/asatru/ - Asatru / Heathenry / Paganism

I was raised a Protestant Christian but it never really clicked with me, I didnt really understand any of the teachings as a kid and I kinda just viewed Church as a social gathering. I liked all the rituals like the Eucharist and being baptised but I didn't really care for what the preachers ever said, I usually nodded off.

My dad always kinda told me about Buddhism but eh, it still seemed foreign to me (although I liked it much more than Christianity). During my preteen edge-years I looked into Satanism for a little while, but realized eventually that is just edgy justification of being a selfish prick. It's also just atheism but they pretend to worship Satan, which always seemed….lame

My dad always kinda raised my spiritually though, told me that the world was alive, that certain plants had healing properties and taught me how to use them, although I think most of this was more of his hippie-ish Native American beliefs, even though he's a veteran and has killed people

Eventually in middle school I found a book on Norse mythology at the library. Couldnt stop reading it and rereading it. It was incredible to me because I never really knew before that Northern Europeans had their own religion and mythology in ancient times. I knew about Greek and Roman myth but they never interested me, and for some reason I just always assumed Northern Europeans were always Christian. I looked on Google to see if there were modern worshipers of Norse Gods and found the AFA website

The rest spread from there

>>5307

Mine was a bit similar. My Mother is Lutheran, and my Father is some sort of deist, but he went to Catholic school as a kid.

Growing up I just kind of accepted the existence of some form of god, but Christianity never stuck with me.

As a teen I started to develop a deep hatred for Christianity, so I rebelled and became an atheist, but that didn't last too long.

At some port I started experimenting with some personal form of Animism, but I didn't have a name for it, I just felt spiritual.

Somewhere along the line I got recommended Paganism. Wicca looked like some hippie bullshit, but Norse looked cool.

The second I started reading into it I got hooked, and I've been learning as much as I can ever since.

I've even "converted" some of my friends, including one who was into some weird Buddhist shit.

>>5305

I am mostly drawn to the worldview and philosophy.

I could still be considered an atheist. I don't actually believe there is a god or gods out there, but that's not the point at all. The point is to live to make the gods proud either way. If you die and you find them deciding where to put you, they won't care if you thought they existed or not. They'll care how you lived, and what your values were. As long as you lived in line with our values, bravery and loyalty, and respect for kin, ancestors, and nature, you'll be honored just the same. If there are no gods at all, you'll still have lived a good life and been a good man, and die with no regrets.

>>5307

I have some respect for modern Satanism.

You're right that most "satanists" are just atheists that pretend to worship satan. That's partly true. That's called LaVeyan satanism, and I think it's mislabeled as a religion. It's actually more of a school of philosophy–it's a set of values and a worldview but without a god. Hell, Asatru is close to that, we have gods but they're just a representation of our values and how to live, not an all powerful thing to suck up to like most religions today. For a school of philosophy, though, LaVeyan satanism isn't bad–it says that morals are an individual decision, not a universal one, and that each individual's worth is judged according to how strongly he lives by his own morals, and how brave he is in defending them. This implies that the absolute worst thing you can be is a hypocrite, one who goes against or makes excuses for his own morals. I can agree with that.

Theistic satanism still exists, but not much, and many, many more people pretend to practice it for the image than actually believe.

I was drawn to this faith through metal music. I thought it was cool that bands were singing about it, so I did some fact-checking to see how accurate their lyrics were. I found that they were pretty spot-on with the old sagas–and that those sagas passed on values and messages that were surprisingly good and close to my own values. I gradually got more into it after that. What I know about satanism, I also learned from metal circles. Once you filter out the edgelords who just like the image, the core philosophy's not that bad, it's similar to ours but doesn't stress loyalty as much. Asatru and a LaVeyan type philosophy aren't entirely incompatible, it's no accident that Asatru and Satanism are the two religions popular in metal.

also, how do you think killing people at war contradicts "hippie-ish Native American beliefs"? The Natives here most certainly did kill people, in defense of their tribe or nation. Their sense of honor really wasn't far off from ours.

>>5321

I too tired and drunk to read all of that, but I would like to point out that loads of the modern imagery of "Satan" isn't from the bible. If you look deeper into the European perception/folklore of the devil, you will realize it's not the devil that is behind all of this, but Wotan. And people making a contract with him don't go to hell, but vow their soul to him and this to Walhall. The most well known is probably the story of Faust.

I will eventually elaborate why I am on this sub though.

I'm sure I've told at least most of this story before, but I doubt it has all been in one place.

I was raised Catholic and had a lot of contact with German-American protestants and Hindus. So, I got a reasonable education on the concept of a national faith. Some critical parts of Christian dogma never really stuck for me, for example, original sin, damnation of nonbelievers, and the bizarre models of the trinity that I thought were better read as distinct individuals. Of particular concern to the protestants was my world-accepting conclusion that religion served a mainly worldly function and that – all other things being equal – it did not really matter which pantheon you venerated.

