A Year of Pagan Prayer: A Sourcebook of Poems, Hymns, and Invocations from Four Thousand Years of Pagan History

By Barbara Nolan

450+ Poems, Prayers, Hymns and Blessings

This treasury of beautiful and powerful pieces is the perfect companion for marking holidays, milestones, and the seasons. You'll discover prayers to Janus from Horace and Ovid, a traditional Scottish blessing for Imbolc, an invocation to Pan by Aleister Crowley, an ode to Proserpine by Mary Shelley, a pharaoh's hymn to Isis, a song for Lammas by Gwydion Pendderwen, and many, many more.

A tribute to the beauty and resiliency of Paganism, this sourcebook will enhance any special day throughout the year. Enjoy prayers for weddings and funerals, blessings for the sabbats, and hymns to the gods and goddesses of various pantheons. Barbara Nolan includes brief historical or biographical details to contextualize each piece as well as descriptions of different celebrations and festivals to help you integrate these readings into your practice.

A Year of Pagan Prayer demonstrates that the literary worship of Pagan deities was never fully lost in the West. This bounteous collection draws from the spiritual legacy of Italian Renaissance poets, ancient Sumerian priestesses, twentieth-century Pagans, French Romantics, Greek playwrights, nineteenth-century British occultists, and Egyptian hymnists, making it a must-have resource for anyone who yearns to embody the eloquent expressions of our Pagan past.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide
• Release date: Oct 8, 2021
• ISBN: 9780738768335

Barbara Nolan

Barbara Nolan (Philadelphia, PA & Mohawk Valley, NY) has been a practicing Pagan since she was nine years old. She studied Latin, ancient Greek, and Near Eastern archaeology at Bryn Mawr and Irish Gaelic at the University of Pennsylvania. Barbara holds an honors degree in English with a concentration in Celtic Studies. Her writing has appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Irish Edition, and she has worked in the book industry for more than twenty years.

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About the Author

Barbara Nolan became a solitary Pagan after reading the Old Testament at the age of nine. At one time a professional harpist, she later became an English major and took up a career in publishing. She divides her time between the city and the country, and her interests between archaic languages, history, music, and gardening.

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Copyright Information

A Year of Pagan Prayer: A Sourcebook of Poems, Hymns, and Invocations from Four Thousand Years of Pagan History © 2021 by Barbara Nolan.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any matter whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Publications, except in the form of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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First e-book edition © 2021

E-book ISBN: 9780738768335

Book design by Donna Burch-Brown

Cover design by Shira Atakpu

For a full list of copyright information please see page 411

Llewellyn Publications is an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Nolan, Barbara, author.

Title: A year of pagan prayer : a sourcebook of poems, hymns, and

invocations from four thousand years of pagan history / Barbara Nolan.

Description: First edition. | Woodbury, Minnesota : Llewellyn Publications,

[2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: "A

big book of Pagan prayers, organized month by month for various Pagan

festivals, plus extra chapters for lunar events, weddings, funerals, and

so on"— Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021026290 (print) | LCCN 2021026291 (ebook) | ISBN

9780738768151 (paperback) | ISBN 9780738768335 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Neopaganism—Prayers and devotions. | Paganism—Prayers and

devotions. | Devotional calendars.

Classification: LCC BP605.N46 N65 2021 (print) | LCC BP605.N46 (ebook) |

DDC 299/.94—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021026290

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021026291

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For my mother

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Contents

Introduction

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Lunar Prayers

Wedding Prayers

Funeral Prayers

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Appendix 3

Bibliography

Credits

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Introduction

Welcome to A Year of Pagan Prayer, a collection of poems, hymns, prose, and prayers from four thousand years of Pagan history. The pieces gathered together here are drawn from many different times, places, and traditions. They include works by English Renaissance poets, ancient Sumerian priestesses, twentieth-century Californian Pagans, French Romantics, ancient Greek playwrights, fin-de-siècle British occultists, Imperial Roman poets, ancient Egyptian hymnists, and Baroque Italian librettists—in short, by hundreds of women and men, known and unknown, who have contributed to a long tradition of poetry and prose celebrating Pagan deities and the turning of the year. The selections have been arranged in a month-by-month format with separate sections for lunar holidays, weddings, and funerals, but this layout is only meant as a suggestion and an organizational guide. Readers should feel free to mix and match pieces to go with their personal calendar and practices.

