Wane Wyrds

Just wanted to add a post here since it's been over a week. I have been so freakin busy it's unreal. The college classes I am taking now are jammed into 8 week sessions instead of 16, so I have have been writing about three essays a week for a couple weeks now. It is defo not leaving me much room for writing here, but I love keeping up the blog so I promise I am going to at least try and keep the posts coming on weekly basis. I am also potty training a two year old and have been working on getting my Etsy shop set up. So suffice to say that in some sense, I am mentally exhausted. Did I mention I spent last Saturday driving almost 150 miles to take three squabbly little girls to see Thomas the train. I paid over a hundred bucks for train ride tickets. The ride consisted of the train backing up about a half mile and then pulling forward. The view consisted if a ravine full of tires and mattresses on one side and some abandoned apartments on the other. I won't bore you with mo...

A bit of free verse I wrote tonight. Going through some personal things, and of course the Lady knows what I need to hear... Lady Freyja Lady Freyja Mistress of life and death Wed of the Wanderer Odr Come shining brightness Darkness is powerless It cannot touch The luster of pure gold. I Hail your names Which are many As numerous as the stars Or a single flame Burning in the window Burning ceaseless through the night Drawing home the wanderer. A ladder of flame I see When I close my eyes Almost like a shaft of wheat "In a single flame... Lives every flame..." I hear these words But they are not my own.

I always find it interesting how hard core heathens are resistant to ideas such as those like Norse Wicca, which incorporate the pantheon of Norse Gods/Goddesses into a Wiccan religious system. At times I am reluctant to talk about some of my personal practices which are most meaningful, simply because I know that in doing so I will labeled as a fluffy bunny, or ridiculed simply because I take much of my ritual and spell formula from a Wiccan background. It is why I tend to take a more inclusionary rather than exclusionary view of the heathen faith. And frankly, I have some very traditional views about the Norse cosmos which blend rather eclectically into my everyday life, which couldn't be farther from the Wiccan ideal, if there is such a thing. I call myself Vanatru because it reflects what I feel I am on the most basic level. Many heathens disagree with me, but I could never see the Aesir and Vanir as a happily blended family of Gods. It is like saying if I go to live ...

I am pissed. I know I should let it go but this morning I woke to find a message posted in one of my groups which contained an individual proselytizing about Norse cosmology. The proposed a few points which infuriated me... One, they attacked Norse pagans for overly "democratic" thinking. Modern so-called civilization encourages this inner chaos. The reason the gods built a cosmos is that chaos is too full, contains too many possibilities that cancel each other out. (Hence, creation myths speak of a primeval battle between gods and giants, etc.) Cosmos exists on many levels, and if we want to help the gods in their work of world-building and maintenance, the best thing we can do is to imitate them in our own lives. The first step is obvious. If you want to plant a garden, you must pull up the weeds. To be democratic about it and say the weeds have as much right as other plants in the yard, is to soon see a yard overgrown with weeds. Form depends on limit, and limit is achiev...

I have been dealing with the crafting sickness with a fury lately...I have collected so much stuff, I am thinking of opening an Etsy shop to see if I can clean some of them out...thought I would share, crafting to me is a very important part of my life as a heathen...It's one powerful way I connect with the creative force of the Vanir... Bindrune plaque with the Nine Ways of the Vanir Pyrography and Acrylic Clay and Craft Paint, small altar figurine If you don't know who this is, never speak to me again. JK... Necklace, chalcedony flowers, seed pearl, glass and clay beads Made for the honor of Njord Acrylic on Wood My most recent project, the first in a series of four Acrylic and pyrography Gullinbursti with Elder Futhark Rune Plaque Moss Agate Leaf pendant, with Labradorite and Glass One of my favorite things...Pic does it no justice The labradorite is actually very blue with lots of opalescence The large pendant of Moss agate is TO DIE FOR...

The image of the snake, serpent, or dragon has always troubled me. I think this is in part because of my Christian upbringing, and in part because of the natural primitive repulsion we all still carry on some level. For many the snake is a symbol of mortal danger, and to some it inspires irrational fear. I am not afraid of snakes, but I do carry a natural wariness of them. But anyway, back to the point. The serpent in Nordic mythology. Thanks to my new enrollment at the University of Oklahoma, I now have access to a wealth of information on just about any subject in the world thanks to the online resources of the University resources. Today I was reading an article called Fragments of Ancient Beliefs: The Snake as a Multivocal Symbol in Nordic Mythology by Gro Mandt. Though I did not find anything in it that blew me out of the water, I did find some interesting ideas there that I thought were worth a bit of blogging. One point was the discussion of the snake as rather ambiguou...

I do alot of reading, it is a great passion of mine. I have decided not long ago that when I have a bit of time to do some leisure reading, I will just randomly choose on of the sagas or a it of the Eddas to read through, just because I have yet to really feel as if I have a handle on some of the lesser known myths of the heroes and kings which are relevant to the Gods themselves. Anyway, the other day I randomly chose the Völundarkviða. For those unfamiliar with the poem, it is the story of the famous smith Volundr, also known across Europe as Weyland the smith. Apparently Volund is quite a famous figure, and I had never heard of him. He can be found in an exorbitant amount of European myth and folktale. He is credited to have forged a number of swords within various sagas, as well as Caliburn, the sword in Mary Stewart's Arthurian legend, and Albion, the sword of Robin Hood. He is mentioned in the epic poem Beowulf as well, in passing. So I was quite shocked to learn that h...