If you poke it with a stick a few times, it twitches!
Reminder: This community is actively moderated
Hello, just thought I would drop by to let people know that, despite not really posting much (because no one else posts much), this community is actively moderated and watched. I have an RSS feed that shows me new posts.
This post isn't in response to any rule violations. Just thought I'd let people know the community is still alive.
Veturnætur / Winternights
Saturday, October 28th marked the celebration of Veturnáttablót (Winternights Blót) on the Ásatrúarfélagið calendar this year. This blót is celebrated at the end of fall for the harvest and all the living creatures that have gone before us. It is derived from/related to the Winternights blóts documented in the ancient sources, as well as Dísarblót and Áflablót. Ásatrúarfélagið does not seem to officially celebrate Dísarblót or Álfablót, but presumably some of those traditions are wrapped up in this celebration.
Personally, I just lit a candle for my father, with a small offering of beer, and we had some emotional music playing in the background. How did you celebrate Winternights, assuming you celebrated it?
Reconstructionist with no specific need to do things exactly as they were a thousand years ago. I'm not going to slaughter a sheep in my back yard (not even legal to do anyway). I will pour some water or other offerings.
But I do not stray so far from what we know about the historical worship practices that I would be able to say "work with" or incorporate the beliefs into something Wicca-esque or New Age-y.
So, somewhere in between the two, but leaning towards reconstruction.
I'm surprised that a group like the AFA is even allowed in the UK. The UK seems like a country that would ban them from doing such a public event.
Huzzah someone finally responded! Altar pictures would be nice. Maybe I will dredge up a few of mine.
The winged othala rune specifically was created by the Nazis. The historical othala does not have the wings on it. There are certain symbols that are too far gone to really be reclaimed any time soon. The regular Othala is fine, but does carry the risk that uneducated people will see it as the Nazi symbol.
The Mjölnir symbol is fine, along with to some extent the Valknut (although the significance of that symbol, historically speaking, is questionable).
Discussion about what to see from this community
There's 108 subscribers, but not really anyone posting. What would people like to see from this community? What kinds of posts?
What gods do you tend towards worshiping and why?
In an effort to get some discussion going here, I am putting up this post! The question is in the title. I tend towards the following:
Frigg: really the goddess I connect with most, as family is an important thing for me. I don't adhere to any kind of patron concept, but if I did, Frigg would be the one. She is one of the few beings I've made an oath with.
Thor: the idea of the protector and friend of humanity is powerful. Always ready to lend a helping hand.
Odin: the lessons Odin has taught me are painful, but necessary. Often like being hit with a truth brick to the face. This is my experience when I delve deep into the worship of Odin.
Freyja and Týr: I tend to connect with them on a less personal level, but I do consistently make offerings to them.
I also sometimes venerate Eir, and right now I'm focused on the dísir that binds both sides of my family together.
Ásatrúarfélagið Hof: No end to construction in sight
Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson allsherjargoði segir að engar kvaðir hafi verið um að byggingin kláraðist innan ákveðins tímaramma og að engin áætlaður verklokatími sé til staðar.
While this article is in Icelandic, a translation service should be able to give the gist. The construction of this temple began in 2015 and has yet to complete. It is in use for the offices and some blóts/events. But because they never take loans, they only continue construction when they have enough money.
It seems their next big plan is the dome for the main part of the hof.
Probably has to do with federation. There needs to be a connection established between servers before they link communities together.
I made this community specifically to parallel the Norse Paganism subreddit. Didn't get permission to make an official looking post to direct people here, though.
The Longship: Beginner's Guide to Heathenry
The Longship is one of the most well-known websites for learning about Germanic neopaganism from a mostly neutral viewpoint.
This is a decent site for beginner (and even advanced) knowledge that I've found to be fine. Haven't noticed any questionable stuff in it, though it tends more towards revivalism rather than reconstructionism.
Decentralizes yes, but at least currently doesn't use activity pub. Or at least that was the state last time I checked. They're developing their own protocol.
List of Beginner Resources
This list is created and maintained by unspecified00000 on Reddit. They want to keep the list centralized on Reddit to update it easily, so I've instead made a link to it here.
Welcome to c/norsepaganism
This Lemmy community was created to parallel the NorsePaganism subreddit on Reddit. It is not an official migration, however. But anyone from there is certainly welcome here, as is anyone else who follows the rules!
I will try to put up a few posts here to get some momentum going soon.
I created https://lemm.ee/c/norsepaganism for Norse paganism and related things.