wights Archives - The Rational Heathen

Wights, Ancestors, and Dreams

June 28, 2017 Tyra Ulfdottir Comments 0 Comment

I think I’m getting high off mint.

I don’t think of myself as a particular lightweight when it comes to alcohol or medications. (In fact, doctors usually have to use several times the amount they think they need for me to be numbed. And I won’t go into alcohol, at this time.) So, when I was digging up mint out of my garden to replant and possibly sell, I felt a wave of absolute joy from something. I suspect it was a wight of some sort, or maybe an ancestor. It could’ve been me getting high off the heady scent of the mint, but I think it unlikely.

Feral Mint

I had planted the mint several years back in an attempt to rid some other noxious weeds with my more preferable version of a weed. Out West, we have the unfortunate situation of having constant invasive plants. The mint, although incredibly invasive, is minimal compared to the other invasive plants, some which are quite poisonous to wildlife and livestock. At least the mint can be eaten without harm.

The intoxicating smell of the mint, the gentle breeze, and the sun suddenly transported me into several minutes of pure joy. I swear, I felt hands on my shoulders as I stood there alone. Then, as quickly as it came, it left, but not before leaving me in wide-eyed wonder over what just happened.

Being Closer to Nature

Our ancestors were closer to nature than we are. Let’s face it, most of us grew up in urban or suburban environments. A few of us actually lived in rural areas. Even so, we still aren’t as close to nature as our ancestors who had to deal with the good and the bad on a daily basis. Don’t get me wrong: nature can be deadly, and often is. We, as humans, have learned to keep the bad stuff (as defined by humans) at bay, but unfortunately, we’ve put the good stuff at arm’s length as well.

I moved into the mountains when I could. I’m not unique that I did this nor that I have a meager ranch of a few acres whence I get a large portion of my meat and some of my vegetables. When I do the work, I get the feeling that this is just a taste of the backbreaking work our ancestors had to endure. It wasn’t romantic or pleasant, but it did come with the benefit of being closer to what this Earth is all about.

Ancestors

Both my parents loved gardening. My mom was a Master Gardener. Even so, I don’t recall her

planting more than tomatoes, zucchini, and basil for food. My plants are in container gardens (with the exception of mint) because of the rocky ground here, but I have a variety of lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, tomatillos, beans, squash, corn, and herbs, all in containers. Yeah, it isn’t in the ground, but it is easy to get to.

I don’t know what my grandparents did in terms of gardens. My dad worked on a farm when he was younger and ate fresh food. My mom probably did the same. Her dad was a baker who loved to hunt. I know little of my dad’s side — I know his brothers were hunters. I do know some relatives and have some genealogy charts. Maybe I need to take another look at them.

I suspect that there are farmers and hunters in my ancestors. At some point, all our ancestors were hunter-gatherers. So, maybe they would look at our lives and marvel at the easy way we have it, but also the apparent lack of connection.

Odd Dreams

I had an odd dream last night. In the dream, I was hunting with my husband (not unusual) at a ranch we had never been to. There were many strange things there, but the oddest had to do with a big pavilion that was set up for hunters. When you went inside, you were in row after row of cubicles with phones and computers, presumably for those waiting. Only, everyone in there was dead. They had killed themselves because they were waiting to hunt, but couldn’t. They were being told to wait, and they could only read while waiting.

None of them bothered to step out of the tent. None of them tried the Internet connection or computers. None of them took the chance to go out and hunt. In retrospect, I think the dream had to do with how people are choosing to live their lives. They are sitting in a row of cubicles until someone tells them they can go hunt, or they go crazy and kill themselves.

I wonder if this is a metaphor for life? People waiting around in cubicles until they die, never taking the chance of stepping out and hunting, even if they were wrong? It makes you think, doesn’t it?

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The Wight Stuff: A Case for Car Wights

February 13, 2017 Tyra Ulfdottir Comments 0 Comment

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” — Arthur C.

Clarke.

