There are no words to express my shock.

[sonneillon_v]

(( TW for racism and white supremacy ))

The National Policy Institute, which is a white supremacist organization, recently had their 2011 conference. Media Matters has coverage. While he was there, the reporter ran into some folks from the AFA... that is, the Asatru Folk Assembly. The Wild Hunt has observations on that

Comments

[rikibeth]

My ex and I are of Eastern European Jewish heritage. We're both inclined more towards Wicca philosophically (although for the past ten years I've been identifying as agnostic/atheist with Wiccan and Jewish ethical principles). He plays bodhran and sings in an Irish band. He likes to say, when asked by audience members about his heritage, "The only Irish in me, I drank myself." (I think he favors Powers. I'm for Tullamore Dew myself.)

If there are such manifestations as gods, it's my feeling that they'd welcome recognition from anyone who cares to acknowledge them. I know that pagan friends of mine have asked Hindu-from-birth folks about the propriety of performing puja when they weren't raised in the tradition, and their answer has generally been "if you feel a sincere devotion to that deity, they will certainly accept your attention." Likewise, a friend of mine adores salwar kameez, and she's asked some Indian and Pakistani women who wear them if they consider it weird or wrong for a Western woman to wear them. Their response was "well, it's a little ODD, because they're not common here, but if you like them, why on earth not? they're CLOTHES."

On the other hand, I was seriously creeped out when Rick Warren used the Shema (and a bit of the V'y'haftah which directly follows it) in his opening prayer at Obama's inauguration, because he is NOT Jewish, and that's the core prayer, and it's SERIOUSLY monotheistic, and his belief encompasses a Trinity, which Jews do NOT accept, so HANDS OFF, dude. I didn't feel nearly as creeped out by the other Christian preacher, in the closing prayer, using the verse from Micah, because those were beautiful, stirring words and a sentiment that I would want anyone and everyone to adopt.

My guess is that if you have any Northern European heritage at all, which is a good bet (typically? Jewish babies go through a Jewish adoption agency, since there's the matrilineal transmission there is a HIGH demand, there's even a high demand for Jewish EGG DONORS, so, odds are you're not matrilineally Jewish - oh, and there are specifcally Catholic adoption agencies too, and since your family isn't, they wouldn't have used one, which lowers the odds of purely Hispanic) those god-forms wouldn't reject your attention, and if the runes work for you, bet that's a sign they're willing to give you attention in return, since it's their purview.

Not KNOWING your ancestry, I wouldn't go with Asatru either, but solo involvement with that pantheon? sure.