Heathenry Today

 A thousand or so years ago the European Heathen peoples Christianized. What this means is that they threw out the old gods in favor of one new god and that was that. Well, not really. Christian historians (i.e., monks and the like) would like you to believe that all the old folkloric traditions, the tribalist pagan worship was put on the curb and picked up to be disposed of. The reality is that most of the ancient pagan ways of the European Heathens was incorporated into Christianity, including the gods.

This may come as a shock, but we know that Heathens prayed, and they did so in various ways: standing and holding their hands open and high, keening, and prone. When they prayed, they asked for things like help with crops, health, trade, and probable for that new tunic they saw in the corner store. The point is they pray for the same things people, non-Heathens, pray for now and they did it much in the same way Christians pray today.

In the Heathen glory days, religion was tribal and widely varied. Yes, at its core was a commonality, but there were differences, no set dogma or canons. This is what attracted many to Heathenry ion the 20^th century. The reasons for this tribalistic religious practice were location, social and politic development, and time. Christianity was a well-developed religion adopted by the biggest superpower of the day, Rome. Rome and the church brought a unifying religious and political system to tribalist lands and enticed the warlords with dreams of power over all their people. As these warlords became Christian kings the religion spread, assimilating all other religions.

We know that as Christianity spread the tribes worshiped Christ as just another god alongside Woden, Thor, and all the others. It was a slow process. We also know that some Heathen temples and holy places were converted to churches and that heathen practices were Christianized to some extent. There are letters from missionaries and popes explaining how to assimilate the people. Basically, what happened is, a more organized group came to town and united all the peoples and the old ways were lost before they were allowed to mature and become a true religion with dogma and canons.

Heathenry was never a religion, it was always a folk tradition. You could say Heathenry was a religion because the people worshiped a god or gods. However, there was no centralize or organized religion. It simply was tribal, it was a folk religion. Christianity was a true religion in that it was organized and centralized. This was attractive to many people because it took the religious activities out of their hands and placed it into the hands of a priestly class. All they had to do was show up.

If Heathenry had matured, we could assume that it may have become centralized, developed doctrines (written), and developed a priestly class. It would have become more like Christianity is today. Heathenry may have assimilated some Christian processes, rather than the other way round. It is possible that many of us would not be first- or second-generation Heathens, but it may have been generational, and we might have rebelled against it. As Heathens today, how do we move forward? Are we recreating the ancient ways as they were or recreating them as they might have been?

As Heathens we often talk about Christianity appropriating “Our Heathen Ways”, but did they? What really happened was Heathen ways were incorporated and became part of Christianity because the people made it happen. The church allowed it because it was easier than waging holy wars. So, if we know that Heathen ways became Christian, how can we make Christian ways become Heathen?  

Theodism is the best example of this. I have studies the Theodish belief system and they have drawn a lot from Christianity and even made attempts to create Theodish Heathen Dogma and canons. Some Asatru groups have also attempted this, often incorporating Nazi doctrine in the process. My question today is, as modern Heathens, can we, should we attempt to centralize and crate a modern religion based upon what might have been if Heathenry had matured?