Midsummer’s Blót 1998

*This report was originally written by Erich, the founder of our Hall. It has been reposted here in an effort to collect all our resources on our new site.

Midsummer’s Blót was held June 20th on a sweltering New Mexico afternoon. Sunna’s gold rays struck heavily on our walk to the site. We were, as usual, along the banks of the Rio Grande, which, despite a period of very dry weather, were lush with native grasses. We walked along the worn path seeking a site we have used many a time. A site where the trees shelter a shady spot of clearing with a well placed groove leading to the bank and a strip of tree-shrouded grass large enough to stand on comfortably at the very edge of the river. After passing the site inexplicably and coming back around from another path to the strip of grassy bank, we set up for the blót.

From a wreath-base and some local windfall wood, Barhelm made a quite serviceable sunwheel for later use. I led the blót, and our own favorite Asa-cub Aldwulf, a right good Frey’s man, held an antler from my home-stead. (I figured it bad form for the Wodan’s man to hold the antler when a good Frey’s man was close at hand – Hel, I was already speaking the blót and holding my oversized drinking horn, how more Wodan’s man-like could I have been? No need to confuse that with an antler.)

We hailed Freyr and asked for the drenching rain — in the incredible heat, it seemed a good request. We hailed rightly all gods and goddesses, wights, and ancestors and poured libation. Following that, Barhelm, in a feat of inspired strength threw the sunwheel out on the river to complete our rite. With a mighty “Hail Freyr!” he threw it right into the middle of the flow. And, with all gods’ grace, the sunwheel held together long enough to get across and land in the water with a satisfying splash and a perfect path down the river’s course.

We then sat in our shady space for a picnic style lunch and some good-old down-home scholarly discourse about various aspects of Ásatrú. The Blot was rightly done, the gods and goddesses rightly hailed, and by the grace of the “Teutonic Sized” sandwich good Matthew brought to share, we were well fed. Altogether, it felt like how a blót should be.

You can read the Blót text here: Midsummer’s Blót.

#Aldwulf, #antler, #Barhelm, #blot, #bosque, #Freyr, #Matthew, #midsummer, #rain, #river, #summer, #sunwheel, #Wodan, #wreath