New to Norse Paganism

I'd like to learn a bit about your tradition. First, are you in the same situation as the neo Druids? Are you having to sort of build your own traditions due to lack of information? Are you shamanic? Is your tradition Hermetic? Please share what you think is relevant.

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Most Norse pagans I have interacted with have used the Eddas as a large resource. There are actually a lot of tales which were preserved, enabling people to directly understand beliefs associated with the entities in play.

I just got done listening to some Norse mythology. Man it does not end well for your guy's gods. Does your tradition hold that there is anything you can do to improve the outcome of Ragnarok or are you pretty much stuck with it?

Ragnorok is kind of interpreted differently by different people. Some people see it as the cycles of life such as seasons life cycles etc while others look at it as more of an apocalyptic kind of thing. It depends on your beliefs but usually there’s not really a way to stop or improve ragnorok. It just kind of is what it is. As for religious practices I suppose it’s kind of both hermetic and shamanic but it varies based on people’s practices.

Thanks for your time and thoughtful comments.

Thanks for your comments.

In regard to runes, I was surprised that I didn't see some of the runes and symbols that I see associated with the Third Reich and modern White Supremacist movements. I was under the impression that these symbols were germanic and norse.

There are a lot of symbols and ideas that have been borrowed from Norse/Germanic paganism. The “sun wheel” is a prime example. The Third Reich Nazi’s developed it to become a swastika trying to capitalize on the strength of the religion of the north. That was during the 1940’s. The symbol predates that period by thousands of years. White Supremists have also tried to capitalize on the strength of the symbol along with orienting themselves to some of the ideals of the Third Reich. The unfortunate fallacy of supremacy of any race is that genetics will be the ultimate destruction of such ideas. No culture can survive with the family tree having limitation on its branches. So, the Third Reich has dissolved and so shall supremacy. The sun wheel will endure.