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

What is the oldest known depiction of Thor?

Januari is a month when many Heathens pay extra tribute to Thor. In pre-Christian Northern Europe, mid-january would be the traditional time for Yule and blóts were often held in honour of the Deities of the season, among which is Thor. The Yuletide often ended with a feast and a blót to Him. And since

Fun fact: Dylan Sprouse is a Heathen

I was mindlessly scrolling social media, as I far too often do, when I stumbled across a video mentioning that Dylan Sprouse, former Disney Channel child star, now runs a mead brewery. I noticed that he was wearing a Thor’s hammer in the photo. Curious, I did some web searching and learned that he’s been

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 7: Frigga and Freya

Frigga and Freya are two Goddesses with a lot in common. They are both skilled practitioners of seid, They both have the hability to transforms into falcons and the names of Their Husbands (Odin and Odr) are near identical (meaning ‘Lord of frenzy’ and ‘frenzy’, respectively). Just to name a few things. But They are

Swedish tax agency rules child cannot be named after the Fenrir wolf

Skatteverket, the Swedish tax agency which also for some reason is the government agency which decides what names people are allowed to have (is that a thing in other countries?), has denied a Södertälje couple’s demand to name their child ‘Fenri Sulven’. The two names together sound like ‘Fenrisulven’, which refers to the Fenrir Wolf

Not everything is Christian baggage

In this blog, I don’t often bring up things I’m annoyed by or critical of in the wider Pagan/Heathen community. It’s not that I don’t think such things should be discussed. I’ve just preferred to put my time and energy elsewhere. But there is something that has been grinding my gears for so long that

1500 years old gold treasure found in Denmark

And a depiction on one of the artefacts could very well be Odin: https://www.thearchaeologist.org/blog/unique-golden-treasure-found-in-denmark-one-of-the-richest-treasures-in-danish-history