Why a Return to Indo-European Polytheism is Needed

Most of you have already heard these questions and these charges, but I need to state them again: What if the entire New Testament was a construct, a forgery, a fake? What if Jesus never existed, and was instead a composite figure cobbled together from the myths of many other Gods that long pre-existed Christianity? For the sake of argument, let's say that this was the case- what would be the right course of action? For me, the answer is simple:

We would have to pick up where we left off.

If Christianity's claims are shown to be unfounded and untrue, and its gospels were shown to be the products of forgers, liars, and men charged by a certain Roman Emperor or politicians to create an orthodoxy of religion for their empire, and if it continued to grow as a well-timed and placed falsehood, widening its power and political pull until evidence of its fraudulent foundations was either forgotten or covered up, we would have to conclude something very powerful.

We would have to conclude that the religions of the pre-Christian peoples were born from organic truth, that their Gods were more than likely quite real, and that the Pagan customs forcibly stopped under Christian political power were in fact traditional and proper ways of worshipping the real Gods and celebrating life.

Westerners everywhere would have to look back to what their Pagan ancestors were doing and believing if they wished to find their way back to the truth about the Gods.

Now, I don't imagine that even if direct evidence was shown that the New Testament was a forgery and Jesus never existed, that Christians everywhere would drop what they were doing and believing. The spell has gone on too long to be broken in that way. Christians need to believe the things they believe. They have to believe in an all-good God being in charge of the world, ultimately. They need to believe that there is a glorious heaven waiting for them. They need to believe these things, and if they lost them suddenly, quite a few of them would go mad.

I don't even want to guess at the impact of such a shift in spiritual paradigm, because it will never happen- even if shown conclusive evidence, 99% of Christians would ignore it, call it false without even looking into it, and go on believing just as they do now. That's the nature of their belief. Like the transition from the Pagan world to a Christian world, the change will have to come slowly, if it comes at all for the majority.

I have recently been shown an article which gives what I consider damning evidence for the falsehood of the establishment of Christianity, and all its claims of the divinity and resurrection of Jesus. I'd like to share the link, because it had quite an impact on me. What had the most impact on me was the discussion the author had about the Sinai Bible- why do most people not know about the Sinai Bible?

It contains the oldest version we have of the oldest Gospel- Mark- and that wouldn't be a problem, except that it's missing what modern Christians might think of as a few important little bits of doctrine. The author of the article names them:


It (the version of Mark in the Sinai Bible) starts with Jesus "at about the age of thirty" (Mark 1:9), and doesn't know of Mary, a virgin birth or mass murders of baby boys by Herod. Words describing Jesus Christ as "the son of God" do not appear in the opening narrative as they do in today's editions (Mark 1:1), and the modern-day family tree tracing a "messianic bloodline" back to King David is non-existent in all ancient Bibles, as are the now-called "messianic prophecies" (51 in total). The Sinai Bible carries a conflicting version of events surrounding the "raising of Lazarus", and reveals an extraordinary omission that later became the central doctrine of the Christian faith: the resurrection appearances of Jesus Christ and his ascension into Heaven. No supernatural appearance of a resurrected Jesus Christ is recorded in any ancient Gospels of Mark, but a description of over 500 words now appears in modern Bibles (Mark 16:9-20).

Despite a multitude of long-drawn-out self-justifications by Church apologists, there is no unanimity of Christian opinion regarding the non-existence of "resurrection" appearances in ancient Gospel accounts of the story. Not only are those narratives missing in the Sinai Bible, but they are absent in the Alexandrian Bible, the Vatican Bible, the Bezae Bible and an ancient Latin manuscript of Mark, code-named "K" by analysts. They are also lacking in the oldest Armenian version of the New Testament, in sixth-century manuscripts of the Ethiopic version and ninth-century Anglo-Saxon Bibles. However, some 12th-century Gospels have the now-known resurrection verses written within asterisks, marks used by scribes to indicate spurious passages in a literary document.


It is clear that Paul seems to know nothing about the "miraculous birth" (Virgin Birth) of Jesus; the article mentions this too. The case this author makes in a very short article for the artificial construction of the New Testament- and therefore all of Christianity- is a very good one. I would personally like to see Christian apologists explain to me, and the rest of the world, why all mentions of the resurrection, as well as many other claims to the divinity of Jesus, and miracle stories, are not in these earliest manuscripts of the Gospels. It is clear that they were added at a later date.

Here's the article:

The Forged Origins of The New Testament

As you read this article, understand something: I do not think that the sources used by the author have complete merit; my friend and polytheist colleague Erik Dutton has pointed out that the author uses "God's Book of Eskra" as one of his sources, which is certainly to my idea a spurious source. My focus on this article was not the article as a whole, but specifically the section on the Sinai Bible, which I find very interesting, and which actually has a foundation in reality.

What's written in this article may come as no news to many scholars of the Bible (and, it seems, to many Church scholars) but it would be news to the average Christian in the field who never gets around to reading Bible Scholarship that isn't first approved by their Church or their Pastor.

For me, it is another nail in the coffin in the claims of Christianity, and part and parcel of the true Resurrection- the resurrection of the Old Religions and the Old Gods. We NEED to return to the Older Way of believing, especially people in the western world and people of European ancestry.

In much the same way that Native Americans don't really re-capture their dignity and their direction as people without practicing their true and original animistic beliefs, I firmly believe that people of European descent don't re-capture their ancestral dignity, the truth about themselves, or any sense of true spiritual direction and purpose in life without worshipping the Gods of their Ancestors. I believe that a return to the Old Ways isn't just a good idea, but an imperative, without which we can't hope for a better future.

And it is possible to believe and worship as our Ancestors did- modern Pagan religious reconstructions, from Germanic to Celtic, Greek, Roman, and Slavic, have been given much attention, carefully reconstructed in the spirit of the original faiths. It's true that some people have abused the activity of reconstruction with their own political agendas, but the core of the Pagan faithful today are good people who are smart enough (generally) to see through it. The larger these Pagan religious communities become, the more quality and sincere spirit we will see. In my decade of involvement, I've already seen and experienced so much true religion.

Like it or not, the state of evidence is clear- a return to the Old Ways is the only sane and realistic option we have. No other way escapes the corruption, distortions, and political conspiracies of the past. No other way takes us back to where we belong- with one another, the Sncestors, the Gods, the land, and the sky.


When I think of the crimes committed by the arch-fiend Olaf Trygvasson, the King of Norway who murdered his own people, burned their farms, cut off their hands and blinded them, all because they refused to convert to Christianity, I remember why I do what I do- I remember the great wrongs, the monstrously and universally huge crimes committed against our Grandmothers and Grandfathers at the hands of politicians that had forged unholy alliances with Christianity. I praise the wisdom of those Pagans who resisted Christianity- they saw it for the falsehood it was.

There is no sanity without returning to the old Polytheistic ways of our ancestors. The Gods are real, and have waited for us, helped us, guided us, and even protected us in their anonymity, ever since their names were silenced on people's lips. They never left us; what came among us was a pernicious ignorance and falsehood which tainted our people, forcing us into the shadow world that we now live in. You all know that world- the world of endless spiritual paper-chases that end in nothing but spiritually dis-satisfied people, repressed people, crazy people, or worst of all, good people who lack the courage or inclination to question why they believe what they believe, and who have settled down to believe falsehoods- good people who will die expecting things to happen that are never going to happen.

There is the comfort of Truth to be found in realizing that our deaths lead us to exist as spiritual beings in the Underworld, or perhaps in another of the many worlds, and that "physical resurrection" is a nonsensical idea. It's contrary to Fate, contrary to natural reason and to the natural forces that create and destroy all things. There is comfort in coming to know the great Sky Father, Tiwaz, and the Earth Mother below us, mother of all life. There is power in knowing the Allfather, creator of all worlds, and the mighty Thunderer, and consciously knowing them and gaining their protection and favors.

There is comfort in knowing the spirits of your Ancestors are always with you, living in your flesh, blood, and even able to know you from across the divide of time and the other worlds. There is comfort in knowing that Destiny or Fate is the supreme decider of what must come to pass, not some "all-good God" who still somehow allows horrors off the scale to occur, even to his faithful, and whose so-called "love" includes an eternal roasting if you dared to question the church, have the wrong political and social views, or if you ended up just attending the wrong church.

There is comfort in knowing that there is a natural, organic, and right way to live that doesn't include the ridiculous alien moral codes that are found in the so-called "scriptures" which were lies the first day they were written. Our Indo-European Ancestors had deep and powerful moral and ethical codes, religious beliefs, and myths that were and are appropriate to them and their descendants- we do not need Middle-Eastern and Oriental religious beliefs, which are spiritual invaders to our old homelands, and which do not speak to our spirits truly. These spiritual invaders also deny the truth of the Many Gods and Goddesses, and thus, deny life itself- for there is no life or peace without the Truth. Native Indo-European religiosity is a long-standing, historically attested-to reality; it is distinct from Semitic or Oriental religiosity, and we must reclaim it, forsaking all alien creeds.

Someone actually tried to comment to this article asking me the question why Indo-European polytheism? They actually asked me why Semitic polytheism or Asian polytheism wasn't "good enough" for me. They tried to be a bit insulting, and tried to insinuate that I was some sort of racist, while they were at it. I expected ignorant people to try such a thing. Why Indo-European polytheism? Because I and my family and friends are the descendants of Indo-Europeans, and Indo-European polytheism is part of our heritage. We ARE those same Ancestors who lived then, alive today in these bodies. There is an ancestral connection here that most outsiders cannot understand, as clearly the person who asked me this question does not understand.

The question that was asked to me is as nonsensical as asking a Native American "Why Native American animistic beliefs?" I never said that IE Polytheism was ontologically better than others; but it is better for me and for people who are descendants of European people.

I don't think we can trust last names or skin color to prove who is a descendant of "Old Europe" in the modern day, so we have no choice but to allow all who would worship the Gods with honesty in their hearts, into our religious communities. But for those of us who do clearly come from European ancestors, I think nothing short of a re-embracing of the Old Ways is a requirement for true happiness.

