Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Wights and Ancestors Heathenism in a Living Landscape by Jenny Blain Further Reading. The recommendation or listing of any book within the web pages does not imply that it reflects the views or policies of The Pagan Federation. The Phoenix from the Flame: in the New Age Vivianne Crowley Other Vivianne Crowley books. A History of Pagan Europe Prudence Jones, Nigel Pennick. Paganism: An Introduction to Earth-centered Religions River Higginbotham. The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy Ronald Hutton Other Ronald Hutton books. In Search of Herne the Hunter Eric Fitch. Rites of Passage Christine Hall. Pagan Paths: A Guide to , , Asatru, and Other Pagan Practices Pete Jennings. Pagan Dawn Journal of The Pagan Federation. The Elements of the Druid Tradition (Elements of … S.) Phillip Carr-Gomm. Druid Mysteries: Ancient Mysteries for the 21st Century Phillip Carr-Gomm. Druidcraft: The Magic of Wicca and Druidry Phillip Carr-Gomm. Druidry (Thorsons First Directions S.) Emma Restall-Orr. Druid Priestess Emma Restall-Orr. The Trials of Arthur: The Life and Times of a Modern-day King Arthur Pendragon. Seeking Spirit: A Quest Through Druidry and the Four Elements Sandra Parson. The Penguin Book of Norse Myths: Gods of the Vikings Kevin Crossley-Holland. Gods and Myths of Northern Europe Hilda R Ellis Davidson. Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe Hilda R Ellis Davidson. Dictionary of Northern Mythology Rudolf Simek. Wights and Ancestors: Heathenism in a Living Landscape (Understanding Heathenism S.) Jenny Blain. Nine Worlds of Seid-Magic: Ecstasy and Neo-Shamanism in North European Paganism Jenny Blain. The Prose Edda (Penguin Classics) Snorri Sturluson. The Way of Wyrd Brian Bates. Shamanism (Piatkus Guides) Gordon MacLellan. Talking to the Earth Gordon MacLellan. Sacred Animals Gordon MacLellan. The Celtic Shaman: A Practical Guide John Matthews. Singing the Soul Back Home: Shamanism in Daily Life Caitlin Matthews. Explore Shamanism Alby Stone. Chosen by the Spirit: Following Your Shamanic Calling Sarangerel. The Great Circle: Shamanism and the Psychology of C.G. Jung Robert E Ryan. Shamanic Experience: A Practical Guide to Contemporary Shamanism Kenneth Meadows. Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy (Bollingen Series (General)) Mircea Eilade. Shamans/Neo-Shamans: Ecstasies, Alternative Archaeologies and Contemporary Pagans Robert J Wallis. Thorsons Way of Shamanism Leo Rutherford. Shamans: Siberian Spirituality and the Western Imagination Ronald Hutton. Hedge Witch: Guide to Solitary Witchcraft Rae Beth. The Hedge Witch’s Way: Magical Spirituality for the Lone Spellcaster Rae Beth. A Witch Alone: Thirteen Moons to Master Natural Magic Marian Green. Practical Magic Marian Green. Wild Witchcraft: A Guide to Natural, Herbal and Earth Magic Marian Green. The Gentle Arts of Natural Magic: Magical Techniques to Help You Master the Crafts of the Wise Marian Green. The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft Ronald Hutton. Witches: An Encyclopedia of Paganism and Magic Michael Jordan. An ABC of Witchcraft Past and Present Doreen Valiente. Witchcraft for Tomorrow Doreen Valiente. Charge of the Goddess: The Mother of Modern Witchcraft Doreen Valiente. Wildwitch: The Craft of the Natural Psychic Poppy Palin. Wicca: Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America Today Margot Adler. Wicca: A Comprehensive Guide to the Old Religion in the Modern World Vivianne Crowley. Book of Shadows: A Modern Woman’s Journey into the Wisdom of Witchcraft and the Magic of The Goddess Phyllis Curot. Witch Crafting: A Spiritual Guide to Making Magic Phyllis Curot. The Wheel of the Wiccan Year Gail Duff. The Witches’ Goddess: The Feminine Principle of Divinity Janet & Stewart Farrar. Witches’ God: Lord of the Dance Janet & Stewart Farrar. The Witches’ Bible: The Complete Witches’ Handbook Janet & Stewart Farrar. Witchcraft: A Beginner’s Guide (Beginner’s Guides) Teresa Moorey. Silver Moon Teresa Moorey. The Real Witches’ Handbook Kate West. The Real Witches’ Coven: The Definite Guide to Forming Your Own Wiccan Group Kate West. Gay Witchcraft: Empowering the Tribe Christopher Penczak. Traditional Craft The Roebuck in the Thicket: An Anthology of the Robert Cochrane Tradition Evan John Jones & Robert Cochrane. The Robert Cochrane Letters: An Insight into Modern Traditional Witchcraft Robert Cochrane. Witchcraft: A Tradition Renewed Evan John Jones & Doreen Valiente. Trading activities are carried out by Pagan Federation, a not for profit company limited by guarantee and registered in England number 04056879 Registered address: c/o Ozkan Accountants Ltd 2nd Floor, Suite 12, Vantage Point New England Road Brighton BN1 4GW. Wights and Ancestors: Heathenry in a Living Landscape. A detailed description of mythical beings and the ways they are conceptualised within Heathen (Northern European pre-Christian) thought, it discusses ways to enrich your life by becoming aware of their presence. This includes describing a meditative process to facilitate