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I wanted to honor the bear spirit this year. As long time readers of this blog may remember, Odin activated my bear to protect me from dangerous spirits. I wanted to honor my bear specifically and also the great bear spirit generally. My housemate also had a relationship with a bear spirit, and of course there are various gods and goddesses with bear forms, and I wanted to honor them as well. 

I happened to have an unusual opportunity to have access to fresh salmon through an online grocery outlet box company. I ordered enough for the whole kindred to have one small piece each during ritual. As it happened, a household with a lot of members had illness, and other households were otherwise unavailable, so we had an overly authentic Bear Day because only those who live here showed up and we ended up eating all the salmon, berries, and honey ourselves. Bear Day turned into Bear Weekend as we stuffed ourselves with salmon until I didn't want to see another fish until next year. I got way too in touch with my inner bear and was definitely ready to hibernate afterwards.

Part 2 of this 3 part series deals with the Bear symbol in the Bull and Bear pair which are the patron spirits of Wall Street and by extension the national and global economy. 

Bears are still important in Asatru and other Heathen religions and in my personal practice. The ancient art of Bersarkrgangr is named after the Bear spirit, as it was the most common fylgia, or spirit skin, of historical Bersarkrs. My personal Bear spirit is a guardian spirit as well as a being that I can embody through the art of Bersarkrgangr. I honor my Bear ang gift him with honey. I see him in my mind’s eye as both inhabiting his own realm which is a bear paradise with trees full of wild honey hives and a river full of salmon and a soft place to rest, and also continuously within and around me as my fylgia and guardian against bad entities.

Time: 800 years ago

Place: Latvia

In the Hall of Perkons—Thunder—the Old Gods of Latvia have gathered to discuss a terrible danger that threatens their beloved land and people.

It is this: the Pope of Rome has declared a crusade against the “pagans” of the Baltic Lands, and sent evil and rapacious men called the Teutonic Knights to enslave all of Latvia.

This would be Europe's first genocide.

The Old Gods—Earth, Sun, Thunder, Moon, the Winds, the Rivers, the Gods of Field and Forest—all swear to stand by their people, to guard and nurture them, each in his or her own way. Thunder himself swears to send the people a mighty hero who, with Thunder's own protection, will lead them against their foes.

So begins the story of the Bearslayer (Láchplesis), the Latvian national epic.

There is much here to tell; I will soon be reviewing Arthur Cropley's 2006 translation of the work. But for now, let us observe how this story addresses an important question which surely every thoughtful contemporary pagan must ask herself: Where were the pagan gods during the Christian centuries?

Unexpected angering news waited for me on the internet on Sunday. I had been having such a great day. I had finally gotten to see my companion and organize his stuff for him at his care center, after having to just deliver his mail and supplies to the front door of his care center for months, due to pandemic restrictions. While I was clearing out a pile of months' worth of old magazines one of the workers mentioned it had gotten so big it tipped over on the workers a few times, so I suspect they may have allowed me in to organize his space because of that. Regardless, it had been really nice to finally see him in person.

I had come home, tested my blood sugar to see if it was safe to get in the pool before eating, and it was not, so I devoured a home grown pear first. Let me tell you about this pear. It was perfect. Soft, juicy, sweet but not insipidly so, everything a pear should be. I had a nice swim, and then a good lunch, and signed into the net thinking "Oh, I'll just check my messages and then log some work hours in at my new job." (I had recently started a new job on top of my writing career and my home business doing life management / property management, and of course my gythia duties and service to the heathen community but that's volunteer work. I had also recently given up my home business dyeing fabric because of my failing grip strength.) My friends, nothing good ever comes from "Oh, I'll just."

It's March 11, 2018. I'm preparing to teach a Find Your Soul Purpose workshop at my local fire hall that's been converted to a meeting hall. It is an all day Women's Wellness event. The room is packed to the brim with women from ages 19 to 80. The class I am teaching comes up at the days end, so I attend a few of the workshops presented that sound appealing to me. During a class I literally bump into an elderly woman who recognizes me. She tells me she is the one who has registered online for a Reiki First Degree class that's coming up in a few days. We have a great big bear hug. I'm pleased to meet her and looking forward to doing what I love, activating folks with Reiki!

Three days later four women show up for my class, including the elderly lady who I hugged. Only today she says she has had the flu, but thinks she is over it. I run the class with love and joy, then the next day of class she turns up wearing a mask. We ask her why. She announces that although she has been vaccinated for this winters virus (2018), she is feeling unwell, has a sore throat, and a cough for a time. Her lungs feel compromised.

While discussing the origin-stories of the Deer and Seal clans of the Hwicce (Tribe of Witches) a few posts back, I was struck by the similarities between the two stories. In both—though circumstances differ somewhat—a human man takes a non-human woman to wife.

This made me wonder if it sometimes works the other way, too.

In fact, it does. Shame upon me, I don't know the origin-stories of all the clans of the tribe of Witches, whether elder (historical) or younger (reconstituted)—alas, I can't even name all the clans themselves, so much has been lost to time—but I can tell you that with the Bear Clan, it's the other way around: a human woman who marries a non-human man.

It seems that a certain woman of the Hwicce once took a bear to husband. Authorities differ on the degree of agency here. Some say that Bear abducted her; others, that she went with him willingly.

Whichever it was, the young woman's brothers were displeased by this out-match. They tracked down the bear, killed him, and brought their sister back to the family hearth-side.

Here at PaganSquare I’ll be sharing a spirit animal painting and message from my Elfin Ally Oracle Deck picked especially for the zodiac sign that Mama Moon is currently transiting. Enjoy!

Brown Bear Keyword: Believe
Meaning: All is possible once you take that first step up the mountain.
Reversed: You are stuck and unsure.