The Rational Heathen

Yeah, Well, I’m not into “Frith”

June 4, 2016 Tyra Ulfdottir Comments 0 Comment

“Frith” and “Troth.” If you hang around with Heathens and Asatruans, inevitably you hear those words. Those silly, archaic, bizarre words. Every time I see those words, I want to roll my eyes and sigh. Or laugh. Or puke. Or something. It’s not that I disagree with the concepts, per se, I just have a tough time with silly archaics.

And I know at least two “dead” languages.

What the Fuck is Frith and Troth?

First, I need to get the definitions out of the way to ensure the recon rabble will find something to argue or poke fun about. So, let’s look at frith. My understanding is that it is tied to the “inner yard” or Innangarth which makes up the kindred. If you look it up under Wikipedia (and you recons are welcome to fix their definitions, by the way), it points out a state of peace that has to do with relationships. Frith encompasses fealty to lords as well. Basically, it is peace that occurs to those who belong to a certain unit, let’s say “family.” But family is more like The Godfather’s family — extended and has those who must swear loyalty of some variety. When you’re offered sanctuary, that’s frith working. Got it?

Troth is loyalty and truth. If you look up the word in Merriam-Webster’s, you’ll see loyalty or pledged faithfulness. Basically, it’s an archaic term for “truth” or “oath,” depending on its context.

So Why the Fuck do I Have a Problem with them?

Other than the names and usage instead of modern English, you probably are wondering what is wrong with using them today. Glad you asked that. I’m going to address the whole Innangarth/Utanngarth and the concept of frith (crap, I keep typing “firth” because my mind and fingers rebel against this silly word.) Basically, the idea comes down to an early form of feudalism that we got away from a long time ago.

Frithering Heights

Let’s talk frith. Back in the olden days, you had to have scores of relatives, friends, and whomever else in your Inner-yard because, quite frankly, the world was a dangerous place (it’s still dangerous, but not quite that level in Western societies) and if you didn’t have allies close at hand, you had everything taken from you by force. Warfare was common back then, and it was the equivalent of living in street gangs, but without police to really turn to. It’s no surprise that I likened the Inner-yard to the Mafia in the Godfather. Hels Bells, where do you think the Sicilians learned this behavior? Try the Norse and the Normans. There’s a reason why there are red and blond Sicilians.

“But Tyra,” you say, “we’re using frith to mean a safe space for our family and friends.” I would argue that that’s fine, but be aware it is much different than the historical frithering something or other. Yes, it can evolve over time — I’m not as pedantic as some — but change the term. Tell us what it is. “Safety,” “Safe space,” or whatever. You’re using an anachronistic word here.

Frith, like many things, is conceptually an attractive idea, but in the end really offers a lot up for abuse of power. People swear fealty to that particular lord and support him. Peace (lack of warfare) occurs between members, though there are always disagreements. Basically, you trade your loyalty for protection. Feudalism, to sum it up succinctly.

I grew up in a Frith-type household. It sucked. Not because of any physical abuse (although I could make the case for verbal abuse), but because there were things you never went to the Utanngarth over. And quite honestly, there should have been more Outer-Yard interaction. There were too many “secrets” that shouldn’t have been, and too many issues that later on caused problems that could have been addressed early on and avoided.

By the way, the Heathens of old weren’t the only ones who had the concept of Inner/Outer-Yard. That concept is alive and well with the Japanese and other Asian ethnicities. In fact, the Japanese have one set of words for family members that are only used among family members versus a more formal set of words for “outsiders.” In many ways, Heathen culture mimics Japanese culture and Shinto: concept of inner/outer yard, ancestor worship, local kami/wight worship, female sun goddess, highly ritualized ceremonies with drink, warrior class which required fealty for protection, thegns/daimyo…I could go on and on.

I can see Frith being used as an excuse to hide addictions, sexual abuse, law breaking, and other terrible things, because it’s all too easy to insist on loyalty for “protection.” Look at how feudalism was abused. Look, our ancestors thought it sucked enough to get rid of it. Now, I can hear the recons arguing with me on this. Guess what? I don’t give a shit. The fact that it CAN be abused, suggests it WILL be abused. Power, my friend, corrupts.

What About Troth?

Being a follower of Tyr, I do have some thoughts about Troth. You may guess by my crazy blog posts I tend to be a little on the brutally honest side. Being honest and forthright is best, In My Not So Humble Opinion (IMNSHO), but I am quick to avoid oaths. Oaths are solemn things, and yes, the gods will hold you accountable to them. So, swearing loyalty, except maybe in marriage, scares the bejesus (heh!) out of me. Fail that oath, and you’re dealing with an ugly situation both here and in the afterlife, such as it may be. Plus pledging Troth to anyone in terms of fealty, takes us right into the (not so) good-old-days of feudalism.

So, Where does that Leave us?

By now, I can feel all the recon rage. Look, I really don’t care if you frither and troth all you want. I get the concepts, and I get you want to go back to the Bad Old Days. Or maybe you think you can do a better job incorporating them into your family, kith and kin. Far be it from me to tell you how to live your life, as long as it doesn’t affect me. I’m not saying don’t respect your elders, and don’t respect your family, but families aren’t perfect, and no matter how much you’d like your Hof, Kindred, or whatever you call your group to be, to be perfect, it isn’t going to be that way.

I’d argue too that our Inner-Yard versus Outer-Yard has grown substantially. One could make the argument that our Inner-Yard encompasses our community, our state, or even our nation. I haven’t gone so far as to say it encompasses our world, but maybe if we discover other life forms, that might be a real possibility. (Someday, I’m going to write something about if Thor is on other planets, but this post is long enough.)

Anyway, use frith and troth around me, and I’ll laugh. If for the silliness of the words, if nothing else.

The Gods are Not Your Bitches

June 1, 2016 Tyra Ulfdottir Comments 0 Comment

It’s nice to see someone in the pagan community agree with me, even though they said it nicer than I did. The gods, whether you think of them as people or metaphors, don’t necessarily jump when you ask them to jump. They don’t necessarily do things because you whined at them. And they certainly aren’t our bitches who show up because we called to them.

Connecting with Gods

Connecting with the gods is a personal thing, In My Not So Humble Opinion (IMNSHO), and each connection is as different as it is for each individual to be different. How you related to one god isn’t necessarily how I relate to him. I think it has to do with who we are and how we got to this point. Tyr, for example, doesn’t really pop in, raid the refrigerator, and open up a bottle of mead on the counter at my house. If he does at your house, please tell me. I’d be mighty curious about that. I’d be surprised. (Now, if it were Loki, I’d expect that.) Some folks claim to have real life experiences. I’ve only had one, and that made me question my sanity. (Meeting Odin on the street — seriously.)

