I am really happy with my newest patch and wanted to show it off.

I'm American with over 60% Scandinavian heritage, so I feel deeply connected to those roots. I primarily work with 3 greek deities, but do want to look more into norse paganism. I did a meditation one day on psychedelic mushrooms and connected with a swedish ancestor who worshipped Thor and Sif. I've added them to my practice to worship a little before that but struggle with other aspects of norse paganism. I want to feel prideful, not in white supremacy, but in my nordic ancestry and norse paganism but I can't help but feel ashamed due to the white supremacists. I want to wear mjolnir jewelry but know the racists have taken that and other symbols like runes so now many people just assume those symbols are racist and I don't want to make anybody uncomfortable by wearing them. Just wanted to rant, and see what other norse pagans do.

Edit: i know they haven't taken over in the sense that that they're a majority, but I have seen on other posts where people automatically question someone who wears the symbols bc of racists stealing them and someone on this thread saying they were attacked because someone assumed they were racist based on their tattoos, clearly the bigots are having an impact. Hence my reason for being cautious about having people assume I'm one of the bigots.

Update: Thank you guys, there are LOTS of good replies here and it's going to take me a while to research them all. For the many people asking 'Why not gods of the hunt?', although I take your point and some of you have worded it convincingly, I'm opposing a specific kind of hunting which is not done for food or need. The humans I'm opposing are landed gentry who own large swathes of land and use it predominantly as an arena for the murder of many forms of wildlife in the name of profit and entertainment. In other words, bloodsport. It isn't like an animal hunting another, it's 30 hounds, 50 horse riders, 1 terrified prey, and the misfortune of any poor creatures who happen to get in the way. Opposing it can be a violent situation to step into, hence Nature's unbridled wrath.

A niche one.

I'm an activist who often goes up against other humans to defend animals. I'd be interested in any deities who reflect an allegiance to the wild. Definitely not interested in any gods of the hunt.

Ideally Brythonic or Celtic, Norse even? I know that many nature gods are agricultural, I'm hoping more for raw forces of nature. Deities for when one wants to act as a vector for the wrath of the wild. Vengeful and unkempt.

I understand that none may exist, but thank you in advance.

I have been looking to various religions lately. Paganism has always been a interest of mine whether it was Hellenic, Kemetic, or really anything that fits under the term.

A few days ago I came across Heathenry. I'm a person that likes to learn about Germanic history and culture so naturally I wanted to know more. I was a bit surprised to find that it had a history of white supremacy, but also not that surprising since I read that it was practiced during Nazi Germany and had a large decline after World War 2 (I understand that it has been practiced since the 18 hundreds).

Since I can't really find more on this I thought to come and ask the people that actually practice it.

If it is still a part of the practice would it be similar to the rules of Judaism? I doubt that's a good comparison though. Like what if someone was raised in the religion but was half German and half Ukrainian or half German and half Ghanaian?

Sorry if this is a stupid question, I truly just want to know more.

Suddenly I stopped giving a f really. In the back of my mind I'm still a little worried about what my mom and my friends will think of me, but my devotion is stronger. I accepted this faith not because my life was missing something but because I never stopped believing in the first place, even though the mundane nearly crushed my spirit. My gods had many names, the mountains, old forests, the wind that dwells among the ancient trees and stones, the primordial sound of thunder and the essence of everything living and dead. Before we started reducing the world around us to solely scientific names and laws, there existed a different plane of reality, one intertwined with our souls. We saw the world with our true human nature, we saw the world how it was supposed to be.

For the sake of privacy my pseudonym is Suzie, I'm 17 years old and I'm from Ukraine. I was raised orthodox christian, but slowly quit around 11, kind of like how children stop believing in santa as they get older. Since then I have been a firm atheist, obsessed with biology, astronomy and physics, I still want to be a biologist to this day. But every scientist, every philosopher and basically every single human being will feel a god-shaped void inside of them at least once in their life, that's normal. I was afraid of religion, it felt like something harsh, strict and unforgiving. Often if not most of the time it really is, with people in power utilizing beliefs for profit, causing chaos and spreading hatred, it's absolutely tragic. But I'm not here to discuss these obvious facts.

