Notes Toward Universal Odinism

Notes on a larger work

For a long time there has been a raging debate over the differences between what has come to be called Folkish Heathenry and Universal or “Inclusive” Heathenry. In a real sense this has always been a false debate driven by the psychological needs and the aggressive political ambitions of the people involved. As people who have been around since the beginning of NGH in the early 1970s can attest this “debate” did not exist then.

     It has been missed by adherents of NGH on all sides that the paradigm of universal religion was laid sometime around the beginning of the Common Era in the form of Runic Odinism. (Just for the sake of ease of writing and reading, I will use the name Odin as a colloquial designation for the Old Man, *Wôðanaz.) This particular work will be divided into two parts. Part I is devoted to the development of Universal Odinism in ancient times (spanning from the inception of the new form of the cult around the beginning of what we have come to call the Common Era, sometime between 200 BCE and 200 CE). Part II concerns itself with the Remanifestation of the Universal Odinic cult at the beginning of our new Millennium. The realization of Universal Odinism puts an end to the urge toward “folkism” and utterly obliterates the anxieties, real or concocted, expressed by those who harp on “inclusive” heathenry or Woke-a-tru. The time has passed for the former and the latter is born of weakness, hatred and willful ignorance.

Phase I: The Growth of the Cult of Odin and the Development of the Runes

The Nature of Religion among Early Germanic Tribes:

     The Germanic peoples historically valued liberty among the various tribes that belong to their folk-group. It is no accident of history that the great nation of Germania existed in fact, the Roman historian Tacitus wrote a book at the end of the firtst century of the Common Era with the title Germania, a fact that should demonstrate the reality of the Germanic nation. However, there has never been a state comprising all of the Germanic folk-groups. Germany itself woiudl not be a unified state until 1871, nearly 2000 years after Tacitus (and others before him) had identified the existence of a Germanic nation, i.e., a vast array of tribes speaking related languages, practicing related customs or laws and worshipping related gods and goddesses.

     In tribal worlds, whether Germanic or otherwise in the world, each tribe has its own particular set of attitudes, beliefs and practices without a dogma or doctrine which holds all of the tribes together in a national unity. This unity comes from a deep, underlying set of values and principles that continue on their own. Each tribe tends to think of itself as the best and greatest and their particular gods and goddesses as the most powerful.

     No “druids” — widespread religious practice

     Among the Germanic tribes the institution of the warrior-bands began to come into increased prominence and power [#time period]. The warrior-band was something that was present in all Indo-European cultures from distant antiquity. It, like so many other latent and active cultural features, could come to prominence with circumstances called for it and it could fall into disuse when unneeded. In general this institution was especially strong among the Celts and Germanic peoples while in the East it was also found among the Indo-Aryans (both in India and in greater Iran).  For our purposes we will only concentrate here on the institution among the Germanic peoples.

     So, it appears that these three socio-cultural institutions and associations were formative from an early time in the cult of Odin:, the poet-mythographers, the warrior-band and the tradesmen who engaged in business transactions with the Romans. Those who have studied the mythology and culture of the early Germanic folk will recognize the familiar three Functions in these institutions.

     The rise of the pan-Germanic dominance of Odin is in many ways tied to the rise of the use of runes. All archaic ethnocentric “religions” are entirely tribal in any conscious way. The continuity of practices and beliefs from one generation to the next within a given tribe is simply a manifestation of the desire of human beings to retain customs and thought patterns inherited from their parents either for their own sake or due to the idea that the past was a good thing and that to continue to enjoy the good life-patterns of the past the people of the present must reenact the patterns they have inherited. This is the true spirit of “conservatism.”

Most modern American “conservatives” are poor examples of the principle from a historical perspective because they most often “cling,” as ‘ole Obama would say, to a religion which fundamentally sought to break the people’s bonds with their natural and inherited past, attempting to substitute a new and exotic ideology governed by a specific new institution, the “church.”

     The overriding fact that there is/was a folkish (i.e., national or linguistic/ethnic) set of practices and beliefs which medieval and modern minds call “religion” is proven by taking a trip to any academic library. There you will find book after book with titles such as “Greek Religion,” “Roman Religion,” “Celtic Religion,” Slavic Religion” and, yes, “Germanic Religion” all in a wide variety of languages and written over two centuries of time. Those people who are attracted to the renewed practice of such religions are simply seeking be inspired by and to reenact, in one way or another. the contents of these scholarly, and sometimes not-so-scholarly, books.

     Odinism is perhaps the only ancient pagan system of religion that can be reenacted in a nearly complete way. The reason for this is that the Odinists of Scandinavia, and Norway and Iceland in particular, were actually aware of the coming loss of their established order and they consciously took steps to ensure the continuation of their symbol-system in a way no other ancient pagan system did. This attempt on their part was spotty at best. The most dramatic success story comes from Iceland and Norway. These steps can be seen in history on the one hand, but they can also be read in the poetic mythology that they left behind for their descendants to be able to read, understand and reawaken. This process is basically outlined in my book on Odin. The procedure in question is not valid for Germanic or Norse religion in general, the only place where it is overtly manifest is in connection with the specifically Odinic system. This is another of the key reasons why the Odinic religion can be reawakened in a way that no other can be, and another reason why it offers the possibility of the manifestation of a universal form of heathenry.

     Have you ever wondered why and how the Odinic form of neo-paganism has become so widespread and “popular” among various peoples, for example in Spain, Italy and even Russia? The answer is two-fold: First it is for the reason just mentioned, i.e. that the right seeds were left behind by the last of the ancient Odians to make the revival possible among any and all who might read and understand the message. Secondly, of course, it may be understood that the ancient Germanic folk left behind their genetic markers across the breadth of the European continent.