The religion of the old germanic kindred has only recently begun revival. Recently being nearly a hundred years ago, of course. In the course of this time the few but usually gifted Asatru (another name for an odinist, one who worships the old norse gods) have worked to restore not only the worship of their gods, but also to unravel the mysteries presented by their magic, mainly that of Seith (a nordic form of shamanism which derives its powers from the goddess Freya) and Runic Galdor (a form of ritual magic that draws its powers mainly from Odin, and from a magical script known as the Runes).
Our numbers as of yet, are few, but we mingle among other pagans readily and frequently, and are often on quite good terms with them. Although some of my kindred may take offence at this, our form of magic has slightly wild beauty to it. While peaceful and lightfilled religions such as wicca give one a sense of beauty and peace, the working of Galdor gives one the feeling that they fight with a wild beast. I do not mean that we LITERALLY have to fight with our magick to control it, but the runes are quite primal and quite potent in nature, they easily effect the mindsets of those who work with them, and often their power finds its foundation in raw emotion, which is ready source of energy in any magickal working.
One particular aspect of the runes I favor is their spontinuity, one can(if they have practice with the runes and familiarity with their meanings) improvise rituals quite easily with them, while most acts of "grounded" (meaning physical) ceremonial magick take planning and time, which one does not always have. All one need is some ability to speak in the "eddic" tongue (in other words be somewhat poetic), have the purpose clearly in mind, and then set to work building about him a cone of power, all the while drawing the various Runes corresponding to his goal or purpose, visualizing that purpose, and lastly charging and sending the runes.
Often in the olden days, and even still today, the runes were inscribed upon material objects and stained with the magus' own blood. This to me makes perfect sense, blood is a VERY potent source of energy. This is quite evident if one studies many of the ceremonial methods of Evocation, such as the "Rosy Cross", where the blood of the Magus is used to actually cause an entity to materialize into a visible and solid form. Blood is therefore a magical "catalyst" in its own right. But far more goes into runic magick than just cutting one's self. I rarely if ever make use of blood in any ceremony, partly (and I am not ashamed to admit this) because I have certain reservations about cutting myself. One time(when forging my first runic amulet) I used blood, and I'll admit the results were quite encouraging, but not enough to cut myself over and over again!
I may or may not have said that I also have an interest in Ceremonial Magick. I like the scientific way in which methods of magick are presented and executed, and have found that runic magick is QUITE compatable with the western mysteries. In fact should the magus ever have to sink to the level of astral combat, the Runes can be an invaluable tool in dispersing unwanted beings.
As I have gotten rather off track with my description of our magick, I will try to set my train of thought once more on "rail". Odinism is, much like wicca and druidism, nature based. The worship of our gods(contrary to popular christian belief), does not involve the mutilation of cattle or the burning of cats (I happen to have never once harmed an animal in my life thank you very much). The process is quite simple, we gather together on the many days of worship in our religion, and make invocations to our gods, similar to catholic litanies, but far more personal and potent, for we are actually calling the attendance of our gods to us, and in doing so are flooding our beings, and the circle we have formed with their energy. From this point we consecrate an offering (usually mead, honey wine, or any type of alcohol), and then sip once from it, finally pouring the larger portion of it into the ground as a "sacrifice".
Our religion is far more detailed, but I'm afraid I have neither the time nor the desire to write an entire book in service of a topic which has already been described in greater detail by others, so I will at this point direct you to a few Odinistic, or Trother, web sites.