Ancestry and Ancestor Worship
A major part of Heathenism includes the concept of ancestor worship.
To some people this is at first glance a rather foreign or alien concept; however if you stop and think about it, nothing could be further from the truth.
In our modern society, we still have pictures on our walls of our family members, both living and deceased.
Items that once belonged to loved ones who have passed away tend to get handed down from generation to generation. These items tend to have pride of place in the home, or are kept under lock and key. When brought out for display purposes, they are treated with reverence and respect.
Prime examples from my own life include my Wife’s Grandfather’s WWII medals, or my Uncle’s beer stein from the former Canadian military base he was stationed at in Germany. Even something as seemingly mundane as my Grandfather’s harmonica takes on a special significance as a relic of my ancestry.
I am fortunate enough to have a head start on digging into my own family’s past. My paternal Grandmother was a genealogist. Through her, I know my direct ancestors on my Father’s side moved to the U.S. from Scotland before the War of 1812. They moved north into Canada during that war, and were United Empire Loyalists.
History, however, has a way of muddying the waters of ancestry.
My mother’s side had no clue where they came from. Their last name, Christo, is an obvious derivative of the Greek “Christos,” or “Christ.” This made sense for the most part. Dark hair and olive skin tends to run through that side, so it was widely accepted that my maternal grandfather’s side of the family were Greek. No other markers of this culture have been passed down, all having presumably been lost to time and distance from the “old country.”
In one of those quirks of fate, it turns out that the “old country” is actually England.
Cornwall, to be exact.
My mother ran into a distant cousin who has been tracking down the genealogical threads of that side of the family, and it turns out I’m part Cornish, and not Greek. The dark hair and olive skin? Apparently the name Christo was changed from Christoe, and the members of that family who resided for generations in Cornwall originally migrated there from Spain. Go figure.
So what does this have to do with Ancestor worship or being Heathen?
Well, my little rabbit trail had a point. Even if you think you know where you come from, your family tree may not be as straight as you think.
Some people think, inaccurately, that to be Heathen you must be able to prove a direct ancestry from Scandinavia. On a broader scale, the Germanic tribes are also generally accepted.
Here’s where History muddies the waters.
Let’s say that, like me, you believe all of your descendants came from the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales… Ok, yes, Cornwall too. Mustn’t leave anyone out.)
It’s generally believed in Pagan circles that this ancestry puts you firmly in Celt territory, and yes, at one point in history, it would have.
However, Northern Europe has a long and varied past. The U.K. being in Northern Europe shares in that past.
If you go back far enough, the map of Europe looks very different.
The Britons were displaced by the Romans. When the Romans left, the Angles and Saxons filled the void. This was a Germanic tribe, practicing their own form of the religion now being reconstructed by modern Heathens.
The Orkney Islands and the Hebrides were, for a long time, considered part of Norway. They are today part of the U.K.
The map shows Europe in 526.
By the 8th of June, 793 the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles tell of the first Viking raid on British soil:
“They came…to the church of Lindisfarne, and laid all waste with dreadful havoc, trod with unhallowed feet the holy places, dug up the altars and carried off all the treasures of the holy church. Some of the brethren they killed; some they carried off in chains; many they cast out, naked and loaded with insults; some they drowned in the sea.”
There’s a lot going on there. First of all, this is an example of an attack by the vikings on a Germanic tribe (the Anglo-Saxons.)
It’s obvious that at this point in history Christianity has displaced the former pagan religion of the Anglo-Saxons, so it can be argued that this isn’t Heathen on Heathen violence. It does, however, give us a glimpse of the motivating factors of the vikings. At this point in history every little settlement was fortified and defended. Churches were not. What the monks of the time view with horror (how dare they trod with unhallowed feet!) The vikings saw as easy pickings.
These weren’t religiously motivated raids. This was a case of the church believing that their god would keep them out of harms way, and thinking that no one would dare defy him by intruding on his house and taking off with his treasure.
This is the modern equivalent of leaving a car unlocked and unattended in the bad part of town, with the keys in it, then walking away and praying that no one enter “with unhallowed feet” and take off in your ride. Innocence? Ignorance? Arrogance? Take your pick.
If you are the one writing the history books, I’m sure you can spin it however you’d like.
Here’s where I’m going with this:
The Anglo-Saxons were raided by the vikings, who were a mix of Scandinavian peoples.
By 1066, the earl of Wessex (an Anglo-Saxon Lord), the Duke of Normandy, and the King of Norway were all eyeing the throne of England. The English King, Edward the confessor had died, kicking off the Norman Invasion.
As a thank-you to a group of Flemish (Belgians) who had fought with him during the conquest, William the Conqueror gave titles and land in Scotland. This is where my ancestor, Freskin de Moravia comes into play. He is the founder of the Scottish Clan from which I am descended.
I’m sure there are remnants of Pictish, British, Celt, Anglo-Saxon, Norman, Flemish, and potentially Norse blood flowing through my veins. History has a way of twisting things around. Conquerors become settlers, who become locals, who become the conquered.
Short of DNA testing, there is no way to know for sure who your ancestors were. Taking sides and saying that one group of ancient peoples was somehow superior to another group from a similar culture is…innocence? ignorance? arrogance?