contact with nature spirits. It also includes some discussion of 'shamanism' as much of Heathenry is shamanistic in nature, and examines the concept of altering of conciousness. It includes discussions of 'sacred sites', places of the ancestors, and how the reader may regard those - including the need to respect the uses that other people (non-human or human) make of them. It is a combination of subject personal expereience and objective academic discussion regarding the sense of 'otherness' that Heathen incorporate into their daily practice. "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title. Dr. Jenny Blain, is originally from Scotland, has lived and worked as a lecturer in Canada and the UK. Jenny has identified as Heathen for several decades and has been involved with the development and practice of Seidr since the1990's. She has written, published and edited many books and articles on subjects including Paganisms, Seidr, Heathenry, and Scottish Identities. Having recently taken retirement she has returned to Scotland where she has been busy, revising and expanding her previous works. Wights and Ancestors: Heathenism in a Living Landscape by Jenny Blain. I’ve been a little busy in the Prydein Press office of late. Not only have I signed a couple of new authors (more about that soon). But I have been getting ready to put our first book into traditional paper format. Wow! certainly a lot of work, but so rewarding to know that the wonderful knowledge that is contained within these pages will persist long after the power has run out! Dr. Jenny Blain first released Wights and Ancestors: Heathenry in a living landscape, over a decade ago. It has been a key text for those exploring the Northern traditions ever since. She has been working on a new and improved edition for some months now and we are really excited that we are close to releasing this brilliant little book. As well as the original text Jenny has included additional essays and some inspiring detailed insights for working with spirits of the land which draw on folklore and mythology in a forthright and refreshing way. By way of a little appetiser I thought you might like to see the cover of the new and improved 3rd edition which will be released within the next few weeks. Competition Time – Tower of Cards. Well, I am rather excited to launch our first anthology competition today. And I really hope you will be as excited about it as I am. As a writer I realised early on that getting my name out there was going to be really important in my career. Particularly if I wanted a publisher to consider taking on the book I so desperately wanted to write. I had considered getting an agent, but had eventually discounted that because I was in a very niche market and didn’t really have a lot to show for myself. So I started writing articles and eventually contributed to an anthology. The problem with anthologies though is that they aren’t very well paid, if at all. If the publishing house is big enough you may get a small fee. But for many kudos and a couple of copies of the book is all you will receive. There is a good reason for this. Financial viability. Unless the work becomes some kind of international best seller it’s just not practical to pay every person a royalty fee. And in the case of niche markets some books don’t actually make money. They are a gamble. So I decided that I might try and do something different for Prydein Press’ first outing into anthology land. The three contributors drawn from a hat on the day of release will receive annually a third share of the royalties* for as long as the book remains in print. The remaining contributors will receive a copy of the book, the ability to purchase the book in bulk at a reduced price so they can sell on at conferences etc. and yes you guessed it Kudos. Submission Guidelines. The guidelines are very simple, the subject is the Tarot. You can choose to look at History, Spreads, The Majors or The Minors, The Courts or Reversals. Basically if it is Tarot related I will consider it. How you do this could be through poetry or prose, it could be a fictional story or an academic treatise. It’s entirely up to you. COMPETITION NOW CLOSED The submission must be electronic, and it must be in document or rich text format. The length of the submission should be between 2000 and 4000 words long. The work must be entirely your own work unless you are using quotations, in which case you must reference appropriately. You may submit more than one entry. The deadline is 30th of June 2016. COMPETITION NOW CLOSED. *Under the standard Prydein Press royalty structure. Welcome to Prydein Press. Tara Sanchez – Executive Director. It’s been a little while coming but I am pleased to announce the launch of Prydein Press. At the end of 2014 after long discussions with numerous authors and writers, it became obvious that there was a need to provide a broader publishing and digital media service for writers and authors working within the Occult, Pagan and New Age markets. This service would not only cover academic and experiential texts