The Power of Silence

I’m not sure what it means, when our society has reached a point where a man feels compelled to make a statement about not making a statement, and yet, here I am, doing precisely that….

Last week, I published a blog post at the Heidhr Craft Blog about cultural diffusion versus cultural appropriation. Little did I know, as I hit the “publish” button and then proceeded to share that article on social media, that two days later one of the most shocking incidents in American history would provide a perfect example of exactly what actual cultural appropriation looks like!

Since last Wednesday, every Heathen organization and practitioner that I know has felt the need to make their usual “that’s not us” public statements, concerning the widespread image of the aforementioned culturally-appropriating terrorist. And I get it; I really do. The very sight of that person initially made me want to vomit, even as I found myself muttering “here we go again”. The first problem I have with ninety-five percent of those statements is that everyone was so focused on making sure nobody got the wrong ideas about themselves as individuals or about their organizations that they didn’t even bother to call attention to that person’s out-and-out appropriation of one of the most sacred symbols of the Native Peoples of the American Plains: the buffalo headdress. In fact, instead of calling that out–the wearing of which was, in fact, far more egregious than any ink that jerk was sporting–many ridiculed him for “wearing a horned helmet”, basically claiming a First Nations Peoples’ sacred item of clothing as “white”. That’s exactly as supremacist and racist as the dude who was wearing it in the first place!

I’m also angry that I have seen several Heathen-identifying people call this guy out as a “Christian mystic”, and then follow that up by stating that anyone practicing Norse Pagan/Christian syncretism is automatically a nazi/white supremacist, because there is allegedly “zero historical basis” for such syncretism apart from nazi Germany. Please, for the love of all the Gods and everything that is good and holy, if you are going to make far-reaching, blanket pronouncements such as that, and then pretend to back them historically, actually do your homework, because that statement right there is 100% bullshit! Not only is it bullshit, it is actually shit shat from the bull that is pervasive, lasting nazi propaganda, which remains “innocently” (using that term uber loosely!) ingrained in Modern American Heathenry . Norse Pagan/Christian syncretism actually did not exist in nazi Germany; the “fatherland” only played the “Christian card” when it needed to in order to get ahead. Hitler hated the face of Christian power in the world at that time–he was a lapsed Catholic who blamed not only the Jews but also the Church for most of the ills in his own life and in Germany. That was why the nazis adopted Germanic Pagan symbology in the first place! It was in an attempt to replace the “Christian regime”. All of that stuff you’ve been taught to believe about “Vikings hated Christians and Christ”? All of it was engineered by the nazis, in order to attain and maintain power within the confines of an overwhelmingly Christian Europe. When you spout that shit, you are literally spouting nazi propaganda!

Not only that: the actual archaeological record proves that quite a lot of Norse Pagan/Christian syncretism happened, between the time of the initial arrival of Christianity in the mid-8th century and the time of the later “Viking Age” that everybody digs so damn much. Brising-necklaces, used for divination and as a symbol of a volva’s status (see Voluspa 29), recovered from the graves of ritual specialists at Birka (9th-10th century) contain crosses beside images of Freyja, Hel, and Jormungandr, as well as Muslim dirhams. In fact, the most famous and the oldest cross in Sweden was recovered from a volva’s grave! A vast majority of the images from the archaeological record which we use to confirm the much-loved post-Icelandic Lore either also contain syncretized Christian imagery, or are, in fact, carved into or onto crosses! So, yeah, do your damn homework. Also, if that asshole is a “Christian mystic”, I’m a goddamn bunny rabbit.

But those are not the only issues I have with the overwhelming response to this asshole. Perhaps the biggest issue I have is that the response has, in fact, been overwhelming! Images and mentions of this dude have actually reached a saturation point on social media: there are more images and mentions of this guy in my Facebook feed at present than there are funny memes of cats. Almost without exception, these posts and shares are being made by people who identify as Heathen, or by Heathen organizations. They are literally providing this dude with free advertising; they are giving him way more “airtime” than he deserves! (Meanwhile, I have made exactly two posts containing images or mentions of this jerk, both of which were done as nidhr posts: the social media equivalent of a shaming curse!)

Now, most of you know by now that I do not identify as Heathen–I’m a Norse Witch; I’m Heidhrinn. I build my practice and this new Path forward from a Vendel Swedish pre-Christian perspective (precisely because of the aforementioned ingrained nazi propaganda in Modern American Heathenry). As such, apart from my first two books, Norse Witch: Reclaiming the Heidhrinn Heart and Blessings of Fire and Ice: A Norse Witch Devotional, I rarely speak from a post-Icelandic perspective anymore. Yet, pretty much all of the aforementioned people and organizations operate from precisely that perspective, which is perhaps the ultimate reason I have issues with this overwhelming response.

