Heathen

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.

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?

There is good news in the Heathen world. The Heathens in Iceland (Ásatrúarfélagið) are building a Heathen Temple. Construction begins in March on the building near Reykjavik. This is an excellent thing for Heathens everywhere and the worship of the true Gods grows.

I was rather surprised to see so many hits on the posting "Why Driving is a Heathen Issue" so I decided to look into it. The first step was to look up "heathen driving," on Google. It seems the article shows up fifth from the top, after three Christian links about "driving out heathens" and one Twitter post that doesn't seem to have anything Heathen-related at all.

I went to the quiet place and there sat in commune with the silence. The image delivered to me showed a small city. There were homes, green spaces, schools, and businesses. The roads leading into the city carried the same sign: Heathen Town Welcomes You!

Some heathens decided to go to a particular small suburb of a city that wasn't too large. Poorly developed, the suburb's property prices were low. As a suburb, it had access to jobs in the attached city. With these conditions, and the spread of the plan, Asatruar from far away converged there.