The Need for Separation

I’m sickened and done. The last straw has been pulled, and it was most definitely the shortest one. I’ve decided to wash my hands of this modern Christian civilization. I have tried and tried to maintain a stiff upper lip, and stay proud of my Pagan heritage, while surrounded by the adversity of a Catholic community. I come from a family of good, strong European blood, who claims to tolerate religious freedom. I have followed the way of our fathers since I was six years old. I discovered it, and knew immediately that it was right. I have, since that day (excluding one slight lapse) stuck to our blood religion. I was never praised or ridiculed for it, and I liked it that way. I wasn’t doing this for anyone else, this was for me, and I didn’t require anyone else’s opinions on the matter. I’m aware that the word “Pagan” and “Heathen” are tossed around as insults, throughout the Christian world, and with a particular concentration in heavily Christian communities, like my own. I was going against the grain. However, unlike many other “anti-conformists” in my community, I was doing it for no ulterior motive. I wasn’t rebelling against my parents, nor was I trying to fit in, (or not fit in) I was just doing what felt right to me. I never advertised it. I didn’t need to. I don’t require other people to know about my beliefs in order to validate them. There have been two vast extremes of encounters with others of my kind. I was walking through my town, I believe I may have been in a music store. I walked in, to encounter a large, bearded man, with a wide smile and kind eyes. He looked me up and down a few times, taking in my unshaven face, healthy glow from eating home-grown food, and ancient symbolism. He gestured for me to approach him. He leaned forward, grasped my hand and said, very easily; “Hail Odin,” no more, no less. That was the perfect statement to fulfill my meager need for religious camaraderie.
Then is the other extreme. The people who (almost!) make me ashamed to be called a Pagan. I was approached by a young man with an unnaturally green Mohawk, and a T-shirt with the gory logo of Cannibal Corpse splattered on the front. He runs up to me, through a group of women leaving a Christian church. He looks at my hammer and says in a loud, carrying voice, “Yeah, brother! Let’s burn this mother down and rape some Christian bitches, huh?!” Needless to say, I was appalled and left without a word. These are the people who I am simply disgusted to be associated with. He is not a real Pagan, merely a person looking for another way to be controversial and go against the “mainstream.” This disgusting display of nonsense and ignorance just adds to a long list of misconceptions about our people. First and foremost, we do not inherently hate Christians. Some, even many of us, may be resentful, even angry, at the things done to our predecessors by the early missionaries thousands of years ago, and the ridicule and injustice many of us still endure at the hands of modern society, even today. Our ancient and noble gods are seen as outdated, or “hokey.” Someone once asked me, “But don’t you think the whole thing is a bit silly?” No, I don’t.
This leads me to an entirely new issue. I was met by this stunning gem of ignorance from a student at my secondary school. Upon discovering, in a discussion of European history, my Pagan beliefs, he spewed this sewage from his gaping mouth; “Why didn’t you just choose a normal religion, like Christianity, or Jewish?”
Let me start by pointing out what is grammatically wrong with this ridiculous inquisition. Firstly, what is a normal religion? One that has been deemed “correct” by the vast majority who have been brainwashed by a bearded carpenter and a man with a pointy hat? No thank you, not for me. The way I see it, I am of no Jewish or Middle-Eastern heritage, so why exactly would a religion that is alien to my blood be “normal?” I am European, through and through, bred of strong Nordic and Gallic blood, so to go with any belief other than my blood-religion would be abnormal, even unnatural. Secondly…Judaism, the term is Judaism. This I told him, and he retorted with an even more brilliant response; “Yeah? Well, I think pagans are stupid, because they love Satan, and Satan is evil.” I was utterly mind-blown. I couldn’t even comprehend how utterly obtuse he was. He had obviously been brainwashed by his parents, who had been brainwashed by their parents, who had been brainwashed by their parents, back to our proud ancestors who were raped and beaten into “submission” to an alien power, with no mercy and twisted ideals.
I say “submission,” because I don’t believe that the Pagan blood has been purged from our veins, as is shown by our steadily growing following. These people who come to us, aren’t doing it because it is something new. They encounter it, and, instantly, the Pagan blood starts pounding. It doesn’t feel like entering a new faith. It simply feels like coming home. Especially when you are met with open arms, by your brethren, who know your rejoice at returning to your roots. Every man, at least every European man, still has the primal urges in his brain. The urge to leave behind the modern, “civilized” world and run in the trees, and hunt for survival, and fight for your life. Every man feels the need to honor the ancient gods, whether he knows it or not. When a man goes game hunting, but doesn’t eat it, that is when. It is not simply out the pleasure of killing, because that is a sign of severe mental deficiency. Nor is it a test of skill, because that could be tested, more easily and accurately, with simple target shooting. No, it is because of the need to give honor and sacrifice to the gods. The need and urge that still burns in every true Pagans heart.
I’ve decided I’m going to refer to all Europeans as followers of the ancient religion of our forebears. This is simply the truth. Every one of them, one way or another, is a Pagan. Whether they know it or not. Every day of the week is a small honor to the gods. Every Yule (Christmas) when Children wait for Heimdallr, otherwise called Santa Claus, that is an honor. You see, even at a subconscious level, all men still work from a heathen mindset. A Christian man doesn’t understand that setting up a tree at Yule is an ancient tradition. But he does it, despite that. And that, is a step in the right direction. With the constant slip-ups, and people losing faith in Christianity, particularly Catholicism, that stain on the world has already started to be wiped clean. Soon enough, due to the perverse actions and beliefs of the church, Christianity will implode, and the churches will no longer be “God’s house,” but merely another building. And I will not only be bearing the first smile, but the first torch as well. Hail and well met, traveler. I hope you find your road, as I have.