There Are A Few Groups Of Odinist, Who's Beliefs Differ Greatly.

What do you believe ?

There is a few question you can ask anyone who is actually an Odinist (believer or follower of the Norse / Germanic traditions, and religion,) and get heavily varied answers.

1. Are we living in Pre or Post Ragnarok times?

2. Are Odin and his sons our Ancestors?

3. Are Asgard, Midgard, and Hel, all Physical places here on earth ?

These are all things that will heavily influence the way they practice, and at the same time, none of them really matter to the average Norse Germanic Pagan. We haven't divided ourselves into denominations like the Christians and Catholics because of a few reasons. First and foremost, is that we aren't seeking political power. Second, we do not have churches with a pastor, priest, or pope, standing in front of a large group saying a whole bunch of things unrelated to the faith itself. Most pagans still practice alone, and not because that is the way it should be, or by choice. It's because we still do not have the option, to go to a local temple, or grove and pay our respects and homage the way that we see fit.

Even if we did have this soaces, there would not be some guy at the front of the room preaching at everyone at 9 am every Sunday. Instead there would be big gatherings 4 times a year that last for days, and smaller group gatherings on a few other traditional “holidays.” Some of them like Yule, can be as long as 12 days or more, while some others like Thingtide, or Allthing, can sometimes be a brief 2 - 3 days. At these gatherings, the Gothi for each tribal family group would attend with them. Each individual, and group, all get their time to pay tribute on traditions like Yule. With 12 or more days camping at the temple or grove, each person or family get a chance to offer at the effigy of Odin, Freya, etc etc.

We have never been a people that demanded a certain way of practicing, mainly because all Tribal groups even centuries ago, really did do it differently. We respected those differences then, and most Pagan folks still do today. For all of our differences in beliefs, one thing that most pagan people do tend to believe, is that we are stronger for embracing our differences. We have always been known to seek knowledge, and in doing so have learned from many different kinds of peoples, from many different beliefs. We have searched the corners of the earth that no men had ever dared to explore, all in the name of exploration and knowledge. Pagans who were patrons of Tyr, and Frey, explored and fought against Roman expansion right along side of Thor’s followers.

To see that type of tolerance and individuality come back to mainstream thought, would be an amazing transformation. It does not matter if you believe that we are living in the time of Odin, Tyr, and Thor pre-Ragnarok, or the era of Magni, Modi, Baldur, Hodr, Vidar, and Vali. We are all descendants of the divine, and deserve to live and honor traditions how they see fit.

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Thank you for Reading, and Subscribing to The Grove of Odin, we aim to give a voice to the silent millions. We write to let the 1% of Americans who identify as Pagan, know that they are not alone. We hope that someday soon, we can establish a physical place for the type of traditional gatherings that we described above. If you are interested in creating traditional spaces for Pagan folks, feel free to reach out.

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