Asatru Folk Assembly - The Nature of Blot Part 2 October 2008

00:00:00.000 it's a two-part process first we give our gifts to the holy powers and then

00:00:15.840 secondly they give their gifts to us now the way that we give our gifts involves

00:00:21.960 taking a drinking horn such as this one that you see here we fill it with honey

00:00:28.080 wine, which, as you'll remember, is called mead. And it is through this that we give

00:00:34.480 our gifts. Now, the way we do this is that we will pass this horn filled with mead around

00:00:41.860 the circle of people. Each participant will put their hands onto the horn, thus transmitting

00:00:49.580 their spiritual might, their loyalty, all these intangibles, their love of the holy

00:00:55.740 powers from heart to hand to horn. It makes the round of all the people with each individual

00:01:02.680 putting their love, their devotion, their loyalty into the horn. Then the person who's officiating

00:01:08.980 raises it up high and offers all of these gifts to the gods and goddesses.

00:01:15.620 then the mead itself is poured out as a libation remember that the mead the honey wine itself is

00:01:27.620 not the gift it is merely a symbol of the gift and a vehicle for the gift the actual gift is this

00:01:36.800 soul essence this loyalty this spiritual might and main that each participant gives to the gods

00:01:43.740 and goddesses so that takes care of the first part we have given our gifts to the gods now

00:01:52.080 because a gift calls for a gift we will receive their blessings and we do that by filling up

00:01:57.920 another horn with mead the person who is performing the ritual then raises that up high again so that

00:02:06.400 the holy powers can infuse it with their blessings with their might and main with their inspiration

00:02:13.540 with their power with all the things that we get from them and now we have to share this might

00:02:21.620 with the assembled people and there are two ways to do this one way is to take an evergreen sprig

00:02:29.860 pour some of the mead into a bowl a blessing bowl and to then dip the sprig into it and sprinkle

00:02:38.800 the assembled people with the the mead that has been charged with the might of

00:02:43.420 the gods this is a way of physically transferring through the medium of the

00:02:48.700 mead the power of the gods to their people another way to do this somewhat

00:02:55.300 less traditional but something that works well if you don't have too many

00:02:58.720 people actually there is to pass the horn from person to person so that each

00:03:03.120 person can drink of the consecrated mead and thus internalize the power of the

00:03:08.940 gods. So when do we do bloats? Often bloats are done at the major seasonal

00:03:18.120 festivals. In the middle of winter this would be the familiar festival of Yuletide.

00:03:22.800 In the summer we have midsummer and throughout the year at other points in

00:03:27.960 calendar. We have important seasonal events that we celebrate with bloats. Now bloats can be offered

00:03:35.580 to all the gods and goddesses generally at the same time or they can be offered to specific

00:03:41.680 deities, specific gods, specific goddesses for more or less specific needs. Throughout this

00:03:49.920 presentation I've talked about the gifts of the gods as being largely intangibles, things like

00:03:55.700 wisdom and inspiration and encouragement and good luck and all of these things. And all of that is

00:04:02.920 true, and perhaps that is more common in our day-to-day life in terms of the things that we

00:04:08.000 actually need. But in the old days, bloats were often given so that one could ask for victory in

00:04:15.560 battle or fertility or for good crops, for prosperity, for many different ordinary mundane

00:04:23.900 things that really have their comparative points with us today. We don't fight our battles with

00:04:30.740 axes and swords, but we all fight our battles in daily life. And often we would like a little

00:04:37.640 more inspiration, a little more wisdom, a little more luck to help us to get the things that we

00:04:43.420 really need. So that's the way that we and the Asatru Folk Assembly give bloat to the gods and

00:04:51.940 goddesses in today's world. Now, a thousand years ago, if you had gone to a seasonal festival like

00:05:00.280 maybe midsummer or in the wintertime, perhaps the Yuletide festival, you would have seen something

00:05:06.680 a little bit different because that was an agricultural society. They raised their own

00:05:11.840 crops, they had their own animals, they raised those animals, and they killed and ate those

00:05:17.560 animals. So, had you gone to such a festival, you might well see that an animal was drawn aside,

00:05:23.760 that it was consecrated to the gods, and cooked, and then all partook of the feast, and symbolically,

00:05:30.840 of course, the gods themselves partake of that feast as well. Even in this case, though, it's

00:05:36.240 important to realize that the actual gift is not the animal. The gods don't need dead animals

00:05:42.740 any more than they actually need the liquid that is the mead and the horn.

00:05:47.080 Both of these things are representational and to some extent media

00:05:51.140 through which the divine might is given to the people.

00:05:56.220 In summary then, the bloat is a mutual exchange of gifts,

00:06:02.640 usually intangible gifts, between our gods and goddesses and we, their people.

00:06:08.700 in the act of performing bloat

00:06:12.220 those of us who follow Alcetru today

00:06:14.660 are constantly reminded

00:06:16.460 that the gods and the goddesses

00:06:18.760 are not tyrants

00:06:20.300 they are not our masters

00:06:22.620 we are not their slaves

00:06:25.000 that we are in fact

00:06:26.580 their blood kin

00:06:27.900 and their friends

00:06:29.940 and that is one of the things that we like

00:06:32.960 very much about our

00:06:34.840 ancestral religion of Alcetru

00:06:36.820 Bye.

Asatru Folk Assembly - February 01, 2021

The Nature of Blot Part 2 October 2008

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