How to Prepare for Death And How to Die

All religions and philosophies try to prepare their adherents for death. Their views of death and their ways of preparation are numerous, but few really begin where they should begin- in the acceptance of inevitable death.

We all know that we are going to die, even those of us who don't think about it much, or who are in deep denial. It's not enough to hear that we are going to die, or to accept that biological organisms must all eventually die. You have to accept that you yourself are inevitably going to die, and the day of your death could be today or tomorrow. This is a further step that most people never take until it is far too late.

Stop to consider all the things you love, all the things you've worked for, and all the everyday habits and expectations you have; we all have hundreds, if the count were done correctly- maybe even more. Consider the joy and the comfort you gain from knowing that these things are with you, near you, and around you, and then consider how you would feel if you had to leave every single one of them behind forever.

Because that's what the experience of death is going to compel you to do. Few people can honestly say that such an experience wouldn't shock them, frighten them, disturb them, or horrify them. Few people can claim to be ready for it, right this moment.

But if you aren't ready for it, right this moment, you have left a vulnerability in your mind and soul that can, in an instant, turn into a terrible experience.

Take some time to reconsider your life, then consider what you would do if, at this moment, the messenger of Death came for you with that inevitable and immovable look on her face. The line is drawn; there's no going back. Are your loved ones able to get along with out you? Are there projects you're working on, right this moment, that you've been putting off? Is there someone you badly need to speak with, some enemy you've been meaning to seek peace with, or someone that you've hurt that you need to apologize to? Consider the fact that time is not guaranteed to you. Consider how you spend your time.

All this begins when you just sit down and truly admit to yourself that you're going to die- you- your name, your genetics which no other human being has, your thoughts and memories which no other human being has, all this uniqueness, this Fateful event you call your person, it is going to vanish from this world, and everything will change for you.

Do not be afraid to tell the people you love that you love them, and tell them that if you were to die tomorrow, that they have made you very, very happy, and that you will carry that love away with you, into the experience of death and whatever may come afterwards. Make sure they know what they need to know- that you appreciate them and that you would stay with them forever, if you could. But death is not a choice. Let them know that you are satisfied with your life with them, including any ills or hard spots- but make sure you honestly mean that. If you don't mean it, talk it out. Get clean. Get honest.

Let them know that if you were to be taken tomorrow by death, that you are prepared- that you accept death and that you are appreciative of them, every moment you have with them. Tell them not to mourn you over-much; tell them that we humans can do only so much to prepare for these things, and we can only do so much to live our time well with one another.

Does this sound too grim for you? It isn't; it's the work of joy and reality; it is the work of awareness; It is the work of the essential human being. Don't let your life slip by you without considering life's twin, death. Death should be used as a resource to bring your life into strong, clear focus. Your moments are not anonymous little things slipping by you without number; they are precious jewels. If you consider that you may only have a hundred minutes left to live, or two hundred, or even a thousand, they suddenly become very precious.

Before you read this, maybe you hadn't considered that your minutes are numbered. If you wish to think in a strictly linear fashion, and for the purposes of this example, we will- then they most certainly are. What will you do with the minutes that remain to you? Don't let your remaining time turn into a blur; let it flow in crisp awareness. Consider your actions and how you spend your time.


Once you have accepted death as inevitable, then you must consider what you will do when death actually arrives. At this point, religious beliefs and other similar things step in and try to present models, in strictly human language and terms, of the experience, as a guide to the dead.

This is fine, and important. But don't forget that models are just models, and death is a universal experience, not just a human one. There aren't special rules for human beings; all beings must face what death brings on equal terms. What makes the death experience different is, of course, the differences in the minds of each one dead- what emotions they bring to the experience; what hopes and dreams they have; what they fear; and what debts they owe to themselves, to life, to their fellow man, to their conscience, and to this world.

It sounds like a lot to bring, but it isn't- it's the baggage you carry around with you everyday. You don't pack up for death; you take what you have on at the time of death, figuratively speaking. This is another fine reason to dress light every day of your life. Pay those debts; resolve those emotions; clarify those hopes and dreams; and don't let your love for people, things, or places become weights that hold you down to this life.

Death makes us reconsider the idea of love. I would never stop loving my wife, my daughter, and my friends. The inevitable approach of death doesn't change my love; it clarifies it, makes it stronger. But caution is needed- love for someone doesn't mean that you can or will stand by them forever. Love for someone means that you will do the best for them that you can, as long as you can. I will love my family and friends as long as I am humanly able; how long that is, precisely, is a mystery to us. But what I do know is that for as long as I live I can love. I personally believe that after I die, I can love as well, though it may be in different ways or on different terms after that experience.

Either way, I won't give up on my love. But what I will give up on is the idea that my life here in this world with my loved ones can go on forever. I want to stay here forever with them, but that is not my choice, in the end- and it isn't realistic. Nothing was meant to stay here forever; the weave of Fate doesn't let things abide in eternal stillness forever. No human, no tree, no mountain, no God- nothing abides forever as we know it now. All must move on to the common destiny that we all share.

Consider for a moment an experience that you dreaded, but which you had to undergo. Maybe you hate getting shots or inoculations, but had to get some. You knew the day of your appointment, and you dreaded the wait. You dreaded driving to the doctor's, and you felt your trepidation grow to a fever pitch while in the waiting room. Your heart fluttered a bit when your name was called; your chest felt warm with controlled dread. You sat in a chair; they wiped you with alcohol, and its awful clinical stingy smell, and then they approached your bare flesh with a long, sharp needle.

You might have closed your eyes tight, or tensed up. You held your breath. You felt the sting- maybe it wasn't as bad as you thought, or maybe it was all you dreaded. You felt pain, discomfort, or maybe it ended faster than you imagined.

Either way, you walked out, glad that it was over. Things returned to normal.

You can look at death in precisely the same way, except when you are done with the experience- whatever it will be for you, things will not return to your old life; they will reintegrate in a new way, but a way that is completely related to precisely the sort of person you were before, and related to the fateful ties, experiences, and powers that were acting on you in the moments before your death. Our ancestors discussed this transition in terms of people journeying to other worlds. That model is perfectly legitimate. It is all about transition, self-revelation, and finding a new place.

What you must remember to do is this: you've accepted the inevitability of death; now accept that you will experience it. It may be a long experience, or a short one; it may be peaceful, or frightening. Whatever it is, you must bring only one thing to it: clarity of mind.

Death must be considered an experience, for indeed, it can be nothing else. To any experience in life, you should bring clarity: be very aware of it, observe how you react to it, but do not let it invade your better senses and defeat your wits. Common people see something disgusting on a television screen and they are overcome with revulsion; they can't think straight for a few moments; they are overcome. They shudder, screw their faces up, tense their stomach muscles, and, in reality, they go "bleary minded" for a few moments.

That sort of reaction is not suitable for a person who wishes to prepare for death, or live a life of wisdom. The next time something is about to strongly crash against your senses, and you know it is coming, take a single moment to compose yourself, and prepare to receive it. Don't prepare to shield yourself; prepare to receive it. You'll be surprised what happens. Let yourself know that you are about to have to view something, experience something, receive something that you won't like, but that you will receive and observe, simply and clearly.

You may still feel revulsion, but the difference is, you'll be aware of the feeling arising in you. You can watch it, study it. You can see the object of your revulsion, and instead of just seeing something disgusting, see what is really there- is it blood or gore that disgusts you? What is blood and tissue but earth and water? See it that way; a totally natural thing, a configuration of sacred elements, driven by Fate to be mixed and arranged in a certain way. Realize your kinship to it.

If you can do this, become an observer who doesn't lose his wits, and who can feel negative emotions with some degree of awareness, instead of losing awareness because of them, you have gone a long way towards preparing for death. For this is precisely the way you have to face death and all of death's experiences. Prepare to receive whatever will happen to you as death takes you, and don't lose your wits, regardless of what you see or experience. Accept whatever feelings or visions you may have as your destiny unfolding, for that is exactly what they are. Take refuge in full awareness, and acceptance of the moment.

Don't get overcome with revulsion or fear, because death is as natural as blood or tissue. It's part of the human experience. Even frightening visions at death, nightmarish or hard, are more configurations of Fate, natural forces, as natural as your breath or thoughts.

And just like any of those things, you have no need to be revolted or frightened by them. You CAN overcome any fear associated with them, if you just bring the needed element of awareness to the situation. If you simply lose consciousness, and have no thoughts or volition, you have nothing to worry about- that's easy.

When you find yourself in full awareness, or in dream-like states, be aware and observant. Confusion may come; don't die imagining that it's some great puzzle that you have to figure out; it isn't. Just be okay with anything that arises to you, and then, there's no confusion at all. No expectations one way or the other, and acceptance of whatever happens to be there, means no confusion.

You may experience feelings of guilt or anger or frustration or sadness. That's common enough. The only time you can prevent this is before you die- get your mind and affairs in order. If you came to death (or if Death found you) living with the right attitude to death, and living rightly next to your loved ones and your world, you won't have regrets.

However, should you still find yourself in negative emotional straits, take refuge in this fact: Fate is Fate, and you have been carried to this moment as you are for a reason. The task of some humans is easier than others; clearly, if you are in this condition, your task involves facing negative emotions, and you must accept that. So you're sad; mad; guilty; just observe those feelings and watch them fade away naturally, as they must.

If you did something terrible to deserve them, accept that you did it, and know that you have learned your lesson by the cost you are paying at this moment. Know that you will always remember to act better in the future, and really mean that- then your task is done, and you have done all that a human can be expected to do. Move on in peace.

Don't hang on to anything; let it fall naturally by the wayside and move on to whatever may come. Accepting what you have done and learning the lesson you needed to learn- how some actions lead to negative ends- is all you need to do. Those who are tormented forever are those who refuse this most human lesson, and refuse to admit their complicity or their deeds and own them fully.

