Hearthside

I was recently talking to someone in the USA about how they were trying to find the meaning in American holidays from a Heathen perspective. They were trying to be mindful of the colonial history of America and working to moving past that. It got me thinking about how that might look in Canada. Holidays about belonging to a nation or group of people, but how do we feel that sense of belonging when we are ourselves outside of the over-culture? How do we reconcile our shared colonial history as modern inclusive Heathens in Canada? If you are not familiar with Canadian Holidays, there are very few, and even less which are actually days off of work. Some days are provincially recognized only or have different names in different provinces even if they fall on the same day. The majority of days are either Christian or colonial in origin. So let’s take a look: Remembrance Day - November 11th This is a day to honour those who died in war, and honour veterans. What some people may not know is t...

I have been thinking a lot about Freyr this year, in association with the summer season, as well as with the Ar year and its connection with Fertility. Also, as part of the Aun/Unn cycle of renewal and the focus that many Heathens are taking on the resetting of things to do with our Environment. May is the perfect time to discuss Freyr. In the Nordic Animist Year by Rune Rasmussen, St Eric’s Day in May is equated with Freyr and a ritual similar to the Procession of Nerthus, in which a statue of St Eric (Freyr) is carted around the land in order to bring fertility to it. It mentions that Freyr is the patron god of the Ynglings, but who is Freyr and who are the Ynglings? Freyr is a complicated figure in the Lore. He is described as a Vanir god, living among the Aesir, and at times he is also called Alfar or King of the Alfs. It is even suggested that Freyr is actually a man. Freyr has many names. He is known as Freyr or Frey, but also as Ing or Yngve. Sometimes as Yngvi-Freyr. (And this ...

The last few years I have been doing something with Rune Rasmussen’s Nordic Animist Year and using his years along with the Rune poems to create a sort of Farmer’s Almanac type prediction for the year. Now, I had been doing that in about February the last couple years, so that I had a taste of the year already but had not got too far into it. Unfortunately, time has gotten away from me this year. I have a lot more Heathen and non-Heathen commitments this year, and also with it being the Year of Aun/Unn, I have had a divided focus.  So now it is nearing the end of May and I am just writing this. The Ar year, “Ar” being the Jera rune. It is the “Year” Year. Happy Year?  But more seriously, this year marks the end of a period of stagnance in the Runic Animist Years. We had a 3 year period of stagnance (think covid in this case) and we are emerging. The Ar year is about the return to greenery and abundance. We can expect warmer weather, better crops, and coming out of our stagnanc...