Monthly Archives: May 2023
Wodinic Wednesday : Ask Away!
It’s Wednesday again, folks, and that means I’m opening up my blog here to any and all of your questions. If you have curiosities about polytheism, Heathenry, Odin, Loki, our other Holy Powers, ancestor work, devotional work, magic, conjure, divination, hell–my academic field if you’re interested, anything at all that might fall into my wheelhouse, feel free to ask. I’ll do my best to answer or, if I can’t, to point you in a good and productive direction to find answers.
I’ve started doing this as a way to honor Odin, a God in my experience ,Who is constantly hungry for knowledge. I”ll keep this Q&A open until 9pm EST tonight for y’all to post questions, if you have them, in the comments here. I stop at nine so I have a chance to answer everything before midnight.
Odin by W. McMillan; original painting in the author’s collection
Celebrating Memorial Day
For those in the US, this is Memorial Day weekend. The actual day falls on Monday, May 29th, but usually the entire weekend is given over to it and I think that is a good thing. This holiday is about honoring our military dead, specifically all the dead who have fallen in service in the US armed forces. In my house, we take this weekend to honor all of our military dead across the board.
We all have soldiers, warriors, fighters in our ancestral lines and without those men and women willing to take up arms to protect and defend their families, communities, and countries, we wouldn’t be here. It is the least we can do, to take a day or a weekend to pay proper respect. So, what does that look like on a civic level and on a religious level? For the first, I work with the local Cemetery Committee, a sub-section of our local Historical Society, to make sure the military graves in all of our local cemeteries are properly clean and decorated with a little flag. This has been custom in my community well before I moved here almost twenty years ago. The American Legion holds a service on Memorial Day proper, and wreaths are laid on our military memorials.
On the religious side of things, I will be cleaning and decorating the part of my shrine given to the military dead (that part is a floor to almost ceiling bookcase with six wide shelves) and making copious offerings and prayers. We usually do a ritual as well, honoring our dead.
What do you, my readers, do on this day?
“Doughboy” by G. Krasskova. Do not use without permission.
Wodinic Wednesday
Ok folks, it’s that time again. 🙂 Every Wednesday I’ll be posting an open Q&A. Feel free to post questions in the comments on any topic related to Heathenry, the Northern Tradition, my work, polytheism or devotion in general, magic, divination, conjure, spiritual protection, etc. etc. I’ll do my best to answer later today. Q&A closes at 9pm est tonight. Happy Wednesday.
Movie Mondays
I alway mean to give at least one Monday out of the month to a movie review but quite often I just don’t watch enough television or movies — I don’t have time. This month has been like that. So, I’m turning it over to all y’all (a good southern expression, for my non US readers. Southern English solved the issue of modern English not having a second person plural early on lol.): as polytheists, what movies or tv shows would y’all like to recommend? Please feel free to leave your comments and recommendations below.
Happy Monday, my reprobates. Happy Monday. 🙂
Contemplative Living Series: Artemis’ Rule: I will place no commitment of the heart above my commitment to this path.
Affiliate Advertising Disclosure
Rules for the Order of the Horae, including Artemis’ rule, may be found here. I’m not part of this order, but I am using their rules as a jumping off point for these explorations of contemplative and/or devotional living. Please note, these rules were originally intended for a contemplative community. I’m expanding upon them, beyond the boundaries of contemplative living, in ways that I hope will be beneficial to devotion in general and living a devout life in particular.
I will say that I hate the term “path” when what one really means is “tradition,” “lineage,” or “religion.” It just sounds so new-age, but that’s a personal pet peeve and I actually respect the work done by the Order of the Horae to bring awareness within contemporary Pagan and Polytheistic communities to the importance of monastic and/or contemplative living. They were amongst the first to do so.
