ISSUE 1

Articles Available Online:

• Feeding Our Roots ~ EditorialAs soon as you name something you destroy part of it's vital essence. That being said, words have power and are useful for communicating ideas. For all practical purposes, we call ourselves Heathens, meaning we honor the beliefs and practices of Pre-Christian Europe.
• Days of the WeekI have been thinking about the days of the week. In Western cultures, the week commonly consists of five weekdays and two days of weekend. The Germanic gods, runes, and myths have left their traces in the very names of the days. This tells something of their enduring, Hidden power.
• Kitchen Medicine & MagicIn each issue, this column will explore commonplace medicinal/magical foods & tools in our 21st-century kitchens—many of the very same resources found at heathen hearths a thousand years ago. By investigating history, Norse sagas, and other folklore, we hope to rediscover some of the lost ancestral knowledge and power in our own kitchens. This section hopes to deepen our spiritual connections to, and enhance ritual workings of, Heathenry as a folk religion as well. Our premier article introduces three elements found in both cooking and creation lore, with ideas for their use in your spring rituals—fire, water, and salt.
• The HexPoem by William J. Meter
• Whey-fermented SalsaSalsa is a great way to preserve the summer’s bumper tomato crop. But you may also use this recipe as an outline for ‘putting up’ vegetables as condiments in general.
• Whey and Cream CheeseThis simple recipe will not only give you cream cheese (plain or add fresh/dried herbs, green onions, fruit—the options are endless) but also whey for soaking grains and legumes, in addition to fermenting vegetables and fruits.
• win your woman backThis dish is of the same ilk as warm potato salad. It’s easy to make and great for a cool summer night after the cucumbers start going crazy in the garden.
• Aunt Hannah’s Lebkuchen This traditional cake recipe was taken from the: Pennsylvania Dutch Cookbook, Culinary Arts Press, Reading, PA
• Gravlax—Dry Curing FishGravlax (pronounced “grov-lox”) is taken from the Swedish name for this dish. Norwegians also call it Gravlax and the Danish refer to it as Gravad laks. It literally means “buried salmon” and the name refers to the traditional method of preparation for this food: fresh salmon was heavly salted and buried in dry sand to ferment and cure.
• Artwork Issue 1

Articles Only in the Printed Publication / PDF:

• Birth!A collection of various personal narratives about birth.
• HarvestmanHaunted by the voices of generations past, Steve Von Till’s delicate and intense songs have the rare ability to speak for one while they speak for us all. The music is simultaneously universal and personal—with each exposed nerve of the artist’s life, it demands that we reveal the same.

  Conversation with Steve Von Till conducted by Cody Dickerson.

• Reclaiming Our BirthrightSally Fallon’s obsession with traditional nutrition started with motherhood and a love of cooking. In researching the healthiest way to feed her family, she discovered the writings of Dr. Weston Price. This information became a powerful weapon against the dangerous crusade for a low-fat diet, which is especially harmful for growing children, Fallon teamed up with Dr. Mary Enig and went on to write Nourishing Traditions, the cookbook that recalls “the culinary customs of our ancestors.” In 1999, with the publication of the 2nd edition, The Weston Price Foundation was established to further spread the word on our birthright of “physical perfection and vibrant health.”

  Conversation with Sally Fallon conducted by A von Rautmann.

• The Allure of BrisingamenThroughout Norse mythology there are references to the Goddess Freyja, famed for her beauty and for her possession of the mighty necklace called Brísingamen. The necklace was forged by four dwarves and acquired by Freyja in exchange for sexual favors. While many modern texts refer to this mysterious piece of jewelry, few provide any information as to its function or significance. For that reason, this item has held great interest for me. I have considered the relevance of this piece of jewelry for several years, and this article represents the culmination of my studies. The Brísingamen is mentioned infrequently throughout the older texts, but when it is, there are clues as to its character. Coupled with what we know about Freyja and the lore that surrounds her, we will investigate this mystery through translations of old texts and examine the significance of the Brísingamen to its divine owner, the goddess Freyja.

  Article by Alison Grandmason a.k.a. Swanhilde.

• Weißt Du Zu Ritzen?Do you know how to Carve/Scribe/Write?The German title Weißt du zu Ritzen? originates in the “Hávamál” of the Poetic Edda, strophe 14. It translates as “Do you know how to write/carve?” Here, Óthin asks eight questions regarding the proper magical use of runes (Old Norse Rûna, or mystery), and illustrates the extremely archaic use of written arrangements in Germanic magic. It also appears here in a variant of Fraktur, a blackletter typeface popular among the Pennsylvania Germans for use in important documents such birth, marriage and death certificates.

  Article by Cody Dickerson.

• In the Garden ~ An Artist’s Lore of PlantsWhat plants contribute to our world is something beyond measure, or even description. It is common to view plants as nonentities separate and less important than ourselves, without comprehending that their existence is the keystone of our own. Their minute alchemy transforms inorganic matter into something we can ingest, transforms carbon dioxide into something we can inhale. In the web of life on Earth, plants provide the most significant strands.My painting, In the Garden, is my love-letter to Kingdom Plantae. Surrounding us are plants with myriad and marvelous properties, each unique species able to fulfill some different exigency of our bodies or spirits. They feed us, shelter us, clothe us, heal us, intoxicate us, and delight us with their beauty and fragrance. Abstractly, they decorate our temples and bodies, inspire our myths, and give us comfort with their very beings.The style of In the Garden is inspired by the tapestries of medieval Europe, a period in which the divide between medicine, botany, and art did not yet so clearly exist. Looking at these tapestries, so richly embellished with botanical images, one is amazed at how carefully the plants are depicted—individual species are readily discernible. An astounding amount of toil is required for such detailed weaving. Because of this source of inspiration, and my interest in the medieval era in general, I thought it would be interesting to explain what some of the plants I selected for the painting meant—their symbolism, usage, folklore, and history. With one or two exceptions, the plants in the painting were familiar to medieval Europeans, and can be easily found in art from that era. This article will be continued in Fall 2008 (Hex Issue 2).

  Article by Madeline Von Foerster.

• Norse Shamanism ~ Another PerspectiveThe purpose of this article is to proffer an in-depth perspective on the relationship between Óðinn and Heimdallr, within the general framework of the term ‘hypostatic’ which will be defined in due course. In addition to shedding more light on the fragmentary remains of the Heimdallr myth, it will also be shown that the ancient Germanic religio-magical initiatory tradition contains many parallels to the north Asiatic shamanistic traditions, the Soma rituals of the Vedic tradition, and various other Indo-European traditions. Although this is not a study on the origins of technique or religious views, it is interesting to note the following by Prof. Jere Fleck of Maryland U.: “It seems far more likely that such parallelism is due to Germanic preservation of inherited tradition on the one hand, and central and north Asiatic borrowing from, or via Iran on the other.”In order to show the relationship between these two Norse gods we need to begin with a general view of shamanic and Germanic cosmology and how they relate to each other. The Vedic traditions of India, and their ‘cousins’ the Persians, will also be examined as they preserved the oldest texts and concepts of our eastern Indo-European brothers. And while what is being offered is not the final word on the subject, it will nonetheless provide an intellectual ‘spring-board’ whereby subjects like this can be further investigated.

  Article by Valúlfr Vaerulsson.

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