another simple daily devotional

Lately I’ve gone through a period of very little personal spiritual practice. I’ve been wanting to get back into using my altars; I have kind of a sprawling altar on the mantle and adjacent shelves in the den, and a compact version in the kitchen. Most days I do a variation of Sigrdrifa’s prayer at my bedroom window in the morning. This seems to be my default setting for bare minimum personal spiritual practice. I have had several kinds of daily devotionals in the past, usually taking the form of ADF-lite, a simple CR ritual, or a blot/hussel. For consistent daily practice, however, none of these forms have staying power for me. Also, though my background is in Norse and Celtic hearth cultures, sometimes I don’t want to be very culturally specific. I am a squishy/soft polytheist after all, and I have embraced (my own version of) Waincraft in recent years.

So after much procrastination, I’ve come up with a new routine. It was important to me to find a spiritual routine that has a non-verbal option. There are several reasons for this:

1. While other people are at home, I’d rather not be overheard.
2. When I have a spoken daily devotional, I often end up saying the same things every day, to the point of meaninglessness.
3. There are many times I just really don’t feel like speaking.
4. Also, not feeling obligated to speak frees up my mind for deeper contemplation and also allows me to concentrate a little more on actions.

So concentrating more on actions and contemplation, I’ve come up with this sequence of events in personal daily ritual:

Altar Refreshing and Preparation

Before doing ritual, I make sure the altar surface and items on it are clean, arranged well, and dusted. Then I refresh the water bowl/cauldron. Before replacing it on the altar, I first lift it in reverence to the deity/spirit images.

Water Blessing

I dab some of the water from the water bowl on my forehead and do a clearing/grounding. I then anoint the statues on the altar with the water. If I’m drawn to saying something here, it may be “Water cleanse me.” or “The Waters of Danu flow through all.”.

Fire Blessing

I light the candle on the altar and raise it to each of the statues as I did with the water (when refreshing the altar). I then set the candle back in place, cup my hand above the flame, then touch the same hand to my forehead to receive a fire purification/blessing. Here I might say “May the fire of the gods, hallow.” or “Thunor hallow.”.

Incense (and other) Offerings

I light an incense stick or cone and circle it around each of the statues/images. I say a simple hail to each entity being honored or make a mental connection equivalent to an evocation. Occasionally, I may place other offerings in a bowl on the working surface of the altar, if I’m at the altar in the den. At this point, if I’m not rushed, (and especially if I’m at the altar in the den instead of the kitchen,) I take a little time to meditate, contemplate, and further connect to the deities/spirits/powers.

Omen (optional)

I ask for guidance (mentally or aloud) and draw a rune for the day.

Giving Thanks & Closing

I end this daily devotional with simple words or thoughts of thanks and touching the edge/feet of each statue/image in reverence. When I feel the need, I use my usual words of ending inspired by the Carmina Gadelica: “As it was, as it is, as it evermore shall be, with the ebb, with the flow, blessed be.”.

This may be the simplest daily ritual I have ever adopted that still involved the use of materials and an altar. There’s really nothing to memorize nor ways to goof it up, and though I’ve just begun to use it, the feel of it is timeless. If it inspires you too, feel free to use it.

a Lord of Plenty sculpture

Abundance, or the Lord of Plenty- as I like to call him, is the third primal Power in Waincraft, the second born of Mother Night, and bright twin of the Wild Father. In creating a sculpture to represent him for my altar, I drew on imagery of what this Power represents for me from Germanic and Celtic sources, but also a lot from intuition.

As for how I made the sculpture, just as I did with my Wild Father sculpture, I started with a regular batch of salt dough (2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, and about a cup of water). After kneading, I broke off a big chunk of the dough and formed a rectangle and rounded off the top edges for shoulders. I rolled out some more dough and cut a circle shape with a drinking glass. This I placed above the shoulders as a backdrop to the head and celestial objects around the figure, making the basic size and outline match its twin sculpture.

