Caveat Emptor: Divine contact and spiritual experiences

Note: This started off as a cathartic little rant about people making up bullshit stories to try to score points in heathen groups online. It started to get quite verbose, however and by the end it was looking too long to post in a single draft. So, I'm going to split it into three parts and post each part over the next few days.

I appreciate some of this is quite derogatory and not hugely respectful to new heathens. I would encourage people to bear with it, though as nestled in all that wordage are some few little pieces of advise that I would have benefitted from greatly, back when I was a new heathen at the start of this millennium.


Contemporary heathenry is populated by a wide range of people with an equally wide range of world views and spiritual experiences. From atheists to polytheists and skeptics to believers. Surprisingly, and testament to the good will present in the subculture as a whole, this has yet to cause much in the way of strife - as far as I am aware. A fondly held tenet of online interactions being a robust tolerance for the views of others (excepting bigotry, obviously).

In general, though, online discussions stick to the material plane. The lore, history, archaeology and white supremacist groups being hot topics in most of the heathen communities of which I have been a part. In discussions, divine/spiritual experience and UPG is rarely mentioned. UPG is Unverified Personal Gnosis. Essentially personal experiences that inform our own paths, but shouldn't really mean anything to others. Remember that time you thought you saw the Wild Hunt in the sky as you were leaving your work's Xmas do? That's UPG. May or may not be real, but felt real/important enough on a personal level to inform your path.

My personal opinion is that UPG should be left out of online discussions, unless the topic specifically calls for it. If one person believes from the very cockles of their heart that they're Thor's human lover, that has no bearing on anyone else's path whatsoever. The person claiming that may be mentally ill, may have been tricked, might have been under the influence of drugs, or might just be plain lying. All of those are more reasonable explanations than a god with no record of having ever taken a human lover, has gone against all reason and his own character to play hide the sausage with some random whose only been heathen since the start of the second season of "Vikings".

I am not denying that spiritual experiences and/or divine contact can and do occur. I have had an experience that, at the time, felt spiritual myself. What I am saying is, that such things are personal and not really appropriate fodder for discussion in an online, public(-ish) heathen forum. It kind of equates to being introduced to your mate's friend for the first time in a pub and opening with "My uncle Trevor showed me his winkie when I was eight years old...". It's too personal, not at all appropriate and, frankly, how is the other guy supposed to react? What possible conversation or social activity will blossom from that? Spiritual experiences are the kinds of of things that should, to my mind, be reserved for relating only very rarely and in hushed, reverential tones over ale/across a campfire to very close and cherished friends. Not used in some lame attempt to score "Viking points"[TM] with lots of strangers over the internet.

Now, spiritual experiences are kind of subjective, nebulous and hard to adequately describe by their very nature. Looking back upon them, we can be forgiven for perhaps embellishing the event a little to suit our desire to make it an example of "heathen divine contact". First of all, though, it is not necessary to have some kind of special event or blessing from a god to be a bona fide heathen. Self identifying as heathen and working toward understanding the faith and carving your own path is more than enough. Secondly, even accepting that gods do exist as entities in their own right and that they do, on occasion, take on physical form, there are certain things we need to get out of the way. First of all, there are heathens in the world today who have been on their heathen path for over four decades. They have dedicated their lives to one or more of the gods and goddesses, written books about them, held public blots and symbels and been an example of how a disciple of their chosen god should speak and act over years in many public fora and in real life. With this in mind, please ask yourself why this particular god would appear to you when you have only been self-identifying as heathen for a couple of years? The gods don't care that you once dropped a 250UKP order at GrimFrost. If anything, they are gonna judge you by your actions. What have you done recently to show how heathen you are?

To be continued...

Not just a warrior cult? No, but...

The nation that will insist upon drawing a broad line of demarcation between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking by cowards.
~ William Francis ButlerWhen I first started upon my heathen path, I would respond aggressively to anyone who wrote off norse paganism as merely a warrior cult. Understandable, as there is so much more to the eddas, sagas and lays than that. It was these things in which I was more interested back then.

Now, however, having spent some time as a practicing heathen and having interacted with other heathens (mostly online, I will concede), I find my view changing in one very important respect.

The importance of the role of warrior, of battling one's enemies, of physical confrontation cannot and should not be ignored. The mythology is rife with references to battle and combat-related metaphors. The necessity of fighting to defend one's family or property was very real and pervasive back then.

This shaped our heathen forefathers, both physically and mentally. In a way that I feel many contemporary heathens don't appreciate. To call oneself a 'warrior' because you 'fight high insurance prices' in your daily work (or similar weak metaphor) betrays a complete lack of awareness of the huge effect that regular combat (or even intense training) can have upon a person's personality and values.

