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Random Heathen Ramblings: S5, EP45 - The Role Of The Landvaettir In Germanic Heathenry · Random Heathen Ramblings

0:03
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Random Heathen Ramblings
0:06
podcast where we discuss all sorts of things Germanic
0:09
Heathenry related. My name is Jesse and I'm your
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host. Let's get into it.
0:41
All right, everybody, why does it do that?
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Move that logo up out of the way.
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It does that every time I come on here with this new software
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that I'm doing. Apologies for that.
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Just getting in your way for those of you that watch this
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anyway, don't need to bore you with all of that minutiae and
0:58
all that nonsense. Anyway, Halen, welcome back to
1:05
one of the final episodes of Season 5 of the Random Heathen
1:09
Ramblings podcast. We're winding down.
1:12
It's getting to be that time of year, you know, where a lot of
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folks are spending time with their, with their loved ones,
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with their families, holiday seasons, that being a thing, at
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least here in the the Northern hemisphere, in the United States
1:29
specifically. So I'm glad to be on here again
1:33
after, you know, I wouldn't say take a week off, but I didn't, I
1:40
definitely wasn't like off when it came to other things.
1:43
I just I had a lot going on with it being, you know, family
1:48
holiday times of year and, and planning things and doing things
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with others that I didn't have time to sit down and record and
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produce a a podcast last week. So anyway, we're here now.
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We're back and thank you for being here.
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credit. And I also thank you
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specifically here. So to all my patrons, thank you
3:14
very, very much. All right, so today's podcast
3:19
episode is going to be on a topic that I feel gets probably
3:25
not talked about as much, or at least I don't see it talked
3:28
about as much. There are some craters and and
3:32
and some individuals out here, whether heathen or or not that
3:38
are, that are starting, I feel to to talk more about this side
3:41
of things when it comes to heathenry.
3:44
This, this, this really leans more into, I'd say the like the
3:49
animistic side of things, which the more I've grown as a
3:53
heathen, particularly the more my animistic, the more I've been
4:00
might be inclined, I'd say to, to lean into that animism and
4:04
learn more of animistic ways that, that fit well within my
4:07
worldview and the, and that that can help me in my, in my growth
4:11
as a heathen. So today we're talking about
4:14
Landsvitir, which are the land whites, the land spirits, the,
4:19
the unseen spirits that, that dwell in and rend the land.
4:25
So they are in and around us. They, they, they are cohabitants
4:31
of profane space and time, but they exist in that spirit form,
4:37
you know, so they don't always make themselves manifest in, in
4:40
the, in the ways that our physical eyes can see, but they
4:44
are nonetheless very present. And the reason why I wanted to,
4:49
to talk about them today is just because of, of, again, more of
4:53
my growth as, as a person and as a heathen and how I, I, I have
4:58
tended to gravitate more towards this.
5:01
And I feel like it's an important place for, for
5:04
heathens, especially to go, you know, because a lot of times I
5:09
think we, we, we, we see, you know, especially newer heathens
5:12
or people getting into Heathenry that are semi new.
5:15
And then they're kind of getting into that middle intermediary
5:18
ground. You know, they're, they, they've
5:20
established a worldview, they've maybe they've established a
5:23
hearth cult. And then the other, they're
5:26
really starting to establish their roots, you know, and, and,
5:28
and find their way a bit. I, I, I think that it, you know,
5:32
when we talk about advanced type things or, or, or things within
5:35
Heathenry that are a bit beyond the initiatory, you know,
5:40
rudimentary one O 1 type stuff, it's almost natural, you know,
5:47
for us to, to dive into and explore the more animistic side
5:51
of things. I've talked a lot before about
5:58
the way I feel that newer heathens tend to overlook the
6:02
more important things in favor of the seemingly more exciting
6:07
or talked about topics, You know, the venerating, the gods,
6:11
the bloats, the holy days, the holy tides, you know, when do we
6:15
bloat? How do we bloat all this type
6:17
of, of, of stuff? And the, the animistic side of
6:22
things tends to get pushed to the side or maybe not talked
6:25
about as much. And I and I sit to my, you know,
6:28
I say to myself, I sit here and I go, well, why, you know, why
6:30
is that? Or why am I seeing that right?
6:35
Maybe it's just an algorithmic thing that that's what I'm
6:38
seeing, maybe not, I don't know. So if you're if you've seen
6:44
different or you've you've heard differently, you know, feel free
6:46
to to make a comment wherever you're catching this.
6:48
If it's, you know, on Spotify, you can leave a comment down
6:52
below. If you're watching this on on on
6:54
Patreon, put a comment down below.
6:57
If you have thoughts about this and you want to share with them
7:00
outside of the platform, you know, you can always e-mail me
7:04
midgardmusingstn@gmail.com or you can call into the podcast
7:09
hotline, which is a 24 hour number.
7:12
You know, it's a 24 hour, seven day a week number that you can
7:14
call in and leave a voicemail. It's 615-671-9832.
7:21
But yeah, why are we seeing more of, you know, the big picture
7:26
type stuff or, or the more romanticized, the more talked
7:29
about, the more documented things.
7:31
And that's where, and I think that the, the, the thing to take
7:35
note of is when we talk about things like land Viteer, the
7:40
Land's whites, the, the, the spirits of the land that exist,
7:44
What documentation, what source material do we really have to go
7:48
back on to study and learn these, these things and, and,
7:54
and know something about them. And I, you know, from what I've
8:00
been able to find, it's, it's few and far between, you know,
8:04
these types of things, what I'm talking about today when we talk
8:08
about animism or the spirit of the land or the land spirits,
8:13
whether they be river spirits, mountain spirits, tree spirits,
8:17
rock spirits, whatever, these are topics.
