Check Out The Podcast
Posted by Byron Pendason on March 4, 2023 in Heathenry, Anglo-saxon calendar, Heathen basics, Heathen worldview
Wes hāl!1 It occurred to me today they I never created a blog post about my podcast. It’s been going for a little over a month, so I’m overdue for an official announcement, I suppose. Wes hāl and Beo gesund are Old English greetings and farewells that literally mean Be…
What I Believe
Posted by Byron Pendason on February 15, 2023 in Heathenry, Afterlife, Anglo-saxon calendar, Cosmology, Heathen basics, Heathen worldview, Heathen worship, Philosophical musings, Reconstruction, Runes, Stoicism, Updates
Wes hāl!1 I’m going to do something a little different today. I’m going to provide the fundamentals of what I believe as far as religion goes. I doubt anyone is going to agree with everything, and some people might not agree with any of it. That’s okay, I don’t base…
The Cardinal Virtues
Posted by Byron Pendason on January 22, 2023 in Heathenry, Philosophical musings, Reconstruction, Stoicism
Wes hāl!1 One of the things that Heathenry lacks is a definitive cohesive theory on ethics. The reason for this is due to its tendency to be based upon reconstructionist methodology, and the fact is that no records from the pre-Christian Heathens survive. The closest we have is parts of…
Stoicism and Heathenry
Posted by Byron Pendason on January 15, 2023 in Heathenry, Philosophical musings, Reconstruction, Stoicism
Wes hāl!1 I have recently become a student of Stoicism, but as I said in my last blog post Stoicism is not a Germanic philosophy. It was born in the Hellenic world, and was later adopted by the Romans. In this blog post, I want to discuss the relationship between…
Accepting Fate
Posted by Byron Pendason on December 30, 2022 in Heathenry, Heathen worldview, Philosophical musings, Stoicism
Wes hāl!1 As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been studying philosophy lately. Stoicism, to be precise. An important concept of Stoicism is the idea of accepting one’s fate and not fighting against it. People familiar with Heathenry may know that in Heathenry, it is generally thought that our…
Video Review: Why Are We Afraid to be Pagan?
Posted by Byron Pendason on December 23, 2022 in Heathenry, Heathen worldview, Updates
Wes hal!1 An ally recently posted^4 a video to her YouTube channel entitled Why Are We Afraid to be Pagan? She poses some interesting questions, in an attempt to start a conversation on the matters in the video. Before getting into the video itself, though, let’s talk about the author…
Farewell, Twitter! How to Follow Mine Wyrtruman
Posted by Byron Pendason on December 20, 2022 in Tech, Updates
Wes hāl!1 Some of you who follow me on Twitter may have noticed my conspicuous absence. Twitter has become so toxic. Part of it, I’m sure, has been Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform. But to be honest, it’s been this way for a long time. I’ve just failed to…
Lost in Translation- Ettins in Old English
Posted by Byron Pendason on November 8, 2022 in Heathenry, Heathen worldview, Cosmology, Reconstruction
I came across a blog post recently, alleging to reevaluate ettins in Old English literature (Moniz, 2022). I read it with interest, because I’ve interacted with the author on various Discord servers and have had nothing but positive experiences with them. I feel that their argument in this case, though,…
The Essentials of Fyrnsidu
Posted by Byron Pendason on September 24, 2022 in Heathenry, Heathen basics, Heathen worldview, Heathen worship, Reconstruction
It’s all too easy to lose sight of why you’re doing something. I started this blog almost three years ago when I was still a baby on this path. My intention was to take what I was learning and put it into my own words in order to help fellow…
Fyrnsidic Cosmology- Wyrd and Orlæg
Posted by Byron Pendason on September 20, 2022 in Cosmology, Heathen basics, Heathen worldview, Heathenry, Reconstruction
My first post on this blog was about wyrd. Like most Heathens, I looked at it on the personal level. We each have our individual wyrd, and this should probably be our basic understanding of it. But the universe itself also has a wyrd, and I think we’ve reached the…
Giants in Fyrnsidu
Posted by Byron Pendason on September 18, 2022 in Heathenry, Heathen worldview, Cosmology, Reconstruction
One of the big differences between modern Norse Heathens and Fyrnsideras is our views on ettins/Jotnar1. The two are cognates, but understood very differently. They are both generally translated as giants, but this can be misleading because they aren’t necessarily always large. Modern Norse Heathens tend to look at the…
The Human Era
Posted by Byron Pendason on August 30, 2022 in Politics
In 1993, the Italian-American scientist Cesare Emiliani proposed the Holocene Calendar, a simple reform to our current calendar: adding 10,000 years to the Common Era (also known as the Gregorian Calendar) year that is the dominant calendar of the world. The reason is that the vast majority of Human development…
Empirical Religion
Posted by Byron Pendason on August 27, 2022 in Heathenry, Heathen basics, Heathen worldview, Reconstruction
Heathenry is, at its heart, an empirical religion.1 This is actually true of many religions, but it’s especially true for reconstructed religions. This will be discussed more a little bit later. ↩
Heathen Orthodoxy
Posted by Byron Pendason on August 23, 2022 in Heathenry, Heathen basics, Rants
This blog post is going to be a bit different from my usual. It’s going to be more of a rant than an informational post. It’s been stewing for a while, but we’ll get into the why here in a little bit.