There is an argument for ignoring the warrior motif within heathen sources. After all, contemporary society doesn't require all of us to literally fight for our livelihoods. Some of us may become police or soldiers who will act on the front lines in a manner very similar to our viking ancestors, but most of us will spend our lives doing something much more pedestrian, likely in complete safety. Thankfully, very few of us will ever be required to fight at all, never mind literally fight for our lives.

However, the warrior mindset gained through training for and taking part in combat clearly informs a great portion of the beliefs and values expressed in the heathen sources, such as the eddas, sagas and heroic lays.

So, as part of my heathen path, I am taking time to investigate and, where possible, experience, what it is like to actually be a warrior. Even if that is simply some 'alive' training for my internal martial arts - my class, for example, also has a full contact sparring class on Tuesdays. Tentative exploration of this will inform my faith as well as any time spend poring over various texts.

Combatting Christian influence upon pagan children

While on holiday last week, my family were staying with my sister in law and her two kids (daughter and son). My daughter near idolises her two cousins. She loves it when they are around and likes nothing better than to play with them (just like I was with my cousins). Nothing could be more natural really.

We were taking a break at the flat where we were staying, resting before heading out again in the evening for a meal. My four year old daughter had a conversation with her cousins (who were at least around twice her age) that went something like this:

Cousin 2: "Freyja, do you believe in Jesus?"

Freyja: "Sheldon does..." (Sheldon is her tortoise hand puppet)

Cousin 2: "Do you believe in god?"

Freyja: "Sheldon does..."

Cousin 2: "But, do you believe in god, Freyja?"

Freyja: "No."

Cousin 2: "How can you not believe in god? He made you..."

Freyja: "I have a god book, that Daddy gave me..."



And there the conversation ended. The books she is referring to is D'Aulaires' Book Of Norse Myths - a book I bought her when she was born so I could read her some stories from Norse mythology and, hopefully, get her interested in Vikings and, by extension, heathenry. The book is really a little too old for her, being better suited for kids say 8 - 12 years in age - but the illustrations alone make it a valuable purchase.

I really am very proud of my daughter for being able to stand up against the (unintentionally) evangelical logic of a child twice her age. I am also touched that she seems to have taken the stories I have read her to heart and that she seems to use them as a reference source for the subject of gods.

I am concerned, though, that this kinda thing might happen again. If I witness a similar scene in future, I might feel the need to mention to my sister in law that I am not comfortable with her kids passing the christian perspective they learn from the faith school they attend onto my daughter.

In turn, though, I don't want to proselytise too much about heathenry in turn. Her kids being brought up christian really is no skin off my nose. Heathenry is really the kind thing that you need to seek out for yourself, if you feel it might be right for you.

News: Female Viking Lesley Simpson makes Shetland history

Originally posted on the BBC News website

The first female Guizer Jarl - or chief Viking - in the 130-year history of Shetland's world famous fire festivals is preparing to don her armour.

Lesley Simpson will lead a mixed-sex procession of Viking warriors in the South Mainland Up Helly Aa festival.

The event is one of several Viking-themed torchlit processions held on Shetland every year.

Only men are allowed to take part in the main Up Helly Aa festival in the capital, Lerwick.

Women have been playing a more prominent role in many of the similar fire festivals that have spread to smaller communities around the islands.

But Ms Simpson, from Bigton, will be the first woman to ever play the honoured role of the Guizer Jarl, around whom the whole festival revolves.

The primary school head teacher will lead the procession on Friday night while dressed as a Viking warrior complete with axe, shield and armour, before helping to burn a replica Viking galley.

Speaking ahead of the event, she told BBC Scotland: "It is really important to me. It has been a long build up, five years of knowing that this was going to happen, five years of people talking to me about it and wishing me the best with it and it is going to be a wonderful day.

"I'm really looking forward to visiting all the different places, the different schools and especially for our procession at night time."

Up Helly Aa
The fire festivals have been largely male-dominated since they began in the 1880s

Less than ideal job: What would the vikings do?

Here I am, working (unpaid) overtime for a job I loathe, and I can't help but wonder to myself, what would the original norse heathens or those of the Viking age have thought about my situation?

Would they expect me to pull up my big boy pants and simply endure? Putting up with the daily grind, lack of appreciation and depressing work life in the name of supporting my family?

Or perhaps they'd respect me more if I stood up and took action? Maybe working to change the situation here at my workplace, or to go out and try to find another company that will appreciate me better?

What I do understand, is that the raiders known as Vikings were very entrepreneurial sorts and would be looking out for an opportunity to earn fortune and fame, rather than bitching about their situation on their blog. Had they had blogs back then, of course.

