Feeling like Thor's been pulling for me

[vaguelyhumanoid]

Hey heathens, it's anecdote time.

So it's been a really hot summer in Seattle. An ungodly hot, sticky summer by the standards of my beloved city. It's been 90+ degrees in June, with little rain - the lakes have been going down a lot in water level. I care deeply about ecology and it was depressing and worrying to me how... changed the climate has been. Last week the temperature finally started dropping - on Friday it began to thunder, but only briefly. When it stopped I was looking up at the ceiling and saying "that was great, I wish it would stay like that all day". Maybe 15 minutes later, guess what happened! It was a fearsome storm all day, with thunder, lightning and pouring rain. And it lasted for hours. Thunderstorms are usually pretty fleeting in Seattle, so that's pretty special. By the end of the day, there were raging rapids in the small creek in my yard.

The next day, I was to go to a music festival that I was really excited about. The sky was grey in a similar manner as before; I'd been talking with my mom about how we hoped it wouldn't storm that day. Along the way in the car, I yelled out of the car window something along the lines of "please hold back for today, okay Þor?" A couple hours after I got there, it started raining - and then stopped after like 15 minutes of a light drizzle. Just cool, pleasant overcast weather all day. It's probably totally coincidental, but still felt like Thor's been pulling for me.

Great job, Þor!

 

[peanutbutter63]

Thor was my favourite God back then, and it was also him I called to whenever I divined with the (elder futhark) runes...not Odin or any of the others, or other supernatural beings. It was also not Odin I referred to as All-Father, but Thor...

 

[vaguelyhumanoid]

Oðin is likely my patron deity. Reading about him sparked my recent intense interest in Heathenry. His endless pursuit of knowledge and personal growth, his gifts of writing and poetry, his sage advice on living honorably, and especially the way he encompasses both masculine and feminine spiritual paths. However, Þor has grown on me immensely. When I first read about him, I thought of him as a honorable yet hidebound bro god - a respectable guy, but no one I could relate to. But then I looked further into his personality and social role - he was the protector of commoners, the friend of humankind. This gave me a whole new perspective, and combined with the comfort and awe I've found in thunderstorms since childhood I've developed a lot of admiration and affection for Þor. I view him as the embodiment of a down to earth, honest guy, without Tyr's aristocratic focus or Oðin's aloofness and sorrow (let alone the utter capriciousness of Loki). Basically he's the friendliest Æsir god.

 

[Riverwolf]

I live in California. Summer. Drought. Heat... heat... heat... Okay, I live about 30 miles inland from San Francisco (give or take) so it's not like down in LA, but still.

This morning, the sky was overcast. All I could think of was that I wanted to come up with some kind of way of praising Thunor. Perhaps a chant set to the tune of Song of Storms from Ocarina of Time?

Thundergod, Thundergod
Ride Thy horse across the sky
Goldhair waits for Thee
And thus, so do we.

I'll work on it.

(Goldhair is another name I came up with for Sif, since that's the only feature about her that I'm aware of that survived.)

 

[vaguelyhumanoid]

That's really cool, Riverwolf! I made an alliterative poem myself:

"Rainstorms are rare, and lightning seldom seen

sounding across stormy Seattle skies.

I think of Thor with thanks on this thundering day,

as the clouds thrum and hum."

It would be very interesting to look for heathen themes and influences in Legend of Zelda. I've been playing Dark Souls a lot lately and it has an interesting mix of heathen and Buddhist themes. It strikes me as the ultimate fusion of

(btw I have a Casio that I play Zelda ocarina songs on often; the flute tone with reverb and vibrato is *exactly* the Ocarina)

 

[Riverwolf]

Well, Sun has burnt away all the clouds, leaving just the haze from the fires.

That's really cool, Riverwolf! I made an alliterative poem myself:

"Rainstorms are rare, and lightning seldom seen

sounding across stormy Seattle skies.

I think of Thor with thanks on this thundering day,

as the clouds thrum and hum."

It would be very interesting to look for heathen themes and influences in Legend of Zelda. I've been playing Dark Souls a lot lately and it has an interesting mix of heathen and Buddhist themes. It strikes me as the ultimate fusion of

(btw I have a Casio that I play Zelda ocarina songs on often; the flute tone with reverb and vibrato is *exactly* the Ocarina)

Not too bad verse there.

Talking about Heathen themes as they appear in video games, particularly those that take place in some kind of European high fantasy setting, would be pretty interesting for another thread. Heck, I cite the release of Skyrim as being pretty much the starting point for my journey into Heathenry.