Jeff Russell

A shorter post this week, I talk a bit about what I miss about mindfulness meditation and the two techniques I turn to these days to get the kind of break from stress and anxiety I used to look for from mindfulness meditation. If you have any ways that you look for stillness amidst the chaos of life, I more than welcome hearing about it!

Alrighty, we're back to Maria Kvilhaug's The Seed of Yggdrasill, this time focusing on the third chapter, covering the "Maiden with the Mead."

Okay, okay, I finally made it through the very long second chapter of The Seed of Yggdrasill and got my thoughts on it written down here. There's more lingering confusion than I'd prefer, even after getting my thoughts written and organized, but maybe you will be able to help me work through some of that with thoughts and commentary, which I welcome.

This week, I take my first step in tackling Maria Kvilhaug's massive tome The Seed of Yggdrasill. As with some of her other work, it is a frustrating blend of genuinely wonderful insights and sloppy organization, but hopefully sharing my thoughts on them will help both of us get more out of it!

If you've been sick of Spengler, now we're onto something new! I read the first book of Shani Oates's The Oðinn Trilogy called The Hanged God: Oðinn Grimnir, and I've shared my thoughts here.

Oh, and as a bit of a PSA, the RSS has not updated since the 4th Spengler post, and I can't quite figure out why just now, but I'm working on it.

Well, things got away from me over the weekend, and so the post is a day late. This week, I share a theory I learned about the previously perplexing role of whetstones in Germanish myth. As always, I'd love to hear any thoughts you have.

I've put together my first stab at talking through what I learned from The Well and the Tree by Paul Bauschatz, but it's a bit long, so I'm only going to post a link. I'm still experimenting with how best to get folks attention, solicit comments, and so forth, but I may have some other approaches in the future.

So, comment here or email me and I'll add it to the post there!

So far, I keep on with getting a blog post out for each week, if only barely. This week, my thoughts on the book The Way of the Rose: The Radical Path of the Divine Feminine Hidden in the Rosary by Clark Strand and Perdita Finn. I found it helpful in thinking about my work on a "Heathen Rosary", and I think anyone who thinks the Rosary might be helpful or at least interesting, but is not all that Catholic, might find this book worth checking out.

I originally posted this to JMG's January 2nd, 2023 Magic Monday, but I had a request to re-post as my own entry, so that folks could contribute after JMG closes that post. I've lightly modified the below to make it work better as a stand-alone post rather than a comment on Magic Monday.

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As last year, when I set my goal of reading books only by those dead for the year (accomplished!), I'd like to invite anyone willing to join me in a virtual symbel. Symbel is a Heathen ritual where those participating share rounds of toasts. During each round, anyone so moved may raise a glass and propose a toast, to which all participating drink. Drinking to a toast indicates your support of it's intent, whether or not you'll do anything concrete toward it.

Traditionally, the first round of toasts is directed to the Gods, the second to the ancestors (or other divine beings like elves, dwarves, or the like), and the third is a chance to either share something accomplished, or pledge to do something. This last is called a "boast," but if it is empty bragging, you're doing it wrong. The goal is to acknowledge and call upon the role your community, human and divine, plays in helping you get things done. Composing poetry for the toast is traditional and appreciated, but definitely not required (I followed the rules for the Old Norse form ljóðaháttr as modified for modern English). It is an opportunity to either share something you're proud of or to pledge to do something in the future - anyone who drinks to it lends their spiritual and social support to your accomplishing it.

For each round, anyone participating may propose their own toast(s) and/or drink to other folks' toasts. So, for example, below I boast that I will blog each week - if you decide to drink to that, you're helping me out in that goal. But then you can propose a toast to your own goal, and I'll return the favor.

So here's my ask: will anyone willing please share in any of the three toasts below you can get behind with the beverage of your choice (alcohol is traditional, but whatever your beliefs or post-New Year's Eve feelings allow will work just great), and reply with any toasts you'd like others to join you in.

Hail to Gods
and Goddesses fair,
bright bringers of weal.
Drink I raise
to drightens* with whom
Daily we are glad to deal.

Hail to Ash
and holy Elm**,
forebearers far-sung.
Glass I lift
to that glad line
from which we are sprung.

May coming year
kindly yield
blissful blessings to all
Blithely will I
blog each week
wielding words to enthrall.

Cheers and happy New Year!

*drighten is a modernized form of an Old English word for a lord or ruler
** In Norse Myth, Ask (Ash) and Embla (Elm?) were two trees that Odhinn and his brothers made into the first humans by giving them spirit, wits, and blood/healthy color. I've Anglicized them here.

I've written another post over on my main blog about why I'm working out a Heathen Rosary and what I hope the end result will look like.

If you have any thoughts, I'd love to hear them!