Culture

Column: The Lokean Community – What We Really Look Like

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Pagan Perspectives

Today’s column is a guest submission by Ky Greene, a Lokean and co-founder of Loki’s Wyrdlings and Loki University. She has been Pagan for 18 years, a practicing Polytheist for 9 years, and she offers free spiritual consultation about developing reciprocal relationships with the gods. The Wild Hunt is always open for submissions for our weekend section. Please send queries or completed submissions to eric@wildhunt.org. When some Heathens think of Loki, they conjure up an image of an evil, Satan-like deity who gave birth to monsters and heralds the coming of Ragnarok, the end of days.

Paganism

Column: You’re Doing It Wrong

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“You’re doing it wrong” is a battle cry that regularly rings out throughout the Ásatrú and Heathen communities; among those who practice one of the various modern forms of Germanic polytheism. In a cluster of religions without central authority or dogma, there is a paradoxical and continual struggle to assert authority and dogma while positing one’s own perspective as the proper one. Especially in America, such assertions often turn to academia for authentication and justification. Perhaps surprisingly to those unfamiliar with the Heathen subcultures, practitioners sometimes adjust their religious beliefs to accord with academic works written by secular scholars who are openly hostile to modern Heathenry. Whether seeking to justify their own beliefs or to critique the practices of others, Heathens often turn to academic writing on ancient Germanic paganism as the fundamental arbiter of modern religious authenticity.