Английская Википедия:Heathenry (new religious movement)

A modern replica of a Viking Age pendant representing Mjölnir, the hammer of the god Thor; such pendants are often worn by Heathens.

Heathenry, also termed Heathenism, contemporary Germanic Paganism, or Germanic Neopaganism, is a modern Pagan religion. Scholars of religious studies classify it as a new religious movement. Developed in Europe during the early 20th century, its practitioners model it on the pre-Christian religions adhered to by the Germanic peoples of the Iron Age and Early Middle Ages. In an attempt to reconstruct these past belief systems, Heathenry uses surviving historical, archaeological, and folkloric evidence as a basis, although approaches to this material vary considerably.

Heathenry does not have a unified theology but is typically polytheistic, centering on a pantheon of deities from pre-Christian Germanic Europe. It adopts cosmological views from these past societies, including an animistic view of the cosmos in which the natural world is imbued with spirits. The religion's deities and spirits are honored in sacrificial rites known as blóts in which food and libations are offered to them. These are often accompanied by symbel, the act of ceremonially toasting the gods with an alcoholic beverage. Some adherents also engage in rituals designed to induce an altered state of consciousness and visions, most notably seiðr and galdr, with the intent of gaining wisdom and advice from the deities. Many solitary adherents follow the religion by themselves. Other Heathens assemble in small groups, usually known as kindreds or hearths, to perform their rites outdoors or in specially constructed buildings. Heathen ethical systems emphasize honor, personal integrity, and loyalty, while beliefs about an afterlife vary and are rarely emphasized.

Heathenry's origins lie in the 19th- and early 20th-century Romanticism which glorified the pre-Christian societies of Germanic Europe. Völkisch groups actively venerating the deities of these societies appeared in Germany and Austria during the 1900s and 1910s, although they largely dissolved following Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II. In the 1970s, new Heathen groups established in Europe and North America, developing into formalized organizations. A central division within the Heathen movement emerged surrounding the issue of race. Older groups adopted a racialist attitude—often termed "folkish" within the community—by viewing Heathenry as an ethnic or racial religion with inherent links to a Germanic race. They believe it should be reserved for white people, particularly of northern European descent, and often combine the religion with far right-wing and white supremacist perspectives. A larger proportion of Heathens instead adopt a "universalist" perspective, holding that the religion is open to all, irrespective of ethnic or racial background.

While the term Heathenry is used widely to describe the religion as a whole, many groups prefer different designations, influenced by their regional focus and ideological preferences. Heathens focusing on Scandinavian sources sometimes use Ásatrú, Vanatrú, or Forn Sed; practitioners focusing on Anglo-Saxon traditions use Fyrnsidu or Theodism; those emphasising German traditions use Irminism; and those Heathens who espouse folkish and far-right perspectives tend to favor the terms Odinism, Wotanism, Wodenism, or Odalism. Scholarly estimates put the number of Heathens at no more than 20,000 worldwide, with communities of practitioners active in Europe, the Americas, and Australasia.

Definition

Two tables located in the snow. On the tables are various fruits and wooden quasi-anthropomorphic statues.

Outdoor altar to mark Yule 2010, set up by the Swedish Forn Sed Assembly in Gothenburg, Västergötland

Scholars of religious studies classify Heathenry as a new religious movement,Шаблон:Sfnm and more specifically as a reconstructionist form of modern Paganism.Шаблон:Sfnm Heathenry has been defined as "a broad contemporary Pagan new religious movement (NRM) that is consciously inspired by the linguistically, culturally, and (in some definitions) ethnically 'Germanic' societies of Iron Age and early medieval Europe as they existed prior to Christianization",Шаблон:Sfn and as a "movement to revive and/or reinterpret for the present day the practices and worldviews of the pre-Christian cultures of northern Europe (or, more particularly, the Germanic speaking cultures)".Шаблон:Sfn

Practitioners seek to revive these past belief systems by using surviving historical source materials.Шаблон:Sfn Among the historical sources used are Old Norse texts associated with Iceland such as the Prose Edda and Poetic Edda, Old English texts such as Beowulf, and Middle High German texts such as the Шаблон:Lang. Some Heathens also adopt ideas from the archaeological evidence of pre-Christian northern Europe and folklore from later periods in European history.Шаблон:Sfnm Among many Heathens, this material is referred to as the "Lore" and studying it is an important part of their religion.Шаблон:Sfn Some textual sources nevertheless remain problematic as a means of "reconstructing" pre-Christian belief systems, because they were written by Christians and only discuss pre-Christian religion in a fragmentary and biased manner.Шаблон:Sfn The anthropologist Jenny Blain characterises Heathenry as "a religion constructed from partial material",Шаблон:Sfn while the religious studies scholar Michael Strmiska describes its beliefs as being "riddled with uncertainty and historical confusion", thereby characterising it as a postmodern movement.Шаблон:Sfn

The ways in which Heathens use this historical and archaeological material differ; some seek to reconstruct past beliefs and practices as accurately as possible, while others openly experiment with this material and embrace new innovations.Шаблон:Sfn Some, for instance, adapt their practices according to unverified personal gnosis (UPG) that they have gained through spiritual experiences.Шаблон:Sfnm Others adopt concepts from the world's surviving ethnic religions as well as modern polytheistic traditions such as Hinduism and Afro-American religions, believing that doing so helps to construct spiritual world-views akin to those that existed in Europe prior to Christianization.Шаблон:Sfnm Some practitioners who emphasize an approach that relies exclusively on historical and archaeological sources criticize such attitudes, denigrating those who practice them using the pejorative term "Neo-Heathen".Шаблон:Sfn

Eight people, all white, stand on heathland. Some of them are dressed in historical clothing akin to that worn in the medieval period.

A 2009 rite performed on the Icelandic hill of Öskjuhlíð, Reykjavík

Some Heathens seek out common elements found throughout Germanic Europe during the Iron Age and Early Middle Ages, using those as the basis for their contemporary beliefs and practices.Шаблон:Sfn Conversely, others draw inspiration from the beliefs and practices of a specific geographical area and chronological period within Germanic Europe, such as Anglo-Saxon England or Viking Age Iceland.Шаблон:Sfn Some adherents are deeply knowledgeable as to the specifics of northern European society in the Iron Age and Early Medieval periods;Шаблон:Sfnm however for most practitioners their main source of information about the pre-Christian past is fictional literature and popular accounts of Norse mythology.Шаблон:Sfn Many express a romanticized view of this past,Шаблон:Sfn sometimes perpetuating misconceptions about it;Шаблон:Sfn the sociologist of religion Jennifer Snook noting that many practitioners "hearken back to a more epic, anachronistic, and pure age of ancestors and heroes".Шаблон:Sfn

The anthropologist Murphy Pizza suggests that Heathenry can be understood as an "invented tradition".Шаблон:Sfn As the religious studies scholar Fredrik Gregorius states, despite the fact that "no real continuity" exists between Heathenry and the pre-Christian belief systems of Germanic Europe, Heathen practitioners often dislike being considered adherents of a "new religion" or "modern invention" and thus prefer to depict theirs as a "traditional faith".Шаблон:Sfn Many practitioners avoid using the scholarly, etic term "reconstructionism" to describe their practices,Шаблон:Sfn preferring to characterize it as an "indigenous religion" with parallels to the traditional belief systems of the world's indigenous peoples.Шаблон:Sfnm In identifying with indigeneity, some Heathens—particularly in the United States—attempt to frame themselves as the victims of Medieval Christian colonialism and imperialism.Шаблон:Sfn A 2015 survey of the Heathen community found equal numbers of practitioners (36%) regarding their religion as a reconstruction as those who regarded it as a direct continuation of ancient belief systems; only 22% acknowledged it to be modern but historically inspired, although this was the dominant interpretation among practitioners in Nordic countries.Шаблон:Sfn

Terminology

Файл:Alfablot at boulder with flash.jpg

An álfablót ritual held at Getsjön in Västergötland, Sweden in 2009

No central religious authority exists to impose a particular terminological designation on all practitioners.Шаблон:Sfn Hence, different Heathen groups have used different words to describe both their religion and themselves, with these terms often conveying meaning about their socio-political beliefs as well as the particular Germanic region of pre-Christian Europe from which they draw inspiration.Шаблон:Sfnm

