Asatru UK

This section may rely excessively on sources too closely associated with the subject, potentially preventing the article from being verifiable and neutral. (April 2024)

Asatru UK (AUK) is a UK-wide, inclusive, Heathen community. The group organised a first moot in York, in 2013, and became a community interest company for religious activities in 2022.^[8] The organisational body behind the group is composed of volunteers within the community and typically organises three moots a year, hosted around the country.^[9] Although there are no official membership statistics, in February 2022 AUK had 3177 members of its Facebook group.^[10]

Asatru UK lists that it is open to anyone who follows Heathenry, regardless of nationality or ancestry and has openly condemned groups such as Woden's Folk, stating that "Asatru U.K. is categorically opposed to fascist movements, or any movements, using the symbols of our faith for hate".^[9][11] It is also a member of the Asatru-EU Network, a European network of Heathen organisations, along with groups such as Samfundet Forn Sed Sverige and Eldaring.^[12] In 2015, in response to the hate received by the Ásatrúarfélagið, the members of the network, including AUK, released a shared statement that they are "committed to Asatru as a non-exclusive religious approach", and that "heathenry is open for everyone who chooses so".^[13][14][15] They further vet potential members for association to far-right groups, or unwillingness to engage in religious practice with members who are transgender, homosexual or of a different ethnicity.^[16]

The group currently does not own land and thus is in the process of carving portable god posts for use in a vé. The first of these was of the god Odin and was consecrated at a gathering in 2021, with a god post of Freyja consecrated at a public gathering in 2022.^[17][18] Members of Asatru UK have been guests on, and are hosts of, podcasts that aim to promote the availability of accurate information regarding Germanic Paganism and promote the inclusion of people of diverse backgrounds within the international Heathen community.^[19][20] The group has also been involved with the Norse in the North conference, hosted in collaboration between the universities of Durham, Leeds and York, where in 2023 they spoke about the ways in which Heathenry and Old Norse scholarship can benefit one another.^[21]

Odinist and Wodenist groups

Within Heathenry, the term Odinist or Wodenist is typically used by neo-völkisch groups, who are characterised by their pseudoscientific beliefs that legitimate observance of the religion is predicated on belonging to a specific biological race and that the ability to hold a relationship with the gods in encoded in their DNA.^[22] Although often professing an apolitical stance, academic Ethan White characterises the ideologies of the three most visible neo-völkisch Heathen organisations in the UK (the Odinic Rite, the Odinist Fellowship and Woden's Folk) as belonging to the extreme right due to their racial nationalist stances, though he notes members of the group may not necessarily use this term to describe themselves.^[23]

The Odinic Rite is a neo-völkisch organisation that was founded in 1980 by the former member of the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists John Yeowell, known as "Stubba".^[24][25] On 24 February 1988 the Odinic Rite became the first polytheistic religious organisation to be granted Registered Charity status in England.^[26] In 1990, the Odinic Rite split into two separate organisations that initially both retained the original name.^[27] One continued to be known as Odinic Rite while the other changed its name in 1998 to the Odinist Fellowship.^{[citation needed]} Both groups only allow white members, with the Odinist Fellowship describing Odinism as "ethnospecific" while the Odinic Rite stresses the need to maintain "racial integrity". While neither group describes itself as racist, the label has been used by scholars based on their racially exclusionary approach, glorification of "white" history and criticism of what they perceive as foreign influences.^[28][29][30]

The Odinist Fellowship has publications follows a ninefold calendar of festivals which include celebrations on the solstices and equinoxes.^[31] The Odinist Fellowship was involved in providing support to an Odinist postal worker dismissed by his employer for leaving printed images of Odin at his place of work. This led to a hearing in the Manchester Industrial Tribunal of Royal Mail PLC v Holden (2006) which found unequivocally in Mr. Holden's favour.^[32] In May 2014 the Odinist Fellowship purchased a Tudor-era chapel in Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, which was consecrated at Midsummer of that year as the first heathen Temple in England in over a thousand years.^[33][34] The Newark Temple is managed by a registered charity, the Newark Odinist Temple Trust.^[35]

Woden's Folk is a neo-völkisch group that was founded in 1998 and has received media attention for hate speech and holding private rituals attended by members of the Neo-Nazi group Combat 18.^[36] While the group describes itself as promoting a form of Heathenry, it does not attempt to revive Germanic religion, rejecting written and archaeological sources in favour of modern sources such as the founder's own spiritual revelations.^[37][38] Members often espouse beliefs such as that certain historical figures, including Adolf Hitler, were incarnations of Germanic gods, claiming the work of the Miguel Serrano validates this idea.^[36][39] It has been further noted that some components of the group's belief system such as references to the "Prophecies of Gildas" and a "Seventh Sword of Wayland" originated in the television series "Robin of Sherwood" and have no basis in folklore.^[38]

In 2019, the head of research at Hope not Hate stated that there are Neo-Nazis involved with groups like Woden's Folk who do not genuinely follow Heathenry but use these groups as a tool for radicalisation and justification of their ideas.^[36]