The beard and face were all one rounded rectangular piece. (When attaching a new piece, always dampen the base surface.) I used a cutting tool to add details to the beard. A tiny rope of dough was used for the nose/eyebrows. After making soft indentations for the eye-sockets, I attached tiny balls of dough for the eyes, poked holes for the pupils, and cut horizontal slits to suggest eyelids.

I cut grooves into the sides of the figure to suggest arms of a robe. The wheat-like texture on the right of the figure was made with little scissor snippets.

The cornucopia, pig, and bird shapes I added to the base were cut out of dough flattened with a rolling pin. Ropes of dough were used to make the tree branches and the sun rays. The apples and leaves on the tree, and fruit in the cornucopia were all made from small balls of dough. For the leaves, I flattened small balls of dough and pinched each end. The stars around the head started out as tiny balls of dough also. I cut and carved their shapes after attaching, pressing down with a small tool, the areas I wanted to recede into the background.

For the opening to the cornucopia, I pressed into the base a little with my thumb, then attached a rope of dough around it, smoothing with dampened fingers where the rope joined to form a circle. I then pressed ridges into the cornucopia basket.

When completely done shaping and blending, I baked it at 250°F for several hours.

After cooling, I painted all the grooves and crevices with an acrylic craft paint in the shade of burnt umber to get a good contrast. I used a paintbrush dipped in water to blend a little bit of the color to other areas for lighter contouring. When this was dry, painted the rest of the piece. When all of this was dry, I sprayed the entire piece with a coating of clear acrylic.

My new altarpiece now sits upon the fireplace mantle next to a small cauldron. I hope this description of how I made it was useful to anyone wishing to make something similar.

a Wild Father sculpture

Wildness, or as I prefer to call him- the Wild Father, is the second primal Power in Waincraft, the first born of Mother Night, and dark twin to the Lord of Plenty. In creating a sculpture to represent him for my altar, I drew on imagery of what this Power represents for me from both Celtic and Norse lore.

Instead of telling you which deities I drew on for this, I will just say that one was a deity I followed in my early days as a Pagan, and one is a later patron. The idea that both deities draw from (or are aspects of) the same Power, holds deep spiritual meaning for me. Many other deities come to mind as well when I gaze upon this altar piece. I don’t want to name specific names here because I want others to see what is most meaningful to them.

As for how I made the sculpture, I started with a regular batch of salt dough (2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, and about a cup of water). After kneading, I broke off a big chunk of the dough and formed a rectangle and rounded off the top edges for shoulders. I rolled out some more dough and cut a circle shape with a drinking glass. This I placed above the shoulders and a backdrop to the head and antlers of the figure.

Working with salt dough is pretty simple. The shapes I add are usually rolls (for hair, beard, antlers, snake…) or balls of dough (like for the head). When attaching a new piece, always dampen the base surface. With dampened fingers, I continue to shape and blend pieces after attaching to the base.

Small flattened balls of dough are blended on the face for cheekbones and a tiny roll of dough for the nose/eyebrows. For simple deep-set eyes, I poked holes with a toothpick. You may not be able to tell from this photograph, but one eye is closed.

I cut grooves into the sides of the figure to suggest arms of a robe, and I dug deep grooves into the center to form a tree. I scratched texture into the sides to represent vining spiraling wild growth. When completely done shaping and blending, I baked it at 250°F for several hours.

After cooling, I painted all the grooves, crevices, and backdrop of the antlers with an acrylic craft paint in the shade of burnt umber to get a good contrast. I used a paintbrush dipped in water to blend a little bit of the color to other areas and for lighter contouring of the hair and face. When this was dry, I sponged on brighter colors on many of the raised areas and painted the snake a sage green. When all of this was dry, I sprayed the entire piece with a coating of clear acrylic.

