What is Animism?

I know I've abandoned this blog some time ago, but most of you are now with me at my Youtube Channel, or continued to support me on the Patreon platform. Even so, if any one still comes here, or by chance comes across this blog seeking something concerning paganism, and you don't yet know about my work, I leave this video here because I think it might contain useful information for those stepping into paganism and want to understand the essence of it, the way of thinking.

I think this video contains some useful information to understand the basics of paganism. It seems to me, nowadays, most neo-pagan movements and neo-pagan thinking is simply an extent of monotheistic world-denying views; there's still the tendency to follow the same line of thought. Neo-paganism in great part seems like a "paganization" of Near-Eastern monotheisms - worshiping the gods as if they were our personal servents and we make demands from, and there is still a great spiritual detachment from our reality and people still seek a spiritual-realm elsews.ewhere, as I often hear: "Middle-Earth is not for me! Valhalla awaits me!". I think by understanding Animism we can better grasp part of the pagan consciousness, and it is a way to start gaining world-accepting views.

New Pagan temple in Poland

You can see my video, talking about this subject, at: [New Pagan Temple in Poland & Religious Freedom]

It's happening again; first it was Iceland who started to build the first major nordic pagan temple after a thousand years of christianization in the land. Then, it was Denmark with a very beautiful viking wooden themple to the norse gods. Now pagan history continues with a project to make the first pagan temple to the Slavic gods in Poland, after christianization spread through the land and wiped out all the old temples to replace for the ones of the new faith.

This year, Poland celebrates the 1050th anniversary of Christianization of the country and its people. But the pre-Christian believes were never truly forgotten or left aside, and the pagan faith still lives on. In the city of Wrocław, in Poland, the neo-pagans, or the rodnovers from the Slavic pagan association Watra, have a new project in had - to build a temple to their old slavic deities. For now, only a digital visualization of this temple is available, which is based on the architecture of the old Slavic temples, acording to historical sources.

The importance of this temple is not focused in the old faith, but rather in concentrating the Slavic culture and traditions in this place to rise awareness and to educate people about the history of their ancestors.

There seems to be an uprising (in a good sense) of pagan culture throughout Europe. After a thousand years of oppression from a foreign faith, the peoples of Europe are turning to the old ways of their ancestors. This is very important in a way that we musn't forget who we were, our traditions, our historical past and our cultures. For the future generations the history we are making today will help them to understand the essence of their ancestors. Most of the knowledge of the past was either lost or still remains a mystery, and now with the help of historians, archaeologists and antropologists, we are able to dig the past (literaly speaking when it comes to archaeology). I understand that for those who have other faiths which have the tendacy to dislike the pagan old ways, this uprising might frighten them, but we live in a world were religious freedom should be as natural and normal as waking up and breathe. No one has the right to bind people to a certain faith/spiritual path. A world where religious freedom is possible, is indeed a better world and half of humanity's troubles can be averted.

Here you have the 3D visualization of the pagan temple in Wrocław which is about to be built:

If you seek more information about this subject, please visit this link and support this project at: https://zrzutka.pl/en/rodzimowierczaziemia

Halloween - A Spiritual Approach

It's that time of the year again! I can't help it and must write about it, for it is the time of the year I love the most and it just feels so magical and wonderful (more due to childhood memories). Halloween is nigh! And since I write about it every year, 2016 is no exception.

This particular festivity is probably one of the most celebrated dates in our modern culture. It seems to be admired, immortalized and aproved each year, and its popularity is considerably growing across the Western world; I dare say all over the globe. In modern times it is the beginning of an holiday season and the opportunity to go out at night, dressed in a notably weird costime and, as if it was a ritual, going arround the neighborhood playing "Trick or Treat". Children do love this (and so their parents), for it is an opportunity to be part of the community and a cheerful way, and it's an escape from the average daily life. It's party for everyone. The decorations are also part of this celebration to enhance the atmosphere; nature of course does its part and brings the cold, rain, mists and very vibrant fiery colours.

It is interesting to see that this is a season of insobriety. Oh yes, the lack of moderation when eating treats (for children) and of course intemperance in drinking alcohol (for adults). But it's just one time of the year, right? We all need to celebrate once in a while and have a little freedom, as long as we do not disturb others.

Now, to the main subject, let us leave behind our whimsical behaviours and delve into the historical and spiritual path of this season. If you are here reading this, you most certainly know that Halloween is the glimpse of what remains of our ancient traditions during this time of the year. The roots into paganism are very deep and strong, although we can't possibly know the ancient name for this celebration. Some neo-pagans call it Samhain (which is the most common term when refering to this season), others call it Winternaucht or Ancestor's Blót and so on. Suffice to say, this season is closely connected with the end of Summer in our world (and the beginning of it in the world of the spirits), the last harvests, the preparation for the coming winter ("Winter is Coming!") and of course, a time to be connected with our ancestors. However, and I've said this a hundred times by now, the Catholic Church appropriated this occasion claiming the 1st of November to be the christian celebration of "All Saints’ Day" and the eve before to be Hallows’ Eve, which in time became shortened into Halloween. Still, the importance of honoring our ancestors was there, even if cloaked by a new faith.

For those of you who still practice the old pagan ways, Samhain (let's refer to it like this) this is yet another important celebration of the year and one of the major ones. For most, this is the season to honor our ancestors, to be in contact with them since the connection between this world and the next comes closer and in mythological references this is the time of the year when the gap between worlds is opened and the spirits might come easily into our world. For the northern pagans for instance, this is also the time to be in contact with the spirits in general; the landvaettir (the spirits of the land), Elves, ancestors and the gods. It's also the time for the Wild Hunt that many pagans have in common in their lore. The time when the spirits of the gods and ancestors travel the skies to hunt for souls. In some cases they take the dying, in other accounts they take those who are worthy, or those who want to take part in it, or sometimes they simply take who they wish. What is important to see here, beyond the myth and metaphors, is that once again this is the time when we are closely connected to the supernatural in a spiritual way.

But since every year I talk about this subject and show the historical background of this season, as well as the purpose of it, I would like to go a little astray from that (and you might read the other posts about this for a better information on the subject) and go into a more spiritual approach.

As I've said, this is the time when the veil between worlds is at its thinnest and spirits from other realms can easily engage with humanity. There is a good possibility that we can achieve connectivity with the spirits and undergo a spiritual experience that might change us completly (often for better). For this same reason and to assuage any malevolent behavior from the spirits, gifts of food and drink were left for them, and people would wear masks to fit in with the ghosts. Into our modern days somehow this managed to survive and gave us the new tradition of "Trick-or-Treat" and putting on costumes.

