Tag: animistic-based spirituality

“You’re not a Viking”- a problem with too quickly belittling identity in ancestral DNA

December 5th, 2025

On one hand, I get it… in fact, just this past summer, while in Norway, I had an interesting exchange with a Norwegian about DNA and an American’s (for example) claims of “being” German, Dane, Irish, Scots, or whatever. I agreed that an American should not claim that they “ARE” any one of these if they did not grow out of the respective, contemporary cultures. But, to say they “have origins in” a country… that should/might(?) be understood as identifying oneself to some sort of quest… an attempt to understand… something… in their DNA results.

Taking this back to the title of this post… the same might be said of the whole “Viking thing”… though, I think this gets complicated. About twenty years ago, I told someone about my “Viking origins”. They asked (fair question) how the DNA proved such a thing, and I responded that it was because one DNA company (over the years, I’ve tested with five, total) showed I was over (at that time) forty percent Scandinavian. They responded that just because it showed Scandinavian origins doesn’t mean that it was Viking in origin. That’s absolutely true, but… for having done genealogy for over thirty years (at that time), and having reached back in most lines to the 17th century (some even further… supported by primary source materials, of course), I had encountered not one instance of a Scandinavian surname. However, the Viking thumbprint on DNA in the British Isles, France, Germany, the Baltic, etc. (all areas indicated in my DNA origins), cannot be easily dismissed. Further, in the time since that discussion, I’ve significantly expanded my work in Y DNA studies and have seen Pretanī Y in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Iceland… and Scandinavian Y in the British Isles. It’s a throwback to massaging the brain for the old lessons of World History 101, but through another type of magnifying glass.

It hasn’t been measured, so I can’t show percentages, but, I think most who take DNA tests (and, by the way, per an M.I.T. study, as of 2019, an estimated 26 million had tested their DNA for ancestry… and, by the way, one in five Americans have tested their DNA.) are just trying to get a handle on their ancestral origins… maybe even trying to see if it aligns with what they already “know”. Some even test to finally “prove” Native American origins (and, in my experience, frequently fail). Anyway, I think a good many get their results, say, “cool” and then tuck them away as some sort of “mission accomplished”.

I could go on and on about this (and, I’m likely to expand on some things in future posts), but I want to move along to thoughts on an even deeper motivation.

Could this journey through DNA reflect a need to identify to a sort of lack of “tribal” connection… a personal, genetic cry for something(s) absent in ourselves and in the world, today? Walking this back to the “You’re not a Viking”… I wonder… would it be right to belittle a person, so many generations removed from their Native American roots, for trying to reconnect with the same? Why then should anyone be quick to dismiss someone else’s “journey to reconnect” with their own indigenous (indeed, Animistic) spirituality… be that Nordic, Brittonic, or otherwise… or even a blended rebirth of a combination, in a new understanding, found comforting to navigate the modern world?

*Photo (hazy as it is) of a very enjoyable dining experience I had in the Viking camp at Midgardsblot, in Borre, Norway, this past August.
A gift… and obligation.

November 8th, 2024

Within the past month, I thought that I’d like to find an owl feather. Now, one can, no doubt, purchase one on Etsy, but where’s the magic in that? No. I concluded… the feather only comes if deserved.

Strange to say, but the thought of finding the single feather took me back, nearly forty years, to a time when I found an entire owl… but even stranger was that, tight in its talons, the owl STILL grasped a rabbit. Both were dead, with no visible evidence of “death by human.” In the violence of the interaction, did they end up killing each other, concussed by the flailing? Another question that comes to mind… was there symbolism in it that I totally missed? I mean, it’s quite peculiar, and what are the odds?

Anyway, so the stage was set… I wanted to find an owl feather. Yet, I fully embraced the idea that IT WOULD FIND ME when the time was appropriate.

So, driving out from work just yesterday, on an errand during lunch, I noticed a large bird… death by another automobile, no doubt. Was it a hawk… perhaps an owl? I was determined to investigate on the way back from my errand, but found myself increasingly bothered that I didn’t actually stop then and there. Errand completed, I returned to the spot, pulled over, and looked. It was a Barred Owl (common to Eastern North America). I was saddened for the loss of life, but immediately thought that in its passing, was this a gift? This quickly moved from my mind, and I focused on respect. I removed her/him from the road and gently laid the remains in the tall grass, away from yet further disrespect.

My thoughts returned again to the idea that it might be connected to my hope of finding a single feather. Without going into gory details of the poor creature’s fate, I asked her/him permission, not to take a gift for myself, but to honor the messenger and the message. Yet, in retrospect, at that time, I don’t think I fully understood what the message was. It was slowly coming to me…

Now, as for “gift”… it wasn’t one that you simply get excited over and walk away with, fully rewarded for the object itself. This was not materialistic. This “gift” had multiple facets defined by obligations… responsibilities. As I pulled away in my car, I think it pulled hardest on my heart, taking part of her/him away from the whole. Once again, I thought to myself that this feeling in me was a reminder… to only do this if the intent is to honor and respect. Don’t be lazily wasteful and disrespectful. If you take, be dutiful, and tend to its care and meaning.