My new altarpiece now sits upon the fireplace mantle. I hope this description of how I made it was useful to anyone wishing to make something similar. Check in next week and I’ll tell you how I made my sculpture of the Wild Father’s twin- the Lord of Plenty.

shifting paradigms and the star goddess

Over the past few months I’ve been contemplating a new paradigm for my personal spirituality, not so much a “changing of the gods” as when I went from Celtic Recon to predominantly Heathen, but rather, something that could combine the two or even take the focus a little bit away from culture-based spirituality. Also, something that acknowledges squishy polytheism.

At first I looked into Proto Indo European religion and liked a lot of what I read. However, the harshly patriarchal mythology left much to be desired. Waincraft kept popping up as a possibility. I really liked a lot of the ideas, but coming from scholarly traditions like ADF and CR, I was a little put off at first by the amount of UPG or SPG. However, the more I started looking into it, the more it resonated. It is really well thought out. I’m actually gaining a deeper understanding of Northern European Paganism through this system.

So I began to really contemplate the world view, Powers and new mythology of Waincraft. After a while I began to think about how I might rearrange my altar space to reflect my new framework and incorporate some new deities and combine Waincraft and ADF symbolism. So one day I was doing my daily (or semi-daily) devotionals, asking the Kindreds for guidance as I shuffled my tarot cards. One literally jumped out and landed in front of me face-up and upright. I took it as a sign that this card was my omen. A chill ran through me. The visual of Queen of Pentacles made me immediately think of the Star Goddess (Night)–the first deity of Waincraft.

I took this to mean that the Spirits wanted me to go forward on this new path. I decided I would rearrange my altar tiles and buy, make, or re-purpose an image to represent the star/night goddess on my altar. As I picked up one of the tiles to rearrange (the Heimdall tile I made three years ago), it crumbled in my hands. The tile had broken into several pieces the year before, as did most of the others I had at the time, and I had glued them back, but I guess the damp spring we had this year was just too much humidity for them. Upon examining the other altar tiles, I discovered they were in the same ready-to-crumble shape. I hadn’t planned on such a big change in altar layout, but it seems this was meant to be. I will still be honoring my same gods, but their representations are going to be different, as are the way I think of them in relation to each other and the world.

So starting at the beginning, I made a representation of Mother Night. I wanted to re-purpose an already made statue for this, for the sake of sturdiness and longevity, but unable to find the right one, I decided to go with making one of salt dough to serve for now. Instead of using “strong salt dough” like I’ve done in the past, I just used the regular formula: 2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, and about a cup of water. And instead of air drying it, I decided to bake it at 250°F for several hours.

I went with a flat back like for the tiles I made, and flattened the bottom end so that it could be stood up when finished. I wanted her to have long flowing robes and outstretched arms. Since the robes drape down from her arms and flow into her diaphanous dress, it forms a good solid shape with no small parts to break off. The resulting piece was thick, solid, and sturdy after oven drying. Oven dried salt dough seems more bread-like than air dried, and less grainy. It may still break eventually, but maybe not crumble apart like the other ones did.

The first coat of paint was glossy black. I then sprayed on small spurts of various shades of purple, some blue, and a little bit of silver. Later I sponged on some lavender to highlight some places that needed it. Finally, I splattered on white paint with a toothbrush to make stars.

I’m still working out how to combine ADF with Waincraft for my personal spirituality. But this beginning feels right. I feel like I’m being true to myself and reconnecting with some powers and energies that I had long forgotten about.

“We are stardust
We are golden
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden.”
-Joni Mitchell

home and hörgr

Earlier this year I posted an article about moving and settling into the new place. Lately, I’ve been feeling a renewed sense of contentedness and belonging, of gratefulness.

