( Dez allowed me to start a new thread off of a comment she made elsewhere
Dez, this post isn't necessarily in reply to you. I have no idea what you've experienced or contemplated so I wouldn't want to presume. But, I do often see a variant of this remark coming from people new to heathenry and the dynamic of the relationship can require some explaining.
The relationship between god and man tends to be a lot different than people are used to, especially if they're coming from a Christian or Christian influenced background. With God we expect to have a personal relationship--the faith is pretty much founded on the need of a personal salvation. God is said to be aware of every individual soul and concerned with every individual soul.
Personal salvation is a foreign concept in heathenry. According to Rudolf Simek in the DoNM, heathen salvation amounts to good harvest, plenty of fish and peace. Heathens aren't very concerned with enlightenment, or transcendence, or personal spiritual lessons. Those things tend to be world-rejecting rather than world-embracing. Gods in heathenry are appealed to to achieve the heathen idea of salvation (or the three "f"s), but not so much for personal matters.
An egg might be a good analogy. Imagine you are the chick, and within your shell you hear bugs scraping on the outside of the shell and rocks knocking and other external noises. To someone else, those external noises are the gods and out there is "heaven". The shell is what you have to break out of and it inhibits you. To a heathen, the shell is the gods. They are the order of nature and what keeps the yolk and embryo sheltered and organized. They are the center of your inneryard. The outside noises are the dead( like the mother hen resting on the nest) in the afterlife, or the Other in the outeryard trying to influence you/meddle with midgard, etc.
Gods in heathenry worry about the world and the community. They worry about the bigger picture. Your ancestors and your dead? They worry about your personal life, your growth or your home specifically. Because they have a vested interest in you, and also because they aren't busy maintaining the world and community.
That's not to say that one cant have a relationship with the gods. But its one you build. They have to get to know you as much as you need tto learn of them. And this is done through the gifting process. You gift them and in turn they'll gift you back. It becomes a reciprocal relationship and the concept is actually quite beautiful. Another example of this is in sacred land. A space wasn't automatically sacred; for whatever a reason a grove (for example) was chosen and then through a history of worship and honor the sacredness soaked into the soil. This is why the very earth was gathered and taken along when a people migrated. Otherwise, they'd have to start over.
Back to the shell: the gods surround us constantly. The sun beating on you is Sunna. The clouds moving across the sky is Frigga. Freyr is in what sprouts beneath your feet. They are the shell, and because they've always been with us we don't notice them. We've forgotten about our here in the quest for there. It's not that they aren't interested, or don't speak, they are the world around you and they'll notice you as you begin to build them into your life through honoring and gifting. You'll notice that the world improves a bit more, bringing you more "fish", "harvest", and peace.
One has to remember that gods aren't a superior species or being. "God" is only a title of position, like President or Mayor. Gods are wights, the land wights are wights, man is a wight. The gods are just wights with a bigger role of responsibility. Its the same as you and Obama. You're both human but you run your home and he runs the country. That, again, is why we have ancestors and wights to turn to.
Anyway...its hard to get all the complexities into one post. I hope that made some sense.
In reference to your post, I revere Norse/Germanic gods, but find that the Aesir have no interest in me, unlike my spouse. So I would likely not fit your search specifically for Asatruar and Odinists, but am interested in seeing where this goes.
The relationship between god and man tends to be a lot different than people are used to, especially if they're coming from a Christian or Christian influenced background. With God we expect to have a personal relationship--the faith is pretty much founded on the need of a personal salvation. God is said to be aware of every individual soul and concerned with every individual soul.
Personal salvation is a foreign concept in heathenry. According to Rudolf Simek in the DoNM, heathen salvation amounts to good harvest, plenty of fish and peace. Heathens aren't very concerned with enlightenment, or transcendence, or personal spiritual lessons. Those things tend to be world-rejecting rather than world-embracing. Gods in heathenry are appealed to to achieve the heathen idea of salvation (or the three "f"s), but not so much for personal matters.
An egg might be a good analogy. Imagine you are the chick, and within your shell you hear bugs scraping on the outside of the shell and rocks knocking and other external noises. To someone else, those external noises are the gods and out there is "heaven". The shell is what you have to break out of and it inhibits you. To a heathen, the shell is the gods. They are the order of nature and what keeps the yolk and embryo sheltered and organized. They are the center of your inneryard. The outside noises are the dead( like the mother hen resting on the nest) in the afterlife, or the Other in the outeryard trying to influence you/meddle with midgard, etc.
Gods in heathenry worry about the world and the community. They worry about the bigger picture. Your ancestors and your dead? They worry about your personal life, your growth or your home specifically. Because they have a vested interest in you, and also because they aren't busy maintaining the world and community.
That's not to say that one cant have a relationship with the gods. But its one you build. They have to get to know you as much as you need tto learn of them. And this is done through the gifting process. You gift them and in turn they'll gift you back. It becomes a reciprocal relationship and the concept is actually quite beautiful. Another example of this is in sacred land. A space wasn't automatically sacred; for whatever a reason a grove (for example) was chosen and then through a history of worship and honor the sacredness soaked into the soil. This is why the very earth was gathered and taken along when a people migrated. Otherwise, they'd have to start over.
Back to the shell: the gods surround us constantly. The sun beating on you is Sunna. The clouds moving across the sky is Frigga. Freyr is in what sprouts beneath your feet. They are the shell, and because they've always been with us we don't notice them. We've forgotten about our here in the quest for there. It's not that they aren't interested, or don't speak, they are the world around you and they'll notice you as you begin to build them into your life through honoring and gifting. You'll notice that the world improves a bit more, bringing you more "fish", "harvest", and peace.
One has to remember that gods aren't a superior species or being. "God" is only a title of position, like President or Mayor. Gods are wights, the land wights are wights, man is a wight. The gods are just wights with a bigger role of responsibility. Its the same as you and Obama. You're both human but you run your home and he runs the country. That, again, is why we have ancestors and wights to turn to.
Anyway...its hard to get all the complexities into one post. I hope that made some sense.
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