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A Goddess just for March
(and maybe part of April. This is a repost of an article I posted several years ago):
In addition to Ostara (Eostre), there is another Goddess once honored at the beginning of spring: Hreðe. She is mentioned once by the chronicler Bede and Her name likely means “fierce.” There’s also an Old English adverb hraðe that means quickly. Because of this, I tend to think of Her as ‘fast and furious!’ After all, of those who honor Her, many see Her as a warrior Goddess and I certainly don’t dispute that. She has a Presence at once joyful and ferocious. For me, She really is the quintessential March Goddess – Her nature that of an Aries all the way. The Anglo-Saxon Hreðmonath – basically March/April—was named after Her.
I wish we knew more than that, but having so very little yet tantalizing information allows us the freedom to build Her cultus anew. Just this year, devotion to Her is really starting to become part of my personal practice. I look forward to deepening that practice as we move into Spring.
Here are three prayers that I’ve written to Her over the years. I’m sure more shall come.
To Hreðe
I say hail to Hreðe, Mighty Goddess!
With explosive force, You banish winter.
With enervating drive, You push us
into the rejuvenating arms of Spring.
Cleanse me, Glorious Goddess,
of all those things that hold me back.
Unfetter my mind, heart, and will,
that I might set my feet unswervingly
on the road to victory.
Hail, Hreðe, ever-victorious in every struggle!
To Hreðe
You come feral and joyous,
laughing and dancing with the winds,
playing tag with Mani
under the sweetness of a sugar moon.
Herald of Eostre, unfettered, unbound,
You roar across our world,
with the lion winds of march.
Our flags and chimes whip and sound
with the force of Your passing.
You surround us as we move,
our offerings in hand,
across our rightful land.
Make the fields flourish.
Make the earth fertile,
The delight of Your voice
urges us on;
and we cry Your name
driven forward by the irresistible gusts
of Your whirling exhilaration.
Hail, Hrethe, now and always,
ebullient, fierce, unmatched in exuberance.
Hail.
(By G. Krasskova)
My Adorations to Hreðe may be found here.
Artwork by C. Noelle. prayer card available here. (Though my shop is closed through the weekend so I can catch up on orders!).
Happy Three Kings Day!
For my House, today marks the end of Yule. 🙂 We love 3 Kings Day — though I think we each ascribed different Beings to that title. For some, it’s the 3 Magi, for others like me, it’s a feast day for the Three Brothers, for others in our House, there are different attributions. Either way, today our Yule liturgical cycle ends and we move into the ember days marking time until Walpurgis. I like this time of year and find it very nourishing. it’s cold and I’m sitting here watching snow fall freezing my butt off (despite having turned the heat up) and I love it. I am, however, glad I don’t have to travel. To those of you who are affected by this weekend’s Nor’easter, be safe, stay warm, be careful. To everyone reading this, I hope your new year was a fruitful one and wish you all only the best for 2024. Happy END of Yule! (and now this very tired gythia can REST. lol. I don’t think folks quite realize, unless they themselves are responsible or all the religious rites and divination, exactly how utterly exhausting this holy period is, even if it is my favorite of our holy tides!).
Sunna in Kenaz, a prayer, and a sigil
Last night was the last night of Sunwait. Next week is Mothernight, Yule proper, and then we usually do a ritual the day following for Sunna and Mani. I don’t have a prayer to share for Sunna in kenaz – I spoke extempore during the rite. What I will share is an insight given as we were in ritual.
My assistant Tove got an insight of Kenaz as a kiln, warming and annealing the crafts that nourish us. Her drum beats as I galdred came as the hammer hitting the anvil of the forge through which craft is made. It opened a door with the rune galdr, during the rite, took us right back to the moment of creation, when Audhumla watched as the three Creator Gods Who rose up out of time to craft the worlds, and the House of Mundilfari took Their places in sustaining that greatest of creations.
Sunwait is such a beautiful way of transitioning into the Yule period, of traveling down, with Sunna in Her glory, to the nadir of Her journey and all the deep mysteries that lie there. I will write more about this later, but for now, I wanted to share two things, a prayer, and then again, the sigil for wealth and abundance that I made in October. It’s been a rough year for all of us and I pray that 2024 brings us goodness, gladness, and what we need to thrive.
I forgot to take a photo of the shrine before we began the ritual – a lot was going on! – but the photo at the very end of this post is a shrine picture from an earlier sunwait rite.
Secondly, here is a prayer. Ok, I’m going to preface this by fully admitting that as a Heathen, this prayer or type of prayer is weird (to me) but my Gods is it effective. I initially got the germ of what you see below from a brief run in with a co-worker, a work-friend and very, very nice man. He is one of the most rooted, grounded people that I have ever met. Every time I see him, he brightens my day. When last we spoke, he mentioned that he was going through a difficult time, and we talked for awhile, and then he said, “I’m going to be fine. I pray the blood every day,” and spoke with such firm and unwavering faith and conviction that I was deeply moved. I had heard the term “praying the blood,” and knew that within certain iterations of Protestant Christianity this is a powerful point of connection with their God. One prays the blood, pleads the blood, is washed in the blood (of Christ, obviously). I couldn’t get the image out of my mind, and as I was on my way home after that conversation, I got pinged with the epiphany that this might be something our respective traditions could share (or that I could adapt, as I did below, as spiritual tech). We too, after all, have Gods Who have shed Their blood in powerful ways, ways from which we ontologically and spiritually benefit.
