findingthe-stillpoint-blog

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lina gordievsky

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Sometimes I get headaches and wonder why, then I remember my drawings are quite small.

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Óðinn wandering the 9 Realms.

Blessing to you on the Týr's Day

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I’m just going to make this one post.

Heathenry, Norse paganism, Norse polytheism, norse witchcraft, and any other variation of Nordic paganism in all of its glory ARE NOT CLOSED PRACTICE.

You do not need to be Norwegian, Swedish Icelandic Scandinavian, whatever to be a Norse pagan.

The loudest group who tries to say otherwise, is the AFA a white supremacist organization. So possible food for thought, maybe you don’t want to agree with a white supremacist organization.

modern paganism is a new practice that has ancient inspiration, not origins. There is no aspects of neo, paganism/modern paganism that makes sense to call it a closed practice due to synchronization and other factors. We don’t know all of the details for how the ancient Norse people practiced their religion. What we do have written down is from a post Christian world.

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the trees you grew up with have not forgotten you. their branches still whisper your name in the breeze and their roots remember the paths your feet once traced through their shade.

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Gangleri - Odin the Wanderer.

How much do you think solitude, ostracisation, and 'wandering' in your own way, has influenced your Spirituality?

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Excerpt from The Folklorists Manifesto

To be found on my new Substack:

1 – Folk culture is timeless: it exists then and now, here and there. It has roots but is emerging in the ever unfolding present, connecting everything and everyone.

2 – Folk culture is elusive, existing in one discipline or artform, and in another. We therefore require cross-disciplinary approaches to study and engage with it. Where it is found in language, it is found in song, and in recipes and food culture. Where it is found in food culture it is found in plant-lore and herbology. Where it is found in plant-lore it is found in ecology. Adding to and receiving from Folk Culture is highly reduced when looking through a single lens, therefore...

3 – Folk culture is collaborative.

4 – Folk thrives on inclusivity and openness. There are cases where, in it's openness, it is threatened by a dominant and colonialist culture and must go underground to survive or otherwise limit who can engage with it. But where it is not immediately threatened, if it is hidden it is starved. If folk culture is made exclusive, it stagnates, because it limits the wealth of voices and lives contributing to it. And if made exclusive for xenophobic, sexist, racist, and queerphobic reasons, it dies. Because those are based on values antithetical to collaborative creativity and cultural development. Just how creative can such an in-group really be..?

Read more via the link above.

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hörgr - norse shrines

"Ottar made me a temple of stone, and the stones of that temple glisten like glass, reddened with fresh blood from sacrificed oxen - Ottar believed faithfully in the goddesses" -- Voluspa en skamma, Translated by Jackson Crawford

Historical References

While altars and shrines are commonplace in modern pagan practices, we don't have a ton to go off of when reconstructing/reviving old Norse practices. Our understanding of hörgar (a form of Old Norse shrines) comes primarily from three sources within the Poetic Edda:

In Völuspá, the Aesir gods meet at Idavallen and construct hörgar (shrines) and hofs (temples).

In Vafþrúðnismál, Oden (in disguise) references Njord ruling over many hofs and hörgar.

Finally, in Voluspa en skamma, Freja references her follower (Ottar) building a hörgr for her. This account gives us the best picture of what a hörgr is.

Freja describes the hörgr as a shrine made by piling stones. These stones are then ritualistically reddened with sacrificial blood as an offering to Freja.

Modern Practice

"Sacrificial blood of oxen" isn't a common offering to Norse deities and spirits anymore, but building shrines can still be a useful way to anchor deities, ancestors, etc. to our spaces. What are ways we can bring the practice of building a hörgr into our modern practice?

To start, you can collect stones for a hörgr. Collecting the rocks can be a devotional act in itself. In pagan and witch circles, we often talk about asking permission before foraging (rocks, plants, etc.). However, you should also be mindful of where you are collecting stones from -- moving rocks can be detrimental to an area's ecology. Avoid stacking rocks or moving rocks away from public land, wildlife preservations, etc. Animism is important to Norse paganism, and part of acknowledging our interconnectedness also means respecting the life of others over our own desire to have an aesthetic practice. Minimize your impact!

A hörgr can be build inside or outside, depending on your needs as a practitioner (again, just consider the ecological impacts on where you build). Stacking the rocks can be a meditative process -- take your time to find an arrangement that works for you. Similar to modern shrines and altars, many Norse pagans choose to decorate the rocks and the surrounding area with images/symbols associated with the deity/spirit(s) the hörgr is dedicated to. Get creative!

Dedicate your hörgr to the intended spirit/deity with an offering and some words. Present offerings as often as you see fit! As a substitution for blood, I like to pour alcohol/water over the rocks (again, if you've built your hörgr outside, think about the environmental impact of your offerings). Your hörgr can also be used as a place to meditate and commune with deities/spirits.

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Now on Substack, talking about my work and research, my processes, Paganism, magic, and folklore.

My first post is an artists/folklorists manifesto to explain my values and beliefs around folk culture.

Help me spread the woke mind-virus! Link below, and in other places in this post somehow-somewhere.

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Here's another set of my blatantly gay Pride Norse designs (because fuck hateful appropriation of norse symbols)

Posted Odin's crows, Huginn and Muninn, a few days ago, and I finally finished the next set; Pride Thor Bindrunes

(If there's a particular pride flag you wish to see with this design that I haven't made yet, always feel free to send me a request!)

Like always, I’ve got the full-res designs hosted on my Ko-fi as free downloads for anyone who wishes to use them. Print them on a shirt, make yourself stickers, use on gifts for others- whatever.

I also have them available on Threadless for those who don’t want to or can’t print them on stuff themselves but still want something with the design on it. Each sale will also make an automatic donation to one or more of several related LGBT+ charities.

I’ll be making the Jörmungandr design I mentioned next, so stay tuned for that- it may take me a few days.

Hope you like these, and happy Pride!

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On a journey

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Had my first Instagram comment section argument with someone who had an AI Knight profile picture. Needless to say, think he left with a sore brain.

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Ochre Odin.

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When in doubt, just draw a lil man. A lil dude. Just a lil guy.

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The Trolls are always waiting for us. They have brie.