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2019 has been a great year for the Heathen Visibility Project. Even before I gave my speech on the Project at my local Pagan Pride Day, there was already a lot of momentum building. Many people were joining in with tagging their pictures with the heathenvisibility hashtag. Participants created Instagram channels devoted specifically to heathen visibility, mostly featuring images of altars. My Deviantart gallery for the Heathen Visibility Project mostly featured photos of altars, too, especially at first, but as the Project got rolling I started including more pictures of people. I acquired some new-to-me camera equipment, joined Shutterstock, and got some heathen visibility photos approved for inclusion on their site. Then Pagan Pride Day really gave the Project a boost.

Both the featured major speakers from out of town took photos with the hashtag sign. Pictured above is Oberon Zell with me as I hold up the sign and he holds up a poster of the World Tree, Yggdrasil, which he had at his booth. Selena Fox was in the group photo with the sign after my speech, and she even got the group to yell "Hail the heathens!" for a short video for her Instagram. Having the Project featured on such a big name's Instagram really got the Project a lot of publicity. For a more complete report on Las Vegas Pagan Pride Day, including the group photo with Selena, see my prior post "A Great Time at Pagan Pride Day 2019" here: A Great Time at Pagan Pride Day 2019

This is the text of my speech on the Heathen Visibility Project which I gave on Nov. 9th, 2019 at Las Vegas Pagan Pride Day. Next up on my blog will be a report on PPD and on how the Project went.

A Nokian, or Nokean, is someone who opposes Lokeans. A Lokean is a type of pagan or heathen whose personal religious practice is primarily about following Loki. Some Lokeans also consider themselves to be Asatruars, or Wiccans, or other sects, and some don't. Asatru includes Loki in its traditional list of gods, so many Asatruars who do not consider themselves Lokeans do honor Loki, just not as their primary deity.

A Nokian actively tries to get people who follow or honor Loki to leave public heathen spaces or stay silent within them, and tries to convince people who are seeking a religious path that Loki isn't an acceptable part of heathenry. While Lokeanism is a religious practice, Nokeanism is a form of proselytizing. People who simply prefer not to acknowledge Loki and don't have a relationship with him are not Nokeans; they are just ordinary heathens, pagans, etc. who don't have Loki in their personal or group practice. A Nokean is someone who tries to control the personal and group practice of other people to get others to exclude Loki.

Frequently Asked Question: Do I need a kindred to practice Asatru?

This question is usually accompanied by a story like this: "Someone on a forum said I can't be a heathen by myself because Asatru is community oriented, but someone else told me I can't just go join a kindred like a church and I should just practice by myself, and someone else said heathenry is about family and I shouldn't even try to practice with other heathens."

A Frequently Asked Question in the group I manage, the Asatru Facebook Forum, is: Where can I find a kindred or other Asatru and / or heathen people in my area?

Several sites and organizations have maps and locators for the members. Although the American Asatru Association no longer exists, the kindred locator map is still on the old wordpress site: 

Step 1 Take photos of:

A. People (only include people who want to participate in the Heathen Visibility Project! ) including:

Last month I had to search for public domain or creative commons license images of heathen or Asatru related rituals, gods, altars, etc. to fill up the upcoming Heathen Calendar 2018 because I didn't manage to get 12 images from living artists for various reasons. (Some artists didn't finish on time, some didn't want to sign the tax form, whatever.) I had searched for public domain classical art last year for this year's calendar, and I had previously searched for some public domain heathen related images to illustrate my blog, but this was the first time I had searched for contemporary images that might be photos of actual people. I did not find much. Artists have uploaded tons of various images to sites where people can license their images, either for money or for free as the artist prefers, using a creative commons license or another type of license. So there are places to put such images where the artists could possibly get something back for their work, if they wish. I don't know yet whether I will do another Heathen Calendar next year; it depends on how many people want one. But if I do, it would be great to have some good stock photos of heathens doing heathenry to choose from. 

Just before I did those image searches for the Calendar, I had been doing image, text, and guide searches for guides to how to tell heathen symbols from hate symbols, to create the Trollslayers' Guide, which is a guide for the group moderators of the American Asatru group on Facebook to use to do background checks on people applying for membership. (We have a strict no-Nazis rule.) The publicly available guides all have various flaws and none of them were written by heathens. I'm actually thinking of trying to expand the Trollslayers' Guide into a full blown public guide to how to tell heathen symbols from hate symbols, written by heathens for heathens. The terrible thing that I discovered while looking at all that is that some of our actual religious symbols that are not inherently hate symbols are being used by haters, publicly, where they are being photographed as news and the images propagated at the speed of news. I'm tired of the loudest voices using our symbols being the hate groups. I want to drown them out in a sea of louder voices.