How do I practice Norse Paganism?

The first question someone usually has after finding out about a religion is to find out how to do it. Norse Paganism, Ásatrú and Heathenry are all names for basically the same religion, and this religion does have rituals and practices. We want to go through a few of the most important rituals. We will cover holidays and special rituals in our resources section, but for now we just want to talk about the basics of Heathen Ritual so you can get started.

How do I convert to Norse Paganism?

There is no specific ritual for converting to Norse Paganism, Heathenry or Ásatrú.

We wrote more about this in our resource on how to become Ásatrú. If you are joining a religious group, their own rules may have you do something like give an Oath to the Gods and to the group like membership terms and conditions. Some religious groups do require oaths, others do not. An “oath to the Gods” is not required.

Membership in any particular group is not required to become Norse Pagan, nor is taking any oath at all.

The Gifting Cycle is the Center of our Faith

Our faith is in the gift cycle. It is the heart of Ásatrú, Norse Paganism and Heathenry.

The Gift Cycle is how we engage with our Gods and with each other and promote harmonious relationships. As it says in the Havamal:

“Be your friend’s true friend.
Return gift for gift.”

What does that mean for us?

We give offerings to spirits, ancestors and Gods and through these offerings we deepen our relationship to them.

What is a gift?

A gift is something you give to someone without expecting anything in return. It’s not a payment for services rendered or a bribe. It’s not transactional. It’s not a negotiation of power like you might see in witchcraft where a witch uses their skills to “work with” a power beyond themselves to accomplish a goal or learn something.

A gift cycle is a relationship which deepens through shared giving. I give to you because I’m your friend, and you give back because you’re my friend.

We believe that the Gifting Cycle doesn’t just pertain to our relationship with other people, but to the spirits in the world around us and the Gods.We believe our beloved dead are still with us and still care for us just as much as they did when they were alive. Their spirits remain with us and we show our continued affection and reverence for them by giving gifts. We believe the spirits in the world around us, the spirits of the land and the spirits of our homes, can be engaged in a similar way, and we make offerings to them to deepen our relationships and promote harmony between us.

While some of us like to focus our practice on these spirits (usually calling themselves “Nordic Animists”), most people who are curious about our faith are curious specifically about our relationship to the Gods.

For many of us, the Gifting Cycle with the Gods is mediated through Sacrifice

The way we give our gifts to the Gods is through Sacrifice or “Blót.”

What does “Blót” mean and where does it come from?

“Blót” is the word in Old Norse for a “Sacrifice.” There are different theories about where the word came from. Some schools of thought think it comes for Old Norse word for “Blood” which would be consistent with how many of these sacrifices involved the ritual slaughter of livestock. Others believe that it comes from same root as the verb “to bless.” The closer word to “sacrifice” is “blessing” so that’s the theory we are going with.

What does Sacrifice mean?

This is important because it gets at the heart of what giving a gift to the Gods really means. It isn’t giving something casually. It’s a special kind of giving where the gift itself is made holy or sacred. That is what sacrifice means in the original Latin: “Sacra” (Holy, Sacred) “Facere” (to make, do). In giving your gift to the Gods, you elevate it to Them.

The ritual of sacrifice, whatever it may be for you, is what takes an ordinary object of some material value and transforms it into a holy gift for the Gods. That’s why the ritual of Blót is so important and so central to our Faith. It’s not merely giving something. It’s transforming something of ordinary value into something holy or sacred.

We wrote a resource on what is a proper offering for Norse Pagan rituals here.

And we wrote another resource on how to perform a Heathen sacrifice here.

The Gods

Many of us believe in the existence of the Gods identified by the names they were called by the different Germanic peoples. For most of us that’s Thor, Odin, Freyja, Freyr… etc.

How many Gods am I going to have to worship?

In theory you could try to worship all of them, but in practice most Heathens worship about 8 and only 3 or 4 with any regularity. Sometimes you’ll find Heathens who worship only one of the Gods while acknowledging all the others exist. Those people usually have a relationship with a particular God that they might refer to as their Patron or their “fulltrui” (fully-trusted one).

You can find more information about the most commonly worshipped Gods in Heathenry here in our resources on Gods.

