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Who are we and what do we do?
What is the FrithGardhr Kindred?
We are a group of average people who happen to practice a religion that is not known by the majority of society: Asatru.
Asatru, meaning tru to the Aesir and Vanir ,is a recreation of the ancestral religion practiced by most of Northern Europe before the advent of Christianity. Iceland was the last holdout and did not convert until around 1000AD. Sweden had a heathen monarch until 1085AD. Christianity took over by conversion of the people due to economic pressure, coercion, and war.
The modern recreation of Asatru was begun by Sveinbjorn Beinteinson in Iceland in the early 1970's. He petitioned the Icelandic government to recognize Asatru as a legal religion in 1971. By 1972 Asatru was accepted by the government there. Asatru has grown dynamically since then and is now practiced worldwide by over 50,000 adherents. There are Asatru groups, called either Hearths, Garths or Kindreds, in the US, Australia, Europe, Ireland, and of course the Scandinavian countries. Asatru has since been accepted by the governments of Denmark, Norway, and the US , besides Iceland, as a bona fide religion. There is a movement to get acceptance in Sweden also. The Asatru religion, as practiced today, is a re-creation of what once was. This is being accomplished by using archaeological, anthropological and literary sources. The Poetic Edda, for instance, written by Snorri Sturleson circa 1100AD is a good source of information. The sagas, handed down through the generations, are stories telling of the deeds of heathens of days past. We have a creation story as well as stories telling of the deeds of our Gods and Heroes. The Havamal is a listing of good advice given by our principal deity Odin.
The place we gather to worship is called a Hof . Our clergy are known as either Gothi (male) or Gythja (female). Men and women are equal in the Asatru faith. Neither is ever subservient to the other.
Asatru adherents believe in the pantheon of the old Norse/Teutonic deities. Odin, Thor, Freyr, Freya, Frigga to name a few. There are two principal groups of deities. The Aesir, who live in Asgard. They oversee such things as healing, family, knowledge,and justice. The other group of deities we honor are the Vanir, who live in Vanaheim. They oversee the Earth, the natural world, crops and the harvest, sexual reproduction and love. We look upon our deities as our esteemed elders and not as unknowable godheads who we need to bow down to or be in fear of. We live our religion in our daily lives, in the way we deal with the world and with each other.
We have a set of guidelines known as virtues which we model our lives on. Asatruars follow the 9 virtues, which have been culled from our lore and history. These are modeled on what a virtuous man or woman should be like. The virtues are Courage, Honor, Truth, Fidelity, Discipline, Hospitality, Industriousness, Self-Reliance, and Perseverance. Some groups have incorporated the virtues into 6 and some have expanded them to more than 9. Some groups use different words to explain the virtues but they are essentially the same.
We never bow down to our deities. We do however give them our respect. If we are in need, and have tried every method we know of to overcome the difficulty, our deities will aid us. If we whine and beg they ignore us. They expect us to hold our heads up and walk proudly in this world. They expect us to shoulder our own burdens and not come running to them every time we have a problem.
In the Asatru religion we have people who devote themselves to learning our lore, learning to use the Runes, those who are seidhr masters and those who practice magic and herbology.
The runes are not only an alphabet for writing but also a means of divination. They are used for either writing, as on the famous rune stones in Sweden, or for divination. They can be used to create "bind runes" to accomplish various purposes or as a means of seeking guidance.
This pretty much sums up what ,and who we are. What we believe in and how an Asatruar is expected to live their daily life. As Asatruars we live our religion daily ,and not just on our holy days. True adherents do not look down on people due to color, ethnic origin, sexual proclivity or religion. We deal with everyone as we expect them to deal with us. We do not seek converts and believe everyone needs to find their own path in life. If someone is drawn to our religion, we are more than happy to converse with them. We only ask that others be respectful of our beliefs and allow us to practice them in peace.
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Gythja Jane Ruck | |
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FrithGardhr Kindred |
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Lebanon,OR |
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