The Meaningful Cultural Syncretism’s Between the Era of the Wiindigoo and the Aun Year

Art by @luddefluff, overlaid on my photograph, taken of Snoqualmie territory

Written by Sowiluf (Sunny Hibbits - she/they) June 3rd, 2022

Authors Note: I originally wrote this paper for fun, as I enjoy comparing and contrasting cultural and spiritual based movements. I become enthralled by the amazing similarities between groups, hoping that this can collectively catapult real concrete change in our world. Realizing how closely related both Winona LaDuke’s and Rune Rasmussen’s cultural/social/religious movements are, I immediately started writing. I would hope that this paper could be seen by both parties, to help both movements benefit from each others deeply meaningful perspectives and support each others uniquely similar goals.

Introduction: I am passionate follower of both Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen and Winona LaDuke, following both of their ongoing environmental/social/cultural movements. Little did I realize how specifically similar their movements, perspectives, and ideas are. Within this essay, I aim to bring up the similarities between both movements in a way that is straight forward and connective. I aim to give an equal and basic understanding of both the Aun Year and Era of the Wiindigoo, where people can learn and contrast each perspectives, hopefully connecting the dots. I leave out my subjective opinion on these topics until the end, where I display my interpretation of these ideas in my conclusion.

Key Words/Concepts: Aun Year, Transhumanism, Wiindigoo, The Era of the Wiindigoo, Wiindigoo Economics, Late Stage Capitalism, The Rise of the Wiindigoo Slayers, The Old Lakota Prophecy: The Black Snake

The Aun Year

For a background on the Aun Year: King Aun of Uppsala was a King of Sweden who was associated with the cycles of celebrations, the moon or lunar cycles, and 8 year cycles (The Aun Year 2, 5:30). The myth “Aun the Old of Uppsala” describes how Aun sacrificed his sons to Odin every 8 years in order to have immortality, the 9th year being the last (6:45). This 8-9 year calendar cycle is based off the myth, giving us a celebration octianial cycle to follow and celebrate. This myth is an ideological myth, meaning this story is systematically tied to the cycles and celebration of the Aun Year, shaping the idea in reference to the time of the celebration. Interestingly, Aun isn’t a reputable personification in this story, instead he is the exploitative executioner of sacrifices to Odin. Aun becomes a negative personification of the meaning behind ill-natured sacrifice from the individual.

The meaning and story behind the myth facilitates the importance and practice of the holiday today. Aun’s sacrificing of his own children today is haunting, especially when it’s for his own selfish gains. Aun becomes a dark, almost machiavellian pathological archetype of the historical and modern age. Aun killed his own children to prolong his own life, being selfish, weak, and even psychopathic. This translation of the myth is relatable to our modern relationship with the planet and our children or younger/future generations. Parallel to how we are exploiting the planet for our own current immortality, where we are killing our kin and relations, we are destroying our children, eating our kin through, and eating ourselves (Nordic Mythology Podcast: Ep. 118, Rasmussen, 7:20). For a more philosophical approach: By clinging to technology, in a transhumanistic fashion, we become distracted in our weakness from societal pressures, becoming addicted to the collective dopamine machine, not being able to let go of momentary pleasures—even when the world and future generations are in peril. We continually ignore climate change to meet ends meet, even when it destroys our immediate futures and ourselves/kin.

Aun’s story becomes part of what is known as Cautionary Tale meaning it is a mythology story that tells us to stay wary of such human behaviors, as well as how to remain in good relation with kin and the planet (Yunkaporta, Nordic Mythology Podcast: Ep. 118). This tale being cautionary shows the wrongness of this behavior, especially because during this time historically, a kings vitality mutually reflects the vitality and fortune of the land (The Aun Year 2, 10:50). These types of tales prepare humans with how to take care of the world.

With this holiday in mind, the important dates to follow for this celebration are: Yule Moon of January 6th, 2023 and the Disa Moon on March 7th 2023 (in Uppsala) (The Aun Year 2, 1:40). Part of Rune’s work includes a call to action for Heathen or Pagan practitioners and people to integrate this story into modern practices or perspectives. This holiday/time of year/celebration becomes an opportunity to make social changes to prevent destroying kinship ties, kin and future generations, and engage in kinship making. Today, the Aun Year becomes a year of renewal for pagan peoples to engage with their practices through environmental movements, spiritual practices, advocating for social changes, and creating kinship bonds.

Summary: Currently, Rune Rasmussen is aiming to collectively recreate this celebration as a way to heal our planet and kinship ties. By the Aun Year becoming a day/year of celebration of integrative healing, we can stop destroying our kin through our selfish exploitative ways, cleaving to eternal life, breaking colonial cycles. By awakening this old celebration, we awaken within ourselves self-reflection, healing wounds within ourselves, which affects the outer environment and our kin. Currently humans have become selfish and exploitative with our planet and animistic relations, killing our children and future generations, this holiday calls attention to this crisis, becoming an opportunity for renewal and rebirth. With this opportunity of renewal, we can take social action against exploitative systems which destroy our social kinships and environment and take action towards regenerative movements and social collaboration.