It didn’t take long to also realize that the day was the 7th of November… by cross quarter calculations… truer to Samhain, this year, than 31 October. So, the owl… the messenger, the day, the message, the symbolism in the entire collective... well, if you know, you know (… and, if you don’t know, find your way on the path). The hits just keep on coming.

I’ll most certainly be mindful…
“Forsaking” our own spiritual heritage?

October 25th, 2024

“Maeve’s Cairn”, July 2019

Late in July 2021, on my second trip to Ireland, I headed to the northwest to see “Queen Maeve’s Cairn”, Ben Bulbin, and a number of other sites in that area. Already moved by the sites I had taken in two years (including Rathcrogan and Brú na Bóinne) before in Ireland, sometime on the ascent to “Maeve’s Cairn”, there was a personal “hard-stop” moment. Looking over to my daughter, I asked aloud… more or less… why “we” (people of European descent) surrendered this sort of spiritual heritage, connected with our own ancestry, for Christianity. It proved to be a key point in reassessing my thinking.

Now, “Maeve’s Cairn” (a Neolithic burial mound on Knocknarea/Cnoc na Riabh, in Sligo) is believed to date to around 3000 BCE (perhaps even older… 3500 BCE), and the legend of Maeve (if she actually existed) places her life at around 50 BCE to 50 AD… so, “Maeve’s Cairn” could not actually be, literally, her burial spot. But, I digress from the point.

The larger realization is that, at around 3500 BCE, the cairn is as old as… if not older… than the pyramids of Giza. Since then, I’ve been to other ancient sites in Europe (and plan to visit more), including (just this year) very similar cairns in Tanum, Sweden. I’ve also expanded my readings to understand more about the history of animistic and totemic practices… paralleling others throughout the world, including those practiced among Indigenous Peoples of North America. I’ve also delved deeply into efforts by contemporary people to reconnect with that form of spirituality… sometimes more conjecture than history, and sometimes actually well-grounded in history… but that’s another discussion in itself. It seems off-putting, then, to see how Christianity pushed aside Europe’s true connections with that spirituality for another faith that evolved nearly 6,000 miles away (distance from Knocknarea to Jerusalem) in an entirely different culture. Further, ignore it as you may, that “push” was anything but peaceful… and it was most certainly done with anything but good, “wholesome” intentions.

One doesn’t need to look far in regard to the expansion of Christianity in Europe to see how brutal it was (when the expansion was actually recorded). From stories about the British Isles beginning in the 4th century, Charlemagne’s massacre of pagans at Verden in October 782, to the brutal crusade against pagans in the Baltic region through the 13th century (look-up the Northern Crusades), one would think, in retrospect, modern Christianity would be more humble in its approach to other beliefs. Some Christians actually are humble… but given the “bullying” actions of others, from the condemnation of attempts to reconnect to old traditions such as Beltane and Samhain, to the efforts to force the bible on school children in public schools in Oklahoma and the display of the ten commandments in Louisiana (and these instances are but a few of what continues)… Christianity is anything but comfortable without continued expansion.

Reading about all of this only serves to increase understanding of the larger picture. Consider then why there is any “forbidden fruit”… especially from a “tree of knowledge.” If partaking means expanding one’s intellectual self and growing even more spiritually… eat on. Surely, the powers that be would prefer we continue to evolve, and only those who want to suppress and control would prefer otherwise.

“Forsake not,” then, our own origins and the historical and spiritual lessons we can find in the stories of our ancestors…
Lessons from Indigenous Peoples’ Day

October 17th, 2024

So, this past Monday was Indigenous Peoples’ Day… a day created to recognize Native Americans and to move away from recognizing Columbus Day.

As to be expected (social media facilitating what amounts to one massive pool of “letters to the editor”), it’s not something that settles well with everyone. There’s a range of arguments against moving away from Columbus, including the argument that European colonization did nothing that wasn’t already being done (pre-Columbian warfare between tribes… even in the name of expansionism and/or migration). Yet, shallow responses such as these reflect shallow thinking (ok, that is snarky of me, but, sorry, not sorry).

For one, the desire to TAKE land from others to have land for “your own” is something that we all need to think about. Many who have taken DNA tests can see evidence of the practice throughout history. In my own (I’ve tested with five different companies to analyze the consistencies and inconsistencies between companies), I can see evidence of Roman, Brittonic, Anglo-Saxon, and Viking expansion (and a hint of connection to activity in the Baltic region). In the DNA world, that’s a reflection of genetic “admixture”… and it’s a story inevitably tied to human existence. You can’t escape it. It happened in the past, and it’s just going to continue. Yet, perhaps since we’ve had world history in our education, we benefit (well, many of us benefitted from learning world history, and it’s clear from social media comments that many others did not… maybe they slept through it) from being more cognizant than earlier generations (that’s probably worthy of another discussion on another day). In short, could it not be that we can better see the bigger historical picture… the injustices… and wince? I could go down a few more rabbit holes with this, but that will do for the moment.

