Great piece. Have you seen Tree of Woe’s speculations on European pagan monotheism? (His capstone essay on it is here: https://open.substack.com/pub/treeofwoe/p/the-theology-of-the-hypsistarian?.) He makes the case for a non-Abrahamic form of ancient Greek monotheism that believed in a most-high God, but whose theology also allowed for small-g gods.
Such a worldview would allow for Wotan, either as a god or as God in another guise. Regardless, the monotheist component might make an easier off-ramp from Christianity.
I don’t want to agree with you however I think that Christianity has lost all its innovation and vigor, I’m not even Christian I just aspire to be because it’s morals result in a kinder world but the truth is when Christianity first spread it was via marketing to women that’s why it’s kind and egalitarian, given the current situation though the next religion of the west will spread via marketing to men primarily young angry men, thus will require aggression, glory, and odinism does fit this bill best. Also the temple types and paternalistic structure that was present in odinism is a valuable tool as it ties groups to the land their ancestors inhabit as one of its core tenants just look at post indo European long barrows. If I was to make a religion it would basically be reskinned warhammer 40k as it calls for space expansion which I believe the rising rival elite will see as a great rallying point and source of glory.
Well written article, but there's a major assumption. That Christianity was uniquely destined to go Woke.
In reality, adversaries have been infiltrating and subverting Christianity, Academia, Congress, the Military, etc. for decades. The reason this hasn't happened to Norse Paganism is probably not due to immunity of that religion, but rather it's current lack of size and power for the parasites to bother infecting.
A secular example of this concept is gaming. Feminists only got involved in video games once it was a well established, billion dollar industry.
Christianity is inherently more vulnerable to wokeness, and indeed Nietzsche would argue is the progenitor of wokeness, because it is an egalitarian faith that values the comfort and spiritual worth of the lowest and weakest.
By contrast warrior religions like Odinism or Japanese Imperial Shintoism we wouldn't expect to be vulnerable to this since a core implication of each is that all life is not equal or indeed that life on its own is not valuable except as a means to higher Aesthetic and spiritual attainment.
Now both of these can lead to belligerent suicidal aggression (maybe Fascism is the equivalent vulnerability to wokeness?) but looking at Modern more balanced Japan they've proven unique impervious to the Egalitarian mind virus than Christendom.
Note also the overlap doesn't stop there, pre-war German romanticism was obsessed with Fairy tales and cuteness in a manner analogous to Japanese Kawaii culture... something Naoki Urasawa explored in his excellent series monster about the history of German totalitarianism and its overlap with the German cultural obsession with childhood, implicitly also commenting on Japan's twin history.
Japan's fertility Crisis is a bizzare demographic trap that East Asian countries wind up in thanks to their insane and counterproductive work cultures.
Jared Taylor's "Shadow of the Rising Sun" is about it
I think in Japan there is an aspect of having been so thoroughly conquered. The immediately post-war generation didn't have a fertility collapse, but their children and grandchildren have.
I think the former just had the last of the momentum from Japan's explosion on the world nearly a century earlier. As Japan regains some cultural confidence fertility will bottom out and move upwards.
Alison Mc Dowell (Wrench in the Gears )is doing some deep dive on the Gaming of life any one else doing this? Its making so much sense on the narratives, polarisation and constant influencer nudging.
Bless you. That is an epic piece. You are a great writer. I will continue reading it for the next few days. I would prefer the Viking religion to that of the one of the devil; Hamas & like terrorist. They will ride over the earth for the destruction of all. Reputation is everything so says Uther. The reputation of Hamas, the Taliban & others are so evil that the Islamist do not want them in their lands, but they will be in their lands too. And destroy it all. They truly are evil. Mohammed was a business man but terrorist are not. Kadisha was the first Islamic terrorist. Thank you for your essay. In heaven, we will live in Valhalla as warriors and people of honor. And if the terrorist have their way it will be sooner than later.
Islamism and radical Muslims. These terms are fictions invented by the media. It is Islam itself you must fear. Over 70 percent of Muslims in western nations want Sharia to replace democracy and the rule of law.
