Odinist Community of Spain – Ásatrú

{{main article|Odinism}}

The OED dates the word Odinism at least as far back as 1822.tr. C. Malte-Brun Universal Geogr. I. 577: "Some authentic records give us an idea of Odinism, which prevailed in Scandinavia." Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. [http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/130429?redirectedFrom=odinism#eid Odinism]. The term Odinism was also used by Orestes Brownson in his 1848 "Letter to Protestants".The Works of Orestes A. Brownson: Containing the Second Part of the Political Writings, ed. Henry Francis Brownson; T. Nourse (1884), p. 257 The term was re-introduced in the late 1930s by Alexander Rud Mills in Australia with his First Anglecyn Church of Odin and his book The Call of Our Ancient Nordic Religion. In the 1960s and early 1970s, Else Christensen's Odinist Study Group and later the Odinist Fellowship brought the term into usage in North America. Odinists do not necessarily focus on the worship of Odin, and most honour the full Germanic pantheon.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}} Within Heathenry, the term Odinist or Wodenist is typically used by neo-völkisch groups, who are characterised by their pseudoscientific beliefs that legitimate observance of the religion is predicated on belonging to a specific biological race and that the ability to hold a relationship with the gods in encoded in their DNA.{{cite journal |last1=White |first1=Ethan Doyle |title=Northern Gods for Northern Folk: Racial Identity and Right-wing Ideology among Britain's Folkish Heathens |journal=Journal of Religion in Europe |date=2017 |volume=10 |issue=3 |pages=259–261 |doi=10.1163/18748929-01003001}}

{{lang|non|Ásatrú}} is a reconstructed Old Norse compound word derived from {{lang|non|Áss}} or {{lang|non|Ása}} (referring to the Æsir, one of the two families of gods in Norse paganism, led by Odin; the other being the Vanir), combined with {{lang|non|trú}}, literally "troth" or "faith". Thus, Ásatrú is the 'Faith of the Æsir'). Vanatrú was coined after Ásatrú, implying a focus on the Vanir.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}

Under the influence of Christensen's group, Ernesto ("Ernust") García and Isabel Rubio founded the Spanish Odinist Circle ({{lang|es|Circulo Odinista Español}}) in Spain{{Cite web |url=http://asatru.es/origenes-y-fundacion-2/ |title=Orígenes y fundación | COMUNIDAD ODINISTA ÁSATRÚ |access-date=2015-11-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151024034132/http://asatru.es/origenes-y-fundacion-2/ |archive-date=2015-10-24 |url-status=dead }} in 1981. Christensen gave her blessing to this organisation, and recognized it in the year of its founding.[http://asatru.es/correspondencia-coe/ Else Christensen] It later broadened into the Odinist Community of Spain – Ásatrú ({{lang|es|Comunidad Odinista de España – Ásatrú}}. Since 2007, the organisation has also used the name "European Odinist Circle" (Círculo Odinista Europeo), after years of broader promotion of Odinism, and a shift back toward a focus on Odinism over Ásatrú and Vanatrú. The Europeo name is especially used by local congregations who are outside Spain or Spanish-speaking areas of Spain.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}

In 2006 the COE began a campaign against the destruction of an archaeological site in the ancient capital of the Visigoths, Toledo. Pressure was applied by COE, among others, on Jose Maria Barreda, who was then the local president of the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha, and the site was preserved, containing the remains of a Visigothic settlement, which has since been declared a national monument.[http://www.futuropasado.com/?p=469 Gothic City]

COE went from being simply a cultural organisation to a religious institution officially recognized by the Spanish government, in 2007,http://www.troth.org.uk/history.htm A Potted History of Modern Heathenism. under the name of Comunidad Odinista de España-Asatru,[http://maper.mjusticia.gob.es/Maper/DetalleEntidadReligiosa.action?numeroInscripcion=006595 Register of the minority religions of the Spanish Ministry of Justice] allowing them to perform "legally binding civil ceremonies" (weddings).{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}

