{{Short description|American Heathen organization}} [[File:B iaoa2.jpg|thumb|200px|Michael "Valgard" Murray (center) with Stephen McNallen (left) and Eric "Hnikar" Wood (at the 2000 IAOA Althing)]] The '''Ásatrú Alliance''' (AA) is an American Heathen group founded in 1988 by Michael J. Murray (a.k.a. Valgard Murray) of Arizona, a former vice-president of Else Christensen's Odinist Fellowship. The establishment of the Alliance, as well as the establishment of The Troth, followed the disbanding of the Asatru Free Assembly ("old AFA") in 1986. The Ásatrú Alliance largely reconstituted the old AFA, is dominated by prior AFA members, and acts as a distributor of previously AFA publications. Initially aligned with the "folkish" wing of Heathenry, which emphasized ancestry-based participation, the Alliance has since disavowed racial exclusivity and now emphasizes Norse cultural and spiritual traditions without requiring ancestral lineage.
Valgard Murray died on February 4, 2025, after a battle with cancer.<ref name="ValgardObituary">{{cite web |title=In Memory! |url=https://www.asatru.org/ |website=Ásatrú Alliance |date=February 2025 |access-date=July 3, 2025}}</ref> As of 2023, the Allsherjargothi of the Alliance is Ottar F. Valgardsson.<ref name="AAleadership">{{cite web |title=The Asatru Alliance |url=https://www.asatru.org/2023statementonrace.php/ |website=Ásatrú Alliance |access-date=July 3, 2025}}</ref> The Ásatrú Alliance describes itself as a family-oriented association of independent kindreds who practice Ásatrú, the ancestral ethnic religion of the Northern European peoples. Organized along tribal-democratic lines, the Alliance convenes its annual governing council, the AlThing, where bylaws are established and affirmed by participating kindreds. It promotes the cultural heritage of Northern Europe through religious expression and explicitly rejects hatred, racism, and political extremism. Political activity within the religion is prohibited under its bylaws.<ref name="AABYLAWS">{{cite web |title=Bylaws of the Ásatrú Alliance |url=http://www.asatru.org/aabylaws.php |website=Ásatrú Alliance |access-date=July 5, 2025}}</ref>
== 2023 Statement on Race == In 2023, the Ásatrú Alliance released a formal "Statement on Race," declaring that Ásatrú is "not a religion for ‘white people’ only" and affirming that "Askr and Embla, our common human ancestors in the lore, are the ancestors of all mankind." The Alliance stated that it would not admit kindreds that restrict membership based on race or ethnicity. It described this position as rejecting both "universalist and folkish extremes," and identified its orientation as "tribal," based on shared values and community participation rather than racial ancestry.<ref>{{cite web |title=2023 Statement on Race |url=https://asatru.org/2023statementonrace.php |website=Ásatrú Alliance |access-date=2025-07-03}}</ref> The organization's FAQ further explains this tribal orientation as one that welcomes all who honor the gods, live by its values, and contribute to the community.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Ásatrú Alliance FAQ |url=https://asatru.org/FAQ.php |website=Ásatrú Alliance |access-date=2025-07-03}}</ref>
==Background== {{Also|Heathenry in the United States}} Stephen McNallen founded the Asatru Folk Assembly ("new AFA") in 1994 as the successor organization to the Asatru Free Assembly. The Alliance and the Folk Assembly organizations have existed in parallel since, temporarily united within the International Asatru-Odinic Alliance (1997–2002). The group is typically classified by scholars as folkish based on their ethnocentrism and restricting of membership to those of specific ancestry.{{sfn|Gardell|2003}}<ref name="Kieser">{{cite journal |last1=Kieser |first1=Trevor |title=Al(t-Right) Father? Germanic Neopaganism, Nordic Nationalism, and Modern Reception of Old Norse Religion and the Vikings |journal=University of Oslo |date=2019 |page=58 |url=https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/70227/Al-t-Right--Father-Kieser-UiO-Masters-Thesis.pdf}}</ref> The AA defines Ásatrú as "the ethnic religion of the Northern European peoples".<ref name="von Schnurbein">{{cite journal |last1=von Schnurbein |first1=Stefanie |title=Norse Revival |journal=Studies in Critical Research on Religion |date=2016 |volume=5 |page=128 |url=https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/38055/9789004309517_webready_content_text.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y}}</ref>
The Ásatrú Alliance is recognized as a 501(c)(3) non-profit religious organization, or church. The AA was formed on June 19, 1988 by seven kindreds, which were members of the disbanded Ásatrú Free Assembly, who ratified on this day a set of by-laws to preserve and promote the beliefs of Ásatrú in the United States of America.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}} As a definition of Ásatrú, AA cites a 1995 essay by McNallen on "what is Ásatrú", which concludes by summarizing the main goals as the practice of "courage, honor, the importance of the family and ancestral bonds, strength, freedom, the preservation of our kind, and joyful, vigorous life."