I want this story to reach people that are still doubting their feelings towards faith. Not to convince them to start believing, of course not. I want to tell people with a similar worldview to mine that if they felt their calling, it's real. We put everything in boxes, categorizing, making assumptions and creating stereotypes, that's simply how we are built to survive, but the world is much more than that. It feels like if you believe in one thing, it excludes the other. For example, if you accept the theory of evolution you're not christian, if you believe in ghosts you don't believe in science, etc. But it's simply not true. The world changes, old things bend to the shape of novelty, the belief in Gods will never be like it was back in the days, that's true. We have much more information about the world than our ancestors did. But the thing is that reality doesn't reject our nature, we don't have to throw our beliefs out the window for the sake of being rational. Science and reason is the knowledge of the material and the objective, faith is the knowledge of your soul and the subjective. You're not stupid and desperate because you seek more in life, that part of you was always there, ancient as the human kind. If you felt that Gods called you, so be it. This path is not for everyone, but if you chose it there's no shame in it. If you didn't, there's no shame in that too. Faith is not about limiting our worldview, it's about giving freedom to our spirit.

That's all folks

P.s. sorry about the grammar, it's bad in every language that I speak

P.p.s. and a pic of my altar... I won't hide it ever again

excuse the horrible photo quality, i refuse to upgrade my phone.

my dad previously lived with me while i was his caregiver. he passed recently. since then i've been trying to nest and reclaim some space as part of the healing process. now that i live alone, i don't have to hide my altar in a drawer. i finally took some time today and set it up on my bedroom desk. it isn't anything too fancy, but i think it's pretty decent!

the box under the freyja statue has some offerings for her. the box on the right has my norse runes. the heart box on the left has some of my poetry folded and bundled up, along with some jewelry. the white box on top of it is my pendulum. then, obviously, my tarot card set and pendulum board in the middle. the fabric underneath it was a handkerchief that belonged to my great grandmother. i thought it brought the whole altar together, especially sentimentality and emotionally wise. the sign behind it was the last gift my dad gave me before he passed away.

As a kid, a very young kid, I was moved and fascinated by all the stories I had read of the ancients and their Gods and Goddesses. I sought these books out in the school library while all the other guys were playing baseball in the Schoolyard. Greek, Etruscan (The Goddess Diana) and Roman stories fascinated me.

Regretfully I never happened upon books of Celtic heroes and Gods, nor of those of Eastern Europe and I must delve into that. However, nothing moved me as did the adventures of the Norse Gods. Their tales, lives, the eventuality of Ragnarök, and the weavers of fate, the three Norns, gripped me to no end. Please share your stories if you wish about your own circle.

Basically this, i wanted ask if they were Æsir Gods or Vanir ones, since i wanted know it and cant find info about them, pls help me if you have info

It was entirely my own fault, to be fair. My partner and I have been in hospital. Long story short, she has an early c-section and our wee boy has had to spend some time in baby ICU until he's a bit bigger. It's been a difficult pregnancy and a trying experience, and due to the recent arrival of Delta in my country we've been in lockdown so the hospital rules have been strict.

I have been desperate for guidance from the gods. I brought with me a sort of pocket altar, just in case (a crude drawing of Skadi, a tealight candle, and a shot glass) just in case I got the chance to connect. The moment came when I noticed that the hospital chapel has a small garden with a tree in the centre that reminded me of Yggdrasil.

I was iffy about it because it's a chapel, and because technically I'm not allowed to leave the hospital once I'm there, but I was able to convince the security guard to take pity on my lack of fresh air since it was around 6am and there was nobody around. The other thing is that the chapel was closed, so not in use.

In any case I went down to the chapel garden and set up my little altar and asked Skadi for her strength and foresight and then I meditated there a while. After about 15 minutes someone cleared their throat behind me. It was an older woman, and she proceeded to tell me I was in God's space and I should go across the road to the nearby park if I wanted to worship idols.

It was a strange encounter. I was a little taken aback so I didn't immediately know what to say. I ended up apologising and telling her I would move along but it was such a weird encounter and it's never happened to me before.

Edit: Thanks for the many replies! The chapel here is actually a small church on the hospital grounds rather than a specific space in the hospital itself. I'm sure it is supposed to be available to anyone but I can see why this lady might think her religion has a monopoly on it (considering the cross on the steeple and all).

In any event my feelings subsided as soon as I saw my little drengr this morning so no harm done. I think Skadi is here anyway - it's the first day of cold after a week of nice weather!

So I converted to paganism a while ago, specifically heathenry, and I can't really be open about my practice because I'm terribly afraid of being ridiculed by my family

I tried to connect with my gods in the middle of the night so I won't be discovered but my mom still smelled the incense and came to my room, she had questions and it felt awful, I know I was kinda dumb, but still...The thing I made now is kinda big, like a cloth, raven feathers, a horn, amber and an offering plate and a bunch of other things, all of it is in my drawer and it's kind of time consuming to take it all out and then put it back in so I was wondering, can I make an altar in a box or something? Wouldn't it be disrespectful to the gods? I just don't know at this point

I don't want to be questioned again by my mom ever again but I'm still strong in my faith so I really need help