This is an ode to the forest dweller, the God Cernunnos.

Songs of the Winter Father

Ode to Cernunnos

An Ode To Cernunnos

PROGENITOR Ancestral Innovation Archetype

Here's a compelling description for "Freya's Valkyrie Ascension":

A majestic journey through Norse mythology, where Freya, the powerful Vanir goddess of love, beauty, and war, rises with her divine Valkyries. This epic piece weaves together intense orchestral crescendos with intimate string passages, creating a dramatic tapestry of sound that mirrors the ascension of these legendary warrior women. 

Vocalist: Violetta S. Garini
Choir: Le Voci Di Ettoviol

Lyrics:

Whispers on the wind
Ancient power stirs

Rise, oh shieldmaidens divine
Freya's chosen, battle-born
With swords of light and hearts of fire
Ascend to realms reborn

Through storm and shadow ride
On steeds of gleaming stars
 
The cosmos trembles, yields
To Freya's mighty will
Valkyries soar on golden wings
Time and space stand still

Rise, oh shieldmaidens 
Freya's chosen, battle-born
Ascend to realms reborn
Ascend to realms reborn!

Rise, oh shieldmaidens 
Freya's chosen, battle-born
Ascend to realms reborn
Ascend to realms reborn!

Freya Rising

Freya Suite N.8 - Rise of the Valkyries

Rise Of The Valkyries

In this special episode of The Old Ways for Modern Days Podcast, we uncover the surprising and magical origins of Santa Claus. From ancient gods and Wild Men to the Holly King and modern traditions, explore how this beloved figure has evolved as a living symbol of generosity, hope, and connection to the sacred. Discover why Santa is far more than a modern invention—he’s a keeper of the old ways.

Featuring music by Roberto Campus.

OWFMD Podcast - Will the Real Santa Claus Please Stand Up

Three ancient winter witches - Befana the sweeper of old ways, Frau Holle the fate weaver, and Perchta the shadow dancer - come together in this mystical medieval folk ballad. Their sacred tools of transformation - the broom, the thread, and the blade - guide us through winter's deepest mysteries, teaching us that real change requires both courage and surrender.

Lyrics:

Grandmother's broom sweeps through the night 
Clearing paths with hearth-fire light 
Ancient crone with loving eyes 
Takes our burdens to the skies

On distaff riding winter's gale 
Weaving fates through snow and veil 
Wild Hunt's mother, garden deep 
Plants the souls that dreamers keep

Twin-faced lady, shadow-bright 
Cuts the threads that dim our light 
Sacred dancer, fierce and free 
Shows us who we're meant to be

Three who walk the winter way 
Through the darkest, longest day 
Spinning, sweeping, cutting clear 
As the wheel turns through the year

Three who walk the winter way 
Through the darkest, longest day 
Spinning, sweeping, cutting clear 
As the wheel turns through the year

Queens of the winter's rite 
Show us truth in winter's light
By the broom and thread and blade 
Let our truest selves be made

Leave your offerings in the snow 
Till the sacred wisdom flows 
Wine and bread and porridge sweet 
Where the ancient powers meet

The Winter Witches' Dance

The Winter Witches Dance

January Winds

LIKE U, LIKE ME (REMASTERED)

In this soulful and reflective episode, Jenn shares the winding path that led her back to Sardinia, tracing a journey that began long before she ever set foot on the island. Through story, ancestral memory, and lived experience, she explores the concept of cultural orphanhood—what it means to feel disconnected from both the land of your birth and the ancestral homelands you’ve never known.

She speaks about the layered experience of returning to Europe as an American of European descent, and the grief that can arise when you realize how much was lost—or mocked—through assimilation.

She reflects on being adopted, and how that shaped her understanding of belonging; about hearing a message from the land itself; about the difference between ethnicity and nationality; and about the mythic memory that lives in our blood, in our bones, in the land.

Jenn also shares the very real challenges of life in Sardinia—language barriers, social isolation, neurodivergent parenting in a traditional village—and the unexpected gifts that came from being held by the land when the community couldn’t.

This episode is a love letter to the ones who left, the ones who stayed, and the ones—like Jenn—who’ve come back, not to reclaim, but to remember.

Episode 23: The Bones Remember: : Answering Ancestral Longing as a Cultural Orphan

A thunderous Old Norse epic about the Divine War between god-clans, where Freyja's seiðr magic cuts through celestial battle like a falcon's scream, promising rebirth from the ashes of shattered worlds. Part of my "Freya Suites" album dedicated to the Goddess.

Lyrics:

Hildr (Battle calls)
Embla ór (From Embla’s flesh the gods once drew her)
Ýsir dró (The gods once drew her)
Ýsir dró (the gods once drew her).

