Drinking At The Well Of Mimir An Asatru Man Meanderings

Book: Drinking At The Well Of Mimir An Asatru Man Meanderings by Bil Linzie

I don't consider this volume to be any great piece of research. There are plenty of researchers out there far more knowledgeable than I, and I have no problem with that. I don't consider these books revolutionary in any way either; I seriously doubt whether they will change the practice of Asatru in the modern world. What they are is an Asatru man's view of the world after having been Asatru two years short of a full third of a century. They are my views.

I loved that book and read it cover to cover at least four times a year for the next 3 years. My Grampa Jack was “Linzie religion” and so was I, but I belonged to the Asa-Faith as well. I later bought a second printing of the book and still enjoy it. After 30 years of
Asatru the book has begun to even take on the smell of that original I once held in my hands.

I love the fact that I am a 3rd generation German-American. I now live in the southwest in a predominantly hispanic community and enjoy enchiladas y tamales as much as I do Sauerkraut mit Schinken und Apfeln, but I never mistake where I came from. I read a lot more now than I used to and move a little slower than when I was still chasing Laura (and I do mean chasing—she was fast). I have a family of my own and I am 30+ years and 2000 miles away from the place of my upbringing, but I feel more a German-American now than I did growing up. I wrote this book as an expression of thanks, I suppose.

This book came together over a period of 10 years. I started in 1990 (the year that our town's electricity went out on Superbowl Sunday), and I lost the first thirty or so pages to an old, borrowed Apple IIe. Fortunately, I still had the original handwritten copy. Since that time, I've gone through 3 computers, Windows3.1, Windows95, Windows98, and now Linux/ FreeBSD; countless rewrites, and have lost half my hair, grown long in the tooth, became a Grampa, and got remarried only to have two more sons (one of whom is “Jack” born 99 years and 9 days after his namesake and founder of the 'Linzie-religion'). A lot has happened in those 10 years.

The book actually started out as a 5-page essay but quickly took on a life of its own sprawling out well beyond a ream of paper. The topics wander mainly because I like it that way. It starts with the individual who slowly discovers his relationship to the world. It starts at the center of the universe, i.e. me–(yes, I'm slightly narcissistic), and then looks out, then up, then down, and then further out. It is not an instruction manual, but rather a record of learning. I've put in beaucoup quotes and named the Authors and their books as well. There are plenty of personal observations in here (actually, the bulk of what's here is personal observations–I just 'scotch-taped' the personal observations together with quotes).

I put this book out for free. I did that for a reason. If you find that some of my ideas are good, fine, they are there for the taking. Information is really no different from fiddle tunes in my mind. They are both there to be taken–enjoyed. I don't figure the book's a top-seller anyway, so I prefer to give it away. The way of life that the Asa-Faith offers is an enjoyable thing, and this is my way of giving-back. One other thing: I believe that the Asa-Faith should be free and personal. No one can tell another how to experience life, and certainly, no one should pay to learn about how to experience life. I am not against people coming together for Asa-Faith holidays, but I still don't like organized religion any more than Grampa Jack did. I wrote The Asatru Folk Manifesto 1 in honor of him. He was my greatest inspiration, was a family man, and farmer, an upstanding member of our little community, a regular at the Grange, and the best of Grampas.

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Bil Linzie - Drinking At The Well Of Mimir An Asatru Man Meanderings

