Hrafnar, “the Ravens”, is my heathen kindred in Berkeley California. Its activities are focused on the gods, goddesses, and culture of the pre-Christian Germanic peoples. It is the context for most of my local activities.
The group evolved from the first rune class I taught in 1988-89. The results of that class eventually turned into my book, Taking Up the Runes. It was a wonderful group of people, including several poets and scholars, and by the time we had worked our way through the 24 runes of the Elder Futhark, we had a good grounding in the old Germanic culture and religion. Our next goal was to explore the ancient Norse oracular practice. You can see the results in The Way of the Oracle (for more about this, see Oracle Work, below, and my seidh site). By this time (1990) we knew we wanted to keep working together as a heathen kindred, and Hrafnar has been going strong ever since. Some of our rituals were published in A Book of Blóts, available from the Troth. For information on who we are and what we’re doing, see our website.
We call it a kindred, but over the years it has become a community linked by our mailing list. For some, who attend most of our events, it is a primary religious focus, while others are also active in other groups and attend when they can. Others have moved out of the area but still consider themselves part of our religious family. The kindred as a whole meets once a month to honor the gods and goddesses of the North. Other monthly meetings include the chorus, the current class or study group, and a class on the lore. Locally, Hrafnar is a member circle of The Fellowship of the Spiral Path. Nationally, we are an affiliated kindred of The Troth.