Feeling like you're "doing heathen right"

When I was a kid and I hadn't really thought too much about the subject, if someone asked me what religion I was I would have answered, "Church of England". It didn't really occur to me to ask what that meant. All I knew was my curiosity had caused me to ask my mother what religion we were and that had been her answer. I lived in what was, I suppose, still ostensibly a christian nation back then. I attended a Church of England school and lessons that depended upon them included morality and culture that was influenced by the christian church. Looking back, there wasn't really anything that I did or thought that made me christian, much less Church of England specifically. As a family, we didn't pray or attend church on Sundays. The only time we saw the inside of St Mary's church in our village was for weddings and funerals - or if the local primary school decided to hold a harvest festival service there.

As I moved on to secondary school and mixed with an only slightly more diverse peer group, I came across friends who also called themselves christian. However, their families did attend church every Sunday. Some were even a different denomination - usually catholic or methodist. As I became aware of the impact that their religion had upon their lives it occurred to me that perhaps my family - and myself in particular - weren't very religious at all.

Later, I would go on to identify as atheist, nihilist, existentialist and a number of other similar labels. The point I'm gradually marshalling into place, though, is that to identify as anyone one or more of these labels was enough. Despite the fact there were other kids going to church, attending Sunday school and singing hymns much more enthusiastically than me, I was still more than justified in calling myself christian. Identifying as such was enough.

It's the same with heathenry. Identifying as heathen is the first and only necessary step in being part of this burgeoning community. There is nothing you can do, no book you can read that will make you more heathen than you are when you first start to realise that the spiritual path you've been reading about is precisely the one you've been on or the one for which you've been searching.

You can blot every day of the week and, while there are benefits to doing so, it doesn't really make you any more heathen than someone who has never blotted. The Archbishop of Canterbury could take part in a blot, and he would be very welcome to do so, but it wouldn't make him heathen.

Similarly, you could read a thousand books on the subject. Doing so would undoubtedly increase your knowledge of heathenry immensely. But it wouldn't make you any more heathen than if you'd spent the time watching Great British Bake Off instead.

There are as many different routes around the heathen spiritual landscape as there are heathens themselves. Once you've identified as heathen, how you actualise that is completely up to you. If you want to be the heathen who blots every day and reads every scrap of text you can find on the subject then do that. If you want to create artwork to honour the gods, wights, ancestors, landscape or even Travis Fimmel, then do that. If you just want to devote some time thinking about heathenry and discussing as much over drinks with friends (preferably around a campfire), then do that. Each of these is just as valid a means of "doing heathen" as any others that could be mentioned.

Heathenry online can sometimes come across as being very heavily weighted towards certain kinds of heathens. Academics, artists and craftspersons seem to account for 95% of heathen content. To my mind, though, that says more about the nature of the internet. If you have something to say, or show then webpages, galleries and video servers cater very well to you. Within heathenry, though, all kinds of people are needed. If you can lend an ear to a story, chat with a fellow heathen and add your voice to songs and laughter, then you are just as valid a part of the heathen history being made today.

Caveat Emptor 2: The Revenge

Okay, so part one mentioned how it can be tempting for new heathens to invent some heathen credentials to help them assimilate into their chosen heathen group. We all can sometimes be a little too eager to join in and show our commitment to the cause. After a little rant, we got down to some more helpful advice for new heathens.

Anyhow, on with part two of the post.

The Havamal

26.
The unwise man thinks all to know,
while he sits in a sheltered nook;
but he knows not one thing, what he shall answer,
if men shall put him to proof.


27.
For the unwise man 'tis best to be mute
when he come amid the crowd,
for none is aware of his lack of wit
if he wastes not too many words;
for he who lacks wit shall never learn
though his words flow ne'er so fast.


28.
Wise he is deemed who can question well,
and also answer back:
the sons of men can no secret make
of the tidings told in their midst.


29.
Too many unstable words are spoken
by him who ne'er holds his peace;
the hasty tongue sings its own mishap
if it be not bridled in.


The Havamal has a lot to say about not running your mouth off in public fora. Best advice I can give to new heathens is to join a good heathen online group, introduce yourself and then simply listen (or, more correctly, read). The best online groups have several active members how have been heathen a long time and know a lot about the faith, history, archaelogy, the lore and many other subjects. These are the wise elders of whom young heathens would have been encouraged to take heed in the past. Listening to them and adapting their wisdom to suit your path is the best action, short of studying the eddas, that someone new to heathenry can undertake.

