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To: alt.pagan
From: an194413@anon.penet.fi
Subject: Re: Asatru FAQ Part 1 by Steve McNallen
Date: 11 Feb 1995 12:46:23 -0800

WHAT IS ASATRU?

	Long before Christianity came to northern Europe, the people 
there - our ancestors - had their own religions.  One of these was 
Asatru.  It was practiced in the lands that are today Scandinavia, 
England, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and other countries as well.  
Asatru is the original or native religious belief for the peoples who 
lived in these regions.

WHAT DOES THE WORD "ASATRU" MEAN?

	It means, roughly, "belief in the Gods" in Old Norse, the 
language of ancient Scandinavia in which so much of our source material 
was written.  Asatru is the name by which the Norsemen called their 
religion.

WHEN DID ASATRU START?

	Asatru is thousands of years old.  Its beginnings are lost in 
prehistory, but it is older than Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, or most 
other religions.  The spiritual impulses it expresses are as ancient as 
the European peoples themselves - at least 40,000 years, and perhaps much 
older.

WHY DO WE NEED ASATRU?  AREN'T MOST PEOPLE WHO WANT RELIGION SATISFIED 
WITH CHRISTIANITY OR ONE OF THE OTHER "ESTABLISHED" RELIGIONS?

	People are attracted to the better-known religions because they 
have genuine spiritual needs which must be filled.  People are looking 
for community and for answers to the "big questions":  What life is all 
about, and how we should live it.  For many people today, the so-called 
major faiths do not have answers that work.  Asatru has answers, but it has 
not been an alternative for most seekers because they haven't known about 
it.  Once they realize that there is another way - a better, more 
natural, more honorable way - they will not be satisfied with anything 
less than a return to the religion of their ancestors.

WHY IS THE RELIGION OF OUR ANCESTORS THE BEST ONE FOR US?

	Because we are more like our ancestors than we are like anyone 
else.  We inherited not only their general physical appearance, but also 
their predominant mental, emotional, and spiritual traits.  We think and 
feel more like they did;  our basic needs are most like theirs.  the 
religion which best expressed their innermost nature - Asatru - is better 
suited to us than is some other creed which started in the Middle East 
among people who are essentially different from us.  Judaism, Islam, and 
Christianity are alien religions which do not truly speak to our souls.

WHY DID ASATRU DIE OUT IF IT WAS THE RIGHT RELIGION FOR EUROPEANS?

	Asatru was subjected to a violent campaign of repression over a 
period of hundreds of years.  Countless thousands of people were 
murdered, maimed, and exiled in the process.  The common people  (your 
ancestors!)  did not give up their cherished beliefs easily.  eventually, 
the monolithic organization of the Christian church, bolstered by threats 
of economic isolation and assisted by an energetic propaganda campaign, 
triumphed over the valiant but unsophisticated tribes.
	Or so it seemed!  Despite this persecution, elements of Asatru 
continued down to our own times - often in the guise of folklore - 
proving that our own native religion appeals to our innermost beings in a 
fundamental way.  Now, a thousand years after its supposed demise, it is 
alive and growing.  Indeed, so long as there are men and women of 
European descent, it cannot really die because it springs form the soul 
of our people.  Asatru isn't just what we BELIEVE, it's what we ARE.

	... to be continued

Written by:	Steve McNallen			Posted by:	Bekkhild	
		Asatru Folk Assembly				AFA Computer
		P.O. Box 445					Guild
		Nevada City, CA 95959			with permission

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To: alt.pagan
From: an194413@anon.penet.fi
Subject: Re: Asatru FAQ Part II by Steve McNallen
Date: 11 Feb 1995 12:48:20 -0800
 
 THE ASATRU FOLK ASSEMBLY
 INTRODUCTION TO ASATRU
 
 Copyright (C) 1995 by Stephen A. McNallen
 
 Part II
 
 WASN'T THE ACCEPTANCE OF CHRISTIANITY A SIGN  OF CIVILIZATION - A STEP
 UP FROM BARBARISM?
 No!  The   atrocities  committed  by Christians,   Muslims,   and Jews
 throughout history are hardly a  step up from anything. The  so-called
 "barbarians"  who followed  Asatru (the Vikings,  the various Germanic
 tribes,  and  so  forth)  were  the source   of our  finest  civilized
 traditions - trial  by jury, parliaments, Anglo  Saxon common law, and
 the rights of women, to  name a few.   Our  very word "law" comes from
 the Norse language, not from the tongues  of the  Christian lands.  We
 simply did not and do not need Christianity to be civilized.
 
