Waes thu Hael, Good Health!

Transcription

1 Fort Wayne Heathens Quarterly Newsletter Spring 2015 Waes thu Hael, Good Health! Invocation to Ostara - Angela "Ember" Cooke, 2004 Winter was a time for getting together with our kith and kin to exchange memories, laughs, and gifts. For a moment we were able to forget the bleak The year yearns listlessly for light Now warmth returns relieving night Ostara brings Her fertile fare weather and simply enjoy the holiday that it provid- The precious egg, the wild hare ed. Many of us celebrated Yule and all the pleasant- To start again the song of Spring ries and spiritual revelations that time presented to And to our hearts fair blessings bring. us. Now Spring, the rebirth of the land, looms just around the corner! Fort Wayne Heathens is also ex- Old Winter now retires to rest The passion of His storms attest The floods that fuel fresh buds' renew To Winter's effort Spring gives due periencing that renewed vigor and sense of direction. There are many important updates within this So now He slumbers, satisfied With what His watchful works provide. issue on event schedules. There are also many entertaining and well written stories, recipes, and more. So enjoy the issue and have a wonderful Spring! In This Issue Introductions Event Updates Spring Recipes A piece by Katherine Vanover A piece by Sean Berne A story about Ostara by John T. Mainer, coauthor of Kindertales. Information on FWH programs Local Businesses List

2 Rune Night Rune Night is held in Bluffton, Indiana on the 4th Saturday of each month. Yule 2014 Yule was held at Autumn s home this year and we had a very long sumbel with many heartfelt words, tears, and smiles. It was a transformative event that s ultimately led to a lot of healing for some that attended. The food was great, especially the beef stew, warm cider, and many signature dishes that the community brought. The altar was set up beautifully and several good spiritual discussions took place at its table. It was great seeing new and old faces and fully embracing both the heathen gift cycle and the teachings of the Wunjo rune. Wunjo encourages joy, refreshment, and merriment while we can, and there is no better time to do this than Yule The class is taught by Katherine, and is hosted in her home. People wishing to participate in this class must be involved in the FWH group and must mail her for the address prior to going to the event. This event is held at a private home so each meeting is a potluck dinner, discussion on the runes, and fellowship. Lore Nights are held in a public coffee house with the address online. Lore Night is a public event that is open to anyone, while Rune Night is closed to FWH members only.

3 Lore Night Lore Night is held in Fort Wayne, Indiana on the 2nd Saturday of each month. This class is taught by Mark and Katherine both, depending on the material. Lore Night is usually held at Bon Bon s Coffee House. When it cannot be held there, we meet at The Bean Coffee and Tea House on Wells Street. Study materials are provided and prior reading is encouraged to fully understand the topics that are covered. Arrive early if you intend to order drinks. Lore Night at Bon Bon s Coffee House Upcoming Events for Fort Wayne Heathens Lore Night - February 14th Rune Night - February 28th Lore Night - March 14th Ostara - March 21st Rune Night - March 28th Lore Night - April 11th Rune Night April 25th More Information:

4 Norwegian Stuffed Eggs From food.com Ingredients: 8 hard-boiled eggs, peeled 1/4 cup chopped smoked salmon 1 tablespoon butter, softened 1 tablespoon sour cream 3 tablespoons grated Swiss cheese 1/2 teaspoon dill The Hungry Shepherd aka Lamb Shepherd s Pie (Gluten and Dairy Free) Mark Pope s recipe Ingredients: 1 pounds ground lamb 1 large or medium onion, diced 2 3 cups vegetables (diced carrots, diced celery, peas, and corn) 1 tablespoon of olive oil 1/4 cup of rice flour (to thicken the sauce) 1 cup of water (for the sauce) Parsley, salt, pepper, (to taste) a splash of lemon juice and a splash of Worcestershire sauce 8 yellow potatoes (enough to cover a 9 x 13 inch casserole dish) Directions: Directions: 1. Cut the eggs in half lengthwise. 2. Remove the yolks and set egg whites aside. 3. In a bowl, mash the yolks. Add in the chopped smoked salmon, butter, sour cream, cheese and dill; mix together well. 4. Stuff the egg whites with this mixture. 1. Brown the lamb with the seasonings and olive oil until it s cooked then add the vegetables, stir them in, and cook them with the lamb to release juices. 2. Add the rice flour and make a rue with the lamb and veggies and slowly whisk in the water, splash of lemon, and splash of Worcestershire. Cook this down until it has thickened a bit. 3.While the meat, gravy, and veggies thicken, boil cubed potatoes until they are tender. 4. Mash the potatoes without using milk or butter, the potatoes will be thicker, but they will still form a nice crust and taste delicious with salt, pepper, and the gravy from the lamb. 5. Pour the meat and veggie mixture in a 9 x 13 pan and spoon the mashed potatoes over the mix evenly. Spread and level the potatoes with a fork and sprinkle the taters with parsley. 6. Bake the pie at 350 for minutes or until the crust has browned. Let stand and cool for a moment, then serve!

