8417
A place for Aryan (European) Folkish Pagans
Will return to the topic of male magic of folklore. Will take a while to translate of the texts though.
Читать полностью…
He is represented as a man of large and powerful build, in the prime of life, and having a red beard. The equipment of the god as depicted in the mythological poems is remarkable, especially from the negative side. His weapon is almost always the hammer. He is never represented as possessing spear, sword, shield, helmet, or coat of mail. Again in travelling he either goes on foot or drives in a carriage drawn by goats. A horse is never ascribed to him. In Grimnismal, immediately before the enumeration of the horses which the gods ride when they come to do justice under Yggdrasill's Ash, it is stated that Thor has to wade through several streams on his way thither. The horses of Othin, Freyr, Heimdallr and Balder are mentioned also elsewhere. The antiquity of the representation of Thor may be estimated by the absence of the horse and of all the ordinary weapons of war. His equipment indeed resembles that of a hero of the Stone Age rather than of any subsequent period.
H.M. Chadwick
A rare sketch of Odin by Hans Thoma, 1839-1924.
Читать полностью…
Real Folklore V Fake Folklore:
The Wulver
Watch almost any video compilation on YouTube of Scottish folklore and you’re bound to see a creature called the Wulver make an appearance. A benevolent humanoid wolf man that lives on Shetland. He was fond of fishing and would leave fish on the window sills of locals.
Except, Shetlanders never believed in him and there is no mention of him anywhere before the publication of Jessie Saxby’s 1932 book Shetland Traditional Lore. She gives no names, dates, locations or details regarding her research. The Wulver appears in no other stories, books or songs from anywhere else on the islands, or the mainland. Purely an invention of Saxby. He is fictional and less than 100 years old.
Yet, countless websites, videos, articles and books present it as genuine folklore. The Scotsman newspaper even talked about the ancient Celts believing in it, just straight up lies and made up nonsense.
It was also a most astonishing feat when you wrestled with Elle, for none has ever been, and none shall ever be, that Elle (eld, old age) will not get the better of him, though he gets to be old enough to abide her coming.
Art by Dmitriy Galkin
Stribog
God of Wind and War
by Brother Bjorn
https://twitter.com/bjorn_brother
The people believed that a shepherd can protect his herd from any wild animal, be it wolf or bear using charms and magic vessels like a special birch trumpet, a belt, a whip or a staff. If someone else was to touch a magic staff or a trumpet it would loose it’s power so shepherds kept them close.
Читать полностью…
Another traditional occupation for male mages was that of a shepherd. Magic skills made herding a lot easier, earning enough to resupply before leaving again.
A witcher was almost always an outsider. This is part of the reason why a witcher, while respected, was also feared, especially by young women.
It is believed that a witcher has to pass his power down to someone before he dies. In rare cases when there’s no students to do that, a mage will just leave a vessel of his power for someone to pick up. Usually at some special, liminal space (an abandoned house, crossroads, a sauna etc). This is what happened in the previous story. A walking stick was that mage’s vessel.
Читать полностью…
There is a story written down in Novgorod region about a tragic end of a woman who tried to take servant demons from a male horse healer who was passing through her village. Despite him giving her his magic vessel (a small bag) and explaining the ritual used to get control over the demons a woman could not take the power under full control and only ended up insane.
Читать полностью…
"Blood" not "strength" is what gives the right and ability to heal in female magic. This is due to the belief in a mother’s guarding power and blood as a symbol of ones connection to her. That’s why, when explaining how to find a witch who’d fit "by blood" people said that it’s always the best to turn to one’s mother implying that mothers are the best "by blood" in any situation while other skilled women only turn to the same power of motherhood or "blood" in folk terms. It’s worth noting that female healers end their training and receive power via pre-or post-childbearing rituals e.g. in a bath meant for women after labor.
Читать полностью…
Male magic vs female magic
Slavic tradition
Female magic, was of household type and every woman who gave birth knew some. It was used to heal, tell fortune or cast love charms. Even those women who were renown for their mystic skills (mostly elderly and spinsters) usually denied any connection with "power" (as in spirits).
Main characteristics of leftist aka woke ideology make it incompatible with European Paganism.
Leftism is all about individualism. It has no ancestor worship, no ethnic identity, no self-improvement (especially physical).
European Paganism is the only opposite of modern world.
Domovoi and his wife domoviha are guardian ancestor spirits of the household
Читать полностью…
For me religion is first and foremost a system of values and it’s justification. You have to understand that you are indeed in the right when you do something or believe in it. Of course, paganism as a religion gives me this, since, to me this is the faith of my ancestors who lived for centuries supported by it.
Modern paganism, of course, differs from the ancient one, but the world itself has changed, yet I think that the core is still intact. To put it briefly, the values of Slavic paganism are Nature, Folk and Ancestry.
Oleg Kutarev, religious scholar
Greek Hercules, originally a Thunder God too, also looks like a hero of Stone Ages. He wears a pelt over a naked body and wields a club, the most primitive weapon of all. Thor himself was also a club wielder originally as evident by Gesta Danorum and comparative mythology with other Thunderers such as Perun.
Читать полностью…
God-fearing is a compliment to a christian. Just think about it. Why would one fear his own god?
