This is a question posed to me on Facebook. Here's my answer: Excellent question (puts on professor glasses. stretches fingers.) So.
In the Stone Age there were these people called the Battle Axe People. They had double headed axes. Knapped from stone. Tools, not massive weapons, and so not really that big. OK so picture those. Now fast forward to the Viking Age.
If there's a hammer under the table, it must be Yule.
Yule being the microcosm of the coming year, we have it from the ancestors that it's a good time to take precautions, what in Anthropologist they would call apotropaic (literally, “turning away, averting”) behavior.
So if in Ukraine you look under the table while enjoying the Thirteen-Course Midwinter's Eve feast (one course for each moon of the coming year), you'll see some unusual things.
We have it from the mothers and fathers that Thunder is a powerful Protector.
To call on His might, stand tall. With your strong hand, reach up into over-heaven. Seize the lightning, and grasp it in your hand. With arm extended, pull it down to heart-height. See the flash, hear the roar, smell the superheated air.
Having brought down lightning, you must give it a ground. With arm still extended, move your clutched fist horizontally beneath the down-stroke to form the shape of an inverted T. For obvious reasons, this is mostly done from left to right.
Janet Boyer
I love the idea of green burials! I first heard of Recompose right before it launched. I wish there were more here on the East Coast; that's how I'd l...
Victoria
I would say as neopagans we are constructing our futures rather than reconstructing THE future. I'm not sure if we are in the process of becoming a tr...
Steven Posch
Not so sure about "culty," though.Many--if not most--peoples with a collective sense of identity have a term for the "not-us people": barbaroi (non-He...
Mark Green
OK, this is funny.But could we [i]please[i] stop using that word (or, worse, "Muggles")?Having a down-putting term for people who aren't a part of you...
Also likely a personified thunder god or connection between thunder and the hammer/axe existed during the Battle Axe culture/Boat
ty!