He Who Announces the Way
I had a revelation at ten o’clock yesterday morning that did not leave me alone for twelve hours. A religious one, as they tend to be these days, and goes something like this: I have been completely wrong about my…
THE BARROW HOME
LIFE OF A MODERN POLYTHEIST
THE BARROW HOME
LIFE OF A MODERN POLYTHEIST
Category Religion
Today, I Resigned
Three years ago, I helped a group of people — a couple of which I still keep in touch with — create a server on Discord that we named Skíðblaðnir, after the magical longship owned by the Norse god Freyr.…
BYRGENHĀM II: The Mothers Revealed
Mōdraniht (Mothers’ Night) approaches. An Anglo-Saxon Heathen holiday, it focuses on venerating “the Mothers,” a grouping of deities who were worshiped throughout Celto-Romano-Germanic Europe as Matres or Matronae. (The Old English word for Them is Mōdru.) They were very localized…
BYRGENHĀM I: An Introduction
Nearly four years ago, I began exploring Heathenry. I had ended my practice of Kemetism two years prior and was, at the time, focusing on the death positive movement in the West. But I also felt adrift, unanchored by any…
A Heathen Midsummer Picnic
This past Saturday, I invited a couple of local Heathens and our guests to celebrate the Midsummer holiday and enjoy a picnic. We picked Font Hill Wetlands Park as our location, a small park with a gazebo in the middle…
‘Assassin’s Creed: Origins’ and the Normalization of Polytheism
Back in April, I suffered mental burnout that almost resulted in a breakdown at work. To recover, I purchased a copy of Assassin’s Creed: Origins and played it all evening. Three months and 47 hours later, I’m glad I did. Not…
Death Midwifery and My Initiation into Sacred Duty
My great-grandmother Lourdes died two weeks ago, on the morning of November 1st. As I was falling asleep that night, my mother texted me to break the news. We briefly texted back and forth, and I agreed to send some…
A Feast to Welcome Autumn
My Midsummer celebration earlier this year was fantastic: Friends gathered, the kitchen filled with dishes for our feast, and libations of blood-wine seeped into fertile soil. I left the party feeling joyful, pleased with our rituals, and looking forward to…
Pagan Pride Day 2016
I stand facing the center of the circle, facing the skull mounted on a large, forked tree branch — our ritual stang. Faces blur together around me. When I speak, my voice cuts through the late afternoon calm. I teach my audience…
Living Pagan: How to Cultivate “God-Awareness”
Thanks to my recent reading of Marie Mutsuki Mockett’s memoir, Where the Dead Pause, and the Japanese Say Goodbye: A Journey, I have been thinking back on my time in Japan. I stayed for only four months while I studied at…