Our Organization

The Troth is an international Heathen organization based in the United States and is a non-profit corporation registered in the state of Texas. Additionally, The Troth is recognized by the state of New York as a 501(c)(3) Charity.

The Troth is open to all who seek to know and to worship the Gods, honor the ancestors, and live by values of the Germanic Heathen traditions, regardless of tradition, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, ability, gender, or family structure.

The Troth stands against any use of Germanic religion or religious symbols to advance causes of racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, ableism or white supremacy.

The Troth ® Mission Statement

The Troth’s mission is to educate, train, provide resources for, and otherwise promote the inclusive practice of linguistically Germanic, polytheistic religions.

Hear The Troth’s history from those who were there: Melodi Grundy and Diana Paxson at Trothmoot 2019 on the Heathen History Podcast

Melodi Grundy and Diana Paxson gave a two part interview to the Heathen History Podcast (Hosted by now President & CEO Lauren Crow and long-serving Publications Director Ben Waggoner) on the history of The Troth. While we can write a lot about our history, there are some things where it just helps to talk to someone who was there and saw what happened.

Heathens put a lot on history. That’s why it’s important for us to continue to listen to those who came before us. Not to mindlessly follow what they said, but to take lessons from their stories, learn from their wounds, their mistakes and their successes. What would they have done better if they could? What can we do better if we’re faced with similar choices? Have we been here before?

Have a listen, if you’ve got the time.

History of The Troth

The Troth has been around since 1987, so we’re obviously not going to be able to get all our history down into just a few paragraphs. But this brief overview should give you an idea of some of the significant events in our history as an Organization.

The Troth was founded by Edred Thorsson (Dr. Stephen E. Flowers) and James Chisholm on December 20, 1987, as The Ring of Troth.

It was established as a politically neutral refuge which would be focused on scholarship, clergy training and publications.

The name was deliberately chosen to have the initials RoT. While critics of the organization have been known to point out that this spells “rot,” Edred had in mind the Norse word rót, meaning “root”: the roots of new growth for the old ways.

Thorrsen took the titles of “Drighten” and “Warder of the Lore” while Chisholm was given the title of “Steersman.”

The Troth quickly established a reputation early as a publisher and as a more academically rigorous Heathen organization.

The young organization was eager to prove itself, Thorsson quickly published his book A Ring of Troth with Chisholm publishing True Hearth as a companion text. This began a period of furious productivity with little time for the duties of running a growing membership in a national organization.

While Thorsson and Chisholm mostly devoted their time to writing and research, volunteers like Diana Luark Ross stepped in to run the organization itself.

The Temple of Set scandal

Edred Thorsson, intrigued by the occult and esoteric, was a member of the Temple of Set since 1984. The Temple of Set is a theistic Satanist organization founded by Michael Aquino. Rob Meek (Ingvar Solve Ingvisson), who had briefly served the Troth as Secretary, found out about Thorsson’s affiliation with the Temple of Set (though Thorsson denied this was ever a secret in the first place) and in 1989 began a campaign where he denounced Thorsson, Chisholm, and the entire Ring of Troth, alleging that Satanists were trying to take over Ásatrú.

These accusations came at the tail end of the “Satanic Panic” of the 80’s and early 90’s. Under increasing pressure and condemnation from multiple other Ásatrú organizations (including the Ásatrú Alliance and the Odinic Rite), Edred Thorsson stepped down from his office as Drighten and Kveldúlfr Gundarsson took the office of Warder of the Lore.

James Chisholm turned the Steership over to Prudence Priest at Ostara in 1992.

Prudence Priest stabilizes The Troth

During Priest’s term as Steer, the Ring of Troth managed to shake off its past scandals and reformed the organization that was collapsing both from scandal and from its own expectations. The Troth initially sought to create “Elders” who would both have solid academic credentials (PhD’s) and ordination from the organization.

With Priest’s sensible reforms, The Troth adopted a second “rank” of clergy: Godmen or Godwomen could be ordained without academic qualifications. This proved to be far more successful than the original model, which was subsequently abandoned.

