Typical Asatru holiday rituals involve toasts. Many holiday celebrations include feasts as part of the holiday. There lies before us a whole world of senses to explore besides taste, though. There are of course also many actions beyond the sensory and beyond simply giving a thing, and I'll get to those in a future part of this series, but first I want to focus on the senses other than taste.

This will be a multi part series, starting with this overview which includes a section on: why now in my personal journey. I'll review some terms, and then get to the senses other than taste: hearing, sight, touch, smell, and proprioception. Then I'll go over some actions one can do that don't involve the senses, such as donating to causes, and some meditations and journeys inward and through the other worlds leaving the body and the sensory world behind.

Along the way, I will relate some of my personal experiences along this stage of my journey. I'll make those posts separately from the Sacrifices series because they are personal reflections and stories, and the Sacrifices series is about actions one can take. Coming soon: My Monster Powers in November 2024, a personal story about my perfume journey.

Sacrifice

A term I wan to go over is the word sacrifice. Sacrifice means to make sacred. It does not mean wasting something or breaking it. Although breaking things appears to have been a method of making gifts to the dead, both in historical heathenry and modern Asatru the usual method of giving a gift to the gods, the dead, etc. is to make a toast, which means the person giving the gift of a beverage is consuming it. That means the person giving the gift does the drinking, the dancing, the jewelry wearing, the perfume smelling, etc. during the ritual. It is making it a ritual act that makes it sacred, that makes it sacrifice.

For example, say I am outside and I see the moon and want to honor Mani, but I have no beverage with me with which to make a toast. I will sing a short song in his honor instead. This is also sacrifice. I see the moon for the first time that day and am excited and happy and I sing a song. I enjoy singing it. It is sacrifice because it is a sacred act. Sacrifice does not mean deprivation, it means a sacred gift, a ritual action in honor of a god or other power.

Why now, in my personal journey

As I wrote about in my post My Heathen Life in September 2024, linked below, I recently started Monster Treatments to gain Monster Powers, the power of a Gila Monster. The Gila Monster usually eats in spring and then doesn't eat again until the next spring. The power of non-appetite is my new Gila Lizard Power (GLP), brought to me by Gila Lizard Power pharmaceuticals (GLP-1.) OK actually I started these drugs to control my diabetes, but I like the Monster Power story. This class of medicines was inspired by actual Gila Monsters, so I feel I am gaining Monster Powers, and I want to honor the Gila Monster in gratitude for my new powers.

My Heathen Life in September 2024:

https://www.witchesandpagans.com/pagan-paths-blogs/gnosis-diary/my-heathen-life-in-september-2024-part-2.html

After I made a Monster Powers post on my social media, my brother directed me to an article that shows many women turn to perfume after starting GLP-1 drugs. My brother then shared his Fragrantica page with me and I started reading about his collection and discussing various scents with him. I then started exploring the site and made a Fragrantica page of my own. I've learned a lot on the sight, and my brother's prediction was right: I have become obsessed with perfume. I'll tell more about my personal perfume journey in a future post. But the short version is that I have obtained some samples and have been Smelling All The Things, causing me to regain some lost memories of my teen years.

It occurred to me that I have been making extracts and distillations in my kitchen for 20 years. I used them to make food and drink, but I could make fragrances too. I made one and will make more. I'll write more about that in a future post in this series as well.

Stay tuned! There is more to come.