The Odin Blot or Sacrifice for Odin is a basic "template" demonstrating the form and
nature of religious sacrifices in the Asatru faith generally, but especially in the custom of the Idavoll Kindred.
Any of the Ancestral powers or Gods can be offered a Blot, a "sacrifice", which seeks to offer them
goodly gifts of high-quality ale, mead, wine, or some such suitable subtance. The sacred guest of the Blot
Is asked to bless the offering, so that the participants can drink or eat it, taking the sacred power
into themselves, and then sprinkling it about, blessing the area and all gathered there.
The remains of Blot are given to the earth, returning that power to everything. Bonds between Gods and Men
are created and maintained in this manner, allowing for a truly powerful religious connection to be made and kept.
* * *
I. Washing, Kindling, and Hallowing
Everyone who will participate in the Blot must wash their faces, hands, and the
backs of their necks with cold, clean water. Their clothing should be clean.
The man or woman who is taking the role of sacrificer for the Blot should
lead them to an outdoors place where a good-size fire is piled and waiting for life.
After they have focused their attention on the unlit pyre, and calmed their minds and hearts,
The Blot-Godhi or Gydhja kindles the flames.
* * *
A glowing spark of muspelheim
On hot winds blown to world-rime
Of old let brine and venom flow
From that mirk jotun-father rose
From gravel-yeller's sib the dawn wights
Gods, alfs, and men in the score of norns
The might and main of every clan ring
In wood seated here that ember's kin
A fire and warmth for goodly wights
And light for the weal-deeds of men.
Using a torch from that fire, a candle lit from it, burning recels lit from it, a
hammer, or his or her hands to make equal-armed crosses around the area, usually to the
cardinal directions beginning with the north, the Blot-leader speaks:
* * *
Mighty ring of Sun's victory and right-turned holy force
Ever bane to ill-wights and troll-kin
Keep fain and hallowed this place of sacrifice.
Hail to Earth, need-giver, heaping all with weal,
Jotun-consort of Allfather, Mother of Man,
Uphold this sacred rite.
* * *
II. Reading and Declaring
A specific passage from the fund of Ancestral Lore, in sympathy with the rite or
occassion and/or stating the purpose of the rite aloud for the gathering,
or just for the ancestral host, is read.
* * *
III. Call to Fire and Recels
The Blot-leader holds his or her hands over the fire and speaks:
* * *
With these flames and recels the way I light
My calling in rightly-lit flame.
Let the trod be bright for the Rune-winner
For the Rune-rowner, for the Rune-rister.
* * *
IV. Invocation
Assuming the Elhaz-Stance, legs straight and feet together, hands held in "Y" shape
above the head, the Blot-leader speaks:
* * *
Hear me, Wild Hunt's Grim Lord, Wish-Father Wandering,
Warg-master, wolf in timber howling,
Wooer of Gunnlod, two ravens following!
Odin, High Lord of the Ancestral Host,
Fare in secret to my fire-lit hall,
Come to your honored seat,
And receive your cup of holy mead.
The Blot-horn is filled at this point with the subtance that will be the
symbolic blood of the rite, and the sign of the sun-wheel is traced above it.
* * *
V. Sacrifice
Holding up the horn, the Blot-leader speaks:
* * *
Sig-Father Odin, this horn is marked and hallowed for thee:
Blessed, I raise it high, your might to share.
The horn is held aloft until the Sacred Guest of the Blot is felt entering it.
At that point, the sun-wheel is again traced over it. Taking the sacrificer's knife,
The Blot-leader "slices" over the mouth of the horn, allowing a small amount to spill
into a waiting wooden or metal bowl. The horn is passed about and shared
by all present. The remaining contents are poured into the bowl, and the Blot-leader
carries the bowl and an evergreen bough about, declaring honors to the Sacred Guest,
making known the intentions and need-wishes of the gathering, and asking Him or Her (or them) for blessings.
All present are sprinkled with the liquid from the bough. The rest is poured onto the bare earth,
with a final praise to the Gods of the two great families and to the Earth herself, the all-giver.
* * *
VI. Farewell
The Blot-leader respectfully addresses the Sacred Guest, in the case
of this example, Sig-Father Odin:
* * *
Hail the dark-cloaked God at his coming
And at his leaving, wending away on his hidden paths
Fare well and leave your children a measure of wisdom and might
Until you fain visit our halls again.
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