Friggsege and Gewwernsege

Der Friggsege

The Friggsege is an Urglaawe ceremony that celebrates feminine creative energies, motherhood, and female ancestors and descendants. The Friggsege coincides with the Kannsege (Ceremony of the Corn), the Butzemannsege (Blessing of the Butzemann), and Grundsaudaag (Groundhog Day). The ceremony is rooted in Braucherei traditions relating to the Haerdgedderin (or Haerdziebin, called in English, the "Hearth Goddess").

In a manner similar to an Asatru Disablot, matriarchal ancestors are hailed and honored. As Urglaawe is a tradition of cycles and spirals, feminine descendants are also honored.

Frigg is seen as spinning the very material from which the Norns weave our Wurt (or Wyrd, as many other Heathens would know the term). This to us places Her so high in the Cosmic scheme that She is essentially a goddess of time, energy, and matter as well as a goddess of the home. We honor Her at the end of Yuul in recognition of Her association with time, but at Groundhog Day, we honor Her creative power and her protection of home and hearth.

As part of the honoring, the fire was allowed to go out in the hearth. A new fire was to be started with birch, which is also sacred to Frigg. This relates the day with the rune Berkano.

Also, the feminine creative energies enter into the construction of the Butzemann. For a more detailed description of this relationship, please see the Oley Freindschaft's Braucherei site.

Gewwernsege

Gefjon, whom we call Gewwern, is seen as the mother of Denmark, and, in an ironic twist, is closely associated with virgins and plows. King Gylfi of Sweden promised a disguised

Copenhagen's Gefjon Fountain

Gefjon as much land as She could plow in one night. She transformed Her sons into and plowed the Danish island of Zealand off from Sweden, thus creating the Swedish Lake Vänern. There are some linguistic links between Gefjon's name, which denotes giving, and Nordic words for marriage.

There are also linguistic links to the Matronae group called the Alagabiae (Matronis Alagabiabus), to whom an inscripiton on a votive stone dating from the 4th century A.D. from Bürgel near Solingen, West Germany (CIL XIII 8529) is dedicated. The name, which means 'All-giver', presents a Germanic counterpart to the partially Celticized matron name Ollogabiae. It is possible that the same matrons were venerated under both names among the mixed Germanic-Celtic population on the Lower Rhine (Source: Simek's "Dictionary of Northern Mythology").

She is seen as one of the goddesses in Frigg's retinue, and there are some linguistic connections between Her name and Frigg and Freya, too, which is interesting given that Frigg is of the Ase (Aesir) and Freya is of the Wane (Vanir). Gefjon is considered Aesir.

Also interesting is that Holle and Berchta are also said to carry plows.

Hail to Frigg!

Hail to Gewwern!

Lüsch-Müsselman Graabhof - Urglaawe

The Lüsch-Müsselman Graabhof is an Urglaawe cemetery in West Mahoning Township, Carbon County, PA. This location is in northern Deitscherei.

The cemetery also contains graves of Christian (Schwenkfelder, Lutheran, Mennonite) ancestors whose religious choices will always be respected. However, the grounds on the remainder of the Graabhof are dedicated to the goddess Holle and to the future founding of an Urglaawe temple to be maintained by Distelfink Sippschaft.

For more information, please contact Robert Lüsch Schreiwer.

Black Friday Mayhem

The news reports from yesterday and from this morning have most certainly triggered in many of you the same reaction that they did in me: revulsion.

Just skirting the headlines, we see a shooting, a pepper spraying incident, another trampling, and a mass looting.

From Braucherei, Urglaawer learn that the intentions behind a gift, which would also include the process of obtaining the gift, are imprinted energetically upon the gift. When a procurement of a gift is the result of theft, violence, or subterfuge, the gift becomes toxic to the recipient. While the Wurt (Wyrd) of the perpetrator will deservedly be impacted by the actual inhumane act, unfortunately, so will the Wurt of the recipient be negatively affected.

Our society has been reduced, somehow, to going below the lowest common denominator; we are in fractions of fractions at this point. The consumer culture hyperbolizes the Black Friday sales, thus whipping up a fervor among those who willingly buy into the frenzy. The mayhem is abetted by a media that are always looking for ways simultaneously to condemn and to glorify social drama.

On the large, social scale, this annual disorder will not change. However, among the various Heathen paths, we can strive to ensure that our holiday observances do not become overtaken by meaningless consumerism.

Surely there are many reasons to purchase and to give gifts to one another. In fact, the gift exchange is a hallmark of Heathenry. However, we must be conscious of the intentions behind our gifts and of the state of mind we are in when packing and presenting them. To do otherwise is to behave irresponsibly with ourselves and our communities.

As we progress towards Yule, let us reject the chaos that has beset our nation. Instead, let us attune ourselves to the best interests of our communities and our collective and individual Wurt.

Furious Host/Wild Hunt Representations in Deitsch Culture

Now, as we enter the dark half of the spiritual year, we are once again seeing costumes, marching in parades, and answering the knocks of trick-or-treaters on our doors. Heathens of all stripes know that we are witnessing the remnants of the folk symbolically taking part in the Furious Host, or the Wild Hunt.

Local Deitsch culture represents the Furious Host in several ways. The vast majority of people who engage in some of these traditions are almost certainly unaware of the Heathen origins of their parades or festivities, but some of the Braucherei practitioners reported the relationship of the traditions to the Furious Host and kept the true meaning of the traditions alive.

Unfortunately, the wider American culture's influence has seeped into almost all of the Deitscherei, particularly when overt efforts to assimilate the Deitsch began after 1911. Thus, some of the local culture's traditional practices have changed. Originally, Allelieweziel (October 31) was not a time of tricks-or-treats.... Well, it was a time of people dressing up in costume, perhaps for the "tricks" portion of it. More commonly, the belief was that it was more important to focus on the safe transition of the souls of the departed (which leads to the question of whether there is meshing or influence one way or the other with the Christian All Soul's Day).