5 Ready the Field Katherine Vanover, 2015 Sunna stirs on these cold mornings, illuminating a slumbering winter earth. Jord s sleep is restless, limbs yearn to stretch, to release. Jord, Nerthus, Earth Mother prepares her body for spring. We measure our plots, plan our crops, we ponder Fehu and our ability to bring our winter ideas into the light of spring, into the harvest of late summer. We plan, we work, we reap. The earth lies verdant and ambivalent, containing both the potential for growth and for decay. Planted and ignored, our crops wither and rot, taken back into the churning void of potential. But, with work, with care, we tease form from the formless. Our plans become produce and we pluck fruit from the vines of our labors. With right action comes Wunjo not the boon of luck but the blessings of earned favor. We take our bounty we can, we dry, we preserve, we savor our Wunjo that it may last us again through the long darkness of winter and the cycle continues. As we prepare for spring, we reappraise our fences. Have we enclosed enough space to grow? Have we built them strong enough to protect? It is a time for considering the Utangard, the Innangard, the inside and the outside, the kin and the outsider, the domestic and the wild. Now is the time to reinforce your fence, before tender shoots emerge, vulnerable and weak, before lambs wobble forth on legs unsteady. Be prepared to protect. We do not deserve what we are not willing to defend. In the sharp light of the returning sun, take measure of your friends and foes. You are preparing for growth. Ready your land. Break down the hard soil. Wrestle stones from the dirt. Remove the impediments. Dig deep, plunge your fingers into the loam, the roots will only reach as far as you till. We can only welcome into our lives that for which we make room. Clear the space, it will be filled. You are preparing for growth. Are we prepared to water the seeds we want to plant? When Sunna reaches her peak and the view of our works is clear to all to our gods, to ourselves, our community, our family, our innangard will we stand proud of our labor, or shrink away, ashamed of our negligence? What you plant will sprout. What you water will grow. What you grow will be harvested. There is work to be done. The earth is awakening. Examine your fence, clear your stones, plant your crop. You are preparing for growth.

6 Disting and the Disir Sean Berne, 2015 As we are pressed through the ice of winter by the unstoppable spinning of the spheres, we come to a still moment here in the transition to warmer days. The daylight has already begun to lengthen, the shadows shorten, and the forces of Isa recede. In this frozen (but swiftly melting) moment, our minds pause on the day of Disting. The goal of Disting is to honor the Disir - the females among our ancestors whose lives have ended. We, as Heathens, look to them for wisdom, guidance, protection, and memory. My earliest memory is with my Grandmother. I was only 3 years old, on her lap in a mall an hour away from the couch where I'm typing this now. I have a photo of that scene on my altar, she with her cloud of white hair and me with my face still untouched by time, and behind me a vision of my first interaction with the spiritual, philosophical, psychological, whatever you want to call it. This moment is not only the earliest point I would remember, but it is the first time I became aware of impermanence. I looked down an unlit hallway in the mall, full of empty shops. I saw the bright light of the sunny day outside, and how it faded as it skimmed along the floors and walls. I saw the points where the light turned to shadow, and ceased its illumination. This is the first time I think I'd ever felt terror. Somewhere in my toddler mind, I understood that light, this thing that meant day and playtime and trees and love and family, could end. There was night, sure, but that meant teddy bears and cuddles and comfy blankets. In that moment, I realized that light could end, and somehow I understood from this that everything could end. I was on my Grandmother's lap at this point, staring around her arm at the hallway. As I peered into this void, this cessation, these finite points of infinite implication, I became aware just as suddenly and just as deeply of the reality of my Grandmother. I felt her under, above, and around me. I felt her skin, chilly with age, but soft. I felt her hand rubbing my arm. Most of all, I felt her rooted to the floor. She Was. And because I was with her, because I was hers, and because she loved me, so Was I. We Were, even if the light Was Not.

