Request Help On Thor Worship

The proper sacrifice to Thor is a goat, which is much easier to handle than the sacrifice to Odin: men. If you are talking about the pre-Christian worship, rather than the people who have taken to Thor recently, then the ceremonies were outside and were composed of some chants.I don't know the details of that, but I have read something about it, but I don't remember where.

It looks like Google Books and Google Scholar both have links to some interesting stuff about the specifics of Thor worship. I would definitely check those out. You didn't specify in your original post what century your character lives in, but I guess by your second post its the present day?

Ok, so this is probably the best article I can find with a reasonably brief search.

http://books.google.com/books?id=guVGBE9t5igC&pg=PA1364&dq=%22Thor+worship%22&hl=en&ei=UZAwTvWiOpHYiALG6ZS9Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEMQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=%22Thor%20worship%22&f=false

If you hit that link, you should be at an article on how Thor was worshipped back in the day, and it goes down to the next page. The pages just above this have more general information about Thor.

I really don't see anything terribly modern. I imagine that most people who worship Thor today do their best at a reasonable modern interpretation of the old stuff that they've adapted for solo or small-group worship instead of whole-community style.

There's going to be a lot of other facets to this as well. Do the people your protagonist joins up with (I assume he's not solo in this?) also worship Odin (they probably do) and do they practice the use of runes? That's not something I really looked up, but the article mentions it, so you might want to look into that as well.

Oh okay, I found some modern stuff.

For an overview of different variations, check out "Germanic Neopaganism" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_Neopaganism

And I think what you're really looking for is this, they call it "Asatru" which means "Aesir's Faith" more or less. http://www.asatru.org/

This website has the kind of "welcome to the club" feel that I think you are looking for. They've got a page about holidays, and different ones like that.

Good luck!

Ooh Thor, my favourite god.

It's incredibly individual, tbh. A few things, though. 1) You never kneel before anyone, even your gods. 2) Sacrifice. Some do, some don't. If you do, it's a personal choice as to what, depending on which aspect of Thor you revere the most. I don't sacrifice (okay, maybe I'll drink a beer to the old sod occasionally lol), but I do other things instead. These are personal, and most other Odinists (or Asatru) that I know keep it personal as to how they worship too. I'm not exactly devout and I'm not exactly Asatru either...but sort of...3) A lot will depend on where your MC comes from - the practices etc quite different between the UK, Scandinavia and the US for instance, and is pretty varied even in the same country. For example, in the UK, Heroes Day is often celebrated on the 11th November (because of Remembrance Day), I'm not sure if that's different in different places. *I see taht it is the same. Hmm, I wonder if someone sneaked that in...


You could look at the Odinist Fellowship (UK organisation) for a few pointers, but I don't know many people who actually pour the mead away...

But the main point is this: It's not an organised religion, the emphasis is on the individual. And that means that what is good and right for one person will make the next roll their eyes.

The Unseen Moon said:

Well, according to the website I do have, that is no longer true.

In the modern age Thor worshippers can write a special poem composed for the god, offer a cup of beer, or a piece of silver. Any request to Thor should be made as a trade between equals, this god is a friend to his worshippers. For individual worship give a gift of fire to the thunderer each Thursday and write a short poem in his honor.

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We don't know a great deal about the actual rituals, because, well, they were sacred and secret.

I'd take anything from C. Scott Littleton with a pound of salt, frankly.

Hang on a minute - I'm supposed to write a poem? A POEM?

WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME??!!

Ahem. I could see that for Odin (being patron of bards and all) but Thor? He doesn't seem the type tbh.

I don't know anyone that writes poems to Thor, as far as I'm aware. Thor is red blood and iron, strength, protection, destruction. Goats are associated if you want to get picky. Not poetry...Maybe poetry about red blood and iron? Hmmm....

Oh and Medi is right - and they are still fairly secret/personal. What you sacrifice (or not) is between you and your god, mostly. (some people will say, but most keep it pretty private except for on special occasions. So maybe some do write poetry....*considers the Thor worshippers she is in acquaintance with.* Or then again, perhaps not)

Again, this might be different depending on your locale/way you look at these things, but poetry...not for Thor.

Again, though, it's so individual. Make it fit however your character feels about Thor (as opposed to the other gods/goddesses)

The thing about sacrifices is that it should be something that matters to the one communicating with the god(s). Yes, some gods have preferences that you can figure out 'cause things work out better when you offer that, but generally, if you're offering the almost-spoiled milk in the fridge, don't expect a lot out of it.

The teachings I received about making offerings to the gods is simple: Every gift looks for gain. If you want something from the gods, then you need to give them something in return. The kindreds I've worked with generally use some form of alcohol. If there needs to be a food offering, then we generally bake or cook something with the intent to offer it. We've made cookies in the shape of a goat (sheep, horse, whatever animal), though we've also grilled up meat of the appropriate animal if we're asking for something big or if it's a traditional rite for that god and there's an established preference.