With Priest’s Steership also came a shift in the axis of the center of Heathenry. Where Texas (Austin, specifically) had previously been the center of Troth activity, the new axis moved to Northern California and the Bay Area. This was both a geographic and a cultural shift.

The Creation of the Steward Program and “Our Troth”

In 1993, Kveldúlfr Gundarsson proposed the creation of the Steward program of appointing regional representatives for outreach and networking, and this was adopted with modifications a year later.

Meanwhile, while working on his doctoral dissertation at Cambridge University, Gundarsson proposed that the Troth publish a comprehensive book on all aspects of Heathenry, with contributions from as many Heathens as possible. This would become Our Troth. The publication was no easy task, but the heroic efforts of William H. West and Joel Radcliffe got Our Troth into print by the end of 1993.

By the mid-nineties, the Ring of Troth had grown to over three hundred members, who were increasingly interested in shaping the organization’s future.

Different factions within The Troth formed with new opinions as to how the organization out to be governed, and debates swirled around the leadership of Prudence Priest. Up to that point, the Rede was not elected by the membership; rather, it was appointed by the Rede itself. Diana Paxson was appointed to the Rede, but made the provision that she would serve only a single year and then step down unless the Rede passed a rewrite of the Bylaws so that the Rede would no longer be appointed, but elected by the membership.

Paxson’s solution was designed to head off the conflict she and others saw growing under Priest’s leadership: that the organization needed some way to resolve the problem of “why are you the ones in charge?” Increasingly, members felt disconnected from decisions of the Rede, and that the Rede was truly only accountable to itself.

These conflicts grew until the Rede passed a vote of no confidence in Prudence Priest, and she resigned as Steerswoman on March 8, 1995.

As if the situation couldn’t get any more complicated: on February 14, 1995, before Priest’s resignation, Edred Thorsson returned.

During the leadership chaos, Edred Thorsson formally offered to step in, take over, and return the Troth to the form he had initially intended. However, he made his return to leadership contingent the stipulation that the Rede give a unanimous vote of endorsement in that leadership. But the Rede did not unanimously agree that Thorsson’s return to leadership would benefit the organization (Bill Bainbridge notably held out against Edred’s power-play) and so the vote failed to pass as stipulated. Edred declared himself formally separated from the Troth on March 21, 1995.

Within the span of a month, The Troth had lost both the current Steer Prudence Priest as well as any connection to their founder, Edred Thorsson. This left this new organization without any clear direction or leadership.

By 1997, The Troth was teetering on the brink of dissolution

Jeffrey Kaplan’s 1997 book Radical Religion in America concluded a section on the history of the Troth with a pessimistic prediction:

The Troth, wracked by internal dissension and plagued by splits based more on personality than on substance, has begun to unravel. The al- ways contentious email lists by which Troth members communicate has for years been a forum for the most divisive personal invective imaginable. The Troth’s journal, Idunna, has seen editors brought in and then dismissed for instituting too critical an editorial policy. The Ring of Troth simply shows few signs of stabilizing. . . (p. 30)

The only leaders the Troth had left were Diana Paxson, Bill Bainbridge and Kveldúlfr Gundarson. The three of them worked together to find a way to bring the organization back from the brink.

Return to Stability under William Bainbridge

Membership dropped after the reorganization as different member groups followed different leaders, but William Bainbridge, the next Steersman, stabilized the Troth. Responding to some of the issues that lead to the “Glorious Revolution,” the Steer and most Rede members were now elected to more modest three-year terms.

By the beginning of 1997, Bainbridge turned Idunna’s publication duties to Diana Paxson. Paxson already had established mainstream success as a prolific fantasy author and proved to be a resourceful editor and capable publisher of the periodical. Kveldúlfr remained committed to producing publications for The Troth, utilizing his unique take on scholarship and prolific writing to keep The Troth as a thought leader in advancing the study and promotion of Heathenry.

