Getting to Know Vættir: Valkyrjur

/ Sarenth Óðinsson / Leave a comment

My thanks to Sigrún for asking me to write this post:

“If you include your methods to identify valkyries in your list, it will be a great thing. That, of course, if the Æsir section does not solve it already.

Anyway, thank you for your response. If you are willing to share anything more specific, I am really interested.”

This post is the result of that request, and I deeply appreciate it.

What are Valkyrjur Like?

Valkyrjur, anglicized to valkyries, are a group of vættir (spirits) in Heathenry over whom a great deal of writing has been dedicated. Depending on the source you are reading, They are variably described as ‘choosers of the slain’, absolutely monstrous vættir of battle, maidens who deliver mead to the Einherjar, and powerful sorceresses in Their own right who may teach Runelore.

Cleasby-Vigfusson’s dictionary says valkyrja are:

“…the chooser of the slain (kjósa val), the Valkyriur were a troop of northern goddesses see Edda 22, Gm. [Grímnismál], Em. [Eiríksmál]; for the Valkyriur as guardian angels and tutors of the heroes, like Athene in the Odyssey see Hkv. [Helgakviða Hundingsbana], Vkv. [Völundarkviða], Sdm. [Sigrdrífumál].”

There is an interview with Sif of Asatru UK that I am very proud of that goes over the valkyrjur, misconceptions about Them, and experiences with Them. You can find that here, on Around Grandfather Fire Episode 127 -I Blame Wagner: An Interview with Sif. Her book, Valkyrjur, Servant or Master?, which explores her views of the valkyrjur is here.

A great deal has been written about these powerful vættir, who count Goddesses such as the Norn Skuld among Their ranks, per the Völuspá stanza 30. Grímnismál names yet more in stanza 36. Bellows translates Their Names in Grímnismál as “Hrist: “Shaker.” Mist: “Mist.” Skeggjold: “Ax-Time.” Skogul: “Raging” (?). Hild: “Warrior.” Thruth: “Might.” Hlok: “Shrieking.” Herfjotur: “Host-Fetter.” Gol: “Screaming.” Geironul: “Spear-Bearer.” Randgrith: “Shield-Bearer.” Rathgrith: Gering guesses “Plan-Destroyer.” Reginleif: “Gods’-Kin.” One of the best compilations of the names of valkyrjur occurs in Neil Price’s The Viking Way, Table 6-1 (pg 280-283). While The Viking Way is well worth the read for seiðr, it also spends a good deal of time with the valkyrjur in Their various roles and meaning in mythological context.

What is plain among Their names is that these are no shy maidens. They are powerful Beings worthy of honor, respect, reverence, and worship as sure as any. Þrúðr is likely a Goddess, þórr’s daughter, whose name means “strength”. Much has been debated on the disposition as to whether valkyrjur are, as the texts assert, Óðinn’s maidens or belong to Themselves alone. I will, probably frustrating for folks on either side of this debate, come down somewhere between these two points. Some valkyrjur I have encountered definitely fit the bill for belonging wholly to Themselves, where others are most definitely Óðinn’s.

Identifying Valkyrjur

While the Æsir amd Jötnar sections of “On Heathen Vættir Identification and Authentication” works generally for the valkyrjur, I think They also retain nuance and identification separate from run-of-the-mill Æsir and Jötnar.

Visual references: I tend to see valkyrjur dressed in similar clothes to that of other Æsir (which tends to look 300 CE-1200 CE), other Jötnar (simple shaped clothes), or in modern clothes. I find Their clothes tend to take on a martial or ghastly aspect. Sometimes it takes a bit of both. Think on the description Njáls Saga gives in Chapter 156 -Brian’s Battle:

“On Good Friday that event happened in Caithness that a man whose name was Daurrud went out. He saw folk riding twelve together to a bower, and there they were all lost to his sight. He went to that bower and looked in through a window slit that was in it, and saw that there were women inside, and they had set up a loom. Men’s heads were the weights, but men’s entrails were the warp and wed, a sword was the shuttle, and the reels were arrows”.

If you are only seeing a sexy presentation from the valkyrjur, I would approach that with suspicion and check that a vættr is not trying to fool you or that the valkyr is trying to show you what you want to see so you pay attention. They are Beings associated with war and choosing the slain. They can be as lovely as blood-drenched. They are non-human people, multifaceted, and each powerful in Their own right. Sometimes I see the valkyrjur using a winged human form, other times I see Them in terribly monstrous forms, sometimes They appear with weapons and armor, and yet other times I see Them in bererkr, úlfheðinn, or jöfurr forms.

Aural references: Several aural references are given in the names of the valkyrjur, such as Göll (Screaming), Hlökk (Shrieking), and Hrist (Shaker). The clatter of weapons and armor, strapping on of modern holsters, putting a magazine into a gun or chambering a round, are all sounds I associate with the valkyrjur. The gnash of teeth, horse hooves, growls and howls of wolves, snarl of bears, and the grunt of boars and sows are all sounds I can potentially associate with valkyrjur, though these all can be indicative of berserkar, úlfheðnar, and jöfurr Ancestors and vættir. They may also indicate Jötnar, and as many valkyrjur are Jötnar, this may not help much with parsing if They are valkyrjur or not. Their voices I tend to experience in ranges, some quite high and shrieking while others are basso and reverberating. What unites Them all in my experience is this intangible excitement in Their voices. The thrill of battle that echoes in Their singing, the excitement of violence and bloodshed, and the song of the slain.

Osmic references: Blood, guts, gun oil, blade oil, leather, mead, honey, meat (both fresh and sometimes rotting depending on Their presentation), and smells of steel, iron, brass, copper. There is usually a kind of ‘tang’ to the taste of the air, coppery.

Gustatory references: Blood, bloody meat, bitter herbs, onions, garlic, and leeks. Alcohols I associate with the valkyrjur tend to be dark whiskeys, honey whiskeys, heavily alcoholic meads, metheglin (herb mead) with bittering herbs like mugwort.

Tactile references: Oil, such as gun, blade, or leather oils. Sticky, like the tackiness of old cuts. Padded hands from holding weapons. Paws of bears. Paws of wolves. Hooves of boars. A spear, sword, axe, bow, or gun in the hand. Feeling of ash tree bark. Feeling of yew bark. Feeling of feathers. Feeling of a metal cup. Feeling of horn, either raw or polished.

What Kinds of Relationships Can Develop with the Valkyrjur?

  • Acquaintance
    • Just knowing Them can be enough for most Heathens. Just becoming aware of Them may be enough for Them in kind.
  • Friendship
    • If we do the work to engage in the cycles of reciprocity and hospitality, and They are interested, we may eventually develop friendships with these vættir.
  • Lovers
    • Sometimes we ‘click’ so well with a given vættr that becoming a lover is an option. These will look individual to each relationship. This is one of the more controversial relationship types that folks can engage in. Part of this is owed to the notion of the valkyrjur being reduced to ‘just’ maid-servants to Óðinn and of the Einherjar. Part of this controversy surrounding romantic and/or sexual relationships with vættir at all. At the very least there is a lore-based reason for folks to want to pursue these kinds of relationships with the valkyrjur, such as Sigrdrifa/Brynhildr and Sigurðr. This relationship ended in tragedy, so there is also the counter argument to pursuing these. Romantic and/or sexual relationships with vættir are sometimes looked down upon, though I consider these as valid as any other so long as they are entered into with care.
  • Transactional
    • This is the relationship type that I have seen engaged in by valkyrjur the least. They tend to be occupied with Their own work of various kinds, though it is not out of the realm of possibility that we may ask for Their intercession on our behalf.
  • Master/apprentice
    • The example of Sigrdrifa and Sigurðr in the Sigrdrifumál speaks directly to this, in my view. Sigrdrifa teaches Sigurðr about various Runes:
      ”6. Winning-runes learn, | if thou longest to win,
      And the runes on thy sword-hilt write;
      Some on the furrow, | and some on the flat,
      And twice shalt thou call on Tyr.”
    • It is important to keep in mind that not every valkyrjur will act as another does, They may not have particular talents, insights, or things to share like Sigrdrifa does here. As this is a fairly powerful and close relationship, I would advise caution about leaping to this relationship type as your first one. Far better to slowly develop a good relationship with these powerful Beings!
  • Respect for Their work
    • Simply having respect for the work They do can be enough. Whether that is the work that They do to choose and carry the slain, the work They Themselves engage in with battle as hinted at in my any of Their Names, or if you understand Them as serving Óðinn and caring for the Einherjar, there is a lot to respect about these vættir.

