A Grove of Ashes and Aspens

  • So What Am I Doing Now?

    Now Playing: Rapture by Elvenking So it’s October, and the first month of the new academic year has come and gone here in Canada. But what does that mean for me? Well, a couple of things. I’m taking a year or so off from university (it’s complicated), and instead going to a college here in…

  • Deities and their Genders: Hard Mythic Truth, or Something More?

    Now Playing: The Ghosting by Elvenking So as a baseline, most pagans will generally agree that gender is weird. I mean, just look at the average pagan gathering, each one I’ve ever seen has been two berries short of a fruit basket. But what does that actually mean in terms of our experiences and UPGs…

  • Reading the Runes: Pagan Storytelling in a Christian World

    Now Playing: Reader of the Runes – Book II by Elvenking Stories have been a part of human culture since time immemorial, and nowhere is that more clear than in the realm of religion. Every religion has their own stories, telling of both gods and mortal heroes, as they attempt to make sense of the…

  • The End of a Trilogy: Reader of the Runes – Luna

    Now Playing: Luna by Elvenking Ok, so quick preface, I have already listened to the three singles an unholy number of times before the album dropped, and this is being written after listening to the album all the way through about a dozen times. (I’m just like that, and the album is just that worth…

  • Oaths and Pagan Paths

    Now Playing: Noldor (Dead Winter Reigns) – Remastered 2007 by Blind Guardian Oaths are a concept that are at least loosely known to the general population, especially if they’re in any way familiar with the concept of paladins in TTRPGs and various other fantasy media. (You know, those youth camp counselor types who swear an…

  • Language and People: The Constraints of Society Made Manifest

    Now Playing: Gone Epoch by Elvenking Humans trying to put things in near little boxes is nothing new; we’ve been doing it for centuries and we continue to do it to this day. In some cases, this does help us understand the world in some capacity. However. It’s so rare that anything can fully ever…

  • Faith is Complicated: Being a Pagan in a Christian Society

    Now Playing: The Repentant by Elvenking So personal religiosity is complicated. What it means to each person will be different, and how each person goes about it will be different. But if that’s true, why am I only bringing it up now? I’ve brought up other heavy topics on here before. Recently, I was asked…

  • Pagan Invocations in Metal

    Now Playing: A Prayer to Cernunnos by Elvenking As has been previously discussed here, metal can be deeply spiritual. (Yes, I know this applies to music in general, but I’m trying to make a point here.) But does that extend to making actual prayer a part of metal? I argue that yes, it does. Let…

  • Pagan Metal: Music Getting Unexpectedly Spiritual

    Now Playing: Moonchariot by Elvenking Spirituality is nothing new in the realm of music, not by a long shot. (See the Church controlling the composing and production of music for centuries across history for examples of this.) Where it becomes interesting is within the realm of modern pagan music and especially within the realm of…

  • Arts and Paganism: How to Connect with the Divine through Creation

    Now Playing: The Wolves Will Be Howling Your Name by Elvenking So I’m a Germanic polytheist and, in more recent times, a Lokean. This means that I follow a (loosely) reconstructed version of the religion from northern Europe, and that I specifically work with the deity Loki. On the surface, this has little to do…