When I was nine years old, I read The Hobbit and was fascinated by Tolkien's runes, so I got some books from the library and learned about the historical runic scripts. Around this time I was visited in a dream by a man pierced by a spear, who told me to seek out the "true runes". This character seems obvious to me now, of course, but I didn't take any particular meaning from it at the time. The image has stuck with me for 25 years.

In high school I developed an interest in Middle English, and read all of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and most of the Canterbury Tales in the original language. In college I had the opportunity to study historical linguistics and Old English, and read a lot of old Anglo-Saxon works as well as all of Beowulf in the original. One of my major points of interest was in trying to see through the Christian insertions to the Saxon heathen heritage of the underlying text. During this time I also found an interest in English linguistic purism, which I regret I have not opted to demonstrate in this post. It was my hope to learn Icelandic next and then start pushing through the Old Norse canon, but real life intervened and I went out and got a job which of course cut into my free time for reading.

Over the years I dabbled a bit in various kinds of divination and occult stuff, aimlessly, and without really finding anything all that interesting. I never really had any reason to give up my Christian faith, and just looked at that as the sort of experimentation that anyone with curiosity about the universe should pursue. But, years after college I finally picked up some of the reading I hadn't got around to, starting with the Poetic Edda in translation. When I got to the story of Odin's ordeal on Yggdrasil and his taking of the runes, it became terribly clear who that rune-obsessed man with the spear had been. It was as though I had finally looked up from a map I was following and turned around to see the decades of wandering that had finally led me to that point.

So, it's not really clear to me when you would say I "became" heathen. Perhaps "I became heathen during the 20-year period from age 9 to age 29". I can identify a particular week during which I would agree that I said "okay, now this is the path I follow". But I had also spent the previous two decades relentlessly walking in that direction, without really knowing why, other than that I found all this Germanic lore terribly interesting and absolutely urgent for me to read.

>>5310

To elaborate a little bit on mine (my memory is fucked sorry lol) I remember when I first started getting into Heathenry, had like a shitty 6 dollar amazon Thors hammer and everything. Knew only very entry-level lore, Prose Edda and tiny bits of the Poetic, but nothing beyond that. Only knew about Vikings mostly, nothing about Celts, Germanics, Romans or any of that.

I had a few experiences that pretty solidly confirmed I was Heathen. I noticed Thursdays always had storms more than other days, and one Thursday I wore my first Thors hammer on a walk outside and saw in the clouds the shape of a hammer. Lightning and thunder started to boom when I saw it.

I bought a statue of Thor early on and thats how I started my shrine, but it was really simple and crude back then and just one god. Last year I finally added Freyr and Tiwaz.

I went into a sorta relapse back into Christianity for a while. I think for the most part it was because Paganism gets pretty lonely at times. The only kindred in my area are racemixers and most other pagans are Wiccans.

Experiences since then have shown me that Heathenry is life Heathenry is love Heathen forever

I would rather have the tattered remains of the true white religion over a Jewish book, no matter how Celtic the cover-art looks

I was raised catholic and had always very similar animistic-ish ideas of spirituality and also really enjoyed the worship of the saints that made it so different from other faiths

then a bunch of stuff happened during teenhood, started questioning a lot but my spiritual faith remained. then when I first noticed the decay of the church and society and started being more interested in right-wing movements, redpill, and all sorts of stuff, there was a point in which I started to feel weird for being connected to a religion that sprung from Hebrew people and I also felt much more connected to the roots and history of my people.

I had always been a huge Rome fan and started to get a lot of personal philosophy from ancient Rome and then it kinda clicked… when I first saw pagans, germanic ones actually, I asked myself "why am I not worshipping my gods?" and when I looked further into roman religion I realized it was actually very similar to what I always kinda believed in (which might be bc of catholicism too) so I felt like it was meant to be.

>>5321

I consider myself Asatru/Satanist.

>Satanism is for worshiping myself

>Asatru balances out the selfishness and degeneracies of Satanism and focuses on the environment, family, etc.

The only problem I have with Satanism is this:

>He had seen the need for a church that would recapture man's body and his carnal desires as objects of celebration. "Since worship of fleshly things produces pleasure," he said, "there would then be a temple of glorious indulgence…"

This excessive indulgence causes much of the degeneracies in this world, such as porn and excessive eating.

>>5375

I dont agree about Satanism mixed with asatru mainly because Satanism is a reaction against Christianity. It is antichristian but is still a Semitic religion because it is an inverse of Christianity. You cannot have Satan without the bible and Jehovah.

Paganism and Asatru is more than that though. It is not a reaction against Christianity, it is older than it and if anything Judaism/christianity are reactions against paganism. Paganism was the religion of our ancestors since the Aryans split from the West Indo Europeans.

I mean its your spiritual path so you do whatever you want, I just don't believe Satanism is compatible with heathenry. I was Satanist for a while as a 13 year old but it was purely a rebellion against Christianity, I grew out of it quickly.

