Being Viking - Heathenism in Contemporary America - Jefferson F. Calico
Asatru as Magical Religion
Being Viking - Heathenism in Contemporary America - Jefferson F. Calico
Jefferson F. Calico [+]
Eastern Kentucky University
Jefferson F. Calico is an instructor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Eastern Kentucky University where he teaches a variety of courses in Religious Studies. He currently serves as co-chair of the Religion and Ecology consultation for the Southeastern Commission on the Study of Religion. His research focuses on alternative religions in America.
Description
Contemporary Paganisms are often understood as predominately magical religions. In some ways, Asatru challenges that perspective by taking a more skeptical approach to magic. The chapter examines how its intellectual tributaries give rise to a more contested environment of magical practice. Many Heathens draw on the long magical tradition of the Norse and Germanic past to create contemporary magical cultures. Roles such as the völva and the vitki, and magical forms such as seið, have been given new life in the Heathen movement.