And the old gypsy woman said to me, “Draped in your animal furs, protect yourself from the cold, my child, my child. Live off the land the Gods have given us, for they can as easily forge a monster strong enough to take it away. A monster within, my child, my child.”
Yes, this is me, I may start posting pictures of myself to put a face to this blog.
Here’s something I’m really excited about: I edited and republished a historical work! Search “Icelandic Wrestling: A Study on Brókartök Glíma: A Viking Martial Art” to find it on Amazon! You can also check out vinlandhema on Instagram if you’re interested in this sort of thing, all the techniques in this manual are detailed on that page (check out the Brókartök highlight).
Brókartök Glíma is a martial art and folkstyle of wrestling, part of the broader umbrella of Glíma brought to Iceland by its Viking settlers. Glima is an authentic viking martial art, still practiced today. Brókartök is the most well known aspect of Glíma, the pants grip variation of Glíma, where both players take and use a fixed grip on the pants throughout the match. There’s a few theories on why, and my afterword for this text explains every theory I’ve come across. Brókartök literally translates to pants-grip from Icelandic.
If you’re interested in Brókartök Glíma, learning more about this exciting and dynamic historical martial art, or just willing to support my work on HEMA (especially Viking HEMA), picking up this book would be a great way to do it. Even just liking and sharing to boost would help a lot !!!
Here are some of the new pieces that have been added to my shop over the last week!
There are also custom Hel Mary statues slots that can be used for other goddess/deity creations, other spooky/witchy/pagan art pieces and some new vintage picks. Anything that was in the shop for over a year (excluding art) has been donated to a local fund-raising event coming up in June so there aren’t many pieces that are 40% off available still there. There are also still a handful of crystals available that support me and my friend.
Other than that just some general me/shop updates and requests - I have over $700 in regular bills still due by 5/8/22 and DoorDash has no incentives this week until the 6th, making it not worth my time to drive in the meantime. Any sales really help me out in general, but no one on any social media platform seems to be seeing any of my work consistently. Please reblog if you can for someone else who may want to support the shop or buy my work!
The new website is up with links to where you can find me, the weekend auctions, my discord channel, examples of my previous work and general info on what customs I offer. Please check it out and sign up for newsletters! I only have one subscriber rn
I have mentioned in passing that I used to identify as a Norse pagan, but haven’t identified as such in a while. I’ve never really talked about why. I felt like it wasn’t worth discussing, but now I feel like this is something I need to share.
To start this off, I want to say that I have nothing against people identifying with Norse paganism (so long as they aren’t the racist/homophobic/etc types). I still adore some of the deities and I still incorporate Norse aspects into my craft. I still like reading about the religion and the history of the Viking age. The things I studied, and still study, are important to myself, my practice and my spirituality. I wish to one day feel comfortable with identifying as a Norse pagan again, but right now I’m not.
That being said, there are a lot of problems that have pushed me away and caused me to lose hope in the community.
The most obvious problem would be the white supremacist and neonazi types of people who identify with the religion, the deities and/or use the symbols significant to the religion. Some people of the Norse pagan community do a good job at calling these things out and providing educational resources (regarding the appropriative use of Norse pagan symbols and the misinformation people spread about the Viking age) to help debunk false information. Many, however, have taken up an idea that “not claiming” the white supremacist, neonazi types that identify with Norse paganism is a good way to reclaim the religion and religious symbols. Saying “we don’t claim them” alone is not helping the religion or the community, and quite frankly is a lazy way to fight against corruption of Norse paganism.
Can we force these types of individuals to stop identifying as Norse pagans and using symbols from the religion? Of course not. We can’t force anybody to change what they identify with. That doesn’t mean there is absolutely nothing we can’t do.
We can study up on texts such as the Poetic Eddas and the Havamal. We can study up on what modern people do know, or at least the theories we have, about the old Norse people. We can use the sources we learn from as references. We can work on developing the religion further with what we have. Knowledge is power, y'all.
Beyond using the resources we have to our advantage and using it to speak out against misinformation, there isn’t much else we can do beyond organizing the religion. Which isn’t much of an option in the first place, since most people like that Norse paganism isn’t an organized religion.