The holidays chosen for inclusion here are mostly a synthesis of selected Greek and Roman festivals, as well as the quarter and cross-quarter days observed in the Celtic traditions. These traditions are emphasized because they are the most well-known, because more historical material is available for them than for most others (Greek and Roman material is especially abundant), and because despite the historical animosity that sometimes existed between these peoples, their traditions are fairly closely linked within the larger Indo-European tradition. Nonetheless, an effort has been made to include works from other, related traditions when possible, including the Norse and Germanic traditions and those Near Eastern and North African traditions (Sumerian/Mesopotamian and Egyptian) which were already syncretized with classical beliefs in antiquity.

I hope that the large body of literature collected here will make it clear to the reader that our past has always been at least partly Pagan, whatever prevailing historical narratives may say. Although Christianity dramatically altered the relationships that Western cultures had with their traditional gods and goddesses, it never dissolved those relationships completely. For more than fifteen hundred years after the Christianization of Europe until well into the twentieth century, all educated Europeans and Americans had at least a passing acquaintance with classical Paganism, and many rural communities in Europe still marked seasonal holidays with celebrations drawn from the Pagan past. As a result, European and, later, North American and Australian writers often chose to express themselves within a Pagan framework, regardless of their official church affiliation. In every generation they wrote hymns to honor various deities, asked them for favors in verse, and retold and reimagined their stories. Whether or not the authors in question were conscious of it, this was a form of devotion, one that allowed the old gods to survive in the popular imagination long after official homage had ceased. These works form crucial links in the chain that stretches between the Pagan past and the present day, when the worship of the old gods has come out into the open again.

This volume, then, is a tribute to the resiliency of Pagan thought, and the beauty of Paganisms past and present. May it serve as a companion to the Pagan future!

Caveat Lector

A few pieces presented here, such as Robert Herrick’s carol and two Scottish prayers from the Carmina Gadelica, make some reference to Christian entities. My feeling is that given the amount of borrowing that Christianity did from various Pagan traditions in the early days of Christianity, there can be no complaining if Pagans decide to do some borrowing back. For example, English poet Robert Herrick’s Yuletide carol mentions the birth of an unnamed king, which is usually taken to be a reference to Jesus. But since Herrick is not specific and the Northern Sun king is always born at the winter solstice, there is no reason why we necessarily have to regard the king in the lyrics as Christ. After all, an important part of Paganism is its ability to see through the veneer of the present and glimpse the lineaments of the past. Likewise, the Three in the Scottish fire-prayer for Imbolc doubtless referred to the Christian Trinity when the prayer was written down in the nineteenth century, but it can just as easily refer to a Triple Goddess if the reader wants it to—and may originally have done so. Those who feel uncomfortable with these occasional repurposings will find that they’re few and far between, and easily avoided.

In addition, I have taken for granted that any archaic language now seen as outdated—such as the use of men or mankind for the human race—can and will be modified as needed by the reader. The pieces included here are offered as inspiration, as material that can and should be adapted to modern practices.

A note on translations: In order to make as wide a variety of material available as possible, I’ve provided a number of translations and versions myself. However, I’ve only attempted to capture the sense of the pieces; I have not made any effort to keep the structure of the originals, particularly in the case of poetry—a matter best left to more competent translators. My only aim has been to provide reasonably close and reasonably mellifluous English versions of pieces that might otherwise remain inaccessible.

