When Heathenry Gets Political: White Supremacy and Tribal Dynamics

(Part 1)

Loki, heathenry, niding, Heathen othering, tribe, tribalism, Heathen tribe

So today is the 1st anniversary of this blog. I am going to mark it by addressing the elephant in the room. I made my first post on February 22nd last year, but this wasn’t the point of conception for it. The blog arose as an idea in my mind that was quite reactionary to the January 6th Storming of the Capital in the United States, and the ripple effect that occurred after it in the Heathen community. I gave this topic only a passing mention, and never a full blog post dedicated to it. That was very intentional. Why should I make the name of a certain questionably dressed “shaman” immortal? What deeds did he do to be worthy of living there in the collective memory? He was no hero and nor was he even Heathen. Best to forget.

Here I am 1 year later, finding myself with similar sentiments about the Freedom Convoy here in Canada. I thought about writing about it here several times, but I stayed my hand. I don’t need a reactionary post or to raise up the names of people or groups whose deeds aren’t worthy of celebrity, and again… they aren’t really Heathen. Maybe there are Heathens there at the protest (and that is fine, people have the right to protest), but the ones that are getting media attention for negatively using Heathen related names and symbols aren’t actually Heathen. People use our names and symbols because they mean different things to different people. It isn’t about religion. Humans just like using symbols.

Our symbols get used everywhere by people who are not Heathen. The runes are the obvious example, but what about the mjolnir? If someone sees my mjolnir and even has a slight clue what it means then they usually don’t ask if I am Heathen or Norse Pagan. This is a short list of the things they usually assume about me instead:

I have Icelandic ancestry
I like Marvel
I listen to metal
I like the TV series Vikings
I play various games such as God of War: Ragnarok

So as you can see, just because our symbols and our names mean one thing to us, doesn’t mean they mean the same thing to everyone. To some extent it is important to protect their significance to Heathenry under religious protections, but also… who doesn’t enjoy Odin, Thor, and Loki in Marvel, even if their mythology is completely different?

And we are a small religion. We cannot control every use of the name Odin, for example. I am also not sure that I like the name Odin for a company that does genetic engineering in the Netherlands, but we aren’t releasing statements against them, are we? We can’t police every use of the name Odin or every use of a runic symbol, even if we disagree with that usage. That isn’t up to us. That is bigger than us. It is a systemic problem that is going to take time and many people and organizations to fix, many of which that are outside of Heathenry. So on the individual or hearth level we should absolutely be calling out racism when we see it in our daily lives. On that level it makes sense. The problem is giving lip service to people and groups that thrive on free celebrity to spread their agendas.

It is important to take a step back and see that the organizations and individuals using these symbols often have nothing to do with us and focusing on them is drawing attention where it isn’t deserved. They deserve to be forgotten, not given the power of visibility in the public eye. Their names don’t deserve to be immortalized by us in statements against them, when they have nothing to do with us. It hurts us and aids them. I am not here to lift them up into notoriety, and neither are you. This is why I will not name them here.

We need to start thinking about what we do as Heathens in calling out racist groups. I don’t mean to say we shouldn’t call out racist groups at all. We should, but the focus should be on racist groups with Heathen ties specifically, not just every racist club that thought the name Odin was cool or used a rune on their logo. Don’t give them the free publicity and don’t give them the time of day. We need to focus closer to home and safe-guard what matters.

We, as a religion, have a tendency to be reactionary. We release “statements” to disassociate ourselves with questionable groups all the time. We release so many that it becomes like a constant stream of white-noise that is all talk and no action. We feel it is our duty to release these statements every time some really shaky link to a Heathen symbol or name appears in the public eye. At the end of the day though, our names and our symbols are older than us, they are older than modern Heathenry, which was born on the shoulders of white nationalist sentiments. These names and symbols will continue long after we are gone. They will be used and misused in ways we cannot even yet imagine, and they already have been since their conception. It is the same with symbols of other faiths. It is the same of secular symbols. Humanity loves symbols and the meanings of symbols do not stay constant over time.

We want to protect our names and symbols because they are important to us. We talk about individuals and groups co-opting them. But remember the roots of modern Heathenry; we must ask ourselves who is co-opting what? The symbol of the mjolnir existed long before the conception of modern Heathenry. The same can be said of the runes, but we should be careful which other symbols we say have been co-opted because some were born out of the white nationalist movement and we have no rights to them and they are beyond redemption anyways. We must also be careful with our use of runes because the modern divinary practice with runes was also born of the white nationalist movement. We need to be careful what lines we are trying to draw. Why are we trying to take back symbols that were never ours? We are confusing ourselves further with racists by not letting go of things we should never have had in the first place.

On an individual level you should definitely be calling out racism when you see it, whether in Heathenry or not. What I am more referring to here is people and organizations in Heathenry who have large platforms just filling the space with endless denunciations of groups that we really have no links to. If the individual or group has signed the Declaration of Deeds, or similar declarations that pretty much covers all of that. You don’t have to keep releasing statements to drive the point home. Instead of blowing steam, what actual actions are you taking to reduce racism in Heathenry or the world around you?

We should focus on calling out Heathens (or self-describing Norse Pagans) specifically who use these names and symbols to promote hate. Those are the ones that are hurting us in reputation already. It is our duty, to call them out for their actions, and to educate them and the public on the face of Heathenry. We are a mostly inclusive religion. Even though we may have grown out of white nationalism sentiments, there isn’t room for that now. We need to be firm in stating, not here, not in our Heathenry. It isn’t easy to spread that message in a clear, concise way, which will actually bring about that change, but that is the task that is laid before us.

Further, if we want to nip hatred in the butt within modern Heathenry we can’t just going around “punching nazis,” as initially satisfying as that may be. We don’t combat hatred with hatred. (We don’t combat hatred with tolerance either to be clear.) The way we combat hatred is with education. And the way to promote education so that it combats hatred is going to make some of you very uncomfortable. We can’t just go around pointing fingers and accusing blindly, and the reason is that behaviour is othering, and if you other someone they won’t be receptive to anything you have to say.

What I mean by educating instead of othering turned out to be so long it required a second post, so stick with me on this one, Part 2 is coming out tomorrow. This isn’t an easy conversation, but definitely it is a timely one from what I have seen going on in numerous Canadian online Heathen groups lately.

Click here to go to Part 2!

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When Heathenry Gets Political: White Supremacy and Tribal Dynamics

(Part 1)

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