New Devotional Jewelry Listings Now Active on Jackal Moon Designs Etsy Shop!

Calloo, callay! I beaded 7 gemstone devotional Polytheist and Elder Futhark runic magic necklaces for sale yesterday! One of them, a stunning amber necklace featuring a show-stopping solid Polish amber Mjöllnír/Thor’s Hammer pendant, is something I am selling directly. The description with photos will be below; email me at jackalmoondesigns@gmail.com if you’re seriously interested in it. The remaining necklaces are all actively listed as of this morning on my Etsy shop, JackalMoonDesigns. Let’s survey my goodies, shall we?

Film Review: In Praise of Robert Eggers’ Bold Old Norse Religion-Saturated Spectacle, “The Northman” (2022)

You know that a newly released film has made quite an impact on you when, hours after you’ve left the theater, you obsessively muse upon its indelible imagery and the effect of the moviegoing experience is all you seem capable of discussing with family and friends. In fact, you’re filled with missionary-level zeal in urging people you care about to go see the film as a matter of vital importance.

I had the immense pleasure of seeing Robert Eggers’ The Northman (Focus Features, 2022) yesterday and I’m still very much enthralled by it. I greatly encourage anyone with even the slightest interest in Old Norse Religion–whether that interest is based in academia or in a lived personal spiritual tradition or both–to see this film at once. Let it transport you to 9th century Northern Europe, from the desolate coasts of the Orkney Islands to the lushness of the Dnieper River in Kievan Rus to the majestic valleys of Iceland. Indeed, the overall effect of the film on me was equivalent to an intense 2-hour-plus shamanic journey to a sensational Otherworld brimming with wonder and terror. There are thoughtful and deliberate evocations of Old Norse Deities, chiefly Odin and Freyr, that are sustained in the film and add to the feeling that, if you honor these Gods, you’re partaking of something akin to religious communion just from the very act of watching this movie. But make no mistake, as a member in the audience, viewing this film is not a passive experience. If you’re a Heathen or a Witch or a Pagan, this film will call you to participate at a Soul Level. You will, frankly, be shook.

June 21, 2007: A Midsummer Faining to Honor the Sun Goddess, Sunna

Introduction

Twelve years ago today, my best friend (who is an amazing priest and vitki in his cultic tradition) Richie and I led a public Heathen devotional ritual known in some contemporary Norse Polytheist traditions as a faining (distinguished from the more-commonly-known ritual of a blòt; the former is distinguished by bloodless sacrificial offerings). It was a glorious day at a Lake County, Illinois-based forest preserve ritual location that I have always regarded as inherently sacred and immensely powerful: it is a place that shimmers with the energies of so many welcoming and helpful forest spirits, prairie spirits, and water spirits (lake and river). In attendance that Midsummer’s Day were good friends and notable Heathens in the community, such as my friend Atheleas, who served as the Illinois Steward for The Troth at the time, and several of her kindred members.

Check Out My Newest JackalMoonDesigns Jewelry Listings on Etsy!

I’ve been a very busy gemstone-beading bee lately: yesterday, in fact, I made 6 devotional gemstone necklaces and uploaded them to my Etsy site, Jackal Moon Designs, and one (my Green Tara devotional piece) sold within minutes of it being advertised on Facebook yesterday afternoon. Here are the remaining five.

The 12 Days of Yuletide: A Heathen Carol

Do you love to sing, especially at this time of year? Or does your system require a little “liquid courage” to belt out those familiar tunes? Perhaps it would help to sing something  a bit friendlier to your spiritual sensibilities? To that end, I’ve composed a Heathen Yuletide carol, which is sung to the tune of “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” I dedicate it to my Heathen friends and to the God Bragi, Whom I invoked during my own group’s Winter Solstice celebration last night. If you sing my song or share it, please respect my copyright–that’s all I ask. Oh, and sing it with gusto with some mead, please! Enjoy and have a blessed Yule!

“The Twelve Days of Yuletide: A Heathen Carol”

© Anna Applegate 2017

 

On the first day of Yuletide, my true love gave to me…

A rune set carved from a pine tree

Sekhmet, Odin, and Frigga Necklaces Now Available in my JackalMoonDesigns Etsy Shop

As the holiday shopping season gets underway in full force here in the States, I’d like to encourage people to please support small businesses and artisans, especially in esoteric/metaphysical communities. I’ve had my Etsy shop, Jackal Moon Designs, active for exactly half a year now and I love creating pieces that help support Polytheists, Pagans, Magicians, and Shamanic Practitioners in strengthening their connections to their Holy Powers.

I’ve recently ordered a slew of pendants depicting various Deities and Spirits and will be uploading new beaded gemstones pieces on a regular basis. I’m announcing three that are new to my shop as of yesterday and this morning, reflecting the work of my crafty little hands over the weekend. They’re long, texturally rich pieces and one is made to honor Sekhmet, one to honor Frigga (depicted in the featured image for this post), and one to honor Odin. I accept a variety of payments on my Etsy site and ship worldwide. My pieces make great one-of-a-kind gifts or you can keep them for yourself! (Do note that I take requests for custom pieces if you don’t see the Holy Power you serve represented in my shop!)

