The Informed Pagan

Anonymous asked: Hi, I'm new to heathenism and I wanted to ask where to start.

thorraborinn:

It’s difficult to answer because so many people come at it from different directions. Personally, I didn’t even approach it consciously – I followed a general interest in Norse myth and religion from a non-participant’s perspective and slowly found myself recognizing it in the world around me.

So instead of telling you how to start I’m going to just lay out some suggestions an some advice and we’ll see what sticks.

By the way, I’m prioritizing Old Norse stuff here because that’s my background but most of this is gonna apply if you’re more interested in Anglo-Saxon or some other kind of heathenry.

First of all, I’d advise doing two things at the same time, which are:

• just start doing what feels right to you and what you can piece together immediately, whether from this post or others’ blogs or what you already know about heathenism but also
• don’t get attached to any ritual action or belief that you’re manifesting. Keep your mind on the goal of learning
  

I suggest doing it that way because actually doing things is the laboratory where all the stuff you already know is activated and you can kind of do your bug testing so to speak. And I don’t necessarily mean doing blót, by “doing” that might mean doing research or writing or pretty much anything.

But at the same time most beginners’ level stuff is awful, like I personally reject almost all the typical things that new heathens get taught like the nine noble virtues; the concept of “the innangarðs”: the sort of standard model of wyrd-örlög; the concept of a “Germanic pantheon”; lots of the standard ritual models; etc. So for example: say you start doing seiðr and your concept of it is really invested in the connection between the word seiðr and the English word ‘to seethe’ which is commonly proposed in intro books. And say it works for you, for a long time, and you develop a very fulfilling relationship with this concept. And then years down the road you find out… oh wait, seiðr has nothing to do with the word seethe. Hopefully your practice was constructed in such a way that this doesn’t leave you either lost, or insisting that well actually it does mean seethe, it’s the linguists who are wrong.

So if you take the value attributed to “doin’ it right” and move it to “learning and improving” then you’re on the right track. You’ll be less likely to hang onto beliefs after they stop being useful and you’ll be more able not only to learn but to discover things from your own unique perspective and creative potential. It’s also gonna help with the next thing I’m gonna say.

So we’ve moved on from “doin’ it right” as a concept but obviously you’re going to want to partake of actual Old Norse/Germanic religion(s) to what extent we’re able to do that. I’m inclined to suggest reading (or approaching by any means available and amenable to you) stuff that falls into these categories. Try to get a balance of these but honestly anything that you can manage to swallow is gonna be helpful (and it’ll make reading things in the other categories easier and more fun too).

And I just want to make one thing clear. I’m not saying that “after you’ve read all this then you’re a heathen.” I’ve been a heathen for some 6-7 years and this has been an ongoing process the entire time. Some of this is inevitably going to be over your head and/or just boring which doesn’t mean you’re incapable of understanding it, it just means you should set it aside for now and come back later when you’ve learned more of some other stuff.

• Primary sources for Old Norse religion. I’ve got a page of some of them but that isn’t everything (link). I usually recommend using these more or less straight-up if possible. Use retellings/adaptations if you can’
  

• Secondary sources for Old Norse religion, history, material culture, archaeology, etc. I started a page of those and didn’t finish although the ones on there are good (link). @edderkopper also has a good list of stuff here. You can find a lot on Academia.edu – some of my favorite scholars you can find on there are Ármann Jakobsson, Terry Gunnell, Karen Milek, Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir, and Leszek Gardela. Also, be advised that Myth and Religion of the North by E.O.G. Turville-Petre is now in the public domain and is accessible on archive.org. There’s also a huge amount of stuff on http://vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/.
  

• Anthropology works – this is often neglected by modern pagans. Reading modern works of anthropology of religion will give you an important toolset for interpreting Old Norse religion, even if you’re not reading about that in particular. Claude Levi-Strauss has had a significant impact on me, and one of my favorite active anthropologists working right now is Katherine Swancutt.

