The Power of Words

Words....
You are reading them at this very moment. You speak them everyday, many people probably speak way too many. Have you ever thought of the significance of the words you speak? How about the uniqueness of the sentences that you string together? Many people do not know this little tidbit, but every sentence that you piece together is completely unique and shall never be uttered again...at least not with the same emphasis, word choice, cadence, etc. It is something that is wholly yours in the time it takes for you to utter it, then fades to nothing or becomes apart of someone else's memory where it will be retold in their own way. This is an act of creation and not a thing to turn your nose up at. Sure there are catch phrases that get tossed about until they become a common part of the lexicon, but YOUR sentences are your own.

Your words can hold great power. Words are representations of actual concepts. They are our way of condensing these concepts down and transmitting them to anyone who will listen. They can convey orders, express heartfelt emotion, convey ideas. Words have caused wars, marriages, divorces, genocides, friendships, love, etc.  On the ambulance my own words have consoled grieving loved ones, calmed suicidal patients, or given hope to very sick people.  Pretty powerful stuff.

Our ancestors understood the power of words. We are the measure of our words and deeds. Let us not forget that it is the collaboration of these two that is our only way to get a measure of a person. Vows made and kept OR made and broken determine a person's worth. Words cast into the Well hold us true. It is our duty to remember that both word and deed ripple out from us effecting our future...and that of others.

And now, the words have run out.

Sisu!

Advanced Directives: One Heathen's Outlook

Everyone dies. That's life and it has a 100% mortality rate. As the top out for average age of death is slowly rising, we are being hit with an issue that was pretty non-existent 50-75 years ago. What to do with our elderly?

With the current government safety net of Social Security and Medicare failing, we are left with some key questions on how we deal with our aging family members.

*Are they self sufficient?
*Are there major health issues that require routine outside care?
*Are they able to live by themselves?
*Do they have an advanced directive such as Do Not Resuscitate Order for emergencies?

Currently we are seeing more and more people putting their ailing older family members in nursing facilities or hospice care.  I will not be the judge as to whether or not this is a good choice or bad since each situation is unique to the family.  As a paramedic, I am more concerned with the last question concerning the advanced directive.

EMS, nurses, and doctors want the best possible outcome for each elderly patient.  Unfortunately there are situations that require some hard choices.  Realistically, successfully resuscitating an elderly patient with chronic health issues is rare.  However, when it does happen we must ask ourselves what kind of life are we bringing them back to?   The Havamal states:

"Cattle die and kinsmen die,
thyself too soon must die,
but one thing never, I ween, will die, --
fair fame of one who has earned."   (75)

Our elders have earned their fame and their dignity.  If at all possible, they being in the right mind of course, help them come to an end of life decision before this becomes an issue.  They have earned their right to make an informed decision.  They need to understand that many times they will be brought back broken and bed ridden if they are not already there.  Death is not the end.  Our ancestors wait for us.

I see families hold their loved ones in limbo, bereft of dignity, so that they may cling to some false hope and avoid letting go.  I say "Let them go!".  They have lived a full life.  Let their deeds live on in fine words spoken over full mugs with good family and friends.  We do them a disservice by avoiding the issue while they are alive and/or refusing to let them go at the end.  They deserve better.

Sisu!

Roots

Be it potted plant or towering tree..its all about Roots

In Asatru there is a huge emphasis placed on roots, ancestry, and the like. Being a folk faith, this emphasis is exactly what differentiates us from the "World Religions". Folk, Family, and Frith are three terms that are often touted as all important in our faith. While I do agree with this and understand how this related to our ancestors' culture in that the tribe was all-important for survival, I and others are left with a modern day dilemma.

I have read from various Heathen sources that more emphasis should be placed on familial/ancestral ties and history in an attempt to re-establish this system of tribal kinship...but what happens if one is far removed from family and tribe? This distance can be physical, mental, or something more. What if there is spiritual distance between you and your bloodline? Being of an "alternate faith", this is not a far stretch. What if you are spiritually distant from your significant other? If either of these conditions exist, then how is one supposed to truly reconstuct or follow our ancestral/tribal system if our innerhearth is not unified? For some, kindreds are the answer, but that means that you have to have the means, both temporal and financial, to make it to meetings and become a member of a physical community. Unfortunately, we are a minority and finding others of our faith may prove difficult, to say the least. If that is the case, then the only choices open are to make do OR invest both time and money in travel, not an option for some of us.

