Vana Troth of the Wiccans

Witchdom of the True: A Study of the Van-Troth and the Practice of Seidr by Edred Thorsson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Who are the lord and the lady of the Wiccan religion? What are there origins? Is Wicca really the Ancient religion of Europe that was totally Goddess centered. Wicca was founded or crafted by Gerald Gardner in the late 1940’s in Great Britain. Since it’s inception it has gone through a variety of changes all the while still maintain the worship of the Lard and the Lady.
What are the origins of the Wicca religion. First off we would have to look at the vocabulary. At the start it was not called Wicca. Wicca or Wicce meant witch or someone who could bend reality to their will. Secondly The words lard and lady translated ito German would mean Freyer and Freya. These two deities being brother and sister were part of the Vanic deities or Earth bound deities. The Aesire were the sky bound dieties like Odin and Thor.
The Vanic deities were revered by the common folk while the Aesir were revered by nobility. After a brutal war in which no one could win the two tribes decided to call a truce and exchange hostages. Among the Vanir to dwell in Asgard were Freya, Frey and Njor their father the sea god. Nojord himself has murky origins and may have at one time been the female Earth goddess Nerthus.
Freya was the Goddess of love, war and Seider magic. Frey was the king of Earht and land fertility. By now I thin we know who the God and Goddess of Wicca are, they are Freya and Freyer. There form of magic is called Vanatroth. It includes Seider magic or entering a trance via movement and dancing. Among their practices are wort craft, or herb magic and Galdr craft which magic through speech.
Rune craft beliongs more to the Aesir deities then it does to vana troth. Thrson the author of this work does a good job explaining Norse mythology, history and magic of the area and of the norse. It makes for a convincing argument and he has his facts straight.
Not only is Thorson expert in the areas of magic and history he also examines the Pagan community in general in one of his appendeixes. In it he talks about the general malaise of the Pagan community where in most Pagans stick with it for maybe 4-5 years and then drop it. He blames excessive eclecticism and lack of historical roots. He hopes that by realizing the source that maybe people will get some historical footing and stick more toward tradition and be less eccelcctic.
He also clears up the confusion between Asatru and Vana trath. The two are not the same despite the fact that both sets work with the Norse deities. The Aesir are about sovereignty and raw physical power, while the Vana troth is more sensual and earth related .
The Aewsir and the Vanir have different moralities. The Vanor are more casual in their physical relationships while the Aesir frown of promiscuity. Also no prohibition of incest is about in the Van ic way of loking at things where as in the Aesir mentality being similar to urs it is frowned upon. I advise reading anything put out by Thorson and Wiccans should especially rad this book.


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