Things to Know About the Valkyrjur

  • They are not human and Their concerns are not human ones.
  • Among Their tasks, They choose the slain that fall in battle to go to Valhǫll. They decide the outcome of battles.
  • Generally, They are wise in many forms of magic.
  • Many of Them, see Skuld and þrúðr for example, have concerns outside of battles.
  • Valkyrjur may be among The Wild Hunt. For more on The Wild Hunt and similar spiritual phenomena, see Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead by Claude Lecouteux.
  • Valkyrjur can appear in a human-like form with any height, skin color, or features, and Their nationality can be of any resembling that of Miðgarðr.
  • As with our Gods, each valkyr is unique and may/may not hold the same interests, views, ideas, craft, politics, or other views as another.
    • This is especially important to remember with regards to Óðinn. There is the possibility that a given valkyr may chafe at having to work with or for Him. The example of Sigrdrifa shows us that not all will agree with Him or obey Him even should They hold a relationship of service with Him.

Establishing and Maintaining Relationships with Valkyrjur

  • Make a vé/stalli or include Them in one
    • There are an amazing amount of valkyrjur statues available to put on stalli and vé. The Magical Druid sold small disks engraved with a valkyr on them that I like to work with in my mobile stalli.
  • Engage in regular ritual contact with the valkyrjur at regular intervals, eg once per week or month at a vé or stalli.
  • Get to know the valkyrjur you are seeking to form a relationship with by name, if possible, and get to know all you can about Them from what lore remains to us.
  • Explore the kinds of relationships one can have with the valkyrjur including friendship, lovers, transactional, master/apprentice, and respect for Their work.
  • Offerings:
    • Offerings of dark beer, dark or honey whiskey, solid bread, and meat, especially bloody meat. Non-alcoholic options, such as juices can be good offerings as well. If the food and drink offerings are made by your hands, so much the better.
    • Sacred herbs such as mugwort or nettle can be good offerings as well and help to develop these relationships.
    • Offerings of praise, poem, song, prayers, and the like.

Conclusion

The valkyjur are a group of vættir that are, at the end of the day, not any one thing. If you only understand Them through the lens of Wagner, you are missing the point. Reducing Them to only maidens, mead-carriers, and Heathen versions of angels completely bypass who They are and what They do in the myths and sagas we have left to us. To reduce Them to one or two notes is to reduce our knowledge and ability to develop relationships with Them as They are, in Their own right and voice.

Treat Them as whole vættir, whole people, in and of Themselves, and do not rely on stereotypes from movies, video games, or fellow Heathens to navigate these relationships if you decide to develop Them and They reciprocate. Valkyjur have incredibly long memories, and varying willingness to deal with our short lives relative to Theirs. They do not, in my experience, tend to rush blindly into anything though They may act quicker than we may. They are no fools and do not suffer them. Generally, if you do not waste Their time, They do not treat you as a waste of time.

Treat Them with the respect They are due, treat Them as the whole vættir They are, and you may find good reception with Them.

Patreon Topic 136: On Flyting

/ Sarenth Óðinsson / Leave a comment

If you want to submit a topic you would like me to write on for this blog or my Patreon, sign up for the Ansuz level or above here on my Patreon. You can also choose to support me outside of Patreon, such as directly through PayPal.

From Cunnian comes this topic:

“Flyting culture: When flytings offend, and when they are cementing relationship. They frequently allude to known/shard history, which can be used to deepen closeness or to extort. Is this a “We had better know and trust each other thing” or a “Trust nobody ever because look what happens” thing? I know this is a relatively common social dynamic but one that is foreign to many of us in the here and now.”

Flyting is an interesting thing. It is not unique to Norse sources as a general practice. It had the capacity to do social and spiritual harm. It also could be entertaining. Depending on what was being said in the flyting, a deadly response might be warranted. I once heard flyting described as Old Norse rap battles and that notion has stuck in my head ever since in how I explain what flyting is. For the most part, I find that description pretty apt.

The two examples that easily come to mind are Hárbarðsljóð and Lokasenna. Vóluspá.org has both, here and here.

Looking at Hárbarðsljóð

Hárbarðsljóð is a flyting between Óðinn in disguise with þórr. þórr is on one side of a river and Óðinn, in His guise as Hárbarðr (grey beard) the boatman, exchanges insults with Him. Why?

Being a father, I could easily see this text as Óðinn just fucking with His Son.
To be sure, there are some good digs He gets in on Him.
However, there is an interesting line that makes me think there is a good reason for Óðinn to delay þórr:

“Harbarth spake:

  1. “Sif has a lover at home, | and him shouldst thou meet;
    More fitting it were | on him to put forth thy strength.””

This could well be a reference to Loki cutting Sif’s hair, which could be seen as an indication of adultery and insult to both husband and wife. Viking Age Hair by Elisabeth Arwill-Nordbladh goes into the subject both broader and deeper. In denying þórr a boat ride and delaying Him getting home, Óðinn may well have been covering for Loki, and saving His life.

The fun part about Hárbarðsljóð is that it both is, and is not all that deep. It is a section of text that has some symbolic interpretations that Bellows talks about:

“The poem is simply a contest of abuse, such as the early Norwegian and Icelander delighted in, the opposing figures being Thor and Othin, the latter appearing in the disguise of the ferryman Harbarth. Such billingsgate lent itself readily to changes, interpolations and omissions, and it is little wonder that the poem is chaotic. It consists mainly of boasting and of references, often luckily obscure, to disreputable events in the life of one or the other of the disputants. Some editors have sought to read a complex symbolism into it, particularly by representing it as a contest between the noble or warrior class (Othin) and the peasant (Thor). But it seems a pity to take such a vigorous piece of broad farce too seriously.”

So even the scholar here is encouraging us to just enjoy the poem. Being a Heathen, I am inclined to look at it as both interesting in its clues like those of verse 48 and as a bawdy insult poem going back and forth between a disguised Father and His Son.

Looking at Lokasenna

Lokasenna is a flyting between Loki and various Gods gathered in Ægir and Rán’s hall for a feast. Loki slays Fimafeng after he is praised for his skill as a serving-man. Loki is then driven from the hall and is barred from entering to start with. When He returns He claims His right to be there through blood-brotherhood to Óðinn, and is allowed to sit in the hall after Viðar is asked to move.

This poem exemplifies the cutting, harsh, venomous way flyting could be deployed. Small wonder, given Loki’s experiences with the Æsir to this point: His Children are cut off from Him, with Hel put by Óðinn in Helheimr, Jörmungandr ringing the seas of Miðgarðr, and Fenrir being bound. He then turns to everyone in the hall and exchanges harsh words with all present.

Every time I read this poem it reminds me of a crash out where every angry word, every dispute, every venomous thing you ever kept bottled up comes vomiting out of your mouth. It is a railing against the last insult, the pain of being on the outside doing the work while these pompous assholes stick their noses in the air like their shit does not stink. It is the lashing out of the abused against the abuser. It is only when þórr threatens His life that He takes His leave.

