Wassail – A History, Ritual, and Recipe

The tradition of wassailing is old and very English. It took place in winter, usually sometime near the New Year or near Twelfth Night but the dates vary by region so there's really no one right night to wassail. It was and indeed is a folkloric custom that survived and persisted all the way into …

Blood Sacrifice

The blood is the least important part of a blood sacrifice. There is no inherent magic in the blood of an animal spilled for sacrifice. There is no inherent magic in the blood of anything spilled in sacrifice. Now that you’re listening and I have your interest piqued, because let’s face it that is not …

The Grump that Stole Yule

All the heathens down in Heathenville liked Yule a lot, but the Grump who lived just east of Heathenville did not.The Grump hated Yule the whole yuletide season, now please don't ask, why no one quite knows the reason.It could be perhaps that his wingas weren't wrapped just right, it could be perhaps that his …

Against the Sassites

Every Easter, Midsummer, and Yule a very curious and indeed annoying thing happens. From seemingly every corner these three times a year in particular a small but vocal cohort of heathenry crops up to tell everyone they’re doing it wrong – enter the Sassites. The Sassites follow a peculiarly restrictive and seemingly joyless vision of …

Climate-Change and Mythology

It is time we rethink our view of the myths of the North with the climate of the time in mind. For that matter, we should rethink the myths of Rome, Greece, Egypt and indeed Israel with the climate of the time as well.

The Wyrde (The Fates)

There are three Wyrde, three Wyrd Sisters. These take the form of spinners, spinning out the fate of men and measuring them out. If Wyrd is strung together like a great tapestry, each individual life is a thread being woven together to make that tapestry and affect the threads around it. But for all that …

There is no Future in Online Heathenry

If you’re not part of some kind of online heathen community whether that is a group on Facebook, or Twitter, or Discord, or wherever, you are the exception. It is far more common that heathens are all over internet groups, and usually several. The internet is rife with heathen groups, little cohorts of like-minded heathens …

Polytheism and Interpretatio

Something that comes up frequently in polytheist circles is how to tackle the issue of the nature of the gods when there is such a diversity of gods out there and yet upon examination many seem similar. Part of the discussion invariably turns to what is polytheism. Monism, otherwise sometimes called “soft” polytheism, is the …

I am not an Anglo-Saxon, I am an Anglo-Saxon pagan

The term "Anglo-Saxon" has come under some scrutiny and fire recently. And honestly nobody with any amount of historical acumen could deny there are issues with the term. We all know that there were other tribes which invaded Britain besides the Angles and Saxons, most notable among those the Jutes. So there is the obvious …

A Heathen Book List

The Poetic Edda The usefulness of this should be obvious. This is one of our best sources for the myths of the Norse. I would consider this important reading regardless of the variety of heathenry you practice. Henry Adams Bellows Translation Free Online https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/poe/index.htm Henry Adams Bellows Translation Volume I https://www.amazon.com/Poetic-Edda-Mythological-Poems/dp/0486437108/ Henry Adams Bellows Translation …