1. Inclusive Practice

   1. We believe that all Powers of Yggdrasil may engage with all persons regardless of race, ethnicity, heritage, country of origin, language, ability, sexuality, gender, or for any other reason innate to a person’s self. 

   2. We believe all have a place in helping to develop and further our understanding of our spirituality regardless of role, office, or station within the Fellowship.  As such, we will act to tear down barriers established to gatekeep the Powers of Yggdrasil and prevent practitioners from forming sustainable, healthy relationships with them.  

   3. We, furthermore, expressly disavow any association with practices that seek to exclude practitioners on the basis of any of the above criteria.  We recognize that building inclusive community requires barring those whose actions, goals, or objectives are directly contrary to the spirit and letter of inclusion and that tolerating the intolerant is the surest way to destroy such a space.

2. Living Tradition

   1. We affirm that the Eddas, Sagas, all relevant primary sources, archaeological finds, all relevant, credible, and non-Folkish historical scholarship, and the surviving open spiritual practices of Nordic Scandinavia and Northern Europe are all sources of inspiration for all Fellowship traditions. We believe these sources demonstrate a changing, growing, living world, and that our own spiritual practices should mirror this on personal and collective levels. 

   2. We affirm surviving Nordic mythologies as true and valid, and also as non-literal.  This is informed by how our access to Nordic and Germanic source materials is limited due to the ravages of time and loss of much of the greater oral traditions which they sprung from.  Myths and historical sources are used as a foundation for inspired adaptation for developing our modern practice. We do not seek to reconstruct the past or the practices of the past, and instead use such historical materials as inspiration for meeting the needs of practitioners in the present. 

   3. Syncretic practice is also a vital aspect of many spiritual traditions and many modern Pagans & Heathens engage with Gods and Powers from many different cultures.  As such, we affirm the validity of practices derived from non-appropriative acts of cultural exchange of open ideas & practices and engaging with other spiritual traditions in a non-appropriative fashion so long as those practices do not conflict with the Principles of Unity.

   4. This Fellowship will never have a singular leader, select body, or designated sacred text which serves as our final spiritual authority beyond the assembled wisdom of the whole of the Fellowship as expressed through the mechanisms of participatory democracy as designated in our bylaws. The body of the Fellowship functions in a symbiotic relationship between its collective functions and shared vision with each individual being their own spiritual authority woven within the community.

3. Progressive Relevance

   1. We seek to apply the values and lessons of the gods, spirits, the dead, and all Powers of Yggdrasil in ways that are relevant to present contexts. We refuse to uphold ideas or principles from the past that are now understood to be harmful, and will continue to grow, learn, and update our practices and interpretations to meet the needs of our membership. 

   2. We believe that our value as individuals and as a Fellowship depend on our conduct in present & modern contexts and in confronting the problems in our present and future circumstances.  The past has a voice but not a veto over how we organize our community and how our members express their spirituality.

4. Autonomy

   1. We believe that all life comes into this world free and possessing inherent autonomy that extends to all aspects of their personhood including but not limited to bodily modifications and medical decisions.  Autonomy may only be constrained to prevent or seek redress for genuine harms and autonomy is expressed through the granting or withdrawal of consent.

   2. We believe that consent involves an informed, enthusiastic yes from participants in any individual, group, or team activities. As a Fellowship, the organization will do its best to communicate in advance the nature of our celebrations and rituals and participatory expectations to participants. 

   3. Between individuals, we expect our membership to receive an enthusiastic yes from others before engaging in touch, sexual expression, audio and/or visual recording and picture taking, sharing of personal information including recordings or photos in a public way.

   4. We expect that leadership at any level will keep themselves aware of any power disparities that may be present and to use their influence with respect and care.

5. Justice

   1. We recognize that anyone is capable of mistakes and all are capable of learning and growth, and we seek to communicate kindly and transparently to promote the autonomy, dignity, and safety of all. While we believe that restorative justice is the most favorable conclusion in most cases, we recognize that some offenses may be irredeemable if they violate our community standards to a degree that we cannot ensure the safety of others. 

   2. In the Fellowship of Fire & Ice, weregild is part of what informs our understanding of justice and dispute resolution.  For the Fellowship, weregild is rooted in respecting the inherent worth and dignity of all beings.  This process often, though not always sought resolution for disputes or injuries through some form of restorative compensation for the harm done.  