Academics studying the religion have typically favoured the terms Heathenry and Heathenism to describe it,Шаблон:Sfnm for the reason that these words are inclusive of all varieties of the movement.Шаблон:Sfnm This term is the most commonly used option by practitioners in the United Kingdom,Шаблон:Sfnm with growing usage in North America and elsewhere.Шаблон:Sfnm These terms are based on the word heathen, attested as the Gothic haithn, which was adopted by Gothic Arian missionaries as the equivalent of both the Greek words Hellenis (Hellene, Greek) and ethnikós—"of a (foreign) people".Шаблон:Sfn The word was used by Early Medieval Christian writers in Germanic Europe to describe non-Christians; by using it, practitioners seek to reappropriate it from the Christians as a form of self-designation.Шаблон:Sfnm Many practitioners favor the term Heathen over pagan because the former term originated among Germanic languages, whereas pagan has its origins in Latin.Шаблон:Sfnm

Further terms used in some academic contexts are contemporary Germanic PaganismШаблон:Sfn and Germanic Neopaganism,Шаблон:Sfnm although the latter is an "artificial term" developed by scholars with little use within the Heathen community.Шаблон:Sfn Alternately, Blain suggested the use of North European Paganism as an overarching scholarly term for the movement;Шаблон:Sfn Strmiska noted that this would also encompass those practitioners inspired by the belief systems of northeastern Europe's linguistically Finnic and Slavic societies.Шаблон:Sfn He favored Modern Nordic Paganism, but accepted that this term excluded those Heathens who are particularly inspired by the pre-Christian belief systems of non-Nordic Germanic societies, such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Goths.Шаблон:Sfn

A thin wooden pillar located within woodland

Heathen ritual space marked out by an engraved wooden pillar, located on The Wrekin in Shropshire, England

Another name for the religion is the Icelandic Ásatrú, which translates as "Æsir belief", or "loyalty to the Æsir"—the Æsir being a sub-set of deities in Norse mythology. This is more commonly rendered as Asatru in North America, with practitioners being known as Asatruar.Шаблон:Sfnm This term is favored by practitioners who focus on the Nordic deities of Scandinavia,Шаблон:Sfn however is problematic as many self-identified Asatruar worship entities other than the Æsir, such as the Vanir, valkyries, elves, and dwarfs.Шаблон:Sfnm Although initially a popular term of designation among practitioners and academics, usage of Ásatrú has declined as the religion has aged.Шаблон:Sfn

Other practitioners term their religion Vanatrú, meaning "those who honor the Vanir", or Dísitrú, meaning "those who honor the goddesses", depending on their particular theological emphasis.Шаблон:Sfnm A small group of practitioners who venerate the Jötnar, refer to their tradition as Rokkatru.Шаблон:Sfn Although restricted especially to Scandinavia, since the mid-2000s a term that has grown in popularity is Forn Siðr or Forn Sed ("the old way"); this is also a term reappropriated from Christian usage, having previously been used in a derogatory sense to describe pre-Christian religion in the Old Norse Heimskringla.Шаблон:Sfnm Other terms used within the community to describe their religion are the Northern Tradition, Norse Paganism, and Saxon Paganism,Шаблон:Sfnm while in the first third of the 20th century, commonly used terms were German, Nordic, or Germanic Faith.Шаблон:Sfn Within the United States, groups emphasising a German-orientation have used Irminism, while those focusing on an Anglo-Saxon approach have used Fyrnsidu or Theodism.Шаблон:Sfnm

Many racialist-oriented Heathens prefer the terms Odinism or Wotanism to describe their religion.Шаблон:Sfnm The England-based racialist group Woden's Folk favored Wodenism and Woden Folk-Religion,Шаблон:Sfn while another racialist group, the Heathen Front, favored the term Odalism, coined by Varg Vikernes, in reference to the odal rune.Шаблон:Sfn There is thus a general view that all those who use Odinism adopt an explicitly political, right-wing and racialist interpretation of the religion, while Asatru is used by more moderate Heathen groups,Шаблон:Sfnm but no such clear division of these terms' usage exists in practice.Шаблон:Sfnm Gregorius noted that Odinism was "highly problematic" because it implies that the god Odin—who is adopted from Norse mythology—is central to these groups' theology, which is often not the case.Шаблон:Sfn Moreover, the term is also used by at least one non-racialist group, the British Odinshof, who utilise it in reference to their particular dedication to Odin.Шаблон:Sfn

Beliefs

Gods and spirits

A stone with various engravings upon it

A detail from Gotland runestone G 181, in the Swedish Museum of National Antiquities in Stockholm. The three figures are interpreted as Odin, Thor, and Freyr, deities which have seen their veneration revived among modern Heathens.

The historian of religion Mattias Gardell noted that there is "no unanimously accepted theology" within the Heathen movement.Шаблон:Sfn Several early Heathens like Guido von List found the polytheistic nature of pre-Christian religion embarrassing, and argued that in reality it had been monotheistic.Шаблон:Sfn Since the 1970s, such negative attitudes towards polytheism have changed.Шаблон:Sfn Today Heathenry is usually characterised as being polytheistic, exhibiting a theological structure which includes a pantheon of gods and goddesses, with adherents offering their allegiance and worship to some or all of them.Шаблон:Sfnm Most practitioners are polytheistic realists, referring to themselves as "hard" or "true polytheists" and believing in the literal existence of the deities as individual entities.Шаблон:Sfnm Others express a psychological interpretation of the divinities, viewing them for instance as symbols, Jungian archetypes or racial archetypes,Шаблон:Sfnm with some who adopt this position deeming themselves to be atheists.Шаблон:Sfn

Heathenry's deities are adopted from the pre-Christian belief systems found in the various societies of Germanic Europe; they include divinities like Týr, Odin, Thor, Frigg and Freyja from Scandinavian sources, Wōden, Thunor and Ēostre from Anglo-Saxon sources, and figures such as Nehalennia from continental sources.Шаблон:Sfn Some practitioners adopt the belief, taken from Norse mythology, that there are two sets of deities, the Æsir and the Vanir.Шаблон:Sfnm Certain practitioners blend the different regions and times together, for instance using a mix of Old English and Old Norse names for the deities, while others keep them separate and only venerate deities from a particular region.Шаблон:Sfn Some groups focus their veneration on a particular deity; for instance, the Brotherhood of Wolves, a Czech Heathen group, center their worship on the deity Fenrir.Шаблон:Sfn Similarly, many practitioners in the U.S. adopt a particular patron deity for themselves, taking an oath of dedication to them known as fulltrúi, and describe themselves as that entity's devotee using terms such as Thorsman or Odinsman.Шаблон:Sfnm

Файл:RK Frey and Freya Idols.jpg

Images of the deities Frey and Freyja constructed by the Rúnatýr Kindred in Canada in 2011

Heathen deities are not seen as perfect, omnipotent, or omnipresent, and are instead viewed as having their own strengths and weaknesses.Шаблон:Sfnm Many practitioners believe that these deities will one day die, as did, for instance, the god Baldr in Norse mythology.Шаблон:Sfnm Heathens view their connection with their deities not as being that of a master and servant but rather as an interdependent relationship akin to that of a family.Шаблон:Sfnm For them, these deities serve as both examples and role models whose behavior is to be imitated.Шаблон:Sfn Many practitioners believe that they can communicate with these deities,Шаблон:Sfn as well as negotiate, bargain, and argue with them,Шаблон:Sfn and hope that through venerating them, practitioners will gain wisdom, understanding, power, or visionary insights.Шаблон:Sfn In Heathen ritual practices, the deities are typically represented as godpoles - wooden shafts with anthropomorphic faces carved into them, as were used prior to Christianisation, although in other instances resin statues of the divinities are sometimes used.Шаблон:Sfn

Many practitioners combine their polytheistic world-view with a pantheistic conception of the natural world as being sacred and imbued with a divine energy force permeating all life.Шаблон:Sfn Heathenry is animistic,Шаблон:Sfn with practitioners believing in nonhuman spirit persons commonly known as "wights" (vættir) that inhabit the world,Шаблон:Sfnm each of whom is believed to have its own personality.Шаблон:Sfn Some of these are known as "land spirits" (landvættir) and inhabit different aspects of the landscape, living alongside humans, whom they can both help and hinder.Шаблон:Sfnm Others are deemed to be household deities and live within the home, where they can be propitiated with offerings of food.Шаблон:Sfn Some Heathens interact with these entities and provide offerings to them more often than they do with the gods and goddesses.Шаблон:Sfn Wights are often identified with various creatures from northwestern European folklore such as elves, dwarves, gnomes, and trolls.Шаблон:Sfnm Some of these entities—such as the Jötunn of Norse mythology—are deemed to be baleful spirits; within the community it is often deemed taboo to provide offerings to them, however some practitioners still do so.Шаблон:Sfnm Many Heathens also believe in and respect ancestral spirits, with ancestral veneration representing an important part of their religious practice.Шаблон:Sfnm For Heathens, relationships with the ancestors are seen as grounding their own sense of identity and giving them strength from the past.Шаблон:Sfn