Diana Paxson becomes Steer and publishes the second edition of Our Troth

In addition to being a talented writer, Paxson also proved to be a versatile volunteer and leader and after Bainbridge’s term had ended, she became the first elected Steer of the new millennium. She and Kveldúlfr then set to work on the 2nd edition of Our Troth, an edition that was marked by Paxson’s characteristic enthusiasm for reconstructed dress and culture of the early Middle Ages and Kveldúlfr’s fascination with the mystical and experimental aspects of Heathenry.

The “Big Tent”

The Troth in the mid-2000s saw itself as “a resource for heathenry.”

Under Bainbridge and subsequent Steers Diana Paxson, Stefn Thorsman, Demarus Donegan and Patricia Lafayllve, the Troth built its reputation again as a place where everyone (folkish or universalist) could find something of value and focused on creating quality information through publications as well as and quality education programs.

As a culmination of these efforts, in 2006, the Troth launched a Lore Program to give training in the more scholarly and academic aspects of Heathenry, filling part of the role of the dormant Elder program.

Although the Troth had had a Steward for prison ministry since the early 2000s, the question of whether the Troth should engage in prison ministry was still sometimes debated; this ended with the establishment of the In-Reach Program in 2013, an attempt to counter the racism and white supremacy prevalent in prison Heathenry (Lüsch-Schreiwer, “The Troth ‘In-Reach Program’,” p. 32).

America was having a reckoning with race and violence, and American Asatru was having a similar reckoning of its own–with itself.

America was still fighting its way out of the “Great Recession” and reckoning with the massive inequality exposed at the heart of our way of life. Occupy Wall Street surged into the headlines in 2011, leading to an entire “Occupy Movement.”

At the same time, the white nationalist elements within self-proclaimed Folkish organizations had surged into power and were flexing their newfound muscle. Starting in 2011, Folkish groups began to take a hard-line with regard to returning to their white nationalist political roots. Heathens who had joined these groups in hopes of “changing them from within” found themselves on the outside looking in, and eventually just out.

Conversations were becoming harder and harder to have, and eventually, those conversations stopped.

The simmering tensions in America had come to a boil in 2013 with the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson Missouri, then Trayvon Martin in Florida, then Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Maryland and Philando Castile in St Paul, Minnesota. This sparked conversations about violence against black people as well as discussion of the protests that followed, and the position that Heathens should or shouldn’t take.

While The Troth struggled to keep the big tent together, new Heathen organizations began to organize in the vacuum.

Younger, more dynamic organizations and informal internet communities were expanding their membership by creating low barriers to entry. With the surge in social media adoption in the late 00’s, Facebook became a popular organizing platform and new groups that were more comfortable flexing their ideological muscle were pulling the Heathen community in all different directions. Everyone wanted to claim their stake in the new Social Media landscape, and that usually revolved around galvanizing a base and putting things together on the fly.

What these groups lacked in organization, they made up for in agility. When issues effecting the world hit, these smaller, socially savvy and more ideologically similar communities were able to react with speed and clarity. The Troth, on the other hand, was caught in a balancing act–trying to be that “big tent” organization that was envisioned in the mid-90’s. There were several instances of large groups of folkish and inclusive Heathens alike storming out of the Troth throughout the 2000’s.

The Troth could no longer remain neutral and joined with other Heathen organizations in adopting Declaration 127, which meant The Troth as an organization would longer have anything to do with anyone involved in the AFA.

The flashpoint for the whole Heathen community came in Summer 2016.

The Asatru Folk Assembly, a large organization that promoted “Folkish Heathenry” released a statement in August that read, in part: “Today we are bombarded with confusion and messages contrary to the values of our ancestors and our folk. The AFA would like to make it clear that we believe gender is not a social construct, it is a beautiful gift from the holy powers and from our ancestors. The AFA celebrates our feminine ladies, our masculine gentlemen and, above all, our beautiful white children.

Heathen organizations are not nearly as insulated from the wider society as, perhaps, they might like to think—and social tensions in the “outside world” tend to be mirrored inside organizations. As political polarization increased in American society, so it did within the Troth, and holding the “big tent” together had become impossible.

