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Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in godspousery

Posted by on in Paths Blogs

Long time readers of my blog remember me writing about my 2 weddings during the year I was writing Some Say Fire, my unpublishable monstrosity based on heathen mythology. The 2 weddings both took place in that liminal space between sleep and waking, the first one to Loki / Lodhur and the second one to Odin and Honir. Neither time did I actually make wedding vows except to say "Yes, I want that." Neither time did I plan or expect them to happen. Both had been on a 28th of the month and I considered that my month-a-versary. Well, now I have an actual anniversary, and I didn't plan it that way lol. The gods know I sometimes just have random thoughts in my head and they've pretty much just ignored most of them over the years, but they didn't ignore it this time.

By the way, since this blog is Gnosis Diary and I was asked to write it to show what it feels like to do heathenry, I try to write about gnosis here at least occasionally, among my other topics. So anyway, on to the rest of my story.

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Posted by on in Paths Blogs

Continuing the novel gnosis series of posts, wherein I discuss religious insights gained via writing my unpublished behemoth Some Say Fire, today I'm talking about Rindr. Rindr is kind of an obscure goddess so I'll start with an introduction to her story in the Lore, which is what Asatruars and other heathens call our religious canon. Rindr is the daughter of Billing, king of the Ruthenians. That sounds like she must be a human but she is considered a jotun, also called ettin or giantess. Odin needed to father his son Vali to be an agent of vengeance and decided Rindr was to be the mother. He set out to woo her in disguise as a warrior named Roster, but she did not accept him. He tried twice but was rejected both times, so instead Odin turned himself into a witch named Wecha and used magic. The two main interpretations of this story by scholars are the agricultural metaphor interpretation that Rindr is a personification of the frozen winter earth that needs to be thawed and fertilized, or the feminist interpretation that Odin is a problematic figure. I don't subscribe to either of those interpretations in my novel gnosis.

Rindr was born with the potential to become a goddess, like some other jotnar who joined the Aesir, but didn't finish becoming one until bearing the god-child. Her story then is a story of the trial of initiation that makes one reach one's potential, similar in general movement if not in detail to Odin's trial on the tree. The ways in which Rindr doesn’t quite pass the goddess ascension tests and how Odin figures out how to make it work anyway highlight exactly what those tests are and what they are for.

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Posted by on in Paths Blogs
The Gold Ring from the Sacred Fire

Yes, it's a barbecue smoker lid. Yes, I really do light sacred fires in it. Because cooking for a ritual feast is a sacred act, and so is cooking for ordinary purposes when I'm intending to share some of it with the gods, so if I were cooking in my kitchen the gas flame on the range top would be a sacred fire, because that's how that works. The hearth fire through which Loki brings energy to us or from us to the gods does not have to be a replica of the hearth in a Viking longhouse or other historical type of building. I think I might draw the line at an electrical cooker or microwave, because those aren't really fire, but the wood and charcoal fire in the barbecue is just as much a traditional wood fire as anything our ancestors made.

So how did this shiny golden circular shape get here? I'm glad you asked. The story went like this. It was the full moon of Friday the 13th, which occurred in September this year (2019.) Now, Friday the 13th doesn't mean anything in heathenry-- in historical heathen calendar systems, it doesn't even exist-- but in modern American culture it's considered unlucky, which is the reason that some members of the witchy community consider it to be especially lucky for witches, along with black cats and broken mirror pieces.

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Posted by on in Paths Blogs
Sacred Jewelry for Lodhur

Dedicating jewelry to specific gods or goddesses and wearing it to honor them is something that many heathens and pagans do. Most heathens have a Thorshammer pendant, although for some of us it is not so much for Thor as it is just to identify as heathen. When I want to dedicate something to a god, I usually try to make it myself or repurpose something I already have, to use both less money and fewer of the Earth's resources (green living and frugal living usually run together.) 

Approaching my 2 year anniversary with Odin on June 28th, 2016, I asked my ninefold god-husband what he would like for our anniversary. It was Lodhur who spoke. “Acknowledge me more.”

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Posted by on in Paths Blogs
Crafting a Valknut for Odin

Coming up on the one year anniversary as a Bride of Odin on June 28th, 2015, I asked Odin what he wanted for our anniversary, and he said he wanted something to represent him in my "shrine." I clarified with him what he meant by shrine, and he meant the glass display cases on the wall where I had recently starting putting spiritual souvenirs. So I made a Valknut. I made two, in fact, one for the monthly anniversary which is every 28th of the month, on May 28th, and one for the one-year anniversary on June 28th.

I made the first valknut from silk ribbon on a silk hoop. I made the template for it on the 27th and made the art object itself on May 28th. The paper template helped me put the points of the triangles in the right places. It was interesting making a val-“knut” (knot) as a fiber craft, with the lines of the triangles crossing over and under each other like a real knot.

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The first 5 days after I received Loki's ring were turbulent and sometimes dark. He was not the delighted and playful skinriding presence I had grown so used to. I was vaguely aware of him as a dark ball of anger somewhere distant from me. 
 
Some of my online relationships exploded, and I had to cut ties. But, some long time acquaintances suddenly grew closer and turned into friends. 
 
At first, I wondered if Loki's absence might be a test of faith. Then I realized that I was better off without the people he kicked out of my life. Old acquaintances suddenly, inexplicably contacted me to renew and deepen old relationships. I realized that Loki had been away arranging my life for my benefit. 
 
I would never have guessed in advance who Loki would kick out of my life, and who would grow closer. I suppose that's the reason he arranged this part of my life for me, because I didn't guess right all the time about who I should be friends with. All the people I fought against online in those few days claimed to be Lokeans. Only when I was trying to get them out of my online friends lists did I discover some of them were not who they seemed to be.
 
The biggest surprise was grower closer to a longtime acquaintance who avoided Loki. Despite that, we started sharing our personal gnosis with each other, and beta reading each other's writing. We evolved into friends as well as colleagues. One of the lessons to learn here is that when people on different paths respect that my path is my path, your path is your path, and we don't have to walk the same path to be friends, we can walk together on our different roads in friendship.
 
Image: fire in darkness, by Anupam Sunil, Creative Commons license, via Wikimedia Commons
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Posted by on in Paths Blogs
My 2 Weddings, part 1: Loki

On April 28, 2014, I was reading reading a novel in bed. My eyes closed and my Kindle slipped from my hand onto the pillow. Instead of drifting off to sleep, I drifted into hypnogogia, that dreamy state in which I am awake and aware but can't move and can see images as if I were dreaming.

Loki appeared, and I expressed anxiety that he and the other gods would stop talking to me when I was done writing the book they were inspiring me to write.

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