Cosmology and afterlife

Heathens commonly adopt a cosmology based on that found in Norse mythology—Norse cosmology. As part of this framework, humanity's world—known as Midgard—is regarded as just one of Nine Worlds, all of which are associated with a cosmological world tree called Yggdrasil. Different types of being are believed to inhabit these different realms; for instance, humans live on Midgard, while dwarfs live on another realm, elves on another, jötnar on another, and the divinities on two further realms.Шаблон:Sfnm Most practitioners believe that this is a poetic or symbolic description of the cosmos, with the different levels representing higher realms beyond the material plane of existence.Шаблон:Sfnm The world tree is also interpreted by some in the community as an icon for ecological and social engagement.Шаблон:Sfn Some Heathens, such as the psychologist Brian Bates, have adopted an approach to this cosmology rooted in analytical psychology, thereby interpreting the nine worlds and their inhabitants as maps of the human mind.Шаблон:Sfn

A grassy area with stones arranged in an oval shape demarcating a burial area. In the distance can be seen trees and a hill.

Heathen cemetery in Gufuneskirkjugarður, Reykjavík, which was established in 1999

According to a common Heathen belief based on references in Old Norse sources, three female entities known as the Norns sit at the end of the world tree's root. These figures spin wyrd, which refers to the actions and interrelationships of all beings throughout the cosmos.Шаблон:Sfnm In the community, these three figures are sometimes termed "Past, Present and Future", "Being, Becoming, and Obligation" or "Initiation, Becoming, Unfolding".Шаблон:Sfn It is believed that an individual can navigate through the wyrd, and thus, the Heathen worldview oscillates between concepts of free will and fatalism.Шаблон:Sfnm Heathens also believe in a personal form of wyrd known as örlög.Шаблон:Sfnm This is connected to an emphasis on luck, with Heathens in North America often believing that luck can be earned, passed down through the generations, or lost.Шаблон:Sfn

Various Heathen groups adopt the Norse apocalyptic myth of Ragnarök; few view it as a literal prophecy of future events.Шаблон:Sfn Instead, it is often treated as a symbolic warning of the danger that humanity faces if it acts unwisely in relation to both itself and the natural world.Шаблон:Sfn The death of the gods at Ragnarök is often viewed as a reminder of the inevitability of death and the importance of living honorably and with integrity until one dies.Шаблон:Sfn Alternately, ethno-nationalist Heathens have interpreted Ragnarök as a prophecy of a coming apocalypse in which the white race will overthrow who these Heathens perceive as their oppressors and establish a future society based on Heathen religion.Шаблон:Sfn The political scientist Jeffrey Kaplan believed that it was the "strongly millenarian and chiliastic overtones" of Ragnarök which helped convert white American racialists to the right wing of the Heathen movement.Шаблон:Sfn

Some practitioners do not emphasize belief in an afterlife, instead stressing the importance of behaviour and reputation in this world.Шаблон:Sfn In Icelandic Heathenry, there is no singular dogmatic belief about the afterlife.Шаблон:Sfn A common Heathen belief is that a human being has multiple souls, which are separate yet linked together.Шаблон:Sfnm It is common to find a belief in four or five souls, two of which survive bodily death: one of these, the hugr, travels to the realm of the ancestors, while the other, the fetch, undergoes a process of reincarnation into a new body.Шаблон:Sfn In Heathen belief, there are various realms that the hugr can enter, based in part on the worth of the individual's earthly life; these include the hall of Valhalla, ruled over by Odin, or Sessrúmnir, the hall of Freyja.Шаблон:Sfn Beliefs regarding reincarnation vary widely among Heathens, although one common belief is that individuals are reborn within their family or clan.Шаблон:Sfnm

Morality and ethics

A man and a woman standing outdoors by a tree, wearing red and white robes

A 2011 Heathen blót in Humlamaden near Veberöd in Lund, Sweden

In Heathenry, moral and ethical views are based on the perceived ethics of Iron Age and Early Medieval northwestern Europe,Шаблон:Sfn in particular the actions of heroic figures who appear in Old Norse sagas.Шаблон:Sfn Evoking a life-affirming ethos,Шаблон:Sfn Heathen ethics focus on the ideals of honor, courage, integrity, hospitality, and hard work, and strongly emphasize loyalty to family.Шаблон:Sfnm It is common for practitioners to be expected to keep their word, particularly sworn oaths.Шаблон:Sfn There is thus a strong individualist ethos focused around personal responsibility,Шаблон:Sfnm and a common motto within the Heathen community is that "We are our deeds".Шаблон:Sfn Most Heathens reject the concept of sin and believe that guilt is a destructive rather than useful concept.Шаблон:Sfn

Some Heathen communities have formalized such values into an ethical code, the Nine Noble Virtues (NNV), which is based largely on the Hávamál from the Poetic Edda.Шаблон:Sfnm This was first developed by the founders of the UK-based Odinic Rite in the 1970s,Шаблон:Sfn although it has spread internationally, with 77% of respondents to a 2015 survey of Heathens reporting its use in some form.Шаблон:Sfn There are different forms of the NNV, with the number nine having symbolic associations in Norse mythology.Шаблон:Sfn Opinion is divided on the NNV; some practitioners deem them too dogmatic,Шаблон:Sfn while others eschew them for not having authentic roots in historical Germanic culture,Шаблон:Sfn negatively viewing them as an attempt to imitate the Ten Commandments.Шаблон:Sfnm Their use is particularly unpopular in Nordic countries,Шаблон:Sfnm and has been observed declining in the United States.Шаблон:Sfn

Within the Heathen community of the United States, gender roles are based upon perceived ideals and norms found in Early Medieval northwestern Europe, in particular as they are presented in Old Norse sources.Шаблон:Sfn Among male American Heathens there is a trend toward hypermasculinized behaviour,Шаблон:Sfn while a gendered division of labor—in which men are viewed as providers and women seen as being responsible for home and children—is also widespread among Heathens in the U.S.Шаблон:Sfn Due to its focus on traditional attitudes to sex and gender—values perceived as socially conservative in Western nations—it has been argued that American Heathenry's ethical system is far closer to traditional Christian morals than the ethical systems espoused in many other Western Pagan religions such as Wicca.Шаблон:Sfn A 2015 survey of the Heathen community nevertheless found that a greater percentage of Heathens were opposed to traditional gender rules than in favor of them, with this being particularly the case in northern Europe.Шаблон:Sfn

A table on which fruits and some wooden icons are situated

A 2010 outdoor altar at the Springblót at Gamla Uppsala, Uppland, Sweden

The sociologist Jennifer Snook noted that as with all religions, Heathenry is "intimately connected" to politics, with practitioners' political and religious beliefs influencing one another.Шаблон:Sfn As a result of the religion's emphasis on honoring the land and its wights, many Heathens take an interest in ecological issues,Шаблон:Sfnm with many considering their faith to be a nature religion.Шаблон:Sfn Heathen groups have participated in tree planting, raising money to purchase woodland, and campaigning against the construction of a railway between London and the Channel Tunnel in Southeastern England.Шаблон:Sfn Many Germanic Neopagans are also concerned with the preservation of heritage sites,Шаблон:Sfnm and some practitioners have expressed concern regarding archaeological excavation of prehistoric and Early Medieval burials, believing that it is disrespectful to the individuals interred, whom Heathens widely see as their ancestors.Шаблон:Sfn

Ethical debates within the community also arise when some practitioners believe that the religious practices of certain co-religionists conflict with the religion's "conservative ideas of proper decorum".Шаблон:Sfn For instance, while many Heathens eschew worship of the Norse god Loki, deeming him a baleful wight, his gender-bending nature has made him attractive to many LGBT Heathens. Those who adopt the former perspective have thus criticized Lokeans as effeminate and sexually deviant.Шаблон:Sfnm Views on homosexuality and LGBT rights remain a source of tension within the community.Шаблон:Sfn Some right-wing Heathen groups view homosexuality as being incompatible with a family-oriented ethos and thus censure same-sex sexual activity.Шаблон:Sfnm Other groups legitimize openness toward LGBT practitioners by reference to the gender-bending actions of Thor and Odin in Norse mythology.Шаблон:Sfn There are, for instance, homosexual and transgender members of The Troth, a prominent U.S. Heathen organisation.Шаблон:Sfnm Many Heathen groups in northern Europe perform same-sex marriages,Шаблон:Sfn and a group of self-described "Homo-Heathens" marched in the 2008 Stockholm Pride carrying a statue of the god Freyr.Шаблон:Sfn

