Yes, but does it matter?
Q: Does anyone in the druid community feel dwarfed by Norse Paganism?
So, I can see how it can feel that way.
Over the past two decades, there’s been a sort-of renaissance of Norse neopagan culture - names like Thor and Odin spread into common conversation with people who wouldn’t typically speak of such, erm, unchristian things. I blame Marvel. Anyhow, it seemed like every corner of mass media had some form of Scandinavian influence. Superhero flicks, fantasy RPG’s, heavy metal… the list goes on.
The old Norse way has garnered a lot of attention from this - at least in the United states. This is both good and bad. Some people have truly found their spiritual center within Norse paganism due to where this attention has led them. It’s actually, according to census data, the fastest growing pagan faction on the chart. We should be happy for them, truly.
Contrarily, philosophies that Norse paganism contains has attracted a lot of unwelcome attention from supremacy cults and racists. Cowards in a viking mask, there. The same sorts who love the idea of raiding monasteries but couldn’t tell you what Laugardagr means. Again, I blame Marvel. Fortunately there’s a quite strong counterculture that protests and corrects the failures that those sort trudge through the path - antifascist arbiters and authors such as Ryan Smith have been a torch in the darkness. Lean more towards their lineage if you’re starting on the wyrding way.
So, yes, the Norse path is absolutely growing marginally faster than the Druid practice. We should be proud of them for it,
But since when has that been the objective?
Spreading beliefs, having the bigger congregation? Isn’t this the behavior that we’ve been trying so hard to escape? That kind of brand competition is a trademark of a more constrained way of life- a religion based on control rather than enlightenment and growth.
It’s a stepping stone of deconversion from those of us raised Christian. Spread the gospel at all costs, we cannot be outgrown by those others. That kind of mess.
No, thanks. We’re pagans, we should act like it. Raising horns to their victories, picking them up when they’re on their backs. It’s the only way we could ever know that they would do the same.
