IN these modern times when people feel alienated, oppressed, divorced from their rulers and have no control of their own lives, it is very easy to heap the blame upon those in positions of power and then extend this to all forms of leadership and authority. This is the case now, when anarchists and egalitarian politicians come out of the woodwork to spur people on to rebel against all forms of authority and order. But is leadership to blame?

To look for an answer to this question we must look carefully at the term ‘leader’ to find out what it means. We can see from the word itself that a leader is one who leads. This may seem simple and obvious but it is important to understand that to lead is to get others to follow by means of one’s leadership by example and motivation. And to lead by example and motivation must mean that one has the qualities inbuilt to do so for there are, as in all things, good and bad leaders. A good leader can lead to heights of achievement but a bad leader can lead into decay and self-destruction.

Let us look for a moment at today’s leadership – in spiritual terms the church and in material terms the politician. The church leads astray because it preaches a religion alien to our folk: politicians are not really leaders, but are themselves led. They are careerists with power in mind and seek merely to control – certainly they do not lead by example. A contrast with ancient kingship will emphasise this point. Ancient kingship was subject to tribal common law, as much as any member of the tribe was; today’s politicians put themselves above the law. And this is true throughout the hierarchy of the material consumer society. To take these as an example of true leadership and use this to argue that authority is to blame is invalid.

We can see from this that it is not leadership as such that is to blame but rather the type of leadership. Today’s society is led by an alien element that dominates from behind the scenes. A society ruled from without cannot be in harmony within for it is led by an alien folk-soul with alien ideas, ideals and aims. A society that is led by those who hail from the folk-soul of the people will be harmonious in its essence. For leaders are born, not made. A leader arises from the people when that need arises. True, a leader must gain knowledge and experience of life before taking responsibility and so learn the qualities that will make him a good leader, wise and honourable, but nevertheless all people are not born with the qualities of leadership – the masses will always follow an elite.

In fact, the ills of modern society cannot be put upon leadership and authority but upon a lack of the right leadership. Our leadership stemmed from the gods. Was it not Heimdal who appeared in Midgarth as a man to sire the Aryan hierarchy of the thrall who did the manual work, the karl who was the farmer/provider and the jarl the noble warrior chieftain? It was to the jarl that Heimdal taught the runes given to us by Odin. So this was the type of shaman-warrior-chieftain that ruled as leader of the tribe. And who would be bold enough to deny the gift of the gods? For were we not given this hierarchy for the very purpose of keeping an ordered society?

Today, leadership of the true quality is lacking. But people will always follow, even though they may follow the wrong kind. Today the young follow those who are slightly ‘bad’ or ‘naughty’ and follow things which are thus too – the occult is a good example. But these types of leaders are shallow and weak, of simple mind and with no high ideal. The strong are held back, but only for so long!

True leadership of the masses will emerge, is emerging, not from the political sphere but from the religious and spiritual realms, from Odinism and from the Odinic Rite. A spiritual revolution – an overturning of the worship of an alien god and a return to our own roots, our own gods, is the way back for our folk and its regeneration. That revolution, from the very folk-soul of our people, must be led by Odinists and the kindred of the Odinic Rite is where they will come from.