Thirteen Moons

Reflections on the Heathen Lunar Year By P. D. Brown Arcana Europa / Gilded Books, 74 + x pages, ISBN 9781959353003 For many practitioners of Germanic paganism, heathenry, or Ásatrú, there is a tendency to fixate on the idea of historical reconstructionism. This is the belief that the religious practices of our pre-Christian ancestors (of which we have limited knowledge, at best) can be re-enacted in the modern world, just as they would have been celebrated in antiquity. For the English heathen poet and storyteller P. D. Brown, however, it is less important to obsess over hair-splitting historical and cultural minutiae, and to focus instead on performing rituals that are cosmically correct.    In this concise and convincing essay, Brown argues that the ancient Germanic sacrificial feasts or festivals were originally commemorated according to a lunisolar calendar, and that modern heathens who celebrate Yule and other holy times according to our modern solar calendar are, quite simply, g