mindfulness Archives — The Rational Heathen

Using the Magic in Nature and the Seasons

August 21, 2018 The Rational Heathen Comments 0 Comment

Oh my god! I said the “M” word! Does that mean I’m going to talk about…GULP…Magic? Well, yes, and no. I want to talk about changes in the seasons and how you can recognize them long before most people do. Which means maybe not magic, but more observation and perhaps a bit of empathy.

Let me explain.

Recognizing the Rhythms of Your Land

Regardless of whether you live in the country or the city, in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere, or in the Americas or “across the pond,” the land you live in has its own rhythm, its own wights (and I use that term loosely), and its own timing. Back when I lived further south in the Rocky Mountains, it took me forever to recognize this–mainly because I wasn’t a Heathen then and I had other concerns which took up a good deal of my attention. Back when I was younger, the weather, the climate, and the land were simply distractions from day-to-day living. Now, I realize that day-to-day living is a distraction from the weather, climate, and the land.

Look, you don’t need to become a tree hugger or run around naked in the forest to connect with nature. (However, if that’s what you do to get your rocks off, that’s none of my business.) It involves changing your viewpoint and paying more attention to the natural occurrences that surround you (even in the city.) Changing your viewpoint isn’t that hard, but it does require mindfulness. This is why I often recommend mindfulness training to those who are getting started in Heathenry.

Mindfulness as Magic

If there’s a form of magic I do believe in, it has to do with mindfulness. Seriously, it’s something everyone can do and it will help discipline your mind enough to deal with the stress of modern life. I recommend a book called Mindfulness for Fidgety Skeptics if you’ve never done this before. I get a small stipend from Amazon if you buy it through the link. You support this website if you use the link, so I would appreciate it if you use it. Even if I didn’t get some money through this, I’d still recommend the book.

What You’ll Discover Paying Attention to the Land

Being mindful and paying attention to the land opens a whole new world of experiences you never knew existed. You start noticing not only the cooler temperatures of autumn setting in, but also the increase or decrease in humidity that follows the change. Maybe you start seeing stratus clouds and high cirrus replace the fluffy cumulus. Maybe you see a shift in the bird population, the increase or decrease of certain insects, or even the shift in the quality of light you get. Instead of noticing the latest fall fashions creeping into people’s wardrobes, you notice how the squirrels are moving from tree to tree to gather food. You may see different species of birds. If you live in a place with deer, you may see a shift in their foraging.

At night, you may see a change in the constellations–if the light pollution isn’t too bad. If you live in wildfire country like I do, you can actually see if there are new wildfire starts nearby just by the color of the moon, often before the news picks it up.

How This Makes You a Better Heathen

At this point, you may be wondering how this makes you a better Heathen. Let’s think about this a bit: our gods and the landvaettir are nature entities. Even Odin, who is our creator god, deals with natural forces. (How much more natural is the creation of life?) So, we’re looking at gods who reside over nature. By paying attention to things not human made, we gain a deeper understanding in the world around us. You become a better Heathen, and you even open yourself up to the wights and gods. It may or may not be a type of magic, but I know it works.

How to Communicate with the Gods

That’s one thing about being a Heathen a lot of Heathens miss. You see, you can get close to the gods without all the mumbo-jumbo. In fact, I suspect it’s the best way to get in touch with the gods. You don’t get a conversation with the gods from mumbling prayers or sacrificing goats usually. You get that from opening yourself to them and seeing who pops up. That requires paying attention to them and listening to what they have to say.

If you’re not receptive to the gods unless Thor takes a hammer to you and smacks you silly, you’re unlikely to hear them. That does happen to the most dense of us and it is quite unpleasant. Trust me when I say you will really get shaken out of your reality when the gods do that. It will make you question your overall sanity, unless you’re already bat-shit crazy. Now, it’s a lot easier to deal with because I’m more in tuned with them, but for a while it was fucking nuts.

I hope I’ve given you some things to think about. Let me know what you think.

