When I asked for writing prompts I got two requests: more Starry Bear stuff, and more Harlequinade stuff. I’m going to start with the Starry Bear stuff. 

As many of you are aware the Starry Bear is a proto-tradition and the companion of the Starry Bull tradition, but predominantly focused on Northern Europe. In the coming months I’ll be writing about four threads of this proto-tradition, which can be divided as follows. 

The first is mythological. It focuses on the stories told about our Gods and Spirits, drawing on a diversity of sources. These sources includes archaic star-lore, Neolithic and migration-era petroglyphs and other archeological evidence, Greco-Roman ethnographies regarding the various Barbarian populations, Eddic and Skaldic poetry, Germanic and Slavic folktales, 18th through early 20th century Romantic continuations primarily by German, Scandinavian and Russian authors, as well as some modern material. 

The second concerns praxis. This consists of what can be reconstructed of the pre-Christian religious beliefs and practices of Northern Europe, combined with elements from Medieval and Early Modern Christian folk customs, superstitions and other potential “pagan survivals” and syncretic and dual tradition religions, as well as later inspired and reimagined versions of these from the Romantic period, plus Heathenry as well as contemporary Slavic and Baltic polytheisms. 

The third consists of UPG – from myself, my ritual partners, and some of our colleagues. This can encompass everything from encounters with our Gods and Spirits and what this teaches us about right engagement with these Powers, to techniques that they have taught or shown us, visions and other ecstatic revelations they’ve gifted us, attempts at reconstructing ancient mystic and esoteric practices, as well as new material we’ve come up with or been given by them. Likewise inspired poetry, modern myths and elaborations, prophecies and oracles, and the like fall into this category. 

Finally, there is an evolving culture which includes folk practices, values and norms, shared terminology, and other expectations regarding human interactions both with fellow members and outsiders, as well as similar elements pertaining to community – both that which exists now, primarily on the internet, and that which we are striving to create in the world, which will hopefully continue to exist long after us.   

Take all of this, put it in a blender for a while, and what you’ll end up with is the Starry Bear proto-tradition. 

I’m sure there’s a lot more that I’ve left out, but that should give you an idea of what to expect in the coming months here at the House of Vines.

Hopefully that will be to your liking and I won’t frighten off the remainder of my readership.