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January

January is the month when everything changes. The reign of darkness, broken at the Solstice, begins to visibly diminish as the days lengthen. New calendars are opened and dates are changed; in many countries around the world, politicians take up their elected offices, following the ancient practice of the Roman consuls. The journey through the new year has just begun, and, for a moment at least, it seems as if anything might be possible.

But if change brings opportunity, it also brings the potential for danger. To counter this possibility, our Pagan ancestors honored guardian gods and goddesses during this month and celebrated a series of festivals designed to confer protection and health on both the individual and society.

January 1: New Year’s Day

Although contemporary Pagans often think of November 1 (the traditional New Year’s day for insular Celts) as the beginning of the Pagan year, our secular New Year’s Day is itself a Pagan holiday. We inherit it from the ancient Romans, who began their new year by honoring the god Janus—the two-headed god of time, travel, doors, and transitions—with offerings of spelt cakes and salt. Other celebrations on January 1 commemorated the day the Greek god of healing, Asclepius, was brought with his daughter Hygieia (Health) into Rome.

These New Year deities are everywhere in the modern world: January is named for Janus, Asclepius’s serpent-twined rod is an international symbol of medicine, and Hygieia has given us our modern word hygiene. Although they aren’t nearly as well-known as many other Pagan deities, the powers they embody (time, transitions, health) still resonate with our New Year’s activities today, from the New Year’s Eve countdown to the common practice of forming New Year’s resolutions. Here, then, is a collection of prayers and poems in their honor, to bring health, protection, and happiness to the coming year.

Roman Medley

Horace, Martial, and Ovid (ca. late first BCE– early first CE), translated by B. Nolan

This little prayer combines lines about Janus from some of the most famous Roman poets—Horace, Martial, and Ovid—into one work honoring the lord of beginnings.

Father Morning (or Janus, if you prefer that name), since the gods have decreed that you will be the beginning of life and of labor, be also the start of my song. Sower of the years, of the glittering, most beautiful world, to whom people first offer vows and prayer. … Two-headed Janus, father of the gently opening year, you who alone can see your own back, come favorable to the leaders whose work brings peace to the fertile earth, peace to the sea; come favorable to the Senate and to the people. … A prosperous day dawns, full of pleasant speech and thoughts. On this good day let good words be spoken!

A Prayer for the First of January

Decimius Magnus Ausonius (ca. 310–395 CE),

translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White; modernized by B. Nolan

Ausonius was a Romanized Gaul—nowadays we would say Celt—from Bordeaux, who was a tutor of the Emperor Gratian.

Oh year, you who are the father of all things that roll onward from the month of two-faced Janus to wintry December’s icy close, come, gracious New Year, and on the heels of the Old Year bring in merry January. Drive through your gates the twelve months that are to follow. Move on along the accustomed ways. … While thirteen times the horned moon shall return newborn, your hand will bring round in succession dawn and evening, still keeping the sun to his destined course amid the signs of heaven.

Offering to Janus

Cato the Elder (ca. 234–149 BC), from De agri cultura, translated by B. Nolan

Cato the Elder was an arch-conservative who constantly complained that the Rome of his day was going to hell in a decadent Greek handbasket. He isn’t a very sympathetic character, but he did make note of many little everyday ceremonies and prayers that took place inside the Roman household—religious practices we wouldn’t know about if he hadn’t written them down.

The cakes mentioned here may have been made of spelt, which was traditional at the New Year celebration, or they may have been the common Roman libum, a sort of little cheesecake that Romans offered at other times of the year. Nowadays, however, any sort of cake will work.

As you offer cakes to Janus, say these words: Father Janus, as I offer these cakes, I ask most humbly that you will be kind and merciful to my children and myself, to my household and my home.

