One of the email lists that I keep track of had a thread talking about Heathen based IC's, especially from a 'banding together to weather through X' standpoint (x = whichever SHTF scenario you think more likely). This was the commentary I added to the discussion: 

I posted earlier this year about the heathen solar-lunar calendar and I wanted to add a few followup thoughts.

• The Anglo-Saxon month names of 'Winterfylleþ' and "Hálig-mónaþ". I still object to the translation of 'Winterfylleþ' as 'Winter Fullmoon' -- it just doesn't fit into the context of the other moon names around it which refer to seasonal events. There is already a whole second set of names special for the full moons, and looking up 'fylleþ' in at least the Bosworth/Toller dictionary gives more of a 'filled-up' / volume/amount context for this. I still think this should be better interpreted as 'FILLING up the WINTER pantry stores' which is a high priority at that point in the season, not whether moon is full or not. Also, I think the alternate name of 'Hærfest-mónaþ' instead of 'Hálig-mónaþ' makes more sense. Each point in the year has its holy tides/events and there doesn't seem to be anything in the lore that would make that month enormously spiritually special. But, it is definitely the height of harvest time.
   
• On another forum I came across a good idea when it comes to deciding whether a given year needs Third Litha or not in a given year. Now, this is not my idea, and I don't remember who mentioned it or where, so if you know, please speak up! Anyway, it ties into Yule and especially Twelveth Night. If the new crescent of Æfterra-Yule appears before the end of the 12th night of Yule, then you will need to add the Third Litha. While the reckoning via the Nebra disk is very cool, this method is simple, easy to remember and doesn't rely on a starting year to apply the 19-year Metonic cycle. It's also perpetually self-corrective. It also gives a reason for the 12th night celebration, as that is when you would establish the calendar for the coming year.
   
• Also, as I've been mapping the months, the moons and festivals on a circular graph, I've noticed some interesting connections. My UPG about 'Winter Nights' is that this can be an extended event, starting with the last wagonful of grain harvest, brought in decorated procession, driven by a man and woman representing Byggr (Barley) and his wife Beyla (Honey) as Ingui's servants. Now once the total grain crop is in an accounted for, its known how much winter feed there is and the culling of livestock can happen, with the best saved for last, particularly if this is a buckling goat. He is then the blot dedicated to Thor at the end of Winter Nights' -- and this buck then 'resurrects', (Thor blowing on the bones of his goat) and is renewed at Yule as the Julbok :) I could muse more on other inter-connections, but that was the one on the top of my mind.

Shared in frith, enjoy!

I don't necessarily advocate or condemn the site this video is from, but it is probably one of the clearest explainations of Peak Oil and its ramifications I've found yet.

http://www.postpeakliving.com/preparing-post-peak-life

I made this comment in response to a post in another forum and wanted to toss it in here for further ideas from the peanut gallery (you all) and to record it somewhere for later reflection/expansion/research.

"My UPG when it comes to Manni is that it is very sexual. Male moonlight bathes women seeking mysteries and they gain good rede to keep the people hale and strong. Complimentarily, female Sunna radiates down on men's toiling in the fields and they gain the seed and feeds that keep the people well feed and provided. Freya would be the leader of such women's mysteries as The Seidkona to all other seidkona, such as Freyr is Alf-king to all good wights of harvest."

So, I am currently exploring the feasiblity of going back to school to finish my degree. I wobbled out of the UofM-TwinCities with good standing (though not stellar) on a Leave of Absence back in the summer of 2001. Now that my life continues to stabilize and I've gotten increasing control over my debt/income ratio, I'm looking into going back and doing right by my efforts at education. Here's the crux of my dilemnia:

( Soon I'll actually post something heathen-related, but until then... )

Bf had flowers, balloons, teddy, chocolate -- the works! delivered to my office today! I've never felt so happily fussed over! I knew I was keeping him around for something ;)

As I alluded to in my previous post, I've been looking into Germanic calendar systems. To wrap my brain around the idea, I took a spreadsheet and notated the solar-lunar cycle for the current 'high-week' of 19 years, starting with 2006 as the first year of the current long cycle as determined based on the Nebra Sky Disk (yes, I realize this is my geek showing :P).
( My custom full moon names and more comments... )

After having read this article on the Germanic lunar/solar calendar system, I'm inspired to develop a more indepth heathen calendar/almanac. I'm looking at something that could evolve a complex cultural depth similar to Mayan, Hindi, Islamic, etc.. calendars that have various scales of interacting cycles. The longest cycle starting with the star/lunar conjunction based on the Nebra sky disk.

