Duckie's Witch Blog

If you learn something new about your Gods that completely flips your worldview, or discover that someone is not who you thought, or that multiple deities are actually one guy, or that the guy you thought was one guy is actually 3, that’s all okay. In fact it’s more than okay, it’s very good.

Both free to download here:

NO ONE CAN TELL ME WHERE THE GIANT PRIMORDIAL NORSE COW WENT

STILL

there is a giant cow out there

licking shit, possibly bringing other giant beings into creation

and like no one ever thought to mention it?

And in the gap

My busy tung

Dus lick and lap

My huf is strong

My horn is curld

I wandr round

ek sleiki ís.

_______

Rough translation:

My name is cow from me ther flow all the rivers down belo. and tho my tung  do pay the price, now i stand here.

General Christianity

“The first and most important thing you need to do to practice Heathenry is read the Eddas.”

“You must worship Odin even if you don’t want to, because he’s the head god.”

“The point of being Heathen is to live life in a way that grants you entry to Valhalla.”

“Valhalla is the good/awesome afterlife and Helheim is the bad/boring afterlife.”

“The Æsir are good and the jötnar are evil.”

“Odin is like God, Loki is like the Devil, and Baldr is like Jesus.”

“Odin is more powerful than the rest of the gods.”

“Ragnarok is the End Times.”

(“Us vs. them” attitudes.)

(Not knowing what to do with the the goddesses in general, regardless of one’s gender.)

Catholic-Specific

“To be Heathen, you must serve the gods.”

“We can’t truly know the gods, only attempt to understand them through the Eddas.”

“The gods are distant and don’t care about our personal needs or lives.”

“We must act as the gods’ ambassadors on Earth.”

“Making sacrifices should be painful. That’s why it’s called a sacrifice.”

“Ragnarök is the End Times and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

(Treating the Hávamál as scripture.)

(Using medieval Icelandic law-tracts as a stand-in for Heathen religious orthodoxy.)

(Observing strict worship and insisting others do the same.)

(Adopting a very feudalistic relationship with the gods; lord/servant dynamics.)

Protestant-Specific

“Showing devotion to the gods is done by acting as their hands and feet on earth.”

“You must think about the gods all the time and involve them in everything you do.”

“Why should we merely ‘work with’ the gods when we can worship them?”

“Ragnarök is the End Times and we must prepare to fight on the side of the gods.” OR...

“Ragnarök is the End Times and we must help fulfill it.”

(Behaving as marginalized on the basis of their faith.)

(Reacting badly when confronted with new information about Heathenry.)

(Making bold or even standoffish declarations of faith.)

If you come from a Christian background and hear someone make statements like this, you’re probably going to feel pressured to come up with a counterargument for why it’s okay for you to disagree. What you actually need to do is dismiss the premise entirely. These arguments aren’t reflective of Heathen truths and you don’t have to argue with them as though they are.

This is also not a dig at those who’ve made these statements / done these behaviors before. It’s not exactly second-nature for us to break out of the habit of believing in a specific idea or behaving in a specific way when we believed / behaved that way for most of our lives. However, it’s still worth understanding how specific to Christianity these things are and trying to move away from them.

It’s up to you if you want to point out the nature of these arguments to the people making them. But if you do, I recommend doing so tactfully, with a clear head, and with a very clear understanding about what makes the premise Christian in nature.

May I add:

* Verses and prayers. Like: "may Odins spirit entering me and take out the evil and ... etc ...etc."

* Lists of heathen Virtues.

* Alternatively treating Thor or Tyr as Jesus.

* You can sin and be forgiven by saying the right things.

As Skaldish say, it is not a dig or admonishing. Everyone know it's hard to figure it out on your own. Especially when young. And those who make groups are often inspired by Christian ideals of a congregation.

In fact, many Roman gods had different functions before they syncretised (got infused) with the Hellenic pantheon! For example, Mars used to be a protector of Rome and it's agriculture before he became associated with war due to his syncretism with Ares.

Plus, many deities have existed long before the city of Rome was even founded. For example Juno and Minerva: they're originally etruscan deities going by the names Uni (Juno) and Menrva (Minerva).

And also, some deities do not have an "equivalent" in the Hellenic pantheon. For example Janus, the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings. Yes, he may be similar to Khronos, but no, he's not his "equivalent" (also since he exists since etruscan times).