8:23
These are things that exist predominantly more in regional
8:26
folklore from what I've been able to find, at least to the
8:30
specifics of things. Yeah, sure.
8:33
There are definitely mentions of landfittier or the land lights,
8:38
the land spirits in in some source material and some of the
8:42
especially the Icelandic source material, you know, so taking
8:48
into consideration the timing of those documented, you know,
8:54
those documented things when that start happening during a,
8:57
you know, during the medieval period when this part of the
9:02
world, this this this region of the, of the world was, you know,
9:06
either already Christianized or it was becoming Christianized.
9:11
You know, some of the source material that you're going to
9:13
find about that, that that talk specifically about these things
9:16
are going to be material that that circulates around laws or,
9:22
or customs, you know, that were probably very Pagan.
9:29
But like, I think some things that I'm going to try to cite
9:31
today as best as I can, are going to, to kind of kind of
9:35
reflect on the opposite, where they were laws to stop or
9:39
prevent or to, to again, to kind of like ban the belief of land
9:46
spirits and land whites and, and what their presence meant to the
9:51
indigenous culture of Scandinavia and, or other, you
9:56
know, dramatic regions of, of the world, Northern Europe in,
10:02
in, in the end, and what that kind of meant to the people.
10:04
How, how, how that belief and how that understanding of these
10:08
spirits existence impacted the people's lives.
10:13
So I, I think at this point, you know, you, you've heard me
10:17
mention, you know, Landvatir and, and the, the root word or,
10:22
or the, the operative word that we're going to focus on is, you
10:24
know, Vaitir. So the Veitier part of land
10:27
vitier, you know, Khus vitier, fiau vitier, whatever.
10:34
This is a word of, of, of old Norse, you know, origin.
10:37
That is a word that just kind of means spirit, you know.
10:43
So the land spirits you've heard me mentioned here before whites
10:46
Wight. So 1 interesting thing to take
10:51
away from that is if you if you use the term or you hear the
10:54
term said land whites or whites in general.
10:58
Again, the spelling is WIGHTSI want to say that that is a word
11:03
that is rooted in an old Saxon word again for spirit.
11:14
So what's interesting to note is that in the, in the old Saxon
11:16
language, the Saxons, again, being a tribe of, of Germanic
11:25
peoples, one of the few last Germanic tribes that, that, that
11:31
really held onto their, their old ways beliefs that, that were
11:35
some of the last to, to, to, to be Christianized, to be
11:39
converted through some very unsavory and, and, and terrible
11:45
means. But anyway, the, there's a word
11:48
in old Saxon, then I'm going to hopefully pronounce correctly.
11:54
And that word is wake. So the the the wha sound that I
12:01
just pronounced in the old Saxon language is it's the English
12:05
pronunciation of the English word W that says the wha sound
12:10
like in wind or in whey or whites.
12:13
That that wha sound is, is it's depicted in in old Saxon
12:18
languages as two letter Latin letter U's.
12:22
So the W, the English, modern English W it's literally an old
12:27
sax. And then I think an old English
12:29
AW2, what appear to be like letter U's.
12:33
So when you have those two letters together, they say the W
12:37
sounds so it's W so or two U's. UUIHW so Wick is a word that an
12:44
old Saxon is the word for the sacred Grove that the Saxons
12:49
were known to gather and venerate their deities, their
12:54
sacred spaces. It's a sacred Grove.
12:56
It's outdoors, clearly. And then you have a word that
13:02
meant the word white or or or or spirit was the same word W or
13:12
UUIH with AT at the end. So wit, wit, right.
13:17
And it implies that the Saxon Groves or the, the, the the
13:22
sacred Groves that the Saxons would gather to worship or or
13:28
venerate their, their, their, their sacred powers.
13:31
There's their deities in, you know, where they would held
13:36
ritual and bloat to the gods and all this.
13:38
It it implies, I think that the these two words are so as as as
13:43
close as they are together. Was that the the the Wick was
13:46
where the wits were right or where the spirits were So white
13:58
is another word that you might hear get used.
14:00
Veytir is the is the Old Norse or or Scandinavian version of
14:05
that. But again, we're talking about
14:07
spirits of the land. What are they?
14:11
They are often depicted as guardians of a place.
14:16
They are the the residential spirit or spirits that inhabit a
14:22
place. Quite often times a particular
14:27
rock, stone, tree, river, a very specific place.
14:33
So the spirit of that river or the spirit of that land is tied
14:37
to a very specific location, you know.
14:40
So the place names quite often can be seen as as as being
14:44
something of a of a particular interest that they are typically
14:48
depicted as guardian spirits and spirits that exist in the
14:53
landscape have existed in the landscape that the local people
14:59
of that land that coexist would want to make sure that they were
15:04
always kept happy or that they were kept in in good spirits.
15:08
You know that they wanted the, the land that's here to be on
15:11
their side, on the people side, the well-being of the land, the,
15:20
the, the, the goodness of the land, whether it was fruitful
15:24
for growing crops or if, you know, there was less conflict
15:29
and war and, and, and things that could potentially disrupt
15:33
or cause turmoil in a society, right?
