I think it is important to note in this blog where I am coming from because I have realized that the Norse pantheon has different desires than the Greek, Celtic, Egyptian, etc. So this post is something of a disclaimer considering I have been working strictly with Loki on this blog and He has shown me everything I know but He has also made it clear that He does not believe everything that the Norse gods do have anything to do with the Greek.
Loki’s sentiment is grounded in historical fact. The ancient Greeks had little to no contact with the Norse peoples during the time of their worship. A lot of the ideas that evolved during the time of the ancient Greeks have more concepts and connections to Egypt and any other founding ancient religions of the West compared to the concepts of the Norse which were a crossroads between Eastern European traditions and south European ideas that bled into the Vedic origins and customs of the time.
That being said, I feel there is a lot of crossover with the Greeks and Norse pantheons considering the pantheons were built very similarly. However, the ways that we know the Norse should look very differently from how the Greek pantheon was known.
Though there might be several ideas that the Greek had devotional-wise – for example, the oracles, divinatory practices, and temples devoted to specific Gods as well as initiatory practices of cults to the mysteries of specific Gods are all not to be ignored.
Considering the Vedic gods are the very origin of most polytheist cultures, we do not take very much stock in how and where we put our beliefs with regards to the polytheism of the ancient Norse people.
A lot of the modern Norse polytheist structures that were brought up in modern history look to Greece. In reality, Scandinavia did not have a lot of connection with ancient Greece until the Roman Empire which came right before Christianity became an influence to the Norse people.
If we are to look at a time before the Christians started to influence the Norse, we should look East instead of West.
Eastern principles of the Divine are much more translucent rather than black and white. The Eastern regions include a vast diaspora of religions including the Vedic religion and other Eastern philosophies. The culture integrated a very spiritual landscape within the natural world and intimacy and knowledge of the Divine. Divinity did not happen overnight but rather evolved with the times and the people who kept Them.
A big issue I see today within modern polytheism is the fact that people look to inspiration from the Greek cultures and Western ideas rather than where the true origin of the culture came from. Even when they aren’t intentionally doing it, the Western culture is extremely embedded in our philosophies today.
While oracles, divination, cults, temples, and other themes of immanence with the Divine were present with the Greeks, the actual execution of these ideas were done far before the Greeks even arrived at these conclusions.
The Vedic gods had temples, rituals, and cults around Them which Christians have bled into in recent times to believe that there is only one primary source of the Divine. True polytheism was around long before most Hindu beliefs ever took hold which then, in turn, inspired the cultures around the trade routes they developed which included the Norse people into Scandinavia.
Scandinavia was somewhat a crossroads of culture. Given that all of culture does not develop in a vacuum, most of what we know to be true of the Eastern religions can also be made true in some way of the Norse religions, as well. Given that the East was not indoctrinated into Christian and colonizing beliefs as soon as the West did, a lot of Scandinavian belief systems were destroyed as a result of the earlier conquest of the North by the Christians. Though some still remain until today, the worship of the Gods, however, did not.
Therefore, the tragedy in all of this is the fact that we have extremely little evidence of what the ancient Norse people actually did to worship their Deities, commune with Them, and how they combined their daily lives with the Divine. However, the principles of what we can conclude to be true about the Norse gods and Their people can still be found in Vedic religions rather than what we know about Western European religions.
Considering history was written by the oppressor, we will likely never find true historical evidence of any sort of practice that the Norse did to worship their Gods. We have a very, very small basis for anything that was meaningful to those people. Despite heathens believing that everything they do needs to have context within history, they are yet to acknowledge the fact that where they are coming from did not happen in isolation and the ways in which the Norse formed their practices did not actually happen alone.
This is the reason why I do not subscribe to what we call “heathenry” today. The “heathen” concepts of the Norse pre-Christian religion has no actual truth based on where it came from. Instead, it lends itself to some fantastical notion that the West had developed in the stead of the multicultural fabric of the Scandinavian people at the time.
The key differences are obvious when you ask any kindred or online heathen group what they think they should do with the Gods.
