An Undercover Heathen around Christmas

An Undercover Heathen around Christmas

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If you’ve been following my blog, you know what I think regarding Christ. But you may not realize that I’m a bit of an undercover heathen, especially around Christian holidays. There are many reasons for this, most being convenience and a desire to not get into an argument with family members who will not change their minds.

Merry Christmas?

Christmas is really a holiday appropriated from pagans. Rather than try to stop pagan Saturnalia, Solstice, and Yule celebrations, Christianity took the holiday and moved Christ’s supposed birthday to coincide with it. Originally Christmas was even banned in the American colonies because of the pagan origins. In fact, most of the Christmas celebrations we have now were instituted in the 19th century.  Christmas trees were brought over from the Germans when Queen Victoria created Christmas in an image she wanted to see. Charles Dickens created a Christmas mythos in his novels.  Basically what we have now wasn’t how Christmas was celebrated in the past.

The Feast of Yule

The Feast of Juul was pervasive in Scandinavian countries where the Yule log was lit to honor Thor. People lit bonfires to herald the return of the Sun, and those who celebrated welcomed the return of the sun as a symbol that Fimbulvetr, the long winter that preceded Ragnarok, had not come. People who gathered the ashes from the Yule log scattered them in the fields or used them for magic and medicine. In France, some folks kept the ashes under the bed to ward off lightning strikes.

Odin and the Wild Hunt

The solstice was considered the closest time when the veil between the worlds was more thinly stretched.  Odin would ride Sleipnir, accompanied by the dead during the Wild Hunt. Children would leave hay for Sleipnir in their boots, and in return Odin would leave them gifts.  Hmm, sounds a bit like another old guy who leaves presents for children. I wonder if they’re related? (If you don’t get the sarcasm here, check out the link first.)

Nowadays, Heathens recognize the twelve days of Yule starting with Solstice or Mother’s Night — the time of the year when our northern hemisphere is closest to the world of the dead. The shortest day of the year even feels magical. Especially up north, you’re more likely to see auroras, snow, and just a more magical landscape.

A Heathen in a Christian Land

For those of you who celebrate Yule, the season is indeed magical. For those of us whose families are mostly Christian, Christmas season can be wearing. I actually do love the trappings of Christmas, because, by golly, they’re Heathen with very little disguise. My thought is perhaps even though we do celebrate Christmas, it’s actually celebrating Yule, and maybe that’s all that counts. I certainly have a special celebration of the solstice as part of the festivities.

So, even though I keep my Heathenism more or less quiet, maybe it doesn’t matter. By celebrating the season, I celebrate Yule.  So, I’m a bit undercover on this. Well, our ancestors were too.  So, from one Heathen, albeit an undercover one, to another, I wish you a most happy Yule. Oh and check out a book by my friend, Josh Heath, who wrote a cool Yule book:

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Pervasiveness of the Gods, or How Loki Tries to Take Me Off Point

Pervasiveness of the Gods, or How Loki Tries to Take Me Off Point

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My last blog was about trying to do too many things all the time. When I looked at it while it was still scheduled (I write these things ahead of time and set the date for publication), I realized that Loki led me off on a tangent again.  This becomes infuriating after a while, but understandable. The trickster god is constantly looking for ways to throw my life into chaos — some good, some bad. And sometimes he’ll do it in a heartbeat when I’m trying to write a blog post.

So, rather than tear out my assorted ramblings and get rid of them, I looked them over and found them worthy for another post. The god of mischief still gets his say, but like Tyr trying to hold back Fenrir, I’ve at least put some bindings on it.

Why Loki?

In my mind’s eye, I can see a grinning Loki.  For those who are Tom Hiddleston fans, forget it. He doesn’t look like the actor.  (At least not to me.)  But despite his mirth, Loki isn’t the troublemaker here — it’s me. I’ve been writing about more than I can possibly, sanely accomplish and the god of chaos is amused.  He still has a job to remind me about self care, but it’s far more fun to watch me crash and burn because I don’t listen to him.

But why in the names of the gods would Loki bother with someone who follows Tyr?