Within our tradition, I give this rule to Sigyn. She is a Goddess of constancy and devotion, of keeping the heart committed to the path (I know, I know) one has chosen. There are virtues that Sigyn embodies that I think are essential toward clean devotion. For those who may not be familiar with this Goddess, Her name means Victory Woman, She is the Wife of Loki, and a Goddess of devotion, constancy, and (if I may co-opt a Finnish term) sisu, endurance and grit. I’ve written about Her here, and one may always check my blog as well – just search for Her name. She carries Mysteries that are all about staying the course. In the write up on this lesson, the Order of the Horae writes, “The lesson of fulfilling one’s moral duty while longing for something else is a hard one, but it is honorable.” Doing that well, gracefully, and with moral courage is one of Sigyn’s most powerful lessons.
Now the Order of the Horae focuses this “rule” almost exclusively on relationships, marriage, children, and sex. I think, while those things are important, they are the least of what this rule entails (though I will discuss them below). First and foremost, we need to examine our hearts, to know what our heart most desires, to understand what our Gods want for us, and how to develop the courage to prioritize and pursue that. None of that is easy, but it is core to what we would call “discernment.” Discernment is essential to spiritual life, devotion, and personal integrity.
Now, we are fortunate as polytheists in that we have diviners and divination to help guide us in our discernment. The primary purpose of divination is to maintain right relationship with the Holy Ones. I really don’t understand how traditions that, don’t have divination as an option, manage! We have prayer, meditation, shrine work, offerings, contemplation, pastoral direction with elders within our traditions too to help us find our way.
One of the most difficult aspects of devotional living, is learning to decenter oneself. Working toward discernment is a lifelong process, but integrity has to begin with humility and decentering ourselves in this process. That’s a hard one. Everything in our world, almost every aspect of popular culture, social media, even our psychological systems encourage us to view ourselves as being at the top of the cosmological food chain. We are taught to center ourselves and our own pleasures over and above anything else—to varying degrees depending on the situation. I think we are living in a time, place, and culture where it is very, very difficult for many of us to accept that there are Holy Ones bigger and greater than we, not to mention that we might be called to the fealty of devotion to those Powers. I think that’s not only scary for a lot of folks, but that in some cases, it so radically challenges their sense of self and the way the world works that it becomes a challenge that is almost insurmountable. It is, however, the center, the place from which we need to begin.
One of the things that we can do is to ask our Gods for help. The Christians knew this and enshrined it in their gospels (Mark 9:24: Lord I believe, help thou, my unbelief. πιστεύω· βοήθει μου τῇ ἀπιστίᾳ.). Our polytheistic ancestors knew it too. If we ask for help, it will be given – the presence of numerous holy oracles in the ancient world tells us right there that polytheistic communities knew the Gods hear us. As difficult as any of this seems at times, we have help. Part of that help lies in the guidance of our Holy Ones: ancestors, Gods, helping spirits. We are strengthened in heart and soul when we reach out to Them. It’s also an opportunity to develop our devotional relationships. A number of Gods even have the epithet “Epikoos”, which means “Who Hears Prayers” and while I’m thinking Greek here, we have similar amongst the Norse. It’s a grace and we can take advantage of that.
That’s really the biggest and most important aspect of this rule: staying the course and *choosing* devotion. Devotion and faith are always a choice, always. Part of this rule is learning how to consistently make that choice.
Now, the Order focuses this rule, as I noted above, specifically on sexual mores. I would note that I do agree that those pursuing monastic living should adhere to this maxim of the Order:
“However, in order to enter a House, one must be entirely free of dependents. You are giving your life over to the Gods, and it must be entirely yours to give. Once you have entered the house, you may not take on the commitment of dependents, except for those elders of the Order who can no longer take care of themselves, and possibly any children without parents that the Order agrees to foster, both of whom would be a communal responsibility.”
That is standard for monastic life. Where I disagree with the Order’s interpretation of this rule is in regard to sexuality. Firstly, they are correct in that the emotional ties we form with someone can be powerful distractions to devotion. They can also be powerful supports. For the average devotee, who is *not a spiritual specialist*, having a family, children, etc. is a lovely thing. It’s also necessary if we want our traditions to endure. We should be supporting the families in our communities and supporting the raising up of children within our traditions. That is good and holy.
