Heathens Moving Forward: Moving Past Our Differences

By K.C. Hulsman

In the many years I've been Heathen I've seen the good and the bad of what our religion has to offer. Just as in any group of people, there will always be some who are sweet to your face and who will badmouth you behind your back. I've seen godhi/gythia or other elders who are more concerned with their personal power and ego trip than they are in giving proper homage to the Gods and Goddesses, the ancestors, and the land vaettir. I have heard the gossip mongering; I've seen the buzzing bees flying into open ears trash-talking this set of practices, or that particular person. In other words, at times our religion seems like all the bad things about high school all over again.

When newcomers come into the religion, all too often they're dismissively told to "read the lore" then come back and ask questions. How many people have we driven away from a religion and path that they may have found to be a good fit?

Sometimes I think we have a big public relations problem. We are unfortunately confused at times with Neo-Nazism. Some of the rare occurrences when our religion tends to make the news are because of lawsuits filed by inmates in prison. Even within the general pagan community we are sometimes perceived as being Patriarchial, rather than truly polytheistic. We are even sometimes perceived as being misogynistic, when those who truly know our path can tell you that women are indeed greatly honored in our tradition. I'm sure the fact that we have what I like to call our weekend Viking warriors out there, doesn't help our reputation. I've gone to a gathering or two where the guys do nothing but talk about weapons. Yes, aspects of the warrior are a part of our religion, but a good host-especially one trying to reach out to newcomers-should be making concerted efforts to find a range of topics for discussion.

As much as I love the Northern Tradition, yes we do have our share of problems. Sometimes there can be quite a bit of cat-fighting between some of the ideological fault-lines of our tradition. As someone who worships Loki, I've had my share of vitriol slung my way. I've also had my share of people contacting me behind the scenes, or pulling me aside at gatherings for a private word to tell me they believe as I do but they then ask me to please not mention it. Why? Because if it were known, they'd be outcasts from their group. I think it is a sad fact of our religion that just as some people may live in a broom closet, others live on the top-shelf of that closet. If you look at the number of people subscribed to a list, versus the number of posters, in most cases over 2/3 of that list merely lurk. Religious discourse takes just that: discussion. If we have people too intimidated to speak up or to share their thoughts, doesn't that make us a weaker religion for it? If the most vocal voices are sometimes the most intimidating voices, how does that help us in the long run?

Read More from: The Future of Paganism Sometimes I think we waste valuable energy on politics, backstabbing, cat-fighting, and mud-slinging, energy that we could otherwise be channeling into projects that build us up rather than tear us down. I can recall instances of public speaking engagements for Heathens (some local pagan-friendly church, a bookstore, or even an academic conference) where Heathens of another ideological fault-line will show up for the pure purpose of heckling and disrupting. If we take a look at other religions and examine their thriving grassroots initiatives and charities, we are floundering in an abyss mostly of our own making.

I know we have it in ourselves to be so much more than what we are. During the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (and later Hurricane Rita), the *Frige Fund was initiated to respond to this great crisis. The Frige Fund (currently inactive) is not to be confused with a charity, but rather had been established as a means to build * frith throughout the great Heathen community. Heathen women in kindred in one state might knit little booties that would later be used in a care package to welcome new Heathen babies into the world. But when Katrina happened, the lady in charge of the fund, Tee, went into action. As one of our elders in the Northern Tradition, she has many contacts throughout the U.S. and throughout the different groups and organizations. Using her vast network she was soon coordinating monetary donations, clothing, linen, toiletries, furniture, safe havens, and more for numerous heathen families as well as providing support for needed items for a Louisiana police department. I can personally attest to dropping off donations at her house, and watching the goods taking over multiple rooms in her house from floor to ceiling, to the point you could barely move in the house. When I dropped by again a couple of weeks later, her house was stuffed with an entirely different array of boxes, and several weeks after that things had returned to normal after she'd mailed everything off.

During this period of time the ideological fault-lines fell away, the politics and cat-fighting were mostly put where they belong: out of the way. What we saw was a tremendous outpouring and response from all sectors of the Heathen community toward others in need. To my mind, that was one of our finest hours, and much credit must be given to Tee for somehow organizing everything between those who generously gave and those who were so desperately in need.

My hope for our future is to see us grow, to see the cat-fighting disappear. Do I ever believe we'll have one homogeneous religion? No. That didn't even exist in antiquity. But I would like us to move beyond our differences, accept the fact that we have them, and work together to build up the community for those things that we do have in common.

