Blog Archives
Might As Well End the Year Just Like It Was Begun
Predictably Patheos Pagan is on a roll again. If you want to learn how to do any type of polytheism poorly head right on over. I’m still shaking my head at what was read to me this morning. Apparently, people are freaking out because some polytheists (iirc, the conversation is about Celtic polytheism, but Heathenry was mentioned too) choose to A) honor Gods of multiple traditions or B) NOT honor Gods of multiple traditions. If you do B, you’re a racist (and maybe acting like the Heathens do! *gasp*) and if you do A, you’re doing it wrong, or some such. The lack of logic, sense, and piety gets kind of hard to follow sometimes.
Get ready to have your minds blown, folks: either one can be proper and pious. Either one. It depends on the devotee, the Gods, their wyrd, their tradition, and any number of things. This is between the individual devotee and his or her Gods, and any sensible polytheist would get his butt to a good diviner, preferably one within his tradition (who is therefore familiar with that person’s primary Deities) to find out what his Gods want, if his can’t sort it himself. You’re not racist if you choose to only honor one particular pantheon (and unless that pantheon is Germanic, it doesn’t make you Heathen. Know what? Being Heathen is not synonymous with being racist either, and it’s just flat out hate-speech to claim otherwise). You’re not a bad polytheist if you honor more than one pantheon. Actually, the latter is probably closer to what many ancient polytheisms looked like.
Here’s the thing, and if this bunch actually read books, studied history and theology, and had one wit of sense among them, they’d know this: there was hardly ever any expectation of exclusivity in pre-Christian religion. One honored one’s household and ancestral Gods, the Gods of one’s city or town, and was free to initiate into any mystery cultus he or she wished that would take them (just because we might want initiation, doesn’t mean we are owed access after all). If one did not wish, that was fine too. There are a lot of problems we face as modern polytheists working to restore our respective traditions. This bitch ain’t one of them. It shouldn’t be one of them, and really, there are better things to do than invent problems.
My caveat, and I say this working in a blended tradition, is that each family of Deities should be honored according to Their own customs. I would not advise mixing and matching ritual styles. That’s a matter of politeness and respect. Our polytheistic ancestors crossed pantheons all the time. Here again though, if there is any confusion, an elder, priest, spirit worker, or diviner can help you sort it out. If you are called to honor only one pantheon, that doesn’t mean you’re not hearing your Gods rightly (yes, this was one of the comments made on Patheos: if you honor certain Gods exclusively, you’re not hearing Them). There could be reasons you can’t even comprehend for why They might put that restriction on you, and it’s hubris for some pissant second rate blogger over at Patheos, or anywhere else, to imply that it is hateful or wrong. Likewise honoring across pantheons.
You can find a million reasons not to do devotion but in the end it’s a choice. Every choice creates opportunities and closes off others. We have to work that out – in fear and fucking trembling – with ourselves and more importantly with and before our Gods. You know who doesn’t count in this equation? Some blogger on the internet whom you will never meet, and whose opinion matters to no one.
Yuletide Shopping Guide – Artists and Artisans Part 2
I created the Yuletide Shopping Guide in part because Yule is one of my favorite times of year. The guide features items polytheists would enjoy seeing in their homes or under their tree this yuletide. All with the hope of both spreading some holiday cheer in a difficult year, but also to hopefully lift up some of the artisans in our midst too. So far I’ve included resources for crafters, makers, and DIYers: cookie cutters, crafting molds, fabric (Mesoamerican, Egyptian, Greek, Northern Europe), machine embroidery designs, cross-stitch and embroidery patterns, as well as knitting and crochet patterns. I’ve also highlighted some items on a Krampus theme. I’ve spotlighted items you can use to deck the halls and trim the tree. Now I am spotlighting artists, artisans and the goods they make: Part 1, and Part 2 is today. Stay tuned, because there’s still more to come.
TrueCraftWorks
TrueCraftworks is run by a USA based leather-worker that offers in addition to jewelry and guitar straps, purses, boxes designed to hold cards (or if you wanted to runes), leather wallets/card holders, coasters and more.
Emily Balivet
Emily Balivet is a talented artist whose brightly colored works encompass pagan and polytheistic themes ranging from tarot, to various Goddesses (Egyptian, Greek, Norse, Celtic, Hindu and more). Her shop features the prismatically vivid colors of both original paintings, and reproduction prints of her work.
KatLunoeArt
KatLunoeArt is the online shop for oil painter and illustrator Kat, whose work has graced book covers and other special projects. She currently has a small collection of various deity art available.