Regardless, my next point. Even if white supremacist and neonazi types of individuals weren’t a problem, there are still a lot of fucked up people in the community. I’ve seen discourse about people worshipping Loki, Angrboda, their children and sometimes the Jotnar in general (which is confusing, since Odin is half Jotunn himself). I’ve seen discourse about if reconstructionism is somehow superior or not to modern takes on the religion. I’ve seen people in the community attempt to “recreate Norse face paint” (which is also confusing, considering we can’t know for sure if this was actually a thing to the old Norse) by wrongfully using facial lines that are significant to Indigenous people around the world (or going as far as to tattoo these things on their faces). These are just the few things that come to mind, but all have shown up on multiple platforms in the past. Some of y'all like to claim that Norse pagans are friends to bipoc, but then steal from their cultures in attempts to make it modern Norse culture. Don’t even get me started on some of the (sometimes not-so) thinly veiled homophobic and sexist takes I’ve seen, either.
There is also the issues of people arguing about what the “correct” way to worship the deities are, if Godspousing in the Norse pagan religion is valid and so on. Are there some things that are just blatantly disrespectful and shouldn’t be said or done? Sure, maybe a handful of things. Outside of that, since when was it anybody’s business what peoples relationships with their deities are? Why do you care if somebody you have never spoken to has decided they want to commit to Godspousing? Why do you care if somebody offers something other than wine or mead to Odin? What is actually the problem here? Yes, I’m speaking based on what I have both observed and experienced. Some people are just fucking strange.
I have experienced so much homophobic, sexist and just blatantly disrespectful people in the community. Many of which would denounce white supremacists and neonazis, but then come back sympathizing and saying “This is definitely wrong, but…” or “This is my religion and there is nothing wrong with [insert appropriative thing that isn’t related to the religion here].”
It became exhausting. It became exhausting to educate about the misinformation and bigotry alongside dealing with people who claimed to be against such things, only to later say or do something that proved otherwise. So I stopped identifying as a Norse pagan and stopped interacting with the community. I want to see the community do better, and for a long time I wanted to do what I could to help, but right now I am experiencing burnout. I’ve been experiencing it for months. This is the first time I’ve put all of my thoughts and stress about this out in a single post. I’m probably gonna get a lot of backlash for this but I don’t give a shit anymore.
•Zero tolerance for homophobes, transphobes, racists, TERFs , SWERFS & any other bigots,this account is a safe place i will block anyone who is bigoted
•Donot call me male coded language(bro, man, dude, guy, etc) it makes me incredibly dysphoric
Obsidian is truth-enhancing. A strongly protective stone, it forms a shield against negativity. It absorbs negative energies from the environment. Obsidian draws out mental stress and tension.
adding a small cw here because I might briefly mention ed/sh habits
2020 has been a really shitty year in a lot of ways, but as someone who tries desperately to find the light in shitty situations, I’ve come to realise a lot of good things happened this year as well.
so I’m going to share them in a list. please feel free to reblog or comment with your own good things that happened in 2020
-got together with my boyfriend, who is the most wonderful person I am lucky to have
-tackled a lot of my trauma from abuse, including sexual trauma which was a really big step for me
-got straight As in my exam (not that I sat the exams, but I put the work in throughout the year) results
-currently have been given two offers to my university choices, one of them being a conditional to Leeds (my top choice) and the other an unconditional to Kent
-stayed clean from self harm for the entire year (648 days so far!)
-150 days clean from purging
-started trying to focus more on doing the things I love again like gaming and art
-started working with/worshipping freyja!
-decided I wanted to start editing my poetry and prepare to self publish
-bought a lot of crystals. a lot. (and i love them all!)
-began learning how to read tarot cards and runestones!
that’s all I can think of at the moment but look how many things there are!
I did a reading for myself tonight, asking some fairly important questions about university.
I’ve applied to 5 universities, and gotten two offers so far from the English unis I applied to. I’m Scottish, so I suppose it’s basically expected of me to go to a Scottish uni for a few reasons but I have a conditional offer for Italian and Japanese at Leeds which is like.. a perfect mix of what I want now and what 10 year old me would fall in love with myself for.
I was applying for Italian and German but found out I needed a Higher German (which I don’t, I have Italian, Spanish, and French) but the university allowed me to switch my choice before they gave me an offer and since I had originally applied to Italian and Japanese (but later changed it to German to fit with my PS) it was some divine sign from the universe.
But I feel as if my mum and my family are trying to pull me closer to home. I’ve had so much pressure to go to a uni closer, even one I could stay at home whilst I study and I just… can’t do that. I want to explore and get out of my comfort zone.
