The Pagan Revival

Why now, and what comes next ?

What is a modern Pagan ?

First we must contextually understand the word Pagan and how it will be used here most frequently. It has a few relevant definitions, one is basically just Country Folk, Farmers, or Homesteaders. For most purposes though, in these writings the word Pagan is used to explain a person, or group that are Polytheist, or that believes in, and follows more than one god. More specifically we will be using it to define Indo European polytheists. These could be Germanic, Norse, Slavic, Vedic, Celtic or quite a few other cultural and religious groups that spanned from Indonesia to Northern Europe primarily before the spread of Abrahamic, or Judeo Christian Faiths. There are a few groups that are not represented by our interpretation of Pagan in these writings, they are the Satanist and Luciferians. This is because many of their beliefs are Catholic or Gnostic based, thus they are not by us considered Polytheists, or Pagan. Many people may refer to them as Pagan, but for clarity in these writings they are excluded. There are a few other misconceptions and stereotypes that I will attempt to clarify, for the reason that they are relevant to details later in these writings. The warrior cultures, such as the Vikings are explained but, who's past actions will not be glorified here. They were a group seeking revenge, for the killing, and converting of millions by the early Catholics, Muslims, and Christians starting in the first century, that continued over the span of the following 800 years. In the beginning of the mass killing, the murders that were justified by the Theodosian Decrees circa 388 AD by Theodosius I and ratified into law further by the updated Theodosian Codes of Theodosius II to include the seizing of any pagan land, and the justified killing of the entire family to do so. Valentinian III made the Theodosian Code a legitimized law in 427 AD spawning the murder of millions, and leading up to the Christian crusades in the 10th-11th centuries. The Vikings of that time were primarily the Norse, and Danish Pagans of Odins patronage, and roots seeking revenge, those were the sea raiders from around 900-1100 AD that became known as the “Vikings” of the golden era. Unfortunately it seems that particular 200 years is what most of the modern opinion of the Pagans is based on. History in our most recent past, was written by the victors. Hence the Year 0 and erasure of most of the Pagan texts and scripts. The Vikings are not excluded from the Pagan groups in these texts, but for clarity they only represent a small percentage of the Pagan groups referenced, and they have a very different set of community, and cultural beliefs, while having many of the same Gods, and religious texts. So these are the Pagans, the followers of Polytheistic faiths mostly of Indo-European origin.

Why Now, and what's next ?

The rise in modern Pagan followers can be attributed to a great many things. The Pop culture trends like Vikings, Lord of the Rings, The Craft, Charmed, and Thor by Marvel comics being just a few, combinations of this with the technology of the Information age has brought many of the old Pagan cultures, and faiths back to the forefront of discussion, and has put them in the face of nearly everyone. Also it has allowed the old ways to be researched and viewed by nearly everyone with access to television, radio, or the internet. Another reason for the rising trend of Paganism is so many people are getting DNA testing from companies such as, 23 and me, and Ancestry dot com, and looking up their family lineage, and genetics. This process is only getting cheaper, and easier with the progression of the tech. People then find out what their genetic, and cultural roots are, and naturally their curiosity leads them to researching their ancestors ways, and ancient faiths. These are just a few of the reasons for there being such a large number of new followers of modern Pagan faiths. This trend has also ultimately led to the next obvious step, which is where we are in society today, the Re-forming of Tribal groups. Following this is establishing of Temples honoring different Gods, and Goddesses, also by Consecrating sacred groves for pyres and finally grounds or reservations for meetings on holidays like Thingtide, and Yule.

