[DISCLAIMER GOES HERE!]

Note that I am no expert and this is all my personal opinion based on my relationship with my Gods. Do not assume I am casting aspersions on your personal beliefs/lack thereof. If you assume I’m talking about you, that’s your problem.

Are all things on my mind lately. Still amused at the people losing their shit over Idris Elba as Heimdall in the upcoming Thor movie. Last time I will say this: the Thor Movie – Based off a COMIC BOOK, NOT the Poetic Eddas or the Lore. STFU about it already.

The awesome pretzelcoatl posted this link on my Facebook page the other day. I was interested in the perspective of the author until I got to the words Mojlnir and Coven in the same sentence. O_o? Not sure how many of you reading know that I’m Asatru, and I’m still working my way through what this means for me but one thing I’m 100% certain about is that Wicca != Asatru. The words Coven and Mojlnir, Thor and such should not be uttered together IMNSHO.

Now it could just be a semantic misstep by the article’s authors, not knowing what to do with the word Kindred or the author could have actually said Coven. Regardless, it turned me off of the idea that this person was serious in their beliefs. Yes, that makes me sound kind of snobbish, but one thing that’s always stuck with me is the idea that our Gods don’t share with other pantheons. So for me, reading Coven and Moljnir struck me as odd and just not right some how. It rekindled the thoughts I’ve often had about mixing of pantheons and claiming more than one set of Gods/Goddesses.

Which gets into my issues with people claiming pantheon’s but not going all the way in their claims. IE not swearing oaths, living their words and deeds but claiming kinship to a particular path when it’s convenient. I firmly believe that if someone is going to claim a Nordic path then they need to claim it fully, not in a buffet style of grab it, keep it in my pocket until needed, brandish it as needed then put it away until the next time. I guess what I’m getting at, is that I find it bothersome when people lump Asatru, Pagan and Wiccan all in the same group and treat them interchangeably.

I figure if you dedicate yourself to a path that should be your path, and not take bits from each one that suits you when it suits your purpose at that moment. Keep in mind I’m not talking about Unitarian Universalists, I’m addressing specifically Pagan paths in this post. This could be my naivete about how others think of their path speaking or my attempt at keeping something intact as possible for my own use… scratch that last bit.

I guess this turned into a processing post about how I feel about some aspects of buffet style paganism or pantheism and how I’m not happy when people do that. So thoughts on my take on pick a path and stay with it? or don’t try to claim traditions you are not fully invested in and speak upon them as if you are a participating member of X tradition?

*sigh* I know this has the potential to turn into a firestorm so I’m saying it now. If you cannot be civil to people in this thread, don’t bother commenting. I’m not going to referee adults and I shouldn’t have to either.

