r/Nordic_Paganism

I already wrote this in other communities, but by sharing it again I hope to reach more people.

I came across some pagan groups, specifically in Spain, and discovered extremely elitist environments, both religiously and politically.

In these groups, I found comments such as:

“Magic is for women.”

“Africans cannot practice our faith.”

“Only people of pure lineage can join.”

“This is a dogmatic religion based onold text and we have strict rules.”

Personally, I do not consider this a religion in the rigid sense, but a spiritual practice and belief — a path where we learn, connect, and grow. I want to share a phrase that deeply resonated with me:

“I believe in the gods, I believe in fate. If your belief is based only on texts written by monks, then you do not believe in the gods — you believe in the words of a monk.”

We are pagans. We are nature, we are spirituality. We follow the call of the gods because we believe in them and because they help us learn and understand ourselves. We are death, and we are life.

I hope this post helps someone else release their frustration and maybe connect with more open-minded people.

It’s something of a through line in comments by other pagans around reddit and other parts of the internet that if we could get something going if we just unified. Not centralized. I’m not talking about the Asatru Pope here.

Unified.

Looser confederations of groups and kindreds can probably get a lot done if we only had the kind of leadership and project management skills that would enable this.

In this unification we can set forth explicitly both inclusion of self identity and inclusion of faith in the fabric of the unity in question. We don’t have to agree how to do heathenry. We just have to agree to do heathenry together. How that looks is infinite. The sky’s the limit. As long as we negotiate between each other how we want to accomplish big goals, we can achieve anything we put our muscle behind.

As long as we agree on it.

Trying to do things on our own and disconnected from each other is how we wear ourselves out and get very little for our efforts.

I think there’s already good work being done in this space between the Asatru Community, The Troth and the Fellowship of Fire and Ice. I believe it just needs to go further. These kinds of things are like herding cats and I think that in time, we will be able to get there. We just need to be unity minded first. Once we are all on board with doing difficult things like raising hofs and getting like pagan pride events done become easier. Not easy. It’ll never be easy; but it will be easier than whatever it is we try to do on our own.

I have been feeling called to work with Loki lately but this is my first time working with a Nordic God. Also some of my family (Christian) are against me working with him BC of his reputation as a trickster. My dad said he'd kick me out if something bad happened as a result of me working with him. I DO have a place you go if worst comes to worst, but I doubt that will happen unless he just blames me for something random that happens. Idk the likelihood of that happening, he's been stressed lately. Despite all this from what I've heard I think it is best for me to start working with Loki. I've had so many signs that this is right. Sorry for rambling. I was told to come here for questions about Loki so I was wondering if anyone has advice. I've worked with the Greek and Celtic pantheons before. I've been working on an altar and have been offering him candy and a little trinket I got at work (it's like a pink, rubber moth someone got it from the capsule machine and left it behind). Last night my dad took some of his stress out on me and my mental health is really bad so I spiraled into my worst insecurities and as I was laying in bed about to cry I felt the presence of I think every God I've worked with. One was stronger than the others' and I couldn't tell if it was Loki or Aphrodite but it was one of them. Either way it was very comforting and encouraged me to use my tools instead of sitting there all sad. Sorry if this is just word vomit I just needed to get this all out of my brain. But I would really appreciate any advice anyone has

Edit: this post makes my dad look bad. We're going through a bit of a rough patch and I had to vent. He would never physically hurt me on purpose. I'm sensitive and have a tendency to spiral. I'm legally able to move out whenever but I lack the resources, skills, and mental stability. Like I have a friend in a worse family situation than me (I only have like 3 friends). My safety wasn't supposed to be the focus of the post again just had to vent and it was on my mind bc I was on my way to therapy. I might delete this and rewrite it with less focus on my dad. The worst my parents will do is like preach at me and I just brush it off and nod along. They're just trying to share their beliefs not convert me back (I think)