Summary

The Wyrd Thing Team talks about their highlights of last year and about Yule.

00:00:09

Jens: Welcome to the Wyrd Thing podcast, episode 26. This is our special Yule episode for 24. I’m your host Jens and with me are Rich, Hi Rich.

00:00:20

Rich: Hi there.

00:00:21

Jens: Frigga.

00:00:23

Frigga: Hello lovely listeners.

00:00:25

Jens: And new to the team. Our latest addition. Sif. Hi, Sif.

00:00:29

Sif: Hello. It’s amazing to be here.

00:00:32

Frigga: It’s great to have you here.

00:00:33

Sif: Thank you.

00:00:35

Jens: Okay, so in this episode we will have a look on the last year, have a very short sneak preview of the next year and talk about Yule. Of course, because this is the Yule episode. Frigga what was your personal highlight of the last year for the Wyrd Thing?

00:00:50

Frigga: I think us meeting at the Great Hidden Gathering in England of the UK, where we some of us finally met for the first time. Or maybe we have seen one another at festivals somewhere, heathen gatherings, but not really introduced. And that was marvelous. I haven’t been to the UK for 7 or 8 years, so going back there, meeting old friends, meeting new friends, seeing people I got to know virtual finally see in in person. Got a lot of inspiration for new episodes of our podcast and went home with a lot of wonderful memories.

00:01:29

Rich: It was wonderful to meet you and you know your other half as well again, so that was great fun. And, um, I thoroughly enjoyed the rituals that I attended there, but I am curious, Jens, how you felt the event was compared to events that you’ve attended in Europe or mainland.

00:01:46

Jens: It was different as they all are. The location was very different because the events are usually attended. Germany are mostly in old castles converted to youth hostels. That’s the typical setup and we usually have. We have the catering from the accommodation, so we all eat together. There are more buildings. This time it was a huge camping ground. Most people catered for themselves. There were much less buildings, it was much more open air. It was August, so that was okay. But it was much more open air than any of the events I attended before. And it was less lectures, more rituals, lots of rituals. Frigga has done two of them, so most people have been very busy. You’ve been busy with the organisation itself quite a lot. Frigga was busy doing rituals. Suzanne was too busy participating in the rituals, reading from her first book. So Suzanne can’t be with us today because she’s down with a cough, unfortunately. Get well soon, Suzanne. But we’ve also met for the first time in person there and that was lovely. Asatru UK seems to be organized a lot in its kindreds, and the kindreds seem to stick to themselves a bit more on the camp side. So it was lovely. It was different. I usually love to be on the site itself. I wasn’t this time. We were in a cottage very nearby. It was about a mile away. Couldn’t ask my husband to stay in the tent for these four days so it was very comfortable. Very good meeting all of you there. I only visited the actual event for the daytimes. I’m more immersed. If I really sleep on that site, am there all the time. So yes, it’s different. It’s it’s also huge. Probably the biggest heathen event I’ve ever been to. You said there were about 300 people. Rich.

00:03:44

Rich: I’m just going to say that events have got bigger and bigger over the years. I remember back in the day when there used to be only 25 people, you know, we counted that as a big event. So that’s really where we’re heading. But 300 is fantastic. Probably 400 next year. So that’s very much the direction. Did you feel it was an inclusive event and if not, why? What can we do to improve that?

00:04:04

Frigga: Oh yes, that’s what I forgot to mention. And I wanted to say is I think it is the most inclusive event here, an event that I joined until now, and I really want to give compliments to others who UK about that. I have been on the on the Facebook page of the Great Heathen Gathering and there was before the gathering talks about inclusivity. I have to say that arrangements for people with disabilities and that kind of things, and you see people talk about it and people ask questions, come up with things themselves. And what I saw there and what I saw on the event itself, there is the aim to be inclusive also for people with disabilities, and it is also definitely work in progress. But I see that there is the willingness to do the work in progress, and that makes me feel way more welcome. And also, it is easier to ask things if you need something.

