An historic Mjollnir (Thor's Hammer) amulet.
The Asatru or Heathen religion:
Germanic heathenism is braided from three great strands; the individual, his/her clan or social grouping, and the god/esses. All three of these are equally important and equally dependent upon each other The path of the North begins at an individual level, with personal study of the ways of your ancestors and what they knew about the god/esses with whom they dwelt and worked. Then, as you begin to take notice of the god/esses and to call upon them and consider their power in your daily life, they will take more and more notice of you. At the same time, you will come closer to all your ancient kinsmen and kinswomen who have gone before you, whose strength is reborn in your blood, and you will learn to deal with your living kin and those around you according to the ancient ways of troth and honor.
The greatest differences between the Teutonic way and that of mainstream Christian culture stem from the relationship between human beings and the god/esses. Most people are taught at a young age that there is a single masculine God who is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-benevolent, and to whose will they must submit themselves if they are to find fulfilment. This teaching has been used over the ages to justify the subjugation of women, the maintenance of the most extreme sorts of social stratification up to and including slavery and the suppression of individual thought. In contrast to this, the last thing the god/esses of the North expect from humans is submission – our ancestors found few things more contemptible than a willing slave! Wodan (Odin), Frowe Holda, Fro Ing (Freyr), Thunar (Thor), and the rest do not lay down commandments for those who worship them. Instead they issue challenges to show courage against adversity and strength through difficulty; to stand on your own as a free man or woman, trusting in your own might and main; to use the gifts of life, mind, and might which the god/esses have given to you in order to carve out the path you choose.
Another great difference between Teutonic and Christian beliefs and attitudes stems from the fact that the Northern folk had no concept of “Sin,” only of honor and dishonor. “Original sin”- the idea that you are born with something innately wrong with your soul - is a concept that makes no sense at all in the context of Germanic heathenism, no more than the idea that the individual human is too weak to redeem his/her own honor and must have it done by another. On the one hand, the Northern god/esses do not niggle over the “sin” or “virtue” of petty actions; on the other, they do not offer the chance for dishonor or weakness to be washed away by a single act of grovelling before their majesty – in our tradition, every human being is fully responsible for his/her actions and their consequences, and every act of ill must be paid for in some way.
Mainstream Western/Christian culture is grounded on the Classical Greek belief in a stark separation between the worlds of spirit and of things physical. This has led to the dual concept that humans have and ought to have dominion over the natural world, and that the soul is in some way superior to the body, which is at best no help and at worst a thing of “evil.” This separation has led to Western insensitivity to nature and continues to lead towards the destruction of the earth as we exploit and poison her – a thing which our ancestors would not have tolerated. To the peoples of the North, the earth was not only the mother of all but a demanding goddess on whose kindness they depended for every bite they ate; as an agricultural society, they were able to see the need for honoring her in a way that most modern Americans do not, for one year of bad harvest meant one year of famine. A great deal of the Teutonic faith is based on this awareness of the need to live with the natural world in a balanced fashion – and on the intense love for the free woods and meadows of the world which is still part of modern German and Scandinavian culture, as the passionate writings of the German Romantic period show.
The Western belief in a separation of body and mind/soul has also taught us to be contemptuous of either our own bodies and our physical needs or of our intelligence, to the point where popular American culture hardly admits that the two can go together – our stereotypes are those of the physically strong/attractive but stupid football player or cheerleader, and the physically weak and unattractive “egghead.” Our ancestors, in contrast, honored both aspects of the self equally. Nearly all the heroes whom they held highest were great poets as well as being mighty warriors. The boasting verse which the Earl Rognvaldr Kali made about himself in his teenage years expresses the Norse ideal of manhood: “I'm talented at tables [a chess like game] / at nine skills I'm able / scarcely spoil I runes / I'm often at books and writing / swiftly glide on skis / I shoot and row well enough, / at each of these I'm able: / harp-playing and poem-making.
In other words, Rognvaldr Kali was the equivalent of a high school athlete who was also in the orchestra and the chess club, while writing poetry for the school literary magazine and maintaining a high grade point average. To the Vikings, most attractive women were those who could meet them as equals in both bravery and intellect, exchanging swift-witted words and poetic staves with their men folk, risking and bearing wounds and death with the same steadfastness as any male warrior Individuals who are true to the ancestral ways will develop their bodies, intellect, and artistic faculties to their highest peaks; to leave out one side of being is to be less than a whole human.
