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What is Asatru?
Asatru is a religion. It is the pre-Christian religion of Northern Europe. Its earliest forms were practiced by wandering tribes thousands of years before the birth of Jesus Christ.
How is Asatru different from Christianity?
It differs in many ways. Christianity believes there is only one God. This kind of belief is called
monotheism. Asatru believes in many Goddesses and Gods. This kind of belief is called
polytheism. Christianity believes that it is the one true religion for everybody. This makes it a
universal religion. Asatru knows that there are many different tribes and ethnic groups, each
with its own spiritual beliefs and its own Goddesses and Gods, and Asatru believes that each of
those beliefs are valid. Christians, because they believe they have the only truth, try to convert
other people. Believers in Asatru don't want to convert people. They just want people to learn
about their religion, so that they can decide for themselves whether they belong in Asatru or in
some other religion.
How does Asatru connect to Northern European culture?
Just as the Navaho tribe of Indians (Native Americans) has Navaho spiritual beliefs, long ago the Germanic people, ancestors of the people of England, Germany and Scandinavia lived in tribes. Like the Navaho, the Germanic tribes had their own spiritual beliefs. If you know a little about the spiritual beliefs of the Navaho or other Native Americans, you know that their spiritual beliefs are a part of, and connected to, their culture. Most tribal peoples are the same way. They don't divide their tribe's ways into categories of 'religion' and 'culture'. Instead, they take a more holistic approach. They integrate their spiritual life with their cultural life. Asatru, as a tribal-type religion, looks at things in the same way. The ancestral culture of the various Northern European countries, like England, Germany and Scandinavia (which is also the culture of many Americans) is integrated with the more 'religious' side of Asatru.
What does Asatru believe about family and ancestry?
In Asatru, we try to stay connected to our whole family: grandparents, aunts and uncles, distant cousins---we're all part of one clan. And we like to know more about our ancestors, going back for many generations. Many people got started in Asatru because they know it was the religion of their remote ancestors.
Wait! If Asatru is the ancestral religion of the Northern Europeans, doesn't that make it sort of an all-White club?
Not at all! Many people who are African-American also have some ancestors who were English (or other Northern European). The same goes for other non-White people. It is their ancestral tradition, no matter what their skin color is. And some White people, such as people of Greek ancestry, have an ancestral religion which is different from Asatru. Even in the case of people who have no known Northern European ancestry, there is no way of knowing that they don'thave some unknown Northern European ancestry, maybe a hundred generations back. If such a person really wants to join Asatru, no one would want to stop them.
Do the Asatru people have a holy book, like the Bible?
Yes and no. There are two books, the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, which tell the holy stories of the Asatru faith. But no one would ever decide these books were the literal, last word on the Asatru-folk's relations with their Gods. People evolve, after all.
Do Asatru people pray? If so, to Whom?
Yes, they do pray. But they don't believe in submitting themselves to their Gods as a slave to a master. Asatru people pray to whichever God they feel close to.
Christians talk about having a personal relation with Jesus. Do Asatru people have anything like that with their Gods?
Yes. A person who has a personal relationship with the Goddess Freya is called a fried of Freya.
Do Asatru people have any morals?
Asatruar believe in being honorable---behaving in an upright moral way. There are two sections in the Poetic Edda that deal with moral behavior---the Havamal and the Lay of Sigrdrifa. Also, modern Asatru has the Nine Noble Virtues, which serve as a summary of the Asatru moral teachings.
Do Asatru people believe in an afterlife?
Asatru people do believe in an afterlife. The soul may go to Helheim, the place of the dead, or, if the person lived an honorable life, to the hall of a favorite God or Goddess. In time, the soul may be born again, reincarnated, usually within the family line. That's why it's customary to name babies after deceased relatives or ancestors.
If Asatru is so great, why did the people of Northern Europe turn Christian?
Often they were forced to. Christian armies would attack an 'ungodly' Heathen tribe, and if they won, they would force the survivors to submit to baptism. Or Christian kings would forbid their subjects to trade with a Heathen tribe. That's why the people of Iceland, the last refuge of the Asatru believers, voted to make Iceland a Christian country.
But Christianity is a higher form of religion, isn't it? Why would anyone want to go back to a earlier one?
There is no proof that Christianity is higher or better. Look at the bad things that officially Christian countries have done: the Inquisition and the burning of heretics and alleged witches,holy wars against non-Christian tribes, pogroms against Jews, the Holocaust.... Look at all the criminals who were brought up in Christian homes, and the fanatical Christians who commit crimes such as killing people who work in abortion clinics. Much of that is based on the kind of intolerance that is a side effect of believing your way is the One True Way. Asatru people believe their way is not the One True Way, but one of many.
I've heard of Asatru. Aren't they kind of right-wing types?
Like Christians, Asatru folk come in left-wing, right-wing, and moderate varieties.
Didn't Hitler worship the old Norse gods? Was he an Asatru?
Hitler lived and died a Catholic. While the Nazis made use of Norse imagery in their propaganda, they were most popular with Germany's conservative Christians who wanted to return Germany to Christian 'family values'. Asatru groups in Nazi Germany were forbidden to meet and suffered other restrictions. One Asatru leader, a man of Jewish ancestry named Ernst Wachler, ended in a concentration camp.
What if I want to join Asatru?
Read up on the Norse mythology. Also, there are many sources of information on modern
Asatru on the Internet, use them. Contact some of the Asatru organizations. And begin to pray
to some of the Norse Gods.
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