Once we were gods

Once we were gods, strong and inspiring.
Too late we saw the danger.
Too late we heard the news.
Too late to ask for undivided loyalty.
Too late to make a stand.
All too soon we were gone.
All that was left to us was myth and legend.
We no longer had belief to make us strong.
We became so weak.
All we could do was wait and watch.
Our children abandoned us.
They found new gods.
Too late we saw this danger.
Too late.
Once we were gods, strong and courageous.
Now we wait and watch.
Our children's children may be coming back.
We feel belief growing, making us strong again.
One day soon we shall be gods again.
Our strength is growing.
We shall be gods again and lead our people loyal.
We shall be gods again, strong and courageous.
Soon we will be gods again.
Once we were gods and soon, very soon we will be again.

Milestones...

presents!!!

Our little boy had a birthday last week! he is 5 now!!! it is hard to believe that time has flown by so fast! He LOVES all things dinosaur so we used that for our theme this year. Last Sat. we had friends and family over to celebrate. We had lots of gifts and lots of fun! with all the dino things out there we chose to have a dig (Cow bones from our local butcher, that we boiled the meat and fat off) The cake and ice cream were made by a local baker (also a friend)

the awesome cake!

showing off the gifts!

New toys (K'nex)

Sissy enjoying the fun

OMG that is a large bone!

Midsummer Blot

Toasting Balder

Our little helpers!

Yesterday we had a wonderful day! Feast of local tri-tip, pasta salad and wonderful baked goods from our friend Pia (My Scandinavia- her website) Family and Friends shared food, drink and fellowship. as Sol ended the day we gathered in the circle and spoke of Balder the shining God, of his kindness, compassion, and Love. The ending of his life by Hoder with the help of Loki and the lowly mistletoe. How this signals the coming of Ragnarok. Looking at the world, I think we need to be prepared for anything.. I could go on a long rant about morals and the lack of them in the world, but that is for another time. Asila then pointed out how the last year (or so) we have been spending a lot of time on Tyr (the God of justice) and how she would like us to spend more time on Balder, to focus on the things we can improve about ourselves to make us more like him. The Kindred agreed, so starts our quests to find the traits in us that we need to change (this is purely personal, each person looking at themselves and asking for guidance)
Our Children are the best of us, our blood, our eternal life, and our life! these 2 are the pride and joy of our lives (this is why so many pictures are of them) they are both to an age where they MUST be included in all parts of every Blot. it is so sweet and adorable we cannot help but to take LOTS of pictures of them.
We had 2 fires going yesterday, the main fire for Blot and a smaller one for a friend, who needed a little boost yesterday and so we wanted to do all we could to help. We had sage, evergreen, and lavender fresh from our plants that we added, to help give the needed boost

Both fires (the smaller one was for a friend)

living the path in all we do and say

Asilia and I are working on making our lives fit with our path.. in some ways that is really easy and in others we are finding little bad habits that we need to fix or things that could the way we do things that we need to work on.
For starters we are reading up on the way we want to educate the kids and are finding things that are missing from our lives and finding ways to fix that. In christian homes bible (or other Holy book) study is daily or close to that. and the education style we want to use makes use of that study to help the kids learn and see that learning is a never ending task. The call it the central classic of the family and I think we are lacking that even if we know that the Eddas and Saga's are our central classics. Knowing and using them every day are 2 different things. But the idea of studying an Edda every day is daunting. so Asilia came up with the idea to study the Havamal, we both thought that was a good idea and started looking for books of just the Havamal. In doing that we found that there are as many translations of it as there are of the bible! This lead us to think that we need more than one translation to really learn. when we were trying to make the bible our book (years ago, before we found our path) we both studied this way, where we got several versions to see what we could learn by reading them all. This technique is helpful to see how different people read the old language and see the meanings. There is so much that is lost in translation, and so much that we do not understand about the language that our ancestors used.
We have started a wish list of different versions and other books that we want and we are starting with simple things to get us in the habit of a little study each day. We are also re-vamping our priorities, so that they all line up. one cool think we have done is make a hanging that we have in our bathroom and I am thinking of one for the kids bathroom.

This is what the one in our bathroom has on it.

