Runes

What are Runes? Our myths tell us Odin got them while hanging on a branch of Yggdrasil for nine days. They are the root to many of our modern day alphabet(The term AlphaBet actually being of Latin origin, A, B, etc..) Nobody is really sure of when they first came into use, a long time ago is a good guess. Understanding the runes was a sign of great knowledge, it brings us closer to Odin. Odin of course was always on a quest for knowledge. I would like to think he was proud that his children learned to use them and know them as he did.

We feel the runes still hold a certain spiritualness about them. Some Odinist even think that the runes hold magical properties. They use them to construct spells, bless objects, etc.. I however just feel they represent a devotional object, much like the Christians use the crucifix. As other religions have things that are symbolic in their rituals, so do we. The runes I feel are just one of those things for us.

I’ll give you an example. On my fork I use in competition I have the rune “Tiwas” burned into the handle. Tiwas represents the god Tyr. Tyr was once the ruler of the gods but stepped aside when Odin came. Odin was thought to be the wiser ruler I guess. Tyr is known for his sense of justice. He was once the also god of war. He favors warriors who show honor in battle and who fight justly. Warriors would often carve the Tiwas on their swords to honor Tyr and hopefully gain his favor in battle. Tyr loves competition as well. I honor him by burning the Tiwas on my fork, the only implement we really use when we compete. It reminds me to compete justly and treat my competitors with honor. In the past I was afraid to put it on my fork. You are asking Tyr to watch you while you compete and to make sure justice is done. If I was to think ill of my fellow competitors, or to think of them dishonorably because they were doing better than I was, Tyr would find that cowardly and may bring his vengeance against me. I do not like losing, and in the past I have had trouble keeping honorable thoughts in my head.

This year my path is true and my convictions strong, so I feel I am ready to make Tyr proud. I am no longer afraid.

So that is a short description of one of the runes and why I use it. No magic, just a reminder of faith.

Havamal is here!

Just got my new copy of the Havamal in the mail today. Found it on Abebooks for $1 new! What is the Havamal you ask? Well it's just a collection of old Norse sayings. Just words of wisdom, small quotes. It's a great little collection.

The Eddas

Do we have a bible? Well, not really. Our history was passed down verbally over the years. The stories of our gods were captured in many poems and sagas. The closest thing that would pass for a bible is probably the Eddas. These are a collection of stories that were captured and translated in the 13th century, although the actual tales predate Christian record. There are numerous books out there that offer their interpretations of the Eddas, but if you want to read them for yourself and draw your own interpretations you can obtain a copy of both the Poetic(Elder) Eddas and the Prose(Younger) Eddas from Project Gutenberg free of charge:

The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson; and the Younger Eddas of Snorre Sturleson

If nothing else, they are a fun read from a historical prospective. These however are the tales we pattern our lives after. When you boil it all down, what is the bible anyway? A book of tales containing fantastic unbelievable stories of gods and people. Who is to say what is true? Read the Eddas and look past the stories. In your heart you'll feel the truth. It may be the thing that makes you want to explore our faith a little more in depth. A true Odinist will never ask you to leave a faith you are true to however. We believe the act of believing in something is more important than the actual god(s) you worship. We feel the gods are all the same but appear to different cultures in a way that they best understand. So I can ask you to read the Eddas but I can't force you to believe in them.

This is a choice you must make on your own.

Death of the earth, death of the warrior...

What do I mean by death of the warrior class? Well, I want to step outside of the “survival of the fittest” box in my answer. In the short term one could argue that since we now dominate the planet we obviously must be the fittest. Can we yet control the weather? Can we stop an earthquake, a hurricane, a tornado? How about make the clouds go away so the sun could shine through? Well, I guess we have not dominated everything yet. The type of survival we now enjoy is out of sync with nature. The comforts are mostly artificial, a good flood could take them away in the blink of an eye. If you woke up tomorrow with nothing sitting in the middle of a jungle, would you have what it took to ensure you could mate, continue the family, or even survive for more than a week? Look at the couple who got stranded up in the mountains because they took a wrong turn. The environment they were in would of been nothing special to our ancestors in northern Europe a few thousand years ago. Yet one of them couldn’t make it a week. Mastering the art of driving was a skill that would not be of any use for survival in such an instance. Now say it was a plane on an island with no hope of rescue. The ones who would survive and mate would be the warriors, ones who could face the challenge and live to tell about it.

So what we have now in society is not survival at all. Sure you could say to survive on the streets, or in the board room takes survival skills, but not the kind that would mean anything in a natural setting. Man no longer has the right to challenge a person who they feel is a threat, or who has wronged them in some matter, without getting the courts involved. Some would say this is civilized, but is it really? It counters the laws of nature, perverts it even. In modern society weak traits and genes are allowed to advance through the human race unfettered by natural selection. We are no longer allowed to be warriors, we are no long allowed to coexist with nature which is built on a warrior base. Look at the world around you, are we better off? Maybe for the moment but we are eating up what is left of the earth at an alarming rate. Nobody seems to care. So when the crap hits the fan and our race finds itself stuck back in nature we will be weak, unable to survive. Trust be, it will happen. Nature has a way of righting itself. Would we be in this situation if we had not been corrupted with others values? They called the Vikings barbarians, the American Indians savages, the highlanders an uneducated lawless people. What they were striking out against was a people and a system based on a warrior society which by it’s very nature stayed in tune with the environment. It closely followed the laws of nature, something that has been removed from us in modern society. If everyone lived as these people once did, the population would be in check, the water would be clear, the ice caps would be whole, the sky would be blue, our kids would have a place to live in centuries to come. As it is now, modern civilized man may not have a place to call home in the near future. This will be due to the death of the warrior.

Man will not survive in his current state, he is sliding down hill. If you are a person of faith, I hope you see that this is just one of the benefits of following a teaching that still respects nature and the warrior ways. I fear the damage is done though and when Ragnarök comes, I want to make sure I’m fighting the good fight for a cause I believe in. My faith tells me I will be well prepared for adversity in times yet to come. I feel comfort knowing that I am preparing for life, real life not the kind sold to you on a billboard. Do what you will here on earth, you will be lucky to last 80 years here. Are you willing to sell yourself into a common boring life after death? For what? MTV, a Hummer? Was the death of a planet, your children's future, worth it? When Odin ask why you turned away from the teachings, when he ask why you showed such disrespect for nature, your children, your ancestors. You just go ahead and tell him how nice that Hummer was.