00:05:07

Jens: I was very surprised how accessible it was for people with mobility issues. I was very skeptical about that when I heard, oh, it’s a camp site. And I thought, how accessible can a campsite be? But there were two wheelchair users, and I spoke to one of them, and she said to me that she checked the camp site in February and realized it’s okay for her to go on on her wheelchair there. And you got the accessible toilets there, which seem to have worked fine. I didn’t try them, but I was told. I heard a few complaints about the accessible showers. Did not work out as good as hoped, and you will get them from a different supplier the next year. And I thought, okay, but that’s quite a high level of complaining of the issues. The accessible showers are not as accessible as we thought them to be. So from that point of view, it was an amazing thing. From other inclusivity issues, it felt good. It felt good for me to be there with Rob, seeing a couple of queer people there, a couple of obviously queer people. Again, if you look at it, there were a very few people of colour there, more than on events in Germany, less than in average British population. But I assume that’s basically what it is, because you hardly can force them to be there. So they just somehow merge into and I didn’t get the feeling that those few were unwelcome in any kind, or that there were special in any kind. So it felt very inclusive to me.

00:06:40

Sif: That’s good to hear.

00:06:42

Frigga: It was wonderful for me personally also that the flame of race was welcome and we had the opportunity and we’re welcome to do the LGBTQIA+ plus ancestor ritual, which was the first time it was performed with a larger group. And it was really, really amazing.

00:06:45

Rich: You mentioned something about there being less talks, but the response of community. They wanted more religion, more and more religious aspects. There are other events which are like that. They have like conferences and pagan conferences, and there was a much more lots of talks and very few rituals. So I think you’ve got to decide which way you’re going to go.

00:06:50

Jens: Oh, the Ve was just lovely.

00:07:01

Frigga: Yeah, this was wonderful.

00:07:03

Rich: God posts, there is a new one every year. Next year is going to be Tyr. It is going to be interesting. The one small thing I take credit for is that those God posts part in three sections, easy to transport, but also means the headpiece can be taken to indoor ritual.

00:07:23

Sif: Next year I know there’s a plan to actually do fewer rituals.

00:07:26

Rich: No, we need more rituals. More rituals. All rituals, all the time.

00:07:30

Sif: Speaking for myself, I know that I was very ritually exhausted by the end of the weekend. Spiritually drained, but in a good way.

00:07:39

Jens: You know that it’s not obligatory to join all of them.

00:07:42

Sif: I had to I had to go to every single one.

00:0747:

Rich: I didn’t go to every single one.

00:07:50

Jens: So Sif, it‘s in your head, not in the rules for the event that you have to attend every ritual.

00:08:00

Sif: I actually see all the rituals when I’m doing the schedule and I think, oh, I plan my days around the rituals. So there was one day on the Saturday that was incredibly busy for me. I did my Valkyrie ritual in the absolute torrential downpour, which was surprisingly still very well attended and it was really amazing. But start my day with that was a choice considering I took part in the Hel God post consecration. Then there was the authors panel right after that. Then there was something, and then there was the shambolic heathen improv troupe right after that. And it was just, let’s put it this way: I think I had a bit of an early night, although I had to get up for the I think Uppsala Blot. Was that on the Saturday? Or the Hel‘s Blot? was that when the Hel‘s Blot happened? Mhm. Uh, so that was a very full on day on the Sunday. I was basically a zombie walking around. It was constant, constant religious growth. It was. Yeah.

00:08:56

Frigga: Going to heathen gatherings. It is also the social part of meeting people, talking to people, getting to know people. Yeah. There is the extra of the talks and lectures and all kind of things you can join and, you know, being together at least in one ritual.

00:09:13

Rich: No. This year I did attend quite a few rituals, but it was, um, the year before that where I tended non deliberately and I sort of made it clear that I wasn’t like trying to disrespect people. There was no problem, but I wanted to have a year where I attended nothing. So the idea being that I could just walk around and soak up the atmosphere. And even when people all go to the rituals and there’s only a few people sort of sat by their camps who weren’t going to anything, and I just wandered around and spoke to them, because in previous years, I’d been so busy, I’d start having a conversation with somebody and then, oh, Rich, we need you over here. Oh, well, I’ll speak to you later. I would never get to come back to the conversation. And it was that for the entire time I was there. So I said, I want the time where I can just talk to people and no one’s going to call me away, which was nice.

00:09:50

Sif: It was through. Not me. You did that.

00:10:08

Rich: Now that was too nice. That’s right.

00:10:10

Jens: So one of the things when the Wyrd Thing Podcast and The Hel‘s Moot came a bit together for me was when you did your Bridging the Gap ritual, because that was one of the topics we had. We had the big topics of ancestors. And you did that ritual there. Would you like to talk about that a bit more in detail, Frigga?

