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disclaimer: This article is based on the AFA FAQ
What is Asatru?
Long before Christianity came to northern Europe, the people there - our ancestors - had their own religions. One of these
was Asatru.
What does the word "Asatru" mean?
Based off of Edred Thorson, Asatrú is an Icelandic word made up of two parts; Asa, meaning "of the æsir" and
tru, usually translated as "faith". The author goes on to say that in order to completely understand the word's
meaning you must examine the root of the term "tru". Tru is derived from the root word "deru" (Indo-European)
meaning firm, solid, or steadfast. The terms troth, trust, true, and even tree are traceable to the root of "deru".
In some circles, people wonder if using the term Asatrú refers to one's loyalty to a branch of the gods known as the Æsir,
and therefore leaves out the branch of the gods known as the Vanir. Actually "æsir" means "gods" (plural
of ás). Many Ásatrúar confuse the word with Æsir, the name of one particular family of gods. Also, the term Asatru has come
to refer even to those who are "Trú to more or less following some of the traditions of the Teutonic Folk", without
necessarily implying a real belief in the gods!
When did Asatru start?
Asatru is thousands of years old (though it is practiced in a modern form today, to meet the needs of our age). Its beginnings
are lost in prehistory, the spirit it expresses, though, is as ancient as the northern European peoples themselves - anywhere
from a mere 3,000 years old to perhaps as much as 42,000 years.
Why do we need Asatru? Aren't most people who want religion satisfied with Christianity or one of the other "established"
religions?
People are attracted to the better-known religions because they have genuine spiritual needs which must be filled. People
are looking for community, fellowship, and answers to the "big questions": the purpose of life, how we should live
it, and what happens after death. For many people today, the so-called major faiths do not have answers that work. Asatru
has answers, but most seekers haven't known about it. Once they realize that there is another way - a better, more natural,
more honorable way - they will not be satisfied with anything less than a return to the religion of their ancestors.
Why is the religion of our ancestors the best one for us?
Because we are more like our ancestors than we are like anyone else. We inherited not only their general physical appearance,
but also their predominant mental, emotional, and spiritual traits. We think and feel more like they did; our basic needs
are most like theirs. The religion which best expressed their innermost nature - Asatru - is better suited to us than is some
other creed which started in the Middle East among people who have different mental, emotional, and spiritual traits. Judaism,
Islam, and Christianity are alien religions which do not truly speak to our souls.
Why did Asatru die out if it was the right religion for Europeans?
Asatru was subjected to a violent campaign of repression over a period of hundreds of years. Countless thousands of people
were murdered, maimed, and exiled in the process. The common people (your ancestors!) did not give up their cherished beliefs
easily. Eventually, the monolithic organization of the Christian church, bolstered by threats of economic isolation and assisted
by an energetic propaganda campaign, triumphed over the valiant but unsophisticated tribes. Often, our strength was our weakness
then. St. Olaf is a good example of this, upon converting to Christianity he declared the entire Country Christian, and forced
many men to convert at the point of a sword. In appreciation of his effective mass-conversion techniques, the Catholic church
declared Olaf a Saint. The Church did everything it could to dissuade the common people from continuing their traditions,
and remembering their gods. They did this extremely effectively.
Or so it seemed! Despite this persecution, elements of Asatru continued down to our own times - often in the guise of
folklore - proving that our own native religion appeals to our innermost beings in a fundamental way. Now, a thousand years
after its supposed demise, it is alive and growing. Indeed, so long as there are men and women who are willing to live life
to its fullest and believe in their own self-worth, it cannot really die because it springs from the soul of our people. Asatru
isn't just what we believe, it's what we are.
You talk about "our" people... Are you racists?
No. We believe that the spiritual value or worth of every human being is not determined in any way by race. That is, people
are different, and each person has unique contributions that they can make in this world, and we -as fellow humans- are not
in any position to judge anyone else's worth or value, to the gods, to their family, to themselves.
We believe that certain peoples of European descent are actually, genetically linked to the gods, and thus are somewhat
predisposed to following the Aesir & Vanir.
We also believe that by the fact that our ancestors WERE Asatru for so long, there are deep subconscious archetypes and
associations that predispose "our" people to this ancient religion.... It runs in the blood, so to speak.
We believe further that the gods are MORE LIKELY to call upon people descended from them, and people whose ancestors have
long been Asatru, than they are to call on someone "foreign". Although, we make no claim that the gods WILL NOT
call on someone completely and entirely outside of this group, it merely seems more likely to us. We believe that just as
a father and mother will watch out for their own children first, and then the children of their neighbors, so too, the gods
of our people will call their people back to them before they would be interested in calling out to others, as a general rule.
