Latest / Random Heathen Ramblings / Random Heathen Ramblings: S5, EP39 - The Importance Of Developing Your Own Hearth Cult.

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Random Heathen Ramblings: S5, EP39 - The Importance Of Developing Your Own Hearth Cult. · Random Heathen Ramblings

0:02
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Random Heathen Ramblings
0:04
podcast where we discuss all sorts of things Germanic
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Heathenry related. My name is Jesse and I'm your
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3:00
Ellen, welcome back everybody. Hope you've had a good week
3:04
since the last episode and hope you're having a good day today
3:08
or night or morning or whatever it is, wherever it is, whenever
3:10
it is that you're catching this. Hope you're doing well and
3:13
getting into the spirit of the season, as it were.
3:18
I know a lot of pagans and heathens are planning their, you
3:25
know, fall time celebrations for heathens.
3:29
It's, you know, winter nights or veterinator or winter lease, I
3:34
think is the old English name for it.
3:37
But yeah. And and then of course, you
3:40
know, other neopagans and Wiccans and stuff.
3:42
They're thinking about their salon celebrations coming up.
3:46
And while they don't necessarily have the same thing to do with
3:49
one another, obviously, you know, like the heathen Germanic
3:51
heathen winter nights being a celebration of the dramatic
3:55
heathen New Year or an observation, I should say, of
3:58
the heathen New Year, which usually accompanies quite often
4:02
times a desert bloat or an outfit, depending on which you
4:07
want to go with maybe both. And then, you know, salon not
4:13
being exactly that, but you know, it's interesting.
4:15
It's, it's, it's all like this time of year when like what
4:22
modern Pagans would say, you know, the, the veil is thin or
4:25
thinning, you know, where we feel a closer connection to our
4:29
ancestors or we feel like they're closer than they are.
4:33
And maybe perhaps at other times of the year.
4:35
And a lot of, a lot of pagans feel that way.
4:39
It's just, it's interesting to note how much of what is going
4:41
on this time of year and the various things that happened to
4:44
people that are not planned and couldn't be planned.
4:50
Case in point, the night that I'm recording this the previous
4:54
night. So last night I had a dream that
4:57
involved my grandfather on my mother's side and I never have
5:02
dreams about him. I can't remember the last time I
5:05
ever had a dream where he was in it.
5:09
And then my bonus kid, Kevin had a had a dream last night also
5:15
that had his grandfather in it. And then and, and, and he rarely
5:21
ever dreams. Is this is what he tells me or
5:24
his dreams that he has. He never remembers.
5:27
You know, I know there's some discussion or belief that, you
5:33
know, we dream every night. It's just a matter of when it
5:35
happens and how much of it or if any of it that we retain the
5:39
next day. I don't know all about all that.
5:41
I just know that it was very interesting that we both had
5:46
dreams on the same night about our grandfathers.
5:52
So makes me want to think about the things that we have coming
5:57
up with our with our group, with our tribe.
6:00
We have our winter nights coming up on October the 19th because
6:06
that's the Saturday. That's the weekend when our
6:10
tribe can get together and celebrate.
6:12
But even before that this coming Saturday, so in just a couple of
6:15
days time will be the Raven Moon Hearth event Shadowmoot, their
6:20
annual autumn or fall time, you know, celebration of the goddess
6:26
hell, you know, so it's in in in their yearly celebration is
6:34
always somewhere around the same time as as winter nights.
6:36
It's it's never on the same fix calendar date every year.
6:39
They do tend to get it as close to around the winter nights time
6:45
as possible. I, I, I, I feel at least the
6:47
last few times that I've attended.
6:49
So, yeah, with just this, you know, this, this heightened
6:53
sensitivity to our ancestors and, and things that are going
6:56
on. It's interesting that, you know,
6:58
two different people that I know myself and one other had a dream
7:01
about their grandfathers, which is rare for the both of us.
7:06
So it does, it makes me think about incorporating that into
7:09
our tribes thing and in a couple of weeks.
7:13
And yeah, so maybe you guys are feeling the same thing too.
7:18
If you are a comment down below, if you're watching this on
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Patreon, a very special thanks to my patrons on Patreon, as
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always, for coming back every month to renew your pledge of a
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And if you're listening to this on any of the audio platforms, I
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said it right, it's just a dollar to gain access to the
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videos on my Patreon page. So if you click the link tree
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link that you see in the show notes of the podcast, it'll take
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you to all of my social medias. Patreon is there.
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You can follow me on all my socials and become a Patreon on
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And you can, you know, binge watch a bunch and and not return
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I do offer other things at a higher tier.
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So, you know, if that's something that interests you,
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just peruse through that and check it out.
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Reminder that I do have merch on spring.
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So it's Midgard musing store.com link for that is also in the
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link tree link that's posted in the show notes.
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So all of you that are out here supporting what I do in any way
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you know, interacting in any way that you're able to on the
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platforms that you catch this on, all of that is greatly
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appreciated and thank you so much.
8:43
So yes, this, this this Saturday around I think it's 8:00 AM or
8:48
8:30 AM, people can start showing up to the Barfield
8:51
Crescent Park in Murfreesboro, TN at pavilion #6 and that is
8:58
the pavilion where the Raven Moon Hearth folks will be
9:00
hosting their shadow mood event. I'll be there early in the
9:03
morning too and we'll be there all day.