15:39
So the well-being and the goodness of a land was connected
15:46
to the spirits of the land. So if the land was doing well,
15:49
that meant the spirits of the land were happy.
15:51
If it wasn't, they were upset or, or, or frightened or, or
15:56
something that was negative. You know what I mean?
16:02
There are some sources that can also depict the Lanvatier as
16:08
being potentially harmful. Again, if they've been neglected
16:13
or they've been, you know, subjected to repeated tumultuous
16:19
type things or fear, you know, has been brought upon them to
16:23
scare them in any sort of way. They, they, they have the
16:28
capability and they've been depicted in, in some sources as
16:31
having that ability to scare others away to, to drive others
16:35
away to, to put fear in the hearts of, of, of, of humans, of
16:40
their human coexistence. Right to, to, to keep them away
16:44
to to, to drive them away. This is again depicted through
16:54
human actions such as usage usages of carved figureheads on
17:00
ships. I'm going to get into a couple
17:04
of sources here in just a moment.
17:06
Or, you know, that, that, that, that kind of back up a little
17:08
bit. What I'm saying when it comes to
17:10
the these, these, you know, figures of Dragons on ships or,
17:14
or fearsome creatures on ships that, that we see very
17:18
predominantly depicted in especially medieval Scandinavian
17:22
imagery and, and, and naval vessels and things like that.
17:26
We also see, you know, the, the the uses of need stungs, the the
17:33
needing poles in, in such sources as like the the saga of
17:38
Aegil Scala Grimson, who, who puts, you know, a horse's head
17:41
on a pole and faces it toward the Kingdom where the the king
17:47
at the time, you know, was, was he, he wanted to Egiel raise
17:51
this knee stone or this knee stone, the the kneading pole to
17:55
to frighten the Veitier, the land Veitier to, to, to, to
18:00
frighten them and to scare them so that way they were they would
18:03
behave, you know, in an I'll fashion towards the king and his
18:07
land. And then and make it kind of,
18:10
you know, bring hell upon him, that sort of thing.
18:11
Or, or or make it a, make it not a good time for the inhabitants.
18:21
But yeah, so in the medieval period of of, of, of
18:27
Scandinavian sources, we see, I think we see, we, we tend to see
18:30
more mentions of this. There is one not really.
18:36
I, I just literally, literally discovered this recently a, a
18:41
source from I think it was either Norway or Iceland called
18:46
the what's it called the oof, what's it called?
18:55
Olfiot's log, Oof Yog Oof flutes log.
19:01
I'll put it down in the the description and showing it was
19:04
for you folks, but basically that it's it's a law, I believe
19:10
of of again of around the the medieval period.
19:13
So like the 11-12 hundreds of of Iceland, but basically an A law
19:21
aiming aiming as such to prevent the upsetting of the land
19:27
Viteer. So I'm going again, I'm going to
19:33
try to try to find a source at least for like APDF or something
19:35
that you can look more into this particular source material.
19:38
But from that law, from the Ophiates log, it is said that it
19:47
was the beginning of the preamble of the heathen laws
19:52
that men should not take ships to sea with carved figures,
19:56
carved figureheads upon their sterns.
19:59
But if they did. They that that they should take
20:02
them off before they came insight of land and not sail to
20:05
the land with gaping heads or yawning snouts, lest the
20:11
guardian phase Faye is another kind of word of of of to use is
20:15
like the the the Faye folk. The spirit fairies isn't I think
20:19
it's of Celtic origin. But anyway, they would do so so
20:22
that so so to not to sail to land with gaping heads or
20:25
yawning snouts, lest the guardian phase of the land
20:29
should be scared. They're at So these ships that
20:34
had these dragon heads or or or fearsome looking creatures,
20:39
right that they would go into battle with.
20:40
That's all well and good when they're going away, and then
20:43
we're going without when they would come back to land.
20:46
There was this particular law that would forbid such things to
20:50
be depicted when coming towards the land of home of the to their
20:54
homeland, because they didn't want the spirits, the guardians
20:57
of this land to be alarmed and scared of this fearsome carving
21:03
or this fearsome depiction that was on the the, the head of the
21:07
ship. Examples of Lanvatier in modern
21:13
culture still exist to this day in the coat of arms of the
21:16
country of Iceland. So when you look at if you're
21:20
watching this on, on on Patreon, you'll see on your screen the
21:27
coat of arms of Iceland, which depicts an like an eagle, a
21:31
dragon, a bull. And this, this, this sort of
21:34
robed figure with a big stick or a staff.
21:39
And these are 4 beings that are commonly identified in the in,
21:43
in Icelandic source in an Icelandic source as Lanvatier.
21:49
And it's a pretty cool story. It's in the saga of Olaf's the
21:57
Olaf saga Trig Versonar, which I believe is contained in the
22:01
Hamstringless saga. And so basically what would,
22:10
what had happened was if I can find a semi decent source to
22:18
kind of read from, but, but basically what had happened was
22:21
I, I won't bore you with the the details of the Sagar album.
22:23
I'll put it in the description, show notes area for you guys to
22:26
check out. But essentially this, the story
22:28
is, is that somebody, you know, as they were coming to the land,
22:31
they would, they would, they would, they tried to invade it.
22:33
They tried to come in at 4 different areas and in four in
22:37
the four different areas, they, they were met with depictions of
22:44
spirits that were in the, in the form or in the shape of 1A great
22:49
bird and other birds, a dragon, another dragon type figures or
22:54
serpent figures, a bull and other bulls.