Vision

I see us on a thriving Asatru farm, surrounded by our kin. We are supporting ourselves financially by selling excess from the farm, selling our crafts at shows and online, buying, repairing and selling cars to kinfolk in need and possibly carpentry work. Our days start at the crack of dawn taking care of animals and gardens. We all take turns teaching the children to make sure they have a well-rounded and thorough education. Each day includes time for each of us to work on our crafts and our own education. In the morning, we greet Sol with a salutation and ending the day with a salutation to Mani. For fun, we go jump in the pond or take a trip to town. There are many camping, hiking, exploring and fishing trips. Celebrations, blots and gathering of the folk are regular features on the farm. In the winter there is more time for storytelling, study and crafting. In the summer, most of the day is spent outside. The kids are involved with every aspect of the farm so they have more quality time with everyone. With everyone working together there is less busy work. Our goal is to is spend less time driving to and from work and appointments, all of which makes more time for the things we want to do.

Lisa and Ellen’s Priorities

z   Spiritual Path

z   Strong marriage

z   Educating ourselves and our Family

z   Providing for Family by crafting & taking care of ourselves

z   Quality time with Family

z   Working on small steps for 9 year plan

Virtues

Ancestry is better than universalism

Courage is better than cowardice

Freedom is better than slavery

Honor is better than dishonor

Joy is better than guilt

Kinship is better than alienation

Realism is better than dogmatism

Strength is better than weakness

Vigor is better than listlessness

The one for the kids needs to have on it the things they are responsible for... still working on the wording of that..

Ostara

Today we celebrated spring and the cycle of life that is starting again in the plants (and in us) We had a great feast and Blot. Asilia and I are trying every year to add and remove so that we have something different in each Blot. This year we did something that I would like to keep in our traditions in years to come. We each took an egg and wrote on in what our intentions for this new cycle are.
Each person has a different reason for each item placed on the egg. they can be general like : Health, Wealth, and Love. or they can be super personal like
:stopping a bad habit, working on a character trait, Learning something you have put off for years but have always wanted to learn. or showing love in a new way..
Then we planted them with seeds on top. that way as the cycle turns we can see our intentions grow and can be reminded of what we wanted from this cycle.

These are the ones we dyed and hid for the kids, but I thought the picture was perfect for this as there are no 2 a like, what learn on this path is the same. There are many ways of looking at things, that does not make one way right and another wrong... just seeing them through different eyes... Tryggvi while blessing the folk today was using the hammer sign, we have always used Gebo.. When he gets a little older I will ask him why he uses the hammer sign.. I am sure he has a good reason and I want to understand it. I want to see into his mind and learn from him. He has such an advantage on me. he is being raised in the path, he will be able to say this is who I am much younger then I think I even started looking at that. I know I cam learn from him and his little sister who was helping with the shield wall today. I wish I could learn like I was young again.. it take a lot more to get me to remember things now, but I am gonna soak up all I can from our young ones! Just like the idea of the eggs watching the seeds grow I want to watch our young ones grow and learn (and I want to learn along with them!)
Helga's ramblings, and things to think about...

Freyja

I see so much about Freyja being the goddess of live and beauty, but did you know she is also a goddess of death and dying? Freyja is the embodiment of the triple goddess. She is the maiden, beautiful and aloft. She is the mother, loving and compassionate. She is the crone, vengeful and terrible. Freyja truly is all three. Yet most of what we hear about her is the maiden. We think of her as young and beautiful and very, very sexual. I see her a little differently. I don't see her as young, but she isn't old either. I see her with an ageless face. While she is sexy, it's in that 50s pinup girl way. Just hinting at what is there.
To me Freyja has a hidden depth to her that most people don't consider. Even those who claim her as their patron goddess, don't explore more of her aspects past the sex and beauty. She is leader on the valkyrie, claiming half the battle slain as her own. She is the Vanadis, leader of the disir. These are the unnamed female spirits of the earth. She is one of the Vanir, the earth or fertility gods and goddesses. She taught Odin seid magic, so she must be an expert at that if not the leader of all who practice it.
There is so much to learn for all of us. This is just what came up with off the top of my head. With study our gods and goddesses come to life for us. They need to be more than just a 2 dimensional picture in our heads.