from a Pagan/Occult perspective but would also accept subject matter within the Mind Body Spirit genre and more importantly works of fiction as well. This idea percolated around in my head for over 12 months until finally systems were in place to publicize our existence. We have a number of exciting upcoming titles, including a 3 volume series focussed on Essex Witchcraft, Folklore and Mythology from J.W.Cole, a study of Urban Fae by yours truly and very excitingly a new, improved and expanded edition of Ancestors and Wights by Dr. Jenny Blain . Obviously we are also looking for other authors to join us so If you have an idea or a manuscript you wish to be considered please read our submission guidelines Here. Prydein Press is a trading name of Jads Enterprises Ltd Contact Us. Book Review – ‘Wights and Ancestors, Heathenry in a Living Landscape’ by Jenny Blain. ‘ Wights and Ancestors – Heathenry in a Living Landscape ‘ was first published in 2000 and has now been reprinted in 2016 with additional essays. Jenny Blain gives a fascinating insight into the varied types of beings inhabiting the landscape and ways in which we can respectfully and safely interact with them. She details how to discover one’s fylgja – which is essential for safely navigating the other world. She advises ways to meet the wights and introducing one’s self to a tree spirit, all to be conducted respectfully before entering the being’s space. I admire that Jenny Blain has discussed shamanism and that by doing the things a shaman does – i.e. entering the other world, meeting spirits etc – does not make one a shaman . Shamanism is not an individual activity and shamans were usually selected by their community. This is an important statement where any kind of spirit work is involved as many take upon the mantle of shamanism without understanding the full cultural context of the word. Jenny also discusses sacred sites and what makes them sacred and how landscapes are not static – they have their own processes of erosion, silt deposition etc and that because of human interaction, a landscape becomes cultured and interpreted by people in many ways. The land itself is a being, populated by many other sentient beings and plays a part within the settings of many tales. Jenny also discusses ancestry and her own personal discoveries of her own family research in Scotland. The reader is taken down a fascinating journey into Scotland’s landscape and the ties the author has to the places of her youth. She discusses that landscapes are “ more than history and personal memory. They are living, now, and have their own place-ness which impacts on the tourist, traveller, viewer or seeker “. I am not overly familiar with the beliefs and terms of Heathenry or Seidr, but this book is written in a way that provides good explanation without being overwhelming. The use of personal anecdotes and the stories shared with the author from other practitioners gives a better understanding of the exchange between a person and wight. Although the concepts of land wights and ancestry are written about within a Heathen context, the guidelines given seem universal – the author even advises to look into fairy tales for wisdom before approaching land wights. A lot of it is common sense, the most important thing to remember is to be respectful. I would greatly recommend this book, whether one identifies as heathen or not. This is a good read for anyone interested in animism, seidr, spirit work or heathenry. Using the advice within this book provides a good foundation when building relationships with the land spirits. Interview with Jenny Blain: Sacred Landscapes and Seidr. The Spring 2014 courses are starting soon at Cherry Hill Seminary, a learning institution dedicated to “practical training in leadership, ministry, and personal growth in Pagan and Nature-Based spiritualities.” Over the past couple years, Cherry Hill Seminary has made leaps and bounds towards its goal of becoming an accredited institution, and part of that is thanks to the growing number of prominent Pagan Scholars who have joined to teach courses and work on its board or administrative body. Joining that number this year is Dr. Jenny Blain, who recently retired from Sheffield Hallam University, and will be teaching “Heathenry: Altered States and Non-Human People” at CHS starting this month. Dr. Blain is author of “Nine Worlds of Seid-Magic: Ecstasy and Neo-Shamanism in North European Paganism,” and co-editor of “Researching Paganisms” in the Series. In this short interview, we discuss her decision to teach at Cherry Hill Seminary, her work on the topic of sacred landscapes, Heathenry and the practice of seidr, and more. As someone who has been very involved with the development of Pagan Studies, particularly through the book “Researching Paganisms,” what drew you to work with Cherry Hill Seminary? Do you think that more Pagan scholars will follow your example as CHS grows in size and prominence? I’d met Wendy on various occasions, and of course she was a contributor to Researching Paganisms, where we were attempting to bring