The Era of the Wiindigoo - Winona LaDuke

Similarly to the Aun Year movement, Winona LaDuke’s movement Era of the Wiindigoo/the Rise of the Wiindigoo Slayers, also shares a similar theme of stoping colonial/environmental exploitations and embracing regenerative perspectives/practices. Interestingly, LaDuke’s ideas correlate to the mythos behind the Aun movement and vise versa, both being “do not become the cannibal beast that eats your kin, do not kill your kin, do not exploit life, support life and regenerate.” Winona LaDukes movement is a bit more specific in how it fights these exploitations and diseases of society. She does this through protest, agriculture, and community based movements, such as the Stop Line 3 and Standing Rock movements. The Aun year is a semi-new phenomenon which has not (yet) created a way of expression, via action or celebration, towards similar themes of renewal or fighting against self/other exploitative causes.

The Era of the Wiindigoo (Indigenous: Anishinaabe)

Winona LaDuke describes the Era of the Wiindigoo as an era of exploitation, that dismantles regenerative life ways, destroying everyone/everything in their ecosystem including the perpetrators. Winona describes the Era of the Wiindigoo with “That’s when you commit cannibalism and start eating all of your relatives and your mother. That’s the time of the Wiindigoo and it’s time to starve the Wiindigoo before he eats us all. (To be a Water Protector: The Rise of the Wiindigoo Slayers, LaDuke, p. 205).” In Ojibwe etymology, the Wiindigoo is more classically defined in folklore as a “Winter Cannibal Monster” (Ojibwe People’s Dictionary). The Era of the Wiindigoo is the era we are all currently in, which embodies the Wiindigoo in Anishinaabe culture.

The Era of the Wiindigoo is a historical and ongoing time period, which has fasets that extend outward into mainstream society. Wiindigoo Economics/Cannibal Economics is an example of this current era’s expression. Wiindigoo Economics (late stage capitalism) are exploitative economic systems, which eat/exploit themselves, similar to the nature of the Wiindigoo. This is shown in the volatile nature of late stage capitalism, based of the Prison Industrial complex, exploitative agriculture (monoculture), historical and present colonization, sexism, homophobia, and classism/slavery. (LaDuke, 2020, p. 26)

The Wiindigoo Era and Economic system reverberates throughout US societies. Winona LaDuke also has the solution to these exploitative systems, being the current Rise of the Wiindigoo Slayers.

The Rise of the Wiindigoo Slayers is an movement/idea from Winona LaDuke’s book, To be a Water Protector: The Rise of the Wiindigoo Slayers, that we can slay the exploitative Wiindigoos through transitioning into a Green/Regenerative Economy. This can be done through supporting and participating in land back movements, environmentalism, restorative agriculture (Indigenous Food Ways), and equality movements. These forms of social justice follow the perspective of Mni Wiconi (Mní Wičhóni) - Water is Life, being the core of these movements. (LaDuke, 2020)

Another relevant part to the Era of the Wiindigoo and the Rise of the Wiindigoo Slayers is the old Lakota prophecy about the Black Snake, referenced in LaDukes book.

Old Lakota Prophecy “The Black Snake” - The Lakota Prophecy of the Black Snake represents the current rath of the Era of the Wiindigoo/Wiindigoo Economics. The Black Snake is a metaphor or animistic reference to the Keystone Pipeline and Enbridge Pipeline. These Pipelines are cannibalistic and exploitative in nature, embodying the Wiindigoo. (LaDuke, 2020)

An excerpt of the Black Snake Prophecy: “tells of a time when a great black snake would come to the land, bringing sickness and destruction not only to Lakota and Dakota communities, but to the water and land of all Mother Earth. And that the people would have to come together to kill the black snakes” (LaDuke, p. 81)

Summary: The “Wiindigoo” is a winter cannibal spirit within Anishinaabe culture and one that today, as Winona LaDuke says throughout her book To be a Water Protector, has taken over our society. This monster is a spirit, that can be within people, social systems, economics, politics, and even colonial food systems. This being is cannibalistic being which eats its kin, being exploitative. This exploitation is a cannibalistic process, which can be seen alive today in late stage capitalism (Wiindigoo Economics), being a system based on the exploitation of indigenous peoples and resources, effectively killing itself and all populations. The Rise of the Wiindigoo Slayers is a call to action to end the Era of the Wiindigoo as well as the Reign of the Black Snake. The Black Snake Prophecy is intrinsically connected to the Wiindigoo story, being another story of Wiindigoo Economics today. Today in the United States, pipelines are being illegally installed on Indigenous land. These exploitative self destroying processes will kill the children of Indigenous reservation communities first, and then all peoples, through toxic waste via colonization.

Conclusion: Both of these restorative cultural movements have cultural syncretism’s via stories and actions. Both the Aun Year and the Rise of the Wiindigoo Slayers, share values in common. Both aim to end exploitation and the killings of our children and environment. To end climate crisis saying: now is a time to act on these exploitative causes, being opportunity to make regenerative change. Rune is doing this through promoting and educating people about the Aun Year movement, along with the White Raven Flag, creating a call to action culturally, spiritually and environmentally. Winona is doing this through her grass-roots based business Winona’s Hemp and Heritage Farm, pushing forward the Green Economy, alongside her work in both the Standing Rock and Stop Line 3 Movements.