Relationship Dynamics, Flyting, and Souls

In both examples Óðinn and Loki both display deep knowledge of their subjects, the lore between Them, and the goings-on of Their respective foes. There is a powerful intimacy between Óðinn and Loki and the subjects of Their flytings. Each knows Their targets well, well enough to hit on secrets and half-truths that provoke, embarrass, defame, and strike deep enough to anger and shame Their target.

With this background I think that flyting has more of the “Trust nobody ever because look what happens” thing that Cunnian was asking after, because wrongs, weaknesses, poor choices, and difference in social, sexual, gender, or other statuses could become ammo for a flyting. Skalds could deeply damage the reputation and standing of people if they mocked, belittled, or were otherwise venomous to them. Poems and stories were how these people lived on. They were, in a very real sense, cemented into place with a poem or story that cut them down. I see it affecting their Hamingja through damaging the connections with the community, their Megin by interrupting their ability to exercise their might or power, and their Munr through the memories they created through the crafting and dissemination of that poem or story.

We are still talking about and sharing these poems and prose works centuries after they were written down. In some cases these poems and stories were written after centuries of storytelling. They inform our understanding of things, religions, and how we show up in the world. How horrible would it be that the only thing keeping your Munr alive is that someone wrote a poem about how shit a ruler you were? That this is how history, and as a result countless generations, remember you, and that is all they remember? If poems and stories have the power to build our myths, inform our religions, and form our worldviews, they have the same power to rip down illusion, shatter our understanding, and break the Worlds.

Patreon Poem/Prayer/Song 136: For Ratatosk

/ Sarenth Óðinsson / Leave a comment

If you want to submit a request for a prayer, poem, or song to be written to you privately or to be posted on this blog or my Patreon for a God, Ancestor, or spirit, sign up for the Ansuz and above level here on my Patreon.

This request was made by Cunnian for Ratatosk.

Traversing the Tree

I gather, gather, gather

Seeds, nuts, and news

Deep beneath the surface

Seeking, straying, securing

Running the Roots

I bury, bury, bury

Treasures, corn, and cache

Through the Worlds’ ground

Placing, protecting, preserving

Travelling the Trunk

I hear, hear, hear

Winds, speeches, and secrets

Around the Wells’ paths

Hearing, hoarding, holding

Breaching the Branches

I see, see, see

Meetings, work, and war

Between the Worlds’ halls

Ranging, reading, retaining

Climbing the Crown

I know, know, know

Heavens, sky, and stars

Beyond Worlds’ reach

Spirited, spinning, speaking

Heeding to Hræsvelgr

I take, take, take

Flyting, wise, and wasting

Descending the Tree’s heights

Churning, chewing, choosing

Greeting the Ground

I bore, bore, bore

Deep, sweeping, and swift

Following the Tree’s Roots

Creeping, crawling, clenching

Noticing to Níðhöggr

I share, share, share

Knowledge, mockery, and malice

Sewing the Eagle’s Words

Lashing, leering, lingering

Witnessing to Wyrm

I grasp, grasp, grasp

Flyting, wearing, and weighty

Ascending the Tree’s heights

Dredging, drawing, deciding

Crossing to Crown

I speak, speak, speak

Needling, annoying, and angering

Between the Tree’s Branches

Discussing, discomforting, disrupting

Decolonizing Heathenry in America

/ Sarenth Óðinsson / Leave a comment

My tongue is full of foreign words to Turtle Island. I speak little Ojibwe, Potawatomi. I did not grow up in any Native culture. I read the Sacred Stories of my culture and theirs. It was only recently I was told them.

My language is as cobbled together as my mouth. Years of twisted wires and bending my pallette to make my teeth fit my jaws. Pain with each twist to extend my mouth. Ache with each tugging wire. To be sure it was worth it. My teeth, once sideways, crowded, and in disarray now straight, with room to chew and speak well.

I think this is what decolonization is like. We have to untangle our mouths like our hearts, our minds like our hearts, our hearts like our souls. It is painful, it has to be, whether our bones are still pliable or shifting despite their solidity. It isn’t over once there’s room, either. Teeth still want to shift around, move in the new space. So do our minds, hearts, and souls. We have to retain the new shape.

This means learning. From our own ways and that of the Land we live on. From those who have the longest relationships with the Land here, should they be willing to teach.

This means doing. From our own ways and that of the Land we live on. From those of the longest relationship with the Land here, should they be willing to teach.

Heathenry cannot exist in a vacuum where we ignore the lived realities of the Land we live on and alongside. It means that some landvaettir will refuse and be utterly insulted by offerings of alcohol and we should not give it to Them. It means that, in a desire to revive and reconstruct our cultures, we must give due deference to the Gods, Ancestors, and vaettir who are were here long ago and are still here.

This also means that Heathen folks need to embrace that our culture is different from the overculture. The overculture is mired in a toxic soup of capitalism and white supremacist Christianity. Heathen cultures recognize, acknowledge, and affirm the existence of many Gods, of the continued existence and intertwined relationships of Them, our Ancestors, and vaettir that live with us here and in many Worlds besides it.

We must decolonize, and construct something better. We must decolonize and do more than what we were handed. We must decolonize and live in good Gebo with the Ginnreginn, and keep the good cycle going.

Trademarking The Sacred™

/ Sarenth Óðinsson / Leave a comment

Before we get into this post, a big disclaimer:

I am not a lawyer, or any kind of professional regarding law. What I am writing here are my views, opinions, and understanding of what is before us as a result of trademarking of specific words, phrases, and ideas in Heathen, Pagan, and other spiritual spaces. None of this post constitutes legal advice.

My perspective in this post is informed by my role in the Heathen community as a vættirverkr (spiritsworker), erilaiz (Runemaster), seiðmaðr (person who works with spirits to do magic), spámaðr (person who works with spirits to do divination), and goði (chieftain/priest). I am not neutral in this. My friend, Mudang Jenn, brought this issue to me as it affects her community when she found out about it. I care about this topic for her sake, and I care about how it affects mudang, Korean, and Korean diasporic communities. I care deeply for how what is covered here has the ability to deeply affect the Heathen, and wider Pagan, occult, and magical communities.

Some Basics

What is a trademark? The USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) has an explanation. Their entire trademark basics is straightforward, so I recommend folks check it out before we get into this. What is most important for this post is what they point out in their What is a trademark? page:

“A common misconception is that having a trademark means you legally own a particular word or phrase and can prevent others from using it. However, you don’t have rights to the word or phrase in general, only to how that word or phrase is used with your specific goods or services.”

Trademarking Sacred Roles and Sacred Words

The latest of these is regarding three trademarks for Mudang Mi, The Mudang, and The Baby Mudang. They can be found here. A mudang is a Korean term for a shaman, generally a woman. It is a spiritual title.

Another would be the trademarking of Astrological Magic. This search brought up 4,044 live and 11,181 dead trademarks. The two relevant ones are below, which are a sigil with the words Astrological Magic beneath it and the words Astrological Magic in a standard capital font.

Another is the trademarking of Heathen which put Grimfrost into no small amount of hot water several years ago in the Heathen community.

At the time of this writing the word Heathen has 30 live trademarks and 35 dead ones. Grimfrost’s Heathen trademark are among the dead trademarks. I believe as a result of the controversy they ran into when they first filed that trademark, they dropped it. My hope is that more folks drop it as official trademarks.

Unlike the previous issues, this one is the name for an entire religious community. The only other names or titles related to Heathenry that I could find that had been trademarked, which are now dead, were Volva and Runemaster.

Trademark Matters

It is important to know the differences between all of these trademarks, and why the trademarking of The Mudang, Mudang Mi, and The Baby Mudang are especially harmful by comparison to the others listed above. Part of this is in the Class used to identity what kind of trademark it is. Thankfully, the US Patent and Trademark Office has a simple guide to this here. Heathen as it was trademarked by Grimfrost was a Class 14, jewelry. Astrological Magic was classified as both 14 and 16, which is both jewelry and “paper goods and printed matter”.

