Tīw's Day

Tiw is old English for the Norse God Tyr, who, rumour has it was 'Top of the Pantheon' originally, but ended up as Odin's son sometime during the migration period : when Germanic tribes moved in waves out to older Celtic peoples lands right up to the Christian roman era, and after into Anglo Saxon and Viking settlements... That's pretty vague, covering about 2000 years...but this isnt an anthropology blog.

Tiw/Tyr/Tiwaz[norse rune name]/Tius[Latin] would have existed across Celtic terrirories culture through gradual mergings with Germanic peoples producing subtle differences in character between what the Celts, earlier Germanic, and then AngloSaxon and Norsemen peoples attributed him, and lived through him.

God of the Hanged or Justice. One armed. Long hair, holding a sceptre in his left hand, and with a wolf biting his right. 

That coincides with the western religious tradition of sceptre, staff or wand holding, reminiscent of Egypt (Again!), kabbalah and tarot.

He existed before the Romans and after the Romans.

I thought this guy explains some deeper cultural mixes to illustrate the complexities of the cauldron mix.

http://orvillejenkins.com/peoples/germanicceltic.html 

So We know of Odin..

One of Norse Odin's chief qualities was aligned with war, whereas Timeless Tiw was more single combat and sky... may be this suited the times more.

[Norse Odin is similar to older Celtic/Germnaic Woden - claiming Woden as an ancestor had by the 8th century become an essential way of establishing royal authority - Anglosaxons and Vikings obviously took him seriously]

I read once that Odin's one-eye imagary was not 'cause he lorst it in a fight - but was used to depict him more like a crazed warrior squinting in battle as he charges sword in hand.

However, Odin was also represented as a Masculine-Feminine combo (aren't we all) ...when to show compassion (F) and when to unflinchingly deliver justice (M) is the mark of a wise warrior I suppose..

And if he was not dual, then Freya/Frigga acts as balance to Odin.

 

If I am mentioning Odin as well as Tyr, then I should also mention Fenrir - Star of Tuesday's Tale.

Fenrir, father of the Wolves. ..son of Bad boy Loki.

From stories finally compiled,with gaps filled, in C13 Prose Edda (Norwegian) the God's had knowledge of prophecies foretelling great strife from Fenrir and his rapid growth, so they bound him, and as a result Fenrir bit off the right hand of the god Tyr..

Fenrir is foretold to kill Odin during the events of Ragnarok, but after this fateful event was then killed by another of Odin's sons.

This seems to take us full circle to the idea that Tyr was once honoured like Odin and brave in combat.

A Handy Linkage bit of  to Days of the Week.

As with our months, the origins are from the Vikings and Romans.

MONDAY - from the Romans, meaning "moon's day."

TUESDAY - from the German meaning "Tyr's Day" -  Viking mythology and the Germanic god of war and the sky.

WEDNESDAY- From Viking meaning "Woden's Day or Odin's Day ."

THURSDAY- From Viking meaning "Thor's Day."

FRIDAY- From "Frey's Day. " Frey was a male viking/Norse God, famed in Ragnorok tale, or refers to Freya/ Frigg's day - she was the wife of Odin, the Queen of the heavens and the goddess of love and the household.

SATURDAY- From Roman meaning "Saturn's Day." He is the father of Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Ceres and Juno.

SUNDAY-From the Romans - meaning "Sun's Day."

So Odin, Thor, Freya and Tiw make up quite a big part of our week in current parlance. Moon and Sun get one each, and Saturn. Old Father Time.

The major periods of the moon are seven days, 1/4 month, long. 

This seven-day period was later regularized and disassociated from the lunar month to become our seven-day week. 

The Greeks named the days week after the sun, the moon and the five known planets, which were in turn named after the gods Ares, Hermes, Zeus, Aphrodite, and Cronus. The Greeks called the days of the week the Theon hemerai "days of the Gods". 
The Romans substituted their equivalent gods for the Greek gods. And the Germanic tradition lives on as above.

What Yellowhammer enjoys with Pantheons, Polytheism and Animism in general is that there's something for everyone, stories to learn from, and link you into the weaves of time....

Edmund Spenser

“I was promised on a time - to have reason for my rhyme; 

From that time unto this season,

                                         I received nor rhyme nor reason”

Edmund Spenser (c. 1552 – 13 January 1599) was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an Epic Poem and fantastical allegory* celebrating the Tudor Dynasty and Elizabeth I.  

He is recognised as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and one of the greatest poets in the English language.  

*Allegory : Symobilic.

The Wiki description above I thought needed no tinkering. 

 

Some pretty lines from his works. 

"Sleep after toil, 

port after stormy seas, 

Ease after war, 

..death after life 

             does greatly please..."

