Harrowman Ealdham

We have now, generally speaking, entered the month of Second Yule. This, as my previous article mentions, is the traditional month of the Holy Tide itself and marks the beginning of the traditional year. The Yule Holy Tide takes place January 24th and lasts three days. Again, this point marks the official ending of one year and beginning of the next. When we bid the Gods and Goddesses grant us a bountiful new year. You can find my article on Yule here.

By Karl Erik Harr

"I feel awe of the gods, I love, I revere, I venerate them, and in short have precisely the same feelings towards them as one would have towards kind masters or teachers or fathers or guardians or any beings of that sort."- To The Cynic Heracleios by Julian Flavius Emperor Julian Flavius, known as Julian the Apostate by Christians, was an Emperor who tried to restore the Pagan cults of ancient Rome amidst the Christian rule of his family, the Constantinians. He favored the metaphysical doctrines of Plato and his students, including the practice of theurgy and magic. He was well acquainted with some of the last magicians and philosophers, who helped him understand the deep inner-truths of the Roman tradition. He was a part of many Mystery Religions such as the Cult of Mithras which certainly inspired his panegyric: Hymn to King Helios. He was mortally injured during a campaign on the Sassanid Empire and like Socrates, he philosophized about the Gods until his death. From: Joey Pio

“But to put it in a word, most names have been given (Odin) as a result of the fact that with all the branches of languages in the world, each nation finds it necessary to adapt his name to their language for invocation and prayers for themselves, but some events giving rise to these names have taken place in his travels and have been made the subject of stories, and you cannot claim to be a wise man if you are unable to tell of these important happenings.” ᚬ ~Gylfaginning, Faulkes translation

The pole results are pretty consistent with what I’ve seen and heard in my personal life from other Pagans. For the time it takes to see an answer honestly depends on what it is I’m praying for. An experience I’ve had recently is my aunt’s dog got hit by a car and was in pretty bad shape. We rushed her to the vet and it wasn’t looking well; the poor thing couldn’t even walk. I said a prayer to Woden, who is the lord of hounds, and asked that he somehow let her survive this because my aunt lives alone and her dog is very important to her. The next day her dog was very happy but still unable to walk, and the doctor said that the incident caused her to lose all control of her legs, so she’d waddle around like a seal. I said, yet again, another prayer to the Allfather asking him to allow my aunt’s pup to somehow begin to walk. The day after all of that, my aunt opened the door to her house and, unexpectedly, her dog RAN into the front yard, and she now has control of 3/4 of her legs. To me it was simply amazing, and against all odds the pup began, not just walking, but playing joyfully again. I can only attribute this miracle to divine intervention from Woden himself. To those of you who feel the Gods don’t listen, they certainly do. Give it time and build your connection with them through the giving cycle. I guarantee that if you give offerings and perform acts of piety, you will see their hand in work your lives.

Gestumblindi said: "Who are the twain that on ten feet run? three eyes they have, but only one tail. Alright guess now this riddle, Heiðrekr!" Heiðrekr said: "Good is thy riddle, Gestumblindi, and guessed it is: that is Óðinn riding on Sleipnir." Heiðreks gátur - stanza: 36 Photo by PeterPrime

Happy new year! Heimdallr’s blessings to all.

Today I have shared some quotes from Platonists to dispel the false claims going about that: -Platonists didn’t believe in the gods -Platonists were against nationhood or “folkism” -Platonists were not loyal to the gods -Platonists saw the gods as mere attributes of a greater God -Platonists were like Christians (they opposed Christianity for being materialistic) Platonist paganism was indeed different from conventional paganism in some theological assumptions but not in practice. Pagan Platonists advocated for Nationalism, maintenance of ancient ritual sacrifices and reverence for the gods. I am myself critical of Platonism for certain things but NOT for made up things!

We have to weed out this idea that the Gods are simply deified ancestors. If you believe this then you are falling for a Christian conversion tactic. To say the Gods are within our blood is one thing, (that I agree with) but to say that they were only men at one point takes away their credibility to be a God/divine being. Men cannot become Gods. The Gods simply are, always have been, and always will be. Do not fall for these abrahamic lies that were used to subvert our ancestral faith!

Our Yule fire.

Now this is Germanic Yuletide aesthetic.

I’m very pleased with how pretty my Yule-Log turned out.

ᚷᛚᚨᛞ • ᚷᛖᚩᛚ Yuletide’s greetings!

Something needs to be said. Just as so many modern pagans are rebounding off of Christianity, a lot are also rebounding off of the radical left, maybe even a woke church. And in an attempt to be as anti-woke, as Based and Trad™ as possible, rejecting anything that remotely resembles where they came from, they can end up throwing the baby out with the bath water. It’s often these types who end up reducing the Gods to small, limited, and frankly blasphemous caricatures, such as minor regional deities, metaphors, deified ancestors, and placentas; in order for them to be totally exclusive to one branch of Indo-European culture. Because otherwise, what happened when the Indo-Europeans migrated, branched out, and founded new cultures and languages, did they discard their Gods and replace them with new ones? No. While they worshipped regional deities and spirits, the Indo-Europeans spread the cults of their beloved Gods to the ends of the earth. ᛉ Painting: Trizna, by Andrey Shishkin.

The whole “God of this or that” model is very hindering and damaging to how we understand Gods of ancient religions. Because this model implies that since one deity is primarily associated with something, that means another cannot be associated with that trait. Here’s are a couple examples to help you understand: Thor is the God of thunder therefore no other God can be associated with thunder. Well this isn’t true. Óðinn himself is associated directly with thunder just like Thor. One of his many names is Þundr (lit. thunder). Ægir is the “God of the sea”. While yes he may be the sea personified but there are other Gods in Germanic tradition associated with the sea. Such as his wife Rán, Njörðr, and Vadi. Sól is the personification of the sun, but she is not the only deity associated with the sun itself. Óðinn, Frigg, Freyja/Ostara, and Baldr all have associations with the sun, but one does not cancel out the other (obviously). I could give many more examples but I won’t bore you with a long post (yet). The Gods are infinite beings who are not restricted to these boxes that we as humans put them in. They can do things that are beyond their normal associations. Even in my personal practice I see Thor as a God associated with skaldic wisdom due to his encounter with Alvíss; a dwarf whose name means “all-wise”, yet Thor outsmarted him turning him into stone.

Very interesting results. In my personal view, it doesn’t make very much sense to believe that the soul would be punished or even rewarded for eternity. I think that depending on the moral standing of your soul (karma/hamingja) you are rewarded punished, or something in the middle for a certain period of time. Say someone murders a group of people and kills themselves out of cowardice, they would obviously spend a longer amount of time in the Snake-Hall than someone who lived their life as a cheater and liar. Logically since our souls are infinite, it makes sense that we would be reborn in a constant state of (preferably) pursuing what is Good/holy. The concept of eternal punishment is Abrahamic.

"Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your scriptures. But only in that which agrees with reason and is conductive to the good of one and all" - Kalama Sutta.