As a follower of both these writers and activists, I notice so much passion and energy from both movements. I realized they align so much on an empirical level, yet also on a more modern cultural level. Both movements have cultural, spiritual, or religious aspects that push forward and elevate these movements, in referencing their mythologies. In modern action, spiritual activism can be utilized, whether that is ceremonial drumming at the White House against the Black Snake Enbridge pipeline or a Blót for restoration and renewal for the Aun Year on a Oslo Burial Mound. Both of these movements share a very unique and modern critical cultural syncretism, that will ultimately affect our lively-hoods, our planet, and survival. Both want to save the world from environmental destruction through culturally rooted places, referencing cultural histories of kinship death and destruction, creating modern calls to action through cultural/social movements—which call for regenerative collaboration. This collaboration can be done on the social level, by engaging in community activism (supporting land back movements, anti-racism, anti-homo/transphobia, protesting, fundraising, mutual-aid). I think on a spiritual level activism can be done by engaging in cultural restoration and community building (awakening colonial erased cultural ways, breaking down hierarchies, creating kinship ties, rediscovering ritual, supporting land back movements), which is why I wrote this. I hope this paper encourages research in both the Aun Year and the Era of Wiindigoo, as the time of both of these movements is now; and frankly, I think we are running out of time before the Wiindigoo systems eat us all. We need to collaborate respectfully building kinship to support future generations and the spirit of our planet.

References

LaDuke, Winona. (2020) To be a Water Protector: The Rise of the Wiindigoo Slayers. Fernwood Publishing in Halifax & Winnipeg, Spotted Horse Press in Ponsford. 205.

Ojibwe People’s Dictionary. (2012-2021). A winter cannibal monster. Wiindigoo. https://ojibwe.lib.umn.edu/main-entry/wiindigoo-na

Rasmussen, Rune. (2022). Aun Year 2023 2 - Some Questions. Nordic Animism. YouTube. https://youtu.be/fCP9AbUuYgc

Rasmussen, Rune., Yunkaporta, Tyson., Farrand, Daniel., Nordvig, Mathias. (2022). Ep - 118 The Aun Year with Rune Rassumsen and Tyson Yunkaporta. Nordic Mythology Podcast. Spotify. 7:20. Link: https://open.spotify.com/episode/42ou52V6PhB2Kn2mZDXX5o?si=2a86267a60e84709

 

Paganism | 101

 

Hello All!

So far in my series of posts I have written mostly about holistic health. This blog is self-creating, relating to my personal beliefs on health, spirituality, paganism, and hopefully many more esoteric topics. By allowing this blog to create itself, I find myself unsure of which direction my writing will take. Yet nonetheless, I plan to continue writing into this process wherever it may go. One topic I figured that would be great to write on to give some roots to this blog is Paganism--at least just the basics. The more I have read, studied, practiced, and taught about Paganism--the more perplexed and curious I have become. I find myself increasingly amazed and impressed with how many different ways Paganims can be practiced and how many diverse perspectives are taken. With this in mind I hope to bring some sort of cohesion to the vastness of this complex topic, attempting to hold space for all its polarities.

I have lead a multi-disciplinary coven group for 3 years. The Occult Student Alliance was a space where I could teach workshops on a multitude of magic practices and esoteric/occult cultures. In this group I lead Paganism 101, where I researched many different definitions on Paganism, using perspectives from practitioners and archeologists. I had many inspirations for this post and I want to give them credit upfront and I intend to cite my references below.

Some amazing Pagan scholarly inspirations: Arith Harger, Dr. Mathias Nordvig, Daniel Ferrand, Dr. Jackson Crawford, Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen, Kim Krans, Starhawk 

I wish this list was even longer, yet the general Pagan culture is small and growing--hopefully this list will be even longer one day.

Some Pagan jargon that will be used in this post is: Paganism, Pantheon, Polytheistic, Monotheistic, World-Accepting and World-Denying points of view, Cultural Syncratism, Animism, Vital Force

To start at the beginning of where the term 'Pagan' came from. 

It is important to think about the historical contexts surrounding the words form, because the term pagan was originally was non-offensive. Paganism did not originally mean something derogatory, it was originally a reference for peoples location during Roman invasion. The 2nd-3rd ce term Panganus/Pāgus/Pagani is a Latin based term used by Greco-Roman folk, which was used to describe people outside (Pars Sinistra) of the new settling Roman urban centers (Pars Destra). These Pagans lived away from development, not necessarily doing anything specifically 'pagan' as we might think of today, they were simply the local inhabitants following their natural cultural traditions. The Pagans that were outside of the urban center were not following the dominant Roman culture that was on the inside of the Roman settlements. The change from Pagans not practicing their original cultural ways and instead following Christianity, was a slow process that began on the inside of the new urban centers and slowly expanded towards the outskirts of the cities.

In 5ce when the term 'Pagan' was translated into English, the term translated into 'Rural Dweller' and more significantly 'Peasant.' Through English translation, this is where Roman settlers took advantage of this terminology and used it to against Pagans to acculturate into Christianity. Christianity in this context was a way to control the people from their heathen like ways, bring them into a properly cultured society, which would have economic influence and hold more power than the lands original inhabitants. As planned and smiting this may sound--the acculturation process was not quick nor was it complexly planned. Around 10-17thce, Pagans were not typically resisting the religious authorities changes--definitely violence and oppression took place under the new Christian ruling, to people who did not align with the Roman Christian order. Historically, there is more evidence that the Romans acculturated (different from assimilation) Paganism into Christianity. Pagan practitioners did not oppose these changes necessarily. This was because Christians saying that Pagans had instead a new all-mighty god name Jesus to work with--Pagans did not mind this--instead it was good news! The Pagan pantheon was expanding--the more the merrier! Most of the aggressive assimilation or violence relating to Pagan religious oppression were within the city walls of the Pars Sinistra, where many Roman guards held control. These local riots against the Roman powerful and authoritative control would die out fairly quickly. Many Pagan folks did not have the weaponry or training to defend themselves when in disagreement with Roman authrotity, therefore their ways of living slowly pairished. Pagans sadly did not even have a concrete religion or identity that they could stand for in opposition to Romans at that time (Celtic is a good example in their early history). 

