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Oficial F.A.Q. of Ásatrú Vanatrú – Forn Sed Brazil 5.0

 

1-WHAT IS ASATRU?

Long before Christianity came to northern Europe, the people there - our ancestors - had their own
religions. One of these was Asatru. It was practiced in the lands that are today Scandinavia, England,
Germany (Deutchland), France, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and other countries as well.
Asatru is the original or native religious
belief for the peoples who lived in these regions.

 

2-WHAT DOES THE WORD "ASATRU" MEAN?

It means, roughly, "belief in the Gods" in Old Norse, the language of ancient Scandinavia in which so much
of our source material was written. Ásatrú is a name artificially creacted by ocasion of inumerous works in
many countries for the reconstruction and divulgation of our Tradition made by many heroic persons since
XIX century. That Religion was know by so many names, depenting of the place or region. By Example,
Elder Way (Forna Seden/Forn Sed), The way of our ancestry, Religion of the Ancients, Ancient Religion,
Our Troth (Troth may be translated as "faith" but not with the meaning of a blinded truth, but instead it, a
devotion to the spiritual ways and moral conduct, this word in a more esoteric interpretation may mean
existence) and so go on.

 

3-WHEN DID ASATRU START?

Asatru is thousands of years old. Its beginnings are lost in prehistory, but it is older than Christianity,
Islam, Buddhism, or most other religions. The spiritual impulses it expresses are as ancient as the
European peoples themselves - at least 40,000 years, and perhaps much older.

4-Is Asatru related to any other religion?

No--at least not in the sense of "borrowing" other religions' gods or teachings outright.
Asatruar may have some basic beliefs in common with other pagans, or with religious people in general;
but Asatru is NOT an offshoot of any other faith.
(In particular, Asatruar are not "devil worshippers"; they do not even believe that a devil exists.)
In Historical view point, however, The Norse Old ways can be considered as a
Indo-European religion. It means that we have common roots with the Celtic Old Ways know
as Draoiseah or Druidism, the Hinduism and Buddhism. Then, one or another
little ressemblance is naturally expected.

5-Aren't "Asatru" and "Odinism" just different names for the same religion?

It depends. Norse pagans in England do tend to use those words interchangeably.
In the United States, though, the name "Odinism" is generally avoided.
At worst, people associate it with specific racist organizations; at best, they think the name is misleading.
(Not everyone considers Odin the most important deity or feels specially dedicated to him.)
However, the statement that the Odinists is Asatruer is not incorrect. It is like to say that the Tibetan
Buddhists is Buddhists or The Coptas is Kristjans. That statement in itself is not incorrect, however,
not all the Buddhists follows the Tibetan Schools, and not all the kristjans are Coptas.

6-WHY DO WE NEED ASATRU?
AREN'T MOST PEOPLE WHO WANT RELIGION
SATISFIED WITH CHRISTIANITY OR ONE OF
THE OTHER "ESTABLISHED" RELIGIONS?
People are attracted to the better-known religions because they have genuine spiritual needs which must
be filled. People are looking for community and for answers to the "big questions": What life is all about,
and how we should live it. For many people today, the so-called major faiths do not have answers that
work. Asatru has answers, but it has not been an alternative for most seekers because they haven't
known about it. Once they realize that there is another way - a better, more natural, more honorable
way - they will not be satisfied with anything less than a return to the religion of their ancestors.

 

7-WHY IS THE RELIGION OF OUR ANCESTORS THE
BEST ONE FOR US?

