Help a Norse/Celtic Pagan Woman Get to Cancer Treatments!

Nan is a dear friend and sometimes teacher of mine, a longtime supporter of RedWood Vanatru, and a beloved member of my local and extended Pagan community. She is is fighting stage 3 breast cancer and needs gas money to get to her treatments, a challenge I and several others have been helping her with as we are able, but this is not sustainable. She needs a stable fund.

In her own words:

I live eighty miles from my doctors and will have to move into an apartment in LA for my radiation treatments in it looks like May. Right now, I’m trying to get back and forth to Lancaster twice a week for blood draw and chemo from Ridgecrest. This requires money for gas and incidentals. Any funds received will be used for this. I hate asking for help, but as my brother says, it is needed; this is cancer. Thank you in advance.

If you have any funds to spare, please consider donating to her GoFundMe!

If not, we totally understand. Even just sharing this post around social media would be tremendous help!

–Ember–

Tarot Games

Ah! I thought I’d reposted this here some time ago, but apparently not!

Years ago, when my friend Perlandria lived a couple blocks from me, the two of us regularly found ourselves making up games to play with Tarot cards, just the two of us, or with one or more of our SOs at the time, especially Hobbit (mine), and Paka (hers). I know there were other games. She remembers the rules we came up with for a Crazy-8s kind of game, for example. But these are the three I still have:

Tarot Spar 2-4 players using 1 divination deck of any kind:

• Divide the deck into as many even chunks as there are players.
• Each round, each player pulls the top card and reveals it.
• The players as a group treat the cards as a reading, and decide which player the reading is for. Any excuse is a good one.
• Whoever the reading is “for” gets those cards.
• Play until all the cards have been revealed.
• Optional: Each player can look at their stack for larger patterns. Commentary is encouraged.

Notes:

This game doesn’t scale well. 3 players is ideal.

Spar is particularly useful if you’ve done a lot of readings and need to clear your head of a sub-set of cards that have come up repeatedly. I use this game as a sort of palette cleanser.

TarotFish 3+ players 1 fully illustrated deck of cards:

• Deal 3 cards to each player. Each player looks at their hand, hiding the cards from the other players.
• On their turn, a player may ask any other single player for a card which depicts the secondary symbol of their choosing.
  It can be common or obscure, or even somewhat abstract, as long as it is not systemic, such a suit symbol, the number on the card, or the letters in the name or title of the card.
  Examples: “Do you have any horses?” “Do you have any yellow backgrounds?” “Do you have any happy people?” Or even, technically, “Do you have any swords NOT on a card of that suit?”
  Any given symbol may only be requested ONCE PER GAME. The goal is not to make sets, but to explore the details of the cards.
• IF the active player receives a card with the symbol they requested, they go again.
  Otherwise they draw a card from the deck and it’s the next player’s turn.
  Optional: If the card they draw has the symbol they requested on it, they go again.
• The game is over when a player acquires 10 cards.
  Optional: The winning player may attempt to treat their hand as a reading.
  Optional: Each time a particular player wins, the number of cards required for that player to win again increases by 1.

Notes:

TarotFish is very scaleable. My default play is geared towards 3-5 players aiming for a Celtic Cross reading, but there’s no reason to stick with that. The game goes faster if you start with more cards, aim for a smaller hand, or have fewer players. Reciprocally, more players, fewer starting cards, or larger target layouts make the game last longer.

TarotFish works well with any deck where there are significant repeating art themes and plenty of details in the pictures. Pip decks don’t work. They don’t necessarily even have to be for divination, since the “reading” part is totally optional. Storytelling decks and other art decks may be functional options as well.

Tarot Trines 3+ players using 1+ divination decks of any kind:

Setup:

• Divide the deck into approximately equal stacks, 1 per player. (If you have more players, distribute the deck so that everyone can reach, but don’t worry about 1 stack per person.)
• Each player is given one card to establish a face-up discard pile, the top card of which is “in play”.
• Play takes place in several two-phase rounds.

Phase 1:

• Each player needs a 3 card “Reading” laid face up in front of them on the table. These cards are also “in play”.
  The arrangement of order and reversals WITHIN any given individual Reading may be changed at any time for any reason, regardless of turn.
• To create Readings for all the players, each player on a turn will take the top card from any draw pile and place that card, face-up, in front of any player who does not already have 3 cards in front of them.