Mindfulness Magic: Seeing the World as a Heathen

June 6, 2017 Tyra Ulfdottir Comments 0 Comment

One of the things that seems to bind most of us Heathens together is the love of the natural world, in some way. (No doubt I’ll get an argument from someone who says that they don’t give a shit about nature.) However, I’d wager that some number of Heathens don’t have a close–dare I say intimate?– relationship with the natural world. (For those with minds in the gutter, I know where you went–forget it.)

I know, I know. You’re busy making a living. You live where you do because your family lives there. Or maybe you do get out in nature once in a while when you have time for a vacation. But, you live in a city, or the suburbs, where your world is surrounded by asphalt, concrete, steel, and glass. The closest to nature you get to every day is maybe the city park, or your neighbor’s manicured lawn.

I’m Not Discounting Your Efforts

Maybe you have a special tree in your yard; maybe you put an altar out there. Maybe you planted a garden. Maybe you hunt and fish. Maybe you took my advice and have unplugged for a portion of the day. Maybe you’ve made friends with the wights who live nearby. All these things are good. And yet, I’m not sure it’s enough. I’ll explain.

Your Ancestors Didn’t Evolve in Urbanized Settings

Our hominid ancestors were around some 6 million years before us. Homo sapiens, our current species, is about 200,000 years old. Civilization, as we know it, went back some 6000 years. That’s roughly 194,000 years when our species didn’t live in huge cities. Our ancestors were hunter-gatherers or lived in small villages. Agriculture started somewhere around 12,000 years ago with hunter-gatherers trying their hand at planting crops.

I bring this up because I want to show you how unnatural our current lifestyle is. We evolved being on the move and with nature, not sitting in a cubicle in an office building. Technically, even the agrarian lifestyle is unnatural to us, but less so. At least that lifestyle still had people close to nature.

It’s Not Natural

I grew up in a suburban setting. I hated every moment of it. I hated having neighbors around my home. When I was older and decided I no longer wanted to play suburbanite, I moved to the mountains. I’d like to say I had peace, but I had some evil neighbors. One died in a crack house on Christmas Eve from an overdose of heroin. Another actually broke into my home and stole stuff. (Got to love that.) Oddly, I wasn’t even in a bad neighborhood. Eventually I arrived where I live currently, where I have people at an arm’s length most of the time.

My work has had me travel to big cities like New York and Chicago. One of the biggest issues I had with those places is the noise. Sure, the denizens there are use to it, but not really. I could see it in their behavior that even if they didn’t consciously register the constant cacophony, their bodies did. Yes, they are stressed just by living there, and they don’t even know it.

Mindfulness

It sounds weird and new-agey, but some of not being part of the natural order comes from a complete lack of mindfulness. Most of the time we sit at our computers and type. Get in the car and drive someplace. Walk to work or school with our noses buried in our smartphones. Very seldom do we actually spend time and just observe what is going on around us. When we do, we’re often making judgements or thinking about other things, instead of just observing. When you strip away the so-called “monkey-mind,”–that is, the mind that is busy thinking about a thousand different things– and focus on one thing, you can actually start touching the true nature of the world.

Try it sometime. When you’re outside, sit down and look around you. Empty your thoughts. Focus on something natural: a tree, a leaf, a blade of grass… Let your body relax and breathe slowly. At this point, you enter into a form of mediation. You let your thoughts exist but do not dwell on them. Remember, you are focused on the natural world.

When you are in this state, you will begin to become part of the natural order of things. The world will never look the same as it had before–you’ll see beyond the concrete, metal, and glass to something that is more alive and more vibrant. You’ll feel the world as a Heathen; seeing it for the first time as something beyond words.

Communicating with a Higher World

If you do this enough, at some point in your meditation you may experience supernatural beings because you’re receptive to them. It’s how I sometimes experience the gods. You may speak to wights, gods, or other denizens–all without psychotropic substances. And sometimes you’ll feel them even when you’re no longer mediating. It takes almost nothing to recover that sense of mindfulness once you get good at it.

I call this piece “mindfulness magic,” but in truth, I don’t believe in magic. I do, however, believe that the mind is a powerful thing and we can recover what we lost in the past 6000 years, I do hope you’ll let me know if you try it and where it leads for you. You may just touch more than that blade of grass.