Hearthside

So I have written about Land Taking rituals before, but something has been nagging at me for a while as an inclusive modern Heathen. The idea of Land “Taking” in Canada (and other countries with histories colonization by Europeans) is problematic in a post colonial sense, where the mantra is Landback. I am a supporter of the Landback movement, but I feel the name Land “Taking” is doing a disservice to the purpose of the ritual within the modern context. Other names can be used as well such as “circumambulation.” But what is the purpose of this ritual? Some sources seem to say it is to Hallow the land or make it sacred. This makes sense if you were land taking to create a Hof or Vé, but Land Taking was done to create homesteads as well. It was the creation of the enclosure. This is not the same type of enclosure as the Enclosure movement I talk about in my Forest Commons posts. Instead this enclosure was the land needed by a family for the purpose of subsistence. The land was for raisin...

This is part 4 of my blog series on the Forest Commons of Northern Europe. The previous section was on how the Enclosure Movement affected colonization in Canada and elsewhere and how Canadians can ally with Indigenous peoples going forward. Previously we also talked about what the Forest Commons were and their History up to modern day. If you haven’t read those posts yet, you may want to loop back to them. This post will be about modern Heathenry in Canada and building grith with Indigenous Communities. In this post we will examine stories from Indigenous peoples of North America as well as Heathen stories, and attempt to create common ground. We will discuss: Spirits of Place 7 Generations philosophy and being good ancestors The importance of community Sacred Trees Ancestry and connection to land Gifting practices Ways to move forward An important part of Heathenry is the veneration of Spirits of Place. Understand this to be spirits who would aid humans, not malevolent spirits. He...

I am afraid it is a bit of unfortunate business that sparked me on this thought train, but just the same, the idea is still a useful one and something worth sharing. I have been thinking a lot about ancestor veneration lately, but not on the individual level, on the community level.  A tribe that shares frith, shares ancestors. Our lives are irrefutably linked. But our ancestors help to create cohesion and belonging within the group. They seek to make us better and improve our luck. They seek to help us heal what needs to be healed, so that we can grow as a community. Even on the larger community level there are shared ancestors. These take the form of local folk heroes or ancestors of place that are publicly venerated. (Often without all the members of the community who are venerating them really understanding what they are doing.) For people who are not familiar with ancestor veneration as a common practice, they don’t recognize it, and yet feel drawn to participate in it, even w...