I just had a lovely walk in the woods for the first time in months. It was so nice to get back to nature and to take in the birdsong, the absence of human noise and the vibrant, wet greenery.

It brought to mind my days as a desperate neopagan, after I'd had my first spiritual experience but before I had cultivated myself and become attuned, back when I was desperate to feel "it" again, chasing a spiritual high that I couldn't get back to. Back then I would leave small sacrifices deep in the woods - food that the animals could safely eat/that would biodegrade properly. I would also make small sacrifices of my own blood.

Things are very different now, and it was illuminating to see and feel those same woods again through new eyes. Christians castrated Europeans, so I had to look elsewhere for the gods to undo the curse of my baptism. I had got used to looking past the timeless gods of the forest.

Tens of thousands of years ago, my ancestors were walking those same woodlands. Their understanding of the spirits of the woods was far beyond what I can hope to attain. They threw sacrificial objects, mostly metal tools and weapons, into bodies of water to give them to the spirits. I am a modern man and I can't hope to recapture their mindset fully, but today, I was able to feel the old gods again.