Heathenry in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, a variety of contemporary Pagan movements professing a form of Heathenry exist.

Religious belief and practice

Most Heathens in the UK operate in small groups or family units, often termed kindreds or hearths.^[1] There is a tendency for such groups to develop their own approaches to Heathenry independently, assisted by networking groups and Internet communication.^[2] Thus most kindreds remain unaffiliated with one another while remaining in contact.^[2]

The most evident forms of ritual practice among the British Heathen community are blot and sumbel. The first of these is a rite of offering, while the latter is a rite of toasting. The latter rite is typically more formal, while blot can be more simple, and performed without words.^[3]

Demographics

In the United Kingdom Census 2001, 300 people registered as Heathen in England and Wales.^[1] However, many Heathens followed the advice of the Pagan Federation (PF) and simply described themselves as "Pagan", while other Heathens did not specify their religious beliefs.^[1] The 2011 census however made it possible to describe oneself as Pagan-Heathen (or any other chosen subgroup). The figures for England and Wales show 1,958 people self-identifying as Heathen. A further 251 described themselves as Reconstructionist and may include some people reconstructing Germanic paganism. The comparable figures for the UK as a whole in 2001 were 278 Heathen and 92 Asatru:^[4]

Heathen groups

Anthropologist Jenny Blain asserted that the largest divide in the British Heathen community was between groups who believe that humans are naturally divided into distinct races and those who see racial distinctions as being cultural.^[2]

The Odinic Rite (OR) was founded in 1973 under the influence of Else Christensen's Odinist Study Group. On 24 February 1988 the Rite became the first polytheistic religious organisation to be granted "Registered Charity" status in the UK.^[5] This led to some controversy that the Rite had presented Odinism as a monotheistic religion in order to gain acceptance by the Charity Commission.^[6] In 1990 a split occurred in the Rite. Two organisations were formed from the schism,^[7] initially each claiming the same name and therefore known by their postal addresses. "BCM Runic" is now known as the Odinic Rite with the motto "Faith, Folk and Family".^[8] "BM Edda", now known as the Odinist Fellowship,^[9] is the part of the organisation which retains charitable status.^[10] The Odinist faction of British heathenry has been accused of racism or a racialist perspective on religion, especially the more hardline Odinic Rite.^[11]

An annual gathering of Heathens in the UK called Heathenfest was held at Peterborough from 2005, it was organised by Woden's Hearth. Past speakers included Pete Jennings, Jenny Blain, Thorskegga Thorn and Stephen Pollington.^[12] However, this event is no longer extant.

2013 saw the founding of an online social media group called Asatru UK, which decided to branch out into real-world events. The group's inclusive, family-friendly and individualistic approach proved highly popular. Now running successfully for a couple of years, membership of this group has exploded, becoming the largest heathen organisation in the country. Moots and other events have been held across the U.K. and plans for larger events as well as further community outreach are underfoot.^[13][14][15]

Asatru UK's first large festival "The Asgardian", was held in 2016, featuring speakers, workshops, traders, musical acts and rituals. The event has been claimed as the largest heathen event in modern UK history. It received much acclaim from heathens throughout the country and from international visitors, as such the AUK council has decided to make it an annual event.^[16]

Organisation

Anthropologist Jenny Blain noted that by 2005, it was common for Pagan moots (regular social gatherings) to contain a small number of Heathens.^[1] However, many Heathens distance themselves from the wider Pagan movement, which they deem to have been too heavily dominated by practitioners of Wicca.^[1] Thus, there are few Heathen members of the Pagan Federation, although increasingly mutual links between Heathens and the Pagan Federaton are being established.^[3] To this end the Pagan-Heathen symposium was established in order to foster support and dialogue between the rapidly diverging paths of heathenry and other neo-pagan sects.^[17]

The internet also provided a factor in unifying the British Heathen movement, as websites such as UKHeathenry and Midgard's Web became increasingly popular in the early 21st century.^[1] The popularity of Asatru UK also owes much to this, the rise of social media has allowed heathens to connect more effectively. Heathens were also involved in the creation of the Association of Polytheist Traditions,^[1] as well as the creation and maintenance of the International Asatru Summer Camp (IASC), a loose coalition of real-world heathen groups across Europe. Asatru UK is a signatory of the IASC, along with its sister group, the Kith of the Tree and the Well.^[18]

References

Footnotes

Sources