Hearthside

So you may have heard of the terms universalism, tribalism, and folkism in heathenry. A lot of people don’t like them as labels, and that is fine. I do think they have value though, in trying to convey complex ideologies, so bear with me. Universalists believe that anyone can practice heathenry and usually in any way they think is right, while the folkish belief is that heathenry is an ethnic religion with traditions that shouldn’t be appropriated by other groups. Now, obviously folkism is very clearly a not so polished veneer for white supremacist and bigoted ideologies, but universalism is also not without its problems. The problems are not so much that anyone can practice, but that if anyone can practice any way that they want that it waters down practice until it loses its meaning and value.  Tribalism is often presented as the middle point, but that is an oversimplification. Tribalists believe that you are only heathen if you group practice or are oathed into a heathen communi...

There are a lot of complex issues when talking about children in heathenry in general, and ritual is definitely going to be a main area of contention. Understanding the political landscape of heathenry is key to navigating this. There are several dynamics taking place that make this such a hot topic.  First of all, we cannot escape the folkish element of heathenry and their push to breed to expand heathenry. This seems to cause pushback in inclusive heathenry, where people and groups are hesitant to entertain family friendly ritual at all for fear of being lumped into a folkish category. This is highly problematic, since most religions are inclusive to families. This leads right into our next issue. The religious backgrounds of most of the heathen demographic have shaped their perceptions of family and religion. Many heathens grew up in a landscape where religion was forced upon them, and are hesitant to allow that to happen to the next generation. There are also some concerns that...

There is a lot of bad advice on the internet, and most women are well aware that everyone has an opinion on child-rearing. This does not seem to exclude sites on heathenry unfortunately. If you look for information on raising heathen children on the internet, you are sure to be disappointed. First of all you have to weed through all the instances where the word “heathen” is used in a different context from what you strictly meant. Perhaps, you choose to go the raising pagan children route instead, to see if that improves the content that comes up. You will soon see you are just replacing one unsatisfying result with another. If you do manage to sift through all the stuff that presents very clearly as garbage you still will not like what you find. We are really still at the building stage here with heathenry, and sometimes we just have to bite the bullet and write the rule book ourselves. If heathen women want information about heathenry and child raising, we really need to share our st...