A Heathen Prepping -Prepping for Convergent Crises

We are at a crossroads of convergent crises. At time time of this writing the United States is facing the following: supply chain disruption resulting in delays of goods and then services, health care staffing shortages, shortages in necessary medical goods supplies, ongoing massive infections of COVID-19, and rising inflation. Then there is the civil unrest we have still largely not dealt with since January 6th of 2021. Alone, with the effects of climate change already being felt throughout the food industry, this would be disruptive. With these hitting all at once it is high time anyone holding out on prepping began to take the situation as it stands and make plans to take care of themselves and their loved ones.

This does not mean panic buy. It does not mean pick up as much toilet paper, rice, beans, or the like as you can. What it does mean, is, that if you have delayed until now to do necessary prep for two weeks in a SHTF scenario, then start there. Besides, long-term you cannot survive on just rice and beans though, if you try that, you’ll be happy you bought all that toilet paper.

We have seen gas prices rise on average about $1.14 in the last year, per the EIA. Check the year on year price comparison by the BLS of average goods. The price on average has increased in a steady upward climb the last twenty years. A loaf of bread went from $1.50 to $1.52 October 2020 to October 2021. This means that gas went up about 52% and bread 2% in the last year. Between October 2001 and October 2021 prices on these two goods have gone up, from $1.36 to $3.39 or a 149.26% rise for gas and from $1.01 to $1.53 or a 51.49% rise for bread. All this is to say these are long-term trends, not just pandemic-time increases.

With the crunch of supply disruptions bringing together the basics of your home’s prep into a 2 week, then 1 month, 3 month, 6 month, and a year as you can should be a top priority. At the least, getting this prep together gives you the means to take care of yourself and your loved ones for a SHTF scenario. If one does not hit for awhile, it means that you can stave off inflation. If supply chains fail or things fall apart worse than what they are, you won’t be caught off guard.

Our current round of convergent crises are predicaments that have been ignored until the weight of them cannot be borne by the system in place. All of these issues were ignored or underfunded through several presidential terms. Since 2001 we have spent literally trillions of dollar on war. Resources were simply not allocated to address them. Assigning fault may be useful to some, but not in deciding what to do now that these threats are here in action.

As a Heathen I understand my life woven with that of others through Urðr, whose Anglo-Saxon cognate is Wyrd. I prioritize those webs of Urðr, first with the Ginnreginn (Gods, Ancestors, and vaettir), then my immediate family, then Kindred, then tribe, and then my wider communities. These priorities matter in predicaments like these, as they dictate who my first concerns and obligations belong to. Those closest to me in obligations and concerns are those who I help first in a SHTF scenario.

So for whom am I prepping? For everyone in my circles of concern. It is my responsibility in every relationship I hold, from the Ginnreginn to the wider community, to do all I can to take care of as many people as I can within my capacity to do so. By do so I am freeing resources for others in my Kindred, tribe, or wider community who need to use their resources in support of their own. If all I can take care of is my family and I, then that is who I take care of so resources are available for the Kindred, tribe, or wider communities.

The beautiful thing about prepping, especially starting out and getting a 2 week then 3 month prep as you can, is that prepping is cumulative. The more you do it the better you can weather SHTF scenarios. If you have a 20 lb bag of rice for your two week prep that same bag counts for the 3 month prep, too. So, even if you’re eating your prep as you go, which ideally you should at least in some degree so you’re not suddenly switching diets when SHTF, you are still stocking up in the long term.

Bought a bag of apples and are unsure if you are going to eat them all in time before they rot? No problem. If you have an oven or dehydrator, you can make apple crisps. Put those bad boys in the fridge, mylar bag with an oxygen absorber, or a jar. Congratulations, you have made another stride in prep! Have veggie scraps like carrot tops and peels? These make good compost. That compost can then be used as soil or fertilizer if you let it break down. Old medicine bottles are excellent for holding emergency supplies you can stash in a BOB, the car, or as part of an EDC. Thinking on and working with what you have, where and when you are as part of prep can help stretch or add to what you have for resources.

A lot of convergent crises where I am are going to look like multiple SHTF scenarios that I talked about here coming together at once. In Winter of 2022 I am most concerned about the weather, then supply chain issues, then COVID-19 and the knock-on effects at hospitals, and then the ongoing infrastructure issues. Once we get through Winter and that ceases to be as big an issue, most of my immediate SHTF scenarios stay the same, with the exception of civil unrest being a bigger factor as temperatures climb. On their own each of these could merit my full attention. Together, even doing as much prep as I can, it can be overwhelming, especially at first.

The thing about SHTF scenarios, particularly convergent crises, is the preps are not meant to fix them. Generally, SHTF scenarios are predicaments that you navigate. My power going out cannot be fixed even by getting a Generac generator for the house -it mitigates the loss of electricity. Stocking up on food will not fix the supply chain issues or rising costs. Food prep will help my family and loved ones get through until the supply chain is restored and/or we can bring our own supplies to bear. These ongoing issues need to be fixed systemically since they are systemic issues.

So, what kinds of prep can you do with regard to multiple SHTF scenarios? Beyond continuing with the preps you are on, be sure to build redundancy as you can. Something City Prepping says a lot is “2 is 1, and 1 is none.” Having backups sure does not hurt. If you grab one of something while you’re out on a shopping trip grab a second one. I recently went to the store and picked up some dry milk. At first I was just going to grab one pack, and, remembering the rule, grabbed another. In a long-term SHTF and/or grid-down situation having extras is a great thing. If you find you do not need the extras, having them means you can offer it to others to help, and you have items to trade with.

By and large the basics of prepping for the most likely convergent crises will overlap one another. The big one for our area is power loss. It threatens both our refrigerated and frozen supplies, and makes it harder for us to get through everyday weather. Most modern American homes are fairly poorly constructed and insulated. These glorified boxes require working HVAC units to chug through all kinds of weather. I find it far easier to get through the cold in Michigan than I do the heat, but not everyone will, so even in prepping members of your home you may need different strategies to keep everyone safe.