To all this, in the death-experience, you must be brave. Bravery is not just for warriors; it's for everyone. Living a human life- any human life- requires you to face frightening things and uncertain things, so being brave is never a lost cause. It's a good investment, on both sides of the curtain of life and death. The final thing you can remember from this day forward is that death is an opportunity for new experiences- spiritual allies you had in this life are still there in death, if they were real allies; your ancestors, they are very real, regardless of what you believe about them- it has been long believed that they will come to the aid of their own kin in death.

The spiritual guardians of individuals and families are said to do the same, along with some among the Gods- will we see the Allfather? Perhaps. It is no small thing to take refuge in those sentient beings who have the best interests of humankind in mind, who are bound to us by a higher concern. But they can't face death for you; they can only offer their help, and you must keep your wits long enough to take it. My advice: prepare for it before your day arrives. And since most of us don't know that day, prepare for it now.


I don't particularly want to die tomorrow or the next day, or ever; but I know that I might. I accept that as Fate- but it still pains me to think of not seeing my daughter grow up, or not being able to share movies or dates with my wife. So, when my daughter, my wife, and I have time together, I appreciate it. I don't panic at the thought that we could be spending our last moments together; I treasure those moments. I rest in the fact that I have done good things for them and with them, and that they will be able to survive without me, and live on. I treasure the fact that they both know how much I love them, and that if I can, I will persist in some form to protect them and continue loving them.

That's all we humans can hope for. It's as though Fate is teaching us to stop wishing for the impossible and do what is possible as well as we can. There's no peace in beating your head against Fate's closed doors; there's only peace in discovering which doors Fate left open and walking through them with dignity.

I could end this by telling you how my religious beliefs- in common with others- say that this whole world will be renewed one day, and that all who have died will live again, and be together again. I could go further and say that the dead will dwell together in the land of the dead, or that one day, all our spirits will dwell in a condition where there will be no more separation. I could tell you those things, but it wouldn't do you or me any good.

Those beliefs are fine, and I cherish them, but they don't exempt me from the more immediate duty of accepting death, and dying well. It's okay to die with better hope because of your religious beliefs. But don't let your beliefs become the reason why you didn't prepare to die while you had the chance. It is true that I know of something about mankind that doesn't fall victim to death- but each man and woman must still face death, and that will never change.

The Death of a Noble Woman, The Birth of a Dis

The Australian newspaper the "Herald Sun" has published a story recently which I believe deserves great attention. This is a true story of the greatest nobility possible to a human being: a mother who chose to give up her own life, so that her daughter could be born.

The full story is below. I wanted to take some time tonight to honor the spirit of Dr. Ellice Hammond, who made the ultimate act of self-sacrifice, so that her daughter could be born. She died so that another might live; her belief in the sacredness of her unborn child's life was such that her true motherly nature freely gave itself to death. Words cannot express the power of this act; the nobility displayed by this woman will be remembered among the Ancestors for all time, the same Ancestors that Dr. Hammond is now at home among.

To make such a selfless sacrifice is in keeping with the greatest tradition of our Ancestors. From the timeless event of Odin's own self-sacrifice, in the quest for Wisdom, to Tyr's sacrifice of his own flesh to the jaws of the great Wolf so that the order of the world and all life might be preserved, men and women from all eras who can rightly be described as "Godly" have been paying with their own lives so that others might live.

An act of such great nobility will automatically assure that Dr. Hammond leaves the darkness of Hel, after her passage there, and will be carried by the Disir to the heights of Asgard, where she will become one of the Disir, those divine maidens who forever watch over and protect their descendants, and feast in the presence of the Allfather and the great heroes of old. Her sacrifice was no less than any man's noble death in battle; what she died for was not just her daughter, but for the future, for her own daughter's children will carry on her life-power into this world until the day of doom.

I pray that we can all make the same sacrifice with a brave heart, if Fate calls for us to do so. I pray that all people can learn from this woman who is now a divine spirit, watching over us, and that we can emulate her example in our lives, when we are called upon to make lesser sacrifices. I honor her now as I will everday henceforth. I also honor those women who have done the same, in all times and places, whose names we do not know.

In the approaching Winter Nights sacrifices and feasts, I and the Idavoll Kindred will make a special toast to this woman, this Dis, and honor her in other ways. Dr. Hammond was the best of women, and her example gives courage to us all. I also hope that the Gods give strength to her grieving husband; despite his understandable grief, he should be the proudest of all men.

Here is the story:

A BRAVE doctor stopped her own cancer treatment, sacrificing herself to save the life of her unborn child.

Dr Ellice Hammond, 37, lost her battle with Hodgkin's lymphoma on Sunday, just three weeks after the premature birth of her first child, Mia Ellice.

The Glen Iris GP chose not to have high-level chemotherapy that may have saved her life but could have killed her child.

She was diagnosed in the 22nd week of her pregnancy, and Mia was induced at 31 weeks, on August 20.

Mia is being treated at Monash Medical Centre's neonatal intensive care unit.

During her pregnancy, Dr Hammond endured three rounds of reduced-strength chemotherapy in order to protect her daughter.

But after each treatment the cancer returned worse than before, and stepped-up treatment after the birth was not enough to save her.

Distraught husband Peter Wojcik said he was proud of his wife's devotion to the daughter she had always dreamed of.

"It feels like I got robbed of a wife and a mother," he said.

"I guess she didn't expect it to go this way, and if she did she wasn't telling us.

"But she would just want what is best for Mia and for everyone to love her and carry on with life.

"We had to make a decision on whether we would take the baby out early, while Ellice was relatively healthy. Otherwise, there was no point carrying the baby -- the baby would be affected by the illness."

Seeing his wife and daughter together for a precious few days has been of some solace to him.

"Her whole life was looking forward to being a mum. She loved it," Mr Wojcik said.

"They have a kangaroo chair here, where they can put the baby down inside your shirt and you can lie back.

"And the first time Ellice tried that, she had tears coming down. She was just so happy.

"That is one of the reasons she used her name as Mia's middle name, so she could pass something of herself on to her."

Australian marathon champion Kerryn McCann, who was diagnosed with breast cancer last month, is now fighting a similar battle.

The Commonwealth Games marathon gold medallist gave birth to son Cooper Patrick on September 6.

He was induced six weeks premature so that she could begin chemotherapy.

Dr Hammond had thought her initial symptoms were due to the pregnancy.

But a bone marrow biopsy in June revealed she had Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Mia was protected by her placenta during the three rounds of chemotherapy.

She is developing well, and Mr Wojcik hopes to take her home in the next fortnight.

"I think she'll be a little spoilt wild one, but I'll love her to bits," he said.

"The day that Ellice passed away I brought the grandparents in, and we had a little private room, and we sat for a couple of hours with Mia. And I think it was good healing.

"She was a little happiness at the end of a hellish day.

"She shows no signs of any problems and her blood vessels are good. She is gaining weight and eating well.

"I don't know how much of her (Ellice) will be shown in little Mia, but it will be interesting to find out over the years," Mr Wojcik said.

"Ellice was an angel. She had a great sense of humour, and made people laugh because she liked to clown around a lot.

"A lot of her patients loved her because she'd take the time to talk to them.

"She was a good counsellor to a lot of people."

The Stories and the Storytellers

I apologize if any of you have been made uncomfortable by the recent "red button" debate on abortion. I respect my debate partners, and do not think that they are bad people. It's good that different sides of this issue have been covered.

What I need to talk about now is something that ties into our debate, and which, in some ways, explains the debate. That is the idea of worldview. You all know that I use that word a lot, and there's a reason why.

I look to many pre-modern sources for my own inspiration, when it comes to my own ideas regarding social science. I am, in a way, a social scientist, and to me, the problems with the modern world are tied into competing worldviews. There are modern worldviews, pre-modern worldviews, even a modern worldview called the "postmodern" view, which is enormously popular in scientific and literary circles. The Postmodern worldview largely defines the way most people think nowadays.

Let me explain something about worldview that may not be immediately apparent: all worldviews, in a way, "work". You can look at the world in many ways, and achieve "successful" outcomes. Let me give an example.

Let's say you live in a tribe that has an animistic outlook or worldview. You believe that the earth is a sacred thing, a goddess, and you treat it well because of that belief which is a part of your worldview.

Now, let's say you're a scientist and an atheist who doesn't believe in spirits or afterlives at all, and doesn't believe in the idea of the "sacred". But you know that the survival of the human race is based on certain methods of treating the earth, to keep it sustainable.

Whether you are the tribesperson, or the scientist, the outcome will be the same- you'll treat the earth well. You are both treating the earth well, but your worldviews are radically different.

This example can be enormously expanded; but for now, let's rest there. ANY worldview CAN "work". The question- the real question- is this:

"Which story is best, and who is the best storyteller?"

A worldview is just that- a story. It's a story we tell ourselves, which helps us to make sense of our world. Cultures have broadly-accepted stories they tell themselves; individuals have them too.

I do not suggest that we all rush back into pre-modern ways of living, chiefly because even they weren't "perfect" in places, and also, the world-conditions have changed a lot, in many key ways, which render pre-modern living systems not always the best. That being said, the pre-modern world had a lot of valuable wisdom that we can all use, and which I think can help us to create a NEW worldview, one that can possibly spare this world and its people from destruction.

This new worldview, this new story, is the child of the pre-modern and the modern. The modern worldviews that we all know so well- the myths of scientific materialism, the myths of various political systems, the myths of the individual, the myth of "inalienable rights", all these things are common today. The stories we accept, the myths, the "ways of seeing" that we accept, have EVERYTHING to do with the Fate of the world. We can see that our current modern myths are lacking something fundamental, because they fail to do what they claim they will do- they fail to deliver people to true peace.

They fail to deliver us to a place where the world is treated properly, and where other people are respected and integrated into a working system. The system that we have now, based on those worldviews, is doomed- the world can't sustain us if we keep going the way we're going. The system has flaws because the worldviews behind it are NOT the best stories- they don't tell the whole truth about mankind, or our relationship with one another, or the natural world.

I think the "lost" elements we need are to be found in the pre-modern worldviews. I think the two, the pre-modern and the modern, can be wed together, to create a more balanced approach. This is what all my work is about. A new story has to emerge, based on the best of the old and the best of the new, but with a solid traditional grounding in the old, because the old order deserves the respect and integration it never got when it was forcibly and too-quickly discarded by things like the rise of Christianity.

