Personally, I consider myself a Germanic Polytheist. With that said I'm very open to incorporating beliefs of other traditions but this is my core path. I came into polytheistic practices just like many other people did, through Wicca, and I've retained the practice of honoring the passing of the seasons through the quarters and cross quarters (although I've abandoned the names and the "God and Goddess" interpretations and I've used simple names like November Eve, Midwinter, February Eve etc)
My interpretation is that the seasons change, causing the energies to change and to align Midgard on a spiritual level with another world. To explain this, I've started with November Eve.
November Eve: I started with this holiday because I felt it was more straight forward to understand which world it was aligned with: Helheim, the realm of the dead. On this day I am called to honor the dead, the ancestors, those who have gone before.
Midwinter: The next world I found Vanaheim. I had to ponder and meditate on this to fully understand this association. The vans, most of us know, are gods of fertility, warmth, creation, birth and growth. It only makes sense to me that the gods of beginnings and new life would be most present at the time of the sun's rebirth and new beginning.
February Eve: Next comes Ljossalfheim, the land of the elves. I only made sense of this when I thought of this day as Candlemas, and made the association with the word "Light Elf", then I had the image of a spirit guide or angel holding a candle, representing something like a guide through the darkness of winter, and the promise of the warmth of summer.
Midspring: Midspring, we all know, has an association with Eostre, and I do believe that she is present at this time, because she is the goddess of dawn and this is the beginning of the annual equivalent to day: spring and summer. I also believe that this holiday aligns us with another world: Niflheim. To me, this is a realm of the dawn. It's also a realm of fertility and growth, carrying the cosmic cow, Audumbla who feeds The Universe with her milk and who sustains herself only on the salty ice of Niflheim.
May Eve: I associate this day with Asgard. The Earth is in the height of springtime and creation and celebration and fertility has been fulfilled, and the gods begin to bring protection to the seed the earth is now pregnant with. They also bring joy and celebration in the time of warmth to come.
Midsummer: This day I believe the earth is aligned with Jotunheim. These beings, I believe, are gods of expansion and elemental and primordial energies, and the sun has reached his height in its expansion, so the giants have reached their greatest power, bringing the raw energy of summer and making Nature explode into heat and warmth.
August Eve: I associate this day with Svartalfheim, the dark elves. The dark elves to me are beings of magic and transformation. They are also the beings of construction, not the same as creation. They take raw material and create it into something else. The raw material brought by the gods is being used and transformed by the dirt and soil, which along with rocks and minerals has an association with dark elves, into the good that is the first harvest. The grain will then be taken and along with yeast be transformed again into bread.
Midautumn. The last realm and holiday there is to address is the day of Muspelheim. Just as Midspring is the day of Audumbla and pure fertility, this is the day of Sut, pure destruction. The earth goes backwards into a state of dormancy, into a darkness, without which there could be no life.
Well that's all of my major spiritual practices all summarized into one entry on a forum, lol. I know most people with disagree with this highly, partly because it's not traditional, and partly because there are cosmological belief differences. This however feels right and reigns true to me. I also feel that this is a practice that our ancestors wouldn't be opposed to. They adopted practices from other traditions all of the time. The practice of naming days of the week after gods first starts in Rome, and we can see this in the remnants of the final day being Saturday, the day to the Roman god Saturn, which was probably associated with a Germanic deity of harvest.
Feel free anyone to give your interpretations of holidays or turning of the seasons.
My interpretation is that the seasons change, causing the energies to change and to align Midgard on a spiritual level with another world. To explain this, I've started with November Eve.
November Eve: I started with this holiday because I felt it was more straight forward to understand which world it was aligned with: Helheim, the realm of the dead. On this day I am called to honor the dead, the ancestors, those who have gone before.
Midwinter: The next world I found Vanaheim. I had to ponder and meditate on this to fully understand this association. The vans, most of us know, are gods of fertility, warmth, creation, birth and growth. It only makes sense to me that the gods of beginnings and new life would be most present at the time of the sun's rebirth and new beginning.
February Eve: Next comes Ljossalfheim, the land of the elves. I only made sense of this when I thought of this day as Candlemas, and made the association with the word "Light Elf", then I had the image of a spirit guide or angel holding a candle, representing something like a guide through the darkness of winter, and the promise of the warmth of summer.
Midspring: Midspring, we all know, has an association with Eostre, and I do believe that she is present at this time, because she is the goddess of dawn and this is the beginning of the annual equivalent to day: spring and summer. I also believe that this holiday aligns us with another world: Niflheim. To me, this is a realm of the dawn. It's also a realm of fertility and growth, carrying the cosmic cow, Audumbla who feeds The Universe with her milk and who sustains herself only on the salty ice of Niflheim.
May Eve: I associate this day with Asgard. The Earth is in the height of springtime and creation and celebration and fertility has been fulfilled, and the gods begin to bring protection to the seed the earth is now pregnant with. They also bring joy and celebration in the time of warmth to come.
Midsummer: This day I believe the earth is aligned with Jotunheim. These beings, I believe, are gods of expansion and elemental and primordial energies, and the sun has reached his height in its expansion, so the giants have reached their greatest power, bringing the raw energy of summer and making Nature explode into heat and warmth.
August Eve: I associate this day with Svartalfheim, the dark elves. The dark elves to me are beings of magic and transformation. They are also the beings of construction, not the same as creation. They take raw material and create it into something else. The raw material brought by the gods is being used and transformed by the dirt and soil, which along with rocks and minerals has an association with dark elves, into the good that is the first harvest. The grain will then be taken and along with yeast be transformed again into bread.
Midautumn. The last realm and holiday there is to address is the day of Muspelheim. Just as Midspring is the day of Audumbla and pure fertility, this is the day of Sut, pure destruction. The earth goes backwards into a state of dormancy, into a darkness, without which there could be no life.
Well that's all of my major spiritual practices all summarized into one entry on a forum, lol. I know most people with disagree with this highly, partly because it's not traditional, and partly because there are cosmological belief differences. This however feels right and reigns true to me. I also feel that this is a practice that our ancestors wouldn't be opposed to. They adopted practices from other traditions all of the time. The practice of naming days of the week after gods first starts in Rome, and we can see this in the remnants of the final day being Saturday, the day to the Roman god Saturn, which was probably associated with a Germanic deity of harvest.
Feel free anyone to give your interpretations of holidays or turning of the seasons.