Meanwhile, Pagans who were in the Pars Destra (outside) were in the far distance to a lot of these social havoc's. Slowly but surely, the Roman Christian authority took over via land, food, and social power. It is important to remember this was slow moving process through power and silencing anyone against the authoritative system. We know there was slow acculturation and genocides of Pagan peoples, where Pagan societies lost their power through imperialism (Heathenry vs Paganism, 28:00).

With this in mind, modern practitioners use Pagan to describe the former, with an effort to reclaim the more negative uses of the term Pagan. Using Pagan as a spiritual identity now describes to others that: we pagans are the ones typically outside of the Christian dominant culture and invest in our old ways or ancestral practices and beliefs. 

With this history in mind, here is my best effort of defining what Paganism is:

Paganism is a world-view, practice, way of being, and spirituality. Paganism is not of any specific culture and there are many kinds, including Kemetic Reconstructionism (Egyptian), Druidism (Celtic), and Hellenism (Greek). All these different paganisms have different gods, perspectives, practices, mythologies, life ways, cultures, and land relations. As all these paganisms are different in their belief systems, paganism at its core is very diverse. Yet, Paganisms have a few things in common showing its cultural syncretism. Paganisms are polytheistic in nature, having multiple Gods/Goddess's differing in their set pantheons, which are their deity sets that pagans typically worship, follow or ritualize. 

Moving forward from the base of what Paganism is, lets go even deeper.

Pagan perspectives can differ from other world views by having world-accepting points of view and world-denying points of view. A world accepting point of view means that this pagan would be accepting of the world. They are inherently related and connected to entities, spirits, and energies around them--all being connected through some cosmic vital force (the relationship to force being animism). This connection creates life ways, rituals, practices, and traditions seen in history where these types of pagans historically had an active living relationship with the world around them. The world-accepting point of view creates perspectives of vital connections, that must be maintained through practices. Christian religions typically struggle with this, by their nature of being hierarchical and magic (co-creating with spirit) opposing. Typically in Christian perspectives, a Priest has a closer connection to God. They're the ones who directly communicate with God, such as cleansing a Christians sins in the ritual of Reconciliation (Catholicism). Priests are also the ones at the ritual of Communion who hand Christians their bread--the very sacred body of Christ--over to the receiver. This hierachal sacredness over bread can extend to the point in which, the priest will literally put the bread into the Christians mouth--the body of Christ is too holy for the worshiper to touch. This creates a hierarchical bridge between the Christian devotee to their God. In a world-accepting perspective paganism--this would not do. This would create a divide of class between the practitioner and the vital force in their ritual. Thus, one can contrive that Paganism based rituals are inherently co-creative, highly interactive, and relational in nature. Furthermore, the world-accepting point of view implies that pagans accept the world around them as deeply connected and relational (positively or negatively) in nature. Being so relational and accepting there is no after life, life only continues to go on, being naturally cyclical. Once a person dies, they return into the natural process of spirit, transforming and returning into the spiritual panorama all around us, and even biochemically returning to source to continue the cycle. Oppositionally, a world-denying point of view (i.e Christianity) would believe in an after-life, as they do not live in interactive connection to spirits around them (Heathenry vs Paganism, 6:08).

Catholicism and Islam both have world-denying points of view. I will discuss Catholicism a lot on this blog becuase I used to be a devoted Catholic for many years. Eventually that practice did not give me what I needed and I became Pagan (to be discussed at another time.) Catholicism is monotheistic (believing in one god), has an after life, considers co-creative rituals as acts of disrespect or disbelief of god, and promotes mostly devotion while having deep faith in gods plan. By trusting gods plan, there is no relation to the cosmic energies around you--interacting with those entities/forces would be taboo. Gods plan states that the Christians have an afterlife in heaven--there is no reincarnation into the process of vital force. Instead, there is a distinct separation between the active spirits living in relation to all around you (which don't exist to the Christian) and devoting to a single god, who reigns outside of this world on another plain--like a distant yet intimate Father. The only interactions that a Christians would have to vital force or God would be in conversation through prayer, rituals, or experiential religious experiences, outside of ritualistic practices. These Christian rituals through a Priest are in no doubt deeply spiritual. The difference in world-views is not about spiritual depth--instead this can juxtaposition can be seen as how we as practitioners or devotees choose to access that vital force or God in our lives, which are both undoubtedly deep meaningful work. To conclude, world-denying views generally follow hierarchical systems, afterlife, which deny the energies within the world one actively lives in. 

