If you are cold so is he,

Let him in, pour him a drink and treat you guest well...

But dont trust a word he tell.

LIKE to rip apart annoying people with your animal teeth

REBLOG to rip apart annoying people with your animal teeth

Hear my call, High One,

As you watch over the Einherjar’s hall,

Sitting on your throne

With a raven at each of your sides,

Hand gripping your spear

As the other strokes your wolves.

Hear my plea, Hooded One

For I am sailing foggy waters

And the threads of my fate are hidden from me,

As they are known only to your wife Frigg

And the Norns at the bottom of the holy ash.

When it is lost in a storm,

Won’t you hear your child’s prayer?

When it has lost its way,

Won’t you offer your divine wisdom?

After so many sacrifices made,

Won’t you mercifully ease my pain?

Hear my despair, Wise One,

I am asking you to guide me,

To be the favorable wind which pushes me in the right direction,

To light a torch at the end of my path,

To show me the shape of my Wyrd,

To reveal yourself to me in all your glory.

When there is nothing before me but walls of flame and smoke,

I plea for you to quiet the fires which obstruct my path

And to lead me back from where I have strayed.

Black fallow deer seen in the Barycz Valley - Landscape Park in Poland.

(via)

dionysus be like:

When you're using the runes to communicate with Odin and you keep getting the same cryptic answer over repeated draws...

Me: but what does it MEAN

Odin: ,) *exact same rune as last 3 draws*

@after-the-raven hahaha I wish I could claim credit for it but I think I saw @systlin do it first

All Your Favourite Norse Deities are Queer: Some Resources

Since I’m so fond of saying “all ur fave Norse deities are queer” I thought I’d put together a short list of links to sources written by people who actually know what they are talking about. Most of these are from the Grumpy Lokean Elder’s tumblr because they often have links to other resources:

Queerness in Heathenry

The Viking Answer Lady’s article on homosexuality in Viking Age Scandinavia.

 “What do you think the gods would think of homosexuality?”

Addendum to the homosexuality in Heathenry post (contains links to articles about guldgubber, same-sex guldgubber exist)

Deities associated with queer people (and lesbians in particular)

Which deities would be good to petition for help coming out as nonbinary?

Specific Deities

(Besides Odin and Loki because everyone knows they’re queer as fuck.)

Heimdall and the World Tree

Lokavinr talks about Loki as the Other in Lokasenna

I’m trying to hunt down that one article by that one guy that speculates that Thor and Loki had sex in Thrymskvida (which I don’t really take that seriously but thought I’d include for reasons).

For Frigga, Fulla, Lofn, see links above.

For Odin, see everything Odin does. Everything.

I have no idea if any of these links still work but HAPPY PRIDE!

“For Odin, see everything Odin does.”

I mean so far no one’s argued with me on that point.

@mannazandwyrd replied:

So there you have it! Worth the shot!

I can not be the only one who simultaneously feels like I’m a shit follower of the theoi who needs to do more, and also like all the fancy trapping would feel fake for me. Like I’ll think about all kinds of extra stuff I could be doing and then also be like “but that’s not genuine for me”

I can’t discuss anything without quoting M. Aurelius and stoicism (and I know stoicism isn’t everyone’s jam, but it gives a good pov about this topic), so:

This statement is quite drastic, but it shows an important thing: you don’t have to captivate the gods with fancy words because they are good, and they will always do what is best for the cosmos. Prayers and offerings are an act of respect and should match what you think, feel, and can afford to give.

You are not required to do fancy stuff because what matters is your attitude towards the divine. There is a nice passage in the Edelsteins’ works on Asclepius that says that the god always listened and intervened in favor of those who approached him with respect, ignoring only those who wanted to take advantage of him. The virtuous devotee is always welcomed by the gods. Feeling unworthy for not doing more can lead you to a dead end. If you are not worthy because you can’t do more, it is useless to do anything, so why bother? But I don’t think this is what you want.

The gods are good and always do what is best, and most importantly, they know what we can do and give. Small acts of devotion and silence are better than extravagant offerings with empty prayers if this is what you can and want to offer. Fancy rituals are meaningful only if you want them to be like that or if you need to do them for whatever reason. Daily (or weekly or monthly) devotion should be approachable, and it should be something that you really want to do. If more complex rituals are not appealing, skip them. You are not a shitty devotee because of this. We are not priests, and we are not required to chant and sing hymns thrice a day, every day.

It’s easy to forget that religious practices should adapt to mankind, not the other way around.

minoan motifs patterns

marine pottery style/palatial fresco style

available on mugs, shirts, bags, socks, & more other merch HERE and HERE

Spiritual protection in the Greco-Roman world

This was this week’s hot topic, so I’m using the opportunity to make some things clear from a purely hellenic and historical perspective. Needless to say I am tired of seeing modern magical concepts being slapped on ancient beliefs and I am not writing this post unbiased.

Amulets Etymologically, the word amulet probably means “something that can be carried”. It’s, personally speaking, my favorite type of protection. Technically speaking, an amulet could, therefore, be a lot of different things as long as they serve two main purposes: tutelage (protection) and prophylaxis (preventive).

Let’s go through some of the most common types:

This is not even an extensive list, but it’s worth noting that when we’re talking about the ancients, we’re talking about people who have been put under some kind of magical protection since their first days of life. I personally have used 2 types of amulet cited above so far, a silver coiled snake ring which I worn until it broke, which I replaced by a fascinum. This one travels with me, as I keep it with my apartment keys but I have 2 consecrated phalli in my apartment that also serve a purpose: one to Dionysus and one to Priapus. The latter being by definition, a protective deity. 

Protection starts at the threshold

I know this can be hard to pull off, but in ideal conditions, you’d want to have a small altar or shrine by the main door of your place. Amulets are meant to follow you around, but protecting your space is just as important. In one of the ridiculous arguments I’ve witnessed this week, someone said, and I paraphrase, that “you could have negative entity living in your house and fucking your life up” when trying to honor the gods, which is “why you should banish“. The problem here is banish against what? If the answer here is “negative spirits”, then, by hellenic standards, this is a whole other process that: 

1) Doesn’t happen at the altar 2) Protects the household on the long term instead of a one shot thing

This, alongside other elements of ancient greek theology, is why you don’t need to “protect yourself when you approach the gods” and other ridiculous claims I’ve seen. If you need to protect yourself in such manner, it means you never either 1) developped kharis with a deity to protect you or 2) took care of protecting your place. 

The first protection for a typical greek door would be an aniconic pillar dedicated to Apollo Agyieus aka “of the street” because that pillar was outside of the house. This Apollo, protector of entrances is also called Thyraios in later sources: 

It’s important to note that the same epithet is attested for Hermes, which makes total sense since he and Hekate are also traditionally linked to the protection of thresholds (represented by hekataia and herms). 

Why am I insisting so much on doors? To quote Johnston: 

It’s important to note that the protection granted by threshold deities, whether it is Hecate, Hermes or Apollo is that it concerns both the mundane and the spiritual, restless spirits are one thing but it seems to extend to general ills.

Conclusion

I should add, before wrapping this up, that there is an evolution in time with how the Ancients considered their protection to work. As such, between the 8th and 5th centuries BC, amulets weren’t so prevalent. The gods were considered the only ones who had the ability to protect. After the end of the 5th century onwards, there is a gradual shift towards a more “DIY” approach to protection, where human action is considered impactful, thus making the use of atropopaic amulets relevant. 

Further reading: