Spiritual path(s) of Swedish Ancestors?

[=West=]

If Druidry is a spiritual path/heritage of the British Isles, what would an equivalent path be if one's ancestry was from Sweden?

I have Scottish/Irish/German in my paternal line, and Swedish in my maternal line, and I'm curious to know more about the ancient history of Sweden as it pertains to Druidry.

Thanks!

[Astrid]

Hey the equivalent would be asathru - the belief in the old norse gods like thor, odin, sif and so on... you can find their central organisation here http://www.asatrosamfundet.se/ just press in english if your swedish skills arnt there

Hope it helps and greetings from Sweden

[=West=]

Thank you, Astrid! Blessings!

[MiriamSPia]

I can verify that the Swedish woman who mentioned Asatru is correct. It is practiced in some contemporary pagan circles. It is a modified version of course, and will take on the flavor of whatever nation the rites are done in.

I've only done one open group Asatru rite and it involved holding a large hammer in a public park in Indianapolis.

Contemporary Asatru: my son has Thor for a middle name and you can get the comic book and if you really want you can pray to the others...The elder deities are actually married couples and their adult children - weird, but very obvious when you look into it.

Odin and Frigg are at the top: they are a married couple. Odin sacrificed one of his eyes in order to get the runes, commonly known as the futhark. Asatru are more likely to do divination using the futhark. You can often by these in "those stores" where occult things are sold.

Freya & Frey are twins: she is a goddess of love but there is at least one weird story about her committing infidelity in order to get a good piece of jewelry.

There are many more. The Aesir are the above "family" of gods. The fertility deities are known as the Vanir; it might have just been another "family" I'm not sure.

There is more. You can contact me if you want me to go on about it more to you. I'm 1/4 Swede so I studied this a bit, and learned runes. The man who was my boyfriend when I was 18 & 19 years old - told me he had prayed to Freya for a romance and he got me. He gave me my first set of runes. Earlier this year he married another woman who has kids, but its a long road for those of us born into the sexual revolution.

[DaRC]

"If Druidry is a spiritual path/heritage of the British Isles, "
well it is but it's also a Celtic spiritual path, there's also a Germanic and Norse thread of spirituality throughout the British Isles too.

Within Uppsala, according to Adam of Bremen, it appeared that Thor took the central position within the temple. This would suggest that there may have been different cults who focussed on the different gods as primary. Much of our written knowledge comes from Iceland and from the wealthier classes - this may indicate that the rich favoured Odinist cults whilst, perhaps, the farming people may have favoured Thor or Freyr as primary with Odin with a secondary role.

You might want to explore the Germanic thread in the library...
http://www.druidry.org/board/dhp/viewtopic.php?f=324&t=7676