Whose Ancestors?

In Heathenry we often refer to our ancestors. Who are these ancestors and just whose ancestors are we refereeing to? Most of the time when a Heathen says my ancestors, they are referring to the ancient Germanic tribes or the Norse peoples or maybe the Vikings. Here is the problem with that, while yes if you are of Northern European ancestry you might have something relation to these ancient peoples, but are they your ancestors?

Heathenry has an element of Ancestor Worship. Some would say that this is a major part of Heathenry that cannot be overlooked. That is because of the idea of wyrd and orlog of the idea that, we are our deeds and the deeds of our ancestors follow us just as our deeds will follow the generations to come. Honestly, this is real and true. There are actions my Grandfather took that follow me, thing I had no notion of until I was told by my mother. There are skills he had that I have an uncanny knack for, without any sort of training. He died when I was three. I also see this in real time. My son is 21 and I can se how my deeds, actions, skills, etc., have passed on to him. Some without me teaching him, they are just passed on.

We have established that ancestor worship is a vital part of Heathenry, but who are these ancestors? Some Heathens tend to say my ancestors and they really mean the ancestors. The difference is that my ancestors are my grandparents and great-grandparents, and perhaps a few generations before that. My ancestors are the people I have some immediate link to who got me to where I am now. The Ancestors (with a capital A) are the ancients, the Germanic peoples who gave us our religious connection. Many of us will never be able to trace our “line” all the way back to these people, but what they did still follows those who practice the old ways.

This brings up to tribal or kindred worship of ancestors. In a modern tribe or kindred there often are no blood ties and each member has his or her own ancestors. So, how do you make that work!? This is simple, each member brings his baggage to the tribe. That is when it comes to worship make a plan on how you want to honor all the collective ancestors. Keep in mind that now that you have establish tribal bonds, the ancestors deeds of your tribal members now follows all of you.   

What we should do is distinguish between our or my ancestors and the Ancestors. We can include them all in our worship simply by say my/our ancestors and the Ancestors. We need to understand as Heathens that we are not them, that is we are not the Germanic tribes. We have our own ancestors as individual and the Germanic peoples are a collective of peoples of which we have ancestral ties from though our religious beliefs. In this world not all Heathens are of Northern European ancestry.

Final Note on Genealogy and Heathenry

There are pitfalls to genealogy in Heathenry. Genealogy is great, but do we need to go back that far? For most of us I would say not, but if you want to do the research, be honest with yourself. You are not going to discover you are related to Wayland the Smith! You might discover so distant ties with a some ne tied to a Germanic tribe. For me, I discovered ties to the actual Saxons of Saxony who settled (or invaded) in England. It was great fun to discover, but it didn’t make me any more or any less Heathen. Do not let genealogy guide your beliefs. Do not base your faith on bloodlines. That is not Heathen, that’s racist.