Making do with a situation can be a hard thing. If one is left to their own devices, more often than not they will allow things to lapse as seemingly more pressing things begin to assert themselves. For one who grew up never knowing about things like wights, gifting, and sacrifice, it becomes a disciplined act of faith to make this a part of the daily routine. One must take into account that for many, this routine is something that is completely foreign to what they were raised with. Despite best intentions, many will fall to the wayside a time or two due to not having enough reinforcement. This typically is not a problem for a member of a group as activities such as blot, sumbel, etc. not only help to build community, but also helps to reinforce the reality of the faith itself.

Kindreds, while a great idea, are a huge undertaking.  They are not a meetup group that gets together 1-2 times every month or so.  A kindred is a family.  In our faith it often is made up of actual family and friends that come together to create an extended family founded on Heathen faith and values.  This is a time investment like no other.  Bonds are made and oaths taken, and neither of them lightly.  While I have nothing against the concept of a kindred, I feel like the actualization process is one that can only happen organically and over time.

For myself I look at my own family as my kindred.  Shocking, I know.  But when you stop to think about the fact that I am Heathen, my wife is agnostic with Buddhist philosophical leanings, and the rest of my family are fairly devout Christians the mechanics of this seem to get a little muddled.  This often means that there are compromises made around holidays such as Christmas.  I observe both Christmas and Yuletide simply because it is far easier for me to bend than to make big to do over my own beliefs since they are in the minority.  Is this ideal?  Maybe not but the group dynamic is far smoother by my not getting too tightly attached to ONLY celebrating my holidays.  It is making do.  It is getting along.  Why?  Because I love them and they love me.  They accept the fact that I follow a different path.  Would the whole family change the holiday tradition to accommodate me?  To an extent I really think that they would.  But the nuances of my observations can be made quietly and they are far down the hierarchy of needs when compared to actually spending time with my loved ones.  Screw the differences, I want Rudolf, some eggnog, and maybe a hug.

We are not out on a crusade for conversion, we must strive to reach out to our kin and ancestors, despite differences. We must develop relationships with the wights of the surrounding areas. And despite my dislike for the occasional rantings of "online community" we must reach out abroad to others of our faith. When you get right down to it, it is about discipline. If you truly feel like the path of your ancestors is for you, then even on the worst days you should be able to offer a nod to Sunna and Manu and live up the virtues that we so often read about. Who knows, maybe someone will offer a nod back.

Modern Heathenry: Synthetic Tradition?

"Modern Anglo-Saxon Heathenry is not and cannot claim to be an authentic reconstruction of the ancient religion. The myths of its Gods it owes in a large part to the Norse Eddas and the Dane Saxo. Other beliefs have been reconstructed from comparison to the Icelandic sagas, and many of its traditions are drawn from later English folklore. Modern Anglo-Saxon Heathenry is therefore a synthesis of many Germanic traditions and beliefs that have been interpreted using the best scholarship in modern Germanic Heathenry. Despite this, it never can or will be the ancient religion. Still, what survived of the Anglo-Saxon Heathen beliefs is being followed by many in the Americas and Great Britain. And while it is not exactly as the ancient religion of the Jutes, Saxons, and Angles was, it captures the spirit and soul none the less."


This is an excerpt from the Wodening's page. While the words contained in this quote seem to infer a lack of verifiable resources as to "How things were done", it offers up another piece of information. This information being that the Theodish Way has captured the spirit of the old faith. For myself, this does not in anyway discount the validity of its practices. We are not Anglo-Saxon...therefore we should not have to be confined to performing strictly Anglo-Saxon rites. Plain and simple. We are the genetic culmination of the collection of our Ancestors...not all of which are Anglo-Saxon. I have French, Finn, and Irish bloodlines in me. I am the Northern Way. All of my bloodlines speak to me in some form or fashion. For me to turn my back on any of them is to do them a disservice. So what if SOME of my ancestors did not hail Ukko....my Finnish ones did at one time. Does this invalidate my sitting at a sumbel, not a traditional Finnish form of worship? No, because I am the merging of these bloodlines. While this may seem like UPG, explain to me how the logic of it is faulty. We are not our Ancestors, We are are the culmination of Them.  We are Ourselves.  Their experiences form the foundation for our own experiences to be written.

