heathenism Archives - The Rational Heathen

What Draws You to Heathenism?

October 31, 2017 Tyra Ulfdottir Comments 0 Comment

A Facebook friend and a well-known Heathen has announced that he may convert to Catholicism, or is at least considering it. While I can’t speak for his motivations, as a former Catholic, I can understand the appeal that the Church has for people, especially Heathens. At the same time, I can understand why Heathenry and paganism woo away Catholic followers. At some point, every Heathen must ask themselves if they’re in the right religion and whether they fit in. Although I have my reservations about Catholicism, I wish him well and I hope he finds what he seeks.

Anyway, that got me to thinking about those who are thinking of becoming Heathens. There are plenty of reasons for becoming a Heathen, but there are also many reasons for not choosing this religion as well. It’s not for everyone, nor does it try to be. Unlike Catholicism and other Judaeo-Christian religions, it does not purport itself to be the only religion whereby one can attain “salvation” and the others are going to eternal damnation.

Ask Yourself What Draws You to Heathenism

I wonder sometimes what draws people to Heathenism. Heathenism isn’t for the Marvel fanboys or fangirls who fallen in love with the Thor movies or comics (or the actors therein) and expect the gods to behave like that. (Although there are Marvel fans among Heathens.) It isn’t for the white supremacists, though we seem to have our share of them. It isn’t for the people who are looking for a god or goddess who will come to their rescue the first sign of trouble. It isn’t for the person who wants to create spells and potions regularly. While we do have our share of “magic” — and I have a tough time labeling it as such — we’re not the put together a love potion or money incantation type of religion. It isn’t for the people who are looking for the all-knowing, all-powerful god of the Judaeo-Christian religions. It’s not a place to insist on whites only, or Northern ethnicities only, or require that what and where you were born makes a difference as to what religion you should follow. It is not a place for Nazis.

At the same time, it’s not for the people who want an excuse to drink and party. (Although drinking and partying is certainly an aspect of our religion.) It’s not SCA or a reason simply to reenact reconstructed rituals without belief, although there are plenty of recons and other Heathens who believe and don’t believe.

Lastly, It’s not a place to bully other people who have differing viewpoints. I add this sincerely because even if you disagree with my above statements, that is your right to disagree. I’ll caveat my statements to exclude the white supremacist and Nazi bullshit. Since white supremacists and Nazis are inherently bullies, we have no room for them.

So, Who is Heathenism For?

I’ve talked a lot about who isn’t suited for Heathenism, but perhaps I should talk more about who is suited for Heathenism. It’s surprising flexible, allowing for many different folks with different ideas.

Gods, Goddesses, Ancestors, and Wights

Heathenism is for those who hold reverence for the ancient gods and goddesses of the northern religions. Heathenism is for those who wish to revere their ancestors. Heathenism is for those who believe in wights, elves, and trolls. It is for those who hope to gain understanding of the past by learning all they can about those who were Heathen before us.

Heathens can be agnostic or even atheistic when it comes to supernatural entities, may believe in them fully, or maybe choose somewhere in between. They may look upon the gods as actual beings or as metaphors. Heathens may have a personal relationship with the gods or a god, or may never have had a single contact. Heathenry is often flexible because there is no Asa-pope to make pronouncements. Although we have the seidr and runecasting, so-called “magic” is extremely limited. A more magical form of paganism is Wicca.

Taking Responsibility

Heathens aren’t looking for the gods to solve all their problems. Rather, they look to the gods for moral strength and aid. When the gods help them out, they are grateful. They will offer gifts in exchange for help. Unlike the Christian god, the Heathen gods expect you to handle your own problems without running to them all the time. While there are no Ten Commandments of Heathenism, we do have the Nine Noble Virtues, the Havamal, and rules against oathbreaking. We expect other Heathens to act honorably.