 YOU  SAY ASATRU WAS THE  RELIGION OF THE  VIKINGS,  AMONG  OTHER EARLY
 EUROPEAN CULTURES.  WEREN'T THEY A PRETTY BLOODTHIRSTY LOT?
 Modern historians agree that the Vikings were no more violent than the
 other peoples of  their  times.  Remember, the descriptions  of Viking
 raids and invasions were all written by their enemies, who were hardly
 unbiased.  Both the Islamic  and Christian  cultures used means  every
 bit as bloody, if not more so, than the Norsemen.  It was a very rough
 period in history for all concerned!
 
 WE KEEP TALKING ABOUT THE VIKINGS.  DOES THIS MEAN THAT ASATRU IS ONLY
 FOR PEOPLE OF SCANDINAVIAN ANCESTRY?
 No.  Asatru, as practiced by the Norse peoples,  had so much in common
 with the religion of the other Germanic tribes, and with their cousins
 the Celts,  that  it may be thought  of as one   version of  a general
 European religion.  Asatru is for all European peoples, whether or not
 their heritage is specifically Scandinavian.
 
 WHAT ARE THE BASIC BELIEFS OF ASATRU?
 We believe in  an underlying, all-pervading divine  energy or  essence
 which is generally hidden  from us, and which is  beyond our immediate
 understanding.   We  further  believe that  this spiritual  reality is
 interdependent with us - that we affect it, and it affects us.
 
 We believe that this underlying divinity expresses itself to us in the
 forms of the Gods and Goddesses.  Stories about these deities are like
 a sort of  code, the mysterious "language" through  which  the  divine
 reality speaks to us.
 
 We believe in  standards of  behavior which  are consistent with these
 spiritual truths and harmonious with our deepest being.
 
 HOW DOES ASATRU DIFFER FROM OTHER RELIGIONS?
 Asatru is unlike the  better-known  religions in many  ways.   Some of
 these are:
 
 We are polytheistic.  That is,  we  believe  in  a number of  deities,
 including Goddesses as well  as  Gods. We  do  not accept the idea  of
 "original   sin", the  notion that   we are  tainted from  birth   and
 intrinsically  bad, as does   Christianity.   Thus,  we do    not need
 "saving".
 
 The Middle Eastern religions teach either a  hatred of other religions
 or a duty to convert others, often by force. They have often practiced
 these beliefs with cruel brutality.
 
 We do not  claim to be a  universal religion  or  a faith  for  all of
 humankind.  In   fact, we don't  think  such  a thing is  possible  or
 desirable.  The different branches of humanity have  different ways of
 looking at the  world, each of which  is valid for  them.   It is only
 right that they have different religions, which of course they do.
 
 DO YOU CONSIDER THE NORSE MYTHS  TO BE TRUE?
 The myths are  stories about  the Gods and  Goddesses of Asatru.  They
 are  ways of  stating  religious truths.   That  is, we would say they
 contain truths about the nature  of divinity, our  own nature, and the
 relationship between  the two.  We  do not contend that the  myths are
 literally true, as history.
 
 WHAT ABOUT THESE GODS AND GODDESSES?  ARE THEY REAL?
 Yes, they are  real.  However,  just as most  Christians  do not think
 their God is really an old bearded figure sitting on a golden chair in
 heaven, we do  not believe Thor  (for example) is actually a muscular,
 man-shaped entity carrying a big hammer.  There is a real Thor, but we
 approach an understanding  of  him   through  this   particular mental
 picture.
 
 DO FOLLOWERS OF ASATRU PRAY TO THEIR GODS AND GODDESSES?
 Yes, but  not quite the  way most people  mean by the  word.  We never
 surrender our will to theirs or  humble ourselves before them, because
 we see ourselves as their kin, not as inferior, submissive pawns.  Nor
 do  we beg  and  plead.   We commune  with  them and  honor them while
 seeking their blessing  through formal rites and informal  meditation.
 Living a full and virtuous live is  a form of  prayer in itself.   Our
 religion affects all parts of our lives, not just those fragments that
 we choose to call "religious".
 
 DON'T YOU WORSHIP STONES AND TREES AND IDOLS?
 No.  These  objects are not  Gods,  so we don't  worship them.   We do
 sometimes use  these items as reminders of  a God  or Goddess,  and we
 believe they can become "charged" with a certain aspect  of the divine
 energy, but we would never confuse them with the actual deity!
 
 To be continued ...
 
