Hello. I’m not really pagan, I’ve been atheist all my life in a 70% catholic country where the most common way of paganism is Yoruba and Christian witchcraft, from which I’ve kept my distance because they sacrifice animals to their saints, sometimes stealing house pets to sacrifice them. However, I love the Norse myths and as I started to learn more and more about it I got very interested in Mead, now I’m making my own Mead and I love that. IDK if Norse Paganism might be compatible with my form of atheism (don’t believe in anything super natural, but willing to follow certain deities in a symbolic way, for example, I am a satanist atheist), I know very little about it, but because of the Mead I’m interested in learning more about the rituals associated to Mead, if there was any. I think learning and doing a proper ritual might link more closely my Mead making with it’s cultural significance (yes I know Mead is not exclusively Norse, far from that, but still is what got me into it). I’ve read that sometimes Mead can be offered in altars. But I wonder if the old Norse had any ritual specific to it, or maybe something to thank the gods for the Mead, and what gods might be the main ones to offer it, Odin? Kvasir? Ægir? Freya?
Sorry if I’m way over the line, again, I’m willing to learn and follow advice. If you have some ritual instructions could you help too?
Thanks in advance.
Try looking up the story of how Odin stole the Mead of Poetic Inspiration. It’s a fun one. Afaik mead is associated with poetry and being good at talking. It’s associated with Odin because he’s the one who stole it.
As for compatibility, the notion that old Norse religion is somehow exclusive to white northern europeans is neo-nazi nonsense. The Aesir pretty famously married a bunch of Vanir after the Aesir-Vanir war and a lot of them were married to giants or at least having flings with them. The gods themselves in the stories we have didn’t give a fig about any blood and soil nonsense. Plus Odin is a rat bastard the ends justify the means scoundrel so it’s not like he can be cross with you for taking what suits you. If you find something you like go for it.