00:10:22

Frigga: It was wonderful. It was amazing. We had a lovely spot. It was a tree circle on the campsite with a fence around it. So you had this safe space within a huge camping and it worked out the way I had in mind. To me, it is always special when a ritual start,s whatever ritual it is. Just standing there with people in a circle, because then you feel the attention is growing towards the ritual, and yeah, standing there in this circle connected by a Frith Cord made especially for this ritual. I don’t know how to put it in words. Sif maybe you can tell something.

00:11:08

Sif: Oh yes.

What I particularly enjoyed about that was the. A lot of people didn’t know what to expect going in. And you could almost sense the kind of not the nervousness, but the kind of the anticipation and the excitement for what actually was going to happen and what was the ritual was going to be about. And it was really quite cool to see it all over the course of the ritual, being growing more confident and really feeling emotions and the intensity of the experience. And I was one of the people alongside Besler, keeping an eye on people essentially. So I was very, very aware of what was happening in the circle and people’s reactions and how impactful and also how it kind of struck people all of a sudden around the circle. So a lot of people were like, they were calm, the energy was building. And then at certain points, it just hit people like almost in like a row, like a, like a Mexican wave going around. It was just really it was really evocative and just incredible just to see not so much click with people, but then going, oh, okay, so this is happening. This is the thing feeling the ancestral spirits in the space and having that moment of acknowledgement, recognition and reconciliation and peace ultimately. It was beyond words, and it was an incredibly healing moment for, I think, a lot of people. The feedback that I heard, aftermath of that ritual was incredible. For lack of another word, I think it really it surprised people because they came in with very little in terms of expectations, and there was a lot of tears shed, and a lot of people were like, oh, wow. Okay. So it really helped people in quite a profound way. In my experience of that ritual.

00:13:17

Frigga: Yeah, that’s what I got from it too. And that’s things you realize partly before, but even more after that. You know, I’m a cis hetero person and I’m doing a ritual for LGBTQ+ ancestors, but also, of course, the living people. And yeah, that people trust you enough to come. That means something to me. And then you only keep your fingers crossed because I was pretty nervous up front. I created a lot of rituals. I led a lot of rituals. But this one was different because do people trust you, do people trust enough to come there? Will it work out? But I think indeed it worked out wonderfully.

00:13:50

Jens: So there are two things I remember most about that. And the one is before the ritual that I realized, suddenly realized a lot of people came as allies and came there to be allies. There were queer people, of course, but there were quite a lot of as you said, cis heterosexual people who just wanted to show their support. That was quite early in this weekend, and that was very helpful for me personally to see this. And then I volunteered quite early to get into the circle as a representative of the ancestors, and basically did this because I thought, okay, I think we need an icebreaker here. You asked around, and there were a lot of people who didn’t really know what to do, what to expect. But that seemed a big step, and I basically did it just for that purpose and realized during the ritual, it doesn’t matter at all if I’m queer or not in this moment, because it is about the queer ancestors and we all have them, and it’s about them and not about us, how we stand there. And that was surprisingly powerful. And it was a very uplifting ritual. So to feel all the energy within the circle there really gave me a big push on that moment.

00:15:01

Frigga: Oh, that’s wonderful to hear.

00:15:04

Sif: It was a highlight of my weekend. Absolutely.

00:15:08

Jens: Even more than the Valkyrie Ritual?

00:15:10

Sif: Yeah, that was very different.

The Bridging the Gap ritual was quite healing and, you know, calming and powerful and potent in that way. I mean, there was just a lot of screaming and yelling, and it was it was great in another way. But, you know, sometimes you need those quiet, quieter moments.

00:15:30

Frigga: Yeah. You can’t compare these kind of rituals.

00:15:35

Rich: Just with what you said there about we all have queer ancestors is something I read just this morning. I’ve been trying to find it while we’ve been talking. And this concept was all pronouns are all new and all this kind of concept and people sort of gender identities. And somebody found a survey from like the mid 80s and interviewing, you know, a few people. And how do you identify and all those terms were all there. It was nothing you would nothing new under the sun. And just like, oh, well, I identify as a mass presenting demi queer toy boy. It was like all there’s all the complexity of it all. It was nothing new. It’s not it’s not something that’s just been rolled into this fascinating read.

00:16:10

Jens: Well, singular they in English exists for centuries. Well, indeed. So I would need to check where the actual first documented sources. But it’s late Middle Ages, I think.