Occasionally, I write something that I think is controversial, but ends up being controversial in ways I never expected. Last week’s post created a bit of a kerfuffle over, not the concept that we are doing blots wrong, but the idea that there could be car wights.

Seriously? Seriously?

I’m not one to shy away from a good controversial discussion, especially when I think there is much to do about nothing, as Shakespeare would put it. So, I’m going to dedicate this blog to the lowly car wight, who just might have been slighted by those who think it could not exist.

Ready for some fun? Let’s go…

First Understand Whence I Speak

Before I even get started in the entire “are their car wights?” debate, let’s talk about my own beliefs on the subject of wights. I am agnostic when it comes to wights. I haven’t met one directly, and while I’ve had some pretty freaky shit happen with stuff, I can chalk it up to something natural or at least some root cause that is probable.

So the argument of whether wights exist is largely an entertaining discussion to me. It also means I look at what could exist and not necessarily what does exist. So, let’s get started.

What’s a Wight, Really?

When we look at legends and lore, we get a pretty interesting view of how our ancestors looked at the world. The world was full of beings, seen and unseen, that either helped, harmed, or ignored humans. We can point to etins/jotun, trolls, alfs (elves), dwarves, and various nature sprites and come up with a statement, along with the Anglo Saxon definition of wight, to include creatures and things. Now, for the sake of argument, we can narrow that definition down to supernatural creatures since many of the folks who dislike the idea of a car wight are stating that cars can’t have wights.

I would narrow it down further to supernatural creatures that inhabit only natural places, but this doesn’t hold true for wights. Some wights don’t live in rocks or trees or forests. Some live in barrows which are manmade, some live on farms and in houses, and some have been known to travel on boats.

Types of Wights

There are almost as many types of wights as there are ordinary critters in the world. Not all the same rules apply to these wights either, nor have they all come from the same place. The alfar or alfs may be our male ancestors, just like the disir are our female ancestors. We have ghosts, trolls, werewolves, and zombies in our beliefs (call them what you will in Norse, if it makes you feel better.), so, we have quite the variety. Some, most notably the alfs, can’t touch iron. Others, such as the dwarves and etins work and use iron quite handily.

I bring this up because the obvious problems with some wights and iron. It would obviously not be the type of wight who inhabited a car, so let’s rule them out right then and there. Some wights seem to be bound to objects; some, like the huldufolk in Iceland, seem to be able to move out of rocks when told that a highway may be going through.

We can also take a look at magical items, including swords, and consider them wights of sorts because they seem to have their own will. In these cases, swords that are imbued with will and spirits can certainly be constructs as well as wights. Why do I bring these up? This is important to consider when deciding if a car is a wight or not. We can’t look at one thing that matches the wight criteria and exclude others simply because we don’t like the idea. The swords have undergone the blacksmith’s fire in order to become something that humans can use. Cars simply undergo a more modern forging and stamping.

Taking this One Step Further: Car Wights

Okay, so we know wights can inhabit human constructs, some can tolerate iron, some can travel and inhabit boats, and some aren’t so strictly bound to objects. Okay, then. Let’s look at the car, shall we?

Human construct? — Yes, but so are farms, graves, and homes.
Iron in it? — Yes, but many wights are good with that.
Natural materials? — Materials are made from atoms and molecules, many mined and reworked to served specific purposes. But yes, it came from nature at one time.
Gives gifts for gifts? — Yes.
Personality? – Yes.

But what about magic? As the science fiction writer, Arthur C. Clarke said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” What would our Heathen ancestors think of our technology if they were to step into our time? What would they think of a vehicle that has no horses or oxen to pull it? I submit to you, if we didn’t teach them how cars work (teaching them would be a tough thing given the difference in culture and education), they’re likely to think it was some type of magic. Hence they would be considered supernatural creatures.

So, are there Cars Wights?

By the definition of what I’ve established as a wight, I’ve managed to at least suggest that cars could have wights, or even be wights. They have personalities. They have quirks. We name them. We give them gifts (fuel, care) in exchange for their gift (transportation). They are made from components of this earth. Obviously the car wights aren’t alfs, given the metal, but cars could carry any of the huldufolk that could tolerate iron. And our ancestors would think they were magical. That qualifies a car as a wight, or at least something that would have a wight in it.

