02/16/2025
Ásgarðsvegr
We have come to our own conclusions of what it is to be Heiðinn (Heithinn), for we walk the Norðr-vegr (North-Way), which is Ásgarðsvegr (Asgard's Way).
• We believe that we are called to our gods. To be Heiðinn is to walk with our gods and goddesses, ancestors and land-wights.
• Our beliefs are modeled on what our ancestors believed, how they believed and, as best we can, be as historically true to those beliefs as we can strive to be in this time and place.
• We honor the Nine Noble Virtues, not as our ‘commandments’ but rather as inspiration to be a complete Heiðinn.
• We are 'drengir', those who are prepared. Many of our Folk are skilled in trades and arts, all work to improve their lives and the Life of our Folk.
To this end we have three duties:
1. To share knowledge of our Gods, to teach, to instruct and encourage those who would know our gods and walk the Vegr with us.
2. To support ourselves and our Folk by some trade, gift, art, knowledge, skill.
3. To live here, now, for it is by our deeds we will be known and remembered. The next life is not for us to know, we have no control over what will be, only in what we do now. In this way we will share the fruits of this World, preserving the past, enjoying the present and building a future for ourselves, our families and our Folk.
"I walk the Norðr-vegr, I quote from the Hávamál, I recite the Volúspa, I study the Saga's, I am Warrior Born, I am the Aldaföðr's drengir, I honor my Gods, my Folk and my Family, for I am Heiðinn."
Ours are a Folk that lived in Northern Europe, the Winters were long, harsh, survival to the Spring, difficult. Still, at this time of year, called Jól by our ancestors, they found the need to gather, to feast, to sing and tell stories of the Gods, the Folk, and of the year to come. The home was decorated with the green plants, the holly and the mistletoe, and evergreens made into wreathes and garlands. Scented candles were lit, the Jól Log was burnt, all as a reminder that as this year ended a new year would begin, the Sun would return and life continue.
From our histories we gather an attitude to life which was quite different from Christian morality, but not without standards of our own. The ideal was not the 'saint' but the hero, who faced death and disaster with unconquered spirit and preferred a noble and early end to undistinguished old age, or 'straw death'. Death by violence plays a great part in the Sagas, but always as an opportunity to show a heroic spirit, meeting it with cheerfulness and unbroken will. "If a man must die," said one determined pagan, "it is best to do something first that will be held in honor for a long time." The same ideal lived on among the English long after their conversion, and it is the English poem of the Battle of Maldon which puts into the mouth of the ealdorman leading the last hopeless stand against the Danes the words "Mind must be the harder, heart the keener, courage the greater, as our strength grows less."
With this ideal in view, it is not surprising that the sagas tell a bloodstained story: but it should not be assumed from this that our ancestors spent their lives in an o**y of violence. The mass of them were farmers who worked hard and preferred a quiet life; their chief desire was to settle somewhere with enough land to live on, though they showed no scruples in their methods of getting it.
Our Gods are a reflection of this outlook and way of life. We think of our Gods like ourselves, as fighting against the evil powers of cold, darkness, and death; and they know that the fight is foredoomed in the long run to fail, and yet fight on with dauntless spirit. We, who achieve a hero's end on Earth will join the Gods in prolonging the hopeless struggle, fighting by day and feasting by night in Valhǫll until the final end.
We, the Heiðinn Folk, welcome this.
Ves heill