22:56
And then this man or yutnar and, and, and other such figures.
23:05
And they scared off the invaders or the intruders.
23:11
And so that's one in, in. And so Iceland still maintains
23:16
that that imagery in the in, in their in their coat of arms,
23:24
that they are preserving that tradition in the, in their coat
23:28
of arms. Yeah, so, OK, so I think it is
23:36
the in in the Haimskringla saga, Olaf saga trigger Sonar King
23:45
Harold took a warlock. I don't know what the the
23:50
correct, you know, old Norse translation for that would be.
23:55
But in the English, modern English translation, for
23:56
whatever reason, this it's, you know, Kung Kung Manmani.
24:05
I guess that that gets I don't know if that gets translated as
24:11
as warlock. But anyway, modern English
24:12
translation, one of them at least says King Harold took a
24:15
warlock to high to higher to Iceland in some altered shape
24:20
and to try what he could to try to see what he could learn to
24:24
tell for him. So King Harold, obviously the
24:27
Norwegian king sent somebody to Iceland, I guess to kind of see
24:32
what was going on up there. And he said when he in in this,
24:38
this, this warlock, this, this Vicki, this, this shaman, this
24:41
whatever they were, you know, went out there in this, this
24:44
shape or, or they took on the shape of a whale, it says.
24:48
But when he came near to the land, he went to the West side
24:50
of Iceland, north and around. And when he saw all the
24:53
mountains and and hills full of guardian spirits, some great and
24:57
some small. And so, as the saga describes
25:00
again in each different sections of the sections of the island of
25:08
Iceland, he was driven away by these guardian spirits because
25:17
again, they, they they were fearsome looking.
25:19
And, and as one was described to be a sort of large dragon
25:23
surrounded by other Dragons or serpents, toads and lizards,
25:28
which are, are are described as having like spewed poison or
25:33
something. Adam on the other side or on
25:36
another side. There was a great bird.
25:39
Next after that, whatever the end was again a large bowl.
25:43
And then finally this huge sort of, you know, giant.
25:50
I think the the the term that gets used in in in the soggy is
25:54
bad greasy, which I think is another term for for for Yolton
25:59
or gnar. But irregardless, you know the
26:03
the these these fearsome large guardian spirits as as depicted
26:08
were positioned around Iceland as as guardian spirits.
26:14
So when this naysayer, when this this I'll to do person coming in
26:19
on on on by the King's order was going there.
26:24
It was said that he that he saw the the guardian spirit, some
26:27
great, some small, and it drove them away.
26:30
So they were they were acting as as guardians of this place to
26:33
prevent others from invading or from from coming in.
26:41
So anyway, you know, if you guys want to learn more about the,
26:44
the background of Landfetir and, and what that all means in in
26:47
source material, you might end up going down a rabbit hole.
26:55
One of the other big sources or one of the other big yeah,
27:00
source materials that we have of the mention of Landbatir is in
27:06
the land Nama book, which is a, a, a book of the settlers or the
27:15
book of settlements. The Solana book just is
27:18
basically the the book of settlement of of of Iceland, and
27:23
it is a medieval source that describes in particular like one
27:29
account where there was one rock dweller as as as this account in
27:41
the lung that book goes was making an agreement with a man
27:45
who was named Bjorn. He had a few goats and he was
27:50
trying to get away from, there's a volcano had erupted.
27:53
There was lava flow and he was trying to, to, to, to flee After
27:59
that happened there, there was this appearance made of, of a,
28:02
of a goat with many other nanny goats and, and, you know, making
28:06
him rich from all the livestock that he owned.
28:12
So in the LA Namabok it's described that the Lanvatier
28:16
could be seen by Bjorn and by that and by those who had, as
28:21
this is mentioned, second sight. So some sort of, you know,
28:27
vision to see the things that are normally unseen.
28:32
Anyways, LAN number boat mentions Lanvatier.
28:37
The hamstringless saga mentions it in the saga of Olaf
28:41
Triggersen the saga of Aegiel Scala Grimson mentions it
28:45
because of, again, him erecting the knee stung with a horse
28:49
head. There's there's there's other
28:53
sources that I'm not going to get into the minutiae of right
28:55
now. But if you're going to go down
28:57
that road and you want to learn more, you'll find stuff that's
29:00
easily readily available and accessible online.
29:04
As I find stuff, I'll probably add it to the description and
29:06
show notes of this episode. So check it down below or over
29:08
here or wherever. But but basically, like, why do
29:11
I want to talk about this? Is is this all sounds
29:13
interesting, right? If if you're coming to it from
29:16
from just a pure like academic standpoint, where is it all
29:18
where you know, where do the source materials mention it,
29:21
blah, blah, blah, blah, right, All very interesting.
29:23
It's great to cite your sources, but what does what do the
29:26
Landvitz here? What does it actually mean?
29:28
You know, to to to to us in Germanic heathenry now and
29:32
today. How is how is this applied in
29:38
real time, especially for us here in the North American
29:41
continent? Those of us who are heathens in,
29:46
in, in this time and space in this country, I've even seen and
29:52
heard mention of, of people asking can or should you know,
29:58
should we in, in the United States, in the North American
30:00
continent here, should we be using this term Lanvatier to
30:06
describe the local spirits of the land?
30:10
Because it's an Icelandic term, it's a Scandinavian term.
