Culture
A Heathen in Church
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As a professional musician, I’m brought right into the heart of the service on the holiest of holidays. It’s a great vantage point to learn about things I would never otherwise be exposed to.
The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/tag/church)
As a professional musician, I’m brought right into the heart of the service on the holiest of holidays. It’s a great vantage point to learn about things I would never otherwise be exposed to.
Exhausted, sweaty, and painfully hungry, I take my back into the gravel road of what must be Sōdra Ugglarp. On the horizon a long earthen-colored brick building stands against the deep blue sky, like a wall. In front of it, I notice a concrete-pit filled with horse manure. Closest to me, nearly as long as the barn, lies the stone ship, shaped by dozens of massive standing stones, like teeth of a giant rising from the green earth.
After all, isn’t contemporary Paganism somewhat akin to this very church? A relic from ages past that fell or nearly fell out of used, only to be rediscovered and refitted in order to conform to both the needs of a new age, and the idea we modern men have of a sacred past?
As my wife takes our daughter to bed for a well-deserved nap, Hanne takes her bicycle out of the shed, hands me the map, a helmet, and a bottle of water. In less time than it takes to recite the runes of the elder futhark, I am out adventuring.
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