Because we are more like our ancestors than we are like anyone else. We inherited not only their
general physical appearance, but also their predominant mental, emotional, and spiritual traits. We
think and feel more like they did; our basic needs are most like theirs. the religion which best expressed
their innermost nature - Asatru - is better suited to us than is some other creed which started in the
Middle East among people who are essentially different from us. Judaism, Islam, and Christianity are alien
religions which do not truly speak to our souls. If any of thy ancestors came from Northern Europe, Thou
Thyself art probably heir to the old thoughts and ways of the Teutonic people, long forgotten though these
may have been in the rushing modern world. If not, thou art still part of the culture they helped to shape, a
speaker of a language that grew out of the world-view of the Anglo-Saxons for the sake of telling what they
held true and understood. The ways and works of our Teutonic heritage lie just below the surface of the
world we know, like gold forgotten beneath the grass covering a mound. It is up to those whose blood and
slous ring with the old songs, who feel the secret might of the runes and hear the whispering of our ancient
gods, to bring this treasure forth into the light of day again. To working of magick and worshipping the gods
of our ancestors art two of the first steps in requickening our hidden roots: only by matching wisdom and
works can aught of worth be achieved. But to work the magic rightly, thou must first know more of the
minds from which it came and the world giving birth to its might.

 

8-WHY DID ASATRU DIE OUT IF IT WAS THE RIGHT
RELIGION FOR EUROPEANS?

Asatru was subjected to a violent campaign of repression over a period of hundreds of years. Countless
thousands of people were murdered, maimed, and exiled in the process. The common people (thy ancestors!)
did not give up their cherished beliefs easily. eventually, the monolithic organization of the Christian church,
bolstered by threats of economic isolation and assisted by an energetic propaganda campaign, triumphed
over the valiant but unsophisticated tribes.

Or so it seemed! Despite this persecution, elements of Asatru continued down to our own times - often in the
guise of folklore - proving that our own native religion appeals to our innermost beings in a fundamental
way. Now, a thousand years after its supposed demise, it is alive and growing. Indeed, so long as there
art men and women of European descent, try "So long as there are men and women willing to listen to the
the call of our beloved Goddesses and Gods, So long as there are individuals who thirst for freedom, Our faith will
never truly die because it springs from the soul of our people and the strength and vision of our dieties.
Asatru isn't just what we BELIEVE, it's what we ARE.

9-WASN'T THE ACCEPTANCE OF CHRISTIANITY
A SIGN OF CIVILIZATION - A STEP UP
FROM BARBARISM?

No! The atrocities committed by the abrahamism
(a term that is refered in general to these three faiths: Christians, Muslims, and Jews)
throughout history are hardly a step up from anything. The so-called "barbarians" who followed Asatru
(the Vikings, the various Norse tribes, and so forth) were the source of our finest civilized
traditions - trial by jury, parliaments, Anglo Saxon common law, and the rights of women, to name
a few. Our very word "law" comes from the Norse language, not from the tongues of the Christian lands.
We simply did not and do not need Christianity to be civilized.

10-THOU HAST SAID THAT ASATRU WAS THE
RELIGION OF THE VIKINGS, AMONG OTHER EARLY
EUROPEAN CULTURES.
WEREN'T THEY A PRETTY BLOODTHIRSTY LOT?

Modern historians agree that the Vikings were no more violent than the other peoples of their times.
Remember, the descriptions of Viking raids and invasions were all written by their enemies, who were
hardly unbiased. Both the Islamic and Christian cultures used means every bit as bloody, if not more so,
than the Norsemen. It was a very rough period in history for all concerned!

11-WE KEEP TALKING ABOUT THE VIKINGS. DOES
THIS MEAN THAT ASATRU IS ONLY FOR PEOPLE
OF SCANDINAVIAN ANCESTRY?

No. Asatru, as practiced by the Norse peoples, had so much in common with the religion of the other
Norse Setentrional tribes, and with their cousins the Celts,
that it may be thought of as one version of a general
European religion. Asatru is for all European peoples, whether or not their heritage is specifically
Scandinavian and for all people who was influentied and be simpathyc to their culture.
Its means that, even if the fact that thou art a North European Descendent makes thee more
easy to self identify thyself in that culture and/or religion, IT IS NO PRE REQUISITE
to be a asatruar. In fact, we will prefer and respect more a non teutonic descendent who
lives in a more honourable way and more virtuous, than someone who art "pure" descendent
but act in disacord with our principles and live a dishonoured life.
To the Gods, there art no ‘Choiced People’ and no Master Races.

12-WHAT ARE THE BASIC BELIEFS OF ASATRU?