For the Community and Individuals

Heathenism is for individuals and community. In the past, community was important because without it, an individual could not exist. Today with all our technology and the scarceness of Heathens, most Heathens are solitary practitioners. Despite this, there are some Heathens, most notably recons, who insist that you cannot be a solitary practitioner. I would argue that I and the majority of Heathens out there have proved otherwise. Most of us still rely on society and others — few of us are capable of living without any outside help — but the lack of Heathens, or those we wish to associate with, are few in number. That’s why like many things, Heathenry has changed. It must change, because we have changed. Just as we don’t condone human sacrifice (except those few loony-tune, fringe idiots who do condone it), we don’t have to be a group-or-nothing religion.

Heathenry Celebrates the Seasons and the Past

Heathenry is close to nature and celebrates times such as spring, planting, harvest, and the equinoxes.

We celebrate our ancestors who have gone before us, and the land spirits who guard our lands. We have many holidays and days of remembrance for those who have gone before us and for those gods and wights who are helping us.

No Racism

Heathens know that the gods and goddesses consider humans as one species and do not look at “race” as a means of determining who is worthy. There have been Heathens of other ethnicities who have joined Northerners as Vikings. We have historical records and even genetics to prove that.

I hope I’ve given you a picture of who Heathenry is for. It is for anyone who is looking for a religion that embraces these principles. If this sounds like a religion you would follow, certainly, Heathenry is for you.

Has Heathenism Beaten Christianity?

August 12, 2016 Tyra Ulfdottir Comments 0 Comment

I got in a conversation with another pagan on Huginn’s Heathen Hof, and he had a different outlook on the whole Christianity versus Paganism argument. It hit me as having some merit, so I’d thought I’d explore it more in depth.

The Argument

The person who put forth this argument to me was a Heathen and a Gnostic. (Let that sink in a bit before dismissing it outright.) His basic argument was that Christianity at its beginning had nothing — no holidays, no formal sacraments, etc, — so it took from other religions. In fact, it took so much from pagan religions that the pagan religions actually triumphed. I’ve been mulling it over for some days and while I don’t think it’s entirely correct, I think it has some merit to at least think about.

Christianity at its Core

Christianity is, at its core, a death cult. It focuses not on rewards in the here and now, but after one dies. It even focuses on the gruesome torture and death of their god. While I think that knowing where you’re going when you die is important, I think that this life is just as important on how we live. Yes, Christians do focus on how well behaved they should be because they will receive a reward in “heaven,” but honestly, it takes a fear of eternal punishment to behave correctly? Think about that for a bit.

The major holiday that Christians have recognized since its inception would be Easter, that is the day when Christ allegedly rose from the dead. We know that Easter arose from the Passover festival, around which Christ was allegedly crucified. Easter follows Passover. But we know that it took the name Eostre, and it may have borrowed the pagan trappings of festivals during that time, presumably to make it more palatable to the audience.

Yule and Christmas

We do know that Christmas was pretty much taken from pagan midwinter festivals, celebrating the celebrating the god of agriculture for a full month starting a week before the solstice. We know that Christmas wasn’t instituted until the fourth century CE when the Church thought to take those midwinter festivals and sanction them.

return of the sun. While us Heathens can lay claim to Yule, we aren’t the only ones that had midwinter celebrations. The Romans had Saturnalia, which was spent

The Puritans actually banned Christmas (and the saints) because they recognized the pagan origins. For about 25 years England under Oliver Cromwell made Christmas illegal. That joy was brought over with the Puritans who made Christmas illegal. Such was the control of the Puritans that anyone found in Boston exhibiting the Christmas spirit during the years 1659 to 1681 could be fined. What a great bunch.

Incidentally, the Christmas tree came into vogue with Queen Victoria, taking the customs of her husband’s homeland. The Christmas tree popped up around the 17th century in Germany have its, …ahem, roots in paganism.

Plenty of pagans have pointed to Odin’s ride, Slepnir’s eight legs changing into eight reindeer, and other similarities, that suggest Odin is Santa Claus, so I don’t need to go through that argument.