As the article above alludes to, Islam doesn't suit us. What emerged in Northern Europe was an Anglo-Saxon, Norse, Celtic mishmash that took over a thousand years to sort itself out. Just ask the Irish, lol. Importing something totally alien will take several thousand years to incorporate. Why bother? They don't belong. They can't maintain what we have.
Understandable confusion about Christianity and North European peoples. I come from the last pagans in Europe. Which no longer exist anywhere among whites for over a thousand years -- beyond the occasional and short-lived role playing games which die with their innovators, or entire LARP fantasy conventions occasioned by the new connectivity of our era. If anyone had a shot at reversion it would have been Julian.
There is a reason for this. Christ has conquered these sub-gods forever and they cannot be brought back to life in the εὐαγγέλιον -- the Announcement of that Victory. It is a war that was lost millennia ago, and in His Mercy, Christ permits even the misinformed, Japanese-atoll-tier holdouts very long lives and abundant opportunity to participate in that victory rather than be annihilated by it.
I say Kulak's confusion is understandable because he grew up in the decadence of Christendom so spoiled by victory which, in her superabundant if misguided mercy, permitted a slow redefinition of Christianity by her own enemies. This is lately undergoing a correction via apocalypsis. "You shall hear of wars and seditions..."
Kulak has mistaken the blessings of Christ for north European or Norse culture, which is not a terrible error, since it is in Europe where Christendom achieved its fullest expression thanks to the richness of the blood & soil of that culture where it was providentially designed to flourish best. But it becomes a fatal error if he continues to (unwittingly) accept the enemy's definition of Christianity. The ignorance about Christ is vincible, but first one must accept that we have been lied to about Him. It seems invincible only because, in our era of deception, we think we know who He is and therefore never find it necessary to make a proper reconnoiter as adults.
Christianity is whiteness for the world. She transfigures all who enter her bosom truly, no matter what stock or what direction they arrive from. Mistaking our natural propensities, this unmerited grace from God, this White Man's Burden, as not a grace but an immutable inheritance apart from Him, is why He is now demonstrating the consequences of that claim: our suicide. Corruptio optimi pessima.
In the disgust at all the unending problems of the Modern world and how they have infected formerly functional churches: Egalitarianism, Feminism, Third-Worldism, Zionism, post-modernism, legalism, and an aesthetic and spiritual relativism
---
I think the way forward is disgust, not religion. I don't think Christianity is dying in the West. It is religious belief itself people are dropping.
But disgust is hardwired. We don't learn it. Blind children display disgust on their faces when they encounter a noxious smell, for instance.
Encouraging European men in Europe, North America and the Antipodes to be disgusted at what is happening to them. Sidelined to appease complaints from feminists. Unemployed to help foreign men get on in their homelands.
None of this is natural. And we must cultivate disgust in men. Not anger, not some egalitarian spirit. But disgust anyone would support the decline and reduction of any nation.
I empathise, but that disgust needs to be channelled into something positive that brings about necessary change for the better. Perhaps belief in a set of values is needed to bring men/people together in a more unified way to effect that change?
I do feel it's way past time for men to rediscover their 'cojonas'.
I don't doubt channelling helps, and focus certainly does. But I think it also needs some drive behind it. And disgust is a great starting point as it is both hardwired and appropriate.
Being told by your government you must go out to work and pay taxes so 60+ percent of foreign nationals who emigrate to your country can sit on the dole and produce children you cannot afford. That is disgusting and it is happening in Germany, the UK and Scandinavian countries right now.
So for me the positive thing it should be channelled into isn't religion it is holding people accountable; politicians, the lawyers driving all this and the NGOs funding it.
Lots of things. But I believe disgust is a powerful driver. Recasting all that is happening as disgust is a first step. Many need told what to think. Right now they are told what is happening is right and proper, it is karma for centuries of imperialism, it is a correction for centuries of white males keeping everyone else down etc etc. Disgust helps men recalibrate all that, which is a great foundation to build upon and for many is needed to help them deprogram the relentless narrative.