We believe in an underlying, all-pervading divine energy or essence which is generally hidden from us,
and which is beyond our immediate understanding. We further believe that this spiritual reality is
interdependent with us - that we affect it, and it affects us.

We believe that this underlying divinity expresses itself to us in the forms of the Gods and Goddesses. Stories
about these deities are like a sort of code, the mysterious "language" through which the divine reality speaks
to us. We believe in standards of behavior which are consistent with these spiritual truths and harmonious
with our deepest being.

 

13-HOW DOES ASATRU DIFFER FROM OTHER RELIGIONS?

Asatru is unlike the better-known religions in many ways. Some of these are:

We are polytheistic. That is, we believe in a number of deities, including Goddesses as well as Gods.
We do not accept the idea of "original sin", the notion that we are tainted from birth and intrinsically bad,
as does Christianity. Thus, we do not need "saving".

The Middle Eastern religions teach either a hatred of other religions or a duty to convert others, often
by force. They have often practiced these beliefs with cruel brutality.

We do not claim to be a universal religion or a faith for all of humankind. In fact, we don't think such
a thing is possible or desirable. The different branches of humanity have different ways of looking at the
world, each of which is valid for them. It is only right that they have different religions, which of course they do.

Ásatru é diferente das mais conhecidas religiões de muitos modos. Alguns deles são:

14-Why choose to follow the Viking Norse Gods at all?
Aren't they just aspects of a universal whole-
-or even of the worshippers themselves?

Some religions do indeed teach that all deities are one; Asatru, however, does not.
The gods are distinct individuals and exist independently of their worshippers' minds.
(A Hindu might call Odin an emanation of the Brahman; a Wiccan might call him an aspect of the Father God;
and a Jungian psychologist might call him a Norse version of the Wise Old Man archetype.
To an Asatruar, Odin is ODIN: as unique an individual as his followers, not an aspect of any other god,
and definitely not "all in the mind".) It means in technical therms that we are polytheists and animists.

.

15-DOST THOU CONSIDER THE NORSE MYTHS TO BE TRUE?

The myths are stories about the Gods and Goddesses of Asatru. They are ways of stating religious truths.
That is, we would say they contain truths about the nature of divinity, our own nature, and the relationship
between the two. We do not contend that the myths are literally true, as history.

 

16-WHAT ABOUT THESE GODS AND GODDESSES?
ARE THEY REAL?

Yes, they are real. However, just as most Christians do not think their
God is really an old bearded figure sitting
on a golden chair in heaven, we do not believe Thor (for example) is actually a muscular, man-shaped
entity carrying a big hammer. There is a real Thor, but we approach an understanding of him through
this particular mental picture.

 

17-DO FOLLOWERS OF ASATRU PRAY TO THEIR
GODS AND GODDESSES?

Yes, but not quite the way most people mean by the word. We never surrender our will to theirs or humble
ourselves before them, because we see ourselves as their kin, not as inferior, submissive pawns. Nor do we
beg and plead. We commune with them and honor them while seeking their blessing through formal rites
and informal meditation. Living a full and virtuous live is a form of prayer in itself. Our religion affects all parts
of our lives, not just those fragments that we choose to call "religious".

 

18-DON'T THOU WORSHIP STONES AND TREES AND IDOLS?

No. These objects are not Gods, so we don't worship them. We do sometimes use these items as
reminders of a God or Goddess, and we believe they can become "charged" with a certain aspect of
the divine energy, but we would never confuse them with the actual deities.

19-Do Asatruar consider their gods to be the only true ones?

No. Asatruar, as a rule, don't seek to convert the rest of the world-
-largely because they don't see it as the one right religion for everybody.
If a non-Asatru pagan wants to worship Diana or Cernunnos, that is perfectly acceptable;
if a Christian wants to remain Christian, that too is acceptable. The Norsemen generally didn't belittle
other people's gods, or claim that those gods didn't exist. Even in the late Viking Age, the attitude towards
foreign religions was "You stick to your gods and I'll stick to mine"; that attitude has
carried on into the modern Asatru revival.

