Seidh.Org Update Announcement

[lwood]

For the Gentle Reader interested in the folks who have been bringing you spooky heathen woowoo for--wow it's really been twenty years--I bring you the recently updated seidh.org.

Gentle Readers formerly familiar with this site will find that those *cough* humorous asides intended to encourage us to update the site have been reasonably obfuscated. Please let me know if you can think of interesting essay topics, site ideas, or links to throw on there.

I'm especially looking for two categories of links:

1) If you or your group are Hrafnar-trained and want to be listed. Jordsvin, Jenny Blain, and Bjornsal are all already covered. scrwtape, I'd've tagged you but I didn't know a URL to use, ditto wyrdteacher, auntiematter, Winifred Hodge, etc etc. No offense meant, it usually means I forgot and/or didn't know.

2) We didn't train you, but you are Cool People. Shouts are already out for cauldronfarm, Bil Linzie, abhasana, and Annette Høst. Actually, I'm pretty sure Bil Linzie thinks we're full of shit, and technically we did train him at the very first seidh workshop...it's a compromise.

Thanks, y'all!

-- Lorrie

Comments

[abhasana.livejournal.com]

Oh great you expect more. Now I'm gonna have to totally deliver, huh? *gaspwheeze*

;)

I'm hoping to have another few pieces up by the end of October. I don't think the whole section on the Green World will be ready, but something will be. I'm working hard to place things in a specifically Northern Tradition perspective in some of the new material.

The site looks nice. I like your colors.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Oh great you expect more. Now I'm gonna have to totally deliver, huh?

*evil grin* Let us say...I have seen nothing yet that would doubt my faith in your ability to produce results.

I'm hoping to have another few pieces up by the end of October. I don't think the whole section on the Green World will be ready, but something will be. I'm working hard to place things in a specifically Northern Tradition perspective in some of the new material.

As a suggestion, do not shy from research, or citations of same. Your readership, at least among the heathen community, will improve in quantity and quality with a judicious sprinkling of footnotes.

The site looks nice. I like your colors.

I LIKE BLUE! 8-)

-- Lorrie

[abhasana.livejournal.com]

*evil grin* Let us say...I have seen nothing yet that would doubt my faith in your ability to produce results.

I am very flattered. I am also very scared. Curse that pesky Odin-vibe. ;)

As a suggestion, do not shy from research, or citations of same. Your readership, at least among the heathen community, will improve in quantity and quality with a judicious sprinkling of footnotes.

Wellll, see here's the thing: I'm not writing for a Heathen audience. I certainly need to have a greater eye for citation and hard research and I'd like to include some form of bibliography eventually, though to be honest the stuff that can be found in an encyclopedia isn't what I'm supposed to be covereing. Thus far, 95% of my material has come from being spirit-taught, and that doesn't exactly fly scholastically, though that doesn't excuse me from citing my hard research correctly; "the spirits done told me" can sound like something of a cop out and I'd like to continue my reputation as someone who knows A Thing Or Two. The audience I am writing for (spirit workers and other like-minded professionals) are going to have the ability to check my research in their own practice. My future work will go even further towards the woo (if such a thing is possible at this point) but will also have a great deal that needs me to pull out research that records gravegoods, ethnographic observations, cultural anthropology, and other accepted scholastic information; a single subject won't generally be covered by both sides, but there will naturally be some cross-over and I'll take your advice to heart and keep careful records of my information sources.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

I am very flattered. I am also very scared. Curse that pesky Odin-vibe. ;)

Naturellement. I am who I am, and whose I am.

Admit it, you know you like it. Approach the cliff-edge at full throttle, with fierce joy, and find your wings halfway down...

*cough*

The long dragging slog--and gods do I know that editing and re-writing is one of that--sucks, as certain acquaintances of mine are wont to say, spiky demon schlong through swizzle sticks or, on special occasions, pipettes.

Wellll, see here's the thing: I'm not writing for a Heathen audience.

Even a non-heathen audience should appreciate sources and citation. It lends a certain credence and versimilitude, y'see.

I certainly need to have a greater eye for citation and hard research and I'd like to include some form of bibliography eventually, though to be honest the stuff that can be found in an encyclopedia isn't what I'm supposed to be covereing.

A brief recap of that information would be useful, but also something you can sprinkle around at the end. It'll help shore up your "the spirits done tole me!" material.

You can get away with some fun free-associative stuff this way, all while looking very respectable. Take Kveldulf's famous example, which I paraphrase and translate from the Kveldulfian:

Evidence of several sagas shows that blár cloaks are worn when someone 'feels like killing', which makes sense as it's the exact color of livor mortis--the blood that pools in the body after death. This explains why Odin likes that color.

That same livor mortis angle can be used to explain Why Hella Is That Color.

Thus far, 95% of my material has come from being spirit-taught, and that doesn't exactly fly scholastically, though that doesn't excuse me from citing my hard research correctly; "the spirits done told me" can sound like something of a cop out and I'd like to continue my reputation as someone who knows A Thing Or Two.