I think that our intuition and our hearts can help us here. Let me give another example of two stories that you know quite well.

Story 1:

"The human being is a physical being only; a product of random evolution, and consciousness is a trick of the brain's chemistry. When a human dies, consciousness ceases forever, and that's that."

Story 2:

"In ancient times, the Gods bestowed the gift of immortal spirit upon the living, natural processes that were shaped into the first human beings. A human being is a complex convergence of many natural forces, including the spirit; when a person dies, that spirit flows onward into the great chain of forces to find a new existence."


Now, I ask you, from your heart- which is the better story? You are seeing two stories born in two different worldviews. You are hearing the first story from the mouth of a storyteller who calls himself a "scientist". The second comes from an organic tradition, and comes, ultimately, from the mouths of many, many unknown storytellers, who were behind the many myths and sacred tales we read in Pagan sources.

Which is the better story, and who is the better storyteller?

If you reacted poorly to the first story, and preferred the second, consider for a moment that there is a truth IN YOU that rebels against the first, because it knows, deep down, that the story isn't true, isn't "telling it like it is". There is a natural truth in us, a spirit, a reality that cannot be reduced to simple matter. That natural truth rebels against all attempts to reduce it to mud.

What about these two stories?

Story 1:

"The only true God created the world for the use of mankind. He made mankind to be the best and most important of creatures, the only creature with an immortal soul, and placed animals and the land here to be at the disposal of human beings."

Story 2:

"From the timeless and uncreated web of life, Gods arose, and so did all living beings, including humans. The web of life is sacred; humans are not "better" than the other parts- we are parts of the whole, and whatever we do to that web, we do to ourselves. Humans have a duty to work cooperatively with this world and all the sacred, natural powers within it, for the good of the whole, and the survival of the whole. The Gods have been helping mankind to do this for ages, by visiting them with visions, dreams, help, answered prayers, and teaching them wisdom."

Which is the better story? Which storyteller do you prefer? Why do you feel as you do?

Natural truth has a way of making itself known, deep in the heart and in the intuition. But if the heart and mind are obscured by greed and selfishness, even natural truth cannot shine through.

Our modern stories tell us many untruths about ourselves and our relationship with the world. We are raised to believe that WE as "individuals" are all-important, and our needs are foremost. We are told that we have "rights" to this thing or that thing, "rights" to live however we want. Anytime we hear a story that threatens to unsettle those egoistic beliefs, we reject it; we call it "primitive" or "superstitious" or "corrupt" and we ignore it. We point out how much better our modern stories are.

And while we are supporting these modern stories, these very bad friends that tell us everything we want to hear, the world is suffering, and dying. The modern stories were not born in wisdom; they were born in materialistic scientific paradigms, which themselves were born from a total rejection of all religious and spiritual thinking. The wisdom found in ancient religions is chalked up to superstition, and ignored. The wisdom that is sometimes found in modern religions is likewise ignored.

What's left? A world where people live for themselves, to desperately attempt to satisfy their own physical pleasures and "needs". Models of "independence" have appeared which are simply extreme selfishness given a shiny gloss- no one better tell ME what I can or can't do! Forget the fact that our actions all affect one another, and we MUST, of necessity, sometimes tell people what they can or can't do, just for survival's sake.

My quest is to lay aside the way modern myths have made me think about myself, and reconsider myself. We all have to reconsider our relationship to the world, and our assumptions about life.

And I do just that, and through trance, meditation, and consideration, I come to certain conclusions. One of my conclusions is this:

"The world is a sacred system of interactions, and we are all a part of it. What we do to each other and to the world affects us all. Life is also a sacred system of interactions, and it should not be destroyed for selfish reasons."


Now, that conclusion would seem simple, easy to see, and pretty much beyond dispute. And yet, when I say it, I am attacked by many who dispute those simple conclusions. On what grounds? Because if they were to really believe that, and act accordingly, many of the "rights" they feel were given to them by God or society would fall by the wayside. They would have to step, for a moment, outside of their socially-conditioned assumptions, and (to their minds) perhaps "lose" something that is so crucial to their personalities and their ideas, that they feel threatened.

But the process of changing a worldview, of addressing the problems, IS painful. It isn't easy. Everyone knows what they think, but few know WHY they think it. Most of us repeat, mindlessly, what we've been told. I wasn't raised to believe that life was a system; like most people, I was raised to believe in life as a linear phenomenon, and that my "personal" business and actions really only affected me and those closest to me, or maybe a slightly broader crowd, but that's it. I was raised to think this world is just "resources" for humans to use, and that I had the "right" to live however I wanted, so long as I didn't break the law, and kept a 9-5 job, working for some employer.

But I have rejected that. Those assumptions are selfish, and they are out of step with reality. That is not the way the world works, and people who attempt to live in that manner always come to grief over it- and they cause further problems. They find the depression, the anxiety, the sense of isolation, and the nagging feeling that "something is missing" that is the due of people who live out a poorly told story.

I invite you all to reconsider things with me, and find a better way of living. In this, animistic and primal peoples on this planet can be good guides- there was a time when human beings knew how to live on this earth. And we can change things for the better, if we listen to them, and use their wisdom to tell better stories for our children.

Abortion, the Ancients, and Revisionist History

"To limit the number of children or to destroy any of their subsequent offspring is accounted infamous, and good habits are here (in Germania) more effectual than good laws elsewhere."

-Tacitus, Germania

Let me say before I get started that this article is going to spark controversy. I don't want to labor the point of this article, because I think I might lose some of the power behind it if I do. But it has to be written, and I have to make it clear. This article is about historical attitudes towards infanticide and abortion, and how modern Heathens understand and sometimes manipulate what we know about the past to justify their beliefs about abortion here in the present day.

This is a "red button" issue. It's an issue that everyone has a strong opinion about, usually to one extreme or the other. My own beliefs on this matter are no secret; I believe in the absolute value and sacredness of cycle of life, from conception to death and even into the afterlife. If I didn't, I couldn't be a Wyrd-Worker nor a Speaker for the Gods in my own Kindred. People forget that the life cycle is more than just being born, living and dying. It is also about what happens in the unseen realms, whether that be the unseen depths of Hel or the Underworld, and in the unseen depths of the womb.

Heathens in the past believed this, too. If not, why all the beliefs regarding the passing down of Hamingja or holy luck-force through bloodlines, as well as other ancestral characteristics, from ancestors to their descendants? Why the naming of children after their ancestors, because of the belief that children continued carrying on parts of their forefathers and foremothers? Why the idea- directly stated in the lore- that it was once believed that people who died in the past could return to this world as a human being, and live another life? Why all the countless other beliefs regarding the many Goddesses and wights that influenced all aspects of the womb-time and birth?

Finally, If not, why honor the spirits of the dead and the ancestors? They (as it was believed, then and now) exist after death- and we can see that in a worldview of Wyrd, these ancestral spirits were not "created" magically at the moment of conception or birth. What we call "human life"- in common with all life- is one brief event in the center of a massive web of sacred and living power, called Wyrd.

A man and a woman having sexual intercourse does not spontaneously conjure up out of nowhere some immortal spirit, capable of surviving into the afterlife, every time they conceive together. Each human life is not limited to a single life-time, but is a manifestation of a deeper sacred reality, and this is both explicit and implicit in the lore. The human life, every life, has an existence that is not locked down to a single body in a single life. Thus, how we handle our duties with regard to understanding and interacting with the life-cycles all around us, is a moral question of deep import.

Now, there are some people who will disagree with me on this. They will disagree, and I know why they will- because for them, the need to believe however they desire, or to believe in accordance with modern liberal social dogmas, overpowers the duty we have to take into careful consideration what the ancestors believed. I will discuss this more in a moment, but breathe easy- I do not now suggest (nor have I ever suggested) that we do everything "just like it was done" in times now seemingly distant. This is not a matter of what we do. This is a matter of what we believe.

I do not think that certain religious beliefs- such as the belief in Fate, or the existence of the Gods, or the sacredness of the natural world- that were held by the ancients, ever become "outdated". There are certain aspects of organic religious tradition that simply reflect natural truth, and natural truth doesn't change just because centuries pass, or because we invent computers, microwaves, or cars. Natural truths are there within us, just as they were in the ancestors, and the words of the ancestors are meant to unlock in us a passage to them.

By now, you are imagining that I am against abortion. Many people by now have become upset, assuming that I am moving to suggest that abortion rights be struck down, across the map. Notice that I have not said anything of the kind. I have made a simple statement of worldview: the life cycle is a sacred thing. That is all. It is this belief of mine that leads me to further decide how to think and how to act, with respect to issues like abortion.

Let me get this out again, just for the record. I believe the life-cycle, at all stages, is sacred, and I think that all stages of the life-cycle are accompanied by the presence of Hamingja, luck-force, ancestral and sacred power, and with it, the presence of the Fylgja or the Guarding Spirit. I do not believe that it is ever "okay" or "a value-free matter of personal choice" to destroy a life cycle for selfish reasons. "Selfish reasons" include reasons of personal finance, personal life-convenience, and the like.

People in our society today may be free to decide, for instance, to abort a child out of mere convenience- it is legal- but an act being legal does not automatically mean the act is morally justifiable, in the same manner that some acts being illegal doesn't make them morally improper. Legality isn't the issue here. I'm speaking of morality, and our responsibility to the sacredness of life, which we are all inseparably involved in.

A woman may choose to legally terminate a life within her because she "doesn't want children right now", but she will have to face the inner consequences of that act, both in this life and in the afterlife, as will the people who actually carried out the deed. If she acted to spare her own life, or if it was decidedly in her best medical interests, abortions in my opinion are justifiable, though they are always deplorable and sad, even when necessary. And just because it may have been necessary to sometimes take life, this never interrupts the sacredness of life. I do not believe that a woman who has an abortion in justifiable circumstances (or the medical professionals who do actually do it) offends the Gods or the Ancestors; I believe she/they are clean of the moral taint of unjustified killing. I do not believe they owe a Shild or a debt to life.