9:05
It's an all day event. Right now the weather forecast
9:07
is looking perfect. You know, low temperatures in
9:11
the mornings are going to be, you know, in the low fifties.
9:15
The temperature during the day is supposed to not get out of
9:17
the mid 70s, low to mid 70s with abundant sunshine.
9:22
So we, we're going to have a really nice day to be outdoors
9:24
out of park, enjoying each other's company.
9:27
And I'll have a class that I'll be doing at 10:00 AM that day
9:31
about, about stumble, one of my favorite ceremonies or rituals
9:36
that we have in Heathenry. It's one of my favorite things
9:40
to be a part of, but also to, to lead in, in, in, in my own hall
9:45
is to, you know, lead the stumble.
9:47
And, but just being a part of stumble in any capacity, you
9:51
know, learning about it and knowing what it's for the, the,
9:54
the special meaning behind it all means a lot to me.
9:57
So I'm going to be doing a class about that.
9:59
And there's other believe there's other classes that are
10:02
going to be taught throughout throughout the day.
10:04
So do come on out and say hello. Looking forward to, to, to
10:09
seeing familiar faces, maybe meeting some new folks and just
10:13
generally having a great time. So this week's episode, what I
10:18
wanted to do is I got an e-mail from one of my patrons on
10:24
Patreon. They also, you know, follow me
10:27
on my YouTube channel and pop into some of the live streams.
10:35
For right now, I'm just, I'm just going to refer to them as
10:38
the Wolfmother. And they had sent an e-mail,
10:42
They actually sent a bunch of emails and they also called in
10:44
and left a few voicemails on the, the, the hotline, the
10:49
Midyard Musings hotline, which by the way, yes, you can call
10:52
into the podcast if you want. The, the voicemail for some
10:55
reason just cuts off at 3 minutes.
10:57
So if you're a bit long winded and you want to leave multiple
10:59
messages, that's fine. You can just call back.
11:03
But that number is, it's, it's open all the time.
11:05
You can call, leave a voicemail and it's 615-671-9832.
11:11
And the Wolfmother called and, and left a bunch of messages.
11:15
It's a bit all over the place. No, no, no hard feelings there.
11:18
Wolfmother, if you're listening to watching this, mainly just
11:22
talking about, you know, the, the, the sacred trail society,
11:25
one of the things that gets shared a lot on some of my
11:27
socials and their efforts to help keep the land sacred by
11:32
picking up trash. They're also right now finally
11:36
recognized as a registered non profit able to accept donations.
11:40
They are based out of Appalachia and they they are, they are
11:44
working fervently every day. Pretty much recently since the
11:49
floods came through, since Hurricane Helene destroyed so
11:52
much of that beautiful space in the mountains, Sacred Trail
11:56
Society is able to accept donations and be the one to
11:58
deliver a lot of the things that need that are needed by these
12:02
families who are still stranded, cut off without power, without
12:06
electricity, without cold or hot living conditions, you know,
12:11
right. So I mean, we're getting into a
12:12
time of year now where especially in the mountains, and
12:13
then overnight temperatures can get down pretty cold.
12:16
If they have no electricity, no ways of keeping warm, those
12:19
overnight temps can get cold, especially for young children
12:21
and infants. Who are some of the people
12:24
caught up in these, in these mountains?
12:26
You know, so Sacred Trail Society is is able to use their
12:30
donations to purchase things that these these these families
12:34
and these displaced individuals need and bring them to those
12:38
delivery points for, for the, for the right authorities, for
12:42
the right people that are capable of getting to them to
12:46
deliver these things. So there'll be a link also in
12:49
the description and show notes of this podcast with ways that
12:53
you can donate to the sacred Trail society.
12:55
They are accepting donations through their PayPal.
12:57
So that information will be linked down below.
13:00
If you're considering wanting to help with the the funds to allow
13:05
them to be able to again, provide for these families in
13:08
need. But that was mainly what Sarah
13:11
was talking about was, you know, her involvement or Wolfmother,
13:13
I'm sorry, going out there and, and, you know, cleaning up the
13:20
trails on their walks. And so thank you Wolfmother for
13:26
that, for that call. And then a couple of the emails
13:29
that came through. I do project at least at some
13:32
point in the future, not sure when exactly that Wolfmother
13:36
will be coming onto the podcast at some point.
13:38
There's been a lot of talk around that.
13:39
It's just a matter of nailing some specifics down and, and,
13:43
and getting things to happen at the right time.
13:47
But there's one particular e-mail that they had sent
13:50
recently and I, and I'm going, man, you know, this is something
13:52
that I think really needs to be talked about on a podcast
13:55
because so much of what she was saying in this e-mail really got
14:00
me thinking about the importance of hearth cult.
14:04
I believe I've talked about it enough on the show that people
14:07
ought to know what it is. I mean by that.
14:09
But for those that are maybe new to the show or don't know what
14:12
I'm talking about when I say hearth cult, you know,
14:14
especially for those that just don't know what I what I'm
14:19
talking about in that term, you know, hearth cult is just the
14:22
individual practices of the home of the family, of the, even if
14:27
it's not a family thing, it's, you know, if, if you are a
14:31
solitary practitioner, it's, it's your practices.