Since Thor was responsible for pounding the frozen ground with hail to soften it up for planting each spring, one kindred I was active with had a Thorsblot every March. The intent was to welcome Thor to our lands and lives and we could profit from his presence. We did a small rite offering a full 40 oz of beer and some form of goat (cookie or meat, whichever the host choose to do) and then we'd sit around the rest of the evening, drinking and boasting about the good we've enjoyed lately. (This was an overnight at the host's house event, since getting drunk was almost inevitable, much like a New Year's Eve party.)

Other kindreds didn't do this, but, that's fine. Their relationship with Thor was different from ours. And that's the key with this kind of religion--every community will be different. The same thing doesn't work for all groups, just like in the old days.

The Norse were extremely flexible in their worship, willing to make adjustments to something that worked better. If what my neighbor is doing worked better than what I'm doing, I did more of what he did to get the same benefit. They were very practical in that regard.

The other thing to remember about the Norse gods is that they're not as clearly defined as the Romans and Bulfinch make them out to me. (The Romans equated Thor with Jupiter, for instance, because of the lightning connection. Odin was equated with Mercury, IIRC.) The gods have personalities and histories and things they were good at doing and a destiny to fulfill at the end times. They weren't really "gods of" things in the same way. If you knew them and what they were good at, then you knew who to ask for help with what--much like your neighbors, etc. It's not the same kind of relationship as, say, Christians have with their god. Norse gods are more kith and kin rather than rulers or dictators of what humans need to be doing.

Hope that helps.

What Deleyan said

DeleyanLee said:

Other kindreds didn't do this, but, that's fine. Their relationship with Thor was different from ours. And that's the key with this kind of religion--every community will be different. The same thing doesn't work for all groups, just like in the old days.

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It's bit like asking how Christians worship tbh. Cos it'll depend. Catholic, Protestant, C of E, Methodist...Almost all religions have a wide variety of ways they worship. With this one though, what is personal to you the worshipper is just as important. What does your character feel about Thor? How deeply? What does he think Thor stands for? That will define how he worships - it will be personal to him mostly (except at bigger gatherings perhaps, but those aren't always the norm) It's him and his god and that's it - a contract/relationship of sorts between the two. The clauses/how it works are for him to work out.

They do - that wasn't what I meant. I meant most religions have multiple forms of worship, so that asking how to worship Thor is as vague as asking how Christians worship - it depends! ETA: For instance, the difference between Catholic and C of E. And that some devout Christians barely go in a church, and some go every day and...

So what if the guy doesn't want anything from his deity but still goes through the rituals anyway? Are the rituals there just to ask the deities for something in return?

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Depends on your character. Some only do the rituals when asking for something, some do them as a matter of course on certain occasions, some never do them.

I know this is all a bit vague, but so is the question! It's not like there's a Common Book of Prayer It all depends on your guy, why he's starting to worship Thor, who he's worshipping with (if anyone), how he feels about Thor, what he feels Thor stands for, whether he's asking for something or not.

You could make him have a stylised ritual with libations of mead/goat sacrifice, or you could make him just wear a Mjollnir and throw up a 'Don't let me down now!' when he's in trouble, or anything inbetween. I'd believe anything along that spectrum, because I know people along that spectrum (more towards the last, but still) Whether it works depends on how he feels about it all.

Make the worship fit your character, and you should be gold. If you want him to have more formal rituals, then the libation etc is a good way to go. I don't know of any standard words that might be used though. I've got a book round here somewhere that reckons there ARE some, but I've never heard anyone use them. Hang on I'll try to find it. EETA: Okay, I have found it. BUT I'm not sure of the credentials of the author, AND they sound a bit twee to what I've heard used. And it would depend on what you're asking for. If you're performing a blot to Thor to ask for something specific, then you'd adress Thor (pop in a bit of 'great' or 'mighty' lol, I'm sure he likes that) ask him to accept the sacrifice, then ask. One I have heard used for the asking is 'Place thy blessing within, that we might gain your strength')

Agree with IdiotsRUs on a lot of points.

"Worship" is treated as a meeting of equals. I have the absolute highest respect for my Gods, I acknowledge them and celebrate them, but I do not, ever, kneel to them.

My UPG in my approach, and the approach of many others I've met, is that you do not ask your gods to give you stuff. You don't pray to them and expect them to fix everything for you. You might ask for their help, but that is as one kinsman asking another, and of course you would offer something in return.

Sacrifice again, will vary. Some do, some don't. Some burn offerings, some offer libations, some offer handmade tools or other items that have taken time and effort and energy to produce.

Depending on how serious your MC is going to be about it, you may want to look up oath rings. You probably don't want to have your MC using runes as a divination tool - that seems to be a deeply contentious issue, divided as far as I can tell between the reconstructionists who consider it a fluffy bunny "wiccatru" practice and eclectics who allow it as a modern reinterpretation, not to mention all the other conflicting opinions!

Oh! Oaths. Very serious things. Only an idiot makes an oath to their god lightly. If you break an oath you don't get to just say "I'm sowwy" and have it all be okay again. You gotta own up to and fix that shit.

I must stress though, that my primary focus is towards Odin rather than Thor, so YMMV.

The Unseen Moon said:

So what if the guy doesn't want anything from his deity but still goes through the rituals anyway? Are the rituals there just to ask the deities for something in return?

