Wane Wyrds

Maybe it's the mercury retrograde or maybe I have simply accepted the fact that I am a Virgo, and have no real desire to get along with anyone for the sake of getting along. Either way today has been a trying day. Instead of the usual manifestation of melancholia this time, I find myself rather pissed off at the world. Or at least those who I have come into close contact with today. Of course Mr. OD probably chalks it up to the coming flowers, so he does his best to annoy me just to the tip of my limitation, and then proceeds to laugh at me and tell me in all seriousness the sweetest and loveliest of nothings, until I am calm and he can annoy me again. But in his own way, he knows even his ability to annoy me is part of his charm, and he does this simply to cheer me.  Yes, it seems convoluted, but he's Irish, I can forgive him that. But now Mr. OD is peacefully dreaming, I am wide awake, and the absence of him compounds my frustration. I feel I m...

Since it runs he risk of turning into an essay rather than a blog post, I would like to discussion women as the servers as mead on a surface level, rather than an intensive study. In essence I will generalize here for the sake of brevity. depiction of Yule from golden drinking horn found in Denmark, 400 AD We have established in the previous post that the act of ritual drinking is a historically as well as spiritually relevant practice in heathenry. Now let us examine exactly how this is portrayed in myth, and what I feel gives it a connection to spiritual power. Those who serve mead, be it in the Halls of the Gods or common men, are traditionally female. I have yet to hear of an instance of a male figure who served mead at feast or gathering, but correct me if I'm wrong please, because I would be fascinated if such evidence exists. So the ritual serving of mead id overseen or controlled by the feminine. Also, we learn that this role as hostess was often reserved for...

That's one Hel of a Horn!  As most who are reading this will know, I have been making some changes in my spiritual perspective. I have spoken of the mundane reasons for this, and now I would like to mention a small part of the spiritual. In my quest for knowledge and academic based understanding, I began to feel a disconnect with that energy which drew me to Freyja and the Vanir.  I felt I had lost touch with the earth, which for me as an earth witch left an emptiness and a sense of constant vertigo. I won't bore anyone with details, but meditating on this and coming to the decision to take a step back from uneccessary demands has enabled me to step back in a way and find a more objective picture of my life and my spirituality. It has also helped me learn a few personally valuable things that I feel the need to share with other pagans and heathens. Which brings me to this post, exploring the spiritual side of hospitality in the Norse cosmos. I was watching a video tod...

Some things never change... I just finished having a heated debate with my mother about the value of Church, especially for children. This came about because of a newscast on a conservative channel about the loss of church attendance in the Church of England, and across the globe. This debate obviously did not make me feel better about the state of the world. But it did make me feel more secure with my own choices in life. My mother's mother was a devout Nazarene. As a result of this, my mother attended church basically from birth regularly into her teens. She then proceeded to give birth to me out of wedlock at the age of barely 18. I do not mean this statement as any sort of judgment about her, I have never felt the slightest inclination to be ashamed of it, and have never felt the like against other single mothers. By the time I was born, my grandmother was very sickly, and in truth she passed away when I was three without leaving a memory of herself wi...

Well, I have finally come to a decision that I have been ruminating on for a few months now. I have decided to remove the Heathen moniker from the list of what I feel I am. I have debated about this and done alot of soul searching, and it has been a painful process for me to be honest. But I feel as if it is what is right for me. From now on I have decided to go with what is most true to my heart. Which is Freyja, and the Vanir. From now on I shall simply be Vanatru. Or if such a thing can be possible, Freyjatru. There are many reasons for this which I won't bother explaining, not here anyway. When I came to know Freyja, I had very strong opinions about separating the Aesir and Vanir into two tribes of Gods, on an intuitive level. I felt biased,and I decided to try and become open to the idea of a blended family of Norse Gods. I decided to do as much research as possible into the cosmology of which they both played a part. I wanted to know the Aesir as I knew the Va...

It has been a rough few months for me, I am yet again reaching the time in the semester where I count the days until it is over. If you have happened to notice a more negative tone in my comments, posts, anywhere you run into me, this is the cause. Most days now are spent wresting minutes from the clock, and my sleep schedule is never good, and now it is non existant. My weekend project: Three Norns Weaving (pyrography and paint.) I am a full time college student, studying Humanities. I have found that transferring to a major state university comes with it's own difficulties. My courseload is tremendous. I am seriously thinking of starting a humanities blog, simply because of the amount of work I have compiled in the short ten weeks since classes started. Top this off with unemployment, raising a two year old, and maintaining a (EXTREMELY) long distance relationship...well it's sort of like in cartoons when someone gets hypnotized. That's what my brain feels like...

The following are some practical exercises for getting in touch with and accepting one's shadow self, which is essential to personal healing. Projecting the Shadow Self One of the main concepts in relation to the shadow self within Jungian psychology is that of projection. Projection is the process by which we recognize traits in others which trigger recognition of our own shadow self, unconsciously. Our own shame and need to suppress our personal shadow self transfers to an irrational dislike of another person. 1. Think of the one person in your life that you have met and know PERSONALLY who inspires the most repulsion or hatred within you. The more irrational  and obsessive the dislike the better. Is there someone you simply intuitively dislike, irritates you constantly to the point of near hatred? Someone who is constantly acting in a way which pisses you off or frustrates you severely? Someone you would like to cut out of your life but cannot seem to get away from? 2...