List of the most popular hashtags for theme #BALTICPAGANISM

A sun wheel aflame at Menuo Juodaragis festival, with Heilig band in the background.

Temple floor after a circle dance. ☀️

The lady who taught me to make šiaudinukai also produced this beautiful horse yesterday!

I happened upon this collection of holy stones quite by surprise at the soviet era section of the ethnocosmology museum of Lithuania (a museum for the cultural history of human interest in astronomy and space travel). The signs next to the stones simply say “holy stone”, where it came from, and when it was moved here. Lithuania has many of these “depressed” stones from the pagan era. Romuva (contemporary Lithuanian paganism) uses the water collected in the stones for ritual cleansing of the hands and face. Their original use is not known, as far as I understand.

Offering today for the vaettir and ancestors. #asatru #ásatrú #folkishheathen #woods #ancestors #landvaettir #balticpaganism #offering #ritual

This stone is called a “Mary’s footprint” stone. She was supposed to have left the print when she stepped upwards to heaven on her assumption day (two days ago!) It’s understood that Lithuanian footprint stones like this were sacred prior to Christianity, and we can assume that the meaning of the stone as an opening to another world was true for pagans as well (but as part of a different narrative, of course.)

Carrying the sacred fire up Šatrija hill for a sunset ritual. As I wrote in my last post, a small group of people have been keeping this fire lit in this place for almost a year now, in shifts. Sunset and sunrise are the perfect moments for a hilltop sun/fire honouring ritual.

Sunset ritual on Šatrija.

Offering flax seeds and honey to Saule - the Sun goddess on Rasa midsummer ritual, thanking her for all the warmth and growth she brought us. Saule is the goddess of life and fertility, warmth and health. Saule is one of the older generation gods, the cult of which eventually grew into Perkunas worship, but on key dates like solstices, she was addressed separately. The bonfires and fire altars are burned through the short night of Rasa and she is greeted on the sunrise in the morning. The Lithuanian and Latvian words for "the world" (pasaulis and pasaule) are translated as "[a place] under the Sun". In Lithuanian mythology, Saulė is the mother of other planets: Indraja (Jupiter),Sėlija (Saturn), Žiezdrė (Mars), Vaivora (Mercury) The Algiz /Elhaz rune part of Kupole that you see behind me also represents (besides the magical herbs gathering recipe) miraculous growth of the world tree with three branches, one of which blooms like the Sun, the other – like the Moon, and the third – like a Star. Photo credit: @naruunas / /  #summersolstice #solsticecelebration #rasa#kupole #paganway #oldways #firealtar#paganrituals #balticpaganritual#baltupaprociai #baltai #pagonys #jonines#mahattanpagans #nycpagans #nycwitches#lietuviususivienyjimasusa #sla#balticpaganism #litha #litharirual#midsummer #vidurvasaris#lithuanianalliance #sunworship #oldgods #nycpaganevents