While I get why the sigil logo was trademarked I have no idea how Astrological Magic would stick under a suit. I am genuinely surprised it has not been challenged. As with the other examples here, I encourage folks to do just that. Likewise, I was surprised that Grimfrost filed the trademark for Heathen at all, let alone that it did not get denied on its face. These trademarks were for physical goods, likely stamped, impressed, printed, or carved into physical items that will be for sale, or in the case of Astrological Magic, printed on paper. With the exception of the sigil, which is a unique work of art, I do not believe any of them should have been filed, let alone entertained.

By contrast, The Mudang, Mudang Mi, and The Baby Mudang are all Class 45. These are service trademarks, “Personal and legal”. The services that are trademarked?

For The Mudang: “IC 045: Psychic reading services; Tarot card reading services; Spiritual counseling; Spiritual consultation; Spiritual counseling in the field of teaching and coaching.; Spiritual counseling in the field of prayers, rituals, and ceremonies to include Blessings and exorcisms..”

For Mudang Mi: “IC 045: Spiritual consultation; Spiritual counseling; Spiritual hypnotherapy services; Spiritual meditation services; Spiritual consultancy; Spiritual meditation consultancy for well-being purposes; Spiritual counseling by means of intuitive readings; Religious and spiritual services, namely, providing gatherings and retreats to develop and enhance the spiritual lives of individuals; Providing information in the field of spiritual meditation.”

For The Baby Mudang: “IC 045: Providing spiritual and philosophical guidance in the field of personal relationships and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.”

Unlike every other trademark I have gone over previously, these three trademarks are specifically oriented for spiritual services. They are oriented towards a specific kind of service using the term Mudang as part of its trademark.

Where is the Harm?

Let us be as generous as we can be and say they only meant to protect themselves legally. Let us say they are only going to use these trademarks to protect identifiers so folks can find them, such as their usernames. The problem with trademarking things with spiritual titles in them in this way, specifically for spiritual services, is how they can be used after you are dead, if the trademark lapses, or if the service is bought out. Remember, trademarks mean “you don’t have rights to the word or phrase in general, only to how that word or phrase is used with your specific goods or services.”

The harm is that by allowing the trademarking of this sacred role this opens up others for the same thing. The harm is that, if approved, then these two people who filed these trademarks would be able to order a legal cease and desist letter and/or sue anyone who used a trademark or verbiage similar to it for spiritual services that mudang provide. If they ever become litigious this has the potential to financially destroy a person relying on a similarly named service this for their income. Even if I am wrong about this point, the threat of a cease and desist and/or lawsuit has the potential to be very chilling towards any Korean or Korean diasporic mudang who might want to offer their services in any way that resembles these trademarks, especially since identifying publicly as a mudang is part of that.

The harm is that a sacred label has been coopted and commodified for the gain of one person or a few people rather than remaining open towards anyone to use. The harm is that a sacred title and role has become someone’s property, rather than belonging to all of those who initiate. The harm is that this then has the potential to become the face of all mudang to anyone outside of the culture or seeking to learn more. It has the potential to cut folks off from other avenues of learning, understanding, and development because other mudang get that much harder to find. It has the potential to shut out people from accessing their cultural and spiritual traditions.

Why I Care as a Heathen

I care because my friend is upset at a sacred role and word being used for financial gain. I care because trademarking mudang has the potential to chill the communities she is in for using the words associated with that role in official capacities. I care because a sacred role is being disrespected and has the potential to be legally cordoned off. I care because if this trademark is allowed to stand with all those potentials for harm, now or in the future, it can easily affect us Heathens as well.

If these trademarks stand then there is little keeping people from coopting or outright stealing our own sacred roles and doing the same. You do not have to be a Heathen to trademark the ways that völva, seiðkona/seiðmann/seiðmaðr, vættirverkr, and so on can be displayed and used, whether for any good or service. What you could easily do is trademark the word, and effectively shut others out from doing anything with them. Even the threat of monetary damages can put hoarfrost on the notion of someone using a term. 

Then there is the insult of a sacred role being trademarked that just makes my teeth itch. 

When it comes to trademarking sacred words and spiritual specialist titles, it comes down to this:

Why would there be a need to do it?
Why, of anything that could be trademarked, was there a desire to trademark with that sacred title in it?
Why could it not have been anything else?
Why specifically that title and for that purpose of trademarking?

I cannot see a good reason to trademark these terms, either our own spiritual specialist terms or others.
I do not know any good reason to trademark a sacred title.
It could have been anything else.
The only way I see this making sense is that the titles were chosen to lock it down or to shut others out.

How to Act

If you want to come together across communities and challenge this and other trademarks, follow the directions on these pages from the USPTO:
I’ve Been Sued…

Specifically this section:
“How can I challenge a trademark registration or application?
Several options exist to challenge another party’s trademark registration or application, depending on the particular circumstances and grounds for challenging:

Again, a U.S.-licensed attorney with trademark expertise can help advise you about the various options available to challenge trademark registrations and applications. Read the Do I need an attorney?” page for further information.”

Where to find the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.

One of the biggest ways to act is to raise up your voice as folks in the Korean and Korean diasporic communities have against this. To not let sacred words, sacred titles, or terms for spiritual specialists otherwise to be coopted. To speak up when folks misuse, misinform, or perpetuate commodification of cultural, religious, and/or spiritual practices. To call in, and if that does not work, to call out the folks in our own communities who would commodify these terms. To stand firm against outsiders to coopt our terms.

Defending Our Communities

The issue is not just about these people filing these trademarks. This would be an issue regardless of who filed it. Allowing this to go unchallenged opens up an entire galaxy of possibilities for harm. Just look at what the trademarks for shaman look like. If folks do not stand against these trademarks now, mudang could easily go the same way. Likewise, völva, erilaz, and any of the words we Heathens would use for our spiritual identities.

For us Heathens, there is another consideration beyond the gross commodification: if we allow folks to trademark our religious terms without challenge we risk allowing the folkish Heathens an immense amount of legal power. Imagine the ability to issue cease and desist letters or sue for any inclusive Heathen venture that wanted to use terms like Heathen, or spiritual specialist terms, and being denied that because a folkish Heathen has the trademark they are now infringing on. We already have issues with folks hearing or reading Ásatrú in America and thinking Asatru Folk Assembly. In addition to commodification, they could have an easier time silencing inclusive voices. Let us not give them or their enablers that chance.

Heathens have already spoken out against our identifiers and words being used for trademarked goods.
We have good reason to speak up and out against these trademarks as well.
I am not part of the Korean or Korean diasporic cultures. I have been asked to speak up all the same.
I have seen how shaman as a term is already used and abused.
I do not want to see it happen to any more sacred words, sacred titles, terms for spiritual specialist, or the spiritual specialists themselves.

The harm that can be visited upon the mudangs can be easily visited on us.

  • You may challenge a trademark registration issued by the USPTO by filing a petition to cancel the registration with the Trademark Trial & Appeal Board (TTAB).
  • You may challenge an application for trademark registration at the USPTO by filing an opposition with the TTAB within 30 days after it is published in the Official Gazette.
  • You may file a declaratory judgment lawsuit, asking a court to declare that your mark does not infringe the trademark owner’s mark, and/or that the trademark owner’s mark is invalid.
  • If you are already a defendant in an infringement lawsuit, you may assert an “affirmative defense” and/or a counterclaim against the plaintiff challenging the validity of the plaintiff’s trademark.

We can and should defend our communities against the commodification of sacred words, sacred roles, and spiritual specialists however we can.

We can and should stand in solidarity with other communities to defend them against the commodification of their sacred words, sacred roles, and spiritual specialists however we can.

