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witchoftides

Remember, remember, the fifth of September…

achangingaltar

5ever

sonneillonv-deactivated20220218

Thanks, I just had to explain SpongeCakeGate 2012 to my husband because I burst out laughing when I saw this.

spiritscraft-deactivated2025031

Maybe it’s a little self centered, but I am really proud of myself for scheduling this post.

skaldish

Being an American Heathen can be thorny sometimes. I have to shift through a lot of misinformation to the point where I question what I even know, but then I have Heathens from Europe nodding along to what I say is though it's common knowledge, and the fact that happens provides me a sense of comfort.

#norse paganism

inthefallofasparrow

When your pet eats something it shouldn’t have

#pfft #tarot

lazywitchling

In fact, there's only a small handful of times that I've ever gotten really pissed off at a corner of witchblr, and it's always been because someone tells me how MY magic works, based on how THEIR magic works.

I shared an oil that I made, and I had someone tell me "No, it won't work like that, because [long winded tirade about how my two ingredients actually should have been a five day moon-timed ritual with ashes of bible verses and herbs instead, like they do in THEIR practice, which is the CORRECT practice, obvs.]" Despite the fact that I had already tested my two-ingredient oil and had wild success with it.

I shared a book concept that helps with my spellwork, I explained the concept and why I chose to set it up the way I did, and I had someone tell me that ACTUALLY no, that was the WRONG way and I would NOT be able to find success with that because I would just ATTRACT BAD THINGS, because that's how it works in THEIR practice, which is the CORRECT one, obvs. Despite that I had been working with this concept for a while and had already found it useful.

Like, there are many things that I find mild-to-moderately irritating about Witchblr, but the one that really pisses me off is "No, your experience is wrong because my theories about your experience say it can't work."

It's not cute. Knock it off.

ei-len

Yuuup. My personal biggest beeve along those lines is the chaotes who insist that Sigil Magic Is Super Duper Powerful And Also Easy, and then turn around and shit on other kinds of magic for being "too easy to work" and "lazy" and sometimes insist that they "know" it doesn't work because they tried it once and got nada.

Like ok fam, for one thing I know sigils IN GENERAL work because I have personally seen people get some very impressive magical results using sigil work. However, I also know that sigils DO NOT work for me. Not a bit. I get better results from half-assedly wishing on my birthday candles than I do from very well thought out, done exactly according to the method chaotes prescribe, sigil work. I've tried like five variations on sigil methods and not a single one of them does better for me than spotting falling stars or blowing dandelions. So who the fuck do you think you are to insist that just because something doesn't work FOR YOU that it doesn't work for ANYONE?

The witch is a component in the spell. Substitute a different witch, and the spell may not work exactly the same, or may not work at all. Just like substituting any other component, you're introducing an element of variation when a different person does a spell. And some kinds of spell work just jive better with certain people. It's not a matter of one thing being better or worse in general, or more or less effective, but absolutely one thing can be more or less effective FOR YOU. Figure out what works for you, stop doing things that don't, but mind your business about what other people are doing. Either it works for them to their satisfaction, or they're gonna figure out for themselves that it doesn't soon enough.

upthewitchypunx

"The witch is a component of the spell"

I love that!

theskepticalwitch

The beautiful thing about witchcraft is that there are no rules to it. You can practice how you want, for as long as you want, with as much passion as you want. It's yours. You get to decide what you do with it.

skaldish

This is perhaps the silliest question I've ever asked BUT are Norse deities... happy? I feel like the cultural consensus (at least in my area) surrounding Norse mythology is that the gods are angry, cold, vengeful, cruel, and bitter. I've been feeling like Heathenry is something I should be doing recently (Ēostre has been reaching out, so I suppose it would be closer to Anglo-Saxon heathenry but I digress), but I just can't seem to envision the gods as happy or loving in the way that people talk about deities from other pantheons. Does that make sense? I'd assume this is entirely untrue but I don't know, I think of Odin or Thor and I think of that stereotypical viking who is just battle-hungry all the time.

On a similar note, I feel like in my area all the practicing Heathens are also really depressed all the time? Or they all have a very alpha-male personality which is not who I am at all.

I guess what I'm really asking is: is there a place in Heathen thought for someone that isn't "harsh" or "blunt" or "viking-like"? And are the gods kind? Thank you very much for your time.

So fun fact: This image of Heathenry is actually specific to primarily the US and, probably, Canada. Most non-American Heathens I’ve met find this dark, brooding, “viking” interpretation super bizarre. The vikings were a highly-specific class of people, just like soldiers in the military are a highly-specific class of people, and ANY religion can look like a religion of war if that’s the only class you’re sampling from. Basically, that’s what we Americans are doing.

Not only that, we’re also working off a romanticized concept of “vikings.” This image is a combination of good old-fashioned commercialization (Vikings, Skyrim, Assassins Creed, Amon Amarth, Wardruna, etc) and long-standing neo-Volkisch (re: Nazi-adjacent) influences in American Heathenry (Odinism, Folkish Heathenry, the Nine Noble Virtues, etc). All you have to do is pepper in some Christian-style religious rules and voilá, you have the perfect tool for luring in droves of disenfranchised white men.

