Thanks very much for these thoughts and the encouragement!
So, the very short answer to "why Idun?" is because she told me to :) The longer explanation is that some of my strongest spiritual experiences, including the one that smacked the materialism right out of me, involved Her. Through prayer and meditation, I got the impression I needed to put together a more formal prayer practice, then that it should include beads, then that it ought to draw on the Rosary more heavily for inspiration. Along the way, I've gotten intuitions that Idun's links to the World Tree (made explicit in Odin's Raven Galdr, which is of contested age/provenance, but also from one of Snorri's kenning's given for her, "Seed of Yggdrasil") is something I should lean into. As for "what links Idun and Woden?", again, I'm drawing heavily on my own experiences here, but I find the theory that Bragi is a hypostasis of Odin at least intriguing, and I find some of the similarities between the Idun myth and Odin winning the Mead of Poetry highly suggestive. I think there's something about linking all of this having to do with inspiration, initiation, and overcoming death.
All that being said, I think your analysis of why Frigg makes a good fit is spot on, and your rough draft for a "Hail Frigg" is wonderful. At some point in this project, I'm thinking about working out how to go about customizing things for the deities that work best for you, since my own take is highly idiosyncratic. Something more specific than "just do what works for you!" but also more open-ended than "just plug in the right names, but keep everything else the same".
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branchandroot
Re: "Hail Idun" Variants, and Any Questions of Which to Ask More?
Date: 2023-02-27 10:40 pm (UTC)So, the very short answer to "why Idun?" is because she told me to :) The longer explanation is that some of my strongest spiritual experiences, including the one that smacked the materialism right out of me, involved Her. Through prayer and meditation, I got the impression I needed to put together a more formal prayer practice, then that it should include beads, then that it ought to draw on the Rosary more heavily for inspiration. Along the way, I've gotten intuitions that Idun's links to the World Tree (made explicit in Odin's Raven Galdr, which is of contested age/provenance, but also from one of Snorri's kenning's given for her, "Seed of Yggdrasil") is something I should lean into. As for "what links Idun and Woden?", again, I'm drawing heavily on my own experiences here, but I find the theory that Bragi is a hypostasis of Odin at least intriguing, and I find some of the similarities between the Idun myth and Odin winning the Mead of Poetry highly suggestive. I think there's something about linking all of this having to do with inspiration, initiation, and overcoming death.
All that being said, I think your analysis of why Frigg makes a good fit is spot on, and your rough draft for a "Hail Frigg" is wonderful. At some point in this project, I'm thinking about working out how to go about customizing things for the deities that work best for you, since my own take is highly idiosyncratic. Something more specific than "just do what works for you!" but also more open-ended than "just plug in the right names, but keep everything else the same".
Cheers,
Jeff