Holy Water and Wards

So, over the last couple weeks I have put together new wards for my place, using a set of bindrunes, and I've actually made holy water, with the help of a witch friend of mine. The holy water actually charged under the lunar eclipse we had, so we'll see what effects that has on it, if any. I need to put it in a different bottle and remove the silt at the bottom, but it has been made and I have a couple really cool bottles thanks to another friend to chose from. Hopefully in the next few days I can put the new wards up, and see how they work.

A Wild Hunt

I just watched a movie called "The Wild Hunt" on netflix, a little indie film that takes place largely during a LARP festival, or Live Action Role Playing. I recommend it to people, especually Pagans and Heathens.

It's different from your normal film, but through its sometimes goofy, sometimes dark story, there is a strong Pagan theme through it, especially in the main character's brother, Bjorn Magnuson, who seems to have blurred the lines between his persona's being a devote of Thor, and let it run into his own life. And while his grip on sanity may be questionable, it remains a strong part of him throughout the film, and the Thunderer does seem to acknowledge Bjorn. Indeed, Bjorn has a hammer Mjolnir, which plays a key role in the film, both as something upon which oaths are taken, and which brings about a resolution to the film as well. Of course the main focal points being the Wild Hunt itself, brought about by a ritual that in the end perhaps summoned the real Hunt, and not just a pretend one. Reborn of death, unleashing the beasts within, riding upon waves up despair until the frenzy erupts, taking all by surprise.

Anyways, go see for yourself, if you can. It is well worth it.

Nine Facts About Me

I'm not like others. Everyone says it, but it's true.

I tend to offend people, even when I don't mean too.

I have lived a quarter of a century, I have forgotten more than most people ever learn, and yet I am often treated as if I know nothing at all.

I am not a nice person. I am what the world made me, what my life made me.

I am closer to three gods above all others, Hel, Thor, and Freyja. Death, Sex, and War. I'm sure that says interesting things about me.

I ran away from home at 24 because I finally realized I couldn't forgive the abuse after I drew a hammer on a cookie and realized that my mother's love for Judaism was stronger than her love for me or her tolerance of my Heathenism, even though she isn't Jewish.

I hate the God of Abraham, Jesus, and Mohammed. I hate what he has done to this world, what his ideology has done, and what his followers have done. I have fought his street preachers face to face with words when they preached their venom. I grow wary when I see a Muslim, not just because of what their "extremists" did with planes and bombs, but because I know what the "moderates" do to people like me that practice magic and worship Heathen Gods in their native lands.

I grow tired of how many of my fellow Pagans treat each other. I think we have enough enemies out there, we don't need to beat each other up to conform to what some people think is "normal" or "mainstream" or "acceptable." We are supposed to be accepting of each other, no matter how abhorrent society finds us, because it's what is right to do in our eyes.

I don't think Pagans and Heathens will ever be accepted into the "mainstream." The Monotheists will always think we worship false gods and the Atheists will always laugh at everyone with an "imaginary friend." I don't think we became Pagans and Heathens to be mainstream anyways. I think we did it to buck the mainstream, so we should embrace that.

An issue with Pagans

As of late I, and many others, have noticed a growing trend in the pagan community. While my experiences have mostly been online, reading the words of those who have spent much time offline has shown me that my experience is not a unique one, sadly.

The fact is that for some time, Pagans have been failing to live up to the message they preach. Perhaps this is a mark of it becoming a more mainstream religion, the vast majority of which tend to do the exact opposite of what they "preach." Pagans like to say that they are tolerant and accepting, and that Paganism is the same. And Paganism is supposed to be just that. Its basic premise is that there are many gods and spirits out there, and no one is more right or wrong than another. Sadly, perhaps due to the fact that so many pagans have come from a Christian background and a society built largely on Monotheistic principles, this falls apart in practice.

There's a growing trend that Paganism is synonymous with Liberal Politics. That somehow, one cannot be a pagan unless you follow the tenants found in said liberal politics. Protest this, and suddenly you aren't really a pagan, or you don't know what you're talking about.

But it's not just the political thing, which I've run into time and again. It's also about beliefs and practices. Suddenly it's cool to say that "pagans" aren't, well, "pagans." One of those hardest hit by this is the Wiccans. It's amazing the number of Pagans out there will insist that the Wiccans are not actually pagan, despite the fact that Wiccans, for all their faults (which are many) were among some of the first to bring back Pagan worship. We've all grown from that, be we eclectics, Heathens, Druids, or what have you. If the Wiccans and those associated with Wicca not gotten the ball rolling, well, who is to say that any of us would be here. We might have all become Satanists instead, unhappy with the God of Abraham, Jesus, and Mohammed, but unsure of where to go but to his opposite number.

Speaking of the Satanists, they certainly get a share of beef from many a pagan out there, though not as much as the Wiccans, or even the Asatruar and other Heathens, who often not only have to contend with many a "Pagan" laughing at them for playing viking, but for insisting on hard core research, and worse of all, charging the Heathens with Racism. And then there were the Dianics not too long ago, who almost got their entire path ostracized simply because they didn't want transsexual women into their group, because it made them uncomfortable as "born" women to have a "woman" with a penis inside their sacred area.

Of course, we should not forget two very important groups, the young who come seeking a place in the world of Paganism, often looking Goth and Punk and what have you, and those who could be our Elders, our Famous people, like Crowley and Gardner and others were in the days of yore. I have read, and even experienced, that a number of Pagan love to smack down and dismiss those of the younger set, laughing off their knowledge and experiences, driving them off, telling them that they don't know, can't do, shouldn't try. And those who would be those who would gather fame, push the boundaries of what is possible with magical theory and practice and share it, are torn down. Because Pagan society, like the rest of modern society, has decided that heroes are to be destroyed, not made. So they drive away the young, and they drive away the strange, and they drive away those who could open a new era.

