Remembrance

Today I honor all those who died in our wars. I honor all those who died in WWI. I honor especially, my first cousin twice removed Private Wesley Heffner who fought with Pershing’s First expeditionary Force. He wasn’t drafted: he enlisted. He wanted to be a good man. He was proud of being an American and wanted to bring freedom–he thought that was what being an American was about: fighting wrong and standing for liberty. He died in France in 1918. He never made it home. 

 

“Carry the dead with us. Carry the dead. Never not carry them,
never not act in their name.

Carry the dead in our dreams, all the great deeds; carry the dead in our days,
all the great deeds.

Morning, morning. Let there be their light.

What they would want, what they would ask of us, carry them with us,
never not bring them along.

Never for nothing their brutal departures. Never let justice go lonely.

Morning. Morning.

Ever the heart, ever the spirit, ever the longing. . Earth is not past,
not a ghost, not lost to us.

Ever the believing.
(“Credo Coda,” Michael Dennis Browne)

A Day of Remembrance

On Miasma in Heathenry and the Northern Tradition

Here’s a sneak peak at an excerpt from my forthcoming book on Miasma and Pollution. This is taken from chapter 1.

I’ve had push back from Heathens and other polytheists for using a term that is specific to Greek polytheism but miasma as a word exists in English and it is a perfectly serviceable word to express a concept of spiritual pollution that is common to nearly all polytheisms. If Heathenry did not have a concept of pollution and cleansing, it would be quite unusual amongst the family of Indo-European religious traditions to which it belongs. We know the Norse and Germanic tribes had clear ideas of the holy and where there is a sense of the holy there is likewise a sense of pollution as a matter of course.

Norse words pertaining to holiness and pollution include:

Helgan (f): sanctity,
Helga (v): to appropriate land by performing sacred rites, to hallow to a deity, to proclaim the sanctity of a meeting,
saurr (m): mud, dirt, excrement (defilement?),
saurga (v): to dirty, defile, pollute,
saurgan (f): pollution, defilement,
saur-lifi (n): lewdness, fornication, lechery. Its opposite is Hreinlifi, which means chastity. Hreinn is the opposite of saurr. It means clean, bright, clear, pure, sincere (as a noun the same word means reindeer, interestingly enough).
Hrein-hjartaðr (a) means pure of heart,
Hrein-látr (a): clean, chaste,
Hrein-leikr (m): cleanliness, chastity,
hrein-liga (adv) cleanly, with purity.
We also have Hreinsa (v): to make clean, to cleanse, to purge, to clear and hreinsan (f): cleansing.

Then there is the word vé, which means “holy place,” (shrine) and which is such a powerful and important concept that the three creator Gods (Odin, Hoenir, and Loður) may also be called Odin, Vili, and Vé.

So when Heathens complain that this is not relevant to Heathen practice, I strongly suggest they think again. It’s not just in the lore, but in the very language our ancestors spoke. (Thank you D. Loptson for your help in hunting up these etymologies).

New submission to the Orpheus Agon

Hymn to Orpheus
by Ian A.

Hail Orpheus,
Singer of songs of the great Theoi
Teacher of the mysteries

Hear my prayer
Guide me on my journey
You who braved the darkness of Hades
Bless my days with song
As you played for the rulers below
Help me not to look back
A lesson you learnt through pain
Give me the courage to face death
Knowing as you taught what lies beyond

Follower of Dionysos
Ripped apart by his maenads
Follower of Apollon
After you saw what lay in Hades
Guide me in my relationship with the gods
And inspire my tounge with praise
That I may sing of their glory

Book Release Update

My small handbook on Miasma, which includes essays not only by myself, but by Kenaz Filan, Markos, Gage, and Sannion, has just been completed and sent over for formatting, editing, and publication. woo. 

I will post here when it is available. Next up, Freya’s devotional and my Vanic devotional. Stay tuned, folks. 

Willow’s Song

I love this, both the song and the video! (the song is from the original Wicker Man). This reminds me of some of the spirits with whom I work. 

Six reasons to take the Toys of Dionysos course

Sannion is teaching is online “Toys of Dionysos” class. He is the founder and lineage carrier of his Bacchic Orphic Tradition. this is an amazing opportunity to study with the founder of a restored, now living tradition and this is a damn cool class. Check it out. Email him or post there if you have questions.

Current Submissions to the Orpheus and Achilles Agon

Here are the submissions that I’ve received so far for the Orpheus and Achilles agon which ends Saturday, 9pm EST. if you are considering submitting, please do so sooner rather than later. Winners will be determined via divination late Saturday.

[EDIT: I’ve added the latest submission from Sparrow as of 11:08 pm May 26):

Prayer to Orpheus
by Sparrow

I sing of the long haired and sweet voiced Orpheus
Son of bright Apollo and melodious Kalliope
Prophet of the wild and intoxicating Dionysos
Husband of faithful Eurydice
To you, great bard and prophet, I raise my voice in praise
Please hear this simple song.

You most gifted Orpheus
Could move trees and rocks whenever you sang and plucked your lyre.
The wild animals of the forest would become tame
And sit at your feet to hear your lovely song.
Fountains would stop flowing so they could hear your blessed music.