00:16:38

Rich: Really early. But yeah, it’s fascinating. So recent, but also so far because I think of the 80s as being ten years ago.

00:16:44

Jens: Oh, I had a bit of a discussion with my husband a few weeks ago when we were listening to radio, and something was announced as oldies, and my husband and I agreed that an oldie is a song which was old when we were young and nothing of this 15 year old stuff there, which is freakingly modern.

00:16:55

Frigga: Yeah, it’s interesting how we experienced time in that as well.

[Not understandable in the recording and cut out, but someone asked what we all do for the Yule days]

00:17:09

Jens: Coming to the present, from the past to the present. The the Christmas days after that, I will be with my family of origin. How do you say that in English?

00:17:11

Sif: So I love that, that phrasing is amazing.

00:17:14

Rich: Um, family of origin. It makes you sound like some kind of space aliens. I’ll go back to my true family. I must go back to my home planet.

00:17:33

Jens: In German, we usually say „Herkunftsfamilie“, and sometimes „Wahlfamilie“, so the family of Choice.

00:17:39

Rich: Oh, I see.

00:17:40

Jens: Uh, that’s quite up to you which one is your true family? Or if both are true and they’re very special way. But the weekend with all that will be with my family of choice and the the Christmas days, which are the public holidays, I’m not working and so on will be with my family of origin then.

00:17:50

Rich: I don’t think we have a comparable, do we?

00:17:50

Sif: No. we‘re just just free for all over here.

00:17:53

Rich: So do you do any particular rituals?

00:17:58

Frigga: With part of my blot group. We will celebrate Yule on the 21st. It’s a little step back in one of the the first Bridging the Gap rituals we did. And then we start talking with the ancestors, the LGBT ancestors, one of them on one moment said: You’re now here and you’re saying that you’re going to be there for us and being an ally. But this has happened before. So often people came and told us, we’ll help you and we’ll be there for you. And then they come one or 2 or 3 times and then they’re gone again. I fully understood, and it made me think, how can we include the LGBT ancestors in our rituals? And I said to them, yeah, we can do the Bridging the Gap rituals only so now and then. But I gave them my word that I will call upon them in every ritual we do, and I did since. The two weekly flame offers online rituals, but also the main festivals and like we are going to celebrate you, I will call upon the ancestors in general, but also explicitly invite the LGBT ancestors. Likewise for the descendants because of what is happening on the earth, climate change, I also call upon the ones who will come after us. So there is this link from ancestors. But I’m all kind of ancestors to the gods, to all kinds of spirits and spirits living to the ones who will come after us.

00:19:38

Sif: A way to also make you more inclusive.

00:19:41

Frigga: Also a bit with the language even there may be not people around who need specific language, but I think it’s just getting used to using more inclusive language. We all like to make things for the ritual this year. We have done that before. We are going to make little wish pouches in which we put on a piece of paper, write down our wishes for the coming year, and we also will make one for the earth, for the world we live in. Our good wishes. We would love the world to go to.

00:20:14

Sif: Awesome!

00:20:16

Frigga: What are your your plans Sif.

00:20:18

Sif: I celebrate Christmas because my family does so that’s, you know, normal stuff. It’s I’m in a very fortunate position in that my immediate family, in terms of my the exception of my dad, who lives very far down south, but my partner’s family and my mom’s family all lives within five miles. So it’s a case of basically doing a round trip around all of the houses, making sure that everyone sees our faces for at least five minutes. As talking about the inclusivity side. I guess it’s very I think that was very much on my mind this year is doing more sober, teetotal practices just because of certain things that have been made apparent in my family. So there’s going to be no alcohol at these events and obviously buys into a larger theme within Heathenry in terms of sober, teetotal Heathenry. And so when we discuss the idea of inclusive Yule, this is where my head went in terms of having those options for like gatherings and moots of non-alcoholic beverages to support those that don’t partake. And that’s kind of a growing aspect as well, especially within UK events, in that we have members of the committee and several, you know, dozens of members of the community that don’t drink. It’s about making sure they’re very much included in considerations of those sorts of things. In terms of Yule I’ll probably be celebrating in January, late January, following the lunisolar calendar. Yeah. The, uh, we tend to have a feast day for three days, although I tend to just cook for the one day and see whatever’s left over for the following. Yeah, that’s my plans. Pretty, pretty simple and straightforward.