If we would be truly free people, we have to consider the scenario in our heads, really consider it: there our ancestors were, believing as their people had believed since time immemorial, knowing the Gods and one another in Troth, in the bonds of ancient ritual and worship, and then, Christian missionaries came, peddling lies that were written so long ago that even the missionaries didn't realize that they were peddling nonsense. They converted kings with promises of political favor, and with absurd promises of physical immortality, and they used their influence to have laws passed BANNING the ancient and traditional faiths which were part and parcel of our spiritual identities. Murder enters into this- death was used as a penalty for those who refused conversion or who backslid into Pagan practices.

This was one of history's greatest outrages; the theft of our spiritual identities and our destines as the sons and daughters of Old Europe. This was the downfall of the West. We don't know who we are and never will until we re-embrace what our Ancestors believed and come to know their Gods once more.

Primordial Symbolism: The Key to All the Problems of the World

When we consider all of the problems that our world faces, we rightly feel overwhelmed. Is there any person alive who can tell us, simply and clearly, what the root of the world's problems truly is? It would seem that the idea of a single root for all of our woes is too optimistic- based on observing our world today, it would seem to be at least a forest worth of roots.

But even a forest can spring from a tiny handful of seeds. Can we trace the rivers of war, depression, illness, violence, the sundering of family bonds, and the rise of materialism and greed back to just a few seeds? Could those seeds in turn have fallen from one tree?

Certainly if we look at the myths of our ancestors, we find a mythical origin for the terrible things that torment us. In the sacred myths, we see two tides of forces locked in eternal struggle with one another- we see conscious forces of great finesse and wisdom struggling to move things towards order and stability, and we see dimly conscious and unconscious forces of great power struggling against order, causing things to move towards disorder and chaos, by the mere fact of their presence.

Our ancestors expressed these powers as the Tribe of the Gods and the Fomorian powers, respectively. Our Germanic ancestors honored the Gods who struggled against the Giants in the same manner, and our Greek ancestors honored the Gods who struggled against the Titans. Throughout the Indo-European Pagan tradition, we see the Gods of Indo European people appearing as monster and giant slayers, noble beings who fight to create and uphold order in the world, and the positive conditions for life.

We can look deeper and see the root-elements that began this tide of struggle between light and dark: the fire and the water, or in the Germanic myths, fire and ice. The fire is expansive and warm, and while it can be destructive (like any element) it was the single element that gave humankind the power to secure safety for themselves and their families. Water (and its destructive form, ice) is necessary for life, but it manifests the frost, snow, floods, and cold rains that can destroy life without the warmth of fire. Even cool water will take a human's life if he or she is submerged in it for too long, chilling the warm fire in the body and bringing death.

It would not be too difficult a comparison to see the Gods as aligned to fire, and the Fomorians as aligned to water- after all, the Fomorians themselves were from "under the sea", as their name implies.

The myths are quite clear; the eternal struggle between the Gods and the Fomorians is not just occuring "out there" in nature, but also "in here", inside of human nature. The idea that "out there" and "in here" are somehow ultimately separated is absurd; people who believe that these two "places" are ultimately apart from one another will never know the wisdom of wholeness, nor completion as human beings. Druidic power-working and true sorcery is not possible until one "crosses the boundary", the perceptual boundary between what we feel is "in here" and what is "out there", and by doing so, realizes wholeness. In wholeness, we realize that what we once thought were our "subjective" states are important and seamless parts of this world- and so our desires, wishes, intentions, and thoughts all affect the world in the same manner that a storm might affect it, or a fire. Reality is not divided into "two"- it is one whole thing.

At any rate, the struggle between light and dark is not merely "out there"- it is reflected in human nature, in the way we struggle in that place we call "internally", with the dark aspects of our nature. Our duty is to join with the Gods through sacrifices and worship, so that they give us the needed courage, strength, and cunning to face the destructive powers that we experience as "inside" ourselves, and triumph over them, keeping the needed balance of spiritual personhood.

This struggle is often a failed struggle, for so many people today- and why? Why do so many people allow the darkest parts of their own nature to overwhelm them? Why do they become greedy predators, thoughtless opportunists, selfish oafs, violent offenders, sociopathic monsters, all stalking the corridors of homes, towns, cities, governments, and schools?

As a religious man, I could say that the loss of the worship of the Gods is to blame; the longer people go without consciously recognizing the Gods, sacrificing to them, praying to them, and inviting them to integrate their power into our souls, the harder it will become for humans to resist the threatening natural forces that exist within us all.

As a realistic man, I realize that people aren't likely to flock to my religion in great numbers; though my religion is ancient and innate to the human spirit, the forgetfulness that has come onto the sons and daughters of the first ancestors is immense and deep. Their addiction to foreign religions and selfish beliefs is profound. Those few who have cast off the shackles of the same foreign religions that stole their ancestral ways from them have mostly not found their way to any better spiritual harbor- most of them have abandoned themselves to the soul-destroying depths of atheism and materialism.

I realize that few will join me in the worship of the Gods again, and even fewer will consciously seek the true Illumination of the Spirit that is the supreme secret desire of the human heart. So, I must seek another answer to the problems of mankind that more will be able to embrace.

And fortunately for me, a great mystic and psychologist from the last century did just that- moving somewhat outside of the realm of traditional religion, Carl Jung approached the relationship of human psychology to spirituality, and was able to explain the problems that bedeviled mankind in more neutral language. His impact on the modern Pagan movement as a whole has been enormous, though most Pagans do a very poor job at getting the education needed to understand what Jung was saying. Because of this, many Pseudo-Jungian absurdities have been foisted onto modern Paganism- chief among them the idea that the Gods of the ancient world were merely "Archetypes" operating in the human subconscious.

To reduce the Gods to a Jungian psychological construct isn't just absurd with respect to the ancestral tradition; it's absurd with respect to what Jung actually said regarding "archetypes". Most people don't realize that Jung believed in not only Psychic archetypes (archetypes as they exist in the individual mind) but Psychoid Archetypes- powers that existed very much independant of individual human minds, but which reflected themselves there. Jung's notion of the "collective unconscious" was also not the neat playground that so many moderns make it into- it was a great mystery, a great sea of awareness that was also very much what we call "objective".

The Collective Unconscious was not merely the sum total of human subconscious minds; it was greater, omnipresent, and eternal. It was, in fact, very close to what modern monotheists might call "God"- though it is important to realize that Jung himself, after searching for the traditional "God" in the depths of the unconscious, admitted himself that he could find no such being. He used the term "God" to refer to the massive strength of life as a whole, and sometimes as a name for the personal divine spirit or genius which he believed was connected to each individual.

Jung is the unsung champion of modern Polytheism- few realize the depths to which he accepted the true multiplicity of the Divine. In his most prophetic, mystical writing, using the pen-name Basilides, he tells the confused people of the world:

"Blessed am I, for it is granted unto me to know the multiplicity and diversity of the Gods. Woe unto you, for you have substituted the oneness of God for the diversity that cannot be resolved into one. Through this you have created the torment of incomprehension, and the mutilation of the created world, the essence and law of which is diversity. How can you be true to your nature when you attempt to make one out of the many? What you do to the Gods, that also befalls you. All of you are made thus the same, and in this way your nature also becomes mutilated."


This profound statement frames one of the roots of the problems of the world- the foisting of the concept of "one God" onto the majestic truth that mankind had known since the dawn of time- Polytheism. But as I said before, my chances of getting many people to give polytheism another fair shake aren't great. So I turn again to Jung's great wisdom to help other people and myself to understand the root and seed of the great misery of the world. And Jung answers- like a shaman returned from the Unseen world with the knowledge of the secret cause of the tribe's problems- he reveals the root of our woes: the repression of primordial symbolic systems.

What's great about this answer that Jung gave is how easy it is to explain, how organic and intuitive it is. Allow me to use what words I can to sum up the great wisdom of the master Jung, with regards to the single maladaption that one could rightly blame the deepest problems of the world on.


It was Jung's original teacher Freud that first framed, in terms that modern people could accept, the idea that the unconscious mind and the conscious mind talked to one another through symbolic language. Symbols were the way the deep, unconscious depths of a person communicated with the conscious self. Jung went one step further to draw a distinction between what he called natural symbols and cultural symbols. Natural symbols, he believed, were not "put" in the unconscious by human beings; they were natural, eternal, and always present- the root symbols of existence itself, the primordial "symbol set" that had always been deep inside us. Cultural symbols, on the other hand, were the residue of long-held cultural norms, practices, and ideas.

Jung believed that the symbols of primal, shamanic societies were precisely those "natural symbols" that were within all people. He thought that the natural symbolism known and expressed by the unconscious mind connected conscious humanity with the natural world itself, and the cosmos. These "natural symbols" were in fact a sacred language of primordial images that contained great power.

From this point, Jung was able to reveal the heart and soul of human existance and purpose. Dr. Jeannette Gagan writes:

"Jung went on to explain that built into the human psyche is a matrix of energy linking us to the life-giving, soul-quenching primordial sources. But over time, he said, we disengaged from this matrix to such an extent that we are no longer nourished by the early reservoirs of sustenance. In the pursuit of scientific mastery over matter, humanity has severed its ties to the natural world."


Jung himself wrote:

"Man feels isolated in the cosmos. He is no longer involved in nature and has lost his emotional participation in natural events, which hitherto had a symbolic meaning for him. His immediate communication with nature is gone forever, and the emotional energy it generated has sunk into the unconscious."


Dr. Gagan, in her book "Journeying: Where Shamanism and Psychology Meet", goes on to say that (modern) religions appear to rely more on the spoken word and rational interpretations than on immediate perceptions and symbolic experiences. She quotes Jung, who said:

"We are so captivated by and entangled in our subjective consciousness that we have simply forgotten the age-old fact that God speaks chiefly through dreams and visions. The Buddhist discards the world of unconscious fantasies as "distractions" and useless illusions; the Christian puts his Church and his Bible between himself and his unconscious; and the rationalist intellectual does not yet know that his consciousness is not his total psyche."


And finally, we arrive at the crux of the matter: When humans are no longer able to contact the primordial symbols that are deeply alive inside of all of us, when contact between the human world and the unseen world (both perceptually without and within) is broken, the "numinosity" of the primordial symbols, the energy that they emit, falls deeper into the unconscious, or withdraws into the deepest parts of us.

There, this energy that was not allowed to "come across the gap" into full awareness and consciousness weds itself to all of our unresolved issues and to the shadowy aspects of ourselves deep within, making those things powerful. This is where the "shadow", the destructive, unconscious power inside us gets its true life and motivation.

