Pre-dawn yoga. As we flowed from pose to pose, the teacher’s words emerged from the rhythm of her own movement: “Since we were in the womb…the universe has never stopped… supporting us. That’s why…we are still…alive.”
I knew in my bones it was true. Looking at the moon, wandering the woods, touching the earth, I find that truth again. When I disappoint myself, I know the trees and the sky do not judge. Good or bad, I am held in the web of life and known by an awareness that goes beyond my own.
I recently posted one of Danielle LaPorte's Truthbombs on my Facebook page:
This sparked a discussion of what it means to make a vow, to break a vow, and to hide behind a vow, a discussion that got me thinking about my first marriage and divorce.
This week, I write on Odin to fulfill my promise to write about each god (#8) placed in the atheists’ “god graveyard”. I’ve only had one personal experience with Odin which I wrote previously about here. So I’ve spent time this week researching him, trying to figure out what to write. Nothing came to mind specifically just an overwhelming awe over the role he has chosen for himself.
Today, heading to school, I caught a glimpse of the most heart-stopping sky: it was a sea of roiling clouds, a dark cantata of a dozen shades of grey, spewing forth streams of silver reminding me, as I shivered in the chill air, surrounded by the riotous crimsons and golds of leaves in their death throws, that the time of the Wild Hunt is upon us.
With November comes the cold, the first promise of winter. With November comes Odin, for to many of us who venerate Him, this is His month, and with Odin comes the Wild Hunt. With November also comes Veterans Day and hard on the heels of the ancestor festivals of late October, it's a good reminder to take a moment to honor our military dead.
Today's post is a continuation of my 'devotion 101' series. I am collecting questions from my readers about devotion and polytheism and one by one, week by week, I will answer them here. Today's question comes from Gary who asks:
My newest book on Odin: "He is Frenzy," a collection of everything (to the best of my ability) that I've written about Odin thus far, is now available.
So I've only recently returned home from fest and visiting my sister. This is the first good opportunity I've had to sit down and write. Forgive my lateness.
One of the big rituals at the Pagan festival I attend is the Drawing Down. It is where multiple priests and priestesses allow a divinity to take temporary possession of their bodies so that they can speak with devotees. Who you speak with is typically luck of the draw. Rarely are masculine divinities drawn down in my experience, as female divinities are just more popular it seems. Even more rare, in my experience, is having a walker seek out a particular person at a divinity's behest. I experienced both this time.
Erin Lale
Fellow faculty at Harvard Divinity School posted an open letter to Wolpe in response to his article. It's available on this page, below the call for p...
Erin Lale
Here's another response. The Wild Hunt has a roundup of numerous responses on its site, but it carried this one as a separate article. It is an accoun...
Erin Lale
Here's another response. This one is by a scholar of paganism. It's unfortunately a Facebook post so this link goes to Facebook. She posted the text o...
Erin Lale
Here's another link to a pagan response to the Atlantic article. I would have included this one in my story too if I had seen it before I published it...
Thanks, Ted. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
This is great, Archer; it really speaks to me! OM Mani Padme Hum.