I agree. It really is just a tool to recalibrate, and focusing all that energy into mindless punishment would be a waste.
But the energy needed to deprogram must come from somewhere. Just as anger or bitterness can be channeled into a gym routine to improve yourself so can awareness of the forces against us and the anger it produces.
Plus much of this is deliberate destruction of our place in society. It is not some secondary effect. It is intentional, and it is all based on fear of white males getting their act together. And that begins with awareness in my view.
The secularism of the past century, not traditional Christianity, correlates with the self-destruction and weakness of the West. When Europe and America were still firmly Christian, there was no wokeism or xenophilia, Muslim armies were fought back and subversive Jews were expelled (more that 1000 times from various cities, territories and nations). Turd-worlders were subjugated in their homelands, not imported into the West at public expense.
No improvement in human rights either. Paganism has historically incorporated some pretty vile and stupid customs, such as widespread human sacrifice (Latin American aboriginal) and fear/worship of ghosts and demons (Africa). Even European pagans sometimes practiced human sacrifice, though nothing like the scale of the Aztecs. In most pagan societies, women are oppressed and treated as property. It's definitely not all harmless and liberating dancing-around-the-maypole festivities.
Also, it is hard to use paganism as a large-scale political rallying point, since it is much more personal and local form of religion.
Why reinvent the wheel...just revive Christianity, which is already well-known in the West, and saves the trouble of starting from the ground up. Even the infrastructure (churches) are already in existence. This article is just an intellectual exercise from someone with too much spare time on their hands, LOL.
> Norse Paganism fulfills this role, while allowing continuity with the past 1000 years of European culture and traditions, since while the various Christian traditions wring their hands about stuff like The Crusades, King Arthur, Shakespeare's Works, and the Various national heroes of the 15th-19th centuries
Have you interacted with any conservative Christians?
Every one I meet winds up being a gay accepting, hen pecked, female preachers christian.
There are two modes to christianity that I've seen in my day to day life: Trans performers in church Anglicanism/Unitarianism (all denominations become Anglican as they accept government grants), or some version of 2000s or 90s anglicanism that you can already see is going to become that.
Good point. Much of this is a Christianity I have never seen. Either an elaborate strawman or I'm exceptionally sheltered. Not to suggest that Christianity hasn't been bastardized over the years, beginning Day 2.
And now we have to define: what is Mere Christianity?
So, the issue with going for Wotanism; and interestingly enough I believe Hitler made a similar case, is that you are trying to gain inspiration from what is arguably the least grand period for Germanic civilization. Meanwhile all of its peaks come later during Christianity. However you explain this away (and I’m not saying you’d be wrong) a religion whose entire purpose is to celebrate greatness and glory can’t exactly make it very far past this kind of hurdle (at least not easily).
Wotanism Is attributed to the Germans in the Germania back in 60 ad when they had just won Teutoburg forest against the romans. Tacitus Identifies Odin and Thor as Mercury and Hercules... but it is a normal thing for Roman and Greek commentator to identify foreign gods with their nearest Greco-Roman counterpart.
That isn't the gods of Germanias lowest point... That's the gods of northern europe from about 1200ad back to atleast 60 ad and maybe another 200-1000 years before that.
It's almost certainly the case that most of Northern Europe worshiped Wotan longer than they've Worshiped Christ...and these traditions have been major cultural forces long after that
Where are all these children of European based neo-pagans?
Why don't Western Hindus/Shinto/Zoroastrians (who have a lineage that European pagans don't) have children either? Will the Pagans actually try to build something viable and not just create a new wrapper for modernity? How will they know they are creating something that works? After several centuries of cultural selection, which will take 99/100 pagan groups into the abyss? Why are childless pagans from Azov now dying for a country ruled by strangers, and which will not belong to their children or nephews (because they don’t exist), but to people who hate them?
Until the pagans have the answers to these questions, it is safe to say that unless the large Christian denominations begin to heal/small healthy Christian fundamentalist sects become visible, Jesus will be replaced by Muhammad, not Odin.
