Heathen Inc.

Sometimes, I think what I'm looking for is a modern religion. Not in the Scientology or New Age style, but 'modern' as in something that's adapted to present day life. Being from an atheist country has something to do with it, I think. Religion is a private thing and you generally don't show it off much. Some people wear crosses - how many of them who really believes in anything is hard to say. Goth is always good for shocking people, or the sort-of-vampire look with the pewter pentagrams or Devil-heads that could double as a anchor on a medium-sized yacht. Hardcore Christians are seen more as entertainment or nutballs than anything (and then there are Muslims, but that issue is a nest of wasps I'll just leave alone here).

Point is, we're not really religious. You don't see CEOs wearing crosses or a Star of David and if that's the kind of career you're aiming for, you sort of have to adapt. What I'm looking for is a religion that can be part of my image just as the suit and the purse and the high-heeled boots can be (or maybe what I'm looking for might also be a more religious society, in a "not completely psycho"-way, but that's another ramble). Second point of the ramble is, Asatru in Denmark doesn't have the best of PR. Asatru in general gets all the fun issues of being associated with skinheads and neo-Nazis, and it isn't that different over here. We have extreme right-wing people exercising their freedom of speech and I cringe every time one of them does a Nazi salute and happens to wear a Thor's Hammer while doing it because that's really publicity we could do without. Really.

One of the big newspapers had an article about non-mainstream religions two years ago or so, one of them being Asatru, and that was the kind of thing we could use some more of. The man they interviewed didn't wear ren-faire clothes or looked like something out of a Viking movie, and he generally looked like a normal, attractive person in casual clothes. The article was sane, straightforward and respectful, and the overall impression was a damn good one. And then you contrast it with one of the few Danish books written aboutAsatru here and you realise that the cover shows a woman in Viking costume. I have nothing against people wearing that but I honestly think that it wasn't the best choice of cover. It's about PR again and our current image is basically that of 'those people who run around and get drunk and play Viking'. There's a lot of overlap, true, but that doesn't change the fact that there are Asatru people who don't do the whole Viking thing, and you get people who are serious about the whole Viking thing but who aren't Asatru.

(And I know I'm probably getting on the bad side of most of the Danish Asatru community with that but I can live with that. I know the book gets recommended a lot, too, but I don't agree with it much. It's nothing personal with the author, it's just that it isn't really a type of Asatru I have much in common with. Doesn't mean it's wrong for other people.)

Maybe, when it all comes down to it, what I'm looking for is Gucci Heathenry - my own little hidey-hole in a mix of atheism and Heathenry, with business suits and designer altars and Odin as the strategist and leader rather than the god of poetry and magic.

Stickies

There are roughly three billion 'divisions' of heathenry at any given time: Asatru, Forn Sed, Heathenry, Theodish Belief, Odinism, Vor Sidr, you name it.

This is not a handy list of definitions for each of them because frankly, I can't keep track of half of those. I tend to stick to the 'Heathen' label. 'Asetro', occasionally, which is 'Asatru' in Danish, which gets annoying because in some areas 'Asatru' is the Icelandic version when I basically just follow sort of what we have here... to some degree, anyway. As already mentioned, I'm not interested in wandering around in a dark forest in the middle of nowhere at night and I'm not one for big, elaborate blots. I'm somewhat of an agnostic heathen. I'm not sure any gods exist but that doesn't keep me from following them as so much of what the Norse myths teach match my own way of seeing things. Which probably explains why I don't get Freya braiding my hair or Loki hiding my car keys - because I don't expect them to and I'm not deliberately looking for signs of their possible influence. Or maybe we're all suffering from collective delusions - the whole thing with 'if you talk to God, you're religious, if He talks back, you're nuts' and all.

I live in what's basically an atheist country (with an official church where the number of churchgoers is insanely low), raised by an atheist family, and surrounded by mostly-atheist friends. I don't want to believe in nothing but I'm not sure anything is there, either.

Thus, agnostic Heathen. Doesn't stop me from buying Jack Daniels for blots or wearing a silver valknut meant in the modern-day interpretation of 'bullseye'. Occasionally, I feel stupid. And occasionally, I feel like there's nothing more right in the world for me.

(I'm babbling. I got a cold and my brain started leaking. Forgive me.)