Power of Ritual
The power of ritual will always have significance culturally—to atheists, practitioners, non-believers, and the curious. Just as for winter solstice, when folks celebrate the solar minimum—the rituals has importance in the northern hemisphere. The northern pagan tradition celebrates Yule and the new year; inaugurating the return of the sun’s light and renewal. Smaller family rituals also honor handfasting, blót, family ceremonies—birth and death. For these rites people gather privately or publicly. The spaces are decorated and cleansed—often with natural ingredients like juniper and holly or fresh pine cones. There is live music and song at these food-filled family-oriented gatherings. Included in these rituals often is a feast where ancestors and other-worldy energies are invited as well. Some intentions that may be set can be to move out bad luck and burn it away, sending it into fire along with the yule log. Other rituals may distribute positivity and blessings. Yet others feast and invite and honor the dead. As folk come together to recall their ancestry and tell their stories, they identify into their group’s power. This has ramifications that can have grave impact.
On a forward-looking basis this undertaking aims to understand how the revival of the northern pagan community and its practices will accelerate societal transformation.
Modern northern pagans will be influenced by their past in various ways.
If seeking economic advice whether for individual, organization, or as state policy,
the Eddas and anglo-saxon texts advise that a person should manage their own household, keep close ties with kin, and be generous to people when times are prosperous. Overall however the practices of self-sufficiency could tend towards policies of populism, protectionism, or isolationism. To a beneficial degree, populism can support workers. Unfortunately in the efforts to support the common worker, companies respond by shifting abroad as well as outsourcing or automating. Populism has an interesting pivot point as voting demographics of northern pagans aligne to more liberal and left leaning policies; overall voting to support benefits to the blind, widows, veterans, and any in society that have need.
In terms of economic policy, expansion of the nanny state is a hot-button topic that both left and right argue; investments and wealth and economy are complex—requiring multi-vector analysis. Society runs on subsidies whether they be to petrol or to sugar, to gas or electricity. The lights on the roadsides and the fire brigades all are a part of how we envision our lives in the first world. Kindergarten and public schools for every child is hardly something society will give up on the basis of taxation. Economic policy may be hard to derive exactly—if we look to the past for guidance. Today’s sensibilities are moreso based in equity and sharing, and the past teachigs often value closeness with kin and self-sufficiency; although generosity is seen as a true virtue. Within the northern pagan tradition, no quick solution may be viable.
Another way the past practices resurface is in the handfasting tradition. Marriage as an institution to say the least—is changing. No longer are conveniences that convenient. And the cost of money and the cost of time are not comparable. When couples want to meaningfully bind themselves in spiritual union many are now turning to the northern pagan practice of handfasting. Symbolically the couple is joined with a knot or tied cloth—each end borne by both. In ritual both families are seen as being joined. Spiritually as sound embodied in chant, often in a heterosexual marriage the sky father would be called to join the earth mother. These metaphors are drawn down from ancient times and are present in the couple’s knot tying ritual. Normally this rite takes place outdoors under the sun and trees surrounded by community.
An important concern of the past to consider is conflict resolution. When a harm was done or a crime committed; offense was noted legally. There was a price that could be paid to mitigate blood retribution, but this weregeld often did the minimum to assuage the loss or heal hurts. Financial compensation was paid for many kinds of harms, including theft, sheep slaughter, or abduction of brides without consent. The northern pagan tradition had many legalities, and restitution was always paid. This did not stop blood feuds however, as revenge and anger are a part of human experience. Normal expectation of payment through monetary fines would not suffice the egos, and so the sagas tell of generational blood feuds. While we don’t have an Allthing to formally bring up all our woes within community to seek repayment and restitution, what we can learn from the past—is to mediate conflict with communication. The Allthing was a way to reconcile fighting parties by finding a middle ground for them to move forward from pain. This arbitration helped societies to stay together, instead of fracturing families as we see with today’s trends. These past practices can positively influence today’s northern pagans.
The day to day living routines of modern folk who follow the northern pagan traditions are impacted by the philosophical rationales and perspectives derived from ancient mythos and cosmology. As many pagans leave their house, they can knock on the structure or walls of their home to awaken their house spirits—to keep watch. Many of these spirits are believed to be able to roam around the dwelling. This spirit being can take the form of a person or dog or have a ghost like appearance. Awakening a consciousness to protect the home is quite common for pagans. According to scholars in fields ranging from philology, anthropology, archaeology, and mythology, hearth dwelling spirits known as húsvættir were considered guardians. In the northern tradition sometimes these house spirits can be tricksters or have a naughty aspect to them. But ultimately their sugar and spice nature makes for an integrally balanced environment.
