Heathen Soul Lore: A Personal Approach

by Winifred Hodge Rose

( This version has color illustrations and uses special characters to spell foreign names and words.) This is Book II of the Heathen Soul Lore series, which follows after Book I, entitled "Heathen Soul Lore Ancient and Modern Germanic Pagan Concepts of the Souls." To understand and work with the book you now hold, you will need to be familiar with the material in Book I, or else refer to the relevant articles on my website, HeathenSoulLore.net. In "Heathen Soul A Personal Approach," we move from the conceptual and theoretical levels of soul lore discussed in Book I, to comprehensive personal and practical levels of Heathen spiritual understanding. Here are explanations of the souls, based on research presented in Book I, but tailored to modern Heathen life. Guidelines and exercises are provided to promote deep, personal exploration of each of the souls, and lead to an understanding of the roles each soul plays in our daily life, our character, actions, choices and decisions. Each chapter about the individual souls is accompanied by a bind-rune to promote meditation on the nature of that soul, for those who have knowledge of rune-lore. When we become Heathen, we gradually become aware of a whole different world-view, one that includes views of what our souls are, and how they interact with all other beings and other Worlds of the cosmos. Who are each of your souls? They are complex beings, and getting to know each of them is like getting to know another person, but a person who is yourself, expanded in directions you may not have known were there. This book offers ways to explore and grow your souls in a Heathen context, and to integrate your conscious connections with them into your daily life. Reviewing Book I of this “There’s a wonderful shaping and hope-bringing quality to the work here that I think will play a key role in helping to move Heathenry towards something deep and infinitely satisfying. It's really hard to overstate the impact this book could have.” --Cat Heath, author of "Elves, Witches & Spinning Old Heathen Magic in the Modern Day."

390 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 24, 2022

About the author

Welcome! I'm Winifred Hodge Rose, an Elder of the Troth, an inclusive, international Heathen organization. I've followed a Heathen path for more than thirty years, serving as a scholar, writer, leader, teacher, priestess, and oracular spaewife in many Heathen venues. I grew up as the daughter of a US diplomat stationed in various countries during the 1950s and 1960s, and later lived for years in Greece and Germany. I learned foreign languages through immersion, and learned to observe and adapt to different cultures and world-views. This led me to study ancient Germanic languages, literature, and etymology on my own. These experiences have supported my efforts to understand, as well as possible, ancient Heathen world-views and adapt them for modern Heathen use. I have Bachelor's and Master's degrees in the natural sciences, and a Master's degree in political science. I'm now retired from my career as a senior research scientist working on methods for watershed and natural resources management on military installations in the US and Germany. I'm blessed with two grown children, three growing grandsons, and a good life in the Illinois countryside with my blacksmith husband Dean Rose (and various critters). Nowadays I consider myself an independent scholar of Heathen theology and philosophy, and spend most of my time thinking, studying, pursuing spiritual practice, writing and publishing on these topics. My publishing imprint is WordfrumaPress.net.

Reviews

[Charles Oppenheimer · Rating 5 out of 5]

in depth

This book builds up so much more for the heathen soul from the first book. This book also iterates the importance of identifying and connecting get both books.