But, it's not only about our connection with the spirits and the knowledge we might gain during that process. This is indeed the time of the year that we also change our behaviours, our moods, and our personalities have to adapt to a new reality. This is the time when darkness conquers the natural world, and the light and warmth of the sun is gone, such as the flowers and the green meadows and everything that is beautiful in nature. There is a huge change in nature, a transfiguration, a metamorphosis. The cicle of life comes to an end, or at least this is the beginning of that end. It gets colder, the leaves fall, the trees are naked and nature dies out in general. Wild creatures either hibernate or seldom come out. This is just a part of nature that we must accept, the same way we must accept ourselves and our own changes. Our moods darken, there is a sence of melancoly and sadness. Death is in the air, that's what it is. But death is a part of nature and with death also comes life. Nature is giving the possibility of new life to be created, so you too must give yourself that opportunity. This is the perfect time to make your inner spiritual journey and find yourself and understand your place in this world. Darkness can be a friend, when you spend more time indoors, getting to know what really makes you happy. The trick is not knowing what defines us during happy times, but to understand who we truly are and what we truly want in the most desperate moments.

You shelter yourself from the cold and storm. You tend to find a cosier atmosphere at home, maybe beside the hearth. This will be the beginning of your spiritual journey, the beginning of inner reflection. In nature life ended and death began to give way to more life. Your natural cicle also ended and now you must create a new one. The problem is that darkness isn't a cheerful companion and it brings a sense of dread and loneliness. But maybe that's because we were thought to avoid it and walk towards the light and get distracted with beauty. Darkness means being aware, confronting our inner problems, get to know negativity so we might balance it with positivity, to appreciate and feel the other face of nature and the energies of the world. Don't try to avoid the coming darkness, because there is no escape; it's just natural. Darkness will come and you can either embrace it or live the rest of the year feeling miserable and lonely until spring comes again and you start to avoid your problems again, running away from yourself and be dumbfounded with light and the illusion that you can actually escape what is less pleasant. Do not avoit it, just accept it the way it is. If you accept it, you will see that there is happiness to be found even in the darkest moments of life. This is the perfect time to think about your own projects, remake your life, rethink the choices you made and start preparing for another journey in your life. Be ready for changes and walk towards them; walk towards the things and the people that make you happy.

We all have shadows in ourselves that we tend to hide. The wounds will never fully heal if you deny them. This time of the year is to be in contact with our ancestors and that also means being in contact with your past. Understand it; it helped shape who you are today and you must know how to let go of the past just as you must let go of those you loved, or, make a new approach with what really made you happy and with the things and people that you are certain that there is a chance to rekindle the light that now seems so dim and faint.

Halloween, Samhain, All Saints' Day, whatever you call it, is the time to embrace the other side of nature and your own other side. You can't live apart from one side and try to run your life with the other. You can't break your heart in half and throw it away and live with the other. That will keep you out of balance. It keeps you away from your own essence, and out of touch with the other aspects of your own desires and wishes. Self-awareness is what will actually help you to live life and not just survive in it. This is the period in your life to find a rebalance and restoration of your own being.

I wish you all happy Holidays and that you might find balance in life and within yourself.

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9,000-Year-Old Shaman Sanctuary in Europe

There was a recent discovery in Europe of a 9,000-year-old shamanic sanctuary which shows that there was once a culture very knowledgeable in spiritual working. There are thousands of evidences of shamanism in many places all arround the world, but in European ground ancient shamanism is still a very delicate subject. There are not many findings of shamanism in Europe, and that's why this recent discovery might bring a new light to the knowledge we have about shamanic practices by our European ancestors.

One of the major society figures of the ancient cultures was the shaman, or the person who held the power and the knowledge to communicate with the spiritual world. According to ancient accounts, the practitioners of shamanism helped shape the first human societies. They were both wise and feared by the communities of the ancient world. The role of the shaman was not only being able to commune with the spirits of the land, ancestors, deities and the spirits of the afterlife, but also able to heal both body and soul, curse enemies, cure the land, give good council and basically being the one person everyone went to for all sorts of things. The guide of the community.

This all thing seems something out of a fairy tale; complete fantasy to our modern mind. However, with the help of the human sciences such as Anthropology and Archaeology, we modern humans are getting closer and closer to understand this very delicate subject. So it seems that these people, these shamans of bygone days, were really capable of preforming these wonderful, amazing and also terrible things. The human mind is quite powerful and maybe we have forgotten how to properly use it in some fields of consciousness. This new discovery came to help us understand all these strange facts.

In the year of 2012, archaeologists uncovered an unusual site near Lake Świdwie, in north-western Poland. After analyzing the settlement the team of researchers concluded that it dated back more than 9,000 years ago. One of the most amazing finds in this area consisted in a circular design of approximately six meters in diameter where the foundation of the structures was still visible. A trapezoid-like building with poles, encircled by an arch of rocks aligned at equal distances from each other. Within this ancient design, yew sticks were piercing through the ground so that they formed the shape of the Big Dipper – a fragment of the constellation Ursa Major, also known as The Great Bear. A construction made by our ancestors some time during the end of the Mesolithic Era and the beginning of the Neolithic revolution (dates differ from place to place and it took a good thousand years to spread all over Europe. These were our ancestors who had just found farming, and had begun to settle down in specific places, constructing the first villages, the first communities, and now they also started to have a keen interest in astronomy.

This discovery is unique, because other shaman settlements were only found in Siberia and Mongolia and never so close to European ground. Apparently this structure served as a sanctuary from where the spirit practitioners engaged into rituals and out-of-body experiences which are obviously out of reach from written history, and very difficult for modern science to explain. Pieces of wood used in smoking rituals, bark, herbaceous plants and animal bones presumably used as offerings and for driving off evil spirits before a ritual were also discovered at the site.

A rich collection of different stones were also found inside the sanctuary. Among them were syenite, diorite, granite, quartzite, sandstone, gneiss, and even unusual rocks for the Pomerania area such as red marble and green syenite. These were not picked at random or to only decorate the sanctuary. Such stones had a purpose closely linked to spiritual working. It was also discovered black amber and pumice – an extrusive volcanic rock obtained when molten lava is spit out of a volcano. This is an extraordinary and rich collection of stones, unique among the previously known Mesolithic sites, located both within the vast European Plain, and in the zone of the foothills and highlands. These stones had to be brought to this place. and not only did they came from the surrounding area, but also from distant lands, the best example of which is hornfels, which occurs closest in the Giant Mountains and the Harz Mountains.

The archaeological site later proved to be very rich in items mostly made of wood such as pendants and wood masks used in mystic rituals. Thanks to the favorable conditions of the area, all the unearthed pieces were very well preserved.

This interesting discovery adds another dimension to our written history due to the fact that it proves that shamans once ruled the plains of Europe before pré-christian beliefs and Christianity itself, of course. It also demonstrates that ancient Europeans had knowledgeable advisors who could read the stars, use advanced remedies from nature, and probably a list of other good many things that have been lost to us.

