Ancestors – A little inspiration

So before everything started getting expensive and time consuming here, I was originally planning on starting to do some ancestor work (or at least attempt). I mean this is the perfect time to do it. Then I got distracted. A blog over yonder got me started on it again. I really like the Dyslexic Witch’s stuff. Go check her out.

Anywho.

Ancestor shrine! Duh.

A little background on me.

As I’ve mentioned before, my real life last name is Norris. Means “from the North”. Obviously a tie to my Norse heritage. From my father’s side it is mostly Welsh (which that traces back if you dig deep enough to Scandinavian ancestry) and Cherokee. Then on my mother’s side Cherokee, Irish and German.

There is a book that has completely disappeared (to my dismay) on my father’s side of the family (Norris). On the cover of it was a Viking long ship. I was able to get a few little tidbits from those who have seen the book. Apparently a whole branch of my family tree disappears in Salem (yea, that Salem), Sir Henry Norris (Charles Henry Norris is a big name in my family, the name of both my grandfather and my father) is an ancestor of mine. He was a friend of Anne Boleyn, and one of the ones accused of having an affair with her and was executed because of this. That is about all I got. Not sure how it all fits together which is rather frustrating.

And I know even less about my mother’s side of the family. Really only that my grandfather on my mother’s side was a full blood Cherokee.

So plan on using as many pictures of grandparents and such as I can find, and symbols of the origins of my family. Means research time for me!

If anyone has any suggestions on cheap ways (incredibly limited on money) I can find out more about both sides of my family will be much appreciated.

The plan is, to do a series on this. As y’all might have noticed already every time I attempt a series it goes in the crapper for one reason or another, so we shall see what happens.

Until next time loves!

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Yearning

I think the people in my life are sick of hearing me say how much I can’t wait for summer to be over and fall to begin.

Have I mentioned Autumn is my favorite season?

I feel an almost homesickness type yearning for fall. Like it is the place I truly belong, but it’s a season not an actual place so it is a rather complicated feeling.

I just love everything about the fall.

The colors.

The smell in the air.

The sound of the crunching leaves.

The weather, I love jacket weather.

Halloween, because what is there not to love about Halloween?

Pumpkin flavored everything (yes, I am one of those people).

Just the feel to the season.

You know that warm fuzzy feeling people get around Christmas time? That the same way I feel that way about Autumn and Halloween. Not to mention my style works better in the cooler weather. I am not a summer girl (despite my birthday being smack in the middle of summer), I don’t do well with heat. Not to mention I don’t like warm weather clothes. I don’t do sleeveless shirts (without some sort of jacket over) and shorts. I just don’t like the way they look on me.

Plus, usually starting in October is when new episodes of my shows come on. The list has been growing. First and foremost, Supernatural, then (in no particular order) Flash, Arrow, Reign, American Horror Story, Gotham, and Originals. I used to watch Witches of East End, but unfortunately Lifetime cancelled it. It was one of my favorite shows.

But in Autumn I actually go out more. One of my favorite things to do is going to the park, but when it is hot, well screw that. Also going to be taking more trips to Old St. Charles. This is where the Celtic store and one of the only metaphysical shops I’ve been able to find is at. It’s nicer to go when you don’t have to walk around in the heat. I really love it up there, despite the almost hour drive it takes to get there.

The only good things about summer is swimming, Irish Fest and the Renaissance Faire. I wish they didn’t have those events in the summer, but I have no way of doing anything about that.

I just can’t wait until this heat passes.

In the meantime, I’m trying to do some studying up on The Wild Hunt. That’s what I do, research.

What you Tolkien about?

Happy Friday!

So tomorrow J and I are going to the movies. We are going to go see The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies. I’m super excited. I am a huge Tolkien fan. I have a replica of Arwen’s Evenstar necklace.

 This outing could possibly end up meaning a lot or nothing, in the context of the non-relationship between J and I. It’s apparently already been established that he is paying for this particular outing, so it’s starting to feel like it might possibly be a date. I don’t know. Maybe I’m looking too much into it. He told me he’s paying because I paid for us to get some dinner a couple weeks ago (something he wasn’t particularly happy about. I just told him too bad. Don’t let me drive next time ha ha ha!).

