Woden’s Folk Kindred Community InReach Program Study Curriculum The Community InReach Program of Woden’s Folk Kindred is designed to help offenders of the Asatru/Odinist/Heathen faith group learn more about their faith in order that they might become better men. We feel that the more that they understand about their faith, the more that they will be able to use that understanding of their faith to better help them make decisions that will build a better future for those men and everyone that they come into contact with. One of the mission statements of Woden’s Folk Kindred is to build bridges between heathen communities in prison and the greater heathen community out here, and to promote a positive form of heathen belief behind the wire. We realize that there are some very misguided beliefs that pass under the mantle of our faith in prisons. We also realize that most of the offenders in prison will one day be released. In order to combat these radicalized offshoots of our faith, we volunteer to go into prisons and educate offenders about our faith. We named our ministry the Community InReach Program to highlight the fact that these offenders will one day be released to take part in the greater heathen community, and so we are reaching inside to help prepare them to take their part in that greater community. The study curriculum that we have developed is based on the Heathen Handbook that we have published. This, in turn, is based on the Eddas and Sagas that are considered holy books to our faith, as well as dozens of books related to the subject by a wide variety of scholars and thinkers both ancient and modern. The study questions in this curriculum are geared towards creating an understanding of our faith so that the offenders are able to use that understanding to make better decisions in everyday life. The myths of our faith are designed to be teaching tools, and they are just as relevant for instructing us in right conduct today as they were a thousand years ago. Asatru/Odinism/Heathenry is the ancestral faith of the Northern European peoples. As such, it is generally but not exclusively practiced by people of Northern European descent. We realize that this factor is often exploited by hate groups, and that this is a very real concern in a prison setting. This creates a delicate situation where we feel the need to be very careful when handling the subject of our heritage. This is why in the very first section we outline the historical and genetic heritage of the northern peoples with an eye toward providing a factual background in a way that shows our distinct heritage and special relationship to our tribal Gods and Goddesses, without denigrating or demeaning other groups of people The study questions are designed to be as open-ended as possible so that the offenders are required to actually think about the answers instead of just go and look them up in a book. We feel that this is especially useful in a prison setting where the offenders have plenty of time and very few external things to distinguish themselves. In a world where everyone wears the same clothes, all jobs pay the same, and nobody drives a car, men find other ways to distinguish themselves. It is hoped that the men who participate in these study groups will distinguish themselves by giving thoughtful answers to these questions in front of their peers. It is then our hope that these thoughtful insights will help these men and their peers to make better decisions that affect their lives inside the prison. The heathen faith is and always has been centered on community. We feel that in a prison setting, community influence is the best way to enforce positive behavior in offenders so that they will internalize those positive changes. It is our hope that the Community InReach Program can be a part of that positive change in prison heathen communities. These study questions and the information contained in the Heathen Handbook can be tools to help offenders better themselves while inside and prepare for a successful life in the free world. Heathen Handbook Study Questions Section 1 1. Why is heathenry considered a holistic faith? 2. How does a holistic faith differ from a narrowly religious or monotheistic faith? 3. What were the beginning steps of the heathen reawakening? 4. What are the differences between primary and secondary sources in researching a subject? Distinguish between the two in regards to heathen literature. 5. Why is history important to heathenry? 6. What sorts of physical traits distinguished our ancestors after the period in which the last glaciers receded in northern Europe? 7. Why is a hafted axe superior to what other peoples were using? Do we still use this tool today? 8. What were the core values that formed in the Indo-European societies? 9. What technologies distinguished the Aryans from their genetically identical Indo- European predecessors? 10. What were the social differences between the new Aryan culture and their Indo- European predecessors? 11. What is meant by the term Northlands? 12. What three cultures combined to produce the culture we call Celtic? 13. What are the Celtic homelands? 14. What are the Germanic homelands? 15. How can an archaeologist tell the difference between early Celtic and Germanic remains in the borderlands of these two regions? What does this say about the differences between Celts and Germans? 16. What is the Folkwandering? 17. What changes did the Germanic conquest of Rome bring to Germanic societies? 18. How did Christianity spread throughout Germania? How does this historical truth differ from what modern Christian evangelists would have one believe? 19. Who are the Slavs? 20. Where is their homeland? 21. What is the last heathen society to convert, and when did they do so? 22. Why is the issue of modern lineage so complex? 23. What is the difference between heathenry and monotheistic religions? 24. Discuss the importance of the differences that arise between the monotheistic ideal of an angry and jealous god removed from the Earth, and that of our heathen gods who are our blood kin and revere life here on Midgard. 25. How do the roots of our faith, as expressed by the well and the tree, influence us today, thus making history relevant? Heathen Handbook Study Questions Section 2 1. Describe heathenry as explained in this section. 2. Describe what a “worldview” is. 3. What is Heilagr? 4. Why is Heilagr so important to us today? 5. Describe how our ancestors viewed the world through the “well and the tree.” 6. Describe how each man can be seen as a tree. 7. What are: Orlog, Wyrd, Hamingja, Maegin, and Gipta? How do all of these work together? 8. Are the individual and the universe the only things that can be described as trees? Describe your understanding of this metaphor. 9. Describe what happens if you mix your Wyrd with someone who is a liar, and what happens if you mix your Wyrd with someone known as noble and honest. 10. What is the term “Folk” used for? 11. What is the difference between the broad usage of “Folk” and the narrow definition? 12. What is the narrowest sense of “Folk?” 13. Describe the idea of Garth? 14. What is the definition of the word “law” where heathens are concerned? 15. What is Grith? 16. How do law and Grith work together? 17. What is Thew? 18. What is Frith? 19. How do Thew and Frith work together? 20. Explain the two concepts of Gifting. 21. Give and example of how gifting works in the heathen community. 22. Why is the idea of Garth so important to heathens? 23. Describe how the “Tree of the Garth” functions. 24. What makes a leader among our Folk? 25. What is “Utland?” 26. What is Honor, in your own words? 27. Describe heathen morality in your own words. 28. What are the three facets of honor? Describe each one. 29. What are the Nine Noble Virtues? 30. Which of the Nine Noble Virtues is the most important to you, and why? 31. What are the Theodish Wyns and Thews? 32. Where did these ethical models come from? 33. Why is individuality looked on as positive when we keep speaking of community and the need for it? 34. Why do we need to balance our individuality and the Folk? 35. Describe how oaths and actions affect us and our Folk. Heathen Handbook Study Questions Section 3 1. Why is the idea that a myth is something untrue an inaccurate idea of the heathen concept of the myth? 2. What are the four ways to look at myths? 3. What is Euhemerism? 4. Why did the church use Euhemerism to discredit heathen beliefs? 5. What is a metaphor? 6. What are three ways that a metaphor works? 7. Why is seeing myth as a metaphor the way of conveying the deepest truths? 8. Who was Carl Jung? 9. According to Jung, what are the three parts of the mind of a man? 10. What it the unconscious? 11. What is Jung’s Collective Unconscious? 12. Why do heathens call Jung’s Collective Unconscious the Folksoul? 13. What is an archetype? 14. According to Joseph Campbell, what are the four functions of myth? 15. What is meant by the “journey of the hero?” 16. Describe the four parts of the Hero’s Journey. 17. What is the one, true definition of the Gods? 18.