Becoming a Germanic Pagan - Advice and Guidance
We counsel you, if you'll take our advice, you'll profit if you learn it, it'll do you good if you remember it. Good-counsel for Germanic Pagans from Germanic Pagans.
Germanic Paganism is the modern term that refers to the broad spirituality and religious traditions followed by the many Germanic peoples in history such as the Anglo-Saxons and Jutes, the Norse Vikings, Visigoths and Vandals, Franks and Frisians, and many more prior to the coming of Christianity. Paganism is experiencing a worldwide revival and if you have been considering becoming a Germanic Pagan, now is the time to do so. This advice serves as a brief guide of the Germanic tradition and belief and should serve as an easy source for newcomers to take from and revisit as they see fit, and for Germanic Pagans in general to learn from.
Deeds
Knowing the deeds of the Gods. This is necessary to understand the nature of the Gods, their works in the world and how they interact with us as men. Reading the Eddas, the skaldic poems and the historical sagas is necessary to ascertain the traditional view of the Gods.
Praying
Knowing how to pray to the Gods. To know the deeds of the Gods is also to know how to call to them through prayer, and speak with them with respect. Traditional prayers would be structured with a naming of the deity, followed by a recounting of their deeds, and finally with a petition or request of the deity. Certain skaldic poems detail this structure, such as the poems by Vetriliði Sumarliðason and Þorbjörn Dísarskáld in Skáldskaparmál.
Kneeling
Knowing how to respect the Gods. Kneeling and prostration is a sign of respect and submission to the power of the Gods. This is a holy action, and was done during prayer and petitioning the Gods. A common theme was to lay with one’s head down before an image of a deity (Harðar saga ok Hólmverja 38; Jómsvikinga saga 52), or to lay on one’s belly before the image of a deity (Kjalnesinga saga 4).
Offerings
Knowing how to offer and give to the Gods, and what to offer to them. Certain Gods have particular traditions and offerings related to their specific cults. Ranging from libation, food offerings to sacrifice of certain animals. Knowing what offerings are designated for certain Gods allows for more traditional worship, and thus a greater connection to them. Various sources exist that tell us of the offerings made to the Gods by our ancestors such as The Life of St. Columban from the seventh century which tells us that Woden was honoured by the Swabians with ale. Within the tenth century writings of Dudo of Saint-Quentin, we find sheep, cattle, wine and grain were amongst the most common offerings given to the Gods.
Define Your Intentions
To healthily approach the religion, one must first identify and define their intentions. We must first know where we are going in order to begin our journey, as our rituals reflect a process of give and take. The Gods are not wholly altruistic and wholly benevolent beings that serve our needs. We must signal their attention and invite their divine intervention into our lives. Therefore we must first possess the intentions of what we desire. Not of material desire, but a desire to learn from the Gods and ancestors. There must be an intention before progressing mentally, spiritually and religiously which is something you must decide for yourself.
Gather Attested Ritual Items
Any Pagan can begin praying at any time, and prayer will serve those with true intentions well. However, to signal immediate attention from the Gods and spirits, our ancestors have developed various ritual processes that ultimately come from the Gods and ancestors themselves. Yet they all remain within the same framework. Rites and rituals for previous generations were passed down orally within communities and their respective regions. While much of this oral tradition has sunk into obscurity, we do have many attestations of rites and ritual offerings which were recorded to text that we can use. We also have many archaeological finds which give us strong indications of past worship.
For a Germanic Pagan, traditional requirements for ritual offering consist of:
-Fire (preferably hallowed fire, candles, etc.)
-Idol(s) (traditionally wooden or metal)
-Receptacles (both for containing the offering and for drinking such as drinking horns or bowls)
-The offering (libations, baked goods, animals, weaponry, jewellery, etc.)
While further items will often be recommended, such as holy water, the items listed above are basic requirements all of which are attested in the Eddas and sagas and other related sources.