It’s a little different with those called as specialists, and there, it depends on what kind of specialist. I don’t think sexual activity should be on the table for monastics. Their job is to pray and work. Period. Sexual activity seriously distracts from that, and every connection to the outside world is problematic. Likewise, I think it’s important to emphasize that it’s not only sexual connections that can be a temptation to avoid one’s spiritual obligations. Connections don’t have to be sexual for you to love someone. Love itself is a good and sacred thing, something to be nourished and treasured. Expanding on that, a monastic can deeply love someone and express that love through prayer and spiritual care. Love doesn’t always have to be physical to be valid. Monastics commit to a particular type of lifestyle and that involves sacrificing certain ties to the world, certain distractions, and that’s not for everyone. They are called to show their love differently.
I personally counsel anyone interested in growing devotionally to not waste too much energy on non-essential relationships. These distractions steal time away from our devotion AND from those human relationships that are much more important to nourish. Everyone has to make these decisions for themselves though – what is “essential” to me, may not be for person X, and vice versa. What I think this rule calls for is making sure that however you organize your life, you do so with the Gods and devotion to Them at the center.
That’s the really important thing with this rule: keeping devotion to the Gods at the center of one’s life without compromise. That’s a lifetime’s goal worth working toward.
…also, don’t fuck non-polytheists.
OMG
Go watch “Sisu.” Just go. It’s the perfect movie and if it’s not a warning to the Russians to think twice and then again before attacking Finland, I’ll eat my hat.
The imagery is very, very Odinic, which of course resonated strongly with me. I think there are probably echoes of the Finnish God Ukko in the main character — though whether this is intentional or whether a matter of coincidence, I don’t know. I do know that the writers have said publicly that part of the inspiration for the main character was the actual Finnish hero and Winter War Sniper Simo Häyhä. This man is a legend and, in less than 100 days, singlehandedly took out over three hundred Russian soldiers, a substantial portion of which were also snipers (It is possible that he killed as many as five hundred). He survived the war and went on to breed award winning dogs lol.
Anyway, the movie is fantastic, a beautiful meditation on the destructive power of greed for what is not rightly one’s own; the reward for courage and endurance shown in both the main character and the women, and “Sisu,” a word believed untranslatable, but that is sort of grit, stoic endurance,..in Lithuanian I’d say Istverme.
There is a dog in the movie — the dog lives, btw.
A Peek at my Glassblowing Efforts
Awhile back, I made a fun post asking folks to figure out which of 13 statements was untrue. You can read that post here. One of the statements was “I studied glassblowing.” Many people, some in the comments, some to me privately by email, expressed surprise that I’d had the time to study glass blowing and so, I promised when I had the chance, to post a photo of some of my work. Well, here it is. lol. I dug up a few pieces today.
I studied for a couple of years and I was just getting good when the neuropathy in my hands got worse. I have damage to my neck from my time as a ballet dancer (I got a bad case of whiplash that was never properly treated). It’s left me with pinched nerves and neuropathy in my hands. I’ll often wake with numb, painful hands and my grip isn’t what it used to be. I can embroidery and playing guitar has not been an issue, but there’s a particular type of motor-coordination required for glass blowing that slipped away. I probably could have held out awhile longer, but when working with 2400 degree Fahrenheit molten glass, fumbling can be extremely dangerous. I took a second degree burn on my hand and leg and started having more difficulties so I decided to stop — not because of my own burns (they healed quickly. no big deal) but because we usually work in pairs for glass-blowing, and if I’m having issues with my grip, I’m putting my working partner at risk of injury. I miss it, but now I play classical guitar, I paint, I embroidery so I’m still making things.
Glassblowing was a wonderful way to learn about and honor the element of fire. Here’s some of the stuff I made:
I got all fancy with two of the purple bowls lol. I made them all swirly.
Wodinic Wednesday Q&A
As promised, today I’m taking reader questions. Feel free to post in the comments and I will answer as best I can. The first one went very well and you can read those questions and answers here.
I’ll keep this open until 9pm EST tonight.
Gangleri's Grove 