Wasn't the acceptance of Christianity a sign of civilization - a step up from barbarism?
No. The so-called "barbarians" who followed Asatru (the Vikings, the various Germanic tribes, and so forth)
were the source of our finest civilized traditions - trial by jury, parliaments, Anglo Saxon common law, the right to bear
arms, and the rights of women, to name a few. Our very word "law" comes from the Norse language, not from the tongues
of the Christian lands. We simply did not, and do not, need Christianity or other Middle Eastern creeds in order to be civilized.
You say Asatru was the religion of the Vikings, among other early European cultures. Weren't they a pretty bloodthirsty
lot?
Modern historians agree that the Vikings were no more violent than the other peoples of their times. Remember, the descriptions
of Viking raids and invasions were all written by their enemies, who were hardly unbiased. Both the Islamic and Christian
cultures used means every bit as bloody, if not more so, than the Norsemen. It was a very rough period in history for all
concerned!
We keep talking about the Vikings. Does this mean that Asatru is only for people of Scandinavian ancestry?
No. Asatru, as practiced by the Norse peoples, had so much in common with the religion of the other Germanic tribes, and
with their cousins the Celts, that it may be thought of as one version of a general European religion. Asatru is for all people.
Those of European origin, whether or not their heritage is specifically Scandinavian, may have ancestors who have been Asatru
for time stretching back into Prehistory, and these people may feel a call to return to the original religion of their kin.
What are the basic tenets or beliefs of Asatru?
We believe in an underlying, all-pervading divine energy or essence which is generally hidden from us, and which is beyond
our immediate understanding. We further believe that this spiritual reality is interdependent with us - that we affect it,
and it affects us.
We believe that this underlying divinity expresses itself to us in the forms of the Gods and Goddesses. Stories about
these deities are like a sort of code, the mysterious "language" through which the divine reality speaks to us.
We believe in standards of behavior which are consistent with these spiritual truths and harmonious with our deepest being.
--The following is from the article What is Asatru:
Not everyone who calls themself an Asatruar believes the same things about the gods and goddesses, even to the point of
some of us holding conflicting beliefs about which of the gods and goddesses are still existent! We all subscribe to some
basic ideas about personal honor, ethics, and following through with our convictions, no matter who it may offend.
These convictions of personal honour are well described by the Nine Noble Virtues and the Six - Fold Goal. The Nine Noble
Virtues are: Courage (heartiness), Truth, Honor (worthiness), Fidelity (troth), Discipline (hardiness), Hospitality (friendliness),
Industriousness (work), Self-reliance (freedom), Perseverance (steadfastness). And the Six - Fold Goal is: 1.Right 2.Wisdom
3.Might 4.Harvest 5.Frith 6.Love The Nine Noble Virtues are matters of personal honour which we, as Asatruar all strive to
attain. The Six - Fold Goal is a statement of our beliefs as a people. Though some Asatruar have never even heard of the Six
Fold Goal, it fairly well describes those things for which we are willing to live, and die. We believe we have the right to
1. Right. The following of Just Law for the benefit of all. This does NOT mean restrictions, this means that we, as a people,
generally recognize that there must be just Laws if we are going to exist together in an advanced society, and that having
and following those Laws is Right. We also believe in the society's right, as a whole, and the individual's right to attain
2. Wisdom. We recognize the importance of 3. Might as it relates to both individuals and societies and we hold that it is
Right and True for the Might of the individual or society to dominate those of lesser Might. In this case, this is more of
a recognition of a reality that exists in our physical world of Midgard, than it is of any kind of idealist belief that "Might
Makes Right". We recognize that it is good and Right for a person or a society to develop their Might. The next Goal,
that of 4. Harvest, is the belief that we deserve the fruits of our labours. That it is Right for us to reap the cycles of
nature, to provide nourishment for the folk. 5. Frith is the peace and prosperity that comes with the fulfillment of the Nine
Nobles Virtues and all the Six - Fold Goal. Frith refers to the thriving of the folk, in this case, the Asatruar. 6. Love,
is the Goal most often unappreciated, in my opinion, by the rest of society. When most people hear Love as one of the Goals,
they assume it to mean the romantic love between two people, or maybe the love of an adult for their child. And while these
are beautiful and worthy things, the Love referred to here is the vitality and lust for life embodied in Frey and Freyja.