For those who claim that claim there is no moral or ethical foundation to such a faith, I present the following:
One of the founders of the Odinic Rite, John Gibbs-Bailey (“Hoskuldr”), had allegedly developed a code of eight virtues during his involvement with small, underground Odinist groups as early as the 1950s. When Gibbs-Bailey and John Yeowell formed what became the Odinic Rite in 1972, Yeowell added one to make the total nine, a number that is significant in Norse mythology (Heimgest, “Time to Honour an Unsung Hero,” p. 3).
I’m glad I saved this to my “to read” list. Fantastic piece !
Making Christianity “Judeo” has done nothing but sucker Europeans into a sense of guilt and added a layer of beliefs that don’t work for us.
In fact, ever culture that mixes themselves up with the sand people ends up paying the price. The Egyptians, the Macedonians, the Romans, the Germanics / Francs / English, and now the Americans.
Pagan traditions are always much better than Judeo-Christianity. The classical civilizations of Greece, Rome, Egypt, Northern Europe, and other places all show the superiority of natural religion/culture to the dogmas of revealed religions. Great article, very creative and insightful!
"Though Odin would have you die gloriously, he’d not have you die for Israel."
Now, *that* is a relief, and certainly an improvement over this Yahweh character who seems to salivate over the prospect of a cataclysmic bloodbath in his dubious honor in the "holy land." I say "his honor," but I wonder if it would not be more correct to say "her honor." After all, Yahweh's narcissistic manipulativeness and petty jealousy strike me as being suspiciously feminine, rather than masculine.
I do wonder whether Marcion was right about this Yahweh character, and whether Christ was really a revelation of something (and someone) completely different. Unfortunately, the Judaizers of James' faction won out and took over Christianity in the name of Yahweh (a movement which won its penultimate victory in America with the zionistic Schofield Bible.
> I do wonder whether Marcion was right about this Yahweh character, and whether Christ was really a revelation of something (and someone) completely different.
Well Gnosticism never fully went away, its latest manifestation being wokeness as James Lindsay was been documenting.
James Lindsay is wrong. Someone who is determined to transcend the demiurge's material realm and escape the reincarnation trap (similar to the Buddhist concept of samsara) would not be obsessed with all the crazy agitprop of the communist Left, which is all rooted inextricably in materialism devoid of any spirituality. I'm not saying there aren't legitimate criticisms to be made of Gnosticism, but only that James Lindsay's criticisms are not legitimate.
The woke is what happens when you tell people to live according to the Gnostic precept of "Do what thou wilt" or in non-archaic English "Do whatever you want".
As an American with Norse roots I definitely see the appeal of a Odinic revival, but I see Indo-European paganism as a more viable path for the future. It has less cultural baggage and the Skyfather/Earth Mother dichotomy is a perfect allegory for modern cultural issues in the west. Proto-Indo-European history is the history of all European cultures so it makes a perfect rallying point
Great piece. Have you seen Tree of Woe’s speculations on European pagan monotheism? (His capstone essay on it is here: https://open.substack.com/pub/treeofwoe/p/the-theology-of-the-hypsistarian?.) He makes the case for a non-Abrahamic form of ancient Greek monotheism that believed in a most-high God, but whose theology also allowed for small-g gods.
Such a worldview would allow for Wotan, either as a god or as God in another guise. Regardless, the monotheist component might make an easier off-ramp from Christianity.
I call our God "Sol Invictus". Good enough for Aurelian, good enough for me. I don't question the metaphysics of it.
I don’t want to agree with you however I think that Christianity has lost all its innovation and vigor, I’m not even Christian I just aspire to be because it’s morals result in a kinder world but the truth is when Christianity first spread it was via marketing to women that’s why it’s kind and egalitarian, given the current situation though the next religion of the west will spread via marketing to men primarily young angry men, thus will require aggression, glory, and odinism does fit this bill best. Also the temple types and paternalistic structure that was present in odinism is a valuable tool as it ties groups to the land their ancestors inhabit as one of its core tenants just look at post indo European long barrows. If I was to make a religion it would basically be reskinned warhammer 40k as it calls for space expansion which I believe the rising rival elite will see as a great rallying point and source of glory.
