Product Description

An overview of all the religious traditions of the Northern Tradition illustrating their diverse scope and how they have developed into modern-day religions. NORTHERN TRADITION FOR THE SOLITARY PRACTITIONER is a groundbreaking look at the development of devotional work within the body of polytheistic religious traditions ranging from Theodism to Asatru to Norse Paganism, that comprise the greater umbrella of the Northern Tradition. While interest in devotional and experiential work within these traditions has been growing rapidly over the past few years, this is the first book to offer an inclusive look at the diverse scope and breadth of such practices as a living, modern-day religion. It features an in-depth exploration of altar work, prayer, prayer beads, ritual work, sacred images, lore and a thorough examination of the common core cosmology that forms the foundation of belief for the vast expanse of Northern Tradition communities. NORTHERN TRADITION FOR THE SOLITARY PRACTITIONER is not denomination-specific: rather, it seeks to provide an entry into interior practice for anyone involved in a branch of this broad family of traditions of the ancient Norse, Germanic and Saxon peoples, using material suitable for the solitary, independent practitioner. Those outside of the Northern Tradition who wish to deepen their own devotional practice will find this book helpful in their own work, as well.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #455034 in Books
• Published on: 2009-01-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 254 pages

About the Author
Galina Krasskova is a free-range tribalist Heathen who has been a priest of Odin for more than a decade. Her primary interest is Heathen devotional work and she has both written and lectured extensively on the subject. Raven Kaldera is a Northern-Tradition Pagan Shaman.

Customer Reviews

A well written book, slightly unfortunate title
'Northern Tradition for the Solitary Practitioner: A Book of Prayer, Devotional Practice, and the Nine Worlds of Spirit' sounds like it would concern itself primarily with the practice of a kind of pan-Heathenry in a solitary manner and context. However, this is not what the book is about at all; in fact the book describes in some detail the importance of solitary devotionals and prayer, not solitary blots or symbels etc. The title should have better reflected that -- that is not to dent the inherent worth of the book which I heartily recommend! I just think the title is going to give people unreasonable expectations as to its content.

The book is well written in clear concise prose and I enjoyed reading it. The authors obviously put a lot of work into the piece but I did feel that they spent far too much time discussing the various niggles and negatives of the Heathen community. For the beginner it would certainly scare them off! I would recommend that whoever ends up reading it to just plough on through the first few chapters because it does pick up. One good thing about the book is that authors quote some very insightful observations from members of said community and quite a few of them give note worthy pointers for solo practice.

The contents is as follows: Introduction, The Northern Tradition Landscape, The Evolution of Practice, Core Cosmology, Meditation and Prayer, Prayer Beads, Solitary Rites, Altar Work and God Posts, Doing the Work, The Conundrum of Words, Epilogue and Appendix: Deity Altars and Offerings.

Even though this book was co-authored by Galina Krasskova it really isn't like her other book (Exploring the Northern Tradition which is an excellent beginners introduction to Heathenry). 'Northern Tradition for the Solitary Practitioner' discusses certain parts of religion, namely prayer, altars, ethics, offerings and personal devotionals in considerable detail -- making the book most valuable for those past the beginners stage and who are working on integrating the religion into their daily life. It will also be useful to those attempting to understand the importance of prayer and maintaining a reciprocal relationship between humans and the gods. The authors also give some example devotional activities to perform for certain gods and goddesses, namely Njord, Sigyn, the Ancestors, Land Wights and Tiw -- I felt that there could have been more example devotionals than just those mentioned but Krasskova had written several devotional activities in her other book 'Northern Traditions', so I guess it doesn't matter too much.

The most helpful part of the book was most certainly the Appendix which went into some detail regarding the symbols, offerings, colours and associations of a very wide range of gods and spirits. Certainly for a beginner this would be the best part of the book -- actually for this part alone the book is worth buying in my opinion.

The discussion of prayer beads was lovely and quite inspiring. And I enjoyed the section on god posts which I'd read about in a historical context but did not realise it was a practice that modern day practitioners had adopted. All in all I recommend this book, but bare in mind it's not about solitary heathenry but rather a solitary practice of devotionals. The nature of the book is interesting and is well needed as many books do not go into nearly as much detail as is presented here; it's just a shame the title of the book is suggesting something different!