Die Irminen Gemeinschaft
  • Home
  • Giving Credit
  • What is Irminenschaft ?
  • Then and Now
  • What is this "Irminsul"?
  • Irminsuls galore!
  • Principles of Irminenschaft
  • Gods and Meditations
  • Other Heathenrys
  • Irminic Holy Tides
  • Irminic Liturgical Calendar
  • Moon Calendar
  • Sacred & Holy
  • Steve's Comments
  • Steve's Comments Part 2
  • Armanen Runes
  • Heathen Magic
  • 12 Days of iul/Yule
  • Liturgical Language
  • Recommended Reading
  • German American MONTH?
  • German Unification Day
  • GERMAN/AMERICAN DAY!
  • Links of Interest to Irminen
  • Heathen Lent
  • Carroll's Blog: Meditations, Runes, and Life in General
  • Contact
  • Guestbook

Steve's Comments Part 2
The Evolution of the Irminenschaft, Feb 15, 2011 (used by permission)

Picture
The tradition has evolved in a few different ways.

This first ought to be  obvious: we simply have a whole lot more information available today about the  practices and beliefs of our ancient ancestors than what was available in the  early 1900s. Remember, it was Rudolf John Gorsleben who translated the Poetic  Edda into Modern High German, which means anyone in Germany trying to build  anything before his time lacked this precious resource! (A side note: Mills did  not have access to the Poetic Edda when he introduced Odinism either). Today we  can purchase countless Icelandic Sagas and other sources of ancient lore  inexpensively through publishers such as Penguin – that was not true back then.  This is all before we get into other sources of knowledge such as archaeological  finds.

The second is that we have had the opportunity to see what works and  what doesn't in other Heathen traditions from both the First and Second  Reawakenings. Along with this, we have absorbed much from our contemporaries – Ásatrú, Odinism, and especially Théodish Belief. 

We really don't spend  much effort on Theosophy or any of those other traditions. Heathendom is tainted  enough from outside traditions to want to foster more of that. Yes, many in the  First Reawakening were influenced by these things; just as many in the Second  Reawakening are influence by neo-paganism, ATRs, or what have you. That doesn't  mean that it's necessarily healthy for Greater Heathenry.

Wiligut...  Well, his work is complex. Briefly I would suggest that he stumbled on some very  powerful things but because of his religious and political affiliations had a  lot of difficulty making sense of it all. There is much of value in his work.  But some of it can come off pretty wacky, too. He's one to  read with a good set of filters in mind and a strong ability to “translate” from  one religious context to another.

I [would] not say that Ásatrú, Odinism and  Théodism evolved out of Irminenschaft, as they clearly did not. But they all do  owe as certain debt to the Irminic tradition- especially Odinism who, in its  early development, borrowed much from Armanenschaft.

As for the things  that set us apart. First let me say that I think we have more in common than we  do things different. That being said, though, there are really three things: one is that our orthodoxy/orthopraxi is a bit different. We accept a slightly different “cannon” if you will, because we do not see ourselves as reviving a dead religion, but rather carrying on a living - albeit fragmented – one. The second is that we hold to a more “brutally honest” approach to history in that there is no romanticizing of any particular eras or what have you. We are willing to admit that we've had Nazis, Communists, racialists, and other unsavoury characters in our history but recognize that one's spiritual insights have little or nothing to do with one's politics. From what I've seen other Heathenrys have some trouble dealing with these sorts of issues. By the way, I know that many of the early writers have been associated with extreme right politics;  but before paining them all with that brush consider pioneers such as Fidus who  might been seen as something of a hippy today, or Peryt Shou who was more of a  Communist. Point being that the politics of Heathens in the early 1900s were just as divergent as the politics of Heathens today.The third thing that sets us apart is that we hold to a unique  position in the old fólkish/universalist debate. As far as we're concerned both  extremes have it wrong! We are võlkisch  in that we're not concerned about being white; we're concerned about being  German. You'll note that even in List's day he did not write about a religion  for “white folks” or “northern Europeans” but about a faith for “Aryo-Germans”.  Other  traditions have held to this as well, but are not as well known. Hedenskap is Norwegian, Forn Sed is Swedish, and, of course, Anglo-Saxon Heathenry is  English. There are some folks currently building something of a Dutch Heathenry. It is the hope of  Irminen that we will be able to inspire more in these sorts of endeavours, not  just one for Germans.

Proudly powered by Weebly