Convergent crises can challenge our preps. Right now our corner of Michigan’s most likely long-term convergent crises are a long-term power or grid-down situation coupled with our ongoing supply chain issues. In such a case, relying on a refrigerator, freezer, and the electric stove we have will be pretty useless. While we could do our best to convert the refrigerator and freezer into primitive ice boxes, it would be a far better use of time and resources to orient our preps for these crises to food able to be stored long-term without the need for cooling. Canning while we have electricity and a steady supply of jars and lids is one approach which can provide immense amounts of food which will keep for years. Smoking, curing, dehydrating, and fermenting can be done throughout the year without electricity. Thinking creatively about how we face our convergent crises now can save us pain, time, effort, and resources in the long run.

Convergent crises will be a time that test folks. Crises usually do. Part of the power in doing these preps as a Heathen is that each act of prep is an opportunity for building up good relationships with our Ginnreginn and each other. Engaging in prep provides opportunities for devotional work, magic, and co-creating Urðr with the Ginnreginn and the folks in our communities. A lot of us go about creating some kind of stalli (altar in the house), and vé (sacred outdoor space) where we live. The spiritual work does not, and, especially since we are talking about preps, should not stay there alone. Looking at the written and archaeological sources of our Heathen religions it is clear to me that the spiritual perspective of ancient Heathens was part of everyday lived reality, not hived off from the rest of life as it so often is in our overculture. Much of the spells and spiritual practices that have passed down to us now were concerned with survival, the good of the community, and preserving, protecting, or empowering the community and the folks within them in some way.

A lot of ways to bring spiritual work into prep are simple and often overlooked. An example: when you are canning thank the vaettir of the plants and animals, the jörðvaettir that forms the jar, lid, and bands, the vatnvaettir of the water, and the eldrvaettir that boils the water. You can mark the bottoms or put post-it notes on jars or other items you intend to trade with the Fehu and Gebo Runes. You can put healing bindrunes on the inside of your First Aid kit, and ask for Eir and Menglóð’s blessing on it, giving Them good offerings afterwards.

Learn about the various forms of magic and spiritual practices that ancient Heathens would have used and think about why they used it, and how these things apply to us today. An awful lot of thought, time, energy, and power went into protection, not just personal protection but that of the homestead and animals. Why? Survival was dependent on the stores of food and animals making it through Sumar (Summer). For those animals not destined for slaughter, they were often instrumental in making it through Vetr (Winter). A good chunk of surviving medieval manuscripts combine what the overculture today think of as separate disciplines: medicine and magic. Even into the modern age these things were not separate disciplines.

Enchanting our medicines to be more effective, warding our gardens against encroachment as we put up fencing, and laying down protections on our homes is the ancient ways working in a new time. Parterning with the landvaettiir so the plants grow well, asking Þórr to bless the garden with rain, and asking Freyr and Gerðr to bring fertility to the plants and animals is our Heathen worldview alive. Doing these things intertwines our religion and our lives in visceral ways. It is powerful.

Even if we do not face a particular set of convergent crises there is no wasted time or energy with these preps we bring to bear. Remember, preps are cumulative. They can be equally as useful for ourselves as others, especially those who may not have prepared or prepared as well as we have. We build up our megin (might/power) and hamingja (luck/power/group luck) in doing this work. Partnering with our Ginnreginn to face these crises, to prep and do what is in our power to do, we grow stronger. By encouraging our mutual aid networks and caring for those in our Kindreds, tribes, and communities now, we face the future stronger together.

A Heathen Prepping -On Violence

I had a friend reach out to me recently, concerned I may have been dipping into more exhausting things during my break, rather than spending the last few months relaxing.

That’s just it, Snow. This is me relaxing.

Something they brought up and I dove into was the concept of violence in prepping spaces, especially those on the far-right. Let me be clear: I did not get into prepping to live out a machismo fantasy of gunning down my neighbors, nor of living out The Walking Dead where I live. Rather, I approach prepping through the lens of hospitality and service. Hospitality extends to those who are good guests. People banging down the door, literally or proverbially, in an effort to harm my family, tribe, or communities have forfeited their guest rights. People intimating violence because of my religion, sexuality, ethnicity, leftist political beliefs, etc or the race, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, etc of those in my circles have forefeited their guest rights.

Peace, Not Pacifism

My prepping is predominantly peaceful. Note, not pacifist. To explain I am going to illustrate my point with three quotes I have found online and the first three lines from the Hávamál, H.A. Bellow’s translation:

The first quote, attributed to Stef Starkgaryen, says: “You can’t truly call yourself “peaceful” unless you are capable of great violence. If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful, you’re harmless. Important distinction.”

The second quote, attributed as a Chinese proverb is paraphrased as: “It is better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war.”

The third quote, attributed to Sun Tzu in his work The Art of War is: “The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy’s not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable.”

Now, to H.A. Bellow’s translation of the Hávamál:

“1. Within the gates | ere a man shall go,
(Full warily let him watch,)
Full long let him look about him;
For little he knows | where a foe may lurk,
And sit in the seats within.

2. Hail to the giver! | a guest has come;
Where shall the stranger sit?
Swift shall he be who, | with swords shall try
The proof of his might to make.

3. Fire he needs | who with frozen knees
Has come from the cold without;
Food and clothes | must the farer have,
The man from the mountains come.”

Without the skill, ability, and most of all the willingness to commit to violence, peace and hospitality cannot be established or maintained. A given Heathen community cannot commit to being an inclusive place so long as White Supremacist and Folkish Heathens are permitted in it. The very existence of White Supremacist and Folkish Heathens is a direct threat to BIPoC, LGBTQIA+, ethnic, and religious minorities. Truthfully, as we have seen with those who have left the AFA and similar outfits, White Supremacist and Folkish Heathens eventually turn on their own. That’s the way supremacy works: you eat everyone else until all you can do is eat your own.

The very existence of White Supremacist and Folkish Heathens is a direct threat to Heathenry. I do not mean this in some abstract way. I have received death threats for my anti-racist and anti-Folkish stances. Others have been directly physically harmed, harassed, bullied, and doxxed. There is no reasoning with these ideologies nor those who hold to them. They are directly harmful. They seek to legitimize, encourage, and then to engage in genocide. It begins in rhetoric and comes increasingly through to fruition: direct action. They seek to kill the Other, as demanded by their ideology, and seek the destruction of other people and their ways of life. If a given Heathen community is unwilling to make a stand, not with some internet Declaration, but with their feet, and when necessary their hands and weapons, then all their words are air.