On of my patrons brought up the fact that cars don’t have free will. I’ll grant you that. But I’m not certain all wights have free will either. And given the fact that free will may be an illusion anyway, it’s a moot point. But a point that may or may not be relevant to the discussion. Some wights are tightly bound to their homes; others are not. So, they do have to operate within the confines of their set parameters.

So, there may be car wights; there may not. I’ve at least given a good case for why there might be. Whether you accept them or not is your choice.

Airplane Wights

As a postscript, I have to bring up airplane wights. Why? Because airmen in Great Britain during WWI had claimed to see gremlins damaging airplanes. What’s more, Charles Lindbergh claimed to have seen some sort of gremlin that kept him awake during his transoceanic flight. If gremlins aren’t our modern day version of wights, I don’t know what is.
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Blots: Are We Doing Them Wrong?

February 8, 2017 Tyra Ulfdottir Comments 0 Comment

I’ve been racking my brain about what to write this week. So, naturally, the idea comes to me while I’m feeding my goats and other sundry critters. Heathens do a lot of offerings and blots, but are they the right ones? And can we scientifically talk about “offerings” in the context of a more enlightened age? Actually, I think we can, and I know I’m going to ruffle a few feathers with this, so hang on.

Let’s Talk About Wights

One of the critters we give offerings to are the wights. Wikipedia states:

Wight is an English word, from Old English wiht, and used to describe a creature or living sentient being. It is akin to Old High German wiht, meaning a creature or thing.

Now, granted, the concept of Wights in our beliefs tend to touch on those magical spirits that inhabit homes, land, and other places. Technically, our gods could be considered wights, as well as humans, as the Anglo-Saxon term actually suggested a human being.

I’m rather agnostic when it comes to wights, although I seem to have had what could be construed as possible encounters with them. But for the sake of argument, I’ll talk wights like I believe in them.

Your Car Wight

Okay, with me so far? So, let’s say the wights are the essence of some sort of “thing,” whether it is a tree, stone, a piece of land, or whatever is around us. We can consider animals as part of the “wights,” in my not so humble opinion, and we may be able to consider everyday objects as wights as well.

“Wait a second,” you say. “There aren’t wights when it comes to computers, dishes, or cars.” Oh, I would heartily disagree. If you’ve ever worked on cars, airplanes, computers, or some other mechanical device, or operated them for any length of time, you damn well know each of them have their own distinct personality. You can drive five of the very same model and same year of vehicle and get a different impression of each. Even from the factory.

Now, you may argue that cars obtain their “personality” from the persons who assembled it on a particular day, the flaws in the parts they might have, and the owners they have. Okay, so how is this different from something living? We obtain our basic genetic code and personality from our parents (Mom had something to do with our assembly), the flaws we have (you have arthritis or maybe a healed broken bone?), and the experience and care we receive growing up. Hmmm. That sounds like there are correlations here.

“But my car isn’t sentient!” you say. “It’s a man made construct!” I’d agree with you, only to a point. Everything we see and use has been created from the same natural materials that came from stars. The metal that makes up the car was mined. The fuel it uses is from plants and animals that rotted millions of years ago. Everything in a car — every molecule — came from nature. We did not create the mass, although we can rearrange molecules and change them into different compounds. So, if you subscribe to wights at all, you have to consider your car is a wight.

Does My Car Need Offerings?

This is a silly question, but one that you’ll have to look at seriously. We certainly do make “blots” to our cars. We even have some very prescribed rituals for making sure they are satisfied and will give us a gift in return for our gifts.

Our frequent blots to our cars: we go to the gas station for fuel. We offer our hard-earned tokens that symbolize our energy equation (money) in exchange for other energy (fuel), and we have a special requirement for how to provide the offering (open the fuel cap, prepay at the pump, insert the nozzle, etc.) Less frequent blots: changing the oil, rotating the tires, getting a tune up, etc. Often, these blots occur at a particular seasonal time: change summer tires to winter tires in the fall, change winter tires to summer tires in the spring, tune up the car late spring for summer trips, etc.