Whether we realize it or not, most of us have unresolved psychic tensions and issues, buried deep inside us. We may not consciously feel that we are prejudiced people or racist, but deep inside, that could be a very real part of us. I often am amused at how far some people go to distance themselves from other people that they accuse of being "racist"- for Jung understood well what was truly occuring in this situation. He knew that we project our own shadow-qualities onto other people, and then attack them for reflecting back to us what we unconsciously fear or hate about ourselves. I remember this everytime I see a "noble crusader" leading a witch-hunt against homosexuals, or people accused of racism, or what have you.

Whatever is unresolved deep inside us will become empowered by the numinous, lost energy that we are not allowing to "come through" and resolve itself consciously and healthily. That is the key and the secret to what is wrong with the world today. Jung said "Even tendencies that might be able to exert a beneficial influence turn into veritable demons when they are repressed."

Repression is the key. Dr. Gagan writes:

"Ignored and repressed energy formulates the shadow self- an entity which, perhaps more than any other, strengthens the grip of violence and fear in our society. Tremendous stores of energy are sapped to keep these shadow emotions in check. What's more, they expand as we mature. From birth onward, the unconscious portion of the psyche accumulates the feeling energy that parental and societal figures were not able to tolerate... A society in which individuals are barred from giving authentic expression to their innermost feelings prohibits instinctual, archetypal energy from moving into the consciousness. Disconnected, these shadow feelings appear in dreams, or are projected onto others..."


This unresolved angst deep inside us becomes an army of dark forces, that work to subvert the positive aspects of our conscious selves.

There you have it. In simple language, the key to understanding the problems of our world has been laid before you, or perhaps placed directly into your hand. One thing is absolutely certain- Pagan religions from every era (in common with native and tribal religions in the modern day) preserved and honored the Primordial Symbols inside of each person- the Gods and Goddesses of the Pagan world were honored by rites in which the powers of the primal, natural symbols within were allowed to rise to the conscious self and make it strong, healthy, balanced, and powerful.

Allow me to illustrate this with a single example: sexual forces were allowed to rise to healthy expression through the honoring of the phallic divinities, and the great fertile and sexual goddess-figures that were prominent in all Pagan cultures. What happened when Christianity destroyed the worship of these figures? What happened when it repressed the natural and normal rise and cycle of sexual energy inside the human psyche? You see what has happened, everyday, all around you: sexual degredation, increased psychosis and pathologies related to sexuality, sexual idiocy, violence against women, who are seen by their societies as embodiments of sexual lust and temptation, and countless other problems.

This can be taken further- In the worship or warrior Gods, men who were excellent fighters had a right to be proud, and express their pride and power. It was virtuous, in the Pagan world, to be good at what you did, and that included fighting, crafting, speaking, or whatever. It was okay to be proud of one's achievments. The power of these things was allowed to flow freely and to resolve itself in a healthy manner. But under Christianity's dim philosophies, Pagan virtues were called "glittering vices"- and only humbleness, chastity, and submission to God were seen as real virtues.

From top to bottom, the ancient religious systems that organically celebrated and expressed the primordial symbols of human life were destroyed by Christianity, and by Islam. The human psyche has taken a repressive beating, and the shadow inside us and inside the world has grown immensely powerful.

Where Christianity failed and finally came to an end, (being reduced to the current toothless state it now languishes in) a supremely unwise society picked up the pieces and carried on, instituting new rules of repression and absurdity. Secular societies are, in general, no better for the health of the human psyche than Christian society was- and some secular societies are downright hateful to it- such as atheist communist societies, who have actually gone further to destroy what few remaining spiritual symbols and systems were left.
What's even more perverse is the fact that Christianity contains within itself just enough primordial symbols to give the religion its feeling of power and holiness- the Tree, the Serpent, the Dove, The Fish, The Solar Cross, The Sacrificed God, and others. But the Christians themselves have become cut off from the power of these symbols, and they refuse direct contact with their deepest minds and selves.


Now, I have offered you some ideas to pick apart. I end by praising my Gods and Goddesses, and my Ancestors, and feeling the great power that streams clear and strong from the deepest part of me, emerging into my mind and my world, endowing me with the joy and love that I feel everyday of my life.

Through the symbols that are the sacred language of my Pagan religion, the primordial symbols from the spiral to the horns, the beasts, the cup-and-ring marks, the circles, and the elements themselves, a true power of psychic health and regeneration is allowed to appear. That is what my religion offers all who declare their loyalty to it. The Gods allow the deepest, greatest powers in nature to emerge and integrate in a healthy way through all of us, who give ourselves in courage and love to their ancient ways. There is no more repression and no more "internal" war with a shadow that is only ourselves buried in the pain of repression.

I have not seen this same psychic health or abundance appearing in the mindstreams of Christians, and I was born into a Christian household. I've seen the lack buried at the heart of the religion itself. Only Catholic Christianity, with its Goddess Mary, has a few symbols- chiefly the symbol of the Compassionate Mother/Virgin- that allows them to access a measure of psychic health. Jung himself remarked that his Catholic patients showed far more internal health than his protestant ones, and for just that reason- the presence of the divine feminine that still persisted, albeit in a dumbed-down form, in Catholicism.

Protestants, in their pernicious crusade to cut out what few good symbols Christianity still had living within it, destroyed the worship of the Virgin Mary, as well as other mystical symbols and practices in the heart of Christianity. They did this in the grip of their own detestable ignorance, framed as a quest to "purify" Christianity of "heathenish" Catholic qualities. As a result, to this day their countless sects are in the grip of non-stop sectarian disputes and fights, and their leaders and preachers are known as the epitome of intolerance, hatred and stupidity.

Anyone who has encountered Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Fred Phelps, or even the average local Baptist minister, will already know what I am talking about. The fierce masculine one-sidedness and farsical over-simplicity of most forms of Protestantism is matched in the minds of these church-goers by fanaticism and the savage species of closed-mindedness for which they are known. Deep down, they are victimized by the shadow that casts its long and destructive gaze over all that they do.

Two Bits of Advice

"I have two things I feel the need to tell you. First, for the sake of your own well-being, I ask you to believe in the "all-around goodness" of things in the cosmos, including yourself. This is no invitation to be naive about the dark or dangerous things in the world, but a call for you to embrace trust- you have to trust that the heart of life is not pain or darkness, but freedom and vibrancy, and that all things work out under the direction of a mysterious yet wise unfolding.

Secondly, I ask you to speak to the great Land and Sky as though they were great beings that can hear you- for indeed, They are. You need to pour out your heart to them as though they were cups that could receive every drop of water in the world without overflowing. Some people call this "prayer". Address the Land and the Sky, as well as every spiritual power that you discover in any urge of your soul, or in any awesome display of Nature, in prayer.

Speak also to those you love and who still live, or who have passed into the unseen. This, my friend, is religion in the best sense of the word; through it, you are brought together again with your true family. When you pray, don't hold back; say whatever comes to you, and ask whatever you most need to ask, no matter how silly you think it sounds. The Great Ones enjoy that sort of honesty. Open yourself up to them and keep speaking, daily.

All you need is these two things to get to the next place you are going. Once you get there, these things will continue to help you."

Requiem for Brad Dement

A few days ago, a gentleman that I had been corresponding with via email passed away. He was in his early 40's, and from my letters back and forth with him, he seemed vibrant and enthusiastic about his spiritual life. He was a fellow Pagan, and a fellow man of British Heritage- both Germanic and Celtic. He used the religious names "Ethelwulf" and "MacAlbion".

I understand that quite well, as I live a dual-traditioned life, honoring both sides of my own heritage, Germanic and Celtic, as Ule and as Cuan. It's demanding, but the Germanic and Celtic ancestral streams come together in the Holy Isles of Britain. Brad understood this; he was respectful to the people of Britain, both those alive today and those of his own family that had gone before.

Brad's guardian spirit must have been happy that his Fate called for his death now, in the Beltaine season- like Samhain or the time of the Wolf's Nights, it is an easy time for any living creature to make their transition, their journey across the dividing line between the living and the dead. I know that he may have carried some regrets or attachments with him, like nearly all of the living who are called to make that journey, but I also know that things went well for him, and are going well for him.

I didn't know him well, but I know one thing about him, one thing that might be as important as anything else: he was brave enough to resist the dominant streams of modern social pressure, reflected in the dominant Christian religion, and embrace the old ways of his Ancestors. As I have pointed out elsewhere, that takes boldness and bravery. He was brave and he died a Pagan.

He lives now, on his new journey- still a Pagan, who is ever more open to the regenerating influences and the appearances of the after-world than any Christian could be or will be. While Christians are longing for the appearance of their savior and their deliverance, they will only face the long journey, and the appearance of spirits, most of which they will believe are demons. Those peaceful few who can accept them as "angels" may have a better time of it, and to them, and to all who must die, I extend a wish for peace and success.

Death is a time for the settling of accounts and for the quenching of the fire of hateful emotions or disturbing attitudes. I hold no grudge against any of this world's dead, even those I disliked. In death, we all pay our debts back and we become justified.

I know Brad is doing well because a brave person always does well when they have to face the unknown. Being brave is about being fully aware of whatever presents itself to you, no matter how unexpected, difficult or frightening it might be, and keeping your sense of self intact, along with your moral reasoning, your dignity and your poise. A brave person may suffer from fear, but they never lose themselves to it; they never become its victims.

Brad has no choice but to make a journey now, and I know that he'll face what he has to face in a brave manner. He faced this life with a brave will to do what he felt was right, even though most people in the society around him discouraged his choice of religious lifestyle.

It's not easy to go against the great religious current that sweeps nearly everyone along, unthinking, into the fate created for them by organized faiths. Those who can face the weight of 2000 years of social pressure are going a long way towards preparing themselves to face the immense forces that meet us in our death-transitions, and which may try to urge us in directions that we might not wish to take. The life-journey takes bravery; the death-journey also takes bravery.

The virtues we create in ourselves in this life are each person's true companions on the death-journey, and they are the things that we all "take with us". You can forget about making deals for an easy afterlife; the cost of a good afterlife is paid here and now, in our daily activities and personal development.

