Dec 28th – The 9th Day of Yule - The Practitioner's Handbook

Approx. Reading time: About 2 Minutes

Introduction

Begin Tiding up for the New Year, Njordr and Nerthus

The ninth day of Yule is for Njordr and Nerthus. On this day we celebrate the time before the New Year. We honor Njordr and his kindness. We honor Nerthus by giving back to the earth. The home, heart, mind, and soul need to be tidied up before the New Year. Finally, we will make plum pudding to enjoy with friends and family, with a little surprise inside.

NJORDR

In Norse mythology, Njordr is a god among the Vanir. Njordr, father of the deities Freyr and Freyja by his unnamed sister, is associated with the sea, seafaring, wind, fishing, wealth, and crop fertility. Some consider the mysterious German goddess Nerthus to be his female twin/counterpart. Njord is often content enjoying whatever the other Gods are being offered, and he’s also often happy to share his offerings with any other deity.

NERTHUS

In Germanic paganism, Nerthus is a goddess associated with fertility. A goddess of the earth, promoting peace and prosperity wherever her image was taken. Nerthus and Njord form a divine pair, much like the other two Vanir deities whose names are almost identical to each other, Freyr and Freya.

Honoring Njordr & Nerthus

Today you honor Njordr and ask that this Yule season and into the new year you would be blessed with his kindness and prosperity. Best to leave an offering of mead for him, if you have no mead and strong barley tea as wheat is a perfect offering. A very good way to honor Nerthus is to pay attention to how you honor the earth.

Historically, Nerthus’s offerings were often thrown into bogs, so giving your offering into a body of water would be particularly meaningful. Bogs are hard to find. Nerthus’s offerings of food and drink are cooked or soaked grain pottage, root vegetables, fresh produce, bread, wild-gathered herbs, beef, pork, dark rich stout – the sort of “beer that drinks like a meal”. Leaving fresh produce near water as offerings for Nerthus also feeds the fauna and enriches the earth.

Tidying up for the New Year

We are coming to the end of this year and should start next year with as empty a plate as possible. Today is the day to wrap up the end-of-the-year projects. Check your bills, clean out your closets, and donate those items you don’t need. Set up the new year’s calendar with all the coming important events. We need to create new space for items in the new year to exist. If you’ve been wanting to change up your space, best to do it now!

Plum Pudding

For your desert tonight, make a plum pudding. Bless a silver coin in the name of Njordr and the Nerthus and hide it in the pudding before cooking it (eat carefully!). The person to find the coin receives a blessing of wealth for the next year and should keep it as a good luck charm. Make sure to set aside some pudding as an offering to Njordr and Nerthus as well.