Wiccatru: Not As Harmless As One Might Think!
Wiccatru. It’s a word we hear bandied about in Heathen forums and Facebook groups often, especially if you’re one of those trail-blazing mavericks (like me), who chooses to bring the Old Ways into modern practice. But did you ever stop to think about what it really means, how it’s generally used, or where the term originally came from?
Wiccatru, definition: Generally used as an insult by strict Reconstructionists, atheist Heathens (yes, that’s actually a thing!), and “Blood and Soil” Folkish Heathens (read: racists) to denote people with eclectic practices, or people who rely heavily on gnosis, or people who believe that literally anyone can be Heathen (regardless of racial background), or people who practice magick within a Norse paradigm, or Norse practitioners who actually identify as Pagan (because they actually understand the definition of that word). Originally intended to imply that a practice borrowed too heavily from Wiccan practice (such as when referring to the Hammer Rite as basically a revamped Heathen “quarter call”), it has since become a catch-all term for any practice that might remotely be considered “New Age” or even modern (inclusive of modern practices that are, in fact, based in lore and the archaeological record).
On the surface, at face value, this term might seem like just another symptom of the “you’re doing it wrong” culture that runs so rampantly through modern Norse Practice. However, when one begins to attempt to trace the origin of the term Wiccatru, and really research where it came from and how often it is used and in what manner, one finds something deeply disturbing:
Wiccatru is more commonly used on racist Norse-based sites than anywhere else!
It has become a synonym (and not in a good way!) for Universalist: the belief that anyone of any background (specifically: racial background) can become Heathen. At least one obviously racist site which I visited while researching this article described those they considered Wiccatru as fluffy bunny neo-Pagans who wish to make the Norse Faith available to everyone, a view which they then countered as impossible, because Norse Practice “stems from the blood and soil of a particular people.” (If that made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up in a not-good way, I stand with you. I honestly felt like I needed to take an actual bath after visiting that site. Note: I will not provide links to the site because I absolutely do not want to contribute to their positive web-traffic.)
When we use this term to denigrate those who promote eclectic practices, or who rely on gnosis, or who practice magick within a Norse paradigm, or who identify themselves as Pagan, we are, in fact, contributing to the “positive web-traffic” of these racist Norse-based groups! We’re effectively making a point for the opposing team! This absolutely cannot persist!
Exclusion is exclusion is exclusion! We cannot continue to look down our noses at each other and each other’s practice and then sit around and wonder “why we can’t have nice things”; why the racists are quickly taking over and ruining the faith for the rest of us. These attitudes, and the use of words like Wiccatru, are precisely why “we can’t have nice things”. It’s a short trip down the slippery slope from one sort of supremacist attitude to all the other forms of supremacy!
Don’t get it twisted: of course those who practice Norse magick, or are trying to bring the Old Ways into the modern world, or who self-identify as Pagan (again, because they actually understand the definition of that term; please see last week’s post), or who rely heavily on gnosis, or who practice methods which others might consider “eclectic” have a responsibility to base those practices as much as possible within a paradigm that is historically Norse, whenever and wherever possible. Otherwise, their practice stops being Norse and becomes something else entirely. But adhering to the Letter of the Law, rather than the Spirit of the Norse, actually leads to the very Negative-Folkish attitudes and racist paradigms that we are actively trying to combat in modern Heathenry.
So, the next time you feel compelled to look down your nose at someone else’s practice and subsequently apply a derisive label to it, pause a moment to consider the deeper ramifications of what you’re doing. Perhaps if more people asked questions, instead of pointing fingers and calling people names, we could finally “have nice things”….