The Human Sacrifice Argument
Posted by Byron Pendason on August 16, 2022 in Heathenry, Heathen basics, Heathen worship, Heathen worldview, Reconstruction
In case you missed it, the antitheist Vaush had a debate with the Heathen polytheist Ocean Keltoi a few days ago on Twitch, and Ocean uploaded the highlights to his YouTube channel yesterday. Vaush posted the entire unedited debate followed by some gameplay to his YouTube channel.
The Anglo-Saxon Calendar page has been updated with a new algorithm
Posted by Byron Pendason on August 3, 2022 in Heathenry, Anglo-saxon calendar, Updates, Tech
I have updated my Anglo-Saxon Calendar page to use a new algorithm that determines the beginning of the month. Comparing my results with a moon sighting website1, the old algorithm had a 50% accuracy (every other month was a day off). Using the new algorithm, it appears to have a…
The Story of Creation
Posted by Byron Pendason on August 1, 2022 in Heathenry, Cosmology, Myths, Reconstruction
I’m working on a novela at the moment, called Young Penda and the Swamp Ettin. In the story, a young Penda goes to a witch to inquire about the origins of the ettins, and she ends up telling him about the origins of everything. So, I wrote a myth for…
We have a Domain Name!
Posted by Byron Pendason on July 30, 2022 in Updates
As of today, Mine Wyrtruman has it’s own domain name! While the most recent url of the website (https://byronpendason.github.io) will redirect to the new domain name (https://www.minewyrtruman.com), you might as well go ahead and update your bookmarks and news feed reader (if you’re using one to keep up with my…
Prayer Structure
Posted by Byron Pendason on July 27, 2022 in Heathen basics, Heathen worship, Heathenry, Reconstruction
Prayer structure. What is it? As the name implies, it is the structure of prayer. Many religions have a prescribed prayer structure. Christianity has several of the them, two of the most popular forms being A-C-T-S (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication) and the You-Who-Do-Through format. We do not have any surviving…
Runic Numerals- A proposal for writing numbers in runes
Posted by Byron Pendason on May 31, 2022 in Runes
I’ve written a couple blog posts about writing modern English in runes (Here and here). One problem that arises is writing numbers in runes. As some may already know, the numbers we use on a regular basis (0, 1, 2, 3, etc) are called Arabic numerals. While it’s fine to…
Fyrnsidic Cosmology- Gods & Ettins
Posted by Byron Pendason on May 5, 2022 in Cosmology, Heathen basics, Heathen worldview, Heathenry, Reconstruction
I would like to preface this with a disclaimer. While Jotnar and ettins are cognates of one another, the way they are viewed by their respective religious traditions can vary wildly. While there might be Norse Heathens who would agree with my takes here, and Anglo-Saxon Heathens who may disagree…
Fyrnsidic Cosmology- Order vs Chaos
Posted by Byron Pendason on April 23, 2022 in Cosmology, Heathen basics, Heathen worldview, Heathenry, Reconstruction
Cosmology is defined as the study of the nature of the universe. Physical cosmology studies the structure of the universe, how it operates, the laws that cause it to operate in that way, and how it all began. Religious cosmology generally studies all that from a spiritual viewpoint. It often,…
How Hreðe defeated Old Man Winter
Posted by Byron Pendason on April 1, 2022 in Heathen worldview, Heathenry, Myths, Reconstruction
The following is an original myth written by myself with suggestions and help from various Fyrnsideras (Anglo-Saxon Heathens). While it is based on elements from Anglo-Saxon mythology (as I understand it), and incorporates elements from folklore, it is not based upon any surviving Anglo-Saxon myth, as few Anglo-Saxon myths survived…
Writing in Runes Revisited- What we can learn from Tolkien
Posted by Byron Pendason on January 13, 2022 in Runes
About a year and a half ago, I did a blog post about writing in Anglo-Saxon runes. I explained both the runic substitution method (which more or less uses modern spelling) and phonetic method of writing in runes. At the time, I used the runes to write phonetically. And I…
Beginning the New Year with Mothers Night
Posted by Byron Pendason on December 18, 2021 in Heathen basics, Heathen worldview, Heathen worship, Heathenry, Reconstruction
Modraniht is one of the holiest tides of the year for Anglo-Saxon Heathenry. All the information we have on its ancient observance is from the Venerable Bede in Chapter 15 of his The Reckoning of Time.