I suspect it’s because despite Tyr and Loki being opposites, they still rely strongly on each other.  If we take their existence as simply raw forces of the universe, nothing could have existed had it not been for either.  Tyr imposes laws on things; Loki is entropy. Without the order and the disorder, we would have a very stagnant universe indeed.

So, what does Loki have to do with me?  With self care?  Why would he give a shit, I mean, really?

Pervasiveness of the Gods

I’ve read others talk about whether the gods of one land are the gods of another land, or if there are other gods. Some people actually believe that the Asatru gods only exist in the Scandinavian countries. Wow, they’re saying Thor can only exist as thunder and lightning in Norse countries, and some other god is in charge of it in America. I look at it and say, “Hmm” because there is undoubtedly electric storms on other worlds outside of our own. And certainly Thor is there as well.

Here’s my take on whether the gods exist one place or another. They have to exist everywhere in this universe or things wouldn’t be how they are.  Think about if they were actually right about being local gods. That suggests that Tyr with his laws, (which incidentally include the laws of physics) takes a holiday outside of Scandinavian countries. That would suggest that there could be other laws of physics in England, China, or America.

But there isn’t.  Thankfully.  Otherwise we’d have one set of rules when it came to physics than another set of rules. I believe that the gods are pervasive in their element in this universe. When you see a lightning strike in Texas, it’s the realm of Thor, just as it is in Norway.  The Laws of Gravity don’t change themselves anywhere on this planet, or in this Universe, as far as we know, with the possible exception of black holes. (If they do, then I would agree that maybe there might be another god to deal with, but mathematical laws are Tyr’s domain.) So, that makes Tyr pervasive in our lives. It also makes Loki pervasive in our lives as well.  When Loki chatters in my brain, I know it’s because he’s always here with me, just as Tyr is.

Pervasive, But Not Omnipotent or Omnipresent

So, what had started as a rant about the holidays and me doing too much ended up as a deep discussion how the Aesir and Vanir are part of the Universe. Thanks, Loki.  Thanks.

The gods are pervasive through our lives. Whether we’re dealing with Universal Laws, or simple governing of  biological drives and behaviors, to growing the crops, to wild animals and the hunt. In many cases, the gods are here every moment of our lives, but they are bound by rules that they set in place. For example, Tyr is a very powerful god, but he is held in check by his own laws, by the Wyrd, and by chaos. I don’t know if he is in other universes within the Multiverse, but seeing as I probably won’t get there, it has little meaning to me. He might actually provide rules in other universes, but whether they are the same as our universe is inconsequential.

That is Tyr’s pervasiveness.  But it doesn’t mean Tyr hangs out with me all the time. Yes, a good portion of his power is with me, with you, with everything in this world and universe because otherwise the laws of physics wouldn’t work. Little wonder why he is considered a celestial god.  You got that much power to enforce physics, which see in stars and galaxies on a large scale.

But Tyr isn’t omnipresent in the sense of the Christian god. Tyr’s “consciousness,” if you want to call it that, isn’t always on me, you, or the guy down the street. His laws are with us, and the control he governs is immense.  But the constant watching you isn’t his thing.  It isn’t any of the gods’ things.  They leave that to Santa Claus. If the gods were always watching us, you’d have to admit, they’d be pretty bored.

What the Hel was THIS About?

Looking back at this post, I realize it’s a lost cause to wrangle this into some sort of order.  I should just dump this post and tell Loki to fuck off. But the post has some good points about the differences between the heathen gods and the Christian god. The heathen gods can be characterized as laws of nature and the universe. The Christian god, not so much — according to the Christian beliefs, he is the one and only. Laws are something the Christian god makes, but can break at any time. Can the heathen god break the laws?  Yes, but there is a price to pay.

Look at the price Tyr suffered for violating an oath. He lost his right hand; his sword hand.  But it was worth it to keep chaos (Fenrir) from running amok and bringing about the end of the universe. When you realize that the difference between our gods and the Jotun are simple intentions toward humans, it all makes infinite sense. (Don’t believe me, look at Skadi, Tyr, and Thor — all which either have Jotun blood or are pure Jotun.)