Now, bear in mind that this represents my personal considered opinion. A person who truly believes in the sacredness of life cannot find a way to justify needless disrupting of life-cycles, or the selfish disruption of the same. Life does not belong to us; the spirit bestowed on the first Ancestors by Odin and his brothers was not "given" to them or their children as some form of personal property. We aren't "in possession" of that spirit; we ARE that spirit, that life, and there is no true and ultimate "ownership" in the web of Wyrd.

All things arise and exist in Wyrd, just as you see them now. Ownership is a social construct, a legal or financial term- it is not a mysterious "power" we have over what we identify as "ourselves". We can't say "I have the right to take another life" because "rights" over things like property derive from a very different place than the timeless spirit.

The natives of the American continent understood this concept in relation to the natural world- how odd it seemed to them that white people thought they could "own" land. How do you "own" a tree? What, because someone recognizes your claim, or gives you a piece of paper saying it's yours? In the natural world, nothing is "ours", ultimately. The land upon which our ancestors lived was experienced by them in terms of reciprocal sacred ecology- the "Earth Mothers" had names, had religious rites, the wights of the land were honored and sacrificed to. The idea of "tribal land" is not an idea of ownership; it's an idea of relationship. We cannot be separated from the Land beneath our feet, no matter where we go. Our ancestors had to learn this when they were forced to migrate across the earth during the Volkerwanderung.

Because we do not understand the notion of relationship as the ancients did, we assume so much and use modern terms like "ownership". To say "this is my land" in the truest sense is to say that you relate to the powers of that place, and perhaps your ancestors have lived there for centuries. The bones of your people are in the land. It is where you have created the powerful experience of Frith or belonging. You do not literally "own" the land, however. You can certainly protect the land you live on, if others seem intent on coming onto it and killing you and your family, or disrupting your connection to it, or forcing you to leave. I don't see how a person could do otherwise.

At any rate, like trees or earth or water, the spirit- itself a natural and sacred phenomenon- cannot be "owned". You don't own your life; you ARE your life. A mother does not "own" the life of her child, even though, at times, societies past and present have given parents the right to expose their children or kill them. The focus of this article is not these forms of infanticide; suffice it to say, these things were not done for flippant reasons. The custom of child-exposure or infanticide derives from a time when hardship ruled and small tribal groups could not support another child, without risking the lives of others.

As societies grew to higher complexity, these sorts of ancient customs tended to hang on, and we see (as in Rome) that the right of fathers over the lives of their children becomes entangled with a protective mechanism assuring paternity- a father could kill a child that wasn't his own, as a way of weeding out the competing genetics of other men, who might have slept with his wife. Clearly, we can't use this outdated practice as a justification for abortion in the modern day; no rational person thinks that men today should force their wives to abort or kill infants that they discover are not their own.

It is perfectly clear to any reasonable person that if ancient societies had not been sunk in danger and hardship, if they had abundant resources available to them, and safety, they would not have exposed their infants to die. They were driven to do it by no other reason by grim necessity. No sane person wants to kill their children, either now or then.

We in the modern day do not suffer those conditions; in the developed world, at any rate, there is always a place to leave an unwanted child, always a way to have it taken care of. We simply don't have to kill unwanted children anymore, and if we believe in the sacredness of the life-cycle, we should not. Can we justify our belief in the passing down of Hamingja, in the sacredness of birth, in the belief that aspects of our sacred ancestors' lives actually come to live again in every new generation, and yet, sit here and say "abortion is okay under any circumstance?" No, we really can't.

This conclusion seems simple to me, but many (again) will argue against it. They will defend, to bloody nubs, the "right" of women to have abortions, for any reason they choose. When those people are Heathens, they will also revise history to justify their position. This angers me, and I feel the need to address it, as I have seen it done recently, and sadly, I have seen it done by a group of writers who represent a small but well-known Heathen organization: The Troth.

Now, I mentioned the Earth Mother and her rites a few paragraphs back. I have read a Hel of a lot of books about Heathenry and the Heathen past, including archaeological books, anthropological, historical, religious, mystical, and one thing is the same in all those books. Not a single writer doubts that a cult of the Earth Mother existed in ancient Germania. Why? Aside from parallel beliefs existing among cousin people all over Europe, we have a first-hand written account recording the existence of Nerthus, the Earth Mother among the Germanic peoples, and her rituals, including a ritual procession in a cart, and the killing of two slaves who see her secret image at the end of her ritual procession.

They've even found carved wooden statues which are believed to have been the actual statues that were carted around, preserved in bogs and in peat soil. Motifs of the wagon and the images or presences of Gods and Goddesses being driven around pop up in many arms of the literature and history. No one doubts any of this.

Tacitus' "Germania" is considered by most to be an invaluable resource about historical continental Germanic Heathenry, around the time of Rome's greatest power. Tacitus tells us about Nerthus and her procession in her cart. He tells us about the tribes in Germania, and we learn a lot from him.

Here is where the revisionist history starts. Some people in the modern day- and some modern Heathens- want very much to believe in totally unrestricted abortion. To be a "pagan" of any kind in the modern day is believed by many to mean that you must be totally socially liberal, although this is certainly not the reality. Many Heathens and Asatruar are not "pro-choice" as most Wiccans are. Sadly, there are some well-known figures in the Asatru world who, while preaching the wonderful sacredness of nature, life, fertility, the ancestors, and all the rest of these truthful things, also want to preach women's "right" to unrestricted abortions.

I'd love to tell you that these fine people jump through big hoops to overcome the contradiction in their beliefs, but I can't, because to be honest, I don't think many of them see the contradiction. People who want to believe what they want to believe almost never do. The difference between me and these people is this: I don't want to believe one way or another. I have examined the history, examined my own life and this sacred present moment, examined the spiritual reality and the observable reality that is present to me, and I have seen a sacredness that then compels me to believe as I must. This isn't about "choice", as much as truth and duty.

These "good heathens" want to claim that the lore does not guide us into understanding what the ancients believed about abortion. This is not true. A man who was among the ancient Germanic ancestors clearly states what they thought about abortion- they considered it criminal for a couple to limit the number of their children or to put later-born children to death. When Tacitus says "limit the number of children", some claim that he meant contraception only. Killing a conceived child in the womb would also rather obviously limit the number of children born to a couple, and thus, it would be absurd to conclude that these people of ancient Germania thought contraception was "infamous" or "criminal", but abortion was somehow "okay".

So, when the revisionists and the ideologues stop playing word games to try and obscure him, Tacitus' writing makes it clear what these ancient Germans believed. He's not evasive. So how do people who want to claim the lore doesn't give us guidance on these matters react to this? Simple. They claim that Tacitus was making it up.

Of course, these same people don't quite understand what they are really saying, when they say that. If Tacitus was lying about that, then why do they trust him so much when he talks about the cult of the Earth mother, the war-customs of the ancient peoples of Germania, or any of those other things he mentions in his work? We have seen that practically every scholar and every Heathen worth the name believes that a being- an Earth mother- named Nerthus was worshiped among the Germanic peoples of the north with her cart-drawn ceremony, and the like. They believe this because Tacitus says it.

But when it comes to something they don't want to believe, suddenly, Tacitus was "making it up".

Why do they say he was "making it up"? Simple again. They claim that Tacitus was trying to present the Germanic peoples as "noble savages", to make the "decadent" people of Rome ashamed of themselves, and he was doing this as a ploy, a way of criticizing his fellows back home.

That seems like a wonderful reason, but it has an issue, an issue that renders it untenable. Tacitus clearly states that the ancient Germanic people were doing human sacrifices in religious rites, something that Caesar had used to drum up the support of the Roman people in his farcical war against the Gauls. The Roman people were apparently horrified by the notion of human sacrifice; it is believed that Caesar invented much of the content of his stories of the Druids sacrificing human beings, in an attempt to horrify the Romans at the abject barbarity of the Gauls.

So why would Tacitus add the detail of the sacrifice-murder of the slaves in the cult of Nerthus, if he were trying to make the people of Germania look so noble? The answer is this: he wouldn't. He didn't make it up. He either saw it or heard it from sources in Germania, and the same goes with what he said about their laws against limiting births and infanticide. It wasn't "made up" merely to criticize his fellow decadent Romans; it was the way of things in Germania. Most of the "infanticide" customs we hear about are found in Scandinavian literature, but even there, many conditions applied to save the life of the child (for instance, the child could not be killed if it had ever tasted milk or food, a fact used by a heroic nursemaid in the lore to save a newborn's life). And infanticide was (as always) seen as regrettable.

And it doesn't end there- ancient legal codes that grew out of the Visigothic cultures in Spain forbid abortion, and a number of Germanic laws penalize anyone who causes a woman to miscarry involuntarily. While that stops short of saying "abortion", it says just as loudly that the child in the womb was accorded value in the eyes of the law, and the people. It wasn't just a lump of flesh in the woman's womb that had no bearing on legality.

Organizations like "The Troth" are well known for the extreme liberal content of their writings and the extreme liberal leanings of many of their notable members. What is sad to me is that they betray the foundations of authentic Heathenry in the name of their modernistic notions of "free, unrestricted choice"- several times in their work "Our Troth, Volume II", they discuss the in's and out's of the abortion issue, always defaulting to the notion that it comes down to someone's "choice". But the sacredness of life and our duty to it is not a "choice" in that way. No matter how unfashionable it may seem, sometimes, we have to give up on the notion that we can "choose" to believe and act however we like.

The real "choice" is whether or not we will put aside our own selfish desires in the name of preserving life when we can, or if we will let life fall by the wayside because of modern dogmas that preach free and valueless "choice" with respect to important moral issues like abortion. Abortion is an issue that demands deep introspection and insight. It is an issue that demands we merge it with our beliefs on the sacredness of life. This issue won't go away. Regardless of what you think personally about abortion, it deserves consideration from a religious perspective. When we deal with life and life-cycles in such a way, it is impossible to avoid a religious verdict, if you are a person who believes in spirits and in the Gods.

