The Oracle

i'm involved in a discussion about 'halloween' on facebook and i said what i do for samhain and mentioned i have heathen friends. a former pagan (now christian) said something like 'surely heathens are those who are not christian jewish or islamic'.
my basic explanation was 'generally heathens follow a norse path, but its not the only norse path.'. not being a heathen myself, i would like to give an explanation by people who are heathens. so, how would you describe heathenism?

I know technically, a Heathen is any one who isn't Christian or Jewish. As for Heathenism, generally I would summarise Heathens as following a Germanic/Nordic/Scandinavian based path, so not just Norse, but also Anglo-Saxon, general Germanic Paganism etc.

I think we need to hear from some one who actually follow a heathen path!

Gassho,

M

I know technically, a Heathen is any one who isn't Christian or Jewish. As for Heathenism, generally I would summarise Heathens as following a Germanic/Nordic/Scandinavian based path, so not just Norse, but also Anglo-Saxon, general Germanic Paganism etc.

I think we need to hear from some one who actually follow a heathen path!

Gassho,

M

Yes M you are right. Heathenism is generally accepted as someone who follows the Germanic paths. All that you named fall into that grouping language-wise as well as cultural. In fact, an Angol-Saxon branch of Heathenism that some follow is called Theodism. Many people don't know that because it is found primarly in North America.

Some people perfer the term Heathen because it isn't as limiting as some of the other terms used to describe us who follow this path.