The next appearance of people dressed in costumes is referred to in English now as King Frost. This was more a time of dread as the cold weather was setting upon the land. However, the local culture has lost most of this fear, with the only remnant of any aspect of the observance being a huge parade in Hamburg that includes costumes, etc. It is usually held in November (though this year it was in October), and the establishment of this parade was more for commercial celebration than for the faded ties to the local folklore. Urglaawer and Braucherei do not see this time as one of celebration at all; instead, we recognize the Frost Giants hold on our soil until Dunner beats back three of them (named, with varied spellings, Dreizehdax, Vatzehvedder, and Fuffzehfux on May 13, 14, and 15th respectively).

The next appearance of costumes is known since Christian times as St. Nicholas Day. This is when Der Belsnickel, who is almost certainly a Christian-sanitized version of Wodan, comes door to door all wrapped in furs and wearing a large hat, to reward good children and to punish bad children... But even in rewarding good children, the rewards often require the child to answer a riddle or to show some sort of wisdom. Children who grab for gifts or candies (traditionally, it was chestnuts) may have to dodge the whip of a switch. The Belsnickel tradition is on the upswing in several parts of Deitscherei, but in some places, it is becoming very Americanized, meaning that it is losing the danger of reaching for rewards without showing wisdom.

During Yuletide, children in Deitscherei would dress in costume and go out for tricks-or-treats. To this day, the practice is still called "belsnickeling," whether it happens at Yuletide or on Halloween. Much of the American secular Christmas concept came into being through the Deitsch culture with Santa and Mrs. Claus (read: Wodan and Holle) out on their journey through the sky.

Some of the other traditions that were present in the Colonies or the Early Republic have waned or disappeared. New Year's Day would bring about Mummenschanz parades (the roots of the big Mummers Parade in Philadelphia, though that is a later incarnation). Fat Tuesday costume parades were Heathen holdovers that had the Christian Fastnacht grafted onto them, but those have virtually disappeared from the Deitscherei. There are sparse records of people dressing in costume for small parades around April Fool's Day, but I do not believe this was a widespread practice.

The culmination of parades with their roots in the Furious Host would be Walpurgisnacht, which is when Holle returns to the Earth and the Furious Host ends. While in Germany, Walpurgisnacht celebrations are large events, they never seemed to have taken root in the Deitscherei. However, a volume of folklore and myths has surrounded a site in Northampton County since the Colonial Era. Local lore tells of strange experiences at this site, which is known as Hexenkopf or Hexekopp.

Hexenkopf is one of the sacred peaks or mountaintops in the Deitscherei. It is said to be spiritually active at all times, with animals behaving strangely (appearing and disappearing), shadowy figures approaching hikers and vanishing, etc. On Walpurgisnacht, the frequency of spiritual activity has long been said to be unusually high.

The Christian settlers feared the site and said that witches gathered there on Walpurgisnacht. Some practitioners of Braucherei, though, instead identified Hexenkopf as the home of Holle here in the new settlement. As such, Holle is viewed as the Mother of the Deitsch folk, and Urglaawer celebrate the return of Holle from the Furious Host at Hexenkopf. German Heathen groups have recently begun to make annual pilgrimages to the site as well.

One of the goals of Distelfink Sippschaft is to revive the other traditions of the old parades and to reattach the original significance to the observances that have not died out. We are fortunate enough to live in an area and to have access to a culture that has so much knowledge that was guarded by the practitioners of the old ways.

Redemptioners

A part of Deitsch culture that is heard of very infrequently is the history of the Redemptioners or Redemptionists. These are the first-generation Deitsch settlers who placed themselves into indentured servitude (read: slavery) in order to afford the journey to the Colonies.

Numerous books cite the historical existence of the Redemptioners, but few go into detail as much as True Heroes of Provincial Pennsylvania, by Julius F. Sachse. This book is old and was not easy to find. Fortunately, however, it was digitized in 2009 with funding from the University of Pittsburgh Library System.

The piece describes very well the vagaries of the Redemptioner system, starting with the agents who were slick enough to convince Palatines to emigrate without having their fare paid. Thus, they were forced to sign themselves into slavery, and then their labor was sold, whether on shipboard, at the ports, or in caravans over the countryside. Resistance meant death or imprisonment. Sachse asserts that the conditions under which the Redemptioners lived were often worse than those of the slaves in the South.

Other books, such as William T. Parsons', Pennsylvania Germans: A Persistent Minority, cite the sympathy that the Deitsch had with the plight of the Southern slaves. One way to view this sympathy is from the shared experiences of the Deitsch pioneers, many of whom had lived in virtual slavery in Europe and were witnessing similar conditions in the South. Redemptioners who had paid off their bondage also would be sympathetic to the slaves of the South, too. As such, the first protest against slavery in the Americas took place in Germantown, PA, in 1688.

Many of us here in the Deitscherei have at least one ancestor who was a Redemptioner. Many, if not most of us, have no idea what sacrifices the Redemptioners made for their families. This cruel, exploitative practice, along with the abominable institution of slavery against which our ancestors shed their blood, should not be forgotten, lest we be doomed to repeat it.

Distelfink Sippschaft

Distelfink Sippschaft now has a new presence on the web:

http://www.distelfink.org

Deitsches Wikipedia

Es gibt yetz en Blatt uff 'em Deitsch Wikipedia:

http://pdc.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urglaawe

Un, nadierlich, uff Englisch:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urglaawe

Annere Bledder:

http://urglaawe.ning.com - Die Distelfink Sippschaft

http://community.beliefnet.com/urglaawe