What is Asatru?

What is Asatru?

It’s a question I’ve been asked for decades. Sometimes I give the standard,

We honor multiple gods and goddesses. We are a pagan religion. We honor the Norse deities and we honor our ancestors.

Pretty standard stuff. Yada yada yada, your mileage may vary from the EPA estimates.

But looking deeper, what is it really?

So some history about me

Back in the later 80’s to the early part of the 21st century we called it a Religion with Homework. We delved through piles of musty books in the deeply forgotten stacks of libraries. We spent countless man hours in study to recreate what the ancient Norse did. Huge online and in person communities of “Reconstructionists” or as we said Recons came about. Our standard response to a statement was, “What is your source material? Which isn’t a totally fair or an accurate statement. In the late 1960’s to about 1980 the first people that tried rebuilding this, shamelessly stole ritual form both the Catholic church and early wiccans who were also figuring out their path. We’ve seen huge organizations explode out of small kindreds, seen them split off of older groups and form new ones. But the question still stands? What is Asatru?

And looking in on myself it’s not as easy of a question. Sure the standard we honor stuff gets the point across. But it is not exactly the same for each person. Sure we have common gods and goddesses. A common “theme”. We share with other faiths the capacity for great love and harmony. And in another breath, as much violence and hate. It's the rare faith that does not share all of that.

As a young man I just followed what my elders taught me. Our “Blots” at the time were lifted straight out of Episcopal mass. Almost to the pews. As things progressed. We changed it. And decades before the tv show Vikings, an old friend of mine, Steven Grundy AKA Kveldulf Gundersson, Oh the names. Back then we ALL had to have a “Norse handle” Some say it was for protection, Others to bring us closer to the gods. And others because others were doing it! But back to KveldulfR. In 1990 He published Teutonic Magic. It brought to light that the Norse had magic other than what Wicca or Druids had. For some it was a life changing book. Me? I wrote to Steven and said to him and Melody, “Dude Really? What is needed is an instruction book”. And he told me one is in the works and will be out in a couple of years. Teutonic Religion. This was a game changer for a lot of fledging Asa folk. Sure he borrowed a lot of the Druid and Wicca practices at the time, (serial numbers rubbed off of course) But he did do a lot of bronze age to Germanic Iron age research that he could find at the time. But it gave definitions, illustrations and instructions on how to do your first blot. How important honor is. How to distance yourself and how to start to remove “Christian Baggage”

Look, some people liked Steven. He was, well he was a bit odd. Some would stray toward the weird. Physically unimposing. Some say that the standard altar hammer we have today is because he couldn’t lift a 5 pound hammer and bought out a 2 pound. But as smart as they came. He was in pre-med when he finished those books. And a dear friend. None better than Steven, I remember like yesterday when Melody wrote to me on a September afternoon and said Steven had passed away due to a heart attack.

But still I haven’t answered what is Asatru. Well I’m working on it. Sifting through the decades of junk trying to pin down what it is. After his book, I became very recon. We made the rounds to the Things, especially Allthing by the young then, Asatru Alliance, Early Trothmoots, when Prudence Priest , Steve Flowers and Jim Chisholm ran the show. Sort of. Had some good influences on my path. A dear old long past friend we called Gamligan. Made his home in Mule Creek NM. Once back in the mid 90’s we gathered at his house and built the first Asatru and Troth hof in the southwest. He and Bil Linzie gave sage, but alcohol fueled advice on being Asatru but not being an ass about it.

Valgard Murray. Founder of the Asatru Alliance after the great blow up of the original Asatru Free Assembly. Valgard and a few others formed the original AA Asatru Alliance. At Allthing 1990ish Let's just say Valgard and I had a disagreement that we settled by seeing who was the last man standing, Lucky for both of us we both failed to stand! Much mead and bourbon later we became decent friends. Nothing like other friendships but a deep respect for the other. He showed me some of the folkish side of Asatru. Some of the physical strength of our ancestors. But the need of people to gather with others that thought and worshiped like them,was just starting then. And at first it was more of the preference to be around those of the same faith. Later it became the folkish of today. I kind of understand the “why” but disagree with it in principle. The principle of only certain people may be Asatru. I’m not telling the gods or goddesses who they can 't choose. I may be crazy but I’m not stupid.

