Dances with Water

A Polytheist person's tumblr. I work with Loki, Bast, Odin, Fríja, Gerdr, Hela and Rán; Also, Hine Títama/nui-te-Pó, Tangaloa, the Māui's, Pápatuanuku, and the Landvættir/Patupaiarehe (Faery)

[luveniwai]

Hine-nui-te-Pó

So, usually when it come to Hine-nui; I associate Her with Winter wholeheartedly - especially snow. Lately though, even though it's still officially Winter - it feels,like Spring and I'm still feeling Her. Especially the walks home from work at night, whether it's cold or mild. Hine-nui all the way. Which makes sense with Her being 'Great Lady of the Night'. She is always the night Sky for me; even if Rangi is the Sky, the night sky is Hine-nui-te-Pò.

In fact in the old stories from the tribes of my Island (Te Wai pounamu), She and Ranginui were a couple before Rangi and Papatūanuku. So my UPG of Her taking over the the sky at Night makes perfect sense mythologically, to me at least. Old stories of te Pó (Dark/Night) being personified and having children in the creation myths that we have, play this out for me also (will link to the stories, or the quotes when I have more time), with Rangi being Light/Day sky.

She also has some interesting associations with Papatūanuku also. In the well known myths when Papa and Rangi are torn from each others embrace, Their sons turn Papa to face te Pó, to face the underworld that Hine-nui fled too, so Papa couldn't see Rangi. It makes me wonder whether there are more connections between Earth and She who will watch over us after we die, other than sharing a husband.

[luveniwai]

Month of Ancestor Work

So, hopefully this is going to turn into a permanent thing. But decided to just get myself into the groove of it first.

I always have low-key acknowledged my ancestors, but have decided to high-key work/connect with Them. So far all I have worked out is buying a specific candle for Them to light at night for an hr (with maybe Discussions), and Tea and Discussions in the mornings. Will add more as I fine tune it a this is just a work-in-progress at the moment - but think meditations and pendulum work will be added.

[daughterofbastet]

My favorite Epithets for Bast:

Who rises on the horizon

She with the powerful heart

Lady of heaven and earth

Lady of light

Mistress of splendor

Who dispels darkness

Who creates the rays

Who allows the two lands to flourish

Who protects her father

Who fills the palace with joy

Lady of the birth houses

The mistress of protection in the Divine Pasture

Lady of life

The mistress of the breath of life

The mistress of manifestations

The mistress of jewelry 

She with pleasant scent

The devouring flame

The eye of Ra

Whose flame comes out against her enemies

Who inflicts massacre against the crooked-hearted

The very popular one (to the gods)

The mistress of messengers

Who delights Ra with the beat of her fingers (as a musician)

[luveniwai]

The 3 Māui's of our world - Māui motu'a, the world holder; Māui atalanga, the sky holder and Māui kisikisi, the fire holder.

This shows what was important to the early Polynesian people; Land to live upon and to set down roots, an open Sky to grow crops in the sun or to send a breeze to lift your sails, and Fire for warmth, light in the dark, and cooked food.

[luveniwai]

He-Moana

Travel to the the Sea

There

Meet the Snake

It is still, it waits

Waits in Silence

Slit aqualine eyes watching

Waiting between the rolling waves

Amongst the billowing foam

Twisting slowly, tongue tasting the air

Watching the waves kiss the shore

Waiting to show you the way

Asking you to face each breaking wave head on

Float in the lulls, but don't be complacent

As another wave forms for you to battle

[eddathoughts]

Hávamál 85-89

I just wanna give a shout-out to Hávamál 85-89:

A creaking bow, a crackling flame,

a gaping wolf, a croaking crow,

a squealing swine, a rootless tree,

a swelling wave, a bubbling pot,

a flying dart, a falling surge,

overnight ice, a snake tight-sprung,

a bride’s bed-talk or a broken blade,

a bear’s play or a king’s young boy,

a sick calf, a self-willed slave,

a soothsayer’s smooth talk, a fresh-killed corpse,

a field sown early: let no one trust them,

not a son too soon;

weather creates crops, but wit makes a son,

each of them lies in doubt.

Your brother’s butcher, if you pass him in the street,

a house half-burnt, a horse too frisky —

a steed is useless if it breaks a let —

none is so assured as to trust all these.

for being a great deal of beautiful and well-wrought verse, which I will sum up as, “Don’t trust things that seem untrustworthy.”

I do feel like there’s a great deal of potential here for nifty sayings and idioms! I’m gonna start going around saying stuff like, “Oh yeah, he’s as dependable as a rootless tree,” and, “I dunno, that sounds to me like it might be a creaking bow.”

[90377]

Untitled by ezook

[ancientorigins]

The Ha'amonga ‘a Maui (aka Tongan Stonehenge), Kingdom of Tonga.