20-But isn't Asatru anti-Semitic?
After all, Hitler claimed to believe in "Nordic" gods,
and he used Germanic pagan symbols as part of his political agenda.

Hitler himself was raised Christian, and never actually
believed in any of the Germanic gods. If anything, his beliefs most
resembled those of the so-called "Identity Christians", who use a
warped interpretation of the Bible to justify racism and male dominance. The Viking symbolism
was used mainly because it appealed to the masses' nationalistic feelings--and even then,
its meaning was perverted into something that the pagan tribes wouldn't have recognized or accepted.

There are, of course, extremists in every religion who will use their beliefs
to justify racism (or sexism, or another prejudice). But Asatru itself
does NOT teach or promote those people's attitudes; the two should not be confused.

21-I've noticed that a lot of Asatru people are into "playing Viking": wearing Norse-style clothes in ritual, learning crafts that were common in the Viking Age, assuming Norse names. Is this actually a requirement of the religion?

No. People on both sides have their valid points, however: Those who DO "play Viking" emphasize that Asatru teaches respect for ancestors, tradition and history. They see Norse names, ritual clothes and handicrafts as a "hands-on" link with the past. They also point out that most religions keep some archaic practices in a ritual context, long after those practices have died out in the everyday world.

Those who DON'T do any of these things emphasize that a religion has to be relevant to the time and place where its followers live: a modern American shouldn't try to act like a 10th-century Icelander. (Ancient Viking tribesmen learned to fight with swords, grow their own food and sew their own clothes because those skills were necessary in their day-to-day life; that is no longer true for most of us today.) The "modern relevance" people also point out that there's no evidence that the Norse tribes themselves treated their religion as a historical reenactment; people didn't "play Stone Age" in a ritual context to prove that they respected the past.

22-I've read that the Norsemen sacrificed animals and even humans as part of their religion.
Is this still part of modern Asatru?

Human sacrifice is definitely NOT part of modern Asatru practice. Some groups, however, still do practice animal sacrifice; those groups tend to live in areas where farm or game animals are often killed for "mundane" reasons anyway. They see the sacrifice as a vital part of the religion, acknowledging that their food comes from living creatures and consecrating its death to the gods. (Unlike some cultures' version of animal sacrifice, which destroyed the whole offering by fire, the Germanic version was essentially a sacred meal: the edible parts were blessed and shared by the worshipers, and the rest was used or thrown away as it would have normally been.) For the most part, however, modern Asatruar make only a "symbolic" animal sacrifice (consecrating an edible image of an animal, or a piece of meat) if they make one at all. Some reserve that practice for only the most important rituals; many more do away with the sacrificial animal altogether, offering only a drink.

23-I've noticed that many Asatruar practice magic (especially rune magic); is this a requirement of the religion?

The religion does teach that magic is real and acceptable; and many people do indeed come to Asatru through an interest in runecraft. However, this does NOT mean that everybody is expected to study or practice magic. (Spell-working does not play as strong a role in Asatru as it does in Wicca, to name the most obvious example.) Conversely, a person can practice rune magic in some form without following the Asatru religion--as long as the magician is familiar with the Germanic gods, myths and symbolism, and takes the runes in their cultural context.

24-WHAT ARE THE STANDARDS OF BEHAVIOR
TAUGHT IN ASATRU?

Some of the qualities we hold in high regard are strength, courage, joy, honor, freedom, loyalty
to kin, realism, vigor, and the revering of our ancestors. To express these things in our lives is virtuous,
and we strive to do this. Their opposites - weakness, cowardice, adherence to dogma rather than to
the realities of the world, and the like - constitute vices and are to be avoided. Proper behavior in
Asatru consists of maximizing one's virtues and minimizing one's vices. This code of conduct reflects
the highest and most heroic ideals of our people. (Reference to the Nine Nobles Virtues that is Courage, Truth,
Honour, Loyalty, Discipline, Hopitality, Industriousness and Perseverance)

25-DON'T ALL RELIGIONS BELIEVE IN THESE THINGS
THOU'VE JUST NAMED?