It is important to remember how much these perspectives influence our lives and how we treat one another. In my opinion, there is no reason that these opposing world views should have conflict or argument about each others beliefs. In my eyes, both Paganism and Catholicism worship something very similar, something that they both love and adore. Some people find it offensive to believe that Pagans and Christians are worshiping the same thing--purely by how we choose name and interact with it. Yet, culture is something that is alive and drastically controls our perception of the world and the universe. Whether you choose to interact with the spirit within multiple things all around you actively or do so in privacy, with one being and/or through a Priest--both are interacting with some cosmic force that they believe is extremely sacred. Moving on!

Paganisms are diverse, yet share some similarities. Cultural Syncretism is when cultural values are shared in perspectives, not necessarily in perfect parallel, but where two or more cultures share similar attributes. Animism is great example of a cultural perspective that is shared between religions/spiritualities/cultures. Animism is the belief that there is an active relationship between person and entities, spirits, beings, energies and forces all around you. This relationship is dynamic and alive--where people who follow this perspective can tell, notice, and intuitively interact with a vital force with the universe and/or it's beings/inhabitants. This interaction connects the person to an object which shows a vital force, spirit or energy. Animists (people who hold an animistic perspective) typically interact with this vital force through practice, craft, worship, prayer, traditional folk magic, ritual, ceremonies, or dances. These practices are done because they keep these relationship well, alive, and active. It is important for a pagan person to interact with these living forces because these forces interact and connect with their whole world. These relationships keep life functioning properly and well, both for the person and vital forces. These relationships are reverend as sacred, which are to be maintained, to maintain the whole living system within the world that holds us--continuing the living and active cycle of creation, for generations to come and to continually repeat (Animism: Vital Force, Witchcraft, Soul & Spirit, 2021).

A basic perspective of animism is "we all have a living relationship with all beings in the universe" and step further in the animistic perspective is "we take care of and maintain relationships with the energies around us, through rituals, because those relationships take care of us."

What other religions or spiritualities pop up in your head when you think of animism? If another culture, spirituality, or religion reminds you of this perspective, your brain is working--because Animism is not culturally exclusive. This is why Animism is an example of cultural syncretism.

Many paganisms share stories and perspectives via cultural syncretism. This is from generations of historical interactions between cultures through war, trade, and travel. Some cultures that are similar in origin share stories or if two cultures are far away in origin, some stories can be carried through word of mouth over generations! One example of cultural syncretism through close origins would be the similar stories within Celtic cultures. There are many similarities between the Celtic-Irish goddess Bridged and the Celtic-Welsh goddess Ffaid (or Braint). Both goddess's share land-place names in Ireland and Wales, places in which the land is known to represent similar attributes of the goddess--spring, agriculture, and femininity. Both goddess's names in Gaelic and Welsh have similar name pronunciations, story backgrounds, and attributes--both of these goddess are the same. Culture through history has made them become to separate beings, yet most people agree they're the same goddess (Celtic & Germanic Annual Celebration, Rituals and Animistic Relationships, 2021)

The Celtic goddess Bridged is also technically the Catholic Saint Bridged. Saint Bridged is an assimilated/acculturated version of the Celtic goddess Bridged, being different from our ladder example. Catholic missionaries wanted to Christianize Ireland and did this through Christianizing the Irish Pagan Gods/Goddess's. There are many examples of Christianizing the Celtic Pagan culture into the Celtic Christian culture (Irish Catholic Church is the best example), whether the people are Scottish, Irish, and Welsh. With this in mind, Christianizing an ancient pagan god is technically a form of cultural syncretism, as the Goddess Bridged/Ffaid and Saint Bridged are technically all the same archetype of goddess. Yet, when looking at cultural syncretism in a pagan context, I am more so referencing cultural syncretism about shared gods through similar cultural origins or generations of story or trade. I see the Christian Saints more through a lens of colonization, imperialism and/or acculturation of the pagan cultures, through the Christianization of pagan gods--taking away pagans freedom to religious/spiritual sovereignty. I do not invalid the Christians relationship to Saint prayer or even the Christian Witches (yes they exist!) relationship to saints, I am just observing their history and where they have came from.

Does the change from Bridged to Saint Bridged change who Bridged is to the worshiper? Or are both Pagans and Christians worshiping the same deity? Does the Saint version of Bridged invalidate her original Celtic form through acculturation? All great questions that theologian Pagans discuss often--but I will not answer!

Another example of cultural syncretism in Paganism is in solar or lunar calendars/holidays. Paganisms, usually being quite animistic in their perspectives are also described as nature-based philosophies or religions. If Pagans are animistic, being connected to the energies alive around them, they're definitely closely connected to natures natural cycles. This being so, many Pagans share similarities in following seasonal changes, times or days of the year, and calendar systems. Norse traditions follow a Lunar calendar (check out the Nordic Animism Calendar by Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen) similar to the Celtic Lunar Calendar the Coligny Calendar (I have not seen this be recreated as a modern calendar--this calendar is so archaic it is also hard to follow). Both Celtic and Norse traditions follow a lunar calendar, having specific times of the year that hold significance, sacredness, and even superstition. I won't go too much into the synchronicities here because I intended this article to be a basic understanding of what paganism is (oops!) Being a Celtic/Norse practitioner, I would love to soon write an article that goes into more depth about the cultural syncretisms about both paganisms.

