Shieldmaiden Saturday #24

  I have learned that a Shieldmaiden, Valkyrie, and a Goddess can all hit the proverbial wall...hard. Not only is the wall hit hard the knocked down Shieldmaiden, Valkyrie, or Goddess does want to get back on their feet and dust their clothes off and again battle. We may eventually pull our selves up with difficulty and then stand there in a daze of tiredness, loneliness, despair and a great feeling of loss. At times, like tonight, I ask what for? I am all of the above. I am tired and I am weak and I need someone who is emotionally and physically strong enough to put up with me and my weaknesses but I trust that he does not exist. Yet I think that he does but I keep getting disappointed and that makes me miss him even more. All I want is to be tightly held and never let go. 

  But is not that what most Shieldmaidens, Valkyries and Goddesses think and feel and desire and want? Just because we can give a strong showing does not mean we would not relish the chance of being helped made to feel loved and special. 

  Life is not one dimensional for anyone so why should it be so for strong women? We need love, respect, and protection too from someone that is strong enough who will love, respect and protect us. And there can lie the rub for it seems quite a few men feel threatened by a woman's strength, no matter her calling, and run the other way or make fun of her without ever realizing that there is fragility in a strong woman. When we break it is rarely a pretty sight.

  What has brought upon this stream of thought is that as the All-Mother Frigg, I have hit the wall this night. Feeling weak and down, I put myself out there on Twitter and was given love and wise consul by two Shieldmaidens. sometimes us females are each other's warriors.

  

Thank you and many blessings.

Thor and Frigg

Thor and Frigg

Frigg and Thor

Brother and sister forever more.

Thunder and cloud

Cloud and thunder

Always together

Even without a sound.

Memorial Day

I chose to do my Memorial Day post on the actual Memorial Day and not the one that is observed because  I feel that it is more solemn and appropriate. I guess that is my old fashioned way of thinking.

  I have discovered a sadly haunting image of a a woman who cleans her husband's shield as she cries. She cries for her husband has been killed in battle and she naturally mourns him. Behind the wife is her husband in a ghostly form to say good bye before going to eternity in Valhalla, where they will, some day,hopefully again be together.


Remember the real reason for memorial day is to honor those that have fallen in battle and not those that have lived. That is what Veteran's day is for.

A Solemnly Blessed Memorial Day

Friggsday #3 - Frigg, Frigga and Frigga's Web (Germanic godess)

       On this Day of Frigg I share with you a beautifully haunting song for Frigg that is entitled Frigga's Web  Hagalaz' Runedance in 2002 from the album/cd of the same name.

I feel truly blessed to have come across or dare I say to be shown by the all-Mother this music. For those that know me on Twitter they know I love Frigg and am disappointed in the lack of honor she receives. I believe I have expressed the same sentiment in a couple of post her on my blog. But with this song, I feel the love and power for and of Frigg. As well as her wisdom.

  May Frigg Bless you and let you feel her love and power.



                                                 

Frigga's Web Lyrics

Silence before the storm

I reach the house hidden by the night

 

A light I saw I knocked all quietly

I entered; a woman sat by the spinning wheel 

 

"What brings you here my child", she asked?

"Don't you know our lady keeps her secrets well?"

 

It's my life I am running from

It's my fate I am hiding from,

oh would the Goddess speak to me?

Her ways I do not understand, the mysteries I must know,

Oh would the Mother see through me?

"Why don't you rest my child", she said, "I will seek her advice, I will wake you

when it's time"

All night by the spinning wheel, she sang an ancient tune and in the morn' her

work was done

In the distance I heard a call, I awoke and held the spindle in my hand

My other hand held new life, the Goddess had been by my side

and her blessing was mine.

Friggsday #2

Beautiful All-Mother Frigg

Seer of all but quiet of everything

Protectress of the home, marriage, women and children

 I thank you for choosing this humble

and unworthy woman

To be your daughter

and humble representative of you

Upon this land

My Frigg holding Baldr statue

Representing Frigg

The All-Mother has become very important to me. When I started representing her on Twitter I had no idea what to do or even if I wanted to be her. I had thought of Freyja but when I was ready to become her I started having many to come and talked to Frigg so I stayed Frigg. I believe she knew of my struggle with my Twitter identity and had others befriend me as her to keep me representing her.

  With the All-Mother keeping me as a representative of hers I became more comfortable and found my footing. At first I thought to try to be like my maternal grandmother, who everyone loved and still love, but then I found that I have some of her qualities, taking care of the family,cooking,etc., so I put me out there as Frigg. Being me is really the best thing I could do for Frigg.

  The All-Mother has seemed happy to have me or at least I feel that I please her. She has helped me a couple of times. First was when one of my cats got out early in the morning on Valentine's Day and I did not realize it until almost bedtime. I was calling for him for hours when he showed himself but then he disappeared again. I finally got to the point where I looked up and saw the constellation Orion and his belt. This gave me hope. Looking at Orion's Belt, also known as Frigg's Distaff, I asked her to help bring my cat back to me and inside my house. I tacked on Freyja to be on the safe side. A few minutes later here came my cat and I picked him up and got him back inside. since then he has somewhat learned not to sneak outside though he does try but a spray bottle of water helps that situation.