Germanic heathenism is braided from three great strands; the individual, his/her clan or social grouping, and the god/esses. All three of these are equally important and equally dependent upon each other The path of the North begins at an individual level, with personal study of the ways of your ancestors and what they knew about the god/esses with whom they dwelt and worked. Then, as you begin to take notice of the god/esses and to call upon them and consider their power in your daily life, they will take more and more notice of you. At the same time, you will come closer to all your ancient kinsmen and kinswomen who have gone before you, whose strength is reborn in your blood, and you will learn to deal with your living kin and those around you according to the ancient ways of troth and honor.
The greatest differences between the Teutonic way and that of mainstream Christian culture stem from the relationship between human beings and the god/esses. Most people are taught at a young age that there is a single masculine God who is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-benevolent, and to whose will they must submit themselves if they are to find fulfilment. This teaching has been used over the ages to justify the subjugation of women, the maintenance of the most extreme sorts of social stratification up to and including slavery and the suppression of individual thought. In contrast to this, the last thing the god/esses of the North expect from humans is submission – our ancestors found few things more contemptible than a willing slave! Wodan (Odin), Frowe Holda, Fro Ing (Freyr), Thunar (Thor), and the rest do not lay down commandments for those who worship them. Instead they issue challenges to show courage against adversity and strength through difficulty; to stand on your own as a free man or woman, trusting in your own might and main; to use the gifts of life, mind, and might which the god/esses have given to you in order to carve out the path you choose.
Another great difference between Teutonic and Christian beliefs and attitudes stems from the fact that the Northern folk had no concept of “Sin,” only of honor and dishonor. “Original sin”- the idea that you are born with something innately wrong with your soul - is a concept that makes no sense at all in the context of Germanic heathenism, no more than the idea that the individual human is too weak to redeem his/her own honor and must have it done by another. On the one hand, the Northern god/esses do not niggle over the “sin” or “virtue” of petty actions; on the other, they do not offer the chance for dishonor or weakness to be washed away by a single act of grovelling before their majesty – in our tradition, every human being is fully responsible for his/her actions and their consequences, and every act of ill must be paid for in some way.
Mainstream Western/Christian culture is grounded on the Classical Greek belief in a stark separation between the worlds of spirit and of things physical. This has led to the dual concept that humans have and ought to have dominion over the natural world, and that the soul is in some way superior to the body, which is at best no help and at worst a thing of “evil.” This separation has led to Western insensitivity to nature and continues to lead towards the destruction of the earth as we exploit and poison her – a thing which our ancestors would not have tolerated. To the peoples of the North, the earth was not only the mother of all but a demanding goddess on whose kindness they depended for every bite they ate; as an agricultural society, they were able to see the need for honoring her in a way that most modern Americans do not, for one year of bad harvest meant one year of famine. A great deal of the Teutonic faith is based on this awareness of the need to live with the natural world in a balanced fashion – and on the intense love for the free woods and meadows of the world which is still part of modern German and Scandinavian culture, as the passionate writings of the German Romantic period show.
The Western belief in a separation of body and mind/soul has also taught us to be contemptuous of either our own bodies and our physical needs or of our intelligence, to the point where popular American culture hardly admits that the two can go together – our stereotypes are those of the physically strong/attractive but stupid football player or cheerleader, and the physically weak and unattractive “egghead.” Our ancestors, in contrast, honored both aspects of the self equally. Nearly all the heroes whom they held highest were great poets as well as being mighty warriors. The boasting verse which the Earl Rognvaldr Kali made about himself in his teenage years expresses the Norse ideal of manhood: “I'm talented at tables [a chess like game] / at nine skills I'm able / scarcely spoil I runes / I'm often at books and writing / swiftly glide on skis / I shoot and row well enough, / at each of these I'm able: / harp-playing and poem-making.
In other words, Rognvaldr Kali was the equivalent of a high school athlete who was also in the orchestra and the chess club, while writing poetry for the school literary magazine and maintaining a high grade point average. To the Vikings, most attractive women were those who could meet them as equals in both bravery and intellect, exchanging swift-witted words and poetic staves with their men folk, risking and bearing wounds and death with the same steadfastness as any male warrior Individuals who are true to the ancestral ways will develop their bodies, intellect, and artistic faculties to their highest peaks; to leave out one side of being is to be less than a whole human.
(Excerpt from the Asatru book Teutonic Religion by Kveldulf Gundarsson. Used with permission. Purchase an e-copy of the entire book Teutonic Religion here.)