Wane Wyrds

My Own Altar with Offerings One of the first questions people ask when they begin working with a particular God or Goddess is how to offer to them. Virtually ever forum I have been in, someone at one time or another has asked this question, "What offerings are good for (insert God/Goddess name)." Inevitably what follows are list of foods, drinks, crystals, incense types, etc. that are either mythologically inspired or have been found to be personally relevant to the particular divinity through upg. I myself have answered this question just as many times as another, with a list of materials and matter I found to have been well received. This in itself to me is not a problem, if we are able, I cannot see any reason we should not invest in the Gods which help and guide us through our journey of life. However, sometimes I think that our focus on the material aspect of offering is skewed by our lifestyle in the first world. We hear the word offering or gift, and our mind sw...

Loyalty is by far one of my highest held values, as woman, a heathen, and a human being. It is something that for me has always been a deal breaker in my relationships with others. Now I am not speaking of some blind, instantaneous following of someone simply because one has a social interaction with them. The loyalty that I speak of is earned, much like trust. It comes from a sense of closeness, intimacy, and devotion that is developed over time. It is not something to be given lightly, but rather, is in my mind as binding as an oath. As a heathen, my concept of loyalty is bound up in my understanding of kinship and frith. Of course, my perspective is a more modern understanding of these terms. I cannot pretend to live in modern times as the Norsemen did over a thousand years ago. But regardless of the change in definition of the terms, upholding them is still of vast importance to me. In those days, the ties of one's blood kin were considered unbreakable. Any man (or woman) might...