An Update

So about 2 days after posting this, I ran across this:

This means that already The Mudang as a trademark will have a squelching effect on anyone trying to use the term mudang or Mudang in trademark or other formats. It means that the exact chilling effect that I was concerned about is happening already. This can easily happen to us as well.

Please speak out.

Update 2

Since some folks seem to not get why this is a big deal, I am going to dig even deeper into it.

I actually tried to find these specific trademarks in the USPTO. They are not there. However, they use the NICE system which the USPTO uses as well. A cursory look at the numbers here tells the story: none of these trademarks that Mudang Hiding Tiger is demonstrating as examples are 45 codes.

One Word: Discernment

/ Sarenth Óðinsson / Leave a comment

Inspired by Seo Helrune’s response to Irene Glass’ yearly request for a word for the year.

This is mine: Discernment.

Discernment in the Data Overload

We have entered a world in which it is more needed, more dire than ever, that we exercise discernment.

What we take in can be scraped, compromised, regurgitated, and in some cases, erroneously repeated as truth by LLMs (Large Language Models). We have “AI authors” pumping out literally impossible amounts of “books” into the public book spaces that can mimic others’ works. We have “AI” voice and video getting better with each iteration with mimicking human speech and visuals. The days of multiple fingers and linked elbow-knee joints as tells for AI generated images are swiftly becoming a thing of the past as the algorithms and programs get better and better at mimicking actual art. The em dash (it looks like this: —this) as a recognizable tell for AI generated text is going to disappear if things keep improving at the rate they have been.

People are increasingly treating LLM chatbots as oracular devices and even as independent vættir. They are working with chatbots in this way, or as would-be therapists, divulging their deepest and darkest secrets to a program hooked into surveillance software that is taking in their information and packaging it to other companies. LLMs and scam artists are scraping the video, audio, and image output from real artists, engineers, and musicians and claiming it as their own.

TikTok and Instagram are lousy with scams, cold readings, and folks trying to build personality cults. In the years I have been part of the Pagan and Heathen communities, 22 as a Pagan and 20 as a Heathen, the venues change but the issues we have to tackle remain the same. We need discernment in our communities as much as we ever have.

None of this is to say that we had it easier in separating ice cream from bullshit in the past. Those library cards did not give us any more inherent discernment than someone looking something up on Wikipedia today. What we were taught, however, was how to digest and discern information so we could be clear that what we were taking in was authentic.

The willingness to read, listen, and watch with a critical eye is necessary. No small amount of online kerfuffles I have been watching lately, especially in leftist spaces, could be easily dealt with if folks actually read beyond the headlines and had parsed sourcing for the headlines they did read. Then there is the treatment of personality and projection as if they are the authentic reading of a situation, rather than the content of what someone has read or put out. The amount of leftists repeating right-wing talking points would be shocking if it were not predictable by now.

We live in an era where ‘flooding the zone’ (thanks Breitbart News) and rhetoric over substance have become dominant forms of communication. Evaluating who we listen to, how, and evaluating where even trusted sources for our news, ideas, and religious communities get their information is sorely needed. I do not want any reader, student, or loved one taking everything I have to say at face value. Sometimes I get references wrong. I misremember. I am wrong at times. When I am not doing those things, sometimes what I have to say simply does not apply to a given reader, listener, community member, or loved one.

We are just coming out of a time when “Never again the Burning Times” as a rallying cry is dying. We are coming out of a time when “4,000,000 women died in the Burning Times” is understood as historically innaccurate. We are at a place where more of us understand well and truly that Ishtar has nothing to do with Eostre or Easter. How did Wicca and Paganism let go over the overblown claims to the unbroken matriarchal cult from antiquity to now? Because some of its chief proponents died and academia got better at providing facts to the public, and the public got better at taking that information in, learning from it, and spreading it. More of us became recognized scholars, and those of that did not did not let our zeal get in the way of our facts.

We are able to discern. Our communities have the ability, wisdom, and experience to apply it well not only to historical events, but also to our religious discourse, experiences, and leadership. It is my hope and my belief that we will continue to exercise that discernment well with the torrent of LLM slop, disinformation, and misinformation at our doors. It is my hope that we will apply good discernment to our experiences, ideas, beliefs, and understanding of how things work, building up healthier communities in doing that work.

Discernment in Direct Experience

The first line of discernment I teach folks is spiritual hygiene. Why? Spiritual hygiene is cleansing, grounding, centering, and shielding/warding. Spiritual hygiene teaches what ways you take spiritual information in, process it, and what happens with the experience has passed. Spiritual hygiene is intentionally engaging with filters around spiritual phenomena. You engage these filters on your own terms. They allow you approach spiritual phenomena cleanly, from an even keel, with clear understanding of what you want to do, and to set boundaries around the experiences you do and do not want to have.

When it comes to direct experience, allowing myself to experience what I am going to experience and then analyzing it later has been deeply helpful. It allows me to engage in the richness of a spiritual experience while not being so swept away with it that I lose the ability to discern what it was I experienced. Giving time to absorb what there is to be absorbed from the experience and not immediately telling others about it helps me to figure out my own head about a given experience. Sometimes a given experience is just for me, and only makes sense in my context. Still, critically thinking about and reckoning with my experiences is a needed part of integrating them into my spiritual life.

While spiritual hygiene and critical thinking will not fix all of our communities’ woes, it would go a way to addressing our communities getting hijacked by bad actors. One idea I keep seeing floated as a solution here is that if we just removed as many people as possible between ourselves and the Ginnreginn then we simply would not have these issues. I think that this is a notion that can only make sense in a hyper-individualist society where folks look to no one but themselves for guidance. It only makes sense in spiritual communities where we have no trusted Elders, experts, or that trust is so abandoned that we only trust the connection of ourselves and our own experiences. Being able to talk with others who are informed by experience and understand what it is I have experienced helps to discern and troubleshoot. Clearly, we need more trusted people and not less. We need more experts with lived experiences rather than armchair theory.

Directions of Discernment

The personal and communal discernment I have touched on here go hand-in-hand, and requires both individuals and the communities they exist within to practice discernment. Discernment in who is trusted, what becomes a communal value vs a personal view, and what is passed on are all part of this unfolding within and through community. Part of this is the right mindset. Orthodoxy is a word often said in polytheist and animist circles with clenched teeth and hisses. However, right thinking is the opposite side of the coin rather than the polar opposite of orthopraxy. Without right thought there cannot be right action. Without right action right thought lacks impact and lived meaning.

What we allow into our bodies, minds, and souls, matters. How it comes in, sets up space within us, whether ideas or experiences, whether lessons or mysteries matters. I do believe that generally, the Mysteries keep themselves. What is within our power to control is why, how, and when we approach a given Being, place, or thing.

Even in the directions of discernment, it is a good idea to practice discernment! An example for me is anything by Edred Thorsson. I will not buy anything from him, but what I have of his on my shelf I keep. Some folks will look at that as an endorsement of his work, whereas I treat it as knowing my enemy. Thorsson has had his work out there for a long time. Often, he is the only modern Heathen Rune author on library or bookstore shelves. So, knowing what he writes and how it affects how people see things helps me communicate with others.

Another direction of discernment is those we trust, whether as Elders, leaders, or as sources of information.
How do you determine who is an expert? How? Why? Are there sources that are red flags? Yellow? Green? Why?

What are some red flags I look for when reading a Heathen author?

  • Insistence on racial purity or coming from certain European ethnic groups in order to be Heathen.
  • Insistence that Heathenry is apolitical.
  • Insistence that there is one way to practice Heathenry or Heathen magic vs there being a multiplicity of ways.
  • A lack of resources for quotes and references.
  • Strict gender polarity in worship of Gods or practice of magic.

