Gnosis Diary: Life as a Heathen

My personal experiences, including religious and spiritual experiences, community interaction, general heathenry, and modern life on my heathen path, which is Asatru.

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Changes in the New Year

Posted by on in Paths Blogs

I don't do New Year's Resolutions. There is an undercurrent of cynicism about them that implies that giving one's word, even to oneself, is really not a big deal. I don't want to follow that way of thinking. Promises to myself or to the universe can never be a joke to me, because as a heathen my word and my honor are real things that affect real life. Nonetheless, I find myself making new starts in several areas of my life anyway.

It's only a few days into 2022 and I've found myself making a change in what I (and my housemate) give to the landwight, after discussing it with the gnome. I also am going to do some garden tasks to arrange things properly. For example, recently there was a killing frost so the morning glories are dead for the season, and I will be able to clear out the planting bed where Margaret temporarily buried her pet snake Narcissa, because her family had not yet gotten a house at that time, and I made plans to clear the planting bed tomorrow and have her family come move Narcissa this weekend.That was always part of the plan since it was supposed to be temporary in the first place, but I am now motivated to actually get the clearing work done while I do the other garden things I need to do tomorrow.

I was able to carry on the conversation with the landwight fairly easily because I have so much practice communicating with the gods and with my late companion Tom. When I first started working with the landwight to create the garden, environment, and eventually also the shields and boundaries I wanted, I did not yet have the godphone I've developed in recent years, so the ease of communication now is great.

On New Years' Day I was sick and was just trying to tough it out because there was no way to access covid testing in my local area, because all the appointments were booked days out. (I ordered a test off the internet just before the New Year, but I'm feeling better and it hasn't arrived yet. After it arrives, I'll have it if I ever need it again.) I was thinking about death, and how I had to handle my mom's and Tom's estates, and all the stuff I have in my house that I don't even want that my friends and family would have to clear out. After I felt better, I decided to get rid of all that stuff now. I have already de-stashed some fabric and plan to do more. I've been reorganizing stuff, finding things I'd forgotten about, deciding to use them or let go of them, and planning how best to declutter and hopefully sell some things so I can get other things I do want.

On New Years' Day I also I found myself called on to pray to Eir on behalf of someone else in the community, who was apparently led to me by a serendipitous accidental misdial that reached my housemate. I've never asked Eir for anything for anyone else before and was nervous about doing so because I'm not a healthcare worker, but it was fine. I think I've gained knowledge.

There were some other changes, but that selection will do for this post. I kind of feel like there will always be more opportunities for growth and knowledge and insight so I might be changing and learning my whole life, but I also kind of feel like I've accomplished what I set out to do with this blog: to show people what it feels like to do heathenry and Asatru. I'm sure there will be more stuff in my life in the future just as worthy of being written about as what I've already written here, but I don't know if any of it will offer more insight on what it's like to do heathenry, since I've been writing here for several years now and gone through a whole lot of both personal and spiritual changes that I've chronicled here. I think I may have told enough of my personal journey to get that feeling across to my readers.

In the coming year, I think I will have some writing and publishing news to share. As usual, I'll announce relevant new works here. I have plans to write some reviews, some of which I might post here.

I'm still managing the Asatru Facebook Forum, with the help of the other Trollslayers, so I might have more of my expanded answers to questions to post here. (Sometimes a question prompts me to come up with an answer I would not have thought of if no one asked the question. This is how the teacher learns by teaching.)

I have a new post about the Heathen Visibility Project already written, that I'm just fine tuning, so hopefully I'll be posting that soon. I hope that the Project is well enough launched now that other creators who are better at the kind of images the Project needs will grow the Project, maybe even in directions I couldn't think of myself, or that require different talents and abilities than mine.

I don't know when the pandemic will end, or when or if it might be safe or allowed for me to travel, so I don't know if I'll be attending any in-person conferences or festivals again. Until recently I kept hoping I would get to do a post-pandemic belated book tour, since my book came out in 2020 and I didn't get to do one then. This year's health developments have cast doubt on that. So, I plan to continue to interact online such as with this blog, my forum and social media, and any other online opportunities that may come along. I'm available for online convention panels, interviews, etc.

I don't read my own fortune, so I'm not making any predictions. But I hope this will be a great year!

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Erin Lale is the author of Asatru For Beginners, and the updated, longer version of her book, Asatru: A Beginner's Guide to the Heathen Path. Erin has been a gythia since 1989. She was the editor and publisher of Berserkrgangr Magazine, and is admin/ owner of the Asatru Facebook Forum. She also writes science fiction and poetry, ran for public office, is a dyer and fiber artist, was acquisitions editor at a small press, and founded the Heathen Visibility Project.

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