/asatru/ - Asatru / Heathenry / Paganism

This is a interesting, and quite difficult subject.

I think deeply profound spiritual experiences are very intimate, so even if you get shared some via text, and even via oral speech, you might not grasp the fullness of it. I will not share those I consider most intimate to myself, but I'll tell you this:

There are several ways to get experiences such as these: in a dream; by ritual and, perhaps, intoxication; by doing great deeds in nature; by lighting fires.

From dreams, I have only seen a word written in a paper: WOTAN. But it is known (or rather believed, if you prefer) that the Gods speak in many ways to people in dreams, from the Morpheus of the Greeks to signs ("A raven came to me / spoke to me in a dream", Ensiferum, From Afar). Even in games we see this (Medivh's message to Thrall in Warcraft III, for example).

You can trigger dreams in several ways: from personal experience, I know taking noopept makes that effect; I also know that sleeping on daylight will make you dream (Dreams I often remember after waking up are usually after daylight, especially when I go to sleep at dawn). There's a medieval manuscript that declares 9 holy plants from Odin, one which is Mugwort. According to Erowid, people who have smoked it before sleeping get deep and strange dreams, but I have not tried this myself.

By ritual and intoxication you can get a different grasp on things you see, but I do not intend to promote degeneracy, so I'll only tell you to not abuse substances, as not only it is disrespectul for the plants and spirits, but also because the price to pay is not something you'll like.

By doing great deeds in nature, like climbing mountains or trees, and perhaps hunting, you'll do things your ancestors did. Read this article from Patheos, which has something to do with it: Meet the gods on their own terms, not yours. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/pantheon/2015/12/meeting-the-gods-on-their-terms/

Last one, but not the least, is self explainatory.

Do not despair, for there are few who get to see manifestation of the Gods, and some who look for them will spend all their lives without seeing them, while others will witness them in their true form and full power, and will either go mad or get destroyed by the experience (look at the myth of Semele). If the Gods show themselves to you, it has already been fated; in the mean time, forge yourself after them and reclaim the divinity within yourself, for this way everything you do will be a meaningful, spiritual experience.

>>11656

to gaze into the eyes of seraphim is to burn ones eyes as well

first time I hallucinated was on weed, but I also got heat stroke at the same time. was out in the middle of the desert near death valley on a drive, got so hot that I started puking and becoming delirious. It became so intense I had no sense of self or place; I would feel like I was below the ground, above the air and in the car all at the same time. I felt my perception spread across the desert in a way that was maddening, like my mind was exploding outwards. I couldnt stand to look in one direction too quickly or turn my head too rapidly or I would become even more delirious. I remember screaming and yelling like a lunatic, holding my hands to my head and slamming it to the ground. The last thing I remember before blacking out, I looked upwards to the sky and saw the mountains, and it looked like the mountains had turned into faces. Not like mount rushmore, more like the crevices and crags of the mountain lined up to create faces, and they looked like norsemen with beards and helmets. I felt like the ancestors and gods were looking down upon me, and their gaze was terrifying.

First time I actually did psychedelics however was mushrooms. I saw the skies turn into a giant construct of black suns, swastikas, and radiating colors and patterns. I felt my body splitting into multiple forms and a black sun appearing around my head, like a halo. Then the trip turned back and I felt like I was being flayed alive, both physically and emotionally. I felt like anyone who looked at me could see everything in my mind and soul, made me paranoid and aggressive as all hell.

only good trip ive had on acid, I went for a 5 hour hike up a mountain and planted a raven banner there, then burned a straw man on the summit. Remember seeing the faces of god and drew pic related. Whenever I looked at trees, I saw hundred of women composed of leaves dancing up in the branches, giggling and smiling at me, like nymphs or elves or something. I felt like my tongue was made of metal and wherever it touched inside my mouth I felt sparks of electricity, when I opened my mouth I felt like lightning spewed forth. When I looked at the hills it looked like several tattooed faces compiled and compressed into each other, contained within the hill. When it became dark, I remember seeing Odin in a black cloak at the edge of the horizon, staring at me.

Then there was a time I smoked DMT. I smoked it in front of my shrine, looking for a spiritual experience. Became extremely delirious after the first hit, then the second hit I took I remember clearly seeing dancing elves and demons pouring out of the lighter and falling down into the DMT, being sucked in like air. I closed my eyes, and my shrine became a vast dark forest, with the 3 idols of the gods in front of me, but stylized. They turned into spirits and animals and rose up into the air, and Thor took on the shape of a giant storm-god with a hammer-head sharks head. I felt a great vibration, like drum beating, and my head started to vibrate painfully. He raised mjolnir and struck my forehead with a nail, embedding it where my third eye should be. The vibration and pain became more intense, and I felt the nail ignite into fire, like my forehead was burning and expelling flame in all directions.

I had to stand up and run outside and puke, and I swear it appeared my puke was comprised entirely of black worms and tadpoles, little insectoid demons and creatures. they melted into the ground and disappeared. I felt as if I had been purged of evil by Thor's doing.

thats pretty much it

I don't exactly believe in any gods or spirits but I retain traditions that my father learned from his and so on and so forth all the way back to before we came to America from Lithuania.

Most of it involved hunting and farming because we were poor as fuck and my family has been poor as fuck forever.

My father taught me to stalk hunt, he taught me how to correctly skin and butcher the animal and how to properly care for the bones. We would take the bones and place them in the limbs of trees out of the reach of scavangers. Depending on the time of year we'd put an food or sometimes coins in the animal's mouth. My father called it paying it back, which I always thought was a nice idea.

When a dog died we'd bury it in it's favorite hunting ground with it's game-bird of choice, and we'd top it's grave with a cairn. Every year we'd come back and leave them another bird.

When we were out in the garden he'd show me garden snakes and tortoise'. Sometimes we'd lay in the shade of a tree and just enjoy it.

When I visit my dogs graves and I look at the skulls nestled in the top branches, I feel at peace.

a theophany around my 21st birthday

flaming wheels within wheels, past, present and future merged into one, like a veil had been pierced. an ataraxic calm swept over me.

beforehand I was on the verge of becoming an atheist

>>11736

Not really, these are things we just did there wasn't any religious aspect to them. I'm sure that they're based on some sort of religious act though. To me it just seems like the right thing to do,

if I could ask my great-grandfather he'd probably be able to explain it in detail. IN all honest I probably should write some of this down as I could be the last person to actually practice these traditions, if in fact they actually are religious in nature.