I felt so anxious about my decision, so I decided to do a Celtic Cross spread to help find some clarity.
And boy… would you look at all those Major Arcana cards. In fact, the Ace of Pentacles in itself essentially set out the entire spread. It was a beautifully placed card in this entire spread, along with the King of Swords. In fact, I think all of the cards set themselves into place perfectly and I had very little trouble interpreting it for myself.
I love when things come together like this. It makes me feel so… whole.
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
*do not claim this specific spread for yourself. this reading was personal and tailored for myself. if you would like a reading, please message me and we can discuss pricing.
just because you call yourself an ✨eclectic witch✨ doesn’t mean you have the right to appropriate other cultures, steal from them, and hijack closed practices
This is in reference to Lilith, by the way… who IS closed..
Another so-called ‘eclectic wiccan’ was also weighing in on this conversation telling me Lilith isn’t closed and that her ‘Jewish friends’ and ‘local rabbi’ told her so. Uh huh…
(I’m not Jewish by the way, I just have some Jewish ancestry and have done a bit of research into Jewish witches. I’m not hugely educated on the topic, but I know Lilith is closed and is regularly appropriated by non-Jewish witches. Blogs like @ will-o-the-witch have a lot of info on this )
It’s always the eclectic witches
“An ancient culture I can’t recall rn” okay.
God they get worse
If a deity (I know Lilith isn’t a deity, but I’m just using this for ease and to generalise that this is information can encompass all practices) is part of a closed practice that you are not a part of and cannot BE a part of, such as, say, ‘Voodoo gods’ reaching out to you if you’re white, then I hate to break it to you, but that’s not a deity as part of that culture who is reaching out to you. It’s an entity that is doing this to try and trick you, and if you’re naive enough to believe something that is part of a closed practice you have no right to be in is reaching out to you, then the entity knows that you are naive enough to be hurt easily.
This is why I recommend all ‘baby’ witches and so-called ‘eclectic’ witches do a fair amount of research before worshipping or choosing to work with a deity. Personally, I had signs of Freyja reaching out to me for months before I decided for definite I would worship/work with her. This is because I spent that time researching Freyja, and asking other witches who work with Freyja what their experience is with her. I also asked Sól for guidance in this decision, because I wanted to be absolutely sure that it was Freyja who was sending me signs and reaching out to me, rather than an entity pretending to be Freyja who had the intent of hurting me.
TL;DR: if you are not Jewish and Lilith is ‘reaching out to you’ or you are communicating with Lilith, it’s not actually Lilith. You are being played.
Eros was the Greek god of love, or more precisely, passionate and physical desire. Without warning he selects his targets and forcefully strikes at their hearts, bringing confusion and irrepressible feelings or, in the words of Hesiod, he ‘loosens the limbs and weakens the mind’ (Theogony, 120). Eros is most often represented in Greek art as a carefree and beautiful youth, crowned with flowers, especially of roses which were closely associated with the god.
Eros – known as Cupid to the Romans – was the Greek god of sexual attraction, a constant companion of Aphrodite. Variously depicted as either a beautiful youth or a mischievous nude boy, Eros is most commonly represented with a bow and an unlimited number of arrows which he uses to overpower the reason and incite erotic feelings in any mortal or god per Aphrodite’s or his own wish. Once, though, he accidentally scraped himself with an arrow – and that’s how he fell in love with Psyche, who will later become his wife for eternity.
The first of these is Hesiod’s Eros, a primordial being, “the most beautiful of the immortal gods,” one of the very first few deities that sprung into existence. In this story, Eros was the son of Chaos, and the brother of Gaea, Tartarus, Erebus, and Nyx. A universal cosmic force, he became Aphrodite’s companion soon after her birth, which he had previously overseen.
However, possibly due to the fact that Eros was constantly accompanying the goddess of love, later authors reimagined him as one of the many children of Aphrodite and Ares. In this case, there are at least three more winged love gods such as him, all of them his brothers: Anteros, Pothos, and Himeros. Together, they are often referred to as the Erotes.
Write a letter to yourself, forgiving yourself of all the things you did but don’t like dwelling on, and apologizing to your younger self for not treating your mental wounds like you would physical, then write about what you’re going to improve about yourself, stick to it.
Casting Circles is very important for baby-witches to learn for protection and in general for spells, but before preforming any spells please make sure you know how to cast a circle.