• Works about other religions. This isn’t so we can cherry pick things we feel are missing but so we can see how other cultures make use of their heritage. The book Of Gods and Holidays about Lithuanian paganism is very good; it’s probably helpful to learn a thing or two about Greek and Roman religion (confession: I barely have); and I know heathens don’t like this but reading about medieval Christianity is a very good idea.
  

• Texts about modern heathenism. There isn’t a huge amount, but Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism by Mattias Gardell and American Heathens by Jennifer Snook come to mind.
  

• Reference material. Obviously, you don’t have to read this, but be aware of it. We have a huge amount of tools at our disposal thanks to the internet. You probably won’t need much when you’re getting started but I do recommend making prolific use of the Cleasby-Vigfússon dictionary for Old Norse and the Bosworth-Toller dictionary for Old English when heathens are rattling off terms and their definitions sound fishy. It’s good for the ol’ bullshit detector. You can use the Lexicon Poeticum to look up words (like gods’ names) and see where they appear in poetry. If you learn how to read Old Norse with a dictionary you can use the Orbog over det norrøne prosesprog (Dictionary of Old Norse Prose) to look up words and find them in their context. If you’re into runic inscriptions the go-to tool is Rundata.
  

• Honestly runes aren’t all that important but if you’re into that sort of thing I’ve got a list of resources here. Although referring back to “doing” as the “laboratory,” divination can definitely serve this function and although we don’t know how pre-Christian people did lot-casting, modern rune casting can definitely provide a context of testing your beliefs and seeing how they fit together.
  

• I recommend foregoing introductory texts for heathens by heathens as much as possible, although it might help if you’re going to go to heathen gatherings and don’t know anything about what they’re talking about.

• Other stuff. I dunno. I’m putting this here because my heathenry’s been influence by all sorts of stuff that doesn’t fit here and I assume that’s true of everyone. You wouldn’t expect discourse/conversation analysis to have a huge impact on one’s heathenism but my whole concept of identity is pretty much pulled right out of that.

I have no idea where you live so it’s hard to give advice about finding other heathens in your area if you’re looking for them. You could just make a post on tumblr and see if it reaches anyone, you could also try Facebook groups although Facebook heathenry is a goddamn nightmare in general. Also, however you feel about the Troth, the regional stewards should at least in theory be able to help you find people who are like-minded, whether they are Troth-affiliated or not (nor do you have to be Troth-affiliated). You can also check Declaration127.com for signatories.

Now some bullet-pointed advice for you and everyone:

• everything primary about heathenism can be traced to some physical object that you could theoretically touch with your hands. Whether that’s some archaeological discovery, a manuscript, or even just some folklorist’s notebook. If it can’t be traced back to something you could touch, you need to know that. Use sources that help you to figure out what that object is and occasionally actually do figure out what it is. Don’t let something tell you that a bindrune of gebō-ansuz is “a Norse symbol for good luck”; favor the source that says “Runic inscriptions DR 196, the Kragehul Spearshaft, includes bindrunes g͡a interpreted variously to mean gibu ansiu/ansumz ‘gift to (a) god(s)’ or gibu auja ‘I give good luck.’
• Become best friends with uncertainty. The actual correct answer to most things is “I/we don’t know.” Research into Old Norse religion is less about finding answers and more about narrowing the ranges of likely possibilities.
  
• Maintain awareness of a timeline. Don’t be all “Njörðr and his wife Nerþuz” without realizing those two words are from a thousand years apart from each other. Don’t write in elder futhark for years and then be shocked when it’s pointed out that it was dead long before the Viking age.
• When you think you know everything about a specific sub-subject just be aware that the floor is about to collapse and you’ll realize you know practically nothing. Those are good times if you’re expecting them but if you let your ego get too big they can be troublesome.
  

I haven’t refreshed this in years so it’s missing the last few years’ posts but I have an index of my own blog posts that might be helpful.

Ugh. This is getting too long. I’m gonna cut myself off here and open it up to others who see this to add their own stuff. Good luck.

Tagged: heathenrypaganismpolytheismnorse