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One day I was doing normal house stuff and my Honir ring broke. 

First, some background. As longtime readers of this blog might remember, my actual godspouse wedding rings that I received during my 2 marriage ceremonies exist on the spiritual level, not in the physical realm, but I had 3 rings dedicated to my 3 god-husbands, and 1 of them was the one I accidentally used in my 3rd marriage ceremony which I didn't realize I had done until afterwards.

Monsoon season in the Vegas valley closed out August with a wonderful thunderstorm during my pool party. The week leading up to it had been lovely and still enough for me to manage to get the pool looking nice and clean, always a challenge when a giant pine tree hangs over it. The pool party started with hot, still weather and a few puffy clouds in the sky, as neighbors and friends trickled in through the open side gate. I was super excited by the surprise appearance of friends from out of town I hadn't seen in years. The clouds kept gathering and turned gray and we were all looking at the sky thinking it might rain. We heard thunder roll, and we all responded with enthusiastic noises. I called out to Thor, "I made a fresh pot of coffee!" and plink! drop! Shining diamond blessings from the sky! It started raining! 

So of course I had to go in and get a cup of coffee and come back outside to make a toast to Thor. I got back in the pool with my cup and finished it as the rain increased. Being desert dwellers, we all love the rain.

Hello my faithful readers! 2024 is the 10th anniversary of this blog, Gnosis Diary: Life as a Heathen. I started out telling the story of my personal religious journey from the very beginning, and along the way have also done a lot of topical posts about Asatru, heathenry, and related subjects.  I think a great way to mark this milestone would be to collect some links to some of my earlier posts. This post contains links to my very first post, and also my top 5 most popular posts from 5 or more years ago.

My very first post on this blog, so you can read them in order if you wish:

I invite you to write your own myths, and to write your own versions of the ancient myths. Interpet them how you wish, in the way the resonates with you. Write completely new mythology that speaks to your experience in your real life the way that myths about grain harvest spoke to ancient farmers. But also make new translations of the old myths, and new personal versions of them, and opposite versions like fractured fairytales. 

If you speak other languages, make translations of untranslated works. Instead of translating a work in Old Norse that has been translated a dozen times, how about a work in Old Saxon other than Beowulf? Any other work in Old West Germanic? How about works in modern German which are new academic papers? Works in Latin? Works in obscure dialects? 

This post covers 3 topics:

1. the Swords and Swimming ritual, my kindred's summer ritual this year;

This post recaps the news coverage about the Troth's explusion of Diana Paxson. Then this includes useful links for surivors at the bottom of the post.

TW: CSA

It's time to revisit the topic of Asatru kindreds in my local area because the last time I posted about it was before the pandemic. I often get emails from people looking for a kindred to join in my local area, the Las Vegas valley. I received another such email recently and here is my reply:

"My kindred, American Celebration Kindred, is almost ready to accept new members but not quite. Our main ritual house had a pest control problem this winter and we're waiting until it's bug free to resume holding rituals and get-togethers. We've been closed to new members since the first Covid lockdowns started but are hoping to resume accepting new members soon. American Celebration Kindred does both Asatru and American holidays. If you're interested, I'll let you know when we're ready to meet new members.