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Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in sif

Posted by on in Paths Blogs

I'll be participating in a round table discussion at the American Academy of Religion conference at UNLV in March. The title is History of Mystery: Pagans in Las Vegas. I plan to blog about the experience here, so stay tuned.

Next up on this post is my brief report about another author's article, with a link. After that I relate some of my recent personal gnosis.

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Posted by on in Paths Blogs

We've come a long way. There's more to do, but let's take a moment and look back at how well we've already done. We should be encouraged, because things we thought would be hard or impossible turned out to be doable and we did them. That means we can do other things. I'm not even talking about magic but of course if you want to do magic to save the Earth, of course do that too! It's almost like we're all superheroes, yes? Saving the world and all. Here's how I started thinking about this recently. 

Recently there has been quite a bit of rain at my house. We had an unusually wet winter and spring this year and it looks like we might have a wet summer too, which is very welcome here in the desert. Several different times in the same week, rain fell from what looked like a sunny sky, or from a cloud that looked wispy and not like a raincloud. I photographed the rain edge phenomenon and posted it on my social media. As usual, every time it rained, I lifted a toast to Thor, mostly with coffee. One time when it was raining, after I made my toast, I asked Thor if there was anything I should be doing. He said he wanted me to convey his message to humanity again, and I said I would relay his message again, and so, here it is once more: save the Earth, his mother, and especially avoid the GMO wheat and corn, for the sake of his wife Sif. 

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Erin Lale
    Erin Lale says #
    oh goats and coffee! awesome! that does sound like him! "cleanse" can mean a few different things. depending on what is actually d
  • Anthony Gresham
    Anthony Gresham says #
    Over on Reddit I read a post by a young man who's family was going to bring in a priest and cleanse his alter to Thor. He was not

Posted by on in Paths Blogs
Asatru FAQ: Organic and Non-GMO Food

There is no religious requirement to eat certain foods in Asatru. However, some Asatruars observe personal taboos. These personal taboos are based on personal gnosis or group gnosis, which are just as valid for determining an individual person's religious path as the teachings of the wider tradition of which they are a part. There are also traditional foods and beverages associated with holidays and sacrifices to specific gods in Asatru and other heathen sects, both in the Lore and in modern practice based on personal and group gnosis.

Some modern devotees of the goddess Sif avoid buying GMO wheat or GMO corn. This is a personal or group taboo observed as an act of devotion to the grain goddess. This practice is not about what the person eats, but about what the person supports with their purchasing power. Those who follow Sif can eat whatever random grain they are given or provided. When they have the opportunity to buy wheat products or corn products with their own money and make their own purchasing decisions, they will buy non-GMO wheat and corn if it is available. If certified non-GMO wheat and corn products are not available, it is also acceptable to purchase the waste products of a bakery, factory, or store, usually termed day-olds, markdowns, bakery leftovers, outlet goods, damaged, expiring, etc. The point is not about healthy eating, it is about refusing to support the damaging agricultural practices of GMO factory farming with one's money. Monsanto may be gone as a separate company, but everything it was still exists within the agricultural economic sector.

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Posted by on in Paths Blogs

Sif is the grain goddess in heathen mythology. She is married to Thor. Continuing my Novel Gnosis series, in which I present religious insights gained through writing fiction, today I'm talking about Sif and also Kvasir, the being made from brew. In Russian the word Kvas means a beer-like beverage.

In the Fireverse, Sif looks young with her shining gold hair, but her son Ullr looks old. Thor notices this when he marries Sif but he dismisses the thought because the appearance of age and actual age are not always related when it comes to gods and goddesses. Sif enjoys baking bread, and also enjoys eating it and other grain based foods. Sif’s representative color is gold. The cutting and regrowing of Sif's hair is an obvious agricultural metaphor, a snapshot of the wheat harvest.

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Posted by on in Paths Blogs

One time during the time period when I was learning how to follow the Goddess Diet to honor the goddess Sif, I was preparing for a potluck, and I went to the grocery store. I saw some corn on the cob. I thought, “That would be great to bbq. But I don't know whether it's GMO or not.”

Then I remembered that the GMO corn is a yellow corn. If the corn is some other color then it's not GMO. So I checked it and it was white corn, so I bought some. At the checkout, I was thinking, "I really hope I'm right and that I did this right for Sif."

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Megan Gypsy Minx
    Megan Gypsy Minx says #
    I've never personally looked at coins before but it's truly amazing how the universe provides insight everywhere.
  • Anthony Gresham
    Anthony Gresham says #
    I've come across Canadian pennies before; though I understand they've stopped making them, but I've never come across an Australia

Posted by on in Paths Blogs
The Goddess Diet

I promised in a previous post that I would write about how I lost weight avoiding GMO wheat and corn. Here is how I did it.  I’m calling this the Goddess Diet because it was the goddess Sif who wanted me to buy no GMO wheat or corn.

The god who was with me when I was first making the small decisions that eventually became the Goddess Diet was Loki. Loki skinrode me into a grocery store. When he realized what was in there and that I intended to eat it he turned very dark and angry—not at me, fortunately. He saw that I eat poison because I’m poor by the standards of the society I live in. He was with me as I read labels and asked for products no one carried.

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Erin Lale
    Erin Lale says #
    Thank you!
  • Francesca De Grandis
    Francesca De Grandis says #
    Hi, Erin, rock on! I gave up wheat and gluten in 1980. I didn't know about gluten, I just gave up wheat without even knowing why
  • Erin Lale
    Erin Lale says #
    Hi Anthony, I'm pretty sure that only deals with government labeling requirements. It shouldn't affect a privately operated volunt
  • Anthony Gresham
    Anthony Gresham says #
    I signed a lot of petitions to my congressman and senators to vote against the DARK act which bans GMO labeling. It passed anyway

Posted by on in Paths Blogs
Sif's Wheat, Part 2: Her Idol

The Sif doll seated on the harvested wheat. This is a Lithuanian doll that I bought in an amber shop along with some amber in 1989. Shortly after I dedicated part of my garden to Sif last year, I was walking past the display of folk art in my house where I used to display this doll and it called to me to dedicate it to Sif. So I did a dedication ritual, which I related in my post A Doll for Sif. I moved the doll to my Spiritual Souvenir display, which is kind of a wall altar.

I almost always make, remake, or repurpose things to dedicate rather than buying things new for that purpose. I feel that conserving resources is part of how I live as a heathen.

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