00:21:51

Jens: Thank you for all the teetotalling part there, Sif. I appreciate that a lot. And I, I drink little alcohol for different reasons. I don’t want to go into detail here, but it’s just little. And I sometimes do, I sometimes don’t, but I think it’s quite awkward if you need to feel the need to excuse yourself for not drinking. It should be accepted very easily in terms of okay, we have something different nice here, but on many places were quite far from that. Yeah. And for many people, especially Christmas seems to be: we celebrate this also with drinking special alcohol. Not not lots of amounts, but sherry, port, whatever come out for Christmas and that can be fun. That can be okay, but it can also be a case of some people feel obliged to do that. Mhm.

00:22:40

Frigga: I haven’t been drinking my entire life. I just don’t like it. Mhm. And I’m perfectly fine with rituals you know, to take a couple of sips of mead uh in the sumbel. But it has the last couple of years on my mind that that too is something to think about when it comes to inclusivity, because there can be lots of reasons that people don’t drink.

00:23:91

Rich: I was talking about Ravens Knoll, the Canadian heathens who have all these different practices, and they had so many people with different needs and some couldn’t drink for medical issues, some because of recovering of alcoholism, some didn’t like the taste, some really, really did like the taste and balancing and remembering in a big ritual who needed someone who didn’t and and all that kind of complication. They just resolved to use apple juice.

00:23:25

Frigga: Or I use water.

00:23:28

Rich: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I’ve seen a children’s blot where they used water.

00:23:31

Frigga: The Well of Wyrd. I mean, was that water or nothing? So I think water is is a perfect choice for a ritual.

00:23:40

Rich: Absolutely. And no one should be compelled or made to feel bad if they don’t or if they do drink. I mean, it’s even there in a havamal, for goodness sake. If you have to go to bed early, it’s fine. You know, they don’t say no one will think badly of you. It actually cautions of moderation. It’s right there.

00:23:59

Sif: The worse the burden. Isn’t that being

00:24:05

Rich: Indeed. Um, so so I mean, there’s a number of ways you could read it, but certainly that’s one of the ones, certainly one is that, you know, do not sort of feel bad if you have to go to bed early, you know, because you’ve drunk enough, that’s fine. Okay. It doesn’t say be teetotal, but it just says no one will think, oh, you’re less of a man or a lesser person for not drinking.

00:24:18

Frigga: Rich, do you have any plans for a Yule ritual?

00:24:27

Rich: Well, what I’ve been doing more recently, I’ve been trying to up my game in terms of regular little daily rituals- I never was a big fan of, but I’ve changed my mind on. Couldn’t really say why, but lighting incense and doing little small acts of devotion every day. One thing I’ve always done for a couple of years is it’s not really linked to any lunar solar stuff, and I know people praise great stock in that, but I think about what is meaningful to me, and I don’t live my life by doing all the stuff I know people do, but I’m not a farmer. My take on that. So what I do is I make a big offering to my land whites on New Year’s Eve, biodegradable stuff like food and things like that. I’ll make a big offering. Don’t make offerings too often because it encourages vermin and other sort of issues, but stuff that is good for the land or good for even creatures who are there and and I will make an offering once a year, a big one to the land wights for the coming calendar year. That’s what I do is a bit of a private thing.

00:25:14

Frigga: But I think it’s a lovely idea. I’m going to keep that in mind. Do something for the land wights on New Year’s Eve. Yeah.

00:25:30

Rich: I’m very into the whole land wights, house spirits concept. Sif, did you say you do something around New Year? You. It was originally.

00:25:38

Sif: Um, just a standard blot. Just recognizing the ancestors, the spirits of the land. Specifically the house I give a friend to, uh, Freya and the Vanir this year, and, yeah, just kind of go from there. Uh, just a kind of a well-wishing of. It’s a new, new year. We’re going to go back into summertime. It’s going to be full of activity and get out of the cold. Oh, and Scathi as well. So for the winter period, safe travels and all of that. It’s quite a big one, actually. It’s it encompasses quite a few. Um, it’s a pretty comprehensive it’s nice to kind of start the year off with sort of offering recognition and setting off on the right path, uh, for whatever plans are ahead.