Rites and practices

In Anglophone countries, Heathen groups are typically called kindreds or hearths, or alternately sometimes as fellowships, tribes, or garths.Шаблон:Sfnm These are small groups, often family units,Шаблон:Sfn and usually consist of between five and fifteen members.Шаблон:Sfn They are often bound together by oaths of loyalty,Шаблон:Sfnm with strict screening procedures regulating the admittance of new members.Шаблон:Sfn Prospective members may undergo a probationary period before they are fully accepted and welcomed into the group,Шаблон:Sfn while other groups remain closed to all new members.Шаблон:Sfn Heathen groups are largely independent and autonomous, although they typically network with other Heathen groups, particularly in their region.Шаблон:Sfnm There are other followers of the religion who are not affiliated with such groups, operating as solitary practitioners, with these individuals often remaining in contact with other practitioners through social media.Шаблон:Sfnm A 2015 survey found that the majority of Heathens identified as solitary practitioners, with northern Europe constituting an exception to this; here, the majority of Heathens reported involvement in groups.Шаблон:Sfn

A wooden table indoors on which have been placed wooden icons

A Heathen altar for the Yule feast in Gothenburg, Sweden. The painted tablet at the back depicts Sunna, the two larger wooden idols Odin (left) and Frey (right). In front of them there are the three Norns, and in the front row a red Thor and other idols. In front of the cult images are two ritual hammers.

Priests are often termed godhi, while priestesses are gydhja, adopting Old Norse terms meaning "god-man" and "god-woman" respectively, with the plural term being gothar.Шаблон:Sfnm These individuals are rarely seen as intermediaries between practitioners and deities, instead having the role of facilitating and leading group ceremonies and being learned in the lore and traditions of the religion.Шаблон:Sfnm Many kindreds believe that anyone can take on the position of priest, with members sharing organisational duties and taking turns in leading the rites.Шаблон:Sfn In other groups, it is considered necessary for the individual to gain formal credentials from an accredited Heathen organisation in order to be recognised as a priest.Шаблон:Sfnm In a few groups—particularly those of the early 20th century which operated as secret societies—the priesthood is modelled on an initiatory system of ascending degrees akin to Freemasonry.Шаблон:Sfn

Heathen rites often take place in non-public spaces, particularly in a practitioner's home.Шаблон:Sfn In other cases, Heathen places of worship have been established on plots of land specifically purchased for the purpose; these can represent either a hörg, which is a sanctified place within nature like a grove of trees, or a hof, which is a wooden temple.Шаблон:Sfn The Heathen community has made various attempts to construct hofs in different parts of the world.Шаблон:Sfn In 2014 the Ásaheimur Temple was opened in Efri Ás, Skagafjörður, Iceland,^[1] while in 2014 a British Heathen group called the Odinist Fellowship opened a temple in a converted 16th-century chapel in Newark, Nottinghamshire.^[2] Heathens have also adopted archaeological sites as places of worship.Шаблон:Sfn For instance, British practitioners have assembled for rituals at the Nine Ladies stone circle in Derbyshire,Шаблон:Sfn the Rollright Stones in Warwickshire,Шаблон:Sfn and the White Horse Stone in Kent.Шаблон:Sfnm Swedish Heathens have done the same at Gamla Uppsala, and Icelandic practitioners have met at Þingvellir.Шаблон:Sfn

Heathen groups assemble for rituals in order to mark rites of passage, seasonal observances, oath takings, rites devoted to a specific deity, and for rites of need.Шаблон:Sfn These rites also serve as identity practices which mark the adherents out as Heathens.Шаблон:Sfn Strmiska noted that in Iceland, Heathen rituals had been deliberately constructed in an attempt to recreate or pay tribute to the ritual practices of pre-Christian Icelanders, although there was also space in which these rituals could reflect innovation, changing in order to suit the tastes and needs of contemporary practitioners.Шаблон:Sfn In addition to meeting for ritual practices, many Heathen kindreds also organize study sessions to meet and discuss Medieval texts pertaining to pre-Christian religion;Шаблон:Sfn among U.S. Heathens, it is common to refer to theirs as a "religion with homework".Шаблон:Sfn

During religious ceremonies, many adherents choose to wear clothing that imitates the styles of dress worn in Iron Age and Early Medieval northern Europe, sometimes termed "garb".Шаблон:Sfnm They also often wear symbols indicating their religious allegiance. The most commonly used sign among Heathens is Mjölnir, or Thor's hammer, which is worn as a pendant, featured in Heathen art, and used as a gesture in ritual. It is sometimes used to express a particular affinity with the god Thor, however is also often used as a symbol of Heathenism as a whole, in particular representing the resilience and vitality of the religion.Шаблон:Sfnm Another commonly used Heathen symbol is the valknut, used to represent the god Odin or Woden.Шаблон:Sfn Practitioners also commonly decorate their material—and sometimes themselves, in the form of tattoos—with runes, the alphabet used by Early Medieval Germanic languages.Шаблон:Sfn

Blót and sumbel

Four figures in medieval period costume stand outside on a grassy area. The image is misty.

The Swedish Asatru Society holding a 2008 blót near to Österlen in Scania

The most important religious rite for Heathens is called blót, which constitutes a ritual in which offerings are provided to the gods.Шаблон:Sfnm Blót typically takes place outdoors, and usually consists of an offering of mead, which is contained within a bowl. The gods are invoked and requests expressed for their aid, as the priest uses a sprig or branch of an evergreen tree to sprinkle mead onto both statues of the deities and the assembled participants. This procedure might be scripted or largely improvised. Finally, the bowl of mead is poured onto a fire, or onto the earth, as a final libation to the gods.Шаблон:Sfnm Sometimes, a communal meal is held afterward; in some groups this is incorporated as part of the ritual itself.Шаблон:Sfnm In other instances, the blót is simpler and less ritualized; in this case, it can involve a practitioner setting some food aside, sometimes without words, for either gods or wights.Шаблон:Sfn Some Heathens perform such rituals on a daily basis, although for others it is a more occasional performance.Шаблон:Sfn Aside from honoring deities, communal blóts also serve as a form of group bonding.Шаблон:Sfnm

In Iron Age and Early Medieval northern Europe, the term blót was at times applied to a form of animal sacrifice performed to thank the deities and gain their favor.Шаблон:Sfnm Such sacrifices have generally proved impractical for most modern practitioners or altogether rejected, due in part to the fact that skills in animal slaughter are not widely taught, while the slaughter of animals is regulated by government in Western countries.Шаблон:Sfn The Icelandic group Ásatrúarfélagið for instance explicitly rejects animal sacrifice.^[3]

Файл:Vårblot Blotgåvor 2009-03-20.jpg

An apple and a slice of home-made pizza given as blót offerings in Gothenburg, Sweden

In 2007 Strmiska noted that a "small but growing" number of Heathen practitioners in the U.S. had begun performing animal sacrifice as a part of blót.Шаблон:Sfn Such Heathens conceive of the slaughtered animal as a gift to the gods, and sometimes also as a "traveller" who is taking a message to the deities.Шаблон:Sfn Groups who perform such sacrifices typically follow the procedure outlined in the Heimskringla: the throat of the sacrificial animal is slashed with a sharp knife, and the blood is collected in a bowl before being sprinkled onto both participants of the rite and statues of the gods.Шаблон:Sfn Animals used for this purpose have included poultry as well as larger mammals like sheep and pigs, with the meat then being consumed by those attending the rite.Шаблон:Sfn Some practitioners have made alterations to this procedure: Strmiska noted two American Heathens who decided to use a rifle shot to the head to kill the animal swiftly, a decision made after they witnessed a blót in which the animal's throat was cut incorrectly and it slowly died in agony; they felt that such practices would have displeased the gods and accordingly brought harm upon those carrying out the sacrifice.Шаблон:Sfn

