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Asatru – a Religion of Nature?

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Asatru – a Religion of Nature? chapter 6 Asatru – A Religion of Nature? Critiques of monotheism, the promotion of polytheism, and the related dis- course on Nordic myth frequently work on the assumption that polytheism, and thus Paganism, is closer to nature and more conducive to ecological ideals than monotheisms. In comparison, monotheism and/or Christianity are seen as inimical to both natural human drives and to the natural environment. Such ideas can be traced back to theories of Germanic or Indo-European religion as fertility cults with a more intimate relation to nature than ‘desert religions,’ which allegedly originate in arid, infertile climates. These theories intersected with Romanticism’s revaluation of nature as a metaphor for the primordial, unspoiled, and pure.1 They were taken up positively in the primitivist neo- Romantic currents around 1900, which in turn inspired new, alternative reli- gions. Since then, ideas about a Pagan and Nordic nature spirituality have developed a remarkable productivity. They have influenced Western percep- tions of nature and the natural within ecological and new spiritual movements and beyond. This is evident in the fact that many people today experience nature as a realm for spiritual, or at least uplifting, experiences. Equally widespread is the idea that Christianity or monotheism, with its mandate to ‘subdue the earth,’ is responsible for the destruction of the natural environment, whereas Paganism sees nature as animated, and thus supposedly treats it with more respect. Over the last few decades, environmentalism and environmental spiritual- ity have enjoyed a reputation as being progressive. Therefore, the widespread self-understanding of Asatru as a ‘religion of nature’ is much less controversial than the issues of ethnicity and concepts of religion with which it intersects. This identification with nature religion has contributed to a more general acceptance of Asatru in the 1970s and 80s. Since then, Heathenism as a r eligion 1 Steven Sutcliffe, “Between Apocalypse and Self-realisation. ‘Nature’ as an Index of New Age Religiosity,” in Nature Religion Today. Paganism in the Modern World, ed. Joanne Pearson, Richard H. Roberts, and Geoffrey Samuel (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1998), 33, reminds us that the concepts of nature active in New Age and Neopagan thought today go back to the 17th and 18th century. Here, nature was conceptualized as “the material world itself,” but also personified as a “singular nature,” as in “mother nature,” on the one hand. On the other hand, it was used for specific locations, such as the countryside, unspoiled places, plants, and creatures other than man. Thus, it came to occupy an oppositional place to cul- ture and was identified with the primordial and authentic. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���6 | doi �0.��63/97890043095�7_008 This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial 3.0. Unported (CC BY-NC 3.0) License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/Stefanie von Schnurbein - 9789004309517 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:50:13AM via free access <UN> Asatru 181 of nature has been promoted by Asatruers in order to create a self-image com- patible with modern, progressive social ideals and values, such as environmen- talism. At the same time, some of the underlying concepts of an animated nature and of nature spirituality are fraught with an intellectual heritage going back to Social Darwinist, racist, and völkisch traditions. Investigating the rela- tionship between nature and spirituality in Asatru and in general discourse can therefore shed light on the problems and ambivalences of nature-spiritual traditions within ecological movements, while explaining much about Asatru’s successful alignment with respectable and powerful new social movements. Nature Spirituality in Asatru The 1970s and 80s, the years of contemporary Asatru’s inception, coincide with the early heyday of the environmental movement. It is thus no surprise that Asatruers worldwide already then highlighted the environmental aspects of their religion. In his book bearing the telling title Heidnische Naturreligion (Heathen Religion of Nature), Géza von Neményi, of the ethnicist German Germanische Glaubensgemeinschaft, emphasized the unity of nature, peoples, and spiritual- ity (combined with a New Age doctrine of reincarnation) in a characteristic way, offering Paganism as the solution to the environmental crisis: Each people on this earth had or has its own mythology and variety of nature religion. These have to be revived in order to be able to solve the threatening problems of our age. Because the anti-nature attitude of Christianity has brought us to the brink of self-destruction. The gods work against it: For some time now they primarily have let incarnate indi- viduals who in previous incarnations (previous lives on earth) lived in peoples who were completely in touch with nature. […] It is the