The real choice is whether or not we will consider the ancestors when we make our decisions, or think up convenient reasons to ignore or re-word what they believed, to suit our modern political agendas. It seems that many love to accept the great wisdom of the ancestors when it suits them, but apologize for their ancient ignorance or look the other way when it doesn't suit them.

So many people think that modern Paganism and Heathenry is first and foremost about "freedom of choice", on any level- they think that being a modern Pagan or Heathen is about believing whatever you want, acting however you want, thinking however you want. I strongly disagree with this notion. I think that authentic Paganism or Heathenry derives from tradition and history as much as from our experience of today's life-realities. When we look to tradition and history, and work to integrate it into our thinking today, and into our spiritual realities today, it necessarily restricts us, forces us to think along lines that we ourselves didn't come up with all alone. This "restriction" brings us, with some difficulty, towards the same truths that our ancestors knew and reacted to. That is the point.

This is not a call to "try and live just like they did"- no, we do have to take into account the variables of living in the modern day. But living in the modern day doesn't automatically change the value of the human life-cycle. The human being- all of us, all the way back to the first Ancestors- are blessed by the Gods with spirit, beauty, wit, and health. The most sacred of utterances from the All-seeing Volva tell us so, just as she told our ancestors. If you wish to discard what she said, then you have simply discarded the entire basis for Heathen theology born from ancient lore. Some may do this as a matter of course; I cannot with good honor do it myself, nor associate spiritually with those who do.

The cycle of lives is sacred, and no amount of "free choice" or "let's believe what we want to believe" ideology will change that. I understand that not everyone can provide a happy home for an unexpected child; but adoption is always an option. There are many loving couples out in the world who greatly desire to have a child, but cannot for many reasons. I understand that it can be very difficult to take care of an unexpected child, but then, where is it written that life is easy? The Nine Noble Virtues espoused by nearly all Heathens remind us that true people must endure many hardships, and endure them with great fortitude. Can we imagine that the ancients would have been blithely in support of "convenience abortion", considering how short life was in their times, and how every precious new member of a clan or tribe represented the survival of the same?

The sort of honor, discipline, and humility it takes to modify our desires to fit into a worldview that has evolved since ancient times, and which makes demands on us and on how we act, is what makes us justified to call ourselves "Heathens".

Regrettably, there are a lot of "Heathens" out there who want to consider themselves Heathen, talk and make Blots like other Heathens, but who don't want to risk shedding either their support for, or their "seeming of support" for the liberal agenda that was and is so prominent in modern Neo-Paganism, and has always been since Neo-Paganism's rebirth in the last century. To that, I say, Asatru is not just another "Neo-Pagan" path. It is something more than that, something based on more serious and mature patterns of tradition and principle. If we look "out of style" or "too conservative" to the Neo-people, so be it. I put the truth and responsibility before other people's perceptions of me or acceptance of me, and I think the Gods would want it that way.

Viking ship lands in Ireland after nearly 1,000 years

DUBLIN (Reuters) A reconstructed Viking ship pulled into Dublin on Tuesday nearly 1,000 years after the original sank off Denmark's coast, with its crew retracing the gruelling voyages made by marauding Nordic raiders to Ireland.

The Sea Stallion's weather-beaten, 65-member team set sail from Roskilde in Denmark on July 1 using oar and sail power, journeying over 1,000 nautical miles and aiming to address unanswered questions about Viking ship-building and travel.

Church bells rang out and a flotilla of sailing boats greeted the ship's entry into Dublin's port on Tuesday.

"You have come here on a voyage of discovery," said Dublin's Lord Mayor Paddy Bourke as the vessel and its volunteer crew of men and women docked.

Crafted from the wood of 300 oak trees, the 30-metre (100-foot) long, 4-metre wide Sea Stallion is the world's largest reconstructed Viking vessel, its builders say.

The original ship was built in Dublin in 1042 but sank 30 years later in Roskilde fjord, around 30 miles (50 km) south of Copenhagen, and lay there until excavation began in 1962. The Sea Stallion was completed in 2004 after work started in 2000.

The Sea Stallion's voyage aimed to mirror the conditions faced by the feared Nordic warriors who unleashed bloody raids on Ireland and England 1,000 years ago.

The ship's Danish captain, Carsten Hvid, said the toughest moment was coming into the Irish Sea, when high winds and 5-metre waves battered the boat.

"We put on our survival suits and prepared the life rafts," Hvid told reporters after arriving in Dublin. But he added that no one was washed overboard.

The vessel was towed for a small part of the trip. Most of the voyage was spent braving the elements on an open deck, with just a square metre of living space for each crew member.

Some of the assembled team spent stints on a support ship due to hypothermia or minor injuries.

"You were so tired, but you still had to work together. It has been a great experience," said Hvid.

In the old Viking sagas, it was not uncommon for captains to spend weeks, months, or even an entire winter waiting for the weather to shift in their favour.

"There was cold, lashing rain on some days from the morning until the following morning," the ship's project manager Prieben Rather Sorensen told Reuters.

"We did not have the time that the Vikings had as we had to be here today," he added. "That was one of the challenges."

Researchers will analyse film and computer data gathered during the voyage, and the vessel will go on display this month at Dublin's National Museum until next year, when a crew captained by Hvid will make the return voyage home.

Sorensen said he was already counting down the days to setting sail again. "It is like a narcotic -- you can't live without it," he said.

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. But he goes further- he says some important things, that I think cannot be repeated enough- listen to this pure magic:

* * *

"...Approaching this view of human life from a Heathen religious standpoint, I find it both very difficult and unrewarding to fit this complex understanding of the individual into some fixed theory, diagram, moral lesson or comprehensive program of self-improvement. Life simply is too complicated to be meaningfully explained by such things, and in any event, does not work precisely the same way for each of us, since the balance of significant causes is probably different for each of us.

What is the same for all of us is the process of working out old causes and adding new ones, and also the web of causation that ties us all together in many and profound ways, some of which we can understand and some of which remain mysteries approached only through myth and metaphor. Each of us was created by a multitude of causes, each will ultimately be destroyed and dissipated by a multitude of causes, and in the space in-between, each will be constantly transformed by a multitude of causes. While it is tempting to identify with one or a few of them, and cling to them as to a seemingly sturdy raft caught in turbulent waters, to do so is fundamentally inconsistent with the way things--the way we--really are. The raft, after all, will break up in the end, and the only resolution that promises any stability is for us to understand once and for all that we and the waters are, at bottom, not separate things.

It might appear at this point as if the view of Wyrd presented here differs from a scientific/psychological viewpoint only in its acceptance of non-physical, "spiritual" causes, rather than remaining constrained with the need for tangible, measurable causes. But that alone is, I think, insufficient to make Wyrd an essentially religious belief. It is a pet notion of mine that two fundamental perceptions lie at the heart of religion as a human phenomenon. They can be neither proved nor disproved logically, but then, no one ever said that faith does not play a part in religion, and as things go, I am satisfied in placing my faith in them.

The first is that, despite all of the things that appear to us to be messed up in one way or another, the way life is working itself out in the universe is the way it is supposed to be working itself out; that is, life, being, and consciousness are supremely and unquestionably good. And the second is that the appropriate human response to the first perception is gratitude. The most primary expression of religion is to give thanks for the innate rightness of life.

Understanding ourselves in light of Wyrd, as patterns within the universal web of life and destiny, removes barriers that too often stand in the way of our arriving at the gratitude that impels us to give thanks. To get there, we must give up what we will inevitably lose anyway, and reach beyond ourselves to grasp what is, in fact, the true essence of ourselves.

This is admittedly an intellectualized, and some would doubtless add, tortured, expression of something that remains implicit, natural and mysterious in the lore. But I do not think it entirely different from the realization that led so many of the figures in lore, when faced with impossible situations, to express, not merely fatalistic acceptance, but outright joy at the prospect, not of survival, but rather of expressing in their own destruction an affirmation of life, and of all they had lived for.

Where it does differ, however, is in the fact that, because it is an intellectual formulation, it insists upon logically working out its own consequences: it is not enough to give thanks for the innate rightness of life; one should go farther, and participate in that rightness, strive to carry it forward. How that further obligation seems to me to work itself out in religious practice and personal conduct, though, is not much expressed either in the lore or in modern Heathen thought, and although I believe I have arrived at my conclusions through following a relatively traditional understanding of Wyrd out to its logical consequences, I also believe I have gone out on this particular limb about as far as I intend to for now, at least in public.

Be that as it may, I would close with the suggestion that Wyrd, not gods or ethics, might actually be the central mystery of Heathen religion; but one does not drink from her well for free, and having drunk, cannot become again the person one was beforehand."

* * *

These words spell out, as close as human words may, the heart of true religion, and of everything I personally believe. He's right- Wyrd IS the central mystery of Heathen religion. Hail the Mystery of Wyrd, and the Gods that have arisen from it!

The Heathen's Daily Oath

"I am not troubled by death and I wish to meet it. The Disir whom Odin has sent to me from Herjar's Hall invite me home. Gladly will I drink ale with the Aesir on the high seat. Ended are the hours of life. Laughing will I die."

-Ragnar Lothbrok's Death Song

* * *

I address all of the Holy Kindreds, and the wights that dwell in this place, and I sing a song about myself and the world in which I dwell:

I am of the race of Ask and Embla, the offspring of Rig, and I speak in this sacred dwelling, in a distant time, from a darkening world.

Now, Garm bays loudly

And many have met their doom,

Now sleeping in the halls of Hel, her hue dark red.

This is the axe-age and the sword age, and sundered are many shields; this is the wind-age, the wolf-age, and the world-doom is not far off.


In these trying times, many have forgotten the ancestral Gods and few still give worth to the land-wights and the holy mound-dead.

Oaths are forgotten with ease,

Hearts are shaken like leaves in wind,

And few are Wyrd-wise enough to say what shall be from day to day and night to night.

This life is a field of struggle; I have faced adversity many times, and many times won good victories, though my luck did not always remain steady, and not always did I win through effort or act with honor.

