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!