Odd Encounters

[Psychonaut]

I'm interested to know if any of you Heathens out there have had any odd encounters with the Gods, wights, or anything else. I know quite a few of us have had a specific type of encounter during meditation or rituals, but what I'm interested in here are the odd encounters that are more similar to what occurs in the Eddas, Sagas and folk tales. I'll give an example with my own...

So, back in 2007, I was flying from California to Texas to go to an Army school for a few months. I'd been reading Gaiman's American Gods and brought it with me on the plane. If you've read the book, what follows will be eerily familiar. So, I sit down in my seat on the aisle and I'm immediately assailed by the smell of an unwashed body and faint hint of urine. It's the smell that I've come to associate with the homeless. I look to my left and, lo and behold, the fellow in the seat next to me certainly appears to be a hobo. He looked dirty, was wearing shabby, hobo-esque clothes, etc. However, there was one thing about him that caught my eye (although not as sharply as it should've): he had a bandaid over his right eye, but it was so loosely applied that I could easily see what was beneath. It looked like this guy had just recently lost an eye.

Now strange as this may sound, especially since I was reading American Gods on the damn plane, after noting that there was an odd old one-eyed man sitting next to me, I just sat there and read my book!

Once I got off the plane it hit me: was that Vegtam, the Wanderer? Maybe it was Woden, maybe it was a nasty homeless guy; but whatever the case, it was a crazy example of synchronicity, especially considering the book I was reading.

[SuuT]

I've had many, but I'll tell of the first (that I remember). I was very young - about five years - and I had gone with my mother and father to visit my uncle at his home. The property was set on about 2 acres, with the extent riding along a tree-line that led to a large woods. About half way between the house and this tree line my uncle had a small pond that I would fish (their conversations would bore me to death, so it was always the first thing that I would ask to do). Anyway, on this visit I had one of those cylindrical whistles that I couldn't stop blowing (I don't know their name, but the one's that go "WeeeeeOOOOOOOOOOewwwwwwwwww!" ), so my father immediately said, "yes, please, go.", or something to that effect. So I grab a pole out of the closet, and a small package of siversides (I think) out of the deep freezer and trek to the pond, all the while blowing that whistle. I get to the pond, sit on a stump, unthaw one of the fish a bit in the water, bait the hook, and cast. When I did, I dropped my whistle in the water. When I leaned down to get the whistle out of the water, I saw a reflection in the water of someone behind me. I turned around, but no one was there. But on the stump I had been sitting on sat my bright red, very annoying whistle. Being of five years, none of this struck me as odd in any way; so I picked the whistle up and put it back in my mouth and sat back down. I then saw on the other side of the pond an aged man with one eye (I think we have a theme here). He, too, was sitting on a stump, elbows to his knees, and smiling - he waved to me, I waved back, and he pointed - almost in a twitch - at my whistle, and nodded his head. I blew the whistle, and he bellowed out laughter. Then he pointed at the water, and I had a fish. I took the line up, and released the fish, then re-cast. Then, the same thing. - exactly nine times! On the ninth time, the man literally clapped - he loved the whistle. On my tenth cast, the whistle plopped in the water again, and needless to say at this point I was at least as ammused as the man, so I hurriedly went to retrieve the whistle from the shallows; but it was gone. The man was too. I didn't catch another thing for the rest of my fishing time.


Anyway, Odinn gave me fish but stole my whistle in exchange.





I think it now a fair deal.

[Ulf]

On my first birthday just as my family finished singing and gave me my cake lightning struck a tree not 10 feet from our house, split it in half but remained standing. At least this is what I was told, though we do have pictures of the tree.

On my wedding day just after my wife and I had finished repeating an oath to one another it thundered off in the distance, weird considering it was a clear blue sky. We were both holding a rune hammer I made and it happened right as we finished speaking and right before we set it down. Was awesome.

I've had migraines all my life, a few years back I had the worst one in my life. It was on another level. Basically laid in bed writhing in pain, clutching my skull at 3 am. We currently live on my great-grandfather's land so I asked aloud if he would just help me sleep. A few minutes later I felt a calm feeling in the back of my skull that moved forward through my head. I fell asleep 5 minutes later and woke up feeling amazing.

I'm not sure if this is what you were looking for but it is what stands out in my mind.