Another common ritual in Heathenry is sumbel, also spelled symbel, a ritual drinking ceremony in which the gods are toasted.Шаблон:Sfnm Sumbel often takes place following a blót.Шаблон:Sfnm In the U.S., the sumbel commonly involves a drinking horn being filled with mead and passed among the assembled participants, who either drink from it directly, or pour some into their own drinking vessels to consume. During this process, toasts are made, as are verbal tributes to gods, heroes, and ancestors. Then, oaths and boasts (promises of future actions) might be made, both of which are considered binding on the speakers due to the sacred context of the sumbel ceremony.Шаблон:Sfnm According to Snook, the sumbel has a strong social role, representing "a game of politicking, of socializing, cementing bonds of peace and friendship and forming new relationships" within the Heathen community.Шаблон:Sfn During her ethnographic research, Pizza observed an example of a sumbel that took place in Minnesota in 2006 with the purpose of involving Heathen children; rather than mead, the drinking horn contained apple juice, and the toasting accompanied the children taping pictures of apples to a poster of a tree that symbolized the apple tree of Iðunn from Norse mythology.Шаблон:Sfnm

Seiðr and galdr

A group of individuals standing outdoors in the dark

A Jólablót held on Iceland in 2009 by members of Ásatrúarfélagið

One religious practice sometimes found in Heathenry is seiðr, which has been described as "a particular shamanic trance ritual complex",Шаблон:Sfn although the appropriateness of using "shamanism" to describe seiðr is debatable.Шаблон:Sfn Contemporary seiðr developed during the 1990s out of the wider Neo-Shamanic movement,Шаблон:Sfn with some practitioners studying the use of trance-states in other faiths, such as Umbanda, first.Шаблон:Sfn A prominent form is high-seat or oracular seiðr, which is based on the account of Guðriðr in Eiríks saga. While such practices differ between groups, oracular seiðr typically involves a seiðr-worker sitting on a high seat while songs and chants are performed to invoke gods and wights. Drumming is then performed to induce an altered state of consciousness in the practitioner, who goes on a meditative journey in which they visualise travelling through the world tree to the realm of Hel. The assembled audience then provide questions for the seiðr-worker, with the latter offering replies based on information obtained in their trance-state.Шаблон:Sfnm Some seiðr-practitioners make use of entheogenic substances as part of this practice;Шаблон:Sfnm others explicitly oppose the use of any mind-altering drugs.Шаблон:Sfn

Not all Heathens practice seiðr; given its associations with both the ambiguity of sexuality and gender and the gods Odin and Loki in their unreliable trickster forms, many on the Heathen movement's right wing disapprove of it.Шаблон:Sfnm While there are heterosexual male practitioners,Шаблон:Sfn seiðr is largely associated with women and gay men,Шаблон:Sfnm and a 2015 survey of Heathens found that women were more likely to have engaged in it than men.Шаблон:Sfn One member of the Troth, Edred Thorsson, developed forms of seiðr which involved sex magic utilizing sado-masochistic techniques, something which generated controversy in the community.Шаблон:Sfnm Part of the discomfort that some Heathens feel toward seiðr surrounds the lack of any criteria by which the community can determine whether the seiðr-worker has genuinely received divine communication, and the fear that it will be used by some practitioners merely to bolster their own prestige.Шаблон:Sfn

Two people with their backs to the viewer stand in front of a large boulder in the middle of woodland. One of the figures is pouring a liquid onto the ground.

A 2010 Heathen rite at the Storbuckasten boulder in Sörby parish, Västergötland, Sweden

Galdr is another Heathen practice involving chanting or singing.Шаблон:Sfn As part of a galdr ceremony, runes or rune poems are also sometimes chanted, in order to create a communal mood and allow participants to enter into altered states of consciousness and request communication with deities.Шаблон:Sfn Some contemporary galdr chants and songs are influenced by Anglo-Saxon folk magical charms, such as Æcerbot and the Nine Herbs Charm. These poems were originally written in a Christian context, although practitioners believe that they reflect themes present in pre-Christian, shamanistic religion, and thus re-appropriate and "Heathanise" them for contemporary usage.Шаблон:Sfnm

Some Heathens practice forms of divination using runes; as part of this, items with runic markings on them might be pulled out of a bag or bundle, and read accordingly.Шаблон:Sfnm In some cases, different runes are associated with different deities, one of the nine realms, or aspects of life.Шаблон:Sfn It is common for Heathens to utilize the Common Germanic Futhark as a runic alphabet, although some practitioners instead adopt the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc or the Younger Futhark.Шаблон:Sfnm Some non-Heathens also use runes for divinatory purposes, with books on the subject being common in New Age bookstores.Шаблон:Sfn Some Heathens practice magic, but this is not regarded as an intrinsic part of Heathenry because it was not a common feature of pre-Christian rituals in Iron Age and Early Medieval Germanic Europe.Шаблон:Sfnm

Festivals

Шаблон:Main

A crowd of people walking along an outdoor path. They are led by individuals in robes, and a number carry flag banners.

Members of the Ásatrúarfélagið preparing for a Þingblót at Þingvellir, Iceland

Different Heathen groups celebrate different festivals according to their cultural and religious focus.Шаблон:Sfn The most widely observed Heathen festivals are Winter Nights, Yule, and Sigrblót, all of which were listed in his Heimskringla and are thus of ancient origin.Шаблон:Sfnm The first of these marks the start of winter in northern Europe, while the second marks Midwinter, and the last marks the beginning of summer.Шаблон:Sfn Additional festivals are also marked by Heathen practice throughout the year.Шаблон:Sfn These often include days which commemorate individuals who fought against the Christianization of northern Europe, or who led armies and settlers into new lands.Шаблон:Sfn Some Heathen groups hold festivals dedicated to a specific deity.Шаблон:Sfn

Some Heathens celebrate the eight festivals found in the Wheel of the Year, a tradition that they share with Wiccans and several other contemporary Pagan groups.Шаблон:Sfnm Others celebrate only six of these festivals, as represented by a six-spoked Wheel of the Year.Шаблон:Sfn The use of such festivals is criticized by other practitioners, who highlight that this system is of mid-20th century origin and does not link with the original religious celebrations of the pre-Christian Germanic world.Шаблон:Sfnm

Heathen festivals can be held on the same day each year, however are often celebrated by Heathen communities on the nearest available weekend, so that those practitioners who work during the week can attend.Шаблон:Sfn During these ceremonies, Heathens often recite poetry to honor the deities, which typically draw upon or imitate the Early Medieval poems written in Old Norse or Old English.Шаблон:Sfn Mead or ale is also typically drunk, with offerings being given to deities,Шаблон:Sfn while fires, torches, or candles are often lit.Шаблон:Sfn There are also regional meetings of Heathens known as Things. At these, religious rites are performed, while workshops, stalls, feasts, and competitive games are also present.Шаблон:Sfn In the U.S., there are two national gatherings, Althing and Trothmoot.Шаблон:Sfn

Racial issues

Шаблон:Quote box

The question of race represents a major source of division among Heathens, particularly in the United States.Шаблон:Sfnm Within the Heathen community, one viewpoint holds that race is entirely a matter of biological heredity, while the opposing position is that race is a social construct rooted in cultural heritage. In U.S. Heathen discourse, these viewpoints are described as the folkish and the universalist positions, respectively.Шаблон:Sfnm These two factions—which Kaplan termed the "racialist" and "nonracialist" camps—often clash.Шаблон:Sfn The universalist and folkish division has also spread to other countries,Шаблон:Sfn although has had less impact in the more ethnically homogeneous Iceland.Шаблон:Sfn A 2015 survey revealed a greater number of Heathens subscribed to universalist ideas than folkish ones.Шаблон:Sfn

Contrasting with this binary division, Gardell divides Heathenry in the United States into three groups according to their stances on race: the "anti-racist" group which denounces any association between the religion and racial identity, the "radical racist" faction which sees it as the natural religion of the Aryan race that should not be followed by members of any other racial group, and the "ethnic" faction which seeks a middle-path by acknowledging the religion's roots in northern Europe and its connection with those of northern European heritage.Шаблон:Sfn The religious studies scholar Stefanie von Schnurbein adopted Gardell's tripartite division, although referred to the groups as the "a-racist", "racial-religious", and "ethnicist" factions respectively.Шаблон:Sfn

An outdoor fire burning in front of a wooden post with an anthropomorphic face carved into the top

Altar for Haustblót in Bohus-Björkö, Västergötland, Sweden. The big wooden idol represents the god Frey, the smaller one next to it represents Freyja, the picture in front of it Sunna, and the small red idol Thor.

