Monday, September 29, 2014

Our* Community


When I started looking for a religion that I could call my own, it was difficult. First, I was lucky. I never had Christianity pushed on me. I came from a lower middle-class single parent household, and grew up in an old coal camp.The place I grew up in had more churches than schools. It was natural, then, that Christianity would become part of my life. I went to church on my own and made the decision to become a Christian on my own. That church, however, decided that I wasn't their type. They stopped picking me up for church, eventually. The reasons were generally unclear. One of the things that kept coming up, however, was how I was dressed. I only owned 2 pairs of pants and 3 shirts, and none of them were up to the standards of the church. So, at the age of 12, they drove by my house on the church bus, slowed down, looked at me and waved as I stood by the road waiting, and then sped off. They did this for weeks, until I finally gave up, and just never left my house.

I didn't do religion for awhile. I focused on other things. Eventually, I decided I would look further to see what I could find. It was 2003, and I had left high school. I felt the need to deprogram myself, before taking on the next chapter of my life. I spent the next two years, locked in a room. Only leaving the house once every few weeks. In that time, I did a lot of reading. I took up painting and drawing with charcoal. I worked on my confidence, and at the same time, struggled through one of the most violent and self-destructive cycles of my life. If I wanted to truly break myself to start fresh, this was the perfect time. In the end, I came out stronger and with an idea of who I was and where I wanted to go.

During that time, I had gone to a store with one of my best friends. The store had one of those 50 cent machines with necklaces in it. He ended up getting me one. Turns out, it was a rune necklace...Raido (This makes sense as I look back on this) to be exact. I went home that evening and looked up the meaning. The site that I got the meaning off of was a site about Wicca. As I looked through the website, it seemed interesting enough. I proceeded to go through the site, reading everything I could. After months of studying, I finally settled on calling myself a Wiccan. This, however, didn't last.Over the course of the year that I considered myself a Wiccan, I found that a sense of community was lacking. It was about "Me" rather than, "We". There was also a lot of drama. While I did find some very nice solitary types (who were solitary due to the drama), I wanted a community. 

Over the coming years, I would study constantly. I considered myself a general Pagan throughout my time in college. I studied everything from the works of Aleister Crowley to Vodun. I eventually, ran into Heathenry after a friend had been looking things up on ethnic religions. From there, I purchased Living Asatru by Greg Shetler. After that, I was hooked. This finally felt like home to me. It's been my home ever since. During those first stages, I met someone who is still a good friend (ironically, we know a lot of the same folks, but hadn't met until that point), and I remember we got to talking about how I didn't feel like I converted, and this was just who I was. He told me, "That's the great thing about our faith. You don't convert...you just are." This is something I've repeated to others countless times since (Thanks, Kraft), because it's the truth. This is who we are. 

When I decided to look into finding others locally, I was warned that WV was kind of a wasteland. That is correct, to an extent (at least at this time). You may have a group, but they may be going out of state and over the border to meet with folks. If there were Heathens or groups, there would also be a lot of distance between.

 The Christians had their community....Pagans had theirs....Every religion seemed to have their own community with their own borders (even if they pretended they didn't exist). I could not, however, find an actual strict Heathen community. I didn't give up, despite the years it took for me to get into contact with others on the same path, looking for the same things.

Now, looking back on it, it's as if the Gods have been on our side this whole time. Things have fallen into place that puts us on the brink of having our own community. It makes me happy to think that within the next few years, we may see multiple tribes/kindreds appear in the area. This is what we've needed for a long time. We have folks who go to other religions and paths, because they can't find other Heathens. I'm hoping that we can change that. Don't get me wrong. I'm not bashing other religions and paths. If we want to label ourselves Heathens, however, then we should have our own community, with other Heathens. Having borders is just a part of having structure, and as common sense would tell us, if you're building something, you must have a good structure, or else whatever you build, will fall. 

We need to educate, be active, and even learn to work with and around other religions. At the same time, it's very important to keep our own identity. We are Heathens. If everyone else has their own communities with their own laws and their own restrictions, then we should too, just to be fair about it. The easy way to say this is, our religion isn't other religions, so we shouldn't treat it like it is. This way of thinking gives folks who are just coming into this way of life a solid foundation. This gives folks a place to come to, and confidence in what they're doing. We have to promote Heathenry, not other religions, if we wish to see a future for it.

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