Harvest and Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving, itself, is more of an American holiday that was celebrated in New England for some time before Abraham Lincoln made it a national holiday in 1863. George Washington issued the first national Thanksgiving proclamation in 1789, thus putting it on the table, so to speak, when it came to having a national day of thanks. A quote from History.com:

Image by Magickal Graphics

“As an annual celebration of the harvest and its bounty, moreover, Thanksgiving falls under a category of festivals that spans cultures, continents and millennia. In ancient times, the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans feasted and paid tribute to their gods after the fall harvest. Thanksgiving also bears a resemblance to the ancient Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot. Finally, historians have noted that Native Americans had a rich tradition of commemorating the fall harvest with feasting and merrymaking long before Europeans set foot on their shores.”

We have our own celebration of Harvest Home, so saying that Americans “invented” a harvest festival like Thanksgiving isn’t truthful. Now, we did put our own spin on it, but in the end, it is the celebration of family and home, as well as harvest.

The Days of the Week

The months are named after Roman months (gods, Caesars, and numbers), but the days of the week were Roman names changed to our gods, with the exception of Saturday because people probably thought Ymirday might not catch on. (Yeah, I know the story is that there’s no German equivalent to Saturn who was an agricultural god slain by Jupiter, but that’s another story for another time.) So, when we say we’re meeting someone on Thursday, we’re meeting them on Thor’s-day.

Saints versus Polytheism

Becoming Polytheistic was easy after being Catholic for me. Any religion that allows veneration of saints actually lost to the polytheism. Even the Episcopalians have the saints and the time I went to an Episcopalian mass proved to me that they’re Catholics without a pope who allow divorces. We know that some saints were actually gods that got incorporated into the ranks of saints to make the religion more popular (such as Saint Bridget). So, yeah, in some Christian religions, we got some of the gods and goddesses in.

Catholics will tell you that they do not worship saints. That is true at the highest level, but the line gets mighty blurred with the veneration of Mary and other saints.

So Did Heathenism Win?

That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? I would argue yes and no. In the long run, we still have the Christian god, complete with all the stupidity that has subjugated women, condoned slavery, and given us plenty of hangups due to the “do this or you go to hell” mentality. I’m not saying that heathens were morally superior as we had slavery and human sacrifice, but most of us are willing to make the change in the right direction.

By the same token, we got our holidays and other pieces infiltrated into Christianity. People who celebrate the holidays are often celebrating the secular holidays rather than what their church would like them to celebrate. Sure, they keep Jesus in Christmas, but seeing as the whole nativity scene is pretty much made up, and seeing we really don’t know much about the historical Jesus, or even if there was one, we can call it a myth and be done with it.

What it does say to me is that Heathens can celebrate those so-called Christian holidays and feel good about putting their own spin on things. At least, that’s how I look at it.

Added for Clarity:

The point the person made was that arguing whether or not to worship Christ was irrelevant because basically Christianity took all the trappings from pagans anyway. We can argue semantics, but that was his point. I was willing to consider his belief and came up with a yes and no observation. I rushed the conclusion, which perhaps I shouldn’t have done, but I wanted to get the piece out, late as it was.

That being said, I think he does have a point. Is it Heathenism under another flavor? No. Our gods are not revered, although one might be able to point out some obscure saints the Church may have created to appease Heathens. Is Christianity the same as it was when it was conceived? No. It is mostly pagan with the foundation of the Abrahamic faith. Depending on your beliefs in Asatru and Heathenism, you can argue that what parts of paganism was added is superficial. Maybe so, maybe not. I just found it an interesting opinion, and one I couldn’t completely dismiss.

The Wights Won’t Let Me Go Back to Atheism

May 7, 2016 Tyra Ulfdottir Comments 3 comments

Well, okay, that was a shocker. Sometimes I need to be reminded that the world really is weird and sometimes despite my statement being The Rational Heathen, I find something I can’t explain. This time, it’s wights.

