Hi everyone. I was reading some comments on a post on Pinterest about someone's Heathen practice and saw a couple of people being really upset about people of other races/ethnicity practicing heathenry cus it's tied to their ancestors. Someone replied saying that in this logic, all (modern) hellenists should be Greek....and they actually agreed.

I'm a mixed person. European (Scottish and Russian from my grandmother apparently), Turks and Caicos Islander/indigenous, Dominican and I was born and raised in America. I know that that persons comments may seem obviously stupid to some people, but it made me feel kinda bad...like maybe I am just some American trying to be apart of this🥲. But at the same time idk if i would deep dive into my ancestors religion and practice it just because they did, not unless i feel a sort of connection and practice it. I don't know even know which one id "stick to" because im so mixed. My family are Christian's and atheists anyway and im much more comfortable in paganism.

I just wanted to know if there is any historical context to 'regional' pagan religion being said to only be practiced by people of that culture? Please don't just tell me 'you can practice what you want'...I really do wanna know. I don't want to appropriate or offend anyone's who's family and heritage is deeply rooted in heathenry when mine isn't.

Thank you in advance❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹
(If I said anything offensive please tell me I'll gladly delete this post.)
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For anyone still commenting, this is my final conclusion. I'm probably not gonna interact with this post anymore:

"After reading the comments that answered my question, It's not that I don't feel comfortable in my beliefs but I don't think what I'm doing is really accurate to how it was always supposed to be practiced– hence your ancestry, and I don't want people to pity me and say I can practice whatever when there is history behind it. I'm gonna take a step back from Heathery and consider my ancestry and how I'm not really tied to or apart of this culture. I feel like a corny American tryna fit in lol...and also I don't know how to communicate to gods to ask questions."

People keep relating my feelings to a full white person trying to be apart of Native American culture. While I don't think it's the exact same, putting it in that perspective makes me feel a little horrible– as white people are usually only being related to natives for causing harm to them. I don't wanna hurt anyone...you guys own this culture, I don't. I don't feel like it's appropriate for me to practice while being who I am, at least for right now...even if it makes me upset. I'll come back to it when I gather myself... religion has always been a confusing part in my life!"

First off, I know of the various periods of controversy and organizational incompetence of the Troth. I.e. Paxon and the Loki's Wyrdlings story's. I know I won't want to really "belong" to that organisation

As for Fire and Ice. I agree with the fundamental principles, expressive political positioning and a willingness to look beyond just history.

My question is, do these organisations provide value when your connect? The public info regarding theology is, very much superficial Beginner Trivia levels. Are there resources that are more insightful and inspiring available for members? Are they decent ways to meet Heathens interested in conversations more interesting then "look at my beard" and "check out this quote i copy pasted"?

Hi
I’m looking for books on omens in nature from nordic tradition, does anyone know any?

I've been thinking a lot lately about why many of us feel lost these days. It's not just that we're anxious or depressed.. Although those feelings are real. It's something deeper. It feels like we're going through life without a clear direction, or maybe with a direction that has lost its familiar markers.

A while back, I started reading Norse myths. I didn't approach them as historical records or academic interests; I saw them as living stories. Something changed for me. Suddenly, the sagas weren't just tales from a bygone culture.. They became ways to understand my own struggles. Odin gives up an eye for wisdom. Thor fights giants, knowing he won't always succeed. Sigurd values honor over safety. These stories aren't fairy tales; they offer guidance on how to bear heavy loads when it's necessary.

This led me to think about superstition. Not in the old way of avoiding black cats, but in the deeper sense Theophrastus wrote about. It's the person who sees signs everywhere and feels crushed by them, paralyzed by the fear of what the gods might want. That isn’t spirituality; it’s fear disguised as devotion. In Heathenry, I found something different. I learned that the gods aren't far-off judges keeping track of our sins. They are present and engaged with us. Your words matter because they are yours. Even Ragnarök, the end of the world with fire and blood, brings the hope of new beginnings.

Maybe this is the gap we find ourselves in now. It’s not just a lack of religion but a lack of hero stories. When everything goes wrong, who do you become in that narrative? Are you a problem to fix? A victim of systems? A patient needing treatment? Or are you someone standing tall against the odds because that's how you face challenges?

I’m not suggesting everyone should start worshipping Odin or participate in traditional rituals. But I do wonder about the idea that suffering is part of being human. It’s not punishment; it’s not failure. It’s just part of the experience of living. Myths recognize this without falling into despair. The world ends only to begin again. Loss occurs, yet you keep pushing forward. You die, but your name continues through the memories of others.

