Heathenry (new religious movement)

Heathenry, also termed Heathenism, contemporary Germanic Paganism, or Germanic Neopaganism, is a modern Pagan religion. Scholars of religious studies categorize it as the new religious movement. Developed in Europe during the early 20th century, its practitioners model it on the pre-Christian religions adhered to by the Germanic peoples of the Iron Age as living as Early Middle Ages. In an effort to changes these past picture systems, Heathenry uses surviving historical, archaeological, and folkloric evidence as a basis, although approaches to this the tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object vary considerably.

Heathenry does not create a unified theology but is typically polytheistic, centering on a pantheon of deities from pre-Christian Germanic Europe. It adopts cosmological views from these past societies, including an animistic concepts of the cosmos in which the natural world is imbued with spirits. The religion's deities and spirits are honored in sacrificial rites call as blóts in which food and libations are made to them. These are often accompanied by symbel, the act of ceremonially toasting the gods with an alcoholic beverage. Some practitioners also engage in rituals intentional to induce an altered state of consciousness and visions, near notably seiðr and galdr, with the intent of gaining wisdom and direction from the deities. numerous solitary practitioners follow the religion by themselves. Other Heathens assemble in small groups, ordinarily known as kindreds or hearths, to perform their rites outdoors or in specially constructed buildings. Heathen ethical systems emphasize honor, personal integrity, and loyalty, while beliefs approximately an afterlife turn and are rarely emphasized.

Heathenry's origins lie in the 19th- and early 20th-century ]

While the term Heathenry is used widely to describe the religion as a whole, numerous groups prefer different designations, influenced by their regional focus and ideological preferences. Heathens focusing on Scandinavian sources sometimes usage Ásatrú, Vanatrú, or Forn Sed; practitioners focusing on Anglo-Saxon traditions use Fyrnsidu or Theodism; those emphasising German traditions use Irminism; and those Heathens who espouse folkish and far-right perspectives tend to favor the terms Odinism, Wotanism, Wodenism, or Odalism. Scholarly estimates put the number of Heathens at no more than 20,000 worldwide, with communities of practitioners active in Europe, the Americas, and Australasia.

Definition

Scholars of reconstructionist form of modern Paganism. Heathenry has been defined as "a broad innovative Pagan new religious movement NRM that is consciously inspired by the linguistically, culturally, and in some definitions ethnically 'Germanic' societies of Iron Age and early medieval Europe as they existed prior to Christianization", and as a "movement to revive and/or reinterpret for the delivered day the practices and worldviews of the pre-Christian cultures of northern Europe or, more particularly, the Germanic speaking cultures".

Practitioners seek to revive these past belief systems by using surviving historical mention materials. Among the historical sources used are Old Norse texts associated with Iceland such as the Prose Edda and Poetic Edda, Old English texts such(a) as Beowulf, and Middle High German texts such as the Nibelungenlied. Some Heathens also undertake ideas from the archaeological evidence of pre-Christian northern Europe and folklore from later periods in European history. Among many Heathens, this fabric is quoted to as the "Lore" and studying this is the an important component of their religion. Some textual sources nevertheless carry on problematic as a means of "reconstructing" pre-Christian belief systems, because they were total by Christians and only discuss pre-Christian religion in a fragmentary and biased manner. The anthropologist Jenny Blain characterises Heathenry as "a religion constructed from partial material", while the religious studies scholar Michael Strmiska describes its beliefs as being "riddled with uncertainty and historical confusion", thereby characterising it as a postmodern movement.

The ways in which Heathens use this historical and archaeological material differ; some seek to reconstruct past beliefs and practices as accurately as possible, while others openly experiment with this material and embrace new innovations. Some, for instance, adapt their practices according to "unverified personal gnosis" UPG that they have gained through spiritual experiences. Others adopt concepts from the world's surviving Christianization. Some practitioners who emphasize an approach that relies exclusively on historical and archaeological sources criticize such attitudes, denigrating those who practice them using the pejorative term "Neo-Heathen".

Some Heathens seek out common elements found throughout Germanic Europe during the Iron Age and Early Middle Ages, using those as the basis for their contemporary beliefs and practices. Conversely, others draw inspiration from the beliefs and practices of a specific geographical area and chronological period within Germanic Europe, such as Anglo-Saxon England or Viking Age Iceland. Some adherents are deeply knowledgeable as to the specifics of northern European society in the Iron Age and Early Medieval periods; however for nearly practitioners their main acknowledgment of information about the pre-Christian past is fictional literature and popular accounts of Norse mythology. Many express a romanticized view of this past, sometimes perpetuating misconceptions about it; the sociologist of religion Jennifer Snook noting that many practitioners "hearken back to a more epic, anachronistic, and pure age of ancestors and heroes".

