Charming of the Plough


Whole may you be [Be well] earth, mother of men!
May you be growing in God’s embrace,
with food filled for the needs of men.

For many heathens, this is the time of year where they honor and celebrate the Charming of the Plough or Disting one of the eight holy tides that comprise the Wheel of the Year. Many Heathens at this time of year are celebrating the Charming of the Plough. According to Bede’s De temporum ratione, the Anglo-Saxon month of February was known as Solmonad, and meant month of mud. Most likely mud month refers to the act of ploughing the fields. According to Bede, this was a time celebrated by people offering cakes to their Gods.

Heathens today take inspiration from the Anglo-Saxon land ritual the Æcerbot to help form part of their celebrations. While the Æcerbot as it is recorded references Christian belief, many believers and scholars believe it was adapted from pre-Christian practices. The daylong ritual was intended to act as a means to restore fertility to land that may not be yielding properly or was potentially suffering from some sort of blight or infestation. In the ritual described, we see that the plough is hallowed and even anointed with soap and herbs, the land is plowed, and then the earth prayed to. Afterwards, special offerings of cakes were placed into the furrows that had been ploughed.

The folk of Hammerhof have similar traditions. During the day we bake bread and prepare a meal. In the late afternoon, we gather our gardening tools and hold our blót. We pray for the good harvest in the upcoming year. Although we are not farmers and dependent upon the land like our ancestors, we pray for prosperity in a similar way and pray for those who do farm the land and provide for us.
On this day, many heathens will honor the beings of fertility and spring, such as Frey, Nerthus, Jord, the Goddess Ostara, the Ancestors and vaettir of the land, the wights. To Frigg and Freya, many of the divine are honored at this time, for there is much to give thanks for, and be mindful of. We give thanks and honor to these beings of life and fertility, we thank them for the gifts that they give us, and we ask them to continue to do so.

Charming of the Plow is a time of fertility, thanks, and hope for the coming spring. It is a time to give thanks to the land for keeping us during the winter, the earth, the divine, and the spirits for the fertility that is to come in the spring. Charming of the Plow is an important holiday.



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