Ásatrú Prayer

Yes, the Vikings did pray. You don’t have to debate about it. It happened. They knelt. They prostrated. And hoo boy, did they pray.

Now that’s out of the way, let’s give you a basic structure to work from for prayer.

All prayers don’t have offerings, but all offerings have a prayer.

Prayer can take the form of anything from the spontaneous to the elaborate. But a good basic structure that we like to follow (and one you are going to see other Heathens do in ritual) is this one:

1. Invocation: Name the God or Goddess you want to pray or offer to. We suggest using a few names or epithets of the Deity that illustrate why you’re praying to them in particular.
2. Request/Gratitude: After addressing the God, you can humbly make a request. Sometimes this can be something of desperate immediate need or of something desired in the future. You can also express gratitude for something that has already been given.
3. Offering: if you are making an offering, now would be the time to do it. Along with a good description of the item being offered referencing why it’s the gift you give.
4. Closing: You can close with a phrase like “Du ut Des” or “A Gift For a Gift” or “Hail and Farewell” or “In your holy name I pray.” something that gives an impression of what it is you expect from the relationship you’ve established.

That’s as simple as it gets! For more elaboration, check out our resource on Heathen prayers. Or ask people in your community what kinds of prayers they’ve come up with.

Devotional Practices

Devotional practices are an important part of the lives of most Modern Heathens, and they manifest in a lot of different and creative ways.

• Some people take on fasting through the month before Ostara as a devotional practice for Njord.
• Others like to lift heavy weights for Thor.
• Some people write poetry and songs for Odin.
• Others take up spinning wool as a devotional practice for Frigg
• Heathens start gardening for Freyr Yngve

The list is endless because all the different ways that Heathens show their adoration and devotion to our Gods in our lives is endless. Saying prayers, singing songs and making offerings are part of our spiritual lives, but so are these individual devotional practices.

Devotional practices are developed by individuals and can be shared between people and communities. They aren’t required as a general rule, but some groups may have specific devotional practices that they learned from specific teachers that mark them as separate from other group practices. Some groups might fast together, while others might feast together at the same time.

Devotional practices are part of the “spice” of what makes modern Heathenry special. It’s the individual expression of devotion and creativity that makes it truly a living tradition.

Norse Pagan Holidays

Historically Attested Blóts

Three high Blóts are mentioned in Snorri Sturluson’s Hiemskiringla as being the Pagans celebrated.

• Yule (Jól)– Either on Winter Solstice (modern practice) or at the Midwinter Full Moon (historically attested, the first Full Moon of the new Year).
• Sigrblót (Victory Blót) – Happens during the holy-tide of Summer Nights, around the first full moon after the Spring Equinox
• Ventrnaetter (Winter Nights) – Begins the 2nd Full Moon after the Autumnal Equinox (usually around mid-late October to early November)

Other Common Ásatrú Holidays

• Disting – Second Full Moon of the New Year
• Ostara (Easter) – First Full Moon after the Spring Equinox.
• May Day – May 1st
• Midsummer – Summer Solstice
• Lammas – First Full Moon after Autumnal Equinox

We have collected some of the traditions of our members and are sharing them in our Heathen Holiday Series. Click the links to learn more about each Holiday.

What do you do on Heathen Holidays?

Oh, a little bit of this, a little bit of that. Not every holiday has to have a Blót attached to it, though most of them do. Two things we always do during Heathen Holidays is Feasting and Sumble.

Feasting and Symbel: the fun stuff

Feasting and Symble aren’t necessarily “religious” in nature, strictly speaking. Though in modern Heathenry, there are a lot of religious elements that go into them, so it’s important to go over them so you know what you’ll encounter out there.

Feasting

Feasting is exactly what it sounds like. It’s the big party after the community Blót. Traditionally, this would have been where the Blót-beast was carved up, cooked and served (having been drained of blood during the Blót).

Traditionally, the Feast would be the responsibility of the host. The host would provide everything from the meal to the entertainment, and this was considered to be an incredible honor. Hospitality is one of our core values, so hosting a feast after a Blót is both a great responsibility and a great honor (as anyone who has ever hosted a family Thanksgiving already knows).

