[tab name=”Folkish History”]
The ancient traditional belief of Asatru that spirituality and ancestral heritage are inherently inter-related and has nothing to do with notions of racial superiority. Folkish Asatru has never been a reason or an excuse to hate, or look down on other races and cultures; it is about embracing our own ancestry and cultural heritage in a meaningful and positive way. Contrary to what our detractors like to believe, we recognize the value of the uniqueness contained within all the different and distinct pieces that comprise the human mosaic.
Ethnicity, Ancestry and the Family form THE main cornerstone of ALL traditional indigenous religions worldwide and throughout the ages. Asatru is the spiritual path largely and firmly based on the ethnicity, culture and heritage of Northern Europe, and it is our sacred duty to keep it so.
For anyone to say that Asatru is not the Germanic >ethnic religion, would be to falsify the ample evidence of our ancient sources. There is absolutely NO historical records of any kind even as much as hinting that anyone outside our folk was “converted” or practiced Asatru.
Intermarriage was also rare through out the ages, and when it was practiced it was almost exclusively from within their closest tribal blood relations – the Celts, who were know even at that far back in time to have a common ethnic origin extended from their shared ancient Indo-European heritage – hence we find that they were remarkably similar (and in certain instances Identical) in appearance, religion, and cultural practice.
Synonymous with Germanic, the name Teutonic is linguistically derived from the ancient Indo-European word for God, and has been interpreted as “Tribe of God”. These Germanic Gods and Goddesses are viewed as the very root of the Germanic People, our most ancient family members, as well as inspirational role models honoured and loved for their gifts of the mind, body and spirit that were bestowed upon us from their own divine essences. Thus we are tied to the Gods and Goddesses spiritually, culturally and most importantly, biologically. We are the children of Asgard and the blood heirs to the Aesir and Vanir. This knowledge is in place of our deepest souls, and is the sacred source and well spring of who we are, as such it will never be ignored, forgotten, or compromised.
All ancient metaphysical or esoteric doctrines mention the decent of spirit into matter, and by tracing the spirit through physicality we see that it emerges in the DNA and the RNA. It is known that there is a trace memory in each cell that tells of its entire history. and that these biological factors are the bridge between consciousness and matter. While this is not new information, its implication has been seriously understated, largely misunderstood, and cannot be emphasized enough.
As with all other indigenous religions of the earth, The Germanic peoples have a sacred heritage that is very deep but little understood by Universalistic religions and outsiders. The Germanic Folk felt this sacredness in their very blood, as is shown by the fact that the ancient Germanic word for sacred is itself derived from the word blood.
This is wonderfully illustrated further in these two points:
1)From the Old High Germanic Language; BLESSING = Blet + sing = to besprinkle with blood
This translation thus shows the definition as: Too consecrate, and make sacred / holy.
2)An Asatru religious ceremony is called a Blot. ( again derived from the ancient Germanic word for Blood, and this is still reflected in the modern German: BLUT, modern Scadinavian: BLOD, and modern English: BLOOD)
Pride in heritage and reverence of ones ancestors is so vital a part of Germanic Heathenism that it is indivisible from it. Asatru is simply not some spiritual path or tradition, it is heredity, and ONLY as a holistic inheritance is it able to function like nature. This sacred ethnic heritage and native belief that is a part of the archetypical make up of the Germanic peoples is just as sacred as the tribalistic religions of the Native Americas and Australians, the Saami, Africans, Jewish, Micronesians, Siberians, and Asiatic peoples. It is important that we can all understand this make up of the Germanic character and the ardent need not to undermine or pretend that it doesn’t exist. Although the spirit of heritage is not presently held in high regard in our society, resentment and anger often arise when the ancestral foundations of any tribal religion is ignored, subverted and thus dishonoured into that of the Universalistic approach. These ancestral energies must be properly recognized and allowed to flourish undisturbed if they are to be sublimated to a higher echelon of achievement.
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[tab name=”Folkish Present, Folkish Future”]
It is a fallacy of the modern age that any religion or spiritual system is or should be for everyone. Asatru is a holistic way of life, and is the amalgamation of the Culture, Ethnicity, Spirituality, Morality, Philosophy and Ecological heritage of the Pan-Germanic peoples. Asatru is not a religion one can simply join because they have an interest or claim to “feel a calling” because there is no calling except that of the blood to return to something that has always been there.
The Ancient Germanic faith as a whole is centered around its’ central ethnic tradition that is concerned with recovering our stolen heritage of the past and bringing it to the rightful place into the future. Our forbearers set so much weight on matters of kin and clan, that only by returning to these sources of our troth can we hope to return the true ways and beliefs of those who first kept the sacred religion of the Aesir and Vanir.
Asatru is a community faith firmly based in the family and tribe, so that while each individual of that tribe believes and performs to the best of their ability as they see fit, kith and kin are paramount and form the very center of traditional Asatru. The northern spiritual path is something real, powerful, deep and strong within us – because it IS us. we ARE Asatru going all the way back to time immemorial – we know this because it is singing in our deepest hearts, to our very blood, bone and marrow. That is what is known as the Folk Soul – every word, thought and deed of our folk going back to our very first ancestor, rising up with us and right back IN US from the Earth, generation after Generation, time after time. Here we live and stand by the very acts and lives of our ancestors, take a look in the mirror, they looked just like we do and in fact they were and are us. It is our blood, our family, our people, and our traditions, it is very ancient, powerful and beautiful… IT IS WHO WE ARE!