It’s not my place to tell you how to connect with gods, but I might offer some advice: They aren’t your bitches, and most aren’t interested in you unless you bring something to the table. Occasionally, a few of us hear the call and say “what the fuck?” That happened to me, but I realize that having such experiences can be uncommon, not the rule when it comes to the gods.

My Own (Limited) Experience

I think the gods tend to be a bit more mindful about our pasts when we “connect” with them. As a follower of Tyr, he’s my main go-to god for just about everything. That being said, sometimes I realize that other gods are more suitable to my petitions, but I really don’t know them that well.

Tyr knows I have a lot of baggage from religion and childhood. If I have a fault, it is I lean pretty heavily on him from time to time. It’s mostly just moral support, but occasionally it’s a “I need this” kind of request. Yeah, it comes from growing up Roman Catholic and being shoved into the “pray to god to help you” mentality. Realistically, I know that Tyr is not the god for that sort of thing, but when I have shit raining down, he gets an earful. Because I look at him like a friend. Sometimes I just get a sympathetic ear and not much more. Sometimes I get help. Sometimes another god pops into my life because he or she is better at helping me. If anything, I now have five gods/goddesses that I offer blots and talk to.

That’s how I relate to the gods. I wasn’t looking to go back to being a theist, so I kind of have the opinion that because they found me, they knew what kind of package they were picking up. Lately, when I bemoaned not being able to talk to the wights with someone who actually does a fair amount of work with them, I learned some things and actually got some positive things happen. Okay, so I’m a bit agnostic on them still, but they’re included. And I get a more positive feeling from them.

Why We Demand Help

I often talk about Christianity, mainly because I can’t get away from my Christian upbringing. If you were raised Heathen, Pagan, or with another religion that wasn’t derived from the Abrahamic religions, you probably don’t have the same reliance that many who have left those faiths have to their gods. We’ve been spoon fed a pack of lies since we could understand words. It’s not our parents’ faults, per se, they’ve been as brainwashed as we have since their childhood. There’s a good reason for them to teach us Christianity’s teachings, too. The fear of their hell and eternal torment makes even the toughest guy in the room quake.

So, we’re taught very early on that god will provide. That god will care for us. That everything will work out to god’s plan. And when stuff goes our way, we praise god. When shit happens — and it does happen to good people, and even the best followers of the Christian god — we tell ourselves that it was god’s plan, or maybe they weren’t really that good. Because a kind and just god wouldn’t allow that to happen, would he?

So, we beg for good things to happen to us. That we get that raise, get accepted to that school, get a job, find a significant other, heal someone or ourselves, or win the lottery. The reality is that unless we get off our butts and do something, it’s unlikely we’re going to see positive results. That’s where that old saying “god helps those who help themselves” most likely got started. Well, whether you should maybe claim it as a god’s victory is questionable. I’d argue that every victory is your own, and if the gods help you out, you should be thankful for their aid, but you’re the one who really made it happen.

The Gods are Not Our Bitches

If we look at the gods as strictly archetypes or metaphors for the universe that surrounds us, we can pretty much deduce they don’t need us, although we’re already heavily reliant on them. We rely on Sif and Freyr for growing things, Thor for our thunderstorms (i.e. rain), Sunna for our light, Mani for more than just a shining orb above us at night, but may have had to do with actual life, Tyr for our laws, both human made and natural, Odin for our creation, and so forth. My point is we rely on them for a lot already, so calling them down to aid us, especially when we have no rapport with them, seems a little self centered. If we consider them entities, so much more so.

If you have a relationship with a god or gods, chances are you already know your boundaries. If you’re looking for help and you only have relationship with one or two gods, maybe they’re the first should hear your plea and then see what they say. Other gods most likely need some type of introduction and probably a pretty decent relationship before one can ask for things from them.

When we understand that they’re entities (or at least metaphors) with their own agendas, we can see that our gods aren’t the Christian vending machine that our society has come to expect.

A Heathen in a Christian Land

May 21, 2016 Tyra Ulfdottir Comments 0 Comment

I’ve been thinking a lot lately on how heathens get treated by dominant religions. In the past, there were plenty of persecutions — in some countries today, most notably Islamic, you’re likely to be persecuted if you’re not part of their religion. In true theocracies, our beliefs make our lives difficult. This is why I believe it is important to put things in perspective. If you’re a heathen like I am, where you live in a Western republic where religion is tolerated, but you don’t necessarily have the support structure to make you feel inclusive in your beliefs, it’s important to keep some perspective. Five hundred years ago, you’d be dead, and not in a pleasant way.

Dealing with REAL Theocracies

If you’ve lived your entire life in the United States, it’s easy to get riled up about how people react toward you having beliefs that don’t fit the Christian paradigm. Although one of the big principles our country was founded on was the separation of church and state, we still have to acknowledge that Christianity is the big influence in our lives. Even though we have a number of whack-jobs who insist that we should have prayer in school, creationism taught alongside evolution, and other stupid things, we haven’t the same situation that people who live in real theocracies endure.

I knew an Iranian Jew who supported the Shaw of Iran before the Ayatollah took over. He and his family had to flee for their lives. Think about it. Christians and Jews are constantly persecuted by Islamic extremists, which makes dealing with your neighbor giving you the stink eye because of your hammer pendant laughable. Okay, so you got some disapproval there. At least you don’t have to worry about the religion police breaking down your door and arresting you.

Worse for Atheists

It can even be worse, if you’re atheist. Stumbling across Life as an Atheist in an Islamic Republic is a real eye-opener. Even if you live in what may be considered a more enlightened Islamic country, you can undergo some pretty nasty abuse — and no one will say anything bad about it because you are considered wrong. Yes, yes, we hear stories of how people treat those who don’t believe in Christ in the South, but unless you get in peoples’ faces, it’s unlikely you’ll be physically abused.

Americans Don’t Like to Talk About Religion

At this point, you may be shaking your head on this, but these numbers seem to play out from my own experience: Americans don’t like to talk about religion. In fact, according to an interesting post by Atheist Republic, the Pew Research Center (which does a lot of polls) discovered that half of American adults seldom talk about religion to those outside their families. Those who do like to talk about religion are usually the ultra-religious (Oh, THERE’S a surprise — yes, that was sarcasm.) But what you might not know is that somewhere between 60 and 80 percent actually want to hear about your religion, and agree to disagree.

It Could Be Worse

For all our bitching about Christianity, and how we’ve been treated in the past, at the present, Americans have far fewer problems than we could have. Certainly there are other religions in this country that have it tougher. Namely Judaism and moderate Islamism. If the worse behavior you’ve receive has been weird looks and stink eyes, count yourself lucky. There are far worse bullying behaviors you could experience. If you’ve been suckered into having dinner at a friend’s place and they tried to convert you, well, you know where that person stands and perhaps you need better friends. Now, if you’re locked up against your will, beaten, and made to recite bible passages, then you have something. If you’ve escaped, you had better have reported it to the police. Being locked up and beaten is more than just a little on the illegal side.

