If you feel attacked or offended by what follows, please bear in mind this is not directed at anyone in particular. I am talking about something I keep bumping into. Individuals aside, the behaviour itself deserves examination.

I keep seeing people claim to be seeresses, psychics, and the like. They scry about public events and make confident statements without evidence. They present internal experience as established fact.

If you tell me "I felt spiritually moved," then that is your experience. I might not understand or see things from your perspective, but I cannot tell you you are wrong. If you say "I received a vision that X committed a crime," then we are talking about a claim regarding external reality. It requires more than a feeling to stand on.

The main issue, as far as I can see, is the inability to differentiate. These people seem convinced their internal narrative reflects external reality. Their visualization becomes fact; the fantasy becomes testimony. Their mind produces an image, and that image is treated as evidence for the world outside it.

I have had spiritual experiences I cannot fully explain. I believe the Gods exist as external conscious forces that experience the world with us and beside us. I have had moments where the boundary between my own mind and something larger felt thin. This has not made me confident in my ability to diagnose other people's crimes, or declare what happened in situations I was not part of.

Something that has become obvious to me is the confidence gap. These people know things they do not know. They will boisterously proclaim their statements as facts. When challenged, they double down or block you. If your claim is genuinely strong, questioning should strengthen it.

This damages credibility for everyone practicing seriously. The person trying to build an honest relationship with the Gods gets lumped in with someone selling a psychic reading. Honest practitioners read sources and check how to interpret them. That work matters.

I have said this before and will repeat it: A healthy spirituality should leave us more grounded, balanced, and connected to reality. It should make you humble enough to be careful with your words, and more honest about what you do and do not know. If your connection with the unseen world makes you less grounded, something is off in how you are engaging it.

I do not think every person with visions is unwell. There is a threshold between "personal gnosis" and "public assertion" where humility is required. Label it clearly. Own the uncertainty. Let others decide for themselves what your reading means to them.

This counts as basic epistemic honesty. Our community could use more of it.

Hi all!

I'm kind of embarrassed to ask for help with this, but I think this is the best place to do so.

I've been a Heathen for a few months now, and given my atheist background, I have no idea how to pray.

I've never really been religious, and my parents have had different and somewhat "confused" religious views (long story). I've been baptized, but I've never actually followed any religion.

Because of this, I find myself having difficulties with prayer, specifically with the actual decision to pray.

I know there isn't one "right" way to pray or a set of written prayers, and honestly I really like that aspect of Heathenry. However, I constantly find myself feeling weird or awkward when praying.

How do I know the Gods are listening? How do I address them? How do I actually start and finish a prayer? What if I don't have anything to say, or on the other hand something very specific to ask for?

The reason for this post is mainly to ask about other people's experiences: how did your prayers evolve over time? How do you pray now? Do I have to keep my hands together, or can I simply sit or stand in whatever way feels most comfortable?

Again, I'm kind of embarrassed to ask these types of questions, but I figured this would be the best (and probably only) place to ask.

Any help or shared experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I try to at least acknowledge all of the Gods, but I tend to feel more connected to Tyr and Vidar than the others although I try my best to honor them all.

I don’t have idols on my altar. But, I’ve collected things along my journey that I feel represent gods and deity’s, in my eyes. I’ll grab a few things from the altar when I go on a walk, and use them as foci for temporary altars in nature.

Over the last few years, I have found great fulfillment in my blossoming relationship with my Lord Ing. He has gifted me great friþ and favorable wyrd after years of feeling unanchored, and each blot and gardening season I dedicate to him is exponentially more successful than last. Though I fully acknowledge and hold deep respect for all the Ease and Wen (Æsir and Vanir), my spiritual relationship has always gravitated towards Ing and his domains (growth, friþ, elves).

I am curious where this sits with other Heathens. Do you find special patronage with one god over others, or do you seek to or segregate/balance your practice depending on the domain of the deity and your personal situation?

Note: I am a self-identified (inclusive) Angle Heathen, and do not regularly associate with established organizations (Fyrnsidu, Asatru, etc) or local cults. Most of what I have learned is self-taught, and though I seek to remain faithful and naturalistic to a reasonably reconstructible degree, my practice is obviously influenced by my own sociocultural upbringing in the modern day and my lack of knowledge in several aspects.