The other side is not playacting when it comes to killing those it sees as its enemies. The 3%ers, the Proud Boys, and the AFA, among many others, are not fucking around. For too long Heathens in the middle have pretended there was some middle ground to be had. There is not. You are either on the side of inclusivity or you are in support of white supremacy. There is no negotiation with it.

Bonds and Bounds of Frið and Grið

A simple explanation is that frið and grið are bonds of peace and good social order. Ocean Keltoi has a good video going over the concept here. Frið, as I understand and use the term, is held with family, loved ones, tribe members, and community. In other words, those I consider innangarð, those in my inner yard. Grið is held with strangers as a temporary peace, with those utgarð or in the outer yard. These concepts are then woven into Heathens conceptions of hospitality. While many Heathens may not use the term innangarð or utgarð, I find most of us agree on the larger picture here: hospitality is established through peace and good social order.

Bonds of frið and grið are maintained so we can get things done. We do not always have to like each other. However, we do need to have mutual respect and to give one another honor in such bonds. So how do we establish frið and grið, and what does violence have to do with them?

Frið and grið must be formed in honor and strength. They are a willing acceptance of obligation to one another. In the case of frið, these bonds are made and maintained with those who you are willing to defend with your life and who likewise take on that obligation. Those I understand in this fashion are my personal family, friends, and tribe. I do not extend frið to acquaintances. Insofar as I understand the terms and employ them, they rely on very clearly delineated boundaries of obligation. I aid and defend those I carry bonds of frið with.

In a SHTF scenario this means that those I hold these frið obligations with come first. I do prep to care for those bonds. I work to provide enough supplies, information, and knowledge to get us through the challenges that come our way. I do work to support those I have these bonds with so we can all come through SHTF scenarios safely. Generally, I expect that safety in these situations is ensured through effective prepping, such as making sure we have enough resources on hand to get through a few months. Given the violence we have seen on display from White Supremacists, Folkists, and the far Right, it is not out of the realm of possibility that self-defense is going to be necessary. I was prompted to write this series in part because there is a good contingent of folks in various prepping communities planning to do a good bit of violence to secure resources in a number of SHTF scenarios. Just because something is unpleasant to think on does not mean we should not consider it. This, for me, is a chief concern and obligation with regards to frið. Am I willing to put my life on the line for you? Am I willing to defend you, to kill if necessary? If I answer no or hesitate, then we do not have frið.

This is at the forefront of my mind since I have had a few Folkish and White Supremacist Heathens come across my blog and reblog my last few posts. It seems that none of them have read the content of this blog or they would realize that I am utterly opposed to them. The very act of being a Folkish or White Supremacist Heathens breaks bonds of frið and grið with me. We cannot have peace or good social order if your ideology rests on my death or that of those in my circles. The ideology of White Supremacy and Folkishness prevents grið from being established. For anyone that has ever written the words “No Frith with Fascists”, truly think on what that means. If you truly do believe the words of Hávamál 127, meditate on what it means and the implications of what your actions are:

“127. I rede thee, Loddfafnir! | and hear thou my rede,–
Profit thou hast if thou hearest,
Great thy gain if thou learnest:
If evil thou knowest, | as evil proclaim it,
And make no friendship with foes.”

Thinking on Violence

Rather than offer any one way as the way we should prepare for violence, I think we need to approach violence through the lens of prepping as another tool in our tool chest. How useful is violence in a given scenario? What does violence do, and how well does it do it? What training and tools can best deescalate a situation so violence does not need to be used? What training and techniques can reduce or eliminate the use of violence in a given scenario? What training and tools are most effective at preventing harm if violence must be used? What scenarios require a full commitment to the use of violence?

In most scenarios violence is the least desirable tool. It can cause us to waste time, resources, and life. It causes harm which necessitates healing and possibly recompense, or, in the worst of situations, cleanup, and the possibility of jailtime and/or reprisal. The use of violence can sour even the best of relationships even if we, ourselves, are not its target. Violence is often ugly, brutal, and frightening.

These truths should not prevent us from using it.

Rather, I would hope it would inspire folks to be judicious in its use. To be sure of what scenarios we would be willing and able to engage in violence. To be sure and clear in what obligations we agree to in our frið and grið-making. To be sure and clear in what obligations we hold with guests and hospitality under our roof. Not all violence need be fatal, but all violence has that potential. Violence should, in my view, be a tool of last resort. However, it should not be a tool we throw away, ignore, or denigrate. So, I see an obligation on each of us who would use it to have the proper training to effectively carry out violence in whatever way is best suited to our abilities, training, skills, and the situation at hand. I see an obligation on each of us who would keep bonds of frið, grið, and hospitality to be clear on what they will and will not accept within their bounds and to be ready and willing to enforce them.

A Heathen Prepping -Beginning

My thanks to my Brother, Jim Two Snakes, for inspiring this and the series of posts following it. Thank you for lighting the Fire.

What is Prepping?

Prepping, or preparing, is both a mindset and a way of organizing oneself, family, tribe, and/or community. To prep is to be engaged in active readiness for one or many SHTF (Shit Hits The Fan) scenario(s). Prepping is about gaining and using knowledge and resources so that the people, preppers, can encounter a SHTF scenario, and survive it, if not thrive after. Ideally, prepping is entered into out of hope, a desire to see oneself and others safe. Prepping is entered into so that one’s family, tribe, and/or community survives a SHTF scenario, stays safe during and after it, and thrives in post-crisis.

My Perspective on Prepping

A lot of things brought me into prepping. My upbringing, for one. My Dad was part of security both for the facility he worked at and for our region of the State. He wrote policy and what is more, carried it out. He passed on a sense of how to prepare for things, having to explain things to me since I was often his beta reader and proofreader when I became a teenager. In wanting to make sure anyone could follow directions in case of an emergency he often had to explain preparedness, and what things did and did not qualify in simple terms. Growing up in this environment helped me frame what I would run into when prepping communities started springing up sometime in the late 90s to early 2000s.