We already see the Forming of the Internet groups, websites, and social media circles, of like minded Pagan people's. This is now causing discussions, among many of these groups about establishing things like modern Pagan Tribal reservations, sacred groves, temples, and even farming communities. The common misconception in society about this now, is that modern Pagan groups want sovereignty because of a desire to not follow modern laws, when in fact it is quite the opposite case with many Pagan groups especially the Germanic / Norse based ones. They hold the belief that the Aesir brought societal structure and order to Midgard, and this makes Law and Order quite important to them. One of the obvious positive aspects of the past Pagan Tribal groups is that they were small, generally under 200 people, and they all have common religious, and community standards. When an entire community agrees on a faith, or a foundation of community rules that are based on that, conflicts tend to happen less frequently and then the peace keeping becomes far easier. That was our original societal structure, and the very preservation of our ways may depend on reverting back to it. This leads to the far biggest reason for the “desire” for many us to actually form these Reservations, Homesteads, and Farming communities. It's simply because, most modern towns, neighborhoods, and cities do not offer Pagans any type of ability to self sustain at all. For example, having a few chickens and a garden is not allowed in your yard in most neighborhoods and towns. That seemingly little connection to nature, and small bit of self sustaining is actually very important to most of us, and this is for both spiritual, and religious reasons. A great example of the religious text detailing the importance of this is in the Havamal, specifically the stanzas 36-38*. Here I will just simplify them for the purpose of this writing. It explains in 36 that having a small shack of your own, is far better than begging anyone for a place to sleep. Then in 37 basically that having a single scrawny goat is better than begging others for food. The 38th has to do with remaining armed at all times, stating it is important to never leave home without your weapons of war. If these homesteads were set up remotely adjacent to each other it would allow for easy trading, meeting for community fellowship events like Thingtide, and for community to join for worshiping of the Gods. For example meetings on Sigrblot for Freya, and Yule for Odin, then there is Thingtide for meeting to discuss and address any community matters, and these are but a few. There are many different pagan beliefs with many different festivals and many other holidays that would benefit from this. America thus far, has not been a very friendly place to establish locations for communities or these meetings in so many different ways. For instance Tribes in America can only be legitimate in the eyes of the state if they are Native American Tribes. This set of laws has made it “illegal” to for us to just establish our own Tribal Reservations for our faiths. This must change. One thing humans have known since the first days is that Community is the key to longevity, and an easier, and more successful survival.

For these reasons we have seen “A Pagan Revival”, and the next logical step and probably the most difficult in this revival is going to be the full forming of these communities as Tribes. Think about this, How many of you would relocate your family, if an affordable piece of land was available in an area where the other land owners held your beliefs ? A place where you knew your children would have the ability to learn about, and not be mocked for their spiritual beliefs. A place where the community standards and rules allow you to have a couple of chickens and a small garden, or a dozen acres of corn should you choose to. Sometimes in order to correct the mistakes made in society, especially in it's laws and culture we have to go backwards, not technologically, or scientifically just simply to smaller communities, and groups to start over the “old fashioned way.” This time we have a reference point to know where to start from, and also many examples of what not to do. We know that the original US Constitution also known as the Bill of Rights* was largely based on Danelaw*, and both of them worked quite well in the beginning. Unfortunately both were eventually tainted by bureaucracy, and in the US now we can see this example perfectly. These Cities, and towns with divided people who are working against each other because the system has convinced them to. This is not our way, and this is definitely not our choice, nor is it healthy for our children to grow up seeing. We tend to have very conservative views on law and order, but very liberal views on things like natural home grown Herbal remedies, and them being outlawed. We are not opposed to science and modem medecine but for most simple things we find it better to grow some common use remedies in our own gardens, and this causes neither side to accept us, nor does it allow us a place to live without persecution or oppression of our beliefs.

The Ancient Ways, In modern Times.

There is vast diversity to Pagan faiths. Plus so many have been wiped almost completely away. Finding your roots, and researching the texts can be hard because of the historical filtering and destruction of so many of them. Also as explained above the application of them with current state and local laws may not be possible everywhere. Just because it's a religious belief does not mean that it's protected by law. So practicing can be a challenge depending on where you live. Our journeys now are all quite different, primarily because of a millennia of solitary practice by some of our faiths, and in most cases this was done to keep them hidden for the pagan practitioners survival. So the biggest questions I hope to answer here for you after knowing all of this now is how can we safely and legally practice, and how do we come together as a people again ?

Simply because there is such a vast diversity of the polytheistic faiths from the days of our ancestors it would be impossible to detail the process of researching, and applying that to the practice of all of them. For this reason I will use the example of the Norse / Germanic religion here. The texts and teachings of this faith have been virtually decimated, and it's people scattered to nearly every continent trying to prevent it's total erasure. It's estimated that around 250 AD they began writing the Stanzas they had been singing and keeping in the form of metered poems for perhaps tens of thousands of years prior, done by using the Elder Futhark runes as an alphabet. It is in the areas that they lived that the oldest musical instruments, and Oldest carved totems of an Animal hybrid God* the Lion man figure* have been found by Archeologist. This was actually quite recently in caves that were inhabited 25,000-40,000 years ago by Aurignacian people, the pre-Germanic tribes*. In doing this the poems and songs that had existed for millennia before being scribed into some of the texts like Hauksbók*, and the Codex Regius* have somehow survived. These are 2 of the best, and earliest known sources of the Eddas*. Within them is the poem known as The Havamal or “Words of the high one” that was pieced together from 3-6 different sources according to the historians. The majority of what we know as the Havamal in the Edda's is primarily only from the above 2 sources, and it is fairly agreed upon to be base of many of the Germanic tribal laws that also came from the teachings of Odin and the Aesir.