Feel free to recommend further resources/books/references/etc... :)

Hey all,

To make a very long story short, the bf, turned not-bf housemate is not working out so well and looks like he may be leaving town soon (not as in dumping/fleeing, but as in moving to a different locale to find work..).

So, this means I'm starting to look for a roommate for the house I live in over near 42nd and Cedar Ave in Minneapolis. Its a rather nice place. Right off the #46 bus. Strict half of the rent is 550$ + utils (which aren't that bad), but that is negotiable. If you know of anyone that might be interested, let me know, pass on my email, etc..

... help...

You can relate to my excited enthusiasm at the moment! I just paid off one of my two student loans. Sure it was the smaller of the two, but it's still extremely gratifying! Along with that, I've managed to recover the larger one out of default status as well and will be able to knock it down in good standing. These things make me very happy. I've got quite a bit yet until I'm debt free, but I'm well on the way.

Oh, and somewhat counter-productively I'm going to celebrate by spending some cash on techology -- a tv-receiver fob for my computer. The old TV and DVD player will probably go on freecycle/craigslist.

Well, I got a chance to read through and review chapter three last night, so I've got the next installment of discussion questions ready. This chapter focused on the Bronze Age in Europe and concludes the preceding anthropological context for Germanic culture, the beginnings of which emerge during the Iron Age (covered in the next chapter). I am really pleased over all that Our Troth took this approach in introducing the topic of Heathenry. There are different elements of what is taken as 'Heathen' that are separated by centuries or more. They are relevent, but need to be understood in the context of the time they come from.

( Our Troth v.1 chap.3 )

Our Troth Study Sessions - Part 2
Our Troth Study Sessions - Part 1

Here is the next chapter's questions. This is the second installment of discussion questions and thus is the other post from earlier, which you can reference here.

Hopefully this weekend I'll figure out which box my copy of the book is in so I can skim through the previous two chapters to see if there is anything else I want to bring up and otherwise prepare the next chapter's questions. Hopefully I'll be able to post those sometime mid next week.

( Our Troth v.1, Chap 2: The Indo-Europeans )

So, as I alluded to earlier this year, when all the personal drama had settled down concerning ex-husband and moving, I would dive back into my heathen studies. Well, the drama is still ongoing and being dragged out -- but I've let this lie too long.

As was suggested earlier, I am first going to repost the discussion questions from chapters one and two from earlier. Click here if you would like to go back to the original post and comments for reference. The idea is that if a group were reading through the book together, they would be questions to prompt additional critical thinking about the material and how they understand it. Feel free to suggest other questions or to post answers to the ones I pose. The intention is not a right/wrong environment, but more a 'what do you think?'. Also, if you have any suggestions of other books that would benefit from this kind of format, suggest them.

( Our Troth v.1, Chapter 1 )

Skiped this from greenkira, who got it from http://www.lokis-laughter.com/

"The River"

One day, three men were hiking and unexpectedly came upon a large, raging, violent river. They needed to get to the other side, but had no idea of how to do so. The first man prayed to Woden, saying, "Please Woden, give me the strength to cross this river."

Poof!
Woden gave him big arms and strong legs, and he was able to swim across the river in about two hours, after almost drowning a couple of times.

Seeing this, the second man prayed to Thor, saying, "Please Thunor, give me the strength..... and the tools to cross this river."

Poof!
Thunor gave him a rowboat and he was able to row across the river in about an hour, after almost capsizing the boat a couple of times.

The third man had seen how this worked out for the other two, so he prayed to Frige saying, "Please Frige, give me the strength and the tools... and the intelligence... to cross this river.”

And poof!
Frige turned him into a woman. She looked at the map, hiked upstream a couple of hundred yards, then walked across the bridge.\

*giggle-giggle* *snark* Normally I'm not so guy-bashing, but it was too good.

While I've posted this next chapter rather quickly, with the Yuletide approaching, it'll probably be a little bit before I post questions from the third chapter. I actually started this some time ago, so for these two chapters I've been transcribing from previous notes. I will probably review the first two chapters as well and if there are any additions they will be posted as well.

Otherwise I hope everyone has a warm, merry and loving holiday. I would love to hear stories of how they went. My holiday is likely to be mostly a somber/draining event with my sister likely to be passing in the next day or two, so it will be nice to hear of other more joyful celebrations.