[Allenson]

A few years ago, one winter's night, I was at a party at a friends house. I went outside for a spell to get some fresh air & take in the stars. While looking around at the setting, or at least what I could see on a dark night such as that, my mind sort of spontaneously started chanting Wotan, Wotan, Wotan....and sure enough that old bugger took the form of a nearby, towering, spired, balsam fir tree and started hooom-droooming, all ent-like for quite some time & seemingly sizing me up. The event came to end when I heard someone come out of the party for a smoke and slammed the front door of the house closed. It was all very trance like and to this day, I'm not sure if I was actually paid a visit or my mind took over and just created the whole thing.

I've had a few similar happenings since then--always at night, always outside and always in these northern woods. I've wondered how Wotan felt being on a different continent. I reckoned that he doesn't mind too much as at least in this neck of the woods, it isn't terribly dissimilar from his own, and, my own, native genetic climes.

[Lady L]

What a nice thread. And, already full of nice stories.

I think I have somewhat of a story to offer here, Lyfing sort of spoke of it the other day in another thread but I don't remember which one...and he didn't go into any detail...so I will.

The weekend before this last weekend we were kid free and Saturday we were bored and wanting to find something to do. We had gone into town to get his paycheck and stopped at a gas station and bought him 4 beers and we had called around to a couple people we know looking for a joint. No luck. So, we drove out to the huge golf course and lake behind our house to relax...and to look at the water. Right when we got there we went over to the amphitheater stage-which is a stage w/ bleacher type seats built behind the stage and it all over looks the lake. We stood up on the stage and I said ( as I would and as if there was a crowd listening to me ) " I am here to announce the legalization of marijuana " up and my husband then says " Hail Thor " and holds up his beer... I'm thinking he called out something else but I don't remember- he will.) We kinda laugh and then sit down beside each other on the stage w/ our feet hanging and swinging- within a few seconds this red old ford truck pulls up and this guy-looking quite a bit older than us gets out and says - " I don't mean to intrude but I was gonna fish " We say " Aw- go ahead your not bothering us " Within the few minutes that pass he asks us if we were from here because he was looking for some creek-but we didn't know where it was. Lyfing asked him where he was from and he said " New Hope " ...we said OH OK...So a little chit chat and then we were ready to go- we got up and started to walk off and told the dude later and he calls out " hey man " ...." you ain't the police or nothing right..? " Lyfing says " No- you ain't are ya..? " so we start walking toward him and he tells us he has a joint in the truck... and reaches in and gets it and we stand there w/ the dude and chit chat some more and he says " Well, just forget my face " and we kinda all laughed and then we tell him bye.

I kept saying how weird all that was. And, that night I told my husband ya know...what if..? what if that was something..? Needless to say- we got what we were looking for from some stranger from " New Hope " ....

[Beorn]

I've had plenty of odd encounters in my life, a few too many to recollect even, but for the life of me I couldn't think of any that would fit into this thread.

I've thoroughly enjoyed reading everybody else's experiences and I'm glad that it isn't just me that likes looking up at the heavens whenever possible.
My Dad always told me that he loved looking up at the stars and reminding himself of all the people he had loved and lost.

My first odd encounter was as a child. I was about 10/12 and playing football in my back garden.
I remember I kicked the football over toward the edging of the patio, where the football came to a standstill.
I walked over, bent down to grab the football and a red snake with a yellow dot just above its eyes popped out, did nothing, hissed at me and then went back in under the patio.

To say I shat myself would have been an understatement.
I have since looked for a similar snake that is indigenous to these shores, I even asked a tutor when I attended a PHM course in my later teens, but neither my search or the tutor could tell me the answer.

What the hell was it that hissed at me?


My second odd encounter starts on the cliffs of Tintagel, Cornwall.

I was 14/15 when I first visited Tintagel and bought a lovely Celtic Ogham necklace to remind me of my visit.
It was just a plain black shoe lace with a hand moulded oval shaped adornment with the Ogham mark of my birth month, March.

The man I bought it from told me that I should be careful with that as it needed a purpose; a reason to protect and guide me in life.

I asked what exactly he meant, but he said just to make a wish of sorts and it will come true.

I declared that day that that necklace would protect me from harm and would only depart from my neck when a life changing experience occurred.

I wore that necklace all the way through the rest of my teenage years. Not once taking it off.
I wore it into my early twenties, and still never took it off.