We offer these “gifts” in exchange for our car’s gift: transportation. Still don’t believe the car is a wight? People talk to them all the time. They name their cars. They grow attachments to them. Some people trust their cars better than they trust their spouses. I remember back in college friends comparing the top end speed of their Volkswagen Beetles. Same era and virtually the same cars, yet they were very different.

Now, did these wights talk back or go rescue your ass when you got stuck with a bad date? Of course not. That’s not within their operating parameters. But they have quirks and behaviors you can’t ignore (especially when they hate cold weather).

Let’s Take This One Step Further

So, if you’re with me that cars and computers and airplanes can be wights, then it’s not a farfetched conclusion to look at what we give them in return for gifts. We give them something they need in order to perform properly. When I look at my goats, I know I need to feed them hay and minerals plus give them water, and assuming the goat kidded, I will get milk in return. Gift for a gift. Now, let’s look at our nature wights and our gods. This now brings me to the question: if we give offerings, what are we giving the gods and nature Wights that they need?

In other words:

What the fuck does a god or land wight need with mead?

See my problem? We could make up some woo-woo stuff about the essence strengthening the land wight or the god appreciating the sacrifice. But I’m not sure that really works. In fact, I would argue that it may not do anything for the land wight. And a god? If a god is the essence of what he or she represents, I’m wondering if sacrificing things that have no bearing on what the god is would even be appreciated.

Now I may be full of shit here. But I notice that more often than not the gods favor those in particular areas who have made a fair amount of effort toward whatever they look to gain. Sure, there is blind, dumb luck like those who win who play the lottery, but with the exception of maybe the Lokeans, most of us don’t depend on randomness in our lives.

So What Would Be an Appropriate Offering to the Gods and

Wights? (Or would Thor like a Tesla Coil?)

If we take the gods as personified metaphors, then we need to look at their function and see what strengthens their role. Wisdom and creativity are two things that Odin would like. Tyr is obviously the god of laws, so doing something toward upholding law and order is appropriate. But then I start getting silly and seeing within my mind’s eye Thor’s glee at a Tesla coil. Yes, somehow, I think he likes those.

When it comes to wights, the offering should be appropriate to the wight. If we can, we need to understand what makes that wight and that particular environment thrive. That might mean clearing out noxious weeds on a piece of land, or maybe providing water during a drought, but in all honesty, I believe that if there are wights, wights are limited by the physical constructs they cling to. That means that they can only do what is prescribed by their form. A tree wight, for example, can only do things that trees do — in the relation of gifts and giving. It can accept things that the tree can use, and it can provide what the tree can provide. Anything else is asking something beyond it’s reasoning. It’s like asking a dog to explain particle physics to you. Assuming the dog knows particle physics (which, with the exception of a couple I know, don’t), the dog can’t tell us that he knows because he can’t speak our language due to lack of a soft palate, shape of the tongue, and possibly the inability to understand English. (Although most dogs I know have a limited human vocabulary.) So, I suspect is the problem with asking the wrong thing from the wights.

So, Where am I Going with this?

So, am I telling you to stop laying out offerings? No. Am I telling you that my way is the only way? No. Am I thinking that we’re doing blots wrong? Maybe. We got the concept of offerings from our ancestors, who may or may not have had an understanding of what the gods and wights wanted/needed. After all, while there are many good things we learned from our ancestors, our ancestors got shit wrong all the time, especially when it came to science. So they could’ve just anthropomorphized the gods and wights and assumed they wanted things that people want. But do the gods have needs that we as mortals can satisfy?

And then the question remains is, are they at all interested in what we give them? I mean, Odin doesn’t need Twinkies. (Neither do I, but no one sends a package my direction, either.) It may simply be the act of giving the gods something we value that works, and not necessarily the item. I can accept that. But I do ponder the implications of today’s musings and wonder if we’re going down the wrong path with our blots.