I have had many disturbing and powerful dream visions in the last 5 days, coinciding not only with this holy season, but I believe with Brad's death. I can come up with no other explanation. These dream visions are causing changes in my life and in my spiritual life which I am soon to implement, as I will explain in my next post to this blog.

But until then, Brad is journeying and must be given a proper requiem. I have one here, "reclaimed" from Carmina Gadelica, for a cousin that I never knew well, but to whom I wish I had written more. Where he has gone, I will go one day, and so will you, so read this requiem for him, and mean it in your heart. What you do for him will be done for you.


The Death Song

You are going home this night to your home of winter,
To your home of fall, of spring, of summer,
You are going this night to the home of all,
To your perfect rest, to a lasting bed beyond what is
seen.

Sleep you, sleep, and away with your sorrow,
Rest in the visions that will come, peaceful, without
sorrow,
Rest you, rest, and away with any sorrow,
Be at peace, dear one, in the lap of the Mother.

Sleep this night in the breast of your Mother,
Sleep, dear one, She herself soothing you;
Rest you this night on the Great Mother's arm,
Rest you, dear one, She herself kissing you.

This rest is beyond earthly sleep,
Hurt and grief pass away, and onward go you,
This is the sleep of youth, an awakening to the
young-land,
The healing sleep of the Lord of Light.

The peace of the seven lights be yours, friend,
The peace of the seven joys be yours, friend,
The peace of the seven sleeps be yours, friend,
On the arm of the Shining One, who has defeated
darkness.

The shadow of death is on your face, friend,
But the Shining King has his arm around you;
Go now to the Three Mothers, and bid farewell to pain,
Your beloved is standing in front of you, with peace
in her mind.

Be now in the calm of all calm,
Recieve the guidance of all guidance,
Be now in the love of all loves,
Go now, our dear one, with the Lord of Life;
Rest now, our dear one, in the God of Life.

The Two Trees: A Heathen's Take on the War Between Creationism and Evolution

We've all had a chance to see long and furious debates between the people who literally believe in religious and mythical stories regarding the origin of man and the world, and people who only accept scientific theories about the same. Certainly if you are an American, you've been embarrased like the rest of us by the medieval-style thinking and voting of the state of Kansas regarding the matter.

On one hand, we have the people who believe that their God literally created anatomically modern humans in the blink of an eye, and not so long ago. They believe that he created the world, and all the animals in it, in the space of seven days. On the other side, you have the scientific-minded crowd who believe that billions of years passed and a gradual process of evolution took place, straight from the primordial sludge, resulting eventually in all that you see around you, including your own mind and body.

In the "middle" of this somewhat silly debate are the theists and God-believers, like the Catholic church, who believe in what they call "theistic evolution"- the idea that God created everything using natural laws like evolution; they believe that evolution is not a blind, random, materialistic process, but a divinely created and guided process.

Heathenry gives us a creation myth, too. It talks at length about the origins of the world and of the first men and women. In fact, if you read our sacred stories, you'll see that Heathens- long before Christians- believed that an "intelligent designer" created the world, the green growing things, animals, other orders of life, and finally, human beings. Not unlike what Christians believe, the Heathen world-shaper- the Allfather himself- also breathed a sacred spirit into the first men and women, eternally binding them to himself as kin, and his brothers, who aided him in the creation of humans, even bestowed on them the form or image of the Gods.

If you study pre-Christian creation mythology, you see that this idea is nearly universal. It appears in the Enuma Elish, the Babylonian original upon which the account of Genesis is based. In the Enuma Elish, the Gods create human beings in their own image, and even set them up in a paradisal garden, called the Garden of Eridu. Though there were many Greek Myths of Creation, they all agree on one thing- either the Earth Mother herself gave birth to men and women, allowing them to spring up from the ground, or a Godly shaper (like Prometheus), working with clay and earth and other natural materials from the ground, shaped humans in the image of the Gods and gave them life.

The ancient Iranian human-origin myth has the first man and woman growing from the ground as a plant, before the creator calls them forth to be man and woman, bestows a soul on them, and bids them to multiply and increase themselves. The Egyptian potter-God created men and women on his wheel, true masterworks of his Godly creativity. Ivan Hudec gives a wonderful Slavic creation myth in which the clay-people receive the spirit of the Gods as a gift, to counter the dark forces of chaos that were stirring in their clay, and they become human beings.

The reason why I'm writing this letter is to give a response to the people who scoff at these myths as "superstition" and "nonsense". Heathen and Pagan mythology is deeper than the great oceans, and they contain much wisdom, all of which is readily available if people would read them with the sense of openness, humility, and wonder which they call for.

These sacred stories are records of experiences, living experiences that human beings had while in direct communion with Nature and the unseen world. There are timeless truths encoded in mythology, truths about the world and about men and women, who are each of them a full and complete manifestation of the world and offspring of the Gods who shaped it.

Must these myths conflict with science? I would say that it didn't matter if they did- the Mythical Truth is the Whole Truth. When I say that, what I mean is, the myth captures the essence of the reality- it captures the eternal pattern and meaning; in light of this, it need not capture the physical form. The physical process of human evolution is an important aspect of reality; in the natural processes that brought human beings into the shape they currently manifest, we see the completion of the "Mannaz" mystery. Humans, ever fated to be a part of this world, through natural processes came to be a part of it. That's a fact that all can see.

From this point of agreement, we have the perspective of the myth, and the perspective of modern empirical sciences. From the mythical dimension, a revelation about the truth of man's existence has come to us from the souls, minds and tongues of our ancestors. From the dimension of empirical thinking, which is very much a thing of this world, and which is only concerned with surface-level phenomenon, theories about how the physical process occured have been created.

Both are important, but considering the shifting and insubstantial nature of the physical world, I would say that the eternal pattern and truth revealed by the myth is by far the more important of the two, at least for true human understanding. When I say "true human understanding", I'm not talking about the sort of understanding that leads a person to be good at math, or helps them to understand how genes might evolve. I'm talking about spiritual understanding, the only kind of understanding that can lead humans to lasting peace and happiness. In spiritual understanding is found the underlying purpose and meaning of life which is necessary for any true happiness.

Now, I've given my opinion that the Mythical Truth is more important from the perspective of human spiritual understanding and peace. This does not mean that we should scoff at science or ignore the good theories that scientists have worked hard to come up with.

There are many uses for theories like evolution; understanding our biology better in the scientific sense of the word means that we can create better medical treatments and medicines, which will no doubt enhance the length (though not necessarily the quality) of our lives. And we all know how important it is to live a long time! Joking aside, I do think it is a blessing when Fate allots a person many long years- they have a chance to know generations of their family that they might not have known, and they get to see and experience many happy things, alongside the sorrowful things that we must all endure.

But length of life is not the same as quality of life. Quality of life, in the true sense, is a matter of how peaceful and happy a person is. And people are only at peace and truly happy when they know who and what they really are. People are only peaceful and happy when they know the whole truth about themselves as human beings, and how they relate to one another and this world. Finally, lasting peace and happiness comes from knowing the Gods and ancestors as true and living spiritual presences- every bit as "real" as we- and joining with them and their kin in this world, as one community.

If a person could live 30 years under the influence of such wholeness, that would be a quality life. In my never-so-humble opinion, it would certainly beat 80 years of living in a rat-race world where family bonds are broken, where materialistic science convinces us all that we are just decaying flesh randomly evolving in the service of selfish genetics, and war-mongering military-corporate-industrial complexes grind hundreds of human lives to dust on the news everyday for us. There's no quality in such a world; in that world, all that matters is what you can get before you die, other human beings be damned... except for those human beings that you keep around for your own selfish amusement or benefit.

Most believers in the theories of evolution believe that life's ultimate purpose is to pass on genetics, and to hope that you (and your population group) are "fit" enough endure the random mutations and changes that must occur to any grouping of beings. Well, as a Heathen mystic and believer in a deeper truth about things, I must disagree; life is not merely or ultimately a matter of transmission of genetics. In the minds of the eager believers in "hard core" evolution, it seems that one of the consequences of life is often confused with cause of life.

Let me now give a proper Heathen response, which I believe solves the seemingly endless conflict between the myths of the ancients and the myths of science.

The Heathen myths don’t discuss “evolution” as we know it now, with the same scientific language that some use now, but the ancient myths discuss the origins of mankind as being quite natural- and indeed, how could it be otherwise? Whatever appears, whatever comes to be, whatever exists, whether Gods, Goddesses, spirits, humans, trees, or stones, must be natural. "Natural", "born of nature", is a rather all-inclusive term in Heathenry. Sure, there are very natural and normal reaches of reality that humans have a very difficult time sensing or experiencing, but this doesn't make them "supernatural" in some way.

Most people fail to understand this simple fact, but it remains: "nature" isn't just "trees and water and stuff around us that we can see." Nature, in the broadest sense, is everything that exists. In my writings, I often use "Nature" and "Reality" as synonymous. In Heathen thinking, there are other "worlds" full of divine beings, and there is a difference between human beings and the Gods- but that doesn't make "other" worlds or the Gods into alien places and beings that "appear" in the natural world and exert some sort of "supernatural" influence over it.

If the Gods were truly and radically "above" nature as we normally experience it, truly separate in nature and power, there would be no way they could interact with it, or with us. If they were so alien and different, how could their substance have interacted with so-called "natural" substances, and thus, done as our stories tell us, and shaped us?

The answer to this problem is simpler than simple: the Gods are not alien nor distant nor "supernatural". They exist in a continuum of reality which is every bit as natural and normal as the world you are currently experiencing. They are part of the same web of Wyrd, the same web of life and power, that we are, and which all things are.

It is true that the unseen worlds are full of strange powers and wonders. It is true that when the normal human's mind has just a taste of the power of Wyrd or the power of the unseen, they often experience it as though it were the most supernatural, utterly alien thing they ever felt or saw. That is a consequence of the average human mind being unprepared for the utter intensity, power, and awe that this reality has in store. It has nothing to do with naive notions of "supernaturalism".

Like so many things in life, the answer to the debate between Evolution and Mythical Origins is found not on one side or the other, but between. Humans are creations of the Gods, but if you read the myths, you will see that it isn't that easy. I say that humans are "creations" of the Gods, but that doesn't mean that the Gods created us out of nothing.

This is the most important statement I can make- the Gods didn't create us out of nothing. Such an idea is absurd, and simply not in the realm of possibility. It has nothing to do with a lack of power on the parts of the Gods; the reason why they can't make something out of nothing is because "nothing" doesn't exist.