Hymn to Hecate and Janus

Proclus Lycaeus (410–485 CE), translated by B. Nolan

Proclus was one of the last great Pagan philosophers of the classical world. He was born in Constantinople but lived for much of his life in Athens, the home of his patron goddess Athena. In this hymn he equates Janus with the Greek Zeus, and also honors two goddesses: the Mother of the Gods and Hecate, goddess of thresholds.

Hail to you, many-named Mother of the Gods, mother of beautiful children! Hail, Hecate of the Doorway, great of strength! Hail to you as well, Ancestor Janus, Zeus Everlasting, hail to you, highest Zeus.

Brighten the path of my life with your light, strengthen my life with goodness, force evil diseases from my body, and recapture my soul, raging about in the material world, through the purification of your enlightening rites. I beg you, give me your hand and reveal to me, a desperate soul, the paths of the gods, so I may see the holy light through which we are able to escape the pain of our dark origins. Oh, give me your hand, please, and with your breezes drive me, exhausted, into the harbor of piety.

Hail to you, many-named Mother of the Gods, mother of beautiful children! Hail, Hecate of the Doorway, great of strength! Hail to you as well, Ancestor Janus, Zeus Everlasting, hail to you, highest Zeus.

Come Janus, Come New Year

Decimius Magnus Ausonius (ca. 310–395 CE),

translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, modernized by B. Nolan

Pomona is the Roman goddess of fruit, while the Crab is the constellation Cancer. March is the father of the old-style year because at one time, the Romans celebrated their new year then.

Come Janus, come New Year; come, Sun, with strength renewed!

Year, that begins with good augury, give us in healthful Spring winds of sunny breath; when the Crab shows at the solstice give us dews, and allay the hours of September with a cool north wind. Let shrewdly-biting frosts lead in Autumn and let Summer wane and yield her place by slow degrees. Let the south winds moisten the seed corn, and Winter reign with all her snows until March, the father of the old-style year, comes back anew.

Come Janus, come New Year; come, Sun, with strength renewed!

Let May come back with new grace and fragrant breath of flowers, let July ripen crops and give the sea respite from eastern winds, let Sirius’ flames not swell the heart of Leo’s rage, let party-hued Pomona bring on array of luscious fruit, let Autumn mellow what Summer has matured, and let jolly Winter enjoy his portion due. Let the world live at peace, and no stars of trouble hold sway.

Come Janus, come New Year; come, Sun, with strength renewed!

Homeric Hymn to Asclepius

Anonymous (ca. 700–500 BCE), translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White

The so-called Homeric hymns weren’t really written by a man named Homer—indeed, Homer is now often considered to be the name given to centuries of oral tradition rather than an individual writer—but they’re among the oldest extant Pagan prayers, although the dates of their composition seem to vary. Thirty-three hymns of varying lengths have survived. This one, to Asclepius, is among the shortest.

The Dotian plain is in Thessaly, an ancient region of Greece. Coronis, mother of Asclepius, was a Thessalian princess beloved of Apollo.

I begin to sing of Asclepius, son of Apollo and healer of sicknesses. In the Dotian plain fair Coronis, daughter of King Phlegyas, bore him, a great joy to men, a soother of cruel pangs. And so hail to you, lord: in my song I make my prayer to thee!

Orphic Hymn to Asclepius

Anonymous (ca. 2 CE?), translated by Thomas Taylor

The Orphic Hymns were written by devotees of Orphism, an ancient mystery religion said to have been founded by Orpheus that emphasized the worship of those who had gone into the underworld and returned. Followers especially honored Persephone and Dionysus but worshipped many other gods and goddesses as well, and their hymns are a treasure trove of ancient Pagan prayers.

Thomas Taylor (1758–1835) was an English Neoplatonist, whose frank avowal of philosophic polytheism created a strong feeling against him, as the Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900, put it. (In other words, he was an eighteenth-century Pagan.)