( Chapter Two: The Indo Europeans )

So, as I am reading through the newly published revision of Our Troth (vol 1), I have been coming up with discussion questions prompted from each chapter. The idea is that if a group were reading through the book together, they would be questions to prompt additional critical thinking about the material and how they understand it. Feel free to suggest other questions or to post answers to the ones I pose. The intention is not a right/wrong environment, but more a 'what do you think?'. I will post under a cut for each chapter over the next few weeks. Also, if you have any suggestions of other books that would benefit from this kind of format, suggest them.

( Chapter One: The Stone Age )

Well, it seems that the AFA has recently reworked their clergy program as well. Having listened to a recent interview with Stephen McNallen on Ravencast it sounds like the AFA as a whole is going through a significant revisioning of their purpose in the wider Heathen/Asatru/Forn Sed world. I am considering signing up for a membership there as well, because like the Troth, they require a year's membership before inclusion in their clerical studies. I like the idea of having alternatives, as the Troth has its too-fluffy moments. I don't know if I would want to go in that direction with either organization (or with both), but perhaps in a year I might. Either way I'm not out much cash for the effort and both produce halfway decent periodicals included with membership that make it worth it just for that.

The only other groups I've seen take the issue of clerical study seriously are the Theodish groups (Garman Lord, the Wodening brothers, et al..). There has been some amazing good scholarship coming from this part of the wider heathen world and in particular I have been impressed with their emphasis on language and linguistics. Having a background in anthropology, I can in particular understand and appreciate the cultural value of reviving our languages along with the traditions.

That being said, I'm not sure if I am in agreement with specifically the social structures that they impose under the auspices of cultural revival. In particular, I object to classifying newcomers as 'thralls'. Now, I will put a big caveat on all this that I haven't yet done sufficient research on the topic of germanic social structures, but its my current understand that 'thralls' = 'slaves' and to be a thrall meant you were either a foreign-captured slave, or a cast-off who's parents would not acknowledge you, i.e. of zero social standing. This just does not jive with the standing of a person of independent will & means looking to join a spiritual community for learning and fellowship. Fealty is a two-way street who's passage needs to be earned in both directions. You do not start earning that by stripping a neonate's status as independent freeman/woman first and thereby putting them at a disadvantage. Now I understand that especially if you want to establish a hierarchy, that the neonate would be on the lowest tier -- but they are on that first tier, not the ground. They have made the conscious choice to seek out this culture and dedicate themselves to it; these neonates are the community's future and that gives them inherent status.

There are two reasons I can think of as to why a group would support the use of the the term 'thrall'. The first and more understandable is that it is used simply to imply the bottom of the social hierarchy and nothing more. There are only so many words in the lexicon of the germanic languages to describe class/status and this worked when these traditions were established. The second, and potentially far less honorable, is that the leadership of these organizations feels insecure when confronted by the influx of new ideas from new people and thus needs to give themselves a beginning advantage. At a minimum its not a very sporting attitude. Of course, without the economics of the feudal system behind all of this, such a hierarchical structure seems rather empty and void of the cultural significance that such groups wish to impart.

Now, before someone gets their undies in a bunch over this, I am openly admitting that I haven't researched this topic well and that this is only an opinion based on my current observations and conclusions. I heartily encourage debate over this and if you feel I've got any of it and/or all of it wrong, please explain why! That's most of what is engaging about a place like this, the exchange of ideas :)

In Frith,
Sena

Edit [08/17/2007]: I just want to thank hildiwulf for a great extended dicussion about thralldom over email the last couple weeks. It's far too much to summarize here, but in short it resolved for me the dissonance between the Theodish idea of thralldom and what assumptions I was bringing into the idea. I have a much better understanding now and my opinion on the topic has changed drastically from what's stated above. If I have the time, I will post later elaborating further. I am honoured by the patience he showed in the dialogue it took for me to wrap my brain around it.

Me and mine are fine and safe - please pass on to anyone concerned.

Apologies as well to anyone expecting me last weekend through yesterday at heathen events. I honestly wif'd the weekend and the rest of the evenings have been dominated by need work at home and family emergencies.

An 'interesting' life is at least never boring!

This is a few volumes that I found roaming through Google's booksearch that might be of heathen interest. I restricted the list to which books could be fully viewed and had pdfs for downloading. The only warning would be to pay attention to the publication dates and remember that like today, scholarship of the past is both biased and flawed.

( Read more... )