The AA is currently headed by a board of directors composed of representatives appointed by their kindred, to speak on their behalf for any AA business.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}} The AA held its 32nd annual Althing gathering in September 2012. Kaplan (1996) estimates the AA has between 500 and 1,000 members.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}}{{citation needed|date=April 2023}} World Tree Publications is the Ásatrú Alliance's publishing house.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}}
==Valgard Murray== Valgard Murray (Michael J. Murray), born in 1950 in Iowa to a farming family, to Thomas and Marion Murray of Scottish, Lithuanian, Irish, and German descent.<ref>{{harvp|Gardell|2003|p={{pn|date=December 2022}}}}.</ref> Murray later{{when|date=December 2022}} moved to Arizona and became an electrical engineer.<ref name="Blood page 261">{{harvp|Gardell|2003|p=261}}.</ref>
Murray was involved with the American Nazi Party (ANP) into the late 1960s.<ref>{{harvp|SPLC|1998}}.</ref> and learned of Odinism/Asatru through Elton Hall. He later became the Arizona organizer of the ANP. He has also been the spokesperson for the Arizona-based outlaw brotherhood Iron Cross MC.<ref name="Blood page 262">{{harvp|Gardell|2003|p=262}}.</ref> In 1969, Murray worked with Else Christensen{{inconsistent}} to found the Odinist Fellowship, and served as vice president.<ref name="Blood page 261"/>
In the early 1970s Murray and Hall formed a kindred and made contact with Else Christensen.{{inconsistent}} In 1976 the Arizona Kindred became the first kindred certified as such by the Odinist Fellowship, which until then had only individual members.<ref name="Blood page 261"/>
In 1984, the Arizona Kindred chose to affiliate with the Asatru Free Assembly (old AFA) instead. In 1986, he founded World Tree Publications,<ref name="worldtreepublications.org">{{harvp|World Tree Publications|n.d.}}</ref>{{third-party source needed|date=December 2022}} and in 1987, he served as general manager of the AFA. At the second Althing of the AFA, Murrary allegedly threatened to kill a homosexual attendee with a Mac-10.<ref>{{harvp|Kaplan|1996|pp=203-204}}.</ref>
When the AFA folded, he and Robert Taylor of the Tribe of the Wulfings, began to create the Ásatrú Alliance in 1987, inviting other kindreds to a formational Althing in 1988.<ref name="Blood page 262"/> He was a representative of the Ásatrú Alliance,<ref name="Blood page 263">{{harvp|Gardell|2003|p=263}}.</ref> was on the board of the International Ásatrú-Odinic Alliance (IAOA), and was chosen the first honorary IAOA Allsherjargoði for the three-year period.<ref name="Blood page 263"/> In 1988 he was elected the Alsherjargothi of the Ásatrú Alliance.<ref name="Blood page 262"/>
In 2013, Murray commented on the killing of Colorado Department of Corrections head Tom Clements as the alleged murderer "practiced a controversial form of religion behind bars"<ref>[http://denver.cbslocal.com/2013/05/02/clements-murder-suspect-practiced-controversial-religion-in-prison/ Clements’ Murder Suspect Practiced Controversial Religion In Prison " CBS Denver] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105182502/http://denver.cbslocal.com/2013/05/02/clements-murder-suspect-practiced-controversial-religion-in-prison/ |date=November 5, 2013 }}</ref> which was Asatru.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wildhunt.org/tag/asatru-alliance |title=An Infamous Murder and Asatru in Prison |website=Wildhunt.org |accessdate=2017-01-26 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140402084107/http://wildhunt.org/tag/asatru-alliance |archivedate=April 2, 2014 }}</ref>
In 2014, Murray was interviewed in a three-part series by George Whitehurst Berry on the ''Sedona Dreams Show''.<ref name="Part 1">[http://sedonadreams.com/?p=1316 Part 1] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20141115082231/http://sedonadreams.com/?p=1316 archived]), [http://sedonadreams.com/?p=1349 Part 2] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20141115080034/http://sedonadreams.com/?p=1349 archived]), [http://sedonadreams.com/?p=1441 Part 3] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20141115081014/http://sedonadreams.com/?p=1441 archived])</ref> During this interview, Murray stated that Asatru means, "faith in God." Asked if it actually refers to gods and goddesses, he responds, "Well, yes it did, but the word itself is not plural, it just means faith in God. And, it does of course mean, in the old way, respect in honouring the old gods and goddesses of the Northern European people."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sedonadreams.com/?p=1316 |title=George Whitehurst Berry welcomes Allsherjargoði Valgard Murray to the 1/25/14 Sedona Dreams Show - Sedona Dreams |work=Sedona Dreams |date=2014-01-22 |accessdate=2017-01-26 |url-status=bot: unknown |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141115082231/http://sedonadreams.com/?p=1316 |archivedate=2014-11-15 }}</ref>