Even in the "Beginning", our Heathen myth tells us that there was a void, called Ginnungagap- which it describes as a "yawning gap", or chasm, which is precisely how some Greek myths describe it. The "yawning gap" from which all creation was to arise wasn't "nothing"- it was charged with the power of Wyrd, and in it slept all the potentials- the Mysteries- that were to arise. There was "something" from the very beginning, like a universal well of hidden seed-potentials, and now, as Fate has woven out, all of the worlds seen and unseen have appeared. Whether the universe is veiled in potential, or expressed in the nine worlds of Ygdrasil, "nothing" never exists. There's always "something" existing. The notion of "nothingness" cannot exist except as an abstract construction in human heads.

The Gods have their origin, just like everything else, from that primordial beginning, this well of being. The Gods, after shaping the worlds, shaped the first men and women. Notice I am saying "shaped"- not "created". The Gods didn't create the earth or the water or the materials from which all things were shaped; those things were there long before the Gods. Here's the great secret that resolves the war between theories of evolution and our myths: the Gods shaped pre-existing materials into all that you see.

Nature, as a whole, is "always there". It doesn't need a creator. One of the greatest differences between Pre-Christian philosophies and mythologies and Christian thinking is that the Pagans didn't think that nature had a creator. They did think that various natural orders, worlds, and beings were shaped by the Gods, that the Gods had a role to play in how and why certain places and beings existed the way they did, but the Gods didn't create nature. Nature had no creator and it didn't need one. Nature was perpetual, eternal. Nature might have gone through cycles, but it was always there, and the circle of nature had no beginning or end. From nature, which was often enough deified itself, came the Gods, and through Godly creativity, through the Godly shaping of natural elements, came mankind, and many other living beings.

So the Gods are our elder kin in the most literal sense of the word; they "came to be" out of the body of nature before mankind did, and they played a role in "bringing us to be" in the form we are now in.

If you look at the Heathen creation myth, you see that the Allfather and his two brothers found the trunks of two trees on the shore of a primordial ocean, and from those genetic materials, they created the first men and women. Allfather and his brothers didn't create the earth or the seas; the primordial materials from which the earth was lifted and the seas were run- the body of the giant Ymir- was around before the Gods. The Gods, through their actions, saw to it that the primordial "natural body" of Ymir was "divided" and torn apart, and placed into the order that we call "the world".

This is why humans are part God, part Giant. The physical "stuff" of our bodies is born straight out of nature; our flesh and blood is the product of the body of a Giant. The Earth Mother, herself a giantess who came into existence after Ymir, gave birth to those two trees from which human beings were "shaped" by the Gods. She is as much our mother as the Allfather is our father, shaper, and teacher.

So there you have it- natural materials are subjected to Godly creativity, and humans came to be, as we are now. If you (for some reason) want to see this story through the lens of scientific materialism, you can think of the Gods as hidden realities of whatever natural processes guided the evolution of humans from very natural materials, materials that had coalesced in the oceans of the primordial planet earth.

In my way of seeing, these Heathen beliefs do not run contrary to evolution- the reality is that nature is constantly sending forth countless streams of life, and nature is constantly in flux, always changing, always adapting, growing, living, dying- and every form that Nature births is undergoing great change. That's how Wyrd, the interconnected web of life, works. Evolution is a scientific expression of the fact of change.

Humans, like every other creature or thing- were “born” from the web of Wyrd, the body of nature, from ground and the waters.

It took the Gods, nature’s earlier and very powerful children, to create the causes for humankind to arise- and to bestow a special gift on us: the gift of divine imagination and spirit. Allfather shaped those two trees- masses of living matter- into a human form; you could say that he (thinking metaphorically) “guided” the process of growth and Fate, helped shape the natural process, and bestowed Spirit onto the finished product, thus “shaping” humans into their finished form.

I don't personally know any Heathens who think that the Gods shaped the two trees into men and women in the space of a few seconds or minutes- and indeed, the element of "time" is left out of the myth completely. Maybe their godly spell of shaping took billions of years to be "completed"; who knows? That is up to the individual who reads the myth. The point here is that the myth doesn't express itself in temporal terms- it is truly timeless, and speaking not only about what we might describe in later ages as a "physical, temporal process", but also a timeless reality. Regardless of how long it took or what mechanics went into the process, the myth's point is made: humans owe their existence partly to Godly artifice. THAT is the great truth of the story, which helps us to understand the dignity and value of human life (and all life), and helps orient us towards those who are our great-grandparents and holy kin: the Gods.

It cannot be repeated enough- the Allfather, in common with all the other Gods, did not “make” humans out of nothing- Wyrd, expressing itself in natural processes, simply organically birthed all things, all primordial elements, and the Gods added some guidance and further shaping to that, to make perfect the world order. We, as parts of that world-order, happen to be fortunate recipients of Godly tampering; with our special Godly endowments, we too can come to know the mysteries, know the timeless, and come to be like the Gods. We can certainly shape our world and create like them, though to a different degree.

Evolution is a natural reality. All beings, including humans, are changing over time- everything changes. Humans are “children of Earth and Starry Heaven”, as the ancient Mysteries said- in other words, born BOTH of natural processes, and of Godly hands. But we were not “created” in the sense that Christians think humans were “created”- we were not created out of the clay of an earth which was itself "created out of nothing" by the power of some God. The idea of "Creatio ex Nihilo", or Creation out of nothing, a doctrine that Christianity dearly holds onto, is by far one of the greatest absurdities to be found in their beliefs.

Being mortals means that the “earthly” aspect of our nature has to continue to flow with nature- death is a reality; our earthy and watery bodies have to keep changing under the influence of natural forces- and die. But our “starry” nature, our Godly nature, (our spirit or the Gift of Odin) does not and cannot “die” utterly. It moves on to halls beyond this world at death, and moves on to another destiny in accord with Wyrd.

In much the same manner that you could “create” a statue by carving it out of stone, you could say the Gods “created” us; you don’t really “create” the statue except in the most poetic sense of the word- the reality is that a sculptor “shapes” his or her creation out of the materials that were already there, or which nature herself has birthed.

Heathenry would never deny the scientific realities of change, nor the fact that humans are made of earth, water, and elemental matter. But Heathenry (at least in my neck of the woods) does accept that the reality of human shaping, evolution, and existence, has an "inner" side, which we gain access to through sacred mythology. In that mythical truth, the whole truth is found.

Domestic Cults, Land Spirits, and the Worship of House-Wights

It has been my experience that the old Heathen faith doesn't really become strong and clear in the hearts and minds of people who follow its ways until they join with others. When you work with a family or a kindred, or other people of like mind and faith, you experience a more primal and essential layer of ancestral religion.

In older times, there was no way to separate the realities of tribe and kin from Troth or the Elder Faith. This is because human groups, from families to tribes, are a reflection of the natural and sacred manner that humans are supposed to live. We are not solitary beings; we all feel the urge to gather with others, to take shelter with others, to share our joys and sorrows with others. The sacrifices and religious observances of the Heathen past were done largely in groups, entire families or communities coming together to worship. The religion re-affirmed their bonds to one another, and to the Holy Kindreds who are also related to us, but who dwell unseen.

"Community" did not begin as a band of scared primitive individuals that grouped together in ancient times to help protect themselves from other humans or predators; the community is not some evolutionary accident nor behavior driven solely by analysis of benefit. Community is sacred, a reflection of the sacred order which is inscribed in the souls of human beings. The Mystery of MANNAZ or Man- meaning all Mankind- is a mystery that arises not as an individual but as many men and women, and they are bound together naturally by unbreakable bonds of affection, power, and kinship.

Each person alive depends so much on others- from our parents at the beginning of our lives, to the men and women who grow our food, prepare it, and sell it; the men and women who train to be doctors, healers, therapists, soldiers and protectors; the men and women that we marry and love and who support us emotionally, and help us to create the future generations of this world. In some way, the web of human relationships and support is a perfect model of Wyrd- each person affects so many other people, and is in turn affected by them. Without the other people in the world, we could not be here, living and thriving. From our interactions, new people arise, and others die away. Between us, love and joy and sorrow arise.

The Old Ways ask us to extend that web of relationship to new dimensions- more subtle dimensions. These "subtle dimensions" of which I speak are the unseen reaches of this world, and the other worlds. Living alongside us in this world are unseen wights, sentient beings who exist in what can be conceived of as their own continuum of life. The Land upon which we walk and depend contains boundless depths of being, and the Landvaettir or Land Wights are one example of unseen sentient beings who dwell alongside us, though few people take the time to appreciate or consider them.

People wonder at the "point" or "purpose" for belief in such beings. To this, it must be said that life and mind are not gifts that humans alone possess, nor is reality as simple as what appears to our eyes. The bulk of life that we can see is just a tiny amount of life, compared to the life that dwells in the vast reaches of reality. The web of Wyrd is a vastness that cannot be comprehended. Within it are places, spaces, "dimensions of reality" and "ways of being" that are every bit as natural as the one "slice of life" that human beings experience. And Wyrd being what it is, the entire continuum of Wyrd, the entire web- including all unseen realities- affects the rest of the web. That means that numberless unseen powers affect us every day of our lives, and we affect them in return.

The Wyrd-wise have always known this, and they have always worked to become conscious of the affects the unseen world and its inhabitants have on us, and just as importantly, they have worked to be aware of what affects we have in return.

It's not enough to think "well, I can't see or hear these beings, and they don't seem to affect me, so I won't worry about them." They do affect you, and you do affect them. The more conscious you are of this fact, the more aware you can become of the impact of these subtle realities on you and your own life. In blindness of the reality of these living beings, you can harm them, and they can harm you and yours. In awareness of them, and with respect, they can be the source of many blessings and much luck.

If we accept that the Land itself is filled with Land Wights, beings who naturally dwell and live in their own "way of being" and mostly unseen by us, We have to accept that our homes, which sit on the Land, must be affected by them. And this brings us directly to a point which was most crucial and time-honored by our Ancestors: the reality of Domestic Cults and the Worship of House-Wights and House-Spirits.

