Ferhext

Pre sundown:

Dinner of Hexensuppe. Many different recipes exist, but the one I make goes as follows- Sautee diced celery and onion. While those cook in butter, julienne and dice carrots and potatoes. Sautee all the diced vegetables for thirty minutes on the stove until they're soft and toasty, then add in a can of strained garbanzo beans. Add chicken broth, generous black pepper, red pepper flakes, paprika, salt and coriander.

Clean the house! The hunt travels best without tripping hazards. I wiped down the counters and stovetop, swept, mopped, vacuumed, dusted, and tidied.

Dress and pack for the morning. I live in an area with access to a small woods at night with no curfew, so I have the privilege of celebrating in a more traditional manner. However, I do celebrate alone since there are no Urglaawe/Hexerei practitioners in my area.

My bag that I pack includes my lyre, matches for a small fire, some dried lawn clippings and newspaper for kindling, water, and a mix of land offerings.

usually beans are recomended for land offerings but they are harmful to animals unless cooked. Instead, I opted for a mix of pearled barley, rice (which can be served raw), flaxseed and oats.

Post Sundown

Before I go to sleep, I set an alarm for three A.M. I travel to my celebration spot before first light in the morning so I can start my fires, do my prayers and any spells, perform my land offerings, all before Walpurgisnacht technically ends.

I also open all the windows in the house. Some people leave the doors open, but that freaks me out a little...

After the windows are open, I go around with a small crystal hand-bell from my mom and throw a ruckus in the house to coax any spirits out.

Pre Sunrise and First Light

I woke up at 3:00 A.M. and (very slowly... so tired) put on my dress and boots. (It's pretty thick in the forest and steep. It was a little muddy this year to get up the hill, I was so scared of falling over lmaooo)

Before leaving the house for Walpurgisnacht, Alleliewezil, Arsgang or really any holiday that has a 'nighttime celebration', I give my ancestors an offering and ask for safe travels to and from my stomping grounds. They like coffee quite a bit (and I won't deny I stole a little for myself.)

I took the forty-five minute walk to the hill and made it there around 4:00 A.M.

I started by thanking the hill for letting me stay, gave it some of my offerings and water and cleared out the divot of dead leaves. Even if the ground is wet and not likely to catch, I still don't want to risk starting a bigger fire than what I can quickly control.

I lit my fire and built it high enough with sticks to keep it going until first light. I put it out once sunrise comes since I don't need it anymore and It's best to watch it and make sure all the embers are 100% cooled before leaving.

Until sunrise, I perform on my lyre and dance. This is what I included this year: Die Wonnetzeitsege (which is an invocation, not a song...), Uti Vaar Hage, Kum Kum Geselle Min, en Mei Nacht Segen for Walpurgisnacht (From Patrick Donmoyer on spotify. It is no longer available, but I was able to put a rough transcription and translation in a songbook of mine), Die Walpurgisnacht (faun), Toilers Seranade (a folk song from Minnesota), and Die Mai ist Gekommen.

The tracklist is made so that I can play from 4:30-First light with small breaks to tend to the fire.

at 5:30, first light arrives and I had my final leap over the fire to cleanse, and then I douse and smother it.

I watched the sunrise for another thirty minutes, periodically checking the fire to make sure it was no longer smoldering.

Once I can be sure that the fire is done and safe to touch with my bare hands, I scatter the remaining coals and do my best to leave no trace.

I give one last land offering before I walk back home

Post Sunrise

The etymology of her name can be interpreted in a few ways. One article I found states that her name may come from the word 'nehal', which means, 'to help.' Some others state that her name would be separated into 'Halen', 'ne', 'ja' meaning 'she who is near the sea.' Both of these interpretations seem pretty apt!

Nehalennia is invoked almost exclusively in all her altars as a "thank you". There are very few instances where she is asked to protect someone before a journey, only ever as a 'Thank you' after the fact. From what we can tell, its quite possible she was invoked during times of crisis, not before.