Exactly!

It doesn't have to be strictly scholastic works you cite, either--you will earn a certain amount of mileage if, say, you cite Bil Linzie and Amy Ahlberg-Venezia's articles when doing a bit on Amanita muscaria. "The spirit done tole me, but look! I'm corroborated by these other loons so we're all crazy together! Yay!" is, i'fact, helpful, if it also leads to the minefield of knowing what sources to cite when pitching to which audience.

For what it's worth, Amy did a whole run of plant-woo articles for Idunna.

The audience I am writing for (spirit workers and other like-minded professionals) are going to have the ability to check my research in their own practice.

...and will also be leery of bullshit. You are not writing bullshit, but what I am suggesting is ways to avoid the appearance of even the slightest whiff of bullshit.

My future work will go even further towards the woo (if such a thing is possible at this point) but will also have a great deal that needs me to pull out research that records gravegoods, ethnographic observations, cultural anthropology, and other accepted scholastic information; a single subject won't generally be covered by both sides, but there will naturally be some cross-over and I'll take your advice to heart and keep careful records of my information sources.

Great!

-- Lorrie

[abhasana.livejournal.com]

Admit it, you know you like it. Approach the cliff-edge at full throttle, with fierce joy, and find your wings halfway down...

*cough*

I will not admit to what we both already know. So there. ;P

That same livor mortis angle can be used to explain Why Hella Is That Color.

I've heard this elsewhere, too. The words to describe the colors of corpses translate to "hel-black/blue" and "corpse white" IIRC; the color of corpses would certainly find association with a death Goddess.

It doesn't have to be strictly scholastic works you cite, either--you will earn a certain amount of mileage if, say, you cite Bil Linzie and Amy Ahlberg-Venezia's articles when doing a bit on Amanita muscaria. "The spirit done tole me, but look! I'm corroborated by these other loons so we're all crazy together! Yay!" is, i'fact, helpful, if it also leads to the minefield of knowing what sources to cite when pitching to which audience.

Gah, I suppose I'll have to email Linzie one of these days. I respect his work a great deal, but he doesn't talk to some of the people I know, so I dunno why he'd talk to me if I asked to cite his material.

For what it's worth, Amy did a whole run of plant-woo articles for Idunna.

Really? Damn, I really do need to subscribe.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

I've heard this elsewhere, too. The words to describe the colors of corpses translate to "hel-black/blue" and "corpse white" IIRC; the color of corpses would certainly find association with a death Goddess.

Exactly they way they attach to a guy who likes to make 'em that way; I'm just saying.

Gah, I suppose I'll have to email Linzie one of these days. I respect his work a great deal, but he doesn't talk to some of the people I know, so I dunno why he'd talk to me if I asked to cite his material.

Well, while he was at the very first seidh workshop we ever did, he considers us some kind of unheathen Harner-addled fluffbunnies from what I've heard, and he never did answer the one e-mail I wrote him, but that, of itself, means bupkes.

I would say write him for politesse, but if he does not reply, excerpts are Fair Use and your ass is completely legally covered by copyright law.

Really? Damn, I really do need to subscribe.

You can! Online and everything, costs as much as your bone needles. You could even join the Troth (same price), for we are always in need of freaks and geeks such as yourself and myself, but subscribing to Idunna for a year is a safe option that's always available.

However, in the interest of Full Disclosure, I should say that having written those plant articles, Amy Ahlberg-Venezia left the Troth, including resignation of her Rede seat, so there'll be no more form that quarter--which doesn't stop Idunna from having a run of those articles in its back issue hoard, mind, but it means there aren't any more of them forthcoming.

On the other hand, what we have right now are a mind-blowing series of articles on soul lore from Winifred Rose Hodge, which I cannot recommend highly enough.

-- Lorrie

[abhasana.livejournal.com]

Exactly they way they attach to a guy who likes to make 'em that way; I'm just saying.

Oh yeah, totally. No argument.

I would say write him for politesse, but if he does not reply, excerpts are Fair Use and your ass is completely legally covered by copyright law.


Groovy. I'm a ways from that point, but I'll keep that in mind.

You can! Online and everything, costs as much as your bone needles. You could even join the Troth (same price), for we are always in need of freaks and geeks such as yourself and myself, but subscribing to Idunna for a year is a safe option that's always available.

I'm not much of a joiner, to be honest. I've been thinking about subscribing for some time, but never quite got around to it. Maybe next time I have a job I'll see if I can swing it.

On the other hand, what we have right now are a mind-blowing series of articles on soul lore from Winifred Rose Hodge, which I cannot recommend highly enough.

I've been hearing about those and I'm very excited to see them; a friend was going to xerox the selection and mail them to me, but it may be faster just to get the mags myself.

[abhasana.livejournal.com]

And KEEN icon! :D

[lwood.livejournal.com]

*grin* Yeah, but it has an obvious anti-aliasing issue--in layman's terms "that white pixelly border crap", which I would fix but I attempt mightily not to get into my successor's business.

-- Lorrie