Hearthside

I have been trying to write about modern Heathen history and its ties to racism for some time now, but as you can imagine there is no easy way to approach it. However, recently something happened in my classroom which might shed some light on the topic and how to approach it. Some of you may know I am an educator by profession. I work in a grade 4-6 Montessori classroom. Recently we told the 3rd Great Story. The Great Stories are about the big questions. The 3rd Great Story is about the evolution of humankind, the advent of technology, the start of agriculture, and all such things. My director asked me to make a work for our Art shelf on Paleolithic painting so that the students could really experience something of what it would be like for early humans. The work included using mortar and pestle to grind up paint into powder, then mix it with water to get the correct consistency. The students were able to paint on stone and also try painting a huge brown paper attached to the wall usin...

(Part 1) So today is the 1st anniversary of this blog. I am going to mark it by addressing the elephant in the room. I made my first post on February 22nd last year, but this wasn’t the point of conception for it. The blog arose as an idea in my mind that was quite reactionary to the January 6th Storming of the Capital in the United States, and the ripple effect that occurred after it in the Heathen community. I gave this topic only a passing mention, and never a full blog post dedicated to it. That was very intentional. Why should I make the name of a certain questionably dressed “shaman” immortal? What deeds did he do to be worthy of living there in the collective memory? He was no hero and nor was he even Heathen. Best to forget. Here I am 1 year later, finding myself with similar sentiments about the Freedom Convoy here in Canada. I thought about writing about it here several times, but I stayed my hand. I don’t need a reactionary post or to raise up the names of people or groups w...