Anointing

 

Godi places evergreen sprig in blessing bowl and sprinkles the altar.  Walking sunwise around the circle, Godi anoints each of the celebrants with mead saying:

 

I give you the blessings of Sif.

 

Godi returns to altar and takes up the gandr.  Godi assumes Elhaz position, faces the circle and speaks:

 

Goddess Frigga!

You, who are the natural mother

Of all things,

Mistress and Governess

Of all the elements,

The initial progeny of Midgard,

Chief of the powers divine,

Queen of our folk,

Principle of the High Gods

That dwell in Asgard,

Essence of nature –

Hear us now as we give tribute

For this season’s bounty!

 

 

First Reading

 

Attendant reads:

 

The horse was a sacred animal among our ancestors from the first moment of their appearance in history. Tacitus has related how in the shade of those woods and groves which served them for temples, white horses were fed at the public cost, which whose backs no mortal man crossed, whose neighings and snortings were carefully watched as auguries and omens, and who were thought to be conscious of divine mysteries.  In Persia, too, the classical reader will remember how the neighing of a horse decided the choice for the crown.  In England, we have only to think of Hengist and Horse, the twin heroes of the Anglo-Saxon migration, as the legend ran, - Heroes whose name meant horse – and the value of the White Horse in Berks, where the sacred form still gleams along the down, to be reminded of the horse of our forefathers.

 

The Eddas are filled with the names of famous horses, and the Sagas contain many stories of good steeds in whom their owners trusted and believed as sacred to this of that particular God.  Such a horse is Dapplegrim, who saves his master out of all his perils and brings him to all fortune, and is another example of that mysteries connection with the higher powers which animals in all ages have been supposed to possess.

The festival of Frey Faxi has its origins in the root of Icelandic & Scandinavian harvest celebrations held traditionally in the month of August.

It is a day of rejoicing the earth’s offerings of bountiful grains, the baking of bread and the spirit of the diligent work ethic.

 

“Frey Faxi” or “Frey’s Mane” lends to the symbolic characteristics of the archetypical gods Frey and the various representative qualities of the horse, known as Frey Faxi.  In the story of Hrafinkel of long ago, it was told that Hrafinkel loved no other God more than Frey, and gave to him joint possession with himself all his most valuable things.  Among these was a horse, which on that account bore the name Frey Faxi.  Another Frey Faxi belonged to Brand in Vatnsdal, and it is told that he had a high religious reverence for the horse.  Horses owned by Frey are also mentioned as existing in Thandheim in the days of Olaf Tryggvason, about 996 c.e.

 

Customary horse fighting developed over time during the Frey Faxi gatherings among Icelanders and, as evidence reveals, among Scandinavians as well.

The modern domesticated horse is of Indo-European origin, arriving in Europe and the Near East as part of the vast migration westward.

The horse has had specific associations with these nomadic warriors and yeomen alike, and was often symbolic with the sun, one of the major powers of life.

 

Second Attendant reads:

 

In Northern Euro mythology Dag, the Teutonic God of Day, was transported through the havens by the white steed ‘Shining Mane’, which spread his light across the whole living world.  The Moon Goddess Mani was drawn by the steed Alsvidur, ‘The All-Swift’.  Odin’s eight legged horse was named Sleipnir. Gull-Faxi, the golden maned, belonged to the giant Hrungnir; Skin-Faxi, the glittering maned, was the horse of the day - Brim Faxi, dewy maned, that of night.  Roland’s horse is said to still live in the Ardenne’s forest where it is heard neighing each year on John’s Day, Midsummer Day.

 

Sometimes the heavens would be agitated into a fury of terrifying commotion, as if an army was marching through the clouds.  Out of this was born the legend of the Wildes Heer – the Wild Hunt – the Allfather Huntsman Odin with his mighty horse Sleipnir and baying wolves searching for warrior kinsman for the Wild Hunt.

Horses were sometimes sacrificed in ancient societies, for a horse was considered a most precious possession which accorded this dreadful honor.  In the festival held in Uppsala, horses as incarnations of Frey or Odin were suspended in a consecrated grave, according to Sanskrit tales.

 

In some tribes the horse sacrifice was important as a means to symbolically preserve the king’s ebbing vitality in old age.  The horse is also a symbol of fertility.

The horse, as an image, remains deeply imbedded in the tradition and fabric of Asatru.  The giant who built the citadel in Asgard was helped by his stallion Svadifari.  Loki was known to have turned himself into a mare to attract Svadifari.  Loki as a mare gave birth to Sleipnir, Odin’s eight legged steed, the best of horses.  The God Heimdall owned a steed named Gulltop, Gold-topped.

 

The horse was a frequent sacrificial animal, and its head would be fastened to a tree or stake, known as the Nidhing Pole – the Pole of Scorn.  The horse head was propped up with wood and was pointed in the direction whence an enemy, whom one wished to do harm, had to come.

It is worth noting that it was a long ancestral tradition for farmers’ houses to have carved horses’ heads on their gables.  It is regarded as mere decoration today, but this custom has old roots.  With the horse head’s gaze directed outwards, it was believed that misfortune would be kept away from the house.  As a supreme symbol of the victorious, the horse looms large in the Rig Veda and many Gods are referred to as horses.

 

Attendant rumbles on a drum, while two attendants carry simulated wooden horse heads into the circle.

 

Drums stops and challenge is made between the Dark Horse and the Light Horse.

 

Dark Horse speaks:

 

Your Golden Nag is getting old, his mane is turning grey.  You cannot beat me now!

 

Light Horse speaks:

 

My stallion is at the full of his strength.  Your mangy black colt cannot stand up to him – Come and try!

 

Drum beats change to slower meter…

(boom-boom-click, boom-boom-click)

 

Drum beats faster meter…

(boom-click, boom-boom-click)

 

Horses lunge at each other with heads threatening and menacing.

Light Horse finally overcomes Dark Horse.

Light Horse holds Dark Horse in dominant position and speaks:

 

The golden stallion is still King – Fair days for the harvest to come!

 

Drum rumbles until horses are returned to the altar.

 

Godi hands penny to each celebrant and speaks:

 

Now unto the wells be worship given,

From which holy waters flow,

And unto the springs whence sprouts all that grows

And to the wights within –

 

Godi ties red ribbon around wishing bowl.

Godi speaks:

 

Deep in the water are wisdom’s roots,

And Mimir sleeps within.

Cast for blessing the coin in your hand,

And think on what means most to thee –

Each celebrant drops a penny into the bowl and makes a wish,

 

Godi speaks:

 

Hail to the Gods!

Hail to the Aesir and Vanir!

Hail to Nature’s giving abundance!

 

Godi empties blessing bowl into wishing bowl with pennies and the biscuits, also.

 

Closing

 

Godi speaks:

 

Spirits of Asgard we thank you for your presence here in this circle.  We ask for your blessing and while you depart to your noble realm we bid you hail and farewell.  I hereby release any Spirits that may have been imprisoned by this ceremony.  Depart now in peace to your abodes and habitations.  The blót is now ended, let the sumbel begin.