Given the present politically correct mindset of our society, this can be hard for many people to digest and climb over at first, but it is something that ALL traditional tribal cultures understand very clearly. Some do not take this very sacred aspect of Germanic Spirituality too seriously, it is easier for them to ridicule and stifle any legitimate thought to this with false labels of racism out of misunderstanding or perhaps some misguided fear of a fourth reich.
There has been a steady campaign since the end of the second world war to desecrate the heritage of the Germanic peoples, some of this is somewhat understandable in the light of the atrocities that were perpetrated at that time. But this is something that is born within us, drawn down from the many thousands of years, stretching back into the mists and forests of a fog shrouded North Germany, handed down from generation to generation since the beginning of time.
Our ancient faith had been denied and hidden from us by force and deceit. We are now in the process of rebuilding and revitalizing the tribal wyrd and values of our ancestors. We are doing it for our forbearers, for us, for our children and for many generations yet unborn. As we are still in the early stages of reclaiming and revitalizing our native spirituality, we must be extra vigilant in safeguarding our ancestral ways from abuse to ensure that it doesn’t die with us. It is our responsibility to instill our sacred teachings in our future generations. We have the right and obligation to praise our ancestors for who they really were – a strong, adventurous and industrious people, not as the villains as depicted by the early Christian church.
As we are small in number we have to work intelligently and extra hard, for we have that much more to lose. We have seen first hand how many native and indigenous cultures have been completely assimilated by Christianity and modern society and are lost forever. That coupled with the modern desecrators of our spiritual ways we are on the verge of that again as well. Our ancestral ways must and will be protected and kept strong, for otherwise they will weaken and fade and eventually die out, little by little, piece by piece. These ways belong to our Forbearers and to us, their rightful descendants, and we will protect them with our very lives.
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[tab name=”Universalism as a Christian Way Of Thought”]
Each distinct group of peoples have their own special indigenous spirituality that is specific to them and is derived from their own particular culture, history, and local environment. So why then would anyone choose to feel the need to misappropriate another peoples folk religion as their own? This spiritual imperialism, domination and cultural theft demonstrates a profound lack of respect to ancient tribal religions and constitutes a form of racism on its own. We can certainly understand and appreciate the interest and desire to learn more about Asatru, we in fact welcome people from all ethnic backgrounds to >learn of our ancestral native spirituality, BUT we are steadfastly opposed to the present “shopping for culture” society we live in. These people who are so stridently proclaiming the adoption of a universalistic ethic to our religion are completely out of touch with themselves, the true nature of Asatru, and the ways of their own folk.
Those not of North European / Germanic heritage should first explore their own traditional spiritual roots instead of stealing ours, for many this can be difficult as the Christian spiritual imperialists have been pretty systematic and thorough in destroying the spiritual framework of many tribal cultures. With this considered, it is understandable the attraction to Asatru. But not everyone can truly become an Asatruar no matter how much they may know about the history, the lore, the Eddas or Sagas. To rightfully be one of the Asatruar is to have it come from within, it is comprised of ones DNA and the call of the ancestors to ones soul.
It is thus not surprisingly that we find those that are outside of Germanic / Northern European heritage that want it to be as inclusive and eclectic as possible. These Non-Germanic practitioners are trivializing and corrupting our spiritual way of being that is central to all tribal communities.
If these interlopers were to sincerely and truly honour the spiritual return of the Germanic Gods and Goddesses as they claim, they will understand our purpose and know that only by their departure from our sacred spiritual system would be their greatest and most honestly sincere contribution to the survival of Asatru for our future generations.
This is first and foremost for the survival of the future of our traditional ways. We kindly ask those of outside ancestry to try to understand and respect the ancient ancestral nature of Asatru, and our deepest held sacred beliefs.
Asatru is heredity, not simply a set of abstract concepts and practices that can be separated from the whole and can be adopted or set aside at will by outsiders. All indigenous religions can only be practiced in a holistic manner, a true combination and balance of Body, Mind, and Soul. Otherwise it simply becomes a mockery of itself. It should be remembered that just because anyone CAN practice Asatru doesn’t mean that it is >appropriate for them to do so. Our ways are not for sale, nor are they to be misappropriated by spiritual / cultural vandals and thieves.
By insisting that Asatru is for everyone and anyone and can be chosen at will as one would choose a shirt or a book even thought it is clearly the ancestral Germanic spiritual path, is to negate the religions of all other peoples and cultures and state that they are wrong. It implies that Asatru is the “only true” spiritual path and assumes that their spiritual teachings, lore, and traditions are wrong. It imposes the Vanir and the Aesir upon all other peoples and denigrates their religious explanations for the nature of the universe. We outright reject such religious imperialism and arrogance as being more in line with that of Christianity.
The Ethno-centric essence of Asatru is often times criticized by those who are new to our ancient ways and even by those of Germanic extraction who have considered themselves to be Asatru for sometime but have yet been unable to clear their minds of the Universalistic mindset of Christianity and the “politically correct” conditioning of the culture predominating our modern society. Perversely it is these self proclaimed Germanic heathens that cannot break the mental chains Christianity has imposed on their minds and they thereby unconsciously subject our ethnic ancestral religion to their Christian paradigms of universalism. In doing so they are unwittingly continuing the Christian assault on our native spirit, to which they would otherwise consciously object. Those who reject the ancestral nature of Asatru reveal themselves as not truly understanding the inherently tribalistic and ethnocentric nature of indigenous religions, and by not allowing to us practice our ancient Religion in its proper ancestral context without applying the inaccurate stigma of racism is the hallmark of religious intolerance, and therein lies the real crime of bigotry masquerading as righteousness. As such, this religious intolerance and disrespect for our tribal ways is the exact definition of discrimination and is the diametric opposite of true diversity.
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