Recons, does it get frusterating trying to peice things together sometimes?

Question

I've noticed some trads have it easier then others on this. Egyptians are on the "easy" end and Celtics have lost almost everything. As an Asatru I don't really have it that bad, but I still get frusterated myself digging over three translations of a 900 year old text. LOL Do any other recons ever just want to scream?

Answer 1

Eventually, you make certain choices, which you will forever after be careful NOT to call "concessions." *G*

However, there is far, far more than 900 year old texts out there to go by . . . Gronbech, HRED, Byock, Bauschatz, Pollington, Dronke, Adelsteinsson, Hauge . . . and in many cases, surviving or recorded folklore, custom, ritual, and belief.

While we don't have *scripts* we do have a great deal more than most credit us with having . . . noobs and neoheathens and Troth types are always a bit quick to talk about needing to "fill in the gaps" with this or that New Age or Wiccan or ceremonial magic baggage they dragged into the Hall with them, but I am more inclined, at this point in my studies, to assert that we are at least close to being able to have confidence that what we have is what there WAS . . . and that the "gaps" have all along been in *us,* because of what 1000 years of xianity have conditioned us to expect from a religion: redemption, afterlife, personal relationship with deity, and so forth.

Personally, I like looking to folk traditions, and comparing them to Sagaic, Eddic, and archeaological evidence, and working on inculcating the *worldview* from which ancient practices arose, rather than strictly recreating the ancient practices themselves. If I think about myself as weaving the present from the past, and as being part of a Web of Right Relationships among Regin, Folk, and Soil that is maintained through gifting, what transpires for me at harrow is, while not *identical* to my ancestral practices, birthed in and proceeding from the same spiritual place.

After all . . . I'm pretty sure horse sacrifices are illegal here anyway. :-)

Answer 2

There's been plenty of times... not just now, but while I was working with historical references for the Celts as well (I was almost bald at one point). What I find even more frustrating is, as Boar's Heart pointed out, I'm finding a lot of people mix this with things more modern. I joined a forum about a month ago and it screamed Wicca. And when I finally met a local Asatru, in the real world, I came close to strangling him. It's hard enough going over all the different historical references and the Eddas, as well as looking to the folklore that is still alive without having people adding even more stuff that doesn't even belong. *Sigh* Can we start beating people? I feel that I would feel a lot better if I could just hurt someone.

Answer 3

Ayep. There's so many things we've got to do off-the-cuff, using UPG to fill in the blanks.... Some of it's totally justifiable - based on heavy research, etc - but some of it's just one person's experience, so it doesn't really translate well. In a lot of cases, there's just stuff we have to agree to not deal with for now, to, at best, toy with the pieces, see how they might connect. Every once in a while, someone gets a flash of imbas (inspiration) and makes a connection, but most of the time, it's a slow, hard slog to uncover new materials.

It's getting easier for the newer folks, though - a lot of the "first generation Recons" have started collating their research into something that's shareable with others, so the newer folks are getting a pretty hefty bootstrap.

Answer 4

There is really no way to reconstruct the celtic way of worship acurately, as there are no written records, so all we have are the interpretations of arceological evidence. My path, therefore, is made up from the little that we do know with a lot which is constructed from intuition.
Even if the Celts had left written step by step instructions though, my path would differ hugely from theirs as it would not fit in with our modern lifestyle. So I just honour the gods and ancestors, do the best I can, and don't worry how close it is to ancient practices.

Answer 5

Short answer yes.

Long answer it seems like most of my trads have been assimilated by the Celtic Christian church so we have to kind of sift through the bullshite, obviously a lot of the specifics are lost forever unless some miraculous find occurs which is highly unlikely.

Answer 6

Over the years I have wanted to pull my hair out sometimes while I poured over books trying to find an answer to a question. Usually, I enjoy it, but sometimes it is very frustrating. Luckily, after being Heathen for 20 some odd years I think I have learned many of the little things I used to have to look up.

Answer 7

It would be really great to have a complete full txt compling all iof the important myths and old traditions.

so yes, I do want to scream sometimes.


But we both need to suck it up, all that reading is good for us.


As for what we lost.... its up to us then to fill in the gaps. Which is why Asatru is a modern group. We have things to build, temples, to a compliation of the important text's.

Answer 8

It is frustrating. Even though my own personal path is reconstructive-derived/inspired rather than strictly recon it is still nice to have a little bit of history and lore to fall back on but sadly since there is so little recording of the beliefs and customs of the pre-Christian Norse/Icelandic peoples...yeah, it's tough. They don't call it the religion with homework for nothing.

Answer 9

The thing that bothers me most is not trying to piece together the shreds, but trying to get the sources from which to piece things together.
You americans have it SOOOO easy. Try getting a book in eastern europe. All I can do it mail-order it from US and pay three times as much shipping cost and import fee as the book is worth.
Either that or rely on the Internet info. Phah... ;)

Answer 10

It's that way with Traditional (non-Wiccan) Witchcraft, too. Only in my case, it's the fact that accurate information is often obscure, so research can get frustrating. Fluffy bunny wiccans make finding accurate information difficult with all of their ridiculous tripe out there. Wiccans have actually polluted a lot of witchcraft info. But that's what makes me want to scream.