The world is changing fast these days. Fighting a full on fascist takeover is exhausting. Waking up to unprecedented news every morning is clearly taking its toll on many of us in the USA. This is all, of course, by design. The masters of this attempted coup are doing everything they can to keep the masses divided, confused, and reactive. Chaos and rage are weapons easily used against people already at unrest. But some are organizing and striking back! People are out at their state representatives offices or making calls in protest of the many atrocities being committed by the republican regime. The instability of our own government has also sent waves across the globe. German fascist organizations being praised by those in charge here and our own VP chastizing Germans for not “moving on” regarding the Holocaust. Add to that mess the fact that half of our fellow americans are blind to what they, and others around the world, are about to lose.
In Heathenry, we talk about frith when describing the basic politics of our pre and early christian ancestors. The concept of frith began in smaller communities than the size of the United States of America right now. With the reach of the internet and the online communities it has helped to foster, the current version of frith is a little different than the pre Christian form. It is still present in our physical realm whether under Heathen auspice or not. It is why we have tri-state areas that pop up in the corners of neighboring states with their own distinct culture. Just ask any New Jerseyan about the forever debate between north Jersey Taylor Ham vs South Jersey pork roll. Poor central Jersey (where I grew up and YES it exists!) is debated about for it’s own existence. North Jersey is nearest to NYC and likes the New York sports teams, and South Jersey, just across the river from Philadelphia, likes the Philly teams. Each area has it’s own accent, each city it’s own feel, each community its own vibe. Frith is also why the northern Appalachian folk magical practices differ from the Appalachian folk magic in PA, MD, VA, NC, SC, etc. The magic in these areas is informed by the nearest cities and the people that live in or travel through it.
Frith is shared ideals and principle beliefs. Frith is common ground.
Frith is what happened when the early Germans and their folk magic practice met the Lene Lenape in Pennsylvania and traded knowledge. They shared information with the Irish and Scottish people, who came over often as indentured servants, who had their own folk practices. They all met with the African slaves and the knowledge they were able to hold onto from their home land. These different groups met and melded their knowledge, experience, and healing practices to better their people, often the people who were farther away from cities, who were poor or otherwise could not afford care or medicine of one sort or another.
This early time in what would become America was more aligned with the ancient idea of frith. In ancient times, people were connected to each other not only by family ties, but by tribe and physical location. Tribal leaders oathed fealty to chiefs that held certain lands who in turn were loyal to a king. The english word comity describes the idea of frith; considerate behavior towards others, social harmony, mutual courtesy, a state of civility. In Urglaawe, we call it Fruchsfriede and it translates to *the fruits of peace”. Peace, Winifred Hodge Rose states, is the result of upholding frith. In some forms of Heathenry, frith has a related concept, that of grith. Grith is frith for a specific time or space like when tribes met for the Ding or other large gatherings where different groups of people may not get along. Think of Frith as peace and grith as a truce. Frith and grith don’t guarantee that people will like each other. What they do try to guarantee is that when we meet with others for a specific purpose or goal, that there is a mutual understanding and expectation of a certain level of safety and willingness to work together.
In pre/early Christian Heathenry, keeping frith sometimes meant getting into a physical fight because your best friend mouthed off to a very large and perpetually grumpy gentleman at the local pub, even if you agree your friend was being an ass and probably deserved a bit of a smackdown. Generally speaking, one’s loyalty would be to their kinsman and then clan. It was expected you would stand by your kin in both good times to share in the bounty, and in bad situation to fight whatever adversary came along. Current Heathenry isn’t so terribly different. We tend to be protective of our kindred brethren both in real life and online. We expect that when gathering for rituals, moots, meetings, or greater gatherings like Things, that there is a certain level of respect for frith and safety that extends both ways.
When does non action break frith?