Prepping, for me, is part of my obligation to my family, tribe, and community. It is an obligation to prep as best as I am able to be hospitable and to take pressure off of my family, tribe, and communities. Think about it. In a SHTF situation, someone knocking on your door and asking for a bottle of water takes on even more of a direct and dire dimension than they would prior. I owe hospitality to those who come to my door, and without prep that is far harder to provide in a crisis. That is not to say I have to be a doormat to any Johnny-come-lately. Baselines of hospitality still apply regardless of whether we are in crisis or not. In keeping to them not only do we help to promote abundance in our communities, we also set up the basics for reciprocity between us. If you have a need I can fulfill I can then call on you for help in kind. Because I put in the time, energy, and effort, in a very realy well, I help to care for both of us.

Prepping also helps to stave off my anxiety and distress at clear warning signs I am seeing now, environmentally, politically, and logistically.  I have been seeing stress signs from the shipping and logistics industry for awhile now, and prepping helps to soothe the stress I feel at its collapse. Likewise, prepping helps me to get a handle on dealing with the anxiety I feel around the ongoing climate crisis. Part of long-term prep as I do it is taking care of longer-term projects. These are things like helping to build raised beds and plant vegetables, caring for the land, and learning to take care of animals. Learning how to cull, butcher, and process my own meat is part of that process just as putting away water, food, and emergency kits is. By building up my knowledge, supply, and ability to weather a variety of storms and SHTF scenarios, I reduce my overall stress and anxiety.

Let me be frank with you: we are seeing the grid’s collapse in real time. We have seen time and again the vaunted powerful in our countries again and again meet to ‘discuss how to address climate change’ and each and every time it has been a showcase of how much C02 we can dump into the atmosphere shuttling these rich, privileged fucks around. The spending bills which have majority support in this country, which would have gone to several initiatives that directly address climate change, pollution, and infrastructure spending, have been stalled to the point where they are gutted in part or in whole. We have no idea as of the time of this writing if we are even going to get a reconciliation bill. This, when Texas suffered one of the most widespread grid collapses in a time where it could ill afford it: the middle of fucking Winter. That grid is almost wholly separate from the rest with a smattering of lines connecting it to the others and is run by a company that has direct interests in making money off of people freezing to death.

Resources that could easily be turned to preparing us to live with the ongoing effects of climate change and to reverse it in our lifetimes are now being squandered so the rich get to drive up the numbers of imaginary fucking monopoly money. We are on our own. Regardless of political background, perspective, or viewpoint, our government has made it abundantly clear time and again we are on our own. It made that point during Hurricane Katrina, and has since every natural disaster. This is absolutely nothing new to Indigenous and BIPOC communities. All have lived through it for hundreds of years. It’s only now the rest of us are getting to experience just a taste of that abuse and neglect. The kicker is that this ongoing abuse and neglect of the system, and so, our communities, will hit them just as hard too, since they’re tied into the same system.

Our elected officials and those who fund them and otherwise hold their leashes have chosen, not failed but chosen not to act. We must turn to taking care of ourselves. Municipal water sources throughout this country face contamination from a variety of sources, including PFAS and dioxane. Michigan, one of the largest sources of freshwater in the world, is also some of the most polluted in the USA with DuPont, Wolverine, and Dow Chemical operating in our State. Our just-in-time delivery systems and absolutely backwards way of sourcing, producing, processing, and delivering food has had several failures which should be abundantly clear to anyone paying one whit of attention to the supply lines. Now is the time to prepare yourselves, your families, your tribes, and your communities for disruption from the top down and bottom up. It is a fucking shame because the rich have the ability, even now at the goddamned one minute stroke to midnight, to turn all of this around.

I could be wrong. I fully recognize that. I recognize in the middle of my anger, my frustration, and yes, my despair at anything useful getting done from either our political establishment or the companies that have bought and paid for them, that I could be wrong. I do not think so.

Let us assume I am wrong. Say this post inspires every Pagan, polytheist, witch, magician, and so on that has not yet prepped for a disaster of, say, two weeks, to prep. Mutual aid networks could form, communities that were divided or have never connected could start having serious conversations on how to take care of one another in a crisis. What is lost? Some time and money, perhaps. However, should a situation arise, such as a long-term power outtage from some weather event, more supply line disruptions like those we have seen this year, or if something dire comes our way, at the least some things will be taken care of to help us weather the hard times. At the very least we will have prepped to care for those we can. It is a damn sight better than most government officials can say

If you find it hard to approach prep without severe anxiety, or if you find yourself putting a lot of thought into prep to the detriment of your life or others, then you may want to only approach prep with a trusted friend, loved one, or better yet, a community. It may even be better in such a case to talk things out with these people and develop things together so that the anxiety that can be associated with prepping is a shared load. A lot of SHTF events and our reactions to them can be hard to think about, let alone actually prepare for. There is a definite difference in feeling when something is in the abstract vs you are gaining knowledge, skills, or buying or making things to address it. Experiencing some stress is a normal part of prepping. Be mindful of explosive emotion or ongoing, lingering feelings of distress, anxiety, or obsession around the topics of prepping. Addressing these things with loved ones and/or a therapist can be a huge help. It is far better to delay engaging with prep and similar subjects until and unless it safe for you and your loved ones to do so.

Prepping takes a lot of forms, the most visible being the various kits folks put together, such as BOBs (Bug Out Bags) or long-term freeze-dried foods in food-safe buckets. However, without the knowledge, experience, discipline, and wisdom on what to use in a kit, BOB, cache, etc all that becomes is a collection of things which may make you feel safe, but when a crisis hits you may not be able to use them effectively, if at all. Having a medkit is good so long as you know how to use the components in it. If you do not know how to make a fire or boil water, then freeze-dried food may not keep you fed if you are stranded.

This does not mean equipment is not important. Good quality equipment is necessary if you hope to prepare well. However, good quality and expensive are not the same thing. More on this as we dig into specific cases.

‘Good prep’ and ‘good equipment’ is dependent on what you are prepping for, your local situation including weather and the most probable SHTF scenarios, and how many other people you have prepping with you. The more folks who are prepping the better, as each person can gather knowledge and skills as available to them, and provide coverage for those in their family, tribe, and/or community.

