Liturgical Development
Welcome to Black Stone Sanctuary, an online and onchain Pagan polytheist monastery-bootstrapping project hosted by Danica Swanson and Trish Deneen. We call our work contemplative animist monasticism with a goth nesting instinct.
(For more background, start on our welcome page here. For more background on modern Nordic Pagan religious context as a whole, one good place to start is the Ásatrú Society in Iceland).
We're developing an experimental liturgical framework.
In keeping with our monastic rule ("follow the ways of non-contrivance"), our intention is to cultivate enough formal liturgical structure to nourish and support emergent contemplative practice, yet avoid excessively rigid coercive structures.
In this and many other ways, we take inspiration from lay monastic orders of the Beguines, who did not require formal life-long vows.
Our liturgy focuses on the Holy Powers of Yggdrasil (Nordic/Germanic), with particular emphasis on the feminine, non-gendered, and multi-gendered. Academic material and personal shared gnosis are both considered important to inform our liturgy.
We hope to help facilitate "open-source modular monasticism" by producing a printable breviary or liturgy of the hours, and publishing it onchain (through Zora) to preserve it for future monastics. This post is a step in that direction.
Deities and Holy Powers
"Black Stone Sanctuary seems to serve as a magnet for obscure Ásynjur (goddesses), and is consecrated into Their service. We honor Skaði, Frigg and Her Court (Handmaidens), Mengloð, and the Maidens of Lyfjaberg... Morðguð... Nótt and Njörun."
~ from Polytheistic Monasticism: Voices from Pagan Cloisters (p. 70)
As mentioned in the anthology linked above, we praise, worship, and make votive offerings to:
Skaði, Who has guided the Sanctuary's development for 13 years
Mengloð and the Healing Court of Lyfjaberg ("nine Maidens" or goddesses of healing)
Frigg and Her Court ("Handmaidens")
We also periodically venerate Móðguðr and some of the lesser-known Powers who dwell among the Ásynjur, Jötnar, Rökkr, Disir, and Junos and Matronae (ancestral mothers).
Atmosphere: In Praise of Holy Darkness
The Sanctuary's liturgy centers on paying our respects to Holy Darkness in its myriad forms — literal, metaphorical, symbolic, and divine.
To show our respect for sacred endarkenment and emphasize the need for balance in a culture obsessed with religious metaphors of light and ascension, services at the Sanctuary are conducted in vestments of black and purple.
The worship space is dimly lit, contemplative, and subterranean-themed, honoring "lower Powers." Music, art, dress, and decor are all dark in mood, symbolism, style, and atmosphere. (That's the work of our sacristan and the goth nesting instinct).
In the Eddic poems (Sigdrifa's Prayer), Night (Nótt) is the mother of Day (Dagr). In Old Norse, this is expressed as:
Heill Dagr! Heilir Dags synir!
Heill Nótt og nift!
In modern English:
Hail the Day
Hail the Sons of Day
Hail Night and Her Daughter
In a highly diverse polytheistic religious milieu, centering our monastic practices on Holy Darkness serves theological, practical, and community-building purposes. We offer high praise to darkness Herself — known in Nordic traditions as Nótt — while also creating space for devotees of other "dark" Holy Powers to worship alongside us under the same monastic roof.
Basic Daily Structure
Morning
ring opening bell
sing Sigdrifa's Prayer ("Hail the day...")
praise the Holy Powers; hails may be counted with prayer beads
prayer recitation: "In Praise of Holy Darkness" (from Polytheistic Monasticism, p. 66)
restorative yoga accompanied by themed playlists of dark ambient music from our Chthonic Cathedral Project
service work + creativity + manual labor
Afternoon
mid-day meditation + rest, including incubatory catnaps
administrative care work
Evening
hymn + chant + lectio divina readings**
evening prayers + petitions + votive offerings
Night
ring closing bell
praise for Nótt: reading of "Hail, the Unsorrowing"
**Typically evening lectio divina readings are from The Seed of Yggdrasil by Maria Kvilhaug. This is sometimes jokingly called "bible study time at the Sanctuary."
Alterations to this framework can be made to accommodate visitors, seasonal and Holy Day celebrations, milestones, and fresh insights gleaned from our monthly dark moon incubation retreats.
Hails to the Holy Powers of Yggdrasil
A similar four-line structure is used for all hails to each Power we venerate: three lines recognizing Their virtues, kennings, and roles, followed by a closing line.
With a group, this works best in a call-and-response style: one monastic reads the first three lines, and the worship gathering responds in unison with the fourth line.
We find that slow, rhythmic, trancelike repetition of the eleven-syllable cadence in the last line enhances the flow. Hail-to-the-Ho-ly-Pow-ers of Ygg-dra-sil.
Hail to Skaði
Hail to Skaði, Our Lady of Winter.
Hail to Skaði, Our Lady of Shadow.
Hail to Skaði, Our Lady of the Sacred Hunt.