Potential new beginnings

Just enjoying a drop of wine (Chilean Pinot Noir for those for whom that kind of thing matters). Gave a little toast to Thor, too, as I have a job interview on Tuesday that would benefit from a little luck/divine assistance.

I am in work currently already - but my commute is long, busy and tedious and perhaps around two and a half hours of every work day are spent behind the wheel of my car. I would appreciate some of that time being spent with my family instead. Hence this interview being so important to me.

Regardless of whether I get this job or not, I know there will be some new start (at a new company?) on the horizon soon. Can't help feeling a bit like a viking. Waging my future and my reputation on a risky enterprise (whether that is sacking a foreign land or switching to a new job).

Viking warrior cult?

While I would argue to the ends of midgard that heathenry is far more than a shallow, warrior cult of aggressive, thuggish vikings, I do think that martial aptitude and the ability to defend oneself physically is important for the modern heathen.

Myself, I train an internal chinese martial art called Baguazhang (see: http://www.manchester-bagua.org). It is similar (and indeed, related) to Tai Chi Chuan.

Training a fighting art in this manner, I believe, helps me to better understand the mindset of the original heathens and assists in the interpretation of the mythology and lays - many of which having a distinctly martial/combatative theme.

I also keep another blog based on my experiences training in Baguazhang. It is called, "Crouching Ferret, Hidden Chaffinch". Excuse my cheesy sense of humour. ;)

Independent: Hunt for Viking DNA in Normandy riles anti-racism campaigners

Originally posted on: The Independent Website



Hunt for Viking DNA in Normandy riles anti-racism campaigners who fear the results could contribute to increasing xenophobia in France

The notion of 'true Normans and false Normans,' a possible infringement of French laws that forbid any form of racial classification and the study being hijacked by racist groups are among the concerns expressed over the project

John Lichfield Author Biography

Thursday 18 June 2015

It’s been more than 1,200 years since the Scandinavian longships first invaded Western Europe – but France remains scared of Vikings.

A study of the DNA of a handful of rural Normans by a British academic team searching for Viking “roots” has been condemned by anti-racist campaigners and some French academics.

They fear that any attempt to identify long-distant Viking ancestry in Normandy could awaken racial antagonism and disturb the legally enforced notion that France is indivisible and that all French people are uniformly French.

Viking longships first landed in Normandy between the years 790 and 800 Viking longships first landed in Normandy between the years 790 and 800 (Getty)

“We fear that this will encourage the idea that there are true Normans and false Normans,” said Jacques Declosmenil, president of the Mouvement Contre le Racisme (movement against racism) in Manche, lower Normandy.

“When you see pictures in local papers of Viking warriors wielding their weapons under the headline ‘Have you got Viking blood?’, you can’t help being worried.”

A team from the University of Leicester – the same institution which identified the DNA of King Richard III in Britain – gathered saliva samples from a small number of people in the Cotentin Peninsula near Cherbourg this week. Similar DNA tests have already been carried out in three areas of Britain known to have been colonised by Vikings from around AD 850.

“The objective is to explore the intensity of the Scandinavian colonisation of Cotentin in the 9th and 10th centuries,” said Richard Jones, head of the Leicester University team in France. “We also want to know whether the invaders stuck to themselves or intermarried with the local people.”

Read more:
• Engraved ring suggests contact between Vikings and Islamic world
• Iceland to build first Norse gods temple since Viking age
• It wasn't just male Viking warriors who raided Britain


The researchers asked in April for male volunteers with a surname of Scandinavian origin – such Ingouf, Osouf or Anquetil – whose four grandparents had all been born locally. They received an avalanche of applications, including one from a man called Rolland, who claimed to be descended from the Viking chief Rollo, who became the first Duke of Normandy in AD 911. Only 100 volunteers were selected. The results of the survey will be published next year.

Dr Jones dismissed the suggestion that the research could open a racial Pandora’s box. The study covered, at most, 2 per cent of any individual’s DNA, he said. That left 98 per cent of ancestors of other kinds.

Anti-racist campaigners have condemned the DNA research Anti-racist campaigners have condemned the DNA research (Corbis) More specifically, the Leicester team is looking for the DNA of a “haplogroup” of hunter-gatherers who came to Europe 10,000 years ago and whose genes are common in Scandinavia to this day. However, finding such DNA is a useful “indication” but not a proof of Viking ancestry.

Mr Declosmenil of the movement against racism said that he was worried that, however innocent the intentions of the research team, their findings could be hijacked by racist groups.

“In the present context of increasing xenophobia, this is extremely dangerous,” he said. “Certain racists could say, for instance, I have proof that I have no Arab blood.”

The study was also criticised as a possible infringement of French laws that forbid any form of racial classification. The keeping of any form of ethnic statistics is illegal in France on the grounds that, under the constitution of the Republic, French people are “indivisible”.