I’ve been a huge fan of the Lord of the Rings since the very first one came out. Lots of connections I hadn’t made at the time are coming to light. As I’ve said before, research is my thing. If I like it, I research it. The inspirations for the stories are incredibly interesting.

Tolkien was a Catholic, but he wanted to create a mythology for England. He took inspiration more heavily from Nordic Religion, partly from Catholicism and some from the Industrial Revelation.

Gandalf (who doesn’t love Gandalf) is fashioned after the Odin in his guise as the wanderer, typically shown as an older man with grey hair and beard, staff, and wearing a pointed hat. The only way he could have made it any more obvious was if he had Gandalf missing an eye. You have the elves and dwarves, taken straight from the Nordic religion. The land in the LotR series is call Middle Earth. In the Nordic tradition, the land where humans dwell is called Midgard which mean (bingo!) Middle Earth. Éowyn of Rohan is referred to as a Shield Maiden.

Éowyn plays a bit of a role in the connection to the Catholicism that appears in the stories, though it is very well hidden. In one of my favorite scenes when Aragorn is attempting to talk her out of riding into battle, he asked her what she feared. Her reply was “A cage,” and it went on. Meaning she didn’t want to be held back by marriage. To have a man rule over her, preventing her from being able to be free an fight for who she loves and what she believes in. At the end of the trilogy when Aragorn is named kind and she gets married. It becomes the age of man. This is a big reference to the difference between pre and post conversion to Christianity, usually Catholicism (I am still yet to see why people see a difference. It’s all Christian to me). The age of man. The elves left the realm. When the magical ends and mundane begins. Kind of sad to me. Almost a perfect metaphor for the conversion. The men in Middle Earth were called greedy and power hungry. They are the ones that

The industrial revolution comes into play with Orcs. Yup, that’s right. Remember all those trees that they were ripping, the dam that they built. Doesn’t look familiar at all? Tolkien obviously was not fond of the Industrial revolution because of what it was doing to nature. I can’t necessarily blame him.

I just have so much love for these stories. The fact that he created whole languages just boggles my mind. I write some fiction too but I don’t think in a million years I’d be able to create a language like he did for the Elves.

Super stoked for tomorrow! Plus I’m giving J and his daughter their Christmas presents. I got J Batman license plate frames and a knife that has wolves painted on the blade and an antler stand with wolves carved into it. He was my most expensive this year. His daughter I got a talking Olaf and a Batgirl purse with matching pony tail holder that has a bow attached with the batman symbol. Pretty excited to see the reaction.

Thor – the Thunderer certainly knows how to make an impression

This is the closest image I can find to how he appears to me. Very rugged almost biker type. Maybe he knows that’s my type?

The first post on the specifics on the relationships I have with the Gods that have come into my life so far.

 

As I said before, Mr. Red Beard decided to bust into my dreams. The way he did so is a bit *ahem* personal (in other words it’s of a sexual nature and I don’t share). It was sort of a confusing time. I was just becoming interested in Heathenry and certainly wasn’t expecting a God to pop into my dreams. Certainly was something I had to think about for a while. Not really at first realizing that it was him putting his hammer down and staking claim on me.

 

At first I thought it was a message, which had me thinking about it ALL. THE. TIME. It was nerve racking trying to figure out what the message meant, and the Thunderer was nowhere to be found, taking a step back to let me figure it out on my own.

It took forever (felt like forever, realistically a week), finally I decided instead of just thinking about it I should research (research is my middle name, if it interests me best believe I researched it) and BAM! Found several blogs about Godspouses. It started making sense and then, what do you know, Thor showed up again. I made it clear to him I had no interest in being a Godspouse. He gave that deep warm laugh.

 

It’s a sort of complicated situation. Like teacher and student, friends, and occasional lovers. He isn’t around all the time, simply because I don’t need him to be. He will pop in and out, just doing some work with me or sometimes simply hanging out. Trying to work on my emotional strength, and my temper (he would be the expert considering the fiery temper he has) mostly. Working a bit on my self-esteem as well.

Apparently I amuse him, and he likes to call me his “Little Wolf”. I hear that hearty, chesty deep laugh a lot when he is around me. He likes that I have spunk and apparently enjoys my spazyness? It’s been interesting.

I’ll post updates as they occur.