Kindred and such

[Bathilde]

In my opinion, heathenry is a social religion or worldview and has emphasis on family and tribe. So there are many kindreds, sippes, hearths, híreds, etc to behold. And I love it when a bunch of heathens get together, especially the huge gatherings like East Coast Thing.


I guess I could be considered solitary right now, since I just moved and I currently don't belong to a local group yet. I do, however, belong to a larger group maybe I'm not so solitary. I'm hoping to form a hearth here if there isn't a local group to my liking.

So what about you guys? You belong to a kindred? Are you solitary? Reasons for joining a kindred, or reasons against?

[Shadowcat]

Does one other person count as being part of a group? Of the two groups I know of in my area, one is elitist and "know-it-all", the other is Wicca-tru. So no, I don't belong to a group. I'm not really a social person anyway, as you know, so I don't plan on joining a group. Now going to large gatherings to meet people, sure, but I don't want to do rituals with them.

[Bathilde]

what groups are near you?

[Shadowcat]

The know-it-all group is a reenactment group called Skjaldborg, but I think they're a kindred, too. I don't want to name names on the other group because I don't want to trash talk them. They were nice online, but they came off pretty darn Wiccan.

[Jason]

I'm in the military and tend to move around a lot so I haven't really been able to get into any groups. Most of the time when I find something close by it's either a general pagan group or something close to that. I have some close friends who are heathen and we keep in touch a lot but other than that it's me and my family.

[Bathilde]

Yea with people in the military it's a bit difficult with all the moving around.

I believe the heathen halls project helps out with military folk when they're deployed or in a location without a heathen community. Have you heard of it?

I've moved around a lot so I tend to associate with kindreds rather than attempt to join them. Occasionally I will start up or join a heathen hearth which is more informal and mainly used as a study group.

[Jason]

Lol, Josh and Cat are good friends of mine so yeah, I've signed up for it. I actually met him while we were both deployed in Baghdad.

From what I have experienced so far it's a lot easier to find pagan/wiccan folk than it is to find heathens while in the military. Hopefully with Open Halls that will start to change though

[HammerOfThorr]

Rogue heathen, but with some good old friends:)

[Deleted User 72]

I seem to have various groups from me within a 4 hour radius of me in all directions. But as for something within a more manageable driving distance, I have nothing. I guess it is my fault for living within the middle of nowhere.

And the national organizations I e-mailed about networking in my region were pretty worthless.

[Bathilde]

Sounds rough. You thinking about starting your own thing or are you gonna wait until something come closer?