Take your pick.
The fact remains that Northern Europe was a swirling pool of tribes and cultures, from whom our modern western civilization has sprouted and grown. We can take pride in knowing that we are the descendants of an entire region full of people who lived, raised their children, and honoured their ancestors, just as we do today.
Growing Our Pagan Community
World Tree by Alexander Faolchu on deviantart.com
In a previous post, I mentioned that I am seriously thinking about starting a local Heathen kindred. Here, I will go further to explain where I’m coming from and why I have a real desire to see the Pagan community grow as a whole.
Fear can make you do strange things.
As a new Pagan, I had a fear that other people would find out. I had been raised christian, gone to bible college, and as far as my family was concerned, had been raised “right”.
My wife I had been solitary Pagans for roughly 5 years when we got married. There were three ministers from two different denominations present in the church we were married in. I only tell you this so you have some idea about how deep in the Pagan closet I was hiding.
Then, in 2008 an event happened that literally forced me to march out of that closet in all my Pagan glory. The event was so life changing that I can honestly say that nothing before or since has had such a profound effect on my life.
The event in question?
The birth of our first daughter.
The reason this had such a profound effect on me?
I was forced to man-the-F*** up!
For the first time in my life my actions and decisions had a direct effect on another person’s life. I was not willing to put my child through the confusion and fear of being raised in the pagan closet. I also knew that eventually our family would find out anyways.
Kids say the darnedest things, and all that.
So, when my family started pestering us about getting each of my daughters baptized into the church, we held a simple outdoor dedication rite to raise them in our faith instead.
This is where the “Pagan community” ball started rolling for me…
I found myself in the position of being an openly Pagan parent, with little to no connections to any other local Pagans. We had one Pagan friend, who’s children are roughly the same age as ours.
Seeing the kids play together got me thinking about their futures as kids raised in Pagan homes.
Would they be forced to live through the same hostilities as the Pagans of my generation have had to endure? Or will religious tolerance finally catch up to the point where a person can list being Pagan as their faith without being subjected to ridicule and general nastiness?
Someone needs to do something to ensure a bright future for Paganism locally and globally. Being a DIY kind of guy, I take the “if not me, then who?” approach.
Being a solitary for over a decade, I knew I needed to get some group experience, and make connections with other pagans. Again, I took a local and global approach. close to a year ago I joined a local Druid grove, and an international Druid group (ADF.) I also attended my first local Pagan Pride Day, and dragged the whole family along.
Which brings me up to today. My grove is making plans for Beltane which my family and I are looking forward to.
The only problem I’ve encountered is time. My current grove is in a city 45 min. from where I live. When they hold events and study groups through the work week I sometimes can’t attend due to shift work. Also, their focus is Celtic, and I’m a Heathen.
I love my grove, and will continue to be an active member as long as they’ll have me, but I feel the need to try and get things rolling on an even more local level. Hence the reason I am thinking about starting a Kindred in my own town.
How will I do this?
I am thinking I will have to start with a broadly focused Pagan coffee social or pub moot, in order to get other local pagans to come out and make connections. Next, I will offer to host a Heathen study group for anyone interested in the old Gods of Northern Europe. From there, I should be able to find a few dedicated and like minded people who are willing to form a strong core for a kindred.
It may sound odd, but I think in order to grow our Pagan communities, we need to approach things from two fronts. We need to reach out to the broadest segment of our community (Pagans as an umbrella group) while simultaneously strengthening and building small core groups, from which we can support and nurture our personal beliefs and practices.
These small groups will be able to reinforce the efforts of other local pagans with regards to showing up at Pagan events and providing alternatives for new Pagans who are looking for the right path for themselves.
Having a strong pagan community is good for every Pagan in that community, regardless of their personal path or affiliations.
I believe that it is up to us to provide the strong Pagan communities that we hope will be there for our children.
If not us, then who?
Natural Burial and Memorial Forests
I’ve been doing some blog housekeeping lately, and discovered the following draft that never got finished or published. I’ll leave it as I found it, and add onto the end, after the words “I dug deeper.” I have a rough idea where I was going with this, I think I just didn’t have enough time to finish it. The window into some of the deeper questions we have to face, both as Pagan parents, and as pagans in general, is in my opinion too important to leave buried in my “unfinished drafts” pile.
So, I’ve had to have a difficult conversation TWICE this weekend with my girls (one and four yrs. old, respectively.)
The first conversation came about from my youngest catching a kitten under the cedar hedge at the back of our yard. Long story short, I had to try to explain to a one and four-year old why we couldn’t keep the kitten, especially once the owners had been located.
We got to endure one sad evening while my youngest walked randomly around the house, palms up at shoulder level, asking “kitty?,” “kitty?,” “kitty?”… not fun.
The second came Sunday night/ Monday morning, as we had to explain why Delilah, our beloved cat of 9 years, had to go to the vet’s to be put to sleep.
This time it was the four-year old’s turn to break our hearts. Crying wildly, she managed to tell us why she was so sad. “But, if she goes to the vets, she won’t be able to go to Mother Earth!”