What are some yellow flags I look for when reading a Heathen author?

  • The use of non-Heathen cultural terms such as shaman to describe Heathen spiritual practices and pathways instead of culturally relevant ones like seiðkona, seiðmann, or seiðmaðr.
  • Not clearly labeling their personal experiences as such.
  • Lack of context for a practice. Telling someone to go útiseta without describing how to do it, for instance.

What are some green flags I look for when reading a Heathen author?

  • All Heathens regardless of background being welcome.
  • Context for spiritual terms and practices are clearly established.
  • Personal experiences are clearly labeled.
  • Quotes and use of sources are easy to see and follow up on.

Discernment and Decisions

Discernment does not mean doubt. Discernment does not mean we are so enthralled in skepticism that we cannot have spiritual experiences or come to decisions. Discernment is a skill, a tool in our toolkit. As we engage in discernment on communal, interpersonal, and personal bases, we will be better able to come to informed and carefully considered choices. As we engage more in discernment we will be able to evaluate and troubleshoot our experiences effectively. Discernment and the decisions that we make following from it are how we build the next generation of Heathens.

By effectively communicating, teaching, training, and transmitting lessons and lived experiences, we help our communities to thrive. Without discernment well in hand this process becomes clogged. Effective discernment sifts through garbage data, outdated memes, conflicts of personality, and general bullshit. Effective discernment distills useful knowledge and allows communities to share it. The relationships we form with Ginnreginn deepen through its use. Better skill in discernment allows us to better sift vættir and background spiritual noise, making us more effective esotericists and spiritworkers.

We have more distractions and sensationalist articles clamoring for our attention spans from digital and print forms alike. Discernment is a practice that makes us slow down, consider the sources before us, and to soberly evaluate them. When we take this time to evaluate, we can make better decisions. So, my word for this year is Discernment. I hope more folks engage with it!

Discerning Our Diviners

/ Sarenth Óðinsson / Leave a comment

This post is coming out from watching the Alex Reads Tarot situation unfold on TikTok around June 30th, 2026.
I will summarize the goings-on as I understand them:

Alex Reads Tarot was a TikTok video producer who performed tarot readings using TikTok as a main means of gaining clients and pushing her information. She no longer reads tarot and goes by Alex the Ordinary on the platform now. During her time as Alex Reads Tarot, she apparently put herself forward as an expert after having read the tarot for a few years and gaining a pretty good following on TikTok. I say apparently because I have never followed her, did not know about her situation, and am only just now seeing the unfolding of the situation through the impact it is making in online Heathen, Pagan, diviner, and occult discourse. She recently converted to Christianity after she is supposedly questioned the use and validity of tarot for the last year or so.

What This is About

What this post will not be about is dissecting or coming after Alex for her conversion. I do not know her, I am not her priest or other spiritual advisor. I am not part of her community on or offline. What it will be about is asking folks in the affected communities to be discerning about your diviners. What it will be about is encouraging people to get into community rather than stand outside of it so they are less likely to get taken advantage of. What this post will be about is that I feel that folks like Alex Reads Tarot can have a deeply detrimental effect on the community because community, as such, does not exist in a way that encourages us to develop experience, expertise, trust, or reliability.

Gathering Spaces v Community

The format of many common spaces in Heathen, Pagan, magical, and occult circles, and this is true in my experience of offline and online communities, is individualistic. Communities require shared beliefs, ideas, practices, or ethic systems for communities to form or function. What we have in Heathenry, Paganism, et al are shared identities and, on occasion, communities. It is when we get to more specific groups, big ones like The Troth, or the Fellowship of Fire and Ice, or smaller groups, such as Kindreds, where I feel we have communities rather than shared identity or gathering spaces. While hashtags like Witchtok and Heathentok can help you find people of like mind, it cannot create community, and any sense of community they generate is just that: a sense of it. I am in community with some folks I know from TikTok, but most of the folks I know in that sense I have relationships with off the platform.

Part of why someone like Alex Reads Tarot leaving and denigrating her former practice on the way out hurts so much is that diviners occupy a trusted position in communities. She took people into her care, gave framing for lives, and has now said that it is invalid. At the least she has betrayed folks’ trust. At the most she has grifted, misled, and lied to people. This situation is not new. Before TikTok and Instragram, YouTube has had strings of these. Before YouTube, Tumblr, WordPress, and Livejournal. Then, of course, alongside all of these are those offline who have harmed folks in no different a manner. What Alex Reads Tarot, now Alex the Ordinary has done is neither unique nor unknown to the communities I am part of. What is unique is the way folks can gain followings, monetize, and use them, not that there are followings being built, monetizing being done, or that folks are being used.

Discernment in Divination

This situation exactly points to why we need to practice discernment with everyone, including those we trust to divine. Especially, I would argue, when we make powerful choices based on the results of divination. This is why, when it comes to folks getting the go-ahead to begin projects, start major endeavors, or initiate into a practice, I recommend at least 3 readers apart from the person who could benefit from the project, endeavor, or who is seeking to bring the initiate into the practice. When I take on a student, whether apprentice or mentee, I require this from 3 diviners the potential student trusts, and I do my own divination as well. If the student cannot find a diviner, I will suggest diviners for them and be clear about my relationships with and to my suggested folks.

Why am I taking the time to be so damned clear about this? Because that clarity allows my students, clients, and I to trust the results of divination. I do not teach, divine, engage in spiritwork, or do magic for free. I cannot, per my Ginnreginn. It also means folks who come to me for these things know exactly the expectations I hold, what my place in things is, and what obligations and responsibilities I hold. Likewise, they know what their own obligations and responsibilities are as someone seeking my help or input. I wrote my Spiritwork Services page the way I did because I have seen too many scams over the years. I have seen too many people try to argue or quibble over what their role and responsibilities are in a reading, especially in my early years of divining. I am up front on my pricing, and for bigger works that it must be talked out, because the spiritwork takes me away from time off I could be doing anything else.

I very clearly define what it is I do, for how much, and what the roles, responsibilities, and obligations are on each person in this work. There are too many people out there operating without a clear understanding of all of these things, and they are reading for folks. There are folks trusting diviners with some of the deepest aspects of their lives and they have no idea what the ethical or even the spiritual framework of that diviner is. They are trusting spiritual communication with folks who they have no idea if they understand the Gods as they do, if they believe that spirits are even real, and if so, what relationships these diviners carry with those spirits.

I cannot overemphasize how irresponsible and infuriating it is that folks care so little about their own and others’ lives that they will just throw in with whomever they find. Yes, irresponsible. If you are making life-changing decisions based on the words of a diviner, you owe it to yourself to sit down with a competent one, ideally a diviner whose frame of reference at least somewhat resembles your own. The hyper-individualistic mindset common to a lot of the shared spaces for Heathens, Pagans, witches, etc is getting people hurt and screwed over regularly. Hashtags and groups on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook groups are not, themselves, communities. They are gateways through which you can find community. Witchtok and Heathentok are not communities unto themselves. They are collections of people. They are ways of finding folks of like mind. I hope all those who want to find communities can do so. I also hope that we get more judicious about who we put into these trusted positions.

Divination is a powerful practice that anyone can do, but not everyone will. Whether you come at divination through tarot, Runes, stones, bones, or a myriad of other options, it is a way of communicating with the Ginnreginn, and the universe at large through a medium that can be understood. It is a way of communicating with the Ginnreginn that works with objects to discern what it is a given Ginnreginn or group is trying to communicate. It is a way of understanding how Urðr is weaving or carving with a situation, or where one’s place in it is at that moment. Divination can be worked with for reasons both personal and communal. Divination can be oriented towards this-world needs or otherworld topics. It can be used for fortune telling, or it can be sought out for guidance on major life changes. So long as we are going to consider or follow the advice of divination and diviners, it behooves us to treat it seriously and with attendant care.