Great Asclepius, skilled to heal mankind,

All-ruling Paean, and physician kind;

Whose arts medicinal can alone assuage

Diseases dire, and stop their dreadful rage:

Strong lenient God, regard my suppliant prayer,

Bring gentle Health, adorned with lovely hair;

Convey the means of mitigating pain,

And raging, deadly pestilence restrain.

O power all-flourishing, abundant, bright,

Apollo’s honored offspring, God of light;

Husband of blameless Health, the constant foe

Of dread Disease the minister of woe:

Come, blessed savior, and my health defend,

And to my life afford a prosperous end.

From Erythraean Paean to Asclepius

Isyllus of Epidaurus (ca. 380–360 BCE), translated by Emma and Ludwig Edelstein

This hymn was found inscribed on the walls of an ancient temple to Asclepius in Epidaurus, a town near the coast of the Aegean Sea. Paean is a title of both Asclepius and his father Apollo, and in English is also a name given to a poem of thanks or exultation. The golden-haired son of Leto and son of Zeus is Apollo; the goddess Lachesis is one of the Fates. Malus was the great-grandfather of Asclepius.

O people, praise the god to whom Hail, Paean is sung. … [A] child was begotten, and she was named Aigle; this was her name, but because of her beauty she was also called Coronis. Then Phoebus of the golden bow, beholding her in the palace of Malus, ended her maidenhood. You went into her lovely bed, O golden-haired son of Leto. I revere you. Then in the perfumed temple Aigle bore a child, and the son of Zeus, together with the Fates and Lachesis, the noble midwife, eased her birth pains. Apollo named him Asclepius from his mother’s name, Aigle the reliever of illness, the granter of health, great boon to mankind. Hail Paean, hail Paean. Asclepius … send bright health to our hearts and bodies, hail Paean, hail Paean.

Prayer to Hygeia

Ariphron of Sicyon (ca. 400 BCE), translated by B. Nolan

Hygeia or Hygieia, goddess of health and cleanliness, was often worshipped alongside her father Asclepius, since the ancients understood that healing and hygiene were closely linked.

Hygeia, goddess most beloved of all humankind, may I live with you for the rest of my life, may you be my kindly companion. Any happiness we have, whether wealth or children, or that royal power which makes humans feel like gods, or those desires that we chase with the secret snares of Aphrodite, or any other joy or leisure that the gods have given to humankind—it is only with you, blessed Hygeia, that it grows and gleams in the keeping of the Graces. Without you no one is happy.

From Ode to Hygeia

Susanna Centlivre (ca. 1670–1723)

Susanna Centlivre was a famous playwright and actress of the eighteenth-century English stage.

Best of all our earthly wealth,

Everlasting charmer, Health,

Blooming Goddess far more gay

Than the flow’ry meads in May.

When the airy warblers meet

Than thy voice their songs less sweet,

When thou dost thy sight refuse

Gold and gems their value lose,

Take thy downy joys away

And no other joy will stay.

Wanting thee what monarch knows

Taste of power, or sweet repose,

To enjoy Thee is to live,

Thou dost all our blessings give.

Orphic Hymn to Hygeia

Anonymous (ca. 2 CE?), translated by B. Nolan

O desirable, sweet-natured Queen of all, wealth-giving Universal Mother, hear me, blessed Lady Hygeia. You drive away from us the diseases that destroy us; when you are with us our homes are happy. All the universe worships you; only Death himself excoriates you. O eternal queen, your abundant blessings sustain the souls of mortals; there is no work that can be performed without your assistance. Who lives without you is miserable—without you, wealth is worthless and life itself cut short. O goddess, ruler of all things, come with kindness to this mystic rite, and drive off the terrible pains of sickness.

From To Hygeia

Anonymous (London, 1822)

From The Gentleman’s Magazine comes this nineteenth-century plea to the goddess, in which the writer asks for mental as well as physical health. Zephyrs are soft breezes.

Come, Maiden of the mountain wild,

And strew your roses o’er my brow;

Come, fan with zephyrs sweetly mild,

And let me Health’s pure blessing know.