Now that we got a lot of some of the basic jargon and terminology out of the door, what does generally Paganism look like? What does a Pagan person do and what do their practice look like? The answer here is--no answer. As I have described, all paganisms are diverse and differentiate per culture, with some core similarities in their perspectives. Most people have big differences in what they do in their personal practices and how they see the world through the vast perspectives in Paganism. 

With the question above, I thought it would be helpful to provide some deeper understanding. To give some reference of what Paganism may look like, I will describe a Pagan animistic interaction with the world from my own experience as a Celtic/Norse Pagan:

'I am at work shoveling horse dung at the barn and all of a sudden a raven drops off an apple outside the stall. The raven and I make eye contact and they hang out for while. I stand there and watch the raven, looking deeply into who and what they are. Is this just a Raven? I ask myself, who is this? How do they relate to me? Suddenly in my mind I hear the name 'Odin.' Oh, well of course that makes sense, Odin the Norse Pagan god of Wisdom, War, Sacrifice, Life, Magic, and Rebirth. Being most relevant, in the Prose Edda, Odin is 'Hrafmagoð,' meaning raven-god. Odin has two ravens named 'Huginn' and 'Muninn' who are his messengers and allies--these ravens are magical beings who can even speak. I walk closer to the raven on the ground with the apple outside the stall and I see a second raven on a tall telephone pole. I walk closer to pick up the red shiny apple and the ground raven flys up to the other raven. They both hang out and watch me. We all make strong eye contact for a long while. In this moment, I feel a magnetic, growing and vital force within me. These two ravens feel significant, they're telling me something and I don't know what. I pick up the apple perplexed thinking "Does Odin want me to have a snack? No--definitely not, but something feels significant right now. Something feels unique in the air--Odin is trying to tell me something." I take pieces of the apple apart and throw it to the ravens--giving an offering back to the messengers of Odin (this is a great way to say thank you and continue this local living relationship.) I get back to work and the ravens are gone soon enough. For the rest of the day I was reminded that the raven gods and the raven beings, Huginn and Muninn, are there for me when I am in need. I still await more of this overall message but as of now, I derive some mean from that interaction. Lately, I have been very exhausted and even sad, working and studying a lot towards my goals--forgetting to take space for relaxation. I think that's why the gods spoke to me that day, that's why Odin sent his ravens. Odin sees me and reminded me to take space to stop, there is nothing you need to achieve outside of yourself. Source is all around you and in all things, so interact with them, interact with what is there, and of course have a snack break!'

Febuary Check-in | Breathwork

February Check-in | Breathwork 

 (La Honda, CA)

For January, I wanted to focus on Immunity and Sleep because of seasonal changes, transitioning from the festive part of the year, and COVID. I could have written even more on both of those topics, which I then condense for my Instagram content. When writing on Immunity, I remembered one active health technique that could help with Immunity and Sleep, which is Breathwork. Breathwork is a physiological tool you can use at any point of the day, whether before bed, when stressed at work, or while in the shower after a long day. There are many great practices to follow for meditation, some of my favorite and beloved practioners are Thich Nhat Hanh and Ram Dass. 

Two books I would recommend by them that discuss breathwork in practice are Peace is in Every Breath: A Practice for Our Busy Lives by Thich Nhat Hanh (2012) and Be Here Now by Ram Dass (1978). Peace is in Every Breath has much more breathwork activities than Be Here Now, but Be Here Now is full of beautiful life lessons and art that can help you visualize the breathwork you are doing. Both books were some of the first literature works I looked at when beginning and developing my practice.

Now off to the Breathwork shall we!

On top of boosting Immunity and Sleep through Spellwork and Herbalism, another great way to improve you Immune system is through Oxygenation (crazy!) Humans Oxygenate daily, through breathing. Everyday we breathe in constant repetition, cleansing and refreshing our cells, improving circulation, increasing brain grey matter, decreasing cortisol (when slow!), and new studies are showing that simply breathing can decrease cancer and tumors (source). Something important here is that breathing decreases our cortisol decreasing our overall stress. Decreasing our overall stress improves our emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. I think breathwork is especially important for practitioners to practice, as breathwork aids in spiritual experiences, craft, and any ritual. Breathe can become a guide to aiding the body when a spiritual experience can become overwhelming of jarring. When I tell friends of mine to breathe and meditate, they always say they do not have the time, and that is when I bring up the classic yogi saying "Make it double then!" The great thing about breathwork is that, even if it sounds like a chore, it can be easy, quick, and hugely beneficial (I am guilty of this!)

Here is a quick and easy meditation to practice breathwork for the practitioner and non-practitioner, which can be done anywhere:

With this in mind, there are ways to breathe more with what you are doing throughout the day to decrease your stress and increase your immunity. Inspired by Peace is in Every Breath, one practice that I will recommend here is Breathe in What your Doing! Exactly What you are Doing! For example, if you are driving home from work and you are stressed about friends or work, take a moment to just notice your breath while your driving. Yes, driving seems like a hectic task--but your actually concentrating more on driving than your usual day dreaming. Simultaneously, you are taking more control over your breath and using it as a physiological reset. You can breath in through your nose and out through your mouth, noticing each breath inhale and exhale, while also being mentally awake behind the wheel. Noticing your breath while driving should not be so distracting that it takes away from driving (IF IT IS STOP), actually the oxygenation from breathing should help you drive better or more accurately.

