Enby Witchery

-Starrtis, Phoinissai (late 5th century BC).

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.

Michael Flanagan, “The Land of Leys,” 1979

Pentheus, the King of Thebes, was torn apart limb-from-limb (sparagmos) by his own mother, Agave, and her sisters in a Dionysian frenzy for defying the god Dionysus.

Magical Pebbles

Adder Stones: Stones said to be made out of the congealed venom of multiple adders, used to cure a man in Pitlochry, Perthshire of an adder bite [1] as they were elsewhere. In Cornwall, they were identified as blue stones with a yellow line through them and called "millpreves" (from Cornish myl pref, "thousand snakes) and folk healers wore rings made of them [2].

Blood Stones: Red stones with white lines running through them, used to cure bleeding, as in Guilden Mordern, Gloucestershire in 1911 [3] and carried as amulets against it [4]. In the Scottish Highlands, they were said to be the congealed blood of the Fir Chlis/Merry Dancers, the spirits of the Northern Lights, spilt in battles and falling to earth. Hence, in that region they were called fuil siochaire - faerie blood [5].

Charm Stones: In Scotland, these were pebbles credited with healing powers and bestowing those powers by being placed in water [6], such as on the island of Lewis, where they were placed in the water trough of cattle suffering from snakebites [7].

Hag Stones: Hag stones were stones with natural holes in them hung around the necks of horses to ward off witchcraft [8], hags [9] (nocturnal evil spirits associated with nightmares and sleep paralysis) [10] and faeries [11] and were also credited with healing powers and, in particular, that looking through the hole allowed viewing of faeries [12]. They remained in use well into the modern period, W. Hockcliffe, a train driver in St. Neots, Cambridgeshire, owned one as an amulet, and in the early 20th century, a woman from Exmouth, Devon used one to ward off nightmares [13] and one from Salisbury is on display at the Pitt Rivers Museum [14].

Growing Pebbles: In East Anglia, pebbles in the soil were said to grow into larger stones, and Blaxhall, Suffolk boasts a 5-ton boulder which was allegedly originally a pebble [15].

Haley Stanes: In the Orkney Islands, this was the name given to quartz pebbles which were built into the walls of houses for luck [16].

Hydrophobia Stones: This was the name given to the stones of the Monmouthshire village of Mynyddislwyn, which cured rabies if ground into powder, mixed with milk and given to the sufferer or just licked by them [17].

Irish Stones: In northeast England, Irish objects were credited with the power of curing snakebites and wasp stings; for example, an ancestral Irish flint in Blanchland, Northumberland used against snakebites and one in Stamfordham in the same county used against poison and never allowed to touch Irish soil [18] along with several others in the village. It was also believed in the county that Irishmen had the power to trap snakes by drawing circles around them, and that the milk of an Irish cow was also effective against snakebites [19].

Kenning Stones: In the West Country, these were old beads used to cure eye problems, usually a bluish colour and suspended on a string, and had to be kept from touching anything wooden to retain their power; one was kept in the Devon village of Great Torrington as late as 1899 [20].

Peter's Stones: Another Devonshire charm, this one consisting of a chipped-off piece of a saint statue mixed with lard and used to cure sore breasts; this stayed in use well into the 19th century [21].

Puddingstones: In Hertfordshire, pebbles joined together through natural cement were called puddingstones, and credited with promoting fertility and warding off witchcraft. Hence, in 1662 in Aldenham a suspected witch was buried with one, several people were buried with them in Great Gaddesden, and the church towers of Harpenden and Stocking Pelham having puddingstones built into them for apotropaic purposes [22].

Saint's Pebbles: Both St. Cuthbert from northern England and St. Columba from Scotland blessed pebbles on the beach that hence act as amulets against drowning [23].

Serinstens: In the Shetlands, a serinsten (from Norse sigrsteinn, “victory stone”) is a talisman obtained from the active nest or the beak of a raven, which ensures popularity, good luck and protection from human and trow attack [24].

Pebbles in Magic

Divinatory Pebbles: On Nos Calan Gaeaf (the Welsh Halloween), families in North Wales built a fire each and inserted a white pebble, marked for the person it corresponded to, into the ashes. If any pebbles were missing the next day, that person would die. In Merionethshire, this practice continued until the 1930s [25].

Lucky Pebbles: In Lincolnshire, smooth white pebbles were lucky amulets [26].

Inserted Pebbles: The Finger Steen on the Orkney island of Rousay, said to have been thrown by a giant from Westray, had pebbles inserted into it by passers-by to ensure good catches of fish [27].

Pebbles in Wells: Pebbles were thrown into holy wells as part of magical rituals in Llanelian-yn-Rhôs, Denbighshire [28], Trellech, Merionethshire [29] and St. David's, Pembrokeshire [30]

Other:

In the West Riding of Yorkshire, children would try to expel rainbows by making a cross of two sticks and putting a pebble at each end [31].

On the Orkney island of Westray, to cure children or animals of sickliness or melancholy sent by evil beings in response to praise without the invocation of God, read the following charm over water with or one black, one white and one red, blue or green seashore pebble – “Sain. Father, Son, Holy Ghost, bitten sall they be, wha haif bitten thee, care to their near vein, until thou get’st thy heath again, mend thou in God’s name” – while making the sign of the cross, give some of the water to the patient and sprinkle the rest over them [32].

Bibliography

William Henderson, 1879, Notes on the folk-lore of the northern counties of England and the borders, Nichols & Sons, p.165

Tony Deane and Tony Shaw, 1975, The Folklore of Cornwall, Batsford, p.118

Owen Davies, 1998, “Healing Charms in Use in England and Wales 1700-1950”, Folklore, volume 107, pp.19-32

Ronald Hutton (editor), 2015, Physical Evidence for Ritual Acts, Witchcraft and Sorcery in Christian Britain: A Feeling for Magic, Palgrave MacMillan, p.197

Katherine Briggs, 1976, A Dictionary of Fairies, Penguin Books Ltd., p.177

Colin Bord and Janet Bord, 1985, Sacred Waters: Holy Wells and Water Lore in Britain and Ireland, Granada Publishing Ltd., p.52

Henderson 1879 p.165

Marc Alexander, 2002, A Companion to the Folklore, Legends and Customs of Britain, Sutton Publishing Ltd., p.223

John Aubrey, 1684 (1881 reprint), Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme, Satchell, Peyton & Co., p.28

Briggs 1976 p.216

Janet Bord, 1997, Fairies: Real Encounters with the Little People, Michael O' Mara Books, p.12

Brice Stratford, 2022, New Forest Folklore, The History Press, p.137

Hutton 2015 pp.203-204

Hutton 2015 p.194

Jo Bourne et al., 2009, The Most Amazing Haunted & Mysterious Places in Britain, The Reader's Digest Association, p.126

Ernest Marwick, 1975, The Folklore of Orkney and Shetland, Batsford, p.79

Bourne et al. 2009 p.209

Davies 1998

Henderson 1879 p.166

Davies 1998

Theo Brown, 1961, “Some Examples of Post-Reformation Folklore in Devon”, Folklore, volume 72, number 2, pp.388-399

David Castleton, 2021, Church Curiosities: Strange Objects and Bizarre Legends, Shire Books, pp.85-86

Alexander 2002 pp.247-248

Marwick 1975 p.148

Ronald Hutton, The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain, Oxford University Press, p.366

Ethel Rudkin, 1933, "Lincolnshire Folklore", Folklore, volume 44, number 3, pp.279-295

Marwick 1975 p.59

Alexander 2002 p.61

Bord and Bord 1985 p.184

Bourne et al. 2009 p.205

Henderson 1879 p.25