Hammerhof

Heathens have been struggling to build communities for about five decades now. These communities are like the ocean in that they come in waves. The swell in the sea and break on the banks of the Earth. I have seen many Heathen communities grow, shrink, scatter, splinter, and simple break. There ae so many causes for these destructive forces, but the main reason is that we are a modern people and we live in a modern world. People come and go as individuals or families and simply disappear. It is just the way our society is structured. In ancient times people moved in tribal units. The depended on each for survival. We know there were tribal customs and eventually laws about the disabled, lame, and those who were a “burden to the tribe” wherein these folks could be ritually sacrificed or simply left to die in the wilderness. These acts were for the good of the tribe, but today are unheard of in our modern world. The tribal peoples needed to stick together, be health, strong, and willing

Unverifiable Personal Gnosis is dismissed by some Heathens because it cannot be verified by some written source. UPG is when an individual gains an understanding of a god, spirit, myth, or ritual by means of intuition or the experience of communication with a non-human entity. Therefore, it cannot be verified by the sources, it is a personal experience. I can see why some would doubt this knowledge and reject it a s a BS. However, take the source. Is the person who has had his experience trustworthy, honorable, truthful, and wise? Do you trust them? The Lore Be afraid, be very afraid! The reconstruction of ancient Heathenry has put a lot of emphasis on The Lore . Making his the be all end all of knowledge. First, the lore is important in understanding and recreating the spiritual and religious practices of the ancient Heathens. However, it was transcribed by Christian monks and has been interpreted by a lot of people with different ideas. Pick up a few copies of Hávamál , go the s

Throughout my Heathen life, I have tried to have daily routines that I do to bring spirituality to the world around me. We do not, and probably cannot, see the world the way The Ancestors did. Our world is mundane, full of science and explanations to “why” things are. Seeing mysticism and magic doesn’t come easy. I sated that I “try” to have a daily routine. This does not always happen. In fact, most of the time it does not happen. Why? Well, because I let the modern world get in the way. Got to make coffee, get the kids up and off to school, go to work…and so on. By the time I think about a morning bede (prayer) I’m in the car and halfway to the office. I have read in several books, a few websites, and countless blogs that as Heathens we should have a daily ritual routine. I have read that The Ancestors did this and we should too. I am going to make an educated guess here and say that the idea that pre-Christian peoples, namely the Indo-European Tribes may have had some sort of dail

  Eclecticism in Heathenry is the idea that the Heathen has taken what he knows from the lore, history, and archaeology and basically filling in the missing parts based on instinct or other religious practices. Often eclectics borrow from other religions and traditions that feel right. This includes things like burning sage, drumming, and even holytides and even gods in some cases. The problem with this is that reconstructionists and orthodox Heathens have a real problem with this. They feel that tis is a “corruption” of the “true” faith. I look at myself as a liberal reconstructionist. That is, I feel it is ok to filling the blacks based on a gut feeling. I have a Anlo-Saxon gods and Norse gods all together and I draw from the Saxon and Norse traditions for a lot of my practices. I also incorporate drums and incense (sage) in my ritual. One reason for this is that when I found Asatru it was simple a Norse system. As I grew and became educated, my belief system evolved. I do not see