In your own words, I would like you to explain how you think Vanatru and Waincraft are different, because this is a thing that confuses a lot of people.

Certainly!

The original Waincraft was a lot more similar to Vanatru than its current incarnation, which is probably part of the issue.

People who have read the book and conflated Waincraft with their own Heathenry also haven’t helped (I’m specifically thinking of Volmarr, here)

To me, Vanatru as it’s commonly practised is still a specifically Heathen paradigm, using specific Germanic/Nordic (and/or possibly Gallo-Germanic depending on the scope) deities, spirits and cosmology. Vanatru itself ranges from strict recon Heathenry with just a focus on the three specifically-named Vanir to a more mystical and spirit-centered version such as your own.

Waincraft is intentionally not culture specific (except where it tries to be a spiritual resource relevant our modern culture), though its initial phase drew heavily on both Heathenry and Celtic Recon, hence the prevalence of those two influences even still. The material as set forth in the book is almost entirely “lead by example” to show how the model can be frameworked into various pre-existing mythologies and/or cultures, or taken on its own with some additional work. The only “intentional” similarity at this point to any type of Vanatru are the Tribes, but that’s because of certain agreements I made with various spirits while creating the model.

To use an analogy, if Heathenry as a whole is Christianity, and Vanatru is the Unitarians or Quakers, Waincraft is Baha’i or Theosophy (sorry for the really bad analogy, but there really isn’t one that works properly) – common generalities of belief and practice, but rather different in specifics.

Waincraft can be integrated into specific pre-existing mythologies, as I mentioned before, and certainly Heathenry, and thus Vanatru, could be practised in the Waincraft manner, but they are not synonymous by any means. For example, one of my students is working through the program and model from a strictly Celtic basis, and I myself don’t focus on any particular culture at all, but work with the model in the abstract/archetypal.