The Hoard

Paganism makes you hoard weird things. Heathenry even more so, probably, because we tend to take our cues from Vikings. And Vikings loved shiny things so much, I’m still not entirely sure they’re not just tall, wingless magpies.

Raiding Dublin is for the birds, is what I’m saying.

I think anyone with vaguely woo leanings is going to pick up a crystal at some point, if only because they’re pretty. Add in a witchy bent, and hag stones, jars (ye gods, the jars) and cool sticks are soon to follow.

Also, I have a dog, so sticks are an inevitability.

In the last 5 years since converting, I’ve collected:

• Acorns
• Jars
• Rusty nails
• Bits of wax
• More tealight tins than you can shake a stick at
• Joker cards
• Maple leaves
• Juniper branches and berries
• Juniper twigs (which are now hair sticks)
• Oak leaves
• Hag stones
• Vaguely heart shaped stones
• A weirdly eroded river stone that looks straight up volcanic
• Any bright orange stone I find
• Railroad coke (the fuel, not the drink. Or the powder.)
• Tangled fishing line
• Turtle shells
• Mardi Gras beads (I had a lot of gold ones. Gullveig did not flash me for them.)
• An owl pellet
• little bones
• A buck’s skull, whose antlers were sawed off (my avatar, in fact)
• Ferns
• Dandelions galore
• Little purple flowers of any variety (since Loki had me pick one for Sigyn)
• A kaun-shaped twig that fell out of my patio Ash tree. Yes, the falcon one. I felt personally attacked.
• Grape vines
• Beer cans (for recycling, as a favor to the landvættir)
• Bus tokens (from the landvættir)
• Crystals
• Mint tins
• scarves
• Spiralbound notebook wire for bracelets
• Folded origami boxes
• A multipurpose chess board
• A magnetic chess set, missing all the pieces (makes good lighter storage, though)
• Bowls. So many bowls.
• FEATHERS.

The feathers. It’s kind of ridiculous. I had a vaguely feathery association for Loki early on ’cause of the weird falcon thing, but when I had a landscaping/dogwalking job the feathers would pop up constantly. Including a peacock feather at the dog park nobody else spotted.

To my knowledge, we don’t have anyone raising peacocks in the immediate area. Most of the homesteaders here prefer chickens and guineafowl. So that’s already weird. Either way, who doesn’t notice a peacock feather? That’s some ridiculousness.