It is the erotic thrill of life itself, the lust of passion and the senses, the enjoyment of pleasure. This is natural to
our people and, we believe, Right for us to enjoy. These things, then, are some of the basic ideas which go into defining
"What is Asatrú?"
How does Asatru differ from other religions?
Asatru is unlike the better-known religions in many ways. Some of these are:
We are polytheistic. That is, we believe in a number of deities, including Goddesses as well as Gods. (We have a tongue-in-cheek
saying that a religion without a Goddess is halfway to atheism!)
We do not accept the idea of "original sin," the notion that we are tainted from birth and intrinsically bad,
as does Christianity. Thus, we do not need "saving."
We do not accept the idea that the world is all suffering, and that the only way to no peace/joy is through a dissolution
of the human ego into the super consciousness of the universe as do some oriental religions.. Rather, we think that the world
is here for living in, and that we should strive to live as fully as we may however long our lives may be.
We do not claim to be a universal religion, a faith for all of humankind. The different branches of humanity have different
ways of looking at the world, each of which is valid for them. It is only right that they have different religions.
Some of the other things that we believe in are:
We're the children of the gods, full of worth and potential.
Live honourably, fully and generously.
Through hard work, reap the rewards you earn, and enjoy the body you have.
Sensuality and sex is natural and good.
Overindulgence is harmful to you.
The gods are there for you, but better if you rely on yourself, and thereby grow!
If you accomplish something, take pride in the results of your own effort.
If you can afford to help pay for the mead, then pitch in!
Do you consider the Norse myths to be true?
The myths are stories about the Gods and Goddesses of Asatru. We believe they are ways of stating religious truths. That
is, we would say they contain truths about the nature of divinity, our own nature, and the relationship between the two. We
do not contend that the myths are literally true, as history.
What about these Gods and Goddesses? Are they real?
Yes, they are real. However, just as most Christians do not think their God is really an old bearded figure sitting on
a golden chair in heaven, we do not believe Thor (for example) is actually a muscular, man-shaped entity carrying a big hammer.
There is a real Thor, but we approach an understanding of him through this particular mental picture.
Do followers of Asatru pray to their Gods and Goddesses?
Yes, but not quite the way most people mean by the word. We never surrender our will to theirs or humble ourselves before
them, because we see ourselves as their kin, not as their property. Nor do we beg and plead. We do, however, commune with
them and honor them while seeking their blessing through formal rites and informal meditation. We often talk with our Gods,
whom we perceive to be very present and very active in our lives. We can ask them for advice or help in any situation. Many
Asatruar feel particularly close to one particular God or Goddess and tend to talk with that God or Goddess more often than
the others.
Don't you worship stones and trees and idols?
No. We know that trees, wooden statues, the Sun, and other natural or man-made objects are not Gods, so we don't worship
them. We do sometimes use these items as reminders of a God or Goddess, and we believe they can become "charged"
with a certain aspect of the divine energy, but we would never confuse them with the actual deity!
You mentioned certain standards of behavior taught in Asatru. What are these?
Some of the qualities we hold in high regard are strength, courage, joy, honor, freedom, loyalty to kin, realism, vigor,
and the revering of our ancestors. To express these things in our lives is virtuous, and we strive to do this. Their opposites
- weakness, cowardice, adherence to dogma rather than to the realities of the world, and the like - constitute our vices and
are to be avoided. Proper behavior in Asatru consists of maximizing one's virtues and minimizing one's vices.
This code of conduct reflects the highest and most heroic ideals of our people.
Don't all religions believe in these things you've just named?
No. People may honestly believe that this is the case, but examination does not bear this out. They believe in freedom,
yet their scriptures say they are slaves to their God. They agree that joy is good, but their teachings laden them with guilt
because of some imaginary "original sin". They want to accept the real world on a pragmatic basis, yet they are
trained to believe without question when the teachings of their church conflict with reason or with known facts about the
nature of the world ("You must have faith.").
Of course, many of us believe in the values of Asatru on a gut level. After all, they're instinctive, passed down to us
from our ancestors. We want to believe that the better-known religions espouse those values, so we see what we want to see.
Most people just haven't yet realized that the major religions are saying things that conflict with the values we know in
our hearts are right.
What do you have to say about good and evil?
Good and evil are not constants. What is good in one case will not be good in another, and evil in one circumstance will
not be evil under a different set of conditions. And as in nature, what is good to some may not be good to others. In no case
are good and evil dictated to us by edicts written by an authoritarian deity, as in the Middle East. We are expected to use
our freedom, responsibility, and awareness of duty to serve the highest and best ends. We say that good things are things
which cause more help or weal, than they do harm or woe. Thus, to do Good, one must strive to act in ways that accomplish
more help than harm, or more weal than woe.
