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I'm not much of a morning person. I've always preferred late evening when most people are asleep and the psychic white noise of their ever chattering consciousnesses is finally silent --more or less. Day time means having to put on my "Midgard drag" as i like to call it, and brave the crowded world again with all the psychic shielding that entails. Really, i'd rather sleep in. 

Still, day brings with it Sunna's magnificence and that is a gift and a glory worth hauling oneself out of bed to experience. She is our sun Goddess, sometimes called Sol, and She blazes across the heavens just like Her brother Mani and yet so very different.

If i were more of a morning person, I would rise early and sit on my porch in order to watch Her drive back the darkness of night, the very fabric of the grey curtain of evening rolling itself back before Her gleaming chariot. It truly is something to see. I'm not a morning person though so instead, I drag myself out later in the morning and make offerings, usually of wine to Her with simple prayers --as coherent as I can muster upon first waking. 

Sometimes i wait until the evening when i can make my offerings with more mindfulness. Then I will spend more time in prayer. We don't talk much about Sunna (and Mani) in contemporary Heathenry but the majority of our ancestors lived agrarian lives. They lived and died by Sunna's grace. We do today too, we just don't realize it as readily because few of us are living bound directly to the land. We still depend on the fruits of the land though to nourish us and our families. We still depend on Sunna. 

When Sunna ceases to drive Her chariot across the sky the earth will cease to be in any way livable. That's worth considering now and again. Sunna's labors further life on our planet, are essential to it.  The least we can do is pour out an offering to Her once a week. 

Hail Sunna, 
mighty Pacesetter. 
Hail the Goddess
Who drives Her gleaming chariot across darkened skies, 
bringing light, bringing warmth, bringing the grace of morning. 
Hail Sunna, 
Protector of our ancestors, 
Who brought health
and the bounty of a good harvest. 
Sister of Mani, 
blazing Goddess of life-giving Power, 
Hail. 



This ends my week long cycle of daily devotion. I may revisit this again in the future but for now, I'll consider the cycle concluded. I've been gratified with how popular these week long writings have been and encourage folks to share with me the various ways that y'all honor these Gods. 



 


Comments

01/20/2013 08:37

this is beautiful Galina. Truly beautiful. Thank you for your work ans the sharing of it

Reply
liza
01/20/2013 09:51

When I was but a wee little lass... ok, a young teen, I was deep in the fundi church. I was on a bible study retreat. We were going through the names of God in the bible, what they meant, the symbolism etc. (yes, this is related...)

I got up one of those mornings extra early, because I was feeling disconnected. I wanted time alone to pray. I was struggling with my faith, because it didn't "feel right."While I know part of faith is holding steadfast to what you know even when the feelings aren't there, I was struggling quite a bit.

Anyhow, I got up, and I watched the sunrise over the FL ocean. I started to sob. I mean full body sobs. I remembered sneaking out of my house when I was little to watch the sunrise, and listen to a neighbor play the flute to "play up the sun." I felt connected, touched, healed, and whole in that moment. I took a picture, and when the film was developed I wrote, "The name of God" on the back. My pastor did not appreciate this, but I kept that picture inside of my bible for years, as a reminder of that feeling of connection and wholeness.

Now, it still took me a very long time before I left the church, and I had a reprise through the Catholic church before it was all said and done, but I look at that day as basically /the/ day I began to really realize I wasn't Christian. I didn't know that there were other beliefs out there. I didn't realize that many of the things I had started doing, and just not talking about in church, were things others did. I also figured the bible said no other Gods /before me/ so that meant there were other Gods, right...?

Sunna got through to me, in a time and a place that I was open, and desperately looking for my path. She and Mani guided me in very concrete ways while I was struggling with the spirits and my environment telling me that it was either 1-not real, or 2-evil. While my journey has been a twisted one (aren't most?), She has been a constant guide.

I have that picture on my alter for Her, and I am mindful of that moment every day when I wake and have morning devotional times. A few years ago, I had the chance to go to CA. The only thing I /needed/ to make sure I did before we left was to see the sunset over the ocean. It was a sharp contrast to the full body sobs of desperation that I had felt for that sunrise. It was pure blissful peace.

Hail Sunna! You have kept me on course, when I didn't even know there was a course to be kept! <3

Reply
Kairixian
01/23/2013 19:54

What a wonderful post! While my heart is with Mani I hold great respect for Sunna. It really is a great shame Sunna and Mani are not respected as much as the other gods. I often wonder if it is a sheer lack of mention in the currently available lore that causes it... or perhaps if it is that they are of Jotun stock and much of the Asatru/Heathen community seems to nearly equate Jotun with an Abrahamic religion styled demon.

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