In Defense of a December Yule
Posted by Byron Pendason on December 7, 2021 in Heathen basics, Heathen worship, Heathenry, Reconstruction
Yule is one of our holiest tides and indeed our most well known holiday. It is also a holiday that almost all Heathens celebrate. Given its relative importance, it is a valid question to ask: When should one celebrate Yule? But that question is not as cut and dry as…
Blog updates- Published books and upcoming blog posts
Posted by Byron Pendason on November 26, 2021 in Updates
If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll already know that I’ve published two books! Both focus on the Anglo-Saxon Calendar. The first book,”The Anglo-Saxon Calendar for the Twenty-First Century”, lists all the major dates for each year of this century. That’s the beginning of each month, the full moons, and…
New Webpage to Generate the Calendar
Posted by Byron Pendason on November 4, 2021 in Heathen worship, Heathenry, Reconstruction, Anglo-saxon calendar
A lot of Heathens avoid using an ancient lunisolar calendar (such as my reconstructed calendar) because of the hassle of calculating it all out. With this in mind, I programmed a webpage that will calculate the my Reconstructed Anglo-Saxon Calendar for any year. It includes the start of each month,…
The Metonic Cycle
Posted by Byron Pendason on October 21, 2021 in Heathenry, Reconstruction, Anglo-saxon calendar
As per my Reconstructed Anglo-Saxon Calendar page, my method for determining if a year is a leap year is to count how many new moons there are between the previous year’s winter solstice and the current years winter solstice. If there are thirteen new moons, it is a leap year….
Tīw- the Anglo-Saxon Sky Father, God of Justice and War
Posted by Byron Pendason on October 6, 2021 in Heathen worldview, Heathenry, Reconstruction
Tīw was obviously an important god to the Anglo-Saxons. They named a day of the week after him, and several places in England were named after him. Tacitus lists him as one of the three most important gods (along with Wōden and Thunor) to the Germanic tribes that would later…
Eostre- the Anglo-Saxon Dawn Goddess
Posted by Byron Pendason on April 16, 2021 in Heathen worldview, Heathen worship, Heathenry, Reconstruction
According to my reconstructed Anglo-Saxon Calendar, the fourth month, Ēosturmōnaþ, began last Tuesday (April 13, 2021). Bede tells us it was named after the goddess Ēostre. Like Hreðe, the only thing we know about Ēostre from attested sources is her name and the month she was worshipped in (roughly corresponding…
I have signed the Declaration of Deeds
Posted by Byron Pendason on March 10, 2021 in Heathenry, Politics, Updates
As long as I have been a Heathen, Heathens have been complaining about Declaration 127. Rightfully so, as it is entirely inadequate as an inclusivity statement. It’s a condemnation of a racist organization- the Asatru Folk Assembly. That is admirable, but it’s not an inclusivity statement. Inclusive Heathenry has been…
RuneTyper 0.3.1 released
Posted by Byron Pendason on February 8, 2021 in Runes, Updates
I’ve added an Old English keyboard to RuneTyper. In addition to all the runes, it should have all the letters you need to type in Old English, including Ƿ, Þ, Ᵹ, Ð, Æ, ⁊, and Ꝥ. It has two function keys: SH toggles between capitalising and lowercase the letters, while…
Releasing RuneTyper 0.2.0- Four Rune Sets are now in the App!
