Viewing posts by Thexalon
Fall equinox is upon us, and this enters my favorite season of the year. It's not too hot, it's not too cold, it's just right for humans to live. And unlike spring, which certainly has its charms, there's food aplenty thanks to bringing in the big crop of the year. Prior to easy long-distance goods transportation allowing people to eat stuff out of season by growing it a continent or two away, now into the winter would be when most people could eat really well and fatten themselves up a bit to make it through the winter.
The rites of Lughnassadh are named, unsurprisingly, after the Irish deity Lugh. Among Lugh's greatest deeds was his role in the overthrow of a tyrannical king named Bres, who had been chosen more for looking the part than being an effective leader. Bres repeatedly insulted the other deities, such as granting the great harper Aengus Og little more than bread and water for performing before him. As the rumbles of discontent grew, the supporters of the previous king, Nuada, gathered and later revolted against the rule of Bres, and Lugh arrived at just the right moment, demonstrating all the skills considered appropriate for an Irishman at the time, and in the ensuing battle flung a sling stone that reversed the evil eye of their most mighty of enemies, Balor, causing Balor to slay his own army rather than that of Nuada. This led to a longstanding theme of Lughnassadh as the celebration of the sometimes necessary work of the warrior in protecting their people from the evils of the world, including those of would-be tyrants. Any relevance of this theme to current events is left as an exercise for the reader.
Midsummer is upon us, and that means that the crops are planted and growing, the sun is high, and I will be heading to my grove to celebrate in a Norse-focused ritual. And this turned my mind towards one of the mighty goddesses that we will be honoring in this ritual, Sif (pronounced with a long "ee" sound in the middle, if you're not familiar with the name). Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of myths about her in the lore: She's married to Thor. During one incident Loki shaves her head, probably in an attempt to shame her, and the dwarves make her some sort of replacement from gold. In the Lokasenna, Loki also insinuates she is unfaithful to Thor, but that just convinces Thor to show up and promptly kick him out of the hall. Our local group has made the bit of leap of linguistic faith that her name may have some kind of relationship with the modern word "sheaf", and so we've come to associate her with grain, which at the very least doesn't contradict anything we know of. Plus I do genuinely think good food is more valuable than gold or money, and we'd all do well to remember that.
It's time for another song! And since this season is often celebrated with dances, that seemed like a fun theme to go with. Of course, you could see a song like this as tempting a hapless human to do something stupid because it's just fun to goof off, especially at this time of year,, but you could also see it as helping people dance away out of their constrictions.
This spring equinox, both I and the group I'm a part of have decided to focus on the wonderous Earth Mother in all her glory. Whatever you call her, this time of year is always a great time to think about her amazing beauty, especially as the plants start to wake up, and water, soil, and sun make their magic happen in the form of early spring flowers and seed germinating as we get ready for planting.