They are more interested in fitting in, being liked, and dreaming that society will embrace them if only they say the right things, vote the right way, and do what they are told. They have become more interested in fighting the wealthy and successful than in fighting spirits. They have grown more interested in controlling industry in the name of "mother earth" than they actually are listening to Her lessons. And they are more interested in making other Pagans conform to this than they are opening up their arms and their minds to the larger truths out there. So they lie to themselves, they lie to others, and more importantly, they harass and destroy the very people who are what we should be embracing and encouraging.

But I'm not going to do that. If you're a "fluffy bunny" kid who likes vampires and werewolves and think magic is the coolest thing every, I'm right there with you. If you're a wild, crazy hedge worker who gets down and dirty with the magic, I'm right there with you. If you're a wizard, sorcerer, warlock, witch, or anything else, I'm right there with you. Because we didn't start out being the nice, clean cut (or hippy cut) people wanting to fit in to society. We were the ones who rejected society, who looked into the darkness, the primal, and the arcane, wanting answers to the questions people couldn't answer, or wouldn't answer.

We were Newton, and Dee, and Faust, and Crowley, Gardner, Flammel, and a thousand others. We hanged men to Odin, slaughtered rams and bulls, made offerings of flesh and blood and tears. We were the first, before everyone else. We should be the last, after everyone else has gone away. We were the teeth in the darkness, the terror in the night. We walked with the gods in Europe, We walked with them in America. We made spells of blood and piss and earth and lightning and ourselves, the gods, the spirits, and the very foundations of the earth.

We shouldn't be following the wrote of someone else's ideals. We shouldn't be following their politics, or worse making their politics our religions. Do we need to be involved in politics, sure, but not with any particular party. And we shouldn't be putting politics first. We shouldn't even be putting our individual faiths first. We should do as we preach. We should be tolerant, even if individually we find those tolerances distasteful. If the Dianics want to be only "natural born women" we should support them, not demand they change the fundamentals of their beliefs to suit the politics of others. If the Goths and the Punk kids come to us, looking for help and guidance, we should bloody well give it too them. If people want to push the boundaries and act crazy, we should let them, because they will give back to us.

The mainstream is not where we want to be. We shouldn't try to be mainstream. If anything, we should live with such power and integrity, drawing people to our various ways, that we become the Mainstream and they try to be like us instead. There is not right or left in Paganism, or at least there shouldn't be. Nor should we cling to the light and forsake all that is dark, because we all got into paganism because it accepted that darkness, at least it did when we got in, before people started insisting it be sealed away, ignored, that it didn't exist, couldn't be real, or shouldn't be touched.

For most out there, my words aren't going to change anything. They will believe they are right. They will insist on either making others conform or driving them away. And they will succeed. But I know there are those of us out there, even if they never read my words, that will know what I am saying, take it to heart, and carry it out there. It's already happening, in the dark corners, in the hedges, the towers, and the dark woods.

So I will it to be.

Veteran's Day

Hail to the fallen,
Hail to the living,
Hail to those that fight.
This day is yours, in all the Nine Realms.
May the feast be sound, the meadhorn be raised,
Children told of your mighty deeds.
To the Soldier, the Warrior, the Merc!
Hail to the heroes of our lands!

Hope

Hope is one of those emotions that can't really be quantified. One cannot describe the feeling of hope, because like so many other feelings, it has to be felt.

As I write this, I have currently been engaging with various peoples about beliefs. They seek to fight off one totalitarian belief system, Islam, while claiming the best way to do this is by returning to a strong Christian belief system. One, that often times, seems rather totalitarian itself. I pointed this out, and got told to lay off the Christian bashing and that my magic minded viking ways were gone with no hopes of revival.

I could smile. I did, in fact. Because I think all those out there that call themselves Heathen, from the coasts of Cali to the edges of Eastern Europe, from Texas to Scandinavia, would disagree. We have the hope of revival, because we are that revival. So long as one person believes, the old ways live on and can come back.

So, my Heathen Kin, remember, should anyone ever tell you that our ways are gone without hope of ever coming back, remember this: If you believe, they are already here.

A Heathen's Hope

I had been planning to write in this blog sooner, but have not had time nor reason.

Now I have one, and it is one I wish I did not have.

In the last few days, kith and kin were slain in the lands of my fathers. In Norway, death came swift and sudden. The reasons for it are garbled, mixed and shaped by the creature politic, used by one and all to strike their enemies. Lies, Truths, Misinformation, all is thrown about.

But people are dead. For them, the why doesn't matter. Men, women, children. They are dead because they were not prepared for the violence. They are dead because they believed something, and someone believed something else, and another believed something different from them. What those beliefs were, and why they happened, maybe will become clear. Maybe they won't.

I could grand stand. Use this to put for facts and theories. Speak of the dangers of the systems we live in, the people coming to change those systems, and the damage wrought by previous changes.

I don't want to. Not in this post.

It is said one must die in battle, fighting, to enter the halls of Odin and Freyja, to feast and fight til Ragnorok.

Those that died will not know those halls. Rather, they shall go to Helheim, to the Lady Hel. And in her green fields, and quiet hall, I pray they find not peace, but solace with their ancient kin. Because whatever their religion was in life, if they even had any, as selfish as it is, I wish them to rest with their kin, and learn the ways of our people, and know they are not alone anymore.