together the different ways that people had found themselves drawn into Pagan Studies and the particular approaches that they were using. And so, a couple of years ago, Wendy asked if I’d be interested to contribute a course to Cherry Hill – but because of my work for a university in England it had to wait until retirement! I’m glad to keep a foothold in teaching, and particularly in distance learning, and of course also to help display aspects of Heathenry to people who may have some preconceptions about this religion that don’t actually chime with the way many Heathens practice. Cherry Hill gives that opportunity and I’m excited to see how the course will develop and indeed how the Seminary can serve needs of a very diverse range of Paganisms. So, yes, there is scope for Pagan scholars to contribute to CH. I do feel it’s important that the diversity is recognised and particularly that people who are engaging in various sorts of Pagan ‘Ministry’ understand the very different approaches to sacredness and the divine which are possible and present – and of course also how these relate to other religious expressions. On which point it’s time to move to that reburial issue and some of the diversities there. Touching briefly on your body of work, which has dealt quite a bit with the issue of ancient remains, modern Pagans, and the political issue of reburial (or display/study), what do you make of the current protests headed by Arthur Pendragon at Stonehenge over the remains at the visitor’s center? Is this an issue that you believe more Pagans should be paying attention to? Does it tie into larger issues for modern Pagans? The issue of ancient remains is, for me, part of a much wider issue about people’s relationship with landscape and place, and with the other-than- human people that surround us. These include – but are definitely not restricted to – ‘ancestors’ in the widest sense, people who lived on the land, worked with the land, developed cultural understanding of place and self and community. To give an example, the people buried at Cairnholy in Galloway are quite probably not ‘ancestral’ to me in the sense of DNA or something like that, but they are ‘ancestral’ in terms of having lived on and with the earth and sea and rivers that my Blain ancestors, much much more recently, farmed and fished. We don’t know what these very far past ancestors thought about death, but we do know that they, some of them at least, were placed into the burial cairns with care and deliberation, into a particular set of relationships with the other beings within the landscape, whether beetles, grasses or other ‘ancestors’. In removing ‘remains’ from their context we are disrupting that relationship. Now, sometimes that disruption can’t be helped, and many remains unearthed today are discovered during works for new buildings or new roads, with the result that the work stops and archaeologists carefully remove the remains, usually for reburial as close as possible to the site where they were found. Archaeologists do care about these things! But that leaves us with the issue of remains which have been deliberately excavated and stored for research purposes and museum display, which is mostly what Arthur and other campaigners are on about. The whole legal situation is a rather tangled mess, and there are differences between Scotland and other parts of the UK, as in Scotland the dead one has the ‘right of sepulchre’, the right to be left undisturbed unless for very good reason, whereas in England the rights pertain to descendants. The Avebury Reburial Consultation a few years ago showed how difficult it was to make a claim without being able to demonstrate ‘descent’ in the sense of either direct family line or direct cultural transmission. The Stonehenge protests – well, Stonehenge is the best known prehistoric site in Britain, so it is an obvious target, especially with the new visitor centre developing its displays after the much-promoted recent excavations. There is a related issue about what promises were made before the excavations started, when reburial of possible new finds was discussed (the three sets of remains on display are not from the recent excavations however). I do think that this issue has to be sorted out but there may be less confrontational ways to do this! Groups such as Honouring the Ancient Dead (HAD) have been working in association with archaeologists and museum curators for quite some time, but positions seem suddenly to have become much more rigid. It’s worth reading what HAD has to say about the visitor centre exhibits – and indeed I plan to be raising some of the issues of ‘ancestors’ in the course for Cherry Hill Seminary. Moving on to your Spring 2014 class at CHS, “Heathenry: Altered states and non-human people,” it seems like the class is centered in your study of oracular seidr. Could you talk a little bit about the class, and why seidr is important to explore within modern Heathenry? What purpose does this reconstructed practice serve today? Well, first, it isn’t so much centred on seidr as using the development of