How This All Started

I’ve been reading quite a bit from the Atheist Republic and finding that I have a lot in common with those unbelievers. I’ve never pretended to be a devout religious fanatic, which is why when I’ve communicated with Tyr and some of the other gods, I’ve felt like, well, a poser. You see, I’d call myself agnostic in a heartbeat — except for that. Today I was feeling pretty ambivalent about the gods and was about to say something on a private Facebook group about it, and when I hit enter, the words vanished.

Poof.

None of my other posts had. Just those. Tried again. Poof.

The Wights’ opinion and a Doctor Who Reference

I wrote “Okay, I was going to talk about my indecision about going back to atheism and the wights blew my words away. If they don’t behave themselves, I’ll threaten to call down Thor.”

I hit enter. The only thing that appeared was Okay.

I edited the post and began to wonder what the fuck was going on.

Do the Wights Really Listen?

Well, crap on toast. I don’t know what to think about that little interchange. As a friend put it when I bemoaned why Tyr would even venture to approach a near atheist, she said “he must like a challenge.” I guess that’s true. I don’t know why Tyr would consider me, but I have some suspicions. And I’ve been surprised at some of the allies he’s picked to help me. Maybe the wights are just part of that group of allies.

I kind of wonder since I did a salt ritual recently to clean out the bad wights if the good ones have stuck around and are trying to keep me heathen. You have to wonder when your computer only acts weirdly when you write about them or question your own heathenism. It doesn’t fuss when working on other more intensive projects. Just saying.

My Atheist Leanings

Some days I feel like maybe it’s all a delusion and I really need to accept that there are no gods. I think that maybe I’m just giving myself consolation by thinking there are entities greater than ourselves that can help us through life. Otherwise, life gets scary if we really think we’re on our own.

I can’t help but wonder if this was the rationality in looking for gods and wights. It’s a big scary world when we can’t depend on anyone but ourselves. That being said, I get weird shit happen when I question it. It’s like the gods set up those pesky wights to keep me in line.

I’ve still been losing critters, but not at the rate it has been. Of course, some of it is just plain bad luck. Some of it has to do with diseases. I think it is funny when I start writing about wights, they pay more attention. Maybe that’s the way heathenism works.

My Gods are Colorblind

January 9, 2016 Tyra Ulfdottir Comments 0 Comment

I’m probably going to be stepping into something rather unpleasant, but here goes.

One of the headaches Heathenism has is the racism that is often disguised as Odinism and Folkishness. In an attempt to find a religion that is northern based, some people believe — wrongly, I might add — that heathens are racist. Therefore, these people jump heartily into Heathenism thinking that all people who belong to Heathenism are racist.

That just isn’t so. There are many good people who follow the gods. Some aren’t white. The gods, I believe, are colorblind. The reason is obvious. No matter what people and the government state in terms of race, there aren’t any separate races when it comes to humans. We’re the same under the skin.

There is NO SUCH THING as Race

Race is a construct. You can’t take a look at someone’s DNA and say, “wow, that person is white” [or black or Hispanic or Asian or whatever.] There is ethnicity, but not race. Ethnicity is where a certain social group of humans have a historical and cultural tradition that is often aligned with geography. It includes being nationalistic. So, if your ancestors came from Sweden, my guess is that you might have some influences from Sweden, even if you live in America and your family has lived in America for several generations. Maybe you’re a fan of pickled herring and Swedish pancakes because that’s what you grew up with. (Or maybe you just like beer and pizza.) Anyway, whatever you like and dislike may have been due to the ethnic influences you grew up with. Obviously, if you didn’t grow up eating pickled herring, maybe you might find it weird or nasty. And you might look at your ancestors as being odd for eating it.

When People Change Ethnicity

I have seen where ethnicity changes a person even though they were adopted into that ethnic group. One friend of mine was adopted from Asia and his parents were British, but they lived in America. (Got that?) My friend has Asian features but is highly influenced by British, and ultimately American, cultures. This guy has virtually no cultural association with his former country (to be honest, I don’t remember what it was.) If you were to drop him into that country, he couldn’t speak the language and would find it as foreign as I probably would. Another friend of mine had come from a Welsh family but was adopted by a Swedish woman. His ethnicity was clearly Swedish even though at one time he was considered Welsh.

