Today, under Thorn ᚦ and the full Moon of Vetrnætr, Gróa begins to sing. Her first three charms protect her son from despair, danger on the road, and deadly waters. Each spell draws a boundary around the traveler—not a wall that keeps the world away, but a power that lets him pass through it.
Tag: Pagan Calendar
Grógaldr, Part 2: He Calls His Dead Mother Out of the Grave
At the opening of Grógaldr, Svipdagr stands at the doors of the dead and calls for his mother, Gróa. Before her death, she had told him to seek her help if he ever faced a need beyond his own power. The curse laid upon him by his stepmother has created exactly that need: he must travel where no one can travel and find Menglöð, a woman he has never seen.
Grógaldr, Part 1: One Careless Throw Bound Him to a Woman He Had Never Seen
A ball crosses into the wrong chamber, and an ordinary game becomes the beginning of an irreversible journey. Fehu opens the weekly cycle as the waxing Moon gathers toward fullness just beyond the autumn equinox: what has been set in motion will not remain small.
Helgi and Sigrún: He Returns from Death—But Only Once
After spending a night with her dead husband inside his burial mound, Sigrún returns to wait for Helgi. He does not come. This final chapter of their story brings Hagall into Haustmánuður, with the calendar’s waxing gibbous Moon on lunar day 14 and Berkana marking Year 13. On the Galdorcraft eve of Vetrnætr, the reckoning turns toward the limit of return: a meeting can happen without becoming a way back.
Helgi and Sigrún: When the Dead Ride Home
In the story of Helgi and Sigrún, the slain warrior returns on horseback to his burial mound, and a messenger brings Sigrún word that she can see him. This fifth installment reaches the threshold between mourning and reunion. Today’s reckoning places that journey under Reið, in Haustmánuður, with a waxing gibbous moon on lunar day 12 and Berkana marking Year 13. On the eve of the autumn equinox, the question is what we carry toward a meeting we cannot keep.
Sigrún and Helgi: Her Brother Breaks His Oath—and She Curses Him
Today’s chapter of Helgi and Sigrún turns from victory to betrayal: Sigrún’s surviving brother kills her husband despite the oath that binds them. Áss ᚬ, the waxing gibbous Moon of Haustmánuður, and the Berkana ᛒ year bring sacred speech, gathering consequences, and threatened kinship into today’s reckoning. Two days before the Autumn Equinox, the story asks what holds a household together when a sworn promise fails.
Sigrún and Helgi: She Saves the Man Who Kills Her Father
Sigrún has refused the marriage her family arranged and chosen Helgi. In this chapter of our underworld series, her protection brings his fleet through a storm and into battle against her own kin. The autumn reckoning asks what protection preserves—and what it costs when the people we love stand on opposing sides.
What Will Your Strength Protect?
This month’s underworld series continues with Helgi and Sigrún, at the meeting after battle: Sigrún has chosen Helgi, and now we meet the man she chooses. Today’s reckoning brings Ur’s strength into Haustmánuður’s work of gathering and keeping, beneath a First Quarter Moon and within the Berkana year. The question is what courage can protect when love and family loyalty pull against one another.
Even She Cannot Keep Him from Death
Hervor’s encounter with her dead father begins our passage through these stories. Now we turn to Sigrún and Helgi. As harvest gathers and the nights lengthen, their story asks what can be preserved—and what remains beyond our keeping.
One Keeps the Peace. The Other Is Her Favourite.
Today asks for attention to the person bearing the cost of what others insist on keeping. A treasured possession, a family loyalty, or an old obligation may survive because someone quieter repeatedly absorbs its consequences.