{{As of|2010}}, European Odinist Circle has requested a declaration of Notorio arraigo from the Spanish government.{{Cite web|url=http://www.observatorioreligion.es/diccionario-confesiones-religiosas/glosario/notorio_arraigo.html|title = Observatorio del pluralismo religioso en España}}

In 2014, a census of COE's extended Odinist community totalled over 10,000 members with a presence throughout the whole country.[http://www.alicantecultura.org/no-es-una-decision-dificil-sino-importante-reconoce-ernesto-garcia-mora-sobre-la-sacralizacion-de-la-saga-de-teutoburgo Revista de Estudios Alicantinos]

File:Foto Wiki.jpg on the right.]]

Alberto Paredes was elected president in 2009.{{Cite web |url=http://www.odinismo.es/paginas/Alberto%20presidente.htm |title=Alberto presidente |access-date=2015-11-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305130345/http://www.odinismo.es/paginas/Alberto%20presidente.htm |archive-date=2016-03-05 |url-status=dead }} In late 2011, co-founder Ernust García was elected as president again, after the resignation of Paredes.{{Cite web |url=http://asatru.es/lideres-de-coe/ |title=Líderes de COE | COMUNIDAD ODINISTA ÁSATRÚ |access-date=2016-05-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603200651/http://asatru.es/lideres-de-coe/ |archive-date=2016-06-03 |url-status=dead }}

File:Else Christensen memorial stone COE Spain.jpg

File:Temple of the COE, Albacete, Spain.jpg.]]

The body of COE's doctrine is promulgated under the name Continental Odinist Rite. In addition to naturally adopting the moral code of the Odinist religion, the Nine Noble Virtues, as part of its creed, COE has added its own set of nine Programmatic Points:{{Cite web |url=http://asatru.es/comunidad-odinista-asatru/ |title=Puntos programáticos del COE |access-date=2014-10-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006072823/http://asatru.es/comunidad-odinista-asatru/ |archive-date=2014-10-06 |url-status=dead }}

1. Odinism, our ancestral religion in Europe.
2. The religion of the future.
3. The Gods and the sacred.
4. A code of values as a vital livelihood.
5. Odinism as a lifestyle.
6. The world, man, soul and body.
7. Respect for diversity. Fight for identity.
8. Religion, politics, and society.
9. Everything perishes, everything returns to be.

The organisation also accepts the idea of metagenetics, proposed by the Stephen McNallen, the founder of the neo-völkisch hate group - the Asatru Folk Assembly.{{cite web |title=Asatru Folk Assembly |url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/asatru-folk-assembly |website=Southern Poverty Law Center |access-date=12 March 2023 |language=en}} He defines this concept as "the hypothesis that there are spiritual or metaphysical implications to physical relatedness among humans which correlate with, but go beyond, the known limits of genetics".{{Cite web |url=http://www.runestonegifts.com/books/the-philosophy-of-metagenetics-folkism-and-beyond |title=The Philosophy of Metagenetics, Folkism and Beyond — Runestone Gifts |access-date=2015-11-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161023012747/http://www.runestonegifts.com/books/the-philosophy-of-metagenetics-folkism-and-beyond |archive-date=2016-10-23 |url-status=dead }} This idea of "biological kinship" has been noted to have been historically used to justify ethnocentrism, racism and classism, and is regarded as pseudoscience.

Similar to most other Odinist Heathen groups, the COE maintains that the observance of the religion is only legitimate for those of specific ancestry, however, unlike most Odinist groups that believe this ancestry to be that of Germanic-speaking Northern Europeans, the COE believes the religion to be exclusively for those of European descent. They espouse the view that the role of Odinism is to unite Europeans and that Odinists should strive to return to Thule, or Hyperborea, which they describe as being the origin, destination and spiritual centre of their religion. The group further believes that the "current ideological establishment" both hates and twists the Germanic heritage of Spain, preferring instead an "Afro-Semitic" version of history, which the COE describes as a "pseudo-historical story" that was made up for socio-cultural reasons and to fit the modern Spanish and European "guilt complex".{{cite web |title=FAQ - Comunidad Odinista de España-Ásatrú |url=http://asatru.es/faq/ |website=Comunidad Odinista de España-Ásatrú |access-date=12 March 2023 |language=es |date=1 August 2017}}

