So writing about Rituals in Heathenism got me thinking. I can’t exactly say they were good thoughts, or happy thoughts, but I suppose that’s to be expected, really. Someone pointed out a problem in Heathenism and when you try to figure out why and how that problem exists, you start getting getting pretty deep sometimes.
The truth is…I don’t think we’re really practicing Heathenism. At least, not publicly, not on the face of it. Oh, we pray to the Aesir and the Vanir, and that is the first step…but we kinda stalled out.
Heathens like to call ours “the religion with homework.” There’s a pretty good reason, because even though our lore and histories are disjointed, we do have a fair bit of academic work with which we can study to learn about Norse culture and a bit about Norse religion.
But Heathens in the old day weren’t “all about the sources” like some messed up remix of “all about the Benjamins.” I doubt there was one meeting at an AllThing where anyone said “show me that in the lore!”
The truth is…academia does not fill the soul. Typically, it does the opposite, and I spent nearly a decade in it. This is not to say research is bad, it isn’t. But there does get to be a point where trying to be a “rational, intellectual, and scholarly” individual gets in the way of faith, where reading papers on which parts of the Edda is more accurate gets in the way of living your faith.
We’ve gotten so focused on practicing our religion right that we aren’t even practicing it anymore. We’re so focused on sources and scholarship, we’ve lost the spirit and passion. I’ve long held that’s not my place to judge another man’s faith, but in the face of overwhelming evidence it gets kind of hard.
A metalhead who just likes viking metal often shows more passion for our Gods than do most of us heathens. One of the things I always liked about Heathenism in the early part was the fact that you could walk into a group and there would be joyous cries of “Brother!” or “Sister!” There was kinship and comradely acceptance, a grabbing of the other person and holding them close spiritually. Because we were few, far between, and surrounded by enemies, or at least people who did not believe in our faith as we did.
We’ve lost that. Now I’ve seen discussion after discussion about how we shouldn’t call each other brother and sister, we shouldn’t look for that kinship, because “That’s not how it was done” and terms like “innergarth” and defining who is “in your group” and who is “not in your group.” Like little high school clicks about who has the right scholarship and who has proven themselves worthy of your respect vs those “heathens” you can mock and laugh at.
That is not how our ancestors behaved. That is not the spirit of Heathenism that drew me to not just the Gods, but the faith and religion as well. Sure, the Norse and Germanic peoples were a tribalistic people often drawn into clan lines, but just because they had different clans or tribes didn’t mean that they didn’t respect each other, or welcome strangers in like family. The opposite in fact.
And they didn’t choose Gothi or religious leaders based on their “scholarship.” Nor did they silence their spiritually gifted with cries of “not in the lore!” Tacitus I believe is recorded as saying that the Germans (peoples) were such a pious people that they shamed the Romans with how faithful they were to the Gods.
Well, I’ve been around the Romans of today, the Cultus Deorum, and guess what. If facebook groups are anything to go by…the Romans now out pious the Germanics. There is more faith there than I have seen in any of the Asatru or Heathen groups. And the Romans have far, far more lore about their religion and ancestral practices than we do.
But they haven’t gotten bogged down in it.
And, maybe part of the problem, or the clue to the problem, is in the names. Asatru = Way of the Aesir. Heathen simply meant “not a Christian.” Odinism is of Odin, focusing strongest on him.
Cultus Deorum? Cultivation of/with the Gods. They grow their relationships with their Gods. Tend it, as you would a field or garden. When was the last time you could say that about us Heathens. When was the last time you really saw anyone in a Heathen group cultivating a relationship with our Gods? Study the lore, sure, read a dozen academic papers on some small practice, absolutely.
But cultivate a relationship with a God? Most of them get laughed out of the Park. Raven Kaldera (I think that’s how you spell his name) and I are the only two people I’ve come across that have seriously cultivated relationships with Hel. Odin has maybe three or four Godwives that I’ve encountered. Thor has maybe one. Loki has dozens that have cultivated relationships with him.
Let me say that again, Loki, arguably the Worse God in the Pantheon has followers who have better cultivated their relationships with the Gods and our Faith than nearly every other Heathen out there that I have come across. And I’ve come across a lot.