Space Age Maximalist is a voice you should be following over at https://spaceagemaximalist.substack.com
I did a 3 hour interview with him amazing guy, working exactly along these lines.
Yes where’s your interview?
https://spaceagemaximalist.substack.com/p/jungle-bunker-telemetric-funk-with
Ah wait I’ve listened to it already 😄 so good.
Can you post link to the podcast?
Well written article, but there's a major assumption. That Christianity was uniquely destined to go Woke.
In reality, adversaries have been infiltrating and subverting Christianity, Academia, Congress, the Military, etc. for decades. The reason this hasn't happened to Norse Paganism is probably not due to immunity of that religion, but rather it's current lack of size and power for the parasites to bother infecting.
A secular example of this concept is gaming. Feminists only got involved in video games once it was a well established, billion dollar industry.
Christianity is inherently more vulnerable to wokeness, and indeed Nietzsche would argue is the progenitor of wokeness, because it is an egalitarian faith that values the comfort and spiritual worth of the lowest and weakest.
By contrast warrior religions like Odinism or Japanese Imperial Shintoism we wouldn't expect to be vulnerable to this since a core implication of each is that all life is not equal or indeed that life on its own is not valuable except as a means to higher Aesthetic and spiritual attainment.
Now both of these can lead to belligerent suicidal aggression (maybe Fascism is the equivalent vulnerability to wokeness?) but looking at Modern more balanced Japan they've proven unique impervious to the Egalitarian mind virus than Christendom.
Note also the overlap doesn't stop there, pre-war German romanticism was obsessed with Fairy tales and cuteness in a manner analogous to Japanese Kawaii culture... something Naoki Urasawa explored in his excellent series monster about the history of German totalitarianism and its overlap with the German cultural obsession with childhood, implicitly also commenting on Japan's twin history.
> but looking at Modern more balanced Japan they've proven unique impervious to the Egalitarian mind virus than Christendom.
Have you seen the modern Japanese fertility figures?
Japan's fertility Crisis is a bizzare demographic trap that East Asian countries wind up in thanks to their insane and counterproductive work cultures.
Jared Taylor's "Shadow of the Rising Sun" is about it
I think in Japan there is an aspect of having been so thoroughly conquered. The immediately post-war generation didn't have a fertility collapse, but their children and grandchildren have.
I think the former just had the last of the momentum from Japan's explosion on the world nearly a century earlier. As Japan regains some cultural confidence fertility will bottom out and move upwards.
> The reason this hasn't happened to Norse Paganism is probably not due to immunity of that religion
Also it did happen to Norse Paganism, where do you think Wicca came from?
Celtic paganism.
Wicca is Celtic revival paganism which started in inter-War England in an attempt to revive the theorized witch cults of pre-Christian Europe.
It isn't "woke" Nordic paganism. It isn't even pseudo-Gimbutas as I originally suspected.
Alison Mc Dowell (Wrench in the Gears )is doing some deep dive on the Gaming of life any one else doing this? Its making so much sense on the narratives, polarisation and constant influencer nudging.
I bet a new religion with animal sacrifice and ritual violence may hold off wokeness better then any corporation
Why? The woke are perfectly happy to ritually kill and mutilate human children.
Bless you. That is an epic piece. You are a great writer. I will continue reading it for the next few days. I would prefer the Viking religion to that of the one of the devil; Hamas & like terrorist. They will ride over the earth for the destruction of all. Reputation is everything so says Uther. The reputation of Hamas, the Taliban & others are so evil that the Islamist do not want them in their lands, but they will be in their lands too. And destroy it all. They truly are evil. Mohammed was a business man but terrorist are not. Kadisha was the first Islamic terrorist. Thank you for your essay. In heaven, we will live in Valhalla as warriors and people of honor. And if the terrorist have their way it will be sooner than later.