“I warned my British colleagues that these questions were extremely sensitive in France,” said Pierre Bauduin, professor of medieval history at the University of Caen. “This is not the kind of thing that we do. You have to be very careful that such research is not exploited for political ends.”

"They fear that any attempt to identify long-distant Viking ancestry in Normandy could awaken racial antagonism and disturb the legally enforced notion that France is indivisible and that all French people are uniformly French."

France has more indigenous minorities than almost any country in Europe yet continues to suppress their languages like Breton, Provencal, Catalan.

The Vikings traded, pillaged and settled all over western Europe and beyond. Since then, the descendants of these interactions have interbred with everyone else. Pretty much every white person, whose descendants have been in Western Europe for more than a few generations, will have Viking ancestry.

Self-reliance

Having a car now, while less ecologically responsible, makes it much easier to be self reliant and get things done. Shopping trips are made easier with the simple application of a mobile boot to store the shopping in while taking it home. Home improvements are facilitated by being able to drive to hardware and furniture shops (and, again, the boot helps immensely).

Two goats and a thatched roof might well be enough, but it is nice to be able to mould our new home into something more akin to our style. We've been in there almost six months now and, while very homely and comfortable, it could be a bit more us. And I don't just mean more axes in the umbrella stand. I presume any visiting Vikings will have their own.

That said, I do have my eye on a couple of swords - for decorative purposes or training equipment, I have yet to decide.

Pondering dedication to Odin & Loki - from Dec 2013

The below is an old blogpost of mine from around Dec 2013. By way of an update - two feet is perhaps an overestimation of the wingspan of the Huginn that I had tattooed onto my shoulder. At least 18 inches, though.



Despite having a distinctly Jungian opinion of gods, I can't ignore the fact that I feel a very strong draw to Odin. He appeals to me on so many levels, it is unreal. However, being the kind of guy who doesn't particularly want a spearshaft projecting from my perineum, I'd rather not put myself in the position of being dedicated/beholden to him.

Despite this, and despite not really being much of a 'viking'*, I'd still quite like to 'show my appreciation' for want of a better term, in some way. I already have a raven tattoo of some two feet or so in wingspan on my shoulder, but I'm looking for something else.

It will be an acknowledgement of both Odin and Loki, as I feel the two go together and would somehow feel wrong in recognising one in such a fashion without, at least, a tip of the hat to the other. Strangely, though, despite Loki's reputation, it is his blood brother that I am more wary of, by far.

I am trying to think of something I can offer that will sate the need I have to do something like this and yet won't paint a bloody great target on my gonads, if you'll pardon my French. Until I think of something I'm happy with, I'll keep things as they are. Whatever happens, I will continue to recognise and 'honour' all the gods and goddesses.

There are other gods I feel something of a connection to, also - yes. Skadi, Bragi and Freyja to name a few. I know I don't yet see gods as distinct beings, which might be a stumbling block for some people. But even as aspects of my own consciousness or Jungian archetypes, I can see no reason why I can't feel a 'draw' to them, similar in some ways to how a theist might. I also fear that allying myself to an Odinesque aspect of my own consciousness could be detrimental in a similar way to how aligning to such a god could. I have a very healthy respect for the power of the human mind, and I have a young family for which I am responsible.

And, besides, I never said I was concretely certain in my atheism. ;)



* At the very least, I am not very Viking minded. Not at all aggressive. More of a hippy, really. Though being tall with long hair and beard does tend to cause others to bring up the Viking label without any impetus from me.

Gullveig: Thrice burned, thrice reborn - A Viking Phoenix or something more?

Taken from an earlier post on my blog at The Valley (www.ukpagan.com)

I've been spending some time thinking about Gullveig.

For some reason, the Aesir pierce her with spears and burn her three times...

This alone got me thinking of how those actions alone are reminiscent of a shamanic ordeal to reach altered states of consciousness. She is, after all, thought by some to become a great seer, a volva, after this ordeal. Three times reborn could be descriptive of her being reborn to take on another role. Of course, "piercing with spears" can also be a euphemism for something else... ;)

And the name, Gullveig. I am not sure precisely what 'veig' means, but Gull, iirc, means 'gold'.

Now, doesn't the norwegian rune poem contain the line:
"Fee (wealth) is a source of strife among kinsmen..."

Could Gullveig have been attacked precisely because she was (perhaps maliciously) causing strife amongst the Aesir?

I need to meditate upon this a little more, I think. Twenty minutes thought on the tram home last night maybe isn't quite enough to solve this particular mystery... ;)



Despite the further meditation I attempted, no further insights were forthcoming. Alas...