Orthodox Heathenry?

I have chosen to title this article with an oxymoron, and for good reason. I personally believe the pollution of 1000 years of orthodox Christianity, whether in the form of Roman Catholicism or post-reformation Protestantism, or indeed post-enlightenment atheism, still pervades everything we see and touch when it comes to religion, or indeed an expression of our innate spirituality.

Paganism is not a religion, it is a limb, an organ, a function of the brain which is either present or missing in the human being and has atrophied in the Western human in particular. The subject of orthodoxy in heathenism is seldom discussed but often invoked. How often is “our ancestors didn’t do it this way” or “that’s not what it says in the sagas/eddas/verses” touted as a reason someone can’t converse with the gods in whatever way they wish? There is of course a right way and a wrong way; historically we can safely and certainly say that to worship Odin by drinking orange juice and calling on him as Lord of Party Techno music is incorrect (whether or not our ancestors actually worshipped in the way we do is another debate entirely). What I am getting at however is the idea that his title as Allfather somehow supersedes or dominates his other names and to call on him as Lord of the Undead, Lord of the Hanged, Leader of the Wild Hunt is somehow wrong. This idea does pervade in modern heathenism, and rightly or wrongly it needs to be addressed as to what is considered orthodox and what is not.

Personally (and that is the key thing here) heathenism to me is about communication with the gods, how can one claim to be something if it doesn’t involve the process of communication with the father or source of the doctrine? It would be absurd to hear a Christian say “I’m a Christian but I don’t believe in God” or a Jew say “I’m Jewish but I don’t bother with any of that stuff in the Torah” (although I have heard both of these statements in my short years on this earth). There is an expected amount of communing and religiosity expected with someone’s statement “I am religious choice (a)” etc. What I feel is bizarre within heathenism though is the modern idea of what is or is not allowed within the community and/or expected of those who call themselves heathen. I have seen a great many people who are part of clubs, hearths, communities and online groups but I don’t see an awful lot of in-depth study of the runes, reading of the sagas (outside the Edda, as if it was the bloody Bible) or participation personally in rituals outside of those performed by the group, which is elevated essentially to church status.

What do the sagas and the historical lessons of our Northern European ancestors teach us then? What do they actually tell us to do? Well, very little. The Havamal is a detailed list essentially of behavioural patterns, it doesn’t say “kill this on a Thursday and sacrifice it to Thor” it says “if you’re hosting someone in your home, don’t be a prick” and “here’s a good idea, if someone is an asshole, fuck them up”. Obviously it is put far more eloquently and poetically put than that, but the gist is there. The sagas, the myths and the legends of the semi-real and very real heroes and kings descended from Odin, Thor and the other Aesir/Vanir display several key elements –

Laziness and apathy is the highest and most disgusting of crimes against community and tribe, if you can’t be bothered to get out of bed and do something you might as well die.
Heroes are the lifeblood of the community, without men who dare and do there is no point in the tribe and it might as well slink off into obscurity and return to the Stone Age or extinction.
Men are expected to be hard; physically, emotionally and spiritually.
The gods expect something of the people whose lives they interfere in, not because they choose to follow them (like sheep) but because they are descended from them (like wolves).
If we are extremely strict about what the sagas and poetry of the Northern Europeans actually say about what it means to be a man, by the actions of its heroes and the actions of its villains, several key elements also emerge.