Published by cypheroftyr

Tanya DePass is the founder and Director of I Need Diverse Games, a not-for-profit organization based in Chicago, which is dedicated to better diversification of all aspects of gaming. I Need Diverse Games serves the community by supporting marginalized developers, attendance at the Game Developer Conference by participating in the GDC Scholarship program, helps assist attendance at other industry events, and is seeking partnership with organizations and initiatives. Tanya is a lifelong Chicagoan who loves everything about gaming, #INeedDiverseGames spawn point, and wants to make the industry better and more inclusive for everyone. She’s part of the Rivals of Waterdeep actual play stream on twitch.tv/rivalsofwaterdeep, a partnered Twitch variety broadcaster; and often speaks on issues of diversity, feminism, race, intersectionality & other topics online, at conventions and as a public speaker.. She’s also contributed to publications at Green Ronin, Paizo and Monte Cook Games and is the co-developer for the Fifth Season RPG based on N.K. Jemisin’s three time Hugo award winning Broken Earth trilogy. She’s the creator and Creative Director of Into the Mother Lands, a Twitch supported RPG and Actual Play stream, airing weekly on her channel, twitch.tv/cypheroftyr. Additionally, she is a Senior Annenberg labs Civic Media Fellow at USC. She’s also the creator and Creative Director of Into the Mother Lands, a new sci fi afro-futurist RPG developed with a team of all POC and Black creators; live streamed on her twitch channel, /cypheroftyr. She’s named as one of The Game Awards Future Class 2020, a diverse group of builders, thinkers and dreamers whose voices elevate and diversify our artform. It recognizes individuals around the world who represent the bright, bold and inclusive future for video games. She was also named as one of Gamers of the Year 2020 by Kotaku along with three of her contemporaries. She was also invited to the Xbox MVP program in February 2021. Her work to make the industry more inclusive has been highlighted in Game Changer, Directed by Tina Charles, WNBA star & olympian as well as filmmaker. The short documentary premiered at Tribeca 2021, as part of the Queen Collective; an initiative started by Queen Latifah, supported by Proctor & Gamble in an effort to get more Black women into film making. Game Changer was also featured as part of BETHer’s 2021 Juneteenth Programming on 19 June 2021. Tanya is the programming & diversity coordinator for OrcaCon and GaymerX. She also serves on the Board of Directors for OrcaCon and was named the Chair for Take This in January 2023. She often speaks on issues of diversity, feminism, race, intersectionality & other topics at conventions. Her writing about games and games critique appears in Uncanny Magazine, Polygon, Wiscon Chronicles, Vice Gaming, Paste Games, Mic, and other publications. She’s the editor of Game Devs and Others: Tales from the Margins (2018, CRC Press) and contributed to The Advanced Game Narrative Toolbox. (2019, CRC Press) Writer Bio for pubs: Tanya is the Founder and Director of I Need Diverse Games, a not-for-profit organization based in Chicago. She’s part of Rivals of Waterdeep, an actual play D&D show on twitch.tv/rivalsofwaterdeep; the programming coordinator for OrcaCon & GaymerX; and often speaks on issues of diversity, feminism, race, intersectionality & other topics at conventions. She’s on the Board of Take This as well as a Stream Ambassador, and was part of the inaugural cohort of The Game Awards Future Class. Her work to make the industry more inclusive has been highlighted in Game Changer, Directed by Tina Charles, WNBA star & olympian as well as filmmaker. The short documentary premiered at Tribeca 2021, as part of the Queen Collective; an initiative started by Queen Latifah, supported by Proctor & Gamble in an effort to get more Black women into film making. Game Changer was also featured as part of BETHer’s 2021 Juneteenth Programming on 19 June 2021.

2 thoughts on “Black Gods, Tribalism and Wiccatru…”

  1. Hallo…:)

    I have something to say regarding “wiccatru”. I am more of a fundamentalist, Germanic Heathen, but in all fairness, I have seen “Wiccatru” practitioners actually LIVING the NNV where many others, even hardcore Volkish kindreds do not. I live in the most bigoted border state in the Nation and nearly all of the kindreds out here (including the one that I was once interim Gothi for) are hyper Volkish. They banter politics, bitch about things that they see as a threat to our White/Indo-Aryan culture and heritage (some of which they are justified in bitching about) but when asked even very basic questions about the faith itself, many of the ones I knew would just draw a blank. Most of them had backgrounds in the penal system (one side or the other. usually ex-cons and corrections officers at the same blots-lol.) and just about all of them were very typical “pagan partyers” who used blots and sumbels as an excuse to get blind staggering
    fitshaced. Prudish, ignorant, boastful, bigoted, irresponsible and self absorbed. .

    i.e. They were assholes.

    (I knew this one guy whose car broke down after an Asatru meeting who was in one of these kindreds. Guess who came to his aid? no one. When asked to help, one of his near and dear friends said “what do you want me to do about it!” so much for frith, kinship and hospitality there!)

    Now on to those bad ol’ universalist Wiccatruers.

    One of the kindreds that identified more with Norse wicca than anything else drove over a good 70 miles to see us-only to find my Wife and I there at the designated time and place to greet them! They always made themselves available to us and never once threw around any elitist bullshit no matter how much of it they had to endure from those whose practice of Asatru virtues meant less than drinking mead and whining about those “illegals”.

    So again, I am more of a fundamental, Tribalist heathen, (I lean toward URGLAAWE) but I cannot shun the memory of those people who actually walked the talk and those who found the most extreme label to wear and didn’t even know what they were talking about.

    …and no matter how much I disagree with the way they practice Heathen ritual or the emphasis they may place on the whole “Lord and Lady” Wiccan paradigm, I will always regard those so-called wiccatruars whose kindness and heathen sincerity actually meant something as my kin.

    End of “Gardenarian’s advocate” sermon.

    Thanks. 🙂

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