7 As I've grown with the gods and in myself, I've come to see this early memory as the greatest gift she ever gave me, even though she may never know she gave it. I know that in this moment, I was given a diagram, a module for understanding the relationship not only between ourselves and the gods, but ourselves and our ancestors. When we stare into the void, be it life or debt or spirit or death, we WILL feel small. We WILL know dread. We will know this as surely as the sun will someday die, and we know this because we are like rabbits - tiny and fragile no matter what we pretend. The beautiful, heartbreaking advantage that we have as humans and as Heathens, is that we have more. We have the gods, of course, but we also have our ancestors. We have this nearly endless line of people who were similarly terrified, but who stood nonetheless, reproduced, and lived lives, whether positive or negative in theme. When you know your individual weakness, your tininess, your horrifyingly temporary nature, look behind you. Look to the line of people stretching across countless miles and even more years. Look to these women behind you who must have known this same fear, but who held you, or held those who held you, and know that their depth is no pretense. It is truth through their connection to the past, to the gods, to the Tree, to its roots, to the Well. Know your past. Know your ancestors. Know that there is no greater strength or beauty than this. Hail to the Disir. Hail to Hilda, my Grandmother. Hail to her God, and hail to mine. Hail to you, my chosen Heathen family, and hail to your bloodlines, wherever they may lead in the past.

8 Ostara, and the Dance of the Bunnies John T Mainer of The Heathen Freehold Society of B.C and The Troth, 07 In the dawn of the age of man, when the tribes of men were new formed, and taking their first halting steps upon Midgard, Ostara was often seen bringing the springtime to field, forest and fen. The tribes of men watched with amazement as Ostara would walk upon the earth, and it would rouse to wakefulness behind her. As she walked did the first shoots push aside the snowmelt rubble and greet sweet Sunna s sunshine, as she smiled the first flowers would blossom, and the air turn sweet and fresh. At her side flew a white bird, graceful and joyous. Always the song of her companion bird would call the spring birds from the far south, to return again to the northlands, and with them bring the ocean breezes that fire the hearts of young men. The tribes of men were thankful to Ostara, and wished to give thanks to her in a way that was pleasing to her, and for this, they watched the rabbits. All winter long, Ostara sleeps, for she cannot abide the touch of Ymir s get, and flees the coming of the snow. When Sunna turns her face again to the world, and the snows and Frost Giants retreat back to their mountain fastness, the rabbits call Ostara to wake. In the spring, the rabbits dance. Upon the earth in wild abandon, the rabbits wassail hard, and in their joyous measure stir the sleeping Ostara, for her return brings the spring. Year on year Ostara waked to the dancing of the rabbits, year on year her graceful companion bird would watch the dancing rabbits, and hunger to join their measure. In a year known only in song as the year of the rabbit, came the great change. In that year was grown a rabbit of heroic proportions, a champion of his breed who scoffed at foxes, and defied falcons in his strength. His eye was taken with the gentle bird of Ostara, for her grace and beauty called to him as no she rabbits could. Come the spring in the year of change, he danced for her. He danced with the wild abandon of his breed, he danced with the fire that Freya grants to lovers, and the rage Odin grants the doomed. Artwork by Amanda Clark It was a dance of dances, from a champion fired by a love that could not be, and it cast a spell more powerful than any spaewitch s rune. While Ostara laughed at the display, her companion watched transfixed; her bird eyes fixed like a hunting falcons, her head bobbing with the measure. No longer able to contain herself, she flew from Ostara s shoulder and lit upon the ground. At first stately in feathered grace, then swiftly in wing fluffing abandon she danced with her feathered suitor. Round and round they danced, as wild as any Alfar circle, as lit by Freya s fire.

