#heathen things

[virgovirghoe]

am i a demon ? cause it’s easter sunday and i’m at the movies watching a horror movie about nuns lol

[north-of-annwn]

Norse Heathen Things

Hot mulled drinks

Warm fires

Fire offerings (let’s be honest we just like to burn things)

Fibercraft == witchcraft

Hygge

Spae

Inspired dance

Boasting and shitposting

Singing folk songs

Making up bawdy songs to replace lyrics of folk songs

Bright Colors

Intentional use of light

Intersection of beauty and functionality

ALL the metaphors

Games and competitions

Festivals and community get-togethers

Baking

Swirls and Knotwork patterns to show Wyrd/Time/Fate

Intricate metalwork and jewelry

Shiny baubles

[sabertoothcattery]

So I had this dream last night in which a lot of stuff happened, including that Indiana Jones was in the original Star Wars movies and met and disliked Han Solo but never mind that part. Halfway through I teleported into what looked like one of those misty-eyed renditions of Mount Olympus with like a neat crumbling temple at the top overtaken by ivy or whatever. The villain, who was played by one of those really big DND minifigs (and had to be moved by hand by his minions in order to pose), summoned several Norse gods and commanded them to tell him The Secret Word Of Power. (I was a random captor/future sacrifice just watching all this go down.)

First he called Freyja, because everybody underestimates Freyja. She said, “I will never tell you The Word, it is worth more than my own life” (and also basically to fuck off but, yknow, elegantly)

Then he called Thor, bound in chains and bloodied. He said, “I cannot tell you The Word, for I have never known it, I have no need of it” (and also, Fucking Fight Me Bro)

Then he called Odin Himself, and Odin put on the guise of a weak old man in a tattered robe, begging for mercy. “I cannot tell you The Word,” he said, “for The Word is so powerful it would consume even my prodigious strength to utter it.”

“Bullshit,” said the Villain. “You are the King of Gods. You who gave writing to man, write The Word down if you dare not speak it. I know you know it! Give it to me!”

Then Odin transformed into a terrible visage, a giant man surrounded by strong winds and carrion birds, glowing with some blinding light from beneath His skin. “I do not lie,” he shouted. “I cannot speak The Word, for that would be my death, and yours, and all the worlds’. There is one other who knows it, but I advise you not to try. You will not like what you receive.” Then He broke his bonds and disappeared.

The Villain cursed and scuttled around in the temple for a while. He knew what he had to do, but he didn’t like it and didn’t want the answer to be what it was. After all, a Villain knows it is dangerous to consort with other Villains stronger and cleverer than themselves. But he found it to be the only way.

He summoned Loki to the temple. 

Loki was not at all what either of us was expecting. He was stout, almost... dumpy. A redhead, auburn really. He had a big nose that had been broken too many times and had a golden ring stuck through it, and big ears that stuck out too far and had been boxed too much and partially cut into a sort of leaf shape. His eyes were apparently green, but only apparently - they flicked to a terribly predatory yellow every few seconds unpredictably, a hawk’s eyes or a wolf’s. 

“Do you know of The Word!?” the Villain screeched.

“Oh, yeah, The Word,” Loki replied, unconcerned. He put his hands up like a defensive little old man being rudely passed on a busy sidewalk. “Yeah, I know The Word, what’s the big deal?”

“Deliver unto me The Word and its power!!!” demanded the Villain.

“Geez, okay, no need to shout about it,” Loki admonished. “The Word is this-”

Everything was muted for several long and horrible seconds as He pronounced The Word. The Villain reveled in his newfound power for all of three seconds before horror overtook him, and he disintegrated by cubic inch of flesh into worms on the ground, which then melted into fleshy goo, then faded into dust, and finally were gone. 

Then the world resumed its usual sound. My bonds were broken, as were those of my fellow prisoners. Loki looked me in the eye, and winked. “He was warned,” he shrugged, and disappeared.

I had nothing to say to this, because it was the truth, so I just leaped into a portal and went back to what I had been doing, which was coordinating refugee ships for everyone to travel from the Star Wars universe to the Zelda universe where we had been granted sanctuary. Later I turned into a great eagle and refused to resume my human form because I was having a much better time just Being A Bird.

I’ve never properly seen Loki before. It was awesome, in all the senses of the word “awe.”  