You can usually find books on witchcraft, yes, but there’s also field guides on local foraging and wildlife, cookbooks, books that teach you how to craft and DIY, books about environmental protection and stewardship, books on how to use herbs medicinally, books about other religions, cultures, and spiritual practices. My favorite local library even has a seed swapping program and fantastic resources to research your own family history!

This bronze statue stands nearly 1.5 meters (5 feet) tall. The eyes are highlighted by gold and silver inlay, which gives the figure's face a strikingly intense expression.

According to this article:

A bronze statue of Mars, the Roman god of war, was found in the ancient city of Zeugma in the course of an excavation campaign in 1999-2000. The statue represents one of the most interesting and spectacular finds from this city on the banks of the Euphrates river in southern Anatolia.

The god of war is depicted with a spear in one hand and a scourge in the other, as this article describes:

The statue is of great interest on one side for its rarity, as few Roman bronzes of such size are so well preserved, and on the other for its unusual iconography, depicting the standing god as a young athlete. The right arm is raised, its hand closed around a spear that has not been found, while the left is bent at the elbow, with the hand wielding an object that appears to be a scourge with multiple and symmetrical endings.

Beneath the helmet, thick curls frame the face of the young man whose frown is marked by strongly furrowed eyebrows and a very intense gaze, highlighted by silver and gold inlays around the pupils.

It's believed that this statue was hidden in a closet when the city of Zeugma was ransacked by the Sassanids in 253-256 CE:

The small size of the space in which the artifacts were discovered and its place in the general plan of the villa suggests a closet where the precious materials were hidden to escape the pillaging of the city, carried out in 253-256 AD by the Sassanids.

Unfortunately, most of the archaeological site was flooded when the Birecik Dam was constructed back in 2000, and the ruins at Zeugma are now submerged beneath 60 meters (200 feet) of water. This statue was salvaged (along with many other artifacts) during the emergency excavations that occurred as the site was being flooded; it's currently displayed at the Archaeological Museum of Gaziantep, in southern Turkey.

Sources & More Info:

Centro di Conservazione Archeologica: Zeugma Mars Conservation Project

Journal of Roman Archaeology: The Bronze Mars of Zeugma

Packard Humanities Institute: The Rescue Excavations at Zeugma in 2000

Turkish Archaeological News: Zeugma

UNESCO: The Archaeological Site of Zeugma

Turkish Museums: Time Capsule of Ancient Roman Art: Zeugma

Archaeological Institute of America: Troubled Waters

They never understood that Sól has the power to stitch together the most fundamental fibers of the universe to produce the primordial energy from which all life originates, but we understand.

Her power is often too strong for our world to withstand, but Jörd protects us from her most intense outbursts. We can see the glints of green and purple light as she shields us. Our ancestors didn’t know all this, but we do.

They never would have imagined that something like anthropogenic climate change could happen, and they certainly never would have imagined that Ægir would take so much of the burden of carbon emissions from us, at a great personal cost, and hopefully buy humanity enough time to change our course. But we can measure it.

Candle Safety Rule #1: Never leave a candle burning unattended!

If you can't stay in the room to watch it burn, put it out! If it must remain lit to serve its purpose, make sure it is always under supervision. Fires can catch and spread more quickly than you think!

Roman Calendar - May 15, Mercuralia

Festival of Mercurius, god of merchants and commerce. On this day Roman merchants took water from the sacred well of Porta Capena, and sprinkled it on themselves, their ships, and their cargo to protect them while travelling. The water from Mercurius' well was believed to to aid in forgiving sins – both those committed in the past as well as any that might be committed in the future – and was thought to bring good luck.

Porta Capena was located near the FAO headquarters that can be seen on the right of the photo 2. During those days the valley between the FAO building and Baths of Caracalla (in the middle of the pic) was forested and there were also lots of caves and springs in the area. It was considered a sacred and mysterious place where Camenae, goddesses of childbirth, wells, fountains and prophecies lived. Livius also tells us that it was here that king Numa Pompilius held meetings with his divine counselor Egeria.

Photo 1: Pompeii, House of Venus and the Four Gods

Atttribution:

Sergey Sosnovskiy, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Photo 2: A view From Palatine Hill towards Baths of Caracalla

Don’t… treat them as tools. Deities aren’t obligated to help you, even if you do everything “correctly” to ask. They’re not vending machines, or a list of correspondences that only gets value from how they best serve you. They’re gods! Instead… treat them like people. (Really high-status people.) Build a relationship before asking big favors. Compensate them for their time. Respect they have their own autonomy. Respect that your will is not the center of their universe.