A Diviner is a Professional

How do we attend to that care and treat divination and diviners seriously? We define our expectations and we treat diviners as the professionals we expect them to be. In turn, diviners act professionally and adhere to the standards of the communities they wish to serve. A diviner is a professional and you should treat them as such whether or not they are paid. A diviner is a professional and they should conduct themselves as such.

What I am not going to say is that we need to set standards rates. If folks in communities wish to do that, they are free to do so. I charge what I do in part because what I do as a professional is hard work, and has been built with years of training, initiations, and experience. What we do need are clear understanding between diviner and client, the boundaries of practice, and what forms of divination they have expertise in. Some folks will refuse to read on love situations and that is their right. Some folks specialize in the intersection of practical concerns like money, and others on esoteric ones. Many diviners will read on a variety of topics, whereas others strictly stick to one. Folks like myself, who have a multitude of spiritual specialties that they are professionals in, may have a broad scope of practice. Others may stick to one divination medium or another.

Rather than say “we should agree that diviners should pick a specialty and stick to it the rest of their lives or careers”, we should simply require diviners to be forthright and clear on what they are and are not experienced in. There is nothing with expanding or contracting the services you offer or the mediums of divination you work through. What is unprofessional is to give folks the impression you have worked with the Runes for 20 years when you have been divining with tarot. If you are self-taught, that is fine -be forthright with that. If you have taken years of training to get where you are, again, be forthright with that.

If we are to have expectations for diviners we also need to have them for clients. There are solid reasons for why I wrote my Spiritwork Service page the way I did. I have run into clients who thought I overcharged for my work. I have had clients who wanted me to drive to see them in person and only wanted to be charged for the reading. I have had clients who wanted to ask the same question every other week, and so I instituted a rule: you have to work on the question for at least a month before you ask that question again. When literally the same reading drops with the same cards in the same position for three readings in a row on the same question as asked, you need to do the work before you ask me to expend any more energy. I have also had clients who clearly needed mental health services I was not qualified to provide alongside the spiritual information they received, and urged them to seek it before seeking divination again. As a professional I have the right to refuse or place boundaries around my practice, and clients need to abide by them.

Developing Divination and Discernment

I do not expect these things to ‘fix’ the problem with grifters on the Internet or offline. I do not expect these measures to ensure that folks never get hurt, taken for a ride, deceived, or misled. They would certainly help. It would certainly do us some good to be clear about the role diviners and our clients have, and clear expectations of each. It would certainly do us some good to be clear about the role divination plays in our lives, as well as all the other spiritual phenomena we might come across. It would do all of us well to be clear about the role divination and diviners perform as part of the communities we are in, and how we ought to understand those diviners we might work with not inside of our communities. Discernment in these positive directions would do our communities some good. By being solid in our understand of the expectations, obligations, responsibilities, and boundaries each of us need to keep, we can make our communities safer and more supportive. Each of us can and should engage in the discernment necessary to make our communities healthier, better informed, and wiser.

A major way that communities can encourage discernment to develop with divination is to be sure there are standards for them in your community. Having the role of divination defined and the roles of diviner and client each clearly understood will protect both and the community at large. Anything goes with a hands-off approach has not helped keep people safe, and it has not helped develop the practice of divination in our communities. Some of this comes down to lack of training or expectations of understanding in the Heathen, Pagan, and magical communities, as reliant as so many are on self-education. By setting the expectations and giving clear boundaries, we can help give shape to our communities’ practices. Shaping these practices in this way gives clear goals for a diviner to aim for, and clients have clearer ideas of how to discern a useful question and how to work with the answers given. By taking some simple steps in developing divination practices in our communities we allow for richer communication, and the ability to discern useful messages and communication from unhelpful or misleading ones. By developing divination and discernment in these ways we allow for better safety for diviner and client, while also improving dialogue between ourselves, Urðr, and the Ginnreginn.

Praise to Óðinn

/ Sarenth Óðinsson / 2 Comments

You twist my guts

Till I give in

My howl shook my soul

I begged and pleaded

I offered my eye

No, I won’t be sold

You paid for me

In blood and bone

In spirit and in flesh

Put on me the collar quick

Tight down to my neck

You’ve bound wolves before

I could feel it in your hands

As you tied and held my leash down tight

Till I followed your commands

So you gave to me Your words

Your lessons and Your Work

Till You could trust me off the line

To do Your bidding first

Before my den

Before my pack

Before my tribe, it’s true

All these things are mine

Because I follow You

So to You I bent my neck

You’d bought me at my price

So to You I make the first of prayers

and offer sacrifice

I make the poems

I tell the tales

I do the Work You give

My gift to You in kind for all Your many gifts

Hung on the Tree and bled the Roots

Pinned on by Your Spear

I faced myself and all I am

My deepest darkest fears

Runes, They came each one to me

For I followed in Your wake

Each one came and took from me

From each one I did take

My teeth shine in the dark

I fear myself no more

Your wolf, your man, I am, my God

Úlfheðinn reborn

So give to me the Work You will

Give to me Your Words

By you, Father, I’m what I am

Because of You I serve

Patreon Topic 135: On The Midwest Shaman Conference

/ Sarenth Óðinsson / 2 Comments

If you want to submit a topic you would like me to write on for this blog or my Patreon, sign up for the Ansuz level or above here on my Patreon. You can also choose to support me outside of Patreon, such as directly through PayPal.

From Cunnian comes this topic:

“The Midwest Shaman Conference. Cultural influences, how that is all sorting itself out.”

An Overview of My Experiences

I have had the pleasure of attending Midwest Shaman Conference for the last two years. The basis of the Conference is to teach hands-on techniques and bring folks together from a variety of pathways. One of my partners has really pushed me to come out to it, and I am glad I finally began going.

I have known the organizers, Joy Wedmedyk and Lillith Threefeathers, for about 16 years. They have always shown up intensely devoted to their paths, their Ginnregin, and communities. I have had the pleasure of tending the Michigan Paganfest Sacred Fire with Joy for several years. I have engaged in a number of powerful, deep rituals with both Joy and Lillith. So why did it take me so long to come out? Part of it was planning to go. Another part of it was being so busy with so much that it seemed overwhelming to go on top of everything else I was doing in the year. Then, there was sensitivity to the idea that I am a vættirverkr, spiritsworker, and not a shaman. After my Ginnreginn really pushed, I ended up taking time for the Conference.

The site is beautiful, with several well-cared and well-tended nemeta, plural for nemeton, which are outdoor sacred spaces in ancient Gaulish religion similar to vé in ancient Heathen regions. The Ginnreginn are very friendly there. Gods are honored alongside Fair Folks alongside trolls alongside various other vættir.

My first year at MSC I did not teach anything -I just showed up, experienced what there was to experience, and took time to take in the Conference. Folks like Adam Davis, Jase Peck, and Patricia Woodruff were among the presenters I had the pleasure of learning from. Each person had a style of teaching and subject that were quite different from each other, which made for interesting interactions between each person, their lessons, and my own takeaways. The highlight ritual of both my first and this last year was the Kamlani ritual put on by Unura Kam. This was a powerful fire ritual that begins with prayers, then offerings are made to the spirits, and then space is given for us to drum and dance with the Ancestors. This was as powerful and potent as it was connective. Both years I drummed with my large drum and danced in my wolf skin and vættirbaggi (spirits bag) with the Ancestors.

Photo of Sarenth Óðinsson, courtesy of Patricia Woodruff 2025

This last Kamlani I took a great deal more breaks than the previous. Part of that was because at the close of 2025 I injured my ankle and was out of work for several months while I recovered. Despite taking frequent breaks and doing my best to be careful, I managed to hurt myself during the dancing. From then on through the weekend I had to really take it easy, relying on my ash staff to get around. Two years ago, I was working on getting acquainted with and easing into the community. This year, I was solidly in community. The amount of people checking in on me to be sure I was taking care of myself was wonderful. I attended fewer workshops as a result, but I spent my time in different ways that were as soul-feeding.