30:13
Whites again, they are Germanic, you know, old Saxon, old
30:18
English. These are Germanic terms from
30:20
lands that are in Europe, you know.
30:23
So is it appropriate to to, to use those terms, terms aside,
30:29
you know, and, and phrases aside, in almost any culture,
30:35
you go back far enough, you're going to see examples where the
30:39
people had a recognition that an awareness, a respect, a very
30:45
animistic approach to the land that they shared space and time
30:49
with. And we definitely have that here
30:52
in the North American continent amongst the indigenous Native
30:55
Americans from here, right the our First Nation peoples, They
31:01
absolutely have a rich rooted appreciation, respect and
31:13
acknowledgement of the land that they're on.
31:17
So you know, we are are here on on their land.
31:24
First Nations people were here before Europeans were.
31:30
So I, I often times find myself going, all right, well, again,
31:39
let's just lay semantics aside. Or, or or or or put aside that,
31:43
that the names, you know, call it a rose by any other name and
31:46
it's still a rose. OK?
31:49
So whether you call them, you know, Veytir whites, land
31:54
spirits, right? Whatever name you want to put to
31:56
them, you have them in your area, wherever you live,
32:00
wherever you reside, wherever you're listening to this podcast
32:03
from, where you're watching this from, you know, the, the, the
32:06
local or regional spirits that reside in your landscape, in the
32:13
landscape that you're from or that you live in, are there
32:17
still. And so as modern heathens and
32:21
and as heathens in the modern day, regardless of where you
32:23
live, does this, does this still have a place for us?
32:26
I believe it absolutely doesn't. I think it should have a bigger
32:29
place, a more recognized presence in our lives.
32:36
And one might ask, well, what does that look like?
32:38
What does that sound like? How does how do we exhibit that
32:42
sort of recognition? And I think that for us, like
32:48
in, you know, again, for for heathens in North America, you
32:51
know, we are on this is the First Nation peoples, this is,
32:56
you know, Turtle Island, these this is the land that was theirs
33:00
that they were indigenous to before, you know, Europeans came
33:05
over here. And so I think getting to know
33:10
the spirits of the land where we are, you know, and again, if
33:14
you're listening to this and you're not in, you know, the
33:17
North American continent or you're not, you know, wherever
33:23
you're indigenous to, wherever you're native to, wherever
33:24
you're listening to this from, whatever the spirit of the land
33:27
is that you would call it. I, I, I think it's important
33:32
that that we really start to learn more about them.
33:38
OK, Everything that I just cited to you about medieval
33:43
Scandinavian sources, etymology of words and such, it's all well
33:48
and good, right? It's fine, but we live in North
33:51
America. I live in North America, right?
33:53
The majority of my audience that listens to this podcast and
33:56
watches this podcast are in North America.
34:05
So it would be, it would behoove us not to learn more about the
34:09
spirits of the land where we are.
34:11
And that being said, there's different spirits from of
34:16
different landscapes. You know, the veytir, the
34:19
whites, the the spirits of the land in Northern California or
34:24
the Pacific Northwest are not going to be the same veytir, not
34:28
whites, spirits, whatever of the lands in the Everglades of
34:33
Florida. Nor will those be the same as
34:36
the spirits that reside in the mountains of Appalachia.
34:40
Nor will those be the same as the veytir that exists in the
34:48
Rockies or the Adirondacks or the Mojave Desert.
34:54
Or you know, again, you can pick a landscape, pick a, you know,
34:59
the Gulf Coast, you know, versus the Atlantic Coast versus the
35:03
Pacific Coast versus the right. So point being is wherever you
35:07
are, wherever you reside, wherever you kind of established
35:11
or set your roots up in it, would it would it would be
35:17
appropriate for you to learn about those spirits that are
35:22
native to the space and where you are.
35:25
I talked about this a couple of podcasts ago.
35:28
I think when it, you know, when we were talking about gifting, I
35:31
mean, I may, I may not have mentioned it on a podcast.
35:33
I may have just posted it on my, my social media.
35:38
Yeah. But anyway, it's, it's, it's the
35:40
idea of, of gifting to the land, showing your gratitude to the
35:46
land and how one gift in one space may not be a gift in
35:50
another space. As an example, you know, oranges
35:57
don't grow natively in Appalachia.
36:01
OK, so if you're walking on a trail and you're eating an
36:04
orange and you discard the orange rind, the peel of the
36:07
orange, right? The, the, the outer part that
36:09
you don't eat and you just throw it into the, the wood line or
36:12
you lay it out there. Whoa, this is for nature, right?
36:14
Because it's organic, it's biodegradable.
36:16
It, it's a gift to the land, right?
36:18
Well, if that, if that orange is not indigenous to that area, if
36:23
oranges don't grow in Appalachia, then it could be
36:27
toxic to the veytir, the local spirits of the land that are
36:31
manifested physically through its wildlife and through its
36:37
through the flora and the fauna that that that exists and thrive
36:40
there should be, you know, you could be poisoning the veytir.
36:44
You could be making the veytir, the spirits of the land, the
36:46
whites of the land mad. You could be making them.
36:50
I'll, you could be doing something wrong against them,
36:55
whether it's out of ignorance or not, You need to know and
36:59
understand the landscape. You need to know and understand
37:03
who you're sharing your space with.
37:05
So if you are in Florida per SE, or any other part of the country
37:09
where oranges grow indigenously and the, the, the manifestations
37:14
of the, the land whites, the veytir, right, the wildlife can
37:17
consume safely those biodegradable objects, right?