>>5375

http://odinsvolk.ca/new/opposers-to-asatru/

Read the section on satanism, and renounce your misguided ways.

>>5375

>>5377

>>5400

Satanism's compatibility with Asatru depends on the branch. Theistic Satanism–the belief in and worship in Satan–is of course completely incompatible. LaVeyan Satanism, the branch that is really just a school of philosophy with Satan as a sort of figurehead or mascot, isn't necessarily incompatible at all, it's similar to our own worldview–it prioritizes self-sufficiency, independence, and bravery in holding up your ideals. The only place Asatru philosophy differs from LaVeyan Satanism is in the emphasis on loyalty to kin and ancestors.

>>5322

>why I'm on this sub

You certainly are too drunk, you've admitted you belong on Reddit.

>>5404

woops

But, yeah. I actually lurk on reddit a lot but rarely post I actually found this board through some thread on the Ssatru sub where they whined about it. That was about 6 months ago. I still lurk on the sub, but mostly because I have some masochist tendencies.

And now to the topic:

I don't really consider myself a proper heathen compared to the others here I'd say. I actually have never read the Edda. My whole knowledge comes from lurking and a book called "Walhall. Germanische Götter- und Heldensagen" (published in the 19th century), which I highly recommend, if one speaks German.

Through my childhood I always felt drawn to the whole topic, but obviously was kind of afraid like the good goy I was. I always got more joy from a nice thunderstorm or the sight of a big oak than from any biblical stuff. My path towards Heathenry was probably paved by myself becoming more conservative through literature and using my god damn brain.

The thing that mostly led my the Heathenry was probably Wagner, even though I don't agree with the point he is trying to make. Eventually I realized that everything fun in European religious festivities has heathen roots and started to pursue it more. Now I think we can learn a lot from many of the old traditions. For example getting wasted together before doing politics is one thing.

Anyway, I see a chance for Europe, especially the Germanic countries, in Heathenry. Video related, I like to see us as reforging Gram/Nothung/whatever by putting our work into this sub.

>>5409

How toxic is the r/asatru community?

>>5435

pretty fucking bad, you should see what they say about us lol

>>5447

Lack of community is probably the worst thing about Paganism. There is a growing community, but unfortunately most of that growth is from Marvel movies, tumblr and Wiccans, not the kinds of people I want to hail the Gods with seeing as they probably dont know any Gods beyond Loki and Thor. The few that aren't like that are either edgetards just in a phase who want to be ebul stronk viking :DD or skinheads who just like the image

This is a problem because paganism is as much about folk and family as it is about ritual and lore, so being a lone pagan is shitty sometimes. I just cant personally believe in anything else honestly so I stick with it, even if its lonely most of the time.

I understand that you like some of Christianity, obviously some part of it must have been appealing to our ancestors for it to convince conversion, but it still lacks something that fully appeals to the folkish soul. It is not of our minds or hearts.

>>5455

>How do we push Paganism into a positive light?

By being good and honorable Pagans so show an example. As far as increasing the amount of educated pagans I vote for the book thread idea.

>>5081

Our biggest threat is Islam and Judaism, not Christianity. Christ is an inward enemy and one that keeps up from our full potential, at least in my opinion. Islam is an enemy that will march through our cities, butcher our people, rape our women and convert the survivor by force. Judaism is an enemy that seeks to rot us from the inside out.

Christianity however is slowly failing as we can see from the drops in converts, increase in atheists and Muslims among Europeans and the general lack of interest in religion in the European general public. If Christianity is to fail and decay in the West, we have only soulless Nihilism left, which will be overcome by Islam.

Or we can return to our native faith

>>5457

I have to respect some christians from the past who allowed writings and stories of pagan deities to still exist.

Sure, they might have been destructive and stupid at certain things, but they are also people who defended Europe for a long time.

I can't stand Islam or other alien monotheistic religions.

Sure, we know what the Sun, Moon etc really are, but it is about practices, going back to your roots, and strengthening your soul.

After all, pagans back then were sort of the scientists of today, just with their native religion imbued into them.

But there needs a huge pushpoint for paganism, like, a really big war or something, just like Constantine the Great had back then, but it is going to be hard, most people of today really aren't religious anymore.

Religion is the backbone of society; without it Mankind is nothing.

>>5447

Where are you from?

>>5471

Austria, Tyrol to be exact.

>>5476

Aren't a lot of pagan traditions alive there?

>>5486

Yes, but most of them have taken on a christian meaning.

Also, it became, like every european culture, commercialized (I think that is written right), in favour of attracting tourists.

It seems like people never "become" heathen, they simply eventually realize they simply always were heathen. From that point on they start uncovering what has been covered.

Deep, brah?

>>6386

How the fuck should I know? Is it?

Do they say it about others as well?

I kept having dreams involving pagan stuff before i knew what those things were or that they were pagan. I googled sme stuff and eventually figured the gods were calling me. Im still pretty new and don't fully understand/know all of the lore and practices but im making an effort.