This year was also a bit different in that I was helping to light and care for Sacred Fires each day besides Thursday’s Kamlani fire. Since I had been invited to light and care for a Sacred Fire each day, I pulled rank and pushed both of my apprentices to come and help. When it was determined that this would be our course for this year, I requested my three workshops to be in the Sacred Fire area so at least if my apprentices wanted to go do other workshops I could take care of the Sacred Fire. With my injury, it was even more fortuitous that the workshops were held with the Sacred Fire area. Though I attended fewer workshops, the time in front of the Sacred Fire, sharing time, experiences, and divination with folks was beautiful and powerful.

The three workshops I taught this year were:

​Heathen Sacred Fires and Firemaking:
What is a Sacred Fire? What makes a Sacred Fire in Heathenry different from other Sacred Fires? What makes Them similar? Learn how Heathens know Fire, make Sacred Fires, and maintain good relationships with the Fire spirits, as we light and sit around a Sacred Fire that forms the heart of the workshop!

Heathen Spiritwork Basics:
Heathen Spiritworkers are people who serve the Heathen Gods, Ancestors, and/or vættir, spirits, in a variety of capacities. Come, and learn the basics of what being a Heathen spiritworker is about, including ways spiritworkers serve, forms of magic they may learn, divination they might engage in, and the forms spiritwork can take. Bring your questions and experiences, as there is a Q&A portion at the end.

Talking With Trolls:
The trolls are a category of vættir, spirits, in various European folklore. Ranging from ugly to beautiful, harsh to compassionate, stupid to brilliant and cunning, they encompass a range of expressions, forms, and ideas. Come meet the trolls, and learn how to talk with the ones you share the world with!

Each of the workshops were well-attended, and I had good experiences in each of them. When Joy asked me if I would teach this year, she specifically asked me to teach about how Heathen Sacred Fires and Firemaking were done and for me to do a Basics of Heathen Spiritwork workshop. Part of it was that she wanted to learn more, and part of it was that there is not as much known about Heathenry in modern shamanic and neo-shamanic circles. I facilitated Talking With Trolls because of interest from folks last year when I spoke about Them. Talking With Trolls has never had a lot of attendees, but those who show up tend to have powerful experiences with the Trolls. When I facilitated the workshop at ConVocation previously, I had about 10 people show. Only 4 people came to the workshop at the Midwest Shaman Conference. However, their experiences were direct, visceral, and seem to have done what the point of the workshop was: to introduce folks to interact with trolls around them and foster good relationships with Them.

Exploring Ideas Around Cultural Influences and Sorting Things Out

What are some of the main cultural influences in these circles?

At least some of them are: direct learning from various indigenous Elders, traditional shamanic Elders, African Diasporic Religions, Harner’s Core Shamanism courses, Heathen or other Pagan religious communities, Kenn Day’s post-tribal shamanism courses, occult communities, magical study communities, and/or direct experiences between spirits and humans in the modern day.

What I found deeply interesting both years I have attended is what folks reach for to talk between these communities. Sometimes energy, Elements, chakras, or chi is referenced. Sometimes this is the whole point of workshops, like spirit, Spirit, and SPIRIT, which was taught by Mowgli Recckia. It was a good workshop on how to differentiate between different ‘levels’ of complexity or hierarchy with regards to spirits. Some reference points work really well, eg the chakras may not be part of Heathenry but even a baseline familiarity with the chart made popular in the 60s works well enough to get ideas across. One of the saving graces of a conference like this one is that for the majority of things that do not translate 1:1 or even through the medium of similar concepts, we can take the time to ask questions like “Is this how you mean that?” or “Why this word vs that one?” When I use the word God v Ancestor, it is not to imply one cannot be the other, just that we have bright lines that define these ideas and sometimes they blur into one another.

There is no one locus of shamanism, shamanism-adjacent, spiritwork or spiritwork-adjacent material that forms the core of the Conference. This is to the benefit of the Conference. Sometimes you have the ability to speak across a lot of different communities all at once. Sometimes you have to do a lot of sorting out of how you are using words. If someone is using the term spirit guide we might generally agree that is what it says on the tin. Statements like “I have an animal spirit” is a bit different. Are they using it in terms of a fylgja, a follower vættr? Are they using it in the sense of “I have this animal spirit as part of my own soul(s) makeup?” Are they using the term like “This animal spirit is a guide, guardian, and/or mentor?” The structure of the Conference invites these and other in-depth conversations.

Deep Conversations and Sacred Work

Part of the exciting reality of these conversations is you get insight into how folks do or do not relate to their path(s), where they might stand on a given thing, experience levels, and so much more. Some folks are neo-shamanic practitioners looking to develop their skills, while others are feeling called to share in-depth knowledge of a given practice or topic, and yet others want to develop community and foster understanding between people. For myself, I felt a combination of being pushed to share teaching about Heathen spiritwork, developing traditions around the Sacred Fire, and a different way of relating to the Gods, Ancestors, and vættir that others might find useful, connective, or instructive.

I spent a great deal of this last year’s Conference sitting in front of the Sacred Fires my apprentice and I lit. What I think united all of those Sacred Fires was a kind of openness and freedom regarding expectations. I have lit Sacred Fires that were very protocol-heavy. These Sacred Fires were very particular about how things were done in front of Them, what offerings were made, even what conversations could be had in front of Them. None of the Sacred Fires lit during this last Conference felt that way to me. Some of the conversations around the Sacred Fire were very lax, whereas others were quite intense. I found myself smiling at times, reminded of Sacred Fires at Michigan Paganfest where there was a great deal of joking and enjoyment with the Sacred Fire, but then moments of solid hard work and insight gained. Sometimes those insights came from the Sacred Fire, and sometimes from a human person sitting around Them.

It is interesting to look back on the weekend. I find so many of the conversations were so personable that repeating them seems wrong. It was for then, between us all then. What I think that Sacred Fires consistently do is provide opportunities to reflect, to think, to commune, and experience the Ginnreginn in ways that we can find much harder in the everyday. It is a powerful thing to sit in the glow of a Sacred Fire. It goes in mere moments from blackened cotton inside of paper resting on cardboard under some arranged sticks. Then, when lit by the striking of firesteel and flint, and gifted Önd for Them to grow, it blossoms into fiery life that inspires us to share, becomes a portal for conversation with Ginnreginn, and allows for powerful conversations and spiritwork. It is the enactment of a Mystery that keeps itself well.

I am looking forward to next year. As is my norm, I am already thinking about what I want to present, and how. I think that anyone who can make it out is likely to have good experiences. While a given person may not themselves be a shaman or on a shamanic path, strictly speaking, it can be a good place to meet with those of like mind, develop your practice, and kick-start the next year of spiritual experiences.

Patreon Poem/Prayer/Song 135: For Raccoon

/ Sarenth Óðinsson / Leave a comment

If you want to submit a request for a prayer, poem, or song to be written to you privately or to be posted on this blog or my Patreon for a God, Ancestor, or spirit, sign up for the Ansuz and above level here on my Patreon.

This request was made by Cunnian for Raccoon.

Dark-eyed and deep-minded

Sensitive senses and true-touching

Nothing escapes Your notice

Beneath the Whirling Wheels

Hearty-bellied and hungry-hunter

Steel stepper and tested-trapper

Meals are easily made

Wherever You may Mark

Mask-mawed and merry-mauler

Round-ringed and soft-soled

Foes turn to fleeing

When Your wrath rages

Vicious-fanged and vile-foe

Fleet-footed and great-gatherer

Help us to heed

The Paths We Walk

Hail Raccoon!