It Could Be Better

Yeah, I’m not saying this country is without faults. We’ve had the Salem Witch Trials, Mountain Meadows Massacre, and extermination of Native Americans under the name of the Christian god for their lands. There have been hate crimes against different faiths. One that springs to mind is hate crimes against Jewish people, but even Catholics, Baptists, Presbyterians, Mormons, and other Christian faiths have experienced intolerance. For a country founded on the separation of church and state, we’ve seen our share of bad behavior.

The problem isn’t usually the majority, although incidents such as 9/11 and other terrorist acts tend to heighten mistrust, and yes, people behave badly because we know that these terror groups have ties to Islam, albeit radical Islam. It’s common for those of us to look at those “not of our tribe” with suspicion. It doesn’t make the prejudice right.

Feeling Alone?

Heathenism can be practiced alone, or in a group. That’s the beauty of it. I’m kind of a solitary kind of gal, so you’re not likely to see me at an Asatru or Heathen gathering. Even so, there are groups in your neighborhood. I recommend the American Asatru Association to get more involved. That way, you don’t have to go it alone.

Reconstructionists are Idiots

May 14, 2016 Tyra Ulfdottir Comments 5 comments

That got your attention? Good. Well, at least you know where the Rational Heathen stands. After

having dealt with enough of these morons, I’ve come to the conclusion that at best, reconstructionists are misguided. At worst, they’re idiots. I say this with the utmost candor, having dealt with reconstructionists when I first got involved in online Heathenry. I even got thrown off a list for expressing my views, albeit politely. (Yeah, me being polite — go figure.) I was told in no uncertain terms I was wrong for my opinions and ideas, and when I logically tore them to pieces, they resorted to ad hominem attacks, and then throwing me off their list. Oh, and then banning me. Like that really showed me?

Seriously? Seriously??

Ad hominem attacks are a clue to me you really don’t have your shit wired, and at this point, the best you can do is just insult me. Yeah, that won the argument. Throwing me off the board and banning me just proves your opinions can’t stand scrutiny. Which is why you should never go toe-to-toe with The Rational Heathen without having your arguments well thought out.

What is Reconstructionism and Why Should I (or Anyone) Give a Shit?

At first, you might think that I, the Rational Heathen, would be a complete reconstructionist. After all, I’m all into logic and learning how and why things came into being. Reconstructionism, at its core is trying to learn and ascertain how northern paganism came into being, what constitutes northern paganism, and what influenced it later. This actually sounds right up my alley in a lot of ways. Many reconstructionists tend to be atheistic or agnostic in nature. They like playing anthropologist, and look to archaeology for clues how heathenism came into being.

Okay, that’s good. That’s insightful. I’m good with that so far.

They look at the sagas and Eddas as being tainted by Christianity. That any semblance of Heathenry is corrupt in them and therefore they are unreliable. I can kind of agree with that. The reason is we know that these stories were written down by Christians, during a Christian time, and we’re looking through an incomplete glass, one that wasn’t written down completely true to form, and one that was written well after the people became Christian.

The sagas are a lot like like me writing down the history of the old West with only oral stories handed down from my in-laws who were told the stories from people who are now deceased. Imagine if we only had stories our families told, and no written journals, newspapers, books, or anything else during that time. Of course the stories I would write down would be the ones that the tellers remembered being told, would be changed enough to reflect the tellers’ points of view, and might even have gotten mixed up with other stories of that time. So, yeah, I think that the idea to question the veracity of the sagas are well founded, to a certain extent.

When the Reconstructionists Go Too Far

So, with this agreement, why aren’t I in the reconstructionist camp? I’m not against the concept of reconstruction, per se, I’m against the way it is being used in arguments. I’ve read through enough reconstructionist babble to decide that they’ve gone too off the deep end when it comes to trying to recreate our beliefs. They argue point after point against those who do use the Eddas, Havamal, and Unverified Personal Gnosis to beat people into submission, when the reality is when it comes to science, we really don’t have a full picture what Heathenry was to our ancestors. What’s more, they don’t seem to care that if Heathenry is to remain relevant, it must be relevant for ourselves and not necessarily for our ancestors.

The Greatest Problem with Reconstruction

The greatest problem with reconstruction is that we just don’t have enough evidence to say “Yea verily, this is how it was.” We have a lot of good educated guesses by really smart dudes with letters after their names, but we don’t have proof other than what others have wrote about the northern pagan cultures and what those people left behind. We also have traditions and folklore that went back to those times, but piecing those bits into actual fact is like trying to put together one shattered cup from a pile of shattered pieces of several cups that have been left outside for years. Yes, you might get something together that looks like the original cup, or you might be missing pieces, or you might have put several pieces of another cup into the cup you were trying to restore. And even if we want to put together this cup, is it something we put on the shelf and look at it, or is it something we use?

I’d argue that the reconstruction folks are more along the lines of putting it in a nice display case to look at from time to time. They’re not the ones who take the cup out and actually use it the way it was intended. They’re interested in the cup as the prize and not as what the cup does for anyone, metaphorically speaking, or they’re using it as a weapon against other people. It’s still a cup, but it’s being used as a hammer to slam people who actually agree with multiculturalism in Heathenism. But it’s not the right tool, and because it’s made from broken pieces, it shatters pretty easily.

Hitting a Running Horse While Blindfolded

Reconstructionists, if they had their way, would fix heathenism in some arbitrarily agreed to point and time. What time, I have no fucking clue, because religion and religious beliefs change over time, even in the Viking Era. They’re trying to hit a running horse while blindfolded. If you look at current religions of today versus even three hundred years ago, you’d see some pretty stunning changes. Christianity is a good metric because we know so much about it. Ask yourself was Christianity looked like three hundred years ago and compare it to today. Yes, there are going to be similarities that we recognize, but there are also going to be stark differences in celebrations, attitudes, and even belief systems. Add the remoteness of some villages, and you’re likely to see even more differences geographically.

We know that during the Viking Age our ancestors went, well, everywhere. The Vikings went everywhere in the known world. We know they were in Sicily (conquering it twice, once by the Norse with Bjorn Ironsides and once by the Normans), Russia (the Varangians), and in Slavic countries. They went west toward the Americas, east far enough to have genetic mutations that are only found in people with Mongolian ancestry in Iceland, south into Sicily and did have dealings with Muslims, and north, well, they are Norse. There is a black Heathen mentioned, for the gods’ sake! I’ve seen Viking caches that had a gold Buddha in with all the other treasure in a museum display. Think about that and tell me that Northern Paganism wasn’t influenced by other groups. The answer is that they were. Which means there is no way we could distill what a pure Heathen was like at any point and time.

When Reconstructionists Go Bad

Like this meme, but not the misspelling.