00:26:20

Rich: I want to mention Morris dancers. It’s an odd form of dancing that may have its origins in pagan stuff. It’s not really, It’s very unclear. It might have its origins in actual martial arts. Again, it’s a number of theories about it. Or they dance with swords, but they’re not real swords. They’re kind of bendy and flexible. Pen swords, Strange Dance. It’s linked to certain times of the year. There’s a number of theories about it, but there’s a particular group that perform on New Year’s Day between two pubs. Although we’re talking about not drinking. Wonderful. And you put it on for free and it’s fantastic. I want to mention them because some of these Morris groups, they used to always have wear blackface sounds very controversial, but it wasn’t to do with imitation or like, um, like the minstrel stuff. It was actually because they were beggars or they were begging for money, which you could be imprisoned for. So they would put soot on their faces. So it wasn’t me, guv’nor? No, it was a way of avoiding that. But despite that, for so long they kept on having to explain it. And every time anybody would see this. So English people can do blackface. Now what is this? And the conversation begins again. So the Morris Society said, listen, what we’ll do is do green. It still masks sort of thing. Fine. And we all know what it means, you know, so everybody can enjoy it. We you know, there’s few enough people do this. We don’t wanna push anybody away from this. So they sort of moved to do that. It’s just a way to just, um, you know, still have the masking part of it, but, you know, be a little bit kinder.

00:27:47

Frigga: That’s inclusivity as well. And great to hear, because in the Netherlands, we every year have this conversation about Swarte Piet. Why that’s a, you know, feast of the time of the year, which should be inclusive and should be fun for everybody, and just a little changes and then everybody can enjoy it again. And it’s growing. But every year there’s still this discussion and people are complaining. And it’s a pity. I rather like Krampus.

00:28:22

Rich: Oh yeah. Absolute Krampus. Yeah.

00:28:24

Frigga: That is way more for me. The whole idea behind this, I call it the Winter Spirits. And Swarte Piet is way too civilized.

00:28:35

Rich: Are you familiar with the Welsh thing, the Mari Lwyd?

00:28:39

Frigga: No, I don’t know. Down. Oh.

00:28:42

Sif: It’s amazing.

00:28:44

Rich: It’s a horse skull on a stick. You have to let it in when it knocks at your door.

00:28:48

Sif: And it sings to you and you sing back.

00:28:50

Frigga: Oh, great.

00:28:52

Rich: It doesn’t bring you a gift. It just comes in and menaces you for a bit, then goes. It’s wonderful.

00:28:59

Frigga: In the city of Rotterdam, there’s a Krampus thing every year since a couple of years. Now it’s a group of people. There‘s all sorts of videos of it’s. And it’s great because, you know, there is a guy dressed up as Sinterklaas and a couple of them as Krampus in their own version. Some are a bit more traditional and some, yeah, come up with more colours and stuff, and its just walk for an hour or one and a half through the city of Rotterdam, go into pubs and stuff, and you see the people who are on the street start laughing. Because at first, you know, when this strange creature is this big hole and some big bells coming after you, then whoa, what is happening? And then they start laughing. And I think that is what it what it is about.

00:29:42

Rich: Well, I can add another darker element. No. They may have found the tomb of Saint Nicholas. So if he awakens from his slumber, we may have zombie Santa Claus on our hands. You know, nobody had that on their bingo card for 2024.

00:29:53

Sif: Yes.

00:29:53

Rich: Santa draugr. Yes. No one’s getting any presents this year.

00:30:05

Jens: What I love about the green facing Morris dancers is that they don’t go into this discussion. Oh, but we have this other tradition and we can explain. It’s not this, but they simply say, well, it leads to misunderstandings. We update it to modern times so that it still carries the old meaning and doesn’t lead to misunderstandings. there. Full stop.

00:30:22

Rich: Well, they did try for many years to have that to explain it, and I think they just got sick of it. Why don’t we just. Let’s make it nice and clear.

00:30:33

Frigga: It’s an example of how simple it can be.

00:30:33

Sif: The original ideas exist. Do they? Within the right elements-

00:30:44

Frigga: Yeah. Something you have to start thinking about it and come up with things which are inclusive. One of the things which become a tradition for our Yule Blot is bringing an offering to the apple tree. I nicked that from England.

00:30:56

Rich: Mhm.

00:31:02

Frigga: But I wrote a song in Dutch and I have two fruit trees in my garden this year because I got a pear tree for my birthday. Most part of the blot we do do indoors, but for the sumbel and offerings and to sing for the fruit trees, we go outdoors into my garden and I love that part.

00:31:22

Sif: So cool.

00:31:23

Frigga: Because in bringing an offering to my tiny apple tree and even tinier for the time being, pear tree, we honour all the all the trees and fruit trees on the earth.