In her altars, she's seated in an apse (which dispells the idea that she may be an ancestor, as sitting in the apse is reserved for gods alone), with a bowl of apples, grain, or loaves of bread. Sometimes she's pictured with a dog or wolf with her foot on the bough of a ship, which may lead to her position as a psychopomp. The idea of boating into the afterlife comes admittedly from Greek Mythology, but dogs having a connection to the otherworld and magic are consistent in quite a few European Folk Religions. Her dog may also be there to symbolize her protective affinity and loyalty to her people.

It's been suggested that one of her offering meals may also lend to the idea of her being a psychopomp. The duivekater is a bone-shaped loaf of bread served with nutmeg and spices. Then again, this bone could always be in reference to her dog. It originates in North Holland.

Nehalennia is also pretty cool because she's one of the only Goddesses now with a semi-active cult. It is admittedly very small, but there are a few people in the Netherlands today that worship her. In fact, they have a temple in Coljinsplaat!

The history behind this temple is fascinating for a few reasons, in part because the remains of the original temple (which were taken by the ocean) were revealed in a storm when the water washed away some of the dunes.

In her most popular myth from the Grimm Brothers, she's known for guiding a girl, Marie, through the otherworld. She asks her to do some chores, of which includes shaking out a feather bed to create snow back on earth. Marie is sent home to a shower of gold and riches for her hard work. In some editions of the story, there is another girl who is lazy, and at the end of her journey in the otherworld she's dumped in pitch (sewage).

This is only one of the stories that cements her place as a goddess of weather. Her hair is sunbeams, her laundry is rain, her loom is the rainbow, she breathes the wind, her hearth creates the fog, and her sweeping causes dusty storms.

Her place as a psychopomp- reaping the souls of her dead during the Wild Hunt, causes another story of hers. As she mills the souls, separating their pieces, freeing the consciousness and reusing the soul parts of the ancestors, she also assigns jobs to the dead. In Germanic Paganism, death is not stagnant- the only few who live a lazy afterlife are those who go to Valhof. Her favorite children, her closest devotees, are chosen to cut stars out from the sky. Some hold ladders, some cut and trim with scissors, some sweep the frayed fabric.

The etymology of her name means either "loud, cheery", or "sweet". This is backed up by two things; 1, shes quite a nice lady, and 2, her month is the windy March when her breaths howl through the nights.

In another Myth, Emperor Louis the Pious (Charlemagne's son) Was hunting a white buck when he lost his troupe. He came across a grove where a wild rose bush bloomed. He knelt and prayed to the Virgin Mary that he’d find rescue, and fell asleep doing so. When he woke, there was snow all around him, despite the trees being lush and green. He took this as a sign that Frau Holle was blessing him to build a church to the Virgin Mary there, and the rose bush still stands today as it grows against the chapel in Hildesheim.

Her name bears some resemblance to the Nordic 'huldr', which relates to forest nymphs with cow tails and great beauty, which they hide with veils. Frau Holle is said to be very beautiful, her chief animal is the cow, and her maiden form is typically shown with a veil. However, there is no proof that these two are the same. I take it into consideration because Frau Holle is also a queen of the Fae and Wild Spirits.

Her sacred plant is the elderflower/elderberry bush. It's because of this that Urglaawers and some Hexe are forbidden from cutting the branches of it in fear of offending her. (and because it would rid itself of a very medicinal plant). In fact, the name for Elderflower Bush in German is 'Holunderblute'. Elderberry is just "holunder.'

The colors Blue, White, Red and Gold are chief to her. Blue and White for the snow, Red and Gold for apples (which are a preferred fruit for her, if you wish to give her an offering.) Her feast day is December 24, or Modranicht (mothers night in Germany), but she's also celebrated on Walpurgisnacht or Hexennacht, April 30 evening and morning May 1st, when she takes off for the wild hunt for the Summer. She comes back to stay for the wintertime after Alleleweizel, which is Okt 30-Nov 12.

