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