Exponents of the universalist, anti-racist approach believe that the deities of Germanic Europe can call anyone to their worship, regardless of ethnic background.Шаблон:Sfn This group rejects the folkish emphasis on race, believing that even if unintended, it can lead to the adoption of racist attitudes toward those of non-northern European ancestry.Шаблон:Sfn Universalist practitioners such as Stephan Grundy have emphasized the fact that ancient northern Europeans were known to marry and have children with members of other ethnic groups, and that in Norse mythology the Æsir also did the same with Vanir, Jötun, and humans, thus using such points to critique the racialist view.Шаблон:Sfnm Universalists welcome practitioners of Heathenry who are not of northern European ancestry; for instance, there are Jewish and African American members of the U.S.-based Troth, while many of its white members have spouses from different racial groups.Шаблон:Sfnm While sometimes retaining the idea of Heathenry as an indigenous religion, proponents of this view have sometimes argued that Heathenry is indigenous to the land of northern Europe, rather than indigenous to any specific race.Шаблон:Sfn Universalist Heathens often express frustration that some journalists depict Heathenry as an intrinsically racist movement,Шаблон:Sfn and use their online presence to stress their opposition to far-right politics.Шаблон:Sfn

Folkish practitioners deem Heathenry to be the indigenous religion of a biologically distinct race,Шаблон:Sfn which is conceptualised as being "white", "Nordic", or "Aryan".Шаблон:Sfn Some practitioners explain this by asserting that the religion is intrinsically connected to the collective unconscious of this race,Шаблон:Sfnm with prominent American Heathen Stephen McNallen developing this into a concept which he termed "metagenetics".Шаблон:Sfnm McNallen and many others in the "ethnic" faction of Heathenry explicitly deny that they are racist, although Gardell noted that their views would be deemed racist under certain definitions of the word.Шаблон:Sfn Gardell considered many "ethnic" Heathens to be ethnic nationalists,Шаблон:Sfn and many folkish practitioners express disapproval of multiculturalism and the mixture of different races in modern Europe, advocating racial separatism.Шаблон:Sfn This group's discourse contains much talk of "ancestors" and "homelands", concepts that may be very vaguely defined.Шаблон:Sfn Ethno-centrist Heathens are heavily critical of their universalist counterparts, often declaring that the latter have been misled by New Age literature and political correctness.Шаблон:Sfn Those adopting the "ethnic" folkish position have been criticized by both universalist and ethno-centrist factions, the former deeming "ethnic" Heathenry a front for racism and the latter deeming its adherents race traitors for their failure to fully embrace white supremacism.Шаблон:Sfn

Some folkish Heathens are white supremacists and explicit racists,Шаблон:Sfnm representing a "radical racist" faction that favours the terms Odinism, Wotanism, and Wodenism.Шаблон:Sfnm These individuals inhabit "the most distant reaches" of modern Paganism, according to Kaplan.Шаблон:Sfn The borders between this form of Heathenry and National Socialism (Nazism) are "exceedingly thin",Шаблон:Sfn with its adherents having paid tribute to Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany,Шаблон:Sfn and absorbed influences from Esoteric Nazism.Шаблон:Sfn Rejecting Christianity as a Jewish creation,Шаблон:Sfn they believe that the white race is facing extinction at the hands of a Jewish world conspiracy.Шаблон:Sfnm Many in the inner circle of The Order, a white supremacist militia active in the U.S. during the 1980s, called themselves Odinists,Шаблон:Sfn and various racist Heathens have espoused the Fourteen Words slogan developed by the Order member David Lane.Шаблон:Sfn Some white supremacist organisations, such as the Order of Nine Angles and the Black Order, combine elements of Heathenism with Satanism,Шаблон:Sfn although other racist Heathens, such as Wotansvolk's Ron McVan, reject the integration of these differing religions.Шаблон:Sfn

History

Romanticist and Völkisch predecessors

Шаблон:Main

An elderly, bearded white man wearing glasses and a beret

Guido von List, who promoted an early form of Heathenry

During the late 18th and 19th centuries, German Romanticism focused increasing attention on the pre-Christian belief systems of Germanic Europe, with various Romanticist intellectuals expressing the opinion that these ancient religions were "more natural, organic and positive" than Christianity.Шаблон:Sfn Such an attitude was promoted by the scholarship of Romanticist intellectuals like Johann Gottfried Herder, Jacob Grimm, and Wilhelm Grimm.Шаблон:Sfn This development went in tandem with a growth in nationalism and the idea of the volk, contributing to the establishment of the Völkisch movement in German-speaking Europe. Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke considered the historian Felix Dahn one of the earliest forerunners of the phenomenon with his popular 1877 novel Ein Kampf un Rom.Шаблон:Sfn Criticising the Jewish roots of Christianity, in 1900 the Germanist Ernst Wachler published a pamphlet calling for the revival of a racialized ancient German religion Шаблон:Sfnm Шаблон:Sfn Other writers such as Ludwig Fahrenkrog supported his call, resulting in the formation of both the Bund für Persönlichkeitskultur (League for the Culture of the Personality) and the Deutscher Orden in 1911 and then the Germanische-Deutsche Religionsgemeinschaft (Germanic-German Religious Community) in 1912.Шаблон:Sfn

Another development of Heathenry emerged within the occult völkisch movement known as Ariosophy.Шаблон:Sfn One of these völkisch Ariosophists was the Austrian occultist Guido von List, who established a religion that he termed "Wotanism", with an inner core that he referred to as "Armanism".Шаблон:Sfnm List's Wotanism was based heavily on the Eddas,Шаблон:Sfn although over time it was increasingly influenced by the Theosophical Society's teachings.Шаблон:Sfn List's ideas were transmitted in Germany by prominent right-wingers, and adherents to his ideas were among the founders of the Reichshammerbund in Leipzig in 1912, and they included individuals who held key positions in the Germanenorden.Шаблон:Sfn The Thule Society founded by Rudolf von Sebottendorf developed from the Germanenorden, and it displayed a Theosophically influenced interpretation of Norse mythology.Шаблон:Sfn

A middle-aged white man wearing a suit. He has a receding hairline and a large, bushy moustache.

Jakob Wilhelm Hauer, leader of the German Faith Movement in the 1930s

In 1933, the eclectic German Faith Movement (Deutsche Glaubensbewegung) was founded by the religious studies scholar Jakob Wilhelm Hauer, who wanted to unite these disparate Heathen groups. While active throughout the Nazi era, his hopes that his "German Faith" would be declared the official faith of Nazi Germany were thwarted.Шаблон:Sfnm The Heathen movement probably never had more than a few thousand followers during its 1920s heyday, however it held the allegiance of many middle-class intellectuals, including journalists, artists, illustrators, scholars, and teachers, and thus exerted a wider influence on German society.Шаблон:Sfn

The völkisch occultists—among them Pagans like List and Christians like Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels—"contributed importantly to the mood of the Nazi era".Шаблон:Sfn Few had a direct influence on the Nazi Party leadership, with one prominent exception: Karl Maria Wiligut was both a friend and a key influence on the Schutzstaffel (SS) leader Heinrich Himmler.Шаблон:Sfn Wiligut professed ancestral-clairvoyant memories of ancient German society, proclaiming that "Wotanism" was in conflict with another ancient religion, "Irminenschaft", which was devoted to a messianic Germanic figure known as Krist, who was later wrongly transformed into the figure of Jesus.Шаблон:Sfn Many Heathen groups disbanded during the Nazi period,Шаблон:Sfn and they were only able to re-establish themselves after World War II, in West Germany, where freedom of religion had been re-established.Шаблон:Sfn After the defeat of Nazi Germany, there was a social stigma surrounding völkisch ideas and groups,Шаблон:Sfn along with a common perception that the mythologies of the pre-Christian Germanic societies had been tainted through their usage by the Nazi administration, an attitude that to some extent persisted into the 21st century.Шаблон:Sfn

The völkisch movement also manifested itself in 1930s Norway within the milieu surrounding such groups as the Ragnarok Circle and Hans S. Jacobsen's Tidsskriftet Ragnarok journal. Prominent figures involved in this milieu were the writer Per Imerslund and the composer Geirr Tveitt, although it left no successors in post-war Norway.Шаблон:Sfnm A variant of "Odinism" was developed by the Australian Alexander Rud Mills, who published The Odinist Religion (1930) and established the Anglecyn Church of Odin. Politically racialist, Mills viewed Odinism as a religion for what he considered to be the "British race", and he deemed it to be in a cosmic battle with the Judeo-Christian religion.Шаблон:Sfnm Having formulated "his own unique blend" of Ariosophy,Шаблон:Sfn Mills was heavily influenced by von List's writings.Шаблон:Sfn Some of Heathenry's roots have also been traced back to the "back to nature" movement of the early 20th century, among them the Kibbo Kift and the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry.Шаблон:Sfn

Modern development

An elderly man wearing red and white robes standing in an open area

Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson, leader of the Icelandic Ásatrúarfélagið, at a blót in 1991