Hail to the Holy Powers of Yggdrasil.
Hail to Nótt
Hail to Nótt, Our Lady of Night.
Hail to Nótt, Our Lady of Boundless Darkness.
Hail to Nótt, the Unsorrowing.
Hail to the Holy Powers of Yggdrasil.
Hail to Móðguðr
Hail to Móðguðr, Our Lady of the Black Stone Tower.
Hail to Móðguðr, Guardian of Gjallarbrú.
Hail to Móðguðr, Guardian of the Way Down.
Hail to the Holy Powers of Yggdrasil.
(N.B.: This is a sample of our work. We will continue with our full liturgy of hails, prayers, and readings in separate posts).
Resources for Building a Pagan Monastic Liturgy
Liturgical Readings
The Sanctuary holds no official affiliations with these projects, but we find some of their work useful for building our liturgy.
Odin's Gift – "Norse mythology & Asatru poetry & music." An extensive and long-established collection by Michaela Macha featuring poems, stories, prayers, hymns, and devotionals.
The Pagan Book of Hours – The breviary of the Asphodel Tradition, from the Order of the Horae at the First Kingdom Church of Asphodel. These folks have created a great deal of valuable material for Pagan and polytheist monastics to use — either as is, or as a model for creating their own liturgy. Their books of devotional poetry, prayer, and ritual are available at Asphodel Press.
Hearth and Field: Prayers to Heathen Gods – A blog featuring many wonderful prayers. We occasionally read slightly adapted versions of some of the prayers for the Germanic goddesses.
Earth Psalms – An inspired book of religious poetry written by a Pagan, Angela Magara, in response to the Psalms in the Christian Bible. From the introduction to the book:
"I heard a holiday reading of a Psalm. The nurturing words of love and support, of safety; suddenly turned to words of destruction and the wrath of a vengeful Father… I wondered what the Psalms would be if that overlay were skimmed off. I dedicated myself to that task… I set my intention to read each Psalm, let it flow through my body and into the Earth and then let new words come as a response to what I had read. I allowed the Psalm to speak uncluttered of patriarchal references and models…. I discovered that much of the energy in the Psalms is about living within an unjust and dangerous society. I began to understand that this book has a message of encouragement for those of us living in the face of overwhelming global violence and destruction."
Liturgical Music + Hymn
We've accumulated a treasure trove of hard-to-find music and other little-known resources that we consider extremely valuable for contemplative liturgy in honor of the Holy Powers of Yggdrasil. We hope to reduce the risk that these resources will disappear or be forgotten.
Like many monastics whose service work includes knowledge preservation and archiving, we consider maintenance and organizing of religious texts, liturgy, and reference material to be one of our most important duties.
We're thinking a lot about how we might provide for long-term maintenance of the Sanctuary's private collections when we can no longer provide this service. Thus we decided to bring this work onchain, and take further steps toward publishing a breviary.
Sigdrifa's Prayer + Song - The Sanctuary uses the translation available on the Odin's Gift website. Tune and translation by K.C. Hulsman; voice by Michaela Macha. We sing it with the same words and tune as in this MP3 recording, but with slight variations in emphasis.
Birka Skogsberg of Samfundet Forn Sed Sverige (Forn Sed Sweden), a dear friend of the Sanctuary, has written and recorded several excellent Pagan Songs on Soundcloud. Skade is our most frequently used track. (Danica's English translation of the Swedish lyrics will continue in a separate post).
Birka + Räv Skogsberg singing Lussesång for Yule – Council members of Forn Sed Sweden and friends of Black Stone Sanctuary sing a song inviting the goddess Freyja in Her role as the midwife of Sunna, the sun goddess.
(P.S. For years we've been hoping these two talented musicians will formally release a full album of their music online. The world needs it!)
Seiðlæti – Þagnarþulur - Songs for the Icelandic goddesses in Icelandic. Features tracks composed specifically for the goddesses of Frigg's Court (Handmaidens). Two favorites we often use at the Sanctuary:
Freyja Dark and Bright – A devotional by The North Country (a group that included Alice Karlsdottir, author of Magic of the Norse Goddesses/Norse Goddess Magic) that the Sanctuary occasionally uses in liturgy.
Hymn to Tyr – Heathen organ music! This one is also by The North Country, from their out-of-print album Verdandi. This is the only song the Sanctuary has found for Nordic deities that's performed as an actual devotional hymn that could be played on an organ and sung in a church. There's plenty of Heathen metal and Pagan folk, but we've found nothing else out there that sounds like this. It's great for monastic liturgy, as it sounds appropriate for a church processional… and it's catchy, with easy-to-learn lyrics.
(Dear readers: do you know of anyone else who has made music like this? Devotionals to the Holy Powers of Yggdrasil set to organ music, that could be used as hymns in a polytheistic church setting? If so, please point us to it! If not, well, there's an increasing need for it among those of us in the fledgling monastic movement, so maybe nudge a musician you know who has the talent and interest to do it?)