How does a Heathen begin to prepare?

I treat prepping as a Heathen like I do most spiritual activities as a Heathen. Take some time to prepare spiritually when you are going to be engaging with prepping. Whether it is learning a new skill or sharpening an old one, making a list, putting together a kit or BOB, or checking supplies. Start with a simple cleansing, grounding, centering, and shielding exercise. This is the basis of a very simple and quick spiritual prep. Here are some examples of each:

To cleanse, take three even breaths in, three breaths out.

A simple grounding is drawing your hands up over your body and down your body.

A simple centering technique is to say out loud what work you will engage in at this time.

A simple shielding technique is to say ‘Shields Up!’ or to gesture around your body as though you are putting up a wall around you.

Each of these are low-maintenance and simple for a reason: you want your spiritual prep to be useful in a SHTF scenario. If you have to meditate for thirty minutes in order to be spiritually prepared, that is fine to start with. It may be too long in a SHTF situation, and while this may not be as thorough, it works. The goal with this kind of spiritual prep is to be able to consistently get to a place in body, mind, and spirit together that is clear, calm, centered, and ready to engage with the task at hand. I can tell you in my experience this low-maintenance spiritual prep works. I have done variations of it before heading into dangerous situations, including car accidents and altercations at work. It is well worth putting in the time to be able to achieve clarity and focus in a crisis.

With this done, pray for wisdom, care, and skill, and make offerings to the Ginnreginn for these things. If you are able to make an offering then a cup of water, a slice of bread, or a pinch of mugwort are good ones. If you have questions or concerns, ask Them for Their input on the prepping you will engage in. Ask for guidance when you feel stuck or frustrated. Engage in spiritual accounting to be sure you are receiving good guidance, and working with the guidance well. Doing this each and every time will help you to approach prepping in a clean, calm, and collected way centered in the Ginnreginn and doing the best for Them, your communities, and yourself.

I engage with prepping as a spiritual activity itself. I first got into it in various forms when Óðinn had me begin a devotional and working relationship with Skaði. I learned First Aid, Basic Life Support, and how to shoot a bow and gun because of these two Gods, and do each as a form of offering to Them. I also offer my learning and use of healing, stabilization, and the like as an offering to Eir and Menglöð. Considering how much of the skills we can learn that reach back to the Ancestors, including frontier medicine, firemaking, and food preservation, each of these could be an offering, connection point, and a place to invite Their blessings. All the materials we use in prep are made of various vaettir, as are the shelters, foods, and waters. Getting into and maintaining a good relationship with the vaettir through prep just makes sense.

When you put together items for prepping, such as putting a bandage into a medkit, make prayers over it. Enchant each item you bring into your prep space, and treat it as sacred. It is, after all! Each preparation you make, and so, each prayer, each offering, each bit of magic you work into that preparation will be helping keep you, your family, your tribe, and community members heilagr, a word that means whole, safe, healthy, and holy.

Begin to build your lists and work to prepare in the same way most preppers do.

What are the most probable SHTF scenarios?

What are the most probable SHTF scenarios in your area? Not what occupies you with worry, and not what is being blasted at you from the evening news or whatever social media you engage with. What is the likeliest thing to provide a threat, immediate and/or ongoing, to you and your family, tribe, and/or communities? What has happened in the past? What is most likely to occur in the future? What was done to address it? What systems were under strain then vs now, and have those strains been addressed?

Engage With the Basics

Wherever you are just starting out, I heartily second the recommendation City Prepper makes:

Make a list of what you and your family need to survive. Start with at least 1 gallon of water per person per day and 1200 calories of food per person per day. If you can start by expanding that to 3 gallons of water, and around 2000-2200 calories per person per day, that is an even better start to prep. Start with the goal of getting together enough supplies to make it two weeks where you are. You can then increase the goal to a month, three months, and then a year as things go on.

When you have the resources, put together supplies needed for three days if you need to leave where you are living. A 3 day prep kit that is ready at a moment’s notice to take with you when you leave, is known in prepper circles as a Bug Out Bag, or BOB for short. If you lose your home or you are under a mandatory evacuation order, having a BOB will help ease your mind, streamline the process, and make it so you can quickly react to a changing, potentially dangerous and stressful situation. BOBs tend to weigh about 15% at most of a person’s body weight so they stay mobile. Some folks put an extra BOB in their car in addition to having one per family member just in case. We can get into BOBs in a separate post.

My recommendation for spiritual prep at the start here is to get the simple exercises above down to where you can do them as needed without much forethought. Adding prayer cards, pictures, or tokens of various Gods, Ancestors, and vaettir to your prep kits can bring comfort and connection in a crisis. I highly recommend metal pill containers, such as these or these, which you can use to carry a fire kit, offerings, and, of course, pills. They’re lightweight, hardy, and I have had a variation of the first link’s pill cases for several years without any issue. I carry tobacco, mugwort, chamomile, and stinging nettle with me in this way on my keychain. I carry prayer cards in my wallet and a leather bag full of taufr, enchanted items, in my pocket. EDC or Every Day Carry includes the spiritual things we take with us wherever we go, and that we turn to in crisis. EDC is a separate post, though, so we will leave that for now.

Make Assessments Where You Are

What knowledge and skills do you possess already that you can work with in a crisis? What do you need to develop? What would you want to develop? Are your knowledge and skills contingent on having electricity available? If so, can you learn to work without them? If not, do you have the means to continue access to electricity?

Take a look at your local communities. If you do not know your next-door neighbors, now is the time to get to know them. Talk with your Heathen, Pagan, and similarly-aligned community members about mutual aid networks. Talk with them about what they are doing for their own prep work and what needs they have. As you go along you and your community members can encourage each other to keep up the prep work, working together in solidarity. The more folks in a community who have two or more weeks of supplies on hand to handle a crisis will be better able to mitigate the overall community response to them. As with the individual prep, expanding as you can to longer stretches of time will help everyone in a community get through SHTF scenarios safely.

