Asatru

More Asatru and AI

In the last posting, Google Bard, a Large Language Model (LLM) AI, to compose a blöt to Vidar. It did a fairly good job despite some limitations. This brought up questions about how else Asatru shows up in these models. Along that line, I have asked a couple more questions. The responses surprised me a bit.

Heathens in Pandemic

A virus sweeps through the nations of the world. Governments scramble to find a cure or vaccine. People shelter in their homes whether through caution or law. How should the Asatruar adapt to this? It is covered in the old stories.

Core Beliefs of Heathenry

In a recent social media group post, someone asked about a core set of beliefs in Asatru or Heathenry. They stated their experience of many different groups with different words, names, and practices and wondered if there really was anything that tied us all together. Many of the responses addressed individual but specific differences. Others worried about how a core might exclude people who had differences. When it comes down to it, the differences are not very great, and here's why.

Book Review: Norse Myths & Tales

It's good to see that there are plenty of new books introducing our religion to the general populace. The more we are known, the easier it is for others to accept us without freaking out. I picked up such a book at my local shop. The title is Norse Myths & Tales and it is copyrighted 2017 from Flame Tree Publishing (ISBN: 9781786646552).

Differences Between Christianity and Asatru

At first glance, there would seem to be many differences between Christianity and Asatru, but many of these are superficial. At the heart of the matter are a few core, fundamental differences in how we view people and what makes them special. Fortunately, these differences are easy to explain. Unfortunately, the differences are hard to argue in a religious debate.

What's in a Name?

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?

More About the Asatru Temple

Iceland Review On Line has a nice write-up about the new Asatru Temple being built in Reykjavik Iceland. Not only does it talk about the temple, but it also describes some of the religious activities. "Temple of Tradition" by EYGLÓ SVALA ARNARSDÓTTIR, June 12, 2015

How to Tell Your Family You Converted to Asatru

Many Asatru people started out as members of another religion. Typically, they still have family, friends, and coworkers who are still members of that religion. It can be a daunting task to tell everyone about your change of faith, but many others have done it before you. It is just something you must face.

How Does a God Choose You?

Because I am a gothi dedicated to a specific deity, folks sometimes ask how a God chooses a person. Unfortunately, that is not a simple question and yet, there is a sort of simple answer.
At no time did I ever think of Vidar as choosing me. I always saw things as me hanging around so much that He just decided He should make use of me. That may or may not be how it happened; Gods are difficult to read most of the time.

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