Well, just
like everybody will tell you, Asatru isn’t a one day a week
visit to the local god-house to pay your repects. Although,
neither is it a life consuming practice where you have to shave
your head and wear funny gowns all day long. I suppose it starts
with the hardest and biggest step; thought. A lot of Asatruer are
(myself included) recovering Christians, and so the first real
step to becoming common and garden Asatruer is to shrug off all
Christian baggage and bandaging. No more guilt, sin, self denial
or eternal damnation (or salvation for that matter, but
that’s another days talk). So thinking like a heathen is the
first step to what?, the journey home? Why not!
So how does
a heathen think? Well the infamous Nine Noble Virtues(™)
are really the marker by which we all determine what good little
heathens we have become. But experience has taught me that
practice makes perfect, or at least gives understanding. So,
you’ve posted the NNV’s to your fridge door and can
recite them off (in correct order or course!!), what next? Well ,
where’s all the religious stuff? This is the tricky next
stage and to be honest there’s no real concrete guidelines
as to rights and wrongs or even accepted norms. It all depends on
personality, personal preference, location and social standing
(parent, student, pensioner, president?). Can you turn your 3 bed
semi-detached in suburbia into the local Hof? Do you have a spare
acre to set aside and grow a nice ash grove and erect a stone
altar in it? Or are you a 9-5’er, with work commitments and
bills to pay, along with a half decent social life? Not to much
time there for uitsetta, old Norse lessons, or even reading and
rereading Snorri’s Edda. So the point is that we must fit
the religious stuff into our existing life. It’ll soon grow
to be one of the top 3 things on our mind while commuting or
showering or just walking through town. Then the sweet times are
when you’re having a ball with good friends and fine wines,
you’ll have just heard a funny story and suddenly a moment
of sobriety will hit you and you’ll remember that
you’re Asatru and the moment will be so special, meaningful
and enjoyable. That’s what sacrifice is all about, not
giving something up as payment, but sharing with the Gods and
Goddesses those wonderful moments in life.
Now of
course this is just my slant on things and as this is an exposé
on Asatru, lets delve a little deeper into different aspects of
what Asatruer’s do. Well, contact with the gods/esses is
always a plus and I think the difference between Christian and
Asatru is that in Christianity if you have to see or experience
God/Jesus to believe, then you’re a bad Christian. In Asatru
if you haven’t seen or experienced a god/ess, then
you’re a crap Asatruer, harsh but fairly accurate from
experience. How do you meet the gods/esses? They may come to you,
in a dream, during meditation or a "vision" may pop
into your head and it’ll bowl you over with its strength.
Some people are just unlucky (or are they?) and have to pick
themselves up and go looking for the gods/esses. There’s a
whole world of ways of doing this and personally I’m no
expert in any of them, but simple meditation works just fine,
usually. Mental thought is a fairly strong force and can achieve
marvelous things. so concentrate hard and let the experience come
to you. Let your mind wander and fly with the winds blowing
across Midgard and up to Asgard (or maybe it’s down,
it’s a big argument lately!). Or you could try climbing a
hill nearby or go into the center of a big field, raise your arms
and shout out to the gods/esses and put you question or request
to them in person. I know I’d be impressed and listen in.
So go forth
in life and keep your heathen thoughts and morals close to you
and learn from them. It’s all about living a better and
balanced life. But no bodies perfect and if you think it’s
all getting a bit much, relax and put it on a shelf inside you
for a little while and just let it sit and soak in slowly. And if
people start squabbling and arguing, think to yourself,
"What have they done for Asatru?" and then "What
have I done for Asatru?" and smile quietly and smugly to
yourself, go on you deserve it!
It’s
a fair question, why bother. After all, it's a religion that died
out for the most part nearly 1000 years ago, so why resurrect
something that is no longer valid for the 21st Century? Well,
anybody who says it’s not valid is somebody who knows little
or nothing about Asatru beyond "the viking gods"
generality. It’s as valid as any other religion. It has all
the same features that necessitate religious belief and faith.
We’ve got all the bits and pieces that anybody else can come
up with and a few more for good measure. So, we’re as valid
as the rest, but why Asatru? That’s a tough question to
answer in a general and all encompassing manner, so I’ll
(yet again!! ) put my own personal spin on it.
Why Asatru? I became very disillusioned with the Christian faith
which I was brought up in and had been true to for some fifteen
years, but the more I listened to myself and then to the teaching
of the priests and bishops, the more I found myself shaking my
head and saying "no, I don’t believe that". So it
all came to a head when I had been praying for something very
special for about two years non-stop, and was growing more and
more despondent until finally I did some background reading and
came up with the idea of writing a rune poem to Freyja, asking
for the same request. I put a time limit of four weeks in it as a
sign of if nothing happened then nobody was paying attention and
I was basically looking in the wrong place. But hey presto,
things moved swiftly and before the time was up I had all I had
asked for (just as a side note, I didn’t fully hold up my
side of the bargain and got a "slap on the wrist" as a
reminder, so it’s not a joke kids, ok?). So I was given a
very positive message of welcome and belonging and from there it
all went forth. Every time I wonder if it’s all just a big
joke or if I’m playing on the wrong pitch, I think back to
that time and it always puts a smile on my face.
And so from there, what else is out there? Well as mentioned
before, it’s not just about the Aesir and Vanir, the
Landvattir, Alfar, Hus Folk, Svart Alfar, Disir and all the other
spirits and things that go bump in the night that are all out
there (and in here), before, I knew nothing about the
multi-cultural/spiritual worlds as such. Now I ask for their help
in protecting my house from harm and thank them for looking after
the land so well and do my bit in return. This isn’t
anything new, if you’ve read Norwegian folklore (as well as
other countries of course) you discover that this has gone on for
centuries, some traditions are still popular even when their
original meaning has been lost (e.g. leaving milk and biscuits
out for Santa Claus). So part of Asatru is carrying on traditions
that have been part and parcel of northern European tradition and
culture for many hundreds of years and more. This morning for
example, there was a six hour live radio broadcast on the dawn
chorus of birds from all over Ireland and it brought to me the
sense of power and majesty of nature and the wonder of it made me
think of how lucky we are to be aware of such things and know
that they aren’t a collective gift as is often said, but a
piece of the patchwork quilt that surrounds us and feeds our
senses and gladdens our hearts.
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