When it comes to the immanence of the Gods, heathens tend to believe They are far removed and untouchable. Even when they are not up front about it, they don’t tend to talk about these things. They presume that, when it comes to worship, a blót is the holiest thing to do due to it being the only written ritual we can find. However, I would say that a blót is the only palatable ritual to the foreigners of the region and the rest were discarded. Of course, the victors of history would think that a sacrifice is the most important ritual to the dirty backwards culture of pagans wherein an animal or human is bleeding to death on an altar. If you are wanting to paint a religion poorly, you would want people to know that what these pagans do is pointless and strange.
The people who looked onto the pagan world would likely not be invited to attend anything that would have cultural significance. Especially when it comes to what they actually did behind the scenes to venerate and to be in unity with the Divine. It would have been much too sacred and much too difficult to allow any outsider within the reach of the Divine.
It is not a safe assumption to guess that the only forms of ritual that would happen would be one in which a sacrifice was made for the crops or their village. It is also not safe to assume that the Gods were removed enough from the people that They did not attend these functions Themselves.
Gods will not go where They are unwanted unless there is a point to be made to people who would listen. Unfortunately, this is the case with modern day heathenry as there is simply no context for allowing the Gods into spaces in what we think was “historical accuracy.”
It is highly unlikely that the Gods feel inclined to offer Their presence at such performative spectacles such as a blót when it is a testament to how far removed we have become from Them since Their time where They were among us.
Though They could be invited or invoked, it is most often that the Divine presence is an assumption at a blót rather than a request. This is the case in several modern day pagan traditions wherein the Gods are called to act as a showpiece rather than an actual being who has needs and feelings on the matter. We get this idea mostly from occult-based religions like Wicca or even Christianity where the Divine are an assumption rather than an invitation.
People fall very flat within heathenry when it comes to how the Gods were worshiped and I do not blame them. We have nothing beyond right-wing propaganda used by nationalist parties during the 30s and 40s until now which is why there is such a problem with Neo-Nazis today and why it has been so hard to shut them out. No resource within heathenry outside of people who have attempted to bring in practices that are mystically inclined rather than reconstructed has ever really began to go outside of the range of what is problematic.
There have been many who have attempted to approach the concepts I have stated in my blog so far who have come before me who have likely received the same message I have. Yet, they came at it from the only way that they knew how, which is within a Western approach. These approaches have been used to control people and take away the consent of both the human and the God all at once.
Western cynicism derails the finer points of polytheism which have inspired several millennia of practitioners far before Christianity was ever around. We ourselves continue this practice because we do not recognize that the true heart of the nature of the Gods lies in humanity and who we are to Them.
It is not to say that Westernized culture has completely ruined religion for the most part as there are some important factors that have become useful tools which have sufficed given the approach we have with the Gods. Tarot is a perfect example of a tool that can be used to communicate that has not been around very long but can be detailed enough and nuanced enough to get a message across. Same thing comes with social media and the influence of people around the world who are joining together to create something new and out of the ordinary with pagan praxis.
We have begun to be able to discuss these things in depth and discover reasons for why this has become such an issue in the first place. Modern Norse pagans have already developed ritual tech that has been brought to the surface again which has a unique way of showing people who may never have the chance who the Gods really are. Though this is not perfect, it still brings the Gods back into the focus rather than background.
It will take a lot of relearning to ever come together in a way where we can have a cohesive relationship with the Divine again. I am not saying we must be organized but in order for it to be part of the culture again in a way that isn’t problematic or racist, it is most likely going to require experiences that align across the board from people who would not know otherwise. Certain things have already come into question that have redefined the Gods in modern day. Loki is a perfect example of that. But we must keep knowing and keep speaking to Them to have a better understanding of how to bring Them back to the surface of our religious practices rather than casting Them away when it gets too uncomfortable.
In conclusion, it is a feat and challenge that I am pursuing in my work to assist to reunite the Norse gods to humanity. This means I am going to continue to challenge what it means to be pagan and what it even meant to the Norse people to have the Gods.
While it is seemingly clear that we must completely start over, we also don’t have any context for what a religion that should have the Divine within reach could look like without it being a quest for power by the human in question. I seek to challenge the notion that it doesn’t exist because we truly don’t know what it could look like within our modern sphere, we only have what we know as of right now and that has been altered by the victor.
Devoured by Flame 