37:22
The the, the rinds of an orange or what have you, then by all
37:25
means, you know, you can incorporate those types of
37:28
things into your practice of, of gifting to those to those
37:34
spirits without it being received as a, you know, as an
37:38
I'll gesture. But it takes the time of the
37:44
person of the of the inhabitants of the land to, to, to become
37:49
familiar, to be educated and to know who it is and with whom
37:54
you're sharing your, your existence.
38:00
It also, it also is important to if you're going to want to
38:04
incorporate a specific type of gifting.
38:08
I saw this one time where you know, people talked about how
38:13
tobacco, tobacco is a sacred plant and is sacred to many
38:19
native indigenous people, First Nations people, we're First
38:25
Nation peoples. But it's not to assume and
38:29
appropriate the, the, the, the gifting of tobacco as just a,
38:33
you know, because I have tobacco and because it's, you know, I
38:36
saw it in a video once or I, you know, I like this idea,
38:40
whatever. Like learn the maybe there are
38:42
things about the gifting of tobacco.
38:44
Maybe there is a certain ritual or ceremonial approach to where
38:50
you live, right? Maybe the First Nation peoples
38:54
of your area incorporate or don't incorporate tobacco in
39:00
their ceremony and in their ritual.
39:02
And is what they're doing open right.
39:05
If they if if you learn it from them, if you are given this
39:10
knowledge and and taught these ways and allowed to incorporate
39:14
it into your personal practice, or is it a closed off sort of
39:17
thing and you're not permitted to do it right?
39:20
Respect the culture, respect that sort of thing.
39:25
This, this, this also touches on something that I recently saw on
39:31
a video. There was a, I'm not gonna, I'm
39:35
not gonna go into details, but it was, it was a group of, of,
39:40
of heathens who were videoing themselves at different segments
39:45
of their consumption of this, of cacao and the consumption of
39:53
cacao. That's any, I mean, anybody can
39:57
drink cacao. You know what I mean?
39:59
You want to, you want to drink a cow, You can, you can get it,
40:03
you can drink it. Sure.
40:05
The way that the video was portrayed and it was only like
40:08
a, a less than a minute long clip or, or reel or short or
40:12
whatever. You know, the, the, the way that
40:13
the video was portrayed was was that of it being a, an ASA true
40:17
thing, a heathen thing, you know, step into the the sacred
40:21
world of ASA true with this. You know, or step into the realm
40:26
of ritual or whatever of Austatru with this, you know,
40:28
sacred cacao. You know, now that can be
40:31
misleading because if you don't know where a cacao comes from
40:34
and where it's indigenous to and it's it's history in, in, in
40:38
medicine, medicinal uses by which cultures and, and all
40:42
that, anybody who doesn't want to do the research or doesn't
40:46
know could be like, oh, wow, you know, this is a, this is a, this
40:49
is a heathen thing. This is a Germanic thing or
40:51
Scandinavian thing. And no, absolutely it's not.
40:54
You know, the cow ceremonies are, are, are Central South
41:00
America, Toltec, maybe Amazonian things in, in, in ceremonial
41:06
aspects. And so, so to, to incorporate it
41:09
into your heathen practices. Again, if, if, if taught by and
41:14
administered and if LED, you know, in in that sort of way and
41:19
and and respected by its indigenous roots and and give
41:23
credit where credit's due, right, show respect to the
41:26
culture and don't try to say, Hey, come into my sacred this of
41:30
Ossa true list of that and then mention that coward like hey,
41:35
reword it. Put it, put it differently.
41:36
Don't don't don't appropriate that sort of thing into Ossa
41:39
true or heathenry. It's, it's, it's not a, a
41:43
traditional thing of, of any heathen sort.
41:48
You can incorporate it if you want to.
41:49
It's again, it's, you can, anybody can drink it.
41:51
But when it comes to the, the ceremonial parts of things, it
41:55
goes back. It kind of touches on what I'm
41:56
trying to say here is that it respect the culture.
42:00
You can appreciate the, the roots of things.
42:04
You can show appreciation. And it's not appropriation if
42:08
you're not doing it for your own, whether it's monetary gain
42:12
or the clout or, or some sort of, you know, ego sort of thing.
42:16
You know, you, that that's where the appropriation of things, I
42:19
think come in. And it, and it, it's, it's done
42:22
a lot nowadays. You know, we, we, this the
42:25
example of the cacao thing that I mentioned, you know, like, oh,
42:27
you're putting it on video and you're, and you're putting it on
42:29
a YouTube channel and you're getting likes and you're getting
42:31
comments, you're getting attention.
42:36
Is it, is it really for the awareness of things?
42:38
Are you, are you doing it to, to get attention put to yourself?
42:41
It's what it feels like. It's what it looks like.
42:44
You did it. You got my, you know, you got my
42:46
attention. You got the attention of others.
42:47
And hey, you know, good for you. But but so much of it, like when
42:53
it comes to our interaction with the Vaitir, with the spirits,
42:57
with the whites again, call a rose by entering the name, any
43:00
other name and it's still a rose.
43:01
Whatever name you put to it, whatever name you want to call
43:04
it, if you're going to really get into that and and you want
43:08
to appreciate the culture rightly, if you want to
43:12
appreciate the spirit, you want to appreciate and show gratitude
43:17
to the spirits of the land in and around you.