A popular Heathen Blog (Huginn’s Heathen Hof) created a response to the AFA’s announcement in August 2016 which they based on a verse from the Hávamál: Verse 127.

I rede thee, Loddfafnir!
and hear thou my rede,–
Profit thou hast if thou hearest,
Great thy gain if thou learnest:
If evil thou knowest,
as evil proclaim it,
And make no friendship with foes.

While individual members of the High Rede like John T. Mainer, Robert Lusch Schreiwer and Lagaria Farmer or the Publications Director Ben Waggoner were comfortable making public statements against racism, sexism, and even against specific figures in the Folkish movement, but to keep the peace both within the organization and among organizations, The Troth itself had yet to make any kind of statement that would cause a fracture within the Heathen community.

The High Rede made its first statement in August of 2016 through an article by John T. Mainer denouncing the AFA for their public position with regard to military service.

And the very next month the Rede unanimously voted to sign Declaration 127.

The organizations listed below represent a truly diverse set of voices within modern Heathenry. They represent national organizations, resource centers, local kindreds, as well as a plethora of authors and community leaders from every possible branch of our religion and walk of life. These independent organizations have signed this article due to a single shared interest

To state their complete denunciation of, and disassociation from, the Asatru Folk Assembly.

The Asatru Folk Assembly (hereinafter referred to as the AFA) has a long and well documented history of discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, sexuality, and gender identity. In a recent statement the AFA declared point blank that non-white and LGBT Heathens were not welcome in their tradition. While the undersigned organizations listed here fully recognize the AFA’s right to govern themselves as they see fit, and with full autonomy, we hereby exercise the same right.

We will not promote, associate, or do business with the AFA as an organization so long as they maintain these discriminatory policies.

The AFA’s views do not represent our communities. We hereby declare that we do not condone hatred or discrimination carried out in the name of our religion, and will no longer associate with those who do. We will not grant the tacit approval of silence in the name of frið, to those who would use our traditions to justify prejudice on the basis of race, nationality, orientation, or gender identity.

With that, any relationship that The Troth had with the AFA or any of its members was severed permanently.

The Troth had to rebuild once again, and the Board looked within to find answers.

There was fallout as whatever Folkish contingent remained in The Troth broke away from the organization, as well as those “on the fence” who demanded a return to neutrality that was no longer possible. Under Schreiwer’s leadership, the Board of Directors worked at a fast pace to rebuild The Troth. The Troth looked inward at our own policies that excluded the very same people whom the AFA had excluded explicitly. One such policy was the so-called “Loki Ban.”

Since 2008, the hailing, venerating or worshipping of Loki among others (Fenrir, Hel, Jormungandr, Angrboda, etc.) was prohibited at Troth events.

The Troth adopted the following policy in 2008:

As a Germanic heathen organization, it is not part of the Troth’s mission to promote or advance the honoring or worship of:

Beings from Germanic mythology that are understood to be hostile to the Aesir and Vanir, to humanity, and/or to the cosmological order, for example: Angrboda, Fenrir, the Midgard Serpent/Jormungandr, Surtr, Muspel’s Sons, Garm, Nidhogg.

Discussion of such deities and other beings, when relevant to issues surrounding heathen Germanic religion, is a normal and necessary occurrence in Troth forums, meetings, and publications. However, it is not the purpose of Troth programs, publications, offices, or certifications to advocate, promote, or carry out the honoring or worship of these entities. Troth members are expected to recognize and respect such boundaries in the context of Troth affairs.

At the time, this was considered a tidy way of threading the needle. People were free to worship whatever Gods they liked at home, but at Troth events they needed to abide by this restriction. Additionally, Loki was not explicitly named in the policy, the language of “Beings from Germanic Mythology that are understood to be hostile to the Aesir and Vanir…” was generally interpreted to include Loki. Thus, while Loki was not explicitly named, this policy became known as the “Loki Ban.”

Frith Forge 2017 was an inflection point for the end of the “Loki ban.”

