Twenty years ago, after a long search for the perfect haven, my husband and I purchased part of an old farm in southern Stokes County. The land was long gone to forest, and our tract a wedge-shaped portion including a high sandstone bluff overlooking a broad stream encircling loamy bottomland where the indigenous Saura people once camped and traded. Much of the bluff was cloaked in a mixture of evergreen hemlocks, red oaks and, to my great delight, beeches.
[Read more…] about Grandmother Beech
For the majority of my adult life, I have been a devout Polytheist, honoring and worshiping many Gods. My husband Eric and I are also Animists: we believe that everything has a spirit and don’t privilege ourselves above the other Beings that inhabit our land. Stone People, Earth People, Tree and Plant People, Four-Leggeds, Winged Ones – they’re all precious partners in this remarkable ecosystem. From the late winter day in 2000 when we found the land we call TwoTrees, we’ve always honored the Landvaettir or spirit of the land as our partner, a conscious and living entity with whom we choose to engage collaboratively and respectfully. We ask permission to harvest herbs or transplant trees or cut fire wood, and if the response is “No”, then that response is respected.
[Read more…] about Collaboration with the Land
Sometime following the Civil War, on a tract of sandy bottom land in the flood plain of Town Fork Creek, a seed from the cone of a Loblolly Pine took root. The young tree, with its bundles of three gently spiraling aromatic green needles, grew rapidly, nourished by the rich, loamy soil and Carolina sunshine. As a young seedling, it looked like a bright green feather duster, its rusty brown trunk strong and straight. It was the straightness, along with the species’ quick growth, that made the tree so valuable. In the coastal plains, the trees were called ‘Slash Pines’ for the way that cuts caused them to give up copious sap for the production of pine tar and turpentine. The stout, straight trunks, rising some distance in towering columns before branching, made for excellent lumber and were also harvested for timbers for the shipping industry.
[Read more…] about The Grandmother Tree
Since our Ancestors first realized that they could take an active role in planting and propagating edible plants, humankind has engaged the Holy Powers in that process through rituals and offerings in hopes of maximizing the ultimate yield. Anyone who gardens knows that the results are unpredictable and that farming is, at best, an on-going experiment. In cultures where people lacked the capacity to test and balance such factors as soil nutrients and were ever at the mercy of random late freezes, droughts and hail storms, the propitiation of the Gods and spirits governing agriculture was critical. Rarely was sufficient food stored and preserved to last for more than a single year; in northern climates, the challenge was to simply survive the long and often brutal winters.
[Read more…] about Charming of the Plough
I have eagerly awaited publication of A Modern Guide to Heathenry: Lore, Celebrations & Mysteries of the Northern Traditions, Galina Krasskova’s revision of her seminal work, Exploring the Northern Tradition (issued in 2004), and find the new text to be a significant improvement on the book which introduced so many to Heathenism. Although long used pejoratively, the term ‘Heathen’ refers to the beliefs and spiritual traditions of the Scandinavian, German and Anglo Saxon peoples. Although still a small and relatively obscure faith, Heathenry is presently undergoing robust growth, thanks in part to popular culture and increased interest in pre-Conversion Northern European tribal society…
[Read more…] about Book Review: A Modern Guide to Heathenry
Since the dawn of human history, our ancestors took note of the Winter Solstice, the point in the solar cycle from which the period of daylight begins to lengthen. Although now considered the first day of winter, this date was initially significant as a reminder of the increasing light and warmth to come and thus celebrated as a marker of hope.While many cultures celebrate the solstice, modern Christmas symbols and traditions have stout roots in early Germanic and Old Norse midwinter customs, and the solstice itself has come to be referred to by the name Yule, the modernized version of the Old English ġéol (pronounced zheul), which actually refers to a twelve day midwinter festival.
[Read more…] about Hail the Sun’s Return, or, How Yule Became Christmas
