Pinned
I am a Norse-Hellenic Pagan, heavily leaning reconstructionist but with an abundance of eclectic practice. If you stumble upon this blog and you're wondering what that means, feel free to ask! I'll mostly do images and quotes, occasionally with little things about my experiences and routines. I am by no means an expert, but I'm going on two years of regular practice with three or four years of learning. This is a queer-friendly space! No Frith for Fascists.
Hi! So I have more questions!!
I am trying to understand altars and how to properly work with them.
As I go about learning Norse Paganism and how that affects my Altar I ended up choosing Odin and Freyja for my idols
This was before I learned about the Nazis that have ties with Odin.
I would hate to have a Diety who can be considered Problematic on my altar due to the connotations it has with Nazis.
However I know Odin is a part of Norse Paganism, Is it bad to have Odin on my Altar? How does an Altar function? Would having Odin on my Altar be problematic or am I okay? I am much more interested in trying to communicate with Njord does having Freyja and Odin affect that?
Are there ways of practicing Paganism with Odin that doesn't deal with White Supremacists and Nazis.
I want to be open and inclusive both on this blog and in my practice considering my own LGBTQIA+ Identity and any help and guidance would be much appreciated.
The people who commented have already cleared up the part about Odin so I will answer that other than by saying that it's completely fine to have Odin on your altar and to worship him.
For your other questions, having other deities on your altar is fine, I have seven! Your altar is just the space where you "work." If you're doing witchcraft, that can mean spells, divination, whatever your practice entails. For me as a pagan, that means offerings, prayers, etc. It works in whatever way makes sense to you. There are no rules or expectations, really.
As for practicing in a way with Odin that does not involve white supremacy, just don't be a white supremacist tbh. Don't support people who are or sustain that sort of ideology. There will still be those people in our community and we simply have to deal with them as they come.
If you have any other questions, feel free to ask!
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Kind of inspired by my earlier post about modern associations that I have of the Gods. I wanted to go more in-depth about my experiences and beliefs regarding certain deities! Not super serious, but authentic nonetheless.
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1. Streetlights. His epithet Aguieus, meaning protector of streets.
2. Modern music (I originally referenced Vocaloids). His association with poetry and music doesn't just mean the music of the ancient Greeks, but also rap, death metal, EDM, and all other new genres and instruments.
3. Vaccines and Antibiotics. Specifically because of the epithet Alexikakos, which was used by Athenians who believed he stopped the plague that started around 430 BC. The plague was believed to be a combination of Typhus and Smallpox. Smallpox has been eradicated thanks to vaccines, and Typhus is now treated with antibiotics. Basically, because of his association with healing.
4. Meteorology because of his associations with prophecy and the sun.
5. My hometown! His epithet Epaktaios refers to a God worshipped on a coast, and I grew up in a coastal town, so this really resonates with me.
6. Pilots, Flight Attendants, and other airport staff. His epithet Kataibatês was invoked for safe travels and who else makes our travels safe? The people who get our planes on and off the ground.
-Hearing a song that brings you back to a good memory or a better time in your life.
-The feeling of being cared for when you're under the weather/caring for someone else who is sick. Love and responsibility.
-Being up in the morning and watching the sunrise, knowing a new day awaits you.
-Being out in town with friends, laughing and not worried about what tomorrow brings.
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Feel free to add more or ask questions! I love hearing what others have felt or learned from their practice.
"Hear, blessed Goddess, send a rich increase of various fruits from earth, with lovely peace: send health with gentle hand, and crown my life with blest abundance, free from noisy strife; last in extreme old age the prey of death, dismiss me willing to the realms beneath, to thy fair palace and the blissful plains where happy spirits dwell, and Hades reigns."
-Orphic Hymn 29 to Persephone (trans. Taylor) (Greek hymns C3rd B.C. to 2nd A.D.)
What feelings do you carry towards Wicca and its misrepresentation of Lady Hekate as the maiden mother crone/triple goddess?
I find it utterly ridiculous.
Hekate, when she is anthropomorphized, is always depicted as an adult woman in the "prime of her life" (I hate this phrasing, but it is true as far as ancient Greek ideals about female maturity were concerned 🫠).
Her tripartite depictions have been erroneously conflated with the supposed "three stages of a woman's life cycle," (i.e., Maiden, Mother, and Crone) but (1) a woman's life is more than just her capacity to bear children, (2) goddesses are categorically not women because they are not human, and (3) her three faces are supposed to correspond with her influence over Sky, Earth, and Sea/the crossroads—not some MMC foolishness.
“‘Has Thor never experienced such a thing, that he has found in his path somewhat so mighty or so powerful that it has overmatched him through strength of magic?’
Then said Hárr: ‘Few men, I ween, are able to tell of this; yet many a thing has seemed to him hard to overcome. Though there may have been something so powerful or strong that Thor might not have succeeded in winning the victory, yet it is not necessary to speak of it; because there are many examples to prove, and because all are bound to believe, that Thor is mightiest.’”
There is so much power and beauty to be found in the myth of Thórr and Jörmungandr. The idea of the sky and the sea existing as monstrous opposing forces, locked into a stalemate but forever destined to clash. I've recently found it fascinating to meditate upon this.
Some scholars have actually suggested that Snorri's eddic interpretation of the myth, which involves a quest for a magical item and transforms the struggle between these opponents into a sort of "test of might" for Thórr, might have actually undermined the initial idea of a clash between two immeasurable forces.
Although we'll never get a clear picture of this myth as it was passed down orally—its original interpretation, behind the Christian lens that history has left us with, evidence seems to point to this familiar norse concept of the eternal and inevitable struggle between Gods and giants, two divine clans of immense might
Beloved Lady Psyche—Lover of Love himself, a friend of flowers, and a bringer of clarity and hope; I offer my praise to you. You, who has been there despite everything—every trial and tribulation, mistake, and moment of weakness. You, lovely-haired, lone Psyche, are truly divine, and so I offer my praise to you.
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Disclaimer: this is UPG and based on my own thoughts and experiences. I'm really only including the Gods I worship on a daily basis. Feel free to add on! Some of these are a little bit joking and others a bit serious.
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"Magnanimous, unconquered, boisterous Ares, in darts rejoicing, and in bloody wars; fierce and untamed, whose mighty power can make the strongest walls from their foundations shake: mortal-destroying king, defiled with gore, pleased with war’s dreadful and tumultuous roar."
-Orphic Hymn 65 to Ares (trans. Taylor) (Greek hymns C3rd B.C. to 2nd A.D.)