9 No longer smiling, Ostara watched her companion dance with her furred lord. It was clear her bird had lost its heart to this rabbit prince. Striding forward to the circle, Ostara halted the dancers with a glance. The rabbits trembled before the gaze of the goddess, but the champion stood forth fearless in his love, the white bird at his side. Ostara smiled softly, and the bird bowed deeply and sang a song of love; love for a friend of long centuries, love of a woman for a man; love that would trade eternity for fulfillment. Ostara heard the song, and her heart was moved. She knelt and kissed her companion, and when she rose again, there was only a shining she-rabbit in a pile of soft feathers. When Ostara walked away, the rabbit champion took his new won love into the warren, and her new home. As the snow retreated, the rabbits began to dance again, to wake Ostara. In the wake of the Year of Change, Ostara woke sadly. She walked upon the world alone, and her coming brought no life; for her heart was heavy. The tribes of man were worried, for the spring brought no life, and the priests and wise woman said to watch the rabbits, for they held the secret of this dire spring. The fastest and best hunters coursed the land, not to kill, but to watch the rabbits for the secret of the dire spring. When Ostara reached the lands of the champion, and her lost companion, she beheld all of the rabbits in a dancing circle, and in the center two rabbits stood before a mound of feathers. As Ostara neared, the dancing rabbits parted, bowing her in. As she gazed with sadness on the aging of her now mortal former companion, the two rabbits stood aside showing Ostara the secret they concealed. Inside the nest of feathers were a dozen eggs, one of which was busy trying to hatch a wiggling little bunny. As the bunny burst forth with a triumphant cheep! Ostara s heart melted like the departing snow, and she began to laugh, picking up this flop eared chick, she danced a merry measure with her rabbit folk. As she danced the spring burst forth, the field erupted with flowers, the trees grew bright with new growth, and the sky full of song from the returning birds. The hunters carried word of this back to the several tribes of men, and it was whispered amongst the wise how not only the dance, but an offering of eggs won Ostara s heart and brought forth the spring. Henceforth Ostara was honoured by the tribes of man with offerings of eggs in spring time. Here ends our tale for today. The story of her new companion, Ostara s Bunny, is one for another day, but a tale worthy of singing none the less. John T Mainer, March Kindertales: Stories Old and New for the Children of the Folk Paperback June 25, 2008 by Freydis Heimdallson (Author), John Mainer (Contributor)

10 Fort Wayne Heathens Programs Hoosier Heathen Veterans This program helps veteran Heathens in Indiana get free resources on VA information, Ásatrú information, networking assistance with local Ásatrúars and heathens, and a free Mjölnir pendant. All you have to do is fill Contact Information Contact us for more information regarding these programs. We are always looking for people to help, and for people to help us. out the form, verify that you have served in the US armed forces, and we'll mail you a package via the USPS. Veterans have earned this when they chose to risk their lives defending and insuring this country's freedom. us at: fortwayneheathens@gmail.com Visit us on the web at: fortwayneheathens.org Number of Packages Sent: 7 Indiana Kindred Registrar Project The project is meant to ensure that there is an up to date and reliable list of Indiana Kindreds. This was done in the hopes that Ásatrúar who have thought they were alone in their beliefs, can come together and forge bonds of kinship with other Hoosiers who are true to the Æsir and the Vanir. Find us on Facebook at: fortwayneheathens/ Number of Kindreds Registered: 8 Breldiar Shoppe 201 Grandstand Way Fort Wayne, Indiana (260) Elderberry Tree House Shoppe 7714 Lima Rd Fort Wayne, Indiana (260) Or Contact the Fort Wayne Heathens Facebook group for local artisans who do leather working, Caltapa Tree Shops bone, wood, and stone working, woodburnings, Main St weaving, sewing, blacksmithing, jewelry making Grabill, Indiana and more! (260)