Hearthside

So it is 10:30pm on a Sunday night. I am halfway through dishes in an attempt to make room in the kitchen to rack my mead… but instead I find myself at the kitchen table pounding out words at the keyboard. It doesn’t matter who it was this time out there is the broader sphere of online Heathenry. It doesn’t matter who got the gears turning. It wasn’t the first time. It won’t be the last. That is the point of this really… Sometimes we disagree with other Heathens. Sometimes we disagree with other Heathens who are in our own tribes, kindreds, or close-knit communities. Sometimes those disagreements are beyond reparations and lead to a rift, or splitting off into separate groups. Sometimes tempers just flare, and Heathens are too proud to do the work to reestablish common ground. Either way unless it is my group, it is none of my concern… at least it shouldn’t be. The problem is that in this fast-paced modern world, when tempers flare we often turn to posting online to rant. (Ranting on i...

I have been thinking a lot about Fair Speech in heathenry for a long time. I first became aware of the concept of Fair Speech when I was studying Beowulf in university. Fair Speech is very much tied to other heathen concepts such as Deeds, and Kinship. All three of these concepts relate to Frith and Grith in a way that is so interwoven that it is impossible to separate them. As such, I will focus on Fair Speech in this post, and bring in the other two as they relate to it when talking about Frith and Grith. My hope is that this ap proach will create a more complete picture of heathenry and these concepts.  Fair Speech in its essence boils down to civility and courtesy, the ability to express oneself without being disruptive to the social order or causing unnecessary offense. Within the tribe this takes the form of having a difference of opinion with one’s Kin, but expressing it in dialogue in such a way that all parties can engage in an open discussion that will neither alien...

I have been thinking about Canadian heathenry, and both the challenges and strengths to having a heathen worldview in the Canadian landscape, as well as abroad. It can be tricky to quite fit in with the dominant christian over-culture. There is certainly a lot of room for misunderstandings. Of course, being raised in that culture, it is possible to blend in unnoticed the majority of the time. All of that is what it is though, and we have to work within that framework. More interesting perhaps, is looking at how heathen worldview can actually be a strength in our interactions with other individuals and groups. I have been blessed in my life with many mothers. There is of course, my birth mother, who helped to shape me into the strong woman that I am today, but my heathen worldview has also led me to forge many reciprocal bonds with people of other cultural groups that are more familiar with bonds of reciprocity than mainstream Canadian culture. One such special bond that I formed was...

Okay, I have been sitting on this one for quite some time because I just wasn't sure I was doing my best work with it, and I want to do it justice. That said, the issue is timely, so I am going to attempt to put it out there. I would love to hear from you on Facebook or Instagram if you have something to add or if you think I didn't quite get something right. Honouring the Land and building relationships with the landvaettir is an important part of heathen practice. The Book of Settlements provides examples of actual laws pertaining to the landvaettir, which emphasizes their importance.There are also numerous mentions of the landvaettir in the Prose Edda and multiple sages. It would seem on the surface level we should have some idea how to approach these beings with so many sources available to us, and we do, but there is room for improvement. Something I spend a lot of time thinking about in my personal practice is the correct way to honour the land in a somewhat traditional ...