14:35
And we don't mean cult in like a negative connotation or a
14:39
negative thing. I know that word can a lot of
14:41
times get associated with, you know, distasteful and bad things
14:46
in the religious worlds of, you know, things.
14:52
But no, what I'm talking about with individual cultic practices
14:55
or hearth cult are the, whether they're repetitious or whether
15:00
they're regular or, or whatever the traditions of the home,
15:02
traditions of the family are. And again, if you're a solitary
15:06
practitioner, it's whatever your, you know, customs, your
15:10
traditions, your practices and, and involve and include.
15:14
And I've talked around this topic in, in different episodes
15:16
when it's, when it's come up in a way to really highlight and,
15:21
and put into focus the importance of our hearth cults.
15:27
We need to, especially heathens need to have our own hearth cult
15:31
established. And I feel it, it's an important
15:33
thing to have established before we can really even begin to
15:37
understand what it, it means to gather with a group or
15:40
experience bloat in the traditional sense, when we're
15:44
interacting or trying to interact with the divine, with
15:48
the gods and the goddesses. The, the, the, the lack of, of
15:53
hearth cult in someone's life can really have, I think, an
15:57
impact on how well they'll be able to connect and, and
16:01
interact or experience, you know, group setting type things
16:05
because they're, they're not going to get the, the nuance of
16:08
it. They're not going to understand
16:09
what the significance of certain things are without that.
16:14
So I always, you know, when I talk to people, if they're new
16:16
coming into Heathenry, one of the things that I've always try
16:19
to put focus on an importance on telling them is make sure you
16:24
know what your hearth cult is, that you have hearth a hearth
16:26
cult. And a lot of times this involves
16:28
things that we don't even necessarily have to think about.
16:31
You know, it could be the, the, the, the, the action of, of
16:34
getting up in the morning and drinking your cup of coffee and
16:37
standing outside on your front stoop on your balcony, on your
16:41
porch, by the river, by the, by the trees, by whatever, you
16:47
know, a nature space, if you, if you're there, there one, or
16:49
maybe it's just, you know, getting up and, you know,
16:51
reading a book or something that you have that you're doing in a,
16:55
in a ceremonial sort of way to prepare yourself for the day or
16:59
anything throughout the day or at the end of the day.
17:02
You know, a lot of these times these things involve the, the,
17:04
the individual cultic practices of people.
17:09
So it's not meant to like be intimidating, like, oh, I need
17:11
to do something that is, you know, historically documented or
17:15
whatever. It's, it's more than that.
17:17
It's, it's more what comes from the heart and your interaction
17:20
with your ancestors with, with the local spirits that dwell in
17:27
the land or in the home and keeping those relationships
17:31
alive. And that's why I said it's
17:34
important to have that established before really
17:38
thinking about what it means to bloat to the gods or getting
17:40
involved with bloat to the gods. It's not to say that you can't
17:43
be involved. I just think that having hearth
17:46
cult established and understood what it is and, and having all
17:49
that is, is, is really going to help inform the individual about
17:54
the bigger scale things when, when it comes to, you know,
17:57
bloating to the gods with, with a group, with a tribe, with a
18:00
kindred, with a collective of different people.
18:03
Because it's all that shared energy that's being, you know,
18:06
brought together into this one space outside of space-time away
18:10
from time, you know, trying to engage with the sacred and
18:14
profane space and doing all the things that that help with that.
18:21
So when I read this e-mail, there were some things that that
18:25
that the Wolfmother was talking about that really got me
18:28
thinking about this is this is what Hearth cult is about.
18:31
I'm not going to read the whole e-mail, but I'm going to just
18:34
pick up highlights of, of, of certain things and, and read
18:37
them off to you as, as to the reason why I felt like, like
18:40
this was what this was. And then there were some
18:44
sections of the e-mail where they, you know, she was asking
18:47
questions and I'll, and I'll probably read some of those too.
18:53
So what they wrote in about was that they're putting together a
18:56
calendar for events to plan to do with, with their family.
19:02
And I guess historically or in the past or, or, or up until
19:06
very recently, they've been a pretty solitary practitioner to
19:14
the point that they've, they've not involved their family
19:17
members, their, their, their children and, and the, the
19:21
collective of the clan with their practices and have just
19:25
kind of kept them doing it themself.
19:29
But this is sounding like something that is going to be
19:32
becoming a thing with this family, at least where they make
19:35
these calendars every year and it starts around in October.
19:43
They were saying that this year is going to be the, the first
19:47
year that we include the children, which I think is great
19:53
because again, that is, that's giving, that's giving the
19:57
children a understanding of the customs of the family, right?
20:01
It's, it's getting them involved and, and making them feel a part
20:04
of this whole thing. You know, what's mom doing,
20:07
What's dad doing? What's stepmom doing?
20:08
What's stepdad doing, right? What are all these who, what are
20:11
the, what are the, what are the grown-ups doing?
20:13
And and his children not understanding these things, You
20:17
know, getting involved to that degree and getting them involved
20:19
to that degree will really help them.