Phase 2:

• On their turn the player should swap any two cards which are “in play” (i.e. the readings and tops of discards).
  The goal is to make any kind of interesting pattern appear in as many of the of the Readings as possible.
  When the card arrangements change, all the players pause briefly to consider the significance of the change.
  Comments from other players are encouraged!
• If there are no suitable swaps to make, the player may take a card from a draw pile and place it on a discard pile.
• A player may NOT move a card directly from a draw pile to a reading once all players have 3 cards.
• If all the players in consecutive turns chose to draw to a discard pile, it is presumed that all the Readings on the table are complete. Each player puts their current reading at the bottom of their own discard pile, and return to Phase 1 for the next round.

Ending:

• The game ends when there are no longer any cards left in any draw piles.

Notes:

It’s easy to vary the rules on which draw piles can be pulled from, and which readings can be played to. More restricted play may require the draw piles to be re-balanced later in the game if one runs out before the others.

Feel free to try out these games and let me know how you liked them. I’d also love to hear about other creative Tarot games in the comments!

–Ember–

My Core Theology: A Meditation on Existence

At my core, I am a pantheist as well as a polytheist and animist. I believe that everything comes together to a greater consciousness, a greater Being. Over the years, I’ve meditated and pondered and written and dreamed about how best to express this. Lessons have come to me over time from various divinities, and the result now is a meditation that takes a form of 3×3 – a Tricursal Valknot, if you will, as a representation of the collective Being, bestowed by the Ancestors. Like Borromean Rings, each triangle stands alone, unlinked with either of the other two, and yet the three are entwined such that each holds the other two together.

Three Values, Three Paths, Three Parts

There are three things of inherent Value:

Freyja’s Lesson:
To BE is of value.
That which IS is Being.
That which IS is called Beautiful.
The Value given in return for Beauty is Love.

Hella’s Lesson:
To DO is of value.
That which DOES is called Useful.
The Value given in return for Use is Gratitude.

Brighid’s Lesson:
To BELONG is of value.
That which BELONGS is called Frithful.
The Value given in return for Frith is Trust.

The Ancestors’ Lesson:
All things together make the Whole which is the Universe.
The Whole is Divine.

THEREFORE:
The Purpose of the Universe is to BE.
The Universe is Beautiful.
The Universe is Loved.

The Universe recognises the value of all that IS.
The Universe finds all things Beautiful.
The Universe Loves.

All things are a part of the Divine.
All things are Sacred.

All things serve the purpose of the Whole.
All things have Being.
All things are Beautiful.
All things are Loved.

Worship is an expression of Love for Divinity.
(Love Languages are forms of Worship.

Sex is an expression of Love.
Sex is a form of Worship.)

–Ember–

With gratitude to my Mother, Jan Parcel, to Freyja, to Raven Kaldera and Hella, and to my dear friend Dee Shull, and Brighid! Thank you all so much for your help in illuminating this for me over the years!

Help Nicole Cover Emergency Expenses

Hello everyone!

It’s been an absolutely exhausting trial of a year-plus for everyone I know. My households shared a bubble for 14 months of lockdown, which we are cautiously emerging from one step at a time. Everyone I know is facing some kind of personal trial or other, myself absolutely included.

I want to ask your help with one of them, today, please – if you can’t contribute directly, at least share the link along:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-nicole-cover-emergency-expenses

My friend Nicole and I, along with others in Treebridge coven, helped a mutual friend out of an abusive situation. It was handled on very short notice. I handled much of the logistical wrangling, while Nicole dove directly into the fray, hopping on a plane to collect our friend and drive her and her two cats across several states to live in the safer place we found for her.

Nicole floated the cost of that sudden, expensive move. We’d originally planned to do some crowdfunding to help our friend, but things changed and we had to move our timetable up abruptly.

Now Nicole is facing potential financial crises of their own, because of those expenses they so generously floated! It’s time for us as a community to step back up to share that burden around – what is carried by many burdens few!

If you have even a few dollars you can pass Nicole’s way, we’d be very grateful. We’d rather see dozens of people contribute a few dollars each than have any one person expect to carry the whole expense. If you can’t, we entirely understand, but please do pass the link along to others who maybe can. We’re a big community, and we can and do take care of each other when the need arises!

Thank you, all!

–Ember–

Guest Poem: Lament of Aristaeus

One of my longtime favorite artists, Stephanie Pui-Mun Law shared this poem, and gave me permission to share it with you here. I find it moving, bittersweet. Enjoy! -E-

Lament of Aristaeus

I mourned once for their passing.
Must I now mourn again?
They paid once for my folly.
Must they now pay again?