Æsir þá (then the Æsir rose)
Alvaldrs harr (War-host of the All-Father)

Hymni (In hymn is sung)
Aðal-níð (the highest scorn)
Hymni (in hymn is sung)
Aðal-níð (the highest scorn)

Freyja stendr, djarfr, óvígr (Freyja stands, bold, unbowed)
Seiðr streymir frá hennar boði (Seiðr flows at the lift of her hand)
Hennar gull-þræðr gegnum óróa vefr —(Golden threads she weaves through chaos)
Hon heldr jafnvægi sem velldi berjask ofan (Holding her poise while powers clash beneath.)

Freyju rödd lúðr gegnum-stingr (Freyja’s voice, a trumpet’s blade, breaks through)
Klýfr án með fálka-kalli (It rips the sky like a falcon’s scream)
Seiðr-lore hon vill óvígr (She wills the lore of seiðr, unbeaten)
Sem goð í ótta standa hjá (while the gods look on in fear)

Velldi jarðar (Powers of earth)
Velldi himins (powers of heaven)
Goð in fornu í reiði fljúga (the elder gods wheel in wrath)

Freyja stendr þar heimar rekjask (Freyja stands where worlds lie shattered)
Gegnum hana nýir heimar skulu rísa (through her, new worlds will rise)

Freya Suites

Freya Suite N. 4 - The Divine War

Freya Suite N. 4 - The Divine War (Old Norse)

This is from stanzas 31 - 33 of the Völuspá. These stanzas tell the story of Baldr's death ending with a phrase that I repeat in this song about Frigg's grief. The refrain is "En Frigg um grét í Fensölum vá Valhallar" which can be translated "And Frigg wept in Fensolum for the woe of Valhalla".

Ek sá Baldri
blóðgum tívur
Óðins barni
örlǫg folgin

stóð um vaxinn
vǫllum hæri
mjór ok mjǫk fagr
mistilteinn

Varð af þeim meiði
er mær sýndisk
harmflaug hættlig
Hǫðr nam skjóta

Baldrs bróðir
var of borinn snemma
sá nam Óðins sonr
einnættr vega

Þó hann æva hendr
né hǫfuð kembði
áðr á bál um bar
Baldrs andskota

en Frigg um grét 
í Fensǫlum 
vá Valhallar
Vituð ér enn eða hvat

Translation Maria Kvilhaug:

I saw for Baldr
the bloodied/sacrificed god
Odin’s child
his fate concealed

There stood on the hill
grown above the plain
the mistletoe, slender and
very fair

There was from that wood
which seemed so frail
an arrow of sorrow
and Strife shot it

Baldr’s brother
was quick being born
so Odin’s son began 
fighting at one night old

He washed not his hands
nor combed he his hair
until he brought to the pyre
the killer of Baldr’s spirit

and Frigg wept 
in the Moist Halls
for the woe of Valhol
Do you understand now, or what?

Völuspá

En Frigg Grét: And Frigg Wept

Stanzas 44 and 45 of Völuspá

"Wind-age, Wolf-age" These stanzas refer to the deterioration of society during Ragnarök. Wind is symbolic of death and wolves of the baser human qualities like greed. 

Geyr garmr mjǫk
fyr gnipahelli
festr man slitna
en freki renna

fjǫld veit hón froeða
fram sé ek lengra
um Ragnarǫk
rǫmm sigtíva

Brœðr munu berjask
ok at bǫnum verða
munu systrungar
sifjum spilla

hart er í heimi
hórdómr mikill
skeggǫld skálmǫld
skildir ´ru klofnir

vindǫld vargǫld
áðr verǫld steypisk
man engi maðr
ǫðrum þyrma

Translation Maria Kvilhaug

Gluttony barks loudly
before the Protruding Cave
the fastening bond is torn
and Greed runs free

She knows many tidings
I see even further
about the fall of the rulers
and the doom of victorious gods

Brothers will fight their own brothers
and be their kin’s slayers
children of sisters will
betray their relations

Hardness is in the world
prostitution abounds
axe age, sword age
shields are cleft asunder

Wind age, wolf age
before all the world plunges
no man will spare another

Vindöld, Vargöld: Wind Age, Wolf Age

Old Ways for Modern Days: Discovering our animist roots through Food. Land. Tradition. Magic. 4 keys to unlocking the ancestral wisdom & traditional skills already entwined in our DNA. 
The aim of the podcast is to show how we are already connected to this consciousness, and how we can cultivate more connections in our everyday life and tasks.

Episode 23: The Bones Remember: : Answering Ancestral Longing as a Cultural Orphan

Old Ways for Modern Days Podcast

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