Modern Heathens owe Charles Dickens and his Christmas Carol (original title - A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas) a debt of gratitude. Yes we do. Dickens wrote this piece at the time when Victorian Age England looked at how they celebrate the holiday. Historians think that Dickens's Carol is responsible for the current state of Christmas/Yuletide gaiety that was suppressed in the 17th century (1600's) by the stodgy Puritans. Those people just did not want anyone to have fun. The Yule tree, Yule log, greenery, singing, wassailing, family and friends gathering, drinking and eating were back in England. Christmas became again, more Yuleish....er, Heathen. So too, Dickens's Ghosts.
Asatruars/Heathens understand wyrd/orlog. If you are one of the aforementioned and do not, please do. Your literal future depends on it. And, we have ghosts, all of us. The ghosts referred to are memories of failed actions, where words and deeds of the worst placed planks of orlog in the well of wyrd. It is these memories, nightmares of the past that haunt the present. Just like Scrooge. If like Scrooge the behavior continues, the ghost of Yule future is horrible, born from the build up of the same behavior. Following that old man's steps is not a bad idea.
Scrooge saw the light. He changed his behavior. He went from scoundrel to saint, loser to winner. He changed the planks of orlog he placed in the well of wyrd. Scrooge became a better man, a good man. His past did not disappear, its still there. But, it became less painful and gradually faded under the weight of changed behavior. It is not just the return to a more Heathen Yuletide that we must credit Dickens. This author gave us a timeless story about personal redemption. A worthy one.
There is no time, Heathen soul, like the present for self-improvement. Don't get Scrooged.
Copyright @2016 Terry Unger