Please great Orpheus help me in my artistic pursuits
Please instill in me the discipline to practise my art every day
Please help foster any talent that I may have
Please help me to find inspiration and to continue to grow as an artist.

Praise be to you inspiring Orpheus!
May you always be remembered for your talent,
For your love for Eurydice,
And for your devotion to Dionysos.
Io Orpheus!

Prayer to Orpheus
By Neve Antheus

Hail to you,
Founder of traditions,
Connecting the worlds
By way of your songs and charms.

Hail to you,
Who penned hymns
To the immortal Theoi,
That we may piously call out.

Hail to you,
Maenadic decapitated
Oracular head washed ashore
To sing of holy powers evermore.

Prayer to Achilles and Patrokles
By J. Breuer

Son of gods, son of mortals,
Achilles and Patroclus,
Hear our prayer and attend to our voice.
We worship you,
We praise you,
We honor you in your glory.
Warriors together,
Friends, lovers, partners in life and afterlife,
We offer you these words of thanksgiving
And ask your blessings upon us.
Let us live that we may love,
Let us love that we may serve,
Let us serve that our devotion and observance
Be an example to others.
Achilles and Patroclus,
Let your presence fill our days with joy and comfort,
Let the pleasure you take in one another
Be the pleasure we take in your veneration.
Hear our prayer, heroes, and our rejoicing.
Receive our praise and may your holy names be known throughout the world,
Now and in all times.

Prayer to Achilles
by Andrew Bayless

Arise, O Swift-footed Achilles, the mightiest warrior in the Achaean army!
Son of Peleus and Thetis, you were fated to either live a long but forgettable life at home or to die a short but glorious life by fighting at Troy!
Your destiny was inevitable and so it was that you prepared to face the rage of war but it is this same rage that made your Goddess mother fear for your health.
Dutifully, your mother dipped your body in the Stygian river so that you would be invulnerable to all blows and cuts!
Bravely you fought on, proclaiming that you would rather burn up than fade away.
When it was revealed to you that your beloved Patroclus had been slain, you rushed to slay Man-killing Hector in retaliation.
Advised not to for it would assure your demise, you fought on anyways knowing that your valor would be rewarded in this life and in the next.
Even now we sing of your chase around the well-walked citadel and your victory over the mightiest of Priam’s sons.
Mighty Achilles, hear our prayer, and be with us always!
May we be guided by you to be ever bold in the face of doom.
May we rather burn up like you in a blaze of glory than fade away like a witless shade.
Io Achilles!

Prayer to Orpheus
by Andrew Bayless

Arise, O great Orpheus, blessed prophet and musician!
You who is celebrated for your sweet song, we contemplate your sway over creation for it is you who quelled the disorder within the natural world and within the hearts of your fellows with honey-like harmony!
Yet your crowning feat had yet to come.
On a quest to retrieve your love, the mysteries of life and death were revealed to you!
Wondrous Harrower of Hell, it is known by your followers that you returned with instructions necessary to save our souls from the fate that is due mortals.
O Orpheus, not even dismemberment could end your glory for your severed head is said to give oracles as true as those of Apollon at Delphi!
O great Orpheus, hear our prayer, forever guide us in the mysteries you delivered to humanity and continue to sing sweet words in our ears that we may be in accordance with your teachings.
May we hear your blessed lyre plucking out the tune to which we will dance in heaven!
Io Orpheus! 

^Orpheus by G. Palmer (forthcoming)

Thanks to everyone who’s submitted so far!

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Be sure to check out my other sites:

Wyrd Curiosities at Etsy

My academia.edu page

My amazon author page.

Walking the Worlds Journal

My art blog at Krasskova Creations

My blog about all things strange, weird and medieval.

And if you like what you see, consider becoming a sponsor at Patreon.

Northern Tradition Musings on Memorial Day [Redux]

a good article from Wyrd Dottir.

Wyrd Designs

For those of us who are so lucky, we have a lovely three-day weekend before us. Memorial Day is far more than an occasion to exercise your checkbook (or should I say debit card swipe) in pursuit of retail bargains. Rather it is a holiday rooted in American history that has shifted overtime in the American consciousness, and yet it is also a holiday that many in the Northern Tradition have taken to claim as their own.

Memorial Day is a U.S. national holiday. The official birthplace of Memorial Day is in Waterloo, New York, which since 1866 has annually observed the holiday of decorating the war dead in their nearby cemetery. The original holiday was known as Decoration Day, when local communities would visit their grave yards and decorate the graves of soldiers who had died in battle. It began first to honor Union Soldiers who had died in…

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Two Forthcoming Prayer Cards

There are two prayer cards currently at the printer: 

Hebe, image by me. 🙂 (from my book “Numinous Places”):

and Antinous the Liberator, image by W. McMillan:

 

They should be available later this week. 

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Be sure to check out my other sites:

Wyrd Curiosities at Etsy

My academia.edu page

My amazon author page.

Walking the Worlds Journal

My art blog at Krasskova Creations

My blog about all things strange, weird and medieval.

And if you like what you see, consider becoming a sponsor at Patreon.