What are the Origins of
this Website?
Back in 2007, when I was new to
Heathenry, I had not met any other Heathens or even
communicated with any of them yet. I had searched for Heathens
in my local area, but had found none. I had discovered that a
Heathen group had once existed in Kansas City, but the group and its
website were defunct. I had sent off emails to various
national organizations without receiving any
response. For about two months every attempt I made to
contact other Heathens fell short of success. While I had not
given up hope, I did begin to consider the idea that perhaps I
was on my own as I pursued knowledge about our
Folkway.
It was during that time period that I thought it would be
useful to collect everything I could find about Asatru or
Heathenry on the internet, and achive it in one place.
If I found a blot or faining I liked, I would archive
it. Cool artwork of our Gods and
Goddesses? Archive it. A great article about
a specific religious topic? Archive it. A poem or
song dedicated to the Aesir or Vanir? Archive it.
To some degree, I saw this collection of material and
archiving it all on a resource webiste as a way for me to
show my loyalty to the Gods and Goddesses. It was during
this time that I began putting together the on-line
Temple Library and the Asatru Artwork Archive, which are still
features of our website.
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| Over time, I did find other Heathens in my local area.
We began working together to create a local kindred called
Jotun's Bane Kindred. We eventually planned and hosted a
regional gathering for six years called Lightning Across the
Plains. At one point, we began a
community-building effort called the Heartland Hof &
Hall. All through these efforts, the Temple of Our
Heathen Gods resource website has grown and evolved to fit the current
need. At the time of this writing, Heathens all over the world access and
use this resource website on a daily basis.
What Are the Purposes of this
Website?
The Temple of Our Heathen Gods
resource website has always served two important
purposes.
First,
it is meant to be a resource for heathens everywhere. Our Temple
Library, our Asatru Artwork Archive, our message board and other
resources are all meant to assist long-time heathens, brand-new
heathens, and those curious about heathenry. All of these
groups are welcome to visit and use our website and to register and
participate on our message
board.
Our website is used by a diverse
collection of Heathens, with a wide variety of beliefs and
practices, from across the globe. We attempt to be good
hosts and stewards of the information provided here on the resource website and appreciate the
opportunity to get to know the many good guests that visit
here.
Second, the
website is the home of Jotun's Bane
Kindred, a heathen kindred in the Kansas City Area. This
is where we announce our open events, talk about
what our kindred is accomplishing, and help with Folkbuilding efforts throughout our
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Third, the website is
at the center of the Heartland Hof & Hall community-building
efforts here in the Kansas City Area.
Fourth, the resource website and
many of our efforts are aimed at providing individual heathens and
local groups information, ideas, and motivation to set and
reach their own goals. We believe in the grassroots
growth of Heathenry, with strong autonomous local kindreds at the
heart of moving our Folkway forward.
What Don't We
Want?
You will notice, that this is a
free resource website established and maintained by a local
kindred. You don't have to pay to use it. You don't have
to join an organization to gain access to the resources here.
We don't tell other Heathens what to believe, what to think or
say, or wish to have any power over anyone. We don't espouse
or attempt to enforce dogma within Heathenry. As a kindred, we
don't involve ourselves in the politics of personal destruction
against those Heathens that differ from us in their beliefs and
practices. You won't find us airing dirty laundry or seeking
to destroy others within the community.
We don't find any of those
things very productive or helpful in moving Heathenry
forward.
Temple of Our Heathen Gods Resource
Website 2.0
In August of 2012 we
began the process of reinventing and revigorating the Temple
of Our Heathen Gods website. This rebuild coincided with the 5th Anniversary
of the resource website. Since August of 2007 the backbone of the website
had been a content management system called XOOPS.
The version of XOOPS we were using had become very
out-dated, was not mobile-friendly, and had its share of
limitations and bugs. The "final straw" incident is rather
technical in nature, but suffice it to say that our hosting
company updated its service in a way that was not going to
support the continuation of our website in its out-dated
format.
Our first priority in constructing version 2.0 of our
resource website was to ensure that we preserved and continued
to provide the same resources we've always provided. |
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Our second priority was to make the
website more welcoming and approachable for new heathens. Our
third priority was to ensure that we built version 2.0
in a modern and sustainable format that was easy to use on all
platforms, including mobile devices. And our fourth priority
was to make the website easy to expand with additional resources
over time.
At the time of this writing, the rebuilding
of the Temple of Our Heathen Gods is complete, and we
have improved and expanded the resources available here by leaps and bounds. We've added
well over a 100 books
to the Temple Library, updated the website's bookstore
to include free PDF downloads of every book that we publish,
and made the website an excellent jumping off point for new Heathens.
We have
plans for how to grow and improve our
website in the months ahead. We will work hard to ensure
our resource website is useful to Asatruars and Heathens for years to come.
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