Many reconstructionists are a sorry lot. They want to espouse their own world view as fact and use what few bits of what archaeologists have recovered to support their assertions. They’re kind of like the Catholic church that insisted on an Earth-centric view of the cosmos instead of accepting that the Earth revolves around the sun, and not the other way around. If they just would bend a little and look at reality with an open mind, they’d see it all fall nicely into place, instead of trying to shoehorn their own beliefs like the proverbial square peg and round hole.

What’s worse, they seek to alienate the people who would do Heathenry the most good. I’ve heard them call those who try to incorporate other pagan traditions into Heathenry derisively as “Wiccatru,” and while I’m clearly not Wiccan, and don’t think much of spells (and don’t believe in magic, per se), I don’t think discouraging that branch of potential heathens is helpful. There are the Rokkatru folks who honor the Jotnar, whom the reconstructionists say can’t honor those beings because nobody in the past honored them (Like they were there? There may be no evidence of worship, but you just can’t prove a negative, especially with our lack of archaeological evidence.) Then, there are the Lokeans, who have to deal with the Marvel jokes. Maybe I don’t see eye to eye with Wiccans, Rokkatru, or Lokeans, but that’s not the point. The point is we have people who want to know our gods and our beliefs — there is no reason to exclude them.

Some reconstructionists go as far as to be tribal. If your ancestors were not from a particular German hamlet, or didn’t come from Norway, they don’t want you as part of the team. Dudes, quit goosestepping in your parents’ basement. Race is a construct. We’re all a bunch of inbred monkey cousins with some very small genetic adaptations. Deal with it.

Our Worldview is Different — Thankfully

Let’s face it: our worldview is vastly different from our ancestors’. We don’t hold slaves and most of us find slavery repugnant and downright wrong (I say “most of us” because I know of some whack-jobs who probably think it’s okay). We find the idea of human sacrifice to be abhorrent (everyone except the guy I argued with in a group that said that he understood why it happened and wouldn’t, when pressed, be against it), and value the individual.

The Individual in Heathenism

Some reconstructionists would like to point to the family as the smallest acceptable unit and would like to claim that Americans (and Christianity) puts emphasis on the individual only, and not the tribe. This is patently absurd. Here’s why.

Looking at Anglo Saxon texts such as the Seafarer and Beowulf, not to mention the Norse Eddas, seem to point to accomplishments of individuals. If you look at Bronze Age folklore, it’s not the family who triumphs in those stories; it’s the individual. Last time I checked, Cinderella’s stepmom, stepsisters, and her dad were pretty worthless when it came to helping her. Cinderella gains help from a fairy godmother who is pretty much a stranger.

What about other stories? The Smith and the Devil, considered a pre-Christian, Bronze Age tale is about an individual who outsmarts an evil entity, similar to Tom Tit Tot or Rumpelstiltskin in many ways. In each of those stories, the hero must overcome the evil creature. That isn’t a question of family, per se, but a question of dealing with an evil creature. The stakes become high when the creature asks the hero not for her soul, but her offspring. In Smith and the Devil, the devil asks for the smith’s soul in return for granting him a magic power.

Oh wait! Those stories are corrupt with statements about the Christian god. Okay, well what is there about Christianity that makes it individualistic? The Catholic church didn’t exactly value others worshiping other religions, or even making it up as you go. In fact, Christianity before the Protestant reformation said that the only way to salvation was through the Church and its sacraments. You couldn’t just read the bible for yourself and decide what was right or wrong. You needed the Church to do it. Doesn’t sound particularly individualistic to me. Guess what? It wasn’t.

You are Tainted

If you’re a reconstructionist, you need to be at least open to allowing Heathenism to grow. Trying to reconstruct a religion from more than a thousand years ago from a dead culture is like trying to preserve a time capsule that never existed. You may construct something, but it’s unlikely it is something that resembles what was there in the past. It’s a lesson is futility. Your current world view is based on what is around you. You will never, ever come close to what our ancestors were like in your attempts at mimicking them. For one thing, technology has tainted you. Your language has tainted you. Your education has tainted you. Your nation and how it has evolved has tainted you.

The gods are not stagnant beings. They don’t just hang around and wish for the halcyon days of the Viking era. They know it’s folly to look backward. If they wanted that time saved, don’t you think one of them could have saved that puppy in a time capsule somewhere and trotted it out for all to see?

We Need to Be a Big Tent

You’ve heard the terms big tent and small tent when it comes to politics. It works for religion, too. There’s enough room under the Heathen tent to be inclusive and open to other ideas, and other people. Yes, there are going to areas where we disagree, but that’s normal. We need people with new ideas and new perspectives on our beliefs because otherwise we remain stagnant. Heathenry should not be something that sits on a shelf to show everyone how cool and smart you are. Heathenry is a celebration of our gods and the old ways as they pertain to today. We know through science that we’re one tribe, not many, although we have different ethnicities. We need to find common ground with people who want to be included. The only people we should not include are those not willing to consider other viewpoints and whose sole purpose is hate. We’ve had enough hatred thanks to the perversion of our beliefs.

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.

Is There Such a Thing as Good and Evil in Heathen Belief? (Part Two)

April 30, 2016 Tyra Ulfdottir Comments 0 Comment

The previous week, I talked about good and evil in folk tales, which is a window into our pagan past. Now, I’m going to address the concept of good and evil as it pertains to the heathen gods, jotnar, and wights. It’s not as far fetched as many people will make us believe.

Let’s Get Christianity Out of the Way First

Before I start, I’m going to have to address Christianity, the 800-pound gorilla in the room.

Christianity and other Abrahamic religions have a bunch of rules that you have to follow in order to reach heaven. Depending on your form of Christianity, it is belief based, but it is often rule based too. In Catholicism which I grew up in, it wasn’t enough to believe in Christ to be saved. You also had to not sin. God kept a running tally of sins on you, both mortal and venial. Mortal sins were those sins that sent you straight to the Christian hell, do not pass go, do not collect $200. Venial sins were considered minor (telling white lies, not listening to your parents, etc) and you wound up in a cheery place called purgatory to spend your time until god thought you suffered long enough to go to heaven or until the second coming of Christ.

Good and evil in Christianity and other Abrahamic religions is defined by a moral code given by their god. They define evil as rebelling or turning away from their god. Evil is not defined as the act, but rather what the god says it is. So, for example, eating meat (but somehow fish and seafood are not meat) on Fridays during lent is a sin, even though eating meat is not a sin. Murder is wrong, but taking your homeland away from Canaanites and putting everyone to the sword is okay, even though they did nothing wrong because your god said it was okay. In the end, evil is looked at as rebellion against their god (hence the reason Satan is evil). You figure that four of the ten commandments has to do with their god and not rules to live by and get along with each other.

