Vidar's Gothi

Thursday, November 26th is the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. It is intended as a time for families to get together and express gratitude for the things they have (or, alternately, express their disagreements while over eating and watching football). Though the holiday has been wrapped in patriotic history, it is, at its heart, a traditional harvest celebration.

Regular visitor Astrid contacted me and asked about how the recent attacks in France, Kenya, Nigeria, Lebanon, and so forth, would affect Asatru people. It doesn't seem like our war but we have to worry about the chaos. More importantly, we have to worry about the way conservative Christians will use it to rise to power (a definite bad thing for us). If we stick to our guiding principles, it won't be that bad.

We all know that the Wyrd is filled with the various vibrations that make up the worlds. The Runes represent the patterns of the vibrations, sort of like chords in music. What happens when we make our own sounds? How does this affect the vibrations on the Wyrd? Those are the questions surrounding galdor.

Loki produced the wolf Fenrir. Fenrir produced offspring of its own, including the two wolves Skoll and Hati Hroðvitnisson. These two wolves chase the Sun and the Moon, respectively, in an attempt to eat them. In the eyes of our ancestors, an eclipse suggested that one of the wolves was about to succeed. Just imagine what they would have thought when seeing tonight's red colored supermoon eclipse.

You may see in popular Christian culture, various references to guardian angels. They claim these beneficent, cherub-like things flit around and try to fix stuff and keep their assignees out of trouble. However, if you look through their Bible, you won't find any of these creatures, and the angels you do find are rather horrific. So, where does the idea of guardian angels come from? Asatru has the answer.

I drove through the countryside and realized that the crops in the fields were nearing harvest. The green edges started to show the touch of brown that would spread through them all within a month or so. Though I am not a farmer, it did get me thinking; am I ready to harvest the things I've worked for?

One of the struggles in writing for this site is that people in our religion call themselves different things depending on which region or language gives them the most comfort. To complicate things, opposition religions sometimes use the same words as a negative, so we have to deal with that. All of this got me thinking, what can we collectively call ourselves without losing the ability for individuals to keep their individual preferences?

Regular visitors to this site know that I advocate a progressive, tolerant version of our religion. I tend to believe Gods intend for all humans to be their allies. It is important to understand, though, that this is different from accepting the harmful beliefs or actions of others. There is an acceptable level of intolerance, but it must be directed at specific harmful actions.

Regular visitor Andrew sent to me a link to an article describing how the Asatru Organization Ásatrúarfélag was receiving hate mail from people in other countries who claim to be Asatru.

When you have to explain your religion to someone unfamiliar with it, there is a temptation to say you worship the Old Gods. I have heard this plenty of times and I have used that phrasing myself. However, this may send the wrong message.