I honestly hope you could glean something out of this post that is worthwhile.  Otherwise, I’ll be back to less rambling things such as Yule in my next post.

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Do All The Things!

Do All The Things!

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One thing I don’t seem to have gotten over very well is my Catholic need to martyr myself.  (I can just see Tyr shake his head in exasperation when when I do this) — if the Lord of Swords thinks it’s folly to overextend myself, I suspect it is folly.

But the holidays are a great time to overdo everything, including overextend oneself.  But as Loki constantly reminds me (and yes, somehow Loki pops in to remind me to self-care– more on that some other day), there’s no way I can possibly care for anyone else if I don’t care for myself first.

(At least, if you’re going to have psychoses, have useful ones where the gods talk some sense into you to do things that are good for you and those around you.)

Anyway, Back to the Holidays…

My mom used to put on a big shindig every Thanksgiving and Christmas.  When my ancient Mother-In-Law moved to our town, I channeled my mom and tried to put together celebratory meals. The reality was far from wonderful. My husband and I hunt and hunting season chews up Thanksgiving handily. While I am grateful to Skadi and Ullr for our meals, hunting takes up a lot of energy. Having Thanksgiving later than the prescribed day helped, but by the end of it, I was channeling my inner bitch.  I was exhausted, overworked, and feeling overwhelmed.

Loki reminded me to self-care.
I threw something at him.

Sick Critters, and Life Intrudes

To make matters worse, the weather got evilly cold. The Jotun were here to plunge us into temperatures below 0 degrees Fahrenheit.  Skadi granted us more opportunities to hunt. A bunch of my livestock got sick and no matter what I did, they remained sick.  So, I finally got a veterinarian out. Blood draws and plenty of medicine.

Then, there was the little matter of butchering the deer we got the week before. Usually I would have it all cut up, but with the amazingly brutal weather, the quarters froze right up.  So, I could thaw them out and butcher them at a slightly more leisurely pace.

I still need to take care of the skins, even though they’re salted.
I have writing work and other work to do. My plants in the greenhouse are questionable now.  I finally get around to watering them anyway.

Got a bunch of food that needs to be preserved still.  Managed to get the dehydrator full with squash.

Loki reminds me to self-care.
I whimper.

I have this blog and three others to write. I have assignments to get done.  I have to make money somehow…

To Drag this Back on Point…

The problem that we as humans deal with is what society constrains us when it comes to things we must do. Sometimes, we take what we perceive as obligations when in fact, they’re simply man-made constructs. We do things because we were taught to do them, whether or not it makes sense for our lives.  As much as I love Tyr, he has enough control over my life with physics, the laws of nature, and the laws of men. Chasing after some perceived societal norm around holidays when it stresses me out isn’t healthy.  Hence, Loki steps in and whines about my lack of self care.

That’s why when my husband pointed out that doing a dinner thing wasn’t working for me, I needed to step back and rethink what I was doing.  I was trying to follow my mom’s style, which isn’t mine. Holidays, as wonderful as they are, need to be something that aren’t done “just because that’s how we do them.”

Whether celebrating Thanksgiving/Harvest or Yule/Christmas, we as humans must make them joyous occasions and not stressors in our lives. Loki reminds me that being human means being fallible.  That means that sometimes we can’t do “all the things, all the time.”  Tyr agrees.  Which suddenly has reduced the stress in my life.

I still have all the other things to get done, but somehow, the gods make them a little less frenetic. Probably because they don’t judge me on what I accomplish in the minutiae of my daily life. Not like the Christian god purportedly did.

Thanks, and hopefully this rambling post made sense to you.  And maybe, just maybe, you’ll listen to your inner Loki and remember self care as well.

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Why Bad Things Happen: One Heathen’s Perspective

Why Bad Things Happen: One Heathen’s Perspective

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Bad things happen.  When I look at things like the Paris attacks, I can’t help but wonder why.  And as a former Christian turned Heathen, it’s easy for me to fall into the “why did god/the gods let this happen?” mode.  The words, “shit happens” really does embody the Heathen and pagan view, so you’re probably going to get my rationale when it comes to this. Here is my perspective on why shit happens.

