Turns out everything old really is new again.
For the first time in 1,000 years a new pagan temple is being constructed in Iceland’s capital city that will house a shrine to the Norse gods Thor, Odin and Frigg.Norse paganism is very old, albeit younger than Greco-Roman mythology. But that's what's interesting about phemomena like this. The adherents face a different world from their literal and metaphorical answers, one in which faith and religion have been decentered. Which almost certainly means this religion will be very different in its new emergence from what it used to be.
“We see this as so much part of our heritage,” said Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson, high priest of the Asatru religion.
The temple is ten years in the making and is currently under construction. The 4,000 square foot facility will overlook the Icelandic capital and be completed in 2016. It will give Icelanders the opportunity to publicly worship at the shrine to gods.
2 comments:
When I clicked on the link the first thing I saw was the gorgeous green spiral mountain and thought that was the temple. Unfortunately, it wasn't - but still, what an amazing landscape there, eh?
It seems a good thing to me as the new/old paganism could lead to a wider view of the world, a more holistic understanding of how things fit together and the consequences of our actions. Maybe the idea will spread.
Yeah, something about the latitude and the volcanoes has made Iceland a very picturesque country.
It seems it's necessary for us to learn and relearn the same lessons. This kind of paganism might possibly provide a framework for the necessary learning.
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