The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/author/karl/page/11)
Karl E. H. Seigfried is a Theology and Religious History Faculty at Cherry Hill Seminary, Adjunct Professor in Humanities at Illinois Institute of Technology, and goði (priest) of Thor's Oak Kindred. In addition to his award-winning website, The Norse Mythology Blog, he has written for the BBC, the International Journal of Indic Religions, Journal of the Oriental Institute, Newberry Library Digital Collections for the Classroom, Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue Series, Religion News Association's Religion Stylebook, Routledge Inform Series on Minority Religions and Spiritual Movements, Sightings of the Martin Marty Center for the Advanced Study of Religion, and many others. He has degrees in literature, music, and religion, and he is the first Ásatrú practitioner to hold a graduate degree from the University of Chicago Divinity School.
Does the value of religiosity as response end at the line of the sacred circle drawn by practitioners, or does it truly make a difference outside of that circle? Beyond therapeutic effects for the practitioners themselves, are we just doing a form of that most ineffective and overly online form of religiosity in the face of violence and horror, the sending of “thoughts and prayers”?
As painful as Joe Pepitone’s story is to read, it can be a meaningful learning experience for the wider Pagan community – especially for those of us who serve in the clergy or other leadership roles.
“In sports, music, and martial arts, the unbinding of the mind as it focuses upon a specific task is paired with a shutting down of other mental faculties. Senses are simply turned off in a subjectively very real way. Linear thinking evaporates as the Odinnic moment expands.
“Rather than mindfulness, this is a process of unmindfulness.”
“The earth rotates around an axis drawn from the south pole, through the planet, out the north pole, and up to the pole star. With a bit of imagination, diagrams of this world axis show a trunk with roots in the earth and the pole star at the top of the leader. Old Icelandic poetry tells us of the mighty measuring tree. The growth and life of this tree parallel the growth and life of this world, and none know where to find the beginning point of its roots.”
In a special Yuletide offering, Karl Seigfried addresses the god Odin, giving thanks for his gifts at Midwinter.