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How can you embrace the Asatru?
-Without the feeling of being religious?
What is the difference between Christianity and Asatru?
I don't believe that you can embrace Asatru, it's traditions and it's customs without already having it in your blood.
When we do things that we believe is right but get judged for the opposite.
Then I sense a feeling of the old ways running freely in my blood.
You can not be baptised or pay yourself into the customs of Asatru.
..It's already inside you.
I believe that everyone, not only the ones in the north, have a small piece of the nature beliefs and the thoughts about it.
Asatru is just our way of putting it into words.
The Greeks had the same faith in principle but only with a different name.
The Athenians and the Romans for example. They were different nations, both large and strong, but they had similiar believes.
When you decide that something is wrong and that you have to speak up..
Then that is an expression of our traditions, customs and believes.
The Asatru.
That isn't something that Christianity has taught us for according to Christianity we are not to speak up.
We are to do what we have been told and follow the ten commandments.
And we are to correct ourselves to them.
When you feel that it's not very smart to quit your job and interrail in Asia.
It's not smart at all.
But if you do it anyway, that is also an expression of the old ways about what we had and what were and what we are today.
I mean, the new ways and the new world that we live in with the constant thought about right or wrong.
Good or evil.
And how you are supposed to do, feel and think.
That is still very new and fresh. We havn't had it for more than a thousand years here in the north.
And the old ways hung on for a really long time.
So the ways of Christianity hasn't been alone here for even a thousand years.
If you put it in relation to what we had for 12,000 years. Before Christ came
to tell us how to live our lives and the rules to apply by.
So I think that deep down, we are all heathens.
And we belong to the same worldview.
We just have to take our time to think and feel "This I stand for and this I think about that"
"This is important, this is right and this is how it's supposed to be". To me it's obvious.
Some people have a hell of a work ethic and take incredible pride in that. Other people do not.
And that can be traced far back in time.
If you compare that to the commandments of Christianity and that you have to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
You are not allowed to work on sundays.
But that goes against our ancient custom in which you should work until you're done.
If I've said that im going to do something, that will be done.
If I've promised to reach a goal, then the goal will be reached.
Therefore, the poor fellow who works seven days a week to provide his family is in my eyes more of a heathen
than he could ever be a Christian who follows the correct ideals of how to live his life.
It lies in his nature. He doens't want to lie down and die, he doesn't want to beg for help and he doesn't want to be a burden.
..So he just works.
I believe that the most important thing is that you get the time and peace you need to think and educate yourself with the stories and facts from that time.
And a thought about the words and morals that has been written..
..Odin and Loki were in Jotunheim and whilst being there this and that happend.
Take that story just like you can take the biblican stories and try to connect it to a perspective of today.
But if you don't know anything about the stories from then, you can't relate them to the perspective of today.
With some reading and self education you might understand what you are and therefore you will feel as a heathen.
You can't accept that there's only one God. It's so unreal. It's so wrong.
He is nothing but a stranger.
The God who have set the rules with the ten commandments and have controlled the society by churches.
And the God who drove us from the beliefs of Asatru.
Everything that has happend in the last thousand years is basiclly based upon the laws of the Christian God
And the thought about us having to live for God.
If we had erased all of that today and just kept living for our own sake,
because that is basically what Asatru means, then everything would have been better.
You are not to do anything for the Gods in your everyday life, but automatically you will do it for them as you follow your own heart.
The straight opposite to the Christian God.
Because you only do something for him while your on your knees begging for something, apologizing for your sins and asking for forgivness.
You ask for permission and for strenght.
There is not many people who have the attitude to sit on their knees and beg for strength.
As a Viking, you already have it in you.
And with the right knowledge you can manage the strength to make incredible efforts.
Then you can come back to your Alter and say "I did this".
"We did this together you and I. I managed to do it and I thank you for letting me be who I am".
"Thank you for letting me understand what I understand and for letting me think as I think."
It's more of a team effort between the individual and the Gods than a solo race.
But ofcourse, in the Asatru you offer both thoughts and time, property.
Back in time even more than that were given as sacrifice to the Gods.
I believe that offering should be done. You don't feel bad for offering your last coins or your last meal.
But offerings doesn't have to be made in a religious way. You can offer for your surrounding, your family.
To someone you love or to something that is of importance.
That is appreciated by the Gods, even if it's not as appreciated as if we would have done a proper offering. But there's still a value.
It's better to sacrifice too less than too much . It's better to ask for too little than to ask for too much.
Therefore I believe that we should sacrifice, we should give.
To those who we seek guidance by, to those who seem right and to those who can administer what they recieve.
Especially something that may bring strength in some way.
Sacrifice to help for people to grow strong in themselves.
Sacrifice for people to evolve and grow strong in their minds and in their bodies.
Asatru is basically the same thing as Christianity, but the exact opposite.
..And without any punishment.
It's not about God giving you power. It's about giving it to yourself.