
Frequently Asked Questions
How many gods and goddesses do Odinists acknowledge?
There are more gods and goddesses in our pantheon than
most Odinists could list.
But the pre-eminent god is Odin?
No, there is no pre-eminent god in the sense of one being
somehow superior to the others. That is a Christian concept that has
no place in Odinism. Our different deities are closely associated with
specific qualities or activities or purposes, and they can each be regarded
as pre-eminent in their own ways.
Still, you call your faith "Odinism".
Doesn't that suggest that Odin is the main god?
The word Odinism was first used in 1848 by the writer
O. Brownson, who wrote of "A revival of Odinism, or the old Scandinavian
heathenism". It doesn't suggest that Odin is the main god. Think
of the way linguists use the word "Germanic" to refer to many
different but related languages, including Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish,
Danish, English, Dutch, German, Faeroese, Flemish and Afrikaans. Calling
all these languages "Germanic" doesn't imply that German was
the first of them to exist, or that it is the greatest, or the most
influential.
Other people seem to use the term "Asatru"
to describe your faith, or something very like your faith. Are they the
same?
"Asatru" is a Norse term, meaning loyalty to
the gods. "Theod" is an Old English term with the same meaning.
Some people prefer these and other names to "Odinism". But
whatever name individuals use to describe our faith, we all venerate
the same deities.
What is the nature of these deities? Are they archetypes,
or what?
We cannot define them for you because we believe the concept
of deity is ultimately beyond the limits of human conceptual thought
and language. (After two thousand years of theology the Christians still
cannot agree on a definition of their single deity!) However, some things
can be said about our gods and goddesses. They are superhuman beings.
They are within nature, like us, rather than outside it. Their tasks
are to oppose the forces of entropy in nature and finally to overcome
them, to replenish the cosmic order, to promote life and vitality. Because
their actions happen to benefit humans they are our allies, and because
our allegiance assists them they are actively benevolent toward us.
I thought they were symbols of natural events like
the turning of the year?
That was the view of some nineteenth century anthropologists
and other scholars, who were all brought up within a Christian tradition.
It is not our view. We believe the gods and goddesses are very real.
They, and their properties, can be conceived on both a physical and
an abstract plane.
I have read that Odin was a man, a great leader
of his people, who was venerated as a god after his death. Is this true?
You are referring to the concept of "euhemerism",
named after the Sicilian writer Euhemeros, who thought that myths could
be explained by the divinizing of the heroic virtues of human beings.
Christians latched on to euhemerism as an explanation of why other people
told stories of divine beings who do not appear in the Bible.
One of the well-known sources of information about our ancestors' beliefs
is the "Gesta Danorum" of Saxo Grammaticus. Saxo wrote this
work at the behest of Archbishop Absalon, so he could hardly admit that
our gods and goddesses are real. Less of a euhemerist was Snorri Sturluson.
In his prologue to "Gylfaginning" this very Christian author
says our gods were people who originally lived in Asia, but after this
nod to orthodoxy he treats them as genuine gods in the rest of his writing.
Euhemerism is a very convenient way for Christians to admit that we
sincerely venerate different gods and goddesses, but at the same time
to make our beliefs seem childish. In authentic surviving works from
the pre-Christian period there is no suggestion that Odin was ever anything
other than a god.
Sometimes his name is spelt Odin, sometimes Woden,
and sometimes Wotan. Which is correct?
The god's name is spelt Odin in Norse, Woden in English
and Wotan in German. All are correct. Sometimes an Odinist writer will
use different spellings of a god's name within an article to indicate
specific manifestations of that god or goddess to people of different
national groups.
You said you "venerate" the gods and goddesses.
Does this mean that you worship them?
Not in the sense that Muslims worship Allah. The word
worship derives from Old English "weorthscipe", which means
worthy of honour. We worship our gods and goddesses by showing them
the honour, respect and recognition that is due to their worthiness.
We don't believe that bowing and scraping, kneeling, whining or begging
is an appropriate way of honouring them.
Do you pray to them?
"Prayer" can mean many things, ranging from
meditation to making an earnest request. When the Norse exploration
party was starving in America, an Odinist named Thorhall the Hunter
honoured his favourite god Thor by composing a poem in his honour. In
a sense this act of poetic composition was a prayer for help in obtaining
food. Thor sent him a beached whale (which made the Christians in the
party sick!)
So Odinists can have special relationships with
specific gods and goddesses?
Very much so. A famous example is Hrafnkel, who, according
to the saga, "loved no other god more than Frey, on whom he bestowed
a half share in all his best treasures". We don't know quite what
this "half share" really meant, but clearly Hrafnkel somehow
consecrated his most valued possessions to Frey. Another famous example
is Egil Skallagrimson, who as a warrior and poet was appropriately devoted
to Odin. But people can also have special relationships with different
gods or goddesses simultaneously. A farmer may well seek Frey's blessing
for the fertility of his land, and Odin's help in discovering the best
mix of grasses to improve his herd's milk, and the blessing of Freya
on his marriage.
Why would he ask Odin to help him discover the best
mix of grasses?
Because Odin's foremost characteristic is his quest for
knowledge. In parts of Australia farmers are still experimenting with
the effect of different grasses on milk quality and yield, and that
quest is a very Odinic activity. Compare it with the Christian reaction
to empirical researchers like Copernicus and Galileo!
There is some tension between science and most religions.
Are you saying that Odinism is different in this regard?