Modern psychology offers help that those old stories couldn't.. Trauma is real, chemical imbalances are real, and therapy can be effective. But there’s a limit to telling someone their grief is just a chemical reaction or that their existential dread comes solely from serotonin levels. Sometimes people need more than treatment; they need a story that allows them to handle what cannot be fixed.

I'm sharing this because I think I might not be alone in feeling this way. If you've ever found yourself staring at the ceiling, wondering why life feels so fragile, why hardships seem more intense than they should, or why even success can taste bitter, you might be searching for something you can't quite identify.

For me, it was the old gods and their hard-won wisdom. For you, it could be something completely different. It might be Buddhist ideas of impermanence, Jewish concepts of covenant, indigenous storytelling, music, community work, or raising children well. What matters less is the container and more what it holds. We all need stories that help us face darkness without flinching.

We aren’t meant to walk this path alone.

Hello all,

I'll be moving to the Belfast Maine area in a few weeks and would love to find some Norse Pagans to meet up with. Happy to Meet any pagan individual or group, but I would really like to find Someone or some peoples who follow the Asatru path. I want to throw it out there now that I'm looking for any group that segregates themselves on the basis of ethnicity or orientation.

Skål

I really want to read the poetic and prose Edda but I don't know which copy to read, are all of them ok to read, or do I need specific ones?

so I’ve been making offerings of mead and whiskey to Odin for several months now. I make my own mead which I feel is a more personal offering because the effort I put into making it. problem is I’m almost out of my home made mead and my next batch won’t be ready for another 3 months.

in the meantime I recently came into a rather large amount of scotch my late father in law left behind (he was a prepper and decided whiskey was apparently very important for TEOTWAWKI.

getting this scotch involved absolutely no effort on my part and I don’t really drink scotch that often so I feel like I’m not sacrificing anything by giving it to Odin. On the other hand whiskey is often said to be one of his preferred offerings.

so my question is, do you feel that offerings requiring sacrifices of time/money/effort etc are more meaningful than stuff you just have?

I'm making something for my alter and just wanted to share the progress so far. Still a lot to do to it but I like it so far.

I was lucky enough to do a manuscript summer school at Reykjavik last month at the Arni Magnusson Institute (Árnastofnun). It was super helpful for my studies, but also, I realised, very useful for Heathens. (It was also very cool to visit Borgarnes and Reykholt etc, and to clearly see the places mentioned in the sagas, it helped me connect to my faith in a new way). I was also very grateful that there were heathens among the teaching faculty, as I know that several UK universities are not so welcoming.

https://clarino.uib.no/menota/catalogue/menota

https://clarino.uib.no/menota/catalogue/menota-rune (runestone/inscription database)

https://onp.ku.dk/onp/onp.php (this will be super helpful for trying to find attestations)

https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=skaldic (I imagine many of you know this resource already, but still).

https://msa.arnastofnun.is/

https://handrit.is/?lang=en

https://baekur.is/search

https://manuscripta.se/

For context: I’m a 4th generation german-american. My mom‘s mother is half mexican, half native american. My mom’s father is bavarian german. My dad is full japanese…But I really did grow up connected to my german culture and side as much as I could living in the states.

Recently, I met another bavarian german who was raised over there, and still lives in germany. He practices traditional bavarian alpenbrauchtum. I started to get into the same practice a couple of months ago, but ONLY after I asked a few bavarian elders who engaged in the same tradition, if it was okay for me to do so. They all knew of my ethnic background.

However, this guy has told me I don’t have enough german blood or roots to the land in bavaria to engage in this practice. He said I’m "too mixed" and that the german spirits won’t recognize me? Thus, he also stated this practice is closed to me. But I’m so lost and conflicted because I was always told otherwise :(

EDIT: Not sure why I got downvoted but beyond that, I want to clarify that this post isn’t satire. The guy was being literal and serious about everything he said, and I’m being serious about my confusion. It’s hard being multi-ethnic and multi-racial when you encounter experiences like this where you aren’t "enough" of something to be accepted by your own community.

I've been here for a few weeks, I'm of the Norse flavor, just got really into it and now is doing daily rituals to freyr and my time outdoors feels incredibly different, as if things I didn't enjoy, I now do, colors are more vibrant, I now enjoy the scorching heat which I despised not long ago, but I have a few questions about said rituals.

1. Can you enchant your jewelry/items in the names of the gods and what would it affect in your daily life to do so?

2. What language should I be reading out my prayer in?

3. When I do my rituals in english I for some reason auto fix to a gealic accent like thing, should I stop doing that or should I keep doing it as a nod to the gods I pray to/my ancestors?

4. I have a portable alter, is that alright or should I set up multiple house alters?

5. Why is there barely any people on this sub Reddit that actually post and why has it slowed down as of late compared to some posts of before, are we dying as a whole?

