Study Group First Topic

Let's start with the very foundation of germanic neopaganism.

So, what is it? Basically it is a revival of ancient Germanic beliefs, that originally sprang into being during the 19th century Romantic movement, when romantic nationalism sparked a revival of interest in traditional and ancient German culture.

The most known variants of Germanic Neopaganism are Asatru, Forn Sed/Forn Sithr, Odinism, Theodism, and the political movements Odilism and Wotanism.

So let's go over these terms, shall we?
Asatru, Forn Sed/Forn Sithr and Odinism are largely interchangeable, as the differences in belief and practice between different groups under the same classification can be greater than those between different classifications; whereas Theodism has grown to encompass a wide variety of theodic lifestyle, and would more accurately fall under neo-tribalism. All Germanic neo-paganism follows some variant of the old Norse pantheons, sometimes linked in with animism and ancestor worship.

What about belief structures?
Most forms of Germanic Neopaganism do share a few common belief structures. The biggest one is probably the refusal to condemn behaviors. Instead, the morality focuses on the nine noble virtues to be cultivated, such as honesty, pride, and honour, and leaves the choice to the individual as to how these are to guide behaviour. Neither redemption nor salvation play any role in these choices; although some Germanic neo-pagans borrow concepts of reincarnation and karmic balance from other traditions. Since pure fatalism would be counterproductive to the emphasis on personal choice, the old Germanic concept of wyrd is generally redefined to allow self-determination.

(Short? Yeah, a bit. However, this is just the beginning, future posts will be longer. What do you guys think of having homework go along with the posts? Let's give it a shot, even if it's just this one time, yeah?)

Homework assignment: In your own words, write a short paragraph about one of the variants of Germanic Neopaganism. It can be as personal or as factual as you like.

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Asatru
Many of you may know that asatru loosely means trust or faith in the Gods, I think the meaning alone is a good description. followers of asatru tend to honour the Aesir over other deities and wights, it really depends though on many factors, such as whether they take the eddas like Christians take the bible and how steadfast traditionalist they are (based on the sagas and other old texts) versus just using these things as reference. I consider myself as having a more traditional outlook, but personnel experience heavily influences my belief, for example I believe in reincarnation because I have memories of a past life.

Rokkatru

Rokkatru is a branch that focuses on honoring primal, elemental beings like the Jotuns. Abby Helasdottir originally came up with the concept and coined the term for it. This third pantheon consists of deities like Hela, Loki, Angrboda, Sigyn, Fenris, Jormundgand, Narvi and Vali, Surt, Mordgud, and Mengloth, among others.Many of these deities and jotuns are seen as a type of "underworld" or "dark" deity, but that doesn't mean that they are either bad or evil. Rokkatru is about honoring and appreciating the primal, chaotic, random, disorganized states as well as the others. It's about appreciating the role death plays as much as life.

Which Raven K. books are you dicussing from..Ive read a couple and am just curiouse..If I know maybe I can sound smarter.. LoL.. Really though just curiouse..
Deffinately a Lokean .Im reading a bit more on Rokkatru .. Being Lokean to me means I pray and honor His lineage and to not take myself too seriously and remember to enjoy this life..

While it is true that the Norse tradition was reinterpreted during the Romantic era, by such writers as Oehlenslager and Grundtvig, it was never revived because it never died.
The majority of the Norse gods did change character in the eyes of the people, though (for instance, Odinn was feared instead of worshiped; it was said that you could see him in the bogs at night, galdring the dead to rise, or he was seen leading the Wild Hunt on New Year's Eve). An exception would be Frey: Multiple sources throughout history tells of how he, amongst others, survived during the Christian oppression.

It would take too long if I were to account for the past eight centuries of worship, but let me give a brief example: To this day, the children of my country still presents offerings to the wights at Christmas.