Vandalism, hatred or robbery

Hroch, a friend of mine, called me some nine years ago. Offering me wood for carving. At that time, he worked for a gardening company, clearing a building lot near Prague. I was deep in my woodcarving phase, and he knew that.
It wasn’t dry wood; it was cut just hours before I arrived - that would be generally considered unsuitable for woodcarving, but I already had a plan to make a godpole that would be outside and wet wood should be suitable for this purpose.

The carving itself was easy, but just figuring out what I want the godpole to look like took a few months. Just to figure out how to do hair took me a month. There were moments when it felt like it was carving itself just using my hands. I’ve treated the statue with linseed oil, and I’ve put a nice milky white opal for an eye. The bottom, which was meant to be embedded in the ground, was charred in a fire made from the cut-away parts of the tree trunk.

I was quite happy with the result, it wasn’t necessarily beautiful but it was clearly fulfilling its purpose. I’ve decided to put it in a forest about 50 kilometers east of Prague, a forest where I’ve had a few interesting experiences and that I consider ‘magical’. The late evening of October 2018 was the day it happened.

We dug a hole while listening to a chant from the Frithcast podcast; we placed stones from various ancient settlements within 30 kilometres of the statue, along with a fresh egg at its base.

It was glorious. And I was visiting the godpole on almost every full moon, bringing offerings most of the time.

But then, two full moons ago, the statue was gone. Just an empty hole in the ground. It was devastating. However, to my surprise, I wasn’t pissed, just sad.

But why would anyone do that? I don’t even care about who, but why?

Option a)
I don’t understand vandalism as such, so it’s hard for me to imagine why anyone would destroy it just out of spite - but that’s an option, right?

Option b)
Religious hatred is a thing; people’s religious feelings can be offended by almost anything. Years ago, someone cut in half a statue of Jesus enjoying a glass of wine. Did my statue offend someone in a similar fashion? Similarly, some statues vanished or were destroyed in Poland over the last few years. Was it religious intolerance?

Option c)
There is also a possibility that someone liked it so much that they took it home. It was standing in a forest, aside from any paths; who would care, right?

I have no idea what really happened. Nine is a significant number in the Germanic/Nordic fate; maybe it was just a nine-year cycle that ended. Maybe I shouldn’t be considering distance to the statue while looking for a new home -  it could have happened for my benefit in a way I don’t understand yet, if I ever will.

Those nine years the statue was there were beneficial to me. I had a beautiful, peaceful Vé, which I visited many times and photographed. It was a place to commune with the gods every time there was important news - COVID, I left a job, got a better one, got engaged, my wife Kasia was pregnant, introducing my son Erik - and I always got a relevant answer.

He will be remembered. By me, my family and friends I’ve took there over the years.

Will I make a new godpole? Quite probably, but I won’t be putting it to the same location as I did in the past. We got another one-eyed godpole for our home as a wedding present, so I’ll be probably making godpoles for other gods.