27-inch-long Sekhmet devotional necklace featuring a 1.5-inch-long brass pendant of the Goddess with wings. Stones included are 18 x 13 mm mookaite jasper, 9 mm rainbow moonstone, 13 mm tiger iron, and 5 mm Czech crystal bead spacers. Mookaite jasper is thought to be a healing and grounding stone, connected to the root chakra.

My Frigga necklace is 24.5 inches long and the brass pendant of the Goddess is 2 inches long by 0.75 inches wide. The gemstones include cognac and milk amber chips of various sizes, Kingman boulder turquoise rondelles (9 mm) 18 x 13 mm mookaite jasper ovals, and kiwi/sesame jasper rondelles (10 mm).

My Odin necklace measures 26.5 inches long and the brass pendant is 1.75 inches tall by 0.75 inches wide. The gemstone beads include 10 mm labradorite spheres, 13 x 18 mm blue iolite ovals, kiwi/sesame jasper 10 mm rondelles, 10 mm quartz crystal beads flanking the pendant and 14 mm amethyst beads on either side of the no-fuss brass lobster claw clasp.

Thanks for taking a look at my site and please remember to shop small this holiday season!

Blessings bright!

Virgin Death Goddesses: Hel, La Santa Muerte, and Yewa

Editorial Note: This is the transcript of a talk I gave at the 24th Annual Fellowship of Isis Chicago Goddess Convention, October 28, 2017, at the North Shore Holiday Inn in Skokie, Illinois.

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Introduction

Good morning and thank you all for coming to our 24th Annual FOI Chicago Goddess Convention! For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Anna and I’ve been proudly serving as legally ordained FOI clergy since 2012, though I have been active in Chicago’s Pagan community for 18 years and counting. I’m the executive editor of Isis-Seshat, a quarterly publication of the Fellowship of Isis, and I’m the founder of the chartered Iseum of the Rekhet Akhu, whose mission is to highlight the interrelatedness of the communities of the living and the dead and to cultivate transfigured spirits (akhu in ancient Egyptian) in human form.

So why did I choose this topic? We’re in the season of Samhain, the Celtic reckoning of the end of summer and the liminal time between one year and the next, and during this time our thoughts often turn to ones of our own mortality, as well as to remembrances of those who have gone before us. More than any other time of year, the honoring of the Deities and Spirits of Death is top of mind for most of us.

As a show of hands, who here honors a Death God or Goddess in their personal devotional practices? (Pause.)

I’m a Polytheist devoted to such Holy Powers, and I’d like to spend some time with you discussing three in particular: the Norse Goddess Hel, Mexico’s La Santa Muerte (the Holy Death), and the Nigerian Orisha, Yewa—Who They are, Why They matter, and how you can cultivate a devotional relationship with Them if you feel Their bony hands laying claim on you. What’s striking about these Death Deities of various cultures—northern European, North American, and West African—that I’m going to talk about is that They’re gendered female and They’re regarded as virgins, so we have a lot of intersectionality to examine when we focus on what we know about each Goddess historically and what we know about Them in contemporary worship.

But before we start discussing each of these three Cosmic Femmes Fatales, I’ve got a few thoughts I’d like to share on what significance gender bears as well as historical notions of the concept of “virginity” and how these impact the mythologies and the cultic practices surrounding the worship of Hel, La Santa Muerte, and Yewa.

A Friday Invocation to Freyja

Note: A former coven mate of mine shared this with me–hence the British spelling and the Gardnerian references to scourging and the like. I cannot speak to this work’s true origins. 

The Summer Issue of Isis-Seshat Magazine Is Now Available!

Hot off the presses!

I am pleased to report that I just returned from my print vendor, and the galley proofs for the Summer issue of Isis-Seshat–the official journal of the worldwide Fellowship of Isis–look fabulous!

Wight Power: Cultivating Right Relationship with Land Spirits

Winter is finally starting to lose its vise grip here in The Chi. Daytime temps have been hovering in the 40s and 50s since Sunday, tolling a death knell for the mounds of snow. It’s actually possible to see patches of grass on peoples’ front lawns and in public parks once again, and the faintest buds are beginning to poke through the tips of tree branches. And so last night, for the first time in months, my Bodacious Beau™ Dan and I went out for a leisurely stroll in our local cemetery. That unmistakable angle of the almost-spring sun receding behind adjacent rooftops in the west just before it plunges into its deep, egg-yolk hue at sunset warmed both of our hearts immensely. Sparrows, robins, and turtle doves warbled and cooed from the neighboring trees. Indeed, all of nature seemed to be ringing out a symphony of joy, and I felt delighted to be unhindered in my ability to leave offerings for the spirits of the land and our Dunning neighborhood’s dead. I clutched my slices of homemade banana nut bread (the Mother Squirrel–I’ve named her Ratatosk as a nod to Norse mythology–residing in the Hel-Tree in the cemetery would surely be pleased!) to my chest and Dan and I grinned at each other as we traipsed our way through the soggy cemetery grounds.