bone-digger

[bone-digger]

Inktober Day Twenty-Seven: Beast

🎶 I pray to the hunter To spare us tonight I pray to the earth bones For the blessing of my fight 🎶

Pray to the Hunter - Saltatio Mortis

India ink and red watercolour on paper, 10,5x14,8 cm

[bone-digger]

Listen. Abandoning the idea of what a proper pagan is was the most rewarding experience. Your intuition is stronger than you think.

This isn't a science. You don't have to treat it like one. Go with your heart, go with your intuition. It will help you grow more than you've ever dreamed of.

[bone-digger]

Hail The Horned One

Hail unto the Horned Lord, Keeper of the sacred flame, Lord who meets us at the crossroads, and shakes our hands to lead us. He leads us to Sabbath, He leads us through the dark, He leads us in the dance. Horned One, we watch how you shift, You are the infinite one, who changes with the seasons, From the Green Lord of Oak and Life, To Man In Black, The Holly King and Sabbatical Goat, Stag, Bull, Ram, Goat, Goat, Ram, Bull, Stag, Eternal Horned One, In your many names, I am devout to you.

[bone-digger]

Hel... Is a great many things.

She is Death, in all its forms. Rotten or rotting, long dead bones whispering to the earth, Winter at its coldest. Quiet but comforting, a familiar presence in the void.

She is Necessity. For new beginnings, there must be an end. A necessary darkness as time turns to see the light once more. She is steadfast in Her thoughts and actions, not a single movement wasted.

She is Change, for what bigger change is there than Death? She is the shift from Autumn to Winter, the dying breath of a season. She changes the world around Her with Her mere existence, leaving brand new chapters to be written in Her steps.

She is Healing. She will strip you of your rot, your dead things, your grief. She takes sorrow, pain, misery, and She will bring their Death.

She is Comfort. As necessary as She is, She knows Death is painful for those still living. She is not cruel, She holds no malice. She does what She must, and She will hold you through it.

[bone-digger]

Just curious, do you know of any resources in English for learning about Icelandic Asatru? (or other Scandinavian recon groups?) I respect that their tradition is closed, but I also think it's important to learn from the living cultural descendants of the religion we're reconstructing, both to avoid cultural appropriation and to help filter out folkish bullshit, you know? Are there ways to do this in English, or do I need to start learning to read Icelandic or another Scandinavian language?

It’s not that the tradition is closed, it's that Iceland itself has laws for orgs. @thorraborinn made a recent post about it. Heathenry is otherwise completely open, including that which comes from Iceland. The only restrictions you’ll find generally pertain to the fact some things need to be taught orally.

The thing to keep in mind about the way Ásatrú/Asatro works in northern Europe is that orgs are not the 'keepers' of it. It's actually unusual for Asatro to be put into an org context due to the fact it's more of a family/community cultural thing. It would be like if USAmericans made an org dedicated to celebrating secular Christmas.

Which is all to say that asking Icelanders directly, and learning about greater Icelandic culture, would be your best bet for learning more about how they practice Heathenry. If they're anything like their continental counterparts, then most of them know how to speak English. It's finding them that'll be the tricky part.

As for books...So far, I've yet to find any books on Heathenry written by Icelanders in English. It's tough enough finding any book written by Scandinavians in English that talk about these customs. And while there are many reasons why this might be, I think a large one is because Heathenry is primarily taught orally.

(It's difficult to put something into a book-format when the knowledge of it was just something you acrued as you grew up.

It's extra-difficult trying to write it in a language that you aren't a native speaker of, that additionally lacks the nuance and cultural concepts found within your own.

Case in point: I've watched Scandinavians grow absolutely befuddled when I mentioned that my brain automatically interprets "a troll that is a boulder" and "a troll that is a person" as "two different kinds of trolls." This is not a distinction they make, and it took a bit of back-and-forth to figure out why—because troll is a quality, and something is a troll when it has this quality. What a troll looks like, tangible or intangible, doesn't play any part in this classification system.

Now imagine getting into this sort of disambiguation with every cultural concept that pertains to Heathenry.)

Honestly, this is something that you learn simply through repeated exposure and disambiguation. It takes time.

[bone-digger]

Hail Loki, You who know how to shift your shape, Bless us queer folks who live and love, Who fight to survive in a world full of hate. Companion to the discarded ones, Walk beside us in our happiness, Guide us through our grief, Hold us through our pain, And celebrate with us our wins. Breaker of chains, Inspire us to work against our oppressors, Grant us the cleverness to foil their plans, And be with us in building and strengthening our communities. Bringer of change, Walk beside us as we work to create a better world.