No. People may honestly believe that this is the case, but examination does not bear this out. They believe
in freedom, yet their scriptures say they are slaves to their God. They accept that joy is good, but their
teachings laden them with guilt because of some imaginary "original sin". Their instinct is to understand
Nature's world from verifiable evidence, yet they are trained to believe black is white, round is flat, and
natural instincts are evil without question when the teachings of their church conflict with reason or with
known facts.

Many of us instinctively believe in the values of Asatru because they have been passed down to us from our
ancestors. We want to believe that other religions espouse those values, so we see what we want to see.
Most people just haven't yet realized that the major religions(generaly speaking) are saying things that
conflict with the values we know in our hearts are right. To find northern European virtues nature, one
should look where those virtues have their natural home - Asatru.

 

26-WHAT DO THOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT
GOOD AND EVIL?

Good and evil are not constants. What is good in one case will not be good in another, and evil in one
circumstance will not be evil under a different set of conditions. In any one instance, the right course of
action will have been shaped by the influence of the past and the present. The result may or may not be
"good" or "evil", but it will still be the right action.

In no case are good and evil dictated to us by the edicts of an alien, authoritarian deity, as in the
Middle East. We are expected to use our freedom, responsibility, and awareness of duty to serve
the highest and best ends.

27-WHAT DOES ASATRU TEACH ABOUT AN AFTERLIFE?

We believe that there is an afterlife, and that those who have lived virtuous lives will go on to experience
greater fulfillment, pleasure, and challenge. Those who have led lives characterized more by vice than
by virtue will be separated from kin and doomed to an existence of dullness and gloom. The precise
nature of the afterlife - what it will look like and feel like - is beyond our understanding and is dealt with
symbolically in the myths.

There is also a tradition in asatru of rebirth within the family line. Perhaps the individual is able to choose
whether or not he or she is re-manifested in this world, or there may be natural laws which govern this.
In a sense, of course, we all live on in our descendents quite apart from an afterlife as such.

We of Asatru do not overly concern ourselves with the next life. We live here and now, in this life. If we do this
and do it well, the next life will take care of itself.

28-DOES ASATRU INVOLVE ANCESTOR WORSHIP?

Asatru says we should honor our ancestors. It also says we are bonded to those ancestors in a special
way. However, we do not actually(in general cases)worship them. However it will depend upon the
personal spiritual orientation from thy own Godhi or Skaldr.

We believe our forebears have passed to us certain spiritual qualities just as surely as they have given
us various physical traits. They live on in us. The family or clan is above and beyond the limits of
time and place. Thus we have a reverence for our ancestry even though we do not involve generally
ourselves in ancestor worship as such.

 

29-DOES ASATRU HAVE A HOLY BOOK, LIKE THE BIBLE?

No. There are written sources which are useful to us because they contain much of our sacred lore in the
form of myths and examples of right conduct, but we do not accept them as infallible or inspired documents.
Any religion which does this is deceiving its members about the purity and precision of the written word.
The various competing factions of Middle Eastern religions are proof of this. Their conflicting interpretations
can not all be correct!

There are two real sources of holy truth, and neither expresses itself to us in words. One is the universe
around us, which is a manifestation of the underlying divine essence. The other is the universe within us,
passed down from our ancestors as instinct, emotion, innate predispositions, and perhaps even ethnc
memory. By combining these sources of internal and external wisdom with the literature left us by our
ancestors, we arrive at religious truths. This living spiritual guidance is better than any dusty, dogmatic
"holy book", whose writings are often so ambiguous that even clerical scholars disagree and whose
interpretations change with the politics of the times.

30-ASATRU HAS BEEN DESCRIBED AS A
"NATURE RELIGION".
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

We treasure the spiritual awe, the feeling of "connecting" with the Gods and Goddesses, which can come
from experiencing and appreciating the beauty and majesty of Nature. Our deities act in and through natural
law. By working in harmony with Nature we can become co-workers with the Gods. This attitude removes
the opposition between "natural" and "supernatural" and between religion and science.