This is not a foreign concept to our ways. If we look to our history, there is a prime example of this principal at work. In 1000 CE while Iceland was on the verge of civil war, torn between the contentious Christians and those who loyally clung to their ancestral ways, it fell to the Icelandic national assembly known as Althing and the national leader of it at the time Thorgeirr to determine the fate of his fellow countrymen. King Olaf Tryggvason, who had quite a staunch reputation for slaughtering those who did not convert to Christianity, backed the Christians. Thorgeiir, with Solomon-like wisdom, after much contemplation ‘ under the cloak ' delivered the answer: Iceland would become Christian, but people could continue to practice their ancestral ways in the privacy of their own home. The wisdom of this edict would become overshadowed in later years as Christians became intolerant even to this tiny religious freedom. But it demonstrates to my mind, a heathen concept... that the frith-building of our community is more important than petty squabbles.

Frithful codes were a part of all of the various thing assemblages found throughout Germania and Scandinavia, and also seen in the processions of Nerthus described in Tacitus' Germania. Those codes existed at these gatherings and religious rites because when you had a large number of people gathering together who may or may not get along, it was important to have a means to protect the peace. This enabled people to come together in neutrality to conduct business and legal affairs, honor the Gods, and even arrange marriages.

I want to see us growing to the point we are coming together in local groups to buy shared land for temples, shrines, and holy groves. I want to see those temples being used as places of shelter, like churches that open their doors in conjunction with the Red Cross for people who have just lost their home in a fire. I want to see true Heathen charities created, serving both our religious community but also serving to better the physical communities in which we live and worship.

I want to see our Heathen artisans flourish so that there is a flood of new artworks of our Gods, and works for our way of life found in all mediums: metal and jewelry, glass and ceramic, illustration, sculpture. I want to see holy temples bedecked in their works, so that when someone enters the holy space they can feel the awe of our Gods.

I want to see and hear more of our Gods being named in ritual. Since our historical sources are limited, there is not a lot of information known about many of our Gods and Goddesses. I can understand that the deities we know the most about tend to be the ones most commonly hailed in ritual (Odin, Thor, Freya, etc.). But if we're only ever always hailing the same handful of Gods how can we as a religion grow? If many of our long established veterans, as well as in some cases even our godhi/gythia cannot seem to muster more than "Hail " before passing the horn on, how can we as a community grow? I can understand that there are times when sometimes that can even be a struggle to say... but shouldn't our long-standing members be able to put together more than just this? Our tradition is steeped in the power and importance of words .

A personal saying of mine is that if you treat your words like children, one day they may grow up and change the world. I want to see the growth of our religion--of our understanding, of our connection to our Northern Traditio -- dazzle like the midnight sun because we go beyond what is comfortable, and push ourselves to both learn more and to share more of ourselves.

I look forward to the day when we see third-, fourth-, and eventually fifth-generation Asatru children, when our local kindred grow to the point they begin offering specialized programming for all ages, children, teens, adult singles, married couples, and even programs for senior citizens. We must grow to this end, for studies show that many pagans go back to Christian churches later in life because there are programs there that can assist them that our own community is unable to provide at this time. I'd love to see us have a Heathen summer camp, where children can be exposed to the agricultural background our religion is steeped in, in the spirit of fosterage that existed so long ago.

There is a along way to go, but this is the hope for the future I tender. There are individuals and groups working towards some of these goals currently. But while there may be some on the path there is still much more work that needs to be done. This is definitely in the realm of the possible if we can all learn to cooperate and aim for these goals together.

Born in New Orleans, K. C. Hulsman moved with her family to Virginia where she was brought up on the founding history of our country. She spent many a day visiting battlefields, the home of presidents, and the Smithsonian. Later transplanted to Texas, she proceeded onto the University of Texas at Arlington to earn her M.A. in Humanities as well as to conduct oral history interviews for a lasting archive at her alma mater. After her graduate studies, she transitioned into the business sector where she is currently growing into a thriving marketing career in the entertainment industry. Drawing on over a decade of experience as both a gythia of Urdabrunnr Kindred and an active member of her local Asatru community, her combination of academic research and personal exploration provides interesting insights into modern day Heathenry. Ms. Hulsman has contributed content to several devotionals, and delights in bringing attention to seldom spoken of Gods and Goddesses in the Northern Tradition.