Hail and be well!

[bone-digger]

Prayer to Hel

We hail you, Hel, with humility. Please bless our paths with courage and calm As we make the most of our days here.

Hel, guardian of our ancestors, Accept our praise and our offerings, Our gratitude and our solemn trust.

Hostess of our final refuge, May our endings inspire living Until the time comes to cross your gates.

Hail Hel!

[bone-digger]

Made another design in my series of pride Norse designs that I'm creating as a fuck you to nazis appropriating the runes and other symbols in hopes that if we can make designs of them that are so blatantly gay they won't want to touch them anymore. (Previous designs: Pride Loki Runes | Be Gay, Do Pride )

It's Yggdrasil (Norse tree of life) with the colors of the original pride flag in the tree/branches surrounded by rings in the colors of the triangle of the progress flag (representing BIPOC, Trans, and Intersex) (Design is transparent. Grey background is for visibility purposes)

Just like the previous designs, I'll be hosting the full-res file of this design as a free download on my Ko-Fi for people to use to make their own apparel/stickers/whatever. And also hosted on Threadless for those who can't print them on stuff themselves (or just don't feel like it) but still want something with this design on it. Each sale will also make an automatic donation to various LGBT+ charities like The Trevor Project and the National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network.

I'll be making more of these designs and also be taking requests for a bit if there are any pride rune/Norse designs anyone might want to see made, feel free to just drop them in my ask box!

[Edit: For some reason linking to the download on Ko-Fi hides this post in tags. No idea why, because the other posts were/are fine, but anyway there's a link to my Ko-Fi in my pinned post. Apologies for the inconvenience.]

[bone-digger]

Full Moons 2023

[bone-digger]

🏳️‍🌈PREORDERING FOR THE NORSE PAGAN LGBTQ+ PRIDE FLAG IS STILL LIVE!🏳️‍🌈

I’d like you to know that this flag was spread around and got Heathen Reddit very mad—so mad they reported my store’s blog for spam (likely en mass) until the blog was auto-deleted by Tumblr.💀

I’m a queer independent artist who designed this flag purely because it brings me joy. I’m selling it because it brings other people joy. The fact I was intentionally deplatformed for this is a blatant reminder that some people view my existence as a threat, and incorrectly believe Heathenry justifies my extinction.

So I have a favor to ask you.

🏳️‍🌈📢 SHARE THE HELL OUT OF THIS POST 📢🏳️‍🌈

In fact, here’s a graphic you can spread around all over your social medias; in groups, in videos, and wherever you’d like:

Preorders close in a few days to be sent to production, so order now if you want one. I also have other thematically-related designs you can pick up in addition to the flag to complete the look.

And here’s a reminder that much if Norse Heathenry is queer, both in term of its followers and its deities.

[bone-digger]

The tricksters smirk.

[bone-digger]

There doesn’t have to be an end goal or purpose when interacting with a deity.

People often seek out gods with an end goal of receiving assistance or guidance.

But you can also just interact with them for their company. You can hail them, give blot, or even just be in their presence for no other reason then you can.

[bone-digger]

What I’ve gotten out of reading Norse mythology.

[bone-digger]

I'm just going to say it. For a lot of people in the witch and pagan community who are "left" and "against antisemitism", you're all very quiet when it comes to Jews telling you guys not to appropriate Lilith even if they literally spell out the entire history of her origin for you and debunk the idea of her being a "Sumerian demon".

[bone-digger]

White witches stop "smudging" challenge year almost 2023.

[bone-digger]

I feel like a good general rule of thumb is that statements made about “The Gods” without any specifics re: pantheon or tradition can’t really be true in any meaningful way. “You shouldn’t make offerings to The Gods when you ask them for help, because it’s hubris to think you can influence their behavior.” “The Gods never/always reach out to humans in this specific way.” “The Gods have x set of feelings about humanity.” Okay, you’re gonna have to specify which Gods you’re talking about at some point, because tossing Jesus, Sobek, Hestia, The Morrigan, and Lucifer in the same God soup is just a recipe for nonfunctional theology.

[bone-digger]

Man, I do not have the time and energy required to cleanse absofuckineverything that I use and reach for in my craft. Are people really out here cleansing candles? I could not live in that kind of spiritual sterility.