What does Asatru teach about an afterlife?
We believe that there is an afterlife, and that those who have lived virtuous lives will go on to experience greater fulfillment,
pleasure, and challenge. Those who have led lives characterized more by vice than by virtue will be separated from kin, doomed
to an existence of dullness and gloom. The precise nature of the afterlife - what it will look like and feel like - is beyond
our understanding and is dealt with symbolically in the myths.
There is also a tradition in Asatru of rebirth within the family line. Perhaps the individual is able to choose whether
or not he or she is re-manifested in this world, or there may be natural laws which govern this. In a sense, of course, we
all live on in our descendants quite apart from an afterlife as such.
Part of the difficulty in discussing this with most people who have grown up familiar with the spiritual concepts of Easter
religions such as Christianity, is that the Eastern Religions tend to teach that we have a body and a soul (or spirit). Whereas
in Asatru we are taught that the spirit is not one, solid, unified entity. But rather, that is has many parts and aspects.
You see, our ancestors were very familiar with their souls and spiritual things, and had to develop words and concepts to
discuss the various parts of the souls or spirit. Most people today, are only familiar with the fact that there IS a spiritual
side to them, not very aware of what all the parts to that side ARE. Just as you have a physical body, but there are many
parts to that physical body, that all perform different functions, so too does your spiritual body have different parts that
perform different functions. And some of these parts have different "destinies" after death.
To be honest, we of Asatru do not overly concern ourselves with the next world. We live here and now, in this existence.
If we do this and do it well, the next life will take care of itself.
Does Asatru involve ancestor worship?
Asatru says we should honor our ancestors. It also says we are bonded to those ancestors in a special way. However, we
do not actually worship them.
We believe our forebears have passed to us certain spiritual qualities just as surely as they have given us various physical
traits. They live on in us. The family or clan is above and beyond the limits of time and place. Thus we have a reverence
for our ancestry even though we do not involve ourselves in ancestor worship as such.
Does Asatru have a holy book, like the Bible?
No. There are written sources which are useful to us because they contain much of our sacred lore in the form of myths
and examples of right conduct, but we do not accept them as infallible documents. Any religion which does this is deceiving
itself about the purity and precision of the written word.
The written sources that we most often turn to are the Eddas, a series of poems and stories about the Gods and heroic
people and other wights.
There are two real sources of holy truth, and neither expresses itself to us in words. One is the universe around us,
which is a manifestation of the underlying divine essence. The other is the universe inside us, passed down from our ancestors
as instinct, emotion, innate predispositions, and perhaps even genetic memory. By combining these sources of internal and
external wisdom with the literature left us by our ancestors, we arrive at religious truths. This living spiritual guidance
is better than any dusty, dogmatic "holy book".
I've heard Asatru described as a "Nature religion". What does that mean?
We treasure the spiritual awe, the feeling of "connecting" with the Gods and Goddesses, which can come from
experiencing the beauty and majesty of Nature. Our deities act in and through natural law. By working in harmony with Nature
we can become co-workers with the Gods. This attitude removes the opposition between "natural" and "supernatural",
and the supposed conflict between religion and science.
For us, following a "Nature religion" means recognizing that we are part of Nature, subject to all its laws.
We may be Gods-in-the-making, but we are members of the animal kingdom nonetheless!
Where did the universe come from, according to Asatru?
Our myths describe the beginning of the universe as the unfolding of a natural process, rather than an event requiring
supernatural intervention. Followers of Asatru need not abandon modern science to retain their religion. The old lore of our
people describes the interaction of fire and ice, and the development of life from these - but this is symbolic, and we will
leave it to the physicists to discover how the universe was born.
What are the runes, and what do they have to do with Asatru?
Runes are ancient Germanic symbols representing various concepts or forces in the universe. Taken together, they express
our ancestors' worldview. Their meanings are intimately connected with the teachings of Asatru. Our myths tell the story of
how Odin, father of the Gods, won them through painful ordeal so that Gods and humans alike might benefit from their wisdom.
How is Asatru organized?
Asatru is non-authoritarian and decentralized, expressing our love of freedom. We have little dogma. There is no all-powerful
spiritual leader whose word is law; no "pope" of Asatru to dictate truth. No guru or priest has the one-and-only
direct line to the Gods. The Gods live in you! Edit Text
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