So, let’s say that this is lesson one.

Going further, as an animist, I’m regularly looking at parallels between Native American beliefs and those of pre-Christian Europe (and other places across the globe). Perhaps what strikes me most is how different cultures across the globe came to strikingly similar spiritual conclusions, yet without traceable evidence of influence from the others. Now, don’t get me wrong… I’ve also seen how cultures adopted beliefs from other cultures, and they remolded them to better fit their people within a certain geographic area. Ultimately, because this is global, these parallels… especially when so geographically removed from each other… also suggest something that is simply… natural (even if different, strikingly similar). The point is that the stories of the spirituality of Indigenous peoples is a significant key to thinking more broadly. When we see parallels in beliefs across the globe, I argue that we see “alignment” vs. say, “having jumped the track”… natural vs. not so natural.

I think the meaning of Indigenous Peoples’ Day varies from person to person, but in the back of my head, I keep hearing a quote echoing from Vine Deloria, Jr. (God is Red, 1973)…

Who will find peace with the lands? The future of humankind lies waiting for those who will come to understand their lives and take up their responsibilities to all living things. Who will listen to the trees, the animals and birds, the voices of the places of the land? As the long forgotten peoples of the respectful continents rise and begin to reclaim their ancient heritage, they will discover the meaning of the lands of their ancestors. That is when the invaders of the North American continent will finally discover that for this land, God is red.

I see the day as an opportunity for much more profound thinking as to our existence and our connection with everything around us. It depends on how one looks at it, but it doesn’t have to be a day in which we look at a people different than ourselves and just feel sorry for them, for the injustices they experienced. If that’s all you see in the day, I think the value is missed. Think bigger. Take the stories of people, look at how our stories (think deep genetic) are actually aligned with each other, and how the problematic lessons of the past suggest how we might move forward to benefit each other and the planet on which we live. Indigenous Peoples’ Day is a gift to us all… if we listen.
Thinking, thinking…

October 11th, 2024

My lack of writing since February… it reminds me of the spinning circle on a computer when waiting to transition to the next page. I can come up with a number of excuses, but I have to wonder if, really, it’s just that I didn’t quite know where I wanted this blog to go. It might be that all of that time… a whopping eight months… was necessary to make sense of it all. Given the newness of the blog, thankfully, my audience was more myself than a collection of followers that I left hanging.

So, really, why did I want to do this blog in the first place?

Like many writing projects, first, it’s about making sense of something for self.

Making sense of what, exactly?

How, after a decade of blogging about a narrow aspect of history (and then a lengthy lull before starting this blog), have I gone to writing about a collection of so many other interests? History remains at the core… genealogy being threaded together with that… followed by my study of DNA… and, eventually, this path propelled me into deeper subject matter… animistic-based spirituality. But it’s not now about spirituality alone, but the collective… history, genealogy, DNA, spirituality (animism being a large part of that) … and more (to include mythology). It doesn’t do justice to say it, but, in an effort to give a synopsis, it’s about exploring history so deeply as to go into pre-Christian beliefs via “blood ancestry” and “non-blood ancestry”. I’d like to get that on “paper” to make sense of it all… for starters, for myself.

Perhaps the more difficult part of the decision is the second part of “why”… why do I want to blog about it? Why do I want to put such deep, intimate thoughts in a format that opens up to a field of readers? Well, why do most writers write? I believe it’s both to share thoughts and the hope of encouraging others to think about a topic. Yet, in contemporary settings on the web, why would one really open the door to public commentary? I’m quite aware, after having blogged for years, that commentary can be fruitful engagement… and also cruel personal attacks, often simply over a difference of opinion. That is especially cutting when it comes to something so incredibly intimate, such as spirituality and faith.

Yet, I’ve written for an audience for over 35 years… in published books, articles, and blogs on the web. I’ve also made my rounds in academic studies… history, writing, and rhetoric. So, I guess writing again is just part of all of that.

Then, too, I think there’s something else. I “hear the clock ticking”. Mortality. In my 50+ years, I’ve become very aware of how it becomes a struggle to look back upon the life of a person and realize how little you really know. I’d like to think I’m leaving (though the longevity of a blog post on the web is a discussion in itself) another morsel behind… greater than just memory… for my descendants. Sure, to some, I suspect they might not care less, but others… I hope it ignites a spark in them, for their own passion(s)… perhaps some of them… shared.

Tag: animistic-based spirituality

“You’re not a Viking”- a problem with too quickly belittling identity in ancestral DNA

A gift… and obligation.

“Forsaking” our own spiritual heritage?

Lessons from Indigenous Peoples’ Day

Thinking, thinking…