howls and growls

otherkin witchery and vulture culture ABOUT

[greedilycraftytrickster-deactiv]

🌿Minimizing Waste as a Hearth Witch🌿

Minimizing waste saves money and the environment. With a little creativity, there are many ways you can create opportunities to reduce waste and maximize the supplies you have.

🍄 Keep your jars. If you buy something that comes in a useful container and can be reused - then reuse it. In my experience, the best reuse for plastic containers is to freeze food. Also, small bottles like Advil bottles, are EXCELLENT spell jars. However, for all types, you can use them to store food, organize drawers and closets, store spell ingredients, or even make decorations. The possibilities are nearly endless!

🍄Keep all your fruit, vegetable, and herb scraps. With some scraps and water, you can make a lovely broth. Alternatively, you can use them to make a simmer pot for a spell or simply for the scent.

🍄If you eat meat, keep the bones. Again, a great broth ingredient!

🍄Avoid paper towels whenever possible. These are super wasteful and expensive. Whenever possible, I opt to use a towel or cloth. You can recycle old textiles for rags. However, if you're feeling ambitious you can knit or crochet towels and cloths; this is a great way to use up that scrap yarn you probably have laying around! You may even choose to add a bit of knot magic to these pieces.

🍄Thrift and upcycle. This is a bit of an obvious one; but really. It's a great way to have lovely belongings while reducing waste overall and saving money. With a bit of love, many things can be new.

🍄Almost every dish can be salvaged. It happens. We mess up. But, before you throw it away, do some research on how to salvage it. Odds are, you will be able to do it!

🍄Don't throw away fruits or vegetables that are overripe or wilting. Within reason, of course, many of these fruits and vegetables can be frozen for soups, casseroles, sauces, and smoothies!

🍄Buy a reusable coffee filter and tea basket for loose tea. Really, this is a given if you are a tea or coffee lover. Disposable ones are so wasteful and the reusable ones will pay for themselves in no time.

🍄Compost if you can. Compost dirt is amazing for growing ingredients for dishes and spells. While you're at it, save your eggshells, as well.

🍄Mend your clothes, blankets, and even shoes. A little bit of love can go a long way, including increasing the life of your favorite items. You can also add flair by learning how to darn and apply patches.

🍄Learn how to remove stains from fabric. In the same vein as mending, learning how to remove stains increases the life of your clothes. Different stains require different methods of removal, but usually, it is not impossible. Failing this, learn how to dye your clothes to revamp them.

🍄Use alternative cosmetics. This is a really big topic and I will create a post about this later. But, consider doing research. There are lots of things that can be made or substituted; notably face masks, hair masks, and using coconut oil as a make-up remover.

🍄Localize your practice. Use natural herbs and ingredients found in your local environment. Create your own correspondence if needed.

🍄Collect rainwater. Unfortunately, it is no longer a great idea to drink rainwater - but use it to water plants and clean your floors. Rainwater is also a powerful spell ingredient for spells that don't require drinking or putting on your skin.

🍄Only buy what you need. This time of year more than ever it is VERY tempting to buy up cheap Halloween-themed goods. But, consider an item's long-term usefulness, if it will create clutter and disorder in your home in the future, and if there are alternatives.

🍄Buy a cheap food dehydrator. These are perfect for making tea and drying out herbs, flowers, and other ingredients for spells and cooking.

🍄Consider alternatives in cooking and spells. There is always an alternative, you may not have to buy something new.

🍄Meals and beverages as spells. As a full-blown kitchen, I believe spells eaten and drank are extremely powerful. It also saves on ingredients.

[witheredarchives]

[trollstims]

Hircine, whose sphere is the Hunt, the Sport of Daedra, the Great Game, the Chase, known as the Huntsman and the Father of Manbeasts.

o.o.o||o.x.o||o.o.o

[seasonarium]

[untamedcrusader]

Wanted practice drawing were-me :3

I'm a Coastal Wolf Therian personally, but I feel VERY connected to werewolves (bc I am one.. duh... ;3)

[magnoliamyrrh]

i dont care if ppl think this is weird i think its sick af. this man is clearly so in shape and probably ripped and this level of mind body coordination is impressive. dude is moving like a human ancestor and hes fast and organic abt it. dude never lost the childlike wonder of moving like this. dude probably more in touch w nature and self than most ppl tf

[broomsick]

Haven’t had the time to worship in a while? Pour two cups of tea, one for yourself, and one for a deity! Or write your feelings down in your Notes app, as if writing to a friend: the Gods are listening. Every little act of devotion has meaning.

