The Real Thor! - Thor's Hammer - It's Back! By: Stephen McNallen The Viking Age ended a thousand years ago.
So why does the symbol of a Viking God keep showing up in places where brave men put their lives on the line, places like Vietnam, Bosnia, and Burma? Why do warriors on modern battlegrounds invoke a symbol out of the distant past? To answer that question, we need to take a look at what was going on in ancient Scandinavia. Before our ancestors were forced to convert to Christianity, they followed a multitude of deities. Thor and his hammer were well-known and well-loved by the average man and woman in Viking times. As the Viking Age fought its way to a bloody close, Thor became the protector of the old religion against the incursions of Christianity. In about 1970, I decided I wanted to wear the sign of the hammer around my neck, as a token of my devotion to the Gods. Soon, however, another hammer was cast, using mine as a model.
I lost my original hammer in U.S. It had been an uneventful day in eastern Burma. AFA A Heathen's Day. Bryan Fischer’s Indian Delusion Meets the Reservation The reality of what Native Americans experienced at white hands is far from the delusional utterances of Christofascist Bryan Fischer.
Read... Read More Bryan Fischer the Eternal Nithing Bryan Fischer…I have named him a nithing before and I am going to name him a nithing again – two weeks in a row. From the Bronze Age to the Enlightenment…and Back? My new article on Pagan+Politics, inspired by the American Family Association’s demand to stone a killer whale and SeaWorld... Nithing of the Week The Huffington Post reported this week that “the American Family Association, a religious right group, is urging that Tillikum... Shadows of Colonialism. If you wish to have "pride" in "your" folk (and if you are utilizing this exclusionary terminology, it is likely that you are drawing on outdated nineteenth century concepts that separate you from your full power of humanity and identification with life), and you want that pride to be authentic, it stands to reason that the first step, the very first step, is to fairly and squarely face and come to terms with the collective crimes of your folk.
The goal here is not to enter into the vicious cycle of victim, rescuer, and persecutor, which so easily perpetuates itself in cycles of unredeemed guilt. It will not do for the many peoples of the world to identify the collective shadow with European peoples either, transforming themselves through whitewashing into guiltless, innocent beings. But if you are going to consciously identify with European peoples as a whole, or some subset thereof, there is no escaping facing responsibility for the deeds of ancestors you claim. Behold boldness! Asatru, Heathenry, and the Old Ways: William Bainbridge on Ego and Wyrd.
It's not everyday that you find someone who is able to express some of the most important ideas in writing with perfect precision.
It's also not everyday that you find a writer who (clearly) thinks pretty much exactly the way you do about a subject as subtle and open to debate as Wyrd. William Bainbridge, a writer for the Troth organization, wrote a superb essay on "The Ego and Heathenism"- and it's one of the finest bits of writing this writer has seen in ages, for it goes not only into the beating heart of Wyrd, but also other topics that all Heathens (and all religious people besides) need to see. Bainbridge points out that people often try to make "maps" or "Charts" of the "Soul" in various heathen and pagan faiths- and he doesn't really like this effort, for a very important reason- the web of Wyrd or Fate that makes up each one of us is a bit complex for this sort of endeavor. Huldreblog. We inherit everything from our ancestors.
In Old Norse this is called oorlog. As cultures go through changes due to environmental strain, war, and other traumas, the mothering of children necessarily shifts. If our mothers endured great pain, they often preserve it in stories, songs, and old wives tales meant to instruct against danger and indicate who the children should trust. If they were abused, they often abuse their children or become addicts to numb the pain of their oppression rendering them unable to develop emotional maturity. These things are passed to their children and dysfunctions are perpetuated across the culture throughout generations in this way.
Women's self esteem, emotional maturity, and healthy family and community relationships are proportionate to the self esteem, emotional maturity and healthy family and community relationships their mothers had. The second work, Kjerringa med Staven, is a well known Norwegian folk tune dating from the 1800's or earlier. Kari’s Voluspa - words of the Volva. A Heathen Blog – Expanding Inward. HBDP « A Heathen Blog – Expanding Inward. MetaPagan. Swain Wodening’s Blog. Vinland’s Völva – Daily Mystic Musings.