Pagan Insights #3

I'm making Disgruntled Face because blogger went and officially changed all their shit, got rid of the old templates etc. I do not like this new template. I am uncomfortable with it. It looks like a word processor or something and everything's in a different place and it takes extra clicks to check stats and everything sucks grr.

Like I want there to be a way bigger space between the top of the place where you write and where the actual typing appears. It looks super cramped and it makes me uncomfortable. Who the fuck do they have on their style team. I mean seriously, it wasn't broken, why did you have to go and fix it break it?

But anyway. For some reason, I didn't post much this month. That doesn't mean I'm not doing Pagany things, I've just been a little..... consumed by fandoms. Downton Abbey and Boardwalk Empire, specifically. Also I discovered the Sopranos a few weeks ago. The rumours were true: that is a fucking excellent show.

But it is the Full Moon, and I promised myself a full moon tradition, being the taking-stockness of the PIP. So here we are. I've had thoughts, this month, like "oh I could mention this in the PIP" but I didn't actually take notes because I am a fool.

In Your Own Words

I need to get out more. I spend too much time inside, not enough touching the earth and the trees and feeling the wind and shit like that. I think that's part of why winter always seems to disappear so soon, and why, despite everything being covered in fucking blossoms and the weather warming, it doesn't feel to me like it's halfway through spring.

Post a Pic

This image of Iðun caught my eye this month. It fits my UPG of Her quite closely, particularly the apple in Her cheeks. I honour Iðun at Ostara, having formed the theory that Ostara could be a local regional name for Her. Her primary myth seems to be an allegory of winter and the return of spring, and after all the only details we have on Ostara are from Bede, so it works well enough for me, at least until more is known.

Musical Musings

More Amanda Palmer this month, because I've been listening to Theatre is Evil pretty much non-stop. This one is Lost. The first time I heard this song it caught me off-guard when the chorus changed at the end, turning the song into something quite moving. And once you've heard it once, the chorus will get you right in the feels every time. 

"Nothing's ever lost forever, 

it's just caught inside the cushions

of your couch and when you find it

you'll have such a nice surprise.

Nothing's ever lost forever,

it's just caught inside the recess

of your mind and when you need it

it will come to you at night - 

No one's ever lost forever,

when they die they go away,

but they will visit you occasionally,

do not be afraid.

No one's ever lost forever,

they are caught inside your heart,

if you garden them and water them

they make you what you are."

I don't hear many popular songs that reflect my views of "the hereafter", but this one does, in a way that's weirdly reassuring. As if she actually knows that's the way it is, no one's ever lost forever, so it's OK. And in some ways it reflects a Heathen mindset regarding the dead and the way they watch over us and contribute to us as people as we grow and as we live.

I miss my Grandad.

Action, Action

I held Ostara early, and Equinox late, but for some reason it didn't bother me to do so. My Ostara blót was far too short, and I'm not really happy - I think I owe Iðun something extra. But holding the Equinox ritual late felt rather right in a weird way. That is, the day I held it felt proper. I'm sure I had something specific I wanted to talk about but now I can't remember what it was, so quel dommage I guess.

Eureka!

OK OK so every shitting page of EW&T is like a fucking "no shit?!" moment for me. Every page I read, there's something that interests me, something to make me scribble down some thought or other. Gundarsson suggests Surtr is a by-name, and that his real name is Muspelli, but people didn't like to mention it, hence the use of the name "Surtr". It apparently pops up quite a bit as a personal name, does "Surtr", and since Surtr is like the Untamed Enemy of the World of Fire (Iceland must have been a fucking shock) it would be a bit weird if people were named after him. Etins are discussed as entities with individual natures, rather than a bunch of natural enemies to mankind - some receive worship (and Loki he lists among them), some are friendly, some are not friendly or unfriendly, some bargain in more of a business-like way, some have genuine reasons for their dislike of the Gods (and Fenrir he lists among these), some are just dicks. And water-wights having overall a different temperament to land-wights hadn't occurred to me. Aegir and Ran are listed among the water-wights and I am very much enjoying the discussion. I always take tons of notes when I read this book.

One idea I heard years ago, before I was a Heathen, was from an older man who served regularly in a Navy somewhere, who said he always carried gold with him to throw to Ran, just in case. This gets a mention in EW&T: apparently Ran liked offerings of gold, so you want some on you if you happen to drown. Apparently, if drowned men arrive to drink at their post-funeral booze-up, it's a sign they have been well-received by Ran (and nicely ties together with the song mentioned above).

That's all for this month. I hope you are enjoying these - I quite enjoy writing them, stopping to take stock, thinking of things through the month that I can mention and so on. I'll try to have more Eureka posts that are unrelated to "hey, check out this thing I read" or whatever, but honestly I'm not always inclined to share, so it may just be a place where I post interesting titbits I've come across.

Ciao!