A new pagan temple in Denmark

The old gods have never been forgotten. For more than a thousand years their cult was made in hiding. But now, with the turn of the century and the early years of the Twenty-first century, many pagan religions and spiritual paths have been brought to light and people openly practice the faith of their ancestors.

The first temple to the Norse Gods is still being created in Iceland. The very first since the Viking-Age and when the cult of the old gods was prohibited by christianization. But now Denmark follows the same example and has built a new temple to worship the northern gods of Europe.

The very first Odin’s temple since the Christianization of Scandinavia, which took place between the 8th and the 12th centuries. Historically speaking, the year of 1188 BCE marks the triumph of Christianity over Paganism in Denmark with the canonization of St. Canute (Sankt Knud), the patron saint of Denmark.  Since then, the old ways native to the Danish folk were censored for centuries, and those who were caught practicing it were either killed, tortured or at the very least ostracized. But since the old ways have never been truly forgotten and people kept the faith of their forebears, now they are free to worship their gods in the open. Denmark has built a new temple which not only is a symbol of the old faith in the country, but also a mark of their traditions and customs which defines the identity of a culture.

It's the first time in nearly a millennium that the Nordic Gods will have another home in Denmark to visit and to be worshiped. Valheim it was named; and now it marks the reemerge of the old ways. When the temple was ready, an official opening ceremony with attendance of several Danish ministers was held. With the ribbon cut by the leader of the Danish Parliament  it marked the beggining of a new era - an era where free religious practice is possible.

Worshiping in ancient Scandinavia - Freyfaxi

Every religion is always changing, and no matter how hard we try to follow the footsteps of our ancestors, we will never fully understand the essence of their spiritual beliefs. All religions have their branches also, and that happens on the spirituality of the Germanic and Scandinavian peoples of old as well. Some prefer to worship only the Aesir or the Vanir, others worship the underworld deities and the deities connected with a more primal scenary, and others just choose one deity and prefer to focus on that one archetype. Suffice to say that most neo pagans prefer to worship just Odin, or Thor, or even both; these two deities are very famous amongst neo pagans and everything else in this spiritual tradition seems of no importance. However, to our ancestors it was obviously different. In fact, as I've mentioned before,  Odin was not that famous back then, and people prefered to worship fertility deities rather than Warrior deities. The majority of the populace were farmers, herders and fishers. Only a few would worship warrior deities and death deities. Odin was a deity more related to death and war than magic and wisdom (as we commonly think nowadays). Odin's cult was very restricted and only for a certain elite of the society.

With that being said, I'll move on to the real subject of this post. One of the most worshiped deities of that time was the god Frey, mostly worshipped at Upsala (Sweden). Fricco or Freyr, a name which appears to be identical with the Teutonic word represented in Old English by frea - meaning - lord or king. It is stated by some historians and archaeologists that an image of Frey, which was worshipped at Thrandheim in Norway, had been sent there from Sweden. There are certain stories that mention this very image of Frey in Sweden which was carried about the country, and to which sacrifices were offered. This was common with certain deities and Tacitus mentions a cult with these similarities in his Germania; an image of a female deity carried to a forest and sacred grove, and sacrifices were made to her (including human sacrifices).

There were many sacrifices to the god Freyr, but mostly were animals. There are accounts of the sacrifice of black oxen offered to Frey by the mythical hero Hading. This sacrifice was often called Frodblod or perhaps Frodblót by theSwedes - Frey's sacrifice. There are frequent occurances of Frey - in Swedish (and Danish) - place-names which indicates the prevalence of the cult in both of these countries. 

The worship of Frey might also have been very popular in Norway, and from there it  passed to Iceland. The cult being passed on by the early settlers. As late as tenth century the people of Thrandheim are represented as refusing to break their image of Frey at the command of King Olaf, because people had long served  thisdeity and the god himself had done good to his people. There are accounts from the folk of Thrandheim that state the deity often talked with them  and told them things to come and also gave them peace and plenty. At the great festivals it was customary to drink to Frey, in order to secure peace and prosperity. A talisman on which the image of Frey was marked in silver is mentioned as having been owned by one of the petty kings of Norway about the late nineth century; this was given by King Harald to Ingimund.

In Iceland itself the traces of a popular cult of Frey are very clear, and more than one prominent person mentioned this cult in the sagas. One of these accounts, from Thorgrim, brother-in-law of Gisli Sursson, the saga says that he intended to hold a festival at the beginning of winter, and greet the winter, and sacrifice to Frey and in honor to the deity. When Thorgrim was murdered, and had been laid in a grave-mound, it was noticed that the snow never lay on the south or west sides of the mound, and the ground never froze there; it was supposed that he was so highly esteemed by Frey himself for the offerings he made to him, that the god did not wish Thorgrim's mound to freeze. Great attachment to this deity also appears in the story of Hrafnkel, who loved no other god more than Frey, and gave to him his possessions ; all his most valuable things. Among the offerings was a horse (Hrafnkel's own horse), which on that account bore the name of Freyfaxi. Another Freyfaxi belonged to Brand in Vatnsdal, and most people believed that he had a religious reverence for the horse. Horses owned by Frey are also mentioned as existing in Thrandheim in the days of Olaf Tryggvason by the end of the tenth century. Freyfaxi became the well known name for the cult of Frey and the celebration to him in August, during Lammas day (1st of August).

If you need more information and would like to talk with me, please feel free to visit my facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/ArithHarger/ where you cna also see my artistic works.

Samhain: Remembering our ancestors

Halloween is at hand; this most-awaited celebration (including by myself) where scary beings are the order of the day. Funny and pleasant moments spent with family and friends, enjoying the very natural atmosphere this season provides us, along with the creepy and spine-chilling tales we tell each other by the fire and with the lights turn off. Well, I must say, with the exception of Yuletide, this is certainly my favorite time of the year. But this isn't, definitely, Samhain (as it has been named): the far older traditional festivity of our ancestors.

I know I have written about Samhain a few times before. Well, in fact, every year I write about it, and I think I have given the reason why before - I do love this time of the year.But I think it is always important to remember the origins of festivities and the importance those had to our ancestors; it is a way to honor them by remembering the spirit of this season, and in fact, this season literally belongs to them. Samhain, and every other similar European-Pagan celebration, marks the ending of the harvest season and the beginning of winter; not winter as we know it today, but the beginning of darkness, as in the days are shorter and the nights are longer.

This celebration has pre-christian roots. Its celebrations began at sunset on the thirty first (31st) of October, to the sunset of the first (1st) of November. It is one of the four most important seasonal celebrations of the year. Literally, the essence of this celebration marks the beginning of winter.