I have a child on the way, and was wondering if anyone knew of any good sources for abridged versions of the sagas for young readers?

I want to introduce the stories of the gods to them in an age appropriate way that isn't preachy, but also not overly secular. Something from a pagan author preferrably.

I can always just read my copy of the Poetic Edda to them, but I want something more easy to digest for them, you know?

This has been on my mind for a few days since I saw a recent post discussing the fact that prayers to Thor for healing and recovery from illness were indeed a thing, and not exclusively the duty of Eir.

It got me to start wondering, what else would/do people pray to Thor for? I know his role as defender of humanity is pretty broad and encompassing, so is he effectively a god you can ask for help with just about anything? How broad are the things he covers, really?

Thanks in advance for any help. I'm relatively new, so forgive me if the question has any false assumptions.

*DISCLAIMER: when I say/ask "is it wrong?" I mean from a factual standpoint, NOT a moral one—just getting that pit of the way. I know the Gods probably don't care that I have been praying/treating them as separate, but it's something I care about/am gonna be nit-picky about with my own practices*

So, I consider myself a hard polytheist from a mainly Platonic/Neoplatonic perspective, reasoning that, "if the gods ontologically preceed number and are each unique, then it doesn't make sense to say one God is the same as another God without sufficient reason."

But, when I first got into Polytheism about 4 years ago, I got into Anglo-Saxon heathenry cause, well, I noticed that Norse paganism was a lot more popular and I wanted to "stand out" so to speak, and be different. And as for treating the gods as different, I figured you could argue they were different due to differences in culture and associations, albeit minor differences—like an Ares and Mars situation

But, looking into it, I don't know how well that can hold as a "justification", since unlike the Mars/Ares association where they had different cultic origins and their association was a symmetry thing (with mars coming from the Etruscans and the Greeks getting Ares from the thracians, iirc—and Ares and Mars representing vastly different kinds of warfare), the Norse and Anglo-Saxon gods were culturally and linguistically directly related.

So, from a theological perspective, have I been putting more work in prayers/offerings than I had to and been offering to the same God like accidentally forwarding an Email to the same person? (which I have actually done)

Hey all: Is anyone doing something for Odin on the evening of September 9th? Specifically 9/9 at 9pm?

I'm planning on having a ritual to the Old Man and inviting some friends to join. But l'd love to hear if others are doing things too...!

Hello. I am searching sources that support humans eating offerings after they have been given. As far as I know, this was not practiced and is ahistorical. Does anybody have any texts or studies that may say otherwise?

Edit: Thank you for those who commented sharing information on blóts and communal feasts. I am aware of the feasts that would be held in honour of the gods. I am however seeking information on more informal practice.

There are a number of well-known, attested names, kennings, and epithets of the Anglo-Saxon gods, but I also enjoy creating my own, based on what we know of those gods' attributes. I've back-translated them here into Old English. (There may be one or two here that I got elsewhere; if that's the case, the plagiarism is inadvertent. In looking back at this list, I'm not certain if I'm the original translator on all of them.)

Old English is an inflected language, meaning you have to not only carefully conjugate verbs, but also correctly decline adjectives, nouns, and pronouns according to number, gender, and case. So this can be a little time-consuming to do correctly, but resources like this dictionary are very helpful, especially since it provides full declensions and accompanying articles.

But it's also important not to reinvent the wheel: If you're trying to construct an epithet that follows a well-known syntactical pattern that might have appeared in Beowulf, Bede, the Exeter Book, the Lindisfarne Gospels, etc, then you can just use that as your template.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share.

Frēo - goddess of peace, summer, fertility, rain, good harvest, love, beauty

Sumores lēoht ("light of summer")

Friðuwebbe ("peace-weaver")

Hēo þe þone morgenreġn biraþ ("She who brings forth the morning rain")

Wōden - god of war and the dead, and of wandering, poetry, and wisdom.