seidr to explore worldview, cosmology and culture. These various things that I said above, issues of ancestors, other-than-human people, and so forth, will all be part of the course. It’s a matter of what is central to Heathenry; so, the world tree Yggdrasil, the various being (and worlds) that are on or under the Tree or which it connects, and the possibility of knowing about this cosmology through spiritual practice. And this starts with the connections and relationships that we’re part of, relationships with other-than-human people as well as with human friends and relatives. Many Heathens don’t make seidr, and those that do don’t necessarily do the ‘oracular’ kind or follow the various ritual forms that have been developed. To me and to other Heathens to whom I’ve spoken, seidr is a way of effecting some kind of change – for instance in health, in knowledge, little tweaks if you like to the strands of Wyrd which connect us. So, seidr and how Heathens today do this will be part of the course but not its totality. And, the purpose isn’t to develop students as seid-workers, but to equip them with an understanding of the connections that make seidr possible, and communities in which it’s being developed. Seidr is important for Heathen communities because it shows the importance of these relationships – we can ‘know’ things or ‘change’ things through respectful interaction with other wights, that is, with the other beings with whom we share space and time. Most Heathens aren’t seidworkers; those that are, are valued within their communities – just as a musician, an artist, a craft-worker, a gardener are valued. More broadly, there have been noticeable points of difference, and even tension, between modern Heathenry, and . What do you think the two camps have to learn form each other? What is our common ground? I think that there is a lot of misunderstanding about Heathenry, and that there is indeed much to be learned and shared. A few weeks ago I was giving a talk to the Pagan moot in Dundee, the city where I now live, and the talk was basically an overview of the material that will be addressed in much more depth in the Cherry Hill course. The people there were quite fascinated and much of what I said was very new to them – the basis in the Eddas and Sagas, the concept of Yggdrasil as the connection within and between worlds, the ideas of an Animist approach to landscape and to these wights, connections with Siberian shamanic practice and so on. And there were quite a few points of connection, particularly with how the concept of Wyrd gave a focus on taking responsibility for one’s actions, developing self-knowledge in order to create better relationship with others. Finally, to return to Cherry Hill Seminary, moving forward, what do you see as your role within that learning institution? What does working with CHS bring you that a more traditional secular institution cannot? What are your feelings on building institutions like CHS within a Pagan context? First, institutions such as Cherry Hill Seminary have different roles in different part of the world – the British context is very different to that in the US, or in Canada where I lived for a good while, and in the UK there is much less focus among Pagans (and particularly Heathens) on formal organisations. But having said that, I do see the importance of building places (virtual or physical) where Pagans can share and develop their understandings. I hope that I will be able to share some of my knowledge and at the same time learn more about ways other Paganisms are developing. In particular, though, I’d like to keep coming back to the ideas of place and landscape and time, ‘where people are’ and how this creates spiritual practice. And what does CHS bring me – it enables an overt exploration of spirituality within a critical practitioner context. In a traditional secular organisation explorations get done in other ways, and in teaching there’s still the ‘methodological agnosticism’ that comes in when talking about religion. Of course, some anthropological theory has strongly critiqued this and some research foregrounds practitioners ways of knowing – Researching Paganisms is a contribution to this literature, and so is my book Nine Worlds of Seid-Magic. But for the CHS teaching my purpose is to help students develop their appreciations of Heathenry, landscapes, wights and worldviews, and so I can get into areas that would be difficult in a secular organisation. Final note – there’s a book that came out in 2011, The Wanton Green, edited by Gordon MacLellan and Susan Cross, in which various Pagans discuss landscape, place and meanings. One chapter is mine – and the book is a demonstration, I think, of what can be shared and what we as practitioners of different spiritualities today can learn from each other. I’d like to thank Dr. Blain for taking the time to answer my questions. She will be teaching “Heathenry: Altered States and Non-Human People” at CHS starting this month. Registration is still open, but will close on January 8th, so sign up now if you want to participate.