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 For more information, contact:
 					Posted by Bekkhild Ellsworth
 The Asatru Folk Assembly		an194413@anon.penet.fi
 P.O. Box 445				
 Nevada City, CA 95959			- with permission

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To: alt.religion.asatru
From: an194413@anon.penet.fi
Subject: Asatru FAQ Part III by Steve McNallen
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 1995 20:30:30 UTC

		Asatru Folk Assembly FAQ:  Part III


copyright (c) 1995 by Stephen A. McNallen

WHAT ARE THE STANDARDS OF BEHAVIOR TAUGHT IN ASATRU?
Some of the qualities  we hold in high  regard are  strength, courage,
joy, honor, freedom, loyalty to kin, realism,  vigor, and the revering
of our ancestors.  To express  these things in our lives  is virtuous,
and  we  strive to do  this.  Their  opposites  - weakness, cowardice,
adherence to dogma rather than to the realities of  the world, and the
like - constitute vices  and are  to be  avoided.  Proper  behavior in
Asatru  consists  of  maximizing  one's  virtues and  minimizing one's
vices.  This code  of  conduct  reflects the  highest and  most heroic
ideals of our people.

DON'T ALL RELIGIONS BELIEVE IN THESE THINGS YOU'VE JUST NAMED?
No. People may honestly believe that this is the case, but examination
does not bear this out.  They believe in freedom, yet their scriptures
say they are slaves to their God.  They accept  that joy is  good, but
their teachings  laden  them  with guilt    because of some  imaginary
"original sin".  Their instinct is  to understand Nature's  world from
verifiable evidence, yet they are  trained to believe black  is white,
round is flat, and  natural  instincts are evil without question  when
the teachings   of their church  conflict with  reason or with   known
facts.

Many of us instinctively believe in  the values of Asatru because they
have been passed down  to us from our  ancestors.   We want to believe
that other religions espouse those values, so we  see what  we want to
see.  Most people just  haven't yet realized  that the major religions
are saying things that conflict with the  values we know in our hearts
are right.   To find northern European  virtues, one should look where
those virtues have their natural home - Asatru.

WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT GOOD AND EVIL?
Good and evil are not constants.  What is good in one case will not be
good in another, and evil in one circumstance will not be evil under a
different set of conditions.  In any one instance, the right course of
action will  have been shaped  by the   influence of the past  and the
present.  The result may or may not be "good"  or "evil",  but it will
still be the right action.

In no case are good and evil dictated to us by the edicts of an alien,
authoritarian deity, as in the  Middle East.  We are  expected  to use
our freedom,  responsibility,  and  awareness  of  duty  to serve  the
highest and best ends.

WHAT DOES ASATRU  TEACH ABOUT AN  AFTERLIFE?
We believe that there  is an afterlife, and that  those who have lived
virtuous lives will go on to experience greater fulfillment, pleasure,
and  challenge.  Those who have  led  lives characterized more by vice
than by virtue will be  separated from  kin and doomed to an existence
of dullness and gloom.  The precise nature of the  afterlife - what it
will look  like  and feel  like - is  beyond our  understanding and is
dealt with symbolically in the myths.

There is also a tradition in Asatru of rebirth within the family line.
Perhaps the individual is able to choose whether  or not  he or she is
re-manifested in this world, or there may be natural laws which govern
this.  In a sense, of course, we all live on  in our descendents quite
apart from an afterlife as such.

We of Asatru do not overly concern  ourselves with the  next life.  We
live here and now, in this  life.  If we do this  and do  it well, the
next life will take care of itself.

DOES ASATRU INVOLVE ANCESTOR WORSHIP?
Asatru says we should honor our ancestors.  It also says we are bonded
to those ancestors in  a special  way.   However,  we do  not actually
worship them.

We believe our forebears have passed to us certain spiritual qualities
just as surely  as they have given us  various  physical traits.  They
live on in us.  The family or clan is above  and beyond the  limits of
time and place.  Thus we have a reverence for our ancestry even though
we do not involve ourselves in ancestor worship as such.

DOES ASATRU HAVE A HOLY BOOK, LIKE THE BIBLE?
No.  There  are written sources which   are useful to us  because they
contain much of our sacred lore in the  form of  myths and examples of
right conduct, but  we do not  accept  them as infallible  or inspired
documents.  Any  religion  which  does this is  deceiving  its members
about the purity  and precision   of the  written word.   The  various
competing  factions of Middle Eastern   religions are  proof  of this.
Their conflicting interpretations can not all be correct!

There are two real sources of holy truth, and neither expresses itself
to  us  in  words.  One  is   the universe  around  us,  which  is   a
manifestation of  the underlying   divine essence.   The other  is the
universe  within us, passed   down  from our  ancestors  as  instinct,
emotion, innate predispositions, and perhaps even racial  memory.   By
combining  these  sources of internal and   external  wisdom  with the
literature left  us by our ancestors, we   arrive at religious truths.
This  living  spiritual guidance   is better than  any dusty, dogmatic
"holy book", whose writings are often so  ambiguous that even clerical
scholars disagree and  whose interpretations  change with the politics
of the times.
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For more information write to:		posted by: Bekkhild
						   AFA Computer Guild
	Asatru Folk Assembly
	P.O. Box 445				by permission	
	Neveda City, CA 95959

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