If we are a mixture of these bloodlines, then our faith is not necessarily harmed by having it reflect this evolution. If we stagnate our faith with the hang up of practicing consistently with the way things were, there will never be any growth. For our ancestors, practicing in their specific way makes sense because that is what they are...we are a mixture...what is wrong with our beliefs reflecting that. As many have stated, there is evidence that the Woden, is how the Continentals saw Odinn.  I mean, just because we can classify the Anglos as one "tribe" doesn't mean that they did. There were many "tribes of them", some could very well have worshiped differently than the one 100 miles down the way. Even then there were variations. Look at the Native Americans for a minute. There are a number of different kinds of Creek Indians underneath the umbrella term Creek Nation. Do you honestly thing that they all worshiped and thought the same way? Why would the Europeans be any different in the "tribal" makeup? History is nothing but suppositions....educated ones, but suppositions all the same.

I am not saying that your practices have to reflect the myriad of bloodlines that lead to you.  If your Muscogee Creek Indian blood does not speak or call to you, yet your Germanic blood does then by all means follow that.  But understand that this journey is your own and you must be the one to make sense of it all.  Follow the archaeological and linguistic evidence as best you can and use it as a means of understanding the worldview of your ancestors.  Just don't get trapped into the idea that you must BE your ancestors.  While it is important to try to capture the theo-philosophical core, I feel that in light of the lack of "how-to's" we should make the most of what we have and leave it at that. I doubt the Gods care how we specifically dot our I's and cross our T's.

Sisu!

Intro and what have you

The 9 Noble Virtues:

Courage

Truth

Honor

Fidelity

Discipline

Hospitality

Industriousness 

Self-Reliance

Perseverance 

These can be found in various places about the interwebs with their descriptions and applications to the faith of Heathenry in general.  Of course our ancestors never codified any of this stuff so these are modern inventions gleaned from the Lore.  Still, they are good tenants to live by and the mainstream of Heathenry likes to tout them so there you go.

Being that this blog is about the world of EMS as seen through the Heathen worldview, I am more concerned with Industriousness, Self-Reliance, and Perseverance.  They are the big 3 that I see thrown to the wind in my job.  I am quite aware that I cannot hold people who are not of my faith to my own standards.  That being said, I feel that these virtues are hardly religious in any light and more often represent what it means to be a useful human being.  Forget the Gods and Ancestors.  Forget the grand cosmic scheme of things.  I cannot see how people can wallow in their own self pity and refuse to do things for themselves.

I was raised that if something needed doing you rolled up your sleeves and got it done.  Nothing overtly religious about that at all.  According to my father there are really only two options for people:  1) lay down and quit/die  OR 2) Do what needs to be done and don't whine about it.   In my mind this epitomizes the concepts of the 3 previously listed virtues quite succinctly.  Also, it just makes a whole lot of damn sense.  

In this job I see people who instead of dusting themselves off and rising to the occasion, give in to their own despair and rot in it.   They cannot take responsibility for themselves.  There may be 5 cars in the driveway and 10 people to drive them but they need an ambulance at 3am to literally give them a ride to the hospital for a stubbed toe or a little vomiting.  Whatever happened to toughing it out or if things got rough having family there to take care of you?  Have we truly become a nation of such laziness and weakness?

Some of my Christian coworkers feel that mercy and sympathy are the traits that are called for in these situations.  In most cases all I can see are people who refuse to rise up, people with no pride, small minded people with no desire to change their lot for themselves or their children.  I cannot feel sympathy for them because in most cases they have chosen this for themselves.   This is not meant to be seen as an effort to be hard or tough.  It is simple logic based on the virtues that I hold to be true.  If you make your bed, then sleep in it.  I am neither judge nor jury but one cannot expect other people to extend sympathy and help if they refuse to attempt to right their situation.

My duty is to be there and help if I can, and I do so to the best of my abilities whenever they call.  Feeling for their plight, however, is a whole different story when it is self-inflicted.  If things are bad for you DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT.

In the future of this blog I hope to tackle such topics as palliative/end of life care, suicide, advanced directives, and other issues we see in EMS.  Dunno what the frequency will be but there ya go.

Sisu!