When human beings raise their homes in a place, they are not the first beings on the scene- Land Wights have usually been there for much longer. All natural phenomenon are guarded by wights, or are they homes of wights- streams, rivers, trees, hills, mountains, and the like. To take trees from a forest to build your home in ancient times was a matter of propitiating the Wights of those trees, and only taking prudently, only what you needed. Some trees were seen as sacred to such powerful wights, that they simply weren't touched. The Elder tree is a good example of this; as late as the 19th century, rural English folk wouldn't touch a living Elder, and only take her wood that had fallen. In times when the Elder had to be cut, a folk-charm was said to it, a charm that is worth repeating because of its implications:

"Old Gal, Give me of thy wood,
And I shall give you of mine,
When I grow into a tree."


The Goddess or female wight of the Elder was told, in no uncertain terms, that if it gave its wood, the cutter would actually return the favor in the future, when he or she died, was buried, and then "grew into a tree". You can take this two ways- when we die, our life-force leaves us and re-enters into the body of nature. We do increase the growth of things with our spent and donated life-force, which goes back into the land and sky and air and waters. But there's another way of taking this, a deeper and more serious one. This is a contract, a binding contract, in which the cutter probably originally expected to take from the Elder, but to be reborn as a tree-wight himself- and then to give his own tree over, to repay the skuld or the life-debt.

Though it is a little-known secret, there is a way to fulfill this contract without having to become reborn into the forest as a Tree-Wight, a technique that exempts a person without breaking the oath. To take acorns or tree-seeds and bathe them in your own blood, and then breathe into them to fill them with your life force and finally to "name" them after yourself, and plant them in the forest, allows "you" to grow into a tree, thus fulfilling the deal. After this, you may not be Wyrded to have to be bound to the forest, post-mortem.

The reason why I brought this "Elder charm" up is because it demonstrates, from deep within the folk-tradition, the undefeatable and primal idea of "reciprocal exchange". Even the peasants of England in the late centuries understood that they were in a two-way relationship with the wights of the trees. What the wights did for them, they would do back. These people were not blind to their sacred duties to the world around them. Incidentally, by planting new trees in repayment, a person would be balancing the debt or skuld of taking. Either way, these people were not willing to take more than they were prepared to give back.

When a home is raised in a place, humans have to befriend the wights or spirits of that place, or they cannot live there with luck and certainty. Wights are capable of causing accidents, nightmares, bad luck, disease, and other mayhems against beings that they don't want near them. When a house is built and inhabited, the nearest wights of that place, assuming that they accept the new human inhabitants, have little choice but to see and explore the house that was built. They peer into the realities of human life, and watch. They feel the effects of the human settlement on themselves and on their existence.

One shouldn't assume that spirits or wights "see" us just like we see each other and our surroundings- they do dwell in another "way", but it's clear that what we do, think, and say affects them on some level, and that they perceive it in their own manner. I believe that basic, powerful forces like fire "appear" to wights similar to how it appears to us; perhaps they perceive it as a bright power of some kind, but I know they "see" it, because nearly all ancient rituals of Indo-European source require sacred fires of some kind. There is a notion that fires act as "beacons" for spiritual powers.

I think that human emotions must "appear" to wights in ways, and affect their own emotional states, in much the same way the emotional states of other humans affect ours. When we damage the environment in which wights dwell, folklore clearly states that they perceive the damage, and react badly. In the Ballad of Tam Lin, Janet is able to summon Tam Lin by destroying plant life in the area he haunts- Tam Lin was forced to come to the site of the violation and appear.

At any rate, in most cases, over time, the wights "bond" with the house and the people who live there, becoming house wights. In Germanic countries, they were called Husinga or (individually) a Husing, a tomt, tompt, or tomtekarl. Some say that the spirits that live in the lands around the house were called tatermen, and were symbolized by little straw dolls or poppets made to be their magical images. The "scarecrow" idea is linked to this by some.

When people come to a place, so do their ancestral wights and powers, who also affect the native wights. If the wights have accepted this arrangement, they begin to work actively in the lives of the people who belong to that settlement or home. If the wights do not accept it, troubles begin.

Before I move into discussing the realities of domestic cults to wights, I should say a few words about human relationships to Land Wights and other spirits. In the grand scheme of things, we can easily see how the Gods themselves are on the "top" of the Tree of reality- the mightiest wights themselves dwell in their own worlds, and travel through this one often. In the web of Wyrd, the Gods are also affected by humans, and they affect us. We are all of us- Godly wight, land wight, or human- in the same great web of interactive reality.

All of the Nine Worlds have wights that inhabit them- numberless wights and intelligences and sentient beings. That means that this world, and this Land upon which we live, also has wights, as I have said. As a side-note, human beings are also considered "wights", but for the purposes of this conversation I am using the term "wight" to refer to beings unseen.

Wights may have powers or abilities that humans lack, and some ancient land wights can be very powerful or wise. But overall, land wights occupy a similar "place" in the grand scheme of things to human beings. They are not as powerful as Gods, and though they may live a long time, I do not think that they remain around forever. I know that the wight of an ancient tree will have been there as long as the tree lives, but after the death of its home, the wight moves on to a new kind of existence, perhaps attaching itself to a newly growing tree. The point is that wights have their own "cycles of life" similar to humans, though some seem to be very ancient.

Land wights and house wights are kin to humans, in many ways. They are another population of sentient beings that share our world, and we spring from the same source, the same web of life. The same Gods that preside over the human world also act as "chief powers" over the wights of any world. The Allfather who bestowed spirit and shape on the first humans also shaped the existence of land wights.

There is more than one reason why we should seek positive relationships with wights. Sure, they can make our lives miserable, and harm us if we anger them or refuse to acknowledge them, but fear is not the true basis of our relationship. When two beings of any kind interact, they affect one another. When humans drink in sacrifices with the Gods, for instance, we take something of their Godly essence into ourselves, thus increasing our spiritual power, and the Gods merge with us in a mysterious manner, and are likewise affected by us. The benefit to humans is immense- we are increased because the spiritual force of the Gods is so much greater than ours, and the Gods gain an experience of us that communicates something to them.

When a land wight or a house wight "communes" with humans in such a way, it too, is seemingly increased or benefited. It gains some insight or some gift from the communion. Whatever it is that Land Wights "receive" from interacting with humans, I know that they seek it out, come to appreciate it, and to desire it. Humans who commune with them literally allow them to experience the world in the way humans experience it, and so I suppose the wights gain new perspectives that allow them to grow in their own mysterious ways. I know that humans benefit as well, from friendship with the wights.

At heart, the entire point of communion with wights is recognition. We have a duty to recognize these beings, to affirm their existence, and tell them that we know them and accept them. We have a duty to ask them to accept us- this is a sacred reciprocal exchange between the world that is seen and the unseen world. It is a noble form of respect on the parts of humans for their unseen fellows. It is a demonstration, on the parts of humans, that they recognize that they are not alone in this world, and that this world does not belong only to them. It is the heart and soul of sacred ecology.

Earlier, I talked about how the Old Religions could not be separated from group observance, and how they lived as an inseparable part of family and clan or tribal life. It is true that Asatru or Heathenry really becomes a powerful reality in your life when you stand with others and worship. Even if it was powerful before, when you worshipped alone, it becomes a hundred times that with others. This is because human life and human spirituality is always a matter of relationship between humans, and between humans and non-humans, including spirits and Gods. This relationship is the very core of the Old Faiths.

To this I must now add that there is another "level" of experience, and that is the level of the Domestic Cult. A tribe may live in a land, and their worship brings together all the people and re-affirms their bond with the powers of that land and with each other. In just this manner, a family is like a tribe, and the family's home is like their land. The home is the sacred stead of the family, its "Odal Enclosure", the sacred, enclosed space in which the ancestral powers of the family are allowed to dwell and make new life, and experience frith or harmonious belonging. The family is a small reflection of the greater group of mankind, and the home is a reflection of the homeland.

Thus, all homes are sacred. They are sacred enclosures, just like a Hof or a Sacrifice-Stead in which worship takes place is sacred. And like the world "outside" the home has its own powers, the home's inner world has powers, powers that the dwellers in the home must befriend, recognize, and worship.

In ancient times, the sacredness of a family's living space was a universally held concept. All Indo-European societies took this very seriously, from Celtia and Germania down to Greece and Rome. The religious observances that took place daily in the home were led mostly by the male head of the family in Rome, who was called Paterfamilias and who was essentially the "Pontifex Maximus" or the High Priest of his family's religious life. Outside of the home, in the City of Rome itself, there was a Pontifex Maximus who presided over the cult-rites that were done on behalf of all the people of the city, but in the home, in that microcosm, the father of the family was priest.

This same pattern seems to have been found in all Indo European societies. In Germanic society, a chieftain or local elder was the leader of community rites, but in the home, a member of the family led everyone in religious rites. It's just as likely that women headed these rites in the home as men, considering the immense power that the Huswyf, the Husfrowe or the Housewife had over the house in Germanic society. She did, after all, hold the keys to the house, and could decide who was welcome there and who wasn't.

The Domestic Cult- the sacred rites done for the wights who dwell in each home or living space, is a necessary thing to establish if you are a Heathen and you have your own home. Like communal religion, worship and respect for the house-spirit is a basic tenet of ancient and modern Heathenry. The worship given to Land Wights and House Wights is partly the same, yet partly different from the worship given to the Gods. Bear in mind that "worship" really means "to give worth to"- you can communicate to any wight how worthy you believe it to be, and that counts as "worship". When you have a strong and steady relationship with your house spirit, you can trust that your house will be safer and more harmonious than it was before, and it will receive many blessings.

House wights, since time immemorial, have been worshipped with offerings of food and drink. They have also been worshipped around a central place in the home, usually the hearth. Whatever space or room is your "main" room, the place where you spend most of your time, or the "center" of your house, is the proper place for honoring house wights. There's no reason to wonder whether or not your house "has" a house wight- if your house was built long before you got there, it has one or more. They dwelled in the land on or near the building site, and after a point, were attracted there and set up their own homes, co-existing with the space occupied by the house.

* * *

When we look to folklore for guidance, we see many vibrant images and powerful stories of the human relationship with the spirits of their homes. The stories of the spirits called "brownies" from England, Scotland, and Northwestern Europe are clear manifestations in lore of wights that entered into relationships with humans, and worked for them in their homes and on their farms, in exchange for gifts of food and recognition. As a bit of trivia, the fact that the little brown cakes that we call "brownies" are called "brownies" in the first place is because of these spirits- the little cakes and bowls of milk left out at night to feed the house-spirit actually took on the name of the spirit- a brownie.