It wasn't until I was 23 that it finally lost all strength and fell off.
I waited till Ceallach came home from work and told her that my life is just about to change, and told her the story behind the necklace.

It was at that point that she deemed it fit to tell me that she was pregnant with our first child.

That was a pretty "life changing experience", don't you think?

[Creeping Death]

I kissed the Blarney Stone back in August of 1971 as a 7 year old child , when my mum took us to see our relations in Britain and Ireland, I always remember looking down through that grate and seeing matchboxed size cars .Then in 1984 when I was 20 on an overseas stay in Britain and Ireland I almost puked when my cousin told me all the teens in Cobh go up there to drink and then pee on the stone.

[Brynhild]

I've had a few strange encounters over the years. One I had was only last night when I call up my guardians of Odin, Thor, Frey and Tyr to be our cardinal watchers.

I was going through the motions of calling them out when all of a sudden, Loki appeared in my mind. I thought WTF? He said, consider me as someone who's floating around for you. I suspect he came in, because some of the neighbourhood kids have been causing a bit of chaos, and Loki also said that if any of them were to cause any more, they'd know what real chaos was about! Loki has been wanting me to work with him lately, so I'm pretty sure that this is as good a sign as any to do so.

The other time was just before our last Midsummer, when my youngest son got a Xmas card from one of his best mates. He wrote inside the card:

"I hope Odin gives you what you're wishing for." The gesture is in itself strange enough (I discovered afterwards that the boys were talking about Odin being like Santa Claus), but what's even stranger is that this best friend is also blind in one eye!

Odin has made sure his presence is felt in this thread! Hael, Alfadir!

[Grumpy Cat]

I took a drive out to see the Acadian Odyssey Monument which had just been erected in PEI. For some background on it it was the site of the only part of the deportation where noone survived and it wiped out a whole community. I left a little offering out there.

Now, you know with the recession going on I was a little stressed about money, job security, and whatnot, and I was getting a little frustrated with my job and was thinking of looking for another one, even though I do like my job and the company I work for, and would be very sad to resign, things were getting to the point where I didn't have a life anymore because of the hours and it was starting to affect my health/sanity.

Anyways, that night I had a dream that this man walked up to my car, leaned over and peered in the driver's side window, and he was dressed in like old fashioned Acadian dress, was maybe early 30s, dark hair, and he told me the following: stick to your job, don't worry about the recession, and concentrate on paying back debt.

A few weeks later I find out about this new position in the company which is less hours and more in line with the direction I want to take my career.

I also took the guy's advice, whoever he was, and paid of my Visa balance in full.

[YggsVinr]

Well, I'm not sure I can it was an encounter specifically but it is a bit of a "coincidental" occurrence that I thought I'd share, make of it what you will. Today is the day before our reading week starts here at the university and I also have a philosophy paper due at 10 am. The topic was a little ambitious and due to the accumulation of work lately I was in one of those places overnight where you feel like your writing suddenly doesn't make any sense at all, and are driven into a rather panicked state. The assignment was quite important as it is my last semester here, and a 25% assignment is, of course, crucial to my acceptance into grad school. Anyways, around 4 am or so I was in a bad spot, doubting all the work I'd done on the current topic and just wishing I had another day to cement my argument a little better. We'd had all classes canceled Wednesday and I found myself thinking "what if...". I decided to get an hour's rest to clear my head, but before I did I went to the window just looking outside and my thoughts turned for a moment to Njord and Odin, but particularly also to my grandparents. I held my grandmother's ring in my fist, closing my eyes and just feeling horrible that I would disappoint her because I remember how she was so proud that I was in university when she was alive, how she would write me letters and want to know how everything was with school. One time she even cut out a clipping about bog people from the newspaper and sent it to me because she knew I liked that sort of thing.

Anyways, there was no sign of snow or storm when I first lay down, but about an hour and a half later I woke up and there was storm outside, blowing snow and at first didn't dare think that there was even a chance the university would be closed. But lo and behold, at 7 am I checked the university website and it was. Maybe its all pure coincidence on this unpredictable island, but I was just in a really bad place earlier this morning, worried that the whole thing, and therefore my future, would be a disaster, that, even though I tend to take my spirituality more symbolically than literally, I do believe I did get some help. Merci mémère.