You see, in a post-Icelandic world, a guy who had done what this guy has done–basically dishonored not only his own society, but also surrounding socio-cultural groups–would have been condemned to outlawry. That was considered a sentence worse than death, because it basically meant you ceased to exist. You became a non-person. People no longer even spoke your name. (You could also be murdered on sight with no repercussions, except perhaps the reward of a round of mead for a job well-done, but let’s not get carried away!) The fact that I’m not only having to sit back and watch all of these supposed staunch reconstructionists do the exact opposite of what would’ve been historically done to this dude, but also feel compelled to have to make a statement myself regarding this issue, lest “silence equal complicity”, makes me angry on a level that I can’t even properly put into words!

Everybody wants to whip out their favorite English translation of Havamal 127 and wave it around as some sort of “get out of jail free” card, in an effort to disassociate themselves with this man and his ilk, so let me do likewise, with a direct literal translation, for those unable to read the original Old Norse:

hvars þú böl kannt, kveð þú þér bölvi at
ok gef-at þínum fjándum frið.

Wherever you evil know, say you you evil that
and give not your demons fridhr.
--Direct literal translation

Wherever you know of evil, call out that evil
and give your demons no fridhr.
--Paraphrase based on direct literal translation, Connla Freyjason

[Note: fjendur is used explicitly in the sense of “enemies”, whereas fjándi is used explicitly to denote demons, except in rare poetic situations. It is important that the word that appears herein is fjándum, and not fjendum, as this denotes that those things which are truly evil should be treated in the same manner as demons: they should be cast out! In our modern world, people tend to attach a lot of thoroughly modern Christian baggage to the word “demon”. If we honestly seek to reclaim or reconstruct anything from history, we absolutely cannot continue to graft our modern worldview onto the historical past, including its use of language. The people of these times before lived in a world populated by many Otherworldly beings, and “demons” numbered among that population, long before there was any such “Christian notion” of what that word meant!]

I specifically have not translated frið (Anglicized: fridhr) as “peace” in either the direct literal translation or the paraphrase based on the direct literal translation above because fridhr means so much more than simply “peace”! Fridhr might most easily be understood as a state of being within the social order of the “Viking Age” and prior. It not only meant “peace”, it also meant “sanctuary” and “refuge”. It implied that one was inside the social order, rather than outside of it. Outlaws received zero fridhr: they were placed outside the social order, and they were kept there. You didn’t invite such people “in for tea”, to put it overly-politely. No, you kept them even further than arm’s length; you didn’t talk about them; you didn’t “give them the time of day”, as we say now, here in our modern world. They were those people that we mean when we say “if they were on fire, I wouldn’t piss on them to put them out”. Constantly talking about this dude and posting and sharing his image is “inviting him in for tea” and “giving him the time of day”. It is a form of fridhr, because it is keeping him circulating inside our social circles, rather than placing him firmly outside them, where he absolutely belongs!

So it’s right there in that passage from the Havamal that everbody loves so much: we’re supposed to call out whatever is evil, and then we’re supposed to shut up and move on! We’re supposed to turn our backs on that evil, not give it overwhelming “airtime”! You would think in a society where cancel culture has become as popular as it is in ours today that a concept like this would be eagerly adopted, and yet, somehow: nope.

This is why “silence equals complicity” has zero place in Modern American Heathenry, much less in the brand of Scandi-Germanic spiritual practice that is Heidhr Craft. If I’m silent about something, it doesn’t mean I’m complicit, it means whatever that behavior or issue is, I am giving it zero fridhr! So, yeah, I’m angry that I have felt compelled to give this issue “the time of day” here on this blog. I’m angry that so-called “reconstructionists” daily pick and choose which parts of history to reconstruct, usually based solely on their own personal agendas. I’m angry that, with only a few notable exceptions, none of the Heathen-identifying people who are screaming about this are even bothering to say anything about the far worse act of culturally appropriating a sacred item of the First Nations Peoples, thereby effectively whitewashing this entire incident–that is, in my opinion, in itself an act of outright racism! I’m angry that this jerk’s so-claimed Christianity is being weaponized according to “innocently” retained nazi propaganda that remains ingrained in Modern American Heathenry. I’m angry that there is a legacy of hatred surrounding not only my chosen field of study but my chosen faith, through which I have to wade constantly, which motivates assholes like that guy to get tattoos of pre-Christian Norse symbols in the first place, and then motivates all those who don’t want to be associated with that hatred to saturate social media with cries of “that’s not us”. I’m angry that this jackass is wasting my air, and now also my time. I’m angry.

That dude and everything he represents is evil. I give him no further fridhr.