Heathenism

For many years the only definition of heathen was one who was not Christian.  If you look in the dictionary you will still find that as part of the definition of heathen.  Today however I am not talking about the dictionary definition.  I am talking about how it relates to the modern Pagan culture and the culture of Germanic pagans.  My heathenism studies have been a major influence in my path and on my craft as a witch.

The heathens of today are often hard to define.  For some people it is an umbrella term for an eclectic Germanic recon path.  For other people is a very specific tradition with in the label of Germanic religions. I consider it to be a term for an eclectic approach to being a semi Recon based practitioner.

You may be thinking wait a minute you can’t be both eclectic and a Reconstruction can you? When it comes to the Germanic religions it is more possible.  There are several Germanic cultures to choose from.  You have the Angels and the Saxons, The Danish, The Norse, The Icelandic, the Franks, and several other tribes.  Each tribe had slightly different lore.  By studying the lore of all the paths and tribes a person can gain a fuller insight into the lore for Germanic paganism.

It is the Nordic lore which we have the most information from.  It was also in Norway and Iceland where the religious practices of the Germanic tribes lasted the longest.  Several of the sagas that many heathens use as source texts for their practices and understanding of the culture are preserved in a book titled The Sagas of the Icelanders.  These sagas tell of the social structure and the social etiquette.  From these sagas we learn how they lived.  That is why they are excellent sources to use.  The other books which provide sagas and lore about the Gods are:

Saxo Grammaticus: The history of the Danes

,Heimskringla: The life of the Norse Kings

Right now I am in the process of reading  Heimskringla.  I’ve already gotten some information about lore but not a whole lot. Snorri used the same tale about Odin founding the Kingdom of the Norse in both the prose Edda and in Heimskringla.  Both tales are very interesting and explain a bit of the culture of the Gods.  Yet my preference is for the origins discussed in the poetic Edda.

My Heathen Practice

My personal heathen practice is more related to the magical practices and the crafts.  Witchcraft  as we know it ultimately came from the Anglo-Saxon culture.  There are three primary deities associated with Magic and witchcraft Odin, Freya,and Loki.  Many of the books I have read on Traditional witchcraft have had a Germanic slant.  That’s one of the things that started my more invested study and practice with Germanic pagan traditions.

Aside from Raymond Buckland’s Seax Wica there are several other traditions of witchcraft which have a more Germanic leaning..  These books along with the Eddas and Sagas has helped me develop and understand how Germanic magic worked and what the culture was like.  As a witch I have found this knowledge and information immensely helpful and informative.  I have gained much wisdom from those practices.  Yet it is not the only part of my heathen practices.

So what makes me a Heathen?  Worship of the Aesir, Vanir, and Jotun.  I have accepted the Nine Nobel virtues as part of my moral and ethical guidelines.  The Germanic tribes had a concept of Fate of sorts called Wyrd.  There is a lot about Wyrd I am still trying to understand and evaluate for myself, I am not discouraged by it though.

The Norse were very much a warrior culture.  For them it was about honor and the battle.  Yes they had head hunting and other practices that today are considered “Barbaric” but to accept the deities with out accepting an understanding of the culture which worshiped those deities is meaningless.  Yes.  The Germanic tribes were considered barbarians to the Romans & Greeks, but so were the Celtic tribes.  It is only by understanding or trying to understand the culture in which the deities were worshiped that we can truly understand how the religion and spirituality of those times worked.

My interest as an anthropologist really plays into why I work so hard to reconstruct what I can.  It is actually through historical sources such as the Sagas of the Kings and warriors and the few archeological finds that we have any concept of what that culture was like.  The practice of heathenism also plays deeply into my desire to connect to something from my blood ancestry.    For me it was sort of embracing a part of my history and understanding where my family origins were.

What my heathen practice entails

I have not fully developed a comprehensive unified product of witchcraft and Germanic paganism.  While witchcraft is a part of my worship and practice of Germanic paganism, there is a lot more to it than that.  My heathen practice entails doing a specific form of ritual called a Blot to the Gods.  It involves prayers and obviously magic.

I am looking into learning more about rune lore so I can try my hand at runic magic.  Working with the runes would also allow me to learn the mysteries of the Runes.  Rune magic is actually one of the priary forms of magic used in Germanic paganism.  It was gifted to Odin after he sacrificed himself to himself on the tree of knowledge and wisdom.  There were several sets made I know of one for humans, one for the Gods, and one for the Dwarves.

My practice also entails a lot of study.  There is probably more study than worship at times, and that works for me.  My worship is actually often times more impromptu than it is for specific holidays or occasions.  I have even developed my own ritual structure for their worship which they don’t seem to mind which is a combination of a Blot and a typical religious witchcraft ritual.  One of the reasons I study so much is there is a lot of lore to pour over and assimilate and there is also a lot of history and multiple translations of sacred texts to read.

The path to wisdom is never ending.  This is just one place you may also be able to find wisdom and truth.

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