Heathen/Asatru only: Is it possible to be a solitary practitioner?
I've been interested in Asatru for several years and want to convert from traditional witchcraft to Asatru, but there is no kindred in my area. What can I do?
What I mean is, do I need to belong to a kindred? The information I've read about solitary Asatru has not been clear to me.
Ruth: Thanks for the book recommendation.
Ruth: I've looked for kind reds near me, but I live in a very rural area and the nearest one I found was about 200 miles away and in another state.
Yes. Kindreds are nice, but as with any group there will be politics. Develop your own. Asatru is the path I chose; honoring ancestors, the Gods/Goddesses standing with me, and the Nine Noble Virtues are my reasons. I practice at an altar in my home and I have no need for a group atmosphere. But, a Kindred can also raise the horn higher and louder. Seek out one and participate as you can. Hailsa, Ruriksson. PS, I agree totally with Teutonic Religion and Teutonic Magic by Gundarrson. For Runes I suggest Runelore by Edrid Thorsson.
You do not be in a kindred to practice Astra rituals. The good thing to remember about being a lone practitioner is you do not have to adhere to the Noe pagan Astra beliefs but can choose to follow the pagan heathen beliefs of our ancestors. Or you can even choose Noe pagan beliefs closer to Vanuatu or even Odin's or the elder troth. Some choose to follow beliefs closer to the worship of the giants and wish to make Ragnarok happen.
You have a lot of advantages of learning before you commit to one way by being a lone practitioner. The important thing to remember is that being a lone practisioner requires a lot of study and a firm beleif. One way to cultivate and make that beleif firm is practice using the runes. wether you use the elder futhark of our ancestors or the younger futhark of the vikings or the north umbrian futhark that expands upon the elder or even the anglo saxon that adds an entire aett to them. You can even add the mideivil runes used strictly for magic and healing.
just remember that there are many versions out there. It is very confusing at first... was loki tied with chains or with the intrails of his son or with the entrails of his son that were turned to chains? etc... And there is a lot of historic debate over wether what snorri wrote was geared to catholic belief or not. All i know is that i worship with scandinavians who still follow the word of mouth source and do not read books about the religion and they beleive everything that snorri wrote
you can find many books and look up many web pages under the titles of ;;; heathen, asatru, odinism, viking, norse mythology, northern religions, runes, elder futhark. There are quite a few books written on practices of asatruar for people that are solitary practitioners.
Maybe one day you can even start your own kindred to have your full moon and new moon festivals the eight festivals of the year wheel and birth death and wedding festivals
The book suggested by the above beleiver is a good one. there are a lot of books out there on rune lore. Remember that a lot of people try to make it fit the i ching and the tarrot though. Some other good books are runic astrology, the complete illustrated guide to runes, leaves of yggdrasil and taking up runes.
It is important to remember that many people who write books these days on this stuff come from a wiccan or christian background and do it with that bias. Some people also just make up stuff. It is not the material you read, it is the amount of material you read that makes the difference. If you learn enough you will be able to determine what is false and what is not just by what doesnt fit. But you can always learn something from everyone. Anyone that can not learn from someone just because that person was wrong about some things is a person that cannot learn at all.
Also important is that many many religions of that area overlap eachother and follow many of the same patterns with slight differences but recognize different gods. You can learn a lot about Seidhr just from studying slavic sourcery for example. The festivle of the maypole is celibrated both by druids and heathens. Yule as well. The 8 times of the year celebrated by druids and heathens are at the same points of the year. Magic follows a poetic tendancy in both, as does the use of staves written on objects and many many other similarities between heathens and druids and slavs in many of their ways. Much of what cannot be found written about heathens, since the dark ages occured in europe and all forms of magic and worship to pagan gods were outlawd punishible by death and all mention of such things were written out of the histories, can actually be learned by studying the neighbors of the heathens who all influenced eachother. But don't tell that to someone who calls themselves Asatruar because that will just make them mad even though they are Neo Pagans that adopted many things that have nothing to do with their ancestry and fit more closely to Christianity than anything really, such as the 9 noble virtues that not one heathen king or warior or layman could have ever cited because it never existed until about 35 years ago.
Traditional Heathenism, even more than modern Asatru, is a very society-oriented belief. I have the same trouble as you do, the closes Heathen believer to me lives about 200 km away.
Luckily, modern technology offers us a good way out of this dilemma: on line kind reds. We use forums where we can discuss our problems and interesting topics.. and we only meet once or twice per year to celebrate the biggest holidays together.
In fact, there is even an international group for all the Heathens and Asatruar of R&S category of yahoo answers. It is invite-only though, so message me if you're interested in joining it.
You don't HAVE to but Asatru is a social folkway. There are a lot of on line communities available and mailing lists, etc. R&S has one actually.
The Heathen community can be a little brutal though. be warned. We don't operate like most other pagan traditions. You have to earn your way in and keep it. I always recommend knowing your basic primary texts and keeping the modern stuff to a minimum but that's just me
PM any of us. We'll be glad to help.
And do NOT read DJ Conway or Freya Aswynn and expect ANYONE to take you seriously.
If you are serious about Germanic faith systems then the one thing you need is faith in the Gods and wights, you do not need a kindred or a bag of runes or a hammer, the last two are just modern fantasy and the first is a something that the modern world has removed.
Heathenry is a social religion but Heathenry is full of "blot Heathens", the ones that turn up for a meeting and then go back to their lives without a thought about the social responsibilities. A Heathen community should eat all their meals together, work together, live in a tight social group; this is the way of our ancestors. The only kindred that you need to worry about is your family who you live with, always eat at a table and always as a family group, celebrate Geol, May Day and other festivals together.
Don't read Thorsson, Aswynn, Paxson or Gundarsson but do read academic studies of the period by the likes of Stephen Pollington, Frank Stenton, Hilda Ellis-Davidson and Kathleen Hertbert. Also read Beowulf, the Eddas, the Wanderer, Deor and as many other poems of the time, these are the key to the ancestors' mindset. Visit museums and search out museum websites, look at what the ancestors left behind and try to understand the zoomorphs and faces. The ancestors have all the answers and left them in their words and in the ground for us to see.
It is possible to be a solitary practitioner but I do think it would be nicer to find a group to be with at least for the major holidays and such. I live in a very urban area, both for college and for home, and there are no kind reds near me either. Our Troth is a good set of books to read just on the faith, but there are some out there about being a solitary practitioner, I know you can find the books on amazon pretty easily.
You certainly can practice Heathenism as a solitary. The religion is very adaptable and has been since the "old days." Here is a list for solitary Heathens:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Solitary_Asatru_2/
Here is an Asatru profession rite:
http://home.earthlink.net/~jordsvin/Blots/Profession%20Rite.htm
You could adapt it to your own needs as a solitary.
Finally, here are some suggestions for building your own spiritual practice:
http://home.earthlink.net/~jordsvin/Blots/Worship%20and%20Spirituality.htm
Hope this helps! I hope you can find (or even start at some point) a Kindred that will be beneficial to you. However, as the old Spanish saying goes: Mejor solo Que Mal comp~nado. (Better alone than in bad company). One thing that tends to happen is that Heathens with nothing in common except their religion often get too close, too fast and when things fall apart, they tend to get nasty, as do individual and group break-ups in general. So, my advice is to be patient.
Heathen/Asatru only: Is it possible to be a solitary practitioner?
