isnorden

My own guidelines -- Respect and study the lore, but don't turn it into a straitjacket. When you're able to follow historical practice without endangering your body, your home, or your criminal record...following it is usually right. When you're NOT able, extrapolating from lore to work out a substitute is good. For example: What makes an acceptable offering when somebody medically can't drink alcohol or shed his own blood? How can someone who legally can't keep fire-making materials consecrate a ritual space at home? If the lore contains a reference that could reasonably be used to create a substitute, try it -- but admit that it IS a modern practice. Don't change things without having a good solid reason, stronger than "I don't like this" or "that's not what I learned from a comic book/movie/video game." (Not breaking laws about underage drinking or animal cruelty DOES count as a "good solid reason".)

Commented in an Asatru group on Facebook, when a moderator asked "What do non-Heathens think of your religion?" ======== People who haven't met me face to face often assume I'm a LARPer who wants to play Viking. (Ironically, I'm an outspoken Modernist Heathen who insists "You don't need to do ancient crafts or wear period clothes to worship the gods. You don't need a foreign name, even if I took one legally. And you don't need to drink alcohol; I've offered apple juice to the gods before. and grocery-store eggnog at Yuletide. P.S. Old Norse is great for studying the lore in depth, but the gods understand English (or whatever your native language is) pretty well." People who ask about my religion face to face assume I'm Christian until they hear otherwise -- they're usually shocked to learn that my religion (1) rejects the Bible altogether,; (2) doesn't believe in a fallen state that people need saving from; and (3) accepts that non-Nordic spirits exist but doesn't worship

Today I learned that the usual Teutonic names for the May Eve/May Day festival (Walpurgisnacht, Walburga, Valborg) commemorate a German nun who helped to eradicate Heathenry in her homeland. The only way to reclaim those terms would be as a sort of "she's dead but Heathenry isn't" gesture. {Imagine the public horror over a Heathen kindred burning an effigy of a nun in their May Day fire!) But what genuine Nordic names and traditions can I include to show that I'm not just copying somebody else's holiday? I'm loyal to the Æsir and Vanir -- not to the Tuatha Dé Danann, not to a pair of universal God/Goddess archetypes, and certainly not to the ghost of a nun who hated the powers I love. I hope to keep the parts of the festival that are Heathen-friendly, consistent with current Swedish culture in particular, and physically doable in my situation. How do I do that, if it's possible at all?