Identify Personal Shortcomings
Many people and denominations of any religion in the modern age tend to bend their respective sources to fit their needs. This is not our way. We must adhere to the sources and seek our own understanding of a “Pagan” compass of morality. To do this, the requirements of the religion must be identified. Our Gods are responsible for our lives and the world around us in addition to our ancestors. To respect the Gods we must respect nature, our bodies, and those we share our lives with which also includes our ancestors. We must seek to honour the Gods and spirits. Not only through worship but with our actions.
Familiarise Yourself with the Sources
It is crucial for every Pagan of Germanic origin to read the Germanic sources for themselves. Both the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda should be the foundation of everything for a new Pagan. These sources hold great knowledge of the Gods and tell of great men in relation to the spirituality. Further sources such as various Norse, Anglo-Saxon, and Icelandic ones, along with the various accounts of the Germanic tribes can be used to shed light on our traditions, laws, and world views. Sources outside of Germanic culture can be referenced for context and comparison. Outside sources should not be used to “fill in the gaps” in Germanic Paganism. As the nature of the religion may no longer be Germanic once such a thing is done.
Adhere to Tradition
Our sources should be read first hand by every Pagan as stated above. This helps each Pagan to form their own outlook and interpretation. The Pagan is not a sheep within a flock led by dogs. The pagan is a wolf that must seek out his own knowledge and wisdom. Forming your own interpretation is acceptable within reason, but the Germanic Pagan must keep interpretation within the guidelines of historical and archaeological attestation. As this is one of the many ways to preserve tradition.
Critical Thinking and Emotional Agendas
In order to get anywhere in my estimation, both spiritually and in life, you first have to drop all fear-based belief systems and employ emotional and intellectual critical thinking. Humans often see things and react emotionally whether consciously or unconsciously rather than from an objective state. Critical thinking is first understanding that human beings are often flawed in their thinking process and that human beings a lot of the time adopt beliefs, make assumptions, and take actions based on emotions, and that the emotional reality of humans is sometimes not rational. That is to say, in order to be a critical thinker one must be able to have their emotions, identify them and verbalise them. A critical thinker has the ability and is willing to analyse the beliefs and assumptions they have and the actions they take based on their emotional state of being at any given moment.
Regarding emotional agendas, thoughts, ideas and assumptions, it is important to differentiate a conscious emotional agenda and an unconscious emotional agenda. An example of an unconscious agenda is someone declaring that other people need to live the way that they do, think the way that they do, have the same ideas that they do and adhere to the same beliefs that they do. For example, it is an emotional agenda to declare that "humans should not eat animals" despite the objectively true fact that humans have evolved to eat animals given that there are enzymes and vitamins that humans are unable to receive on a purely plant based diet. Therefore, overall, it is important to understand that in order to make meaningful progress not only in life but also spiritually, we must be able to look at our emotional agendas, because if an assumption regarding anything relating to spirituality is faulty then everything said beyond that assumption is going to be faulty or will at best be inaccurate. A great example would be me saying that "Vedic astrology is more accurate than Western astrology", which is my assumption.
An emotional agenda would be me saying that "Vedic astrology is therefore superior to Western astrology", but in this context it is said that Vedic astrology is more accurate than Western astrology, not that Western astrology is wrong, bad, or inferior to Vedic astrology. A faulty assumption would be declaring that Western astrology is more accurate than Vedic astrology, because the objective reality is that the tropical Zodiac of Western astrology is off by 24 degrees. This means that the idea that Western astrology is an accurate representation of the night sky is an inaccurate assumption and therefore Western astrologers operating from this inaccurate assumption will receive inaccurate results at best. To reiterate, critical thinking therefore posits that every statement or belief starts with an assumption and that those statements or beliefs have an emotional agenda which is another point to be addressed later.
Questions that are therefore helpful to ask are: When is something partially true and partially false? When is something sometimes true and sometimes false? When is something completely true and when is something completely false? Am I operating from my emotional agendas? Am I allowing my emotional agendas to colour my beliefs and to dictate my conclusions? Are my emotional agendas allowing me to be manipulated by somebody else? Am I allowing my fears and personal agendas to dictate my thoughts and conclusions?