What is a circle, and why does it matter?
A circle is often a barrier that houses your spells and rituals. By casting a circle, you’re allocating energy to protect you from any unwanted or negative outside influences. There are a lot of formal ways to begin a circle and some informal.
It’s important to note that there are many ways to cast a circle.
In traditional witchcraft, you might call upon a god or goddess, while if you’re a secular witch, you might call upon the elements, or create a wall of your own energy. A circle isn’t mandatory, but it can significantly assist with protection and energy.
How to cast a circle
Always begin by cleansing your space. You can either use your mind to mentally push out, use incense to burn away or use a broom or besom to sweep away. Once you have your method for cleansing your space, it’s time to define your circle. To define your sacred circle, it’s important to take your space and location into consideration. Are you in your bedroom? Bathroom? Or outside? You can make your intended circle as large or as small as you’d like. You can mentally define your circle or mark the directions or elements with candles or crystals. If you’re using the four elements, you can create a cross shape. If you’re using the five elements, you can create a pentacle shape.
To cast a circle by calling upon the elements, begin facing the east. This is home to the element of air. When you move clockwise, you’ll end facing North where you can begin your ritual or spell work. Stand in your intended circle as you begin to relax and focus on your breathing. Take as long as you’d like at this step or until you feel calm, centered, and present.
What to Do/Say
Begin by envisioning the wind whipping around you and get really in tune with the element of air and say: “Element of air, I call on you.”
Moving clockwise, turn to the south. Envision crackling flames and the warmth of the sun. Once you are in tune with fire, say: “Element of fire, I call on you.”
Turn to the west. Envision flowing water in waves and waterfalls and streams, possibly moving around your body. When you feel attuned with water, say, “Element of water, I call on you.”
Turn to the North. Conjure up the scent of the earth after it rains. Imagine the silence and darkness of a cave and the rooted feeling of being barefoot on the earth. When you feel attuned, say, “Element of earth, I call on you.”
Still facing North, become aware of your feet and send a column or roots of light deep into the core of the earth. Bring this energy up from the center of the earth and into your body and visualize a white light flowing, creating the circle and say: “With these elements together under spirit, I cast a circle of protection above, below, within.”
This is where you perform your ritual, meditation, or spells.
You can also temporarily exit your circle without repeating the entire circle casting process. To do so, hold an athame or wand in your hand and make a cutting motion across the line of the circle and say: “I use this athame of crystal to open a door.” Your wand or athame will help you direct energy to make an incision in your circle of energy. When returning, you can simply reverse the process to close the door.
Opening a circle
Also called closing a circle is a way to release the energy you’ve built and is a way to thank the elements for their assistance.
The process of opening a circle begins with you facing north to release earth and saying: “Earth, thank you for your energy. I bid you farewell.”
Next, you’ll turn to the west to release water: “Water, thank you for your energy. I bid you farewell.”
Then, you’ll turn to the south to release fire: “Fire, thank you for your energy. I bid you farewell.”
After that, you’ll turn to the east to release air: “Air, thank you for your energy. I bid you farewell.”
Finally, you’ll return back north to release spirit and the circle by saying: “Spirit, I bid you farewell. I open this circle and release the energy back into the earth.”
Other popular phrases for circle casting and opening:
“The circle is open, but never broken. The love of the deity name is forever in my heart.”
“Merry meet, and merry part, and merry meet again.”
“I thank you, element of name for lending your energy tonight. I bid you farewell.”
“I call the Guardian of direction and the element of element to watch over this sacred circle.”
Shielding is a way of protecting yourself from psychic, mental, or magical attack—it’s a way of creating an energy barrier around yourself that other people can’t penetrate.
When you shield, you envelope yourself with your energy. Focus on your energy core, and expand it outward so that it covers your entire body. Ideally, you’ll want it to extend past the surface of your body so that it’s almost as though you’re walking around in a bubble.
When you’re forming your energy shield, it’s a good idea to visualize the surface of it as being reflective. This not only protects you from negative influences and energy, but it can also repel them back to the original sender. If you’re someone who is often affected by the emotions of others—if certain people make you feel drained and exhausted by their very presence—then you need to practice shielding techniques.
So now that we’ve grown a bit as a community and as a family (again im still freakin out thank you so much!!) what do y’all think I should focus on moving forward? any ideas or suggestions im completely open to! I heard of deity reveals which I can also do if y’all would want that(?) But its all completely up to you!! I’d love to hear from y’all❤️
The Clairs are physic abilities that we have, now we don’t have all of them although it’s possible to train them, it is hard though.