This time of the year was when the cattle could no longer graze on the green pastures,summer was waning (note that Autumn wasn't known to be a season and there was only Spring, Summer and Winter) and farm animals were slaughtered and the surpluses of the harvest were stored for the coming of winter. Storing food for winter was the key for survival. Nowadays we do not give much importance to that and that is why part of the spirit of this season was forgotten. Samhain was also a liminal time when the spirits or fairies could easily cross into our world. Take note that when I speak of fairies I'm not referring to the little shiny creatures with wings, but to the term for all kinds of spirits, just like in the Scandinavian tradition, that Elves aren't only the good-looking handsome beings with pointy ears, it also includes all kinds of spiritual beings (mostly benevolent). Most of this spiritual beings may be the remnants of older pagan deities and spirits of nature, as such, people used to leave offerings of food and drink out in the fields for them. This, of course, was because people wanted to maintain the bonds of friendship with the spirits and the gods, and avoid all kinds of mischiefs from them. Also, it was a way to ensure that the spirits of nature were appeased and winter wouldn't be so harsh on mortals.

These practices during Samhain are very evident in our modern celebration of Halloween. However, most of these supernatural elements in this celebration now have a wicked or/and an evil aspect, due to their condemnation by the medieval church. To put on a costume was another part of the festival and involved people going door-to-door in disguise to recite verses in exchange for food - Halloween trick or treating recalls this tradition.

However, nowadays there isn't an important aspect of Samhain reflected on our Halloween. This aspect is obviously the honouring of out ancestors. As mentioned before, if the spirits of nature and deities can come through the tin veil, so the dead can as well, for they also belong to the otherworldly activities. People used to held feasts and invited their deceased ancestors to attend those same feasts. This was in fact the true reason this celebration was held, with roots in our prehistoric past. As you might know, Agriculture is as "recent" as 5000 years ago (in some "countries" - the farthest away from the middle-east the earlier to our era it gets). There are archaeological evidences that this celebration was held before the invention of agriculture. In ancient times, Samhain wasn't the celebration of a season and the ending of the harvest, because there wasn't any harvest to be celebrated.

The Coligny calendar (a Celtic time keeping plaque found in France and probably dating to the late 2nd century AD) with celtic words but written in Roman alphabet, is assumed to reflect a far older indigenous tradition of this celebration. The year (as with the Gaelic Celtic year) was divided into two with the division from summer to winter occurring at Samon[ios], which may have given rise to the word ‘Samhain’. It seems there was a three-night festival at this time (Iron Age people recorded times by nights not days), called the trinux[tion] samo[nii] - the three nights of Samhain. What people did at this time of year is hard to discern from the archaeological evidences.

Now, I think it might be relevant what I will transcribe from Mike Williams:

" (...) from the Bronze Age, and possibly long before, people observed the movement of the stars and an embossed disc from Nebra in Germany seems to reflect the celestial skies at the start of winter. The disc shows the moon (...) and a star constellation that looks very similar to the Pleiades. Given its prominence, the Pleiades certainly had considerable meaning to the people using the disc.(...)

" In Western astrology, the Pleiades is associated with mourning the dead (...) as with all stars, the Pleiades has shifted its position over the years. During the Iron Age, the Pleiades rose to its apex in the winter skies during trinuxtion samonii, or the three nights of Samhain. (...) Iron Age people mourned and remembered their dead at this time, then it may have given rise to the association between the Pleiades and mourning the dead. The Nebra disc shows the importance of the constellation to prehistoric people and it may have even been the marker people sought to begin their festivities. There is even folk tradition that Druids celebrated Samhain when the Pleiades were at their apex at midnight. Mourning and remembering the dead may have been the focus of the Samahin festival during the Iron Age. "

Unfortunately, Halloween forgot all about honouring our ancestors, and we seem to enjoy more what it has become. However, during the IX (9th) century, the roman catholic church changed their "All Saints' Day" to the 1st of November. It became the day for remembering the dead, the ancestors. It might seem strange to you to notice that the church, who so fervently fought against pagans in order to make people forget and forsake their ancestral traditions and impose and implement their believes, kept this element of Samhain. In truth, it was a very cunning "marketing" weapon to "collect" more worshipers of the new faith into their flock. The church knew it was a very important celebration and people sticked to it, and it would be very hard to lead them astray from their important ancestral celebrations so rooted in their hearts, so the church just included it in the new faith and both parts were "happy" with it. Recognizing and adopting Samhain as a christian celebration was a way to appease the mood of the pagans and turn them into allies.

Never forget your roots, your origins. You will certainly have time to remember your ancestors this Halloween. Enjoy the feasts, the celebrations, trick or treat and all that stuff, but don't forget your ancestors and honour them as best you may.

Making your own Altar - The Basics

One of my last posts was focused on the basics of how to blót, for the beginners who have just started to practice the rituals of the Norse/Germanic faith. Today this post is targeted to the beginners who prefer to have a central focus of worship for whatever pagan religon you are into. The basics of of to make your own altar or shrine. 
Setting up your own altar is easy, there are only a couple of options to consider.
The first thing that you have to ponder, is if you want an outside altar or an inside one (maybe both?). If you are going to make an outside altar, you have to consider what kind of altar do you want to make, either a single large stone or piled rocks on which you can make offerings and leave them there, and pour libations. This is a great option if you own a yard, or a property cleared of all kinds of vegetation. Of course you can do it in your own apartment if the ground is strong, but that doesn't make it private, nor is it pratical, and it takes away your own space.
The second type of altar that you may want to think about if you live in a place where you can't have an antar outside, is one that you can have it in a private room, safe from children, pets and any one who might interfere with it.
Our Norse ancestors in some houses had their own shrine/altar, on a division of the house, just like a little house inside the bigger one. Making an house of the gods, spirits and ancestors. Inside that division, oaths were also made. Inside the room, in the altar, there would be a bowl, a blood-bowl to be more precise, it was called the hlaut, the blood of the sacrificed animals to the gods, sprinkled during the rituals.
You can make your own private shrine, it isn't complicated, nor does it need to be overly ornate. However, with time, you will notice that your altar will become full of your offerings and other things that you consider to be appropriated for the altar. All you need to make your own altar or shrine, is a flat surface in a safe part of the house, or even a room just for it. You can place in it the bowl with which you will make your offerings, other icons of your religion, and even the images of the deities, personally I do not worship images nor figures, nor did my ancestors from my mother side, we believe that the power of the gods ins't in their images, nor our faith should be places on those images because that is all those are, objects, our faith is within us and so are the gods. Anyway, going back to the subject, you can use a table, or any other type of flat surface to place your altar.

You know now my opinion on the images of the deities, but if you are into it, god-images don't need to be very complex, at least on your case if you are starting just now. Nowadays, it is easy to find the images of the deities, even replicas of the historical ones, but you can also use anything that resembles the deity, anything you think somehow is connected to the deity. The altar and the place where you build it, must be of your liking, you must decorate it in a way that makes you feel comfortable, and let me put it in these words, put you in the mood.