Anetteprs
Anetteprs is the etsy storefront for artist Anette Pirso. She focuses her artwork around various polytheistic traditions, including Gods and Goddesses (mainly Goddesses). Some of her artwork has been used in clothing designs offered at Valhyr. She has a large selection of both Norse and Greek Goddesses, and an expanding selection of other goddesses from around the world: African, Mesoamerican, Egyptian, Native American & Inuit, Slavic, Celtic, Asian, Polynesian, and Hindu. In addition to her artistic prints of these Goddesses, she also has a few artistic depictions of impactful women in history. She recently started offering waterproof stickers too (great for use on cars, water bottles, etc.). She has made the commitment that 5% of each purchase is donated to a The Estonian Women’s Shelters Union, which helps women who have been the victims of domestic violence.
OlivosArtStudio
OlivosArtStudio is the online shop for painter Claudia Olivos whose depictions of Goddesses range from all over the globe: Egyptian, Greek, Hindu, Minoan, Norse, Mesoamerican (various traditions), Polynesian, and so much more.
SilvaTamayo
SilvaTamayo is the online storefront for paper artist Mary Carmen Silva Tamayo specializing in Mesoamerican and Mexican art, including depictions of Aztec deities.
Yuletide Shopping Guide – Knitting & Crochet Patterns
Makers, crafters and DIYers I have been spotlighting in my Yuletide Shopping Guide resources to help you create items related to polytheistic religious traditions. So far that has included cookie cutters, craft molds, and fabric related to Mesoamerica, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Ancient Northern Europe. I’m shared machine embroidery design files, cross-stitch and embroidery patterns, and today I have knitting and crochet patterns (including amigurumi) to share.
- Anubis, Bastet, Sekhmet, Set (Egyptian)
- Bastet (Egyptian)
- Helios (Greek)
- Hermes (Greek)
- Ares (Greek)
- Aphrodite (Greek)
- Pan (Greek)
- Ouranos (Greek)
- Kronos (Greek)
- Poseidon, Hades, Zeus (Greek)
- Gaia (Greek)
- Ganesha (Hindu)
- Ganesha (Hindu, this is a different pattern)
- Kali (Hindu)
- Celtic Knot Pillow
- Elder Futhark Blanket
Please let me know if there are any errors, with all the copy/pasting it is easy to make a mistake. If there’s something you think I should spotlight in the yuletide shopping guide, please contact me and let me know. So concludes our fabric resources, but there will be more resources to come! Stay tuned.
Yuletide Shopping Guide – Cross-stitch and Embroidery Patterns
Makers, crafters and DIYers I have been spotlighting in my Yuletide Shopping Guide resources to help you create items related to polytheistic religious traditions. So far that has included cookie cutters, craft molds, and fabric related to Mesoamerica, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Ancient Northern Europe. I’ve shared machine embroidery design files, and today I’ve got needlepoint in the form of cross-stitch and embroidery patterns.
Norse
- Tree of Life
- Yggdrasil and the Nine Worlds
- Yggdrasil with deer, squirrel and birds
- Futhark with Yggdrasil
- Runes (Elder Futhark)
- Helm of Awe with Futhark
- Helm of Awe
- Odin’s Ravens (Hugin & Munin)
- Odin’s Ravens (Hugin & Munin)
- Mjolnir
- Mjolnir Sampler (runes, troll cross, and other symbols)
Egyptian
Miscellaneous
- Goddess Fortuna (Roman)
- Brigid Blessing (Celtic)
- Huitzilopochtli (Aztec, the listing is misidentified as Tlaloc)
Please let me know if there are any errors, with all the copy/pasting it is easy to make a mistake. If there’s something you think I should spotlight in the yuletide shopping guide, please contact me and let me know. So concludes our fabric resources, but there will be more resources to come! Stay tuned.
Yuletide Shopping Guide – Cookie Cutters
I recently posted that because 2020 has been a challenging year I was putting together a Yuletide Shopping Guide with the intent to help artisan members of our community & to help spotlight items that support our religious devotions and practices. I know it’s early, but I wanted to go ahead and start spotlighting project materials that DIYers may want to use to make their own gifts this yuletide.
We’ll be starting off with some installments to help the bakers, crafters, and DIYers so that those who may want to create something for a yuletide gift can get their project materials before the holidays. Today’s installment is for the bakers. The pandemic has had many of us returning to our kitchens, instead of eating out. With that shift, has come a huge explosion in baking, with kitchen spices being some of the most in demand items at many grocers. I think in times of stress we return to the comfort and warmth of our kitchens and hearths.
