Hearthside

One thing I have noticed is that beginner Heathens often have a vision of how their practice should be based on things they have seen online or in books, but it doesn't match what they are able to do at that moment in time. Instead of problem solving they get stuck and get frustrated. I have a few beginner Heathen hacks that have helped a surprising number of people. Today, I would like to share my hacks for altars. First of all, you don't need the big fancy altar. I know it is shiny, perhaps someday you will get there, but no one starts there. All you really need for an altar is a candle and a cup or bowl to hold a liquid offering. (Some people would argue you don't even need that much, but for the sake of this article we are going with my opinion.) A few other things that might be nice on you altar include: incense and an image or depiction of a deity, or of an ancestor.  Beginner Heathen Problem: I live with people who I am not comfortable knowing about my practice You ...

One of the things that came up recently with my Kindred was a discussion on Christianity and how you reconcile the overculture with your Heathen practice. Something that myself and other people who had been Heathens for a longer period of time said was that when you first become Pagan or Heathen then there's a lot of energy that you push at distancing yourself from Christianity. However, eventually you become comfortable enough in your own identity and your own practice that you kind of slide back a little bit the other way. I don't mean that you become Christian again but instead that you can enjoy some of the traditions that you enjoyed as a child, or perhaps that you're less bothered by the overculture (and by other people celebrating holidays that you don't believe in anymore).  I personally still have the most trouble with the Christmas season just because it's so long and so commercial. It's not really to do with the Christianity. I tend to feel overwhelme...

The more openly Heathen I become, the more I realize that my existence is inherently political. At first I tried to separate my religious identity from my political identity but it soon became clear that I cannot have those two things be separate. I tried to not engage people in my kindred in political discussions, but during covid I finally got bored and decided to have those discussions. I realized how vital they were to my identity in Heathenry. I also realized that I needed to stand up for other people in order to be able to stand up for what I believed in. For example if I want religious freedom then I have to stand up for other people's religious freedoms too. This is the reason why I'm a huge advocate for giving space for my Muslim students to pray, and making sure any provided snacks are halal. At this point I feel I cannot stay silent about political issues anymore, as they currently have huge impacts on my world. So for all of you who are going to argue this is not a ...

For those of you who haven't stumbled across this yet, there is a new set of runes in town. Eirik Westcoat created the American Futharch. The purpose of it is to create a futharch consisting of 33 symbols that match the phonetic sounds of American spoken English. Instead of transliteration, you can now write American English words phonetically in runes. It is important to understand that depending on your region you may spell words differently in the American futharch based on your pronounciation of them. In addition, Eirik Westcoat wrote a rune poem for the American Futharch runes. This is utterly revolutionary. It can easily be used adapted to Canadian English, and lays the groundwork for creating new runic linguistic resources for modern times.  Resources:  American Futharch Page https://americanfutharch.com/ American English Rune Poem https://americanfutharch.com/aerp/ Image Source: Tue Rune from the American English Rune Poem https://americanfutharch.com/aerp/

The 2025 New Moon rune according to The Nordic Animist Year by Rune Rasmussen is Tyr/Tiwaz. In these posts I examine the prediction for the year based on the Swedish rune poem in Rune’s book. I then compare the Swedish rune poem to other rune poems to try to gain more insights. After that I examine historical data on weather/climate, as well as politics, to try to predict what to expect in this year. This is all speculative. I want to see if the 19 year cycle can predict world events, specifically in Scandinavia and circumpolar regions.  We start with the Swedish Rune poem as that is in Rune Rasmussen’s book. Swedish Rune Poem: Tyr i Vatŭm ledast.  Tyri brinner bäst i.e.. dyrast. Tyr (bull) is badly off in water/Tyr (bull) is meanest of spirits. Resinous wood is best for burning, i.e. hardest. The strangest part of this poem to me was how Rune was translating Tyr as a bull. I am not sure what his reasoning for this was. Since it doesn’t seem to actually say that in the Swedis...