Fire is also needed in the pagan altars, some people build their own altars on top of their hearth. You can add to your altar candles, it is a good way to have light on your altar and at the same time fire. Keep in mind, that you must be prepared to clean your altar often, a lot of wax, drink, food, etc will be spilled there, so make your altar in a way that will be easily washed, that includes any kind of cloth you place on it.

Many gods have their own favorite color, so you might want to add a cloth of the color that reminds you of the deity or deities.

As you can see, setting up your own altar is one of the easiest things you can do, with time it will evolve and become more complex, but for beginners, these steps are what you need to place in your mind, the basics. Personally, I don't have an altar, I don't need one, but I know that many people need to have a shrine in order to concentrate their faith in one place, its just a matter of personal mind organization.

How to Blót ? - The Basics

In the past few years, I've been writing about the Norse Pagan Traditions, feasts, Blóts etc. and I realised that I have never wrote a post to help people starting their blóts or at least giving a brief notion of how it is done. Some people have already asked me how to make sacrifices and offerings and I have always helped them, giving to them the knowledge that I have about that subject, but never occur to me that I could actually write a post about it and maintain even more people informed.

In the Hávamál there are at least two lines that ask if one knows how to bid (pray) and how to sacrifice. 
I understand that so many have still a lot of difficulty with this kind of practice, no one has ever born with all the knowledge about these things. It takes time. We live in a world (nowadays) where these things are seldom taught, and there is still only a few who are willing to "waste" a bit of their time, to teach the eager ones.
Our society is so used to sit in some place, listen someone babbling about the subject, speak some words so often that starts to sound like a song, so well memorized that has no meaning whatsoever in our minds, toss money and that's it, that we completely forgot how to actually worship the gods in our own way. The key to know how to Blót, is to know the way of personal worship. Worship the deities on our own isn't easy and most of the time we don't know were to start. However, there are several different "steps" one can take in order to build a structure that leads to the worship of the deities in a personal matter. I will write a brief "guide" for group worshiping, but you, whoever you are, will easily be able to modify that for individual practice.
Note that these are not instructions on how you must perform, just a general outline. You are completely free to perform accordingly with your community, your own group or your own customs. With time and practice, your knowledge and skills will grow and you will start to perform in your own way.

1- Consecrate, Sanctify (hallowing) the place, to make it sacred. This can be done in many different ways. Some people often carry fire around the ritual area accompanying it with the singing of a holy song or reciting a poem or a prose work. Some consecrate the area with ale or mead, invoking the land spirits to guard the place and help during the rituals. This is made when you haven't been in the place before, or if you think that you will never come back there. It is actually to "mark" the area with what you will about to do. If you have your own place and if you have done it before in it, it is seldom needed to do it again in that specific place, at least by you. If a new member enters the community, this has to be done again to welcome the person into the area and into the group.

2- The next step is the "Calling", the invocation of the gods, spirits or ancestors. Usually asking them with a prayer, to be present among you and your folk, to be present during the rituals. Invoking the gods by calling their names. You can write your own invocation, be that for the gods or for the specific Blót, or both of course. Whatever you might use to invoke the gods, or even if the group sings a song, none of these methods are a command, it is a mere invitation, they might come or not.

3- "Advice" and/or "Council", is when the purpose of the gathering and the blót is explained and why the people are there and for what purpose the specific deities, spirits or ancestors have been previously called. It can ether be explained with ordinary speech or reciting a specific part of the lore. Reciting a myth, a story. The important thing is to explain the why of making the offerings and to whom they are being held.

4- Making the Offering. The blót is the worshiping of the holy powers and to make an offer to them. Now is the time to present the offerings and make them holy. It is the simple act of offering something to the gods, spirits and/or ancestors, and those become holy because they cross the veil between our world and theirs. Offerings can be anything of worth.
If you are making an offering of food, you might leave it out there to be eaten by animals, bury it or sink it into water like you would with physical goods. If you are using a libation as the main offering, you will likely want to pour it out on the ground or be poured into an offering bowl to be used in the Blessing later. It is very common to pass around a communal drink for ritual toasting and praise prior to pouring it out, like the horn filled with mead for example.

5- Blessings. Time to bless the people involved in the ritual, sprinkling each person with the previous blessed offering and speaking a simple prayer to impart divine favor and protection. Part of the offering, should be given to the land itself where the blót is taking place, to bless the area and strengthen what links each people involved in the ritual, with the spirits of the land and to mark that place for future sacrifices.

6- Ending. Since every blót has a clear start, it should also have an end. Something to make clear that the rite came to and end and that it is all over. Recite a farewell poem or any words to show the gratitude for the presence of the community and the ones that have been called upon.

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Sauna - The House Of The Ancestors

The Sauna is a very old spiritual tradition, especially for the European peoples. Throughout history we find that the Northern European cultures have an important connection with the sauna. Archaeology in northern Portugal and Spain also found that the Celts and the Lusitanians used to have buildings similar to their houses only for the purpose of cleansing the body through heat and vapours. Nowadays it isn't hard to get into a sauna, but unfortunatelly modern saunas are very different from the old saunas that were used for religious purposes.

The first purpose of the sauna is to honor the powers of the elements, fire, water and stone (earth) and how the spirits of such elements together make "magic", creating steam, thought to be the very breath of the earth and the ancestors. Without these elements, the spirits will not come to you.

For religious purposes, the sauna must have a good source of heat from wood with real flame (nowadays modern saunas have the source of heat through an electric sistem). Also, there is the need of adding stones, most modern saunas have them, as long as there is wood and real flame, it is fine. Now, something very important that isn't taken to account by the people who build modern saunas. Ventilation. Many modern saunas make people sick because the oxygen levels fall too low. Any type of opening will do, the fire needs oxygen to "breath". The best way is having an adjustable vent near the floor, to vent the cooling sinking air, and another higher up to vent the excess heat that follows later.
Also, like I've written, having stones, to throw water on them. Don't pick up river stones, usualy blow apart during temperature changes. You will also need water of course. Our ancestors used to collect the rainwater for these purpose, coming from the sky, it was a direct blessing from the deities. The type of wood used to come from the birch trees, I believe that I have already written about the birch tree in another post, those were consider to be very magical in many cultures, especially the ones ruled by a druidic order.

Do whatever you want in the sauna, but know that the real purpose of it, wasn't to party, so if you really want to do any type of spiritual work, you must behave of course. Being in a sauna, one must be quiet, meditative, peaceful, solemn. This is an opportunity to be in touch with the spirits of the elements, a rebirth ritual, so our ancestors used to go into the sauna, completly naked, the way they came into the world, deprived of any clothing.

Of course people may feel shy for being naked in a community sauna, that is understandable, but modern community saunas don't have the ancestral spiritual purposes. Community saunas used to be mixed gender, however, some rituals during the year only for men or for women, were held inside the sauna (at least part of the rituals) so in that case, the sauna was occupied by only one gender.