00:31:35

Rich: So it sounds like you’re talking about what’s called wassailing. Yeah. It’s gonna be in January when we do it. So cold.

00:31:37

Frigga: Yeah, I know.

00:31:42

Rich: It’s very exposed. Yeah, but.

00:31:45

Frigga: I just love the idea. To me, it’s old folk beliefs and customs. Some are still alive.

00:31:53

Rich: We went to The Dilston Physics Garden where they did the the wassailing. They had hard cider, as it say, in America, but sort of, you know, just cider, as we’d say in England with sort of cloves and herbs and things in like that, which is fantastic. But they also had just apple juice, but also heated up with cloves and herbs. And so you could whichever one you wanted, it was fine, you know, but also cups of tea if, if you didn’t want either. So it was absolutely fine. It was, it was very nice. We also did a oh I’m trying what it’s called. It’s a it’s the mystery play. Um Sif. Remind me what it’s called. It’s a Christian play, but it has so much pagan imagery in it. Do you know what I mean?

00:32:23

Sif: I do, I can’t remember the title of it.

00:32:32

Rich: It’s actually called again, but it’s a particular sort of play, various variations of it where there’s somebody come back from war, he gets killed by somebody else, and then this doctor brings him back to life. If he’s like the new Year. It can either be comedic or horrific, depending upon the group performing it. I’ve performed once and it can be five minutes long, or it can be like an hour and a half, depending upon how silly you do it.

00:32:52

Sif: Mummers play.

00:32:48

Rich: Which one? The mummers play?

00:32:50

Rich: Yeah, the mummers play. Yeah. That’s cool. In the one that we did at The Dilston  Physic Garden event, the guy who was playing the doctor came on stage and stage. Stage? The bit of grass we’re doing it on and he’s like, well, I’ve got some things in my bag that might make him better. And he’d obviously been at the back of his shed, and every tool he took out was caked in rust. You think this might help? Or he’s got, like a bottle of poison and all these different things. And it was hilarious, you know? And somebody has a sword. There’s a long beard. It’s. I’ve seen different performances of it, but it’s for all it’s a quote unquote Christian play. It’s very pagan. I mean, to me, there’s a lot of pagan folklore sort of stuff in it. There’s very little about Jesus and God and the Holy Spirit. I have to say, it’s great fun to see if you get to see a performance. It’s really good. And these were the Druids who were putting it on. So, you know, it’s really good fun to see.

00:33:40

Jens: So we talked about the past year. We talked about the present of Yule. What’s our forecast for the next year? For the Wyrd thing, I think we should give a little bit of a teaser.

Well, what what I learned from the last year was that it was a great idea to explore several episodes on the same topic as we did on the Ancestors, for example. But it was also a terrible idea because you need to get these episodes together. So next year will be single episodes, various single episodes. Whenever we get them ready on different topics, however they come across our way.

00:34:15

Frigga: Yeah, I’m looking forward to the next season. Looking forward, Sif, to work with you as well.

00:34:21

Sif: I’m so excited. It’s going to be great.

00:34:24

Rich: Will there be Valkyries?

00:34:26

Sif: I’m obligated to talk about Valkyries whenever the topic leans in that direction.

00:34:31

Frigga: Oh, I’m sure we will come up with something that we can talk about Valkyries and inclusivity.

00:34:40

Sif: Oh, yes. Absolutely. I’ve managed to do a talk on the Valkyries as master foragers of mushroom foraging. I have I have an ability. It’s it’s my secret power, you know, to turn any topic of conversation to Valkyries.

00:34:53

Jens: Thank you all for listening to our Yule episode to finish the season of the Wyrd Thing podcast.

00:34:59

Rich: Thank you all for for joining and talking. It’s been fascinating conversation and roll on next year.

00:35:05

Frigga: Great Yule time to all the listeners and looking forward to next year.

00:35:10

Sif: Yes. 325 Yes.

00:35:14

Rich: And before we forget. Hail, Craig!

00:35:17

Sif: Hail, Craig!

00:35:21

Jens: Absolutely. Hail, Craig. The one constant in here. Yes. So thank you all for listening to us. Uh, you find us on the usual social media, whatever that is. Another thing is changing this year. So currently, I think Facebook and Instagram, if you want to search for us there and we may decide to something new as well, but we don’t know yet. Thank you and goodbye.

00:35:42

All: Bye bye. Bye.