20:24
With, with, with their growth and understanding if this is a
20:26
path that they want to follow. It says that they let you know
20:31
that in all of last year, they kind of dabbled in doing bloat
20:36
and would ask when the next one was.
20:39
So, you know, the children would would get involved periodically
20:42
and they they found it appealing and wanted to know when's the
20:45
next one? You know, she say that that they
20:50
are moon, moon social and the school.
20:55
Let's see moon social and the and the school system is solar
20:59
social, meaning, you know, when they when school is out and and
21:03
things, you know, we know now that basically, you know, most
21:07
places are going to be observing the the reckoning of the
21:10
Gregorian calendar, where everything that is a holiday has
21:14
a fixed calendar date, you know, and as we know, you know, with
21:20
especially with heathens, time was reckoned using a Luna solar
21:27
calendar. So the cycles of the moon were
21:29
very important on determining when their holy tides would be
21:35
and and when certain things were happening.
21:37
Is, is, is was on what moon and how many moons and all that sort
21:42
of thing. So they're getting these kids
21:46
involved. They're getting their kids
21:47
involved in, in helping them understand like this is, this is
21:50
when we do those things. We're not just, you know, doing
21:53
it all Willy nilly and, and, and all haphazard or just whenever
21:56
we feel like it. We're doing it based around, you
21:59
know, when the moon looks a certain way in the sky and, and
22:02
all these things and giving them that exposure.
22:04
And I think that's great. She said that the their family
22:11
honors the land, spirits, ancestry and gods and we keep it
22:16
simple. It would be nice if there were
22:20
was like a formal calendar with levels of involvement.
22:24
I don't really know exactly what the levels of involvement thing
22:27
here that they're saying is per SE, but I do know that there are
22:31
like I believe it's I think on YouTube and pretty sure he's
22:37
got, you know, well, you know, I know he's got Facebook,
22:39
Instagram, YouTube, I'm not sure what other what is other and a
22:41
website, but the Nordic Animism, Dr. Roon Rasmussen, I believe
22:44
his name is, has done a Nordic animism calendar calendar.
22:50
So the interesting thing about it though, is again, that every
22:54
year, every calendar year that a Luna solo calendar would look
23:00
differently. It's not, again, it's not like,
23:03
you know, you know, 1, you know, September always has 30 days,
23:07
that sort of thing like we have now.
23:09
It's, it's, it's much different, but those types of things do
23:13
exist. What else are they saying that's
23:18
worth noting here? I always want to say, OK, they
23:23
were talking about doing things with folk.
23:25
Oh, that was the other one. We live in a certain area and
23:27
modern people, they're, they're using the term modern people
23:31
because they, they, they don't really like using the term folk
23:36
because of how that term has been used.
23:39
I don't mind using it. I mean, I know what we mean and
23:42
we know what we mean. But your folk are your people,
23:44
OK? There's nothing wrong with
23:46
calling them that. Not, not in my opinion.
23:53
So our practices are, are simple.
23:56
We do them on the full moons and they change and they do change,
24:03
she said. They change.
24:05
That's also very heathen. You know, to, to do bloat or to
24:08
have your ceremonies, your rituals, your offerings to do
24:11
them on full moons. That's very heathen.
24:15
Acetus records in his Germania very clearly that the the the
24:21
the Germanic tribes kept time or reckoned their time and kept
24:28
their holy days on the full moon are on the full moons and they
24:34
would reckon their time, you know, the new moons and full
24:36
moons were were of of great importance.
24:41
So having that adopting that into your cultic practice in
24:44
your into your hearth cult is very heathen.
24:48
And that's a great tradition to keep alive to show your kids to
24:52
about when the holy tides are are kept.
24:55
They're they're on the full moon, which is why every year we
24:58
have to do the do the whole chart thing.
25:02
We have to read it out. We have to plan it out in
25:05
advance to know, OK, well, when's this moon going to be
25:07
landing this year? Granted, the, the days apart
25:11
from each year when, when they land, you know, so like for, you
25:14
know, winter nights last year, I think was or in 2023, I think
25:18
winter nights, the, you know, the three day celebration of
25:22
winter nights landed right on around Halloween.
25:26
The, the salon and, you know, end of October this year it's,
25:30
you know, on the 17th, 18th, 19th, 17th being the day that
25:34
the full moon is. So it changes every year, but
25:36
it's usually within a week or two in most cases every year.
25:44
They're very outdoorsy driven. Wolf mother and the family are
25:49
here, you know, here you're sitting in the outdoors trying
25:51
to complete a calendar and I find it inspiring and, and quite
25:57
a, quite a hard task. It is a lot to do.
26:02
It's a lot of work. And I will agree the family is,
26:07
is, is for individuals. Everybody has personal needs.
26:17
So what I, what I guess what I'm just really trying to key in on
26:19
here and then there's going to be some questions that I'll
26:21
answer from the e-mail was this is this is a great example of
26:26
what I mean by establishing your hearth cult and doing things
26:31
that are going to help you as an individual or as a small family
26:38
unit. Get in the headspace, get in the
26:40
mind, get the heart on the understanding of what it would
26:44
mean to do things with the gods, with the divine, interacting
26:47
with the divine. Because your, your heart and
26:49
your mind is in that modality, in that, in that process of
26:56
thinking, like interaction, you know, giving the gifts, having
27:02
it set up at a certain time for a certain purpose.
