The “Teal” Party

Every January, I throw a devotional in honor of Odin, to which we invite those of my kindred and the Umbanda House who are interested in possessory work with the Norse gods. This year, things got rather…interesting.

For those of you who were *not* at the party, it’s like this…

I have long held the theory that the jotnar are personified forces of nature. The ones that the gods interact with in the eddas are those that maintain the cycles of nature in a more or less orderly and positive way. Eventually, this Age of the Earth will come to an end, the balance will be upset, and the unbalanced, destructive jotnar, such as Surtr and Hrym will take over. The gods expect to fight, and lose, when that time comes– however it seems reasonable to assume that Odin and the others would prefer that humans not unbalance things and bring it on ahead of time.

Global Warming, if unchecked, is likely to do just that. So whether one accepts the validity of god-possession or not, the logic of doing something to fight it seems reasonable. If you are not convinced, watch AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH.

My personal belief is that as a heathen it is my duty to stand by my gods in this fight, and that the reason Odin has become so pushy in recent years is because he was recruiting.

In any case, what seemed to be happening at the party was that Odin was getting commitments from the other god/desses present, and then one of the participants who was not in trance brought out his oath ring, and Somebody got the bright idea of getting everyone present to swear to help in the fight against Global Warming.

I would feel more apologetic about having provided the means to entangle everyone’s wyrd, except that we’re all affected by this already. And one hardly needs to flyte (challenge) this oath– if we fail, we’re all going to be in deep do do. We may be anyway, but I’d rather go down knowing that I tried.

The gods can work on the jotnar, but given that human activities are creating the CO2 surplus, we are the ones that need to diminish it, in particular those of us who live in the US. Lots of small choices are causing the problem, and many small choices can start to solve it. It will need an effort at the level this country achieved in World War II, with local action working along with government regulation. Just recently there have been some promising moves in Washington, but the motivation has to come from all of us, until the 100th monkey gets the idea. I saw a generation transformed during the sixties; I saw the Berlin Wall go down– it *can* happen.

My personal first step is to buy more locally grown vegetables, save meat for celebrations, try to use less energy at home and plan my driving more carefully. I’ve already written to encourage my congresspeople– congresswomen, actually, in this district– to put government funding and legislation to reduce use of fossil fuels in place. They are already committed, but encouragement always helps. We need to encourage friends in other parts of the country to do the same.

As for the “Teal” Party– that’s Lorrie’s quip about what happens when Odin goes Green.