Anglo-Saxon Heathenry
This is a work in progress, I will return to finish it soon but it has taken far too long already and it is good enough for the moment. Name, Pronunciation, & Meaning: Tiw, pronounced /tiːw/ (IPA), carries a meaning of “god”. Tiw comes to Old English by way of the Proto-Germanic *Tīwaz which comes […]
Tiw
Ceremony has its place, and so does praying over a hot stove. Photo by Gaelle Marcel on Unsplash Mōdraniht is an Old English holiday that comes to us from Bede, who recounts [1] that it was celebrated by the pre-Christian heathens on the night before Christmas. The name means Mothers’ Night, though there are (naturally) […]
Reflections on Mōdraniht
‘Twas the night before Yule, and all through the houseNot a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;The children were tucked into bed with great care,They lay hoping that Woden soon would be there; Cookies and milk were left out for Father Yule,Because it is said that a gift for a gift is the rule.The […]
‘Twas the Night Before Yule
Deer, especially stags, are a key element of Wild Hunt imagery for me. Photo by Vincent M.A. Janssen from Pexels The Wild Hunt is one name for a folkloric/mythic motif that crops up in different guises across North & Western Europe: a phantom hunt that rides through the night sky, often seeking out evildoers and dangerous to behold. […]
Swords & Plough-shares: reflections on the Wild Hunt
As per my Reconstructed Anglo-Saxon Calendar page, my method for determining if a year is a leap year is to count how many new moons there are between the previous year’s winter solstice and the current years winter solstice. If there are thirteen new moons, it is a leap year. If there are only twelve […]
The Metonic Cycle
Hwæt! Wē Gārdena in ġēardagum þēodcyninga þrym ġefrūnon, hū ðā æþelingas ellen fremedon. Oft Sċyld Sċēfing sċeaþena þrēatum, monegum mǣġþum meodo-setla oftēah. Eġsode eorl, syððan ǣrest wearð fēasċeaft funden; hē þæs frōfre ġebād, wēox under wolcnum, weorð-myndum þāh, oð þæt him ǣġhwylċ þāra ymb-sittendra ofer hronrāde hȳran sċolde, gomban ġyldan; þæt wæs gōd cyning! These […]
Alliterative 101: The Basics
Sometimes this is how I feel in prayer and meditation, waiting for the Gods to place the next delicately-balanced stone. Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash I have written here before about my calendar of monthly observances for seasonally appropriate Gods. In this scheme, March corresponds to Hrēþ-mōnaþ, the month of the mysterious Goddess Hrēðe, […]
Hrēðe, Tīw, and encountering almost-forgotten Gods.
Icon art representing Frīg, by myself. Recently I have been creating more art than I have in years – a fair amount of it devotional or as iconography for Gods. I feel like I’ve finally cracked (or started to crack) digital art and stylisation in a way that I’m actually happy with what I create. […]
Thoughts on devotional art and the Western canon
For details on how I reconstruct my calendar, see my page on the Anglo-Saxon Calendar. I will add a couple notes here, however. This year only has twelve new moons between the previous December solstice and this year’s December solstice. Therefore, it will not be a leap year, and only have twelve lunar months. If […]
My Reconstructed Anglo-Saxon Calendar for 2021
There are three Wyrde, three Wyrd Sisters. These take the form of spinners, spinning out the fate of men and measuring them out. If Wyrd is strung together like a great tapestry, each individual life is a thread being woven together to make that tapestry and affect the threads around it. But for all that […]
The Wyrde (The Fates)
Fyrnsidu 