Siggy (scinnlaeca) wrote in northern_trad, @ 2008-07-12 12:39:00 |
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Current mood: | annoyed |
I posted this to the Dark_Heathens community on LJ as well as my own personal LiveJournal; because I feel this is an important point to make I am also going to post it over here. It's important that people on both sides of the Rokkr-worship issue, both for and against, read this. So, even if it's annoyingly repetitive, that's why.
This is inspired by another post I saw in another community, and is a bit of a rant about the general state of the way our brand of Northern trad is perceived. You have been forewarned.
I will say up front that I do not identify as Rokkrtru, I am Vanir-focused. I am, however, friendly to Loki and His kin in the same way that I am friendly with Odin and His People. They are not "My people" but I still honor Them in the spirit of frith-weaving. Because I occasionally honor Jotnar as I have need to, people have forgotten the huge obvious note of me being a devotee of Frey and a votary of the Vanir. (I maintain vanic_folk as one of my services to Them.) I'm a member of a certain infamous Kindred that has Loki and Angrboda as the Kindred patrons, and will be (in August) attending an event sponsored by this Kindred where more "controversial" Jotnar are honored.
There seems to be a lot of anti-Jotun hysteria as of late, especially as the day of this gathering draws closer (it's approximately just over a month away). Again, we don't have the power to bring on the Ragnarok, and even if you believe in Ragnarok as inevitable -- I do not and see it as a myth heavily inspired by Armageddon -- you have to understand that Everyone goes, so it wouldn't be in the best interests of Rokkrtru to call for it, never mind that's affording a lot of power to humans and most of the Rokkrtru I know would do more useful things with all of that power. The Rokkr Deities, when They claim people, from what I've seen usually have a strong mandate for people to be more ethical and ecologically responsible, as one case in point. They are not calling on people to start trouble with Asatruar. Most of the Rokkrtru I know are talking amongst themselves in their own corners of Internet and meatspace, and don't even identify as Heathen, with a couple of exceptions.
But, coupled with the anti-Jotun hysteria seems to be not so much people "jumping on the bandwagon" but people who have strange ideas about things. Even among my friends who identify as Rokkrtru, not a single one has ever said that Fenris should be unbound, or that Jormundgand is a big snuggly love pillow of warm fuzzies. I think the matter of Loki's children was handled badly: "OK, we've got a big freaky snake, a wolf we can't feed who will eventually eat *us*, and a half-rotted girl who stinks like rot... what do we do?" Personally if I were chained up or tossed into the ocean by the Aesir, I wouldn't be kindly disposed towards the Aesir either, but *nobody* is having a "Let's Unchain Fenris" Blot except maybe a couple of Satanist-wannabe nutjobs who eventually leave the Northern trad after a few years because they get tired. Yanno? We do, actually (both Rokkr-focused and Rokkr-friendly folk) fundamentally understand that "two sides to every story" =/= snuggling Jormundgand.
I have as much problem with people who perceive our Gods as all good and benevolent as I do with all evil and "satanic". I don't think everyone has to worship the Jotnar. As I've said elsewhere and often, I believe the Jotnar to be Paleolithic/Neolithic Deities of the original inhabitants of the Northlands, *pre-Indo-European* and *pre-Germanic culture*. So, people are not wrong to say They were most likely not worshipped by Heathens, if we think of Heathenry as a Germanic culture dating 500-800 C.E. 21st century moderns are *of course* going to be freaked out by Gods of death and violence and untamed nature. But nonetheless, just as the Aesir and Vanir are being honored again, the Jotnar want Their piece of the action and are awakening some people who are "wired" right. I feel that people work with the Deities they work with and if they're not comfortable with the Jotnar or their focus is elsewhere (e.g. Vanir), none of us are forcing them to go Blot Loki or Whoever. Most people are probably better off avoiding the Jotnar because They can be some severe taskmasters; They're not happy with what has happened to our environment and to society. So, when people reduce the Jotnar to being freaky versions of the Teletubbies, I don't know what kind of crack is being smoked but I want some.
While I believe playing up the dark "we're so GAWTH and scary, OOGA BOOGA!" factor, which some people do in all honesty, is probably contributing to the negative perception of Rokkrfolk, when someone comes into a community talking about wanting to pet the big snake, I wonder if these sorts of people lack reading comprehension in a reverse manner to those who think we're bringing on the Ragnarok, from things taken out of context. The people thinking we're all thirsting for the Ragnarok clearly have read two sentences of Raven's writings out of context, or taken the Shadowlight writings out of context, or mine, or whoever. The people thinking the Jotnar are happy fun balls are also reading things out of context. I don't know of any easy answers and suspect the Northern religion is going to be polarized for awhile yet, but the more immediate solution I see is to be brutally honest about our Gods, including the Aesir and Vanir. We have to be honest about Their less-than-savory aspects as well as more positive. We need to avoid the extremes of trying to be scary and bad-ass and failing at it, or erring on the side of apologetics "see they're not so bad after all".
Cases in point:
-While the matter of Loki's children was handled poorly IMO, Fenris will still eat you if He can. I have compassion for the Wolf but I'm not stupid about His nature.
-Odin is not the most trustworthy Deity in the world but there are plenty of people who reduce this argument to "ODIN GOOD LOKI BAD", never mind I have some friends who have been valknutted (look, I made a word) who could tell you some things about Odin.
-Freyja may help you improve your sex life, but don't underestimate Her capability for vengeance when rubbed the wrong way.
-Even Frey, who everyone thinks is this hippie God of peace, has a really nasty temper when provoked past a certain point, and He did give the best sword in the Nine Worlds away to the Jotnar as a bride-price. Some feel this sword is in the hands of Surt and will be used against Him if Ragnarok is to come to pass.
-And then there's Nerthus, who everyone wants to honor on Earth Day and forget about the other 364 days of the year, who had Her slaves drowned as part of Her worship. As I personally work with Nerthus, Nerthus scares me more than Surt: there is a terrible holiness surrounding Her that you have to directly encounter to understand, but She really is Devouring Initiatrix. No, I'm really not exaggerating.
So, rant over. I suspect that with this community I'm preaching to the choir, but I had to say something, somewhere.
:)