The Olden Ways Made Anew
Asatru (pronounced "au-satru" or "ah-satru") is a religion based off the old Norse and sometimes Teutonic religion prior to the disgusting "Christianization" of Europe. Asatru was reborn in the seventies in two sects, the Icelandic and the American.
We are more of a "modernist heathen" group than anything else. Though we try to stay as close to the old Norse ways of practice we feel that a little change to fit our own personal ideals, etc... is not "blasphemy" to our religion in the least. The gods know we are heathen as do we, so why should our way of praising the gods be ridiculed?! Some of our members have different views on whether modernizing is best or not but we are all still connected like a family and respect each other.
Obviously like many Asatruar we believe in the Norse Gods and Goddesses in one way or another (physically or symbolically), we all have our own personal gods that we feel most akin, but in this time we feel Odin is best suited to aid us in our journey to spread the Norse ways. Though even so we praise all the gods and goddesses equally and feel they are all equally important.
We try to put our ways out there where everyone can see, and show all that we are not "blasphemous people that worship demons" as the Christians label us. In all honesty if they were to see how good and caring we are they wouldn't think so bad of us (maybe), our people are very involved with the whole idea of kin being a major priority. Which is why we hope to spread the word of Asatru far and wide, so people will understand the truth of our religion and possibly become part of it.
For more on our religion and our beliefs here is some places to look at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asatru
http://www.religioustolerance.org/asatru.htm
http://runestone.org/
http://asatru.org/
