Posts

Swabian Oath Sword Dances to Ziu

Image
by Sean Jobst Public domain image (originally from  1822) of a Gothic warrior with helmet and breastplate, and a Suebi warrior with the customary topknot, holding a sword ( Source ) “As the God of courage and of war, Tyr [Tiwaz} was frequently invoked by the various nations of the North, who cried [invoked] to him, as well as to Odin [Wodanaz], to obtain victory. That he ranked next to Odin and Thor [Thunaraz] is proven by his name, Tiu, having been given to one of the days of the week, Tiu’s day, which in modern English has become Tuesday. Under the name of Ziu, Tyr was the principal divinity of the Suabians, who originally called their capital, the modern Augsburg, Ziusburg. This people, venerating the god as they did, were wont to worship him under the emblem of a sword, his distinctive attribute, and in his honour held great sword dances, where various figures were performed. Sometimes the participants forming two long lines, crossed their swords, point upward, and challenged t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Zistac, A Day Honoring the God Ziu

Image
by Sean Jobst ( Source ) Surviving in modern words for Tuesday, our Germanic ancestors honored Ziu, the Sky Father, God of the Thing, of order, justice, and contracts. So we have Schwäbisch Daischdich or Zaischdich, or the Alemannic Zistac. These have the same root as Middle High German Ziestac, Old High German Ziostag, Frisian Tiesdi, Old Norse Týrdagr, and Old English Tisdæi or Tiwesdæg. Other names, like modern German Dienstag or modern Dutch Dinxendach or Dingsdag, are based on Ziu's association with the Thing.(1) All our terms ultimately originate from the Proto-Germanic *Tiwaz Dagaz, when our most ancient ancestors from the Steppes were most aware of Him as the Sky Father. Here is how the venerable James Hjuka Coulter, Heathen scholar and founder of the Irminen-Gesellschaft - an organization of continental Germanic Heathenry here in the United States - describes the God Ziu: “Ziu [An Tyr] No other God or being is more renown for his sense of glory and honor than is the God of...
Post a Comment
Read more

Walpurgisnacht – Part 3: Runic Astrotheology, Meditations on Ancestral Memory, and the Germanic Mother Goddess

Image
  By Sean Jobst 21 May 2026 Illustration of the Mother Goddess Frija, by the German artist Carl Emil Doepler (1882) In Part 2 I compared etymology between the “saint” Walpurga and ancient seeresses, and decoded word-play alluding to various Germanic Goddesses. The magic inherent within these words manifest multiple layers of meaning – on the exoteric, denotations of sovereignty or geographical concepts; on the esoteric level, meanings related to magical processes and the otherworld. I also cited direct correspondences to qualities attributed in lore to the Mother Goddess known in Old High German as Frija. Readers accustomed to Norse lore might be confused by how I seemed to mention Frigg and Freya interchangeably. Generally, in continental Germanic traditions she is one and the same Goddess, whose name combines terms denoting “lady”, “beloved”, “beautiful,” “free” and “courtship” since she epitomizes the feminine in its various qualities: “We gather from all this, that the forms a...
Post a Comment
Read more