Then again, the whole idea is the goats’ fault, since I was feeding them. You can blame them.
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Wights, Goddesses, and Strange Things

September 17, 2016 Tyra Ulfdottir Comments 0 Comment

I’m pretty much what most people would consider close to a subsistence hunter. There are several
reasons for this, including the fact that I live in a state where I can hunt nearly year round. Lately, I’ve run into what can only be considered a goddess’s sense of humor.

My Relationship to the Goddess

Most of my life I’ve spent outdoors and in cold weather because, quite frankly, I melt when I have to deal with heat. Any heat. Cold and snow has always been my thing. When I went out in the forests in the past before I became a heathen, I could feel something there. Something powerful and something that could be dangerous. That pretty much describes Skadi. You respect the goddess and she’ll let you live another day. Don’t respect her and you’re dead. Even those who have a healthy respect for her can screw up and end up frozen to death, buried in an avalanche, drowning under the ice, or eaten by a predator.

Yeah, you better respect her.

I’ve had a healthy respect for her for years, but she can sometimes surprise you with unexpected things. For example, our success in hunting is directly related to her graciousness — and the kindness of the wights. We always be sure to thank the animals we kill and apologize that we must do this to eat. I sometimes leave little offerings for the wights in that area as a thank you. I wish I was better at this, so I need to do that more often.

Thanks to Magickal Graphics

Skadi Always Liked You Better

Skadi can be a bit of a capricious goddess when it comes to hunting. For one thing, it’s tough to ask her to send animals your direction. When she does, it’s amazing. The animal will actually wait for you to kill it. Now, you may think I’m bullshitting you on that, (I would), but I’ve seen it now at least four times, and maybe more. Most of the time, she blesses my husband with such animals. (I personally think she likes him better.) But recently, she gave me a turkey which I shouldn’t have been able to shoot, and when I hit him, he could have run off, but instead waited for me to finish him. (When I dressed him, I found that the shotgun load had broken a wing, but didn’t do any other damage.) You see, turkeys are fast runners as well as fliers, so having one wait for me was pretty amazing.

Now, you may say the goddess had nothing to do with that. You may be right. Maybe animals just wait to get killed. But I kind of doubt it. So, I thank the wights and the goddess for the game and feel good about the hunt.

Explaining Hunting Rules to a Norse Goddess

Sometimes even I forget the basic rule: The Gods are Not Your Bitches. But to be honest, hunting isn’t exactly the easiest thing to do. Animals tend to make themselves scarce with people around, which means locating them can be problematic. I’ve looked over the statistics for our state and hunters maybe fill around 8 percent of their tags. That counts all animals with a tag taken, not just deer or elk.

Hunting also means you abide by a set of artificial rules. You can’t hunt on private property without permission, you can’t hunt at night, and you have a certain season you can hunt. The type of game is restricted, such as males or females, age, and how you can harvest your animal. Basically it’s enough to drive anyone who isn’t familiar with it all insane, which is why it can be a bit problematic when you have the goddess’s attention and try to explain what kind of bear you want to hunt, why you can’t bait them or hunt at night, you can’t hunt a sow with cubs, and sure as shooting, you can’t shoot the bear she dropped in your lap in the middle of a public road. (Yes, this did happen to us.) The goddess delivers, just not always where you need it. I suspect it is her sense of humor for having to endure my litany of conditions. (At this moment, I have a vision of Skadi peering over the 2016 hunting guide and frowning perplexed.)

At the end of the season, I should give the goddess the hunting guide as a burnt offering in my woodstove. No doubt she’ll find the reading pretty strange.

The Wights and Hunting

Whenever we go to hunt, I can usually get a feel for the area. I understand that even though I’ve never seen wights, I do get a sense of the “mood” of the land. In most cases here, I can feel the overall mood and decide whether the wights are positive or not. The places we’ve hunted so far have had some amazing feelings. The land is awesome; the animals, if we see them, are usually great. I’ve had deer come up to me within 20 yards regularly while we were looking for elk. As much as I would’ve loved to have shot them, the deer season isn’t upon us, so I have to just admire them. We’ve been lucky and found animals we’ve shot due to either the wights or Skadi, herself, when we pretty much thought the animal was lost.

