Jeff Russell

1) Fair enough on all counts. As for whether the Heathen Rosary can or ought to be turned to practical ends, I suspect that will be a matter both for experimentation and individual variation.

3) Yeah, that makes good sense. The Catholic Rosary draws on the Father-Mother-Son triad, through the "Our Father" and "Hail Mary" for prayers, and then meditation that focuses mostly on Jesus. Despite the epithet of "All-Father," the prayers as I've put them together focus a bit more on Man-Woman-???, with father and mother kinda-implied, but I'm not sure how much focus they'll get in the mysteries/riddles, or in the bede to Ask and Embla. I can well see a Frigg, Woden, Balder focused set of prayers and meditations hitting the core familial triad as well, but obviously with a different focus and implications than Christianity's approach, so it sounds like it ought to be fruitful to explore.

One further thing that's come up as I've read about the Rosary, but I haven't talked about much, as it's a touch awkward, is that the Rosary seems to really get at the heart of the mixed up feelings men have about women as both mother-figures and objects of romantic interest, and how those kinds of love can be related/blended/whatever. Mary seems to represent one seemingly-impossible reconciliation of these things (among other things, of course), being a mother to all, and a suitable target for romantic (but distant and not-physically-consummated) love, by being both a virgin and the mother of the embodiment of divine love. A lot of the symbolism (rose gardens, roses themselves) had overtly sexual or romantic connotations in the cultural milieu it developed in (15th century Germany/France), and a lot of the writings about it were very similar to writings on courtly love. All of which is incredibly interesting, and possibly quite spiritually significant, but not really what I've been going for with this set of prayers. Just something I thought I'd mention, in case it's interesting or useful.

Cheers,
Jeff