In praise of minimalist altars

I often find myself impressed by the images of altars fellow Pagans and Polytheists share on social media. The setups are beautiful and with many objects like crystals, bowls, incense holders, wands, rocks, candles, flowers, etc. While I admire complex altars, I couldn’t have them in my practice. The first reason is that I’m too

Some recent and fascinating Norse archaeological finds

There have been some very interesting archaeological finds related to the Norse faith recently. One of them is this golden disc found during an excavation in Denmark: This one is particularly important as it has the oldest known runic inscription mentioning Odin. The runes state: ”He is Odin’s man”, likely referencing a ruler of some

Knowing Freya. Part 13: Freya and modern Heathens

The world of today is incredibly different to what it was when the worship of the Norse Deities was the main religion in Iceland and Scandinavia. The culture, the language, the values and technology have changed to the point that a Viking Age heathen would feel utterly lost if they somehow found themselves in our

Knowing Freya, part 12: Freya and Ragnarök

Ragnarök, Old Norse for ‘the Doom of the Gods’. Undoubtedly the most famous event described in Norse mythology. Even people who know close to nothing about Norse Polytheism have heard about this great apocalypse. Described primarily in the Eddic poem Völuspa, Ragnarök is a series of cataclysmic events that leads to the death of many

Knowing Freya. Part 11: Seid

To the ancient Norse people and to many modern Heathens, the whole world was and is alive. There is nowhere where Consciousness is not. The trees, the stones, rivers, mountains and even human-made objects have soul. The veil between the physical world and the spirit world is thin, if not non-existent. And for many Heathens,

Knowing Freya, part 10: Gullveig

One of the most important events described in Norse myth is the Æsir-Vanir war, a conflict between the divine tribes which resulted in the unification of the two into a single pantheon. There are a number of theories about the meaning of this war. Some historians believe it is a allegory for the conflict between

New addition to the altar

In addition to the statue of Freya, there is now one of Frey on my altar. I got it from this Etsy store and I’m very happy with my purchase 🙂

Knowing Freya. Part 9: Brisingamen

The Norse Powers and Deities are described has having a number of fascinating objects. Odin has a magic spear that never misses. Frey has a sword that fights on its own. And who can forget Mjölnir, Thor’s mighty hammer which both crushes Jötunn skulls and blesses weddings? But few objects in Norse lore are quite

Knowing Freya. Part 8: Chooser of the slain and Queen of Folkvang

Freya is a Goddess of many names. One of them is Valfreya, meaning ‘Freya of the slain’ or ‘Lady of the slain’. The reason for this is mentioned in the 14th stanza of Grímnísmál, a poem in which a disguised Oden tells the young Agnar about different realms and which Deities rule over them: ”Folkvang

What is the core of Heathenry?

The other day, I had someone visit at my apartment. While there, they noticed my altar and the statue of Freya on it. They asked:”Who’s that?”I said that She is Freya, one of the Goddesses of the Heathen faith. They asked if I was a Heathen and I said yes. Then they asked me something