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I was reading the blog of a big-nosed Heathen and a comment of his got me thinking. He’d noticed that ASH had been shrinking in the last couple of yrs, where before there’d been a bit of a flowering of Interest in Anglo-Saxon Heathenry. He didn’t know why this was. Neither do I. I do Know what made me leave ASH…twice.
I was attracted to ASH for a number of reasons, though one of which was NOT Ancestry. No English in my family on either side as far back as my LDS relatives and their anal retentive digging can find. I found the language musical, the order pleasing, the poetry lovely. Then I started to meet folks. Most were no different than any good Heathen folk. BUT. While Asatru has huge Arses(figuratively and in reality;>), they generally don’t have any real Power over you. Unfortunately, with ASH and esp. with Theodism and their interconnected Oaths, you can be abused verbally and emotionally, leave and find that everyone whose Oathed to that person automatically has to take their side. As in one situation, “you’re not Oathed to me, your Word has no Meaning”….
I left for a while, then came back a couple yrs later….just in time for the Big Theodisc Race. Suddenly, ASH groups were deciding that they were going Theodisc. Folks that didn’t live nearby were told to move closer or to leave. Regions of the same group became different tribes and then basically declared the others Uttangearder. Differing Chiefs Posturing, staring fights, making personal vendettas basically national, often trying to get non-affiliated folks to agree with one or the other(the same folks that just weeks before no longer took you email because you weren’t Theodisc). At this point I had a flashback to college, remembering all the silliness that would go on in the late 70’s-early 80’s with different SCA domains. Rank depended on when you joined, who you knew and “who you blew”. For every Lord that was such in more than Name there were a dbl handful of sycophants of someone with a bit of Charisma…
I personally think ASH will be coming back, oddly for many of the reasons I hear “bitching” about; that ASH is becoming a denomination of General Heathenry/Asatru(though most don’t use the term anymore. ). Different Liturgical Language, slight variation of Blot and Sumbel Rituals, hierarchal but not the Court of King Henry knock-offs that have been forming in the last decade(and he’s from the wrong period! If you’re going to recreate yourself AS a Noble, since no one wants to be anything ELSE;>, at least do it more in line with the end of the Heathen Period….)…..
Ash will be, even after Arthur Returns….
Truth,
Pat
I was attracted to ASH for a number of reasons, though one of which was NOT Ancestry. No English in my family on either side as far back as my LDS relatives and their anal retentive digging can find. I found the language musical, the order pleasing, the poetry lovely. Then I started to meet folks. Most were no different than any good Heathen folk. BUT. While Asatru has huge Arses(figuratively and in reality;>), they generally don’t have any real Power over you. Unfortunately, with ASH and esp. with Theodism and their interconnected Oaths, you can be abused verbally and emotionally, leave and find that everyone whose Oathed to that person automatically has to take their side. As in one situation, “you’re not Oathed to me, your Word has no Meaning”….
I left for a while, then came back a couple yrs later….just in time for the Big Theodisc Race. Suddenly, ASH groups were deciding that they were going Theodisc. Folks that didn’t live nearby were told to move closer or to leave. Regions of the same group became different tribes and then basically declared the others Uttangearder. Differing Chiefs Posturing, staring fights, making personal vendettas basically national, often trying to get non-affiliated folks to agree with one or the other(the same folks that just weeks before no longer took you email because you weren’t Theodisc). At this point I had a flashback to college, remembering all the silliness that would go on in the late 70’s-early 80’s with different SCA domains. Rank depended on when you joined, who you knew and “who you blew”. For every Lord that was such in more than Name there were a dbl handful of sycophants of someone with a bit of Charisma…
I personally think ASH will be coming back, oddly for many of the reasons I hear “bitching” about; that ASH is becoming a denomination of General Heathenry/Asatru(though most don’t use the term anymore. ). Different Liturgical Language, slight variation of Blot and Sumbel Rituals, hierarchal but not the Court of King Henry knock-offs that have been forming in the last decade(and he’s from the wrong period! If you’re going to recreate yourself AS a Noble, since no one wants to be anything ELSE;>, at least do it more in line with the end of the Heathen Period….)…..
Ash will be, even after Arthur Returns….
Truth,
Pat
