A Very Belated Thought for Sunna’s Day

Sunday belongs to the Goddess of the Sun: Sol or Sunna (both names occur in our lore). She is a force, a Power and on a very frenetic and frustrating day, it occurs to me that one of Her lessons, one of Her gifts is that no matter how bad a day may be, the sun will alway rise again thereby giving us the chance to regroup, reconsider, re-prioritize, and begin again anew. No day, however poorly it has gone needs to be the determiner of all to follow unless we allow it to be so. That is a powerful lesson, one of resilience, perseverance, personal responsibility, and the cultivation of power.

Hail Sunna in Her glory. Hail Her in Her power. Most of all, hail Her in Her kindness and benevolence.

It is a privilege to praise Her.

Saturday’s Work

I’ll share some of the prayers that we usually do on Saturday for basic “God of the week” devotion on some future week — we give this day to Loki and Sigyn. Usually, we use Saturday not just to make offerings to these two Deities, but we also clean ritual tools and shrines. The Old Norse word for “Saturday” was Laugardagr, which means “bath day” (or one could call it Sunnunótt (Sunna[day] Eve). Bath = cleaning so we often use this day to clean sacred things. Also, my devotion to Sigyn deepened intensely once my adopted mom Fuensanta took me in hand. She was a very devout woman (venerated as a saint in at least three traditions), specifically devoted to Loki and Sigyn. She would honor Sigyn by cleaning extensively *every day*, by bringing order to chaos. She was what in German is called a putzteufel, a cleaning devil – a label she wore with pride. For her, cleaning was sacred (and she would pray as she cleaned so that in cleaning her home, she was cleaning for Sigyn). I don’t have this gift. I use this day instead to tidy shrines and garb, gear, divination kit, travel kit, and other sacred things that need ongoing tending (as all things being used regularly do).

ANYWAY, today, I put together my candle shrine for the setting of lights practice that I shall start right after midnight tonight. If anyone is interested, in ordering a candle, contact me before 9pm EST tonight at krasskova at gmail.com. Every week, I’ll be doing this, so that’s the cut off week-by-week. I”m happy to do memorial candles too, which I don’t think I added to my initial list. So here is what it looks like for this week.

I’ll be lighting the seven candles that folks ordered after midnight today — Sunna’s Day is a particularly auspicious day to initiate this type of prayer or magic. If I am praying to a particular Deity or if someone requested that I do so, and if I have a statue or icon of some sort for that Deity, it will go on the shrine for the week too and each night I’ll add my own prayers.

Have a good Saturday, folks.

Edit: here’s a pic of the shrine after it was lit a little later 9pm:

And if you’re feeling particularly generous: check out my Buymeacoffee. Here’s a tidbit about myself that I don’t think I’ve shared before. When I was small, like 2 1/2, 3, 4, my grandmother would babysit me all day. For breakfast, she would often give me a bowl of Special K cereal (it’s sort of like cornflakes) with a bit of sugar sprinkled on it and…coffee instead of milk. Yes, my friends, it likely explains so very much LOL. Even today, it remains one of my “comfort” foods. ^____^ What are your comfort foods? Cooking and food in general is such a tremendously powerful way to connect to one’s ancestors. What foods evoke the best memories for each of you? Feel free to share in the comments.

Wednesday for Woden

It goes without saying that I have something like seven household shrines to this God Who owns such a large part of my heart. I keep meaning to write meditations on each of His heiti or epithets, but while much meditation has happened, it hasn’t yet translated itself into my writing. Don’t worry though – several of you have emailed about this – I have a whole new year to work and eventually I’ll write some of it down here! In the meantime, Here is one of my favorite prayers from the small novena book The Ecstasy and the Fury. It’s the prayer for day three. Odin’s name – better spelled Oðinn in Old Norse (I probably left off an accent somewhere), literally means “THE Frenzied One” (or “The Furious One” – I’ve seen it translated both ways) and that Frenzy could be battle hunger, or the seething trance of a shaman, the ecstatic oracular state of a seer, or the frenzied inspiration of a poet. What of that He chooses to share with His devotees is beyond the power of words to capture. But, through poetry and devotion, I do try. 

