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A Rede to the Bookish

There was once a certain dwarf named All-wise—in the Norse tongue, all-víss—and aptly so, for he did indeed wish to know all things. To this end, he studied day and night, nor was he ever to be found without a book in his hand.

One night, so sunken was he in his studies, that he forgot to look for the coming of the Sun.

When its first light struck him, in the way of those sons of Earth, he was turned to stone, and so exploded. Such was the end of All-wise the dwarf.

Let this be a rede to the bookish. Books are good, but they are not the world.

The name of All-wise the dwarf lived on in the memory of the Northmen. In time, they brought it with them to the kingdom of England where, having undergone the softening of years, we know it now as Elvis.

Listen now, friends, to a tale of best-laid plans going awry.

As many of you know, my first book on Minoan spirituality, Ariadne's Thread, went out of print early this year. I got my rights back to the book and began revising it for a second edition. I wrote it before Ariadne's Tribe came into being, so it definitely needed some changes. I was planning to release the new second edition on November 1 of this year.

May you soften into
the wildness beneath your skin.
May you feel the deep support
beneath your bones.
May you taste freedom
singing on the wind
and through your blood.
May you dance your dreams into being
and spin your magic into life.
May you listen to the rhythms of your wild heart
as she whispers to your soul
of exactly what you need to thrive.
May the fruitful soil of transformation
nourish your whole being.

I was pleased to write an endorsement for the new book, Home to Her, by Liz Kelly, forthcoming from Womancraft Publishing. Pre-orders are currently open for the book. (Side note: I was interviewed by Liz about Walking with Persephone last October.)

Home to Her is a compelling narrative at once personal, herstorical, mystical, and exploratory. Liz’s voice is both gentle and fierce, weaving an engaging book that draws from personal experience—both mundane and mystical—family and ancestral experience, and the work of other foremothers, wayshowers, and theorists from years gone by. 

Willing to wrestle with complex topics such as the legacy of colonialism and European appropriation of indigenous land, voices, stories, and traditions, Home to Her skillfully guides the reader across a multifaceted landscape of experiencing, questioning, exploring, and coming into relationship with the divine in our lives and our world.

Home to Her is a love song to the Sacred Feminine, in her many forms and faces, past, present, indwelling, and strong.

They're burning books in Tennessee. Supposedly "witchcraft" books, and I would tell you all to go read them, except they mean Harry Potter.

Read that too, if you wish, and if you haven't already. I haven't read it myself, but some younger people I know loved it as kids. The controversy over Harry Potter is that it supposedly promotes witchcraft. The author has become controversial due to anti-trans statements on social media, but the book series does not have much to do with that. There are ways to read a book without putting your money into it, if that is a concern for you.

One of the main draws of science fiction is that it can examine ideas outside of their normal cultural context. Hard sf always starts with a "what if" based on science or engineering, which goes something like "What if we had x technology, and how would that change society?" Softer versions of science fiction are basically just set in the future, though.

When we think of spirituality in sf, we usually think of various types of meditation, such as the Litany Against Fear in Dune or the Vulcan mantra against pain in the original Star Trek, or depictions of religious ritual, such as the rituals and customs of different Newcomer religious sects in Alien Nation, the religions of various aliens in Babylon 5, etc. There are religious elements in sf that are obviously drawn from real world religions, such as the obvious Eastern influences on The Force in Star Wars and the depiction of the world as illusion in The Matrix. 

Yggdrasil was a small format heathen newsletter which was, for a while, my primary contact with the heathen community. Recently I re-read a few old issues from the 90s. I was struck by the mix of academic explorations of lore with fun and games like the rune puzzles, and announcements about future events. Obviously I remember that-- I even wrote some of those rune puzzles-- but from my perspective here 30 years later and deeply enmeshed in the internet it seems strange to think about the days when I would yearn for communication with other heathens and it came in the form of the letters section in the larger magazines, which each came once a quarter. I would yearn for more knowledge and it came in the mail, on random topics chosen by the magazine editors. Looking at the contents of a few copies of Yggdrasil now, it reminds me strongly of the contents of the forum I manage, the Asatru Facebook Forum, except that people in forums can just post things and don't have to go through an editor's selection process, and everything is nearly instantaneous. Someone can post a question on a topic and a dozen people will answer in the space of a few days. Thinking back to how it was before the net, it seems almost miraculous.

The net has replaced a lot of what I used to seek at heathen festivals back in the day, too. It's replaced the seminars and panels and specialty rituals with similar things held online, especially last year as people deliberately tried to hold actual gatherings over the net due to the pandemic. Blogs like this one have replaced some of the in-person classes we used to have at festivals or in bookstores. Forums meet part of the need for social interaction with other heathens that we used to get hanging out by the campfire at festivals. And of course, the festival's dealer's tables have moved to the net too. Yet, we still have festivals-- or at least we did before Covid-- and obviously, we still have magazines. So, the net must not be meeting all of everyone's needs.