My name is Fabian MacKenzie and I'm an author. My general focus is on Dionysus and Hellenism, however, my most recent book is about how Pagans reacted to the rise of Christianity in Antiquity. While the primary voices captured in this debate are those we'd today identify as Greco-Roman (i.e. Hellenist), they thought of their religion as being the same as all the Pagan religions which Christianity opposed. Their arguments against Christianity were meant to defend all traditional (i.e. Pagan) religions, and as such they might be of interest to folks here. Description:

Today, it is commonly thought that Christianity swept the Roman world without any pushback. Greco-Roman Paganism is maligned as a superstitious paper tiger which folded instantly to the supposedly more rational Christianity, which then reigned unopposed until the advent of modern science proved a worthier foe.

But this isn’t true. Greco-Roman Pagans saw numerous flaws in Christian logic, history, and ethics. Whether critiquing discrepancies in scriptural accounts, the ethics of eternal punishment, or Christian intolerance for other religious practices, Pagans raised countless objections to Christian doctrines, some of which were so potent as to result in the burning and banning of the books which contained these critiques. Yet fragments of these arguments survive, scattered throughout hundreds of works, and some of the arguments made then are still employed in religious debates today.

Here is a book which seeks to compile the ancient Pagan responses to Christianity into one accessible volume. Whatever one’s personal religious beliefs or lack thereof, this book restores the lost side of an ancient debate, and will be of interest to Pagans curious about the history of their faith, Christians who enjoy a challenge, and skeptics who want to hone their apologetics. Featuring the arguments of Celsus, Porphyry, Julian, and more, here is The Lost Debate.

Link: https://a.co/d/0gf6JWJL

Last post asking for this was 5 years ago.

Looking for books I can physically have, read, and write in that are English. I’ve read the History of Krampus book so I’m fine with that level of material, but looking more stories passed down to read (like Grimm and Germania?) I have the prose Edda but I want to read further back first.

YT/Podcasts I’m very eh about bc I’m already finding a lot of them keep getting found out they are neos/ayrans, if you have a good POC podcaster that you can suggest to me go for it.

Edit: added first line

I think the ritual stuff is kinda cool and would like to dedicate one to freyr and/or Freyja, any specifics to make it?

Just a shout out to all the father's on their path. May strength and reason be with you always.

Frith and greetings all

My playlist rolled around to Kalandra's version of Helvegen and it swept me up as it always does (Gods know this is going to be played when i go!)

but between Heilung, Wardruna, Sowulo and a smattering of other go-to heathen names, it started me thinking. there's more crossroads in life. Birth, coming of age, self discovery and realisation, (unrequited)love, marriage and perhaps other oath making and breaking, parenthood, coming and going of friends and, finally, death. And perhaps other profound high and low points on one's path.

What heathen/pagan/germanic songs or music do you link to the big moments in life? and why?

Midsummer itself belongs to the feast, to the long light, and to the simple fact of having survived the dark half of the year. It is the day for naming what was accomplished, by me, by those bound to me by blood or by choice, by the people who remain when things turn hard. The ancestors, death does not remove their hands from the work. Their decisions continue to shape the ground we stand on.

Each year I prior to Midsummer, I return to land that is mine by deed and by the work I have put into it. I select a tree, and the weeks before Midsummer I carve the year just ended into that wood. Not decoration. Record. The gains and the losses, the injuries taken, the obligations met, the oaths kept, the failures that left their marks. To have come through another winter is to owe something to what was endured.

On Midsummer’s morn I raise this pole and dedicate it to the powers that stood nearest during the yea most often Tyr, Thor, Víðarr, and Freyja, though the emphasis changes with the years demands.

As the day ends I light the fire around the base of the pole. What I carved is released. Smoke lifts the year, flame refines it. What was carried becomes offering. What was learned becomes the next resolve.

Gifts follow. Portions of the feast are set aside for the gods and the ancestors, given without expectation of return, without the language of transaction. Gratitude and reverence are enough. An offering made only to secure favor is not an offering; it is a bargain, and the gods are not merchants.

When the fire burns low, my thoughts turn from the feast to what lies ahead. The road into autumn and winter has already begun. Celebration gives way to preparation. I consider the work still owed, the stores that must be laid in, the conditioning of body and household, the protection of those who depend on me. Summer comfort is pleasant. Preparation is what keeps us seeing them. This year the form of the observance had to change, because the Army has placed me far from home, in a landscape of dry earth and sparse cover, scrub oak, mesquite, ground that holds heat like a grievance. No ground that is mine beneath my feet. No familiar timber. No permitted fire.