Posted by Byron Pendason on February 7, 2021 in Runes, Updates
Three days ago, I published an apk of my RuneTyper. It’s an app that allows you to type in runes and copy it to your phone’s clipboard so you can post it to other apps. Any app that uses Unicode (which is every social media site I’ve tried it on,…
Introducing RuneTyper 0.1.1
Posted by Byron Pendason on February 4, 2021 in Runes, Updates
I created an app that uses Kivy/Python to be able to type Fuþorc runes (also called Anglo-Saxon or Anglo-Frisian runes) and copy it to the clipboard so that you can paste it into other apps. It’s currently only available for Android at the moment.Here’s a screenshot of the app. In…
Mægen for Spēd- A Framework for Understanding Offerings
Posted by Byron Pendason on December 22, 2020 in Heathen worldview, Heathen worship, Heathenry, Reconstruction
A question that a lot of newcomers to Heathenry might wonder is What’s the point to offering to the gods? They may wonder how pouring some alcohol into a bowl is helpful to the entity that you are offering to. They may also wonder how it’s going to benefit them….
My Reconstructed Anglo-Saxon Calendar for 2021
Posted by Byron Pendason on December 21, 2020 in Heathen worship, Heathenry, Reconstruction, Anglo-saxon calendar
For details on how I reconstruct my calendar, see my page on the Anglo-Saxon Calendar. I will add a couple notes here, however.This year only has twelve new moons between the previous December solstice and this year’s December solstice. Therefore, it will not be a leap year, and only have…
My Hallowing Ritual
Posted by Byron Pendason on November 19, 2020 in Heathen worship, Heathenry, Reconstruction
Wes þu hāl! When I wrote my blog post about My Ritual Format, I was in a bit of a pickle due to the Hallowing section of it. I had just learned that the Weonde song that I had been using was written by a very unsavory character (Swain Wodening)….
I Wrote a Heathen Fable- “The Old Wanderer”
Posted by Byron Pendason on July 30, 2020 in Heathenry, Myths, Reconstruction
I use to write fiction (mostly sci-fi short stories) quite a bit in my younger days. As I got older and had to spend more and more time doing the whole “adulting” thing, I spent less and less time writing. Until it fell by the wayside almost completely.I decided recently…
The Afterlife
Posted by Byron Pendason on July 14, 2020 in Afterlife, Heathen worldview, Heathenry, Reconstruction
Heathenry, like much of paganism, is a religion which focuses on this life. Heathens worry more about cultivating relationships with their divine beings to gain their aid in making this life better, rather than trying to please a god to gain entrance into the hereafter. But to say Heathenry has…
My Stance on LGBT Issues within Heathenry
Posted by Byron Pendason on June 27, 2020 in Heathen worldview, Heathenry, Lgbt, Politics
A question that many new Heathens often ask is, where does Heathenry stand on LGBTQIA+ issues? The reason why it’s so often asked is simple. Christianity has a long history of being a homophobic religion. Although some factions of Christianity are working to change this, it by and large still…
Writing in Anglo-Saxon Runes
Posted by Byron Pendason on June 10, 2020 in Runes
Edit: For how I write in runes now, please see my update to this post at here. I’m leaving the blog post below untouched as a record of my journey.I threw the idea out on Twitter a couple days ago of doing a blog post on how I write in…
A Statement about the Black Lives Matter Protests
Posted by Byron Pendason on June 8, 2020 in Politics
Wes þu hāl! (This is an Old English greeting that basically means, be well/healthy/whole!) I want to begin this post with an apology for my absence the last few months. The global pandemic and our government’s completely incompetent handling of the crisis has been giving me episodes of depression and…
Major Revision of My Post on Hretha
Posted by Byron Pendason on March 1, 2020 in Heathen worship, Heathenry, Reconstruction
I have done major revision on portions of my post discussing Hretha. Particularly, I added the Greek goddess of victory, Nike, to the post, I expanded upon my thoughts on Andastre (the Celtic Icenic goddess), and added thoughts about March being a war between summer and winter. I also revised…
Hretha, the Victorious Spring Goddess
Posted by Byron Pendason on February 25, 2020 in Heathen worship, Heathenry, Reconstruction
On my reconstructed Anglo-Saxon Calendar, today is the beginning of Hreþmonaþ (the þ letter is called thorn, and pronounced as ‘th’ in thin). Bede tells us that it roughly corresponds to March, and the month is named after the goddess Hretha (Hrēðe in Old English, where the ð letter is…
Follow me on Twitter!