Last year, we spent several months house hunting. Each time we found a house in our price range that we liked, it either had too many repairs, or it was bought up before we could make a bid. We began to get very discouraged. At one point, I planned out a home-finding spell to do at the next full moon: I was to make house-shaped cinnamon ginger cookies and mark them with the rune othala, making them with intention and sharing them with my family. If any of you readers are house hunting, you can use that spell and let me know how it works, because I didn’t quite make it to the full moon…

One day, I was inspired out of the blue to just pray to Odin and Frigga that they would lead us to our true home- not a fancy shiny new home, but our true home, one that suits us, a place where we belong. A few days later, I got onto one of the real estate websites that I frequented, and saw a new listing, one in our price range and with the main things I wanted (a fireplace, wood floors, and a porch)- and it was in our son’s school district. Looking at the pictures, my heart leapt. This may sound a little crazy, but I marked an othala rune over the computer screen with a saliva dampened finger and said some spontaneous spoken charm that I no longer remember. We went to see it that day, it’s first day on the market. It didn’t even have a real estate sign in the yard yet. We made an offer and had the house inspected. As the house is over 50 years old, it had some issues. We negotiated an allowance for certain things to be fixed. We moved in at the turn of the year.

It felt like home right away and I wasted no time in unpacking and getting everything set up. As time goes on, I’ve developed a rhythm to my days and a feel for the rooms. I love the way the wood floors feel under my feet, and the way some of the boards creak. I love the old stone fireplace. It has a (non-functional) gas starter, installed when such things were popular; the inspector thought it was a gas fireplace, so I was very disappointed until I learned that it actually burns real wood and is no longer linked to a gas line. I’ve placed Three Hallows symbols on the fireplace mantle and set up altar items on shelves next to it. The house is old and patched up strangely in places. It has the original roomy hardwood kitchen cabinets with old fashioned handles, and extra large utility room that doubles as my craft room. It is quirky and imperfect like us. It is our true home and I thank the gods for it.

Now, as the weather is turning warmer, we are becoming more familiar with the yard and starting a garden, an herb patch, and a flower bed. One day after gardening, I had noticed a lot of large stones laying in various places. Before we moved in, I had decided that when the weather was warmer, I was going to find a large stone to use as a small hörgr to place offerings. But I was finding many large stones, so I figured I could make a proper sized hörgr. I built it on a hilly place in the yard close to the garden and close to a line of tall pine trees. I found the large square stone last. A hörgr doesn’t usually require a flat top (as libations are usually just poured over the top to trickle down over all the rocks), but I was delighted to find it, as now I can use it as an altar surface. Through touching each stone and balancing them with each other, I feel that I have come closer to the land. In shaping this hörgr, I have crafted a deeper level of belonging.

Frigga Tile

Recently, I finished a series of seven Norse deity tiles for my altar. There were some long gaps in time between making each one, and originally I aimed only to make tiles of the gods, and as for the goddesses, I made flat-backed figurines to hang on the wall in between the god tiles. However, at some point I thought it would look nicer to have them all be tiles.

My seventh tile was also my first craft project done in the new place. The inspiration for my Frigga tile was an illustration of Frigga from “Myths of Northern Lands” by Hélène Adeline Guerber.

In all my tiles, I’ve tried to include a specific feature so that each may be easily recognized as the deity they represent. So for Frigga, it was her distaff. It was actually harder to get the arm and hand shaped the way I wanted it than it was to form the distaff.

But the hardest part of the entire project for me was the face. Overall, I’d say my style of sculpting is “primitive”, though I have achieved much more detail than I ever thought I could with salt dough.

After the dough was completely air dried, I gave the tile a good coat of blue acrylic paint, them after that was dry, I sponged on light blue, mainly just getting the color onto the raised parts of the tile, letting the deeper lines and indentions remain the darker color. I let it dry for several days before I sprayed on a protective acrylic clear coat.

The tiles are roughly five and a half inches square. This one was made with regular salt dough, though most of the other ones were made with a stronger formula. All of them have a tack hole pressed into the back for hanging, although now I use plate hangers instead of hanging them from a tack since late last summer the humidity caused most of the ones I had made at that time to fall and break. (Don’t worry, I glued them all back- good as new, and gave them a clear coat.)

The 12th Night of Yule

The twelfth night of Yule is sacred to all of the Gods and Goddesses especially the Æsir & Dísir. It’s time to gather together and have a feast of pork or ham, and break out the mead or make wassail.

