Fitness is a big part of my spiritual journey, taking care of my health in natural ways as i am able, and working to build my body up in strength is important to me. And Im really happy to be seeing some great definition and some good muscles popping

Embrace the primal spirit, connect with the world

I recently got all new necklaces/amulets to change out my mass produced ones that I had gotten on Amazon years ago. I found a pagan goods crafter that I got the wolf tooth necklace from, Gungnir and Mjölnir I got from a company in Ukraine, they are bronze with a silver coating, and the Trollkors I had forged by one of my tribe members, and I'm getting hand crafted chains made by a jeweler in my tribe for Gungnir and Mjölnir

Spring has come, which means its time to begin raiding for supplies 🤣

😁 Godt dag / nat alle sammen

Let's get a book thread going. What are you favorite books on Norse/Germanic Paganism & Pre-Christian Culture? For me, The Viking Way by Neil Price, and Runes by Michael P Barnes

Úlfhéðnar: The Óðinnic Wolf Cult To preface this, this won't be a historical post on the Úlfhéðnar. This is something from my personal practice, inspired by history and used for the current modern time of Norse Paganism. For me and my journey Wolves have been a staple of my practice, and my own personality. Something I have embraced fully this past year. My middle name being Ulfr, and from a very young age I knowing my Fylgja. She is a black wolf that watches over me, I have seen her in a few dreams, but mostly others who dream of me see this wolf. My aunt most notably when I was a young boy. And today, most often when my fylgja is seen by others, they see the wolf in distress, and this has alerted a few within my circle of hard times I am dealing with, as I am not generally one to openly speak on what I am dealing with. Anyways, for a long time I was lead to believe the wolf was just bad, untrustworthy, angry, and dangerous, a force of destruction. I've been told many negative things through my life about the wolf, but I looked to the positive aspects of the wolf, protection, loyalty, and one huge factors for me, the untamed primal spirit, Freedom. Now onto this whole "Úlfhéðnar" and "Óðinnic Wolf Cult" thing. In 2022, I started my organization, Úlfung (Wolf Tribe) for all those following the Norse spirituality in my area, and over this last year I've worked on a sort is side project within my organization, The Óðinnic Wolf Cult, something we know somewhat of as we know about the Berserkir, the Úlfhéðnar, and the phenomena of the Germanic Männerbund (Koryos), that became what these warriors were. In general it's been common through history, for many shaman, and warriors alike to wear the pelts of animals and take on their aspects in rituals and battle. So one day I really sat down and asked myself, how would the Óðinnic Wolf Cult today look like? (And of course can't be called Wolf Tribe without some wolf stuff going on 🤣). Now of course, we as Norse pagans, are not warriors like they were in the Viking Age, and before. And we certainly are not Vikings. But the spirit of this Wolf Cult doesn't just die off. So I got to writing, and doing far more research on the subject of the old Koryos, and the Úlfhéðnar in the Viking Age, looking at the phenomena. We know little of what was really practiced, but we can make educated guesses, and interpretations. This is a Faith after all, and we are reconstructing day by day, so long as we don't try and change/rewrite the history and properly acknowledge our Personal Gnosis and Interpretations and make the right distinctions then all is well. So in my interpretation, it looks something like this: To start, it is a Männerbund, or Koryos, a Brotherhood or Band of men, so the first requirement for our group is of course being a man. (Sorry ladies! We also have female only positions within our organization though!) Now as stated we aren't Vikings, and we arent the Úlfhéðnar of legend either. Its 2025, we aren't 'berserking' into battle. So on that, we won't just allow any would be dude with anger issues, who bought same faux fur shoulder pelt all the dudes from the Beard Struggle wear off of Etsy, claiming that he 'See's red when he's angry' and nothing can stop him! (You can see I've had some personal experience there...) And being in America... For Helvede... It seems there's a plethora of guys who know nothing about the spirituality, but they saw something about Berserkers once and it was super MANLY so they become BerserkerVikingKing9000. Now I won't say that fighting is off the table within this though, My inspiration aside from wolves of course, does come along from my profession in Private Contracting. Fighting is kind of a big deal, and being capable of handling yourself and protecting others is a key factor. So we do take a dedication to fitness, and training, and believe each person who chooses to follow this, should be very capable even if it is not exactly necessary. For me, there is no separation between my faith and my work life or anything else. My faith is with me always, and in everything. Infact, my wolf pelt is sitting out on the passenger seat of my car while I'm at work, it's never far from me! Within our 'Wolf Cult' one of the biggest aspects is further embracing the Animistic aspect of the old ways, digging deep into the primal elements of ourselves. Heavily embracing the spirit in all things, and taking it upon ourselves to join efforts in cleaning up parks, wildlife areas and more. While we encourage all of our members to do so, as this faith being Animistic should drive one to that, being conscious of the natural world greatly, it is a Requirement for those in the wolf Cult to do so with their brothers. The Dedication to Óðinn. It is an Óðinnic Wolf Cult after all, and with that we swear not only oaths of fealty, and Loyalty to one another, but we swear to Óðinn, we fight for, learn and follow Óðinn's path. We follow the god of fury and frenzy, acting as his howling winds in the wild. Embracing the wild and primal wolf spirits! Many of our practices involve Utiseta, and trance dancing. Going to sit out in the woods which are most sacred to us in just Wolf Skins, as we work to connect and learn from the ancestors before us, or dancing wildly by the fire howling out in the woods and embracing the primal and free spirit of the wolf. Among all the other practices of Forn Seð. To avoid writing a book here, I am condensing a lot, and keeping it simple, but overall being a part of our Wolf Cult takes a lot of dedication and an unwavering faith in the Animistic ways of Forn Seð. And in terms of dedication, we also require that those who want to be part of it have a genuine wolf pelt to wear. We have ethical sources the pelts must be obtained from, and it benefits Wolf Conservations and efforts. And on the off chance a member hunts and kills a wolf, so long as it isn't them just going out targeting and killing a wolf for the sake of its pelt, and they actually had a reason they had to defend themselves or another from the wolf, we allow them to have that kill be made into a pelt to wear. Anyways, this may all sound silly to some, be an inspiration to others, or something that some don't care much for, and that is okay! But if it inspires you somewhat, than I am glad! Enjoy this fun video in the Koryos for further inspiration and learning as well: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LbIwi1HxmpE Image from the Torslunda Plates