There have been places where the land felt wrong, no doubt due to the wights there. Luckily where I now live most of the wights feel more welcoming than anything, which amazes me. It may be just me and those who can feel them, or it may be that they are more open to humans. I don’t know. I do know that I offer the local wights eggs and milk to them frequently, and they seem to like that.

Why I Hunt

My husband and I have been hunting a long time. We love nature and we love animals, but importantly, we love the meat we get. We’re not particularly interested in antlers, mainly because you can’t eat those, but we won’t turn down a trophy buck if he walked out in front of us. I think that Skadi approves of that, simply because it is respectful. We try to use most of the animal and give back into nature that we can’t use. Overall, it has served us well.

Hunting, Gathering, and Being Heathen

I think that many people have lost their connection with nature and the natural order of things. Some of being a heathen means that we should keep the connection to the land and nature the way that our ancestors did. As a hunter, I’ve had to learn to read animal signs and tracks, know how to stalk an animal without my scent giving me away, and of course, locating the beast we’re looking for. I’ve been getting better at identifying edible plants as we hunt and learning to gather them for food. It’s a delightful skill, and one that I feel the pleasure from those wights around me when I recognize the bounty they have offered us.

When I look at what we do versus those who sit and analyze the dusty tomes, hoping to glean a bit of truth, I know that my path is more fulfilling in a lot of ways, at least for me. Yes, there are those who cannot do what I do on a daily basis, due to where they live, but there are many ways to get in touch with our world.

Some Suggestions for City Folks

Look, I spent my childhood and adolescence growing up in suburbia. Even so, I spent an inordinate amount of time in the forests near my home back when parents didn’t worry so much about where their kids went. (Somehow, we survived.) Anyway, I’ve been to the big cities like New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles, and Chicago, so I get the problems you people have. So, here are my suggestions to help you get a little closer to nature.

Take a class in wildcrafting or foraging. Believe it or not, even in the big cities nature tries to reclaim what humans try to eliminate.
Plan a day trip at least once a month to someplace wild. Go for a hike. Find a place to meditate. Look for wild edibles. (It’s important to have someone who knows what they look like identify them to you first before you take them. Also it’s important to know what the state laws are for gathering wild edibles.)
Learn to hunt. This is a bit of a steep learning curve, but it can be done. Take the Hunter’s Safety course. Don’t want to use a firearm? Bowhunting is certainly a possibility. You will have to learn how to handle your weapons safely and get good at shooting, whether with a rifle or a bow. Find someone to mentor you. You might just discover a new skill that puts you in touch with your ancestors.
Plant a container garden with herbs. You can bring them inside when the weather gets cold and you have terrific herbs to use in your cooking.

These are some ideas off the top of my head. Maybe you have other ideas on how you can become part of the natural order. I certainly don’t have all the answers, but you can always talk to me about it and give me your ideas as well.

The Wights Won’t Let Me Go Back to Atheism

May 7, 2016 Tyra Ulfdottir Comments 3 comments

Well, okay, that was a shocker. Sometimes I need to be reminded that the world really is weird and sometimes despite my statement being The Rational Heathen, I find something I can’t explain. This time, it’s wights.

How This All Started

I’ve been reading quite a bit from the Atheist Republic and finding that I have a lot in common with those unbelievers. I’ve never pretended to be a devout religious fanatic, which is why when I’ve communicated with Tyr and some of the other gods, I’ve felt like, well, a poser. You see, I’d call myself agnostic in a heartbeat — except for that. Today I was feeling pretty ambivalent about the gods and was about to say something on a private Facebook group about it, and when I hit enter, the words vanished.

Poof.

None of my other posts had. Just those. Tried again. Poof.

