Self-Help through Paganism
Recently I’ve been straying from my path. I’ve suffered from laziness, gluttony, and a general lack of self-control. I’ve skipped my workout these past few days and I’ve been indulging too much in junk food. Among other things, my posture has been suffering as well. I’ve been needing to reconnect with the gods and my path.
Of course in human life, these things will happen, but they aren’t good and are to be resisted in any way possible at all times. So, the other night I made an offering and prayed to my primary gods Frey, Tue, Woden, Thunor and Frigg.
An offering at my home altar.
I bathed with the intention of removing all the soul-sickness from me. I made my offerings and prayed for help and forgiveness and renewed some oaths and made some new ones. An appropriate penance was soon clear to me.
Just like that, I was getting back on the path. I am now free to do better without the burden of feeling bad or lost about it.
The biggest gift heathendom has given me is this ability to correct myself before things get too bad. If I had re-discovered spirituality ten years sooner I would be in a much better place in my life than I am now.
This ties back into my last post. A lot of pagans suffer from something called latent Christianity and while that encompasses more than this, it does include an attitude carried over from Christianity where spirituality is very compartmentalized and separated from behavior and day-to-day life. At most, it’s something you do on Sunday mornings and before someone dies. To the heathen, however, his gods and ancestors are part of this world and are always watching. We have a religious responsibility to catch ourselves and correct when we slip.