[elderscrollsconceptart]

Hircine's Ring

3D asset for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

*Artist Unknown* If anyone knows the artist comment below

[ratcorner]

Could we see a little a hircine 👀

Gulibeg & The Medallion

[ID. A fiery spectral fox dashes through a mountainous forest, dead trees towering over the creature. Around its neck is a loosely tied medallion, shining in the light of the moons. Secunda and Masser are blocked by the looming figure of Hircine. End ID.]

[breelandwalker]

what does UPG stand for?

UPG stands for Unshared Personal Gnosis. It's shorthand for, "This is my personal belief about X concept based on my own experiences and thought processes. I don't expect it to directly correspond to other existing belief systems and I don't expect anyone else to abide by it."

It's a way for witches to talk about their beliefs and personal practices while making sure it doesn't sound like they're trying to state their own opinions as broader fact or as examples of standard practices. It doesn't necessarily mean that no one else is going to agree with what's being stated or that others don't have similar beliefs in their own practices. It just means, "This is my take on the subject."

For example, one of my UPGs regarding my deities is that the two storm gods I venerate are partial to rum, especially when being petitioned for a change in the weather. I don't expect anyone else to share this belief, although some might, but it's something that works for me.

[expressions-of-nature]

Wistman's Wood, Dartmoor by Dr Stanislav Edward

[knifecalledlust]

hey wolf moon

come cast your spell on me

[moriche]

Inktober Day Twenty-Seven: Beast

🎶 I pray to the hunter To spare us tonight I pray to the earth bones For the blessing of my fight 🎶

Pray to the Hunter - Saltatio Mortis

India ink and red watercolour on paper, 10,5x14,8 cm

[pagan-posting]

Listen. Abandoning the idea of what a proper pagan is was the most rewarding experience. Your intuition is stronger than you think.

This isn't a science. You don't have to treat it like one. Go with your heart, go with your intuition. It will help you grow more than you've ever dreamed of.

[dryadofephesus]

Hail The Horned One

Hail unto the Horned Lord, Keeper of the sacred flame, Lord who meets us at the crossroads, and shakes our hands to lead us. He leads us to Sabbath, He leads us through the dark, He leads us in the dance. Horned One, we watch how you shift, You are the infinite one, who changes with the seasons, From the Green Lord of Oak and Life, To Man In Black, The Holly King and Sabbatical Goat, Stag, Bull, Ram, Goat, Goat, Ram, Bull, Stag, Eternal Horned One, In your many names, I am devout to you.

[meseh-aha]

Hel... Is a great many things.

She is Death, in all its forms. Rotten or rotting, long dead bones whispering to the earth, Winter at its coldest. Quiet but comforting, a familiar presence in the void.

She is Necessity. For new beginnings, there must be an end. A necessary darkness as time turns to see the light once more. She is steadfast in Her thoughts and actions, not a single movement wasted.

She is Change, for what bigger change is there than Death? She is the shift from Autumn to Winter, the dying breath of a season. She changes the world around Her with Her mere existence, leaving brand new chapters to be written in Her steps.

She is Healing. She will strip you of your rot, your dead things, your grief. She takes sorrow, pain, misery, and She will bring their Death.

She is Comfort. As necessary as She is, She knows Death is painful for those still living. She is not cruel, She holds no malice. She does what She must, and She will hold you through it.

[skaldish]

Just curious, do you know of any resources in English for learning about Icelandic Asatru? (or other Scandinavian recon groups?) I respect that their tradition is closed, but I also think it's important to learn from the living cultural descendants of the religion we're reconstructing, both to avoid cultural appropriation and to help filter out folkish bullshit, you know? Are there ways to do this in English, or do I need to start learning to read Icelandic or another Scandinavian language?

It’s not that the tradition is closed, it's that Iceland itself has laws for orgs. @thorraborinn made a recent post about it. Heathenry is otherwise completely open, including that which comes from Iceland. The only restrictions you’ll find generally pertain to the fact some things need to be taught orally.

The thing to keep in mind about the way Ásatrú/Asatro works in northern Europe is that orgs are not the 'keepers' of it. It's actually unusual for Asatro to be put into an org context due to the fact it's more of a family/community cultural thing. It would be like if USAmericans made an org dedicated to celebrating secular Christmas.

Which is all to say that asking Icelanders directly, and learning about greater Icelandic culture, would be your best bet for learning more about how they practice Heathenry. If they're anything like their continental counterparts, then most of them know how to speak English. It's finding them that'll be the tricky part.