A practitioner of the northern pagan tradition sees themselves completely inseparable from all phenomena—this is what it truly means to understand the web of wyrd. The interlocking of the entire elder futhark demonstrates that no man is an island. All that is came from before and will flow into the future from now. These understanding of cause and effect don’t have to burgeon into mystical or semi-religious poetry. It is as simple as ecological or economical equilibrium. The health of a system cannot be burdened down by too much financial debt. Nor can a healthy system be one where you deplete the ocean of its fish through overharvesting. Although the financial system and the ecological system are two different spheres, the northern pagan understanding of balance applies to both debits and credits, as well as sowing and reaping for a sustainable harvest. The notion of balance arises within an interdependent web because each member of the network has its place connected to others. We rely on others to know our own place because we all have a role to play in the immediate environment. A fisherman and a fish have a relationship to each other.
The concept of friðr has a connotation of harmony. This directly refutes ideas of greedy overharvesting, biting off more than one can chew, or taking more than one needs. The sacred laws of reciprocity are expressed with the gift exchange culture as well as hospitality practices.
Friðr also relates to order and honor. Ancestors and kin all had their due. Legally that was assessed in the processes of the thing, should any action of misconduct or wrongdoing occur. Yet more than anything else, in the community, having a place of honor was the seat most worthy of respect. Outcasts had entire poems dedicated to their loneliness, like the Anglo-Saxon poem the Wanderer. With words woven from sorrow, the kennings alliterate telling of one with no kin. Many times the reference to the wanderer describes him as either the lone one, or the solitary one. This poem of the alienated and kinless man was a cautionary tale teaching that society and survival is always holding by the strand of a spider’s web. Delicate balance helps everyone to prosper, and upholding customs traditions and laws of respect prevent the collapse of the social order. Without society’s support—the winters can be very cold.
In the story of the Grimnismál, Othin goes to visit a king as an unknown guest. But this evil king disregarded society’s bonds and laws of hospitality. He tortured him above a fire, harming him till death by thirst was close. Kindly prince Agnar brought the stranger a horn of water, disavowing his father’s evil. When the tortured stranger revealed himself, the evil King fell on his sword. From this story we may realize that goodness is rewarded. More profoundly however, the true moral of this tale is that the consequences for breaching society’s codes will have the very gods and your own kin and turn against you.
As this story from the Eddas expresses rules of hospitality, we learn into the simplicity of living in balance. The essential truth and central philosophy of friðr also includes implicit mutuality in respect. The Hávamál at verse 39 teaches us that when we take—its always reciprocally. This expectation of interdependence is not just an encoded societal rule. It actually marks maturity, kindness, empathy, and strong interpersonal skills. It is a primary value for the northern pagan tradition, and is observed in judging a good leader. These ancient philosophies derived from the old texts and stories are the basis of the culture and worldview; they create the scene where the modern folk are the actors.
In terms of ritual, a ceremonial act of worship in the northern pagan tradition might be to celebrate with a bonfire—but for today’s time this activity may take a different scale as we utilize indoor candles or tealights. Pagans today also host gatherings and meet indoors in cities, and suburbs. Not all have vast farmlands at their backyards. Animal sacrifices are also uncommon in today’s times. It’s been several decades since I’ve heard of one locally. Instead, we have flower-arrangements and fruits-baskets which are more often used on altars as well as offerings in sacrifices.
These small differences don’t change the aspect of devotion and belief in the gods themselves or in the way of the northern pagan. Understanding the cosmology of the nine worlds allows the devotee to know that there are spirits of air and spirits of land and spirits of water and spirits of. Sense of these spirits adds the wealth of information in experiencing this wonderful reality we partake in. Like a whispered secret, the knowledge gained from contemplation on the more esoteric and mystical traditions opens up greater spirituality for the practitioner. This brings richness to the path along with dedication to the profound.
When the individual connects their mind to the belief system of the northern pagan tradition, it is a soft initiation in entering the path their ancestors walked. No one can take that away or invalidate that heritage. The ancient people had their faith not because they were indoctrinated and had been brainwashed over countless years and generations—no. They believed what they saw and experienced. The God of thunder, the spirits of rain and wind—they all had names and a place. Society was attuned to the natural world. Calling these deities and otherworldly entities by their names—both given and revealed, made sense to people of old. Naming was an act of control, of wisdom, and of power. To know something’s nature—like a berry that is poison until boiled, or a leaf that can soothe, establishes power over the natural world. A name is a description, and beliefs hold that knowing an entities true name can hold a little power.
(To be Continued)
(Meet Mago Contributor) Jillian Burnett AKA J.A.A. Narayan