Murray remained the Allsherjargoði of the Ásatrú Alliance of Independent Kindreds, Inc. until entering a semi-retirement in 2015.{{cn|date=December 2022}}
==References== ===Citations=== {{Reflist|2}}
===Works cited=== * {{cite book |last=Gardell |first=Mattias |title=Gods of the Blood The Pagan Revival and White Separatism |year=2003 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0-8223-3071-4}} * {{cite book |last=Kaplan |first=Jeffrey |year=1996 |chapter=The Reconstruction of the Asatru and Odinist Traditions |title=Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft |editor-first=James R. |editor-last=Lewis |publisher=State University of New York Press |pages=193–236 |isbn=978-0791428894}} * {{cite magazine |author=SPLC |title=New Brand of Racist Odinist Religion on the March: A racist brand of neo-Paganism, related to Odinism, spreads among white supremacists |issue=1998 Winter Issue |date=March 15, 1998 |magazine=Intelligence Report |url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/1998/new-brand-racist-odinist-religion-march |access-date=2022-12-15 |via=Southern Poverty Law Center}} * {{cite web |author=World Tree Publications |date=n.d. |url=http://www.worldtreepublications.org/page1.aspx |title=History |website=Worldtreepublications.org |accessdate=2017-01-26 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140209141830/http://www.worldtreepublications.org/page1.aspx |archivedate=February 9, 2014 }}
==Further reading== * {{cite book |last=Adler |first=Margot |year=2006 |orig-year=1979 |title=Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshipers and Other Pagans in America |edition=revised |publisher=Penguin |location=London |isbn=978-0-14-303819-1 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/drawingdownmoonw00adle_2 }} * {{cite book |last=Chadwick |first=H. M. |title=The Cult of Othin |publisher=Cambridge |year=1899}} * {{cite magazine |title=Holy Hate: The Far Right's Radicalization of Religion |issue=2018 Spring Issue |date=February 10, 2018 |first=Daryl |last=Johnson |magazine=Intelligence Report |publisher=Southern Poverty Law Center |url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2018/holy-hate-far-right%E2%80%99s-radicalization-religion |access-date=2022-12-15}} * {{cite book |last=Kaplan |first=Jeffrey |author-link=Jeffrey Kaplan (academic) |title=Radical Religion in America: Millenarian Movements from the Far Right to the Children of Noah |title-link=Radical Religion in America |publisher=Syracuse Academic Press |location=Syracuse |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-8156-0396-2 }} * {{cite book |last=McNallen |first=Stephen A. |author-link=Stephen McNallen |year=2004 |chapter=Three Decades of the Ásatrú Revival in America |editor1-first=Joshua |editor1-last=Buckley |editor2-first=Michael |editor2-last=Moynihan |title=Tyr: Myth—Culture—Tradition |volume=II |publisher=Ultra Publishing |pages=203–219 |isbn=978-0-9720292-1-6}} * {{cite book |last=Paxson |first=Diana L. |title=Essential Asatru Walking the Path of Norse Paganism |year=2006 |publisher=Citadel Press |isbn=978-0-8065-2708-6}} * {{cite journal |title=White Supremacy's Old Gods: The Far Right and Neopaganism |first=Shannon |last=Weber |date=February 1, 2018 |journal=Political Research Associates |url=https://politicalresearch.org/2018/02/01/white-supremacys-old-gods-the-far-right-and-neopaganism |access-date=2022-12-15}}
==External links== * {{official website|http://www.asatru.org/}}
{{Paganism topics (contemporary)}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Asatru Alliance}} Category:Ásatrú in the United States Category:Germanic neopagan organisations Category:Modern pagan organizations established in 1988 Category:Modern pagan organizations based in the United States