Untitled - Awaken Video

Chapter 3. Midgard 66
sacred grove, then evolved into a Hörgr and then a temple. A cathedral was
built upon the temple site.” 7
Pennick and Jones also present several cases where Christian holy places were desecrated
by the Heathen hoards such as “the action of Ota in Dublin” or “Peel Cathedral
on the Isle of Man”, but he feels that this “might equally have been part of the
reverent tradition of continuity.” 8 Their conclusion seems most reasonable in view
of the Germanic people’s spiritual philosophy of needing to interact with people,
places, and objects of power/ luck.
What the church leaders failed to understand is that for the northern peoples
landhas lineage; it has its own ¸orlög independent of the people living on it. A holy
spot is ”holy” because that is its “fate,” and people gather there because it is holy,
plain and simple. Family land is family land because the destinies of both land
and family are intertwined, and people are drawn to these areas naturally because
power/ luck pours up from the Original Spring through the underworld out onto the
surface of the land. Early on, the Church greatly disapproved of such activities as
this Canon enacted during the reign of King Edmund (959-975 CE) clearly reveals:
“16. And we enjoin, that every priest zealously promote Christianity, and
totally extinguish every Heathenism; and forbid well-worshipping, and spiritualism,
and divinations, and enchantments, and idol-worshipping, and the
vain practices which are carried on with various spells, and with peace-enclosures,
and with elders, and also with various other trees, and with stones, and with
many various delusions, with which men do much of what they should not.” 9
Over the centuries, though, the Church has not needed to be quite as harsh as in
the early stages of conversion since it sanctified and rebuilt many of these holy spots
in the names of its saints which was, in the long run, much easier than trying to
prevent the folk making periodic pilgrimages and leaving offerings. In general, these
holy places are often still maintained and protected by the local churches.
7 In Nigel Pennick’s and Prudence Jones’ A History of Pagan Europe (p. 121), a history
textbook written by two practicing Heathens of the late 20th century. The book is very nicely
done and stays only with history as it has been documented. ”Legendary histories” such as those
of the modern movement of Wicca or the older Freemasonry while mentioned are treated as unsubstantiated
claims. An indispensable text.
8 Pennick and Jones, p. 141.
9 In Anglo-Saxon Mythology, Migration, & Magic by Tony Linsell. This book is a very
beautiful volume of artwork and translation of the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem. It is published
by Anglo-Saxon Books (1995) out of London, is very well researched, and although it treats many
of the topics often addressed by the New Age community such as ”northern shamanism,” Linsell
sticks very close to the facts as they could be had from written documentation and leaves the more
wild speculations to others more daring.