Why Asatru/Odinism?

So why Asatru/Odinism, good question. First you need to know a little about me.

I was brought up in a religious family. We went to church every Sunday, I went to Sunday school, vacation bible study, even taught a class for developmentally disabled children at the church. My father comes from a long line of baptist ministers. His grandfather, ggrandfather, uncle, etc.. all men of the cloth. In fact our family has founded churches from Virgina all the way to Texas and everywhere in between. My mother’s side is devote catholic, Russian/Polish immigrants. So I am pretty well versed in the Christian teachings and I knew from a young age that they didn’t seem quite right to me. I tended to ignore the things that I didn’t agree with, you know what right did I have to question god? I have also had a few spiritual things happen to me that I couldn’t quite explain. One happened to me when I was quite young. I was swimming at a public beach and decided to swim out past the safety markers. I was a good swimmer and was curious like most young boys. I swam way out past everyone, it was kind of cool seeing everyone so far away. Well, I overestimated my energy and soon couldn’t swim. It was at this point I also realized I couldn’t touch the bottom. I had started drowning. Just as I figured it was all over I saw a hand come through the murky water and grab me by the shoulder. It pulled me like I was a water skier just below the surface and then let go. When I righted myself I realized I could touch the bottom with my toes just enough to get my head above water. It was at that point I realized I was within the safety area right next to the rope but hundreds of feet from anybody. The closest people were a bunch of teenagers playing Frisbee. I swam over to them and asked if they had seen who pulled me out of the deep water and they all claimed not to have seen anything. The point of this story, I started believing that there are things at work that we don’t understand. At the time I figured it was Jesus, or maybe god himself. Although I didn’t believe or agree with what I had read in the bible this confirmed to me that some of it must be true.

So for most of my young life I was an absentee Christian, kinda believed in the idea but figured Church was just for show and most of the bible must of been corrupted by men. It wasn’t until I was older that I started questioning the whole philosophy of the bible. If there is only one god, why does the bible imply that there is more than one? It does after all say god is “God of Gods” on top of that we are taught that we are to worship no other god yet we pray to the virgin Mary, St. Micheal, other religious figures. What of Angels? They seem to be on par with god, messengers of god, Satan felt he was equal to god. So Angels, Gods, just semantics? Who knows. My point is that my gut feels there is much more to life that the Christian teachings don’t address. For one, how can they claim good will and peace to all men when they require you to either be with us or against us? Look at the middle east, where the religion was born, peace??? They can’t even agree on the interpretations of the bible. Who is right? The Jews, Muslims, Buddhist, Hindus, etc... After reading about different cultures and religions, something that has occupied a lot of my time spiritually, I find that most of them all have a common thread. A belief in something greater. They all also have similar stories of creation and divinity in general. So true to the Norse teachings, people see the god(s) in a form that best speaks to them. It is my belief that there is no “wrong” religion. All are the same minus the corruptions of man. So everything being equal all a man can do is align himself with the beliefs that best fit his moral character, or the character he aspires to achieve. These are the odinist teachings and the ones I choose to follow. Nothing against the Christians, I just don’t buy into their doctrines. Many people find great comfort in the Christian faith and if that works for you so be it. It does not work for me.

I hope on this blog I can expand on my beliefs. Explain the reasons for my faith in detail. I am very tolerant of other faiths and like open discussion. My whole reason for bloging about this is to help others who may be in the same situation. I wasn’t at peace until I found a faith that fit my beliefs, ones I believe I was born with. One I feel I have always known was the right path for me.

I’ll finish with another possible divine occurrence. My mother passed away last year. My beliefs were a great comfort to me. We believe our ancestors live on within us as well as in nature. The material part of us just cycles back to nature. The spiritual part not only continues on in a way we can not yet understand, part of it is also passed down through your generations. That is one reason family is so important to us. My mother visited me in a lucid dream. I was in a lush green field that was surrounded by mist and clouds. In the center of the field was a large hill with a magnificent tree at the top. It was old and very large. Although the tree looked weathered is was quite beautiful and looked very strong. The limbs reached way into the sky, higher than I could see. They vanished into the clouds in some spots. The leaves glimmered as if they were made of gold. At it’s base was a small bench with a woman sitting on it eating an apple. She was dressed in white linens and appeared to shimmer. As I walked closer I realized it was my mother. She motioned to me to come closer. She seemed to be at perfect peace. She told me that this was all real although she couldn’t explain what was happening to me. She just wanted to let me know everything was all right and she told me this all meant something. She told me the tree was very important, it ties us all together but she couldn’t tell me how. She told me she loved me and I would understand one day. She then said she didn’t have much time, she had to go. She gave me a hug, stood up and vanished into the mist. That was the last time I saw her.

I believe this tree to be the world tree of Norse teachings. Perhaps not a “real” tree, but a symbol of the cord that ties us all together. I feel that our ancestors may have seen this same vision at some point in time, and thus the tree made it into our myths. I feel this is true. Although I don’t completely understand, I think my mom was telling me I was on the right track. It really is much deeper than this, but I don’t know how to put it in words.

So there you have it. A brief overview. I will start focusing on certain aspects of the religion as time allows. I also would like to say I am not bashing Christians, I am fine with them. That is just where I came from so it relates to my change in beliefs. Had I been Buddhist, I would of told you why I left that faith instead. It’s all relative. If all else fails my Mormon cousin tells me he will save me after death ;-) I doubt that will be necessary however, but I appreciate the offer.