A friend of mine is a practicing this religious option; he wants to to join him in this journey. I've done some research on line & even read a few books about it. Honestly, I still don't really get this nontraditional religion.
Does anyone have first hand experience or knowledge about this? If so, please try to explain it to me.
I'm a Pagan (A Wiccan, to be specific), and have been so for the past 18 years.
I don't want to speak out of turn, and there are a number of folks here much more versed on the Germanic and Norse Heathen faiths and practices than I am, but I thought I'd try to give you just the broadest overview.
Asatru and Odinism are deconstructionist religions tied to the Prue-Christian faiths of the Germanic tribes (including the Norse). They had a pantheon of Gods which is often represented as sort of similar to the Hellenic hierarchy, from Zeus down. However, that perception of the Norse/Germanic Gods as being so well ordered may have come from the Romans who first encountered them, and perceived the Germans' pantheon to be similar to the Greek and Roman Pagan gods.
Historically, at least, these people valued personal freedom, decisiveness and personal responsibility highly. As with nearly all Pagan people, they based their religious observances and celebrations on the cycles of the seasons and on the appearance of certain celestial bodies.
In my experience, any faith which makes one more mindful of Nature and which places the believers into balance with Nature and the web of life, and which values self-discipline and personal responsibility is a good one. Although the Heathens (as a term encompassing the Germanic Pagan faiths) beliefs and my own vary considerably, I have always found a good deal to admire and respect in the practice I've seen.
Wow....huh yeah....how can you call Norse religion non traditional religion? The youngest major religion of the world being Christianity, I should say that IT is the non traditional one. The only reason that you know as much as you do about Christianity vs. other religions is because they were demonized in the late 6Th and early 7Th centuries, slowly but surely all but killing out the real traditional religions by killing, maiming, pillaging, and stealing old customs and slapping a patron saint on them to make them "christian". Ironically, the Norse customs that you speak of are made by a people long since considered warlike and barbaric, but more people have died in the name of Christianity's pursuit of global domination than any other source can take credit for. I blame public schools for the ignorance of today's youth. Foreign or ancient religious beliefs get the bare minimum of coverage in Social Studies.
I am sure the wording was not intentional though. If I may offer a point of reference that is helpful for many people seeking an underlying knowledge of this. A jump point, if you will. "The Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of Witchcraft & Practical Magic" - ISBN 1-84681-044-2 .
This book offers a wide variety of religious descriptions throughout the ages and puts them in layman's terms. It also offers a plethora of other references based on each individual topic that explain in much more detail. Before delving into any Pagan religion I would recommend using this book to help choose ones path. The problem with a lot of the literature out there is that any hack can string together a book on paganism and there is no way of weeding out those that are truly enlightened or the ones that just want money.... or worse are intentionally misguiding youths for sick pleasure. If the bible was to get an additional resource officially added to it the work would need the official permission from hundreds of people in theological and seminary societies. Pagan religious text is clouded by nay Sayers and untruths that one will need to diligently weed through to find the whole picture.
there are a number of actual heathens in r&s, and they're usually good at answering questions, but i don't see any of them here Tonie. don't let people pick you apart over semantics. it's OK to call it nontraditional since it's not currently part of mainstream western religious practice.
heathens tend to believe that the gods are literal entities and hold themselves to a code of honor. you shouldn't practice any religion because somebody else wants you to do it, and i think most heathens would agree that if the Norse gods haven't called you, don't feel obligated to follow them. you should follow what you believe, not what other people want you to believe.
I have been a Heathen for 24 winters, if you have been researching this family of religions on line I am not surprised you are confused!
Let me first dispel some "Heathen Myths":
1. Heathenry is NOT a nature religion; it is a religion that focuses on humans, spirits and the Gods and the way we as sentient beings interact.
2. Heathens DO NOT celebrate the "cycle of the year", in fact we split the 12 month year into two; summer and winter (the measure of "years" is measured in winters and the word gear -pronounced year- only relates to the summer months). Our three major festivals are at the start of winter, mid winter and the end of winter any other minor feast we have mark our kins important dates like the remembrance of ancestors or tribute to a local spirit or favorite God.