So, that led to several weeks of meditation and prayer. I was uncomfortable at first even trying to articulate this, and then gratefully Odin’s wod was given and I was inspired. I wrote the prayer below at a moment where I was feeling under intense spiritual attack. Then I surrounded myself with the power of its words and the wod of the Gods riding within them. I was utterly and completely protected, and I knew it, knew to the core of my being that nothing was capable of penetrating the power of that God-stuff, which They had infused with holy power and purpose. So, I use this now as part of my protective arsenal.
Normally I wouldn’t share it. I have a book of prayers and tech that I’ve collected over the years to combat spiritual attack. Most of it is for kept in-House, but this past week, in a session of deep divination I was instructed to share this specific one, and so here you go. Use it or not as you wish.
Praying the Blood
By G Krasskova
I come to You, Odin, I come to You, Lodhur, I come to YOu, HOenir
and I place myself, my entire soul, heart, mind, and spirit under Your protection.
Guide me and lead me, oh my Gods, and I will go where You would have me walk.
Until I breath my last breath back into Your mouth, oh God, Odin, Breathgiver,
Soul-giver, I will serve You and Your Brothers in all ways You command.
I stand before the Tree of Power and I call upon the sacred blood,
the blood of sacrifice, the blood of creation, the blood of my Gods.
I plead the blood of He Who Hung on the Tree, Galdrafather,
He Who with His own spear gave Himself to Himself in sacrifice.
I pray the blood of Odin upon my self, my soul, my home, and my family.
May we be drenched and filled with its protection.
I stand before the Tree of Power and I call upon the Sacred Blood.
I plead the blood of Odin, Who ripped out His own eye,
tossing it to Mimir’s Well, in His quest for wisdom.
I pray the blood of Odin over me and mine, our souls, our home,
and all that we love and I ask for its protection.
I pray the blood of this God as a shield against all who would do us harm.
I stand before the Tree of Power and I call upon the Sacred Blood,
the Blood of Lothur, Loki Whose lips were bound with wiry sinew,
crafted by the duergar, even as He brought gifts of might to the Gods.
I pray His blood upon myself and my family, my home, and all those I love.
May it stand as a fierce shield between us and all who might wish us harm.
I stand before the Tree of Power and I call upon the Sacred Blood,
The blood of Loki and His sons, torn asunder, bound in a dank and serpent filled cave
while His wife — mighty and fearless — stood guard by His side.
I plead the blood of His children Narvi and Vali, the blood of His own wounds,
and I pray this holy blood upon myself and my family
that we may be immune from all demonic attack and harm.
I stand before the Tree of Power and I call upon the Sacred Blood,
the blood drawn by Hoenir, Lothur, and Odin, the blood of Ymir,
first holy Being drawn from the primordial ooze by the Sacred Cow.
I call upon the blood infused with the power of the Holy Gap,
infused with the power of Audhumla, infused with God-stuff
and I pray its protection upon me and mine, my home, my family,
my work, and all that I cherish. May it stand as a mighty shield,
a fortress of power between me and any being wishing me harm.
I plead the blood of three Mighty Gods, Odin, Hoenir, and Lodhur,
I pray the blood upon myself and my Domus,
I place my trust in the Holy Ones,
I plead Their blood over every part of my life,
every part of my family, my home, my work, our health,
our finances, every part of those I care for. I plead Their mighty blood
over everything in my world, and all my blessed spirits.
I pray the blood of the Brothers upon all my life;
And I have full faith in Their protection.
Alu.
Finally, I’m sharing again this money sigil. I created this in late October. Meditating upon it, sending energy into it will bring money and Gods know the way things have been going, we can all use a little more money. Print it and meditate upon it, and work it consistently over time. That is all. Happy Sunwait.
May Sunna and Her family always be hailed.
Post-Ritual note
So, I did end up praying extemporaneously so I don’t have a pre-written prayer to share. I will say that I was struck while invoking Sunna tonight that one of Her greatest gifts to us is courage. She gives us courage of heart that we can draw upon to do what is right when the need comes. I love that and each Sunwait, I find myself just so grateful that I live in a time when I can love and honor the Gods as openly as I do and each Sunwait, I love Sunna even more.
Here is a picture of our shrine, a close up tonight. I put a number of things on the shrine and asked Her blessing on them. One of them was the prayer card you see right in front.
If anyone would like this ^ blessed card (for free), please contact me via email krasskova at gmail.com. I will give it to the first person who emails me. Everyone else can have a Sunna card, but it will not have been blessed in ritual — OR you may request a blessed one and we can put it on the shrine table for next week and send it out after next week’s sunwait. Just ask. So, if you’re interested, go ahead and email me and I’ll get that out. Include a mailing address.
