So, as I told some of you, I was the original Anon here (I was feeling nervous and shy that day). To give context, I dabbled in a Discord server for the first time and I was asked to choose Roles for myself, so that folks might know what I could be a resource for. In larger communities, it’s often enough to just say, “I’m heathen,” and have the details flow from there as necessary.
But as we create these smaller communities for ourselves within heathenry, and ask about god-focus practice and experience, I found myself compelled to find another word. With Hel as the core of my practice, and while the term “Vanatrú” applies to me because I work with Freyja and her family, I don’t feel comfortable with that as my sole Role identifier on a server: I also needed a term for all the Jötnar I work with. I needed a middle-term, for when going ‘deeper’ than heathen but broader than Heljardottir.
The common identifier for that mid-space is Rokkatrú, but I have a deep discomfort with the leaders of that movement. Even as it has become the shorthand for those who work with the Jötnar, and perhaps expanded from its original coining, it still has that association. For me, choosing that word links me to Northern Tradition Paganism and its leaders, who I won’t support. This isn’t to shame folks who do identify with the term or choose to practice in that way; this is to differentiate. I don’t seek rename them; I don’t practice what they offer, we simply share gods. I can’t, for myself and my practice, use that identifier.
I needed another term, another identifier, another word.
(”From a word I was led to a word—”)
So I asked about Jötnatrú as a linguistic option.
In a space where such a word is helpful, this is the word I’ll be using. If you feel so called, I invite others to use the identifier, too. There are many sub-communities; I’m hoping we can make yet another space to honour our gods. It’s also not necessary nor a pressure. Just an update and offering to the community.