The first saunas were made out of stone, but during the later 5th - 6th centuries, these were being built our of timber. The hearth was considered to be the altar of the sauna (the sauna being the temple/house of the ancestors).
The door to a traditional sauna used to be shorter than a an average door, people had to stoop to get into it, showing reverence for the ancestors.

The very first saunas were smoke saunas, the Finns refer to them as savusauna. The fire was lit under stones, and the smoke went out through a hole in the wall or ceiling. The smoke heated the entire room and then the hole was shut and the window opened to let in fresh air come in. There are different claims on the health risks of these smoke saunas, or savusauna. Some say that the smoke is bad for your lungs, others that the smoke creates a bacteria-free and oxygen-rich environment. Don't try these in any circumstances if you are new at this or alone, these might be better in community and with someone outside the door.

The traditional ways of making fire for the sauna, would take long (compared to modern ways of course, it wasn't that long) but it would take longer to get the sauna ready for the spiritual purpose, so people used to sit outside and play the shamanic instruments to call upon a spirit to enter the sauna. In some cases, people would also wait for a family member to die in or near the sauna, so they would be able to call upon them during the sauna rituals.

Our ancestors would call upon guardian spirits to protect them. There was/is one very popular in Finland, named Saunatonttu, a little gnome or sort of faery. It was customary to warm up the sauna just for the gnome every now and then, or to leave some food outside for him. It is said that he warned the people if a fire was threatening the sauna, or punished people who behaved improperly while inside it. The Saunatonttu doesn't seem to be an Alfar (Elf) but more like a being that belongs to the "little people" race. In Russia there was the Bannik or banyanka, also a spirit that protected people from evil spirits. Our ancestors would take refuge in the bath houses and saunas to pray to these spirits for protection.

The purpose of the sauna was to honor the ancestors, to call upon the spirits for protection and to be connected with them and the elements of nature, creating the very breath of the earth, ancestors and gods. Through this "breath" one would cleanse the body and soul.

Experimental Archaeology and the Russian Hermit

There is this new type of archaeology which is called, Experimental Archaeology which I would very much like to bring into the country where I'm living, Portugal, because it is a country filled with history and different cultures in a 5000years time frame. Anyway, Experimental Archaeology is what the name says it is, studying a period in history and reconstruct it, it can either be in the place of the archaeological findings, it might be reconstruct an already existing structure or recreate it in a different part. Reconstructing old buildings and settlements using the tools and materials of that time placing everything it was needed to survive and live to better understand how the human being lived life, it helps us to understand the social behavior, the connections they had with other cultures, where did the materials come from, what did they do in the different periods of the year, the type of food they were eating and so on.. This would be very interesting to make in Portugal with the Celtic and Lusitanian settlements, or the Germanic structures to the North or even the similar type of Norse settlements along the northern and central coast of Portugal, not even to mention the thousands of megalithic structures all over the country. But I'm getting off the topic now.

So speaking of Experimental Archaeology, in Russia a 24 year old man is spending eight months living completely alone in thr harsh freezing Russian wilderness, in an attempt to reconstruct the life of a 10th century hermit, it is part of a social experiment as well as Archaeological one. The project started in September and it is expected to run until the end of May. The man is caled Pavel Sapozhnikov, from Moscow, and he can only abandon the project if his mental or physical health is at serious risk, or if by any way his life is under threat. The dangerous thing is, even if contracts an illness, for example, lung infection, he is expected to carry the project on as his ancestors would have done a 1,000 years ago.

This isn't an easy task, Sapozhnikov is living in the replica of a 10th century farm house placing in a forest clearing around 50 miles north of Moscow. With the help of the expert archaeologist, Alexander Fetisov, the farm was built using only materials and techniques that would have been used by ancient Russians. Obviously this includes fire lights that burn on linseed oil, wooden beds, animal fur clothes and bedding and calendar scratched into the wall of the house. Sapozhnikov is only allowed to leave the fenced-off area of the farm to hunt and gather food. His is banned from any kind of communication and he can only use authentic tools that were used in ancient Russia.

He is already been living there for six months but the real challenge is during the cold harsh Russian winter season, a time when temperatures in the region can drop as low as minus 30ºC. This period of the year was deliberately chosen to highlight exacly how difficult Russian ancestors would have been living and hunting in these conditions.

The experiment is part of a project called ‘Hero’ and was set up by events manager Alexei Ovcharenko from agency Ratobor.  The theory behind the experiment is ‘to trace the social and psychological changes in personality and learn how important the support of others is to modern humans.’  Ovcharenko added that eight months is long enough for the experiment to yield results, but not too long that it will 'pathologically endanger' Sapozhnikov.  However, a medical expert and project leader does visit him once a month to check on his progress.

Sapozhnikov starts his morning by milking his goats, collecting eggs, butchering chickens for food and eating breakfast, follwing by chopping wood and collecting water from the well, and when the season calls for it, gathering mushrooms from the near by forest. The rest of the day is spent either hunting for food or carrying out manual labour on the farm. This also includes insulating the house with manure, maintaining his house and outbuildings, and other tasks around the farm.

Of course Sapozhnikov wasn't sent to this mission with lack of information, he spent months learning how to prepare animals and how to live in these conditions. He also became skilled in using ancient tools and familiarised himself with ancient fire-building and washing techniques with the help from the archaeologists.
For example, to produce hot water he must place stones in his fire stove until they are glowing, before putting these stones into a bucket of cold water, he then uses this water to wash his clothes, cooking utensils, his home, and his own body, although, because water is scarce there, clothes and body washing is carried out infrequently.

The history of Yule to todays Christmas

Yule or Yule-tide, yet another celebration that hasn't anything to do with christianity and we clearly know now that Christ wasn't born on December the 25th. In truth, Yule is a pagan festival that has been held throughout centuries, a winter festival to honor the female deities of the Norse/Germanic peoples, that is where it actually originated. But where do the pagan festivities and the christian beliefs met? and why?