And with that one line, spoken by a sobbing four-year old, something was clarified for me.
I’ve never given much thought to my final resting place. The afterlife, sure, but not my grave.
I have heard of green burial, where you are buried in a traditional plot, in a wood or cardboard coffin, sans formaldehyde… sounds good to me.
Then I did some research.
In Canada, there are only three cemeteries that even allow green burial. Two are in B.C., and one is in eastern Ontario. Both are much too far from where I live. Also, these are traditional cemeteries that just happen to have a few plots that they’ll allow green burial in.
I dug deeper.
What I discovered was the concept of natural burial.
I love the idea of natural burial preserves, or memorial forests (depending on the terminology of the multitude of websites I came across.) The concept of having a place that is kept as wild and natural as possible being used as a burial site, with none of the harmful chemicals and “burial waste” that goes along with the modern cemetery.
I especially like the idea that, because these places are burial grounds, they become unavailable for future development. Not only do you return your body to the earth, your burial site becomes a permanent earth friendly activist. Multiple burials create a permanent wildlife preserve.
As a Pagan, this “natural burial” seems to me to be the best option as a final act that will honour the earth. Several of these places even offer areas where ashes may be scattered.
Perhaps someday I’ll be able to contribute in some way to one of these memorial forests. I’d like to think that the wisdom of this idea will catch on, and our descendants will have wild places to go and honour their ancestors…
Druidry and Pagan Pride Day
So Pagan Pride Day has come and gone.
My family and I attended for the first time this year, and loved it!
This takes place in a park in the nearest city to where I live. It is out in the open, and there were plenty of people going through the park as the day went on. In spite of the common misconception, not all Pagans feel that they have to hide who they are and what they do. I think that the only way we will gain more acceptance from the general public is through public exposure. People fear the unknown. Remove the unknown, and remove the fear.
The opening and closing rituals were performed by the local Druid Grove, which I am now a member of. These were ADF style, very well done, sincere and professional.
The rest of the day was also well done. There was an area set aside for the kids to play (yes, pagans breed 😉 An area in the middle was set aside for entertainment (I didn’t catch the man’s name, but he did a great job of singing and playing the guitar,) and an area for the warrior games (pig toss, archery, foot racing, etc.) And an area for workshops, of which there were four:
What is a Pagan?, Homeopathy in the Home, Divination, and Applied Paganism.
I attended the first and last, while my wife attended the middle two.
This was followed by a potluck dinner, mini drumming circle, and then the closing.
Am I going Druid?!?
So, there’s a local group of pagans who put on a Pagan Pride Day once a year in a nearby city. We’ve never been, but this year I’m taking the family to give the girls some exposure to the local Pagan community. With my oldest daughter going off to school in the fall, I am starting to realize that there are going to be a lot of questions about why other kids get to go to church, and our family only does stuff at home.
Anyway, on the website of this group is a link, asking “would you be interested in joining a local Druidry group?”
Huh.
Druidry? Really?
Automatically, my mind raced through what I knew about druids:
Yep. That’s a druid, second one from the left. Dude could call ravens and wolves to fight for him. Personally, I always preferred the sorceress, but I’m not going to turn into one of those…
That’s when I realized, almost everything I know about druids comes from Diablo 2.
I know. Pretty sad, huh…
So I figured, it can’t hurt to look. I might actually learn something. I went on their site.
“Hey hun? Check this out! They have a mead making workshop. Ooohh – and Irish wolfhounds! Hey, listen to this…” etc. until the next thing I know, I’m firing off an email to their head honcho, trying to find out if we can meet up and chat. I’ll admit it, by this point I was rather smitten with what I had seen.
We are going to meet at the Pagan Pride day, and depending on how things go, I may end up a “Shamanic Pagan with Heathen leanings…in a druidic grove.”
I’d be interested in hearing from anyone who can tell me more about druids. What they do, how they interact, etc. I know I could just Wikipedia or google it, but I prefer the good old-fashioned “first hand experience” approach.
And just for the curious:
http://www.paganpride.org/
Ostara, Eostre, Easter, Spring Equinox
This year we celebrated Ostara in a clearing in the center of a cedar labyrinth. It’s one of the few really pagan-feeling places near where we live (This area is mostly farming country.) It rained all morning at our house, and thunder and lightning followed us to the location, but the sun was peeking through the clouds, and the maze was still dry when we arrived.
It was a gathering of the three people I’ve mentioned before, and our children. We did a very basic, kid friendly circle, with music and bubble blowing. We all then went for a nature walk through the maze. We left birdseed anywhere that the kids found something they wanted to collect (acorns, stones, fallen sticks) as an exchange and “thank you” to nature.
We had told them to keep an eye out for signs of spring. There were lots of birds, and green things just coming back to life. We were also fortunate to find some rabbit droppings and winter fur, both of which we left untouched, in the maze.
Also, it seems that the easter bunny had been through, because we found exactly enough plastic easter eggs with treats in them that each child got the same amount. 😉
We returned to our circle, said our thank-yous and good-byes, and then went our separate ways.
However you celebrate it, Happy Ostara Everyone!
Old Barn Owl 