I saw this, and my immediate thought was, of course, that renowned prescription featuring the greatest of physicians - the Anglo-Saxon ‘Nigon Wyrta Galdor’ ('Nine Herbs Incantation'), and Woden (Odin), respectively (a portion as to which follows). “ðas VIIII magon / wið nygon attrum. 30Wyrm com snican, / toslat he man; 31ða genam Woden / … Continue reading Metaphysically Potent Medication, Anglo-Saxon & Atharvanic
Germanic
An ‘Arya’ Cognate In Runic Inscription ?
Some time ago, I had been asked to weigh in upon the claim that there were Runic inscriptions featuring a Nordic cognate for "Aryan". The following is a somewhat edited (and expanded) iteration of my response. What's being referred to is one runic inscription (the Tune stone [N KJ72], mid-1st millennium AD, Østfold fylke, Norway), … Continue reading An ‘Arya’ Cognate In Runic Inscription ?
Psychopompi Germanica – And Why It’s Not Odin
In recent days I have run into a rather recurrent skein of assertions about Odin purportedly being a "Psychopomp". Now as for why this has kept coming up - the context has been fairly much what you'd expect. Namely, people looking to affirm an accuracy for that well-known 'Interpretatio' from Tacitus, whereby Odin is inferred … Continue reading Psychopompi Germanica – And Why It’s Not Odin
The Inadequate ‘Interpretatio’ Of Odin – A Grimm Exemplar
Following one of those 'spirited' exchanges in relation to the theology of Odin some days ago (you know the type - an affronted (and affronting!) multi-paragraph "HE'S NOT MY REAL (SKY) FATHER!" column, which is then thrust … in my direction / into an ambush / into next week, by the time I've finished writing … Continue reading The Inadequate ‘Interpretatio’ Of Odin – A Grimm Exemplar
“Triumph, Moon!”
In light of the semi-recent (partial) Solar Eclipse, here's something I happened across earlier in the month from what's known as the 'Indiculus Superstitionum Et Paganiarum' (which is exactly what it sounds like - an 'Index of Superstitions And Paganism', an 8th century compilation of the folkways and religious customs of the pre-Christian Continental Germanics … Continue reading “Triumph, Moon!”
“I won’t forget who we were, I won’t forget who I am”
An associate had posted this the other day, and it resonates with the … curious objection recorded to the English Heritage charity's publicizing of Easter's roots with an Anglo-Saxon deific and observance. To quote from the Daily Mail piece I'd referenced with this morning's (brief) writeup, you had a Conservative Party councilor saying the following: … Continue reading “I won’t forget who we were, I won’t forget who I am”
English Heritage Actually Acknowledging English Heritage For Easter Apparently Creates Outrage
Always interesting what generates the "outrage". This was from the Daily Mail ; article headline: "English Heritage sparks outrage after telling children Easter was not originally Christian". And you know what? They're absolutely correct. Here's Bede upon the subject, writing in the early 700s AD upon then-recently Christianized Anglo-Saxons' custom, from his 'Reckoning of Time' … Continue reading English Heritage Actually Acknowledging English Heritage For Easter Apparently Creates Outrage
TRI-LOKA : The Three Worlds Of Indo-European Cosmology – Part Three: The Dead Among The Stars
Now speaking of the Night's Sky - this brings us to what's probably the most 'divergent' area for our trifold TriPlanar schema. And I mean that in two senses - first, in terms of just how 'different' one of the Hellenic (and later Classical) conceptions for this Layer is as compared to 'Everybody Else' on … Continue reading TRI-LOKA : The Three Worlds Of Indo-European Cosmology – Part Three: The Dead Among The Stars
TRI-LOKA : The Three Worlds Of Indo-European Cosmology – Part Two: Sailing The Sea Of Sky
As promised, we begin our series of subsequent commentaries seeking to add illumination to 'what went where' - and, more especially as applies some detailings, 'why' - for our TRI-LOKA charting of the archaic Indo-European cosmology. For the first installment, we delve into various of the considerations pertaining to the Middle Realm extant between the … Continue reading TRI-LOKA : The Three Worlds Of Indo-European Cosmology – Part Two: Sailing The Sea Of Sky
TRI-LOKA : The Three Worlds Of Indo-European Cosmology
The archaic Worlds-view of the (Proto-)Indo-Europeans featured a functional conceptualization for the Cosmos as broadly divisible into three 'layers' or realms. We can safely infer this due to the shared fundamental TriPlanar structure carried forward by various of the major (post-PIE) Indo-European spheres, attested amidst both their mythic and ritualine perspectives - as we have drawn from … Continue reading TRI-LOKA : The Three Worlds Of Indo-European Cosmology