Islamism and radical Muslims. These terms are fictions invented by the media. It is Islam itself you must fear. Over 70 percent of Muslims in western nations want Sharia to replace democracy and the rule of law.
As the article above alludes to, Islam doesn't suit us. What emerged in Northern Europe was an Anglo-Saxon, Norse, Celtic mishmash that took over a thousand years to sort itself out. Just ask the Irish, lol. Importing something totally alien will take several thousand years to incorporate. Why bother? They don't belong. They can't maintain what we have.
Understandable confusion about Christianity and North European peoples. I come from the last pagans in Europe. Which no longer exist anywhere among whites for over a thousand years -- beyond the occasional and short-lived role playing games which die with their innovators, or entire LARP fantasy conventions occasioned by the new connectivity of our era. If anyone had a shot at reversion it would have been Julian.
There is a reason for this. Christ has conquered these sub-gods forever and they cannot be brought back to life in the εὐαγγέλιον -- the Announcement of that Victory. It is a war that was lost millennia ago, and in His Mercy, Christ permits even the misinformed, Japanese-atoll-tier holdouts very long lives and abundant opportunity to participate in that victory rather than be annihilated by it.
I say Kulak's confusion is understandable because he grew up in the decadence of Christendom so spoiled by victory which, in her superabundant if misguided mercy, permitted a slow redefinition of Christianity by her own enemies. This is lately undergoing a correction via apocalypsis. "You shall hear of wars and seditions..."
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+21%3A9-28&version=DRA
Kulak has mistaken the blessings of Christ for north European or Norse culture, which is not a terrible error, since it is in Europe where Christendom achieved its fullest expression thanks to the richness of the blood & soil of that culture where it was providentially designed to flourish best. But it becomes a fatal error if he continues to (unwittingly) accept the enemy's definition of Christianity. The ignorance about Christ is vincible, but first one must accept that we have been lied to about Him. It seems invincible only because, in our era of deception, we think we know who He is and therefore never find it necessary to make a proper reconnoiter as adults.
Christianity is whiteness for the world. She transfigures all who enter her bosom truly, no matter what stock or what direction they arrive from. Mistaking our natural propensities, this unmerited grace from God, this White Man's Burden, as not a grace but an immutable inheritance apart from Him, is why He is now demonstrating the consequences of that claim: our suicide. Corruptio optimi pessima.
It doesn't have to be so. Say Christ is Lord.
You did not have a classic literary education.
You misunderstand Shakespeare and his symbolism. You are not adept at scripture.
You were taught modernism-- look at the past through the lens of the present; indictive v deductive reasoning.
You have to understand history, the Bible, classic logic and philosophy and the past to understand Shakespeare and to cull the wisdom in his art.
In the disgust at all the unending problems of the Modern world and how they have infected formerly functional churches: Egalitarianism, Feminism, Third-Worldism, Zionism, post-modernism, legalism, and an aesthetic and spiritual relativism
---
I think the way forward is disgust, not religion. I don't think Christianity is dying in the West. It is religious belief itself people are dropping.
But disgust is hardwired. We don't learn it. Blind children display disgust on their faces when they encounter a noxious smell, for instance.
Encouraging European men in Europe, North America and the Antipodes to be disgusted at what is happening to them. Sidelined to appease complaints from feminists. Unemployed to help foreign men get on in their homelands.
None of this is natural. And we must cultivate disgust in men. Not anger, not some egalitarian spirit. But disgust anyone would support the decline and reduction of any nation.
I empathise, but that disgust needs to be channelled into something positive that brings about necessary change for the better. Perhaps belief in a set of values is needed to bring men/people together in a more unified way to effect that change?
I do feel it's way past time for men to rediscover their 'cojonas'.
I don't doubt channelling helps, and focus certainly does. But I think it also needs some drive behind it. And disgust is a great starting point as it is both hardwired and appropriate.
Being told by your government you must go out to work and pay taxes so 60+ percent of foreign nationals who emigrate to your country can sit on the dole and produce children you cannot afford. That is disgusting and it is happening in Germany, the UK and Scandinavian countries right now.
