In the 1970s, new Heathen groups established in Europe and North America, developing into formalized organizations. VГ¶lkisch groups actively venerating the deities of these societies appeared in Germany and Austria during the 1900s and 1910s, although they largely dissolved following Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II. Heathenry's origins lie in the 19th- and early 20th-century Romanticism which glorified the pre-Christian societies of Germanic Europe. Heathen ethical systems emphasize honor, personal integrity, and loyalty, while beliefs about an afterlife vary and are rarely emphasized. Other Heathens assemble in small groups, usually known as kindreds or hearths, to perform their rites outdoors or in specially constructed buildings. Many solitary practitioners follow the religion by themselves. Some practitioners also engage in rituals designed to induce an altered state of consciousness and visions, most notably seiГ°r and galdr, with the intent of gaining wisdom and advice from the deities.

These are often accompanied by symbel, the act of ceremonially toasting the gods with an alcoholic beverage. The religion's deities and spirits are honored in sacrificial rites known as blГіts in which food and libations are offered to them. It adopts cosmological views from these past societies, including an animistic view of the cosmos in which the natural world is imbued with spirits. Heathenry does not have a unified theology but is typically polytheistic, centering on a pantheon of deities from pre-Christian Germanic Europe. In an attempt to reconstruct these past belief systems, Heathenry uses surviving historical, archaeological, and folkloric evidence as a basis, although approaches to this material vary considerably. Developed in Europe during the early 20th century, its practitioners model it on the pre-Christian religions adhered to by the Germanic peoples of the Iron Age and Early Middle Ages. Scholars of religious studies classify it as a new religious movement. Heathenry, also termed Heathenism (from Old English hГ¦th, 'heather' and by extension 'paganism'), contemporary Germanic Paganism, or Germanic Neopaganism, is a modern Pagan religion.

A modern replica of a Viking Age pendant representing MjГ¶lnir, the hammer of the god Thor such pendants are often worn by Heathens.

Kindred runes