Posted by Byron Pendason on January 31, 2020 in Updates
I started a Twitter account. On it, I plan to post thoughts that are likely to evolve into future blog posts. You may also get glimpses into my everyday life. You can find me at @ByronEugene1.
Workplace Wights
Posted by Byron Pendason on January 28, 2020 in Heathen worldview, Heathen worship, Heathenry
In Heathenry, a wight is a term generally used for spiritual beings that don’t fall under the categories of gods (and goddesses) or ancestors. Originally, it had the meaning of any sentient being (including humans), but that’s generally not how its used today.
My Ritual Format
Posted by Byron Pendason on January 4, 2020 in Heathen basics, Heathen worship
On the r/heathenry subreddit, we get a lot of new Heathens asking how to do offerings. Lārhūs Fyrnsida has a great page on their ritual format, but it is too formal for regular offerings for my tastes and, I think, best reserved for special occasions such as holy tides. What…
Beginning my journey into Old English
Posted by Byron Pendason on December 28, 2019 in Updates
For Yule, my girlfriend got me the book Complete Old English (Anglo-Saxon) by Mark Atherton. I’m really excited to start learning Old English. My goal is to eventually be able to write my prayers to the gods in the tongue that my ancestors used to worship them.Old English was the…
The Different Calendars Heathenry Uses
Posted by Byron Pendason on December 4, 2019 in Heathen basics, Heathen worldview, Heathen worship
It’s easy for new Heathens to get confused when one of the Holy Tides (Yule, The beginning of Summer, Midsummer, and Winter Night(s)) approaches. One reason is that each one can have several names, depending upon the tradition the Heathen is from. Another reason, and dare I say the main…
My Thoughts on Yule
Posted by Byron Pendason on November 28, 2019 in Heathen worldview, Heathen worship
Disclaimer: This post is a sharing of my thoughts. There will be a lot of Unverified Personal Gnosis (UPG). Take it with a grain of salt, but feel free to adopt it if it feels right.
My Reconstructed Anglo-Saxon Calendar for 2020
Posted by Byron Pendason on November 13, 2019 in Heathen worship, Heathenry, Reconstruction, Anglo-saxon calendar
For details on how I reconstruct my calendar, see my page on the Anglo-Saxon calendar. I will add a couple notes here, however.This year has thirteen new moons between the previous December solstice and this year’s December solstice. Therefore, the leap month is added between the sixth and seventh months.The…
Filling in the Gaps
Posted by Byron Pendason on October 29, 2019 in Heathen basics, Heathen worldview, Heathen worship
I often find myself feeling a little jealous of the Norse Heathens. They have so many fewer gaps to fill in than the rest of us do, because out of all the Heathens, they have the most extensive lore.
The Importance of Ancestry
Posted by Byron Pendason on October 16, 2019 in Heathen basics, Heathen worldview, Heathen worship, Politics
In my last blog post, I discussed ancestor veneration. It can’t be denied that for heathens, our ancestors are a very important aspect of our spirituality. So you’d think that ancestry is very important to us, wouldn’t you?Let me be very clear. Ancestors are very important to heathenry. Ancestry, on…
Ancestor Veneration
Posted by Byron Pendason on October 6, 2019 in Heathen basics, Heathen worldview, Heathen worship, Afterlife
One of my favorite Disney songs is Honor To Us All from Mulan, because of these lyrics (sang by Mulan):AncestorsHear my plea:Help me not to make a fool of meAnd to not uproot my family tree.Keep my father standing tall.This reveals a little about Chinese folk religion. First the importance…
Wyrd- the Heathen Concept of Fate
Posted by Byron Pendason on October 2, 2019 in Heathen basics, Heathen worldview
Fate. The word often conjures up the image of some deity on high, planning out your life for you in advance. I blame this on the Christian theology of predestination, a Christian doctrine of the time. I do not think this is how it works in Paganism though. And it’s…