27:06
You know, knowing when the moons and all these things are like
27:08
these are. Yeah.
27:10
They, they, they, they fall under, you know, larger heathen
27:13
beliefs or practices with, with regards to the holy days.
27:16
But, you know, not every month, not every moon in, in, in
27:23
Germanic Heathenry, whether it's Anglo-Saxon Heathenry or old
27:26
Saxon heathenry or old Norse Heathenry or whatever, you know,
27:33
not every month, not every moon has something documented about
27:38
the, there being anything done on it.
27:40
You know, So obviously there's, you know, 12 moon cycles and,
27:44
and 12/13 moon cycles in a, in a year, as long as it takes the,
27:48
the revolutions of things to happen.
27:51
And we don't have but three major dates or, or major
27:55
celebrations documented in that time span.
28:00
Now is that to say that something wasn't done on every
28:04
full moon or that the the people at that time didn't take time on
28:09
a full moon to to worship, to bloat, to do a feigning or give
28:15
an offering to their ancestors to the to the to the land
28:19
whites, to the to the gods. Maybe even we don't know.
28:24
It wouldn't surprise me and it and it wouldn't surprise many
28:27
others if if that were the the case.
28:29
So if we want to think about that in, in modern times and
28:33
think along those lines in modern times and incorporate
28:36
that into our hearth cults to where we have something every
28:40
month on a, on the full moon of each month to perform a blow, to
28:45
give a feigning, to do a ritual, to give an offering to the
28:48
vites, to the ancestors, to whatever.
28:51
I think that that is particularly very heathen in,
28:55
in, in, in thinking. And I, you know, again, without
28:59
being able to confirm it historically in any sort of
29:01
source, just thinking along the lines of, of what we do know, it
29:07
would not surprise me. And I and I feel like again,
29:09
this is a great place to think about our hearth cult and that
29:12
it is it would involve, you know, more than just the three
29:16
major holy tides referenced in our sources, meaning the Yule
29:21
celebration, the cigar bloat or victory sacrifice and the winter
29:25
night celebration. So going on into this one e-mail
29:33
there again, there were some things about this that they were
29:35
like a question posed that I thought would be best try to try
29:38
and answer this way. So Wolfmother, hope this is OK
29:43
for you, but I thought it would be a great episode 1 of the
29:44
things she asked was, have you ever planned a a a year?
29:49
And what are the issues that you have?
29:54
And do you ever want to change stuff up?
29:58
I want to make a monthly veneration with my people, but I
30:04
worry that it isn't quote UN quote heathen.
30:11
And again, that is one of the things that I'm saying.
30:13
So do I plan out a year? Not every month of the year, no.
30:18
I do plan things for the three major holy tides, but I don't
30:24
have it, you know, I don't have a big, a very big group to get
30:27
together with. There's usually something going
30:29
on almost every month wherever I'm at, whether it's just a get
30:32
together or, or or something. Some other groups host things
30:37
monthly. Park moots or pub moots or or
30:40
whatever. I know that's not technically
30:41
what you mean when it comes to planning a year and and having
30:46
ceremony, but the fact that you think that you want to make a
30:49
monthly veneration a monthly thing to venerate, like I just
30:53
said before, yes, it is very heathen.
30:57
It it is absolutely, I think a heathen mindset or approach to
31:02
go that way. And I love it for the hearth
31:08
cult thing that I'm talking about.
31:12
I, I've heard of even some, some bigger groups, you know, tribes
31:16
or kindreds that plan a monthly thing that they bring all of
31:21
their people together to do an offering or a bloat or something
31:24
on the full moon of each month. And regardless of how big that
31:29
group is, whether it's just a family or whether it's a few
31:32
people or whatever, they, they, they, they schedule them, they
31:34
have them out just based on whenever the full moon is or as
31:37
close to it as they can get for everybody to gather and
31:41
assemble. You know, the tricky thing about
31:44
adopting this type of approach in modern times is because the
31:50
world operates around a Gregorian calendar with fixed
31:54
holidays on calendar dates where they're not looking at moon
31:59
cycles or anything like that. You know that that's the biggest
32:02
challenge, I guess, or issue that one could have is, you
32:06
know, you want to be as historically accurate or you
32:10
want to get it on the full moon. But you know, the full moon
32:12
could land on a Tuesday. You know, and not everybody's
32:17
going to be able to take off from work on in the middle of
32:19
the work week, especially a lot of folks that like myself work a
32:23
traditional Monday through Friday kind of nine to five, you
32:26
know, office job or something like that.
32:30
So having those restrictions or you know, that can present a bit
32:34
of an issue. So you know, you're stuck with
32:37
having to determine that, right? So do we want to do it before
32:40
the full moon is complete or after?
32:46
I, I usually, if you know, if it's during the week, like let's
32:50
say, you know, a full moon, OK, well, perfect example this year,
32:53
winter nights, you know, winter nights, the full moon is on a
32:57
Thursday. Now we've got three nights
33:01
thereafter of, of still being in that full moon cycle.
33:04
So, you know, we're, we're on, we're, we're doing our
33:09
celebration on the third slash last day of winter nights.
