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Temple of Our Heathen Gods Kansas City Area Heathen Gods A Collection of Essays Concerning the Folkway of Our People by Mark Ludwig Stinson Chieftain of Jotun's Bane Kindred Temple of Our Heathen Gods Kansas City Area Written During 2007-2009 First Edition “Heathen Gods: A Collection of Essays Concerning the Folkway of Our People” © 2009 by Mark Stinson. All rights reserved, under a specific Open License. This book may be used, copied, distributed, and transmitted in any form or by any means, as long as the contents of the book remain intact and unchanged, including this copyright information. Individual essays or sections of the book may be freely syndicated in any form and by any means, as long as credit is given using all of the following information (in quotations)... “Written and Copyrighted in 2009 by Mark Stinson, Used with Permission, heathengods.com.” Published by Jotun's Bane Kindred Temple of Our Heathen Gods P.O. Box 463 Liberty, MO 64069 http://heathengods.com Table of Contents Acknowledgements 1 Introduction 2 Section 1 – Essays for New Heathens 5 What is a Heathen? 6 How Does One Worship the Heathen Gods? 7 Reasons I am Heathen 12 Religion vs. Magic 15 Finding the Old Gods 16 Becoming Heathen and Keeping our Advice Tru 18 Am I Going to a Christian Hell? 20 Beating the Christian Addiction 22 Long Time Heathens and New Heathens 24 Differing Views within Heathenry 25 Forms of Communication 27 HINO's: Heathen in Name Only 30 Moving from the “New” to the “Lasting” 34 Section 2 – Building a Kindred or Tribe 37 Why Start a Kindred? 38 Breaking Inertia: Internally and Externally 42 Steps Toward Forming a Kindred 43 Starting a Heathen Study Group 49 Holding Open Events 52 A Heathen Club or a Heathen Tribe 53 Jump-Starting a Stagnant Heathen Community 55 Bad Kindred Experiences Holding you Back? 57 Be the Spark 58 Focus on Similarities 59 Types of Kindreds 61 Organic vs. Methodical 63 Section 3 – Maintaining a Kindred or Tribe 69 Protect what You are Building 70 Outreach...Giving People a Choice 72 Reaching Out to Heathens Coming Home 73 Leadership and Decision-Making by Consensus 76 Kindred Growing-Pains are Inevitable 81 Broken People 85 Achievers, Workers, and Trolls 88 Leaving a Kindred Gracefully 89 Kindreds Becoming Tribes 92 Roles within Our Modern Tribes 93 The Core of the Kindred and Its Friends 95 Our Plans for a Hof, a Hall, and Tribal Land 96 Tribes and Kindreds as Legal Entities 98 Regional Growth: A Heartland Thing 100 Section 4 – Living a Heathen Life 104 Live a Full Life 105 Leaving Deep Ruts in the Road 108 Men: Prioritize Your Heathen Life 110 The Next Generation of Asatru 112 Our Heathen Children 113 Race and Ethnicity Within Heathenry 114 Does Skin Color Matter? 115 The Purpose of a Heathen Life 117 Life-Embracing Heathenry 118 A Heathen Question of Worth 121 Wyrd and Worth 124 The Families we Build, the Oaths we Make 127 Protecting Heathen Children from Divorce 128 Making and Keeping Friends: Havamal Advice 129 Innangarth vs. Utangarth 131 Shame Culture vs. Guilt Culture 133 House and Land Wights 135 Section 5 – Personal and Misc. Essays 138 The House Wight and My Daughter 139 My Father Glen F. Stinson 140 Fearing a Straw Death 142 Great-Grandpa Ludwig 144 When I was a Street Cop 145 Elizabeth Getting to Know her Grandfather 147 A Conversation with Frigga 148 How Can we be 100% that Heathenry is Real? 150 Section 6 – Iceland Trip Journal 153 The April 2009 Journey to Iceland 154 Day Zero 154 Day One in Iceland 155 Day Two in Iceland 156 Day Three in Iceland 160 Day Four in Iceland 164 Day Five in Iceland 170 Day Six in Iceland 172 Day Seven in Iceland 179 Day Eight in Iceland 183 Section 7 – Poetry by Mark Ludwig Stinson 186 Call to the Folk 187 The Ísland Journey 188 Doom-Eager Heathen 189 Never Forgotten 190 Bravest in Battle 191 Essay on Bringing Back the Oral Tradition 192 Lightning Across the Plains 194 Temple of Our Heathen Gods Website 199 Mark Ludwig Stinson 200 Further Reading 202 Mark at Gullfoss, in Iceland Acknowledgements Without the patience and support of my wife, Jennifer, this book would not exist. She is an amazing woman and we have built quite a life together. You may not be able to picture it, but my three kids are in- between-the-lines of all of these essays. Hidden in the punctuation and among the paragraphs, are all the interruptions, the questions, and the demands that I stop writing and go play with them. Though I can honestly say I finished the book for them, rather than despite them. I owe much to my