Heathenry is not Christianity and the concept of tallying every little mistake we make in life and paying for it for eternity is ludicrous at best. In the Abrahamic religions, list of potential sins easily outweigh what isn’t a sin, and quite frankly there’s no way you can ever get to heaven with that laundry list. Some of the sins ban things in human nature such as sexual acts, masturbation, swearing, and even challenging your parents when you’re a teenager. Some are just plain made up so it forces you to become indoctrinated. You can go straight to hell for not attending church on Sundays, for example.

Oh Hell

It’s funny because the concept of hell is relatively new and is not part of Old Testament scripture. The Jewish people believed in sheol which is much like our Helheim, which was simply a place for the dead. Even the word, Gehenna, was used to suggest an underworld and not hell.

We see the word Gehenna used thirteen times in the New Testament which was actually a place outside of Jerusalem where they burned their garbage and unclean bodies. We can safely assume this is the Christian hell because it is a “unquenchable fire.” Still, we know that the earliest part of the New Testament was written by Paul around 50 CE (Common Era) or 50 AD (Anno Domini), if you use the old nomenclature. The Gospel of Matthew, which is the oldest Gospel, is thought to have been written around 80 to 90 CE, some 50+ years after Jesus supposedly died. For the sake of argument, scholars accept the range of 70 to 110 CE for when it might have been penned. We know that there was a fair amount of Greek and Roman influence in early Christianity. It would not be surprising if they adopted Tartarus from the Greeks. More on this later.

Thoughts on Heathenry Hell

As heathens, we don’t believe in sin, but we clearly can see both good and evil deeds. Our judgment of what is good and what is evil can sometimes be in flux, given the situation, but I would propose that there are rules to this and they’re not as flexible as you might think. The other side of the coin is that we do have a type of hell for the really bad people. That is Náströnd where Níðhöggr chews on the corpses of the evil doers: the oath breakers, the adulterers, and the murderers. You might point at that and say that this is from Christianity, but I don’t think so. Other religions with afterlifes often have some sort of place for punishing those who offend the gods. The ancient Egyptians had a place of punishment for the wicked in the cult of Osiris, Buddhism has an afterlife which has much suffering (although you don’t stay there for eternity), and Naraka in Asian cultures. So, enough religions do seem to have concepts of a place of punishment, even if some don’t.

Let’s look at the classic Greeks’ (and ultimately the Romans’) ideas of the underworld. They’re remarkably like ours with some differences. The Greeks had Hades, the place of where the dead resided similar to Helheim. They also had their own version of hell called Tartarus which is where evildoers went, those who ticked off the gods went, and was the place where the Greek version of the Jotnar resided. Those Jotnar were called Titans who were overthrown by Zeus and the Greek gods. Our Helheim is guarded by Garm; the gates of the classic Greek underworld are guarded by a magical hound, Kerberos. You cross a river to get to the underworld: the Greeks required Charon; the Norse figured someone could have built a bridge.

I bring this up because there’s enough similarity between the two afterlifes to point at them and say at one time, our common knowledge fuels our collective unconscious. I suspect it is because we pretty much came from one set of humans that didn’t go extinct when the universe was trying to end us in some fashion. Our stories changed over time, but they’re still recognizable, to the point where Tacitus was calling Thor the name of Jupiter and Tyr the name of Mars, when explaining the religion of the Germanic tribes.

Good and Evil with the Gods and Jotnar

So, if we look at the Aesir, Vanir, and Jotnar, we get an idea of what is good and what is evil. I would argue that what makes an Aesir and not a Jotnar is their attitude toward humans. We can look at our gods and point to their Jotnar roots. Some of the Aesir were even considered Jotnar until they were accepted into the Aesir clan. I’m think Skadi, in particular.

Jotnar, by their very nature, do not care about humans. They are, in many cases, natural forces, including forces of chaos. In some cases, the Jotnar may be outright antagonistic to humans. They’re given some pretty nasty names such as “Evil Striker” and “She who brings grief” — not the kind of names you’d associate with helpful critters. One may be able to make the case for Loki not being fully Jotnar in nature because he doesn’t always do evil. He may cause trouble, being the trickster that he is, but until he causes Baldur’s death, he’s more just a pest and not necessarily an evil god.

So, a heathen should probably look at that which hurts people as being evil, as opposed to that which has the interests of humans at heart. “But wait!” you say, “Even the gods have harmed people.” Yup. You’re right. And that is what we consider evil acts, even if the god can be considered mostly good.

Ethics of Reciprocity

So, I’m going back to the old ethics of reciprocity rule I’ve mentioned in my post Are the Gods

People? Sometimes called “The Golden Rule” in Christianity, this rule shows up time and time again in other religions that have had nothing to do with the white Christ. Whether you believe it is ordained by some deity, or whether you think it is some in our nature, I think it likely that this rule — and this rule alone — governs our existence. Whether you want to follow the Nine Noble Virtues, the Havamal, or some other rule book, if it isn’t some weird text, chances are it is based on the ethics of reciprocity.

Good and Evil in the Myths

Let’s take a look at the creation myth in some detail. To quote:

Ymir was a frost-giant, but not a god, and eventually he turned to evil.

Well, okay then. We can point to Snorri Sturluson’s Christianity as a reason for this value judgment, but I have my doubts. More on this:

After a struggle between the giant and the young gods, Bor’s three sons killed Ymir. So much blood flowed from his wounds that all the frost-giants were drowned but one, who survived only by building an ark for himself and his family. Bor’s sons dragged Ymir’s immense body to the center of Ginnungagap, and from him they made the earth. Ymir’s blood became the sea, his bones became the rocks and crags, and his hair became the trees. Bor’s sons took Ymir’s skull and with it made the sky. In it they fixed sparks and molten slag from Muspell to make the stars, and other sparks they set to move in paths just below the sky. They threw Ymir’s brains into the sky and made the clouds. The earth is a disk, and they set up Ymir’s eyelashes to keep the giants at the edges of that disk.

The reason Ymir is judged evil is because he fought with the young gods. About what and why, we don’t know. And that is often the problems with losing so much of our stories. We don’t know why he is evil, only that he is. Which means people understood the concept of good and evil right there. We don’t have to ask why Ymir is evil. He is evil because he is. It may be because he is not of the gods and therefore against them.

As an aside, you’ll note the flood story in the middle of this. Interestingly enough, it is a Jotnar family that survives and not humans (who haven’t been created yet) or gods (who are apparently elsewhere). I can’t say whether this is a Snorri Sturluson’s nod to the Noah story or whether this is really a flood story of our own. Given that most cultures seem to have flood stories in their mythos, it’s conceivable that we had it too.

So, What Have I Decided?

It’s hard to completely get away from the concept of good and evil in Heathenry. I think that is because we do have a concept of good and evil, albeit not the same list of rules that the Abrahamic religions have. I suspect that people who follow the Northern religions do so because there is a sense of honor in them, and a lack of cookbook salvation. In the end, we go to Helheim, Valhalla, Fólkvangr, or one of the other gods halls. None of them are bad save Náströnd where the really evil people go.

