Les Enfants d’Yggdrasill (Children of Yggdrasill, abbreviate LEY) is a French reconstructionist ásatrú organization, that mean we follow the traditions of the ancient Germania and North, the word Ásatrú signifying « faith (and trust) in the Æsir ».
Our main purpose is to get together people sharing this tradition, this faith, this passion, in order to keep it alive.
LEY has been registered in 2013 under the French law for associations of 1901 and is since September 4 2020 an association registered in the register of associations of the court in Sélestat (volume 48, folio 40). LEY is therefore governed by articles 21 to 79-III of the Local Civil Code, as well as by the statutes which can be consulted on this page.
Religious practice
We are a reconstructionist association. The reconstructionist approach is not synonymous with reconstitution (with which it is often confused): the latter is concerned above all with the material aspects of the culture in question. For our part, we are trying to re-establish German-Scandinavian rites and beliefs by getting as close as possible to what these practices may have been, while taking into account the diversity that these beliefs may have manifested and that we are experiencing in the 21st century.
With this in mind, we give priority to what is attested in the Germanic worlds by historical and archaeological sources, and in order to fill in the gaps we may have recourse to Indo-European comparatism or folklore. Any creation must be able to justify itself on this basis.
This reconstructionist approach rejects two things: anything with universalist pretensions (Wicca, new age, cults with supposedly unique divinities, etc.) and anything that is based solely on the personal intuition and ‘feeling’ of the officiants.
We believe that this approach guarantees unorthodox orthopraxis.
In other words, within LEY there is not, and never will be, any dogma to follow.
LEY therefore strongly encourages its members to deepen their knowledge of Germanic and Nordic civilisation, so that they can construct their own interpretations of the texts and the gods, and also develop their own ways of honouring the deities.
So, although in LEY we all practise the act of sacrificing, or blót, in honour of our deities, the way in which blót is performed can differ slightly from one clan to another, as can individual practices. Some people sacrifice only drinks, for example, but others also sacrifice food or other things, some pour their offerings on the ground, others into the fire, and so on. The reconstructionist approach allows for a broad and adaptive framework…
We also practise sumbel, a form of ceremony during which toasts are made in honour of deities, heroes, ancestors and so on.
Remembering ancestors and loved ones who have died is important to us, because as long as you remember someone it’s as if they haven’t really died.
For this reason, we also encourage family worship. As this is a private matter, the association is not directly involved in it, but we are always ready to provide information and to discuss the subject with those who wish to do so.
In order not to spread our efforts too thinly, we have chosen to honour only the German-Scandinavian deities at ceremonies organised by the association, although nothing prevents members from worshipping other deities outside the framework of the association if they so wish.
Ethics
We think that our traditions shouldn’t be used to promote political doctrines and one of our main goal is to disclose them, in order that they’ll not be any more associated in the mind of public with those ideologies.
Organization
LEY is a federation of regional (branches) and local (buds) groups, who mainly maintain the religious practise while the central committee is in charge of administration.
Those regional groups, also called branches, are largely independent and choose themselves their leaders and the way they want to celebrate the gods. Each group leader has the responsibility to organize the activities and ceremonies within his/her region, he/she also represents the members of his/her clan in the Thing.
The local groups, also called buds, are little groups dedicated to religious practise inside regional groups. Those buds are future branches, and allow us to organize celebration even in the areas where we have only few members. When a bud had fulfill the condition, it can become a branch.
The Thing is the assembly of all the groups leaders and of members of central committee, it makes the decisions needed to follow the guidelines and reach the goals defined in the general meeting of members. It also ensures that the rules are respected within the association.
The central committee is composed of a chairman, a vice-chairman, a treasurer, a secretary and an assessor. They’re elected for three years by all the members of association during the general meeting.
Our chairman is currently Yves Kodratoff.
The main task of the central committee is to manage the association, but, as its members are, in view of French law, legally accountable for the action of the association, they’re a part of deliberation of the Thing and, in some circumstances, it can oppose a veto to a Thing’s decision if it thinks that it’s in conflict with the French law or the association’s ethics.
There is at least one general meeting a year. During this meeting, after the presentation of the year’s assessment by the central committee and the Thing, all the members vote to approve (or not) the action of the central committee and the Thing. They’re also invited to discuss and vote about the global orientation, the statute of the association and to elect the central committee members if needed.
Anyone, even if you aren’t French citizen or if you don’t live in France, can join LEY, as long as you agreeing to follow our rules and ethics. Minors (under the age of 18) need the permission from a guardian.
The easiest way to join the association is to show your interest on our forum, you’ll be then put in touch with the nearest local group of your residential place.
We have currently regional groups in Alsace and Paris’ region, the latter being also in charge of people who live too far from other groups.
However, keep in mind that LEY is a French-speaking association and, consequently the major part of our activities and literature is in French, although we are always happy to discuss with followers of our traditions from other countries.
Members have to pay an annual subscription. As we don’t benefit from any kind of support from government, it covers at the same time the administration fee (for example to pay the leasing of the website’s server), the financing of our projects and all the things related to religious practice (for example if we need to lease a place for a ritual). The normal subscription is 25-€, a reduced rate is available under conditions (unemployed, student, group or members of a same family for example).
As compensation members enjoy a large number of benefits. Firstly the participation to our ceremonies and activities is, not always but most of the time, reserved to members. They also have an unrestricted access to all our literature (non-members can only access to some parts of it) and have a vocal server at their disposal.
Our work
Our main activity is the celebration of the gods, but we also lead several projects in order to deepen our knowledge and understanding of ancient tradition.
Since there is very few documentation about our custom available in French we work for example a lot on publication of informations, sources and guides on our website.
Regional and local groups also have their own project, you can learn more about it on the presentation page of each group.