This applies to engineering/relating suspicious "divine intervention" stories as well. You don't need to prove to anyone how viking you are to have them respect you. Everyone starts from the same place. We all start with very little knowledge and then gradually, over time and with some study, we learn about heathenry and teutonic mythology (as well as dozens of other disciplines to a greater or lesser extent). In fact, broadcasting an obviously-invented supernatural story can often have the opposite to the intended effect. Heathens, for whom reputation is a very important trait, will find that being known as someone who makes up some spurious bullshit story to get attention is far from desirable. In fact, it is the kind of thing that may end up haunting you in a way you really come to resent. Five years down the line when you're trying to make a name for yourself as a gothi or skald, do you think it will help for people to remember you as the person who made up a story about Thor giving you a cuddle to help you feel better when you'd broken up with your partner?

The annoying thing about such posts is, it essentially is a little arrogant and/or self-centred for the new poster to think that no-one in the group will have the wisdom to see through the bullshit. That, somehow, a fresh faced newbie with only minimal knowledge of heathenry and teutonic mythology will someone find it easy to pull the wool over the collective eyes of heathens who have university degrees in appropriate subjects and decades of experience in heathenry. Even more annoying to me, as they seem to put so little thought into the stories of divine contact - most involving actions quite out of character for all the gods involved. Hence this anger-infused blog post.

On the subject of made up vs believable divine contact stories, here is some of my own, personal UPG to illustrate how transparent some of the tales of new heathens can be to older heathens such as myself. This isn't really intended to be "this is how you should see the gods", but instead an example of how many heathens see the gods and how these stories don't correllate with that view.

Odin
I have heard lots of tales about Odin. Understandably, he is a favourite - especially among new heathens. The thing to remember, though, is that Odin is not Yahweh. He is as different to the christian god as Lemmy is to Justin Bieber. With that in mind, try not to ascribe christian feelings and motivations to the Allfather. I have heard stories about him saving someone from a potentially fatal accident and even giving someone a cuddle when they were feeling down!

The thing to remember with Ol' One Eye is that he is a god of death and is renowned as being "a bit of a bastard". He regularly seduces unsuspecting women to get what he wants, he steals, betrays and even breaks oaths. As a god of death and a necromancer, he is not gonna save your life - he is more likely to be the god that put you in the life-threatening situation in the first place - just to see how you handle it. He definitely isn't gonna give you a hug - he is not the christian god and he certainly isn't the White Christ. Anyone who takes on Odin as a patron should be ready to see their life become much harder with many more obstacles. That is kinda his thing - he likes to test the mettle of heathens who are brave enough to accept him as a patron.

A good thing to bear in mind is his character in the book "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman, and its tv adaptation. In it, Odin is respected for his wisdom and power, but no one really trusts him. Everyone knows he has his own agenda and that he considers everyone else to be little more than pawns in his plot to get his own way. Does this sound like a loving, compassionate god figure?

Now, in recent years, there has been some pushback to this view of Grimnir. The general gist of which is the argument that there is no point in creating or worshipping a god that won't help you and will even make things harder for you. To me, though, that argument smacks of carrying a little christian baggage along with it. People pray to Christ/Yahweh to be bailed out of whatever situation is plaguing them. They submit utterly to the god and he protects them. That is the deal. I can't think of a single heathen god who would be happy to save you from your trials and problems without any work from you. To my mind, heathen gods aren't quite like that - and especially not Odin. He was originally a kind of Wild Huntsman archetype who gradually evolved into a god of nobles and kings. What this means is, he is not a god of the people - at least, not the common man. That is more the realm of his son. Odin does give boons to his followers - but they aren't touchy feely hugs, kisses and pleasant feelings. Additionally, they are all temporal. They don't last forever. Many are the tales of the chosen of Odin being betrayed and abandoned to die on the battlefield. What's more, Odin is pretty damn busy at the moment, what with impending Ragnarok - he's not really got the time, inclination, or the crayons to send messages to every Tom, Dick or Harry who wants to impress their new heathen buddies.

Thor
Okay, so Thor helped you in your dispute with your neighbour, did he? The one who borrowed your secateurs and didn't give them back? Again, Thor is a quite busy god. He is more concerned with common people and especially their protection. But he isn't gonna intercede on your domestic dispute with your neighbour. To my mind, he would only take sides in cases of actual oppression, where blame could be attributed 100% to one side or the other. Let's face it, most of the spats that we mortals get involved with are, at best, 30% our own fault. He may get involved if your neighbour happens to be a frost giant. But in that case it would be for his own reasons, and not really because he had any particular affection for you. He's got better things to do - like smash Hel out of those aforementioned frost giants.

