#alpine sitte

[alpine-sitte]

Looking for spirits, Part 2: gods lost in translation and time

I had a thought the other day, that maybe trying to match our gnostic observations to an established deity’s name/profile isn’t the way to go. The spirits of this world aren’t some sort of magic bingo card.

Least of all it seems expedient trying to check boxes based on descriptions that are several generations old and have been distorted by cultural and religious influences. It’s basically inevitably setting ourselves up for ascribing traits to deities in the same way that fandoms ascribe traits to canon characters. Eventually they’re unrecognizable fanon versions of themselves because of an inexplicable need to stick to established names instead of daring to describe something new. Could you imagine shoving all newly discovered species of butterfly into a box with the already established ones, just because they all have common traits such as wings and emerging from caterpillars? If that sounds like a reductive thing to do to the physical world, why are people so keen on doing it to the metaphysical?

Not to mention that for every deity that is remembered and worshipped by modern heathens, there are countless that have been forgotten about. It's simply not sufficient to reduce the intense animistic complexity of the world to a few preserved accounts of local deities from the Scandinavian countries.

Maybe it’s time to sweep out the old dust and open our minds to a fresh start. The pagan ancestors also started somewhere, after all. Someone, somewhere, first came up with the name “Odin”, and all the names for the rest of the pantheon we remember today. Isn’t heathenry also about exploring the realms of the spiritual unknown? Isn’t it supposed to be immanent? Then why linger in the past? If we just limit ourselves to fossil records, we are blinding ourselves to the present and might as well start calling the Edda our bible.

[alpine-sitte]

Looking for spirits, Part 1: scrutinizing the present

As a starting point for gathering a bit more knowledge about the distinguishing features of european paganism, I’m looking at some German sources I found about their deities, currently. These seem to be a lot more.... existing than English sources (not counting other languages that I unfortunately have no knowledge of).

The deities/spirits I’ve been able to identify as having relevance to alpine pagans in the past so far are:

Wodan/Wotan: from what I understand, the “alpine” version of Odin. strong connection to forests and storms (rather than thunder) and also connected to the Wild Hunt.

Tyr: seems to have been a lot more relevant here than for the Norse people. I have very little info on him so far, but I hope to find out more at some point.

Frau Perchta/Berta: a female spirit connected to agriculture and crafts, the changing seasons (particularly winter to spring), the cycle of life and death, and regarded the leader of the Wild Hunt. also known further north as Holda/Hulda/Holle (?). some connect her to Freya or Frigg of the Norse pantheon.

I will be researching into Frau Perchta first, since in my country she is still very relevant nowadays. For a long time I didn’t know this at all, but she is essentially the “core figure” of the traditional folk celebrations surrounding the Perchten - figures that can be roughly divided into two types, the Schönperchten (”beautiful” Perchten) and the Schiachperchten (”ugly” Perchten). Frau Perchta has been stated as being in charge of the Schönperchten, being the most beautiful of them all.

The Perchten tradition is executed differently depending on the respective region. In my region, they are almost synonymous to the Krampus and the events held are mostly about showing off the costumes or an excuse for drinking a lot of punch. The costumes are typically worn by young men during events in December where they carry cow bells and canes to scare attending children and young women. But there’s also some more “peculiar” types like the Schnabelperchten which have gained mild popularity on the internet.

I think gathering information about the different suriving forms of this tradition might be a good way to get a “bigger picture” of the underlying mythology and involved spiritual figures. So I’ll see how that goes and try to report back.