s life is given over to that God.

Why might a God take a spouse? Because They are fascinated, attracted to, and/or find a useful quality in/of a person’s Being. To bring a person into deeper mysteries, magic, and/or power. To solidify an alignment with humanity in a given community. To bring together disaprate groups of Gods a given community worships together. To bring a teaching or technique to a person/community. They may have simply accepted the proposal from a worshiper out of love, and the acceptance is an honoring of that proposal. It could be all of these things, none of them, or more. I am not the Gods, and it is up to anyone called to such a thing to figure this out.

While Heathens should not be uncritical of Godspouses, we should do more to support them. By this I do not mean we put them on pedastals, allow poor treatment from or to them, or to treat them as wholly separate members of our communities. If anything, this status requires they be under more scrutiny for their actions, as their actions can have wide ripples in the communities they are part of. I would have the wider Heathen communities give space for Godspouses because an accepting and warm community can help folks weed out genuine experience from sock puppets and assumptions, and help the person as well as the community develop good discernment. More community support would also cut down on the number of cultish behaviors we see when folks pop up claiming power and relationship with Gods. These steps could easily be taken with anyone engaging with the Heathen communities in a spiritual specialist role, not just Godspouses.

When legitimate spiritual experiences and expressions are denigrated, called fake or unreal, it pushes those experiences down in the community, but it does not eliminate them. It pushes them underground, and at least this makes them go quiet. At most, this can cause the communities to splinter or break apart entirely. Without oversight or support it has allowed for some truly toxic behaviors from folks posing as Godspouses. Now, if for whatever reason you/your community absolutely refuses to engage with or accept a given spiritual phenomena and it keeps coming up, one of two things are happening: a) you are right and all these folks are merely engaging in some delusion or deception even if they are reporting their genuine experiences, or b) you are wrong and these folks are reporting genuine experiences that are true.

Given that so much of modern Pagan religions, Heathenry included, is built on so much of b) that it is part of most of our formal theologies, this puts folks denying the reality of Godspousery on some fairly shaky ground. Heathen religions are revivals or renewals, with reconstruction being a methodology and not a religion unto itself; it is a tool of our religions. There is a lot of our own gnosis, understanding, and beliefs we have to put into practice in order for Heathen religions to make any kind of sense, let alone have cohesion, create communities, develop cultures, and pass them on to others. Gnosis is the glue that makes Heathen religions work. It is no less a valid and understandable a religious phenomena than that of seiðkona, spiritworkers, or goðar.

If folks commit to ‘only what is sourced in the lore’ as our standard for acceptable practice in Heathenry we are going to have precious little available to us. Healthy, vital, and vibrant Heathen communities requires us to be open to new, or, at least, new-to-us experiences and understanding. It requires lived relationships with our Gods, Ancestors, and vaettir. Some folks will be called one way, and others another. It does not make us any inherently better or worse than one another, it just makes our pathways in Heathenry different. It is with this understanding that I believe Heathens should embrace Godspousery as a real and a vetted phenomena within our communities. It is far better for all of us to provide welcome, supportive environments for religious growth, discernment, understanding, and expression.

Patreon Poem/Prayer/Song 42: For Angrboða

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 was requested by Maleck Odinsson for Angrboða.

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The air is crisp in Jötunheim’s air

The mountains behind the forest ahead

Silver trees mark the boundaries

Ancient, arching to greet Sunna

The first thing heard is the quiet

The still

Then You are there

Great and seething with Power

Your grey-flecked fur ripples in the evening sun

Your jaws slather with invitation

I am so small beside you

Yet, we speak

You wield the great spear, knife well-adjusted on Your hip

A wolf’s grin as I am weighed under Your gaze

A movement, a bark, and Járnviðr comes alive

Teeming with Your clan

Your Wolf children

Your Snake children

Your Troll children

Your Jötun children

Countless, chaotic

Mother of Monsters

Mother of Many

Chieftain of the Ironwood

Hail to You

Thank You for the invitation

Patreon Topic 37: On Hulda

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From Elfwort comes this topic:

“Could you talk about Hulda?”

Only in the sense that I could point you to resources I have found. Hulda is not a Goddess I have experience with. For this, I have to rely on resources such as Die Urglaawisch Sippschaft vum Lewesbaam here, GermanicMythology.com here, and The Encyclopedia of Norse and Germanic Folklore, Mythology, and Magic by Claude Lecouteux.

A lot of my exposure to Her has been with regards to Her connections to Yule, and what some see as Her cognates, being Frau Holle and Perchta. These Goddesses are seen in some sources as leading The Wild Hunt, with Perchta leading unbaptized babies in Her train. All of these Goddesses are related to domestic crafts, especially spinning, and the keeping of the home. Where Hulda means ‘hidden’ and She may be seen as seen as being connected to the ‘hidden ones’, the Huldra, Frau Holle and Perchta are more associated with the Dead.

Beyond that I really cannot talk too much given I do not know Her well. Beyond the sources I have given above I would look into the Urglaawe Heathen reconstructionist religion, especially Robert L. Schreiwer, the Urglaawe Facebook Group, Die Urglaawich Sippschaft vum Distelfink and the Urglaawe Customs Guild which all were thanked in the bottom of the first article. These folks have living traditions and religious paths which honor these Goddesses and understand Her in a far more immediate way than I.