43:20
And you want to do it in a way that is receptive of the spirits
43:27
of the land. You know, it would be like, you
43:28
know, I don't know, it would, it would be like doing a, maybe
43:38
this is a poor example, but I feel like it would be almost
43:39
like doing a, you know, a, a, a, a native indigenous North
43:43
American First Nations ceremony and speaking that ceremony in
43:47
Old Saxon or in a Germanic language.
43:50
Those residential, those, those, those spirits of the land are
43:53
not going to recognize that language.
43:55
They're not going to know that language.
43:58
And so it's going to be disingenuous.
44:00
You know, if anything, you would want to speak to them in the
44:03
native language of where they're from.
44:06
You know, that's why I feel like so much of, of traditional
44:09
ceremony, traditional ritual is done in languages that don't
44:12
necessarily get spoken nowadays. These are, these are timeless
44:16
traditions. These, these things go back to a
44:18
time when when we weren't necessarily around, but they
44:22
were. And so they recognize that
44:24
language, they recognize that sound and it appeals to them and
44:27
it makes them happy. And when they're happy, the land
44:30
is happy. We're all happy because we
44:33
coexist together symbiotically. We're in it for the right
44:37
reasons where where we have a shared goal and we want to to
44:41
coexist peacefully. So you know, it makes me think
44:47
when us as heathens, you know, heathen.
44:50
Heathenry is a Germanic, traditional Germanic, pre
44:54
Christian, Germanic Northern European belief system.
44:59
It is not indigenous to the North American continent per SE.
45:04
It came over here with a lot of immigrants and, and, and, and so
45:08
many of my ancestors that that came over here originated from
45:13
that part of the country where I'm sure you go back far enough.
45:15
That's what they were doing and where they were practicing or
45:19
believing and what they were believing their, their, their
45:21
folk way. So it came over here.
45:25
But I've been here. My family's been here.
45:28
You know, I'm using myself as an example now.
45:30
So, you know, fair warning, I, you know, don't necessarily take
45:35
what I'm saying and apply it to you directly or, or exactly
45:40
because, you know, maybe your family has has roots that that
45:43
go back to, you know, to, to, to northern Europe much closer than
45:48
mine do. But, you know, my immediate
45:49
family and most of my ancestry have been here, you know, since
45:53
the mid 1600s. So what traditions were brought
45:58
over here from my German and Dutch and, and, and other
46:02
lineages of, of, of families, who knows?
46:05
But I hear my family has been here.
46:08
Much of my family on, on my, you know, northern European side
46:12
have been here for quite a long time.
46:14
So adopting and incorporating practices of Native American,
46:20
Northern American, North American Native practices, I
46:24
wouldn't do that if it weren't taught to me and given to me by
46:28
the natives of this land who have the ancestry, who have the
46:31
lineage, who have those roots established here.
46:34
I wouldn't want to disrespect that culture and, and, and try
46:37
to connect with the, the, the spirits of the land in the way
46:41
that my dramatic ancestors did in a land that's foreign to
46:44
that. I would want to connect in a way
46:46
that I was taught by someone of Indigenous ancestry from this
46:51
space, from this land that it could teach me, that would teach
46:55
me. And if they would and could, I
46:57
would gladly accept that and incorporate that into my
46:59
practice if it was given to me to do so.
47:03
I wouldn't take something that I saw from a video or, or, or take
47:07
something that I saw from an article or read from an article
47:09
and just arbitrarily incorporate it.
47:11
You know, burning tobacco, burning sage, burning, right?
47:14
If it wasn't taught to me first in a way that was respectful.
47:20
So the, the, the, the presence, the, the role, the, the, the,
47:26
the job, not necessarily the job.
47:27
Again, that the presence and the role of the Vaitir, the the
47:30
whites, the spirits of the land in heathenry are that of the
47:33
guardians, you know, the protectors, they coexist, you
47:39
know, with us and, and the way, the way that we as heathens live
47:46
in a way that that reflects well with them.
47:51
You know, if they're upset, what is wrong?
47:53
What do we need to do? What is wrong with the land?
47:55
What is wrong with the space? What is causing the tumultuous
48:00
attitude in, in this space that is disrupting them?
48:05
Why aren't they happy? What is scaring them?
48:07
What is what is irritating them, you know, and to be in in, in in
48:11
the ways that we can ensure that that things are going well is to
48:15
be in tune with that. And to know that, hey, you know,
48:18
just because I'm from this area doesn't mean that the now that
48:21
I'm here, that the the, the spirits of the land are going to
48:23
be receptive to the way that I was doing things in the other
48:27
area that I'm from. You know, I'm from New York.
48:29
I live in the South. It's a far enough distance away
48:33
that the the vaitier of the land where I'm was born and raised
48:38
going to be a bit different than the ones that, you know, we're
48:41
where I'm from versus the ones where I live at now and have
48:46
been living for a couple of decades.
48:50
You know. So establishing roots, setting
48:52
up roots in a space with the native veytir, the native
48:57
whites, the native spirits is to get to know them and to be like,
49:03
hey, now I'm here. I'm not I don't want to cause
49:07
any problems, right? Ain't no don't want no problems
49:11
want to coexist, want to coexist peacefully.
49:13
I'm here to live with you and to thrive with you.
49:18
And as we look to protect them and as we look to be nice to
49:21
them and and and good to them, they will be good to us.
49:24
You know, this is UPG stuff. I'm going to just say this.