I pray that all of you who are celebrating Sunwait have a lovely and blessed week.
EDIT : The card has been claimed. 🙂
Sunwait week 5: Sunna in Raido
I didn’t post a prayer last week because I didn’t write it beforehand; rather, I just spoke extempore during the ritual with Sunna in Ansuz. I’m probably going to do the same tonight — we start our ritual in about an hour. I wanted to wish everyone a very blessed Sunwait.
This is such a lovely way to prepare for Yule. Each week, Sunna carries us a little bit deeper into the nourishing darkness of Yule, of Odin’s time, of the intercalendary time of sacrifice and renewal. The more we celebrate this series of rituals, the more it becomes possible to sense the subtle shift from week to week, rune to rune. Tonight we move into Raido and that is such tremendous momentum. Ansuz cleared the way, created ordered space and now, this week, Sunna takes up Raido and we began the joyous rush into Yule proper. There’s such momentum, such power to raido. I was thinking about it today and the funniest image came to me: a giant waterslide and raido is like being pushed unexpectedly down the slide and you can’t stop, but you don’t really want to as you go rushing by. The cycle turns and Sunna rejoices.
I wish you all blessings on this night … one more week of Sunwait, folks, one more week.
Happy Oski’s Day AND Wodinic Wednesday
Happy Oski’s Day — a particularly fortuitous one given that it falls on Woden’s day. For the past twenty plus years, many of us have been reclaiming St Nicholas day as a time to give small gifts and honor Odin (Woden) in His gift-giving guise. You can read more about what we do here.
It’s also Wodinic Wednesday so if you have questions for me, feel free to post in the comments. I’ll keep this open until 9pm EST tonight.
May you all have a blessed day full of abundance and good things.
Hail Odin!
Sunwait Week 3: Sunna in Thurisaz
Prayer to Sunna in Thurisaz
I hail You Mighty Warrior,
Who comes with shining brightness
Wielding a fiery rune.
You conquer evil.
You drive out pollution.
You bring wholeness and healing,
And raise us up in the sight of our Gods.
None may stop You as You storm across the skies.
You come, oh Sunna, with thurisaz,
The thorn of power, scalpel sharp.
You wield it with precision
And it dances in Your hand.
It drives back the unmaker.
It drives back wickedness.
It opens space for the Holy Ones.
It protects us from harm.
You, Oh Goddess, are deepest Compassion.
You are radiant glory, and Your light
fills us with truth and righteous anger;
it fills us with delight and joy;
it fills us with insight and ecstatic inspiration.
Thurisaz is the blade with which You open the way,
freeing us of the bonds which hold us back,
freeing us of the chains of our own impiety,
our own impatience, our own lack of reverence
and all the things that come to cloud our understanding,
all the things themselves born out of inexperience or fear.
May we be brave in our devotion to You, oh Sunna,
And bold in our devotion to the Holy Ones.
Hail to You, oh Goddess of the sun,
On this, the third week of Sunwait.
(by G. Krasskova)
Sunwait 2023 Week 2: Sunna in Uruz
To honor Sunna, if anyone would like a [free] prayer card of Her, please contact me privately with your mailing address. I will send one card per person until 9pm this Sunday EST. I have other cards available at my etsy shop, but this is a special offer here only, so email me at Krasskova at gmail.com if you want one.
Uruz came with a power that demanded movement, speaking of initiation and mystery and the weaving of wyrd. I have no words to express that which it gave. Sunna’s presence was one of delighted laughter and a holy momentum that likewise demanded that we drum and dance. I was in tremendous physical pain prior to the rite – if hips, legs, and feet could have a migraine then that was how I felt. I could barely shuffle but when the Goddess with this rune came, I danced.
Prayer to Sunna in Uruz
Healing, vitality, resilience –
these things lie condensed in the power of this rune.
We need these things in our world today.
The dead need them.
The land needs them.
We need them, in every heart and spirit.
May uruz flourish, granted by Your gracious hand,
in every one of us, oh Sunna.
Restore us, oh Goddess.
Restore us and fill our hearts with Your warmth and light.
This is my prayer today.
Let this Sunwait be a time of healing and restoration
for us and for our world.
Hail to You, Sunna, Sol, Alfröðull, Glory of heaven!
Hail to You, Oh, Daughter of Mundilfari,
Sister of Mani, Sister of Sinthgunt.
Hail to You, Shining Wife of Glenr,
Friend of Dagr, Friend of Lussi,
and skilled Mistress of two swift steeds:
Árvakr and Alsviðr.
Hail to You, All-Glowing, Ever-Bright,
Fair-Wheel, Shining Bride of Heaven.
Oh, Bright Goddess, Shine Your light upon us
and grant us healing of body, soul, and heart.
Hail to You, oh Sunna, hail Most Gracious One,
on this, the second week of Sunwait.
(by G. Krasskova)
Gangleri's Grove 