As for books...So far, I've yet to find any books on Heathenry written by Icelanders in English. It's tough enough finding any book written by Scandinavians in English that talk about these customs. And while there are many reasons why this might be, I think a large one is because Heathenry is primarily taught orally.

(It's difficult to put something into a book-format when the knowledge of it was just something you acrued as you grew up.

It's extra-difficult trying to write it in a language that you aren't a native speaker of, that additionally lacks the nuance and cultural concepts found within your own.

Case in point: I've watched Scandinavians grow absolutely befuddled when I mentioned that my brain automatically interprets "a troll that is a boulder" and "a troll that is a person" as "two different kinds of trolls." This is not a distinction they make, and it took a bit of back-and-forth to figure out why—because troll is a quality, and something is a troll when it has this quality. What a troll looks like, tangible or intangible, doesn't play any part in this classification system.

Now imagine getting into this sort of disambiguation with every cultural concept that pertains to Heathenry.)

Honestly, this is something that you learn simply through repeated exposure and disambiguation. It takes time.

[thorraborinn]

Terry Gunnell has written a little bit about them: https://www.academia.edu/20384816/The_Performance_of_%C3%81satr%C3%BA_The_Background_and_Nature_of_the_Annual_and_Occasional_Rituals_of_the_%C3%81satr%C3%BAarf%C3%A9lag_in_Iceland

There really isn't a lot of complex theory or hidden knowledge that goes into it. Ásatrúarfélagið deliberately keeps everything a little bit generic so that it can apply to a wide variety of beliefs. Though anything they're likely to mention in ceremony themselves is going to come from the Eddas or Scandinavian folklore, they're also aware of the fact that there are no other orgs in Iceland that represent other kinds of paganism, and adherents of those might be turning to Ásatrúarfélagið for institutional representation. Like, there Wiccans in Iceland but no Wiccan org so I would guess that a lot of them are registered with Ásatrúarfélagið. There's also a lot of, like, generic pantheists or deists or similar that go to Ásatrúarfélagið because they like that it "reveres nature," and many who are atheists but think for one reason or another that it's good to support paganism. Individual Icelanders may use more complex or obscure sources but for the most part Ásatrúarfélagið is drawing on the same stuff as the rest of us because building on things we all have in common is at least part of the point, with the more specifically local or distinct stuff coming after. The rituals are much, much simpler, and usually can't actually include everyone because there might be some 50+ people there.

There really isn't much of an oral tradition in Iceland anymore. I'm not prepared to say there's none but they're a very literary people and most of the time when someone says "In folklore..." whatever they follow up with can be found in a published folklore collection from the early 20th century. Since so much of that has been catalogued and put online that means that basically everyone has some access to it, you just have to learn the language for it to be meaningful. Folktales on that site are summarized and published editions can be hard to find outside of Iceland but the most important and influential one is available online for free. Icelanders also are just as susceptible to believing that, like, galdrastafir that were made up in the 70's to sell to tourists are ancient and genuine as the rest of us. Books on runic divination written in Icelandic by Icelanders cite Ralph Blum. They do the thing where they cite "oral tradition" when what they really mean is "I forget where this comes from" just like Americans, Brits, etc do.

It should be kept in mind that by far the majority of people participating in popular-folkloric stuff, the like "húldufólk live in that hill so don't cut the grass on it" or "remember to turn on all the lights and put out a drink for the elves on New Year's night" type stuff, are Christians, at least nominally if not devoutly, and atheists. Within Iceland, while that sort of stuff naturally is incorporated into heathenry, it isn't distinctive of it. An American, for example, might tend to think of elves as specifically related to Old Norse religion, whereas an Icelander's concept of elves might have more in common with American belief in stuff like haunted houses or bigfoot.

There is no Icelandic initiatory tradition equivalent to, like, Pennsylvania Dutch Braucherei. There might be orally-transmitted local traditions of Spiritualism, which was historically prevalent in Iceland and still has a presence, and which sometimes intersects with or absorbs aspects of heathenry. One thing that can be a little deceptive for English-speakers is that we think of words like galdur or spá as referring to very specific practices, they use these and similar words in extremely broad ways. So if you look for "spá" in Icelandic sources you might trick yourself into believing that something that originates in American Spiritualism in 1890 is an ancient Icelandic practice.

So basically, by all means learn from Icelanders, but don't do it because you think they have access to something special or more pure or true or well-preserved than you. That isn't at all to say they don't have interesting or valuable things or ideas or whatever but definitely don't put them on a pedestal. One of the reasons you see so few Icelanders participating in online heathen discourse is that everyone treats them like they're magic and then gets upset and holds it against them when they turn out to be regular people.