Mutual Aid Networks

Mutual aid networks can help to shore up where family and community needs fall short, whether it is access to needed supplies for medication, food, water, etc. This is where the networks of relationships we intentionally foster as Heathens can really shine. It is not necessary for folks to live in the same neighborhood to be helpmeets to one another in a crisis. In fact, having folks clustered in the same neighborhood can be a detriment. If an entire neighborhood is hit by a natural disaster like a tornado or the power is down in a given region for longer than two weeks then everyone in the network will have to collectively deal with the same crisis all together. Mutual aid networks that have space between them can afford multiple locations for regrouping, care, bugging out, and developing networks of communication, trade, and solidarity-building between communities in a larger or longer SHTF situation.

Something not often thought about: A lot of homes and subdivisions, especially here in Michigan where homes are being built on former farmland or swamp, do not have even a Michigan basement. A Michigan basement is an unfinished basement that is essentially a root cellar. Having access to a clean, cool, and accessible storage option like a partially, fully finished, or a Michigan basement when you live in a neighborhood with few or none of them becomes a truly valuable thing. If you have one available to you it can hold water, food, medication, and vital documents in steady clean storage, be a place to brew and/or ferment, and be a staging area for folks in crisis. The more such places where supplies and space are available to you and your community, the easier you can handle a crisis.

Instead of just making suggestions of lists, I am going to explore how I approach prepping as a Heathen. You can use this as a jumping off point for exploring your own situation and your responses to the SHTF scenarios and other crises you may face. Because this is a post on beginning to prep it will only take a quick look at short-term SHTF scenarios and how I prep for them.

My Assessment and Approach for Short-term SHTF

I live in a suburban town in SE Michigan surrounded by farmland and just on the outside of major cities in my area. I will not have the same concerns as a person living in the city or in the country. In a way, suburbia has the potential of a lot of the benefits of both city and country living, provided you have a bit of land to work with. The most pressing SHTF scenarios for us here are power outages, tornadoes, and winter storms. A complete disaster scenario in this region would be if the old nuclear powerplant nearby melted down. In Summer the main factor for danger moreso than the heat itself is direct sunlight and humidity. Most have access to water and sewer through wells or city municipalities. In some areas solar power is not possible due to tree cover, and both solar and wind power are still prohibitively expensive for most to invest in. Power outages, then, affect access to running water, heating/cooling, cooking, and other necessities of life. Most folks who have the means to acquire generators, solar and/or wind power generation, and increasingly, homeowners who can afford it are investing in Generac and similar home power systems.

Some major positive factors going for lower SE Michigan are that we do not have earthquakes, volcanoes, or hurricanes as major threats to our wellbeing. While it is true much of our fertile farmland has been built on, there are networks of small-time farmers, backyard farmers, permaculturists, and emerging networks of mutual aid networks. Plenty of folks keep chickens, goats, and other small livestock.

Since our most likely SHTF scenarios for SE Lower Michigan are loss of power, winter storms, and tornadoes in that order, those are the first scenarios I will prep for. I will need two weeks of water, food, medicine, and toileting supplies. In a power loss or winter storm situation I will need to have ways to keep food from spoiling and ways to keep warm. I need to keep an eye on the weather, and have an area for the family to evacuate to in case of a tornado.

A lot of my advice here is going to echo other preppers such as City Prepper and some emergency advice from FEMA and other government organizations. Since this is at least some folks’ first exposure to prep, I want this information to be accessible here. So, when getting into prep you will want your first concerns to be oriented around the most probable short-term SHTF scenarios. You will want is access to safe water, enough food to last through the crisis, and ways to keep safe and warm until access is restored. Assume a two-week window where you will not have power, and make plans for taking care of your needs for water, food, and shelter accordingly. Once you have prepped for this, then you can expand your horizons.

Physically, prep for short-term SHTF will be the previous prep we have talked about in the Engage with the Basics. Make sure you have redundant forms of communication. Some examples would be a landline (especially since most folks just have cell phones), handheld walkie talkies, or even HAM radios, the latter of which generally requires a license to transmit over legally though you can listen without a license. Having ready sources of backup power that you check at least twice a year, such as a backup generator for a home, can help you and yours get through with what you need and some creature comforts if the generator can handle it. You are going to want ways of making heat and light not tied into the home’s power supply that are effective and safe. Any fires you work with should be in containers that someone, animal or kid, cannot knock over if you turn away your attention for a few moments. Bundling up with blankets, and making sure you have some Visqueen or other similar kind of quick weatherpoofing if insulation of the home is less ideal will help conserve heat in colder times. Working with open windows and air circulation, and if able doing less during the heat of the day will help mitigate the heat.

Mentally, prep is going you are going to include engaging in activities that keep your mind at ease. Whatever keeps you relaxed and ready to go. The physical preps help pave the way for this, since it is hard to think if you are worried about where you next meal is coming from, and hard to read or relax at night in a pitch-dark house. If you can keep a discipline that involves your mind, body, and spirit, such as regular meditation and/or exercise, it can help reduce stress and keep up morale. It can also give you a sense of rhythm to days and weeks that you could be stuck at home. That discipline will help keep you mentally well and better able to handle both the drudge, bordom, and/or the unexpected that come your way. In all likelihood with a two-week or less disaster most of us will still have to go in to work. In many cases that will mean having to put in a lot of overtime, so prepping can help ease anxiety and make things easier for family members who are going to be stuck inside for the duration of the crisis. Part of the beauty of having a two-week prep ready to go is that it can save you a lot of hassle in the moment when the power goes out or roads are closed. If you have the things you need ready at hand there is less anxiety or confusion about what to do -you just do it. You also will not have to deal with panic buying or struggle with lines at the places that are still open in a crisis. Having taken the time to prep, you and your loved ones will be in a good position to financially be better off too, since you won’t have to deal with price gouging or extra shipping costs if you find out you really need something.

Spiritually, prep is reaffirming and continuing the relationships with the Ginnreginn and loved ones you have already. It is also engaging in the spiritual disciplines such as those explored in Engaging the Basics, which will help keep you spiritually prepped. The mental and physical prep help pave the way for this, and the spiritual prep here reinforces them in turn. Rather than being separate preps, think of each as being part of one prep. Algiz, with its three branches coming from a single trunk and its meaning of protection, is an excellent Runevaettir to work with. Sowilo is also a good Runevaettir to work with, with its three segments and meaning of victory. Spiritual preps beyond this would be making taufr for keeping the home and family safe.

