The Winternights, or Vetrnætr, is a twelve-day festival that begins on a night in mid-October, and marks the end of summer and the start of the winter. The name Vetrnætr (pronounced Vetter-natter) is Old Norse, composed of two words, vetr - meaning winter, and nætr - meaning nights. Vetrnætr is series of feasts and ceremonies (blóts, pronounced bloots) that celebrate the bounty of the harvest, and also honor the Disir, or female ancestor spirits.
Vetrnætr is celebrated by the Ásatrú; Ásatrú is an Icelandic name, taken by the modern-day Norse and Germanic people who worship the old northern gods (such as Thor, Odin, and Frey) and goddesses (such as Freya and Frigg). Though its practice was interrupted, Ásatrú has been reconstructed as closely as possible to the original religion of the Northern European people, based on the surviving historical records. Ásatrú intrigues me, because it would have been the religion of my ancestors.
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| 2022 ofrenda |
2. Set up my ancestor altar (ofrenda)
3. Disir meditation
4. Make more runes
4. Make more runes
5. Feast and blót
I'm looking again at "Comfortable with Uncertainty: 108 Teachings on Cultivating Fearlessness and Compassion", by Pema Chödrön (2002). The last time my world fell apart this book caught me and saved me.
3. Disir meditation:
As I said, Vetrnætr is series of feasts and ceremonies that celebrate the bounty of the harvest, and also honor the Disir, or female ancestor spirits. Sometime around now, the Norse tribes held a dísablót (sacrifice to the Disir), but the Anglo-Saxons honored the Disir later, on Mother’s Night”, which takes place in late December.
1. Read "Comfortable with Uncertainty":
The theme throughout this book is training in tenderness for life, called bodhichitta. "We train in the bodhichitta practices in order to become so open that we can take the pain of the world in, let it touch our hearts, and turn it into compassion."
Chapter 4 is The Wisdom of No Escape. "The central question ... is not how we avoid uncertainty and fear but how we relate to discomfort. How do we practice with difficulty, with our emotions, with the unpredictable encounters of the ordinary day?"
When I notice my painful emotions (disappointment, frustration, embarrassment, irritation, stubbornness, fear) it's a message to lean in to this situation; don't smooth it over or retreat from it, and don't let it harden into resentment or righteousness.
"Ordinarily we are swept away by habitual momentum. We don't interrupt our patterns even slightly. With practice, however, we learn to stay with a broken heart, with a nameless fear, with a desire for revenge. Sticking with uncertainty is how we learn to relax in the midst of chaos ... We can bring ourselves back to the spiritual path countless times every day simply by exercising our willingness to rest in the uncertainty of the present moment..."
2. Set up my ancestor altar (ofrenda):
The veil between my world and the spirit world becomes thinner at the start of the winter season. Since Vetrnætr is a time to honor my ancestors, this is when I begin to set up my ofrenda, or ancestor altar.
An ofrenda is a special table for the Mexican Days of the Dead that holds offerings and decorations, such as arches, candles, incense, skeleton toys, marigolds, photographs, sugar skulls, as well as some of the ancestor’s favorite foods and things, and little gifts. I've been collecting and making things for my ofrenda for years. This week I've arranged:
- skeletons, to remind me that death is a part of life
- tree of life candles, symbolic of the creation
- photos of my grandparents, father, my in-laws, and dear friends.
3. Disir meditation:
As I said, Vetrnætr is series of feasts and ceremonies that celebrate the bounty of the harvest, and also honor the Disir, or female ancestor spirits. Sometime around now, the Norse tribes held a dísablót (sacrifice to the Disir), but the Anglo-Saxons honored the Disir later, on Mother’s Night”, which takes place in late December.The female spirits known as the Disir (pronounced DEE-sir) are an enigmatic group of beings in the mythology and religion of the pre-Christian Norse and other Germanic peoples. The Disir are my female ancestors - grandmother spirits and guardians of the household. They have special knowledge in matters of family luck, illness, childbirth, personal problems, and other everyday matters.
Today I will hold a personal dísablót - I will light a candle on my ofrenda and settle into meditation. I'll bring a picture into my mind of my grandmothers - those strong German, Dutch, and Anglo women who traveled across the ocean and the frontier. I read their names out loud, and picture them gathering around me. I ask my grandmothers to make themselves known to me and stand by me during the coming year, that I may face the demands of the world with the wisdom of my kin at my back.
Runes are an ancient writing system created about 100 - 200 AD by Germanic tribes and spread all over middle and northern Europe by the migration of these tribes. The runes were used by the Germans, the Scandinavians, the Angles and Saxons. They are found inscribed onto stone, bone, and metal, and were used for poems and ornamentation, as well as divination.
4. Make more runes:
I've been working on a set of runes, burned onto circles cut from a hazel branch, and usually I make new ones today, but I will wait this year.
5. Feast and blót:
Tonight I'm having a quiet special meal with my beloved, who is preparing for surgery in a few days. My family is coming later for drinks, and a very informal blót.
The blót ceremony, which means “to worship with sacrifice,” comes after the food. The purpose of the blót is to thank the gods for a successful end to the growing season, to share the bounty with the gods, and to ask for protection against the harshness of winter. The old prayer was til árs ok friðar, “for a good year and frith (peace)”.
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