With linguistic variation, "brownie" becomes "bodach" in the Scottish Highlands, and "fenodoree" on the Isle of Man, and all refer to house guardian spirits. Fairy-type folklore can teach us something important about the human relationship to these beings. If offended, these beings became "boggarts", and became harmful to the human inhabitants of their places of dwelling. This is likely a reflection of the idea that wights can be harmful if offended or not appeased. Brownies specialized in doing house-work and protecting the home, and milk was typically left out for them, as well as bread or cakes- but there was an almost universal warning included. Brownies could never be offered a reward for its services or its labors on behalf of the home.

If they were offered a reward, they would usually flee or become harmful. This taboo seems odd, but the old folklore says that these beings were too free-spirited to be "bound" to humans through the acceptance of payment. It seems that they would accept praise and they would take the offerings left out, but if the humans said "Take this in exchange for what you have done for us", the spirit balked at the bond that accepting such a gift would entail.

Our own lore says it clearly: "A gift demands a gift". There is a bond created between two people who give gifts to each other. There is an expectation that follows this sacred act. The house-spirit desires communion, recognition and participation with human beings, but it doesn't desire to be bound as a servant. It is enough to leave gifts for the wight or spirit, which it will accept, and to thank the spirit through recognizing its presence and praising its good deeds for the home, but to offer it a reward for this is something that the wise should not do. The offerings of food and milk given to the house-wight are not a "reward" any more than a blot or sacrifice to the Gods or Ancestors is a reward to them for being Gods or Ancestors. It is an expression of connection with them, a ritual of recognition and communion.

As an aside, the one offered reward that drove house-spirits away more than any other was clothing. To offer a brownie or house-spirit clothing as a reward would drive it way, infallibly. It is also worth noting that brownies and other types of house-guardians and spirits hate Christian religious symbols. I don't expect my fellow Heathens to have such things in their houses, but those who do can be certain that the house-wights have long since departed.


I will close this letter with an account of my personal experiences with house-wights. My family recently moved into an extraordinary new place, and while conversing with my Fylgja the other day, she informed me that we had not fulfilled our duties to the house-wight fast enough. She affirmed that we indeed had a spirit in our house, and that my wife and child were in danger from it, because it was not yet honored by us. Accidents had happened, before, minor things, but accidents nonetheless. That very day, another accident occured, and I realized that I had to move a bit faster than I was planning.

Before my hearth, I put out one of the small cakes that my wife had baked a few days before, and a bowl of milk, and using the Algiz-galdor, I induced a condition by which I could communicate with wights. I walked around the house, calling to the house-wight, and asked it to come to the hearth so that I could honor it. I didn't have to wait long; its tangible otherworldly presence was hanging over my mantle and fireplace very quickly. I gave it the offerings, and told it who we were, my family and I, and I recognized it as existing as the first inhabitant of this place, this home that means so much to us.

I told it that we would always dedicate any occassion of house-cleaning to it; this is very important, because house-wights folklorically seem to really love it when mortals keep neat houses, and clean house. This goes back to the idea of the "Ryta" or the "Right Order" of the cosmos being reflected even in our living places. I told it that we would leave out these offerings pretty regularly, and asked that it protect us and our home. I concluded by invoking the Gods, and, through my own mind and body, mediating the blessings of the High Thunderer and the All-Father onto the spirit of the house. They too, can receive blessings.

The simple act of meaningfully placing out offerings of milk and cakes is by itself a powerful act, and enough to please wights. My wife, later that day, placed out some cookies for it. Later, those offerings were gathered and carried to the tree behind our house, where we lay out all offerings to return into the ground. This formal act of "establishment" was successful- I could tell that the house-wight was pleased, and the atmosphere of the house has been quite lighter and more pleased ever since.

The Death of Innocents: Heathen Consolation in the Face of Tragedy

I've had quite a heavy heart ever since I heard of the killings on the campus of Virginia Tech. Such a tragedy forces everyone to reconsider everything they think about the world and this life. As a father who loves his own child more than anything in the world, I see the faces of my own daughter in the faces of those slain in this senseless massacre.

I'm a man of faith, and a Godi to my own family and religious community. I'm a Seid-worker who searches the depths of his soul and the horizons of this world for meaning. Despite what anyone says, faith is never an easy road to walk through life. You may be very comfortable with what you believe; you may spend a lot of money or time on it; you may show your devotion in a dozen ways, but faith- real faith- is not easy.

I believe, like my ancestors before me, that we are all descendants of the Allfather, and his family of Gods. I believe that we are also sprung from great natural powers, like the great Earth below us. I believe that the bonds of family, kin, and community should be foremost in our lives, because I don't think that human spirituality, morality, or ethics actually become real things until we fulfill them on behalf of those we love. Heathenry becomes a deep part of us when we look into the eyes of the people that we are experiencing it with, and living it with.

Still, at the end of the day, our modern world presents us with many distractions and reasons to doubt our own minds. Are we living well? Are we worthy of this life? Are we fulfilling our potentials? I have faith that a person lives well who lives honestly and who lives as much as they can for others. I have faith that we are worthy to be where we are, because Wyrd or Fate spun us onto these paths, for a reason. I have faith that we encounter what we need to encounter to bring our potentials to perfect fruition. Despite the difficulties that people of faith must encounter, I think that these difficulties are challenges that will make us stronger, and eventually whole.

I can't even begin to imagine what it must be like to lose a child in such a cruel way. To think that a hallowed place of learning could be violated with innocent blood; to think that people- the sons and daughters of parents just like me- could want to better themselves through education, and be sitting in a classroom, only to meet their deaths.

There's no words that can block the rushing river of grief that now wends its way through the lives of countless people, and no words that can make the rest of us feel safe with regard to our own children and our own family members. More than that, no religious belief will make us feel 100% about these events.

I can tell you what I believe, but it won't matter; they are just words. I could say that the man who did this was consumed by the natural and dangerous forces lurking in all of us; I can say that his feeling of alienation and his mental illnesses combined to break him free of the bonds of decency, affection, sanity, and love, and sent him rushing out to collide with the holy life-houses of other people, destroying them as he went. Like the giants who will one day destroy the world, giantish powers in this wretched man destroyed 32 worlds- 32 people- and finally himself.

What comfort does the Heathen faith offer us? What reason does it give for things like this happening? There are many reasons, but even the best-explained reason won't stop the grief. Still I am compelled to state what I must say: when we lose connection with one another, when we lose Frith, when people have a hard time finding the "place where they belong", these sorts of atrocities can happen.

In Frith, in good, rightful union with your family, friends, the Gods, and the land beneath you, you are safe. You have immense power for living, and a neverending source of sanity. I have a family that I love and who love me back. I have friends and a religious community that extend the same affection. Daily I have love, acceptance, and a sense of "being in place" re-affirmed, in many ways. In this great peace, I can easily grasp the value of human life, the value of friendship, and the value of religion.

The dangerous forces that live in me cannot overwhelm the Godly walls built in me, and maintained through this peace. The Gods are daily invited into my life to keep this peace holy and strong; the walls in me that protect my own mind and life are made red and fresh with the pourings from sacrifices, and the Gods live here. If you belong to a Kindred, or if you have a powerful relationship with the Gods, you have the same sort of protection, the same sort of stability. What's important to keep in mind is that anyone can have these things- Frith is possible for any person who can open themselves up to others and be unafraid to love and be loyal.

What did the murderer of these innocents have? It's clear from what has been announced that he was practically friendless, isolated, and troubled. I already know that he was not Asatru, not true to the Gods, nor consciously in their fellowship. He was an open, unprotected field, an unwarded home, an unguarded keep. Terrible powers were allowed to multiply and place their own cruel, oafish thrones and tables up in the hall of his inner self. With no support from friends or from spiritual powers, he had no place to go, no help to fall back onto, when the pains and defeats of life pressed down on him.

Many people in his situation would just take their own lives. But deep in us lurk forces that are infintely more savage than that. Fiery things of rage made plunder of his sanity and sent him to destruction, dragging down innocents with him. He couldn't see other lives as valuable; he was no father, so he could never have seen what I have seen- the vision of love in the face of a child, and the realization that this same love has been seen in the face of every child by other parents.

So the tragedy was woven, and it came to pass. This is the Wolf-Age, the last age of the world. Such sad things are to be expected, and doubly so in a world that has forsaken bonds of kindred and community, in exchange for the selfish life of the "new individual", who lives for nothing but himself and his own gain.

What comfort can my own faith offer me and to all people (for indeed, all are affected by this tragedy)? The comfort of knowing that what is good, noble, and dear will never be lost forever. 32 innocent souls are now walking the ghost-roads, the hel-way into the deep, restful realm below. Across the dividing line between life and death, I think they will rejoin with those who have gone before. I think that when this age is over, and a new age begins, they will live again. The Underworld of the dead may be a fearful subject to many, but in reality, it is the repository of all our hopes. There, safe in that deep place, rest the seeds of nobility, valor, and hope for a new world. In the web of Wyrd, nothing is ever lost.

We must not allow the news of this horror to go unheeded- we have to let it remind us to guard against our own corruption. We have to let it remind us to cherish our days and nights with our families and loved ones, because they can be slain at any time. Only our bonds of honor, trust, and love can build a bridge over death, and help us to never lose them. But that's also a matter of faith- and faith is a test in and of itself.

Can you trust the ancients? Do you trust that they knew what they were talking about? Balder the Beautiful was sent cruelly to the Underworld, in the prime of his long life, young and cherished. I've seen 32 Balders fall and go below, and I've seen many families, many parents, weeping and raging like Odin and Frigg wept and raged for their son. I've also heard the Seeress tell of a new world that will come when this one passes away, in which Balder rises again, returns from the deeps of the Underworld, to be in the daylight of the world again, and to be among his kin. I think the ancients were onto something with this; I don't think they made it up out of idleness, nor because they were just trying to comfort themselves.

Go watch the world die in winter, and then see the same myth take place when the green returns. It's okay to weep; the Gods themselves wept, bitterly. That's another necessary part of our lives and our Fate. Our ancestors had no problem telling stories of wights as Mighty as the Allfather and his Wife going through the pain of loss- emotion is not merely a human attribute. All beings in the nine worlds must feel pain and joy. What makes the Gods divine is their great wisdom in the face of pain and joy. We can have some of that wisdom, if we have faith that the story of our lives extends beyond the boundaries of life and death as we see them.