* * *

I address all of the Holy Kindreds, and the wights that dwell in this place, and I make this prayer to mighty Urd, spinner and weaver of the destinies of men:

Every man and woman's final day is fixed by the Fates; if today is my last, and this evening I walk down the Hel-way, do not look upon my failings, but upon the honor and worth I gave to you, and the faith I kept with those bound to me- let that be honor enough to give me shoes for the Hel-track and the guidance of my Fylgja.

Every man and woman's final day is fixed in the weave of the Norns; if today is my last, and this evening I walk down the Hel-way, do not look upon my misdeeds, but upon the love and deeds that bonded me to my family and kin, and the loyalty I feel for them- let that be enough to give me a coat for the Hel-winds and the blessings of my Disir.

Guiding and protecting spirit that walks side-by-side with me through this life, Dis sent from the side of the Allfather, Swan-cloaked maiden, do not abandon me to the forgetfulness of death nor to the fearful mouth of Helgrind, but be with me in my time of greatest need, for we are all Kin of Herjan. Speak well of me in the Halls of the Gods.

* * *

If it is Fate that I should die through violence, let me bravely face it. Let the violence that shatters this body be the force that makes me worthy to be lifted to the Hall of the Slain and to sit with the heroes in Allfather's company; let the weapon that kills me bring me to life.

If it is Fate that I should linger and die of old age or sickness, let the Disir and my Fylgja stand over me, ready to guide me to rest across the waters, and let me be with those I love until I am no more.

I believe in mighty Asa-Tyr's Justice, the Justice that rules over all the worlds. I believe in the power of right action, and I pledge now, as I pledge everyday, to honor the Gods, reverence the Land and the holy powers within it, protect my family and friends always, and the wide family of life alongside them, and to uphold the Truth even if the cost to myself is high.

All my days, I have done what I thought was right, and I can offer no better account of my life.

* * *

Gods of Allfather's family, Gods of the Vanir, powers of the deep world of Hel, let me share in your great wisdom. Let me gain the golden mead of poetic inspiration, and let me experience what I must to be full of might and health. Let me meet the powers I must meet to know frith and peace, in the home of my body and the home of my soul.

Every man and woman's final day is fixed; if today is my last, help me to be brave and give me the strength to endure what I must. Ancestors and Holy Kindreds who forever watch unseen, count me worthy to feast in your company, and extend your power to protect those that I love and leave behind.

* * *

The Wisdom of Vaclav Havel

"...This is related to... science as the basis of the modern conception of the world.

The dizzying development of this science, with its unconditional faith in objective reality and its complete dependency on general and rationally knowable laws, led to the birth of modern technological civilization. It is the first civilization in the history of the human race that spans the entire globe and firmly binds together all human societies, submitting them to a common global destiny. It was this science that enabled man, for the first time, to see Earth from space with his own eyes; that is, to see it as another star in the sky.

At the same time, however, the relationship to the world that the modern science fostered and shaped now appears to have exhausted its potential. It is increasingly clear that, strangely, the relationship is missing something. It fails to connect with the most intrinsic nature of reality and with natural human experience. It is now more of a source of disintegration and doubt than a source of integration and meaning. It produces what amounts to a state of schizophrenia: Man as an observer is becoming completely alienated from himself as a being.

Classical modern science described only the surface of things, a single dimension of reality. And the more dogmatically science treated it as the only dimension, as the very essence of reality, the more misleading it became. Today, for instance, we may know immeasurably more about the universe than our ancestors did, and yet, it increasingly seems they knew something more essential about it than we do, something that escapes us. The same thing is true of nature and of ourselves. The more thoroughly all our organs and their functions, their internal structure, and the biochemical reactions that take place within them are described, the more we seem to fail to grasp the spirit, purpose, and meaning of the system that they create together and that we experience as our unique "self".

And thus today we find ourselves in a paradoxical situation. We enjoy all the achievements of modern civilization that have made our physical existence on this earth easier so in many important ways. Yet we do not know exactly what to do with ourselves, where to turn. The world of our experiences seems chaotic, disconnected, confusing. There appear to be no integrating forces, no unified meaning, no true inner understanding of phenomena in our experience of the world. Experts can explain anything in the objective world to us, yet we understand our own lives less and less. In short, we live in the postmodern world, where everything is possible and almost nothing is certain."

-Vaclav Havel

Here's a link to the entire speech from which the above excerpt was drawn:

Vaclav Havel's Speech

This is one of the greatest short speeches I have ever read; I agree with every word of it. I love reading things that sing straight to my heart. This man- Vaclav Havel- is a true master of the art of Being Human. Modern Heathens who feel and understand the need for the sacred in the modern world, threatened as it is by the giantish forces of materialism, need to read his words carefully, and understand the Wyrd of his intent. He has a great wisdom that shines effortlessly from his words.

And when I say "Wyrd", I mean Wyrd- he has an idea he calls the "Anthropic Cosmological Principle", which is the very heart and essence of the MANNAZ Rune, the Mystery of Man. You have to read this to believe it!

The Song of Life Force

You have more power over your own mental and physical health than you realize. Real health isn't based on your ability to store up some great fund of good ideas, nutrition, or vitamins; it is based on your ability to consciously let your vitality flow into you, through you, and out of you, like an effortless stream. That vitality, your life force, is not just native to your body; it is also native to this world, to the ground and sky. You share it with them.

You have more power over the flow of your own life force than you know. Your life force wants to flow, like a river flowing fast to the ocean; and under ideal circumstances, it does just that.

You are not living your human life to block the flow of your own vital force; it is meant to rush strongly through you, from the world to you, and from you to the world. You are not meant to collect life force and hold it forever trapped, like gold slowly tarnishing; you are meant to make yourself a channel through which force rushes like a thunderstorm.

The flow of sacred vital force is more than a matter of merely living. Though life-power will be present in any life, it only reaches the white force of perfection when you are conscious of its presence and its motion.

Without realizing it, you have blocked it up in many ways, with your mind. You have locked up life-force with certain emotions, certain bad mental habits.

Your sadness and anxieties drain life force from the chief flow, that white and red flow up and down the valley of your spine. Sadness and anxiety take life force like leeches, and divert it into pools in your chest and head, and deep in your heart cavity, and trap it in caves.

The time and mental effort you spend hating and despising people and situations that are outside of your control and responsibility steal life force, as well. That hatred and spite traps life force in your back and neck, in your stomach, your throat and your head. There, it swirls around, growing dim, and aching.

The effort you make to preserve your own mental habits, ideas, and life-identity in the face of the myriad changes of Wyrd halves the power of your own life force.

The belly, like the sexual organs, contains a fire, and what you eat fills it like wood. When you give it the right amount of fuel, it burns bright. The winds of healthy-flowing life force fan the flame, making it burn healthy and perfectly.

Too much wood chokes it, and your life force becomes dimmed. The body becomes choked full of ashes, and the limbs and torso bulge with unburned refuse. That refuse soaks up life force, lowering the amount you have available to you, and chokes the life force that the heart needs to work properly.

Drinking fermented liquids builds life force and life-fire up quickly and makes it burn bright, but drink too much too often, and the internal flames are lessened, doused, suffocated, and life force becomes dulled. The mind becomes dim, health is affected, sometimes to the point that the life force cannot flow freely ever again without the fermentation to aid it, but the cost of this aid is your wits and your health, so drink fermentation with a note of caution.

If you do not sleep enough, life force cannot replenish properly. If you sleep too much, life force is dulled, harming the body.

Trapped or dulled life force simmers and burns in you, like a flame struggling not to go out. It causes pain, and can cause unnatural, harmful growths in the body. It can cause underlying tensions in the mind that manifest as depression, restlessness, and anxiety.


Really change the focus of your attention; let it be simpler. Let yourself feel your life force. We've become so used to the feeling, that we don't realize what we have. You feel it keenly when you don't have it, when your eyelids are like lead, and when you are nodding off every few seconds. Make yourself stand up in those situations and walk around, and feel your body and mind from the "inside". That is low vitality. When you are ill and weak, the fire of life force burns low. That is an especially pronounced time of low vitality.

You realize it when you have an abundance- let yourself feel how you feel in the moments before sexual contact, or while you are feeling the exhilaration of exercise. There can be no real joy, real and strong joy, without strong life force; the very ill can be happy about something, but not overjoyed.

Most of the time, the amount of life force you have will not be very high or low, and thus, very hard to feel. Most of our daily lives in the modern day aren't conducive to extremes of life force; children have abundant life force, but after we become adults and fall into adult routines, we forget the feeling that children often enjoy. Spring mornings, however, can remind us- life force fills the body of nature in the spring, and cool, refreshing spring mornings can impart great vitality to a person who stands in the new sun. Drinking a lot of room-temperature water daily also allows the body to maintain a higher level of life force.


What you must do, everyday, is work with life force. Start by feeling how much life force you "have" within you, then picture it moving, flowing, to all parts of your body, and spilling out of you, going into the sky and ground. Let yourself feel how much life force is in the sky and ground, and know that as you sense it, and open yourself to it, it is allowed to enter you.

The Rune LAGUZ, whose power is deepest green, the force that gathers around the wights of willow trees and growing plants in general, and whose power is manifest in all flows, whether of water or life-vitality, is the mystery that you can use to improve the power of the vital flow that you experience as your own.





With the Laguz-Song, the Song of the Lake of Life Force, you can awaken your body and mind's power to take life force in and send it out, flowing. The Laguz Galdr sounds like this:

LAAAAAH GOOOOZ


When it is sung, sing it with all your breath, drawing it out as long as you can. The symbol should appear in your chest, seen with your hugauga, your mind's eye, fashioned from the deepest green possible. It should be vibrant and fluid. Every strange channel and spiritual bone in your body, from your center to the tips of your fingers and toes should resonate with the dark green flow of power from it. It should overflow you and fill the world, and you should receive from the world much power. The flow is two way, or not at all.

As you sing the sacred sound, send out life-power; the flow out is just as important as the flow in. As you breathe in, take it in, like a rushing waterway.

