Indo-European Pagan use of Psychedelic Drugs

A couple of good talks have come out recently on this subject which you can see below. I also already made a video and a blog post on the Hyperborean Hallucinogen subject a few years back. 

Bronze Age Irish - St Patrick's day T-shirts!

St Patrick's day is coming up! This amusing Irish themed shirt features the stunning and historically accurate artwork of a Bronze age Irish woman from my recent video, with the words "Kiss me I'm Bronze Age Irish"

It is available in several colours and on either a men's or women's shirt in my Teespring store along with a variety of other garments.

The same art is also available without the novelty text, and on a premium quality t shirt, for those who want something a bit longer lasting rather than just for St Patrick's day. Click the images to view the garments in different colours in the store.

Documentary: Ancient History of Ireland, Newgrange, Celts, Vikings

Ireland has a rich and fascinating ancient history; from the great megalithic structures of the Neolithic, like Newgrange, to the spectacular gold jewellery of the Indo-European Bell Beaker folk, the weapon hoards of the Irish Bronze Age, the enigmatic La Tene Celtic art of the Iron Age and the intricate knot-work of the Hiberno-Norse in the Irish Viking age. I look at all of these in this brief account of the history of Ireland, and then I discover a gothic castle called Knockdrinn, in which my ancestors lived, and which local people believe to be haunted. Finally, I read some spooky accounts of the ghostly creatures of the castle taken from the folklore collection at University College Dublin.

Original Art by Christian Sloan Hall

Sources:

‘Analysis of the Economic Foundations Supporting the Social Supremacy of the Beaker Groups’, Fitzpatrick, Doce, Vazquez, (2016)
‘Bog Bodies – Kingship and Sacrifice’, Eamonn P Kelly (2006)
Reconstruction of Newgrange by Michael J. O'Kelly
‘Black Pool: Hiberno-Norse identity in Viking Age and Early Medieval Ireland’, Anton Amlé, (2014)
Folklore Collection UCD  

Podcast: Interview with Ralph Harrison of the Odinist Fellowship

This Podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, Player FM and all good podcasting apps and platforms.

Ralph Harrison has been an Odinist for 40 years. He is the Director of the Odinist Fellowship, the UK’s only registered charity for the indigenous faith of the English people. They acquired a 16th century chapel in Newark which was consecrated on Midsummer's Day 2014 as the first heathen Temple in England for well over a thousand years. You can donate to the charity or the temple using the links below. Ralph and I had a nice chat about the Heathen religion, its rise in popularity in recent years due to the success of TV programs like Vikings, and also the dangers the faith faces from new age influences like Wicca and naturalism.

Contact the Odinist Fellowship

 Email  OF website 

Address:
ODINIST FELLOWSHIP,
B.M. EDDA,
LONDON WC1N 3XX.

Newark Temple website
Newark Temple Facebook page

Góa month and góiblót - February, March or April festival?

Frigg weaves

While some modern heathens choose to match ancient Germanic festivals with the Gregorian calendar, others try to stick to the lunar-solar calendar the Germanic people observed.

 



There are some problems calculating Góa month in either case, due to lack of sources on the festival. The month of Góa is alleged to have been the penultimate month of winter, according to the old, Norse calendar used in Iceland. According to some Icelanders, góiblót took place in late February - but if we follow the lunar-solar model then it would have been on the full moon, because the full moon marks the high festival of each month, and the new moon marks the start of the month, making the start of this year's Góa month either 23rd Jan, or 22nd Feb, ending either 22nd Feb or 23rd March 2020 - with the final month of winter ending in April when the rites of the start of Summer were held - associated with Easter-month in Anglo-Saxon England and all the variant May day celebrations across Europe.

So February seems to match up well enough for the dating, although I am unsure where the claim it is the penultimate month of winter originates. I know of two sources that mention Góa month and góiblót.

“It was the old custom in Svitjod to hold the main sacrifice in the Goi month in Uppsala. There sacrifices should be made for the peace and victories of the king. That's where the people from all over the Svear Empire should come, and at the same time the Thing of the Swedes should take place there.” -
Ólafs saga helga, chap. 77

Some say this Goi blot was a celebration of the return of vegetative forces - but this source makes no mention of that, and this would vary across Germanic Europe anyway according to latitude. Tonight is the full moon of February and the primroses and daffodils are already up here in West England, but perhaps this is not the case in Uppsala. Transferring a Norse calendar to the wider Germanic world may result in conflicts and anachronisms of this sort.

The second source is a fornaldarsögur which tells a different story. It says the Jotun King Fornjót, father of Ægir, the sea god, and who ruled Gotland, Kænland and Finnland, also had a daughter called Gói. There was a pious sacrificer called Thorri, who made a midwinter sacrifice called Thorra blót and one winter Gói disappeared at this blót - so they later had a sacrifice to find her and this was named góiblót but she did not appear. This seems to scream for a naturalistic interpretation; an obvious one, that Gói represents some green vegetation of a kind absent in midwinter, which people hope to see in Feb/March but don't if they live too far North!

In any case, tonight's Super moon is a holy night as is next month's and one of them is góiblót. Unfortunately we can't say precisely how góiblót should be performed. Obviously you must offer a sacrifice and pray for both peace, and victory for your leader in whatever battles your people are fighting at present. But to whom are the sacrifices and prayers offered? Gói? Perhaps a more familiar deity like Frigg? Some claim Góa month was known as women's month, and if so, then it seems proper to invoke a goddess on this festival.

Dr. Andreas Nordberg, an expert on the pagan lunar-solar calendar, believes that the Goa moon of Snorri's time was not the Goa moon of Heathen times which was in April. Nordberg writes:

"As well as Yule, the time of the disablot in Uppsala has also been the subject of much discussion. According to Adam of Bremen this event took place at “about the time of the vernal equinox”, whilst Snorri instead says that the event was held in the month of Gói, which lasted from mid-February to mid-March in the Icelandic calendar during Snorri’s lifetime. However, it is likely that the information given to Snorri did not refer to the Icelandic month, but the Swedish lunar month called Göje or Göja." (Jul, disting och förkyrklig tideräkning Kalendrar och kalendariska riter i det förkristna Norden Uppsala 2006, P.157)

Have I missed any other sources? Please let me know in the comments.