A lot of people think that meditation is supposed to stop your thoughts and you must have a clear mind. Yet, this isn't very true, as there is force in stopping--which takes up space in the mind. The goal in meditation isn't force: instead it is presence and allowance. Allow your thoughts to run in your mind, but do not interact with them--and if you do, catch yourself and focus back on your breath. A way to catch yourself can be through using a mantra such as "in and out" or "inhale/exhale." Eventually, after doing this for awhile your brain should clear up more and you will have less thoughts. At first to the new practitioner, this work can seem daunting or boring, yet over time the work gets much easier. Over time, it gets easier to sit at home and breathe for ten minutes, improving your entire day immensely. Breathwork becomes its own form of mental detox and purification, purifying the mind and body, improving overall health. For practitioners: knowing your breathe as the key to your body, can become the key to your magic.

Note on Breathwork: People do not know how to breathe correctly. When you breathe, do your shoulders rise? Take note of this because this is incorrect breathing technique! This type of breathing actually restricts your lungs from properly expanding. The proper way to breathe is through Diaphragmatic Breathing, which means you breathe into your Diaphragm not into your rib cage. For example, take a deep breath with a deep inhale and an exhale, notice if your shoulder rose. Now try breathing into your belly button, where your tummy on the inhale goes far out and expands widely, then with the exhale, allow your stomach to return into your body. This diagram below is from Make Health Happen by Erike Peper, Katherine H. Gibney, and Catherine F. Holt. The section on this work in on pages 61-71. Dr. Peper is an amazing professor I had the honor of learning from at SFSU and he taught me about this technique. I remember learning this technique and using it in meditation when I suffered very badly from self-image and menstrual cramps.

As a female-bodied person child performer, I have always been encouraged in American culture to have a flat stomach. From this, when I started this breathing practice into my stomach, it felt very unnaturally. I went to an hour group meditation class to try to tackle this simple practice--breathe into your diaphragm and not your rib cage--breathing in correct healthy form. In this exercise, I actually cried and was brought back to a lot of emotion. I think this emotional reaction was from a lot of old pain of being a young performer--where I had to look and be a certain way often to be seen as beautiful. Physically I had to hold myself together, always be prepared to perform, and hold a specific prized physical image. People of all body types suffer from our very strict social norms around health and weight. Reverting our bodies to their past or natural form can bring up psychological triggers--especially if your body was shamed in the past. When I had this trigger in practice, I allowed myself to be vulnerable in this group meditation, I cried amongst strangers and remembered to breathe slowly. I did not fall apart, I survived this inner storm of physical and emotional intensity, with the breath as the key to my heart--and ultimately my spirit. Everyone can do this--humans are built to breathe and feel.

Diaphragmatic breathing can help with menstrual cramps, gastritis, abdominal pain, IBS, and other physiological ailments (Peper, 62). This breathing technique is so restorative to illness because the person is allowing their inner organs to relax, open, and release--without restrictions physically. It is as though you are allowing your legs to stretch out, when your legs had VERY TIGHT pants on them for a VERY LONG time! As someone who has been stuck in bed due to a menstrual cycle, this breathing technique proved to be extremely helpful. Really breathing deep into your stomach, expanding the tummy without clothing restrictions at the waist, and slowly breathing back out, naturally aligns the body work more efficiently--as it can and should.

As I said before with my story, this simple yet deep exercise, can move a lot of qi around in your body. This can cause some inner chaos when first starting, especially if you are not used to it or heavy trauma within the solar plexus or sacral area. Like I did in story above, you can breathe through this at first uncomfortable sensation. Remember you are human and you are built for this physical and deep connective work. So: be gentle with yourself, take your time, and breathe through the emotions.

I hope this piece provides you with some sort of rest during an extremely chaotic time where taking a breath seems difficult. It can feel very hard to catch a breath when the world is changing so fast and the air you breathe is full of smoke and disease. I am deeply fascinated that the more trees we cut, fires arise, and oil we frack--the more sick we become. It is as though our industrial society is a cannibalistic snake, eating itself, through it's exploitations (read more about this in To Be a Water Protector by Winona LaDuke) But don't worry--breathing help at least a little bit starting with you, cleansing the negative affects of these horrid symptoms of our culture.

🌬Keep breathing--Skål!

References

Peper, Erik, et al. Make Health Happen: Training Yourself to Create Wellness. 2nd ed., Kendall/Hunt, 2002.

 

January Check-in | Herbs

 

Hello again!

I hope y'all have taken a good look at my last check-in post for the beginning of the New Year, for sleep and regeneration. If you have not seen that post, check it out now! Along with the quick and easy sleep spell I included in my last post, I wanted to include some more information about nutrition and herbalism relating to sleep and immunity. To certify my knowledge, I have a certificate and minor in Holistic Health from San Francisco State University. 

I am a Pagan Practitioner, so I teach and practice paganism, yet I also follow and practice what I was taught about holistic well-being, eastern medicine, and herbalism. In my own life, I try to follow a holistic life path, meaning I aim to live by holism, taking in a whole perspective about my life. I will always engage in other practices, foods, and ways of being if it is beneficial in a respectful way. I am not a Pagan person who is bound by blood--we all can practice what feels most spiritually authentic to us, when done respectfully, respecting the people, the land, and all it's inhabitants. With this in mind, I will be discussing some basics of Eastern medicine below, things I have learned from many beloved mentors and teachers, including Emily Zola (Lola), Dr. Peper, Prof. Kenn Burrows, Prof. Uma Bhatnagar, and Marissa Nasca (LCSW).