Sing the Galdr, see the sign, over and over and over. Walk outside; open your arms, join the flow of life-force. And pay special attention to your confining mental habits, which are the main things that twist and inhibit the flow of life-force. You don't realize it, but your lack of awareness of life force is one of the main things blocking it. Be aware that you have a subtle, fluid force that you trap in various parts of your body, and make the decision to release it.

Give up on frustrations and hatreds that you no longer need. Release stresses that you no longer need. The life force that is released by these things alone is a tangible thing, a thing that makes you immediately feel better. If you can stand under falling water, you can let the force of it hitting your skin "jar loose" the trapped pockets of power inside your body, purifying you and releasing them back to free flow. You can do the same thing in the swift current of a river, or even a shower.

Throw open your arms, lean back, stretch, Then lean forward and touch the ground; Stand up straight. Spin around if you need to. Feel the whole range of free motion with your limbs. Run or walk. Feel natural thankfulness and joy at life for your many gifts, and even if you have drawbacks in your health or life, you still have some gifts.

90% of life force blockage can be broken free with the Runic sign and song. But nothing can be done if you persist in negative mental habits and if you refuse to release stress and negative emotions. Give up these weights, if you have them- let your life force flow. Your health will improve, mentally and physically. Let your mind accept the vision of life force flowing through you like a river; accept, internalize, and celebrate that vision.

Life force flowing strongly and healthily through you will increase your life-length, increase your luck-force, and make your sorcery stronger, if you practice sorcery. It will also allow you to balance your thinking more and spread well-being to others.

Vatni Ausa

Þóra ól barn um sumarið, og var það mær; var hún vatni ausin og nafn gefið og hét Ásgerðr.

"Thora bore a child in the summer; it was a girl. She was sprinkled with water, and named Asgerdr.

-Egils Saga

* * *

A few days ago, the Idavoll Kindred got the rare pleasure of performing the Vatni Ausa rite on a newborn child. Vatni Ausa means "sprinkling with water", but the rite is also called a "Name Fastening". The Vatni Ausa ritual is very much a Heathen baptism rite, but it is ancient and grew up independent from the later Christian ritual of baptism.

The traditional basis for the Vatni Ausa rite comes from the ancient Rigsthula. In that great work, in which we are told more of the origins of different human beings as the ancestor-God Rig traveled among ancient man, we see the fathers and mothers of newly born children "casting water" upon their infant offspring and giving them names. In verse 35, for instance, we read:

"A son bore mother / in silk they swathed him,
sprinkled water on him / and called him Jarl
Was his hair flaxen / and fair-hued his cheek,
his eyes awfully / like an adder's, blazed."

It should be noted that "flashing eyes" were seen as a token of noble birth by the ancients, as Tacitus recorded.

In the Vatni Ausa rite, a child is formally accepted by its father on its ninth night of life, and sprinkled with water made sacred by Blots, and given a name. Of course, in the modern day, most children will typically have "mainstream" names and a separate name by which they are known in the Asatru faith-community. I sincerely hope that one day we have more children whose Vatni Ausa name is the same as the one on their birth certificates, but until that fine day, we go on as we are.

A member of our Kindred named Grettir welcomed a new son about two weeks ago. On his ninth night of life, we went out to the very large and forested property where our Kindred member lives, erected a harrow (pictured above) and performed the Vatni Ausa on his tiny baby boy. His boy's name at birth was Brendan, but the name chosen by his father for his Vatni Ausa was Eyarr.

I include a transcript of the rite we used. Before I give it, a few notes on it are in order.

The water we used for the sprinkling of Brendan/Eyarr was special- it was clean spring water mingled with some water from the Tobernault Holy Well in Sligo, Ireland. The last time Thorgrimmr was there, he got a bottle of it straight from the well, and carried it back here, and we use it now for various sacred work.

Our Kindred's Vatni Ausa works in two parts. In the first part, we set up a Harrow, which includes a horn and a hlautbowl, a bowl of the water, and a hammer (pictured above).

Then the father of the child and the rite leader (usually our Godi) go into the forest looking for a Hlauteinn, a sprig of some evergreen that will be used to sprinkle the child. The Father of Brendan and I found a holly bush that was more than able to offer a nice sprig, and I sang Algiz songs to it, to consciously communicate with the wight of the holly bush, and ask it for its donation. The father responds by giving a gift to it for the hlauteinn, then we return to the ritual site.

Placing the hlauteinn on the hlautbowl, the bowl that will catch the ale from the Blot, we are ready. For the most important Blots, such as the Blots that come before something as important as the Vatni Ausa, we use the best ale we know- Chimay Grand Reserve. As a rule, the Gods and holy Kindreds must always be given the finest ale or drink you have on hand at the place where the Blot or Rite is being done, for the same reasons that you'd break out the best ale for an honored human guest or relative that came to visit.


Our Vatni Ausa has two parts, as I said before: they are preparation and Blots, and then the Sprinkling and Naming. When we are ready, we use the Hammer to consecrate the area around the Harrow, and the Harrow itself, including all the items on it.

In this particular Vatni Ausa, our Steersman Thorgrimmr drummed slowly (30 beats a minute then 15 beats a minute) while the Blots were taking place. Jorhild acted as our Horn-dis, filling horns for me (I led the rite) and holding the hlautbowl when the time came to pour and sprinkle the gathering.

four Blots were made, one to the Allfather, one to the Disir or ancestral guardian spirits of the families of the mother and the father of the child, one to the Thunderer, and one to the Earth Mother.

To the Allfather we make a Blot and ask for wisdom and guidance on the child; to the Disir, we ask that a Fylgja-Dis or a protecting spirit attach itself to the child and follow him through his life, protecting him; to the Thunderer, we ask for protection from the designs and baneful powers of Ill-wights, and to the Earth Mother we ask for health for the child.

Each time a Blot is done (and the text of the Blot calls is given below) a few drops of the consecrated ale is sprinkled into the water that will later be used to sprinkle the child.


When the four Blots are done, the father (and mother if she is participating) carries the child up to the harrow and dips the hlauteinn into the water. Looking at their child, they say "I acknowledge you as my son/daughter and name you _____". As they are saying this, they sprinkle the water lightly over the child's head.

At this point, the father and mother make their parental vows to the child- in the name of the Gods, they make whatever vows to the child they feel the need to make; to protect the child, to love it all their lives, to always support the child, etc. As long as these vows are kept, the luck-force binding the parents to the child, and the luck-force that surrounds their family, cannot be defeated.


That's our Vatni Ausa; below are the calls we use. Bear in mind that the mother, who is not Asatru, was not present for the blots. She was, however, present for the sprinkling.



Five Hammer Hallowings:

VIH THONORAZ : HELGA VE THETTA OK HALD VORDH

("Sacred (or powerful) Thunderer, hallow and hold this holy stead")



Blot for Odin

(All invocations except for the last are given with the body straight and standing, and hands raised above the head in a "Y" shape, making the body conform to the shape of the Algiz Rune, the posture of invocation since time immemorial among the Indo Europeans.)


FIMBULTYR : GALDRSFADHIR : HANGATYR : ALLFADHIR ODIN
RISTER OF RUNES : EAGLE HIGH, WYRM DEEP
SHAPER OF THE WORLD IN ANCIENT TIMES
WITH THESE WORDS YOUR CHILDREN ROWN YOU FORTH
COME AND HALLOW THIS GATHERING WITH YOUR MIGHT.

BEFORE YOU STANDS A FATHER WITH A SON NEWLY BORN
LET HIS OFFSPRING BE BLESSED
LET ALL OF HIS SON'S DAYS BE BLESSED.
GUIDE HIM, FATHER MOST WISE,
AND PROTECT HIM.


(The horn is filled and handed to the Godi, who marks it with the hammer sign and with the ANSUZ sign, and holds it up.)

ALLFATHER, ACCEPT THIS HORN OF ALE AS A TRUE AND HALLOWED SACRIFICE. RECEIVE IT. FILL IT WITH YOUR MIGHT.


The Godi lowers it and hammer signs it again, and takes a sip. It is carried around to each participant so that they can take a sip.

What remains in the horn is poured into the hlautbowl, and the hlauteinn is dipped in, and a few drops are cast into the water bowl. The Godi then offers a silent prayer to Odin, sprinkles himself, and walks to each participant now, telling them:

(NAME), Under Odin's Eye, I blood you wise and protected.

And then he sprinkles them.

When all have been sprinkled, the remains of the bowl are poured out onto the ground, with these words:

HEILIR AESIR
HEILAR ASYNJUR
HEIL SU IN FJOLNYTA FOLD.

("Hail to the Gods, Hail to the Goddesses, Hail Earth, who gives to all.")



Blot to the Disir

All is done as above, but with these changes to the calls:


DISIR OF THE FAMILY REITER
DISIR OF THE FAMILY HOBDEN
FETCH-ANCESTRESSES
WARDING WIGHTS OF MEN'S LIVES
SHIELD MAIDENS
LUCK BRINGERS
WITH THESE WORDS WE ROWN YOU FORTH
COME AND HALLOW THIS GATHERING WITH YOUR MIGHT.

SEE BRENDAN THERE, THE SON OF GRETTIR AND CATHERINE
THOSE OF YOU WHO WILL WEAVE HIM A GOOD FATE
A SAFE AND HAPPY LIFE, ATTACH YOURSELF TO HIM
AND FOLLOW HIM ALL HIS DAYS.
DO THIS IN THE NAME OF WYRD THE MIGHTY
BY THE FORCE OF THE SPINNING NORNS
IN THE NAME OF THE ALLFATHER
AND THE EARTH THAT GIVES TO ALL.


(The horn is filled and handed to the Godi, who marks it with the hammer sign and with the ALGIZ sign, and holds it up.)

DISIR, ACCEPT THIS HORN OF ALE AS A TRUE AND HALLOWED SACRIFICE. RECEIVE IT. FILL IT WITH YOUR MIGHT.


(NAME), In the name of the Clan-Mothers, I blood you lucky and protected.