task of these people to rouse mankind to a return to the gods in order to end the destruction of nature.2 2 Géza v. Neményi, Heidnische Naturreligion. Altüberlieferte Glaubensvorstellungen, Riten und Bräuche (Bergen a.d. Dumme: Johanna Bohmeier Verlag, 1988), 17: “Jedes Volk dieser Erde hat oder hatte seine eigene Mythologie und Naturreligionsform. Diese müssen wiederbelebt werden, um die drohenden Probleme unserer Zeit lösen zu können. Denn die naturfeindliche Haltung des Christentums hat uns an den Rand der Selbstzerstörung gebracht. Die Götter wirken dagegen: Seit einiger Zeit lassen sie vorwiegend Menschen sich verkörpern, die selbst in früheren Inkarnationen (früheren Leben auf der Erde) in Völkern lebten, die völlig Stefanie von Schnurbein - 9789004309517 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:50:13AM via free access <UN> 182 chapter 6 Icelandic Asatruers have always seen it as a matter of course that their faith is a religion of nature. According to one of my interview partners, this is the most important aspect connecting Asatruers to other Icelanders: “They are open to different religious points of view and beliefs. Everybody in Iceland is con- nected to the powers of the earth.”3 A similar conviction is held in Swedish Asatru. Members of the shamanistic network Yggdrasil claimed that it was important to connect to “one’s own soil, own landscape, own climate, light and darkness, the own animal- and plant-life.”4 The idea that it is mainly Christianity’s attitude towards nature that is responsible for the common “ruthlessness against the environment,” was prevalent.5 The Swedish a-racist group Samfundet Forn Sed continues this attitude, and devotes part of its self- description to emphasizing that Norse mythology is based on an ecological bal- ance of which humans are a part. An equally common theme is the claim that culture and myth are formed by climate, landscape, and nature; and that reli- gion, nature, and cultural identity are closely intertwined.6 The American The Troth favors a view of Heathenism in which the gods can be encountered in the forces of nature. Its view of ‘nature religion’ and ’holy earth’ tends to empha- size the importance of seeking the wilderness as a way of connecting with the deities – an attitude which they see in accordance with the practices of the ancient Germanic peoples.7 An interview with a long-term member of Norwegian a-racist Bifrost con- firms that this is still a common theme among Asatruers: Many [Asatruers] have a romantic relationship with nature, like to be in nature, and like natural phenomena. […] There is something special about this contact with the forces of nature. It is important. To the question if there are connections with the ecology movement, he replies: For some it is surely connected. Because one likes nature, because one likes unspoiled nature, one doesn’t like interference. […] We don’t live in naturverbunden waren. […] Aufgabe dieser Menschen ist es, die Menschheit aufzurütteln und zur Rückkehr zu ihren Göttern zu bringen, damit die Naturzerstörung beendet wird.” 3 Interview S. 4 Schnurbein, Religion als Kulturkritik, 200. 5 Ibid., 252. 6 Cf. Gregorius, Modern Asatro, 187–189. 7 Cf. Gundarsson, Our Troth, vol. ii, 5–24. Stefanie von Schnurbein - 9789004309517 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:50:13AM via free access <UN> Asatru 183 contact with nature anymore. […] And then it maybe becomes important to have ceremonies outdoors, because then we somehow get back a sort of link to nature. […] There is a romantic idea here, I think – not in a bad way, but in a nice way.8 This quote refers to the fact that such general attitudes about nature are mirrored in the design of Asatru rituals, which not only take place outdoors but also invoke images of rural life, agriculture, nature, fertility, etc. Many of them are organized according to the cycles of the year and life, and invoke the deities almost exclusively in their alleged expressions of forces of nature, growth, fertility and decay, as well as of kin and ancestry. The close proximity posited between exterior and human nature, between an organic culture, landscape, and perception of nature, is reaffirmed in ritual performances, while other aspects of everyday life in modernity take a backseat.9 Few Heathens openly disagree with such common perceptions of Asatru as a religion of nature. Nevertheless, some see it as an anachronism and empha- size the fact that Germanic religion is no longer a religion of nature.10 Others remind their fellow Heathens that all religion is always already cultural, and that the preservation of nature is in fact a modern phenomenon for which ‘the ancestors’ had no concept.11 Still others criticize such general compensa- tory views of nature religion as superficial and call for more concrete action. In an article in the German Eldaring’s journal Herdfeuer, Marcel Behringer confirms the idea that Asatru is a nature religion based on an exchange between humans and environment. From this he derives the moral obligation to develop an ecological conscience.
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