In modern times practicing of the Teachings of The Havamal and the Edda's can be difficult to navigate, and even more so when having to cross reference the legality with local laws. The Havamal Stanza 38 is basically the Second Amendment. In some US states this right can be practiced, in some regardless of religion it is highly illegal. Another easy way to explain a real example of this is the Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of happiness in the constitution, and the Homesteaders rights compared with stanzas 36-37* of the Havamal which in simplified form are, 36 It's better to have a meager shack of your own than beg for a place to sleep, and 37 It's better to feed from your own starving goat, than to beg another for scraps. In saying that The “right” to do it is insinuated. The legal ability to do such in some areas is not problematic, in some however homesteading is illegal, along with the individual tools they use for survival, including storing water, and growing certain common medicinal plants. When you become more familiar with the teachings, and the legality of your area, it gets much easier. So for now we just balance our religious rights, and the legality of them on a razors edge. However fairly soon I predict this will not be as necessary.

The B.I.A. or Bureau of Indian Affairs in the U.S. have authority to allow the Practice of all of these same rights, fully and legally on Religious Tribal Reservations. These same rights being argued on our behalf must be made a reality, and with the Pagan Revival picking up momentum it is only a matter of time before it becomes just that. When the birth of the American Pagan Tribal Reservation Movement finally happens, it challenges to threaten the powers that be, with a Decentralization of much of the current power structures. For example, when that many people become independent of the State and Local government, by simply being in self sufficient groups, who are trading food and craft goods within those groups, and with independent social needs programs inside the communities like care for the sick and elderly, the local and state governments would lose much of their tax income and slowly become useless to them. Almost just like they are now to the Native American Tribes. This is why as Pagans we are all put on watch lists by the FBI and CIA. Just imagine the Catholic, and Christian conservatives started preaching to their congregations that in order for them to remain Catholic, and Christian legally they needed the same rights to build reservations as the Native Americans, or Amish communities. The government would not like it. Even just the parents at school board meetings, who are concerned that their children are being exposed to adult fetish material far to early in schools were targeted. They began rallying for school choice, and it caused a panic. This action took millions of $ from the public school funding in each district that it “was” going to. Now the Private, and charter schools are getting it as payment. None of those people are “actually” dangerous to anyone, they are just like us. They also are just requesting the preservation of their beliefs, in every instance above, yet all were deemed dangerous because it took money away from the current power structure. This was the reason for witch hunts. This will be our next battle as Pagans. Simply obtaining the same legal religious rights as the Native Americans. If people truly have freedom of religion without persecution, as it is claimed, then we can just do it. We know that's not currently the case, we actually know we have to establish our Tribes and obtain our lands, and then as we fight each future case, in court or out, a precedent is set for all future Pagans claiming the same rights.

We know that the United States was Founded on the Bible, and its laws based on the 10 commandments, and we aren't saying that's it's a bad thing. What we are saying is that a community Based on the Edda's / Havamal, and the 9 noble Virtues, would suit us better. We could even use the original Bill of Rights and interpret them through the Edda's rather than the Bible. Then all the religious rights are kept, and the laws of that land are observed.

Closing - with “Our beliefs” :

We are all Free, and we all agree that Religious freedom should be “freedom”. We harm no others, and expect no harm in return. We self sustain where we can, and live close to nature, our families, and communities. We honor the old gods and observe their calendar of festivals and celebrations to honor them. Our way is not for everyone, but we know no other way. We are only free by the sheer exercising of our rights. This has been our way for thousands of years, even if we have had to hide it for our survival. We sacrifice our own livestock animals humanely when we do, and nothing is wasted. The only human blood we spill in sacrifice is a small amount of our own. We respect the Property, Family, Pets, and Livestock of others as we would want ours respected and left untouched or not trespassed upon. We bear no hate, all issues can be resolved simply in the house of Forseti called Glitnir, so can it be done in ours with his guidance. There is value in respecting all living things, and being willing to learn something from them. In turn We hold no one else's beliefs, and expect no others to hold ours, but do try to teach them if they seek the knowledge. We have the right to self sustain on our land, in regards to our needs including foods, and natural medicines. This is our right, for our personal use within our homes. We do not profiteer from our rights, we craft, farm, or work for our profit. We keep the peace, when we can, but Havamal 38 expresses our right to self defense, and defense of our homes, and communities using our weapons of war. We hope not to need them, or to use them. We help the weary traveler at our doors, if he honors our rights. We are The Pagans of Modern Day, and We keep alive our ancestral ways.