It’s a time of beginnings and endings. The kids read “The Creation of the World” from D’Aulaires’ Book of Norse Myths and receive marzipan pigs for luck in the new year.

For those who are so inclined, it is a time for making oaths, swearing with one’s hand over a boar’s head, ceremonial hammer, or oath ring. This tradition is far from mandatory, and I mostly steer clear of making oaths myself. It is better to make no oaths, rather than ones you may not be able to keep. I find it better to simply reflect on the past year and think of what I might do in the next, and keep my own counsel.

Seldom do those who are silent make mistakes.
-Hávamál

This is the last night of burning candles on you Yule log. If you are lucky enough to have a traditional large Yule log in a wood burning fireplace, save a coal or small portion of this year’s log to light next year’s Yule log. If using candle, you can have a similar tradition of saving a short length of candle from this year to light the next.

We have a good feast, praise all the gods, and ring in the new year at midnight. The chiming of the bells clears away any negative and stagnant energies, making way for the new.

The 11th Night of Yule

The eleventh night of Yule is sacred to all the Goddesses and and the Valkyrie.

Favorite Valkyrie/goddess crafts are gathered or made to adorn the altar. If you’re not in the mood for crafts, bird ornaments and angel figurines can be used to represent the goddesses and Valkyrie, with beautiful results.

Our soundtrack for the night is Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen for it’s elegance and timelessness. For our ritual meal I like to include Himmel und Erde (heaven and earth), a German dish consisting of apples (from the heavens) and potatoes (from the earth).

Our simple dinner blót includes a Valkyrie invocation and a litany of goddess hails, along with praises of their blessings.

The 10th Night of Yule

The tenth night of Yule is sacred to Sunna and the Ancestors. By now, if you have done rituals for every night, you have celebrated fully indeed! If so, you could give yourself a break and just do a low-key “no-ritual” plan that follows the basic theme of the night, with altar decorating and a special meal. If however, you are up for a more elaborate ritual, check out the Sunna Ritual for Yule over on the Northern Tradition Paganism website.

“The sun, the sister
of the moon, from the south
Her right hand cast
over heaven’s rim;
No knowledge she had
where her home should be,
The moon knew not
what might was his,
The stars knew not
where their stations were.”
– The Poetic Edda, Völuspá.

Making paper sun crafts or sun plaque and sun candles are a pleasant way to entertain the kids on this evening. Also, get out the salt dough skulls or Ancestor yarn dolls made at Samhain to place upon the altar.

One of my favorite Yule songs, which is very appropriate for tonight’s theme, is Sun Queen by Silver on the Tree. The song Morning Glory, by the same artist is beautiful and follows the sun goddess theme as well. Might as well listen to the entire Celtic-themed Morning Glory album; there are certainly enough commonalities between the Celtic and Norse. Many of the songs have a lovely repetitive mantra quality.

And let us not forget the Ancestors! Raise a glass to them, offer them remembrances and prayers, sweets of the season, and put a few bright candles or holiday lights on the family Ancestor altar.

May Sunna light our path, and the Ancestors watch over us in the year ahead.

The 9th Night of Yule

The ninth night of Yule is sacred to Odin. A good way to commemorate the day is by reading and contemplating the Hávamál. Children can learn about the Allfather through books like D’Aulaires’ Book of Norse Myths or Gods & Heroes from Viking Mythology by Brian Branston. One of the names of Odin is Jólfaðr – “Yule Father”. Many people believe that Odin was the prototype for the modern Santa.

Our small ritual feast includes Rinderrouladen and other favorites. Toasts and libations are made, poems read, and songs played. A great resource for the poems and songs, of course, is the Odin’s Gift website, but for just listening, or Odin’s night “ambiance”, there’s music by Hymir’s Kettle, Carved in Stone, and Wadruna.

This is an excellent night for studying the runes and divining omens for the year ahead. There’s a nice introduction to the runes for kids in How to Be a Viking by Ari Berk.