The Goddess Harke is said to bathe in Lake Kamern in the morning after wandering out of her Oak Forests. If the river is iced over she will take an oak tree and smash the ice open. Other goddesses also often appear associated with waters such as Perchta, Hertha, and Holle all being associated with lakes and wells. Lakes and other living waters function as liminal spaces especially wells which also combine the liminal spaces of shadows and under earth. Hertha is said to bathe in Hertha Lake. There are often threats associated with getting into the water or trying to reach the bottom of these areas. With water spirits moving boats into trees in Hertha's lake or a message at a sacred well for Holle that warns people to not try to dredge the lake again or disaster will befall a nearby town. This may be to uphold the sanctity of these places or it may be Christianized or even Post-Christian pagan legends to keep people away from these areas.-TLK

"Angus hath come the young, the fair,
The blue-eyed god with golden hair
The god who to the world doth bring
This morn the promise of the spring;

Who moves the birds to song ere yet
He hath awaked the violet,
Or the soft primrose on the steep,
While buds are laid in lidded sleep,

And white snows wrap the hills serene,
Ere glows the larch's l vivid green
Through the brown woods and bare. All hail!
Angus, and may thy will prevail. . . .

He comes ... he goes. . . . And far and wide
He searches for the Princess Bride (Brida)."

-Bard song, The coming of Angus and Bride

Then came a day when Angus met Bride in a forest near the castle.
The violets were blooming and soft yellow primroses opened their eyes of wonder to gaze on the prince and the princess.
When they spoke one to another the birds raised their sweet voices in song and the sun shone fair and bright.

Said Angus: "Beautiful princess, I beheld you in a dream weeping tears of sorrow.”
Bride said: "Mighty prince, I beheld you in a dream riding over bens and through glens in beauty and power."
Said Angus: " I have come to rescue you from Queen Beira, who has kept you all winter long in captivity."
Bride said: " To me this is a day of great joy.”
Said Angus: " It will be a day of great joy to all mankind ever after this."

That is why the first day of spring the day on which Angus found the princess is called "Bride's Day".

When softly blew the south wind o'er the sea,
Lisping of springtime hope and summer pride,
And the rough reign of Beira ceased to be,
Angus the Ever-Young,

The beauteous god of love, the golden-haired,
The blue mysterious-eyed,
Shone like the star of morning high among
The stars that shrank afraid
When dawn proclaimed the triumph that he shared

With Bride the peerless maid.
Then winds of violet sweetness rose and sighed,
No conquest is compared to Love's transcendent joys that never fade.

Information panel at the head of Loch Long. This is one of several carved figures beside the paths and car parks near Arrochar. The figure holding the panel is a 'bodach' - a trickster, boogeyman, or elfin figure in Scottish folklore. He can be seen as an “old man” who is purported to be paired with Cailleach, also known as Beira, Queen of Winter.

Seeking and understanding

One thing you don’t take into consideration when you feel the call to European native spirituality is the vast volume of information, lore, stories, gods, and heroes that await you.
My recent departure from abrahamic desert religion, and the formation of my spiritual worldview from those years leaves me with an enormous conundrum.

Will I ever discover all the stories? Will I comprehend their meaning? Where are my gods?

This was deeply troubling at first, and the feeling can still arise whenever I struggle to understand our lore and how they fit into my life.

When I first started researching the gods of my people, I was astonished to find out that when I thought I had reached the end of a deity’s lore, another one would pop up and smack me in the face. Again, this is my previous experience with abrahamic religion that prods me to fully understand the truly unknowable, so that I can confine it to a box and come to understand it more.
It is in nature that I feel that primal urge and tug to embrace something more ancient and powerful than my feeble mind can comprehend.

In my haste to understand our gods, I failed to utilize what is truly important and that is understanding. I figure I was thinking the more information I hoarded on the gods, the better I could get to know them. What I should have been doing this whole time is pondering on the lore more, and slow down so that I could do so.

I have come to realize now that I may never read, or hear every single story of the gods and that actually excites me. Our stories cannot be contained in a single book, or even a whole library. They are too countless to number, and I have barely scratched the surface.

I feel my haste with my research and reading is that I thought I had to fill a god-sized void when I left abrahamism, but what I didn’t realize until recently is that it left room for an awakening of sorts.

Some may call this “blood memory.” Remembering something that was hidden, or pulling the veil from your eyes to see how you should always have.

Returning to the old ways and seeking out the old gods is not an easy task, as much of our lore and gods have been covered up, destroyed or masked under the careful watch of the church. What some don’t realize is that they never left. They have always been with us, both Diasporan and Native European alike.

It came to me as natural as breathing air, and as refreshing as a cool breeze on a stifling day. In seeking to understand our people, our ways, our stories, and our gods.. I am inching closer to understanding myself.

This is where I am meant to be, and once I came face to face with that fact, it was like an enormous weight lifted off my shoulders. I just need to slow down and embrace who I truly am, and who I am meant to be.

Be great, Hyperborean. You have much to be proud of.

*Note* I do not follow Odin, but he is seen as a god of wisdom or the pursuit of it, hence the images.

Todd Yeager. Pan’s Moonlight Dance

Seated on Odin's throne Hliðskjálf, the god Freyr sits in contemplation. In his hand he holds a sickle and next to the throne sits a sheaf. Frederic Lawrence

Ragnarök (motif from the Heysham hogback) (by W. G. Collingwood, 1908)

Until there came three
mighty and benevolent
Æsir to the world
from their assembly.
They found on earth,
nearly powerless,
Ask and Embla,
void of destiny.
Spirit they possessed not,
sense they had not,
blood nor motive powers,
nor goodly colour.
Spirit gave Odin,
sense gave Hoenir,
blood gave Lodur,
and goodly colour

- Völuspá

Father Frost and the step-daughter. Ivan Bilibin

Ossian receiving the Ghosts of the French Heroes. Anne-Louis Girodet.

The Birth of Venus. Jean-Leon Gerome. 1890

Andromeda chained to a rock. Henri-Pierre Picou.

In azure vaults of heaven soaring bright,
In lofty castles filled with endless joy,
The God of Thunder, Perkons, dwells in light,
And pleasure knows whose sweetness cannot cloy.
The Baltic gods in council gathered there,
Of Destiny's Father tidings to debate.
His will decides the hues-both dark and fair-
And sets the fickle course of mortal fate.
- Canto 1 of Lāčplēsis (The Bear Slayer), Epic poem of Latvia

"With passing time, its passage soon or late,
My bolts of lightning on the foe will rain,
On all who seek as slaves my people's fate
And strive to crush our spirits for their gain.-
But when the springtime comes with climate fair,
To Latvia's folk sweet showers I will send,
By day will give them clean refreshing air,
And to the darkness sparks of light will lend."

"To them in nature I will stay close by;
My voice of thunder in the sky will ring.
Of Perkons strong the name will never die;
The Latvian folk will ever of it sing.
I wish here now you other gods, apace,
Will follow close upon my guiding will,
And each one swear, at proper time and place,
For humankind a promise to fulfil."

- Perkons, Lāčplēsis