Stonehenge Village

For those of you who have wondered where the builders of Stonehenge may have lived, you might find this article, from Reuters, of interest :-)

Vatican Sex Abuse Case, p. 2

Earlier this month, in my post about the judge in Kentucky allowing a law suit against the Vatican to go forward, I wrote about my feelings of how important it is for the Vatican to cooperate with this process, and to visibly demonstrate what it is doing to change its policies so that the safety of children among Catholic priests could be increased. Now, and I thank Hrafnkell for pointing this article out to me, there is a Bishop who believes he is being dismissed from service on account of his opinion that the Vatican needs to reform itself….

Religion in the Hospital

After reading this AP article in the International Herald Tribune, about the measures France is considering to further separate religion from public institutions, including hospitals, I was somewhat stunned. I would usually think that a hospital is an excellent place for religion – other than in the home, in what other buildings does the drama of life and death play such an obvious role?….

Polytheism Discussion

Along with some of the discussions we’ve had in here this past day, I thought I’d draw attention to another informative discussion taking place in Songs of Unforgetting, about polytheism. It started out as a pros and cons discussion about our own religious paths, then focused on the topic of polytheism. My thanks to Kay for initiating the discussion with her post and her questions, and my thanks to everyone who has thus far taken part in this discussion!

Racism, Re-vamped

With the discussions going on about Germany’s quest to ban the Swastika and Holocaust denial throughout Europe (here, and here, for example), some discussions about Folkish Heathenry, and my desire to contribute more information and awareness to these topics, I’ve re-vamped my blog section dealing with the topic of Racism (in the About section of my sidebar). If you have an interest in this topic, or an interest in Heathen symbols that are being abused by racists, I hope you will consider this section to be worth a bit of your reading time.

Folkish Heathens

Based on comments I’ve seen recently in blogs and Heathen online forums, and in part because of my position against racism, I thought it might be a good time to bring ‘the old argument’ of Folkish versus Universalist Asatru / Heathenry to this blog. This is an argument that has proven quite divisive within the Heathen community, and is based on arguments relating to one’s relationship with gods and community based on race and heritage….

Sylvia Browne et al.

I read this wonderful commentary about Sylvia Browne in the Chicago Sun-Times and, since divination and ‘psychic’ activities are also a part of Heathenry, I thought I would share the article here and jot down a few thoughts. I’ve written before about my own beliefs when it comes to psychic phenomenon (here, and in the comments section here, for example) – I believe it’s very real, very possible. Perhaps it’s my belief and experiences with such things that cause me to detest psychic hucksters as much as I do – I think, if someone is able to tap into a scientifically-uncharted ability, it’s a gift, and therefore nothing to turn around and try to make a profit from. That’s if, of course, someone can actually tap into such an ability….

Luck, and a Lull

Wow…it’s been a fairly busy and lucky past half week for this particular Heathen, an inspiring week, and it looks like the next few days will also be busy. As anyone who watches the news will have figured out, Germany, in particular northern Germany, has been visited by two relatively powerful storms, named Kyrill and Lancelot, Kyrill having packed hurricane-force winds and done billions in damage throughout Europe. Luckily, we weren’t really affected here…we got to see plenty of wind, plenty of driving rains, but the main powers of these two storms seem to have overlooked our sleepy little harbor town…our dykes held, no real damage seems to have taken place here, and it seems our trees were generally spared. Now, finally, we have a winter-cold day here (although we are supposed to jump back up to spring temperatures later this week)….

One Down

Until out of that company
came three Æsir
strong and loving
to the coast,
on land they found
capable of little
Ask and Emblu
without fate.

Breath they did not have,
passion they did not have,
vitality nor voice
nor good complexions;
breath gave Odin,
passion gave Hönir,
vitality gave Lódur
and good complexions.

This is the story of how the first humans, Ask and Embla, were created by the gods. It’s taken from Völuspá, stanzas 17-18. It’s important to me because, a year ago today, I determined to stop abusing the gift of breath when I quit smoking. It wasn’t the first time I quit smoking, but it will hopefully be the last.

Posts of Interest

I wanted to take a bit of time to point out some interesting posts I’ve seen in other blogs, some of which already have some discussions running.

The most recent thought-provoking post I’ve seen was written by Jeff Lilly, over at Druid Journal, where he discusses the fascinating possible discovery of a heretofore unclassified Celtic language! This article made me think about the effects of language and cognition, and ultimately about the effects of language on the religious experience.

Hrafnkell, at A View from the Bog, explores sacrifice from a Heathen perspective. A concept that can be controversial in our world, even amongst people walking the same religious path, the article and ensuing discussion point out that much of the controversy is less about sacrifice itself, but more about the perception, symbolism and cultural approach to sacrifice.

Finally, Kay, at Songs of Unforgetting, writes something of what I consider to be great depth, in a post where she discusses the importance of not sacrificing our existence in the here-and-now for an over-balanced approach to religion and spirituality. Sometimes we need to withdraw our minds from the cosmic, and contend with what’s to be found in the worldly. Kay asks what our material lives accomplish (which of course requires that I stick my head right back into the cosmic)…I’ve set for myself the task of contemplating this today, while trying to get some more worldly and mundane things taken care of.

I hope you will enjoy these posts as much as I have!