[morethanus-life]

Wide-angle category - winner. Humpback whale spy hopping by Greg Lecoeur (France). Location: Vavau’ , Tonga

Tonga offers probably the best opportunity to interact with humpback whales in blue water. The judges commented: “An amazing subject, caught at the precise peak of the action. Greg’s split level is an image that truly justifies being a split level. The gesture of the humpback reaching out with its pectoral fin completes the moment.”

Photograph: Greg Lecoeur/UPY 2018

[labentiasidera-deactivated20210]

Nisus ait: ‘dine hunc ardorem mentibus addunt, Euryale, an sua cuique deus fit dira cupido?

Vergilius

Nisus speaks: is it the gods that add this flame to our minds,

Euryalus, or does each person’s terrifying longing become their own god?

(via labentiasidera)

[fyp-science]

What is human existence? It turns out it’s pretty simple: We are dead stars, looking back up at the sky.

Michelle Thaller, NASA American astronomer and Research scientist (via fyp-science)

[blueklectic]

[hiighlyssa]

Treat yourself better in 2018

[hoursofreading]

When you learn to live with uncertainty, when you learn to surrender a little, when you learn to see yourself as beautiful and worthy even as your life seems crumpled and wrong, when you own exactly what you are — whatever the fuck you are! — without trying to explain it or sell it or cover it up, you become formidable and effortlessly impressive. Practice saying “I don’t fucking know!” with humility, with humor. Shit happens, that’s all. Shit never stops happening. You do not arrive somewhere someday where no more shit happens. This is how it feels to be an adult, and if you accept that and embrace it, you will see how much happiness flows out of every crisis. If you fear it and get defensive and hardened and walk away instead of facing it head on, you will only learn how to become a perfectionist who quits and hides and is plagued by fear forever. Don’t do that. Learn to be an imperfect, uncertain person who embraces reality even when it’s scary, who lives out in the open, who recognizes the enormous power of owning up to her own flaws.

[luveniwai]

Ask Polly: I’ve Failed at Everything I Worked to Achieve (via logicandgrace)

All sorts of torturers, dictators, fanatics, and demagogues struggling for power with a few loudly shouted slogans also enjoy their jobs, and they, too, perform their duties with inventive fervor. Well, yes; but they ‘know,’ and whatever they know is enough for them once and for all. They don’t want to find out about anything else, since that might diminish the force of their arguments. But any knowledge that doesn’t lead to new questions quickly dies out: it fails to maintain the temperature required for sustaining life. In the most extreme cases, cases well known from ancient and modern history, it even poses a lethal threat to society. This is why I value that little phrase ‘I don’t know’ so highly. It’s small, but it flies on mighty wings. It expands our lives to include spaces within us as well as the outer expanses in which our tiny Earth hangs suspended.

— Wisława Szymborska, from “The Poet and the World” (1966 Nobel Lecture), trans. Stanisław Barańczak and Clare Cavanagh

(via idionkisson)

[terpsikeraunos]

δεινὴ γάρ: οὔτοι ῥᾳδίως γε συμβαλὼν ἔχθραν τις αὐτῇ καλλίνικος ᾁσεται. - For she is terrifying: not easily will anyone contending with her sing triumphant.

Euripides, Medea 44-5 (via xshayarsha)

[queenofswords]

Digital Altar Series II: Gerðr. ➤ She Who Draws the Line. [more in the series // board insp]

[fornsed-blog]

In Norse mythology, Gerðr (Old Norse “fenced-in”) is a jötunn, goddess, and the wife of the god Freyr. Gerðr is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources; the Prose Edda and Heimskringla, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson; and in the poetry of skalds. Gerðr is sometimes modernly anglicized as Gerd or Gerth.

In both the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, Freyr sees Gerðr from a distance, becomes deeply lovesick at the sight of her shimmering beauty, and has his servant Skírnir go to Jötunheimr (where Gerðr and her father Gymir reside) to gain her love. In the Poetic Edda Gerðr initially refuses, yet after a series of threats by Skírnir she finally agrees. In the Prose Edda, no mention of threats is made. In both sources, Gerðr agrees to meet Freyr at a fixed time at the location of Barri and, after Skírnir returns with Gerðr’s response, Freyr laments that the meeting could not occur sooner. In both the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, Gerðr is described as the daughter of Gymir and the mountain jötunn Aurboða.

In Heimskringla, Gerðr is recorded as the wife of Freyr, euhemerized as having been a beloved king of Sweden. In the same source, the couple are the founders of the Yngling dynasty and produced a son, Fjölnir, who rose to kinghood after Freyr’s passing and continued their line. Gerðr is commonly theorized to be a goddess associated with the earth. Gerðr has inspired works of art and literature.

Picture: Skirnir’s Message to Gerd (1908) by W. G. Collingwood.