Sunday, August 27, 2006

Icelandic Poetry Or The Edda Of Saemund

Icelandic Poetry Or The Edda Of Saemund Cover

Book: Icelandic Poetry Or The Edda Of Saemund by Loptsson

The Poetic Edda is a collection of Old Norse poems primarily preserved in the Icelandic mediaeval manuscript Codex Regius. Along with Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, the Poetic Edda is the most important extant source on Norse Mythology and Germanic heroic legends.

Codex Regius was written in the 13th century but nothing is known of its whereabouts until 1643 when it came into the possession of Brynjolfur Sveinsson, then Bishop of Skalholt. At that time versions of the Prose Edda were well known in Iceland but scholars speculated that there once was another Edda—an Elder Edda—which contained the pagan poems which Snorri quotes in his Prose Edda. When Codex Regius was discovered, it seemed that this speculation had proven correct. Brynjolfur attributed the manuscript to Semundr the Learned, a larger-than-life 12th century Icelandic priest. While this attribution is rejected by modern scholars, the name Semundar Edda is still sometimes encountered.

Bishop Brynjolfur sent Codex Regius as a present to the Danish king, hence the name. For centuries it was stored in the Royal Library in Copenhagen but in 1971 it was returned to Iceland.

Download Loptsson's eBook: Icelandic Poetry Or The Edda Of Saemund

Books in PDF format to read:

Saint Synaptics - Metaclysmia Discordia Or The Chaonomicon
Wim Van Den Dungen - Enoch And The Day Of The End
Stephen Flowers - Fire And Ice Magical Order The Brotherhood Of Saturn
Loptsson - Icelandic Poetry Or The Edda Of Saemund

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Asatru And Racialism

Asatru And Racialism Cover Kaplan (1996) documents the growth of Odinism in the United States and its link with the American Neo-Nazi scene. He notes that there is a division between Odinists embracing Nazi ideology and others without racist motivations responding to "childhood memories". The tensions between racist and non-racist Odinists are cast into the "folkish" ("traditional Asatru") vs. "universalist" ("New Age Asatru") debate. It was these tensions that led to the demise of the Asatru Free Assembly in 1986 and the emergence of two separate movements, the Asatru Alliance and The Troth in the following year.

Odalism (a philosophy of Social Darwinism) and Wotanism (a racialist / neo-Nazi position held by e.g. David Lane) are two terms primarily focused on politics rather than religion. On his homepage, Varg Vikernes, one proponent of Odalism, explains his Understanding of 'Paganism' with explicit racist referencing.

When the FBI identified threats towards the domestic security of the USA related to the turn of the Millennium in 2000 in the Project Megiddo report, it stated that: "Without question, this initiative has revealed indicators of potential violent activity on the part of extremists in this country. Militias, adherents of racist belief systems such as Christian Identity and Odinism, and other radical domestic extremists are clearly focusing on the millennium as a time of action." Among other, the FBI lists Robert Jay Mathews as an Odinist in this report.

In the 2002 white supremacist terror plot Leo V. Felton and Erica Chase, a couple who claimed to belong to the Odinist White Order of Thule, were convicted of plotting to blow up landmarks associated with Jews and African-Americans.

Books in PDF format to read:

Anton Szandor Lavey - The Satanic Rituals
Sepharial - Astrology And Marriage
Reeves Hall - Asatru In Brief
Anonymous - Asatru And The Paranormal
Miac - Asatru And Odinism

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Goddess Hel

Goddess Hel Cover Hel is the Goddess of the underworld and death. She rules over the place of shadows, also called Hel, where the souls of common folk go upon death. Hel is daughter of Loki, queen of one of the realms of the dead, also called Hel. Hel (the goddess) is half livng flesh, fair to behold, and half decaying corpse. This is because she wears the two faces death has for humans, the fair and the terrifying. Hel (the realm) is the polar opposite of Valhalla in many ways. As Valhalla is the height of activity, Hel is the height of inertia, a dark, still, resting.

Free eBooks (Can Be Downloaded):

Aleister Crowley - Rosa Coeli
Franceska De Grandis - Goddess Initiation
Franceska De Grandis - Be A Goddess

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Magical And Psychological Considerations Of The Oath

Magical And Psychological Considerations Of The Oath Cover When we are professed in the Odinic Rite we take an oath. Let us just reflect for a minute or two on the inner implications of this.

As we all know, we can come a cross the kind of situation when we might make a promise that we cannot keep. This is part of the human condition. But an oath such as we take in the OR as a professed member is quite a different matter.

Although the OR as such is not a 'magical' organisation in the same sense as a coven or lodge it nevertheless does use a magical principle in oath taking. When, as sometimes happens, we don't get on with the people in the community we have joined and taken an oath with we are always at perfect liberty to leave. I have myself changed my religious affiliations mere than once.

What one just does not do after leaving is to stab former comrades in the back and seek to bring the community of which one was a member into disrepute by making accusations in the hope of gaining favour With Other people who hold different views or with the intent to gain financially. It seems obvious to me that if a person leaves a group and breaks an oath given then the next group which will have the privilege of admitting him to fellowship would be well advised to consider the likelihood that any oaths taken there will also be broken. Unless one 'takes a measure'

Even if the person to whom the oath was given has no malicious intent the mere fact that the oath has been taken on a magical level, and at that moment being meant sincerely (even supposing one has been drunk the first time round and the oath was therefore retaken), the breaking of the oath will automatically initiate an equal and opposite reaction that will result in the penalties which were invoked when the oath was taken. On a common psychological level the disastrous effect is that an oathbreaker will never be able to trust himself again.

Individuals should consider very carefully whether they really wish to be oath-bound. And perhaps a community such as the Odinic Rite should examine people more carefully before considering them for Profession.

Free eBooks (Can Be Downloaded):

Amber Lynne Ault - Witches Wicca And Revitalization Reconsiderations
John David Chambers - The Theological And Philosophical Works Of Hermes Trismegistus
Richard Alan Miller - The Magical And Ritual Use Of Herbs