The Asatru/Urglaawe Meetup is an Editor's Pick!

I'm involved in a Meetup group for local and not-so-local Heathens in Eastern PA and NJ. We use the Meetup.com website to organize and promote activities ranging from ritual observances to discussions. Our members run the gamut of reconstructionist expressions and we don't necessarily keep under the radar. Still, I was surprised to see Philadelphia Weekly further publicize our upcoming discussion ("How Relevant Are Seasonal Observances in a Post-Agricultural Society?") with a humorous review as an Editor's Pick: Editor's Picks - philadelphia weekly online Just in case the link goes cold down the road, I've archived the text of the review below. That Viking picture to the right of the writeup? Yes, it appears in the review, too!

» Faith-Based

Philadelphia Area Asatru and Urglaawe Meetup Group

Fri., Sept. 19, 7:30pm. Free. Germ Books and Gallery, 2005 Frankford Ave. 215.423.5002. www.germbooks.com

“Urglaawe” isn’t just the noise a peasant makes when you stick a spear in his throat; it’s also Pennsylvania German for “primal faith.” We’re talking modern-day Viking god botherers, basically. And what a crazy lot of gods they were. Odin (aka Wotan), Thor, Freya, crafty old Loki. Then there are the Vikings themselves and their crazy kickass Germanic cousins. What a scary bunch of permanently pissed bearded nutters. When they’re not raping and pillaging and discovering the Americas hundreds of years before Columbus, they’re debating the relevance of even knowing what an equinox is when you live in an industrialized society. (Actually, I thought the lack of debate about “the relevance of seasonal observances in a post- agricultural society” was one of the major flaws in that 1958 Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis movie The Vikings.) And yes, there will be snacks—the parboiled heads of Saxons and the children of Christians roasted on spits. Or maybe just some chips and sammies. Hang on, a bookstore? By Odin’s balls! What folly is this? Why the hell isn’t this being held in a pub? (Steven Wells)