Hearthside

(Maybe not appropriate for children under 14, or whatever. That is up to your discretion.) What is Freyja’s association with fire, or does she have one at all? This is what I will (mostly) be exploring today in this blog, but there is a lot about Freyja to unpack, and honestly, it starts with just trying to clear up what exactly she is associated with in a more broad sense. If we let this narrative be told through a christian lens we would probably say that Freyja is the Nordic Aphrodite, the goddess of love (or lust?) and beauty. I take issue with this. At least insofar as that Freyja’s nature is much more complicated than just those elements. It seems like there is a lot of dismissiveness of the importance of goddesses in Nordic mythologies, and I attribute this largely to an attempt at erasure of the power of the feminine by the church. Most goddesses were minimalized, but Freyja, and Frigg, were too big to erase. Instead the tactic was to make Freyja appear as some lustful sorc...

I have had a worry in the back of my mind now for several weeks. You see, I am out walking and hiking as much as I am able. About 3 weeks ago I was following a path along the river to a small dock where I often like to sit and look out to the water. I could see the water level was low as I walked along the bank at one spot on this trail. I did not realize how low, until I got to the dock, which had no water under it at all. Now, I might expect this to be possible in July or August, at the hottest and driest point of the year, but this is early spring. The snow had just melted. I mentioned my concern to my mother on the phone and she said it was okay. The snow probably hadn’t melted in the north yet and the river had not reached full saturation. It was then that I reminded her that unlike most rivers, ours runs south to north, meaning it had reached its saturation point already.  No one was saying anything in the news about drought; they were all too preoccupied with the pandemic. T...

I don’t usually like to delve too much into runes, because it seems like more of a rabbit-hole than I conceivably have time for. I do have a basic understanding of runes, of course, but I normally just avoid working with them in any manner. This tends to get looks from people when I state this, but let’s be honest… learning Old Nordic has been a far more useful application of my time. Learning runes does not necessarily help in understanding Old Nordic as not all inscriptions with them are linguistic in nature. And it seems to me, the majority of people learning them aren’t interested in their linguistic capabilities either. Which is all good, but someone else can be the keeper of that knowledge not me. Where am I going with this? Heck if I know! It was all very clear to me when I was out on a lovely Spring walk earlier, but some of that clarity has faded now. I know where I want to start though. A lot of people have been talking about the Isa rune as the rune that represents the pande...

I have been thinking a lot about Var holidays this year, which is to say the holidays occurring in the Springtime, surrounding the planting season. There has been a lot of discussion in the heathen community about Valborg’s night (Walpurgisnacht) and the historical meaning behind it. I have not been in the habit of practicing anything for Valborg’s night in my personal hearth practice but I know plenty of heathens who do. I also don't wish to expand on it much because there is copious information on it out there right now. I also know plenty of heathens who do some sort of charming of the plow ritual in Spring or who celebrate Summer Day by planting juniper for fertile fields. Many heathens also bring traditions from various other traditions, such as the celebration of the Vernal Equinox/Ostara. Admittedly, I recognize the Vernal Equinox in my hearth practice, although this comes more from the recognition of science than any particular tradition in my case. That said I engage in so...