In the early 1970s, Heathen organisations emerged in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and Iceland, largely independently from each other.Шаблон:Sfnm This has been partly attributed to the wider growth of the modern Pagan movement during the 1960s and 1970s, as well as the development of the New Age milieu, both of which encouraged the establishment of new religious movements intent on reviving pre-Christian belief systems.Шаблон:Sfnm Further Heathen groups then emerged in the 1990s and 2000s, many of which distanced themselves from overtly political agendas and placed a stronger emphasis on historical authenticity than their 1960s and 1970s forebears.Шаблон:Sfn

Heathenry emerged in the United States during the 1960s.Шаблон:Sfn In 1969 the Danish Heathen Else Christensen established the Odinist Fellowship at her home in the U.S. state of Florida.Шаблон:Sfnm Heavily influenced by Mills' writings,Шаблон:Sfnm she began publishing a magazine, The Odinist,Шаблон:Sfnm which placed greater emphasis on right-wing and racialist ideas than theological ones.Шаблон:Sfnm Stephen McNallen first founded the Viking Brotherhood in the early 1970s, before creating the Asatru Free Assembly in 1976, which broke up in 1986 amid widespread political disagreements after McNallen's repudiation of neo-Nazis within the group. In the 1990s, McNallen founded the Asatru Folk Assembly (AFA), an ethnically oriented Heathen group headquartered in California.Шаблон:Sfnm Meanwhile, Valgard Murray and his kindred in Arizona founded the Ásatrú Alliance (AA) in the late 1980s, which shared the AFA's perspectives on race and which published the Vor Tru newsletter.Шаблон:Sfnm In 1987, Stephen Flowers and James Chisholm founded The Troth, which was incorporated in Texas. Taking an inclusive, non-racialist view, it soon grew into an international organisation.Шаблон:Sfnm

In Iceland, the influence of pre-Christian belief systems still pervaded the country's cultural heritage into the 20th century.Шаблон:Sfnm There, farmer Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson founded the Heathen group Ásatrúarfélagið in 1972, which initially had 12 members.Шаблон:Sfnm Beinteinsson served as Allsherjargodi (chief priest) until his death in 1993, when he was succeeded by Jormundur Ingi Hansen.Шаблон:Sfnm As the group expanded in size, Hansen's leadership caused schisms, and to retain the unity of the movement, he stepped down and was replaced by Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson in 2003, by which time Ásatrúarfélagið had accumulated 777 members and played a visible role in Icelandic society.Шаблон:Sfn In England, the British Committee for the Restoration of the Odinic Rite was established by John Yeowell in 1972.Шаблон:Sfnm In 1992, Mark Mirabello published Odin Brotherhood, in which he wrote of the existence of a secret society of Odinists; most British Heathens doubt its existence.Шаблон:Sfnm

Three middle-aged white men sitting at a camping table outdoors

American Heathens Stephen McNallen (left) and Michael "Valgard" Murray (center), with Eric "Hnikar" Wood (right) at the 2000 Althing

In Sweden, the first Heathen groups developed in the 1970s; early examples included the Breidablikk-Gildet (Guild of Breidablikk) founded in 1975 and the Telge Fylking founded in 1987, the latter of which diverged from the former by emphasising a non-racialist interpretation of the religion.Шаблон:Sfnm In 1994, the Sveriges Asatrosamfund (Swedish Asatru Assembly) was founded, growing to become the largest Heathen organisation in the country.Шаблон:Sfn The first Norwegian Heathen group, Blindern Åsatrulag, was established as a student group at the University of Oslo in the mid-1980s,Шаблон:Sfnm while the larger Åsatrufellesskapet Bifrost was established in 1996; after a schism in that group, the Foreningen Forn Sed, now Forn Sed Norge, was formed in 1998.Шаблон:Sfn In Denmark, a small group was founded near to Copenhagen in 1986, however a wider Heathen movement would not appear until the 1990s, when a group calling itself Forn Siðr developed.Шаблон:Sfnm

In Germany, various groups were established that explicitly rejected their religion's völkisch and right-wing past, most notably Rabenclan (Raven's Clan) in 1994 and Nornirs Ætt (Kin of the Norns) in 2005.Шаблон:Sfn Several foreign Heathen organisations also established a presence in the German Heathen scene; in 1994 the Odinic Rite Deutschland (Odinic Rite Germany) was founded, although it later declared its independence and became the Verein für germanisches Heidentum (VfgH; Society for Germanic Paganism), while the Troth also created a German group, Eldaring, which declared its independence in 2000.Шаблон:Sfn The first organised Heathen groups in the Czech Republic emerged in the late 1990s.Шаблон:Sfn From 2000 to 2008, a Czech Heathen group that adopted a Pan-Germanic approach to the religion was active under the name of Heathen Hearts from Biohaemum.Шаблон:Sfn

Heathen influences were apparent in forms of black metal from the 1990s, where lyrics and themes often expressed a longing for a pre-Christian "Northern past"; the mass media typically associated this music genre with Satanism.Шаблон:Sfn The Pagan metal genre—which emerged from the fragmentation of the extreme metal scene in northern Europe during the early 1990sШаблон:Sfn—came to play an important role in the North European Pagan scene.Шаблон:Sfn Many musicians involved in Viking metal were also practicing Heathens,Шаблон:Sfn with many metal bands embracing the heroic masculinity embodied in Norse mythological figures like Odin and Thor.Шаблон:Sfn Heathen themes also appeared in the neofolk genre.Шаблон:Sfn From the mid-1990s, the Internet greatly aided the propagation of Heathenry in various parts of the world.Шаблон:Sfnm That decade also saw the strong growth of racist Heathenry among those incarcerated within the U.S. prison system as a result of outreach programs established by various Heathen groups,Шаблон:Sfnm a project begun in the 1980s.Шаблон:Sfn During this period, many Heathen groups also began to interact increasingly with other ethnic-oriented Pagan groups in Eastern Europe, such as Lithuanian Romuva, and many joined the World Congress of Ethnic Religions upon its formation in 1998.Шаблон:Sfn

Demographics

Four individuals stand by an outdoor table. A tall stone wall is visible in the background.

An Odinist wedding in Spain, 2010

Adherents of Heathenry can be found in Europe, North America, and Australasia,Шаблон:Sfnm with more recent communities also establishing in Latin America.Шаблон:Sfn They are mostly found in those areas with a Germanic cultural inheritance, although they are present in several other regions.Шаблон:Sfn In 2007, the religious studies scholar Graham Harvey stated that it was impossible to develop a precise figure for the number of Heathens across the world.Шаблон:Sfn A self-selected census in 2013 found 16,700 members in 98 countries, the bulk of whom lived in the United States.Шаблон:Sfnm^[4] In 2016, Schnurbein stated that there were probably no more than 20,000 Heathens globally.Шаблон:Sfn

Schnurbein noted that, while there were some exceptions, most Heathen groups were 60–70% male in their composition.Шаблон:Sfn On the basis of his sociological research, Joshua Marcus Cragle agreed that the religion contained a greater proportion of men than women, but observed that there was a more even balance between the two in northern and western Europe than in other regions.Шаблон:Sfn He also found that the Heathen community contained a greater percentage of transgender individuals, at 2%, than is estimated to be present in the wider population.Шаблон:Sfn Similarly, Cragle's research found a greater proportion of LGBT practitioners within Heathenry (21%) than wider society, although noted that the percentage was lower than in other forms of modern Paganism.Шаблон:Sfn Cragle also found that in every region except Latin America, the majority of Heathens were middle-aged,Шаблон:Sfn and that most were of European descent.Шаблон:Sfn

Many Heathens cite a childhood interest in German folk tales or Norse myths as having led them to take an interest in Heathenry; others have instead attributed their introduction to depictions of Norse religion in popular culture.Шаблон:Sfnm Others involved themselves in the religion after experiencing direct revelation through dreams, which they interpret as having been provided by the gods.Шаблон:Sfnm As with other religions, a sensation of "coming home" has also been reported by many Heathens who have converted to the movement,Шаблон:Sfnm however Calico thought such a narrative was "not characteristic" of most U.S. Heathens.Шаблон:Sfn Pizza suggested that, on the basis of her research among the Heathen community in the American Midwest, that many Euro-American practitioners were motivated to join the movement both out of a desire to "find roots" within historical European cultures and to meet "a genuine need for spiritual connections and community".Шаблон:Sfn