Guess Who Is Pure Homo Sapiens?

We are all Homo Sapiens. Some of us have Neanderthal and Denisovian genes running around in our DNA, but we make up the same species. If you want to talk about pure Homo Sapiens, the people who come from Africa, who haven’t mingled with people with Europe or Asian ancestry, are probably the most pure. Something to think about if you’re a bigoted, narrow-minded white supremacist.

So, if we’re a mix of various hominids, we’re all mutts, and talking skin color, differing features, and whatnot, is patently absurd. The fact that every single one of us has mitochondria from one woman and the fact that human beings nearly went extinct not once, but at least twice proves that we’re all a bunch of inbred gorilla cousins, and that when you look at someone “not of your race,” you’re actually looking at yourself with some ridiculously minor genetic variations. Science doesn’t lie.

The problem is that when racist people start following our gods, it taints the rest of us because the media is quick to paint everyone with a broad brush. It’s not fair, but that is how life is. And, as I’ve pointed out in the past, life isn’t fair. So get over it.

If you’re one of those people who use Asatru, Heathenism, Odinism, or Folkishness to justify your racism, stop. The gods really don’t care what the color of your skin is, whether you’re from the northern latitudes, or whether you’re some bullshit made up “master race.” If anything, they’re probably annoyed at your behavior.

Can a Heathen follow Christ?

November 22, 2015 Tyra Ulfdottir Comments 0 Comment

Oy! — did I step in this, or what? Today I had some Christian missionaries show up (I suspect Mormons) who wanted to talk with me about their god. When I said “no,” they wanted to leave materials with me. I told them “no” again. Basically I was annoyed as Hel because I was looking for deer to hunt and their presence did nothing other than scare critters away.

Deep Thoughts

But I had already started this post before they showed up, and I’ve been thinking about my Christian roots and also how some pagans and heathens are willing to keep the Christ in their lives. I believe strongly that while the intentions are good, this idea is at best misguided. Here is why I think you can’t be heathen and Christian. Come to think of it, I really don’t think you can be Christian and anything else.

Yes, yes, there are signs that in Iceland, for example, people mingled the two religions with the wolf cross, but I think it was more of a heathen hold out and not actual dual worship. As Iceland became more Christianized, having a Mjolnir that could be mistaken as a Christian cross was probably more for blending in than worshiping both the gods and the Christian god.

Basis of the Abrahamic Religions

It’s not that the Aesir and Vanir forbid worship of the Christ or the Abrahamic god. I suspect that if I had a discussion with my patron god about it, he would probably tell me that I could do whatever I wanted on that score, but the whole idea is kind of folly. The reason is simple: the god of the Abrahamic religions doesn’t want people to worship anything else. While I do not “worship” my Aesir and Vanir gods, per se, I do have a close relationship with them that I did not have with the Christian god. I will not abandon them because they do not abandon me. That is the definition of my relationship with my gods. Yours may be different.

I have plenty of proof to back up that the Abrahamic god does not suffer any other gods, and it is all in their bible. Old Testament or New Testament, it doesn’t matter. You worship other gods and you’re out. Just the statement in Deuteronomy 6:14 should give any pagan or heathen pause for thought:

“You shall fear only the LORD your God; and you shall worship Him and swear by His name. 14“You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you, 15for the LORD your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; otherwise the anger of the LORD your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth.…”

Well, okay then. The New Testament says similar things such as:

1 John 5:21
“Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.”

We know that Christians consider any other gods to be idols and not real gods, as though heathens worship the images they create and not the god whose image is supposed to suggest a likeness.

So if you’re a heathen, you’re worshiping demons in the eyes of their god. Another heathen wrote about the very same thing in this blog. So, if you’re really set on worshiping a god who hates your guts, despite your good intentions, that’s your business.