33:14
And we've done that before where, you know, sometimes the
33:16
year doesn't, you know, the, the holiday doesn't land on a
33:18
weekend. We're doing our stuff on
33:21
weekends because that's when we are able to get everybody
33:23
together around here that we have involved with things 'cause
33:27
they work during the week. So, you know, in in some other
33:30
cases or in some other situations, maybe weekends don't
33:33
work well for people because most everybody in that group or
33:36
collective have non traditional work hours or business hours
33:40
where they work overnight. So they work on weekends.
33:41
So maybe doing things in the middle of the week is better for
33:43
them. Those are the types of, you
33:47
know, issues or challenges I think that can come up when
33:49
trying to plan a a year out, like with with this calendar
33:53
idea that you're having. But I just, I haven't ever
33:57
gotten that granular with it or that deep into it.
33:59
So usually the, the, the toughest thing to do is all
34:02
right, are we going to do winter nights or are we going to do
34:04
cigar or are we going to do Yule?
34:06
You know, if it lands in the middle of the week or on a
34:09
weekday, are we going to decide to plan the celebration of it on
34:15
the weekend before the full moon or several days after the full
34:21
moon comes on that weekend? So it's always, you know, a fun
34:29
thing to try to, to get them figured out.
34:31
So we that's, that's what each individual or each group have to
34:35
come up with, she says. She says also that they've got a
34:40
book with all formal days for others and all gods and, and,
34:47
and beings and all practices from all lands.
34:51
They made the book themself. So again, this goes back to
34:55
hearth cult big time. You know, if you're authoring
34:57
or, or, or writing or, you know, creating your own stuff that
35:01
that is to be shared and kept within your inner circle, in
35:04
your and within your inner guard.
35:06
That's very heathen that they made it themselves.
35:11
And I'm planning to pass it down so my kids will have a kind of a
35:18
map to go with or to go off of. Again, also very heathen.
35:21
You know, to have something that can be passed down to
35:23
generation, from generation to generation and have that be the
35:28
inheritance that is received by each generation.
35:34
It keeps your connection to the family strong.
35:39
Those those descendants, when they remember your name, you
35:43
know, there's, there's a direct connection, there's a Direct
35:45
Line of connection between them and you through these items that
35:49
you worked so hard on. So that's a beautiful, that's a
35:54
beautiful thing to hear. You know that this book that
35:57
you've created, that you've worked on with the names of the
36:00
gods and the moons and, and when they are and this and that and
36:03
all that information, whatever it is, you know, something for
36:05
your, for your children and their children, perhaps even to,
36:08
to work off of. I love it.
36:11
And that's another great example of hearth cults.
36:14
So whether you know, you write books or take pictures or photos
36:18
or paintings, you know, or something that keeps track of
36:21
the family's tradition, recipes, I think is another really great
36:26
thing. Because you know, when we cook
36:29
recipes from our grandparents or our aunts and you know,
36:34
whatever, you know, that, that keeping them alive too, because
36:39
they wrote that down or they, they documented that they made
36:42
it themselves for the family when they were alive.
36:44
And now we're sitting here making these foods and these
36:47
dishes and sharing meals with other people with the same,
36:52
using the same recipe that they did, you know, So we're, we're
36:56
recalling their memory again in that sort of way.
37:02
Let's see, we're looking for or working on terms for them, I
37:11
guess, talking about terms for your children to use because
37:13
they know some of them. But I wanted to be a resource
37:18
book that they can, I guess, refer to and make their own
37:24
calendars in life. Yeah.
37:27
I mean, like, maybe maybe the thing that you were, you know,
37:29
you know, that they're being exposed to now or you're
37:30
teaching them now isn't going to be the thing that they
37:34
ultimately adopt later on in life.
37:36
It's too early to tell. You never know, you know, But
37:41
one would hope that bringing up in the heathen way in in the
37:46
heathen household with heathen traditions, you know that they
37:49
would that those traditions would speak to them and they
37:51
would want to continue perpetuate that and bring honor
37:55
to that and and their ancestors and among whom that you'll be
37:59
joining eventually one day. And so let's see first year for
38:09
us to do this practice together. Yeah, you know, the first steps,
38:16
everything starts with the first step.
38:17
You know, you can't, you can have these grandiose ideas and,
38:22
and the, and these, you know, huge dreams, goals, even things
38:30
that you want to attain and you can get lost in before you even
38:35
set sail, which is an interesting thing that I think
38:39
is going to be where I want to go with towards wrapping this
38:44
episode up. So as I think about that, we're
38:47
going to hear a couple words more from our sponsors of fire
38:50
on the mountain sponsors this year.
38:54
And then we're going to talk about, you know, setting our
38:56
goals, having these things that we want to have involved in our
39:00
hearth cults, our, you know, individual cultic practices,
39:03
things that we do with our nearest and dearest and how,
39:07
man, that can get pretty overwhelming.
39:09
You know, how, what am I going to do?
39:11
How do I do it? Where do I start?
39:14
Right? And then that overwhelming
39:16
feeling that could sometimes stop you or prevent you from
39:18
even doing it, setting it on that first step and getting lost
39:21
before you set sail. So we're going to go into that
39:24
because I have some things to talk about with regards to that,
39:26
some seeds to plant. We'll be right back after a
39:30
couple of words from this year, Sponsors for Fire on the
39:33
Mountain. Stay tuned.