"For take thy balance if thou be so wise 

And weigh the wind that under heaven doth blow; 

Or weigh the light that in the east doth rise; 

Or weigh the thought that from man's mind doth flow."

“The blazing brightnesse of her beauties beame, 

And glorious light of her sunshyny face 

To tell, were as to strive against the streame.”









  

High diving

The Olympic kind and the Wild Diving kind 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JZA7J1clKI

Notice the less surface splash = cleaner accurate entry, plus technique to minimise arm splaying damage by tightening of arms and interlocking hands for entry.

Womens 3m Springboard:

Take off on third bounce.

Yellowhammer took a spring and 5 m high diving 10 week course once. It started at 7.30 Saturday mornings, and therefore it can be verified that high diving most definitely clears the head after a party night. 

Breakfast. 

Snooze.

Elderflowerz

Elderflowers are out - end May through June.

They're delicious, so here's a picture of what to pick :

Yellowhammer's Cauldron Cordial Recipe (for about 1.5l)

20-30 heads of elderflower - depends on size.

1.5 litre water

1kg sugar

1 spoon citric acid

coupla lemons and an orange

Melt the sugar in water, cool slightly and pour over the flowers, chopped and zested lemons and sliced orange.

Add citric acid, stir.

leave for 24+ hours, strain and bottle.

How easy is that ? 

Lots of recipes out there, all slightly varied, but the principle is the same - mix it all up and leave it to infuse the lemony floral sugary goodness.  Citric Acid is from the chemist and means you can preserve it for 6 months, if you cant get any then make sure you drink it before it goes off. It also adds to the lemony vibe.

I would advise not pouring boiling syrup on delicate flowers as they all scold and go brown, be gentle but not too precise about all the measurements.

If you are having guests use the cordial and some gelatine to concoct a fruit laden elderflower jelly - it looks classy and is max taste for min effort.

 

For Elderflower champagne we want the sugar to turn to alcohol, so add a sachet of wine or champagne yeast to the main mix - with more water (again various recipes and order of adding ingredients are out there, you can get away with no yeast if you do not heat the flowers, as they have natural yeast). 

This requires time to ferment, and can be pretty explosive. No one wants sugar syrup on every surface of the kitchen during the insect season, so use plastic water bottles that expand slightly, you can then see when to loosen the top to release excess gas, and avoid glass shards. 

It is still wise to put the bottles in the shed or in a carrier bag.

You could use a demijohn w/airlock, but I think the idea is to contain the bubbles, so if you do this bottle it after a few days when you are confident its not going to go mental. 

Rune Nugget

Runes -150AD - 700AD approx.  Germanic alphabets. 

This is totally lifted from excellent site :  http://runesecrets.com/rune-meanings/ansuz

Where you can find out more about Runes if it grabs you.

One Rune in particular resonates with Yellowhammer.

Ansuz

By Tyriel

“Find your ears before you search for words.”

Ansuz - “Anne – suhz” – Literally: “Woden” – Esoteric: “Breath” or “Ancestral Sovereign God”

Odin’s gifts to the first humans is said to be the breath of life and inspired mental activity, along with form, speech and the cognitive senses. The root energy of this rune triggers inspiration and ecstatic mental states. The ability of our minds to work with patterns is inherent in the energies of Ansuz. 

Thorsson aptly states that Ansuz is the “rune of ancestral sovereign power of the mind consciousness, inspiration, enthusiasm and the power of the use of symbols for transformation of consciousness.”

The spirit takes up its residence in the human body when the babe breathes its first breath. It leaves the body with the last breath. Breath is the actual point of osmosis between the physical world of the human being, and the transpersonal energy that animates the universe. Emphasis on the breath is seen in meditation practices in all traditions. Inspiration means to breathe in the exalting or quickening influence of cosmic awareness. The breath is also connected to ancestry, as even the word spirit comes from the same root as breath. Our ancestral lines are unbroken with those of the gods still to this day, in blood and in breath.

Ansuz is a rune of ordering. Naming a thing properly can give power over that thing, and in ancient traditions, naming has often been used to dispel mischievous spirits, bind demons or break psychological fetters. The relationship also is indicative chaotic events can be used to shape ordered circumstances and one’s own thoughts, or the thoughts of others. 

Ansuz is suggestive of the relentless patterns that modern chaos theory declares are universal in every system. The newest theories of language are also found in the mysterious order and ‘strange attractors’ of chaos linguistics.

It is here that all speech can be deciphered and understood as well, so Ansuz is a rune connected with listening and speech: communication and meaning in general. Use such skills wisely for manipulation can, through temptation, become an end in and of itself, and corrupt the power of the rune. The problems with propaganda and misdirection are that the mind will follow its own words into confusion and create hypocrisy, which will damage the hamingja. Thought and action are most powerful when aligned and honesty is the best policy.