Midsummer un Dingsege

Happy Midsummer... it's 114 degrees outside currently... Summer is beyond here!

This rite is a time to honor Sunna, Ziu(Tyr), Volla, Voll (Twin siblings to Frigg), Vorsetzer (Forseti) {son of Balder}.

Oddly the fact today is the time of the Thing, really fits into what is going on in my life right now. I have no intention of elaborating on that just now.

I'll have to get back to you on what I do for this particular holiday, Unfortunately as along with the last one, I'm a little behind the 8 ball...

We've lost four folks to excessive heat in the past few days, it's a little challenging to think of the "life giving properties" of the sun right now. Most people in the Southwest would just like to escape the sun right now.

However I'll leave you with a pretty picture of a Distelfink pendant that I purchased a few days ago:

A Distelfink is a stylized goldfinch, that frequently appears in Pennsylvania Dutch folk art. It represents happiness and good fortune.

Oschdre a.k.a. Ostara

^ Our Altar ^

Yesterday was the second public Urglaawe ritual that I participated in, I lead this one. I'm alive to write this, so the gods must not have been too displeased.

The rite we did was to the Oschdre, which for the practitioners of Urglaawe, is a triple goddess. The Oschdre consists of:
Helling: goddess of Daylight and the up springing light
Nacht: goddess of Darkness and the easingrest
Oschdra: She who stands between them

Here is a link to the lovely myth, involving the three goddesses, finches and the a hare.

While we did the rite, the children dyed eggs, that seemed to go over well. Next year we are thinking of having the children perform the myth, which I'm certain will be adorable! I'll have to get some fabric and make little cloaks!

I feel very honored because I was gifted a sickle at this rite. I hope I can uphold the traditions of Urglaawe and the Pennsylvania German Speaking people.

My Grove's standard practice is to have a Seer take an omen, basically what we need to do moving forward. I thought it was quite clever that my Grove mates came up with the idea to put runes inside plastic eggs. So during the offering portion of the ritual, the Seer presented a basket of eggs to different celebrants and the selected an egg. Then the Seer gathered them up, opened the eggs and interpreted the Omen.

I think the rite went well. The feed back I received was good, folks seemed to feel it was familiar or like "home." I think the Oschdre myth is the most beautiful Ostara tale I've heard.

Once the rite was over we had our shared meal (because we can't call it a "potluck" in Arizona anymore). Of course everyone brought something, some of us tried to come up with Deitch dishes. I had my room mate make soft pretzels and one of my Grove mates made Shoofly pie which is a traditional Deitch breakfast food, or so I am told. I gotta say that pie is to die for!

Quote of the day, "Yes, but that German is a different dalek than High German... I mean DIALECT"

Der Butzemann!

Argh so overwhelmed! Feeling like this honoring the year through Urglaawe is a bad idea! Must make piacular offerings so none of the Gods rip out vital organs...

A little background here I suppose, I'm sort of stumbling through this all but I posted on February 3rd, however really though from Groundhog Day to February 12th ish is a 12 day festival called Fasching.

So the first thing that happens is Groundhog Day, which I just saw a post recently where someone said that it was taken from legends around Brighid, nope not true. The Groundhog is much like Ratatosk who is a squirrel that runs up and down Yggdrasil bringing news of the nine worlds. Thus the Groundhog is an otherworldy messenger. Presumably he brought news of the up coming year in the past, but now we've reduced him to a meteorologist.

During this time of year female spirits are honored specifically Frigg, Gewwern (a.k.a. Gefjon) and Idise. I am going to do a meditation on each of them, before moving on from the 12 days of Fasching.

Now we come to our friend the Butzemann who is a scarecrow-golem. Oddly through D&D I am more knowledgeable about a golem which according to Jewish folklore is an animated anthropomorphic being, magically created entirely from inanimate matter. Thus the Butzemann is created and life is breathed into it at a ceremony known in English as the Ceremony of the Corn. Now once you have your Butzemann activated he protects your property and crops. He is also to be treated, as far as I can tell as a living creature. Offerings are made to him through out the year, but your Butzemann will be good only for so long. If he isn't destroyed before Halloween (Allelieweziel) he turns bad and runs amok destroying the crops he guarded for all the previous months. As well as just destroying the town you live in.

