Who are you? Its a legitimate question, especially for a Friday afternoon with the Wolf Age in full howl around us. All to often we find ourselves questioning our purpose for being, our reason for living.....we have all these big "WHY" questions. Why am I here? Why is the world so ugly? Why can't I have tacos for breakfast? Alot of questions and not many answers.
Asatru has the answers for some of those questions(and honestly, if you want tacos for breakfast then just go for it). We have roughly a thousand years between us and our non-christian ancestors, thats a really, really long time.....this world of today is very different than the world they walked in. And yet across those many generations bits and pieces of their beliefs survived, stories were handed down, artifacts were found and preserved. Gradually all of these things coalesced into what we know as Asatru or Odinism today. Out of the remnants of a bygone era a phoenix arose, a people's culture was reawakened.....
And yet, with that reawakening have came many questions, probably more questions than answers honestly. So, we will try to answer a few questions today and see how that goes and then decide where we go from there.
Our people were originally forged from trees that had drifted ashore by Odinn and his two brothers. The first man was formed from the trunk of an Ash tree and the first woman was created from an elm tree, hence their names Ask and Embla. The Gods gave them the capacity to be self aware and to think for themselves, among other gifts. Why trees? Perhaps because our ancestors thrived in the dark forests of Europe, they were surrounded by trees and actually came to venerate those trees to a certain degree. Images were carved into giant wooden poles and placed in the ground as representations of the holy Gods. All across ancient Europe groves of trees were set aside as holy places. Even at the center of our story we have a tree.....Yggdrasill.
Yggdrasill, the cradle of all the worlds, everything in our lore resides within, or around, that mighty tree. And in many respects that tree is a good representation of who we are. Our roots sink deep into the soil of Europe, deep into the folksoul of our people. Our thoughts rise upwards to the skies, especially when we are dreaming some outlandish idea. Our arms, legs, shoulders all serve to support us and all that we are and that we do just as the branches of Yggdrasill support all manner of "things". We have the high minded nobility of Asgard within our being and we carry within us some of the animalistic instincts that reside in the jotunn realms. Our being comes up out of the roots of our ancestors just as a tree grows strong by sinking its roots deep into the earth.
So who are you? You are a son or daughter of mighty Europa! You are the culmination of 40,000+ years of people preserving your genes. You are a child of the Aesir, a descendant of the holy Gods themselves. You are tomorrow's ancestor!
I know, you're thinking woohoo, alot of fancy hoopla......Honestly though you are the result of your ancestors' love, devotion, and sacrifice. Now you are the possessor of an amazing gift. You carry within you a spark of the Divine, your blood carries a bit of Godhood within it(a gift from noble Heimdall) and that gift is truly yours to protect, to preserve, and to keep alive. It is up to you to awaken that spark in your children and to help the sleeping sons and daughters of Europa to awaken to who they are.
We are the descendants of a mighty and noble people. We were never meant to be wage slaves that trade away our connection to Nature for a few shekels. We were never meant to be so divorced from the natural realm that we won't hunt for our food, that we won't grow our food.....We were never meant to be so disconnected from our Gods that we forget who we are. That loss of connection, that loss of spirituality, is the biggest reason why our people are where they are now. We no longer feel that vibrant pulse in our blood, we have allowed an alien way to tire our soul. We have became complacent and in our complacency we have allowed all that surrounds us to become far less than what we were meant to have. Our ancestors lived hard lives, but they LIVED.......today we merely exist and hope the horribleness of the world doesn't touch upon our lives. It is time to awaken, to rise up and again be the noble people we once were.
And what of our future? Well friends that truly is up to us. It is our decision to make......Do we remain asleep, complacent with the world we are leaving for our future generations or do we open our eyes and make a conscious choice to begin reconnecting with that deeply spiritual aspect of ourselves that will stir our souls and let us again stand strong and proud?
Do we run from our responsibility or do we embrace our ancestors and our holy Gods. I know what I have chosen, what about you?
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