Benevolence and Compassion in Asatru

Benevolence and compassion both have a place in Asatru, a central place in fact–they motivate us to do good actions, to be generous, to show hospitality and to pursue justice. They are two distinct things even though they can manifest in the same actions.

Benevolence is simply the urge to do good.

In Heathenry, benevolence manifests itself most clearly in our relationship with the Gods. The Gods are benevolent (not omnibenevolent, just benevolent will do fine) and we are benevolent back. They are generous with their gifts, and we show that generosity in giving back. In this sense we are demonstrating the same urge to do good that is part of the divine nature we share.

Compassion is when we feel the pain of someone else as our own.

Compassion and empathy are effectively the same thing here (one comes from Latin and the other one comes from Greek). Compassion is made up of two parts “Com” meaning “with” and “Passion” which in this case means “suffering/pain.” Which is when we feel the pain of another as if it is our own pain. Human beings are uniquely compassionate in that not only do we feel compassion for one another but we feel compassion for anything we can imagine being. 

Benevolence and Compassion are essential parts of Asatru and they are demonstrated in our central rituals of Blot and Symbel.

In Blot, we reflect the benevolence of the Gods. We give without expectation of return. See our article on Generosity for more.

In Symbel, we hear the stories of others with open hearts. We listen to their words and feel their pain when they express it as our own pain. We share their joy when they express their joy over the horn. We share more than a drink. You can see more about this in our article on Hospitality.

A few years ago, Swain Wodening (Berry Canote), who had been a leader in Theodish Belief and later Anglo-Saxon Heathenry, returned to the Christianity that he was raised in. Swain was well known in Heathen circles as a writer, thinker, and leader, including as a contributor to the first edition of Our Troth.

However, he had come to feel that his Heathen faith could offer him no comfort or compassion, or forgiveness. As he writes:

The path I had taken had left me with a religion with no compassion towards others. . . there was no one I could turn to that would have enough sympathy to help me. Instead I was reviled, chastised, ridiculed. I had for twenty years been a part of a religion with no room for compassion, understanding, or forgiveness. (Canote, Letting Go to Live with Christ, p. 5)

There are several sad things about this passage. The first is understanding just who Canote was to Heatherny. This was Swain Wodening. This man shaped the very faith that he would later leave. His work and his writing had massive impact on how Heathenry developed. Imagine after twenty years looking back on something you helped to create and finding no compassion there. No understanding. No forgiveness. 

It must have been devastating to Canote. We should take his words and his challenge to Heathenry seriously, and his pain should be a lesson for all of us.

At the time he was writing “Letting Go to Live with Christ” Canote was absolutely correct with most of Heathenry. As we’ve seen, there certainly has been a long tradition in Heathenry of idealizing the self-reliant, independent Viking warrior who neither needs compassion nor gives it. It was a picture that Canote himself promoted and inscribed into our faith. 

Many at the time thought that they were doing reconstruction. Canote certainly did. But this reconstruction was done mostly through a negotiation with a text. This “text” was the corpus of Medieval Germanic Heroic Literature from which we derive most of the written sources of our faith. Our reading of a text is saturated with our own values and biases. Reading is not merely a passive activity. It is an active and ongoing negotiation between the reader and the text.

When we are determined to read a text in a particular way, we see some things and not others, and some refuse to see compassion.

One of the most compassionate episodes in the sagas appears in Egils saga; when Egil has lost his sons, he becomes so depressed that he takes to his bed and vows to starve himself to death. His daughter vows to join him, but she tricks him into drinking some milk and breaking his vow, and then tells him to compose a poem to express his feelings. 

Egil composed “Sonatorrek” or “Lament for Sons,” quite possibly the most beautiful and powerful poems in Old Norse literature, and by the time he is finished he has resolved to live again. His daughter’s compassion saved him—but it took the form of a trick, and then a stern talking-to..

Compassion is  freely given to all who share the human condition. It transcends Heathenry, and indeed it transcends our own species; there are Neanderthal skeletons that show evidence of debilitating injuries that had healed somewhat, showing that the injured were cared for during a long recovery period when they could not have taken care of themselves.