{"id":36,"date":"2015-05-18T08:30:37","date_gmt":"2015-05-18T13:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/heathenatheart\/?p=36"},"modified":"2015-05-19T18:42:10","modified_gmt":"2015-05-19T23:42:10","slug":"why-i-am-a-heathen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/heathenatheart\/2015\/05\/why-i-am-a-heathen\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I am a Heathen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"heathenaltar\"<\/a>
photo by Rebecca Radcliff<\/a>, used under CC2.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Pagan Church Lady<\/a> wrote a fascinating post this past week that\u2019s been circling around the various Heathen-leaning parts of the internet, titled Why I Am Not an Heathen (Though I Kind of Wish That I Could Be)<\/a>. \u00a0It\u2019s an all-too relatable list of difficulties in the Heathen community: the complete rejection\u00a0of UPG, dismissal of\u00a0the larger Pagan community, a glaring disregard for solitary practitioners, right down to the\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m not racist but..\u201d stance\u00a0of some in the community.<\/p>\n

The comments are largely positive, though one individual does come in to helpfully suggest she \u201cstop being such a fussbudget\u201d. \u00a0It astonishes me sometimes what a firm divide seems to have come up in online Heathenry.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, there\u2019s people like me, who consider themselves Pagan as much as Heathen; at this point I consider \u2018Heathen\u2019 to be a further refining term, and I could go deeper and say \u2018Anglo-Saxon inspired Heathen\u2019 but that gets pretty long winded. \u00a0It\u2019s not meant to divide me from my Pagan friends and co-religionists.<\/p>\n

Largely, my side of the fence is accepting of and interested in UPG, trance work, and various kinds of \u2018woo\u2019. \u00a0Honestly, I don\u2019t see how to build a religion out of Heathenry without those things \u2013 our lore is incomplete and heavily influenced by Christianity. \u00a0That doesn\u2019t mean everyone has to practice these things; not everyone has the interest or the ability. \u00a0For the most part though, we accept that these \u2018woo\u2019 people in our community are having valid experiences.<\/p>\n

\"groa\"<\/a>
Illustration by W. G. Collingwood, 1908<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We are also generally more vocal about social justice issues, and inclusionary of LGBT people and people of color. \u00a0While I\u2019d like to say this is just because we\u2019re good people, I think it follows pretty readily from the political split \u2013 this side of the fence is pretty liberal, like many Pagans; the other side tends more towards conservatism.<\/p>\n

The other side of the spectrum (and like all things, it is a spectrum, though the divide seems to have gotten sharper) emphasizes Heathenry\u2019s distict identity as separate from Paganism. \u00a0In the eyes of many, you are one or the other, and claiming both is a sure sign you\u2019re not actually Heathen.<\/p>\n

This type of Heathenry also places a heavy emphasis on the lore, and has its own special term for UPG \u2013 MUS (or Made Up Shit). \u00a0Of course, it\u2019s rarely labelled MUS when it\u2019s coming from the minds of the leaders of this brand of Heathenry, but I digress. \u00a0The purest distillation of this is seen on the Asatru Lore<\/a> forums, where trusted members<\/a> of my community<\/a> have been handed\u00a0threats partly because of their incorporation of UPG.<\/p>\n

Obviously, I\u2019m pretty biased here; I consider this other side of Heathenry just as toxic as Pagan Church Lady does, and I\u2019m not thrilled to be associated with or share a label with these people. \u00a0But they are a big part of why I finally chose to identify as Heathen these past few years, even though I\u2019d been devoted to\u00a0a Germanic Goddess for most of my life.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to let people scare me anymore. \u00a0In fact, I kind of want to scare them. \u00a0I\u2019m here, I\u2019m Heathen, and I\u2019m bringing all my UPG, my spiritual woo, my leftist politics, my radical inclusion, my condemnation of racism with me. \u00a0I am one more voice adding to the chorus that will help to change the perception, and the composition, of Heathenry. \u00a0I am part of a wave that will push back and make room for the people who don\u2019t feel welcome in my religion. \u00a0I am a Heathen because I don\u2019t want anyone to \u201cwish that they could be\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In response to Why I Am Not an Heathen, I explain why I am – I’ve had enough of toxic Heathenry and this is how I’m fighting back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2274,"featured_media":40,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[41,5,8,9,13],"class_list":["post-36","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-heathen","tag-heathen","tag-heathenry","tag-pagan","tag-paganism","tag-toxic-heathenry"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy I am a Heathen<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In response to Why I Am Not an Heathen, I explain why I am - I've had enough of toxic Heathenry and this is how I'm fighting back.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/heathenatheart\/2015\/05\/why-i-am-a-heathen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why I am a Heathen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In response to Why I Am Not an Heathen, I explain why I am - 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