For us, following a "Nature religion" means recognizing that we are part of Nature, subject to all its
laws, even when that offends our Christian-influenced misconceptions. We may be Gods-in-the-making,
but we are also members of the animal kingdom - a noble heritage in its own right. Our ancestors and their
predecessors prevailed through billions of years of unimaginable challenges, a feat which must awe
even the Gods themselves.

 

31-WHERE DID THE UNIVERSE COME FROM,
ACCORDING TO ASATRU?

Our myths describe the beginning of the universe as the unfolding of a natural process, rather than one
requiring supernatural intervention. Followers of Asatru need not abandon modern science to retain their
religion. The old lore of our people describes the interaction of fire and ice and the development of life
from these - but this is symbolic, and we will leave it to our scientists to discover how the universe was born.

 

32-WHAT ARE THE RUNES, AND WHAT DO
THEY HAVE TO DO WITH ASATRU?

Runes are ancient Norse symbols representing various concepts or forces in the universe. Taken together,
they express the our ancestors, the teutonic world view. Their meanings are intimately connected with the
teachings of Asatru. Our myths tell how Odin, father of the Gods, won them through painful ordeal so
that Gods and humans alike might benefit from their wisdom.

 

33-HOW IS ASATRU ORGANIZED?

Asatru is non-authoritarian and decentralized, expressing our love of freedom.
While we do have definite
tenets, we have little dogma. There is no all-powerful spiritual leader
whose word is law, no "pope" of Asatru
to dictate truth. No guru or priest has an exclusive direct line to
the Gods. The Gods live in Thee! However,
we have in our tradition our Godhar (God-Man, Chieftain or Priest)
who act as a administrator of events and/or
as a priest in our blots (rites). These ones are the prefered
to perform a blot since they studied a lot more than a
normal person but without these ones, anyone can perform
a blot. We have also something called as a Skald.
That one is our equivalent to the traditional Celtic Bard
of Draoiseah (druidism) religion of our cousins, the celts.
To this one, is regarded to sing and guard our songs and stories.
To recite our laws and act as a protector of
our traditions. That one is the prefered substitute for a Godhi(sing.) br> in perform the Blots. However these two
titles means only that those who earned these titles had studied
a lot more than normal persons about our rites
and traditions. It not mean a spiritual degree or something
like that. The Level of spirituality is regard only to
individual efforts. It is really possible that even a lay asafolk
have a more developed spiritual degree than some
godhi or a skald.

 

34-HOW ASATRUAR CALL TEMSELVES?

Well, as it was explained, the name Ásatrú is not the Original name to our religion since that one has many
names deppending of what place or region it was praticed. In ancient times, we called the people who
followed the same culture and/or the way of our forebears in a simplest way as "The Folks" and those
who art not of our culture and religion art simply "people who don't belong to the folk". Actually we call
ourselves as kindreds, fellows (brothers/sisters) of Old Ways, and asafolks. Asafolk is a word that have
two components, Folk and Asa, that wish to mean ASAR Folks or Folks who belongs to the ASAR.
ASAR is a word that refers to all Æsir Gods and Goddesses, but in pratice, it refers to All Norse Gods
and Godesses.

 

35-DO ÁSATRÚ IS SEXIST?
THE NORSE HISTORIES SHOWS DEFITITELY A MALE DEITIES
AND MALE HEROES PREDOMINANCE.

The Norse tribes was not more patriarchal or sexist than any other pre-kristjan societies of Europe;
as long their religion. Strong and independent women (and Goddesses) appeared in histories that was
preserved even nowaddays. But the myths was not stabilished to after some centuries from the convertion
to Kristyanism. Also, many of our Myths was compiled and was put to writened language by kristjan
clerics in general. Because that, much of the folk histories about the womans was disappeared.
Exist evidences that the tribes has some matriarcal groups centralized around Goddesses, but some studious,
as the Gimbutas, was exagered their importance. (those who was in a matriarchal society and payed
worship to the Goddesses was not tottally peacefully, as long those of the patriarchal society who
worshiped male Gods was not so violent). The Norse Ancient Religion was not glorified one gender
more than another.