Blot to the Thunderer

ATLI : ASATHOR : OKUTHOR : THUNDERER
OLD REDBEARD : HRUNGNIRS BANE :
MIDGARD'S WARDER
SIF'S BELOVED : SON OF ODIN
WITH THESE WORDS YOUR YOUNGER KIN ROWN YOU FORTH
COME AND HALLOW THIS GATHERING WITH YOUR MIGHT.

BEFORE YOU STANDS A FATHER WITH A SON NEWLY BORN
LET HIS OFFSPRING BE BLESSED;
LET ALL OF HIS SON'S DAYS BE BLESSED.
ASATHOR, KEEP HIM SAFE FROM THE DESIGNS OF WICKED WIGHTS.
KEEP HIM SAFE EVERY DAY OF HIS LIFE.


(The horn is filled and handed to the Godi, who marks it with the hammer sign and holds it up.)


THUNDERER, ACCEPT THIS HORN OF ALE AS A TRUE AND HALLOWED SACRIFICE. RECEIVE IT. FILL IT WITH YOUR MIGHT.


(NAME), Under the Hammer of the Thunder God, I blood you warded and safe.




Blot to the Earth Mother

(the invocation to Nerthus or Iord, the Earth Mother, is given by the Godi as he kneels and touches the ground)


NERTHUS : IORD : GREAT AND GIVING EARTH : WIH-MIGHT GROWING
MOTHER OF MAN : MOTHER OF ASATHOR
FLOWERING AND FILLING WITH LIFE
WITH THESE WORDS YOUR CHILDREN ROWN YOU FORTH
COME AND HALLOW THIS GATHERING WITH YOUR MIGHT


UPON YOU STANDS A FATHER WITH A SON NEWLY BORN
LET HIS OFFSPRING BE BLESSED
LET ALL OF THIS SON'S DAYS BE BLESSED
KEEP HIM IN HALE HEALTH ALL HIS DAYS, MOTHER.


(The horn is filled and handed to the Godi, who marks it with the hammer sign and holds it up.)


GREAT EORTH, ACCEPT THIS HORN OF ALE AS A TRUE AND HALLOWED SACRIFICE. RECEIVE IT. FILL IT WITH YOUR MIGHT.


(NAME), by this Good Earth, I blood you lucky and healthy.


After these Blots were done, at our Vatni Ausa, the new father carried his son up to the harrow, and sprinkled the child as I described before. He named him Eyarr, the "luck bringing warder", and made very touching vows to him. We clapped; it was a fine time.

The most important thing for any parent (Asatru or not) to remember is this: blessings come from many places, but the best blessing a child can have is the unflinching and unconditional love of family and kin.

The Vikings: History, Fantasy, and Reality

Everyone knows about the Vikings. From popular fiction to historical accounts, we've all experienced the drama of heavily armed raiders splashing off their fierce Dragon-ships and raiding, burning, and looting villages up and down the coastlines of England and France. We all know that these vicious men were out to rape as many women as they could, carry off as much treasure as they handle, and were all prepared to die fighting, so that they could go drink and feast in Valhalla. The truth of the matter is, like with so many other things, quite different from this picture.

The idea of the blood-crazed Viking raider, and Valhalla as the prime warrior's paradise, a place for warriors to go if they die fighting, echoes long in the historical memory of the world. While modern Asatru is not limited to the Heathen religious ideas of the Viking era only, it certainly has roots in the rich tapestry of Icelandic Heathen lore, and Iceland was founded by the Vikings.

Many have mistakened Asatru today for a "warrior religion" or a "Viking religion". Many Kindreds and other members of the Asatru faith are working hard to overcome these stereotypes, for many good reasons. At best, the Vikings, brave traders and explorers that they were, only represent a very tiny part of Germanic Heathen history and tradition as a whole. At worst, historical propaganda and falsehoods told about the Vikings lead some immature people to assume that Asatru glorifies violence, rape, murder, or stupidity.

Asatru is far more than some excuse for childish machismo and posturing or "play Viking" nonsense- it is a living faith that keeps ancestral piety close to its heart, praises courage and steadfast behavior, and focuses on the value of human bonds of support and closeness, particularly between kin. The idea that anyone can think of guys running about dressed like fake Vikings and swinging axes and swords as the essence of the Asatru religion is a terrible distortion of the reality, to say the least.

The Viking Age, spanning roughly 790 and 1000 CE, was the last Heathen age of the Germanic peoples. It is closer to us historically than any other pre-Christian age of the Germanic folk, and thus, we happen to know more about it than any other age. Despite the fact that many of the written sources from which Asatru draws its theological basis date from Viking times (but were doubtlessly based on oral tales much older) the Viking Age does not capture the full essence of Germanic Heathenry.

The Vikings deserve a defense for who and what they were. To begin with, the Vikings were not as violent and bloodthirsty as most people think.

They also were not a unified people; the term "Viking" doesn't refer to a people; it refers to something people all over the Scandinavian world did- they "went Viking"- meaning they went sailing, raiding, and trading, during the summer. The word Viking appears on several Runestones found in Scandinavia. In the Sagas, "Viking" refers to an overseas expedition (Old Norse fara í víking "to go on an expedition"), and víkingr, to a seaman or warrior taking part in such an expedition. The crews of Viking ships were packed full of young men, the younger sons of farmers who could not inherit their father's land. The land passed automatically to the oldest son, so the younger sons had to find another way to make a living. Often, they got together with the other unlanded young men from their area and arranged a Viking expedition, to find wealth through trade or exploration.

The reality of raiding is the aspect of the historical Viking tradition that most people associate with the act of "going Viking" as a whole. The reason why is because the first historical mention we have of Vikings is from the pens of Monks, who recorded the sack of Lindisfarne Monastery in 793. Vikings did sack Lindisfarne, and took its very large treasury of gold and silver for themselves. Needless to say, this attack, and several other attacks on monasteries, won the Vikings (who didn't help themselves by being Heathen) a nasty reputation in the eyes of the church. It was the Churchmen who wrote the history, and thus, the idea of Vikings being bloodthirsty Heathen raiders became not only common in written reports of the time, but in the minds of most people today who rely on history as it is written without understanding the deeper reality.

Monasteries were packed full of gold and silver and other riches- the Church wasn't poor, either then or now. While the common people sat sleeping in huts and struggling to make ends meet, Church buildings and Monasteries were filthy rich. They were relatively undefended, and so made tempting targets for Vikings. Sadly, the only people who wrote history back in those days happened to live inside the monasteries. That being said, I have a hard time rousing much sympathy for well fed, over-privileged monks who were rich (paradoxically while taking vows of poverty) while the common people were so poor.

The Vikings didn't set out to fight and murder and rape. They were prepared to fight in their voyages, of course- and they would certainly raid targets of opportunity, but in this respect, they were no more evil than any other group of people in the ancient world. Resource competition was "the name of the game", both then and now for most people. Getting money to eat and live is the bottom line. All the same, fighting is expensive and dangerous- even Vikings preferred to trade and make a fat profit that way. Despite what most people think, villages and towns in Viking times were not just helpless targets- they had armed men defending them and patrolling the coast. The chances that a crew from one longship or even several longships could attack a well-defended town or village and walk away without heavy casualties was not good.

Trading was, therefore, the primary way that the Vikings made their money. There was a trouble in trading with Christians, however. The Heathen Vikings were often subjected to unfair trade practices. It is said by some historians that Christian merchants who declared openly that they would not trade with heathens and infidels (Muslims and the Vikings) would get preferred status for availability and pricing of goods through a Christian network of traders.

It's not a stretch of credulity to think of Christian potentates making laws or rules regarding trade with Heathens and other non-Christians, and declaring either no trade allowed, or raising prices on non-Christians, in some feeble attempt to make conversion seem like a financially sound option. Vikings might have reacted negatively to what they would have perceived as dishonorable dealings, and raid just for good measure. Honestly, I can't blame them; I'd do the same.

The point of these historical facts is to remind people that the fictional "poor, scared villages of meek Christians" that we are led to believe were subjected to heartless and brutal Viking raids is just that- a fiction. It was a fiction created by Christian writers to vilify Heathen men. The historical realities show a more balanced picture.

One of the main activities of the Vikings was exploration- many of these expeditions sought new homelands. It is probable that Scandinavia lacked enough room for burgeoning populations, or that land for farming was all taken up, leading to an exodus-surge of explorers and settlers. The world of the Viking explorer was huge- they not only settled Iceland, but also Greenland and even dropped anchor off the coast of Vinland- North America. They explored the massive lengths of the rivers that cut deep into Russia and Eastern Europe, and served as mercenaries to the Byzantine Emperor. They founded the city of Dublin, ruled most of eastern England, and traded in Iberia, the Middle East, Egypt, and all over the Mediterranean. They even traded in Baghdad. Tribes of Swedes laid the foundations of Russia itself, including Russia's first and longest ruling dynasty.

Considering history, it seems to most reasonable people that the most amazing things the Vikings did were all related to exploration. So it's a little unfair (though given the nature of the Christian propaganda machine, understandable) that the Vikings are mostly remembered for raiding and killing.

Modern day members of the various branches of the Asatru faith are not Vikings. The reason why is simple: they do not live in a culture where financial pressures force them to "go Viking" every summer to trade, raid, or explore. Modern people all over the world probably have Viking blood in them, due to the nature of Viking exploration and expansion, and many members of the Asatru faith may claim literal or spiritual ancestry among the brave Vikings, but they are not themselves Vikings, at least not in the historical sense of the word. There's much to admire about the Vikings, and most good Asatruar always make it a point to show respect or admiration for them.

The most admirable thing about the Vikings is the spirit of adventure they demonstrated. Unafraid of the open ocean, their boats flew into dark, unexplored and dangerous waters that other European ships wouldn't dare- the other European vessels of their time hugged the coasts tightly. When politics became too annoying and untenable at home, the men and women of the Viking age took off- they built ships and sailed off to find a new land where they could live in peace, without interference. That is how Iceland came to be settled. That spirit of independence coupled with a zest for adventure is the main thing about the Vikings and their Age that most of us can truly get behind.