Some Indigenous or Nature-based religions are referred to as 'paganism' but this comes from the old origin of the word, 'pagan' meant 'country-dweller'. In Northern and central Europe, ancient religions were all based on nature. The nature of the gods could be found in many aspects of the landscape around them. In lakes, trees, mountains and animals. Animal spirits also played a large role in their rituals and everyday life. These religions are both polytheistic and monotheistic, meaning the larger overall, universal God is displayed in parts. The many different aspects of the world both represent a deity, or a god, and also a a part of a Universal God; therefore they are also 'pantheistic'.
Northern European religions are indigenous in nature; acknowledging spirit guardians of fields and flocks, earth spirits, water and tree sprites, spiritual protectors of travelers and seafarers; these are the innate spiritual qualities of places, expressed as guardian spirits or deities.
The Wheel of the Year represents the Seasonal Religious Festivals that are linked with the seasons. The midwinter solstice, celebrating the increasing light after the longest night, is the major festival of the year. Celebrated with feasting and fires, disguise and games, it was the old Norse Yle, Slavic Kracun, and the Lithuanian Kucios and Kaledos. Most midwinter rites and ceremonies of the old religion were absorbed into Christmas. In eastern Europe, the day on which the first thunder of the year was heard was sacred to the god Perun. Because hens begin to lay when days become longer than the nights, eggs are symbols of springtime.
BLOG LIST | powered by NetKismet
The oldest existing spring egg is from Wolin, Poland. Covered with marbled patterns, it dates from the tenth century. The Christian festival of Easter is named after the Germanic goddess of springtime, Eostre. In Celtic religion, Beltane fires sacred to the god of fire and light, Belenos; were kindled on May Day, and maypoles were put up. Midsummer was also commemorated by setting up poles and lighting fires. Harvest time was the Anglo-Saxon festival of Lammas, the Celtic La Lunasa celebrating the god Lugus. The ancestral dead were remembered in early November with festivals including the Celtic La Samhna and the Lithuanian Velines.
The Celts emerged as a powerful force in central Europe, later expanding to occupy the northwest. Acknowledging the divine in all things, their religion was influenced by Roman practices. The Druids are the best-remembered ancient priesthood of northern Europe, although they suffered from persecution by the Romans, and then the Christians. The Druids, whose name meant 'men of the oak tree' were keepers of astronomical knowledge and regulators of the calendar. They also taught the doctrine of transmigration of souls. In this belief, human souls at death enter into trees, rocks or animals, or newborn humans.
In Celtic regions under Roman rule, images and altars to Celtic deities bore inscriptions that reflected the 'interpretatio Romana'. According to this, Jugus is equated with Mercury, Taranis, the Celtic god of thunder, with Jupiter, and Teutates, god of the tribe, with Mars (god of War). Ogmios, god of strength and eloquence, was equated with Hercules. Poeninus, god of mountains, was associated with Jupiter. In common with other European traditions, the Celts acknowledged various gods of trades and crafts. Seafarers worshipped the sea-god called Manannan or Manawydden. Sucellos was god of vineyards and Rosmerta goddess of fruitfulness and financial gain.
Ásatrú
Ásatrú is an Old Norse compound derived from Ása, the genitive of Áss, which refers to the Aesir, (one of the two families of gods in Norse mythology, the other being the Vanir), and Trú, literally "troth" or "faith". Thus, Ásatrú is the "Æsir faith."
Odinism: Odin is considered to be the supreme god of late Germanic and Norse mythology. His role, like many of the Norse pantheon, is complex: he is god of both wisdom and war. He is also attributed as being a god of magic, poetry, victory, and the hunt.
Attributes of Odin are Sleipnir, an eight-legged horse, (pictured) and the severed head of Mímir, which foretold the future. Odin has a number of magical artifacts associated with him: the dwarven spear Gungnir, which never misses its target, a magical gold ring (Draupnir), from which every ninth night eight new rings appear, and two ravens Huginn and Muninn (Thought and Memory), who travel the world to acquire information at his behest. He also commands a pair of wolves named Geri and Freki, to whom he gives his food since he consumes nothing but wine. The Valknut is a symbol associated with Odin. 
The Valknut - It is also called: heart of the slain, heart of Vala, Hrungnir's heart, Odin's knot. It appears on Scandinavian image stones in connection with Odin, e.g. on the 7th century Tängelgarda stone from Gotland. The valknut is thought to symbolize the power of Odin to bind or unbind a man's mind ... so that men became helpless in battle, and he could also loosen the tensions of fear and strain by his gifts of battle-madness, intoxication, and inspiration.
The symbol of the valknut represents the interlinking of the nine worlds, and the spirit and power of Allfather that binds and pervades them all, and it is worn by those who chose to give themselves to Odin.
One Ásatrú website says: The nine lines symbolize the nine worlds of the Norse tradition. The three triangles are said to represent the three realms of existence, and the ability to travel among them. The symbol is also associated with Fate, each triangle represents the Past, Present & Future, and their influence to each other.
Shamanic traits
The goddess Freya is seen as an adept of the mysteries of seid (shamanism), a völva, and it is said that it was she who initiated Odin into its mysteries. In Lokasenna Loki abuses Odin for practicing seid, condemning it as a unmanly art. Odin was a compulsive seeker of wisdom, consumed by his passion for knowledge, to the extent that he sacrificed one of his eyes to Mimir, in exchange for a drink from the waters of wisdom in Mimir's well. Further, the creation of the runes, the Norse alphabet that was also used for divination, is attributed to Odin and is described in the Rúnatal, a section of the Havamal.
THE CREATION OF THE RUNES
Odin hanged himself from the World-tree Yggdrasil, whilst pierced by his own spear, to acquire knowledge. He remained thus for nine days and nights, then was given the Runes. (Rune tables below) Nine is a number deeply significant in Norse magical practice (there were nine realms of existence, see graph of Nine Worlds below) thereby learning nine (later eighteen) magical songs and eighteen magical runes. The purpose of this strange ritual, a god sacrificing himself to himself because there was nothing higher to sacrifice to, was to obtain mystical insight through mortification of the flesh; however, some scholars assert that the Norse believed that insight into the runes could only be truly attained in death. The Havamal (stanzas 138, 139) describes how Odin receives the runes.
The Havamal (stanzas 138, 139)
Veit ec at ec hecc vindga meiði a…
I know that I hung on a windy tree
netr allar nío,
nights all nine,
geiri vndaþr oc gefinn Oðni,
wounded with a spear and given to Odin,
sialfr sialfom mer,
myself to myself,
a þeim meiþi, er mangi veit, hvers hann af rótom renn.
on that tree of which no man knows from where its roots run.
Við hleifi mic seldo ne viþ hornigi,
No bread did they give me nor a drink from a horn,
nysta ec niþr,
downwards I peered,
nam ec vp rvnar,
I took up the runes,
opandi nam,
screaming I took them,
fell ec aptr þaðan.
then I fell back from there.
Some scholars see this scene as influenced by the story of Christ's crucifixion; and others note the similarity to the story of Buddha's enlightenment. it is in any case also influenced by shamanism, where the symbolic climbing of a "world tree" by the shaman in search of mystic knowledge is a common religious pattern. We know that sacrifices, human or otherwise, to the gods were commonly hung in or from trees, often transfixed by spears. Additionally, one of Odin's names is Ygg, and the Norse name for the World Tree – an Ash named Yggdrasil—therefore means "Ygg's (Odin's)horse". Another of Odin's names is Hangatyr, the god of the hanged.
[ TOP of page ]