Clairvoyance means clear seeing. This is when visions past, present and future flash through our mind’s eye, or third eye, much like a daydream. Many of us are highly visual and able to understand an idea best when we see it written or sketched out as an image on a computer screen or on a canvas. Visual people often choose to be artists, builders, photographers, decorators, designers and so forth. If this sounds familiar, your clairvoyance is most likely a dominant sense.
Clairaudience means clear hearing. This is when we hear words, sounds or music in our own mind’s voice. On rare occasions, spirit may be able to create audible sound, though this takes a tremendous amount of focused energy. Some of us best retain and comprehend information when we hear it spoken aloud. Our natural talents tend to lie in our auditory faculties, often making us gifted musicians, singers, writers and public speakers. If this feels right to you, clairaudience may be a leading sense for you.
Clairsentience means clear feeling. This entails feeling a person’s or spirit’s emotions or feeling another’s physical pain. Many of us are clairsentient without consciously being aware of it. When we get a strong “gut” feeling, positive or negative, about someone we just met or when we get the “chills” for no apparent reason, we may be tuning into the emotional energy of a person or a spirit around us. When we are highly sensitive and are in tune with not only our own feelings, but also the feelings of others, this makes us natural healers and caregivers. We often feel inspired to pursue careers as doctors, therapists, counselors, nannies and teachers. If this is you, clairsentience is at the top of your senses list.
Clairalience means clear smelling. This is being able to smell odors that don’t have any kind of physical source. Instances of this could include smelling the perfume or the cigarette smoke of a deceased relative, used as a sign of their presence around us. When our sense of smell is strong and distinct, we may find that certain smells connect us to past memories or we may be drawn to working as a florist, a wine taster or a perfume fragrance creator.
Clairgustance means clear tasting. This is the ability to taste something that isn’t actually there. This experience oftentimes comes from out of the blue when a deceased loved one is attempting to communicate a memory or association we have with a particular food or beverage that reminds us of them. If we have a heightened sense of taste, this would make us natural chefs, bakers or food critics.
Claircognizance means clear knowing. This is when we have knowledge of people or events that we would not normally have knowledge about. Spirit impresses us with truths that simply pop into our minds from out of nowhere. An example of this would be a premonition: a forewarning of something that will happen in the future. Claircognizance requires tremendous faith because there’s often no practical explanation for why we suddenly “know” something. Many philosophers, professors, doctors, scientists, religious and spiritual leaders and powerful sales and business leaders tend to be highly intuitive and seem to just know the facts with a sense of certainty. If this is you, consider claircognizance as one of your dominant senses.
What emotion do you need to feel? What emotion do you try to keep controlled and hidden? Why? Do you believe all emotions need to be felt? Why? Are you afraid of feeling those certain emotions? Why?
Nyx is the Greek Goddess of the night, and the daughter of Chaos. Her birthplace was not on Earth but in Gaia. She is Primordial God. It is said that she was created near the beginning of time. Her home is in the depths of Hades’ underworld. Nyx has a shadowy figure, which makes her the perfect personification of the night.
Nyx is a very unique goddess. She can impact mankind in a good or bad way. Her ability to bring sleep or death unto to the human race. Zeus even feared Nyx because she was older and stronger than him. That speaks volumes of her power. The moonstone is used to honor her to this day. It reflects it’s owner and should be used during the full moon.
Nyx lived in Tartarus. However, Nyx is not exactly the personification of evil in greek mythology. She’s never spoken of having done anything more ‘evil’ than Zeus himself does in any mythology. Yet, many see her as more of a villain figure than she ever appears to be.
Nyx married Erebus, the God of darkness. Nyx and Erebus produced Hemera (Day) and Aither (Light). Hemera is Nyx’s opposite. Nyx brought the dark veil over the night, while Hemera chased the dark mists away each morning. Interestingly so, Nyx was able to create her own dark spirits including Fates, Sleep, Death, Strife, and Pain. More of Nyx’s children include, Geras, Moros, Nemesis, the Keres, and the Oneiroi.
“Hræsvelgr he is called, who at the end of heaven sits, a Jötun in an eagle´s plumage: from his wings comes, it is said, the wind, that over all men passes.”