The Pagan And The Pentagon

He comes home with briefcase in hand from a long day "in the trenches." His wife and boys greet him at he door. They sit and exchange the events of the day in their Coca-Cola decorated kitchen. But before he heads upstairs to change out of his "blues" he stops by the altar, lights a candle and thanks the gods for his beautiful family. He then releases the stresses of the day with a quick glance at a wooden pentacle.
Air Force Major Anthony Gatlin, chief of the Military Personnel Division for the Secretary of the Air Force at the Pentagon, is not only a proud member of the U.S. Air Force, but also a Practicing pagan.
The Dictionary defines pagan as a follower of a polytheistic religion, as in ancient Rome. Modern day pagans define paganism as an eclectic, nature-centered religious movement that encompasses polytheistic and magical religions. Many beliefs labeled paganism are characterized by the honoring of pre-Christian deities, lack of institutionalization, a quest to develop the self and acceptance and encouragement of diversity.
"Ive been pagan all my adult life, but didn't realize what exactly that was until about a year-and-a-half ago. It had truly been an awakening, a 'coming home,'" said Gatlin.
Gatlin and his wife of 15 years, Sheila, talked many times about their beliefs and tried several churches together but, "nothing felt right", he said.
"Over the years, our spiritual lives suffered because we found nothing to nurture them," he said.
Through much research, study and discussion the Galtlins discovered what they were searching for.
"The particular pagan path that we most identified with is of the Wiccan tradition, which is a revival of ancient Celtic tribal religions. Its an Earth-based religion that follows no set scripture, but attunes the mind, body and spirit with the forces of nature," said Gatlin.
Time passed and Gatlin became more and more comfortable with his new faith. He felt it was time to "come out of the broom closet" and not hide his religious beliefs, he said. He didnt know at the time that his next few actions would have an affect on the entire Pagan Community in the Air Force.
"I had reached a point in my life where I wanted to become public with my religion. I figured a good place to start would be changing my religious preference on my dog tags and my personnel file," said Gatlin.
At that time, the Air Force didnt list any earth-based religions as religious preferences. Pagans, of all paths, either chose "no religious preference" or "other."
"I first listed my religion as 'other' but, as the days went by I just felt like that was more and more offensive," he said.
Gatlin began to ask why his religion, and the religion of more than an estimated 15,000 people in the military, wasnt represented. He started doing research on how to add a religious preference to the list. He spoke with chaplains and worked with the Air Force Personnel Center to coordinate a staff summary sheet. In March 2001 the package circulated for signing. Gatlin could only hope and hold on to his faith that the change would be approved.
"No one ever said you can't do this. No one was ever verbally against it. It was more bureaucracy and red tape that held up the process," said Gatlin.
On March 15 the change was approved and Pagan, Shaman, Druid, Wicca, Seax Wicca, Gardnerian Wicca and Dianic Wicca were added to the list of religious preferences in the Air Force Personnel Data System.
"I was proud to be the first person to register my religion in the system," Gatlin said, "and I hope others will be too. I want the world to know Pagans are not just a bunch of fringe lunaticswe are military members, husbands, wives, parentsregular people with hopes and dreams who want the freedom and tolerance to practice our religion just like anyone else."
More than 50 service members registered as one of the newly listed earth-based religions in the first six weeks after the change. Gatlin hopes the numbers will climb as the word gets out of the latest options, and the new Air Force Personnel System, MilMod becomes fully functional.
Gatlin said he will continue to work towards mainstream acceptance and tolerance among all religious communities, but feels that all pagans must take part in this move.
"We need to do a better job with public relations. We are hampered by our own communal mistrust and fear of persecution. We need to get the collective chip off our shoulder and work together to further out position in the community," he said.
Recently Gatlin and fellow members of a Pagan study group were hiking in western Virginia. The group stopped along a rocky pinnacle that looked out over miles and miles of sky and earth.
"As I stood at the edge of this cliff looking hundreds of feet below, I was approached by a man who asked me about the shirt I wore, which proudly displayed our groups logo and name, the "Potomac Pagans," Gatlin said. "He clearly was taken aback merely by the word Pagan. He identified himself as Southern Baptist and asked how I could not believe in God."
"It was very surreal standing on the edge of a great precipice defending my religion, but I explained that I very much believe in the Devine Spirit and that his God may very well be my God; its just that I choose a different way of looking at it," Gatlin said.
The man then said to Gatlin, "Its like this mountain, its the same mountain, regardless of which path you take. It may look different from all angles, but that doesnt change the essence of the mountain."
"I knew then I had made my point," Gatlin said.
From the outside, the Gatlins, with their two-story house decorated in pop-culture knick-knacks and pet dog Ringo, look like the "typical" American family. But in a county, dubbed a melting pot, what is that exactly? Maybe its a family who lives true to their heart, believes in tolerance for other cultures and religions and realizes the true value of the freedoms we each are given.

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A Practical Guide To The Runes Their Uses In Divination And Magic

Book: A Practical Guide To The Runes Their Uses In Divination And Magic by Lisa Peschel

EIHWAZ the yew, URUZ the wild ox, KENAZ the hearth fire. Created by the Nordic and Germanic tribes of northern Europe, the runes began as a magickal system of pictographs representing the forces and objects in nature. This guidebook will help you discover the oracular nature of the runes and how to use them as a magickal tool for insight, protection, and luck. Practical and concise, this book includes:

- Complete descriptions of the twenty-four runes of the Elder Futhark, plus WYRD, the blank rune
- The differences between bindrunes and runescripts
- Four rune layouts and detailed rune interpretations, including reversed position meanings
- How to carve runes and create talismans
- Meanings and uses of the runes in magick

As a beginning rune caster (coming from a good Understanding of tarot), I find this book very helpful and very clear to understand (as opposed to a guide that came with purchased runes, which were too vague and hard to interpret.) Not only does it help to make solid associations with each rune, it also explains how to make your own runes and talismans and includes lots of other useful information, including suggested reading. I'd imagine this is also a great book for someone who is experienced with runes.