A hero acts first and stands up even against impossible odds
A villain is a coward, a man who breaks oaths, a man who can’t face his responsibilities, a liar, a cheat, a drunkard, a fool, a lazy brigand who can’t be bothered to stand on his own two feet
A hero is the opposite of this, brave, keeps oath even when it harms him and everyone around him, faces his responsibility even when it kills him, always tells the truth even when it gets him killed, cheats only against dragons, giants, wolves and ogres, is wise and learned in the stories of his people, is honourable and kind towards women and children and would rather die than rely on someone spiritually, socially or physically weaker than him. (Primarily in all of this because family, tribe and nation are the most important thing to the Indo European hero).
Let’s look at an example of how the gods behave towards men they “favour”. Odin enters the Volsung hall, a man who is descended from him by blood (which is beyond doubt to those in the presence of the Volsungs) and inserts a magical sword into a tree, which only a hero can remove. The men in the hall, once Odin has left, leap to be the first to remove the sword, all fail and are utterly dejected and disgusted that they are not the chosen one, but when Sigmund removes the sword all but one are respectful and honour the choosing by Odin of the Volsung son. Odin chooses his favoured descendant by giving a sword, not money, not wealth and cheap fame or fortune (although these may come on the periphery to greatness) but a sword, because the men present know that a sword is how you win a famous name and entry into Valhalla, the only true prize. Subsequently it is through the cheating and back stabbing of a rival Lord that Sigmund has his sword taken from him and it is only through incest and intrigue that his sister secures an heir for him in the form of Sinfjolti, who then lives with him as an outlaw in a cavern as a vargr, genuine werewolves who wear the skins of wolves and murder and steal in the dark of the wild woods.

When finally the Volsung kinsmen have their revenge and utterly annihilate their enemies with fire and steel (even seeing their sister/mother kill herself in the flames) Sigmund fulfils his birth right via Odin and causes destruction to rival even Attila and Gudrun later on in the saga. Sigmund has a son, the famous Sigurd, who throughout his part of the story is constantly aided and guided by Odin, but not before Sigmund has himself been defeated on the battle by Odin himself to allow Sigurd to rise through the ashes of familial defeat.

You may be wondering why I am repeating so much of the Volsung saga? Well, has anyone so far read anything of religious observances by the Volsungs? Of reasons they should be favoured by Odin? No? Strange isn’t it. It couldn’t possibly be that the gods don’t favour sacrifice or prayer or time spent in the buildings that “house” them, could it? Could it not be that they FAVOUR PHYSICAL ACTION AND SPIRITUAL STRENGTH!? Volsung, Sigmund, Sigurd, these men are strong, barbarous, virile and dangerous men. They live as outlaws at one time, each facing adversity as a warrior, they carve out kingdoms by the sword which Odin gifts them, they are heathens. There must be a blasphemy to the word, an expectation and a horror when it is said with pride and dignity, it is an insult, a term coined by the Christian inhabitants of Northern Europe to aim with aggression towards those outside the church. It is automatically a term describing an outlaw, to the Christians it would have been observed that anyone who did not attend church or was regarded as still holding pagan beliefs in the old gods was a vargr, automatically a Wolf’s Head as the Saxons would have said, someone worthy only of oppression and murder.

Heathen then, means something, it is a term of insult which we have appropriated for ourselves and turned on its head, we are proud to be outlaws, to be exorcised from the church, to be an enemy of the god who slaughtered our ancestors and cut down our sacred groves. But that is not enough, if we call ourselves heathens it has to go back further than an offensive term given by the Christians, it has to mean something to keep the old gods, and that has to be through action not words. It is the hallmark of the non-pagan religions to pour over books and look for what the god is telling you in the words allegedly received from the deity. That is not the case with heathenism, or at least it is not supposed to be, the words of the gods in the sagas are written through their actions, Odin is notoriously silent or speaks in riddles and there is seldom any evidence hypothetical or otherwise for the gods speaking to humans other than to get them to act in a certain way.

The gods of the Northern Europeans do not tell you what to do, they do not ask you to worship in a certain way, they demand that you stand up and they engineer situations to test you and to make you behave in the way they expect from a person who dares to call themselves Odinsson or Thorsson. These are not just little colloquialisms and epithets we can attach to ourselves and not expect repercussions. Wyrd is flowing always (all ways), the web is being plucked and sewn and snapped all across our interactions across time and space, with each other, with the gods, the spirits positive and negative. We must secure our fates with our own two hands, not by the rights or wrongs of our ancestors written down nearly a thousand years ago. We are not those men, we are these men, these hands, these feet, these bones.

Go and do something.

sigurd-strong.com/blog/orthodoxheathenry