[sabertoothcattery]

So the other night I had a dream that my dream character had a dream in which Odin appeared to him as a giant, vaguely glowing, rather enraged tree-ent and tried to get him to follow him into a pitch-black forest and tbh I don’t know what that means

okay no I know what it means it’s pretty obvious but I was just lucid enough to be scared and not go even though I don’t think He was mad at me in particular and now I’m mad I missed out

[yves-and-scessernee]

oh Eir I sit and think about imparting kindness with cold hands, voice shaking,

is it kindness if it is the only kindness I can give

you demand everything of me. I give endlessly. it is the work of being human. mercy. mercy. mercy.

are your hands cold, Eir? does your voice shake? are you tired of all the ways we hurt each other and ourselves? how many nights have you stayed up with the sick and injured? the number is unimaginable.

the goddess, the healer, the cry for help

Eir, I have tried so hard and yet there is so much pain. I cannot do this alone. No one can. It is why you asked for me, right?

Eir, make of me an instrument. Make what is fragile, unbreakable. I’m not getting out of this world alive. Cold hands and shaking will have to do. It’s all I have.

[yves-and-scessernee]

Halloween is a good day to remember that there is nothing wrong with creating new holidays and dedicating them to older gods.

All holidays were new once: they were celebrations of things that brought us joy, or that felt momentous, that we wanted to remember. It’s perfectly okay for something to be new, for it to be celebrated by just you, maybe a handful of friends and family.

And it’s fine for them to take inspiration from other sources, some new, some old, that are available to you and resonant with you. But it’s also fine for them to be wholly your invention. Acknowledging that is honest.

There’s no shame in new holidays and no shame in honesty.

I wish you all nothing but the best for the true end of summer. Today has been the first truly cold day in quite some time, and I’m starting a family holiday tradition by pranking my wife. Wish me luck.

[mythicalmodernity-blog]

Got in these lovely oracle cards from @ergiinmiddleearth!!! Not only are they love and on good stock, but the presentation was fabulous! Be sure to check out their store at http://theflaminggoat.storenvy.com/ Thank you so much, I love them!!! 💚💚💚

[awitchyboy-blog]

The Wolf Inside Us All

The Wolf has always been there. At first I was afraid of him- to this day my mother likes to tell stories of the recurring dreams I had when I was young- I’d wake up screaming that the black dog in my closet was trying to get me.

I think I was too young to consider why.

Funny, now, when I think how such a powerful creature was, even then, confined.

I saw him more when I was older- always deep red eyes peering out at me from the dark. A warning. ‘Turn Back’. I always went inside- and as it turned out, disaster was averted. Someone got shot in the parking lot after I ceased my stargazing and went indoors after seeing him- towering over the cars as he ran. An already bad situation was escaped when he appeared and I bolted.

I’ve seen him a few times in passing- relaxing. And after the initial unease of seeing what I took to be a bad omen, I felt calm like I never had.

Now, at night, I climb tall steps in my dreams, exhausted by the time I reach the top, only to find him in his chains and freeze as fear takes over. I almost run back down.

But I push the fear away- he will not harm me, he never has.

And I walk up to his side- he is bigger, here, somehow- nearly three times the size he is when I see him outside my dreams. And he growls, but it is not a warning- just a sound- almost like a chuckle. “It took you long enough,” a voice seems to rumble in my head, and I laugh and press my face into his fur. It is coarse, but warm, long enough that I practically disappear from sight. I am calm. I am at peace, and I wake more rested than I have ever felt the nights I do this.

This is really personal(obviously), but I’ve finally gotten the confidence to write out my feelings- the reason for my devotion to the Wolf, as the few others who seem to deal with him like to call him.

I’ve spoken a little before about him, but never really my thoughts or feelings or UPG.

But I am now, because I finally have words for it. Most people look at Fenrir and they see destruction- they see the havoc he wreaked, the see his wild fury and his strength and they fear him. To me, the Wolf is fear, and I feel that he is this to a lot of people- though they don’t realise it. They project fears onto him, because he is fear, and because of that he is destruction, malice, ill-intent, he is havoc and violence that can barely be contained.

But the answer isn’t rejecting your fear and restraining it- by doing so you ensure that in the end it will consume you. You can’t just chain it up and ignore it- you have to embrace it, and sure enough you’ll find it tame.

That isn’t to say that the Wolf isn’t destruction and rage- he’s a lot of that, too, to me, but he is constructive rage- the kind that comes when the fear that suppressed you for so long is gone and you finally stand up and scream Enough! He is the unbridled fury that fuels change.

He is the destruction of a forest fire, of furrows delved in the earth where rivers now flow, destroying the old to make way for the new.

To fear the Wolf is to fear yourself, and what you would become if you only allowed change.

Again, this is all heavily UPG, and I don’t expect most people to agree with me, but I was just so glad to finally have the words I felt I just had to share it.