The Wights’ opinion and a Doctor Who Reference

I wrote “Okay, I was going to talk about my indecision about going back to atheism and the wights blew my words away. If they don’t behave themselves, I’ll threaten to call down Thor.”

I hit enter. The only thing that appeared was Okay.

I edited the post and began to wonder what the fuck was going on.

Do the Wights Really Listen?

Well, crap on toast. I don’t know what to think about that little interchange. As a friend put it when I bemoaned why Tyr would even venture to approach a near atheist, she said “he must like a challenge.” I guess that’s true. I don’t know why Tyr would consider me, but I have some suspicions. And I’ve been surprised at some of the allies he’s picked to help me. Maybe the wights are just part of that group of allies.

I kind of wonder since I did a salt ritual recently to clean out the bad wights if the good ones have stuck around and are trying to keep me heathen. You have to wonder when your computer only acts weirdly when you write about them or question your own heathenism. It doesn’t fuss when working on other more intensive projects. Just saying.

My Atheist Leanings

Some days I feel like maybe it’s all a delusion and I really need to accept that there are no gods. I think that maybe I’m just giving myself consolation by thinking there are entities greater than ourselves that can help us through life. Otherwise, life gets scary if we really think we’re on our own.

I can’t help but wonder if this was the rationality in looking for gods and wights. It’s a big scary world when we can’t depend on anyone but ourselves. That being said, I get weird shit happen when I question it. It’s like the gods set up those pesky wights to keep me in line.

I’ve still been losing critters, but not at the rate it has been. Of course, some of it is just plain bad luck. Some of it has to do with diseases. I think it is funny when I start writing about wights, they pay more attention. Maybe that’s the way heathenism works.

Very Unruly Wights and Other Issues

April 16, 2016 Tyra Ulfdottir Comments 0 Comment

I’ve come to the opinion that the wights or landsvaettir around my home tend to be tense and sometimes malevolent little buggers. I’m still agnostic about them, mainly because I just don’t see them. Even so, I can still remark about them. While some days it seems we get along really well, there are other times when life is total shit with them. I’d like to say I make them happy — I give them extra eggs, milk, chocolate, mead, and even meat scraps from butchering animals and hunting, but I’ve had a number of animal deaths in my herd that, well, not even the veterinarians have great clues about why it happened. I blame the wights and just overall bad luck.

Annoyed Wights and April Fools Jokes

I did have my computer act up while I put together the April Fools Day post. At one point, the only words that showed up were Huldufólk and jötnar. A normal scientific person would simply figure it’s the way the resources get used up on the system, but the fact that those two words were causing such, well, gremlins (and I’m not talking the car), made me pause. I think I’m probably going to have to assure them I still respect them. Tough room.

Thor, the Saint of Scaring the Crap Out of Unruly Wights

Then, there’s misplacing stuff. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve threatened to call Thor down on them when stuff that suddenly disappears that I need. I use Thor’s name, and by mjolnir, that item shows up immediately. Catholics may have Saint Anthony; I have a thunder god who scares the crap out of our wights. Probably not the best politics with the wights, but it does work.

Ideas from Fairy Tales

I think I got the idea of Thor being scary to wights when I had read a Norwegian fairy tale about a farmer who was having his daughter baptized and didn’t want to invite his troll neighbor because it would offend all the Christians. So, he knew the troll didn’t like loud crashing noises (aka thunder) and warned the troll not to come because there would be loud drums and other crashing things. You can sort of see how the Jotunn dwindled to trolls — and the thing that scared them is Thor.

Fairy tales used to not be children’s stories. They were just stories. Stories people told to amuse themselves. Stories that teach. Stories that tell us of our past. It’s really cool to read stories where you can see pagan influences throughout. It’s also interesting when they give a nod to Christianity. The more they try to sell you Christianity, the more likely it’s a pagan story that they “cleaned up.”

Calling Thor or the Gods Refuse to be my Bitches

One time I got annoyed that it wasn’t raining. You see from early July to September, we’re in the midst of fire season. I took the rain maker my sister gave me and said in my most angry voice, “why the fuck won’t it rain?” I turned the rain maker over. Thor answered me with a low rumble. I could not have timed it better if I had tried. We didn’t get rain, though. And that was the only thunder I heard that day.

