Devoured by Flame

The Gods find intrinsic value in offerings, tasks, devotion when you, yourself, do as well.

Cognitive dissonance tends to cause a lack of empowerment when we act out of alignment with our values and creates tough habits to get out of. Cognitive dissonance in this case would be defined as being uncomfortable with what you’re doing and doing it anyway. When it is repeated for days, months, years, it becomes so routine that you don’t even speculate your comfort level anymore and that is when one would likely fall out of alignment with the Gods and not even realize it. 

Learning what it is you value, you also learn what it is the Gods can value from you, as well.

What are values?

Values are not morals. Values are our dignity and they are worthy of respect. When you uphold your values, you honor the Divine. When you don’t uphold your values, they get lost in between what you want and what you think you need. 

Values are different for everyone – these are not doctrinal or something that people who hold power over you should say you should have. These are things that fit you in your life and things that have meaning beyond the theme of “right and wrong.”

Values are determined by life experiences and tolerances and not depictions of fantasy or a dream of how things “should be” in order to be your best self. When you place “should” before any value, that is automatically out of alignment and thus does not have anything to do with this. “Should” creates the dissonance between what you think you need in order to reach your highest potential and what you actually do. It also creates a certain level of shame tolerance and active disdain towards yourself. Our society functions off of shame and ego and profits off of your weakness. “Should” has no function in your work with the Divine and thus needs to be disregarded. 

Morality versus Values

Alternatively, the expectations of the Divine have no moral responsibility. You do not honor the Gods to show yourself in good favor or to create ego out of things that have no power over you. What you say you “should” get out of your work with Them is not equal and has no bearing on what you actually need to get out of it. 

To put it into perspective, say you offer Them water. Some might say you “should” put more work into that offering and don’t make it so easy or water isn’t “good enough.” Others might say water is fine if you have nothing else but otherwise, try offering different things. 

Where you can meet in the middle is understanding the value of the offering. What are you actually offering to the Deity that has value rather than the context surrounding it? Are you offering your time, as well? Do you follow it up with a prayer or time spent at your shrine? What do you think goes into the offering that has value to the Deity in question rather than the context of having to give or feeling that you should give an offering? What is valuable to you that you give to Them?

I would wager most people reading this have access to fresh water which means the value isn’t innately in the object itself but rather, what you do with it. If the energy isn’t offered in the object itself, then something valuable needs to be given, as well. Time, in this case, would be more valuable than water, and the energy of spending the time you have less of can be given to the Deity and be carried by the water.

If you pour out water into a cup and walk away, that shows the Deity that you have no other object of value or substance that you can give Them and so, why bother unless you feel like it’s something you “should” do? If the value is not given, there is no energy and thus, the Deity will not respond in the same way to that offering unless They feel you are willing to put in more energy and value. 

See what I did there? 

Realizing what is valuable to you without the stance of moral obligation is also of value to the Gods. 

What is Not Valuable

What you may find to be valuable might be different to someone else. What is special and unique to you may not look or feel the same as what someone else finds to be valuable. 

Someone may seem to place value in creating cognitive dissonance by doing whatever it is they think is necessary for the Gods to have value in it, and therefore it is valuable to them, but that is not the case. In order for the Gods to value it, you must value it yourself. Historical reconstruction tends to have very little value to us in this day and age. We don’t have the context to worship the Gods in the same way to what the ancient people had context for – their values were not the same as ours. Slaughtering sheep or livestock would have put an ancient person out of a meal for a day or two – slaughtering livestock today would be a commodity to us when accessing food can 

Unless you value the life of the livestock and it has inherent value to you and your livelihood, it has no meaning to the Gods. I sincerely doubt most people would sacrifice their own animals for the sake of a Deity when you can cook your own meals with other animals that have less value to you. 

Additionally, reconstructed rituals such as blót or sumbel have no context or value in the world we live in right now and therefore would have little to no value to the Gods. If you believe a reconstructed ritual is something we “should” be recreating because a religion, leader, or practice says we should, it therefore holds little substance or value to yourself outside of what “should” be happening. 

This falls back into the ways of Christians who feel as though they “should” be going to church to be closer to their God rather than going to church because they feel they get something out of it in a way that is valuable to them. If an external factor is imposing this set of authority over you and you have no say about whether it is valuable or not, you might have lost the meaning of value to your self. 

Most people might say that in the case of any organized religion or spiritual practice, there is an underlying factor of an authority figure imposing an ideal or doctrine and the word “should” becomes a factor in the choices you make when pursuing a relationship with the Divine. The words “right relationship” get thrown around in heathenry a lot and doing “right” by the Gods which are both things an external party would say to be the case – not the Gods Themselves and certainly not you who have no other resource for it.

However, no such organization existed in the days of the ancient Norse people – not in the way most reconstructionist “heathens” seem to believe it is. The days of the ancient Scandinavian and Nordic are over and done now and we live in a world that is vastly different from their society. Our values and what we hold to be true for our authentic selves no longer align with the values of ancient people. We have no context for it to be the case. 

So what can we do to not be “wrong?”

There is no “wrong” or “right.” There is no moral obligation to do anything. You don’t need to worship the Gods and They don’t need you to either. 

There is no right or wrong answer to this. In the case of our society, we seek to have all of the answers all of the time before making our best decision and case for why we do certain things. In the case of Norse polytheism, there is no such thing as context around what it “should” look like or what it needs to look like in order to be successful. If you feel called to do whatever heathens are doing, go ahead.

However, if you wish for something deeper, more personal, and more meaningful to the Gods Themselves, you need only look inside yourself for the answers to that where no outside source belongs. Know yourself and you can never be steered in the wrong direction by anyone or anything else.