36-I REMEMBER TO BE LISTENED ABOUT THE NORSE PEOPLE
BELIEFS THAT ONLY WARRIORS WHO DIE IN BATTLE WILL LIVE
WITH THE GODS AFTER THEIR DEATH - AND ALL EVERYONE ELSE
WILL BE DOOMED TO THE PERDITION AND WILL BE PUT IN HEL.
DOST IT IS TRUE?
DOST THE MODERN ASATRUAR BELIEVE IN IT?
(If they do, there's not much point in following Asatru unless you're on active duty in the military!)

The idea of a afterlife with two different destinations (a good place, a bad place, and no other possible
destination), was common in the Middle-Eastern religions as the islamism, Kristjanism and the Zoroastrism.
But all the Viking conception of a afterlife was not to go into one place or Another. Valhalla was reserved
to the chosen warriors (valk). But Valhalla was not the unique divine home in Aesgarð. The another Gods
has their own palaces (halls) too, and the dead may be destined to another God's Halls than Odin's Hall
or Valhalla.
About Hel, the terrorific imanineries in the Prose Edda was without any doubt influenced by the non Norse
religions description of the Underworld, as the kristjan or Greco-roman religion. (Snorri Sturluson, after all,
was a kristjan with a classical education; and lived 100 years after the Iceland was
converted to Kristjanism).
Another sources, as the eddic poem "The Balder's Dream" and another Scandinavian
folk legends of nowadays, shows Hel as a rest place to the deceased,
and no as a torture and suffering place.
Only a poem tells about a afterlife place of suffering and torture
as a part of the Norse beliefs, and that poem
describes Nastrand (The Coast of the Dead Man) as a place sepparated from Hel. Who ends in Nastrand
after his death? Assassins, those who break oaths,
those who tell lies for seducing others. In another words,
the "bad place" was reserved to people who commited the worse crimes.
But beyond that, the Norse Tribes believed in good and evil (in a relative way, not in a absolute way
as the abrahamic religions) and that acts will have their consequences.
Also, the Gods is limited and commit mistakes too, but even they must pay the price for that mistakes.
The mythical texts teach ues about the value of
Honor and good reputation: a man (or a God) must be judged
by his actions, not only for his words of beliefs.

37-OK--so I don't have to be a warrior, a magician, or a historical reenactor to practice Asatru; and I haven't done anything horrible enough to send me to Nastrand.
Does that mean that I can do anything I want, as long as I believe the Norse Gods are real?

NO!!! The Viking tribesmen still believed that right and wrong exist, and that actions have consequences. Even the gods are limited and make mistakes--but even they have to pay the price for those mistakes. (The god Tyr, for instance, lost his right hand after he made a promise he didn't intend to keep: he swore to let the Fenris Wolf go if it couldn't break some magic chains the gods had made. The wolf couldn't do it, of course--and bit off the hand that Tyr had placed in its mouth as a pledge of good faith.) The mythical texts we have may not say that the gods are totally good, or that the slightest mistake leads to eternal torture. They do, however, teach the value of honor and a good reputation: a man (or a god) should be judged on his actions, not merely his words or beliefs. The mere word "law" in english comes from an norse semantical origin, and as it has said before, in such a Viking society, no one is aboce the law, even the kings.

38-Can I be a asatruar (or claim to be a asafolk) if I follow and/or mix my practices and beliefs with another faith or magical systems, such as wicca, thelema, kristendoom, Qabalah, High Ceremonial Magick, Vodoo, Santeria, Satanism, Gnosticism, Pantheism and/or whathever?

NO! If an Asatruar mixes these religions with his own he/she is not true, is not loyal, is not dedicated and is therefore a poser...a fake...a fraud...a scar on the face of Heathenry.

The people are entitled to do what they want, but I they should get one religion confused with another. You can believe in Christ and Thor at the same time but still not get the two different teachings confused, which people often do. I myself practice only one religion, because I feel that I could spend a life of research into my own religion and not fully understand the depth of it so why try to understand or three religions and end up barely understanding them.