  My second encounter with Frigg's help was a few weeks ago. Nothing dramatic. I was having a bad day and was getting ready to cry when all I did was say"Frigg help me" and almost immediately after getting the words out I felt calmer.


  This all may seem far fetched and the rambling of flighty mind but this is how things are for me and my representation and love of Frigg. I feel blessed to have her in my life and am devoted to her. I also feel she gets relatively ignored by others because she did the most important thing of all:She took care of her family, all of the Æsir , and those she fostered. Maybe it is because of the times and those that are able to take care of their family,whether they (like me) have no children or not, but can still tend to the home seems to be look down on and feel by others to be unimportant. I would like to see them tell the women in their families who stayed home and took care of the family that and see what happens. Because if you are shortchanging the women in your family for raising her family and possibly you, then you are also shortchanging Frigg.

  Forgive me for losing control but I had to write the words that were flowing through me.

  May Frigg Bless You.

Frigg Casting Runes

Friggsday #1

 I am a devoted admirer of the All-Mother, Frigg and I try to give a representation of her on Twitter that makes her proud to call me her daughter.

  It seems to me that there is little to no appreciation, let alone love, of Frigg and this hurts me and breaks my heart as to how overlooked and unappreciated she is. Frigg is not Freyja. Freyja is not Frigg. They are sister goddess of different pantheons. Freyja is loved above Queen Frigg because she goddess of war, sex and beauty. Where as Frigg is of the home and hearth, keeper of the visions she sees and tells no one.

 Frigg is also goddess of Love, Marriage and Destiny. She is a sky goddess and as such is responsible of the weaving of clouds, hence the All-Mother is also responsible for sunshine, rain and the fertility of crops. She is also responsible for the weaving of fates.

  She is also the goddess who keeps us in touch with our intuitive nature and helps us make the transition to new beginnings.

So with this in my heart and mind I give my devotion and love to the Al-mother Frigg. Blessed Be.

Frigg with her handmaidens Fulla and Gna with her horse Hofvarpinr

 Beautiful All-Mother Frigg

Seer of all but quiet of everything

Protectress of the home,hearth, marriage women and children

I thank you for choosing this humble and unworthy woman

to be your daughter and humble representative

of you upon this land

The Poetic Edda - Voluspo : Stanza 20 - The Norns

The Norns also call upon me this day to tell their tale this day from the Voluspa/Voluspo . So I will honor them and their words and do so. BlessedBe.

20.  Thence come the maidens  mighty in wisdom,
       Three from the dwelling  down 'neath the tree;
       Urth is one named,  Verthandi the next, --
       On the woods they scored, --  and Skuld the third.
       Laws they made there,  and life alloted
       To the son of men,  and their fates.

        

The Poetic Edda - Voluspo: Stanza 19 - Yggdrasil

  Yggdrasil and the Norns are getting their own post out of my love and respect for all of them.

19.  An ash I know,  Yggdrasil its name,
      With white water  is the great tree wet;
      Thence come the dew  that falls in the dales,
      Green by Urth's well  does it ever grow.

The Poetic Edda - Voluspo : Stanzas 17 and 18

  We have now come to the creation of the first man and woman of Midgard by Odin, Hoenir (Honir) and Lodur (Lothur).

17. Then from the throng of  did three come forth
      From the home of the gods,  mighty and gracious;
      Two without fate on  the land they found,
      Ask and Embla,  empty of might.

18. Soul they had not,  sense they had not,
      Heat nor motion,  nor goodly hue;
      Soul gave Othin,  sense gave Honir,
      Heat gave Lothur  and goodly hue.

Ask and Embla

First Asatru Temple in 1,000 Years

  In Iceland an Asatru temple will be built in March in Öskjuhlíd Hill that overlooks the capital of Reykjavik for the first time in 1,000 years. The temple will be circular and will be 350 square meters ( 3,767 square feet) and will house 250 people. The temple will be dug 4 meters (13 feet)  down int the hill, built with a dome on top to let in the sunlight. The sacred numbers of 9 and 432,000 are used in the design. Completion oft he temple is expected to be complete in the summer of 2016.

  Says  Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson, high priest of Asatru Association "The sun changes with the seasons so in a way we are having the sun paint the space for us".

  The temple sight was donated by the city of Reykjavik to the Asatru Association but the buildings costs, is  estimated at ISK 130 million ( USD 975,000 EUR 860,000), will be raised by the Association.


  In Iceland Asatru Association has tripled in membership in the last decade to 2,400 members out of a population of 333,000, according to data from Statics of Iceland.

   When the temple is complete Icelandic worshipers (and I assume those that visit Iceland) will be able to publicly worship at a shrine to Odin, Frigg and Thor. The temple will host weddings, and funerals,. The group will also confer names to children and initiate teenagers, similar to other religious communities.


SOURCES:
 http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/02/iceland-temple-norse-gods-1000-years?CMP=share_btn_fb

http://icelandreview.com/news/2015/01/30/asatru-temple-be-built-reykjavik