“Tacitus relates that according to their ancient songs the Germans were descended from the three sons of Mannus, the son of the god Tuisto, the son of Earth. Hence they were divided into three groups—the Ingaevones, the Herminones, and the Istaevones” -quote Brittanica.com

Our Tribe Through the Revival.

The Tribe of the Greyhorn Pagans.

We are a Non-Denominational group of primarily Indo-European Pagans, Norse, Wiccans, Germanic, Celtic Witches, Druids and the like. We are “mostly” followers or students of the Faiths of the Pre Christian Eras. We advocate strongly for Pagan Rights, and the Reformation of Pagan Communities.

Our Beliefs.

1. We all have the right to self sustain upon our own land. Period.

2. We harm No Living Thing for sport.

   A. All plants and Animals are harvested as humanely as possible. It and the Gods are thanked for the sacrifice.

   B. We only harm others in self defense, or the defense of ones family, property, or community

3. We respect the Rights and beliefs of ALL other people, “and” their property, family, and community.

4. We Have the Right to live organically, and naturally should we so choose to.

   A. Consuming only organically grown goods. If need be, (Self grown / farmed on ones own land.)

   B. Safely Collecting naturally occurring energy from Solar/Wind/Hydroelectric sources and storing for later personal use on ones own land.

   C. Brewing and Distilling for Consumption, Antiseptics, and Fuel for personal use on one's own land.

5. We Do remain neutral and attempt to keep the peace, unless in defense of innocent life, or the rights of those incapable of self defense.

We recently discussed these Rights with a Supreme Court Bar Member, and AU Leader Barry Lynn on The Greyhorn Pagans Podcast.

https://www.youtube.com/live/RrYAuyumnRc?feature=share

In this Discussion we covered the Rights of modern pagans and the Legal collision with most of our beliefs. The R.F.R.A. and several of the cases that have happened since, and some possible solutions to root of the problem, the Legal definition of Religion itself being so intentionally obscure.

Links to Sources and References*.

The Pagan Revival

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/paganism-witchcraft-are-making-comeback-rcna54444

Havamal

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A1vam%C3%A1l

https://study.com/academy/lesson/german-paganism-religion-gods-values-symbols.html

Paganism - Indo European

Norse : https://skaldskeep.com/norse/

Edda's : http://vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/The%20Elder%20or%20Poetic%20Edda.pdf

Germanic : https://hravan.com/

Slavic : https://meettheslavs.com/slavic-paganism/

Celtic : https://www.learnreligions.com/resources-for-celtic-pagans-2562555

Vedas : https://pluralism.org/veda-scripture-and-authority

Hinduism : https://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/vedicgods.asp

Pagan Religious Rights : This one is tricky because Currently the UA is the only organization I could Find that actually fights for our rights in any way, and it's questionable weather or not it's just Virtue Signalling.

https://www.au.org/the-latest/church-and-state/articles/a-timely-reminder-yes-religious-freedom-is/

https://nordicperspective.com/history/germanic-tribes

Relevant After thoughts.

There are a growing number of groups that represent Pagans, but Asatru is not the base of Paganism, nor does it represent all Norse or Germanic denominations independent Tribal Beliefs.

In the beginning the Asatru community started this process, and I had great confidence that they would win several legal battles on behalf of our rights, but unfortunately it appears the bureaucracy at The Asatru Community may prevent them from actually addressing this in any meaningful way, and I do wish the best for them in their path, but just as the Independent Tribes do not Represent Them, They do not reflect or represent all of our Tribal beliefs.

Wicca has made some good moves in the right direction as far as addressing Pagan Legal rights, but they need support. They are working with the AU or Americans United for the separation of church and state. This is a long and delicate process of challenging the laws that violate our religious freedoms openly and without second thought.

The A.U.’s website can be found at :

https://www.au.org/

The Main Wicca Website :

https://wicca.com/

The Greyhorn Pagans :

https://www.greyhornpagans.com/

There are Support links on all of them should you feel compelled to get involved.

As a Writer, Journalist, Pagan Legal Rights Activist, Author and Architect of the “American Pagan Tribal Reservation Movement” writing takes time, and time is money you can subscribe here on substack or Contribute in the form of a One Time or reccuring donation here : To J. A. Odinsson and Uncovered. The amount can be adjusted to $1.00 increments by clicking details.

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