Tyr
Tyr is conspicuous by his very absence. Likely to have been chief god of the pantheon originally before being usurped in popularity by other gods, he is very rarely chosen by new heathens as a source of inspiration, strength or justice. Admittedly, we don't know as much about him as we do about Odin and his son, but that shouldn't prevent him from trying to get in on the divine manifestation party, should it?

I could go on all day talking about my UPG regarding Tyr and how he often goes misrepresented amongst heathens, but I think I will leave that for another post.

Another thing to watch out for in disreputable stories is how the gods involved tend to be reduced to two dimensional, flimsy characters based around the popular conception of the god in question. Odin is essentially the christian god, Thor is big and strong, Loki is a fool/trickster, Freyja is a slut, Frigg is a housewife. That also kinda goes hand in hand with movie/tv tie-ins. Recently, Loki has begun to be seen as more of an attractive god. Due, in no small part, to his portrayal by Tom Hiddleston at the cinema in recent years. Any reference to how these gods look is now polluted by Marvel movies and tv adaptations of books.

As I said before, it is okay to start a heathen path without having had any kind of contact (real or imagined) with any gods or goddesses. Far more important are the following:

- Study. There isn't a central church that we can all go to for guidance. All us heathens each have to find our own path. This means studying what others do or have done in relation to their path or religion. There are a lot of books on the subject. Some are very good and some are very bad. The one recommendation that all heathens agree upon is to read the eddas. The Poetic Edda and The Prose Edda are easily found in online bookshops. Read them, then read them again as, while most heathens don't consider them canon or "the word of the gods", most do agree they are the groundwork upon which most heathen paths are and should be built.

- Beware fakers. There are plenty of heathens out there at all levels who talk the talk but can't or don't walk the walk. No matter what other heathens say, you are responsible for your own actions and beliefs. As such, you should cast a critical eye on everything you learn from whatever source (including the eddas) and decide whether it is true, relevant and/or appropriate. This also extends to books and websites. Just cos something has been published (I'm looking at you, Llewellyn!) or appears on a professional-looking website, that doesn't mean it's true.

- Unverified Personal Gnosis. UPG is fine, but don't blow it out of proportion. You can use whatever hunches or feelings you like to inform your heathenry. But remember two things. First, your UPG is yours and yours alone. No-one else is likely to understand it quite the way you do. More than that, they don't even have to respect it. Just cos it is important to you, doesn't give it any value to anyone else. Secondly, our minds have a tendency to play tricks on us. Nothing says that the gods have to be trying to communicate with you. Not every thing you observe has to be "a message". Now you're on your path, you will likely take notice of ravens a lot more. Odin kept ravens and they were very important and significant animals to the heathens of a thousand years ago. That said, ravens are a common sighting across the UK. Seeing one or more ravens in your daily travels doesn't mean the gods are trying to contact you. That's not to say that ravens are never a sign. But seeing them in their natural habitat behaving naturally isn't it. If you're in a library and one flies into the building to sit near you, that's a more unusual circumstance. But ravens outside in the UK? That's not enough of an event, frankly. The same goes for any sign. Kirk Douglas starring in "The Vikings" on UKTV Gold isn't a sign, either. It just boils down to using common sense. It is similar to the old adage, "If something seems too good to be true, it probably is...". Perhaps that should be in the Havamal? "If something lends itself to a mundane explanation - well, that's probably it."

- Desire to contribute. As I said, sometimes the excitement of having newly joined a heathen group and/or recently joined the faith can be overwhelming. The strong urge to commit ourselves and show how we belong can motivate us but also cause us to act questionably (e.g. the aforementioned divine contact stories). If you really are frothing at the mouth with enthusiasm, why not volunteer to work for whatever groups, kindreds or hearths you have decided to join? Not all tasks require in depth knowledge or experience and many organisers would really appreciate some of the day to day admin being taken off their hands. It's all important work and might even help you to make new friends, interact with fellow heathens and learn more about the faith while "on the job".

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...

The Nature of our Heathen Gods: What are they? (updated 20/04/2020)

Many years ago, when I had been calling myself heathen for only a very short time, I hungrily scoured the internet for information and insights that might help me understand more about heathenry.