St. Boniface and Thor’s Oak

Perhaps the most telling of what Christians think of the heathen gods is demonstrated in the story about St. Boniface and Thor’s Oak. Boniface showed up in a town in Hesse and took an ax to the sacred tree. How much of the story is propaganda and how much is reality leaves much to conjecture. (For example, the Catholics claim that children were sacrificed to Thor.) Regardless, we do know that Boniface did take an ax to a sacred tree of Thor and built a church to St. Peter from the wood. Many sacred groves were destroyed because of Christians.

While I am in no way for something as heinous as human sacrifice, I do have to point out that history is often written by the victors. How much went on is probably exaggerated. Talk about sacrificing children and most rational people would say that the religion was evil that did it. But that is another topic for another time. My point with Thor’s Oak is that it shows what lengths Christians will go to to eliminate other gods. So, when you worship their god, you align yourself with those who would destroy your gods. Does that even make sense?

Did Christ Even Exist?

This is a sticky subject but one I’m willing to go out on a limb about. I suspect that Christ is a made up construct for the budding church. There were no written accounts of Jesus during the time he purportedly lived. The Gospels, even the earliest one, Mark, were written a hundred years or more after Christ’s purported birth. They contradict each other in terms of facts. What’s more, no pagan or writer contemporaries of Jesus Christ wrote about him. We can see that Tacitus was writing in the second century and not during the time of Jesus. Josephus wrote about Christ somewhere around 75 CE, but his work may actually be later work of Christians. This is all assuming that Josephus was even around during Christ’s life.

I can go on and on about this, but I think this is going to wait for another day when I feel like tackling it. All I can say is that if you do follow Christ and the Aesir and Vanir, perhaps I’ve given you something to think about.

Welcome to the Rational Heathen

September 29, 2015 Tyra Ulfdottir Comments 0 Comment

Welcome to The Rational Heathen!

First post for this blog, so I think I better at least have an introduction and some sort of explanation as to what this blog is about. I’ve been meaning to create a blog about my journey into heathenism and Asatruism, but for a long time, I wasn’t sure what to call it.

Some Background About Me

My name isn’t really important, but you can call me Tyra Ulfdottir, if you’re so inclined. My religious experience started as a Roman Catholic Christian through my family. I soon became disenchanted with it after reaching adulthood, although I had inklings that Christianity wasn’t for me. For a long time I was unaffiliated, then agnostic, and then dabbled in atheism. But the gods — and one particular god — wasn’t happy with that, and due to some pretty powerful UPGs (unverified personal gnosis), I was dragged into heathenism. As a friend said “they like a challenge.” So, they did.

My background is in engineering and science. Basically if it makes no sense logically, I get really annoyed and reject it. I have a really hard time believing in magic, but there may be some equally weird reasons for what we might call magic. Since heathenism does not fly in the face of science, it actually is a nice mix.

Why The Rational Heathen?

I supposed it’s pretentious as Hel calling this site The Rational Heathen. It suggests that I am the lone voice calling out in the wilderness of irrationality, and while that may be true, I have to admit I’m not the only one who thinks logically about things. There are Asatruar who are actually atheists but they like having a foundation in their culture. I am no longer Atheist, so even though I do hold a healthy skepticism about religions, I believe what I believe. You don’t have to agree with me. Hel, you can just take this as the rantings of a mad person. That’s okay. Really. But even though these are my opinions and my thoughts, I have come to their conclusion through logic and reason. Or, at least I like to think that.

Let’s Get One Thing Straight…

Before I go any further, understand that I am totally against racism and bigotry. I believe that the gods accept anyone and that humans are all one race. That’s right. I believe what science has shown: we’re all related and we are not different races. Don’t like that concept? Get over it. Go somewhere else. Don’t hang out here. If you’re using the Norse gods to affirm your bigotry, then you have the wrong beliefs.

So, sit back and be prepared to go on an interesting ride. I probably won’t come up with anything earth shattering, but at least I’ll have an interesting time talking about it.