Nordic Heathenry A/T: My date was a huge antropomorphic moth, as is custom

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Nordic Heathenry A/T: My date was a huge antropomorphic moth, as is custom

Pondex: Jul 8, 2014

Does any of you have any info about meditating in nature at night ("udesidning")?

I've been drawn to this vision-quest/sequestering yourself in nature thing for a while. But being danish, it makes more sense for me to adopt a norse angle to it. I can't really find a lot of info about it though, even in danish.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2021 10:55

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 23:22

Pondex: Jul 8, 2014

Tias posted:

Hej ven! Ja, der er masser af danskere der praktiserer udesidning, is�r nu hvor vikinger, asetro og sejd er mere sexet end nogensinde f�r. I'll write the info itself in English, but please ask more or to have it in Danish if something puzzles.

Sitting out, usually mentioned by the corrupted term "utaseti" (from 'sidde ude or sida ute' in Danish and Swedish respectively) is discussed and done by heathens all over the world. It is considered a principal form of 'seidr' or heathen magic/mysticism. As you read Danish, I cannot recommend "Jorden Synger" by Annette H�st enough. She's a self-taught norse animist shaman who clearly researched the process and does it from an eclectic shaman/norse position. It should be available in public libraries and has recently been reprinted. It's a great read, even if you're not a believer or seidrworker yourself.

Essentially: Go to some undisturbed wilderness, the deepest forest you can find is a favorite, but any place where you think you'll be undisturbed by humans will work. You can start off with opening sacred space, making offerings or praying, and once you're satisfied you have demonstrated intent to enter the other world, you just sit and wait. At a certain stage, you will find the animals, rocks, plants and noises communicating to you, answering your questions or offering other insights you need.

Fantastisk, tak for det. Har lige bestilt bogen.

Internet Wizard posted:

Fun fact: “Utiseti” is one of the most commonly banned by name forms of witchcraft in Scandinavian laws during the medieval period. “Finns” were believed to be especially good at this and all other types of magic at the time, and were viewed with suspicion. “Finn” is kind of complicated because at that point it was used somewhat interchangeably for people from Finland as well as the S�mi. The Catholic authorities were very concerned by it judging by some of the sources I’ve read lately. I recommend Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages for anybody interested in more detail.

It lost prominence in laws and legal cases after the Reformation and as the Early Modern period progressed and in the minds of the legal authorities witchcraft took on a more explicitly demonological cosmology (for example the concepts in the Malleus Malleficarum, or the accusations at Salem) that spread northwards form France and Germany and the like. The actual practices that were prosecuted seem to have changed at a much slower rate, and in many cases it seemed like the witches being tried had to be fed information during the interrogations to even meet the definitions of witchcraft as demonology.

You have to shake your head sometimes at how christianity has tied itself in knots because "Everything has to be just so". You can't even just sit there if you're not sitting there for Jesus.
Funny story: In Vendsyssel, where I grew up, there's a lot of "J�ttestuer", old bronze-age burial-mounds. One church I've been to a few times has a wooden belltower built right on top of one of these mounds. Like "Now you're a 5000 yo. burial-mound for Jesus"

# ¿ Apr 24, 2021 16:56

Pondex: Jul 8, 2014

Yeah, it probably means that it has been a holy place for a long while.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2021 22:08

Pondex: Jul 8, 2014

Tias posted:

Oh word! You don't know a guy named Jens Urth, do you?

(I know, I know, Vendsyssel is a big place. This guy is very loud, though.)

No, doesn't ring a bell. This was out west, near Frederikshavn.

E: No, east

Pondex fucked around with this message at 09:08 on Apr 26, 2021

# ¿ Apr 26, 2021 08:35

Pondex: Jul 8, 2014

Holy sh*t.

Can you imagine? A cave that appeared in a volcanic eruption. Possibly in living memory. And it's named after the guy who will burn up everything at the end of the world. And leaving an offering of beads brought from Baghdad.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2021 10:37

Pondex: Jul 8, 2014

I don't actually know what the pre-christian meaning of Jul was but it's synonymous with Christmas in Denmark. Even if the word is older.

# ¿ Dec 22, 2021 13:41

Pondex: Jul 8, 2014

Weka posted:

Anglo-Saxon heathenry is presumably the cultural practices of the Anglo-Saxons who started immigrating in something like 4-500 AD. My understanding is that these were more aligned with German traditions, although I guess the differences are probably not as marked as they became later.
Does the Danish language, modern or as ancient as we have, distinguish between wild and domesticated boar?

E: thanks for asking after the photos.

Not sure about old norse, but modern Danish uses compound words.

Boar is "vildsvin" and domesticated pig is "tamsvin"

Vild = Wild
Tam = Domesticated
Svin = Swine/hog

# ¿ Dec 29, 2021 19:56

Pondex: Jul 8, 2014

Tias posted:

I think I've mentioned before, but Scots speakers and southern jutland dialect speakers of Danish almost are.

North Jylland as well

# ¿ Dec 30, 2021 10:08

Pondex: Jul 8, 2014

Witching Hour posted:

Over the course of your individual relationships with your God(s) of choice have any of you had interactions or experiences that might be called magical or paranormal? If so, how do you handle these things? I feel as though I am constantly questioning my own sanity. My main reassurance is that if I were totally off the deep end I probably wouldn't spend so much time afraid I'm off the deep end.

What does it mean though, to be off the deep end?

I'm a novice in this field but I kind of consider all ideas and experiences to be real. As real as anything tangible, if not real in the same way.

We live against this backdrop of scientific rationalism which is pretty great when there's a pandemic going on. And I wouldn't seek out a shaman if I had appendicitis, you know?

But there's a dogmatic side to it where; if it can't be weighed or measured, it must be rejected. It doesn't exist. And you're the weirdo for believing your own experience.

But ideas about contact with other worlds are everywhere in mythology/shamanism. So it's probably not that weird when it comes down to it.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2022 15:09

Pondex: Jul 8, 2014

Dumb Sex-Parrot posted:

Hey I got a question that maybe is not so much Norse Heathenry specific, but this thread feels like the best place to ask:

I used to work at a library where one of my guilty plasures were to often skim the books I was handling if they looked interesting. I don't recall the title of this particular book I'm thinking of, but it sounded pretty Norse-like and it seemed to have a lot of advices on how to live a good life as a viking that I felt resonated with me somehow.

The only advice I can still, sort of, remember said that when you enter a meadhall where you are the guest, always choose to sit at the table where people crack jokes at each other, and stay away from the table where people are glum and don't crack jokes.

Does anyone know what book this could be, or what it is referencing?

I used to take pictures of all the cool books so I could borrow them later but this one seems to have slipped through the cracks.

That sounds a lot like the Havamal

# ¿ Jan 21, 2022 10:26

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 23:22

Pondex: Jul 8, 2014

Tias, do you know any material about "digesting" or integrating your lessons/knowledge after a mystical experience?

I'm talking about a mushroom-trip specifically here. But it was such an intensely shamanic experience that I figure it fits in this thread.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2022 12:30

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