Religions are different, have different practices, come from different cultures, and have different belief systems for a reason...cause they are supposed to be practiced seperately by different people! But Asatru and Xianity could NEVER be practiced together. If someone holds differeing beliefs from different religions...they are untrue to those religions, and untrue to themselves, and is a hypocrite and a fake.

Being AsatruaR doesn't mean you deny that other pantheons exist, just that you don't follow their God/desses. You follow the ASAR (The norse deities, from the three tribes knew in the lore as Aesir, Vanir and Jotnar.).

As to modern (and non traditional) adherants of the Norse Ways wanting to worship other gods, that should be left to the individual. However, any individual makig such a choice needs to be aware many factors could leave them not being accepted by either pantheon of gods. The ancient pagan religions had a wide range of beliefs, often in conflict with each other. Some things the Greeks counted a virteous would have seen you thrown in a bog in Denmark. These ethical differences could lead an Pagan to no end of sorrow were they to worship a god of a pantheon shoe values do not keep with our own. Acceptable forms of sacrifice differed. Our Gods seem to be satisified with blot, a type of communion between us and the Gods. The Gods of Carthage on the other hand preferred wholesale burnt sacrifice often of one's first born. Some Gods would not accept grain sacrifices, others only grain. Even in our own religion, the Elves will not accept blood. These differences in how rites are preformed and what is acceptable to give, like the differences in virtues and customs can also cause heartache for someone that worships more than one set of gods. Finally, ancient Heathenry was centered on the family and the tribe. These they viewed as an innangarth, a protected enclosure. Anything within the enclosure was held dear and could be trusted. That outside of it could not nescessarily be held to the same however. So while they would not fear or hate that outside their own enclosure, they certainly would not bring it into their homes to worship. This is probably as true of the Gods as it was the ancient Heathens. Thor would probably view Mars as just another ettin or thurs whose head he may have to crack.

 

39- Was the Sincretism with Kristendoom, and necessary step
of the preservation of the Norse Old Ways?

NO!!! The primordial norse culture was of democratical values. Our forebears had chosen their leaders through votes, had an high value to individual righs and freedom, and made their laws through an Assembly or Ting. Kristendoom comes with very useful doctrines for those scandinavian leaders in dire need to betray their people in order to become despotical leaders with an Absolutist Centered Power System generated through ideas like "divine" right to rule, submission to the leader, blind faith and passive aceptation of slavery, as preached in the kristjan bible, and/or by the Church. This is the primordial reason why those kings made several sword pointed conversions, and forced them up to the new faith through the death threat. Few scandinavian kings worked on the preservation of the original norse religion, like Queen Sigrith of Sweden and the Frisian King Radbod. Kristendoom used the syncretism as an soft way to introduce the new faith to the norse people, and latter to abuse their trusts and destroy the culture and spiritual heritage. The Norse Syncreto Christianity-Heathenism was called as Arianism Doctrine, conveniently preached by the kristjans leaders, followed by several norse people like some scandinavians and the visigoths (the norse forebears of the Iberian and portuguese-brazilian peoples), and latter, declared by the same christianity as an Heretical doctrine and those who followed it, suffered terrible prosecution. Our faith was only preserved because some valiantly norsemen get out of the kristjanized Scandinavian lands and founded Iceland and made traditional communities there. They choosen an even more democratical way of life, without kings and since there was no kings, then thre was no prosecution! Iceland become an christian country only latter due to genocidal war threats by those scandinavian kristjan kings and the need of trade, since the kristjan lands forced an economical blocking to the former heathen Iceland, and even so, this place without christian kings, was much more tolerant towards the Old Faith (Forn Sed), and it is thanks to them, we have access to our classical texts and old folklorical - religious legends such as like the Poetic Eddas, The Prose Edda and several heathen Sagas like the Volsunga Saga.

This FAQ will be in constantly updating. If a question will
be frequently asked, thou may be sure that this one will be added here. =-)

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