Why Asatru?

My first post of the Pagan Blog Project! As luck would have it, my religion starts with an A, something I didn't think would come in handy before alphabetical topics. In this post, I hope to just introduce myself and my path.

Unfortunately, I have little recollection of how I got here. Specifically, how I came from being an "eclectic" Pagan to being Heathen (my preferred term instead of Asatru; more on that in a later post, perhaps). This lack of memory or record is a true regret of mine, something few and far between in my life.

I initially investigated Paganism / witchcraft because of Anne Rice's The Witching Hour. I kept a book of shadows, did some rituals and meditation and divination. I learned a lot but didn't quite stick at anything. After maybe, oh, four or five years--

--TIME OUT. Four or five years? And THAT was four or five years ago? Which means I've been this thing called Pagan for close to TEN years? As in, a DECADE? This has not sunk in yet. Obviously. Perhaps this is why people do professions and initiation rituals, so they don't feel like they've been involved in something for a whole decade with little to show for it. Hmph.--

After maybe, oh, four or five years, I somewhere stumbled upon Asatru. Although familiar with and intrigued by Druidry and Celtic reconstructionism before, something about Asatru made an impression. (I imagine Tolkein had something to do with this as well. [Did I mention I'm a literature nerd?])

I remember Asatru feeling more real than anything else I'd experienced. I hadn't really worshipped deities before, although I was interested in them and felt (and still do) a personal connection to Aphrodite. But the Norse gods hit something in me. The culture felt normal. These gods and this religion felt to me part of the real world. It didn't ask for intimate, sacred, "kumbaya" interactions with the gods all the time. This was something I never felt called to or felt I really experienced. In fact, Asatruar seemed of the opinion that the gods had better things to do and only came around on special occasions. I felt the same way! The Asatru emphasis on community and family and ancestors was new to me as well. I'd never realized it before, but I have a strong sense of these things, and Asatru has only made them stronger in my life. Asatru did not feel silly or fluffy, something I always feared I had been. I did not feel like an imposter.