Pagan Connect

Gladsheim Kindred

Adult Kindred   Open to the Public

Located in Columbia,  Maryland. 

 

  • Asatru

 

Asatru is practiced first and foremost by living one’s life in accordance with the Nine Virtues. We also hold rituals and ceremonies in which Asatru folk interact with the Gods and Goddesses. The foremost spiritual practice is the exchange of gifts between Gods and men. In ancient Teutonic societies, peace and trust were secured between individuals and tribes through the exchange of things of value. This was reflected in religious practice; therefore, the main rite of modern Asatru is the blot (pronounced bloat), or offering. In Gladsheim, when we gather for a blot, we use a drinking-horn filled with mead, beer or wine, and, raising it, address one or more of the Gods. We may speak a toast to Them, or to a personal hero or ancestor; or make a vow, or report the fulfillment of a vow. Words thus spoken are made holy by the presence of the God or Goddess, to whom the drink is offered. When the offerer has spoken, he also drinks from the horn before passing it on; usually a blot consists of an opening invocation followed by three rounds of toasts. At the end, that part of the drink that is not consumed is poured out upon the Earth.

There are other rites — most important among them Profession, where a man or woman wishing to embrace Asatru makes a vow of faith to the Æsir and Vanir and puts aside all other Gods. Asatru Kindreds also conduct birth-rites, funerals, naming of children, coming-of-age rites for youngsters, and weddings. Offerings to the Gods, however, whether of drink, food or material things, are a part of almost all of these.

http://www.gladsheim.org/

Gladsheim Kindred Hof
6408 Waterloo Road
Columbia, MD 21045

Posted on September 13, 2022

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