It's not hard to have Faith in the existence of the Gods themselves, or even spirits, when you experience them daily; but its harder to have faith, sometimes, with the idea that life is, ultimately, on the side of life. But that's just the faith I have. If I'm wrong, then I won't be around to regret it after I meet my own death, and I'll live a life of joy in the meantime. I invite everyone to do the same.

May the Allfather bless the slain and appear to them now in whatever form they need to see, to guide them to a restful place across the dividing line between this world and the other worlds. May they have peace, and new life one day.

Fate

Would you live backwards in time? That's not possible. How many events and layers of action have come before you, resulting in all that you see and think and feel? You don't ever lift your hand or speak a word without those previous things influencing you. You have to go forward, and you are forever a product of the ancient, immense, and awesome matrix that the ancients called the "fateful layers" of motion and action that pre-exist you.

Nothing that you feel that you "create" or "decide" on this day is unique to this day; its true beginning was ages ago; you acted as a final piece of the chain of causation that allowed it to come to be. And this process isn't merely linear; countless other forces, all existing at the same time as any "chain of causality" that you may identify, also exert their influence. You may want to consider these creations and decisions that you experience to be "yours", but in reality, they belong to the whole world, and to Fate.

A woman picked up a full spindle, and holding on to the end of the thread, she let it fall. It fell and spun quickly as it unravelled.

Her decision to pick it up and drop it, that is like the great layers of Fate that have come before all actions. The whirring of that spindle, and the unwinding thread, that is the motion of the seasons and all of the mighty activities of nature. Without She who held the spindle originally, the spindle and thread would not be spinning. Nothing is apart from the great motion of all reality, and the hand of the weaver, and her mysterious intentions, stands behind it all.

What happens eventually? The spindle is freed, and comes to rest. The thread is all released, and the spindle is pristine and bare. Should the owner of the spindle choose, she could pick it all up, re-wind the thread around the spindle, and let it fall again. Or if she likes, she could leave it as it lies. The point is freedom- her strange intentions were followed by necessary motions, the desperate spinning led gradually to freedom.

Perhaps a tiny spider on the spindle felt the motion and came to wonder at its situation- perhaps it came to identify itself in terms of spinning, of changing, of rushing motion, all from the spindle and thread unwinding.

The spider couldn't stop the spinning; it may have felt helpless. It couldn't understand what had caused the spinning in the first place, and it may have felt wonder and fear. However, no matter what it felt, freedom was inevitable.

Unable to explain or control its situation, yet doomed to the culmination of freedom- we could learn a lot from that spider on the spindle.

So don't live backwards in time. The Ancient Layers of Fate have long ago put themselves in place- She put them in place, She wove them there. From them, all things have arisen. Things arising and falling away, it's just the spin of necessity. You aren't really separate from that spin- accept this, and you accept your place in the great weave of things. Do not seek for false freedom in things born of the spin; your thoughts and feelings and actions are parts of a greater whole, and while they inevitably move towards the consummation of the weave of Fate, they are not in and of themselves free to ignore the spin nor act against it.

The freedom you want is not some freedom of choice or motion, but a realization of what is real in you, and an understanding of the meaning of all these things you experience. Everyone eventually gets around to asking the deepest of questions- what is my life? What is Fate? Do I choose things or do choices simply happen through me?

Why do you think this is? Because the system of Fate is unravelling, and at one point, the parts of it which think and which are aware- such as human beings- all must ask those things. The growth of awareness, of curiosity, of introspection and "looking within", is a sign of the approach of freedom, of the approaching end of this cycle of spinning. When awareness grows more pure and learns to look within itself, the weave is getting threadbare.

At this point, do not think that you can fail- you need no "freedom of choice" to reach the final and true freedom. If you seek to do what you cannot do, that is, to exempt yourself from the great weaving that is the ground of your being, and award yourself with powers of "free and independant choice" that you do not and cannot have, you will blind yourself to what is real.

You will trade in the mountain of fullness and wisdom for a tiny stone, and you will worship the stone and all the grandiose powers you attribute to it, instead of joining consciously with the cool, dark eternity of the mountain. Join with the mountain, and you will discover that "things are not happening to you" or even "around you"- you will find that things are you happening.

"Things", such as events, decisions, choices, storms, accidents, inventions, wonders, dreams- all are reality itself happening; they are Fate occuring, and you are not at all separate from that great and holy occurence. How could you be? Your true "self", your true "body", they are larger and more involved with what you have called "the world" than you could ever imagine. Give yourself to your Self, and see.

But perhaps that's still not enough for you. You don't want that; you want to be in charge of your own little part of reality, all outside of Fate's grasp. You and the little stone you love so much can take on the whole world, or ignore it if you want, and you don't need or want some big force influencing you!

When you look again, later, you will see that the stone has turned to sand, or a drop of water, and vanished. The mountain, however, will always be there, and was even below your feet while you held your stone. The freedom you want is only found in understanding this.

One day, in the darkness and light of the great culmination of the world, you will understand it; you will be it. but you needn't wait till the culmination to understand or to merge with the great mystery of Fate's spinning- you can understand and join it here and now. Why should you? Because peace follows this understanding and this wise union.

One day, this world will be unwoven, this world and every other. What will happen then? I will tell you: She will pick up the thread and spindle, and set it spinning again. If you waited too long and let the truth finally find you at the end of all things, She'll send you spinning again. If you were wise to her mysteries before the spinning was up, then no spinning can ever daze you again.

The Creation Vision of the Heathens

Our ancestors saw a vision of the arising of the creator from the darkest of beginnings.

In the massive and infinite void of Ginnungagap, that sublime and ancient mystery that was the open space of all potential, timelessly charged with the root-powers of Wyrd, consciousness and form, there arose the first giant life-powers, and the shape of the cow Audhumla. From Audhumla's udders flowed the hot streams of life-sustaining milk that nourished the primal life-forms, and from her ceaselessly activity of exploration and motion arose the bright face of the first God.

Light filled the darkness of the beginning from his face and body, and his marriage to maidens who arose from the first living beings brought forth his grandsons: Odin, Vili, and Ve. In that primordial trinity, we see the six eyes and six hands of the creator-spirit, the Allfather; we see the shape of He who was the penultimate embodiment of the creative power of Wyrd.

At the hands of the Allfather and his brothers was the primal mass of living matter divided and arranged into the many worlds; at their will the plants grew, waters flowed, mountains were raised, clouds went to fill the airs, and many wights knew their birth. Their greatest act of creation was in their shaping of mankind: as Wyrd moved them, they bestowed their beauty, hue, vitality, and spirit onto the first men and women, who were given form from the primal forms of two trees which were growing in the first world. From the earth, the primal, giant goddess earth below, did they grow. Into the creative hands of the Allfather and his brothers did they pass, to arise as mankind. From two divine sources do all human beings descend, and this true heritage is central to understanding the dignity of the human being.

This creation, this world, and all others, are acts of majesty, acts of creativity, rooted in the provedential unfolding of Wyrd, established in the Ur-Law, the primordial layers of reality, and executed in manifestation by the six hands of the bright trinity of the Gods.

In this final age of the world, the beauty of the creation, the profound arising of eternal Wyrd, is not dimmed. It is still there for those who understand the sacred dimension of nature and reality. In this age of spiritual dullness, humans witlessly fall into patterns of belief that cause a certain blindness to the sacred. Many have come to accept lesser myths that have long ago lost their power to awaken the human mind to the sacredness of life; others have accepted the mechanical, cold and empirical explanations of scientists who are themselves blind to the sacred. If this final age can be said to be in a state of degeneration, it is only in the minds of humans that this degeneracy is found, in the forgetful and dull condition of mind that reveals the faded vision that people miscall their lives.

For so long we have wandered amid trees and grasses, winds and rains, all without feeling and perceiving the sacredness of those events. For too long we have been taught to look upon the forces of nature as "mundane", "things of the world", and lacking in sacred dimension, when the truth is this: these things manifest the sacred in the most tangible way.

The eyes of human beings have searched the distant heavens seeking a hint of a faraway paradise, without seeing the sacredness spread out before them, and the divine spirit living inside them.

Can we re-awaken this awareness of the sacred? If one person can, surely everyone can- but will they? Has Wyrd the mighty, the weaving of Fate, ordained that we should? While I cannot say for certain, I feel that perhaps the answer is no. In the last age of the world, the vision of sacredness may be only for a few. But I do know what all can do- all can realize that life must be sacred, by reason of their ability to know the value they place on their own lives and the lives of their loved ones. We can still appreciate the regenerative power of nature that we all feel, when we go for long walks amid forests or streams, or when we see a scene that evokes a reaction of awe from deep within, like a burning sunset or a gem-like moon in the night.

What humans need more than anything is a sense of companionship and relationship with one another, and with the natural world, such that they comprehend their duties to their fellow man and the common bulk of life, alongside which they forever walk. That sense of relationship can and should extend beyond what can easily be seen, and into the reaches of the other worlds, where our first and greatest ancestors dwell and watch over us- Odin and his brothers, and all the sacred kindreds, are still alive and well, carrying out the timeless work that Wyrd has ordained for them. They still feel care and love for the descendants of the first humans that they bestowed their holy gifts upon, for those gifts have been passed down to each of us.

We must learn to recognize their godly work in Nature, and understand that they are preparing for the consummation of the age. All that they do, all their preparations involve us and all that live. We are partners in this work, whether we intend to be or not. The Gods do care for mankind; they care for all life, for they are not independant of life- their Fate is tied to ours, as ours is tied to theirs. This is the teaching of sacred ecology, and the vision of the Heathens.

The message is a simple one: Do not fear. You have a task, a sacred purpose, and you are not walking alone in the web of Wyrd. You are of Godly ancestry, and you will take your place in this world, and the world that is to come, for Wyrd holds all fast to a purpose. In the interim, before Fate is revealed fully, you are experiencing the numinous life that was passed down to you from the Gods through your ancestors. Enjoy it; recognize it; celebrate it; protect it, and protect others. This is the universal call to sacred participation in Wyrd that is the birthright of each human being.