   3. The Fellowship’s processes for achieving equitable resolutions for instances of harm, grievances, and disputes will be structured to effectively guard the best interests for immediately affected members and our membership as a whole.

6. Active Involvement

   1. Our beliefs, practices, and values inform all aspects of our lives.  Our principles are inherent in every part of how we live and are not limited to a designated or created sacred space, time, or function.  

   2. We believe that building a self-sustaining community as much as possible is the key to success for our Fellowship. Calls to activism, mutual aid, supporting member businesses, and participation in our organizations general activities, collectives, and councils are a summons to engage as much as is possible for any member based on their own ability, capacity, and means, and we seek to support each other in doing so. 

7. Hospitality

   1. We recognize that the principle of hospitality functions differently for modern practitioners than it did hundreds of years ago. We seek to embody the spirit of such practices by committing to fostering a culture of mutual aid, providing assistance and help to each other by whatever means are possible and appropriate on an individual basis. 

   2. We fiercely commit to protect the safety of each other, protecting all identities and private information of our membership to ensure safe spiritual practices to the best of our abilities.

   3. Hospitality speaks both to how we should act as good hosts for those in need and good guests when hosted and good neighbors within our communities. We, therefore, believe we must live as responsible neighbors with the other beings within the ecosystems we inhabit, live in harmony with the natural world, repair the harms done by empire, colonialism, and capitalism, and take whatever actions are necessary for equitably restoring the Earth's ability to sustain a thriving diversity of life.

8. Collective Governance

   1. As a Fellowship, we believe the optimal form of governance for our community is a free commonwealth where decision-making is handled through direct, participatory democracy which draws its inspiration from the Thing and Althing assemblies of the historical Nordic peoples.  Within this Fellowship, decisions and law are made collectively by the peoples who are all bound by those same laws, are expected to participate in upholding them, and will make no special exceptions made based on office, station, or individual reputation within the Fellowship.

   2. As this Fellowship is a free commonwealth governed by participatory democratic measures, our community has no single leader or decision-maker, and members will never be required to accept or agree to any set of spiritual beliefs or interpretations of lore except that they align with the ethical principles here written. As a participatory democracy, FoFI may only function when members actively engage with their own governance, and member rights are the benefit of member responsibility. 

   3. This Fellowship also recognizes the necessity of administrative bodies and officers for executing policies enacted through participatory democratic processes.  Such bodies and officers serve at the pleasure of the community who delegated these responsibilities and duties to them, whether that community is local, regional, or the Fellowship as a whole, will operate on a directly democratic, cooperative basis, the purview of such bodies and officers are subject to definition, regulation, and any limits set by their delegating community, and members in positions of service are accountable to the body who entrusted them with such duties as well as to any member of the community harmed by abuses of their position or acts which go beyond their delegated responsibilities.

9. Frith

   1. We define frith as an environment in which peace and civility is maintained by the attitudes and actions of the assembled members, by the safety ensured and provided by an event's hosts, and by the commitment of members, guests, and hosts to upholding and enforcing our Principles of Unity. 

   2. As practitioners participating in a global spirituality, we believe Declaration 127 was a good starting point and declare wholeheartedly that fascism, white supremacy, colonialism, sexism, and all of the bigotries these ideologies encourage are not tolerated or welcome in our spaces and the spaces we engage with. We will engage confidently, powerfully, and collectively, as practitioners of the Fellowship of Fire & Ice.

 

Drafting the principles of unity was a collaborative effort.  The first draft was produced by the On Black Wings Editorial Collective consisting of Asra, Chicory, and Liagis based on points proposed by the Provisional Board.  The second draft was a further series of revisions conducted by the Provisional Board which were then presented to the volunteers on the Fire & Ice Service Councils and Collectives for feedback.  The third draft was compiled based on this feedback and further discussion by the Provisional Board to clarify existing points in the principles of unity.  The final and current version of the Principles of Unity were amended based on proposals submitted by members of the Fellowship of Fire & Ice Facebook group and Discord server from May 1, 2024 to May 5, 2024.  The final vote on this document was as follows:

94 Strongly in Favor 

9 in Favor 

1 with no strong feelings either way 

0 Not in Favor 

1 Strongly Not in Favor

 

For a total of 105 votes cast.