Hearthside

It is Remembrance Day. I am tired. I have been very over-taxed with work lately and was looking forward to the day off. I would do a little Remembrance Day rite in my Hearth cult, watch the Remembrance Day ceremony on CBC, read a little, and take a nap. Perfect. Unfortunately, it can’t be that simple these days. I was watching the CBC live on my phone and couldn’t figure out how to hide the comments. They were pretty bad… anti-LGBTQ+ and racist. I was shocked people would type such things while the veterans and soldiers were standing there at attention. I tried to report a few people, but, as usual that was fruitless. Hate speech is allowed these days apparently. Anyways, shortly afterwards I was watching a video talking about the new Remembrance Day stamp released by Canada Post and the pieces fell into place in my mind. Here was a picture of a Sikh veteran… and people were mad. “When did Remembrance Day become woke?” Well, sir… when those people you hate fought for your freedom. Whic...

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 ...

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...

These posts are sometimes the hardest to keep up with, since it is a long-term project that may or may not yield anything interesting. In addition, I have found this year particularly difficult, at first due to personal time constraints, but also because this year has been surprising me! Rune Rasmussen talks of a 19 year cycle which he associates each year with a rune in the Swedish rune poem. What I am doing each year is looking at the rune poems, plus historical data, to see if I can predict trends for the year. Think of it as a Heathen Farmer’s Almanac or something.  I had initial thoughts based on the rune Sol as to what that might mean for 2024, and went to historical data to see if I might be correct. The year 2005 was marked by drought and wildfires across much of Canada and Northwestern Europe. There was also a tendency towards large winter storms in Eastern Canada. Similarly, in 1986 Winnipeg was hit by a massive blizzard and in 1967 New Brunswick was hit by a huge winter ...