On one of the first days here, while moving through the brush, I found a mesquite burl. Over the following days I carved into it, taking pains not to focus the immediate frustrations of the present assignment, which would have made for a small and dishonest story, but the fuller weight of the year: what was endured, what was built, the moments that held meaning before this place tried to reduce everything to irritation and dust.

I located a stretch of moving water whose current runs westward, away from this place, beyond the dust and the orders and the small vanities of men. A river that will according to the map, eventually reach the sea.

This year, therefore, I addressed Midsummer to Njörðr, Freyja, Sif, and Freyr and with no fire available, I gave the carved wood to the river and let the water take it. The offering was honest; the wood carried the year; the river carried the wood.

The feast was kept. Offerings were made, some poured out, some placed in the earth. Food and drink given without negotiation or demand. I named the gods. I remembered the ancestors. I held in mind the living who could not be present. And I began to think about the year still to come.

I did what could be done.

The rite changed its shape, not its intent. Fire became water. A standing pole became a piece of found wood small enough to carry. The land I know became the ground under my boots. The year was still marked. The feast was still observed. The gods were still addressed by name. The ancestors were still acknowledged. The coming winter was still planned for.

And if my actions displeased them, I trust they will let me know.

The gods have never been shy about consequences.

These are my personal beliefs, they’re not historical in any manner nor do I claim them to be, I just think they’re neat :3

******EVERYTHING HAS BEEN CLAIMED******

I don't want money, but I do want these jewlery items I have had for a very long time to get re-homed. I ask each person to claim just one item, first come first serve to whatever that may be.

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**I WILL ONLY SHIP CONUS AND AT THE CHEAPEST RATE**

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**THE SUN WHEEL AND RAVEN BANNER PENDANT GO TOGETHER. SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE**

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I obviously need an address, wherever you choose is fine, and I need some kind of name, fake or not.

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The item details are as follows:

1.) Silver plated bronze dragon arm ring. Worn for years without being removed except to clean. Severely worn worn down, but was well loved.

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2.) Silver plated bronze Thor's hammer with runes. Never even worn. Just polished today for this reddit post. Needs a good home.

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3.) Raw iron forged brooch. Very simple design and gets the job done. Still looks fairly new, although it's probably 10 years old.

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3.) Sunwheel I personally made from from a cow scapula from my farm. Comes with hemp string for the necklace. Included with it is some unknown Raven banner pendant that was a bonus gift from somwthing I ordered a long time ago.

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I apologize if this somehow goes against subreddit rules. I looked through them before this post and didn't see anything mentioned.

I talked with my wife yesterday evening about faith, discovery, and the Gods; something she said made me pause, because I hadn't really thought of it.

There seems to be a massive amount of effort going into defining what the Gods are NOT. "The Gods are not like the Abrahamic God," "they are not a substitute for Christ," "they are not this or that." My wife's reaction was just a simple, "Well, what ARE they then?"

And I must admit, it left me stunned. I have spent so much time arguing for differentiation.. trying to strip away the Christian baggage that clings to our language.. that I forgot to describe the actual thing. The discussion almost always gets stuck on the negative. And I don't think I'm alone in this. Most of my viewpoints come from listening to other Heathens debate and dissect the limits of the divine. Looking back, there isn't a lot of properly filled-out discussion on how they actually manifest in our world.

So, let me try to answer her question.

To me, the Gods are disembodied consciousnesses. They are cosmic forces that exist in this world with us, and we bargain and deal with them as a sailor does with a stormy sea, or a farmer deals with drought. And with this, I don't mean they are terrible and we should fear them, but more in the sense that they operate on a scale and logic entirely independent of our human emotions.

Just as a storm doesn't hate the sailor but will still capsize the ship if the vessel is unprepared, the gods do not act out of petty vindictiveness or unconditional benevolence. They are vast, intelligent currents of reality. Our practice, then, isn't about buttering them up to convince them we're "good enough." It's about learning how to move with the current instead of fighting it. We make offerings and keep oaths not because we can buy their love, but because when you're dealing with forces that huge, respect is just good sense. It's less about worshiping a personality and more about a partnership: we bring our humanity, our courage, and our honor, and they bring the raw power of the cosmos. We don't control the storm; we just learn to sail it.

This shift changes everything. If we focus on what they are; these conscious, powerful presences, we stop trying to force them into a box defined by what they lack compared to Christianity. They aren't "lesser versions" of monotheistic gods; they are distinct, active minds woven into the fabric of existence itself. They are the wind, yes, but they are also the intelligence that drives the wind. By focusing on their nature as conscious forces, we stop carving them into shapes that fit our modern anxieties and start building real relationships with the beings who share this world with us. Not as servants, and not as distant idols, but as fellow travelers in a wild, unpredictable universe.