And if you actually do find someone at least trying to live the faith rather than research it, they get laughed out of the place too. I have many opinions about Raven, even without having fully met him outside of a few posts, but after much thought I have to admit he has at least tried to bring in the Shamanic back into the practice. How well he succeeds…I have no idea. But his group is mocked, relentlessly. Now, do I agree with all his views and conclusions, no. But that is no reason to mock a man. Nor is the fact that he at least seems to put faith above “study.” If anything, that’s something to admire, a man who will listen to the UPG he gets from talking to the Gods directly rather than the APB (Academically Provable Bullshit).
I was lucky, I didn’t have any experience to Heathen groups for years as I practiced, and I didn’t study a whole terribly lot. I just listened to the Gods, and did what felt right in my soul based on the study I had done. But I didn’t let my years of study as a history major cloud my relationships with Hel, or Thor, or Odin, or any of the rest.
But the sad thing is, when I did finally join, I did not find “brothers and sisters.” I found people more interested in tearing each other down, in scholarly research, and in ignoring pretty much anything supernatural or divine in origin for the sake of looking good to the main stream public. “Look how smart and learned we are! We are not the drunken pagans you thought us to be! Look at how unracist and accepting we are!”
Heathenism is the only Pagan religion that actively “polices” itself of anything “racist.” Given the history of our religion being co-opted by racists, you’d think we would have more care about who and what we call racism, actually look at the symbols and concepts used before we decide that someone is racist, look at lore and tradition, actually use that damn academic nature we’re so fucking proud of…but no. We allow the mainstream definition of what is “racist” to guide our judgments, and so we ban much of what is needed to bring back heathenism simply because the words were used or the concepts twisted. Instead of reclaiming our heritage, we shun it…and then we try to use things not our heritage to rebuild the heritage we shun. We’re so intent on being a “modern, rational” religion that we have completely fucked it up.
I’m going to wrap this up with a little academic tidbit that I think shows this well. The Celts and Germanic peoples worshiped in similar ways. Stonehenge had some testing done on it a few years ago, and they showed that when the torches were lit and the drums were pounding, the stones reflected light and sound in such a way as to mimic a modern day dance club, with its heavy beats and flashing lights. Pagans often took hallucinogenic drugs at their sacrifices and danced to those beating drums and flashing fire-lights.
Pagan rituals were rave parties. Rave parties that praised the Gods, drew blood offerings on the ground, and drew the Gods in to possess our bodies so that we might converse with them. It was passion and madness and ecstasy. And we don’t do any of that as Heathens. Not anymore.
The pious religion of the barbarian cannot live in the academic heart of a modern man.
This. This. A thousand times this.
Is lore important? Well, yes it is. But it’s a launchpad, not a target. Tell the stories and learn not the convoluted details of differences between versions and translations but the powerful and relevant big picture of the story. That’s all we can be expected to remember anyway.
And Worst God is *such* a subjective title. Shit Stirrer Supreme, perhaps, or He Who Makes Everyone Watching Scratch Their Heads In Befuddlement. Even better perhaps is That Weird God Over There Who Somehow Made This Crazy Plan Work.
Worst God… Hmph.
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Well, the “worst god” thing was more a point rather than an actual “worst” ribbon. Most of those who are the cause of the above problems are also those who despise Loki. It would be like going into a church and saying “Hey, the luciferians worship with more devotion than you do.” If the “bad guys” are doing a better job than the “Good guys” maybe its time for those good guys to look at just what it is they’re doing.
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I got your point, I just couldn’t resist answering it 😉
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The Roman groups have their share of people bogged down in research, as do the Celts. I think it is in part pushback against the New Religious Movements of the mid 20th century (including Wicca) which tended to make stuff up and pretend that these are the “Old Ways”.
I’m trying hard to walk some middle ground in my practice. I want my UPG to be grounded in enough research that I’m not simply making stuff up. I want my research to inform my practice, so that I am not just reading, but doing, worshiping, participating, LIVING with the gods.
