Why Reconstruct?

[EyeofOdin]

As a Teutonic Heathen, I get the following question a lot:

"why revive a dead religion in the past?"

There are actually many answers to that question. I however prefer to choose this particular one: The Western World is ignorant.

In an age of "everyday" knowledge and technology, which anywhere else in human history would be compared to witchcraft or only attributed to the mightiest of gods; in such and age of knowledge, education and intelligence, we are all so blind to what's right in front of our noses.

We, Westerners, pride ourselves as being the most multicultural, progressive and accepting of all nations, tribes and creeds, and the "white" population should consider itself lucky to exist in their "utopia" considering that it was "the white man" who screwed up the world in the first place.

The truth is that we all bear the scars of colonialism, at least those descended from Europe, The Mediterranean and The Americas. To the Northern Europeans, it came in the form of Christianity, which proved itself to be a nasty offspring of monotheism and colonialism, being more destructive than either of its parent ideologies.

Yes, I'm well aware that the bitterness from Native Americans to Teutonic Europeans was well earned, however I will attest until I meet Hel that the horror and genocide against the Natives couldn't have happened if it didn't at first happen to us.

Like the other targets of colonialism, we too were given the choice of conversion or death. We too were forced to turn away from our native language, culture and religion; renounce our "heretic" ancestors; adopt Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as our forefathers; kicked into kneeling before the attested Father Yahweh, Christ Messiah and this Divine Ghost.

What I feel is the most urgent cultural issue right now is the fact that the "white" Christians are standing in their service, raising their hands in praise before the cross, so ignorant to the fact that, while yes there is blood on it, it's not the blood of the Middle Eastern Messiah, it's the blood of their kings and ancestors. I know so many peoples who aren't aware of the fact that Christianity isn't indigenous to Northern Europe. The "White" Christians aren't even aware that they're a mockery, the poor suckers who drank the Kool-Aid., and that they used to have their own culture, tribal worldview and exotic language, but then The Roman Church came.

I'm not trying to say that ALL Christians are bad (although I will admit, I do think that Christianity is very dangerous), that's not my message here at all. Northern Europeans have the right to know that the same people they love and adore were the ones who slaughtered their villages and raped their wives. They disserve to know that the cross represents countless of dead Saxons, Scandinavians and Goths. They disserve to know that they're heritage isn't in Israel like they've been brainwashed to believe, but that they are Suebians, Anglos, Vikings, etc. And they have the right to know exactly why Woden and Thunor don't have grand temples in Europe anymore. I'll give you a hint: it wasn't because of the good tidings after Jesus was resurrected.

And that's where Heathenry comes in. Heathenry is what will give these cultureless people the option to have their identity, heritage and ancestors back. If they want to go back to their ways or not, they at least need to know what they signed up for by walking into church. That's what I hope heathenry will do. It will take people who are black, white, or red and turn them into African, European, and Native American peoples with indigenous and tribal heritage.

Polytheistic Reconstructionism is about reclaiming the land for the land, and reclaiming ourselves for our ancestors. Let the world reclaim the land as a holy land ridden of monotheism, colonialism and all their cultural vices, and please, let's not screw up another 2,000 years.

 

[Jainarayan]

Epic win in the o.p. I scarcely know where to begin. All societies conquer and/or are conquered. When a culture is rediscovered I think it's a wonderful thing that it is revived either by its displaced, disenfranchised descendants, or by unrelated people who revere that culture.

Native Amercans of north, south and central America are to be applauded for holding onto, however tenuously, what is left of their cultures. I understand that the remnants of some cultures chafe at their cultures being co- opted by "outsiders", but I think that's a wrong view IF adoption of the culture is done out of and with respect and honor.

Clearly this is only my view and I would expect some disagreement.

