The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/tag/heathenry/page/2)
It’s always a fraught moment when somebody recognizes my necklace, which I realize is strange – the point of wearing a Thor’s Hammer is to publicly identify oneself as a Heathen, after all – but I’m still caught off-guard every time it happens. I’m forced to make a swift evaluation of my surroundings and my social context. Who is this person? What assumptions are they making about me? What assumptions do they think I will make of them?
Over the past week, Democrats have giddily celebrated the ascension of Kamala Harris to the top of the ticket. That’s great, but it doesn’t deal with the issue of elderly leaders in this nation of ours. Maybe the tale of Egil Skallagrimsson, the Viking poet who lived to old age, has something to teach us here.
Sometimes, the Mead of Poetry works indirectly. An old rock ‘n’ roll song is stuck on repeat in my head, spinning unceasingly between my ears. Actually, it’s not even an entire song. It’s just a verse or a chorus or sometimes only a line or two. Someone else’s creative creation gets lodged in there, doing work on my mind that only I can hear.
In direct contrast to the supposedly universal “golden rule” and the “turn the other cheek” message of Christ, Odin teaches that we have no responsibility to be love our enemies. That particular Heathen teaching is a large part of what leads someone like me to be uncomfortable with some of Martin Luther King’s principles, but it does not mean that the embrace of violence is the answer.”
We choose how we relate to the deities of our tradition. Our choice is not made for us by ancient poets, modern practitioners, or academic scholars.