In the process of this, I signed up to a number of forums and mailing lists, for that was how the internet was back then. This helped me interact with fellow heathens (albeit virtually), which helped me explore the faith of which I had chosen to be part.

One of the first questions that new heathens often ask themselves - or that they have asked of them, is: "What form do you believe the gods take?" (or similar).

My answers back then were as confused as you might expect for someone new to the faith. These posts from the old Kindred UK forum (now sadly defunct), illustrate that perfectly.

(Linked for those that might still have access)

How do you see the gods thread - post one

Well, as I said, I am still new to the faith. I have not yet been blessed with a 'meeting' of any sort with a divine entity. Or, at least, I have not recognised one as such.

I am not saying the gods and goddesses aren't real entities. I am saying, having not been exposed to them that long, I can't honestly think of them in that way. Just in the way I think of Trevor McDonald as 'that newsreader guy on the tv' or David Bowie as 'that musical artist'. They are real people. But, having never met them, I have no means of thinking of them in that way.

And, yes, I think I am an aspect of humanity, in the same way I am an aspect of masculinity, an aspect of life, an aspect of anything and everything that goes into making me what I am. That is a whole other quest, discerning precisely what I am. I hope the gods and goddesses (whatever form they take) can help me with that, too.

So, essentially, at my current stage of 'spiritual development', I can't really think of the Aesir and Vanir as individual entities. At least not and be able to easily learn and grow from the knowledge of them. I think of them as I described and it helps me get an easier handle on them and my relation to them.

Okay, I accept that is pretty weird, and probably the opposite way that our ancestors would have learned about them. They would have learned about them as 'people' first. But they also would have learned about them from birth. Without years of christianity and rationalism polluting their opinions in the first instance, to boot.

Maybe the gods and goddesses are bodiless, and the fact they appear to some in a human guise is simply the easiest way for our minds to comprehend a divine being/presence/concept? Or maybe they are humanoid, simply with godly powers. Maybe they only exist as energy. As of yet, I do not know. But I don't want to assume anything about them this early on my spiritual path, simply because others claim to have seen them in the form of an individual.

Essentially, I am playing safe and keeping my mind open. Well, that is the way I look at it.

My views are just that - mine. Based only on what I have experienced thus far. Others have been a lot longer on the path than I. But I've got the rest of my life (40 years or so, if I am lucky) to find my own path. I'm just enjoying the scenery for now.

How do you see the gods thread - post two

I have to say I fall heavily on the side of their being anthropomorphic representations of the forces of nature/the cosmos or abstract concepts promoted in a form that people can more readily understand. Explaining renewal/order/'justice'/culture to people even today is pretty hard. Explain that there are gods and goddesses who personify these roles and people can relate to them. Especially with the teutonic gods who are peculiarly more 'human' than many others.

But, more than this, I see there is a counterpoint to this in that the gods can also represent similar aspects of our own psyches. Thor might represent my protective instinct, my pragmatic side and also my no-nonsense approach to problem solving. Freyja might represent the my sexual side. Loki my mischevious side. The stories in the eddas and other sources can be seen as a guide to how these various aspects of ourselves interact and/or how they should be viewed/nurtured.

But, then on another level entirely, I think by following the gods, honouring them in our day to day lives, we breathe a life/more life into them. To all intents and purposes they become independent beings. All we ever know of each-other (as humans) is what our eyes see, our ears hear and, essentially, what our brains process about that person. It is the same when we bring the gods and goddesses into our lives. We see them active in the world and they have an effect on and through us.

Whether what I have reasoned means they are or are not actual, real entities, I am not yet sure. I have only just come to heathenism, but I hope through studying diligently on the evidence of how our faith was practiced traditionally, by reasoning how that should be interpreted in a modern context, and maybe with the odd moment of spiritual enlightenment, I might find out one day.

Also, please note, my knowledge of the gods and goddesses is very primitive at the moment. Forgive me if I have made any inappropriate connections or somesuch 'newbie mistake'

To be quite frank, my beliefs are no more certain now than they were all those years ago. I have had experiences and episodes of enlightenment which have shaped the way I feel about the aesir and vanir. But the only lesson of value that I have learnt is that it really doesn't matter how you see the gods and goddesses of our faith. More important is to be "a good heathen" - however that is expressed for you. Keeping your word, being resilient and self-sufficient or blotting often and offering sacrfices whenever you can.

Hours spent debating what form the gods take is just time wasted. Instead we should try to learn their lessons and accept the wisdom they are offering us - if only we will take it, and them to heart.