I think living honorably is probably the best in determining whether we act good or evil. We can look at acts and say “this is good” or “this is evil” by looking at the amount of harm done to someone. A white lie might be a Christian sin, but we can look to see what the intent and the outcome is. If it causes positive things to happen, then how can it be a bad thing? Telling a loved one they look awesome, when maybe they just look cleaned up, is an exaggeration, but if it causes them to take care of themselves more or think more positively of themselves, we can’t consider that a wrong thing. While the ends do not justify the means, we can consider each action and what harm it will cause, if any, to guide us.

Again, if you act honorably, I believe no god or goddess will find fault with you.

Is there such thing as Good and Evil in Heathen Belief? (Part One)

April 24, 2016 Tyra Ulfdottir Comments 0 Comment

I’ve been thinking about basic heathen morals and if there is such a thing as good and evil when dealing with Heathen and Asatru beliefs. I’ve been considering stories that come from our ancestors, and I’m convinced that there is such a thing as good and evil, but not in the same way that Christianity and other religions define good and evil.

Faerie or Folk Tales

Some of the coolest stories come from our fairy tales or folk tales that have been handed down for thousands of years. These stories are now told to children because in this day and age few people believe in magic, fairies, and whatnot. These stories often were told with Christian trappings because nobody wanted to get into trouble with the Church. Still, there are a lot of pagan influences throughout the stories, and many of these stories are the same ones but with different trappings.

Morality in folk tales can be sketchy at times, but I’ve given it some thought and I think we can still pull out what the stories are supposed to teach.

Evil Stepmothers and Cinderella

We know about evil stepmothers and stepsisters from hearing stories such as Cinderella, or in the German, Aschenputtel. This is highly suggestive that there is evil as acknowledged by our ancestors. The stepmother isn’t evil because she doesn’t worship the Christian god or break one of the Ten Commandments. No. She is evil because she is vain, jealous, and vindictive. She is also evil because she punishes the weak and the person who did nothing to deserve being punished. She hates Cinderella because Cinderella isn’t her own child and is beautiful. The stepsisters are evil because of the same reasons but also because they are cruel and try to prevent Cinderella from getting a better life (destroying her gown, forcing her to clean up after them, etc).

Our ancestors made evil people in stories ugly because it’s easier to understand that the person’s inner ugliness shows outside of them. It’s simplistic, but understandable why the villains are ugly and the hero is beautiful.

So, we understand that evil in Cinderella to be:

Jealous
Vindictive
Vanity
Petty
Being mean
Mistreating of others/Bullying
Forcing an innocent person into servitude (we can argue about this and the nature of slavery, given that humans have own slaves since the Bronze Age and before, but yes, it is wrong.)
Preventing someone from doing something to improve their life
Lying (when the servants of the king try to find who the slipper fits the stepsisters try to claim it to the point of even cutting off their toes.)
Ugly (both inside and outside).

Huh. How about that? I think I stumbled onto a code for good and evil in our stories.

You might argue with me that Cinderella has been tainted with Christianity, but I really don’t think so. There are too many other Cinderella-type stories in other cultures — somewhere around 500 in Europe, alone. There are Cinderella stories not only in Europe, but also in the Native American tribes, the Egyptians, Africans, and Asians. From what I could find around the Interwebs, it looks like either the Egyptian version or the Chinese version may be the oldest. The Chinese story of Ye Xian is dated somewhere around 890 CE, but whether it is the first version is questionable.

I suspect that our fairy tales come from an older time, and apparently I am in good company on this because researchers think that stories such as Beauty and the Beast and Rumpelstiltskin go back to prehistoric times.

You may argue that Cinderella is not a true northern folktale, but given its prevalence, its archetypes, and appearance throughout cultures, I suspect it is a story that our ancestors told before humans disseminated throughout the world. You could (maybe) argue that Cinderella came with the Egyptians or the Chinese via the trade routes at a later time, but there really is no way to put a finger on how Native Americans got the story before Europeans arrived unless it came with them across the Bering ice sheet some 13,300 years ago. If we take the Egyptian civilization starting roughly 5000 to 3100 BCE as the predynastic era (before the pharaohs), and ancient China at 2700 BCE, we can see that these stories actually appeared at least 10,000 years before those civilizations could have created them.

We know that humans (or at least hominids) moved into Europe some 1.2 million years ago, and arguably maybe even earlier. With each new discovery, it pushes the out of Africa time frame to be earlier and earlier for human migration. So how old the story of Cinderella is will probably remain a mystery. I’m guessing it is at least 15,000 years old, but may be older.

The Smith and the Devil

One of the stories, The Smith and the Devil is believed to go back to the Bronze Age. Never mind the fact that heathens don’t believe in the devil and the Christian hell–four thousand years ago people were telling a story about a clever person who tricked a malevolent entity out of a bargain. Whether it was a bargain for his soul or some other thing in the original story, we’ll probably never truly know unless the good Doctor shows up with his TARDIS and takes us to see it.

I honestly can’t find the story Googling it, but I have gotten a rundown of what the story is about. A smith is very poor and is offered a Faustian bargain with the devil. The devil offers a gift but in return, the smith must give the devil his soul. The smith asks to be able to weld any two objects together. He welds the devil to an inanimate object, thus tricking the devil out of the skill and saving his soul.

I did read Gambling Hansel, which is an offshoot of The Smith and the Devil, which definitely fits the bill when it comes to Faustian bargains. I would also suggest that Rumpelstiltskin is of the same ilk because a malevolent being demands the girl’s child in exchange for spinning straw into gold.

So, what is the evil here?

The malevolent entity that seeks souls, death, a child
We can assume that the entity is evil because of its demands
Forcing someone under duress into a Faustian bargain
Taking advantage of someone in a bad situation

Why our hero is a hero:

He or she outwits the evil entity often by using its own power (its name or the gift it offered) against it

Good and Evil in Heathenry? Why, Yes

So, looking at these folk tales, you can start seeing what our ancestors considered moral. They did make snap judgments on what was good and what was evil. Evil is taking advantage of innocents and people who are in a bad situation. Evil is too much pride to the point of vanity. Evil is lying. Evil is that which seeks things that should not be bargained for: your life, your soul, or a child.

Seems to me like we do have good and evil at least on a folk level. Next week I’ll talk about some of our stories of the Aesir and Vanir and see if we can ascertain if indeed there is good and evil in those tales. (Spoilers: yes, yes there is a notion of good and evil.)

Come to me with your A-Game

April 23, 2016 Tyra Ulfdottir Comments 0 Comment

Sheesh, some people.

Folks, if you’re going to refute me and expect a valid discussion, don’t come to me with your bullshit conspiracy sites and expect me to accept your word that it’s valid. A blog site does not make facts. Not even my blogs should be taken as ultimate facts, even though I do point to some pretty solid sources. Do your research. Not everything on the Internet is true.

