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andreag23's review
5.0
Book review
»The Way of Fire and Ice – The Living Tradition of Norse Paganism« by Ryan Smith
In this book, the author presents the modern tradition of Radical Norse Paganism, also known as »The Way of Fire and Ice«, which is very inclusive and open to everyone regardless of gender, race, mental or physical abilities, where they are from and so on.
Ryan Smith also not only distances himself from Neo Volkisch, fascist and white supremacy ideologies and groups, but also elaborates about how to fight back as a Norse pagan against people who have such destructive attitudes and beliefs.
There are chapters about the Norse Gods, Developing Spiritual Practice, Core Values of Norse Paganism and in the chapter about Runelore, the author presents the three different historic rune systems: The Elder Futhark, The Younger Futhark and the The Anglo-Saxon Futhorc, describing the meanings of each runes and explains how you can use them in divination, magic and more, for instance as bindrunes or single runes.
The author also explains the Norse concepts of Hamr (the body, the physical form), Hugr (the mind), the Fylgja (a sort of spiritual shadow which can be a spirit guide and can also take the form of an animal) and Hamingja (luck, connected to fate).
In the chapter »The Art of Seiðr«, Ryan Smith describes the main three forms of this Norse form of magic: Utiseta (which is similar to meditation, trance, and shamanic journeying or hedgeriding) direct Sorcery and Spae (which is similar to mediumship, a form of possessory trance) and points out that many Norse pagans do not do Spae. And if you feel called to this kind of work you should by all means learn it with an experienced teacher, because Spae can be dangerous if you have not been trained well.
The last two chapters focus on Finding and Building Community, with lots of good suggestions about what to do and what to avoid.
Each chapter contains an excercise, or in some cases, a writing prompt.
Appendix I has Further Reading suggestions and I can very much recommend to read the
Appendix II which is about The Origins of the Pagan Revival since the 19th century until the situation today. In this, the author elaborates again on the neo Volkisch movement, different groups of it and how these finally got more and more banned from Norse Pagan spaces.
At the end of the book, there is an extensive bibliography and each chapter has a list of fotenotes.
Last but not least, here is a tiny detail I liked a lot: The author mentions that the genders in this book have been set to »they/them« where possible, for instance for the description of Loki (a deity which can be seen as genderqueer or genderfluid due to some myths).
Conclusion: From all the books I read about Norse Paganism and Heathenry so far, this has been the one which elaborates the most about the dangerous Neo Volkisch movement and related fascists, its history and what inclusive Norse Pagans do to fight back against it. Thus, this book is very political and the way I see it, knowlegde about these topics is very recommendable for any Norse pagan or heathen.
»The Way of Fire and Ice – The Living Tradition of Norse Paganism« by Ryan Smith
In this book, the author presents the modern tradition of Radical Norse Paganism, also known as »The Way of Fire and Ice«, which is very inclusive and open to everyone regardless of gender, race, mental or physical abilities, where they are from and so on.
Ryan Smith also not only distances himself from Neo Volkisch, fascist and white supremacy ideologies and groups, but also elaborates about how to fight back as a Norse pagan against people who have such destructive attitudes and beliefs.
There are chapters about the Norse Gods, Developing Spiritual Practice, Core Values of Norse Paganism and in the chapter about Runelore, the author presents the three different historic rune systems: The Elder Futhark, The Younger Futhark and the The Anglo-Saxon Futhorc, describing the meanings of each runes and explains how you can use them in divination, magic and more, for instance as bindrunes or single runes.
The author also explains the Norse concepts of Hamr (the body, the physical form), Hugr (the mind), the Fylgja (a sort of spiritual shadow which can be a spirit guide and can also take the form of an animal) and Hamingja (luck, connected to fate).
In the chapter »The Art of Seiðr«, Ryan Smith describes the main three forms of this Norse form of magic: Utiseta (which is similar to meditation, trance, and shamanic journeying or hedgeriding) direct Sorcery and Spae (which is similar to mediumship, a form of possessory trance) and points out that many Norse pagans do not do Spae. And if you feel called to this kind of work you should by all means learn it with an experienced teacher, because Spae can be dangerous if you have not been trained well.
The last two chapters focus on Finding and Building Community, with lots of good suggestions about what to do and what to avoid.
Each chapter contains an excercise, or in some cases, a writing prompt.
Appendix I has Further Reading suggestions and I can very much recommend to read the
Appendix II which is about The Origins of the Pagan Revival since the 19th century until the situation today. In this, the author elaborates again on the neo Volkisch movement, different groups of it and how these finally got more and more banned from Norse Pagan spaces.
At the end of the book, there is an extensive bibliography and each chapter has a list of fotenotes.
Last but not least, here is a tiny detail I liked a lot: The author mentions that the genders in this book have been set to »they/them« where possible, for instance for the description of Loki (a deity which can be seen as genderqueer or genderfluid due to some myths).
Conclusion: From all the books I read about Norse Paganism and Heathenry so far, this has been the one which elaborates the most about the dangerous Neo Volkisch movement and related fascists, its history and what inclusive Norse Pagans do to fight back against it. Thus, this book is very political and the way I see it, knowlegde about these topics is very recommendable for any Norse pagan or heathen.
leontiy's review
4.0
An excellent intro to Norse Paganism - the GOOD (only real) kind, while touching on how to identify neo-volkish elements. Would have loved a book twice this length, or definitely a follow up!
miwsher's review
It is not my current priority to read this book. I plan to get back to it when I will be in the right mindset.