3. Heathenry DOES NOT have a god of this or a god of that, the Gods are fully formed personalities with many varied interests (many shared with other Gods). To say that Thunar (Thorr) is God of Thunder would be like saying Dr Smith is only ever a doctor when actually he could be an excellent golfer, a pianist, devoted father and keen hunter.
4. Heathens are NOT rune magicians. Heathenry is NOT a mystery religion shrouded in magic and mysticism, whilst runes are used to carve things of religious significance they are not the be all and end all of the religion. Most Heathens do not believe in or practice any magic.
What is Heathenry:
Heathenry is a collection of European religions practiced by the Germanic tribes upto the 8th century (or later in Iceland). It is a tribal religion and each tribe or family interpreted their interaction with the Gods differently, in modern Heathenry this is still the case.
As with all religions Heathenry is based on belief, the belief the Gods are real and that they can or do interact with humans. I would say that the prime requisit of any religion is that believe in the Gods of that religion. We understand our Gods to be seperate entities not facets of a single entity and we do not link them in anyway to the gods of other cultures. We also understand our Gods to be our ancestors. The Gods are split into two families, the ?sir and Vanir which share some roles. In a crude and broad way the families can be described as ?sir Gods of man and Vanir Gods of nature but this is too simplistic because some of the ?sir have power over nature and some of the Vanir have power over wealth and other human needs.
A major concept in Heathenry is Orlog and Wyrd, this is inheritted fate and the fate you create for yourself by your actions. We understand that in everything we do we set the pattern of our own future and the future of the people around us.
A secondary concept connected to Wyrd is Lof and Dom, this is the esteem in which we are held by our peers from our actions during life and the strength of our memory after death. It is only through Dom that we live on after death as we sleep with our bodies.
Finally our key values are Family, Community and Honour. We protect our family, work for our community and strive to live with honour. Many kins and organizations have drafted longer sets of these rules based on Eddaic poems and sagas but such codes of conduct are not found in primary sources.
Wes ?u hal!
---
Quick note regarding Chances68's answer: The Anglo-Saxon and Norse societies did not value personal freedom; in ancient society each man had a lord from whom he received gifts and to whom he paid tribute, this was true for everyone from slave, ceorl, dhegn, atheling to cynning (whose lord was the Gods/Ancestors and after the conversion the Christian God). Freedom as it is understood in today's world was a totally alien concept in the 5th century, freedoms were notions that were granted to you and could just as easily be removed based on your conduct within the community.
It is true that many of us believe that everyone of any Germanic decent (Germans, Dutch, Danish, English, French, Scottish, Irish, Norwegian, Swedish etc etc) should be practicing one of the forms of ?satr?/Odinism appropriate to their heritage, however we also firmly believe in freedom making it inappropriate for us to push our beliefs onto others.
In that light your friend isn't behaving as he should.
The varied forms of Germanic polytheism do have many things in common. We all hon our the Germanic pantheon of deities (most of them familiar to people by their Norse names and from Norse mythology). We have two distinct rites which we use, Bl?t (bloat) which is a ritual sacrifice (traditionally one of blood but usually these days one of food or alcohol although some do still sacrifice animals or even their own blood) and Symbel (summable) which is a series of toasts made with mead, juice or ale usually from a drinking horn in hon our of the gods, our ancestors and our own achievements. There is also a general feeling that Honorable behavior is paramount and that we are the living embodiment of our ancestors.
There is also often an inappropriate connection to Noe-nazism and racism both by some misguided practitioners and by people outside who see our use of runes and other symbols used by the WW2 Nazi party as being inherently racist.
?satr?/Odinism etc etc is not just a religious option, it is a complete world view that in many ways is at odds with the normal Judeo-Christian world view held by most societies (even the most ardently secular ones) and most western people (including atheists even though many of them will deny it) which makes it challenging to adhere to (a challenge we accept and revel in as with all challenges).
We make use of primary source material, secondary material (such as Tacticus' Germania) archaeological research and anthropological studies to recreate and practice the ways of our ancestors as best we can.
addendum: Never any point answering these questions after Noddy, but I was typing as he posted
After Noddy's post, there's very little left to add.
So I'm just posting to let you know I am also a Norse Heathen. Message me if you want, we have a yahoo group for R&S Heathens. We'll be glad to answer your questions.
Asatru / Norse / Germanic Paganism / Odinism............?