But feasts don’t have to be hosted by a single person or family, it can be a communal feast with everyone contributing what they can. It doesn’t have to be on a single person’s property. It could be a picnic ground.

The point of the feast is to share each other’s company and to enjoy the good things that life has to offer.

For more on Feasting, see our resource on how you make a Heathen Feast.

Symbel

Symbel (also rendered as Sumbel) is ritual drinking. It takes place after the feast, although for some Heathens “Symbel” is another word for the Feast itself. As a ritual, it is not for the Gods as much as it’s a ritual for the community. It puts people in a space to talk openly, to share, and to really get to know one another in a space that is safe and supportive.

Even as this is a safe space, there are still expectations of decorum and behavior.

In modern tradition, a drinking vessel (usually a horn but it can also just be a really nice cup) is either passed person to person in a round, or a person is appointed as the “cup bearer” who passes the cup from person to person. This is a physical representation of our forging our connections and a sort of re-enactment of the sharing of mead between the Aesir and the Vanir at the conclusion of the war between them.

Aren’t there Rituals for other stuff? Like Weddings?

Yes. There are a ton of rituals for everyday life.

• Weddings
• Funerals
• Naming Ceremonies
• House Blessings

The thing is, a lot of it isn’t typically codified and standardized. So what we can tell you is how some people have done them in the past and how some people do them now. We will have entries on some of these common rituals from our community to help you out and get you started. Of course, feel free to reach out to our Clergy if you want to know how they do it.

The Religion with Homework? Sort of.

Ásatrú has a reputation for being a religion with homework. That’s somewhat true though it’s less true now than it used to be. The community has grown to the point nowhere not everyone has to go it alone and create their own practice from scratch. Now, most practice groups are so establish that you learn by being a part of the community.

If you aren’t part of any community, and are learning this by yourself, there are plenty of free resources we have in our library that can answer all the questions you’d have as you start your practice.

Does Ásatrú have Holy Books?

The short answer is “no.” But the longer answer is that there are some books that are considered to be holy texts by some of us, though we don’t all agree which texts are “holy” and which ones aren’t. None of the texts that we have were written, nor were they ever credibly claimed to be written, by actual Pagans or people who were sympathetic to the Pagan belief system. These texts were in some cases written a hundred or more years post conversion.

• The Poetic Edda is a collection of late Iron Age Skaldic poetry which contains some of the most vivid references to the Gods and the stories people were supposed to have told about them.
• The Prose Edda is a sort of handbook for Skalds written by Icelandic statesman Snorri Sturlusson. It contains explanations for some of the references in Skaldic poetry called “kennings” which are like word-puzzles that reference something through metaphor or through reference to a story about it.
• The Hiemskringla Sagas, especially the Ynglinga Saga, the Saga of Hakon the Good, the Saga of Olaf Trygvasson and the Saga of Olaf Haraldson (later known as Saint Olaf) were another work by Snorri which purported to chronicle the history of Scandinavia and the origins of the dynasties that would come to rule it. This was a deeply political work and an example of how Snorri used both statecraft and literature to achieve his goals.
• Beowulf is an epic Anglo-Saxon poem about the heroic adventure of a Geatish prince named Beowulf who ascends through his deeds to become a mighty king. There’s monsters, fights, adventures of all kinds… and references to pre-Christian culture and ritual, as the poem is supposed to take place in the period before conversion.
• The Gesta Danorum or the”History of the Danish People” by a monk named Saxo Grammaticus is another collection of stories, some of which are about pre-Christian times. The first books of it are a combination of historical narrative and some tales about heroes and the Gods.

But none of these are holy texts in the sense that most people take them to be the undisputed truth. Most of us read them as literature and use them to look for clues about the religious and social values of the people whose religion we are reconstructing.

We are three generations in to the Heathen revival, so reinventing the wheel isn’t required.

While you’re free to read whatever you like and reconstruct your own way, some Heathen communities now are three generations into their practice. It’s great that people are curious about primary sources, but if you don’t want to go through all that, it’s perfectly valid to find a community whose practice you appreciate and to just “go with the flow” and learn by doing.