02.03.08
Why Not Asatru
I’ve been moderately interested in Asatru for years, and as a Mormon I even often said and thought that if I wasn’t Mormon, I’d be an Asatruar. But I don’t think it’s the direction I’m going to go, for a couple of reasons.
1. I don’t actually believe in the Norse Gods. I don’t believe in any kind of literal polytheism (which means real Paganism in general is probably not going to happen–I’m more pantheistic or panentheistic in my ideas about what God is, if God is anything external to us at all). Furthermore, while I think the Norse Gods and Norse mythology are cool, and even compelling, that doesn’t translate in my head to the calling to follow and honor the Aesir as a religious practice. Maybe if I had some kind of mystical experience with Odin, I’d feel differently enoh about it–perhaps even enough to overcome points 2 and 3 below, but since mystical experiences for me do not seem to be particularly forthcoming, there’s not much I can do to make myself believe something I don’ believe.
2. I like Vikings and Norse myth, but not at the expense of everything else. I don’t really want to live a Viking-flavored life because I am a contemporary person, and I’m happy with that. I don’t really feel constant yearnings for the past. Formulated differently, this point is closely connected to my general dissatisfaction with the idea of Reconstructionist religion. I’m not an ancient Norseman, so why is the religion of the ancient Norsemen the right religion for me? Plus, I’d honestly feel like I was always LARPing.
3. I have serious problems with the “Folkish” strand of Asatru. I realize that it can be phrased or looked at in a way that might not sound like overt white supremacy, but when you listen to the rhetoric of Folkish people like Steven McNallen, it winds up sounding an awful lot like just more racist tripe. I also realize that there are plenty of universalist heathens out there (and there’s a kindred of them near where I live even), but I’m not necessarily comfortable self-identifying with a movement that has ties to white supremacy and neo-Nazism, even if it’s just be broad association. The question is “am I willing, even in the broadest terms, to be in the same club as those people?” and the answer is no. Especially given points 1 and 2 above.
There are a lot of things I like about Asatru, especially the heathen virtues, which I think are a more realistic and pragmatic ethical system than that which is offered by a lot of religions. And like I said, Norse myth is extremely appealing to me. But not so much that I think it’s the one way for me.
executivepagan said,
February 4, 2008 at 8:05 am
Not related to Asatru, but on the religion-as-metaphor thing that you and Kay were talking about at one point… you might find this article from the current issue of Zeek (a Jewish magazine) interesting:
http://www.zeek.net/802jay/
Allan said,
March 30, 2008 at 3:15 am
I found your blog while surfing for Asatru websites. I’m curious about your disdain for folkish Asatru. Do you see a difference between that and say, Orthodox Judaism? Or Native American tribal religions? Or Rasta for example? Would you say it’s wrong for a non-white person to practice the tribal religion of their ancestors?
Kullervo said,
March 30, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Allan, a couple of points: I’m not saying that I think it’s wrong to practice Asatru, even folkish Asatru. I’m just saying it makes me uncomfortable. At the same time, I do think racism and ethnocentrism are negative, and ethnic religion straddles the line between cultural identity and cultural superiority in a way that I think is unacceptable.
If you’re trying to trap me into some kind of ridiculous liberal-guilt double-standard, it’s not going to work. I think many strands of Judaism, expecially at its most Orthodox, amount to little more than a divine justification for the ugliest kind of ethnocentrism. Ditto for Rasta (inasmuch as Rasta has racial overtones), the Black Muslim movement, and yes, folkish Asatru.
I’m not really sold on a truly pluralistic model of spiritual truth, and I strongly doubt that any one culture has a monopoly divinity. If the truth you’re selling is not really universal, I’m not really interested in it. Even inasmuch as culture-specific faith is but one manifestation of an underlying principle, like the Brahman of the Upanishads, I’m far more interested in the underlying principle than I am in looking at it through any particular distorted cultural lens.
What’s most important here though is folkish Asatru’s specific conceptual ties to Nazism. Maybe there have been worse atrocities than the Holocaust, worse regimes than the Third Reich, and worse kinds of ethnocentrism than the myth of the Aryan Uebermensch, but in our society, Nazism is almost the embodiment of social evil. Maybe there is an element of double-standard in being quicker to reject quasi-Nazism than to criticize other shades of ethnocentric evil, but I’m a product of my time and place and it is ridiculous to pretend otherwise. Flavors of Nazism spoil the whole meal.
Anyway, as an American of overwhelmingly northern Eurpoean descent, Nazism is the nasty manifestation of my particular cultural identity. I’m not worried about being associated with black superiority because I am not black–the Black Muslim movement is a shadow for someone else to contend with, honestly.
Thomas J. Webb said,
May 12, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Hello, I found this post searching “spinoza” and “asatru”. Why? Because I want to create a modernized/pantheistic form of Asatru in the same way Konko is a pantheistic form of Shinto and the same way radical protestant sects that don’t believe in the resurrection grew in Europe…
Anyway, I agree with all your points on Asatru and they are the reason I have a hard time relating with many of the communities.. They are also the reasons for me to wish to create a new national organization that isn’t folkish (like AFA and Odinic Rite are) or neutral (like the Troth is), but is explicitly universalist, non-essentialist, and anti-racist.
My defense of Asatru, though: (specifically, the folkish and “that was then, this is now” points)
We aren’t all folkish, naturally. Though I don’t think you’re claiming otherwise, this needs further examination. Asatru is about reviving the pagan heart of Western culture. That religiosity wasn’t discarded for not being modern; it was killed by another intolerant system - Christianity (Asatruar, therefore, should understand the problems of intolerance).
Though we gained much in Christianization (Jesus’ faith was flawed, but it taught Europeans compassion, etc.), we also lost some, too. Our current environmental problems cannot be solved with the Christian “stewardship” mentality alone. By seeing the sacred in nature, we can have a helpful worldview - something the Japanese (a people not accused of not being modern!), among many others never did lose, since they kept their pagan religion alongside Buddhism.
Oh, and it’s not really a “viking” thing so much as just reviving the pagan thing. Japanese shintoists don’t live in huts and farm millet. They carry cell phones and dress like westerners. Unfortunately, one of the main attractions people have to Asatru is ultra-nostalgia, but by no means is historical reenactment essential to the religiosity.