#folk pagan

[gnosis-devotee]

Might be a hot take:

The focus in online pagan and related communities to return to ancestral practices and go back to your roots is weird and kind of promotes what I consider to be a problematic way of thinking, at least in many cases.

Yes, you should respect cultures and religions and such and not just join all willy nilly and uninformed. Even in open practices, research things from people in the culture is generally a good idea.

But, I don’t think people should be confined to what their ancestors did. It shouldn’t be a “if you want to practice a pagan religion, you should look to your ancestors’s practices pre-Christianity/colonization.”

Why?

-not everyone knows the culture of their ancestors, especially that far back. Christianity and colonization erased and blurred a lot of ancestral pasts to create a “new” and “unified” identity

-recently ancestors and living grandparents/great grandparents may have practiced a mix of things that came after colonization/Christianity (like a lot of folk religions in America)

-you might just not believe that just because your ancestors did?

-Saying you can only practice the culture of your ancestors is weird and complicated. Like, ancestor wise, I’m Brazilian and Central European. I wasn’t raised with much more than recipes that were passed down from the Brazilian side/common in my geographical area that is heavily Central European. Does that mean I’m close enough to the culture to practice indigenous religions and spiritualities from those areas? Even if I don’t have anyone to teach me, and have never been there? Even if it’s a bunch of different places in those regions? Is there a genetic distance that is too far?

I was a Hellenic Polytheist for a bit. Long story. I really believed in the Theoi, I researched a lot of primary and secondary sources. Damn I went to college and got a degree in ancient Mediterranean history and religion. Yet, people told me I wasn’t Greek so I couldn’t practice it.

I just feel like having a gatekeeping view to ethnicity/ancestry and religion/culture is a bit too close to nationalism to me.

And TO BE CLEAR I’m not saying you should ignore the idea of closed religions. A lot of those aren’t just an ancestral thing anyway. A lot of them just take a formal and long initiation practice if you aren’t raised in it. Which is valid, especially for religions that are complicated, specific, and are taken advantage of by mainstream society and capitalism. It’s more about protecting a culture that other people are trying to water down and erase than keeping it in a weird ethno-religion situation.

Also to be clear, it’s not an issue if you are practicing a religion from a region you are from. Of course there isn’t a problem in that. Especially if you are doing it to connect to ancestors/older family members. That is not what this take is about.

[tamfana]

Frau Holle

Frau Holle is perhaps one of the most documented and recognizable Continental Deities. There's a lot to cover so you're going to appreciate the Read More link here, but for the uninitiated Frau Holle is in charge of:

The weather, the fae, the wild hunt, death, the milling of souls, beauty, babies, the home, spinning, chores, labor, and a slew of animals like cows and sheep.

In her most popular myth from the Grimm Brothers, she's known for guiding a girl, Marie, through the otherworld. She asks her to do some chores, of which includes shaking out a feather bed to create snow back on earth. Marie is sent home to a shower of gold and riches for her hard work. In some editions of the story, there is another girl who is lazy, and at the end of her journey in the otherworld she's dumped in pitch (sewage).

This is only one of the stories that cements her place as a goddess of weather. Her hair is sunbeams, her laundry is rain, her loom is the rainbow, she breathes the wind, her hearth creates the fog, and her sweeping causes dusty storms.

Her place as a psychopomp- reaping the souls of her dead during the Wild Hunt, causes another story of hers. As she mills the souls, separating their pieces, freeing the consciousness and reusing the soul parts of the ancestors, she also assigns jobs to the dead. In Germanic Paganism, death is not stagnant- the only few who live a lazy afterlife are those who go to Valhof. Her favorite children, her closest devotees, are chosen to cut stars out from the sky. Some hold ladders, some cut and trim with scissors, some sweep the frayed fabric.

The etymology of her name means either "loud, cheery", or "sweet". This is backed up by two things; 1, shes quite a nice lady, and 2, her month is the windy March when her breaths howl through the nights.

In another Myth, Emperor Louis the Pious (Charlemagne's son) Was hunting a white buck when he lost his troupe. He came across a grove where a wild rose bush bloomed. He knelt and prayed to the Virgin Mary that he’d find rescue, and fell asleep doing so. When he woke, there was snow all around him, despite the trees being lush and green. He took this as a sign that Frau Holle was blessing him to build a church to the Virgin Mary there, and the rose bush still stands today as it grows against the chapel in Hildesheim.

Her name bears some resemblance to the Nordic 'huldr', which relates to forest nymphs with cow tails and great beauty, which they hide with veils. Frau Holle is said to be very beautiful, her chief animal is the cow, and her maiden form is typically shown with a veil. However, there is no proof that these two are the same. I take it into consideration because Frau Holle is also a queen of the Fae and Wild Spirits.

Her sacred plant is the elderflower/elderberry bush. It's because of this that Urglaawers and some Hexe are forbidden from cutting the branches of it in fear of offending her. (and because it would rid itself of a very medicinal plant). In fact, the name for Elderflower Bush in German is 'Holunderblute'. Elderberry is just "holunder.'

The colors Blue, White, Red and Gold are chief to her. Blue and White for the snow, Red and Gold for apples (which are a preferred fruit for her, if you wish to give her an offering.) Her feast day is December 24, or Modranicht (mothers night in Germany), but she's also celebrated on Walpurgisnacht or Hexennacht, April 30 evening and morning May 1st, when she takes off for the wild hunt for the Summer. She comes back to stay for the wintertime after Alleleweizel, which is Okt 30-Nov 12.

[sacredlittleember]

When the rain falls, I can hear them singing. I don't know which muses call out to me, but I am certain they are there.

[elhoimleafar]

Welcome June 🌞 Month to venerate the Sunlight, daylight, and Solstice, between many important things here in the North 💛 While our beloved witches and pagans celebrate the snow, the cold nights and the renewal of the seasons in the South 💙

BOOK

Year of the Witch: Connecting with Nature's Seasons through Intuitive Magick.

AGENDA

Year of the Witch: Weekly Planner 2022~2023.

Both by Temperance Alden, founder of Wild Woman Witchcraft.

[sacredlittleember]

I will never not be obsessed with ravens as messengers between worlds.

they already feel too intelligent to be just background creatures, and then you add stars, spirals, sky, myth — and suddenly the whole image feels like a reminder that animals carry medicine too. not in the cheesy sense. in the real sense. in the ancient sense. in the “pay attention when one keeps appearing” sense.