So for me the positive thing it should be channelled into isn't religion it is holding people accountable; politicians, the lawyers driving all this and the NGOs funding it.
But what does disgust do? Alone, it won't get you a job or drive out the interlopers or fix the machine. All that is disgusting; now what?
Lots of things. But I believe disgust is a powerful driver. Recasting all that is happening as disgust is a first step. Many need told what to think. Right now they are told what is happening is right and proper, it is karma for centuries of imperialism, it is a correction for centuries of white males keeping everyone else down etc etc. Disgust helps men recalibrate all that, which is a great foundation to build upon and for many is needed to help them deprogram the relentless narrative.
No argument. Somehow the disgust needs directed to something other than witch burnings. Or, maybe that is the necessary start...
Good point though, what currently passes for acceptable is disgusting.
I agree. It really is just a tool to recalibrate, and focusing all that energy into mindless punishment would be a waste.
But the energy needed to deprogram must come from somewhere. Just as anger or bitterness can be channeled into a gym routine to improve yourself so can awareness of the forces against us and the anger it produces.
Plus much of this is deliberate destruction of our place in society. It is not some secondary effect. It is intentional, and it is all based on fear of white males getting their act together. And that begins with awareness in my view.
The secularism of the past century, not traditional Christianity, correlates with the self-destruction and weakness of the West. When Europe and America were still firmly Christian, there was no wokeism or xenophilia, Muslim armies were fought back and subversive Jews were expelled (more that 1000 times from various cities, territories and nations). Turd-worlders were subjugated in their homelands, not imported into the West at public expense.
No improvement in human rights either. Paganism has historically incorporated some pretty vile and stupid customs, such as widespread human sacrifice (Latin American aboriginal) and fear/worship of ghosts and demons (Africa). Even European pagans sometimes practiced human sacrifice, though nothing like the scale of the Aztecs. In most pagan societies, women are oppressed and treated as property. It's definitely not all harmless and liberating dancing-around-the-maypole festivities.
Also, it is hard to use paganism as a large-scale political rallying point, since it is much more personal and local form of religion.
Why reinvent the wheel...just revive Christianity, which is already well-known in the West, and saves the trouble of starting from the ground up. Even the infrastructure (churches) are already in existence. This article is just an intellectual exercise from someone with too much spare time on their hands, LOL.
> Norse Paganism fulfills this role, while allowing continuity with the past 1000 years of European culture and traditions, since while the various Christian traditions wring their hands about stuff like The Crusades, King Arthur, Shakespeare's Works, and the Various national heroes of the 15th-19th centuries
Have you interacted with any conservative Christians?
No. Outside the Amish not a one.
Every one I meet winds up being a gay accepting, hen pecked, female preachers christian.
There are two modes to christianity that I've seen in my day to day life: Trans performers in church Anglicanism/Unitarianism (all denominations become Anglican as they accept government grants), or some version of 2000s or 90s anglicanism that you can already see is going to become that.
God is not in Canada
Good point. Much of this is a Christianity I have never seen. Either an elaborate strawman or I'm exceptionally sheltered. Not to suggest that Christianity hasn't been bastardized over the years, beginning Day 2.
And now we have to define: what is Mere Christianity?
So, the issue with going for Wotanism; and interestingly enough I believe Hitler made a similar case, is that you are trying to gain inspiration from what is arguably the least grand period for Germanic civilization. Meanwhile all of its peaks come later during Christianity. However you explain this away (and I’m not saying you’d be wrong) a religion whose entire purpose is to celebrate greatness and glory can’t exactly make it very far past this kind of hurdle (at least not easily).
Wotanism Is attributed to the Germans in the Germania back in 60 ad when they had just won Teutoburg forest against the romans. Tacitus Identifies Odin and Thor as Mercury and Hercules... but it is a normal thing for Roman and Greek commentator to identify foreign gods with their nearest Greco-Roman counterpart.
That isn't the gods of Germanias lowest point... That's the gods of northern europe from about 1200ad back to atleast 60 ad and maybe another 200-1000 years before that.
