My World View – Concentric Circles

For the new year I thought that I’d share my religious world view with all of you.  I’m going to start with the importance I place on people/needs/etc.  The basic idea behind this is that those that are closer to me are more important that those I don’t know, or don’t know very well.  Think of this as a series of concentric circles (hence the title) radiating outward.  The further from the center, the less importance I place on it.  Here’s my breakdown:

1.       Kith & Kin – These are my family (Kin), regardless of what number/removed they are from me.  Be they blood relations or married relations, these are my family and the most important people in my life.  Also on this level are my Kith, those friends of mine that are as close as if they were my family.

2.       Tribe/Kindred – People here are tied to me through Oaths and share a common connection to the Gods and wights.  Currently I am not part of any group like this, but I was and I hope to be again in the future.

3.       Friends – People who I know and trust, but are not as close as Kith.  Most people here I have known for years, but some can get here pretty quick.

4.       Community – People that work and live in my town.  Neighbors are very important to me, since we have to live near one another, so I make it a point to help out when I can.

Now we’re getting into bigger geographical subsets, and I’m going to be specific to New Jersey, since that’s where I live and it’s what I know.  I’m sure there are breakdowns like this where you live.

5.       County – The needs of the people in my county are definitely more important to me that those of another county, and that’s because it affects my family and community more.

6.       State – The great state of New Jersey, for all its flaws, is where I choose to live and it’s more important to me than the other states in the Union.

7.       Region – The North East isn’t just a collection of states, it’s also intertwined via roads, power grids, economy, etc, and I’m a part of that.

8.       Country – As it says on the sub-title to this page, I believe that the United States is the greatest country in the world, and it definitely has my loyalty over any other.

9.       Continent – North America is my home, and the fate of Canada, Mexico and all the rest will eventually trickle down to the US.

10.   Planet – Do I really need to say more?

Since we don’t have any proof of anything beyond out little ball of blue and green, I’m going to stop here.  Needless to say, Earth trumps Mars when we finally get to colonization.

If you look at this list, it probably makes sense to you, but then it might not.  I know that my wife has a bit of a hard time with it, since she keeps trying to tell me which celebrity is getting divorces or having a baby or whatever.  Sorry, but that’s down at #8 (if it makes the list at all), which means I have much more important things to worry about.  This is also why I shoveled a parking spot for my neighbors after the most recent snow storm.  They weren’t home and were going to need a place to park when they did get home.  I didn’t do it for any reward or even a thank you, it’s that they’re part of my community (and elderly) and I was out there anyway.

Next time I’ll go into my views on the interactions between mortals and the rest of the universe.

I'm Doing It Wrong

Not something you hear too often is it?  Someone telling you that they are knowingly doing something incorrectly.  Still, I am practicing being a Heathen the wrong way.  At least, wrong in how I believe it should be practiced.  You see, I am a solitary Heathen.  True my wife and daughter are there for the rites, but my wife is a Protestant and my daughter is too young to know what she wants to be, so I am, technically, the only Heathen in my household.  While that's not unusual, I do think that it is the wrong way to do it.

The Heathen religion, in my opinion, is meant to be practiced as part of a group.  The main reason that I feel this way is the way I was brought into the religion, which is through a Theod, or Tribe, where the Gods are approached as a group, while the Wights and Ancestors are approached on a family basis.  That just makes sense to me.  The Gods are a bit on the busy side, what with trying to forestall Ragnarok and all, and they really don't have time to deal with individuals.

"So why don't you just join a group?" you ask.  Well, that's complex.  You see, the group I was a part of dissolved and the main person that got me into it is in another group.  However, that group is located a bit far out of my comfort zone as far as travel goes.  I my view, any group that I am a part of would be convenient for my family, and not require special preparations for average get togethers.  As far as a new group goes, I haven't been out to discover is there are any Theods in my area, and if there are then there's the whole joining process that I would have to go through again.  Nothing bad, mind you, but I'm getting close to 40 and I don't know if I want to do that at this point in my life.

So, until something happens to make it change, I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing, even if it's wrong, because it's better than not doing anything.

The True Meaning of Brotherhood

As most of you know, I’m a native and current resident of the great state of New Jersey.  As such, I was among those affected by Hurricane Sandy, to the point where our residence was rendered unlivable.  We’re all fine and now have a new place to live (thanks to my wife annoying the heck out of the real estate agent who was assigned to work with us), so there’s no reason to go into that.

What I would like to talk about, however, is the 3 weeks that we were without a home of our own.  My wife, 4 year-old daughter and I (the dog was being boarded) descended upon the Philadelphia apartment of my good friend and Fraternity Brother, Kurt.  For three weeks he not only put up with us invading his single life, but cooked us dinner and helped with the clean-up/recovery at our old place.  There aren’t many people in this world that are anywhere near as generous or patient as Kurt, who treated us like family.

Many people accuse those that join fraternities as trying to buy friends, or the like.  But when you have someone that offers you a place of stability in an extremely chaotic situation, you see just what kind of people you have joined up with.  Kurt and I took an oath (at different times, mind you) to treat all members of Triangle as brothers.  As a Heathen, I take oaths very seriously and I have to say, Kurt has upheld his in spades.

