This is a story about inspiration. I was chatting online with a friend and received some inspiration, which came to me as a poetic description, and then he used that prompt to meditate and receive his own inspiration, which came to him as a formula for his craftwork.
My local friend Derin Deschain is a perfumer. He is Romani, and a hedge rider and witch. And this week he has green hair, lol. He sells his perfumes from his Etsy store Cherry-ka's Trunk.
I had posted that I had datura seedlings to give away and we were chatting online about trading various things, including some of his perfumes. He has several fragrances to honor Asatru gods, including Loki, Thor, and Hel. He also has one for Thor's hall Bilskirnir. I said I was thinking of getting all the Asatru ones, but then I'd be giving more attention to Loki than Odin. (I've been consciously trying to give more attention to Odin recently.) So we started chatting about an Odin fragrance. He said he wanted to make one, and that was when inspiration struck. My fingers moved on the keyboard and this came out:
Wanderer.
Wind on the hilltop.
Old cotton cloak, dark blue, campfire and whiskey and a hint of wolf and feathers.
So then Derin meditated upon Odin, and connected with him. Derin started with my inspiration as a springboard and then received his own inspiration.
His new scent is called One-Eye. The description on its page on his Etsy store says it contains smoke, mead, oak, and several other things. Derin wrote a great short passage about Odin wandering the world. Read it here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/594834558/one-eye-odin-fragrance-sea-salt-tobacco
Derin brought over the very first bottle and it is amazing. It made the hair stand up on the back of my head.
Image: Odin the Wanderer by Georg von Rosen, public domain