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 RitualsSepharial - Astrology And Marriage
Reeves Hall - Asatru In Brief
Anonymous - Asatru And The Paranormal
Miac - Asatru And Odinism