Gasp!

What Constitutes a Site I will Accept as Fact

If you decide you need to post something, I will put forth the following test. The site with your so-called “facts” must stand up to rigorous scrutiny by the scientific community. And even then, things may get modified according to new information we get. Here is a partial list of sites I will accept as factual:

Scientific sites that have been vetted by real scientists (the guy who created the Creationist Museum and those who propose crackpot ideas are not real scientists), that follow the scientific method, and whose actual propose theories which are being peer-reviewed or have been peer-reviewed and are accepted as viable theories.
Scientific sites by first world governments who have scientists who actually use the scientific method.
Information from major universities that are actually accredited and known for scientific advancement.
Real news agencies. That can be the AP, UPI, Reuters, and many others. Hel, I’ll consider the Guardian, New York Times, or even Fox News if the stories are legit and can be verified through secondary sources. No, a tabloid or website you read on a daily basis doesn’t count.
Blogs from any of the above entities.
Blogs that are scientific in nature that provide real references from any of the above sources.
A wiki article that actually references any of the above sources and deals with established scientific facts.

What I WON’T Accept

The list of what I won’t accept is probably longer than what I will accept. This includes:

Blog posts from anyone who is not considered an expert by the scientific community.
Religion blog posts, except in terms to establish what a particular religion believes, i.e., the Catholic Church’s blogs and websites about their own religion.
Statements that certain verifiable things in history never happened, i.e., the Holocaust, Nazi Germany, etc.
Bizarre statements about science and conspiracy theories, i.e., flat world, chemtrails, Illuminati, etc.
Opinion pieces taken as fact.
Hate speech.
Ad Hominem insults.
Pieces that go off on your own individual rant. I really don’t care what you’re ranting about today. Seriously.
All the reasons mentioned in this post. Yes, I am holding you to a high standard. I especially love the following:

“Something you have said indicates to me that you lack the necessary factual grounding in order to have this argument, and I am completely uninterested in doing the background research for you.

If you are interested in paying me to do the research for you, for example by way of writing an annotated bibliography that you can peruse at your convenience, we can discuss my hourly rates.”

And:

You have said something so gob-smackingly insulting or downright evil that I don’t want to be on the same planet as you, let alone in some kind of intellectual interchange.

Oh, and this, too:

Mommy taught me not to feed the trolls.

Oh, wait, this is the last one, I promise:

Responding substantively to this argument would give it more intellectual cachet than it deserves.

Go to Your Own Corner of the Interwebs

You disagree with me? Okay, fine. I live with people and animals disagreeing with me on a daily basis. Not everyone is going to agree with what I have to say, and I’m more or less okay with that. If you haven’t made up your mind what to think, that’s okay too. I’m happy to chat with you on the Facebook board. You’re welcome to ask questions or even ask for clarifications.

If I have ruined your day/life/eternity, you seriously need to get a life. Preferably someplace very far away from me. Like off this planet. Maybe somewhere in the Andromeda Galaxy. Look, the Internet is a fine place and has all sorts of places for everyone. Does what I say make you go back to your mom’s basement and start goosestepping to clear your brain? Don’t read this. Go somewhere else.

Look, not everyone is going to have your worldview. If you disagree with me, that’s life. Get over it. You think I’m insane? Okay, fine. Open up your own blog and shout your worldview. But don’t expect me to read it or give a rat’s ass about your feelings. You’re a lost cause, IMNSHO. I’m looking to speak with those who are rational, or who will at least consider my points. If I’m wrong, I’m a big girl and I’ll concede them. But be on top of your A-Game. I don’t deal with incoherent idiots.

Again, if You Missed It: (With Feeling!)

I won’t feed trolls on the blog for a number of reasons. You want to talk with me about it? Go to The Rational Heathen’s Facebook Page and we’ll chat. Seriously. Don’t know where that is? Look on the right handle upper corner of this blog. Can’t miss the link there.

Very Unruly Wights and Other Issues

April 16, 2016 Tyra Ulfdottir Comments 0 Comment

I’ve come to the opinion that the wights or landsvaettir around my home tend to be tense and sometimes malevolent little buggers. I’m still agnostic about them, mainly because I just don’t see them. Even so, I can still remark about them. While some days it seems we get along really well, there are other times when life is total shit with them. I’d like to say I make them happy — I give them extra eggs, milk, chocolate, mead, and even meat scraps from butchering animals and hunting, but I’ve had a number of animal deaths in my herd that, well, not even the veterinarians have great clues about why it happened. I blame the wights and just overall bad luck.

Annoyed Wights and April Fools Jokes

I did have my computer act up while I put together the April Fools Day post. At one point, the only words that showed up were Huldufólk and jötnar. A normal scientific person would simply figure it’s the way the resources get used up on the system, but the fact that those two words were causing such, well, gremlins (and I’m not talking the car), made me pause. I think I’m probably going to have to assure them I still respect them. Tough room.

Thor, the Saint of Scaring the Crap Out of Unruly Wights

Then, there’s misplacing stuff. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve threatened to call Thor down on them when stuff that suddenly disappears that I need. I use Thor’s name, and by mjolnir, that item shows up immediately. Catholics may have Saint Anthony; I have a thunder god who scares the crap out of our wights. Probably not the best politics with the wights, but it does work.

Ideas from Fairy Tales

I think I got the idea of Thor being scary to wights when I had read a Norwegian fairy tale about a farmer who was having his daughter baptized and didn’t want to invite his troll neighbor because it would offend all the Christians. So, he knew the troll didn’t like loud crashing noises (aka thunder) and warned the troll not to come because there would be loud drums and other crashing things. You can sort of see how the Jotunn dwindled to trolls — and the thing that scared them is Thor.

Fairy tales used to not be children’s stories. They were just stories. Stories people told to amuse themselves. Stories that teach. Stories that tell us of our past. It’s really cool to read stories where you can see pagan influences throughout. It’s also interesting when they give a nod to Christianity. The more they try to sell you Christianity, the more likely it’s a pagan story that they “cleaned up.”

Calling Thor or the Gods Refuse to be my Bitches

One time I got annoyed that it wasn’t raining. You see from early July to September, we’re in the midst of fire season. I took the rain maker my sister gave me and said in my most angry voice, “why the fuck won’t it rain?” I turned the rain maker over. Thor answered me with a low rumble. I could not have timed it better if I had tried. We didn’t get rain, though. And that was the only thunder I heard that day.

Just goes to show how uncooperative the gods are. Once again, they refuse to be my bitches. Go figure.

I Need a Better Relationship with the Wights

I’ll admit, I’m better dealing with the gods than I am with the wights. And I know that’s kind of topsy-turvy, but that’s the way it is. I often think when I talk to the wights, ancestors, and gods and ask for their help, I can forget that I’m dealing with creatures that have their own agendas, thoughts, and wills. I suspect other people fall into this trap as well. Even with the best intentions, I’m not the best person to ask how to deal with wights.