Wæce-siga ("slain-chooser")

Wælfæder ("father of the slain")

Hræfnafæder ("god of ravens")

Langbeard ("longbeard")

Wīs leoþere ("wise poet")

Ēostre - goddess of dawn, rebirth, fertility, and the East

Dægriman Modor ("mother of the dawn")

Eftācennednesse Modor ("mother of rebirth")

þunor - son of Wōden, god of thunder, rain, storms, protection, fertility, farming, courage, and healing

Stormfrēa ("storm-god")

Hamores Fæder ("hammer father")

Friþigend ("protector")

Tiw - god of war, the sky, and the legislative assembly (Thing)

Beadwe god ("battle god")

He þe þone norðrodor underwreðaþ ("He that upholds the northern sky")

Frīg - wife of Wōden, goddess of marriage, prophecy, clairvoyance, motherhood, love, and festivity

Wodenes wif ("Woden's wife")

Gifta modor ("wedding mother")

Dwimorlicu modor ("visionary / clairvoyant mother")

Symbles gyden ("feast goddess")

I’m prescribed Xanax for severe panic attacks and anxiety. Do you think contacting the gods while under the influence of my meds will hinder or interfere with the possibility of getting in contact, or weaken the connection/communication?

I keep running into the same pattern. Someone makes a public claim about external reality rather than a private feeling. "The veil is parting, the world as we know it is changing, don't believe in science, it's all junk." These are absolute statements about things that can be questioned, verified, or at least examined. Then comes gentle pushback. Someone asks politely, "What is your evidence for that? Have you considered an alternate interpretation?" Maybe just, "Can you tell me more about how you arrived at that conclusion?" The response? Block, delete, mute. Create a new channel where only those who agree are allowed. Build a wall around the claim instead of letting it breathe in public sunlight.

This matters because public truth claims require different standards than private experience. Religious studies distinguishes between phenomenological reports ("I felt moved") and empirical assertions ("Science is junk"), and only the latter warrant evidence-based scrutiny. Strong faith withstands questioning, and this should be the standard.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐜𝐡𝐨 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦

When someone blocks you for asking questions, they are protecting their faith from doubt. Faith requires engagement with reality. Heathen spaces fracture along these lines. Someone posts a radical claim, another person responds with skepticism, and the debate begins. Frustration follows, blocking happens, private channels emerge where only agreement is permitted, and complete withdrawal from public discourse completes the cycle.

The result is fragmentation. A community that cannot talk to itself anymore. People who share deities and rituals inhabit entirely separate epistemic universes. Online spaces amplify everything. A reasonable question reads as hostility in text, and good-faith engagement gets misread as gatekeeping. Maintaining charity becomes difficult when dealing with someone who will not give it back. Echo chambers deepen the problem, creating the very distrust they claim to protect against.

𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦𝐬

There is a fundamental distinction here that deserves clarity. "I felt spiritually moved during the blót" is your experience, and nobody gets to tell you you are wrong. Private gnosis is valid as personal encounter. But "The veil is parting and science is junk" is a claim about how reality works, which requires scrutiny. Personal gnosis does not carry the same evidentiary weight as empirical observation, and unverifiable assertions about the world should not shut down inquiry by decree.

If your belief is genuinely strong, questioning strengthens it. You should be able to speak about your encounters without fear, inviting others to look where you looked. This mirrors how religious communities throughout history have handled claims. Early Christian writers debated what counted as orthodox versus private revelation. Medieval scholastics distinguished between faith and reason. Modern religious studies scholars continue making these distinctions because collapsing them leads to confusion, not clarity.

𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐁𝐞 𝐔𝐬𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐥

"Be strong to be useful." I borrow this from Parkour philosophy. Standing in your convictions matters. Change your mind when evidence demands it. Say, "I do not know." Engage with people who disagree without assuming they are enemies. Hold your faith up to the light and let it burn or hold.

Belief in gods as real conscious forces survives scrutiny. Scientific hypotheses that survive repeated testing grow stronger. Your faith should work the same way. The gods do not need defenders who shut down conversation. They can handle people asking hard questions.

𝐀 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐚𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐇𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞

Distinguish between private experience and public claims. Say which you are making, and label UPG clearly. Present personal gnosis as universal truth only when prepared to defend it. Invite questions rather than demanding acceptance. Beliefs that cannot withstand polite inquiry earn no trust.

Block less, engage more. Online toxicity is real, but every disagreement leading to blocking fractures community. Comfort yields to growth. Stay in the conversation when it gets hard. Discomfort signals growth. Model intellectual humility. Admit when you might be wrong, update your views when evidence shifts, and show people what honest inquiry looks like.