Читать полностью…
Celtic belief in reincarnation
While you, ye Druids, when the war was done,
To mysteries strange and hateful rites returned:
To you alone 'tis given the gods and stars
To know or not to know; secluded groves
Your dwelling-place, and forests far remote.
If what ye sing be true, the shades of men
Seek not the dismal homes of Erebus
Or death's pale kingdoms; but the breath of life
Still rules these bodies in another age —
Life on this hand and that, and death between.
Happy the peoples 'neath the Northern Star
In this their false belief for them no fear
Of that which frights all others: they with hands
And hearts undaunted rush upon the foe
And scorn to spare the life that shall return.
Lucan
Ravnkel Freysgode by Andreas Bloch, 1895.
Читать полностью…
Another Vendel S-shaped brooch.
The S-shaped serpent was a recurring motif in the Germanic Iron Age, most popular in Scandinavia and France. One possible interpretation is that it was a ward against unseen threats, as there was a beast facing in each direction.
Another possibility is it was an Odinic symbol; as serpents were heavily associated with the underworld and the cult of Odin. The two heads could signify his role as a psychopomp, travelling between the worlds of the living and the dead.
I’ll stop with the posts about magic. Don’t want you to get topic fatigue.
Читать полностью…
Shepherds in general, even if they were not traveling mages, were still considered to be on good terms with spirits (demons) who grazed their cattle. Partly this belief was explained by shepherd routinely leaving the guarded "human" territory and venturing out into the wilds, a domain of spirits and beasts. Therefore a shepherd had to enter into an agreement with those powers or even tame them. Overpowering supernatural beings was almost exclusively a male prerogative since it requited "strength".
Читать полностью…
Professional male mages were wanderers who never stayed at one place for long. They were craftsmen (carpenters, potters, tailors, repairmen etc) who stayed at their clients’ houses while traveling and left as soon as they finished the job. When a mage made himself known all villagers with issues, be they minor or major were quick to visit him. This life on the road was a distinctive feature of male witchery.
Читать полностью…
Another story tells of an old woman Manefa who accidentally gained power from some passerby mage. She took a walking stick he had left near the road. Her grandson explained many years later: "Our Manefa picked up the stick and it’s demons with it." But they did not bring her any good. "She went berry-gathering and since couldn’t order them properly, the demon began beating her, she threw aways the berries and ran off". Her death was unnatural and frightening "They say she died soon after, strangled by a handkerchief. They say demons strangled her." When she died bad things began happening around the house. Knocking. She was buried, but the demons scattered the ground on her grave. Her daughter fixed everything but in a couple of days the ground was always scattered again."
Читать полностью…
A woman even when given power by a man often could not control it unless she engaged in male crafts. Yet even then she will never be considered a true professional. Cases of women receiving power from men are rarely described, and almost always those are elderly women, widows, spinsters i.e. those who were not properly female begin with.
Читать полностью…
Conversely, out of all the folk terms for magic "power" was used to describe male magic the most. Wherever you ask, male mages were considered to be the superior. "Strength" was the main principle, a justification of witchery for men.
"I can’t deal with this, go visit that other one, he knows, he’s stronger than me" advised a local witcher after seeing that the matter is too much for him. To lift a curse "you have to find someone stronger than the one who cast it".
Just finished translating a peculiar text from my backlog. It’s about male and female magic in Slavic folklore. Very interesting data, specially compared to how male and female magic is seen in Northern European tradition. Will post excepts later.
Читать полностью…
Fibula of Eastern Polans (2nd - 3rd century). Slavic settlement near the village of Taymanava (Mogilev region, Belarus).
@easterneuropa
Never could German parents believe that the joy of motherhood or fatherhood is bound to a curse or a sin. Never could German children enter the world with original sin.
SS Culture Volume Three: SS Faith
The Eyrbyggja Saga offers insight into what a goði’s initiation rite may have looked like...
“Þóra gave birth to another son, who was sprinkled with water and given the name Grim. Þórsteinn dedicated this boy to Þórr, calling him Þórgrim, and said he should become a Hofgoði.”
First of all, Ausa Vatni; ritual cleansing.
Ausa Vatni marked the beginning of a new chapter in life, and, offered the person to a deity, as water was used as a medium to commune with the otherworld. It was usually done nine days after birth.
When the Teutonic Order set up in Riga, Latvia, the Baltic pagans would submit to baptism suspiciously quickly, but would always jump in the sacred Daugava River afterwards. They believed that this would wash off the foreign religion, and wash it all the way back to Germany.
Secondly, giving a holy title, something that’s also survived in Hindu and Buddhist traditions.
In Þórgrim’s case, -Grim means “mask”; implying he was offered as a vessel to Thor.
Most of this would have been done at birth, if a goði planned on passing on the position to his children. Yet, if someone became a goði later in life, it’s plausible that they’d follow a similar process.
Germanic names consisted of two elements; often containing a holy element, such as a sacred animal or the name of a God.
For example,
Thorolf=Thor+wolf; wolf of Thor.
Ingvarr=Ingvi+warrior; warrior of Ing.
Arnviðr=eagle+tree; tree of the eagle (Yggdrasil?).
This will be why the Catholic Church was so intent on baptizing pagan leaders; by the Germanic worldview, baptism would effectively take you away from your Gods and give you to another.
ᛚ