tribe, Jotun's Bane Kindred. Rod Landreth, Craig Winkler, and Jamie King have served me well as trusted friends. I am convinced they are the best people you will ever find, and I have the Luck to have them with me on this life's journey. I must thank the knowledgeable Will Burris, who is always there right when you need him. He made our trip to Iceland both possible and successful. Then there is Johnny Hamilton, Glen Steveson, and Susan Steveson who represent hard-earned-growth for our kindred, as we work to add two new amazing families to our web of oaths. Alex, Kimberly, Paula, Chien, and all the children are no less a part of what I have learned and what we have accomplished as a tribe. Finally, there is Jason Grothe. Jason is quick to lend a hand and help keep things on track at every kindred event. He generously helped me by editing this book, and it is a much better book thanks to him. I want to acknowledge my Great-Grandfather and name-sake Ludwig Schweiger. Much of my interest in all things Germanic and Northern European came from my close connection with Ludwig. My Grandmother and Ludwig's daughter, Elizabeth Shoop, taught me to dream, laugh, and enjoy life. The fact she was so nurturing towards me, while so unhappy on the inside, was completely selfless on her part. Completely selfless. First among my Ancestors is my father, Glen F. Stinson. This collection of essays would not exist without him. He was not Heathen, but the things he taught me about being a man and how to face this life, were entirely Heathen. He was the best of fathers, and I work hard to pass Orlog to my children that is as good as the Orlog that my father passed to me. 1 INTRODUCTION The essays in this collection were written in the years 2007, 2008, and 2009. In their original form, they were written as blog notes, message board posts, and as answers to e-mail questions I received. They were never meant to serve as a unified message about Heathenry, and there has been no attempt here to tie them together into a well- ordered or all-encompassing vision for the future of Heathenry. The essays collected here have a conversational tone, like discussion you might have around a campfire...or over a cold pint of Guinness. Most of Jotun's Bane Kindred at Midwest Thing 2009 In collecting them, I have attempted to put them in an order that makes sense. To further this effort, I have also grouped them into categories. I have reworked all of these essays, to varying degrees. Some required quite a bit of refining, while others required very little. What you'll find within this collection is my approach to various topics and issues within our Folkway – the Folkway that is the ancestral way- of-life of the Northern European people. The scope of these essays is far-reaching, but this collection does not provide a comprehensive examination of Heathenry. If that is what you are seeking, you should buy Our Troth, Volumes 1 and 2. This collection does not serve as a complete introduction to Heathenry, either. Essential Asatru, by Diana Paxon, would better serve you as an introduction to our Folkway. The ways of our Ancestors varied greatly from tribe to tribe, location to location, century to century, and even among various levels of society. The same situation exists today. These essays are not presented as 2 the only way things should be done within Heathenry. They represent one man's approach – one tribe's approach – to these issues and topics. It is likely that every reader will find things to both agree with and disagree with in the contents of this book. If nothing else, the essays will hopefully get you thinking about these topics and examining, or re-examining, your own approaches and points-of-view. You will notice that these essays do not have footnotes. This collection of essays is not a research paper. There is nothing within these essays that I would consider contrary to what we find in the Lore, as I read and interpret it. But the content, the purpose, and the tone of these essays does not lend itself to a line by line scholarly justification or notes. If you are seeking that, seek it elsewhere. Jotun's Bane Kindred draws from Norse, Germanic, Anglo-Saxon, and other Northern European sources for its ways and traditions. For this reason, there is a certain mixing of terminology in the following essays. We do not restrict ourselves to using only Norse terminology or only Anglo-Saxon terminology. If a word or concept accurately reflects what we are doing, then we use that word or concept.
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