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Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in odin

Posted by on in Paths Blogs
An Inspiration on the Way to a Funeral

Several people important to heathens and pagans have died recently. Singer Andrea Meyer of Hagalaz Runedance was shot with a bow and arrow in Norway. I did not know her personally, so I don't know if she is now in the arms of Hel, or has been taken into Valhalla or Folkvang due to dying by weapon, but I think perhaps she went where poets go, which is wherever they want.

I placed a copy of a Hagalaz Runedance album on my main house altar yesterday, along with other mementos of the recent dead. It joined a fabric memento I had just placed there, which participants in the memorial for Phyllis Stewart of Ravenhold wore at her memorial service, which you can see in the photo that illustrates this post. I was on my way to that funeral when I had an inspiration experience.

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Woden’s Moon – Wednesday Wonder Invocation

Woden is also known as Odin, whom superhero fans now know from the wildly popular Thor movies, is at the top of the Nordic pantheon of the gods. He wields mighty power and is also associated with Mercury, with rulership of communication and keen intelligence. Woden even appears in olden Persian mythology, wherein he is credited with creating the moon on a Wednesday. Remember to offer thanks to the generous deity for gifting us our lovely lunar disk. Place dill and rosemary, two herbs for all-around mental strength and clarity, in your burning bowl. Light a yellow candle and use this to light the herbs. Patchouli incense adds power to this ritual; light this to power up your mental faculties and walk around your personal space to imbue this scent of smartness all around your work area. This will open your mind and abet your ability to create, whether your intention is to write a letter, a speech, prepare for a job interview or any project where you need to give your best. Once you feel focused, speak this spell:

I call upon you, great Woden
On this, your day
By my hand,
And with your blessing,
The fire of my mind
Burns bright,
Burns long,
Burns eternal.
Deep gratitude
On this day
Under this moon
Which you have given,
Blessings to all.
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Posted by on in Paths Blogs

Sometimes insights come from lighthearted conversation rather than deep mystical trances in the woods. This is one of the challenges we face in these times of isolation: the challenge of just have conversations with other heathens or mystics or etc. Internet forums and plain old telephones come to our rescue. It isn't always enough, but this time it was.

I was talking on the phone to another heathen and mentioned the solar lights I added to my pool this year, claiming I have a light-up pool eyeball. Of course I was just joking when I said, "My pool is Mimir's Well and I swim in it every day, and at night I swim with the light-up eyeball. I don't think it's Odin's eye, though, it's the eye of a monster. The monster that lives in my pool."

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Continuing my series on novel gnosis, that is, religious insights I gained via writing my unpublished novel Some Say Fire, today I'm talking about Odin and the number 3. Three as a sacred number recurs in many stories in heathen mythology, that it, the mythology of the pre-Xian peoples of northern Europe. It also occurs again and again in the broader context of pagan mythology in the rest of Europe and related cultures. Odin's symbol the Valknut is a set of 3 interlocking triangles.

In the Fireverse, the universe of Some Say Fire, Odin’s 2 wolves Geri and Freki are generated out of Odin. Like his 2 ravens and his 2 brothers, he creates them by dividing himself. He has the power to divide himself into 3 parts and he does it 3 times: once each to create the wolves, the ravens, and his brothers.

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Posted by on in Paths Blogs
Novel Gnosis part 27: Odin

Continuing my series about novel gnosis, that is, religious insights I gained while writing fiction, today the topic is Odin. In heathen religion, Odin is a complex god with spheres of influence ranging from wisdom and magic to war. He and his brothers sculpted the world and humanity.

Trying to separate actual gnosis about Odin from parts of the Fireverse-Odin character that were distorted by the story’s function as a healing journey for me, it’s clear that Fireverse-Odin functions psychologically as a father figure, but lore Odin has definite fatherly overtones as well, even having two nicknames that include the word father, namely Allfather and the possibly older Yulefather, which is related to his name Yule-Being (Jolnir.) So I’m confident in saying that my gnosis is that Odin is a Skyfather, even though it’s clear historically that the original Skyfather of the Germanic peoples was Tyr. In a mythopoeic tale, every father is your father, and every mountain is the obstacle you yourself must overcome. The process of writing Some Say Fire healed me of issues I needed to resolve to become a godspouse, and becoming one helped me be able to finish the story. Odin and Loki were often in my head as I was writing. Sometimes they masked as each other. They usually no longer mask as each other when they communicate with me, now that a few years have passed since I finished writing the novel.

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Posted by on in Paths Blogs

Many people spend their lives looking for purpose. Sometimes what they really want is meaning, which is slightly different. Sometimes their inner yearning for purpose is really a calling, which is very different. But purpose? I wanted purpose, when I was younger. I didn't know that I was already fulfilling my purpose. If I went back in time and told my younger self, "You are art"-- she wouldn't understand what I meant. But perhaps I can explain it here.

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Posted by on in Culture Blogs

b2ap3_thumbnail_loki.jpg

Title: Loki's Wager (Vikingverse Book Two)

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