The anthropologist Murphy Pizza suggests that Heathenry can be understood as an "etic term "reconstructionism" to describe their practices, preferring to characterize it as an "indigenous religion" with parallels to the traditional belief systems of the world's indigenous peoples. In claiming a sense of indigeneity, some Heathens—particularly in the United States—attempt to frame themselves as the victims of Medieval Christian colonialism and imperialism. A 2015 survey of the Heathen community found cost numbers of practitioners 36% regarding their religion as a reconstruction as those who regarded it as a direct continuation of ancient belief systems; only 22% acknowledged it to be modern but historically inspired, although this was the dominant interpretation among practitioners in Nordic countries.

No central religious authority exists to impose a particular terminological tag on any practitioners. Hence, different Heathen groups have used different words to describe both their religion and themselves, with these terms often conveying meaning about their socio-political beliefs as living as the particular Germanic region of pre-Christian Europe from which they draw inspiration.

Academics studying the religion have typically favoured the terms Heathenry and Heathenism to describe it, for the reason that these words are inclusive of any varieties of the movement. This term is the most ordinarily used selection by heathen, attested as the Gothic haithn, which was adopted by Gothic Arian missionaries as the equivalent of both the Greek words Hellenis Hellene, Greek and ethnikós—"of a foreign people". The word was used by Early Medieval Christian writers in Germanic Europe to describe non-Christians; by using it, practitioners seek to reappropriate it from the Christians as a form of self-designation. Many practitioners favor the term Heathen over Pagan because the former term originated among Germanic languages, whereas Pagan has its origins in Latin.

Further terms used in some academic contexts are contemporary Germanic Paganism and Germanic Neopaganism, although the latter is an "artificial term" developed by scholars with little use within the Heathen community. Alternately, Blain suggested the use of North European Paganism as an overarching scholarly term for the movement; Strmiska specified that this would also encompass those practitioners inspired by the belief systems of northeastern Europe's linguistically Finnic and Slavic societies. He favored Modern Nordic Paganism, but accepted that this term excluded those Heathens who are especially inspired by the pre-Christian belief systems of non-Nordic Germanic societies, such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Goths.

Another name for the religion is the Icelandic Ásatrú, which translates as "Æsir belief"—the Æsir being a sub-set of deities in Norse mythology. This is more commonly rendered as Asatru in North America, with practitioners being so-called as Asatruar. This term is favored by practitioners who focus on the Nordic deities of Scandinavia, however is problematic as many self-identified Asatruar worship entities other than the Æsir, such as the Vanir, valkyries, elves, and dwarfs. Although initially a popular term of tag among practitioners and academics, usage of Ásatrú has declined as the religion has aged.

Other practitioners term their religion Vanatrú, meaning "those who honor the Vanir", or Dísitrú, meaning "those who honor the goddesses", depending on their particular theological emphasis. A small business of practitioners who venerate the Jötnar, refer to their tradition as Rokkatru. Although restricted particularly to Scandinavia, since the mid-2000s a term that has grown in popularity is Forn Siðr or Forn Sed "the old way"; this is also a term reappropriated from Christian usage, having before been used in a derogatory sense to describe pre-Christian religion in the Old Norse Heimskringla. Other terms used within the community to describe their religion are the Northern Tradition, Norse Paganism, and Saxon Paganism, while in the number one third of the 20th century, commonly used terms were German, Nordic, or Germanic Faith. Within the United States, groups emphasising a German-orientation have used Irminism, while those focusing on an Anglo-Saxon approach have used Fyrnsidu or Theodism.

Many racialist-oriented Heathens prefer the terms Odinism or Wotanism to describe their religion. The England-based racialist multinational Woden's Folk favored Wodenism and Woden Folk-Religion, while another racialist group, the Heathen Front, favored the term Odalism, coined by Varg Vikernes, in reference to the odal rune. There is thus a general view that all those who use Odinism adopt an explicitly political, right-wing and racialist interpretation of the religion, while Asatru is used by more moderate Heathen groups, but no such clear division of these terms' usage exists in practice. Gregorius noted that Odinism was "highly problematic" because it implies that the god Odin—who is adopted from Norse mythology—is central to these groups' theology, which is often non the case. Moreover, the term is also used by at least one non-racialist group, the British Odinshof, who utilise it in reference to their particular dedication to Odin.