The photographs above, from left to right, depict her weather vane atop the Perlach Tower in Augsburg, where she is holding the pinecone. The middle is a bronze relief carved into the Hercules Fountain in Augsburg, where she is shown riding into Rome with her crown and pinecone. The third image on the far right is the symbol of Augsburg, with her beneath the pinecone.

Her name may also mean "breast", as a variation of her from Western Poland (Ziza) from the Slavic root Zyz, means breast. There, they see her as a goddess of maternal feeding and nursing. This matches her association with fertility in the Germanic Tribes.

You'll notice in a lot of these photos, she has a beehive type bun or headpiece that covers her head. It looks like a pinecone, but I found it interesting because some statues of the Matronae found in Germany also have these large headpieces. Just a fun correlation I found. There's always speculation when talking about these deities that 'they're just ancestors'.

On the left here is a picture of Zisa built for a scepters head, and on the right is a photo of a Matronae Altar.

Her feast day is 59 days after August First, which is September 28. It involves games and food. Part of her altar includes grain in a cup, and I personally add a pinecone to decorate for obvious reasons.

Urglaawers are notorious for their interpretation of her power of unbinding things. According to (the phenomenal) Robert Schreiwer, Zisa is able to undo ones Urlog if the cause is just. This is probably because in Urglaawe, Zisa is a consort of Ziu, who is known for binding things and assisting in legal matters. There's weight to this, of course, since Ziu was also worshipped by the vindilici and suevi.

Her association with grain may come from her feast day in the fall (when the harvests would start). Christian August Vulpis, a writer and librarian from the 1800s, likened her to Ceres or Demeter, Roman and Greek deities of similar Hemispheres.

Her name has a few different etymological properties, the ones I prefer to use relate to “Tanne” and “Fanum”

Tanne is the word for Fir Tree in Dutch and German, and Fanum means a temple in Latin. We know Tacitus views these people through a Roman Lens, so it’s entirely possible that he is responsible for the addition of ‘Fanum’ (later shortened to Fana) to the original name of Tam or Tanne.

When we look at Tacitus' wording when mentioning Tamfana by name, he uses 'templum quod Tamfanae vocabant solo aequantur.' or 'the temple of Tamfana, as they called it, equalized (I.E, leveled to the ground.)' I'm of the personal speculation that he could have instead said 'templum quod Tam fanae', Templum being the nominative singular and Fanae being the plural. This interpretation of mine would suggest that there were many places where Tam was worshipped, but the passage refers to one of her temples that was destroyed. (or that the place where Tam was worshipped did not encapsulate only a temple, but lands around the temple, perhaps a sacred Grove.)

If we make the assumption that this observation is the truth, we can then make out a few things about her. She’s related to fir trees, her name is just Tanne or Tam, and it’s possible the song “O, Tannebaum” is or was about her at some point. Tannebaum just means Fir tree or Fir bundle. If we don't assume that her name is split strangely, we can still keep the Fir Tree part but we can add in the belief that she might be a goddess of Sacred Spaces, or have the ability to create sacred spaces.

Some other attestations include an now discredited poem discovered in the 1800s and claimed to hark from the 1300s (the man who 'discovered' it has been found lying about other anthropological finds) in which Tamfana is said to "send sheep overhead". There's an inscription of her name in Central Italy in Terni; Tamfanae Sacrum but I couldn't find photos of it online, and there's also a seal from 1336 that supposedly depicts her holding a fir branch, flanked by the sun and accompanied by a cat and an eagle (but this is thought to also be St. Brigid.)

Some other Scholars have tried their hand at different etymological interpretations, most of which resulting with meanings of fullness, bounty, expenditure, unthrifty, lavasciousness, feasting, stuffed (like a feeling after eating a large meal). Justus Lisipus, a sixteenth century scholar likened her name to the Celtic root 'Tan', meaning Fire.

The time of the massacre (and subsequent time of her feast) are said to have happened in autumn, furthering her possibility of being a Harvest Goddess. Some people today place her feast day on November first.