The Rational Heathen

One thing early on in my switch to Heathenism was my discovery that the gods actually had a lot to say to me.  As a scientist, my first thought was: “Okay, I’m losing it.” After all, if you’re hearing voices, chances are you’re suffering from something like schizophrenia.  That’s probably why my patron god eschews just popping into my brain unannounced. I’d just check myself into the local psychiatric clinic and be done with it. Which is why when I do get responses from the gods, it’s usually in some form I can accept and one that won’t leave me wondering if I need to check myself in for a thorough psychiatric evaluation.

Dreamland

Dreams are big and the gods often tell me things through dreams. I almost never had dreams from the Christian god. The one dream I did have that was direct, I suspect was Odin who was chiding me for being one of Tyr’s followers. That was amusing, actually, because the dream took on Christian forms. Since deciding to become heathen, I’ve had several contacts through dreams.  More on this later.

Meditation

Occasionally I’ll get a strong response when I’m meditating or concentrating on speaking to a god. Yes, Unverified Personal Gnosis. I can’t tell you if what I learn from this would fit you and your life. All I know is that I learn things that affect me.

For example, I know that Tyr claimed me and Odin is somewhat annoyed by it.  Annoyed isn’t probably a good word, but it’s the best I can come up with at the moment. It’s more along the lines of slightly irritated. (Come on, now, you really don’t expect for any of the gods to really get worked up over one mortal?)  This little challenge between gods affects me and no one else in terms of UPG.

At the same time, Tyr knows he doesn’t own me and he’s okay with that. I suspect Odin would insist on more devotion, but that’s the nature of the All Father.  You really can’t expect with a title like that he’d want less.

In retrospect, I’ve been seeing this competition play out my entire life. You could, I suppose, simply call the gods metaphors for what has been going on in my life since I was born. I’ve always been attracted to two sides: the scientific and logical, and the creative.  Both sides of me are always trying to achieve the upper hand, and never do.  In this case, the agnostic side of me says that the gods are just constructs my brain has come up with to deal with the dichotomy.

Runes

I can hear the skeptics saying, “Seriously, Dude?  You cast RUNES?”

Guilty as charged.  My overly Catholic sister in a fit of immense inattentiveness gave me The Book of Runes as a present way back when I was a teenager.  Now, I can hear other heathens wailing about how worthless his books are when it comes to interpretation.  Get over it.  I don’t use Blum’s system, but I can see some worth in some of his interpretations.

Runecasting is something I do. Tyr and Thor interjected themselves in my life through the Runes. (Tyr more than Thor, but I suspect the Thunder god is patient with me.)  I had some pretty amazing revelations with the runes, including doing a reading in front of a full panel at a convention next to people who charged for divination.  Basically at one point, I got into an argument with several people over my interpretation, only to discover at the end that I had not only hit the ball, but made a home run when it came to doing a cold reading.  What had happened was I told the woman that her past rune suggested she had inherited some wealth or goods from someone close to her dying.  I got taken to task by the other panelists, but I looked at the runes and said, “sorry, that’s what I see.”  After we all did our runecasts and interpretations, the woman told everyone that her dad had died and she was wondering how to invest the money.

Luck, I suppose.  I could’ve probably made a fortune that night selling castings, but being the agnostic at the time, I didn’t really believe in them.  Pretty freaky.  If you ever had anything like that happen to you, you kind of wake up.  And yes, you tend to get more open with the gods.

Occasional Advice

Despite all my denial about gods and whatnot, I get pretty clear messages from Tyr.  It doesn’t matter whether I believe in the heathen gods or not, I’m tied to them.  I can either accept my Wyrd or not, but my belief doesn’t matter. It doesn’t change anything.  It might irk other gods, but belief isn’t really necessary.

I occasionally get some strong statements from Tyr.  I was visiting one so-called heathen site because I found some books by him that looked interesting. Tyr told me point blank that the guy was full of shit and not to pay attention to him.  Later, I did some searches and discovered some pretty unsavory stuff surrounding this person.

Now, I could point out that maybe that’s just my suspicious self. But oddly enough when I looked at this person’s book, I had no idea until Tyr spoke up.  My thoughts about this?  He was right.  And he hasn’t led me wrong.  So, maybe I need to listen to the gods a bit more.