(no subject)

[hearthstone]

Okay, I have to say it--I do not understand these folks who decide to become heathen or pagan and the first thing they do is look for "a teacher." Seriously, maybe I'm weird, but my impulse would be to do my own research first! Wouldn't it make more sense to try to gain a broader base of information before handing oneself over to some random person? Why would someone think that this random person would be at all knowledgable, or even trustworthy, if they had no exposure to the faith in question ahead of time? How would they be able to tell?

I don't mean folks who ask for information or to be pointed to resources--or who do some work, realize that they've gotten as far as they can on their own, and ask for assistance in going further. That's reasonable. But that's not what you see--what you see is people who are looking for someone to hand them a pre-formed spirituality, whether because they don't want to do the work themselves or because they can't let go of the notion that there must be a single Truth out there--or, I suppose, because they are looking for the secrets of the universe or some such thing, and obviously anyone who happens to be hanging out on an email list would not only possess them but would jump at the chance to hand them out to anyone who asked. I'm not particularly offended by this--caveat emptor and all that--but I just hate to see so many people shutting off their brains before they've even tried to engage them.

Comments

[weofodthignen]

You've had some responses talking about how people come out of traditions of passive learning both in school and in their childhood religion. But I also think languages tend to be a real weak spot and source of fear for most English speakers--and Germanic stuff is studded with linguistic challenges. Also there are a lot of heathens who emphasize the importance of doing heathenry right--it's very much built into the gestalt of the religion. So I kind of understand newbies seeking instruction--the clearer and more structured, the better. I can see it as an understandable fear response, and in fact many, many heathens look down on people winging it. What I tend to look down on more is those who have been heathen for a while but stopped at a very basic level of knowledge--for example, never attempting to puzzle out the original Norse or Anglo-Saxon for a crucial passage whose exact meaning they worry about, never learning the names of the gods in the Old Tongues or how to pronounce key words, including those names. That's where my personal bias kicks in--I don't understand why a heathen would not wish to know more than many settle for.

M

[hearthstone.livejournal.com]

Also there are a lot of heathens who emphasize the importance of doing heathenry right--it's very much built into the gestalt of the religion

This is an excellent point--and one brought up by one of my kindred members at Pagan Coffee Night tonight. And of course there are plenty of heathens ready and willing to tell you if they think you are doing it wrong! None of them speak for heathenry as a whole, though, and so the heathen community has developed into a fairly diverse group of people. For me, for example, the hierarchy built in to some varieties of Anglo-Saxon heathenry would be a hard sell; I guess it's the Icelandic model that seems to be so common (although I'm not sure how "Icelandic" the Icelandic model is! :)). For others it's something that enriches their religion in a very important sense and brings them closer to their spiritual roots. Both types have their standards, but they are not the same standards.

As far as languages go, I hope to gain enough knowledge to translate with help from references. It will help, I think, that I have some familiarity with Germanic languages (native English speaker, and had three years of mostly-forgotten German in college). I'd like to learn enough old Norse to figure out for myself which translations are most accurate, and Dan has an interest in old English, so I suppose in theory we have it covered!

I don't understand why a heathen would not wish to know more than many settle for

I think we all hit a point where we are comfortable enough with our knowledge base that we feel less need to push ourselves. Of course that point will fall in different places for different heathens. I know I'm no loremaster and probably never will be, but I do study it.

Actually I think the most interesting example of what you're talking about happened when I was among heathens and Eir was honored--several folks there hailed "him"!