Season and weather changes interrelate with our physical constitution. In Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine, we are elemental beings where our physical conditions around us have an active relationship with our wellbeing. This means we want to try to remain in balance with our Dosha’s or Qi with our ever-changing elemental surroundings. This is why people are more vulnerable to illness in seasonal changes, as there is more energetic and elemental chaos, within and external. We get out of constitutional balance when our surroundings change and become vulnerable. 

There are ways to balance out with our surroundings with what we consume and how we live. This way of balancing with your elemental surroundings does change per person, as everyone has their own unique and personal constitution. Each unique constitution will have it’s own unique relationship to the elements and environment. With this in mind, I encourage you to take a quiz or research what Dosha and what Qi Constitutional Type you are. Research how to balance these constitution to your current season and elemental/physical environment.

Dosha Quiz and Qi Constitutional Type Quiz

Even though our constitutions are unique, I do recommend some general herbalism and health tricks to boost immunity regardless. 

Here are some of my recommendations:

Immunity: Elderberry (those ginger, elderberry, turmeric shots are so good!), Turmeric (w/ Black Pepper!), Ginger-Garlic-Onion (Trinity Herbs of Health!), any Mint! Echinacea, Rosemary, Fennel, Ginseng - (Rhodiola for more energy, take in the morning OR (not both) Ashwaganda at night, for more destress then uplifting, regard ginseng note at the bottom), Omega-3’s (Fish oil or sustainable fish), Vitamin D (2000 IU for anemic, fog-dwelling folks, and seasonal depression folks) or 30 minutes in the sun works great, Zinc (take a very low dose, overtaking Zinc will have an inverse immune response).

Sleep: Ashwaganda before bed, Magnesium (300mg-600mg), chamomile, mint, lemon balm, valerian root, holy basil, passion flower - teas, Melatonin - (take 1mg-3mg AT MOST -- regard note below).

Note of Ginseng: Never want to take Ginseng everyday all the time, the smaller the amount of ginseng the longer you can take it for. Take it mainly when you need it for a week, then take a break, and take it again when you are stressed. It is an adaptogen, so it helps you adapt to stress, but if taken all day everyday—it loses it’s affect and can weaken your immunity, like most herbs! All of too much ain’t good!

Note on Melatonin: I recommend to not take 5mg, the vitamin is produced in higher amounts due to branding, not because more is better -- more is actually worse and will keep you awake! If you have 5mg, I recommend you split them in 1/2's or 1/4's. Melatonin can affect people differently due to weight and age, if you are unsure of how it might affect you or notice negative changes in your sleep schedule--talk to your doctor!

All of these herbs can be found at your local organic grocery or herbal shop. I highly encourage all my followers to do their own research on how these herbs work for you and your own constitution. Some questions I like to ask my self when using a new herb/supplement is "How does this herb/supplement integrate with my own constitution?" Does this herb have more heat or cooling? Which do I need right now? How are these herbs used traditionally and why?" Make sure to do this research, talk to your local practioner and doctor. The best way to engage with herbalism is if all of these mentors in your life all know what is going on in your process--making a interconnected whole system to help you with your health, sleep, and immunity!

Keep breahting--Skål!

January Check-In | Sleep

 

Hello all! 

It has been a minute, as I had many festivities over the Yule time. January is a great time to rest and replenish from festivities—which I am trying to practice. For Nordic pagans in particular, this time of rest is important as it is a great time to integrate and reflect on all the lessons learned from fall to winter rituals.

I find that some ritual messages can come to you later after the ceremony is finished. This can be a good reason why it is good to set aside time after rituals/ceremonies, allowing yourself to have space receive. This space also allows all the energy to have balanced time to rise, express, and descend. In this descend time is where we can receive more messages from our gods, entities, and guides.

Maybe you did the work at the fire and released everything you needed to, yet you still need to sit with all the change and chaos that has shifted within. Ritual can be very viscerally intense, moving many parts, and expecting to get an immediate clear message from source can diminish the actual weight of the process. Trust the process, yet co-create with the process by providing it space to fruit, and harvest that. 

For non-pagan folks, January is still a great time to rest from all the big changes through the Winter season, cyclical death bringing cyclical rebirth causing a lot of internal/external chaos (metaphysically/socially/physically). Seasonal shifts can cause a rise in illness, so now is an extra great time to fix that sleep schedule!

I recommend to folks who struggle with sleep to make some sort of sleep ritual—setting yourself up for a successful holistic sleep. Putting intention or a spell on an animistic object (for practitioners, use a sigil here) underneath your pillow, first smoke cleanse the object before bed, you can whisper to this object “I will have a full sleep tonight” or “I am fully rested.” It is very important to cleanse the object before bed every night, along with cleansing your room before bed. Deep breathe yourself to sleep and continue this meditation into sleep. If breathing alone feels difficult, look up a guided sleep meditation—there are so many on youtube!

Some other helpful sleep aids: Remove all blue light 2 hours before bed, read a book to bed—not your phone, audiobook to sleep (Norse Mythology by Neil Gaimen), chamomile tea.

I plan to do more posts soon of my perspectives and my latest Pagan snow shoot.

🐺 Get some rest—Skål!

Linktr.ee

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