If you want to know what Heathenry looks like outside of this, check my pinned post for tons of links.

But anyway, to the point of your ask: Are the gods happy? Yes! They can be any emotion, in fact—happy, sad, loving, frustrated, angry, bored, etc. We couldn’t relate to them, or them to us, if they didn’t experience complex emotions.

They also happen to have very different and dynamic personalities between them. I’ve found the Norse gods to be wonderfully kind and a very boisterous bunch, but all of them are unique individuals in their own right. And definitely not all of them are warrior-like. I mean look at Freyr, the Norse god of masculinity. He gave up his sword for a wholeass wife.

I can’t speak for the Heathens you know, but if they’re identifying with cold, cruel gods and seem depressed, then they’re probably not in the best emotional state right now. People who were assigned male at birth are often socialized to only identify with emotions like bitterness and anger—it’s a societal form of abuse. This causes a lot of men to latch onto images that make them feel like they’re fulfilling this expectation, because everything in life has taught them they’ll be emasculated if they do otherwise.

It’s really depressing, and only narrows what masculinity actually is—dynamic. Just like our emotions, just like our personalities, and just like our deities.

There’s absolutely room for that variety in Heathenry.

(Sorry if I rambled in this post. Long day, and there’s really a TON of layers to this issue.)

#heathery #norse mythology

skaldish

Almost wrote "Norse Paganism" as "Horse Paganism" in my tags and as someone who has spent years hanging around Loki my first reaction was genuinely, "Sure, fucking sure at this point why not."

gefdreamsofthesea

Well there was that thing with the horse penis so....

skaldish

#norse myth

skaldish

I think its important to remember that Loki-hate is a really insular phenomenon.

I’ve been in and out of a number of pagan spaces now, and whenever I tell people I work with Loki, the response I get generally falls along the lines of, “That’s cool man, Loki’s a fun one.”

Any apprehension about Loki seems to only exist in Heathen spaces, and usually it’s because a Heathen was told they were supposed to be suspicious of Loki.

(Occasionally I’ll find someone who doesn’t like Loki due to a compatibility issue, but that’s different than not liking him on principle.)

The genuine Loki-hate I have seen seems to exist predominantly inside socially-conservative, Christian-esque Heathen circles, which are not spaces everyone wants to be in. I gathered there was a point in time where spaces like these were all that existed in Heathenry, but we don’t live in that time anymore.

There’s more options than ever before and they’re growing every day.

My deck:

“Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”

— Roald Dahl, The Witches (via wordsnquotes)

lasagras

This is a friendly reminder to anyone using norse mythology to support their racism, white supremacy, homophobia and general bullshit to kindly go rethink their life or fuck off. You are not welcome on this blog.

loptrcoptr

Also, if you are a racist/homophobic/xenophobic Norse myth fan, please know: the gods would not like you at all, you ain’t going to Valhöll, and you’re a worthless lukewarm shit :) have a terrible day :)

skaldish

I’m hearing a lot of people talk about the need to do a better job ousting White Nationalism from Heathenry, given the events at the US Capitol.

As we do this, we should also talk about why White Nationalist Heathenry is so successful in the first place: It has a strong identity, something non-White Nationalist forms of American Heathenry distinctly lack.

American Heathen books, academic approach, workshops, gatherings, education, and culture is shaped by Folkish proponents. This Folkish or Neo-Volkisch Heathenry has its roots in Nazi Germany and is White Nationalist in nature. It has existed and cultivated its image on US soils since the early 70’s, and it has convinced people that Heathenry is a dark, archaic, warrior-esque, “viking” spirituality.

Until American Heathens can build a Heathen identity that stands alone from the image and culture of Folkish Heathenry, no amount of denouncing White Supremacy will end this.

For the past while, I’ve advocated we look at contemporary Scandinavian forms of Heathenry to help guide our non-Folkish American Heathen identity. These forms of Heathenry don’t look like the Folkish Heathenry we’re used to; they’re warmer, more comfortable, and more ordinary-looking. We many not have much right now in the way of Scandinavian cultural exchange, but I truly hope that can change, for the sake of Heathenry’s survival. That conversation needs starting, in one way or another.

I truly believe in an American Heathenry that is whole, sovereign, rich, and transparent. This is something we have the right to by nature of being people, and would be the most effective antidote to the poison of White Nationalism in Heathenry.

#heathery

practice-is-praxis

sporesgalaxy

IT WENT THROUGH! ANYWAYS!!!! LOKI!!!! GOOD!!!!! I ENJOY UR OTHER HYPERFIXATIONS BUT FOLLOWED 3 YEARS AGO FOR LOKI EXCITED UR THINKING ABOUT BASTARD AGAIN

yeah ❤