Hearthside

It is not uncommon for me to pull from other sources for my Heathenry, looking at Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Baltic, or Slavic traditions to see if I can fill in some of the missing gaps in the Nordic sources. My interest lately has been going into pre-history, looking at the Proto-Indo-European root myths. In this case, I want to try to flesh out the Nordic “goddess.” There is so little preserved about goddesses, because I believe the Christians tried to intentionally erase them to take power away from Nordic women. Now I cannot reconstruct every goddess this way but I feel it is a solid way to construct the mother goddess, the earth goddess. In the Hellenic tradition she is the one known as Gaia. In Nordic traditions I would see her as Nerthus, and also as Jörð. Over time they became separate deities, but I think their roots both lie in the Proto-Indo-European goddess, Dʰéǵʰōm (earth) or Pleth₂wih (broad one). There is a huge problem in the Lore with goddesses being labelled as Jötunn, in ...

Tonight is Mother’s Night, or at least it is when I celebrate it within my hearth. Bede recorded it as being the Eve of December 25th, or Christmas Eve. However, it likely shifted to that date after the introduction of Christianity. Some modern heathens celebrate Mother’s Night on the Eve of the Winter Solstice, and some celebrate it on December 24th. Others don’t celebrate it at all. So what is Mother’s Night? It is the celebration of the female ancestors, or Disir. It is similar to, or may be the same celebration as Disting of Disablot, which doesn’t seem to have a set date in the sources. Some modern heathens celebrate both separately, with Disting usually falling somewhere between January 31st and mid-February. Others celebrate one or the other, and some celebrate neither. The truth is modern heathens don’t really agree much on what holidays to celebrate other than the major 3: Sigrblot, Winter Nights, and Yule. (And often with the addition of a 4th at Midsummer.) It is up to the t...

Whenever the icy winds roar across the prairies and the temperatures drop I find myself thinking about Skaði. I imagine her standing out in some field among the snow drifts with snowflakes caught in her hair, laughing as the wind shrieks around her.  Nordic goddesses are all pretty tough, but Skaði is next level. Perhaps it is her Jötunn blood, or perhaps it is how she loves to be out on the land. I spend a lot of my time hiking in all seasons. My body quickly adapts to the temperatures, I know well when the weather will change and I am prepared for it. Many people I know complain when they have to go outside this time of year, but there is a certain satisfaction in victory over the elements, in surviving all of winter’s harshness, not just enjoying its sweetness through the window. The frigid temperatures remind us that it is a gift to be alive every day and that we should make the most of it. Skaði more than beats the elements, she thrives in them. And this is also metaphorically...

I have been spending too much time on TikTok lately. Which is probably a poor use of time, however, occasionally something interesting comes of it. For instance, I recently was just flipping through content and found a song sung by bella.dandrea which is a "Norse Pagan" (for why this is in quotations, read here ) song meant to be sung to your daughter as you are waking her up in the morning. The lyrics are as follows: There once was a little lady Little idel leigh And she stood up tall and proud The drums they are so quiet To the way that her feet pound Freya smiling down Idunn she’s oh so proud Nott so joyous Syf so happy Hamynga dares to grin Hel can’t help but stare The little lady there They all feel so proud Happy little lady found Chorus: Little idel leigh, del leigh, little idel lay Little idel leigh, del leigh, little idel lay Hey! (x2) I thought this was quite beautiful and it sent me down a rabbit hole on heathen lullabies, and what was out there. It will probably ...

I find myself circling back time and time again to the story of the wooing of Gerðr. You are probably wondering why. It is true from a modern perspective that the story is extremely problematic. (And I will say right now that the subject matter of this post may be troubling to some and you may not want to read any further.) I am sure there are a lot of parts of the Lore that we all are often tempted to gloss over, and this is probably top of the list. That probably is exactly our problem in approaching it, however. Sometimes you can’t go into something with a modern mindset and take anything of value from it, and the importance of the story isn’t the story itself, but its value.  Now what value can I possibly deriving from a story that seems to glorify rape culture and remove female agency? That is exactly where we get stuck with this story, is making assumptions based on modern understandings. There are quite a few scholars who try to pick apart whether or not Gerðr has feminine a...