 

[HekaMa'atRa]

Nice post. I partake in my reconstructionist religion because A) The Netjeru (Gods) of Kemet (Egypt) came to me and drew me in since I was a child. I have no connection (to my knowledge) to Egypt nationally, ethnically, or ancestrally - and secondly B) I realize the injustices that occurred to these ancient religions and practitioners as they had their temples forcibly closed, their statues smashed, and religion outlawed. I often daydream on what our world would be like today had the Roman Emperors not converted to Christianity and outlawed Paganism.

 

[Riverwolf]

...well, to be perfectly fair, the Northern Europeans didn't have to deal with an apocalypse-level plague before being colonized (the smallpox plague we brought wiped out over 90% of the Native American population; makes the Black Death look like the annual flu), and the Saxons did some pretty horrible things to the native Britannians, as well. (Saxon invaders would often raid villages and kill all the men and rape all the women. The modern figure of King Arthur got his foundations laid in that time, as the Britannian/modern-day Welsh Hero who, even if only for a little while, halted the Saxon invasion.) I also do feel the need to remind everyone here that the Normons were a Germanic Tribe, descended from Vikings and Old-French-speaking Franks (to make a long story short), and that other Germanic Tribes willingly and quickly converted to Christianity, even if a form that's barely existent today (Arianism), with little, if any, influence from Rome.

However, I do believe in the spirit of the op, even if I disagree with some of the letters. All ancestries are worthy of pride from their decedents, with all the good and ill that they did. My ancestors were both Slaver and Slave, Norman and Saxon, Viking and Monk. While I prefer to focus on cultural ancestry and not on genes (having Viking ancestry isn't terribly special; virtually everyone from Northern Europe and many beyond are likely to have it), I still do it with the same intention: to reclaim and make reborn our native way.

My method for doing that is primarily by not being a slave to the past, but by using the past as a tool and template to create anew. (Hence the threads I've created on that.) I'm even working on a new language I call West Vinlandic (or as I currently call it in itself: West Winlændisc), which is going to be effectively a structured hybrid of Anglo-Saxon (its current pre-prototype form being mostly from Beowulf and whatever grammar charts and dictionaries I can find online), elements of Modern English, and elements from Anglish. I'm hopefully going to use this language to write poetry, retell many of the Old Stories, and use it as a rendition of a series of pseudo-fantasy stories involving a group of fictional tribes that are based on what I imagine the Celto-Germanic tribes might have been like. (I'll also eventually be making a game about learning languages that will include West Vinlandic, as well as other constructed languages I come up with.)

I do this to make new of old, and fresh of familiar. The works of J.R.R. Tolkien and Gary Gygax have helped lay the foundations, and have as of late been reinforced by Skyrim and Marvel's Thor. But the Lore of Middle Earth still carries heavy Christian undertones, and D&D has the paint but lacks much of the spirit. Marvel's Thor gets much of the Lore wrong, and Skyrim... has horned helmets. (Those who know me know that that's a new button of mine: if you want me to yell "WRONG" like Lex Luthor in Superman Returns, just show me a picture of horned-helmeted Vikings or Viking analogues.) But the spirit is there, again. We don't have to, and in fact shouldn't, become warlike again, because that's not appropriate in a modern context. But while I don't don any armor nor wear a sword nor hope for glorious death in combat to go to Valhalla, I fight. I won't go to Valhalla, because the type of fighting I'm doing will be of no use to Woden when Ragnarok comes, but I fight nonetheless. I fight aspects of myself which are harmful, and I am gathering my armaments and training with them (metaphorically speaking, which I specify to reassure any who, like me, have alarmist tendencies that I'm not actually going to engage in any actual violence) to fight to let the Voice of the Old Way echo once again. I will never ask that anyone follow the Old Way; I will just let people know with a loud Fus Ro Dah that the Old Way is back and here to stay.

And we stand tall, Sons of the Snow;
We will not fall under these blows,
For our hearts they are hardy,
Our spirits are strong,
And our voices are lifted into
This Sovengard Song!
-Miracle of Sound, Sovengard Song (Skryim fan-tribute song)
(If you haven't played Skyrim, long story short, Sovengard is basically Asgard.)