Riding The Bones

Larisa Hunter

During her time with Kenaz Kindred she lectured at numerous Canadian heathen and pagan festivals, written articles for several books, and recently published her first book, “Fulltrui: Patrons in Asatru” (Megalithica Books, Immanion Press).

Sarah Strickland

Creative Director for Little Bird Books, Sarah has proven herself as an exemplary editor, and writer. She has been a member of many writing organizations and has several years of experience with writing dialogue and children’s literature.

Sheal Mullin-Berube

Born in Montreal, Quebec and now residing in Northern Ontario. A practicing eclectic, solitary Druidic Shaman with Unitarian Universalists ties.

Overview

This project contains three books and a oracle deck that was based on personal inspiration by the authors of the three volumes. The project dives into the modern views of death and dying and squares that against ancient views and dives into Hel and Morrigan as a frame for the possible inclusion and exclusion of ancestor veneration. Riding The Bones is Book One.

Synopsis

What is death? How do we deal with loss? Riding The Bones is a book that explores our relationship with life and death and the spiritual past that inspires us to form views on how we personally cope with loss. The book details not only a modern exploration of how we mourn, cope and deal with loss but a snapshot into time as the book explores the history of Celtic and Norse people and their relationship with the gods. The worldview of connectivity in an infinite cycle may seem like a utopian view, but for the ancient people, the world of life and death was intricately connected. The care of the dead and the preparation of bodies was imperative to their crossing and was ever evolving. Riding the Bones details the deep relationships they had with the dead and the use and care of bodies and how one could transition from humble body to divine grandmother.

Book One: Riding The Bones

Overview

  • The book is divided into multiple sections.
  • It introduces both the Nordic and Celtic cultures, beliefs and backgrounds as well as gives an extensive overview on the primary goddesses [Hel and Morrigan]. 
  • The book dives into variations on death and related lore/practices as well as theories on the death journey.
  • It contains ghost stories, myths and related lore
  • It features articles written by Katie Harwood [Why Children Don’t Go to Valhalla] and Tal Lee
  • The book is extensively researched and provides a massive amount of references for others to follow.
  • It dives into personal experiences with death and dying
  • Reflects varying views about ancestor veneration
  • Contains funeral practices, rituals and customs
  • Discusses death/dying in the modern age
  • As well as ton of other information

Book Two: Summoning The Bones

Overview

  • In the second book we dive into the  other goddesses that will be included in the oracle deck.
  • The second will include;
    • rituals
    • poetry
    • meditations
    • and more
      • to each goddess both Nordic and Celtic

Riding The Bones Podcast Episodes

Podcast Episode One

The first of three episodes on the project

Podcast Episode Two

The second of three episodes on the project

Podcast Episode Three

The last of three episodes on the project

Available Now

The Research

A list of all Academia.edu, Common Domain books, and all resources used in writing the three books.

Visual Presentation

A full online presentation of the project including a talk from each author involved.

Coming Soon

The Morrigan

An in-depth article on her and the practices involving her current and past concepts. May include expansive workshops and information for those interested in the Celtic gods.

Hel

An in-depth series on Hel and the practices modern/past including an expansive workshop series on her and a virtual q&a with the authors involved in researching her.

The Research

A list of all Academia.edu, Common Domain books, and all resources used in writing the three books.

Sources from Academia.edu

https://www.academia.edu

Topic Url:

