On a broad scale one can see a growing interest in heathenism in the Netherlands as well as abroad. Today the term heathenism is used by an increasing group of people as reference to their religion and/or philosophy of life. Paganism is another widely used term. Both concepts have become umbrella terms for a number of movements, including asatru, druïdism, shamanism, wicca and witchcraft. Among these movements there’s a clear preference for one of the terms. People following some form of Germanic tradition mostly prefer heathenism while followers of wicca, witchcraft and druïdism favour paganism. Besides those specific traditions, there’s a group of people which see themselfs as heathen or pagan but they do not follow a certain path. The don’t feel the need to be part of a certain tradition, but they do feel heathen or pagan and they belong to the heathen or pagan way of live.
The faith
As said before, asatru is a heathen movement. It's a philosophy of live that can be traced back to the faith and customs of the Germanic people that once lived in large parts of Europe and even for a little while in a small part of North-Africa. The different area's where the various Germanic tribes lived, each had their own versions of the faith of those days and the accompanying customs. The time span of the Germanic tribes is more or less from the bronze age until the christianisation, which started in the third century and ended halfway the eleventh century and goes, approximately, slowly from south Europe to north Europe.
No name has been passed down for the faith our Germanic forbears once had. At the end of the nineteenth century somebody came up with the name asatru. This has been picked up by others and it has slowly grown to be one of the most well known names for the modern version of this old faith. Literally it means 'true to the aesir'. Keep in mind that aesir in the old Norse tongue means 'gods'. The concept asatru can thus be taken as 'true to the gods'.
Asatru is growing into a movement as varied as it was in Germanic times. The essence of asatru is the same in many nations, but each country, and even different area's, already show their own way to practise their faith. It's also fascinating to see what traces of the old heathen customs still can be found in the Netherlands as well as abroad.
Trees might have been cut down during the christianisation, but the stumps stayed alive. On several of these tree stumps new shoots come out again, shoots that hopefully will get the chance to grow into trees. Asatru is still very young despite it's old roots. It will take time to find out what valuables can be found in the past and to translate these to the needs of the present. We can create an historic image of the Germanic people and their way of life, but we'll never know how it really was. We have to look around for additions we need to develop our faith. This way new habits and customs start, new traditions that get their inspiration by the merging of old and new ways.
A tree consists of different parts that together form a whole: roots, trunk, branches and leaves. In the tree called asatru this picture can be seen as ancestors, gods, landwights, people, mythology, ethics and fate. All of this and more together give shape to the religion. We all see, each in our own way, the same tree. The place where we stand to look upon the tree, the choice to stand still or walk around is of influence on how we see the tree and what we see of it. It is very interesting and enlightening to know where we come from, but life is about the present, about where we are now and where we are going to.
World view
The way asatru views the world, can be found in the myths told in the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda. They tell us about how it all began, they tell about the void where live started when fire and ice came together. Part of this world view shows Midgard as the world of us humans, Yggdrasil the world tree that keeps everything together and is standing as an axis, Asgard as the world of the gods and Hel as the world where the ancestors stay.
Asatru can be called a way of live as well as a religion. Most asatruars acknowledge the existence of gods, landwights and other (natural) beings. Ancestors are honoured and they are still part of society. Asatru doesn't know a religious doctrine. It is up to every asatruar to decide for himself how to see the world and whether or not to acknowledges the existence of incorporeal beings. Faith in the gods is independent of the fact if one sees this movement as way of live. Mankind is the yardstick, and it is from our world, Midgard, that we approach life. The world view of asatru sees Midgard and the worlds surrounding it as whole, each part influencing the other worlds. That brings us to wyrd, which meaning belongs to the essence of asatru.
Wyrd is symbolized as the web of wyrd, an immeasurable woven web through which everybody, humans, spirits and gods are connected with each other. It is a web with lots of patterns that have originated in a distant past, those patterns although old, still can have some influence in the present, there are patterns that can hardly be recognized anymore or have even vanished in the mists of time. The web knows old worn threads, sometimes worn away till they are broken. The web of wyrd has new threads that are added daily with designs that are clear in our minds or maybe of unknown designs still hidden in time. Threads that are added are mostly the choices we make, our thoughts and our deeds. The web of wyrd reveals to us what is going on and that we are all part of shaping what is becoming. It shows a certain influence we have on each other and on the world but also tell us of the influence and effect the world is having on us. It is giving us understanding, tells us of the fact that we are responsible for ourselves and that we bear the joint responsibility for the world we live in.
Asatru and politics
Besides the old historic traces, asatru has to deal with an inheritance from a near past: the period leading up to and of the second world war. Hitler and his henchmen have abused their Germanic ancestors, their faith, heir customs and their symbols for their own ends. It may be clear that most asatruars loath the nazi ideology, extreme right and racism. But even today there are still people who support idea's like that. How people can combine those idea's with asatru is incomprehensible. That asatru is limited to certain people of a certain race is complete nonsense.
It is wise to be alert on this point when you are interested in asatru, but don't let it scare you off. It is perfectly normal within the asatru community to ask each other questions about this subject to find out where individuals or groups stands in this respect.