For Odin

For Odin, He Who is Frenzy 
The raven has hooked his claws in my heart 
tethering me to the interstitial frenzy 
pouring out from gallows to God. 
Let us praise the furious One,
Who rendered Himself upon the Tree 
gore-blessed, ever-hungry,
victorious over Himself first of all.
Let us praise Gangleri,
Who wanders through
all the darkest corners
of our world,
spitting mouthfuls of glacial fire
into the heads and hearts
of fervent women.
Let us praise the One Whose spear
keen and sharp, ever finds its mark, 
Gerölnir, blistering across the field of battle 
ever ecstatic in His fury.
Let us praise the Burden of Yggdrasil, 
Corpse-God and eunuch, ever renewed 
through the agony of sacrifice.
He mounted the Tree 
and with a war cry like shrieking thunder 
swallowed the glory of the Gap – 
gasping, gripping, spewing runes, this sovereign Power.
Let us praise the Roaring Thruster, charmed and charming, 
Who scatters His seed inciting longing, 
carnal and cunning, clever and cruel, 
exquisitely adroit across all the worlds, 
Glory burning.
Let us praise this God in Whom
all opposites reside, compelling adoration, 
devouring opposition, like grist in His teeth, 
ground up and grinding, bale-eyed Beguiler, 
Who gnawed on fire, this Architect of Being,
throbbing, pounding, aching, wanting, 
implacable Force, unsparing Fever, 
unappeasable haunting Hunger,
to Whom Being itself surrendered
torn apart and structured anew.
Oh Glad of War, Galdr-Father,
Glad of Battle, God of Gain,
Blinder of Foes, sharp Wand-Wielder,
Gaunt God Splendor, World-willing Wonder, 
Incanting Hjarrandi, Herjan, Goðjaðarr,
Lord of Hosts and Valhalla’s hall,
Blazing Ravager, Renewing Ruler,
howling winds herald Your terror.
Odin we call You, vehement and lethal, 
vigorous valor, we hail You always. 
We ask that You fill us with Your thirst for knowing, 
so that our lives will ever be full of color. 
Hail to You, oh Frenzied Hunger.
Hail to You, Odin. 

(from The Ecstasy and the Fury: 9 Nights with Odin – a Novena, by Galina Krasskova, Sanngetall Press, 2020). 

“Odin” prayer card by W. McMillan

(from The Ecstasy and the Fury: 9 Nights with Odin – a Novena, by Galina Krasskova, Sanngetall Press, 2020). 

I’ve also written a compilation of all of my work on Odin up to the time of its publication (it does not include the novena work) that includes the full text of Whisperings of Woden, and the English text of Walking Toward Yggdrasil.

Of course on Woden’s day, I’ll be making offerings to Him but I’d also like to offer a rune pull for anyone interested- one rune, no questions.  Just shoot me an email at Krasskova at gmail.com by 9pm EST tonight. You can support my work at the Buymeacoffee link below if you are so moved. 

Have a happy Wednesday, folks. I’m still waiting for cold weather…this damp, chilly crap is killing my joints. When in my head, I think I’m 20, my body quickly reminds me that No, oh NO, I very much am not. I hope those of my readers who like me have chronic pain issues are doing well. Pain flares are terrible things, but they do not last forever no matter what it seems at the time. As an Odin’s woman, I learned to dedicate the pain to Him, to elevate it and give it purpose – may He feed on it and be nourished, or transmute it into something useful in His work of sustaining creation. It helps me to bear it, so I pass this on. Not every God may want such an offering (I’m not sure if Odin *wants* it so much as sometimes graciously accepts it from me) but if it clicks, if a God accepts it, it does make it easier to carry. Regardless, I wish you well and I wish all my readers health in this new year. 

Here’s the link to Buymeacoffee. I like coffee, and tea too and this is a lovely site that allows readers to participate in the work of those writers, artists, et al. whom they follow. It is very much appreciated and I thank all of you who have contributed to my work either at this site, or via PayPal, or by your prayers to the Gods on behalf of my house — particularly when my husband was sick. THANK YOU. You do matter and I firmly believe you are seen in the eyes of your Gods. May They ever hold you kindly in favor.