39:35
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39:39
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39:44
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39:47
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Thank you again to our sponsors for this year.
41:22
It's just a couple of weeks away.
41:24
As a matter of fact, in two weeks, by the time you folks are
41:27
listening and watching this podcast, I will be on the
41:30
mountain with nine other esteemed men for this annual
41:35
retreat, leadership summit and healing and well-being
41:41
endeavour. So we've got a lot of fun things
41:44
planned. And again, thank you to all our
41:45
sponsors this year for helping make this happen.
41:52
All their information, all the sponsors that you heard on this
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42:02
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If it's just following them on their socials, visiting them at
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42:15
All right, so one of the things I thought about going into that,
42:24
going into that idea of establishing our hearth cult,
42:28
right again, that may, that may seem like, oh, I've got a goal,
42:31
but this is what I want to do. You can't get fixed on the goal.
42:37
We can't, we can't get lost on everything that happens before
42:41
we reach the goal. You know, the goal is is a is a
42:45
point. It's a destination to reach.
42:48
Try not to focus on the goal. Try to focus on everything that
42:50
it takes to get there. It makes me think of something
42:54
that I recently heard about from one of our elders in our
42:57
community about astral projection, spirit travel and
43:02
the tradition or a way that he was taught from his great
43:07
grandfather, his grandfather who were Icelandic and, and this is
43:12
a family tradition, right? But, and I'm not going to break
43:18
down every single thing, but but, but the nature of it was,
43:21
as you know, before you go on a journey, you need to make plant,
43:27
you need to plan certain things. So you first of all, where are
43:29
you going, right? Where do you, you got to know
43:31
where you're going? And then before you get there,
43:34
what do you need to do? Well, you have to map your
43:35
course. You have to know the directions
43:38
to take to get to that your destination, to reach your goal.
43:44
You need to know kind of what's going to happen along the way
43:46
before you get there and what are you going to need to get
43:52
there safely or to get there in one piece.
43:57
So there was an analogy given of a ship, you know, taking a
44:01
journey on a ship and it's like, well, before you can even take
44:05
the journey, you got to build the ship.
44:09
So what does it take to build the ship, right?
44:11
Well, it takes the lumber, it takes the nails, it takes the
44:14
skill, it takes the manpower, it takes, you know.
44:16
So then, well, OK, so then once you've got the vessel to travel
44:20
on or in your next things to think about is there, well, I, I
44:27
can't sail this ship by myself. I need a crew, you know, well,
44:30
how big is the ship? How big is the crew that is
44:32
going to be needed to to sail the ship?
44:35
What are the things that make up the ship that are needed?
44:38
You know, you need your sails, you need your oars, you need
44:40
your rudder, you need your this everything that that makes the
44:42
ship it what it is. And then the men or the people
44:46
to navigate with it. OK, well, that isn't that isn't,
44:50
you know, we're not done yet because you've got this long
44:52
journey ahead. You got this destination to
44:54
reach this goal that you're trying to accomplish.
44:58
And that goal might be the greatest thing ever.
45:00
Oh man, when I reach my goal, things are going to change.
45:02
It's going to be so great. And that's all that you maybe
45:04
can think about. But again, everything else
45:07
beforehand, that takes thinking and, and planning and preparing
45:11
for like, all right, well, now that you're going on this
45:15
journey with these people who you've, you know, gotten
45:18
together to to help you, you, do you have enough food to feed
45:22
everybody? Do you have enough water to to
45:24
keep everybody hydrated or whatever?
45:26
You know, do you have things to do to entertain yourselves?
45:30
Because all work and no play makes Ivar a dull boy, as the as
45:34
the saying goes. And you know, do you have the
45:37
things to keep the, the crew morale up?
45:42
You know, so maybe games, music, entertainment, things that can
45:49
help keep the spirits of the people involved keep their
45:54
spirits up, keep their spirits high, which is going to then
45:57
help with when the work gets done.
45:59
Because you're not burnt out. They're not burnt out.
46:05
You know, what type of what time of year is it that you're going
46:07
on this travel or on this journey?
46:09
You know, are you dressed well enough?
46:11
Do you have the right things to protect you from whatever the
46:15
elements are going to be at that time of year?
46:18
You know, do you have warm furs? Do you have things to keep dry?
46:24
All of these various things Again, all of these things that
46:26
you got to think about before you even set sail before you
46:29
even go on that journey, before you even start going in that
46:33
direction. So in like fashion, even though
46:38
this type of thing was was thought about around a very
46:41
specific, you know, spirit travel, astral projection,
46:46
whatever and a family custom to get in that mindset.
46:48
I feel like this type of mentality can be taken and
46:52
applied in many other things and in many other lifestyles and
46:57
facets of our lives. You know, so with, with regards
47:00
to thinking of, you know, this hearth cult, I'm sure that, you
47:04
know, you talk to somebody about hearth cult, this thing about
47:08
the, what was the word? I'm thinking of this thing about
47:15
the, the, the calendar, you know, just came up this year.