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My understanding of Asatru is that faith isn't needed, that if you do the rituals, you reap the rewards. If you give something to the gods without specifying what you want in return, then they'll find something that they think you want and you have no control on it.

Example: A member of my old kindred decided that it was unfair that there wasn't a ritual to Loki specifically, that he only got recognized because he's blood-brother to Odin and if you give to Odin, it's only fair to give to Loki. So we did a Loki blot without specifying anything in return.

The guy who opted to do it and lead the blot suddenly lost the job he'd had for over 20 years (this was 1996, FWIW). One woman's engagement fell apart. Another woman was involved in a 3 car pile-up that made the news that night. My family had a house fire.

All totally Loki-style. But here's where the blessings started in:

The guy looked at his life, finally admitted that he was stuck in a rut in that job, and started a new business. He met a woman and found the love of his life and, last I heard, he'd moved his business and new family out of Michigan and was still doing well.

The formally engaged woman rearranged her life post-non-wedding, and got her career back on track. She got a promotion 4 months later, moved to a different city, and fell in love again.

The friend who was in the car accident wasn't at fault and was one of many in the pile-up. She got enough money from the insurance settlement that she got a new car free and clear. No more clunker with weekly repair bills.

Our housefire pretty much totaled the kitchen and the roof above it, where the fire was. The efforts of the fire department hosed down the rest of the house and tore up the wallboard through half of it, and damaged the furnace. It killed all electronics (including 3 computers), smoke damaged heirlooms and books. Mind you, the fire only "lived" for about 20 minutes before it was put out.

But all the pets were pulled out by the fire department and neighbors got them to the emergency vet. We had very good house insurance, so we got a new roof, the electric completely updated to modern code (including a new fuse-box), the kitchen and bathroom were remodeled so it made sense, as well as getting new appliances, freshly painted, the hardwood floors complete redone throughout, all the computers and electronics updated--shall I go on? All it cost me was to pay for the roof that the fire hadn't damaged--about $2-3K, for roughly $100K worth of repairs and replacements. When it came time to sell the house ten years later, all those updates and improvements went a LONG way to punching up the value of the house.

If you're giving to the gods, make certain you're specific. The gods WILL do something positive back to you, but sometimes it can be pretty nasty before it turns positive.

BunnyMaz said:

Depending on how serious your MC is going to be about it, you may want to look up oath rings. You probably don't want to have your MC using runes as a divination tool

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Most people I know connect runes to Odin. It's a serious study until itself, like any form of magic, and isn't something to just be tossing about. I have a friend who studied runes for many years, even though her patron is FreyR and not Odin, and it was very intense. Not something you can learn from a couple of Llywellyn publications.

Oh! Oaths. Very serious things. Only an idiot makes an oath to their god lightly. If you break an oath you don't get to just say "I'm sowwy" and have it all be okay again. You gotta own up to and fix that shit.

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Oh, yeah. The religion's very strong on responsibility. You do it right, you get all the kudos. You get it wrong, you get all the shit--and you might not be able to fix it or "make up" for it. An oath bind you, body and soul, and will follow you to the end of your days and, perhaps, beyond.

Placing your hand on an oath ring is the most formal way of making a promise. You don't do that unless you completely serious about what you were swearing to do.

It's a serious study until itself, like any form of magic, and isn't something to just be tossing about.

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Absolutely. I can totally understand why there is such a big bone of contention regarding the new-age practices that involve buying a pack of pretty rune-painted gemstones and a booklet and having at it, which is pretty much why I'd recommend not having rune divination or non-mundane rune use be a part of the MC, unless the writer really knows what they are talking about.

To be fair, my Da is a tarot user and I feel the same way when I see tarot used Hollywood style. Using those cards is not without cost, and for the thousandth time the death card does not mean you are going to die godsdamnit.

I think what it boils down is that Asatru, Heathens or whatever individuals prefer to be called have a serious religion. I don't mean dogmatic, but that there's nothing wishywashy about it. And when/if you do mess up, there's no blame to be laid on demons or temptation. It is all on you.

Oh heck yes, oaths!

Do not give your word lightly, but when you do, keep it like iron.

If you do break an oath, you have to pay for it in some way, a reparation if you will.

Runes are something I leave to others, but I wear an Odin rune (along with my Mjolnir), and that's actually fairly common - wearing something to remind you of your patron god(s). Mjolnir for bravery/strength, Odin's rune for wisdom etc etc

And when/if you do mess up, there's no blame to be laid on demons or temptation. It is all on you.

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You are the captain of your soul, no one else And also: There is none so good he is without all flaw, and none so wretched he is without all virtue.

I'm no expert on Norse paganism specifically. But Norse paganism and pagan rituals varied greatly over time and place. All we have are little bits and pieces that historians have tried piecing together. It's a severely fractured picture at best.

It isn't made easier by modern pagan believers who claim to know for a fact. They don't. Nobody does.

Good news is that you have a lot of poetic licence. Make shit up. Nobody can prove you're wrong. As long as you're vague on the source of the rituals, you can't really fail.