Vince Enlund. My oath brother. Man has taught me 100 times more than I have taught him. And we keep learning today. You need to organize a kindred? Or a national organization Vince is your man for that job And his wife Dani. Two of the smartest, warmest and nicest people you can know. Dani did the ceremony for Christine and my 25th wedding anniversary.

That is a Readers Digest version of me. And you may start to see what I feel Asatru is.

So what is it?

Asatru are warriors. Some of us have fought and died in battle. But also we fight to keep the name clean. We fight to teach our children the words and deeds mean things and we fight to make them strong in a world that will criticize them and you for not following a Judea Christian of Islam faith.

We’re scholars. We have the drive to dig and find out what we can. In the early days of this we used our UPG to do things, while waiting eagerly for an archaeological publication and it was WHOO HOO we did it right or DAMN it's all wrong. Some of us keep digging, trying to learn more.

Some of us do magic in one form or another, Not this kid. I know enough to know I don’t want to know any more of it. But also who to ask if I need it.

But what is Asatru to me? Well the answer after all that above is Asatru is not my religion. It is my way of life. It permeates everything around me. You see a large tree? I see a home for a landvaetter. Land spirit. I have enough knowledge to know how things work. I do increase it as needed. But don’t care too much about overdoing the knowledge search again. Odin has words on being overly wise. Asatru is my walk from my work to my car.A few minutes to spend with the gods and goddesses. But Asatru to me.

But the thing that ties Asatru to me more than anything else is

That is my wife. Christine. She is the walking embodiment of what a Heathen woman is. She knows who her goddesses and gods are. But she doesn't care to read about them. Why? She is one of the few people that truly walks with them. She feels them without having to read Bede or Saxo. She won't lead a blot. She doesn't feel the need to. But she can tell you how she thinks Frigga feels about something. And is probably right. They don’t talk to her like we are talking to her. They don’t tell her to do strange or outlandish things, But they give her advice and they listen to her. She is proof that you don't need a PhD in this. You don’t need to be a member of 50 groups to make yourself heard.

You just live your life through the world view of what the gods are, in the 21st century. It's a living, breathing faith. Not a dead one where things written 2000 years ago are the final say. And that is how my wife lives. Honor the past , but live for the future. Now someone else's version of our faith may, no will be different. And that is more than okay.

This difference is the main reason I do not like national organizations. They try to pigeon hole a living faith into one neat package. I wrote a bit on Frith and Grith. On how when folks from distant states gather for a moot, customs are different. Take someone from Maine. And someone from Louisiana . They attend a moot in say Colorado. We all speak English. But we use it differently. Culture is different. We, my family and I do blot differently than was done in Alaska. And differently than is done here in South Carolina. Those differences are what make Asatru great.

To me it serves no purpose to have Asafolk from each corner of the US or even the world to have to be forced into one set of rules to fit all. It was said that Thor was a slightly different Thor in Uppsala than in Ribe or in L'Anse aux Meadows or even 500 years earlier in Gaul. And even in modern times. In our travels we found the feeling of the gods were different in the different parts of the country we lived in. So to me that is the main reason why I feel that one group should not decide for all on how to worship our gods. As we said before on Raven Radio. Keep Asatru local.

So after all that. What is Asatru? To me? Well it’s life. Its my world view. It’s not my religion , tho my religion is based on it. And calling it my faith isn’t totally correct. Sure I honor our gods goddesses ancestors and landvaettr. And I have faith in them also. So the best thing to call it is my life and my worldview. Does every step I take need the gods involved? Gods no. But yet they are. They, the Northern European gods do have stakes in our lives. But they won’t take us by the hand and lead us. If we falter, we falter. And like the boomer parents of us Gen X, you may hear. “I bet you won’t do THAT again” They are slightly involved. You do not want their undivided attention. Nothing good comes of that. The sagas and lore are filled with examples. Now our ancestors. They are who have a HUGE stake. They shape our worldview. Our success in this life means theirs in another plane of existence. So it boils down to one thing. For me Asatru is life.