Just goes to show how uncooperative the gods are. Once again, they refuse to be my bitches. Go figure.

I Need a Better Relationship with the Wights

I’ll admit, I’m better dealing with the gods than I am with the wights. And I know that’s kind of topsy-turvy, but that’s the way it is. I often think when I talk to the wights, ancestors, and gods and ask for their help, I can forget that I’m dealing with creatures that have their own agendas, thoughts, and wills. I suspect other people fall into this trap as well. Even with the best intentions, I’m not the best person to ask how to deal with wights.

I have a place for my wights to hang out in my house, but whether they decide to be positive or negative is their choice. I think they are a mixed bag of critters — some helpful, some not so helpful. The one that was mucking with my computer connection is definitely not a fave. I get that there was some apprehension over the April Fools post, but it was all in good fun. Still I heard the words “don’t diss the Huldufólk” in my head. Well, kids, you need a sense of humor, and if you’re hanging around me, it’s kind of important to realize when I’m not serious.

Now, what I really need are kitchen wights who will do the dishes. I realize I have the electric dishwasher wight, but it still needs to be loaded.

I’ve Never Seen an Elf

January 23, 2016 Tyra Ulfdottir Comments 0 Comment

I have a hard time with landvaettir. As much as I would love to believe in these nature spirits or ghosts, I’ve never seen one. That doesn’t mean that they don’t exist, but I’m having a tough time with them. Basically it goes under “I haven’t seen them, so I’m agnostic about them.”

Growing up without Magic

It’s not from lack of trying, either. As a kid, I grew up skeptical and I was always wishing that something was true that I knew wasn’t. Near my home when I was growing up, we had plenty of milkweed, dandelions, and goat’s beard. We called the seeds “fairies” because of the way the floaty seeds looked. I remember a kid telling me that by a particular creek you could see fairies. I went there, hoping to see a supernatural entity, only to be sorely disappointed. When I asked the kid later, she said she meant the seeds.

Drats.

Much of my early life was spent in the woods of New York and Virginia before it all became paved over. (Yes, I’m THAT old.) There were places we went where you could find old ruins of farmhouses that existed before the Civil War and my dad used to find tons of miniballs from what I presume were lost around the Civil War. These places could be magical. But honestly, I never saw any thing that said “magic.”

Everything had a reason. People who believed in magic and ghosts were foolish or uneducated. Everything could be explained scientifically. Kind of dreary, if you ponder it long enough. But science had its own wonder and own magic.

Still No Magic; Still No Elves

Some people claim to be able to speak to the land wights and the Elves. I’ve pretty much given up on that because I’ve never seen or heard one back. I have, however, thanked them for the land, the food they brought us, and the wood we use to heat our home. I read some Asatruar books which told me how to “see” my guardian animal spirit and saw nothing. The trick is to look at your face in the mirror at night for a long time. Granted it’s a trick that plays upon our minds and is called pareidolia.

Pareidolia plays on our mind’s ability to recognize faces in inanimate objects. When looking in the mirror at night, we don’t see everything and so our imagination fills in the gaps. Except if you don’t have an imagination. Which, I probably don’t.

(I’ll have you know I’m a bitch to take at movies, too. There are some science gaffs that really take me out of suspending disbelief.)

I do have Spirit Guardian Animals, though

That being said, I do have spirit guardians. They came to me in dream and meditative visions. One has actually flashed by my car in the same place in the same situation every time until I noticed her. I found out that I have three spirit guardians I can call on, and maybe more. One is a fox, one is a hawk, the third is a white wolf or Husky/Malamute. Both the fox and the hawk I have seen personally. The wolf is in my dreams, or may have been a dog I owned.

So, maybe I do have some magical beings that do show up from time to time. They just don’t screw too much with my sensibilities. Maybe Elves and land wights are too much to ask for. Then again, you never know…