Ulf

Cooking Stew over the coals for our Dísablót feast

Exploring more on my Ancestry / Finding more of my living relatives in Scandinavia. I've spoken about my family here and there before, and I've always loved just exploring what made my family my family and all the little weird bits along the way. The most recent "discovery", more of a discovery for myself, stemming from something I already knew about a little bit. Talking with my grandmother and diving through the treasure trove of immigration records she has held onto for all on my Danish family, I have come to see, there's a whole ton more Swedish in my line than I had previously known of. I had been privy to part of my family being Swedish but I didn't know how much. Infact most of the Danielsen's of my family go back to Danielsson's from Southern Sweden. I also discovered another family name in the records, from Sweden, Petersson. While i know of a few family members of mine in Malmø Sweden, they have the Danielsen surname, and moved to Sweden more recently (30 years ago) from Copenhagen, and i have discovered some cousins that have the Danielsson name. Its nothing super ground breaking, but this does help me find more family members in my large broken into pieces family, and trace back some more history. I can see why I didn't know just how Swedish part of my family was though, my Grandma Danielsen was a Proud Dane, and only spoke of Danish things, there wasn't much Swedish talk to be had around these parts! 🤣 One of the best parts of these discoveries and exploration of my family though is it has built a stronger connection between me and my grandma. My family being very disconnected, and those here in America not caring much about our family immigration from Scandinavia or our Heritage overall does make my grandma quite sad, especially since my great grandma and my great great grandma passed in many things before my family came to the U.S. wanting the family to never lose our Scandinavian roots. But my Grandma has me, and that's made her very happy, and in turn made myself happy. Great thanks to the Internet aswell, as I've been able to ask many with similar surnames, and found mutuals (through FB sadly) of family members, and been able to ask them about the family, and even ask if so and so was / is a relative and I've found a great many cousins!