Uncle Thor's Lessons, Anecdotes and Humor

This past Wednesday, the news reported that a worker at the Monmouth Battlefield State Park had been killed in an accident. Someone we know worked at the park, and I told my wife that I hoped it wasn’t Deny (pronounced Denny). We figured it probably was not him and put it out of [...]

The motion of the Thurs Rune is outward. It is like a projectile aimed at a target. The energy stretches forth quickly. It is hot and fast. It can also strike in an arc, like the motion of chopping with an axe.
Imagine that this rush of energy emanates from a central [...]

The motion of the Urus Rune is not so much a motion as a tenacious standing still. Granted that Urus can move up and down. However, its main motion is to hold its place. Urus stands firm.
There is a secondary motion attributed to Urus which is like a breaking through. Think of [...]

This past Summer, we covered the Runes as cycles. Let us look at another side of the Elder Futhark. Were we to think of Runes in terms of motions or tendencies, what might we find? Motion is the basic type of movement one might associate with a Rune. Tendencies are how and where [...]

(As the advertising and other promotions of the Winter Holiday season begin, now is a good time to remind ourselves where we Heathens stand )
There was a time when the Yule season started the day after Thanksgiving. Nowadays, the advertising and decorations start showing up right after Halloween. The shopping glut starts with [...]

What is the proper Heathen attitude toward affluence? Is wealth good or bad? Can poverty make a person more spiritual? Does wealth make a person materialistic?
Actually, those are all trick questions. One of the most liberating things about Heathenism is that we recognize that this world is as spiritual as any [...]

Tomorrow is Halloween. It has become a very big holiday here in the USA. The day focuses on costumes, ghosts and monsters. There is also trick-or-treating, wherein costumed children go door to door asking for candy.
Halloween was nowhere near as popular when I was a child. There were costumes and trick or [...]

The process of molding with molten metal is ancient and simple. Perhaps you have noticed that water takes the shape of the glass into which it is poured. Once the water is removed from the glass, it loses the shape. Molten metal pours like water. The idea of a mold is to [...]

As many readers know, one of my hobbies is metal casting with non-ferrous alloys. These alloys are usually a blend of tin, antimony and lead. The alloys’ melting point is normally over 500 degrees Fahrenheit. Pure, unalloyed lead melts at 621 degrees.
One of the hazards of the hobby is fluid, especially water. [...]

There are occasions when an incident arises which calls to mind a useful and time-tested idea.
I had an incident the other day with a belligerent little fellow at the parking lot of the hardware store. The little man was looking for a fight. I realized he was more mouth than action, or he would [...]