Prayer of Frigg - A requiem for Baldr sung in Old Norse by Tjamtjala. The Sanctuary has used it for grief circles; it could also be suitable for funerary rites. (Thanks to Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen of Nordic Animism for the pointer to this song).
Stanzas 17-20 of the Vǫluspá (Völvans spådom) sung by Henrik Hallgren, a Council member of Forn Sed Sweden.
Nordic Chants - Ritual runic chant music in Swedish. Released in 1997 by Magna. The album is long out of print and extremely hard to find, but worth the effort. The Sanctuary has a copy of the album in MP3 format, including the lyrics. (Thanks to Pär Boström for assistance with the Swedish-to-English translation).
Wind in the Worldtree on Heathen Hymns - This blogger created some lovely hymns and expressed sentiments we share at the Sanctuary:
"I miss church music, and I know I'm not alone."But we don't have to give these things up. Christianity doesn't hold a monopoly on ritual music... [...] I've been reaching out to see how people I knew felt about the prospect of making heathen hymns set to old hymn music. The resounding response I received showed me that this is a communal need and that for many it has been too long missing.
"What's more, there's a long history of taking tunes and transforming their lyrics for church hymns."
Chant Practice
Chant is a fundamentally collective religious technology — a means of tapping into a type of hive intelligence that can only be accessed through vocal chanting and movement in groups. We hope our nascent chant practice can eventually serve a similar monastic function as Gregorian or Sanskrit chants in other religions. We have no information about chant from the Nordic-Germanic mythic corpus, so we must begin with modern sources.
Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson, the founder of Ásatrúarfélagið (the Ásatrú Society) in Iceland, recites the Eddic poem Vǫluspá in Old Norse in a singing poetic style influenced by rímur traditions. At the Sanctuary we are learning to chant this poem by ear, along with the rhythms of Beinteinsson's voice.
We refer to The Comparative Vǫluspá for English translations.
The video we originally started with features Beinteinsson singing the Old Norse text along with a translation into English. (Note: check the comments on YouTube for questions about the accuracy of the English translation).
We'd like to compile the stanzas we chant plus translations, so we can easily compare the "lyrics" in modern Icelandic, Old Norse, and modern English.
This has proven to be quite a time-consuming challenge.
We tracked down a copy of the out-of-print CD and made a high-quality digital copy of the track "The Prophecy of the Seeress" for chant practice. However, we discovered that what Beinteinsson actually sings doesn't correspond completely to the booklet text from the CD, nor to any of the Old Norse versions we've seen.
We're still sorting out which of the 66 stanzas don't match so we can figure out 1) what he's actually singing in Icelandic, and 2) how to correctly and appropriately number each stanza for our chant practice.
In the meantime, we encourage like-minded others to take up a similar chant practice. Perhaps one day we can compare notes.
Ambient Music for Processionals + Offerings
The vast majority of our daily work at the Sanctuary, including liturgical development, involves ambient and drone music for atmosphere and mood enhancement. Through our Chthonic Cathedral Project, we make custom themed dark ambient playlists for meditation, ritual, yoga practice, and gatherings.
Here's a small sampling of tracks in our music library.
Ulf Söderberg (aka Sephiroth) – This veteran musician's brilliant (and still underrated) work has received more plays at Black Stone Sanctuary than any other artist, and for good reason. The misty forests, Eddic poetry, and evocative Bronze Age rock carvings in his album art and liner notes are all deeply rooted in Nordic nature mysteries, every bit as much as the music.
Gryning, Utfärd, Nordvinterögon, Vindarnas Hus, Morgonmåne, Now Night Her Course Began, and Tidvatten Part 1, in particular, are frequently used at the Sanctuary for meditation, processionals, and votive offerings.
We will proudly publish a long-awaited deep-dive interview with Ulf in 2024.
Wizard Women of the North – A little-known album from 1999 focused entirely on Nordic mystic women. Sanctuary favorites from the album:
Kirsten Bråten Berg - Heiemo Og Nykkjen (Heiemo and the Water Sprite)
Åsne Sunniva Søreide - Huldrelokk (Wood Nymph Call)
Suzanne Rosenberg is the queen of kulning (herding calls) - Vallåtar Från Gammelboning is not to be missed. Though we don't use kulning in our liturgy directly, occasionally we use it to set the mood in the space. (Learning kulning? Check out Maria Misgeld's YouTube channel).
Allseits – Hel - A dark ambient musical tribute to some of the darker and lesser-known Holy Powers, including Móðguðr.
Draugurinn - Hún kallar á Surt og syni hans and Urðarmáni - Dark ambient tracks that work well for processionals.
Gjallarhorn – Kom Helge Ande (Come, Holy Spirit)
Hedningarna – A few favorites at the Sanctuary for mood-setting:
Veli - This video features dark fusion dancers that have inspired some of our liturgical dance.
An earlier version of this post can be found at the Wayback machine.
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