On Becoming Heathen

I suppose the best place to start is at the beginning.  That is the common wisdom when it comes to such self-assessment, even if common wisdom seems like an oxymoron.

Still, it's probably best to start there, if for no other reason than to understand where I'm coming from so that I can look back at the path I've taken.  I'd like to say this was a difficult decision, but in truth it wasn't.  I'd like to say that I've had some deep insight that put my feet on this path.  Again, sadly, not the case.  I didn't have some life altering, earth shattering moment of EUREKA-ness.  Not at all.  That does not mean that the voice in my heart was any less profound to me.  Merely that the story isn't as exciting as some of the others I've heard.  Maybe that's because the Gods didn't need to throw a fit to get my attention.  Wow.  I hadn't thought of it that way before.  Maybe the people who have the most amazing stories about finding the Path had them, not because the Gods like them more or something equally childish, but because they needed them to get moving in a new and different direction.  Where as I have never had that problem.  Ask anyone who's known me for a long time and they well tell you that I'm the original source of Helium Hand.  Something comes along, and the hand goes up to volunteer.  I'm not the best at follow through (in fact, updating a blog might be beyond me...) but the initial push to generate excitement I'm a master at.

Anyway, back to my story.

One of my dear friends and I co-write a lot of fun short stories.  Not to try and publish them, but because we enjoy writing together.  Often we write in one of the many universes others have created, known as Fan Fiction.  On this particular day, though, we were instead playing around with history.  I think the actual impetus was a short story revolving around the idea of what would have happened if William had NOT been the Conqueror.  If instead, the Anglo-Saxons had beaten him back in 1066 and stranded the Norman armies in a strange land.  Or some such.  Whatever the premise was, I started looking online for information about Anglo-Saxon weddings, which I believe led me to the wikipedia page on Germanic Paganism, which... somehow or other, led me to the Asatru Alliance homepage.  Which I read.

Twice.

In particular the Q and A page About Asatru.

Now, when I read it, I had already been a Recovering Catholic.  I hadn't been to church (other than the occasional wedding, funeral, baptism, or visit with the inlaws, in years.  Since 2004, to be precise.  I had long known what I wasn't, and that was any form of Christian.  Still, I had NO idea what I was.  I read that website, and something clicked.  A loud click.  The more I read, the more I felt a connection.  A logical connection in my heart and in my head.  This was it.  This was right.  This was what I was supposed to do.

I don't expect it to all be so obvious to me, so smooth.  That's one of the reasons I'm starting this blog.  I need a place to organize the strange thoughts that pop into my head at two in the morning.  And if this reaches someone else with the same questions, so much the better.  I find I think more critically when ideas are flying fast and hot.  I also don't expect this to be easy.  But then, nothing of real value ever is.

And so here it begins.  My beginning.  I don't know what the future will hold, but I look forward to my journey along the path.