47:20
This is a hearth cult tradition of this one specific family, but
47:23
it opens up the door to think about ways to bond with our
47:27
families, you know, crafting things, things that are going to
47:32
be fun in the moment, but also beneficial and useful for the
47:36
future. And if you guys can hear the
47:40
dogs barking in the background, I apologize because I've got a
47:44
bunch of loudmouths that won't keep their mouth shut when
47:48
they're excited. But when we talk about our
47:53
family traditions, our family customs, our hearth cult, these
47:57
are things that do change and that can evolve over time.
48:00
You know, it doesn't mean that the thing that you come up with
48:03
right now is going to be the thing that stays or, or, or
48:07
whatever. Maybe you change later, maybe
48:10
you change your ideas later, and that's fine.
48:15
Like, like the Wolfmother was saying.
48:18
And you know, the, the, the, this just came up in, you know,
48:21
the first year of them doing it as a family now, you know,
48:25
hopefully I would think something like that could be
48:27
really fun to do as a family and be continued and carried on in
48:31
the family tradition and, and the skills of, of what to do can
48:34
be taught to the children. And then they, they learn more
48:38
about it and then they teach their kids or their, you know,
48:42
family and so forth down the line.
48:44
So it starts with the thought. It starts with that seed.
48:46
It starts with that first step. You got to make the first step
48:50
before you get to the destination.
48:51
And then once you, once you know it, now you have a hearth cult.
48:55
Your hearth cult is yours, your unique way of doing things, your
48:59
unique practices of doing things and not going to be the same as
49:05
mine, not going to be the same as anybody else's ever again.
49:07
There's nuance, whatever that can be seen and, and, and
49:11
shared, but ultimately it, it's important that you and yours
49:18
have it set up and established. It's very, it's a very heathen
49:23
thing to think about and it's a very heathen way of doing it.
49:25
And so the things that, you know, the wolf mother was
49:27
saying, well, I'm sure if it's, if it's even absolutely
49:30
everything that I hear about you talking, hear, hear you talking
49:34
about is very heathen. And I, and I think it's one of
49:38
the most important parts of, of heathenry that doesn't really
49:41
get talked about that much. It's always about the holidays
49:45
and, and, and whatnot. But what about the, the, the,
49:48
the deeds the rest of the time of the year?
49:50
Sure, it's great and it's nice to know when these, you know,
49:53
these historical dates were and, and all of that.
49:56
But are we living in ways? Are we doing things as heathens,
50:00
as people that are honorable for our for our clans that are going
50:05
to bring us to a state? I talked about honor and and
50:09
reputation and stuff last week and last episode.
50:11
Are we are, are we doing things that are honorable for our
50:19
families, for our folk, for our people, for our clans, for our
50:22
tribes? That's what's important.
50:24
That's, that's the real, that's where the real heathenry is.
50:28
And it's knowing these things and understanding these, these,
50:30
these worldviews and living in ways that reflect that, you
50:34
know, when the holidays are and so forth.
50:38
It's like it's a tip of the iceberg.
50:39
It's a portion of it. And I think it goes again into
50:42
what I talked about earlier when when it came to this whole thing
50:45
with Hearth cult is get that locked in first.
50:48
Understand where you're coming from with that before you think
50:51
about which moon do I need to bloat on for which God or
50:54
goddess or which holiday this or that.
50:57
All of that is, it's important. It's part of it.
51:00
But I think in the scale of importance, it's not as
51:06
important as as what I'm talking about with, you know, having
51:09
those family traditions, having that thing built and established
51:13
as as a as a hearth tradition, as a hearth cult amongst you and
51:19
your people, you and your family, you and your clan.
51:24
So I'm anxious to hear what each of all of you think about this,
51:27
you know, listening to this and watching this.
51:31
And, and thank you again to Wolf Mother for calling and and
51:35
leaving ME3 voicemails. I don't mind.
51:37
It's fine. I wish there was a way for me to
51:40
turn off that limit that Google Voice has where you can only
51:44
leave a 3 minute voicemail. It's kind of rude, but I don't
51:47
make the rules. But you are welcome to call in
51:53
and leave as many as you want before you until you get your
51:56
your point across. And that goes for everybody you
52:00
know you can call in. You can write in
52:03
midgardmusingstn@gmail.com is the e-mail, 615-671-9832 is the
52:10
hotline for the podcast, and just call in and leave a
52:13
voicemail. If you want the voicemail to be
52:17
on the podcast, just let me know.
52:19
Say, hey, you know, this is a thought I had.
52:21
If you want to remain anonymous, you can.
52:24
And yeah, I hope you guys enjoyed this episode.
52:28
And if you did, I'm anxious to hear what you thought about it.
52:32
So if you're listening to this on any of the platforms that
52:34
allow you to comment, feel free to do so.
52:38
If you're watching this on Patreon, comment down below.
52:40
Let me know your thoughts. Thank you again for tuning in
52:45
this week to the Random Heathen Ramblings podcast.
52:47
If you liked it, share it around, show your support and
52:51
upvote it, download it, whatever The thing is that you can do to
52:55
to support in that way. And yeah, I greatly appreciate
52:58
all your support. So thanks for coming back again
53:00
this week. We'll see you in the next one.
53:03
Until then, may the gods continue to notice you, and may
53:07
your ancestors smile upon you.