Heathenry’s biggest foe lies in the white supremecist or volkish brands of Heathenry. They tout blood and soil rhetoric and the kind of ‘women should be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen’ ideals that align far more with the right wing Christian nationalist movement currently trying to take over America than they do Heathenry. But that Christian nationalist movement now has the backing of oligarchs and the pedestal that they provide in owning all media outlets and news organizations. The people in power, motivated by the strings being pulled, are gutting any and all social nets and even earned benefits from the most fragile of not just our country, but the world. There is a real threat of death not just from possible on the ground war, but from the lack of food, lack of medicine, lack of clean water, lack of shelter, lack of basic rights. Human rights.
We are used to railing against these types of Heathens, but what do we allow by our non action? How are we building safe and inclusive communities? Are you able to stand firmly behind your kin and still hold to your own ideals? I challenge that if you can not give a resounding yes to that question, that non action will eventually lead to breaking frith. Does this mean we always have to agree with our kindred mates on every front? No way! That isn’t realistic. What it does mean, is that we should be confident that our kinsman would also stand up for human rights when they witness wrongdoing. We should be calling out bigots in our midst, not just turning a blind eye, or ear as the case may be. We should recognize that if we allow the small jabs and ‘jokes’ to slide, that makes it seem (whether true or not) that you agree with what was said or done. Havamal 127 – “Where you see evil, speak out against evil, and give your foes no peace”. Every Heathen knows it. How to we put it to practice? We practice it by not just allowing members of minority groups into our spaces, but actively welcoming and embracing them. It is in being active vs being passive. We must be actively inclusive, or we are passively exclusive. Being passive endangers the mental and even physical safety of our marginalized kin. With the Sacred Promise (if you are an Urglaawer) or other animistic worldviews, we recognize that all people deserve safety and basic human rights.
All of a sudden, we aren’t just inclusive Heathens fighting white supremacist Heathens anymore. We are Heathens standing next to Muslims standing next to immigrants standing next to trans people standing next to Indigenous people. We must stand with other minority groups because we too are a minority group. We must find the common ground, the shared ideals, and extend frith. Anyone who is not a straight white cis male dominionist Christian should be yelling from the mountaintops about all other minorities being prosecuted because all of us are a target. We must become people fighting together for the rights of everyone instead of fighting against each other while the richest gain more wealth from our underpaid labor.
Our shared struggle and what we can do
The laws being passed right now are meant to take rights away from one marginalized group after another until they are all gone. Heathens, pagans, witches, non Christians, atheists, disabled people, poor people, all minority races. Women – ALL women and men who are allies. There are cis straight white male allies that need to use their privilege and voices. They are likely the only ones most of these bigoted people will listen to. They have to try to get the other men to say out loud exactly what they are agreeing to when they parrot out the republican rhetoric and agenda. Spell out for them what that means for the women in their own families or the future of their own daughters. Maybe then they will understand.
We need to band together in smaller communities. We need to have support systems and resources in place. In doing so, we have to come together with those that aren’t necessarily of our own beliefs. The political climate out in the world today has us seeking out unlikely allies to stand next to us in the fight against this fascist takeover. This has happened before and can happen again. Christians and pagans that agree on separation of church and state. Gun owners and pacifists working together for common sense gun laws. It is doable, if we aren’t expecting perfection. If your group can’t stand up next to mine because I am Heathen and yours is Christian, I have to wonder what kind of Chtisitan you really are. If you aren’t with me in this fight, you are against me, there is no two ways about it. You either want this oligarch driven fascist dystopia done or you want it to stay. Those are the only two choices right now. Which choice are you going to make?
Our great grandchildren will read about this some day. They will learn when it started, how people acted, what happened in the end. We will tell them we had no idea we were living in a very historical time. We will remember whether or not we held to our ideals and morals. Did we fight for others as hard as we fought for ourselves? Did we leave anyone behind?
Each person has to resist in their own way. You have to do what you can, when you can, how you can. This may be a long dark time and we need to take care of ourselves as much as possible so we can continue the fight for democracy yet again. Not everyone can fight publicly or even privately for their own rights. My own promise: I will stand up for those that can’t, I will stand up for you even if you don’t stand up for me, or even yourself, because our rights are the civil rights promised to ALL of us in our Declaration of Independence; life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Our rights are human rights.
Macht’s immer besser!
Leave a Reply