Deprogramming Your Unconscious Mind
The unconscious mind houses all of our thoughts, beliefs, assumptions and emotions that we are unaware of. As previously discussed, in order to make positive progress in regards to our spirituality we must be conscious of these things. In other words, we must become conscious of the unconscious. In Western society today the majority of people operate from an unconscious Abrahamic mindset even if they are not religious at all. Even newcomers to "Paganism" or "Polytheism" or "Heathenry" for example, sometimes project their own unconscious Abrahamic beliefs onto what is in essence a pre-Christian "shamanistic" spirituality. You will hear them equate Loki with the Christian Satan or call other Pagans with different views as them "heretics" - positing that any other beliefs or school of thought is apostate and that their way of seeing things is the only truth, in addition to projecting other harmful assumptions about the nature of reality onto their spiritual beliefs that our ancestors did not have.
This is due to the fact that modern society is heavily ingratiated with a dualistic Abrahamic ideology and operates from the assumptions on the nature of reality that are posited in the Bible. This is an important point for newcomers to Paganism to learn from. In order to deprogram our unconscious mind we must analyse our emotional responses to certain assumptions that Abrahamic religion puts forward such as:
-there is only one God
-any spiritual experience that is not of an Abrahamic nature is demonic
-choosing not to believe in the Abrahamic God will result in your soul's eternal punishment after death
-man is inherently born with "sin" and will be punished for it after death
-the world is inherently evil and you must be "saved" from its harmful nature through Jesus
Having said that, let us go over what is an emotional agenda. One, everyone has emotional agendas at all times which influence their thoughts and conclusions about reality. The first thing a critical thinker does is acknowledge that they have an emotional agenda and examine whether or not it is allowing them to make faulty conclusions. A critical thinker examines whether their emotional agenda is helping or hindering them from seeing the truth. If an emotional agenda is coming from a place of fear, it paves the way for one to be manipulated.
Two, what is true and what is false? Typically, black and white blanket statements are markers of someone that is operating from an emotional agenda. For example, the statement "Hel is a bad place", or “the Gods are X and therefore Y” is a blanket statement. If someone is operating from the assumption that "Hel is a bad place", then the rest of their conclusions regarding Hel will be coloured by this assumption. The stronger an emotional assumption is, the harder it will be for someone to come to an accurate conclusion regarding various aspects of spirituality that is needed to make spiritual progress. Therefore, one piece of advice I will give newcomers to Paganism in this regard is to examine your emotional responses to various things regarding our religion, and over a period of time work through these things in order to psychologically attune yourself to the thought processes of our ancestors and the nature of reality and ideas on the Gods and everything that entails as put forth in the attested sources.
Hel not Hell
The majority of readers will undoubtedly be familiar with the Christian conception of Hell - a place of eternal punishment and torment where most people are sent to, not only for their "sins" and any bad thoughts that they have had, but even for having the "wrong" religion according to the Bible. The real Hel is the underworld where most people go to in the Germanic conceptualisation of the world, for we are told in the Fáfnismál: "For a time there is, where every man shall journey from here to Hel."
Additionally, Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1150 – c. 1220) writes that Hel is a place of springtime that is warm and green, where warriors are sparring with each other and that people wear purple - a rare colour in history with connotations of royalty, nobility and status. Its inhabitants are described as wearing toga praetextae; "praetextatos amictosque ostro proceres". It is believed that this description by Saxo was partially influenced by the Aeneid, but if we are to take all of this on the whole we gather that Hel is not a bad place to us.
Hel is the underworld in springtime in which we reunite with our ancestors in peace and can choose to reincarnate if we so wish. Circling back around to the topic of deprogramming the unconscious mind, this section of advice should help newcomers to Pagans gradually become more content with the Germanic conceptualisation of Hel and over time feel at ease knowing that most, but not all, people end up making some kind of journey to Hel that is tied to their own Wyrd, our fate.
Acknowledgements: Special thank you to WodenWyrd and Clinton J. McMillan for their valuable input throughout the article and worthy points of note above. Their contribution to this month’s publication does not go unnoticed.