Christian God Versus Reality

You’ll see me talking about the Christian god quite a bit, because, quite frankly, as Americans, we deal with a Christian-pervasive society.  While it is true that some folks have grown up without being in Christian family, I think most of us still have the Christian influences in our lives. Growing up in a Christian household, I was told to trust in god. That god had a plan. That god would take care of me. That everything would be okay.

If you’ve gone through some tough times, you know damn well that reality is never that cut and dry.  That bad things happen to good people all the time and bad people do get away with things. Sometimes we see karma in action, but more often, we are left wondering how in the Hel we can pick up our lives and move on.

I can point to many instances of bad things happening to good people: children having cancer, tornadoes and hurricanes killing good people, and terrorist attacks. In many cases, the victims were Christians and perhaps very good people. The Christian god was asleep at the wheel on that day when bad things happened, otherwise, he wouldn’t have let it happen, assuming he was an all-powerful and benevolent deity.

Why the Gods Don’t Interfere — at Least Not Much

I personally believe that no god is truly all-powerful. Some are more powerful than others, which makes sense. But none of them are everywhere or paying attention to everything. My own patron god doesn’t always hang around my life because, quite frankly, it’s boring to him. Other gods may pop in and out as they will, but they aren’t with me all the time.  Yep, sometimes I’m alone.

I went through some trying times and, quite frankly, got a little snotty with one of the gods for “abandoning” me. He showed up in a dream later and told me that he couldn’t prevent what happened. It was the Wyrd, and he thought it sucked too. But he did have some solace for me, which made me hesitate and think about the situation. In retrospect, he could’ve told me to fuck off and send me back to whatever I decided: Christian, Agnostic, or Atheist.  But he didn’t.  Instead, he sought to console me, which was surprising. At least to me.

Our Place in the Wyrd

Basically, we’re all stuck with our Wyrd or fate. We like to think of ourselves as masters of our destiny, but even science says that free will may be an illusion. This sucks big time. The only thing that affects the universe is our choices, and depending on what we decide, our decisions spin off another universe. That’s amazing, if it doesn’t make your head hurt. We coexist in the past, present, and future, but we can’t perceive those times because of our limited, linear thinking. Or to quote the good Doctor:

“People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it’s more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff…”

Yeah, I just quoted Doctor Who.  Get over it.

Basically, if you believe in physics and science, some things are just beyond even the gods. The Norns are possibly the only ones who handle our destinies, but even then, they just spin, measure, and cut. They don’t show us what the measure of our lives look like.

What’s more, we really don’t know what else is going on beyond our simple point of view. There may be something; there may be nothing. We just may be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

What to Take Away from All This

Bad things happen. Good things happen. Not everything that happens is something we want. Sometimes it happens for a reason. More often, it happens for no particular reason other than our choices, or no choices, or a single quantum flip. Sometimes the gods can help us; other times they can’t. That’s why in the end we have to deal with all the unfair things life throws at us, as well as all the good things. When we as Heathens understand that our destiny is due to our choices combined with quantum physics, we can finally understand the nature of the universe and the gods just a little better.

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Can a Heathen follow Christ?

Can a Heathen follow Christ?

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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.

 

 

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Thoughts About Women and Cultures

Thoughts About Women and Cultures

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I’ve been thinking a lot about the role women play and how they are treated in cultures. It seems rather weird to me that women have been treated so poorly throughout history, but I’ve been thinking about why this might be. Like many things that I write, it comes from observation and from many things I’ve read.  So, here’s what I think when it comes to the whole mess of women’s equality.

The Egalitarian Hunter-Gatherer

Women weren’t always treated below men. Before agriculture, humans lived in groups of hunter-gatherers in a size somewhere around 20 individuals or about 10 to 12 adults. Everyone pulled their share in these tribes; everyone was equal when it came to being human.  Sexual equality isn’t an aberration nor is it something that we’ve come up with recently.  It was the norm until humans made the switch from being hunter-gatherers to farmers. If you’ve ever had to hunt or live off the land, you’ll find very quickly that if everyone is going to survive, everyone must do his or her share. And because the jobs are all necessary, they should be looked at as equal.