O, chase away the fiend Despair,

And shed a gleam of heavenly ray;

Above—O! place my every care,

And Hope shall point the happy way.

Early January: Compitalia

The Lares were the little gods of every Roman household, who seem to have been regarded as a combination of brownies, guardian angels, and ancestral spirits. They were prayed to daily in many Roman households, but once a year in late December or early January, the Lares of the city were worshipped publicly at a crossroads during the Compitalia, a festival that supposedly pre-dated the founding of Rome itself. Though our cities no longer gather together to honor their guardians, now would be a good time to remember the little spirits that live beside us with a few prayers and offerings at the crossroads or at a home altar. They don’t need anything fancy (in the words of French poet Leconte de Lisle, better than the richest gifts, the Gods love barley and salt), but they do like to feel welcome in our lives.

From A Hymn, to the Lares

Robert Herrick (1591–1674)

Few ancient prayers to the Lares have survived—they were so well-known that no one bothered to describe their worship in detail. But a thousand years after the fall of Rome, English poet Robert Herrick wrote this short hymn to his Lares, which would go well with the small offerings of food and drink that they love (which could indeed include parsley and chives).

It was, and still my care is,

To worship ye, the Lares,

With crowns of greenest parsley,

And garlic chives not scarcely;

For favors here to warm me.

And not by fire to harm me;

For gladding so my hearth here

With inoffensive mirth here. …

From Elegy 1.10

Albius Tibullus (ca. 55 BCE–19 BCE), translated by B. Nolan

From an ancient poem, an ancient prayer.

Guard me, Lares of my house! You nourished me when, as a child, I ran before your feet. … O Lares, turn aside from me weapons of metal [bronze].

A Short Hymn, to the Lares

Robert Herrick (1591–1674)

It is not clear if the poet is offering poppy flowers or poppy seeds to the Lares here, but either would be a perfectly acceptable offering.

Though I cannot give thee fires

Glit’ring to my free desires:

These accept, and I’ll be free,

Offering poppy unto thee.

From To the Lares

John James Piatt (1835–1917)

Dear Household Deities, worshipped best, we deem,

With gentle sacrifice of Love alone!

Guardians of Home, who make the hearthstone seem

Altar and shrine, O make our hearth your own. …

Late January (moveable): Þorrablót

Thor, the red-haired lord of thunder, is probably the best known of all Norse gods. He is honored during the thirteenth week of winter, in a moveable feast, Thorrablot or Þorrablót, devised to honor him during the nineteenth century. Unfortunately, little in the way of hymns or prayers has survived from Norse antiquity, but the fierce, glittering god has managed to capture the devotion of a number of more recent writers. Here, then, are a few later poems in his honor.

From The Gods of the North

Adam Oehlenschläger (1779–1850), translated by William Edward Frye

Asa is one of the many epithets of Thor; it means something like of the Æsir, the Æsir being the primary Norse gods. Mjölnir or Miölner is the short-handled hammer of Thor, which is the source of thunder and earthquakes as well as a devastating weapon. A scald or skald is a Scandinavian court-poet. Adam Oehlenschläger was a well-known Danish Romantic poet.

Thus sang in days of yore a Scald,

And I from him repeat the song:

A land there is, Trudvanger call’d,

Where frowns a castle huge and strong:

This building boasts its massive walls,

And many a spacious colonnade;

Its forty and five hundred halls

With silver or with gold inlaid.

How many forests, lakes and fields

On every side this pile surround!

The roof is tiled with copper shields,

Which shed a dazzling luster round.

Therein the mighty Asa dwells,

Whom mortals term the god of war;

Odin excepted, he excels

All other gods: his name is Thor.

Around his waist a belt he wears,

And gloves of steel his hands protect;

Miölner, a hammer vast, he bears,

When in the fight he stands erect.