This book is perfect and easy. The explanations of runes within its pages are perfect for the beginner as well as the veteran. The refrence tables in the book for magick works are also one of the best I've seen so far. Though small and compact, this book holds a king's ransom in runic knowledge and no one should pass up the opportunity to get it. The author gives you a good Introduction with a style that reminds me of Scott Cunningham, its easy to read and has room for individuality. All at the same time remaining for the most part historically accurate, I think that the only thing that isnt accurate is the blank rune, which has little to none signifigance to the Elder Futhark and i would reccomend getting rid of it (like another reviewer said, "tear it out! ". Otherwise this book is one of the best Introduction books on runes that i own. And i would reccomend this to anyone interested in runes.

Buy Lisa Peschel's book: A Practical Guide To The Runes Their Uses In Divination And Magic

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Runes Around The North Sea And On The Continent

Book: Runes Around The North Sea And On The Continent by Jantina Helena Looijenga

Het onderzoek naar de oudste runeninscripties van het Europese continent, Engeland en Denemarken voerde onderzoekster van Liverpool aan de Ierse Zee naar Constanza aan de Zwarte Zee; van Zurich naar Bergen; van Parijs naar Stockholm. In dit enorme gebied kende men reeds bij het begin van de vroege middeleeuwen het runenschrift (rond 500 AD). Ergens in dit gebied moet een kern gelegen hebben, waar het begon - vermoedelijk in de eerste eeuw AD. Het localiseren van dat oorsprongsgebied begon me in de loop van het onderzoek te intrigeren.

Het doel was in eerste instantie het inventariseren, het beschrijven en analyseren van runenteksten uit de oudste periode: 150-700 AD. Als onderzoekscorpus waren de runentradities rondom de Noordzee en van het continent uitgekozen. Het uitgangspunt was nadrukkelijk niet Scandinavie, zoals bij runenstudies meestal het geval. Ik meende, dat een verandering van perspectief nieuw licht op oude runologische vraagstukken zou kunnen werpen - en daardoor wellicht bijdragen tot oplossingen. Bovendien wilde ik me niet op een land of traditie vastleggen, maar door middel van het vergelijken van diverse runentradities proberen meer inzicht te krijgen in doel en wezen van het runenschrift. Waarom ontwikkelde men dit schrift, met welk doel werd het gebruikt, en door wie? Om dit soort vragen te beantwoorden, was het nodig om inzicht te verkrijgen in de cultuur-historische context van de inscriptiedragers. Archeologie en historie bleken onmisbare informatiebronnen; ook de (plaats)naamkunde leverde belangrijke gegevens ten aanzien van het relatief enorme aantal namen in de runencorpora.

Runologie heeft in principe twee poten: paleografie en historische taalkunde. Eerst inspecteert men persoonlijk de objecten en hun inscripties en vervolgens ontcijfert men de runen. Daarna verkrijgt men een of meer lezingen, weergegeven als transliteraties, die dan taalkundig worden geanalyseerd. Deze teksten kunnen niet zonder hun archeologische en historische contexten begrepen worden, vandaar de titel ‘Runes around the North Sea and on the Continent AD 150-700;

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Walpurgis Nights In Sweden

A large crowd, mostly students in typical Swedish white student caps, participating in the traditional Walpurgis Night celebration with song outside the Castle in Uppsala. The silhouette of the cathedral towers may be seen in the background. To the right are banners and standards of the student nations. Image from c. 1920.

Walpurgis is one of the main holidays during the year in both Sweden and Finland, alongside of Christmas and Midsummer. The forms of celebration in Sweden vary in different parts of the country and between different cities. One of the main traditions in Sweden is to light large bonfires, a custom which is most firmly established in Svealand, and which began in Uppland during the 18th century. An older tradition from Southern Sweden was for the younger people to collect greens and branches from the woods at twilight, which were used to adorn the houses of the village. The expected reward for this task to be paid in eggs.

The tradition which is most spread throughout the country is probably singing songs of spring. Most of the songs are from the 19th century and were spread by the students' spring festivities. The strongest and most traditional spring festivities are also found in the old university cities, like Uppsala and Lund where both current and graduated students gather at events that take up most of the day from early morning to late night on April 30, or "sista april" ("The last day of April") as many people call it. There are also newer student traditions like the carnival parade, The Cort'ge, which has been held since 1909 by the students at Chalmers in Gothenburg. In Sweden, Valborg is especially notorious because of the excessive amounts of alcohol people consume on that very day.

