Toward Ecosophy

 I think most of my readers know at this point that longtime reader Sven Eriksen and I are hard at work on a system of Golden Dawn magic designed for Heathens, building on the Heathen Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram presented in an earlier post on this journal. That's well under way at this point; the Heathen equivalent of the Middle Pillar exercise will be posted here next week, and a book on the subject -- working title Gullna Dagrenning: The Heathen Golden Dawn -- is in the works as well. The goal of the project is to give Heathens who want to practice ceremonial magic a tested, powerful system of self-initiation into a version of Golden Dawn magic that calls on the powers of the Aesir and Vanir rather than the Judeo-Christian names of God, and relies entirely on Heathen symbolism. 

The basics are already solidly in place. Obviously the magical rituals and the meditations will be reworked to invoke Heathen powers and use Heathen symbolism; just as obviously, the runes will be the basic symbolic alphabet and the core divination system. The one question we've got -- and here's something where my Heathen readers can help us out if they're willing -- is what else belongs in the mix. 

In the Hermetic GD, the "what else" included a lot of astrology and alchemical symbolism, as well as the Tarot. In the Druidical GD -- the system presented in my book The Celtic Golden Dawn -- the "what else" included herbal alchemy, sacred geometry, and medicinal herbalism, since these are all things that have been part of the Druid Revival tradition since its early days. The question in our minds is what the "what else" should be for the Heathen Golden Dawn. There'll be rune lore, more rune lore, and still more rune lore -- oh, and did we mention rune lore? ;-) -- but what else should a Heathen ceremonial magician study in the course of his or her self-initiation? Your suggestions are welcome. 

Oh, and one other thing. Our best guess as to how to say "Golden Dawn" in Old Icelandic is Gullna Dagrenning. If any of my readers know their way around that language, and can either confirm that for us or correct it, we'd be most grateful. 

Many thanks for your help!