That belt a tenfold power doth give,

When round his loins he girds it tight;

Nor doth the foe remain alive,

On whom his hammer haps to light.

From The Challenge of Thor

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)

Today American poet Longfellow is best remembered for his epic Song of Hiawatha, but he wrote on Norse subjects as well. Megingjörð, the girdle or belt of Thor, doubles the god’s divine strength, while his iron gauntlets allow him to safely handle his hammer.

I am the God Thor,

I am the War God,

I am the Thunderer!

Here in my Northland,

My fastness and fortress,

Reign I forever!

Here amid icebergs

Rule I the nations;

This is my hammer,

Miölner the mighty;

Giants and sorcerers

Cannot withstand it!

These are the gauntlets

Wherewith I wield it,

And hurl it afar off;

This is my girdle;

Whenever I brace it,

Strength is redoubled!

The light thou beholdest

Stream through the heavens,

In flashes of crimson,

Is but my red beard

Blown by the night-wind,

Affrighting the nations!

Jove is my brother;

Mine eyes are the lightning;

The wheels of my chariot

Roll in the thunder,

The blows of my hammer

Ring in the earthquake!

From Bonduca

John Fletcher (1579–1625)

This excerpt from Renaissance playwright John Fletcher’s play Bonduca (an unusual variant of the name of the British queen now better known as Boudica) is a great rarity: an English Renaissance paean to Taranis (here called Tiranes), an ancient, apparently pan-Celtic god of thunder—and cognate of Thor. Here Taranis is specifically invoked to avenge the wrongs of his female followers.

Thou great Tiranes, whom our sacred Priests,

Armed with dreadful thunder, placed on high

Above the rest of the immortal gods,

Send thy consuming fires, and deadly bolts,

And shoot ’em home. …

O thou god,

Thou feared god, if ever to thy justice

Insulting wrongs, and ravishments of women,

Women derived from thee, their shames, the sufferings

Of those that daily filled thy Sacrifice

With virgin incense, have access, now hear me,

Now snatch thy thunder up. …

From To the Gods

Adam Oehlenschläger (1779–1850), translated by Rune Bjørnsen

A jotun or jötunn is a supernatural being in Scandinavian mythology; they are often equated with giants but do not have to be supernaturally large. Midgard or Middle-earth is our world, while the Jörmungandr or Midgard serpent is an enormous snake that encircles the world in Norse mythology.

Give me strength Asa-Thor!

Strengthen my hammer of war;

Teach me on this wild Earth.

To fight the jotuns of darkness.

Teach me from my own spirit

The Midgard serpent’s devious pain,

That smothers my heart,

To cast away with my hand.

Hammersong

Lavrans Reimer-Møller (1941–2016)

A modern prayer to channel anger to a sacred outlet.

From The Descent of Frea

Frank Sayers (1763–1817)

Thor has the power to calm storms as well as create them.

God of the wandering air,

Whose forked flashes tear

The pine high-towering on the mountain-side;

Who joys o’er shaking rocks to guide

The thunder’s fiery course;

Who bids thy dark clouds pour

The vast and whelming mower

And swell the torrent’s force.

God of storms, when levelling hail,

When hollow-roaring whirlwinds fail,

Sweeping o’er the valley’s pride,

Rolling high the weltering tide,

Thou speak’st—thy potent voice disarms

The tempest’s rage—thy genial calms,

Thy sultry gales, and fostering dew

Clothe the wasted earth anew.

January 27: The Feast of the Divine Twins

At the end of January comes the feast day of Castor and Pollux (or Kastor and Polydeuces/Polydeukes), the Divine Twins whose images are seen in the constellation Gemini. The horse-riding Twins were widely worshipped in antiquity and can be found under various names from Wales (Nissyen and Evnissyen) to India (Nastaya and Dasra). In Greek and Roman mythology they’re demigods who live half the year in the underworld and half the year in Elysium. Although they