Originally posted by Adrift
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Do you practice any Heathen rituals, and if so, why? Most people who practice rituals do so because they think there is some metaphysical significance, or because...they were inculcated into the practice.
I guess... it seems to me that, for all intents and purposes, as a philosophical naturalist, you could live with or without Heathenry. It may play a part in your overall worldview, but there isn't any deep spiritual connection to it. And, what I'm sensing from you is that there really isn't any intrinsic truth element to it that you couldn't find someplace else, or that you couldn't invent. I hope this doesn't come off condescending, but it almost sounds like more of a hobby for you, than what I would consider a foundational worldview like what you'd find with other religions. Does that make sense? Maybe I'm not putting my thoughts into the best words.
If you have the time, tell me more about the concepts of Wyrd and Orlog, and what you find attractive about them.
In the general view of Heathenry, Wyrd is representative of a person's free will. Wyrd is the choices that we make, and the actions that we take, while living our lives. Every single decision which we settle upon is like weaving another thread into the pattern of our lives-- indeed, the sagas and Eddas portray the Norns as weaving fate, and Wyrd is the name of one of the three Norns. On the other hand, Orlog is the weight of destiny. It is the direction in which our Wyrd is set. One decent analogy is to think of a boat on a strongly flowing river: the way in which we weave our Wyrd allows us to steer around the rocks and obstacles, lest we crash, but it is useless to try to paddle against the river's flow, Orlog. So, Orlog carries us inexorably toward our destiny, while Wyrd helps us to shape the quality of that destiny.
Now, putting that into my personal view, when discussing the Nature of Time, I'm known as a B-Theorist. If you're not familiar, there are two main views in philosophy as to how Time works. On the A-Theory (or Tensed Theory), the future is only a potentiality until it becomes actualized by the present. The actions we take in the present are actually constructing the future, on this view. On the B-Theory (or Tenseless Theory), the past, present, and future are all equally actual, though we are only aware of the present and have memories of the past. The whole of the future exists, on the B-Theory, even though we are not yet aware of it.
I'm a B-Theorist, and I tend to think of "time" and "events" in a very mathematical way. Take a normal Cartesian graph, for example, with two axes-- one for time, one for space (it's a lot easier to visualize than a full 3+1 dimensional manifold). Every single point in that spacetime is coextant. The time t=5 is no more or less "real" than the time t=8 or t=155,270. Actors or entities within that spacetime can be visualized as mathematical Functions of time. The solution set to that function carves out a set of points which comprise the entire lifetime of that actor. Linking this back to Heathenry, on my view, Orlog is akin to the whole of space-time, while Wyrd is the particular function which defines each actor.
I held my mathematical view of Time before I came to learn about Wyrd and Orlog. The fact that they fit so perfectly into my own understanding of Time is what really pushed me over from just considering myself an admirer of Heathenry to claiming it as my religion.
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