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...

So I have not been posting any new entries lately, even though I have many in the works in various stages. Instead I have been going back through previous entries as I have time to make video versions for accessibility. I will link my YouTube channel below if that is easier to follow me that way if you are visually impaired or are trying to listen to content on your commute. I warn you I am not a very natural YouTube personality. I am also embedding all the video versions of the blogs right in the old entries. I may not be updating too much more for awhile now though. The next month I have some personal changes in my life and I may not have space to record video until the dust settles, or time. We will see. Anyways, I wanted to give you a new post at least before I disappear. This post is a  true story that I thought you might enjoy. You may know that I love hiking. I often have formed reciprocal bonds with Land Spirits in places where I frequent. One of these places is a trail in ...