Freyfaxi!

It's Freyfaxi, although some celebrate it as Loaf-Fest, Lughnasah or Lammas.  Here's some songs and a poem.

Starting out with Damh the Bard's foot-stomper:

http://youtu.be/L03tMqhpYNQ

And the Wild Oats.  They're defunct, but you can see Eben Brooks in venues around San Diego County.  Third Saturday of the month, Lestat's West is the predictable one.

http://youtu.be/NW27zgDmND0

Allison Lonsdale's "The Sickle and the Plow" isn't on YouTube, but you can hear it on "Live At Lestat's", her 2-CD set.

And a pre-Christian Mexican poem:

Translated from the Nahuatl by Arthur J.O. Anderson and Charles E Dibble. Originally published by Fray Bernardino de Sahagun in his "General History of the Things of New Spain":

O Iouallauan, why dost thou mask thyself?
Put on thy disguise.
Don thy golden cape.

My god, thy precious water hath come down from Coapan.
It hath made the cypress a quetzal.
the fire serpent hath been made a quetzal serpent.
Want hath gone from me.

Mayhap I shall die and perish--I, the tender maize.
Like a precious green stone is my heart,
yet I shall see gold in it.
I shall be content if first I mature.
The war chief is born.

My god, give me in part plenteous tender maize.
Thy worshipper looketh toward thy mountain.
I shall be content if first I ripen.
The warrior chief is born.

(Sounds like Freyr to me!)

 

We're prepping for Jul chez Signy and Sven.  It's even feeling wintery, at least in the mornings when it's been in the low 40s (about 5 Celsius).  Today is the day of the Solstice, so I'll be changing the altar cloth on my personal altar and thinking about my personal devotion to Sol Invicta.

We also have a very special hypostasis of Odin paying a visit.

I found him at the Navy Exchange near my work, and I almost wept.  I've been envisioning Odin as the Gift Giver and Huntsman for a while, and my gosh, this is him!  He even came with his eye obscured the way it is in the picture.  He has pine cones on his coat and he's dressed for the forest.

There's been some talk about how Odin influences our images of Santa.  I also know I heard someone talking about Santa Claus as a modern deity.  This morning, there was this beautiful story on Storycorps on NPR. San Diego truck driver Boyd Applegate tells about what happens when he puts on the Santa Claus costume, and how he first heard his calling.

http://storycorps.org/listen/boyd-applegate-and-rhonda-dixon-2/

It's only a couple of minutes.  I heard this story and looked at Sven and said, "He's a priest of Santa Claus!"

This of course means Santa is real.  I'll leave everybody to interpret that as they will.

Happy Solstice!  Happy Jul!  Hail Sol, and Blessed Be.

SIGNY