The Importance of Ritual

Ritual, the practise of sacred rites is an integral part of heathenism. By engaging in ritual we are seeking a form of communion with the Gods. I realise that the term 'communion' appears to have Christian connotations but this term does describe exactly what takes place during a rite. Our Wodenist rites centre upon the blot, a term to be found in both Old Norse and Old English. Please note that there is an accent over the 'o' in blot but I cannot replicate this on my keyboard. The related verb form of the word may be found also in Old High German as bluozan. The reconstructed Proto-Germanic is said to be *blotana. The meaning of these terms is to 'sacrifice, offer, worship'. Of course most modern heathens no longer practise sacrifice whether this be of animals or humans! However our ancestors clearly did. We know this to be the case from the records left by classical commentators and historians. There is a trend amongst some heathens to deny that this was the case, arguing that these are lies intended to discredit the northern peoples. However we have evidence from archaeology that this did in fact happen. In fact we also have linguistic evidence in the Old English Blotmonath (the last two letters should be substituted for the Old English 'thorn' which also resembles the rune of the same name). This was the month of November when livestock were slaughtered and offered in sacrifice to the Gods. Indeed we have this important quote from the Venerable Bede (c. 673-735), writing not long after the Christianisation of many of the Anglo-Saxon tribes:

"Blod-monath is month of immolatons, for it was in this month that the cattle which were to be slaughtered were dedicated to the gods." (Chapter XV, De temporum ratione-The Reckoning of Time)

An anonymous work called Menologium seu Calendarium Poeticum amplifies Bede's statement:

"this month is called Novembris in Latin, and in our language the month of sacrifice, because our forefathers, when they were heathens, always sacrificed in this month, that is, that they took and devoted to their idols the cattle which they wished to offer."

If we no longer engage in animal or human sacrifice then can our blots be said to be truly acts and rites of 'sacrifice'? I believe that they are. With our modern rites we always offer the last vestiges of the mead horn to Mother Earth. When carrying out a rite at home I pour the mead over a large representation of Thor's Hammer which I keep outside. It is also customary for us to pass the mead horn around the folk three times. An invocation is made to a God or Gods, then an ancestor or ancestors (alternatively a notable hero of our folk) and lastly to the land wights. There may of course be variations of this as heathenism is not a dogmatic religion. One should do what feels right but at the same time be guided by historical knowledge.

I prefer to use mead in our rites as this has long historical precedent amongst the Germanic and other Indo-European peoples and the Proto-Indo-Europeans before them. Of course ale can be used or any non-alcoholic drink. What actually matters is not the drink itself but what it symbolises. However by using mead we are keeping true to the traditions of our ancestors.

There are some similarities (more than superficial) between the offering of the mead horn and the sacrament of Holy Communion practised in Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches. Supposedly based upon the 'Last Supper' it actually goes much further than this and many Christians outside of the Anglican and Roman communions go so far as to label the sacrament as 'pagan'. I believe that they are correct. There is a great deal of symbolism, practise and iconography within the Anglican and Roman Churches which has no basis at all in the New Testament, e.g. the use of altars, images and the priesthood. An excellent work which explores the relationship between early European Christianity and heathenism is The Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity: A Sociohistorical 
Approach to Religious Transformation (2002, Oxford University Press) by James C. Russell.

My personal belief is that by imbibing the sacred mead, blessed by the gothi by making the sign of the hammer over it we take within our bodies the essence of the Gods. In that moment a closeness is experienced by the imbiber towards his or her God or Gods. It is a sacred moment in time and space. Indeed the carrying out of a blot within the sacred circle creates an event outside of normal time and space. Not only is the participant joined to the Gods in that moment but also with every other partaker of the sacred mead within the circle. Indeed rites following the same wording and occurring at the same time but over a wide geographical spread also link the participants together regardless of the miles in distance between them. They are all joined together in the folk community and with the Gods.

As previously discussed one aspect of ancient ritual which is not present amongst modern day heathens is animal or human sacrifice. Alby Stone in his Ymir's Flesh (1997, Heart of Albion Press) points out that ritual binds a society together. It reminds them of the past and gives people a sense of group identity. This is very much something which is lacking in the fragmented, individualistic and secular society where economics has become 'God'. By making use of ritual we are offering something which people feel that they need on a very instinctual and almost unconscious level. A major focus of Mr Stone's book is sacrifice in a Germanic and Indo-European context, focusing in particular on the cosmic event of the dismemberment of the primaeval being Ymir and from his body parts the creation of order, the earth and the heavens.

When our ancestors carried out sacrifices to the Gods in essence what they were doing was taking part in and repeating a cosmic event-the creation of order out of nothingness. They repeated the creative activity of Odin and his brothers Vili and Ve when they slaughtered Ymir and used various parts of his body to form the earth, the ocean, the clouds, the heavens, the trees and the mountains. They repeated this primaeval sacrifice in a symbolic manner to not only remember this event in a society which was still oral in the transmission of knowledge and lore but also the repetition of the event ensured that life upon earth and the cosmic order would continue.

Although we no longer sacrifice living beings we still participate in ritual and we make a sacrifice of the mead or other beverage. This is both a repetition and also the entering into of a sacred contract between Gods and men. We remember and invoke the Gods in the hope that meaningful life will continue here in midgarth as well as the continuation of order in the cosmos. With reference to my remarks about the use of mead it should be borne in mind that Kvasir was a being, a God in fact who had been formed from the mixing of the saliva of two families of Gods-the Aesir and the Vanir. When Kvasir was murdered by the dwarves Fjalar and Galar his blood was drained and then mixed with honey to form the sacred beverage mead. Kvasir's blood became known as the Mead of Poetry for it grants wisdom and the gift of skaldship. The creation of Kvasir from the saliva of two previously warring families of Gods is symbolic of reconciliation and subsequent bonding. By imbibing mead in a ritual with others one becomes symbolically bound to both them and the Gods and it is in this context that my remarks concerning the comparison with the Christian Holy Communion should be interpreted.