  1. Funerary Archeology
  2. Dearth and Burial Archaeology
  3. Viking Age Scandinavia
  4. Old Norse Literature
  5. Scandinavian Archeology
  6. Brooches
  7. Ancient Jewelry
  8. Medieval Studies
  9. Iron Age
  10. Funeral Rights
  11. Iconography
  12. Landscape Archeology
  1. Catherine Harper: Land, cloth, body and culture
  2. Gold Bracteates and Female Burials. Material Culture as a Medium of Elite Communication
  3. Lives in fragments?: Personhood and the European Neolithic
  4. Familial Religion in Pre-Christian Scandinavia? Ancestor-Worship, Mother-Priestesses, and Offerings for the Elves
  5. Life after death, or what shall we do with a broken brooch?, (in) Eriksen/Abegg-Wigg/Bleile/Ickerodt (eds), Interaction without borders. Exemplary archaeological research at the beginning of the 21st century, Schleswig 2017, 275–282.
  6. Ring Out Your Dead: Distribution, form, and function of iron amulets in the late Iron Age grave fields of Lovö
  7. Recognizing a dvergr: Physical Status and External Appearance of dvergar in Medieval Nordic Sources (8th-13th century
  8. From fertility rituals to weapon sacrifices. The case of the south Scandinavian bog finds
  9. Handbook for the Deceased: Re-Evaluating Literature and Folklore in Icelandic Archaeology
  10. Blood Vengeance and the Depiction of Women in La leyenda de los siete infantes de Lara, The Nibelungenlied, and Njal’s Saga 2006
  11. “Death and the Maiden,” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern History 42:2 (2012), 269-305.
  12. “Body and Soul in Old Norse Culture”, in Intellectual Culture in Medieval Scandinavia, c. 1100-1350, ed. by Stefka G. Eriksen, Disputatio 28 (Brepols, 2016), pp. 393-428
  13. Fair is foul, and foul is fair. Nomi di streghe e loro attributi nell’Europa germanica
  14. The Helka Fest—Traces of a Finno-Ugric Matriarchy and Worldview?
  15. Body Symbolism in Old Norse Myth
  16. Anon, Fairy Mythology of Ireland
  17. Body Parts and Bodies Whole: Changing Relations and Meanings
  18. Era of the Living Dead: Funerary Praxis and Symbol in Third Millennium BC Syria
  19. Fragments of Grief
  20. Hel of Helheim: An Examination of Hel In Viking Religion and Mythology
  21. Sacrificial landscapes: cultural biographies of persons, objects and’natural’places in the Bronze Age of the southern Netherlands, c. 2300-600 BC
  22. Economies of Destruction. How the systematic destruction of valuables created value in Bronze Age Europe, c. 2300-500 BC
  23. Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages
  24. Women In Antiquity: A Bibliography (5th edition, 9.935 entries), by Yiannis Panidis
  25. Children in Antiquity: A Bibligraphy (A new corrected 4th ed. 384 pp., 5.325 entries on: embryology, childbirth, offspring, newborn, childhood, infancy, childcare, childbearing, breastfeeding, pediatrics, education, play, infanticide, exposure, eugenics), by Yiannis Panidis
  26. Views on the symbolic use of two rare bone finger distaffs
  27. From Fairytale To Goddess: Frau Holle And The Scholars That Try To Reveal Her Origins
  28. A Landscape of Ancestors: The Space and Place of Death In Iron Age West‐Central Europe
  29. Keening the Nation: The Bean Chaointe, the Sean Bhean Bhocht, and Women’s Lament in Irish Nationalist Literature
  30. Madwoman, Banshee, Shaman: Gender, changing performance contexts and the Irish wake ritual
  31. Engaging the spirits of the dead: soul‐calling rituals and the performative construction of efficacy
  32. A Landscape of Ancestors: The Space and Place of Death In Iron Age West‐Central Europe
  33. From Fairytale To Goddess: Frau Holle And The Scholars That Try To Reveal Her Origins

Sources from Diva Portal

https://info.diva-portal.org/about-diva/
  1. Forn Vannen, Journal of Swedish Antiquarian Research. Kalmring, Sven
  2. Runic Amulets from Medieval Denmark. Olesen, R
  3. Masking Moments, The Transitions of Bodies in the Late Iron Age Scandinavia. Danielson, I
  4. Breaking and Making Bodies and Pots. Larsson, A
  5. Bronze Age Haga and the Viking King Bjorn. Kalif, A and Oestigaard, T
  6. The Good, the Bad and the Undead, New Thoughts on the Ambivalence of Old Norse Sorcery. Edited by New, A, Willams, H and Ljungqvist, F
  7. Viking and Medieval Scandinavia. Chief Editor: Poole, R

Sources from Libraries

  1. Ghosts, Witchcraft and The Other Worlds, Icelandic Folktales I translated by Alan Boucher
  2. The English Dance of Death, from the Designs of Thomas Rowlandson. 
  3. Magic, a History by Chris Gosden
  4. Bog Bodies Uncovered by Miranda Adhouse-Green
  5. Cold Counsel, Anderson and Swenson
  6. Women in Old Norse Society by Jenny Jochons
  7. Dying for the Gods by Miranda Adhouse-Green
  8. A Forged Glamor by Melanie Giles
  9. The Real Valkyrie by Nancy Marie Brown
  10. Economies of Destruction by David Fontisn
  11. Cremation, Corpses and Cannibalism by Anders Kaliff and Terje Oestigaard
  12. Lebor Gabála Érenn known in English as The Book of Invasions

Special Links & Thanks

Thanks to the Museum of London, Docklands for the resources gleaned from the presentation: Bronze Age worlds: ritual and religion with Susan Greaney and Dr. Melanie Giles.

 To The Order of the Good Death and Caitlin Doughty who inspired us to look at this moment within our own religious and spiritual context.

Visual Presentation

A full online presentation of the project including a talk from each author involved.

Full Visual Presentation

Self Guided Flip PDF

This book is book one in a series of books that are linked to a custom tarot/oracle deck of the same name. This series is a mixture of Heathenry, Druid, and Irish witchcraft practices from the authors. It explores the concepts of the transition of the dead from person to divine personhood. The book was written by Larisa, Sheal and Sarah; all whom discuss how they were affected by death and their own relationships with the goddesses that they have been called to walk the path with and how that calling affects their practice as heathens and Irish Druid. Riding The Bones explores the concepts of working with goddesses like Hel and The Morrígan, while showcasing both Nordic and Celtic history, how ancestors were worshipped and how this changed over time to modern day practices seen today.

Full Color Illustrations/Graphics and Photos
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Book Details
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Authors: Larisa Hunter, Sheal Mullin-Berube, Sarah Strickland
Cover Finish: Gloss
Binding: Paperback, Perfect Bound
Interior Color/Paper: Color
ISBN: 978-1-959350-00-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: The Three Little Sisters LLC
Trim Size: 6.000″ x 9.000″ (229mm x 152mm)

BISAC: FIC009010; FIC010000

List Price: $50.00 [Print], $9.99 [Digital]

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