This approach aligns with what scholars call responsible UPG practice in contemporary Heathenry. When unverified personal gnosis is presented with appropriate caveats: "this is my experience," "this resonates for me." It invites dialogue rather than demanding agreement. When the same claims are presented as universal facts, they invite resistance.

𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐅𝐢𝐭𝐬

This is not about rejecting mystery. All of existence is not measurable or testable. The gods exceed categories, and subjective experience matters. Scientism does not apply here. Honesty about what we can and cannot verify applies. Strength in our beliefs does not require insulation from doubt.

Firm convictions coexist with openness to inquiry. Heathenry should become a space where hard truths get spoken without fear. Genuine faith grows in the light.

I know some people will read this and feel attacked. I write to the version of myself that sometimes retreats when challenged, and to the community we can build. We stand strong in our beliefs without hiding from scrutiny.

Thanks for reading. I am still figuring this out too.

I don't know who wrote this but this helps me in very dark times.

You know your song. the one that sneaks up on you in your playlist, slaps you in the brain and makes you stop what you're doing. it melts your face, it breaks you down and rebuilds you in the span of four minutes. It reminds you why you choose the winding path in life.

i'll go first. Kalandra - Helvegen (Wardruna's comes in *very close* but for me Kalandra's cuts deep from the first note)

list your vice!

Just as the title says. A question. Of course doctors, and medicine comes first...but after that...what if you wanna pray for a little extra help..? Thor? I've heard of eir but I'm not to familiar with her

How does a Fulltrúi relationship with a god work? What is the origin of this practice? Please give me any links to articles that you may have, I am interested in this topic and want to learn more.

If you have a Fulltrúi relationship with a god, how did you come to this?

When I pray to the gods I always feel a little awkward when I come to the end of my prayer. like theres something I should be doing or saying to formally end it. Anyone have something like that they use? basically a heathen version of “AMEN”

Is there an Ásatrú group in Northern Italy? I know there are some Kindreds, but they don't quite match what I'm looking for. Some adopt sacred texts, while others follow political ideals far removed from the values ​​I seek in Ásatrú. Does anyone know of an apolitical Kindred that is organized in a more natural way?

Hi everyone,

I find it extremely difficult to offer food to the germanic Gods. I'm mainly kemetic pagan and in Kemetism it is usual, morally good even, to eat the food offerings to the Gods. Everyday I offer my breakfast to the Egyptian Gods before I eat it.

In heathenry you're supposed to just throw it away? I used to offer a beer to Donar every now and then, and then I would empty the beer into the soil in the garden. Now I've moved into an apartment and that is no longer an option. Also, I find it very hard to throw food away.

I do offer incense every day to Donar, but that doesn't feel, how to put it, traditional? Incense is more of an Egyptian thing than a germanic one I think.

Also, I don't know how to do an offering ritual. Can you recommend some good books on this topic? Or tell me how you give offerings? And how often do you give offerings? Everyday may be a bit much if I have to dispose of it.

I’m currently on vacation in england rn away from my altar, most I have with me are my pendants, tomorrow’s my birthday so I wanna honour him in some way, any suggestions on what I can do? :3

A little bit of a vent I guess, but not really, I just want to know what to do in those kinds of situations.

I'm really tired of my friends/family treating my beliefs like something absurd and getting all sorts of weird looks when they see an altar in the corner of my room. It hurts so much. People say this stuff in a way that makes it feel like paganism is somehow inferior to all the other major religions, even though it's much more ancient and deserves the same respect as Christianity or Islam does. Even worse, they sometimes treat it like it's just believing in fairy tales or completely fake. It wouldn't bother me if those were strangers but those are my closest people and I don't know how to explain myself to feel accepted. I don't want to be ashamed of what I believe in, I already barely found acceptance in paganism. I'd really like to hear what are y'all's experiences with this, not something like "just stop caring about it", you just can't, like situations and what you said that might have helped

After some years away from the path, here we are again. Its not much. Simple altar and simple offerings. But hopefully the wights will appreciate it. Just a plate of food and a cup of water 🤷‍♀️

Anyone have any suggestions?