Jeff Russell

Howdy,

So, I'm looking to strengthen some connections among Ecosophia-adjacent Heathens, and an easy first step seemed to be a regular open post here on my dreamwidth.

A few ground rules:

1. The overall goal here is for folks interested in Heathenry to meet, share resources, and so forth. So, even though I won't draw a hard line on "on-topic" against "off-topic," it would be best if posts have something to do with Germanic/Northern European polytheism, whether ancient or modern.


2. Let's keep things civil. Disagreement is welcome, but insults, rudeness, and attacks are not.


3. I don't expect enough traffic to need to put a hard limit on when this post will be open, but once the next open post goes up, please post any new discussions there.

Otherwise, welcome, and kindly say hello!

Alright, I'm very excited to share what I believe is the last, working shape of the "All-Father" bede for the Heathen Rosary undertaking. Y'all's comments really helped me make the last few tweaks I needed, so thanks very much for that.

What's most exciting is that I now have all of the main bedes for the Heathen Rosary, so I can start saying it and seeing how that goes. I'm still on the fence about whether to write one or two closing prayers (as you find in today's version of the Catholic Rosary), and I still need to work out the "mysteries" (I'm leaning toward calling them "riddles") for bethinking while saying the bedes, but this is a big step closer to having a workable daily practice.

As always, your thoughts are most welcome.

Eirik Westcoat is the modern poet from whom I have learned to craft verse in Germanish meters, and he has constructed a new set of Runestaves fitted to the sounds of modern English. Along the way to explaining why he did that, though, he just happened to drop a remarkable insight into one of the mysteries of Runic scholarship.

Time for a review of another book by Shani Oates, this time In Search of Odhinn. Once again, I admired the breadth of evidence she brought to the table and her consideration of fine details, but was frustrated with her thoughts not being better organized or easy to follow. Let me know what you think!

I'm trying to work out a prayer to Woden for the Heathen Rosary, but I've been stuck on it for a long time. I reckon it's time to start writing some actual drafts, though, so my first stab is the Three Drinks Prayer.

This week's post comes mostly as a response to a question by causticus on last week's Magic Monday by JMG. It was spinning around in my thoughts all week, and I decided to share the expanded thoughts here. As always, your thoughts are welcome, and let me know if you'd like to be on the mailing list.

We've finally made it! I've written up my thoughts on the last chapter of The Seed of Yggdrasill by Maria Kvilhaug!

This one's one of the longer ones, as the chapter was longish, sparked a lot of thoughts, and was the last one, so I felt called to wrap things up a bit. That being said, I think I'll likely do one more post on the book: an overall rundown of what I think is most important to know about the whole book (both the most useful stuff and what to watch out for). We'll see. Anyhow, thanks for sticking with me through this project which ended up bigger and longer than expected.

We are getting so very, very close to the end of Seed of Yggdrasill, and I'm pretty glad about that. I know, I know, I likely carry on too much about how much of a slog it is, especially since I found some good stuff in this antepenultimate chapter. Some mostly repetitive good stuff, but good stuff nonetheless. Check it out and let me know what you think.

My sister in law got married yesterday, in Stockholm, so I am in the midst of some whirlwind international travel (we just got here the night before last and we're heading home early tomorrow morning). I'm also recovering from a properly festive, and late, evening, but I did take advantage of an unexpectedly long layover on the way here to knock out a quick post on a fairly short chapter of The Seed of Yggdrasill: The Way of the Wand Witch.

Since things for me will be literally up in the air the next day or so, I may take a minute to respond to any comments, but they're as welcome as always.

This week I keep on with my review of Maria Kvilhaug's The Seed of Yggdrasill, this time talking about Ragnarok and what follows.