When to Blót

One of the hallmarks of The Northern Way is its connection to the land. The Pre-Christian Northern European lived in cooperation with the cycles of Nature. He did not attempt to control nature or see it as something evil to be overcome. In modern times we can easily get out of sync with nature. We no longer need to depend on Mother Nerthus for food or for the hunting of animals. We need only go to the local supermarket. Observing the major tides is a way we can reconnect with nature. Even though, for my reconstructed holy night calendar, I list specific dates for the blóta I suggest that each person try to use the actual tides to decide when a blót should be held as the Northern Europeans once did. The summer finding blót could be held when the first flower blooming is spotted or when the a migratory bird makes its first appearance after returning from its winter time roost. Winter Nights could be conducted when the last leaves have fallen from trees. We also know that the phase of the moon was always an important consideration for when blótar were conducted.

More practical considerations sometimes come into play as well. Sometimes it may be better to delay a blót for a few days so that it can be held on a weekend, when more people will be able to attend. It is also likely that our Northern European ancestors gathered together more often than on the major tides, perhaps monthly on the full moon, and we know that they also held blót-feasts for special occasions such as marriages and births.

Blót Activities

Many times there were other activities at blóts. Singing, dancing, story-telling and games were some of the activities that are attested to in the lore. Specific blóts sometimes had specific activities that were associated with them, which I'll talk more about in the blót instructions for those specific blóts. We should feel free to improvise these activities because, in essence this part of the blót-feast was always about kin getting together and having a good time. This would be a great time for story-telling. Stories from the Sagas and the Eddas could be told in such as a way that they relate the values that The Northern Way holds as desirable in order to teach them to the young ones. In times of old, it was the one of the best ways to teach the young what ideals they should value. This was one of the most important aspects of what the skalds did. They used their stories to relate these values and reinforced them upon the whole culture. This is a tradition that we modern follwers of the Northern Way should work hard to revive. The power of story to teach and reinforce our values while at the same time entertaining should not be overlooked.

I think I have shown that contrary to popular opinion, there is quite a bit of material to be found concerning the traditions of our Northern European ancestors. If one looks hard enough they can find many many pieces to the puzzle that was the religious practices of Pre-Christian North. Although I gathered almost 200 pages of notes which translated into nearly 80 pages of article I, by no means, exhausted the store of information that is out there waiting to be collected. Although I did not find all the pieces of the puzzle (we are unlikely to ever find all the pieces) , I do believe that I found enough to get a good picture of what the true practices of The Northern Way were. I believe that there is enough here for us to take up and rebuild genuine Northern custom. In Regintroth: A Book of the Northern Way, I'll offer guides for these rebuilt customs, but it is my hope that the reader will take this information I have gathered and use it to build their own traditions. It is my hope that these traditions will be passed down from father to son, from mother to daughter just as they were in times of old. We modern followers of the Northern Way have been cut off from the ways of our ancestors for a millennium by the religion of the desert god. It is time now that we take back the ways of our fore-fathers. If this article helps one person do that, then I will be satisfied that the considerable effort I expended to research and write this article will have been well worth it.