It's almost certainly the case that most of Northern Europe worshiped Wotan longer than they've Worshiped Christ...and these traditions have been major cultural forces long after that
Where are all these children of European based neo-pagans?
Why don't Western Hindus/Shinto/Zoroastrians (who have a lineage that European pagans don't) have children either? Will the Pagans actually try to build something viable and not just create a new wrapper for modernity? How will they know they are creating something that works? After several centuries of cultural selection, which will take 99/100 pagan groups into the abyss? Why are childless pagans from Azov now dying for a country ruled by strangers, and which will not belong to their children or nephews (because they don’t exist), but to people who hate them?
Until the pagans have the answers to these questions, it is safe to say that unless the large Christian denominations begin to heal/small healthy Christian fundamentalist sects become visible, Jesus will be replaced by Muhammad, not Odin.
For those who claim that claim there is no moral or ethical foundation to such a faith, I present the following:
One of the founders of the Odinic Rite, John Gibbs-Bailey (“Hoskuldr”), had allegedly developed a code of eight virtues during his involvement with small, underground Odinist groups as early as the 1950s. When Gibbs-Bailey and John Yeowell formed what became the Odinic Rite in 1972, Yeowell added one to make the total nine, a number that is significant in Norse mythology (Heimgest, “Time to Honour an Unsung Hero,” p. 3).
Courage, Truth, Honor, Fidelity, Discipline, Hospitality, Self Reliance, Industriousness, Perseverance..
I’m glad I saved this to my “to read” list. Fantastic piece !
Making Christianity “Judeo” has done nothing but sucker Europeans into a sense of guilt and added a layer of beliefs that don’t work for us.
In fact, ever culture that mixes themselves up with the sand people ends up paying the price. The Egyptians, the Macedonians, the Romans, the Germanics / Francs / English, and now the Americans.
We all pay for THEIR stupidity.
Anyway. Great piece.
European vitalism ftw
Pagan traditions are always much better than Judeo-Christianity. The classical civilizations of Greece, Rome, Egypt, Northern Europe, and other places all show the superiority of natural religion/culture to the dogmas of revealed religions. Great article, very creative and insightful!
"Though Odin would have you die gloriously, he’d not have you die for Israel."
Now, *that* is a relief, and certainly an improvement over this Yahweh character who seems to salivate over the prospect of a cataclysmic bloodbath in his dubious honor in the "holy land." I say "his honor," but I wonder if it would not be more correct to say "her honor." After all, Yahweh's narcissistic manipulativeness and petty jealousy strike me as being suspiciously feminine, rather than masculine.
I do wonder whether Marcion was right about this Yahweh character, and whether Christ was really a revelation of something (and someone) completely different. Unfortunately, the Judaizers of James' faction won out and took over Christianity in the name of Yahweh (a movement which won its penultimate victory in America with the zionistic Schofield Bible.
> I do wonder whether Marcion was right about this Yahweh character, and whether Christ was really a revelation of something (and someone) completely different.
Well Gnosticism never fully went away, its latest manifestation being wokeness as James Lindsay was been documenting.
James Lindsay is wrong. Someone who is determined to transcend the demiurge's material realm and escape the reincarnation trap (similar to the Buddhist concept of samsara) would not be obsessed with all the crazy agitprop of the communist Left, which is all rooted inextricably in materialism devoid of any spirituality. I'm not saying there aren't legitimate criticisms to be made of Gnosticism, but only that James Lindsay's criticisms are not legitimate.
The woke is what happens when you tell people to live according to the Gnostic precept of "Do what thou wilt" or in non-archaic English "Do whatever you want".
As an American with Norse roots I definitely see the appeal of a Odinic revival, but I see Indo-European paganism as a more viable path for the future. It has less cultural baggage and the Skyfather/Earth Mother dichotomy is a perfect allegory for modern cultural issues in the west. Proto-Indo-European history is the history of all European cultures so it makes a perfect rallying point
Is Dyēus finally retro enough to make a come-back?
We can hope