While these cookie cutters can be used to make edible sweet treats to appeal to the cookie monsters in your life, they can also be used for other purposes too like ornaments made out of polymer clay, or for applesauce and cinnamon ornaments used for the tree, in wreaths, garlands, and more.
BAKERLOGY
Bakerlogy offers an array of cookie cutters from symbols for Northern Tradition Polytheists, to Egyptian iconography that will appeal to Kemetics. There are also Celtic symbols and other links to the past: like the Venus of Willendorf, the Greenman, Cereberus. They also offer a range of other designs that are not sacred in origin too. All their cutters are made with dishwasher safe plastic, and can be purchased from either their main site, or their storefront on Etsy.
https://bakerlogy.com/collections/mythology
https://www.etsy.com/shop/Bakerlogy
RUNIC COOKIES
Like their eponymous name would suggest, Runic Cookies offers cookie cutters for the Norse runes, as well as mjollnir (Thor’s Hammer), and some Slavic symbols too. All their cutters are made from stainless steel. You can find them online at Etsy.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/RunicCookie
Coming Soon for our creative makers you can expect to find resources to a variety of fabrics, craft moulds, patterns, and more! After that, we’ll transition to finished goods ready for purchase. If there’s something you think I should spotlight, please contact me and let me know.
Submission to Blodeuwedd’s Agon
Wynn Dark has created this lovely wood cut for Blodeuwedd’s Agon.
Please note, the Agon will close June 10, 9pm EST.
First Entry in Blodeuwedd’s Agon
Lady Between
Blodeuwedd the lady of light, born of the flowers meant to delight.
Blodeuwedd lady of the night, ever piercing is her sight.
Born to a cage of sunlight, she would know flight.
Made to slip a tynged, she proved sharper tongued than makers wanted.
Blodeuwedd chose not the sunlit path, well worn and warm.
Blodeuwedd chose the path of stag and thorn, the ways between brightest day and darkest night.
Blodeuwedd is your name, to choose is your right.
Blodeuwedd, may we choose as you have chosen, in the dark and in the light.
(by Wynn Dark)
Agon Winners and a New Agon Through May
Congratulations to the winners of the Morpheus Agon and the Agon for Anteros: Ellen and Amanda Artemisia Forrester respectively. 🙂 I’ll be reaching out to you both to coordinate sending your loot. A huge thank you to everyone who entered the agones and for your patience!
I have decided to run one more Agon, this time for Blodeuwedd. Somehow I received a second copy of the [relatively] new devotional for Her: “Flower Face: A Devotional Anthology in Honor of Blodeuwedd.” It’s a surprisingly good devotional. It’s worth reading for the forward and the articles on Blodeuwedd as a Goddess of seasonal Sovereignty alone. There are a few pieces that I could have happily left out, but 99% of this book is really quite excellent. I’m going to offer my extra copy as the prize for Blodeuwedd’s Agon. The winner, if he or she submits a prayer, will also have their prayer used on the upcoming prayer card for this Goddess.
Her Agon will run through May 31.
Happy writing, folks.
AAR Reading Religion Book Review
I just had an academic book review published on the AAR (American Academy of Religion’s) ‘Reading Religion’ website. The book I reviewed is Sacred Britannia by Miranda Aldhouse-Green and I would highly recommend it to any practitioner of Celtic or Gaulic polytheism. It would be one of my first go-to sources. Aldhouse-Green also has several other books on Celtic history, archaeology, and religion that I would likewise recommend. My review may be read here.
More submissions for April’s Agon
Praises to Brigid
by Hugh E.
Hail Brigid, thrice great, thrice powerful, thrice blessed!
I arise today in praise of You,
O Brigid.
For the blessing of water I praise You,
O Brigid.
For the blessing of fire I praise You,
O Brigid.
For words on my tongue I praise You,
O Brigid.
For skill in my hands I praise You,
O Brigid.
For cradle and hearth I praise You,
O Brigid.
For the protection of the fian I praise You,
O Brigid.
For justice for the weak I praise You,
O Brigid.
For healing for the sick, I praise You,
O Brigid.
For keening for the dead I praise You,
O Brigid.
For Your mantle around the Earth I praise You,
O Brigid.
Bíodh sé amhlaidh!
Vassal (For Loki)
by Fiona Y.
Dancing around your flame
Senses abandoned to
desire for You
And all the while burning
On the tip of your tongue
Whilst from my tongue,
Your words roll and flow.
I am Your vassal evermore
Gangleri's Grove 