Odins Day Reflection : The Maypole

 

 Blessing to all on this Odin's Day, 

    As we began the week, my wife and I cut the maypole and will be procuring items for decorations and such as we look towards Saturday. We are celebrating early as it's when we will be surrounded by the most family and loved ones. 

    I've been reading the great Marcus Aurelius and I think every young person should get a hold of his work "meditations." It contains so much wisdom and is thoroughly a pagan work while also appealing to a more Christian worldview at times. There's much to comment on, but a theme I touched on last week also shows itself in his writings. The idea of accepting what is, what comes and doing our best to live with this acceptance. 

    Beltane and this time of year represents a great change, a great shifting of seasons and we experience this every year and we accept it as part of the rhythm of life. Change is the great constant of our lives. Our relationships change, our personal interests, our opinions etc. So much is dependent on this change. And so this time of year, as with all the seasonal changes, asks us to accept different things. As we change from Spring into Summer we are encouraged to allow the seeds that have been planted to take root and grow. Summer is the season of rootedness and becoming our true selves and living up to that potential. But Summer can also be hot, uncomfortable and full of drought, which sounds a lot like another word, doubt. When we find ourselves in times of change we can tend towards doubt, but the hope of the season is that we will grow into what we are intended to be and that a great harvest awaits at the end where the fruits will be enjoyed. 

 So as we plant the roots of our Maypole in the ground and adorn it with ribbons and flowers, a great symbol of fertility and growth, may it cause us to examine those things that we are cultivating in ourselves and may we root ourselves and prepare for the coming season of harvest. 

 May we be open to this time of year, accepting change, and may we place doubt aside. 

-Jacob 

Odin's Day Reflection : The Red Bud

 

Blessing to all on this Odin's Day, 

    It's been a challenging week. Suffice to say, some sad news for my wife and I that has lead us to experience pain and sadness that we weren't anticipating. Please keep us in your prayers. 

    Yesterday we decided to do some yard work, just to keep moving and try to stave off the sadness a bit with some movement. Eileen cut out a big patch of multiflora rose and other weeds and dead foliage and pruned our fruit trees. I mowed the field and paths around it and helped throw things on the burn pile in anticipation of our Beltane bonfire we will be lighting at the end of this month. 

    In the field we have a red bud tree that sprouts out from a fallen log that was the original red bud. It fell over and was uprooted but yet, life persisted and out of the fallen tree, two new trees sprouted. What was once tragedy, turned out to actually create more beauty as the red bud is now even more picturesque and more interesting than it would have been before. 

    

    This is how it goes with life. Each turn, each tragedy or joy that befalls us is an opportunity for new growth, a chance for even better things, even if we can't see it in the moment. We shouldn't put too much stock in any new thing that is in front of us at any given moment, because change may be right over the horizon. Give things time to take root and evolve. 

    This Havalmal verse comes to mind, 

Do not put too much trust
in your newly planted crops,    
nor your child to early ---
weather will shape the field
and whim will shape the child
and neither will stay the same. 

Havalmal 88

(Wanderers Havalmal Translated by Jackson Crawford)

    Weather shaped the red bud and changed its course. May we always be accepting of the weather and the whim and look for the chance to grow in new and unexpected ways. 

-Jacob 

Using the Landscape : Intuition in Pagan Practice

  Recently my wife and I made a trip to the sacred Serpent Mound one of the great effigy mounds in the midwest. Neither of us had been before and were really excited to tread on such important ground.

 I brought with me a muskrat tobacco pouch in the style of 18th and 19th century Native American tobacco pouches. My Pawnee friend had told me that one great thing to do to honor sacred sites here in America is to leave tobacco offerings. So in that spirit, I brought it along. 

    We arrived and went into the gift shop/museum and paid for the parking and then began the walk along the edges of the serpent. Beginning with the swirling tail and ending with the head that overlooks a beautiful valley, with an eagle nest not far away from the point. Down below the Ohio Brush Creek runs alongside. We really enjoyed the walk and felt the importance of this place. Unfortunately not much is known about what the site was used for. Burial mounds not far away from the serpent make suggestions but nothing concrete. The alignment also points to some significance with the solstice's, but again, who's to say? We have oral stories about snakes in the traditions of the local Ohio tribes that once called this place home. The serpent is associated with the underworld and many tribes in the United States have horned serpents in their stories. 

    The horned serpent makes appearances in Europe as well, with this depiction of Cernunnos holding two ram horned serpents in this relief. 

 

In Norse stories, the world tree has a great dragon or serpent at its base who gnaws at the base.

A hall I saw,

far from the sun,

On Nastrond it stands,

and the doors face north,

Venom drops

through the smoke-vent down,

For around the walls

do serpents wind.

I there saw wading

through rivers wild

treacherous men

and murderers too,

And workers of ill

with the wives of men;

There Nithhogg sucked

the blood of the slain,

And the wolf tore men;

would you know yet more?

   All of these symbols are great cross cultural contact points for us in the modern world trying to reclaim a sense of our past and our relationship to the land and to nature. While the meaning of the serpent mound remains ambiguous for us in terms of its original use or purpose, we can apply new meanings based on our cultural folklore from all around the globe. So to an American Indo-European descended person, I can recall the stories and folklore around the serpents and dragons that my ancestors would have known while also venerating and honoring the local stories as well that have been told by the tribes that dwelled near and around these ancient sites. Basically, use your intuition. 

    The landscape is begging to be used again, but not used in the modern sense of taking resources and destroying eco systems. But used for the purpose of communing. As we walked along the paths that go down below the serpent mound we looked up and saw a shallow cave. I immediately saw a vulva, not because I have a dirty mind because there is nothing "dirty" about it. The vulva is a symbol of life, fertility and great pleasure and so I immediately thought, "I should leave an offering inside of it for a fertility blessing." And this is what I mean by intuition. Look around and see what the land may offer you and then offer something in return. When we begin to venerate the land again, I think then we will see such a change in our societal values. 

 May the gods keep you and bless you! 

-Jacob 

Preparing for Beltane

  

Well met kith and kin, 

 It's the beginning of April, nearly tax time in the modern world, but for us pagans who live between worlds as it were, we are seeing that spring has sprung and it is a wonderful time to begin looking forward to our next great festival, the festival of Beltane. There are plenty of great resources out there on the history of this spring rite, and I will leave you to search for those, but here I will offer some reflections and some traditional ways in which you might celebrate with others or own your own! 

 Back in February we celebrated Imbolc or St Brigid's day and this marked the transition out of winter and looking forward to spring, the preparation time for when the ground will once again become fertile and ready for seeds to be planted. Now as we approach Beltane which marks the beginning Summer, we are seeing the first rites related to fertility and abundance. 

 I'd like to offer several Beltane essentials for your celebrations either by your lonesome or in a group setting. Feel fret take or leave and adapt as you will. 

 A bonfire on the eve of the festival is a great way to invoke our ancient ancestors and set the mood for your celebrations. Animals such as cattle were typically driven between fires to ensure fertility but people would often jump over the fire as well, and couple hand in hand. This is also a time like any other to appease the faeries or elves and so mink and honey given at the threshold or at a local fairy haunt is a good way to celebrate. Decorating a bush with ribbons is a custom we have adopted and is great for young children. During the bonfire, light a torch and go around the bounds of your property or house to ensure protection. After the fire has died down, take the ash and daub yourself and sprinkle some on the fields or gardens. 

 This time of year is all about renewal and preparing for abundance. May we all experience growth and renewal of ourselves in the coming summer months. 

-Jacob