For the best part of two thousand years Western science
was held back by Christian beliefs and attitudes. As science increasingly
frees itself of Christian fetters it increasingly converges on the world
outlook of Odinism. (See, for instance, the article on this site about
Odinist cosmology.)
Speaking of relationships, how do Odinists and Christians
get on?
Most Odinists have no trouble in relating well to our
Christian neighbours, relatives and colleagues. The reverse is not always
the case. For example, every year a pagan festival is held in the crater
of an extinct volcano at Mount Franklin in Victoria, Australia. During
the 1990's some Christian extremists took to busing in their "born-again"
brethren from Melbourne. These people did everything they could to disrupt
the pagan cermonies, singing Christian hymns, playing guitars, talking
in tongues, and praying for their god to convert the pagans. To disrupt
a religious ceremony is specifically illegal under the Victorian "Summary
Offences Act", but the patient pagans forbore to call the police.
Are "pagans" the same as "heathens"?
One word comes from Latin and the other is Germanic, but
they both refer to people living in isolated, rural places. When Christianity
was expanding these remote people clung to the religion of their ancestors
longer than those in the cities. Now, ironically, the situation is reversing.
In Australia the Christian strongholds tend to be country towns, while
the number of heathens or pagans in the capital cities is growing exponentially.
Are Odinists "neopagans" or "mesopagans"
or "paleopagans" or what?
We let others worry about terms like this. We are Odinists.
Is Odinism a religion, a spiritual path, or a philosophy?
All three and more, at the same time.
Do you have any concept of "The Lord and The
Lady", or "The Goddess"?
No. If you spoke of "The Goddess" to an Odinist
you would probably be asked which of our many goddesses you had in mind.
"The Lord and The Lady" are equally meaningless terms to us.
What about Satan?
Satan is a character in Judeo-Christian mythology. He
is a figment of the Judeo-Christian imagination and is nothing to do
with us.
Isn't one of your gods, Loki, somewhat like Satan?
Some Christians and Satanists claim so, but only because
they do not understand our concept of cosmic "Fate". The best
study of this subject is Alan James' "The Trial of Loki: a study
in nordic heathen morality". This work is available from Theod,
PO Box 8062, Watertown, NY, 13601, USA, for $US 7.00.
I have heard about Ragnarok, a great final showdown
between the gods and the forces of chaos, but I'm confused. From what
I have read it has already happened. Can you tell me more?
Ragnarok is yet to happen. When it does occur the forces
of chaos will be destroyed. Many of our best-loved gods will perish
defending the life-force, but many will also survive, and Balder will
return. The earth will be re-born in fruitfulness and peace. The human
race will also be re-born through Lif and Lifthrasir, a human couple
or a symbolic human couple, whose names have been interpreted as "Life"
and "He who superabounds with life".
When will this happen?
We don't know. There are several signs foretold. First
there will be a period when all the taboos of Nordic morality will be
overturned:
"Brother shall strike brother and both fall,
Sisters' sons slay each other
Evil be on earth, an Age of Whoredom,
Of sharp sword-play and shields' clashing,
A Wind-Age, a Wolf-Age, till the world ruins:
No man to another shall mercy show."
That sounds much like the twentieth century. What
happens after that?
There will be a winter so severe that it will destroy
nearly all life:
" ... the terrible winter comes, which is called
Fimbulvetr; then the snow is driven from all directions, there are
then great frosts and biting winds. The sun is of no use. Three winters
come together and summer in between. But before that another three
winters pass in which great battles are fought throughout the world."
Do you really believe there could be a winter like
that? I thought we were experiencing global warming!
Think of the mammoths found frozen in Siberia in conjunction
in time with great layers of volcanic dust found elsewhere. It has been
suggested that a sudden mass extrusion of dust and gases from the simultaneous
eruption of several volcanoes would cut out sunlight and create winds
beyond anything known today. The extruded gases descending from the
cold of space could have killed and instantly frozen the mammoths. (To
do this they would have had to be below minus-150 degrees Fahrenheit.)
Weather conditions like this could have lasted for days, weeks, months,
even years.
On the other hand, the term "winter" may be
metaphorical, as in Shakespeare's "Now is the winter of our discontent
made glorious summer by this son of York".
What happens after that?
The earth is consumed with fire:
"The sun turns black,
the earth sinks into the sea,
the bright stars disappear
from the sky; steam gushes forth
with fire, the high flame
plays up to the sky itself""
How could that happen?
A comet of a million million tons striking the earth at
the average of 30 miles per second would release over a quarter of the
energy received from the sun in a year. This could heat the whole atmosphere
to 190C. But note that the world fire in Odinist eschatology is purifying
- not destructive as it is in the Judeo-Christian tradition.
And then?
The best study of Ragnarok is the Australian scholar John
Stanley Martin's "Ragnarok: an investigation into old norse concepts
of the fate of the gods", Melbourne Monographs in Germanic Studies,
Volume 3, ISBN 90 232 1012 3. This should be available in the libraries
of major universities that teach Germanic Studies. We highly recommend
that you read it.
Do you believe in these prohecies in a literal sense?
Some do. Some think they are symbolic. One way or another
it is clear that great catastrophes will occur before the world, and
humanity, is renewed. The emphasis, though, should be on the coming
renewal. This will rejuvenate the earth itself, the divine and cosmic
orders, and humanity - since only the children of the glorious Lif and
Lifthrasir will be available to repopulate Midgard.
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