ASATRU AND NATURE

When my cowriters launched this subject, my initial thought was that I had never thought about Asatru in that manner. Yet, as I started thinking about the subject I realised that I had never explicitely thought about Asatru in that manner because the link between both is so tight that they cannot be seen as separate at all.

Asatru is, as far as its origins are concerned, what we call a nature religion. Natural elementse are worshipped, the sun, the moon, thunder etc. Yet, in the viking mythology als it is known to us, they are never worshipped as such, it is deities that wield tools thus creating the natural elements.
However, if we take a look at the brone age rock art in Scandinavia, is is clear that at least in the Bronze age Asatru started out as a worship of nature. I know that I am now on thin Ice, as the continuance of relegion fro bronae age into the iran age is a much disputed issue, nevertheless personally, I firmly believe that Asatru is an evolving religion whose origins go back 3000 years. As our Nordic/Germanic ancestors evolved culturally, the nature of the cult also changed. It didn’t change abruptly. Changes came slowly, but the inevitable result was that in the end the God’s became more and more individuals and less and less representatives of natural phenomenon.
To me a very important evolution must have come about through contact with the Roman empire. Caesar said the Germans worshipped elements of nature, had no temples, no statue, etc. Although his observations may have been imperfect and/or intended to put the Germanic people’s down as Barbarians, we can assume that to any Roman, used to personalised Gods, the cult in the Northern woods must have been something weird, something almost from another world.

Merely a hundred years later Tacitus, raccounts of some kind of procession in honour of Nerthus, where a statue of the Godess seems to have been ridden around in a cart. We kan assume, this statue must have been comparable to the Broddenbjerg statues.A very basic representation, a reworked natural fork, rudimentary shaped, but perhaps clothed.

In archeology, it isn’t untill the Roman occupation of the southern Germanic areas that we encounter altars and physical repesentations in stone of the God’s. These clearly are inspired by the Roman examples ( Nehalennia, Sandaraudiga, the matrones, …) It is even later that we encounter, coins with the representation of Odin and Guldgubbar, we have to wait until the 6th and 7the centuries.

These representations are an new phase in the religious views of our ancestors. The romans needed masses of soldiers and engaged northernGermanic tribesmen, In Rome at a certain time the entire bodyguard of calligula was constituted of blond lions. After their years of service many of these men would have returned home, their minds inevitably imprinted by the ideas of the romans, including the religious views of the Romans. No doubt the Mithras cult also had its influence, since it was very popular amongh the legionairs. The semitic link many researchers claim to find in the Norse religionmight come from these contaxts, Balder as the light God might find his origins partly into the Mythraic mythology.

Thus the Germanic religion lost a lot of its natural connexions, and in stead of the direct worship of the sun, our ancestors stated to worship the god that wielded the light of the sun. It is no coincidence that at about the same time Odin starts his rise to power.

Yet the natural connexion was never entirely lost. This is not hard to understand if we imagine the return home of a germanic auxiliary, aftter having served many years in the Roman capital. He would come home to his village. He was no doubt a member of the higher casts. He starts talking about the new religion th has dicovered, the great statues that he worshipped. His countrymen listen to his stories with growing interest, yet not everything he explains is comprejhensible to them. The new idea’s are instantaniously being wattered down in order to fit the mythology of the masses. Worship still takes place where it dit before, the elements that are being worshipped temain the same Only now a god drives the sum chariot, whereas before the son drove it herselve.

In the end the religion doesn’t change much, the philosofy behind it remains the same..

In present day asatru it is however this nature link that is very attratice to many young people. The fact that the religion refers to actual, observable phaenomena, the fact that worship takes place in the open nature, attract many eco oriented modern westernes. They reject the Roman inspired worldview of christiany. A world view they consider oldfashioned and now longer maintainable due to scientific progress. This is the strenght og many neopagan movements. Thay are not oriented upon salvation after death, they seek to explain men’s place in the kosmos, in life as wel as in the afterlife. Wheras Christiany and other semitic religions focu on th afterlife, neopaganism focusses on the present. Whereas semitic religions focus on salvation , modern youth doesn’t need salvation. We have everything we need already in life, why hope for a better life after death? We need an explanation og the why of our existance, not a promise of a better life hereafter.
We also reject the conflict between humanity and nature. Contrary to our parents and grandparents, creation isn’t something that has been created for mankind to control. Mankind is now merely a part of creation, Science has convinced us of the fact that we are merely animals amongh other animals. We finaly understand that we are only part of nature, not its masters.
This is why neopaganisme is triving in North western Europe. We are the best educatd generations ever. We understand the inportance of maintaining the natural balance. Christianity and Islam still haven’t adapted their teaching, and as suh we can no longer acceopt their teachings as the truth.
These is however a major difference between Asatru and the other neopagan religions, such as wicca. Although we considere the bond with nature as something essential, we also worship gods that manipulate nature. Wicca for example worshippes the earth mother. Yet it is a quite soulless entity, the fruitbaering earth, it has no real personallity. And what do we do with the other planets. Neo-asatru and its religious brothers in Slavic and other mythologies still claim gods created nature in one way or the other. The level of explanation has come to a different level, allowing us to incorporate fute developments in science and knowledge into our religion. As such, Asatru combines the best of both worlds. We worship personal gods, trepresentative of the cultural aspect of life, and these Gods manipulate nature, thus maintaining the naturalistic nature of our religion.

Pieter, October 2015.