On 23 December 2007, the first legal pagan wedding in mainland Spain in over 1,500 years took place on the beaches of Vilanova i la Geltrú, in the Barcelona province of Catalonia.[http://www.laverdad.es/albacete/20080420/provincia/otras-religiones-discipulos-odin-20080420.html Disciples of Odin in Albacete] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131206195338/http://www.laverdad.es/albacete/20080420/provincia/otras-religiones-discipulos-odin-20080420.html |date=December 6, 2013 }}

On September 4, 2021, the first mixed ceremony was held in the municipal plenary hall in the Barcelona municipality of Gavà. For the first time, a civil and religious marriage came together in a town hall, during the exchange of rings, being the first time that a Spanish town hall hosted a marriage of this confession.[https://www.gavatv.cat/tag/odinisme/ Gavá televisión Se celebra a Gavà la primera boda odinista de l’Estat (in catalonian), September 17, 2021]

File:Moncayo, la montaña sagrada.jpg]]

File:Templo1.jpg in the last 1,000 years.{{cn|date=October 2023}}]]

One of the pillar projects of the reformed OCE was to build a temple. In Navas de Jorquera, a town of Albacete in Castile-La Mancha, OCE legally acquired a ruin relating to early period of the settlement. It was completely rebuilt by OCE, beginning in mid-2005, constructed in the form of three traditional halls:{{Cite web|url=http://lavozdeodin.com/2015/06/04/entrevista-a-ernesto-garcia-presidente-y-fundador-de-coe/|title = Entrevista a Ernesto García, presidente y fundador de COE | la Voz de Odin|date = 4 June 2015}}Norse Mythology Legends of Gods and Heroes by Peter Andreas Munch {{ISBN|143442958X}} . pag 268

1. Hall devoted to the Aesir.
2. Hall devoted to the Vanir.
3. Shields hall, used for celebrations.

The building, the Templo de Gaut (from Gautr, one of the many names of Odin), was completed in 2009, consecrated, and has been in use since then.[http://observatorioreligion.es/upload/99/41/CastilllaMancha.pdf Hernando de Larramendi, Miguel; García Ortiz, Puerto Religion.es: Minorías religiosas en Castilla–La Mancha] [Religion.es: Minority Religions in Castile–La Mancha] Fundación Pluralismo y Convivencia y la Universidad de Castilla–La Mancha, Icaria editorial. see p. 311 {{ISBN|978-84-9888-025-0}} (Spanish)

A memorial stone for the Odinist Else Christensen is housed in the temple.{{cn|date=October 2023}}

COE published the first Spanish Odinist book in 2015, a confessional piece by Ernust García entitled Encuentro con Odin: Un Ensayo Sobre el Destino [Meeting with Odin: An Essay on Destiny].Ernust García (2015), [https://www.amazon.com/Encuentro-Odin-Biblioteca-estudios-odinistas/dp/1508544743 Encuentro con Odin: Un Ensayo Sobre el Destino] [Meeting with Odin: An Essay on Destiny], Biblioteca de Estudios Odinistas, {{ISBN|978-1-5085-4474-6}} (Spanish) In 2017, COE published Hávámál de bolsillo (Pocket Hávamál) in Spanish for the first time.Hávamál de bolsillo, Comunidad Odinista de España-Ásatrú, 2017, Uno (ed.), ISBN 978-84-697-3850-4.

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.asatru.es Asatru.es], COE's official website (in Spanish)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Odinist Community of Spain - Asatru}}

Category:1981 establishments in Spain

Category:Germanic neopagan organisations

Category:Modern pagan organisations based in Spain

Category:Modern pagan organizations established in the 1980s

Category:Religious organizations established in 1981