I have a place for my wights to hang out in my house, but whether they decide to be positive or negative is their choice. I think they are a mixed bag of critters — some helpful, some not so helpful. The one that was mucking with my computer connection is definitely not a fave. I get that there was some apprehension over the April Fools post, but it was all in good fun. Still I heard the words “don’t diss the Huldufólk” in my head. Well, kids, you need a sense of humor, and if you’re hanging around me, it’s kind of important to realize when I’m not serious.

Now, what I really need are kitchen wights who will do the dishes. I realize I have the electric dishwasher wight, but it still needs to be loaded.

We Need to Get Rid of Racism NOW

April 9, 2016 Tyra Ulfdottir Comments 0 Comment

I’m tired of racism. I really am. I’m tired of the white supremacists claiming our beliefs. As I’ve said: there is no such thing as race. Whether your skin color is white, black, brown, yellow, purple, or green — if you’re human, you’re human. Science has a theory that is pretty much proves that we came out of Africa. And for those of you theory deniers, here’s my quote (so you understand what a theory is):in a previous post, I’ll state it again:

The word “theory” in science used to describe an explanation of why and how things happen. For gravity, we use Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity to explain why things fall. “Theory” is not synonymous with “unproven.” “Theory” means that the statement is consistent with everything we know, including facts. However, if a new fact were to arrive that changes our understanding of the world, it may change the Theory. For example, depending on how you use gravity varies the terminology. If you’re using it in mathematics, it’s a Law. But if you’re talking about gravity and how it interacts with things, it’s a Theory.

My Dad Kicked Nazi Butts

I hope my Christian dad is in Folkvangr because, by the gods, he did the right thing. He arrived in Germany just after the war and told me he had been stationed at one of Hitler’s concentration camps that still held Jews. You see, with that many people displaced, the Americans had no choice but to keep these poor people in the same nightmare they had been in. Only they took care of these people. Don’t you dare try to tell me the Holocaust was fake. It most certainly was not. My dad was there. He saw. He knew.

My dad did a lot of searching for Nazi sympathizers and throwing them in prison. He never told me all he did, but I do know he was in Germany during the Berlin Airlift, too. Yeah, my dad was one of those who lived history.

He and I used to sit and watch WWII movies and documentaries all the time. He had nothing good to say about any of the Nazis. He felt that the Holocaust was terrible. And it was. Anyone who thinks the Holocaust or other “final solutions” needs to have their head examined. There is no excuse for it.

And I’m pretty sure that those who had a hand in the Holocaust have gone Náströnd for this. It is our equivalent of the Christian hell for those guilty of murder, adultery, and oath-breaking. 6 million people murdered. Hitler is dragon fodder. And good riddance.

There is No Place for White Supremacists in Heathenism

I grew up hating bigots who oppressed people because of their religion, ethnicity, or skin color. I hate skinheads, and if you use my religion to further your white supremacist beliefs, you need to go back to whatever religion you came from. I don’t want you here, nor do many people who believe in our gods, whether they be Asatru, Heathen, or Pagan. It’s bad enough that our runes like Othala, Sowelu, and even Teiwas had been stolen by your kind.

Our gods are not racist. They can’t be. The reason is obvious: our religion came from one source at one time. Eventually it branched out into the religions we know today. Why? Because humans more than once nearly went extinct. (I cover this in the links above). We’re all related, with some minor variation of Neanderthals and Denisovian genes thrown in. We’re all one race. You and I have the same mitochondria from one woman who lived long ago. And guess what? So does every human on this planet including people of African descent, Jewish people, and your particular tribe.

To Those Who Tolerate White Supremacists

Being silent is consent. If you’re not against these evil people, then you are for them. Plain and simple. Even if you don’t care/don’t think it’s wrong/don’t have a stand/think I’m exaggerating and being emotional, let’s look at the whole racism thing without the emotion attached. If you are Asatruar or Heathen who still puts up with racism and bigotry, even though you may say you’re against it, ask yourself do you really want this to be a religion where the first things people think of is racism? Because guess what? That’s what makes headlines. And what makes headlines is exactly what will attract more of the same white supremacists. Do you really want Asatru to be the religion of hate?

You might argue the No True Scotman defense, which is patently bullshit. Asatru and Heathenism by its northern roots often attracts those who are looking for something folkish. These miscreants twist the meaning of our religion and culture for their own use. And the press, knowing no different, paints us all with a broad brush.

I get exceedingly frustrated because most of them are Odinists. And I don’t have a problem with Odin being someone’s main god as long as they understand Odin doesn’t condone bigotry, even if he can be wonky at times. Most white supremacists are Christian, and yet no one points to Christianity as a religion of hate. The difference is that Christianity is pervasive. Asatruar and Heathenism is not. Is the press making the same misguided mistakes people do when they paint us all with a broad brush? Yes. It doesn’t matter what you think. You have already been tried and convicted in the court of public opinion if you don’t speak up.

Why are We Still Dealing with Racism and Bigotry?

Call me a Jew lover. You betcha. I’ll wear that proudly and Tyr will back me up one hundred percent. While I don’t agree with the Abrahamic religions, I don’t believe in persecuting anyone on account of being a Jew or Christian or Muslim. My roommate in college was Muslim and was the nicest kid I ever knew. I have had friends of different religions and no religions.

This is why it has shocked me it has become fashionable lately to be bigoted toward Jews again. I see more and more outright aggression toward a group of people who have suffered so much. These are humans. They are people who have different beliefs that were forced into certain cultural roles due to intolerance and persecution. I’ve seen this bigotry among college graduates and people who claim to be liberal, but are clearly motivated by their own forms of hatred. My dad, who was conservative, was less bigoted than they are.

As for race, remember: there is no such thing as race, although there is ethnicity. (Again you can read the posts I cited above to understand the difference.) If you want to be proud of your ethnicity, fine. But don’t think that another group is inferior. We’re all the same people with minor genetic differences.

Ask Yourself Why You Hate a Particular Ethnicity

I’m asking you now why you hate a particular group of people? Is it because you remember someone of that ethnicity was mean to you? I remember being treated badly by a black kid when I was growing up — I didn’t think that kid was bad because she was black. I thought that kid is mean because she was mean. She was just one mean kid in a group of bullies, who, incidentally, were mostly white. I didn’t think in terms of color. Color was just another thing.

If you’ve been treated badly by someone not of your ethnicity, maybe it’s time to look at the person and not the color of their skin. There are bad people of all ethnicity. Hel, there are bad people of different tribes that are looking to harm us, but those are their ideologies and not their actual genetic makeup. If you’re looking for bogeymen or scapegoats to blame because of your circumstance and think hating and blaming others is okay, think again. It’s easy to demonize the other, especially when you put yourself into one tribe versus another mode.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. Martin Luther King, Jr.