And this, I think, is our calling for the next wave in Paganism. To balance the ecstatic, make it up as you go along energy of our collective neo-pagan past with the loving research that’s been done more recently. We need our ecstatic practitioners who know how to make a ritual feel real and true, and we need our scholars to keep that truth grounded in its history.
Best Wishes to you and yours!
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I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that when you say “the Romans now out pious the Germanics” you are *not* referring to Nova Roma.
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It’s more a general feel of the various Cultus Deorum that I’ve come across. Nova Roma is part of that, but I sense that they’re one of those groups no one is actually sure about, because you get so much mixed info from people who are in it, not in it, heard about it, etc.
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I try to do a mix. I research first and then try to get actual experience. Any time a God enters my life, first I do as much research as possible, which is also a mix of lore and other people’s UPG. After that I try to interact more, depending on what kind of contact was made.
I’ve said before I’ve been solitary in my practice, so I guess its a bit more untainted(?) in the way.
What you said about the ritual really speaks to me on a deeper level. Thank you for this post.
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I agree with this – I can’t remember how many times I’ve posted in Asatru groups on facebook and been told I didn’t qualify as heathen because my beliefs can’t be found in the lore. I really don’t care that my beliefs aren’t supported by the lore, considering I came to the Norse Gods via UPG to begin with, and I spent ten years as an eclectic pagan before that ever happened. An eclectic – solitary – pagan because there are a lot of people who seem more interested in being “right” than being accepting. I do think that spirituality and intellectual pursuits are compatible, but I think it’s possible to go too far in the direction of one and lose sight of the other.
And I think part of the problem, part of the reason that more heathens reject the idea of close kinship with the gods is this hatred of anything Christian that underlies it. I’ve read articles where the authors have stated that heathens don’t do one-on-one relationships with the gods because that’s a “Christian ideal” and didn’t exist before Christianity. The problem lies in this need for Asatru to be a “pure” faith without mixing faiths – and while I understand that desire, it is an impossible one to meet.
The stark truth is that Christianity won out over pagan faiths for a long time because the faith was used to cow people into submission, and a lot of the old ways have been lost because of it. So many people spend so much time in pursuit of the old ways that they are blind to the fact that the Nordic people were explorers who forged their own paths through the world. I think that if we wish to cultivate a better relationship with our gods that we need to do so by finding new avenues of spiritual expression instead of clinging desperately to the scraps of an ancient faith. If the old ways didn’t survive, they weren’t meant to, and new ways are needed. That’s my take on this, anyway.
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I removed myself from the Pagan scene for the most part about 10 years ago; I am a professional and work in health care. My husband and I had no idea the number of malcontents and misfits who refuse to take personal responsibility and can’t be helped because “personal gnosis” there were in the Pagan scene.
We used to run a Pagan group dedicated to interfaith understanding and a positive view of Pagans; along with this we used to organize camp outs at Midsummer and Samhain that involved rituals and workshops. We still camp, but only with friends and have very small private rituals. No more public events where things can (and did) happen for which we could end up being arrested because of someone else’s stupidity.
I’ve missed the community that Paganism has, even with the problems. But I’m no longer willing to allow my personal or professional reputation to be sacrificed as a result of being associated with drug abusers, sexual predators, etc. Yes, I know they’re EQUALLY present in any group, especially Christianity, but the difference is that we already have a lot going against us simply due to the minority status. And “mainstream” Paganism’s refusal to police internally doesn’t help.
We are going to a heathen event next month, and I have been both nervous and excited about the possibility of meeting people who share my ethics of personal responsibility and commitment. But now you’re scaring me.
What I love about ‘druish’ (almost a druid but not quite) Paganism is the feeling of actual connection with Deity(ies) that we have during ritual and guided meditations, and personal devotion. I love research even though my master’s degree nearly did me in, and I spend a lot of time researching the history of the Irish and Northern European peoples – not so I can know more than someone else, but so I can cultivate a closer relationship with the Old Gods!
I really and truly hope I meet people who actually want relationship with the Gods, not who just want to be holier than thou in their knowledge of the lore. To me, the relationship is the thing. I want ritual and I want sacred, and I want relationship! But I also want personal responsibilty, reliability, dedication, etc.
I guess I’ll just have to see….
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