Cragle's 2015 survey indicated that 45% of Heathens had been raised as Christians, although 21% had previously had no religious affiliation or been atheists or agnostics.Шаблон:Sfn Practitioners typically live within Christian majority societies, however often state that Christianity has little to offer them.Шаблон:Sfn In referring to Heathens in the U.S., Snook, Thad Horrell, and Kristen Horton noted that practitioners "almost always formulate oppositional identities" to Christianity.Шаблон:Sfn Through her research, Schnurbein found that during the 1980s many Heathens in Europe had been motivated to join the religion in part by their own anti-Christian ethos, but that this attitude had become less prominent among the Heathen community as the significance of the Christian churches had declined in Western nations after that point.Шаблон:Sfn Conversely, in 2018 Calico noted that a "deep antipathy" to Christianity was still "quite close to the surface for many American Heathens",Шаблон:Sfn with anti-Christian sentiment often being expressed through humor in that community.Шаблон:Sfn Many Heathens are also involved in historical reenactment, focusing on the early medieval societies of Germanic Europe; others are critical of this practice, believing that it blurs the boundary between real life and fantasy.Шаблон:Sfn Some adherents also practice Heathenry in tandem with other Pagan religions, such as Wicca or Druidry,Шаблон:Sfnm but many others look unfavorably on such religions for being too syncretic.Шаблон:Sfn

North America

Шаблон:Further

Файл:Baby naming ceremony, Heathen Freehold Society of British Columbia.jpg

A Heathen baby naming ceremony in British Columbia, Canada in 2010

The United States likely contains the largest Heathen community in the world.Шаблон:Sfn While deeming it impossible to calculate the exact size of the Heathen community in the U.S., in the mid-1990s the sociologist Jeffrey Kaplan estimated that there were around 500 active practitioners in the country, with a further thousand individuals on the periphery of the movement.Шаблон:Sfn He noted that the overwhelming majority of individuals in the American Heathen community were white, male, and young. Most had at least an undergraduate degree, and worked in a mix of white collar and blue collar jobs.Шаблон:Sfn

The Pagan Census project led by Helen A. Berger, Evan A. Leach, and Leigh S. Shaffer gained 60 responses from Heathens in the U.S. Of these respondents, 65% were male and 35% female, which Berger, Leach, and Shaffer noted was the "opposite" of the female majority trend within the rest of the country's Pagan community.Шаблон:Sfn The majority had a college education, but were generally less well educated than the wider Pagan community, and also had a lower median income.Шаблон:Sfn From her experience within the community, Snook concurred that the majority of American Heathens were male, adding that most were white and middle-aged,Шаблон:Sfn but believed that there had been a growth in the proportion of female Heathens in the U.S. since the mid-1990s.Шаблон:Sfn Subsequent assessments have suggested a larger support base; 10,000 to 20,000 according to McNallen in 2006,^[5] and 7,878 according to the 2014 census.^[4]Шаблон:Sfn In 2018, the scholar of religion Jefferson F. Calico suggested that it was likely there were between 8000 and 20,000 Heathens in the U.S.Шаблон:Sfn

Europe

Шаблон:Further

Файл:Veturnáttablót 2009.JPG

A 2009 blót held by Heathens in Iceland

In the United Kingdom Census 2001, 300 people registered as Heathen in England and Wales.Шаблон:Sfn Many Heathens followed the advice of the Pagan Federation (PF) and simply described themselves as "Pagan", while other Heathens did not specify their religious beliefs.Шаблон:Sfn In the 2011 census, 1,958 people self-identified as Heathen in England and Wales.^[6]

By 2003, the Icelandic Heathen organisation Ásatrúarfélagið had 777 members,Шаблон:Sfn by 2015, it reported 2,400 members,^[7] and by January 2017 it numbered 3,583 members, constituting just over 1% of the Icelandic population.^[8] In Iceland, Heathenry has an impact larger than the number of its adherents.Шаблон:Sfn Based on his experience researching Danish Heathens, Amster stated that while it was possible to obtain membership figures of Heathen organisations, it was "impossible to estimate" the number of unaffiliated solo practitioners.Шаблон:Sfn Conversely, in 2015, Gregorius estimated that there were at most a thousand Heathens in Sweden—both affiliated and unaffiliated—however observed that practitioners often perceived their numbers as being several times higher than this.Шаблон:Sfn Although noting that there were no clear figures available for the gender balance within the community, he cited practitioners who say that there are more men active within Swedish Heathen organisations.Шаблон:Sfn Schnurbein observed that most Heathens in Scandinavia were middle-class professionals aged between thirty and sixty.Шаблон:Sfn

There are a small number of Heathens in Poland, where they have established a presence on social media.Шаблон:Sfn The majority of these Polish Heathens belong to the non-racist wing of the movement.Шаблон:Sfn There are also a few Heathens in the Slovenian Pagan scene, where they are outnumbered by practitioners of Slavic Native Faith.Шаблон:Sfn Exponents of Heathenry are also found on websites in Serbia.Шаблон:Sfn In Russia, several far-right groups merge elements from Heathenry with aspects adopted from Slavic Native Faith and Russian Orthodox Christianity.Шаблон:Sfn There are also several Heathens in the Israeli Pagan scene.Шаблон:Sfn

References

Citations

Шаблон:Reflist

Sources

Шаблон:Refbegin

Шаблон:Refend

Партнерские ресурсы
Криптовалюты	Обмен криптовалют - www.bestchange.ru Криптовалютная биржа CoinEx Криптовалютная биржа Binance HIVE OS - операционная система для майнинга e4pool - Мультивалютный пул для майнинга.
Магазины	AliExpress — глобальная виртуальная (в Интернете) торговая площадка, предоставляющая возможность покупать товары производителей из КНР; computeruniverse.net - Интернет-магазин компьютеров(Промо код 5 Евро на первую покупку:FWWC3ZKQ);
Хостинг	DigitalOcean - американский провайдер облачных инфраструктур, с главным офисом в Нью-Йорке и с центрами обработки данных по всему миру;
Разное	Викиум - Онлайн-тренажер для мозга Like Центр - Центр поддержки и развития предпринимательства. Gamersbay - лучший магазин по бустингу для World of Warcraft. Ноотропы OmniMind N°1 - Усиливает мозговую активность. Повышает мотивацию. Улучшает память. Санкт-Петербургская школа телевидения - это федеральная сеть образовательных центров, которая имеет филиалы в 37 городах России. Lingualeo.com — интерактивный онлайн-сервис для изучения и практики английского языка в увлекательной игровой форме. Junyschool (Джунискул) – международная школа программирования и дизайна для детей и подростков от 5 до 17 лет, где ученики осваивают компьютерную грамотность, развивают алгоритмическое и креативное мышление, изучают основы программирования и компьютерной графики, создают собственные проекты: игры, сайты, программы, приложения, анимации, 3D-модели, монтируют видео. Умназия - Интерактивные онлайн-курсы и тренажеры для развития мышления детей 6-13 лет SkillBox - это один из лидеров российского рынка онлайн-образования. Среди партнеров Skillbox ведущий разработчик сервисного дизайна AIC, медиа-компания Yoola, первое и самое крупное русскоязычное аналитическое агентство Tagline, онлайн-школа дизайна и иллюстрации Bang! Bang! Education, оператор PR-рынка PACO, студия рисования Draw&Go, агентство performance-маркетинга Ingate, scrum-студия Sibirix, имидж-лаборатория Персона. «Нетология» — это университет по подготовке и дополнительному обучению специалистов в области интернет-маркетинга, управления проектами и продуктами, дизайна, Data Science и разработки. В рамках Нетологии студенты получают ценные теоретические знания от лучших экспертов Рунета, выполняют практические задания на отработку полученных навыков, общаются с экспертами и единомышленниками. Познакомиться со всеми продуктами подробнее можно на сайте https://netology.ru, линейка курсов и профессий постоянно обновляется. StudyBay Brazil – это онлайн биржа для португалоговорящих студентов и авторов! Студент получает уникальную работу любого уровня сложности и больше свободного времени, в то время как у автора появляется дополнительный заработок и бесценный опыт. Автор24 — самая большая в России площадка по написанию учебных работ: контрольные и курсовые работы, дипломы, рефераты, решение задач, отчеты по практике, а так же любой другой вид работы. Сервис сотрудничает с более 70 000 авторов. Более 1 000 000 работ уже выполнено. StudyBay – это онлайн биржа для англоязычных студентов и авторов! Студент получает уникальную работу любого уровня сложности и больше свободного времени, в то время как у автора появляется дополнительный заработок и бесценный опыт.

Английская Википедия:Heathenry (new religious movement)

Содержание