So I want to take this opportunity to publicly thank him and salute him for being a pillar of brotherhood and a man of unimpeachable character.  Wassail, Kurt!

Commitment

A lot can be said about making a commitment and seeing it through.  Still more can be said about thinking about the impact said commitment will have on your life.  It is always easy to say that something is "forever" but making it that way is never easy.  Sometimes we fight the good fight against overwhelming odds ... and we lose.  There is no shame in this, but ir does beg the question, do you get up and continue to fight for a lost cause or take all that energy amd fight for something else?  We each have to answer that for ourselves, but I say that fighting for your goal will make you a better person, even if that goal changes from time to time.  Know that you ha e friends to lean on in the struggle and to pick you up when you falter.  Such is the Heathen way.

Why I’m a Heathen

Well the obvious explanation is that Christianity never worked for me.  It was a combination of factors, really.  Firstly, we were never much of a church going family, due to various issues that will not be related here, so the only regular contact I had with the religion was though CCD.  For those not in the know, this was a class for Catholic children where we were taught, supposedly, about the faith and what we were supposed to do.  We had to take these classes in order to have our First Communion and Confirmation.  It really wasn’t a fun thing for me to do and, as I got older, it was downright annoying, especially when I would ask questions and be told that I just had to believe.  Still, this is what my parents’ wanted so I did it.  I managed to make it all the way to Confirmation (which is a regret I have as a non-believer today) and I never went back.  Secondly, I never liked the fact that anyone, no matter how atrocious a person, could say that they were sorry for what they’d done in their life and be completely forgiven.  “Let’s see here.  Vlad the Impaler.  Well, it looks like you repented on your death bed.  Welcome to Heaven.”  Sorry, that just doesn’t work for me.

Around the later part of High School I decided that I was an atheist.  There just wasn’t some big, bearded father-figure out there worried about this, and only this, planet and had the ability to be everywhere, see everything and control the universe.  Besides, the Holy Trinity being three distinct beings, who can have a conversation, but all the same being is a little too out there for me.  This decision didn’t help me with trying to get my Eagle Scout rank, since one of the tenants of the Scout Law is that a Scout is Reverent.  Through a long drawn out process, the board finally decided that I was reverent enough and gave it to me.

So I get into college and, being an engineering student, I’m not all that free to think of philosophy.  That would probably be why I was required to take a philosophy course.  An entire course centered on ideas that all depended on if God existed.  Needless to say, I was not a fan.  I argued with the professor over just about every item, which resulted in an A in the course, and never took another class like that.  Still, I think it allowed me to look into areas that I wouldn’t have before.  I took a few classes in Roman history and culture, which were quite fascinating, and rediscovered the Hellenistic Gods.  Something still wasn’t right, though, as they were nearly all-powerful beings that didn’t have any kind of consequences.

Being the kind of guy I am, a geek, I briefly flirted with the Jedi way, but that wasn’t a very good fit either.  It was just a little too made-up, if you catch my drift.  However, being that most of the Jedi stuff was online, it caused me to look at other things like that.  Eventually, many years after graduating, I stumbled across Bil Linzie's website and started reading about modern reconstructionists worshiping the Norse Gods.  It was light a flashbulb went off in my head.  This fit.  This made sense.  Not only was I a huge fan of the Thor comic book (like you didn’t already know that) but I had read the Eddas and enjoyed them.  Here was a set of deities that 1) could be killed, either through use of weapons or old age, and 2) weren’t just sitting in their halls but actively fighting to prevent the end of all things.  Call it Ragnarock, Entropy, what-have-you, they were doing their damnedest to stave it off for as long as possible.  Now that’s a group of gods I can get behind.

In conjunction with that, because these Gods are busy doing stuff, they don’t have a chance to have a personal interaction with each and every person in Midgard*, so we have to get by on our own.  However, we can get in their good graces by making sacrifices (essentially giving them gifts), which, in the Norse worldview, means that they need to return the favor.  This Gift Cycle links Mortals and Gods in a mutually beneficial relationship.  I normally only approach the Gods for the big stuff, and leave them alone for normal day-to-day items.  Add this to the fact that a person’s destination in the afterlife is dependent on their life as a whole, and I’m all for it.

Obviously, religious belief isn’t for everyone, and there’s no such thing as a one size fits all religion, but I thought that I would give you, my readers, some insight into why I made the choices I have.  Also, being a polytheist, I know that I don’t have a corner on the Truth, so I’m not going to try and convert anyone, but if any of you have questions about my religion, please feel free to ask.

* Here I’m using Midgard to mean the dimension (or universe) that contains Earth.  Maybe it’s my exposure to the comics, but I’m not one to think that the Cloud Kingdoms exist immediately above us.  Therefore, Asgard, Midgard, Hel, Jotenheim, et al exist each in their own dimension, with certain portals, such as Bifrost, able to bridge the dimensions.  Of course, that make the Midgard Serpent absolutely ginormous, which I don’t like to dwell on too long.