I chased a girl
in a moment of wildness,
a moment of madness;
and then she was gone,
and they were gone
in payment for her young life.

And he, whom she chose to love above me:
he was gone too,
with nothing but a song to mark his passage.
(Though what a song it was!)

They left me with nothing
but the shadow of the hives
and the shadow of the lives
that once buzzed within.

I know I was at fault,
and it was just, though cruel, retribution
that took my honey-laden children.

I have done no wrong this time.
There is no girl,
no Bacchanial madness in my eyes.
No snake,
no song,
no death for a death.
No retribution earned.
My children are the victims now.
Pollen-heavy, their bodies fall to the ground
like a golden snowdrift,
and as cold.

Who will pay for their casual casualties?
I would not wish the retribution I received
visited upon another,
just or not.

Who will be the one to mourn?
No boy, and no song (no matter how sweet)
will be able to bring back the fallen,
and stem the honey-mead
seeping through the cracks.

RedWood Vanatru Daily Prayers

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here regularly for a variety of reasons. I’d like to get back to it, but I admit, my spoons and motivation for this kind of writing have been low for a while now. I am always up for answering questions, however, so if you have something you’d like to see me write about here, do feel free to ask in the comments, or drop me a line at EmberOutreach at Gmail dot Com!

Over the years, these prayers have shifted and changed, in words, and in tune. They are now fairly stable, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t personalize them to suit your local practice as an individual or a group – RedWood Vanatru should always be localized!

Listen to the prayers sung by me – Ember Cooke

Sigrdrifa’s Prayer – Vanatru Version
Words – Modified from traditional
Music – Ember Cooke

Hail Day! Hail Day’s Sons!
Hail Night and Night’s Daughter!
With loving eyes look down on us here
And send to us victory

Hail Vanir! Hail Aesir and Jotnar!
Hail to the great and generous Earth!
Eloquence and native wit bestow on us here
And healing hands while we live!

Hail the Gods!

Ancestors’ Prayer
Words – Diana Paxson and Ember Cooke
Music – Ember Cooke

Our mighty Mothers here we honor
From womb to womb since worlds’ beginning
And Fathers of the flesh and spirit
Sacred seed itself renewing
And mindful Mentors, wisdom winning
Sacred Skalds and holy Heroes
And kind Companions, comfort bringing
Faithful Friends and helping Healers
All who lived and died before us
Ancestors! Be will us always!

Hail the Ancestors!

Landspirits Prayer
Words – Ember Cooke
Music – Ember Cooke

Hail to the Land wights and Water wights
Hail to the Sea wights and Sky wights
Hail Plant wights and Animal wights
Thank you for sustaining us!
We honor your sacrifices.
May your next life be greater than your last!

Hail the Landspirits!

–Ember–

#FirstOtherworldProblems Fire!

Introducing Mini-Me, a young nonbinary person (i.e. early 20s, not underage) who came to live with my household a year or two ago, and is so often mistaken for my child that it is now a running joke. 😉

This is the first personal comic I’ve done in quite a while, I know. I’m posting more image-based everyday life stuff over on Instagram these days, for those who are curious, and writing a bunch of Dragon Age fanfic as I learn how to write fiction prose.

I’m quite sure there’s still plenty of Pagan non-fiction left in me, but it’s not the mode I’ve been in lately. Still, if you have a question, I will do my best to answer it!

Love,

–Ember–

Too Much Is Never Enough

CW: Misogyny, Assault, Sexual Assault, Mild Gender Binarism

This video is powerful and important for anyone raised female (though it’s primarily appealing to cis-women, and has a few binaristic “huh?” bits in the end, due to it being primarily a commentary on how women are treated by men with regards to our bodies).

My first thought was “Ow, ow, ow, yes.” and my second thought was “HAIL FREYJA!”

 

I have SO MANY THOUGHTS about this, but none of them are coherent right now. Maybe I can come back to it later, when I’m not crying.

–Ember–

Glossary Updated

For those of you who care for such things, I added a new section to my Theological Glossary, for common theological attributes to divinity, such as “Omniscient” and “Transcendent” or “Immanent”.

Enjoy!

-E-

Help A Pagan Leader Keep His Home!

Oggie is a wonderful man, and a long-time acquaintance (dare I even say friend? :]) of mine. He has run a small ADF group out in Texas for years now, and has long been involved in the SF Bay Area Pagan community as well.

He is currently struggling to keep his home in Texas. If you have a moment and a few dollars to spare, please help him!

https://www.gofundme.com/keep-ogambear-in-his-home

–Ember–