Indigenous Heathenry

So how exactly do we reconnect? As one wiser than I said, one ancestor ritual at a time, one offering to the Gods, one prayer, one thread at a time. Each time you honor your dead, you're doing something revolutionary. You're subverting the status quo, a status quo based in colonialism, oppression of our folk ways, and greed. Fight that system. Besubversive. Honor your ancestors, the most ancient all the way through to the most recently deceased. Honor those of your blood so ancient that their names are lost to the dust of time—they're still connected to you. That connection lives in your blood, bone and marrow, in your very DNA, it is knit into the very fabric of each and every molecule of your being. Moreover, their spirit flows in you.

Honoring the dead, connecting to one's forebears isn't a one-sided deal either. They have obligations to us as we have to them and they're interested in helping us thrive, and in remaining a part of our lives. This is not one-sided at all. It's a powerfully reciprocal relationship. The offerings that we give cement that relationship and honor that reciprocity. They're both acknowledgements and small ways of saying 'thank you' for all the blessings that can be given. Our ancestors want us to be safe, to thrive, to succeed and they can help us in all of those things . . . if we ask them.

Personally, I work toward this reconnection by holding public ancestor rituals at my home. Anyone may attend, whether they are Heathen or not. I do this by writing columns like this one and by working hard to maintain my own connections to the Gods, my dead, and the land itself. I do this, in whatever way I am able, by taking up those threads of responsibility, reverence, and awareness so long ago dropped. I do this and speak and write because it is vitally important for us and all peoples to reclaim our indigeny, to restore that as the lens by which we view the world.

This is not going to be an easy fight. This is work that we must all take up: as warriors, as seers, as servers, as parents perhaps, and as leaders within our community. In the indigenous world-view no one is wasted. Each individual has his or her place, his or her personal destiny, and to carry it out, to bring it to fulfillment benefits everyone. It is a gift to the entire tribe. I believe it's time that we stand up and take back our birthright, for the future, one ancestor offering at a time. I believe, to be blunt, that it is time for an indigenous and spiritual revolution.

I am Heathen. I practice my indigenous religion. I know where I come from. I know who my mothers were. I know who my grandmothers were. I know the names of my grandfathers. I know what soil holds the bones of my dead. I know my people. I know my tribe. I know which Gods call my name. Each day I nourish and tend those sacred roots: my source, the firmament of my Tree. I honor them all, and I honor those, not related to me by blood who were friends, teachers, mentors, and spiritual kin. This is the way of my people. This is the way of indigenous reconnection.

My house had a wonderful ancestor rite this past weekend. It was a family ceremony. We came together, each from different peoples, different tribes, each with an army of ancestors at his or her back: European—Norse, English, German, Swiss, Italian, Portuguese; African—many different tribes; and Native—Apache, Cherokee, Taino, Arawak, and more. We laid down for our dead. We hailed our Gods. We honored the land. We poured nourishment back into the roots of that great Tree of Trees, that Tree that sustains the worlds. Important connections were made. We honored, through our dead, our common humanity. And we honored the call of our dead to begin that process of restoration.

May it be done. May our streets run high with a flood of offerings, because you know what? We've been paid for. Our ancestors didn't struggle and suffer, didn't endure oppression, colonization, even slavery and genocide so that we could forget who we are and where we come from. We've been paid for. Now it's time to get about the business of saying thank you. Now it's time to give a little back. Now is the time for reconnection.

(My thanks to Andrew Carlson and Eileen Laufeyson for their kind advice in the writing of this article).