Where to Go From Here?

The beginning steps of prep are not the place to be prepping for climate change or political upheaval. This is the starting place where you look at your most likely SHTF short-term scenarios and prepare for them. As you go along the prep you do for one level of SHTF scenario will stack into the next.

As a Heathen, I approach prepping at times as a spiritual discipline, others times as service, and other times as solidarity with my loved ones. By engaging in prep I know what to do with my hands, heart, and soul in a SHTF scenario. In doing prep I better equip my loved ones, my family, my tribe, and my wider community to weather a crisis. By approaching prep as duty, service, and/or solidarity this places all my prep work into a pro-social perspective that seeks to honor the Ginnreginn.

One of the ethics we Heathens and polytheists in general reliably share is that of hospitality. Prep is a form of engaging in hospitality for those in our care, and those who may find themselves at our door. By working out of a desire to engage well in hospitality, I seek to do well for myself and others. By choosing to act and empowering others to do prep in the same spirit of hospitality, cooperation, and building up, rather than tearing down or competition, like a fire in darkness, I seek to light other fires.

Patreon Topic 27: Heathen Dream-work

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 my third Raiðo supporter comes this topic:

“Any recommendations on how to incorporate dream-work into one’s Heathen way of life?”

It depends on the dreamwork we are talking about. I will not be digging into dreamwork as approached by Freud, Jung, or others as talked about on the Wikipedia page. Rather, I will be approaching as a kind of spiritwork and how we might approach it. Before we dig into this, dreamwork is not one of my specialties, it is not something I have engaged in recently, and everyone may experience dreamwork in different ways.

As with a lot of spiritwork I recommend caution before applying something to your life. A while back a dear Brother of mine, Jim Stovall, coined the phrase Spiritual Accounting. Jim’s formula is (M+C³)xR=V. M is message, C is Confirmation, R is results, and V is verified. He actually has a spreadsheet with Gods, Ancestors, and spirits he puts through this evaluation and it has borne good results for him. You can actually buy a shirt here and here that displays it and supports our podcast, Around the Grandfather Fire. In previous writing I have likened it to a three-legged stool, where we have lore (written and archaeological records), experiences (our own and others’), and divination.

So what is dreamwork? I understand and approach dreamwork in two ways: as getting messages from the Gods, Ancestors, and/or vaettir in dreams, or accomplishing tasks/goals. With regard to getting messages, sometimes they can be quite vague and may require some deep work to understand, or even a follow-up with other divination. Sometimes this comes in the form of lucid dreams and other times it is under direction by a God, Ancestor, vaettr, or group of Them.

Most of my dreams are random psychological phenomena or entertaining. The ones that definitely involve the Gods, Ancestors, and/or vaettir happen every so often and not with any pattern I can discern. I have not been pushed to encourage them, and to be honest, I will not since so much of my free time is taken up with spirit work.

What can I offer to those who are interested or are being pushed to engage in dreamwork? Questions and advice, mostly.

Why engage in dreamwork? Is it part of your toolbox, or a part of your toobox that you want to expand? Are you being required to work with this technique by a God, Goddess, Ancestor, vaettr, or group of Them? If you have a choice in engaging with this tool, is there a better one you could learn to work with where you have more direct control, or one that might be better suited to the aims you want to accomplish with this technique?

What tools do you already have at your disposal that will allow you dreamwork to be effective and remembered well by you? Do you have a journal to record the work, the experience, and the results? Do you have alarms set so you do not just float away and ignore your body’s needs too long? Do you need all but essential electronics turned off? Do you need isolation, silence, or darkness for a few hours, day(s), and do you have the means to get that? All of these are useful tools for anyone considering dreamwork.

What tools do you need to bring in for dreamwork? If you have a hard time getting to sleep or coming out of sleep have you spoken with a doctor about it and if there are options you have not tried yet? Some folks find it easier to sleep hot and others cold. Some folks find added weight, such as with a weighted blanket, helps them to fall asleep and stay asleep longer. While I would avoid caffeinated drinks, especially before dreamwork, a specially made tea for the working can be a powerful preparation. So might satchet pillows, charms under, over, or around your sleeping area. Stuffed animals and blankets with designs of any helping spirits, fylgja, etc can be a good way to bring them in.

When you have determined why you are going to engage in dreamwork setting the stage is going to be pretty important. You are not merely going to sleep. You are lying down to sleep with a spiritual purpose. It is not altogether different than if you were preparing for útiseta (sitting out, such as at a grave, mound, or riverside), hamfara (literally skin/shape travel/fare, to fare forth in your hamr or second skin/self), or other spiritwork. In fact, what your dreamwork may have you do would be hamfara, so preparing for that can save you from being spiritually hurt or lost. So, putting together protection, including shields, wards, and anchor-points for your soul parts well ahead of time would be at the top of my list. Well before any kind of spiritwork I would have at least a weekly preparation, and at least in the three weeks leading up to the working an every day preparation of cleansing, grounding, centering, and shielding. The day of the dreamwork, before lying down to sleep, do another round of that preparation, and double check your wards, anchors, and any other tools you are bringing into the dreamwork.

The reason I brought up the journal so early in this post is because it could well be one of, if not the most important tool for this work. Done well, a journal for spiritwork functions as a kind of work log, grimoire, record, diary, and personal journal all in one. Done poorly it becomes a literal paperweight and something you have to work to push through to write in. So, do whatever you need to so your journal is organized, moddable to your needs, and functions well. Take those steps now so you are not scrambling should you need to reference a working or try to remember something. This journal will also help you track your progress and long-term trends in your dreamwork. The journal can be digital, print, or both. Whatever your choice it needs to be accessible upon waking up. You can lose infromation in

Day 30: Cleansing, Empowerment, Offering and Sealing -30 Days of Magic Talisman Challenge

This day was an excellent end to the 30 Day Talisman Challenge.  The work started off with extra cleansing work: a traditional beer bath.  I drew up a hot bath, entered it, and prayed to the Gods and spirits of Water, thanking Them for cleansing me inside and out.  I had the bottle of Hofbräu Dunkel opened already, and brought it into the bath with me.  Standing in the bath, I prayed thanks to the brewers, and to the spirits of beer itself.  Then, I poured three times into the bath, thanking the spirits of Water and the beer as I did, and then poured the beer three times over my head, the beer flowing down my back and front.  The effect was immediate: I started to feel physically, mentally, and spiritually clean from the inside out.  I then poured the beer over my shoulders, my hands, genitals, and down towards my feet.  I then drank a little and left the remainder of the bottle outside the bath.

