Ängsälvor by Nils Blommér (1805)
One of the challenges in understanding the Norse and Germanic material is that many different Otherworldly beings are translated into English as "elves", just as many different Irish beings are called fairies. The Norse word Alfar appears in German as Alp or Elb, and English as Elf, while in modern Icelandic they are known as both alfar and Huldufolk (hidden…
Labels are always a fun game to play in Paganism, Polytheism, Heathenry, what-have-you. On the one hand they can be helpful in defining how we see ourselves and what we believe and do – on the other they are only ever a general description and as often as not they divide us instead of bringing us together. I have many labels for myself because my beliefs are complex and layered, and the terms I…
"To make my small elves coats." Illustrations to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A. Rackham, common domain
Among some people in modern belief elves and fairies are often assumed to be entirely insubstantial, that is they are described in the same terms as ghosts or other incorporeal spirits and are said to have no physical forms that can be touched or interacted with. This view has…
So its late summer and once again there’s a flare up in the Heathen social media sphere relating to racism. Sadly this is nothing new. In fact three years ago, also in August, I wrote a previous blog partially about my opinion of racism. This is not a new issue.
This particular iteration came up when the Asatru Folk Assembly, a large US Heathen organization, made a public statement which has…
So its late summer and once again there’s a flare up in the Heathen social media sphere relating to racism. Sadly this is nothing new. In fact three years ago, also in August, I wrote a previous blog partially about my opinion of racism. This is not a new issue.
This particular iteration came up when a large US Heathen organization made a public statement which has widely been interpreted as…
Gods and Fairies – Excerpt from Fairycraft
In
Christian myth it is said that the fairies exist as beings that are between the
nature of angels and demons; many people dismiss this as later propaganda but I
believe it represents a reflection of genuine older belief. In pagan times the
fairies were seen as being of the same nature as the Gods, but on a lower
level, existing somewhere…
I’ve been a polytheist for a long time now, and an animist, arguably, for longer.
Polytheism is one of those deceptively easy-but-complicated things that a person says that tells you everything and nothing all at once.
I’m a polytheist – but what does that mean? Well obviously that I believe in and honor more than one deity. That would be the easy part. But the nuts and bolts of it is where the…
Iron horse shoe above a door
Many of the old folktales – as well as the new modern day experiences – show us reasons why people feared and respected the Good People. Living side by side with the Otherworld necessitated not only the wisdom to know how to properly interact if you happened upon Themselves, but also created a wide array of methods to defend against those with malicious…
There are many things about modern spirituality that perplex me but one that I may have mentioned before is the immediate trust that people give to spirits. I know I’ve mentioned it in my books and in classes so I decided it was about time to devote a blog post to the subject. The most savvy, smart people seem to throw all their critical thinking skills out the window when dealing with…
A couple years ago I wrote a blog called "Experiencing the OtherCrowd" which aimed to share some of my personal experiences with Themselves, the idea being that often people of a more Reconstructionist bent don’t talk much about those sorts of things. I had also wanted to show some of my own interactions to give people an idea of what modern fairy experiences could be like since much of the time…