The Æsir – An introduction

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In our attempts to write about the characteristics of our racial gods and goddesses, it is all too easy to fall into the trap mentioned in other articles in this series - that of seeing them as literary figments, characters in old stories and not as beings actually existing in a wider reality than that of the material world.

Giants and the reliability of received mythology (from the Eddas, Snorri and Saxo)

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There appear to be two main classifications of deity grouped together under the term "giant": great creative spirits, and the powerful guardians of certain localities - mountains and rivers, for instance.

The Old Gods, the Vanir and the Three Worlds

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To our understanding the archaic divine forces who shaped the Living Stream when it first started flowing, continue still to shape it within the biological microcosm. The one-celled creatures and the cellular colonies which make up "higher" life forms are still controlled by these great (yet remote from us) spiritual beings and will be in their care as long as life continues on the Earth.

The Earth

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The Earth is of the utmost importance in the ethical, mystical and magical system followed by the Circle of Ostara. Not the Earth as a literary abstraction to be discussed in smoke-filled city rooms but the Earth as an actuality - our living planet.

Sun

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Anyone who has delved into the numerous volumes written on the lore and wisdom of the ancients will realise that in epochs far more distant in past time than any touched by historical records there was an accurate knowledge of the stars and the solar system and the Earth's place within it

Buri

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The conception of a great and universal Sky Father has been part of the collective unconscious since before the advent of mankind. It is a basic intuitive knowledge that appears in some form in the mythology of all the races of man.
audhumlaHengest Thorsson

Audumla

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In the mists and distances of the All and Forever Audumla has her being, a shadowy figure, the first Great Mother. She stands at the gateway of Change.

Wyrd

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We live in an infinite and eternal cosmos that contains everything that exists, both matter and spirit, a cosmos that is "intelligence", "awareness" and "will" that brings about all change. This Great Being, of which we are a part, we see as Wyrd, the weaver of Fate.

The Odinic Pantheon – Preliminary ideas and a statement of purpose

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In its resurgence over the past century Odinism has sometimes lacked credibility due to a tendency on the part of its adherents to refer to our deities in what can best be described as a literary fashion.

The Great Year

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The Web of Wyrd is by no means a static construction. It is motion made manifest. The flashing patterns of energy within the heart of the atom, the wheeling dance of galaxies and stars, all is motion. It is within this concept of a cosmos in continual, rhythmic, patterned motion that the idea of the "Great Year" must be considered.

Ragnarok and the Myth of the Eternal Return

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The story of Ragnarok is an example of the archetypal theme which has been categorised as the myth of the eternal return.

The Circle of Ostara

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The Circle of Ostara is a Magical Order associated with (but not officially a part of) the Odinic Rite, together working to further the awakening of our people. The Circle itself has a long history, and has developed its own system of mystico/magical practice.