Tribes were part of a larger “clan,” of sorts. Close relatives often left their tribe to form a new tribe or join another tribe. These relatives along with others from other tribes (maybe not related at all) formed the basis of a larger clan.  In this way, there was more genetic diversity than in agrarian cultures that centered around hubs of certain individuals.

Not a Cakewalk

It doesn’t mean that being a hunter-gatherer was a cakewalk for women, though. Women still had to do things like childbirth and rearing, but the entire tribe was probably enlisted in the care of the children. What’s more, when a kid could walk, he or she was expected to walk.  When he or she could do something that would help the tribe, they were expected to do just that.  The concept of coddling children started, oddly enough, in the Victorian Era, where poor kids were forced to do some pretty dangerous jobs like farming, coal mining, and shipyards. But, at the same time, the Victorian Era brings about some romanticism about childhood, where we get inklings of how kids need to be kids.  So, hunter-gatherers did what they had to to keep everyone alive and continuing.  This started changing when we went from hunter-gatherer societies to agrarian societies.

Because women ended up being equals to men, our gods reflected that equality. If you look at certain religions such as the Japanese Shinto religion, the head of the pantheon isn’t male, it is female: Amaterasu, the sun goddess.  Shinto is an exceedingly old religion and one that I suspect appeared in Japan even before agriculture. It also  explains why we have two sets of deities in heathenism: Asa and Vanir. It also shows that the Vanir faith may be an older faith since much of it deals with fertility (Freyja and Freyr).

The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race

Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs, and Steel states that switching from a hunter-gatherer society to an agrarian society was the worst mistake in the history of the human race. Quite honestly, I think he’s right. Humans had been hunter-gatherers up until about 10,000 year ago when agriculture started to take hold. In about 1000 years, the switch had been made, with the exceptions of some holdouts like the Sami, tribes in Africa, and Native Americans.

Hunter-gatherer societies more or less disappeared due to land being defended by agrarian lords as farming took hold.  Hunter-gatherers were forced to grab their own land and hold on or be forced into the more inhospitable areas.  Only areas where there are few people do you see hunter-gathering. Even so, agriculture wasn’t the godsend that people like to claim.

Going agrarian actually screwed up human nutrition and shortened lives. More diseases ran through humans than ever before. Famine, malnutrition and starvation were rampant because of monocultures, i.e. growing one particular crop for food. Humans started guarding their turf to keep the best lands to grow crops. Women became baby machines because there was need for labor. And while more people could be sustained by the land, most barely survived and human lifespans plummeted.

Agriculture was good for a handful of people, and crappy for the rest.  Humans looked at their domesticated livestock and started thinking that because goats, sheep, and cattle have one male that breeds with many that is how life should be.  However, this is an artificially imposed structure on livestock.

Who is Really in Charge in Nature?

As a hunter and a rancher (albeit with a small ranch), I deal a lot with animals. In nature, the ones in charge of the herds are the does, not the bucks. Bucks are only around for one thing and one thing only: create little deer.  They lead very short and stressful lives and do not hang out with the herd much.

Pronghorn antelope are set up similarly but when their rut occurs, the females look for their own suitors and decide which buck antelope they want to breed with. When looking at wolves, the pack has an alpha male and female — and you can bet it’s the female who determines who is the alpha male.

In goat herds, there are alpha does.  With horses, you bet the mares are in charge, even though they can get all girly with the stallions.

What Can We Take Away with This?

As a heathen, I must point out that many older religions come from our hunter-gatherer roots. Even those that agrarians have continued with show equality when the land was particularly harsh (such as the Norse lands). Everyone still had to pull their share; survival depended on everyone. Not until we had agrarian cultures coming from more temperate climes did we have the reduction of equality. Think of the religions and cultures that treated women as chattel and I can bet they were coming from temperate places where it was relatively easy to hoard resources.

While I am not suggesting we should go back to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle (but it IS somewhat appealing), I’m suggesting that maybe we look at the hows and whys humanity got to gender inequality and how we can fix it.

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Welcome to the Rational Heathen

Welcome to the Rational Heathen

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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.

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