Rainbow Season is my kindred's end of summer ritual. Since summer is monsoon rain season the end of summer is rainbow season. We honor the mermaids in the summer and Heimdall at the end of summer. Heimdall was Tom Newman's patron. I don't know if we're going to keep doing that in future years but we're at least doing it one more time, this year, in honor of Tom. It's also 1 year since he died.
Heimdall is the Guardian of the Rainbow Bridge. The Rainbow Bridge is the path that leads from Asgard to wherever the gods want to go. When the end of the rainbow touches down on Earth (Midgard) it only goes one place, to Asgard. The gods can bring dead people to Asgard via the Bridge if they wish to select specific humans for that honor.
We honor Heimdall's Nine Mothers, the waves of the sea, the daughters of Aegir. We honor them as mermaids. My kindred member Amanda embodies mermaids. She led a mermaid blessing ritual for our Midsummer ritual this year. We continued the mermaid theme at Lindenfest, although mainly honoring Frigga, we also included Lofn, also known as Minne, who has a mermaid aspect, since Lofn / Minne has been associated with Lindenfest by another pagan group (see the Lindenfest post). So we will conclude our mermaid theme summer with a third ritual including mermaids, by honoring both Heimdall and his Mothers at Rainbow Season this year.
To honor the mermaids, we will include fish in our post-ritual feast. Mermaids eat fish. At least the seagoing heathen / Asatru / Norse / Germanic ones do; the river mermaids of the Slavic lands and maybe the German ones reputedly eat men. Although our Midsummer Mermaid ritual was held the same week as the Slavic tradition Rusalka Week, we will be sticking with seafood for the Rainbow Season feast. No man-eating around here.
So many people have died. Two other local Asatru groups have lost members recently. Just this week Phyllis Stewart of Ravenhold crossed, so recently I don't know if they've held the ceremony yet or where she went exactly, so, if she is bound for Asgard then Heimdall please open the Bridge for her, and if she is headed for the quiet and restful land of the dead then Hel please embrace her in your loving arms and speed her on her way wherever it is she belongs. Also just this week my brother's partner's father Gene McKay died of Covid. May he rest in peace.
Tom died of Covid despite his facility being in hard lockdown since the pandemic started, in which only medical and service-performing personnel were allowed inside the building. I had to deliver his mail and other things he wanted to the front door of the care center, although I was allowed to see him one time to organize his area after a stack of his magazines fell on a care worker, it was not a visit and I wasn't allowed to sit down and spend a lot of time, just get stuff out of their way. If I had known that was the last time I would see him in person... but of course I didn't know. The hospital where he died also did not allow visitors past the front door, and I dropped off cards and things for him there and picked up his effects there after he died. We did get to talk on his cell phone until about a week before he died when he became unable to talk. Since he died, though, I'm spoken with his spirit many times. After death he went to the god he served in life, Heimdall, and became one of Heimdall's Guardians (see the post of that title) and a personal protector spirit for me.
Since the 25th is the first anniversary of Tom's death and we're holding our ritual on Sunday the 26th, I'm planning to put aside my mourning garb at the Rainbow Season ritual. I'll be starting the ritual with the black side of my rune cloak facing outward and turning it around to the red and light blue side during the ritual when I drink a sumbel toast to Tom.