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One day I was doing normal house stuff and my Honir ring broke. 

First, some background. As longtime readers of this blog might remember, my actual godspouse wedding rings that I received during my 2 marriage ceremonies exist on the spiritual level, not in the physical realm, but I had 3 rings dedicated to my 3 god-husbands, and 1 of them was the one I accidentally used in my 3rd marriage ceremony which I didn't realize I had done until afterwards.

Monsoon season in the Vegas valley closed out August with a wonderful thunderstorm during my pool party. The week leading up to it had been lovely and still enough for me to manage to get the pool looking nice and clean, always a challenge when a giant pine tree hangs over it. The pool party started with hot, still weather and a few puffy clouds in the sky, as neighbors and friends trickled in through the open side gate. I was super excited by the surprise appearance of friends from out of town I hadn't seen in years. The clouds kept gathering and turned gray and we were all looking at the sky thinking it might rain. We heard thunder roll, and we all responded with enthusiastic noises. I called out to Thor, "I made a fresh pot of coffee!" and plink! drop! Shining diamond blessings from the sky! It started raining! 

So of course I had to go in and get a cup of coffee and come back outside to make a toast to Thor. I got back in the pool with my cup and finished it as the rain increased. Being desert dwellers, we all love the rain.

With the fall equinox approaching, it is a perfect time to reflect on the many facets and roles of water in nature, ritual and magic. Water, essential for life, also carries a deep association with death across cultures and mythologies. This duality reflects our complex relationship with this elemental force. In many occult and esoteric traditions, the autumn season is deeply intertwined with both water and death, representing a potent time of transformation and spiritual transition.

Water often symbolizes the division between life and death. Many funerary practices involve crossing water, from Viking ship burials to the Egyptian concept of the solar barge carrying the dead to the afterlife. This imagery of a final voyage persists in many modern cultures.

In Greek mythology, five rivers wind through Hades: Styx (hatred), Acheron (sorrow), Cocytus (lamentation), Phlegethon (fire), and Lethe (forgetfulness). These waterways embody the emotions and trials souls face in the afterlife. Similar concepts exist in other cultures – the Egyptian Duat features a treacherous river, Norse mythology speaks of icy Gjöll which flows near the gate of Hel, a realm of the dead, and Hindu tradition tells of the terrifying Vaitarna. The Vaitarna is said to exist between Earth and Naraka, the realm of the Hindu god of death, Yama. The Vaitarani is also known as the "salt river" and is said to have the power to purify sins.

It's autumn in the northern hemisphere. For many of us, this is the end of the growing season and the beginning of the turn toward winter. But in the Mediterranean, it's the end of the hot, dry, rainless (and lately, wildfire-laden) summer. In the Mediterranean climate, the summer, not the winter, is the "dead season" when nothing grows.

But when the rainy season begins in the autumn, it's like the world is born anew.

Hello my faithful readers! 2024 is the 10th anniversary of this blog, Gnosis Diary: Life as a Heathen. I started out telling the story of my personal religious journey from the very beginning, and along the way have also done a lot of topical posts about Asatru, heathenry, and related subjects.  I think a great way to mark this milestone would be to collect some links to some of my earlier posts. This post contains links to my very first post, and also my top 5 most popular posts from 5 or more years ago.

My very first post on this blog, so you can read them in order if you wish:

One of the interesting aspects of imagining or recreating Minoan daily life - including religious practice - is that we don't have any textiles to speak of: no altar cloths, no curtains, no rugs or baskets. The damp Mediterranean Sea air tends to rot organic materials pretty swiftly. So we only have a few tiny fragments of the real thing, plus pictures of them in Minoan art.

But we have an interesting reflection of soft materials in some creative ceramics the Minoan potters made. Minoan pottery was pretty imaginative all round, including loads of 3d decorations and other fun details. But this particular class of ceramic vessels is unique: They all look like they're made of soft materials.

The ocean is a rebel. It is a tempestuous woman. No man can tame her nor resist her siren song. She has claimed so many, so many. They have been dragged to that benthic hell. What are the deepest depths of the sea if not the chthonic realm?

Leviathan seeks not to conquer her. He knows his place. He knows she is Tiamat, the greatest monster of them all. What are the serpents, the dragons, the marked beasts if not the children of the sea? Who then is the hero? Or is it the antihero?

Lucifer is the light-bringer, as the brutal sea speaks only the truth from the shining abyss. She bears the knowledge of good and evil. She contains multitudes thereof. She is legion.

The oceans are never told, “Be smaller. You are too much. Behave.” The sea is never told, “You are not enough.”

“Respect the sea,” they say. Respect her. Respect the woman, the womb, the deep, dark matrix. She is the matron, the All-Mother. The ocean is not evil, but chaos. She is a rebel. She tells men, “go to hell”. Or perhaps, “come to hell”.