I expected to be very sticky but I was not.  Quite the opposite; I felt better than if I had used soap.  As I cleaned myself in the bath, I plunged my head into the water and came out feeling as though all the cobwebs were gone.  I then galdred Midgarð’s Name, calling upon it to help me ground, center, and shield.  I then called upon Ansuz and Gebo, as I usually do, to continue the cleansing work with Ansuz, and finish the grounding and centering with Gebo.  I then let out the water, feeling very clear inside and out, and waited until the water and beer had completely gone down the drain before stepping out.

I dressed in fresh clothes, then cleaned out the offering bowls to Runátýr and the Runevaettir, then offered blood, and my last bottle of Hofbräu Original to Them.  When this was done I went to the Rune altar.  I thanked the Gods and spirits of Fire for blessing, cleansing, and protecting the area and I for the 30 days of work.  I prayed thanks for the 30 days of work Runátýr, the Runevaettir, and I  had done together, for the blessings, power, and grace They had bestowed upon the talismans.  Then I did the empowerment work with Them for the last time before the sealing work.

I picked up a copper-bottomed pot and an aluminum pot from the local PTO thrift store for doing sealing work with these talismans, and other pieces I have done.  First I had copper-bottomed pot come to a boil on the stove, and placed the aluminum pot on top of it.  There were still some of the beeswax in the bottom of the pot from the test I had done with an Ægishjálmur talisman that I made some time ago, so I did not have to cut up too many chunks from the beeswax slab.

Both talismans were done the same way:  When the beeswax became clear, I placed the talisman in with small tongs and swished it around the aluminum pot, and then flipped it, coating both sides.  I took the talisman out, and placed it on a ceramic plate I had next to the stove.  While the beeswax cooled and hardened, I galdred the Runes of each talisman, moving it sunwise as I did.  When both were totally sealed I brought them back upstairs to lay on the Rune altar until the wealth talisman is given away, and I determine where the communion talisman needs to go.

This has been a great experience.  These 30 days of discipline and work have gone by well; the talismans hum and feel good to the touch.  I am eagerly awaiting giving the wealth talisman away at the Wandering Owl, and continuing to work with the communion talisman.  Thank you for starting this Challenge, Andrieh Vitimitus.  Thank you, who have watched this work progress, and thank you to all my fellow Challenge workers.  Blessings on each of you in this, and all Challenges ahead.  Thank you to the Gods, Ancestors, and spirits who have been directly involved, and supportive of this work.  Hail to you all.  Ves ðu heil!

Link to the Creation Ritual.

Link to Daily Empowerment Work.

Day 29: Empowerment -30 Days of Magic Talisman Challenge

This is the home stretch.  Tomorrow the talismans will be sealed.  There’s a kind of excitement brewing, both from myself and from the Runes as well.  That a month of work is coming to a close and that this project will be complete.  The energies in the Runes ‘smell’ something like when you know food that smells just right; it is good, wholesome, delicious, and in some way, it makes your mouth water.  I have the beeswax, and I will be making a bag for this as well tomorrow.  I am really looking forward to it.

Link to the Creation Ritual.

Link to Daily Empowerment Work.

Day 28: Empowerment -30 Days of Magic Talisman Challenge

I’m looking forward to the end of this challenge.  It has been a good daily touchstone, and I think I will continue this work in some fashion.  Since I am keeping the communion talisman I may work that into an everyday prayer.

The empowerment itself went well.  There’s a kind of anticipation building; I cannot wait to seal these talismans.

Link to the Creation Ritual.

Link to Daily Empowerment Work.

Day 27: Offering and Empowerment -30 Days of Magic Talisman Challenge

Yesterday was madcap in terms of stuff to do.  It was my first day, and will be my only day, of missing a day of this work.  Today I gave offerings of blood to Runátýr and the Runevaettir, and gave an offering of a very special beer: Hofbräu Original.  I generally do not like beer unless it is a good quality one.  I had one of these at Frankenmuth, MI last Saturday and it knocked my socks of.  One of the people I call Brother bought me a sampler case of Hofbräu beers, and I offered this to Runátýr and the Runevaettir, and to Frigga as well.  It felt very well received.

The empowerment went very well.  There is an odd but good sensation to the talismans when I trace the woodburnings in them.  Something like a surge of electricity that makes my arm feel odd as I press my finger to the Runes.  Both of them have this sensation, almost identically.  There’s a different ‘flavor’ to the wealth talisman from the communion talisman.  Just two more days until the beeswax sealing of these two.  I’ll be grabbing pots, possibly today, so I can do double boiling from a local thrift store, and keep them for this work.

Link to the Creation Ritual.

Link to Daily Empowerment Work.

Day 26: Empowerment -30 Days of Magic Talisman Challenge

Today went well, especially after a busy day.  I think that it is a good thing that there’s not a lot of new things to write on at this point; this is, I think, where this process should be.  In three days I will be finishing the talismans by putting on the beeswax, and blooding the one I am keeping.

Link to the Creation Ritual.

Link to Daily Empowerment Work.

Day 24 and 25: Empowerment -30 Days of Magic Talisman Challenge

Yesterday and today’s empowerment were quicker than usual, and brought with each a feeling of power coursing down through my arm as the empowerment was completed.  I’ve had this feeling with each one, but it is becoming especially pronounced now as we near the end of the Challenge.  It isn’t like lightning, electricity feeling, more like a warmth spreading down my arm.  The Internet has been sporadically up and down, and here’s hoping that cuts out soon.  I’m getting tired of posting these one to two days after they happen!

Link to the Creation Ritual.

Link to Daily Empowerment Work.