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Germanic And Celtic Religious Lore And Practices

I referred to virtually identical warrior paradises in the scene which opened this article, but the overlap between Celtic and Germanic lore goes far beyond this.

Bogs throughout Northern Europe received sacrifices from Celt and German alike. Weapons and armor captured in battle, food and beakers, miscellaneous items - all were deposited in lakes and marshes in the same way, to the point that we can't even tell which finds are German and which are Celtic.

When the Druids sacrificed to the Gods, the blood from an animal was sprinkled with a sprig of greenery on the assembled people, so the divine energy inherent in blood could be directly transferred to them. In historical Asatru, our forebears did exactly the same thing in the course of a sacrifice or blot.. (Today, modern practitioners of both religions use mead or other fermented fluid in this role.)

Across the length and breadth of our European homeland, our ancestors honored the Gods in the open air, because we thought it inappropriate to shut them up into limiting, lessening structures like the Christian churches. Similarly, in the earliest days, our Representations of the Gods and Goddesses were simple indeed - often carved from pieces of wood to which Nature had already given the basic shape, awaiting only a few refinements from human hands.

These customs accurately describe Celts as well as Germans.

Tribesmen of both groups used intoxicating drink in religious ritual. Often this was mead, but it could be ale as well. And, while we're considering altered states of consciousness, let's remember the fit or frenzy of the Odin-gripped warriors, the berserkers. In old Ireland, essentially the same warrior's madness bore the name of "{\i ferg} ".

Readers of the Norse stories will remember how Sigurd the Volsung killed the dragon Fafnir and roasted its heart. When he burned his finger, he stuck it in his mouth and found that he could understand the speech of birds. The Irish hero Fergus gained the same gift when he singed his finger while cooking a salmon over a fire.



MAP OF THE UNIVERSE...

When we look at the cosmology of the Teutons and that of the Celts, we can't help but see the likeness. Both have the giant tree, the center of the cosmos and indeed the framework in which all the worlds are found: to Asafolk, it's Yggdrasil; the Celts call it Bile .

The other key component of the universe in ancient Germania was the Well of Wyrd, containing the deeds that make up the past. Drinking from its waters gives wisdom, and Odin gave up one of his eyes for the privilege. As it turns out, the Celts have an almost identical well; hazel nuts fall into it where they are eaten by the Salmon of Wisdom.

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A Book Of Pagan Prayer

Book: A Book Of Pagan Prayer by Ceisiwr Serith

Pagan Prayers and MoreBilling itself as the one and only collection of prayers for Pagans of any tradition, Ceisiwr Serith's A Book of pagan Prayer includes prayers to Celtic, Egyptian, Zoroastrian and other deities. It is organized thematically, making it convenient to use if one is seeking prayers for specific occasions, seasons, times of day, meals or milestones.

In this book, the reader is taken on a tour of not only the forms of prayer, but the reasons behind them. Numerous examples are given, giving the reader the option to use those that appeal to them straight out of the book, or to write their own based upon the forms demonstrated. In a market deluged with fluffy "How To's", this book is a delightful breath of fresh air. Rather than rehashing the same tired information over again, Mr. Serith focuses on helping the reader either begin or strengthen their relationship with the divine, regardless of which deity or deities the reader feels drawn to. Groundbreaking, and an easy and enjoyable read to boot.

No matter what manner of Pagan you are, you will be pleased by this little book. Its handy size, tasteful dark green cover and easy-to-read typeface makes it a pleasure to hold and read. When you get through admiring the outside of the book, there are many treasures inside. There is a thorough discussion on the topic of prayer, why we pray, who we pray to, and how to compose a good prayer. Even if you think there is nothing new that can be said about the subject of prayer, you will think differently when you read this book. A Book of Pagan Prayer also contains a wealth of prayers suitable for many different occasions and events, beautifully and thoughtfully written. The best thing about the book, however, is that it will inspire you to compose some prayers of your own, and use them in your own worship and rituals. Dare I call this book an instant classic? I think I dare! You will enjoy the author's intelligent and gentle style throughout the prayer book. Spontaneous prayer is admirable, but a well-composed written prayer has goodness too, as this small book will teach you. Get two, so you will have one to give away.

Buy Ceisiwr Serith's book: A Book Of Pagan Prayer

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