Our mission
Heathen Women United works for a Heathenry in which every woman is safe, heard, credited, and free to take any role her deeds have earned.
We pursue that mission in three ways:
- Advocacy. We speak up for the standing and safety of women in Heathen communities, and we give kindreds and organizers practical tools for doing better.
- Education. We teach the lore and the history carefully, with particular attention to the women, goddesses, and female powers that popular accounts leave out.
- Community. We bring Heathen women together, across borders and traditions, so that no one has to practice in isolation unless she chooses to.
Our values
Frith
Frith is the old word for the peace and mutual obligation that bind a community. It is not the same thing as silence. A hall where people are afraid to name a wrong does not have frith; it has only quiet. We work for the real thing.
Worth
Heathens say that we are our deeds. We take that seriously in both directions. Worth is not handed out by sex or ancestry, and work that is done deserves to be seen and named, whoever did it.
Welcome
Hospitality is among the oldest Heathen virtues. Ours extends to every woman who is called to the gods, of every ancestry, nationality, ability, sexuality, and history. Trans women are women and are welcome here.
Honesty about the sources
Our religion is reconstructed from fragments, most of them written down by outsiders. We owe it to one another to say clearly what the sources tell us, what scholars infer, and what is our own modern practice. All three have value. Confusing them does not.
Reciprocity
A gift calls for a gift. What we receive from our communities, our ancestors, and the gods, we try to return in equal measure.
The Hearth Pledge
The Hearth Pledge was written by our founding members and published in March 2017. It has been reaffirmed, unchanged, at every Disting since. It is the only thing a member is asked to agree to.
As members of Heathen Women United, we pledge:
- To judge by deeds. Worth is shown in deeds, never assigned by sex, ancestry, or station.
- To keep an open hearth. Heathenry belongs to everyone who is called to it, of every ancestry, nationality, sexuality, and gender.
- To stand against hatred. We oppose racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, and every attempt to use our religion as a mask for contempt.
- To give credit. We will see that the work of women in our communities is named, thanked, and remembered.
- To keep frith. We will make our gatherings safe from harassment and coercion, and we will act when they are not.
- To speak plainly about the sources. We will say what is attested, what is inferred, and what is our own.
- To seek out the quiet ones. We will make room at the fire for those who have not yet been asked what they think.
- To honor those before us. We honor the goddesses, the Disir, and the women who came before us, the named and the unnamed.
- To leave the hall better than we found it, for those who will come after.
Using the pledge
Kindreds, study groups, and event organizers are welcome to adopt the Hearth Pledge alongside the Frith Standard. No permission or fee is needed. We ask only that the nine commitments be kept together and unaltered.
How these values become practice
Values that stay on a page are worth very little. Each of ours is tied to something we do:
- Frith is the reason for the Frith Standard and our training for frithkeepers.
- Worth is the reason every Disting gives its last morning to the Naming of Deeds, when the year's work is credited aloud, by name.
- Welcome is the reason for our Statement on Inclusion and for hearth circles that every newcomer is introduced to when she joins.
- Honesty about the sources is the reason every educational page on this site separates evidence from inference.
- Reciprocity is the reason all of our teaching is free.