Originally, the night where this festival took place was during the "new year's night" and it was so called Mōdraniht, meaning, Mother Night. During this pagan holiday a sacrifice was made and everyone involved, all the celebrants, would share the feast afterwards. But throughout history people have come together and mingle by means of trade or invasions and people end up adopting customs and ideas from each other. So there came a time in history when the Norse/Germanic lunar calendar was changed by the Julian calendar which was adopted and the date of the Yule festival changed to December the 25th. Since then it has been absorbed into the Christian holiday of Christmas as a form of propaganda, so the pagan peoples wouldn't feel much changes and still held their celebrations but now turned to a different faith and a different deity, slowly forgeting the old traditions by the force of habit, replacing their beliefs by foreign ones. Nowadays these pagan festivities have emerged again and it is now celebrated among Wiccans, and Pagans of Europe or European descendance during the winter solstice on December 21st. It is believed that the pagan Yule festival was influenced by both the Wild Hunt and the Roman winter festival of Saturnalia.
The Wild Hunt goes by many names, and its connection to Yule goes fat back to the folklore myth / legend of Odin's Hunt, and the most known versions of it are the christianized ones. "The legend is that a group of huntsmen with hounds and horses make a mad dash across the ground or through the sky in pursuit of something unknown. The huntsmen, depending on the folklore, are often undead, demon possessed clergy or fairies of the underworld. The legend goes on to warn mortals from viewing the hunt because if one sees it, a catastrophic event such as the plague, famine, or war could follow. Another warning in the legend against the viewing of the Wild Hunt is that the spirit or soul could be grabbed by the riders and taken to the underworld." The vision of the Wild Hunt takes place during the time of the year when the wind blows the strongest and storms begin to form.Odin's Hunt begins on October 31st and ends on May Eve or April 30th. However, the height of the hunt takes place on Yule, the shortest day of the year. Odin and his Valkyries ride across the sky searching for those worthy to join the ride, many heroes of old also join this hunt, along with the Einherjar, the Elite warriors of Odin. Also this is the time when souls are "collected" and bought to the next world. During christianization fear replaced the tales of old and Yule fires were lit to keep the hunters at bay.
Saturnalia was a Roman winter festival with the objective of honoring the dedication of the temple to the god Saturn, or Cronus to the Greek. Originally the festival was celebrated on December 17th but grew in popularity and was extended to a week long event. A lot of feasts were held during this week, trickery and tomfoolery. A common practice was for slaves to dress as masters and masters to dress as slaves.
Great feasts would take place during the week of Saturnalia after the religious rites were performed in the temples of course. Visits to family and friends would take place and the giving of gifts was a common practice. Such gifts included wax candles and lamps, very common gifts by this time. It was believed that this was to light up the area and chase the spirits of the dark away.

So Yule and Christiams at some point in history came together and made a fusion and we see nowadays in Christmass many things that belong the the pagan festivals of old, like decorating the trees, the type of food we eat during this time, many decorations with elves, goats (the story of the Julbock), Reindeer, snow, pine trees, fir trees, the colors of Red and White and so on, things that were never common in the lands where Christ was born, but to keep this time of the year with its true essence and magic, we kept Christmas in a very pagan manner. During Yule it is a common practice to light Yule logs for Yule fires and to eat goat or boar and fill the air with singing and merriment. During Christmas it is common to light a Yule log, celebrate the birth of Jesus through the Virgin Mary, feast with family and friends, give gifts and witness religious rites in church. Throughout history the combining of these pagan festivals made it easier to convert the heathen pagans to Christianity.

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Halloween and the Pagan origins

October is coming to an end, we are so near the day we have all been waiting for, Halloween! or All Saints Day, a very traditional Christian celebration for thousands of generations. But is it really a celebration from the Christian holidays calendar? Or an adaptation from a very ancient past before the christianization of Europe?

In truth, Halloween comes from the harvest festivals held by this time of the year by many European cultures, since immemorial times. We know about the Celtic Harvest festival given the recent Gaelic name of Samhain, a day that marks the end of Summer, connected to the harvest, also to the dead and the ancestors and the Celtic new year.

The medieval Christian churchmen and their Christian leaders often placed their holidays near popular pagan celebrations to wean the people that were recently converted, away from their pagan festivals and beliefs. Like so, Pope Gregory III moved All Saints Day from May the 13th to November the 1st. People wouldn't complain that much now, since they would still celebrate their old pagan holyday but in a different manner and turned to the new faith.
Even with such a new faith introduced, this day never lost it's former essence, and much of the popular imagination and superstition from the earlier period of this celebration is still associated to the fall pagan festival and came to our modern days because some people ( including chuchmen ) preserved some of the cults of the ancient era. Much of the superstitions were around the dead, but by this time, the harvest celebrations took place, bonfires, the coming of autumn and the natural world changing, metaphorically speaking, this was the beginning of the very death of nature, the magical passage to the winter, when the days grow darker and the skies at dusk are "painted" with the colors of fire and the very land takes this form. All of this was thought to be held most prominently during the evening before All Hallows, from where the modern name Halloween or “All Hallows Evening" comes from. The term itself originated in Scotland.
By the passing of time and with the coming of the christian faith and all the tales from the old pagan past that were told to people to scare them and never think about the pagan beliefs again, new customs evolved that had little to do with both the pagan celebrations and the christian All Saints Day or later called All Souls Day on November the 2nd. 
Some people burned candles or used lighted hollowed-out turnips (“jack-o-lanterns”) to drive away the malevolent spirits of the dead on the eve of All Hallows that would enter the world of the living at this very night. The custom of adults and children disguising themselves to trick the spirits or the living and beg for coins or food is the origin of "trick or treating". However, to the Celts, it was true that they believed that a gap between this world and the next, could be indeed opened, and the spirits of the dead, other beings and even the gods, would come to the mortal world. Some people held the celebrations for the dead, hoping that they could have any contact with their ancestors, others would disguise themselves with masks because they feared that in this day, the spirits or the gods would come and take them to the next world, since this was also the day that the deities and their helpers came to collect souls.
All over Europe, before the christianizations, people rejoiced at this day because they knew that this was the day that they would be so close to their ancestors. In northern Europe, there were many celebrations held during the month of October, such as the Dísir, honoring the female ancestors and the female deities. The Alfablót, to honor the spirits of the land to help in the harvest or to thank them for the harvesting time during the year. This was also the time were no stranger to the families living in each farm, could come near, because it was a time for very private celebrations for each family, when they could join with their deceased and feast with them near their buriel mounds at the farm. There was the myth, all over Europe, that this was also the time of the Wild Hunt, and each culture has its tales of the gods, the spirits of the ancestors and the spirits of animals, running across the sky searching for souls, to take away those who were dying, to take people at random if the gods thought that their time had come or to take brave heroes, worthy to be in the presence of the gods.

As Celtic immigrants from Scotland and Ireland came into the United States during the XIX century the spirit and essence of Halloween was rekindled. The American pumpkin replaced the turnip to make the jack-o-lanterns, and as such tit became the most prominent decoration of this holiday in the American culture.

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The Mesolithic Lunar Calendar

The other day i have been writing about the Moon and its importance for our ancestors in ancient times and today i came across a very interesting article about an archaeological finding which comes to prove what i have writen, about our ancestors guiding their lifes through the phases of the Moon rather than the Sun as we do today.

