Lughnasadh, 31st July - 1st August, The Birth Of Autumn.

Lughnasadh, 31st July - 1st August, the birth of Autumn.

"Ah, never of a summer night Will life again be half as sweet As in that country of delight Where straying, staying, with happy feet, We watched the fire-flies in the wheat.

Full dark and deep the starless night, Still throbbing with the summer heat; There was no ray of any light, But dancing, glancing, far and fleet, Only the fire-flies in the wheat.", from The Fire-Flies in the Wheat, by Harriet Prescott Spofford.

"If all must leave me and go back Along a blind and fearful track So that you can make anew, Fusing with intenser fire, Something nearer your desire; If my soul must go alone Through a cold infinity, Or even if it vanish, too, Beauty, I have worshipped you.

Let this single hour atone For the theft of all of me.", from August Moonrise, by Sara Teasdale.

"My love is my strength, not my weakness": A sigil inspired by The Last Unicorn

In The Last Unicorn, our main protagonist does not feel love or grieve the same way that humans do. This mostly serves as a strength to her, as she can get through obstacles without those types of emotions clouding her judgment. However, after spending time as a human and falling in love with Prince Lir, love and grief become strengths to her. It is only after the Red Bull threatens Lir's life that she gains the courage to stand up to the beast and free her brothers and sisters who have been imprisoned in the sea.

Unicorns have been on my mind lately. I had an older sister who is no longer with me who adored unicorns, and since experiencing the loss of my little chihuahua mix, they've been appearing everywhere to me. I'm going with my gut and taking it as a sign that I should be incorporating unicorn myths and folklore into my practice, so I decided to take this theme from one of my favorite movies and make something with it.

Love can be a strength or a weakness depending on the situation. If we let it cloud our judgment and ignore the red flags of a person or a situation, we fall into dangerous territory. We could let down our guard and weaken our boundaries which makes us vulnerable to manipulation. However, love can also be a strength. Love can give us the courage to fight when we feel all hope is lost. Love can give us the bravery we need to protect the people in our lives who need it most. This sigil is meant to be used to allow us to use our love as a strength. Use it to prevent toxic people from taking advantage of your kindness and to prevent yourself from seeing the warning signs of terrible people. You can also use it for situations where you will need extra strength to help those you love who are in need.

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forestwitchnika

1 year ago

Germanic Paganism Sources

I can’t list these sources without first going through a million different caveats. I’m going to keep this introduction brief due to the length of this post, but be aware that these sources have been subjected to Christianization, speculation, mistranslation, etc. Many of these sources were copied down by Christian authors who may have altered the truth in order to fit their perspective. Some may have vague terms or phrases that we can no longer understand because they existed in an entirely new context. Essentially, approach all of these texts from a speculative and critical lens. This doesn’t mean we can’t decipher the truth. We can decipher the truth by comparing texts from the same time, countries, etc with each other and finding the common threads. Pairing these attestations with archaeological records is also immensely helpful and I hope to compile a list of archaeological records some time in the future. You can find many free records and studies by simply typing, for example, “anglo-saxon burials archaeological excavations.”

This list consists of records of various Germanic peoples, histories, as well as semi-legendary sagas and poetry. By exploring a variety of texts instead of just ethnographic works, we can understand the history, culture, customs, traditions, values, and more. These are all crucial in approaching paganism with the goal of accurate and thorough understanding. I wanted to focus primarily on sources from close to the pagan period, but I have also included current sources in the grimoires and runes section. For the contemporary study of Germanic paganism, I always recommend Stephen Flowers!

Happy researching

The Eddas

https://www.norron-mytologi.info/diverse/ThorpeThePoeticEdda.pdf

http://vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/EDDArestr.pdf

England

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/657/pg657-images.html

https://ia804700.us.archive.org/31/items/exeterbookanthol00goll/exeterbookanthol00goll.pdf

https://langeslag.uni-goettingen.de/oddities/texts/Aecerbot.pdf

https://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/03d/0627-0735,_Beda_Venerabilis,_Ecclesiastical_History_Of_England,_EN.pdf

https://www.ragweedforge.com/rpae.html (this website also has the norwegian and icelandic rune poems)

https://www.dvusd.org/cms/lib/AZ01901092/Centricity/Domain/2897/beowulf_heaney.pdf

https://sacred-texts.com/neu/ascp/

https://ia601403.us.archive.org/12/items/bede-the-reckoning-of-time-2012/Bede%20-%20The%20Reckoning%20of%20Time%20%282012%29.pdf

Germany

https://sacred-texts.com/neu/nblng/index.htm

https://www.germanicmythology.com/works/merseburgcharms.html

Frisia

https://www.liturgies.net/saints/willibrord/alcuin.htm

Denmark

https://sacred-texts.com/neu/saxo/index.htm

Iceland

https://archive.org/details/booksettlementi00ellwgoog/page/n4/mode/2up

Finland

https://sacred-texts.com/neu/kveng/kvrune01.htm

Germania

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/7524/7524-h/7524-h.htm

The Sagas

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/598/598-h/598-h.htm

http://vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/Heimskringla%20II.pdf

https://sacred-texts.com/neu/heim/05hakon.htm

https://sacred-texts.com/neu/vlsng/index.htm

https://sacred-texts.com/neu/egil/index.htm

https://sacred-texts.com/neu/ice/is3/index.htm

https://sagadb.org/files/pdf/eyrbyggja_saga.en.pdf

https://sagadb.org/brennu-njals_saga.en

Grimoires

https://archive.org/details/GaldrabokAnIcelandicGrimoire1

https://handrit.is/manuscript/view/is/IB04-0383/9#page/3v/mode/2up

https://galdrastafir.com/#vegvisir

Runes

https://www.esonet.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Futhark-A-Handbook-of-Rune-Magic-Edred-Thorsson-1984.pdf

*Due to link limits on tumblr, i cannot link all of these. Please paste them into your browser.

*Also, sadly I could not find some of the sources I wanted for free. I will continue to update this post with new links and it will be pinned to my profile always!

20 notes View Post

forestwitchnika

4 years ago