Honoring a Sancta and an Announcement

Today is the day of my mom’s death and I miss her every single day. I also post about it on this day and her birthday because she is honored as a sancta, a saint, in at least four traditions. She was one of the most deeply devout people that I have ever known, and I learned more about what it meant to live in right relationship with the Gods from her than from anyplace else. I was a far better human being when she was alive, and I work hard every day to live up to the example she set. The bar is high. 

This is a bit of wisdom she shared with me very early on in our acquaintance, before she adopted me, before our relationship had solidified into that of parent and child when we were just two souls that our Gods brought together in the joy of veneration. She received a powerful message from Odin for me during her prayer and contemplation. While I am quoting this precisely as she wrote it to me (I’m pulling it from a letter she wrote me in 2005), I think this holds true for every God and it was from her that I learned what it truly means to love a God and how important it is to love them powerful AND powerless. Here is what she wrote:

“Keep remembering Odin’s immense love toward you. When He told me He trusts you, He can lean on you, I commented lately to Him that He said this as though it were a rare occurrence. Did he not trust all His [human] children? His answer was that He trusts His power over them, and He trusts they love Him for that power; but a handful of His children would love Him even were He powerless, would follow Him even if He were lost. Those are the ones He trusts; they are few, and you are one of them.”

This became my devotional bar. I read this and thought “would I? I never thought about it” and determined to become the type of devotee who *would*. That’s the moment I realized that devotion was a choice and how we do it, the goals toward which we work, the fabric and texture of our devotional lives lay in large part in our hands. Revelation may lay in that of the Gods but whether or not we show up prepared was solely on us. I want to become the type of person upon whom my Gods can lean. I’d never even realized that was possible, but Mutti taught me that the relationship we develop with our Gods, like any relationship has the potential to be powerfully two-way. Equal? No for They are Gods and in Their orbit, we are small but mutually fulfilling — I think perhaps this is possible. What I learned was devotion without condition. So, I share this today, on the anniversary of her death in the hopes that it will help some of you struggling to know how to root oneself in devotion and what that means, and all the places it can go. 

I hail this ferocious Swiss woman, fiercely devoted to Loki and Sigyn, who continues to inspire and who will always be my beloved mother. 

I also want to share an announcement, and while it’s one that my household decided upon a couple of weeks ago, I waited until today, so I could share it on a day that is particularly blessed, being as it is a feast day in our tradition. We have chosen to open our Kindred again, renamed, reconsecrated, restored, and renewed. Come spring, likely starting around the Spring Equinox, we will be holding monthly pub-moots as a way of getting to know local polytheists and Heathens, and also as a way of vetting interested people. I’ll post about that here and locally too in March. For now, Kindred of the Well and the Tree, a Heathen kindred working in a somewhat blended tradition, that focuses on veneration of the Holy Powers (polytheists only, no exceptions), ancestors, and land spirits, holding regular rituals, providing basic training and coming together to build the tradition is up, open, and running. If you are in the tristate area (NY, NJ, CT) and interested, keep an eye out here for updates. I’ll tag them ‘kindred.’ We will only work with people who can attend rites and workshops in person. I have trained people at a distance before and it is problematic, no matter how good intentions are on either side. To build community and tradition, there just has to be face to face interaction. That is all. Happy Friday.