We often hear the words Ancient Astronomy, and we quickly associate that with Stonehenge, or the ancient pyramids of Egypt or even the Mayan stone calendars, which isn't incorrect, however a recent discovery in Scotland shows that these type of ancient calendars are from an early period when compared to these new discovery. In Aberdeenshire in Scotland it was found in 2004 ( however only recently after many years of research we know its true secrets ) a very sophisticated calendar construced by the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers living around 10.000years ago, which consists in twelve pits dug into the earth perfeclty aligned with the lunar progression through the year, this enabled people to determine accurately the Moon's progress by moving a marker post along the arc of the pits, interesting to see that the variable depths of these pits enabled people to measure the cycle of each lunar month, the pits themselves were arranged in a shallow arc, possibly trying to symbolize the movement of the Moon, those pits at one end starting small and shallow, then increasing in diameter and depth towards the middle of the arc, before deminishing in zise again at the other end. This arrangement divided each lunar month into three ten day weeks, representing the waxing moon, the period around the full moon, and the waning moon. There is also an alignment of the midsummer solstice, this might helped people "recalibrate" their lunar calendar. The calendar was still in use around 8.000 BC still in the Mesolithic era to around 4.000 BC the early Neolithic, this might had been the calendar that helped people gaining their knowledge to create other astronomical monuments in the late Neolithic era including Stonehenge.

This is a very interesting archeological finding, showing that in this period that was already an astonishing sophistication in these hunter-gatherers, and their everyday life was probably more nocturnal rather than a diurnal life, the opposite of us nowadays.

As I have writen on another post, to these people the nocturnal life would have been easier for them to hunt, or to move from one place to another without being seen by other rival tribes, the phases of the moon marked the time they spend from one place to another, or how many phases of the moon or how many moons whould have to pass to go from a neighboring village and back. As the moon also has an influence in the tides, by knowing its phases and how it moves across the sky, was vital for these people in relying on the sea for their food, people could predict when the tide would be out and when they should coordinate their gathering of crustaceans, seesnails, limpets, clams and other shellfish species, or they would also know when the ocean itself was far less tormented and could go out fishing.

Taking into account the size of this calendar, it was probably consulted by the entire community as it happens in Stonehenge, there might have been the existance of a spiritual leader, a shaman, with special knowledge about the spiritual world, designing and operating the calendar, these spiritual practitioners may have been women, as it was among the Norse/Germanic communities, with their menstrual cycles adhering to the cycle of the Moon.

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The simple mind of our ancestors

Each man and woman from ancient civilisations had the need to compensate the earth itself somehow for the things they had to do to survive, hunting, fishing, bringing down the trees for wood and all the things they had to do to have valuable resources, and so they gave lots of gifts to the earth, honoring it, loving it and fearing it. There was from both sides, mankind and the earth, a connection and an attitude of reciprocity. This was done so, because of the need people had to live harmoniously with their surroundings, and people illustrated these events by carving or painting these things into the walls of their caves or the places they marked as hunting grounds. This was sacred to them, and they saw in each elemento, each animal, each event in nature, the works of the divine, the demonstration of the powers of the gods in the natural world, and as such, this was the first primitive "dialogue" between men and the gods, the contact with the forces inhabiting an invisible plane, the places inaccessible to human consciousness of today.
 
In primitive times, human activity was based on the respect for the natural world, the planet earth was regarded as a very generous mother but at the same time very fearsome. To that which people called Mother-Earth, it was the source of their protection, the source of life and all the food they needed, but at the same time, its natural powers were something that they couldn't control and it was terrifying. 
As it is said, "a gift calls for a gift" in these times mankind gave their own gifts to the gods and goddesses of each place on earth, to the deities of the forests, the rivers, the mountains, and to the spirits of each tree, stone, land and so on, for they received a lot of gifts from these beings, and humans had a diferente perception of the world, they were much more sensitive to that, for now we all live closed in our own cities, surrounded by silent and invisible nuclear radioactive clouds and radio lines from many devices, which affects our brains, we live under the laws of man and not of those of nature, and we lost this sensibility as we turn our backs from the natural world a bit more each day, we can't possible know the kind of connections people used to have with nature in ancient times, and we often think they were the primitive ones in terms of thinking, but in truth, they were only primitive in the sence of the word, for being very ancient, for they lived in a simple way with respect towards all that surrounded them.
Giving back to nature something, a natural gift or something that you do, might seem awkward, primitive, with no benefits, but these demonstrations of gratitude and the emotions implied in it, its what makes us more humble.
As mother-nature gave protection, nutrition, food and life, it was seen as a real mother and as such there was the need to respect it, worship and honor it, giving to it sacrificial offerings. Mother-nature gives life to the living and takes away the dead back to it's humble "womb", regenerating and giving life again.

Prehistoric Senses

Have you ever imagine how our ancestors lived when much of Europe was covered with woodlands? No mass buildings made of concrete, nor artificial lights, not even the sounds of mechanized vehicles or the mass population making lots of noises, going to and fro in stress, tension, tedious and grumpy.

Our ancestors experienced a world far different than we do nowadays, when all the land was very much covered by trees and people could only move from one place to another in tracks known to them, clearly marked on the ground by the feet of their own ancestors, or they would travel in open plains, well visible for any predator. Imagine the connections they had with the trees, it wasn't just to get wood for the fires, or to build houses and tools, but also to measure the life progress, seeing how time passed by carving something in the tree trunk, or watching the seasons go by and actually know in which season of the year they were, when the leafs change colour or fall, or when a tree bears fruit. For our ancestors distance wasn't measured by how much time they spent from one place to another and back, hours, minutes, seconds didn't exist, not even kilometers nor miles, they would measure distance by the light of the day, the position of the sun, or when travelling by night to avoid enemies into the deep darkness of the forests, it would be measured by the moon or the stars, distance to them could be a matter of a few steps and the sun going from the horizon up into the sky above them, or a matter of a couple of suns and moons passing in the sky over and over again.

Our ancestors would be far more aware of the passing of seasons by watching the trees changing, the weather, the colours of the clouds and the sky, even the in the fur of foxes, bears and wolves or in the migration of some birds. Most of the life they had and the things they experienced is beyond our understanding nowadays, the sounds they heard when they travelled in the forests, working every sense we possess, and people would relie on their ears and eyes better than we do today.
Going from one place to another, to live or to hunt, depended on the weather, season and time of the day, when the sky was moonless, it would be hard to travel, so they would count on the light of the moon which would enabled them to see, or perhaps their night vision was better than ours, since we are too used to the artificial lights of post lamps. Agriculture was an activity which accompanied the cycle of nature in a well balanced way. All other activities would have their own seasonal time, or would depend very much on the weather, such as the coastal activities, the shifting tides would tell people if the fishing activity would be good or bad depending on the waves, the coastal sounds, the birds and the weather. The rising and the setting of the sun was probably quite relevant for most activities in the Prehistoric times.

We have forgotten much of these times, how to be in a deep contact with nature, almost spiritual like ( probably in those times, spirituality would have been easier to understand, being in constant contact with the divine through nature ), it seems we have also forgotten how to use our own senses, we don't work them the way we should, we relie on what people may tell us through the tv screan rather than trusting our own instincts and senses.

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