Now I had planned on making a sage man or Old Man Gloom as I have heard him called before, but after seeing some of the pictures online I decided to make one kind of like the others I saw.

Now it's important to give him a heart which I think is obvious, but I really don't know the Urglaawe reasoning behind it. It is also important to give him clothes and a name. (If you are thinking Dobby the House Elf here, you aren't alone). Again, he is considered a living being, and if you were being hospitable to a stranger that showed up nekkid, you'd give him clothes and food.

My Butzemann is stuffed with basil we had from previous years harvests, cotton, lint (hey it seemed like a good idea) and I cut some of my Brighid's cross from a few days ago and put it in there for good measure.

I made him clothes from scraps of other fabric projects laying around.

It's also important to give him a name (please see articles below regarding naming conventions)

Everyone, meet Atz der Nei Or Atz the New.

Grundsau Burrow: “B” IS FOR BUTZEMANN: THE PAGAN EXPERIENCE
https://grundsauburrow.wordpress.com/2015/01/31/b-is-for-butzemann-the-pagan-experience/

Butzemann Naming Convention
http://urglaawe.blogspot.com/2012/02/butzemann-naming-convention.html

Late Grundsaudaag! ARGH!

So, Imbolg completed for the Grove... but unfortunately I have not prepared for Grundsaudaag! Blargh! I'm hoping to pull something together for this weekend. Here's kind of the idea of what's going on... but it kind of appears that my usual Urglaawe resources on the 'net are currently down. It's a good challenge...

Groundhog Day is a multi-faceted event featuring the honoring of Frigg and Gewwern, cleaning the hearth, honoring female energies and ancestors, and engaging with the spirit of the Otherworldly Messenger (the Groundhog), who, like Ratatosk on the Norse Yggdrasil, runs among the "worlds" through his complex burrow.

Still here...Urglaawe??

Yep, I'm still here, no FB yet. I guess this is a form of social media isn't it.

Regardless, I just spent the morning creating  calendar, of my hearse and hearse related adventures. It was pretty fun to look back at my pictures from last year and make something that I will enjoy moving forward.

Perhaps I am old fashioned still, enjoy paper calendars. It's sort of like a mini Christmas at the end of every month. Then you get to look at this, hopeful, cool image for a month.

Some of the images I selected were probably not the most artistic or beautiful, but they trigger a memory for me of a fun trip or something fun I was doing... I'm thinking I should do this every year!

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Urglaawe...

So I've been kicking this idea around for a year, and I'm totally stealing it from my friend at the Nerdy Druid blog, I think. I'll have to look it up later. Anyway, the IDEA was to celebrate a full year's worth of holidays in the Urglaawe tradition.

"Skullarix, what is that?"

I'm so glad you asked in the most brief text, it is the Pennsylvania Dutch/German/Deitch Heathen tradition.

Sort of out of left field, I know! Hey, let me Google that for you: http://www.urglaawe.org/Englisch.html

I was going to start last month but I was intimidated by all the YULE traditions. As a Celt, and yes I still think of myself as a Celt, that has never changed. For another blog post, I should list out what I think is "Celtic" I find that it differs from most people.

As a Celt, we don't have many Yule traditions in particular. In fact this time of year I often feel cut off from my gods and traditions. Not so much this year, but I feel I was drawn into the muggle Hexmas drama a little more than I like.

So all that being said, here is a list of the common holidays... I guess I need to prep for Groundhog day or Grundsaudaag.

Yuul around the winter solstice
Grundsaudaag onFebruary 2
Oschdre at the vernal equinox
Walpurgisnacht on April 30
Midsummer near thesummer solstice
Hoietfescht in late July or early August
Erntfescht at the autumn equinox
Allelieweziel at Halloween

Slàinte mhath!
(Good health!)