49:29
My own personal views on things is that when, when the guardians
49:34
of the land that you live on are are happy, they will look out
49:37
for you. They will protect you from harm.
49:39
I've had enough things happen to me in in the space that I live
49:45
in that could have potentially brought harm to me and to my
49:50
loved ones and it hasn't happened.
49:58
And the only, you know, again, the only thing that I can credit
50:03
that to is the positive connection that that we've
50:07
established with our veytir with with the spirit of the land, the
50:11
spirits of the land that are around us.
50:18
This can extend even to the home, to the residential
50:22
structure, to the to the to the house, to the hearth.
50:27
There's a there's, there's some folklore belief, especially in,
50:31
in, in, in continental dramatic lands and, and even in
50:37
Scandinavian parts where you know, each home, each house has
50:41
its own God, its own spirit to be respected and venerated and
50:46
gifted to some sources. You may see Husvatir, the house
50:52
spirit or in like some of the old English sources, you might
50:57
see Kofguad. So like Anglo-Saxon stuff, Old
51:02
English, like Cof God, it's same thing.
51:05
Different names again, different names, same thing.
51:09
If the house whites are happy, the house Vetir is happy.
51:12
Whose Vetir Cof gods are happy. They are protecting the home.
51:17
If things are of of tumultuous times or, or they're upset or
51:22
there's dissension, right, they're not going to be happy
51:25
and and they're going to make themselves known again.
51:29
I've had enough situations. I've had stuff happen, you know,
51:35
where where I personally would want, would want somebody to
51:37
come into the house, but the cough guard of the home, the
51:42
housewife of the home said not going to happen.
51:50
We know better than we know better than you than to allow
51:52
that in here. You know, your hospitality is,
51:55
is one thing, but but we, we don't want them here and they're
51:58
not allowed here. They're not welcome here.
52:02
So my UPG statement there is that this stuff means something
52:09
when, when, when the person and when the people are, are, are
52:13
putting attention to these things, there are results.
52:19
So, you know, take that as you want to or if you want to.
52:26
I, I, I always like to try and when it, when it comes to stuff
52:31
like this, right? If, if I can, if I can help
52:33
with, with finding or, or, or sharing a source, you know,
52:38
something that, that a source material can offer as to its
52:41
validity, right? For those of you folks that,
52:44
that listen to this stuff and, and are a bit more on the
52:46
reconstructionist side of things that want to, you know, where's
52:49
your source? I try to do that.
52:52
I'm also aware and, and, and realize that, hey, you know, I
52:55
am a modern heathen living in modern times and I need to apply
52:59
what fits for me and my hearth and, and my tribe.
53:03
If, if, if, if it extends to that point.
53:06
But, but mainly it's, you know, my views, my, my UPG on things
53:09
are mine. And I will always tell you that.
53:12
So you get a little bit of both here, you know, you get a little
53:14
bit of historical source material stuff to to wet your
53:18
palate there. And then you're also going to
53:21
hear some of my, my own UPG from time to time.
53:27
So there you go. All the stuff that I mentioned
53:31
when it comes to if it, if there's anything that I
53:33
mentioned that has source material tied to it, it's going
53:39
to be LinkedIn, the show notes or down in the description.
53:41
So, you know, go crazy, find out more if you can.
53:47
And if you want to let it, you know, share it my way, send it
53:50
my way. You got my e-mail, you got my
53:52
phone number, share it my way and and thank you.
53:57
If you do, let me know what your thoughts are at the very least,
54:00
you know, I always love the interaction, love the the
54:03
dialogue. So yeah, wherever you're
54:06
catching this, wherever you want to, to share your thoughts on, I
54:09
would definitely like to hear from you.
54:11
And I'm sure that others that catch this content would like to
54:14
hear from others as well. So we do have, you know, maybe a
54:18
couple more episodes, one or two more episodes at least of season
54:21
5. I am getting people booked for
54:25
Season 6. I put a call out here to my
54:28
audience and, and to followers and, and supporters of this show
54:32
that if you want to come on to the podcast, you can do so my
54:36
e-mail is the best way to get in touch with me.
54:38
And that's the way to do it. We can do them virtually like
54:41
this. This is the easiest way for me
54:43
to do it, especially, you know, most people that I know are,
54:46
are, are outside of my immediate area.
54:49
So send me an e-mail if you have a topic that you'd like to talk
54:52
about or something that if is of interest to you that you'd like
54:55
to, to get on a podcast and ramble with me about on shoot me
54:59
an e-mail. I'm, I'm pretty much mostly
55:01
booked up through January now, so there might be a date in
55:05
January of, you know, into February of next year that I'm
55:08
looking to book. But yeah, please do feel free to
55:11
reach out to me and let me know if you're interested in coming
55:15
on. It's very casual.
55:17
We'll just, you know, ramble on for a little while about
55:20
something. So I hope you did enjoy this
55:22
week's ramblings about the land vetir, the land whites, the
55:26
local spirits of the land. If you did, please consider
55:30
upvoting this podcast in any way that you can, wherever you're
55:33
watching or listening to, if you can upvote it, heart react like
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it. Do whatever.
55:37
You know, any sort of way to positively influence the
55:40
algorithm to, to push more content like this out to you.
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And it helps with the growth of this show as well.
55:48
So thank you all so very much for tuning in to this week's
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episode. Hope you enjoyed it, and until
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we talk to each other again, may the gods continue to notice you
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and may your ancestors smile upon you.
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We'll see you in the next one.