The Troth was forming alliances with international groups in Europe, but there was some concern that the American approach to Asatru was in conflict with the more open-minded Europeans, especially when it came to the practice of hailing Loki. At the time, Loki could not be venerated at Troth sponsored events, which Frith Forge was, but venerating Loki at Sumbel was a common practice of some of the European groups.

The conflict was eventually resolved through some clever applications of “roofbeam thew” but it left a lot of people wondering why this had to be so complicated in the first place.

The Board of Directors re-examined the policy at Trothmoot 2018 and carved out an explicit exemption for Loki at the beginning of 2019, opening up The Troth to a whole group of people to whom membership was in direct conflict with their spiritual beliefs.

Looking at this through the lens of inclusivity, The Troth board saw that what came to be known as the “Loki ban” was a soft way of keeping out the kinds of people that were more commonly worshipping Loki: the LGBTQIA+ community. While that might not have been the goal of the policy, that was the effect of it. The result was enlightening as more people from marginalized communities once again found The Troth as their refuge as in times past. In some ways, carving out the “Loki exception” was part of The Troth returning to its true roots as an organization for everyone.

The Troth also established a mandatory Blot to Loki at Trothmoot as an apology to the community.

Though the exemption via a Position Statement was a welcome change, there was still the matter of the 2008 policy itself, which remained in place.

Rob Schreiwer passes the torch to Lauren CrowThe world itself has changed during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The acceleration of change bringing the real world and the digital world together reached a fever pace. Organizations and businesses had to adapt to a new way of doing business, a new economy and a new understanding of ourselves and our community.

Lauren Crow took over as Steer from Rob Schreiwer in 2022 with a promise to professionalize the organization. Inwardly, this not only meant an update to the Corporate Bylaws and organizational nomenclature, but an influx of new policies as well aimed at stabilizing and codifying data handling and conflicts of interest procedures. Outwardly. Crow set to the project of a new resource-rich website geared at making our 35 years of writing, thinking, arguing and theorizing open, available and accessible to the public. She also got the project started of getting back-end systems that had all been thrust onto the back of a single website moved to different platforms. She also green-lit projects to expand the communications platforms both internally with the board and externally with membership.

Crow also followed in Schreiwer’s footsteps with a board that was far more comfortable making unified statements of support or of spiritual clarification to thousands of Heathens across the world. People would no longer question where The Troth as an organization stood on important issues confronting us today.

No longer above politics but confidently charting a course through it based on sound shared spiritual and moral values.

Trothmoot 2023: New Bylaws, Interfaith and Sober Heathenry

Associate President Carl Bonebright undertook an overhaul of The Troth bylaws and formed a Bylaw Committee in 2022. The task was to find ways to make the organization more inclusive and find ways to end structural barriers keeping good people out of the Organization. Just before Trothmoot 2023, the organization as a whole and the board all voted by an over 2/3 majority to ratify the new Bylaws.

The Bylaws not only gave The Troth new inclusive policies as far as rituals at Troth events, but it also simplified the organizational structure for the first time in decades and consolidated offices that had become overgrown. Also with the new Bylaws, The Troth rescinded the 2008 policy that lead to the “Loki Ban” in its entirety.

Also announced at Trothmoot was a new Interfaith Committee whose mission was to organize and endorse new interfaith opportunities for Troth members to join with other inclusive faiths of the world according to our values as Heathens and our mission as an Organization.

Finally, this was the first-ever “dry Trothmoot” where the only alcohol consumed was a small amount at Sumbel. What would normally have been seen as an unfortunate oversight became an opportunity to show what could be done in Heathenry. Heathenry has unfortunately (or deservedly) become associated with over-consumption of alcohol. This puts up a barrier to entry for people in recovery, because they have had to choose between their faith and their commitment to their sobriety. Thanks to insights from Heathens in Recovery, we’re prepared to offer more sober programming in the future., After all, if even Trothmoot could be done sober, any other Heathen event should be a piece of cake.

 

Infographic on the Financials and Organization Structure/Activities of The Troth from 2022/2023

A Troth Infographic showing financial information