Let Us Be True to Ourselves

ODINISM is one of the few religions that has not altered its beliefs to fit in with current fashion. The universalist religions, on the other hand, tend to change their spiritual principles in order to accommodate people of widely differing background and culture and in many ways the modern Christian church appears to be more of a political institution, with its ethical values being more political than spiritual in nature.

The Christian Doctrine of the Incarnation – An Odinist view

OF ALL the doctrines of the Christian church it is the Incarnation which, the Christians themselves boast, distinguishes theirs most from other religions, both monotheistic and polytheistic. The Incarnation describes the Christians' belief that a god came down from heaven to earth and became a man.

Agnosticism Defies Belief

Agnosticism, of course, is not a wholly unreasonable viewpoint, just the result of a false line of enquiry. The agnostic attempts to assess objectively the merits of the believer's faith in the existence of god or gods by examining the evidence. He concludes that since a god cannot be apprehended by man's physical senses no evidence with any bearing on the question is available. He says, 'seeing is believing. I do not see. Therefore I do not believe'.

Academic Balance

Heimgest CG urges us not to rely too much on academia to the detriment of the natural essence of our faith and suggests that although an 'outsider' may have extensive academic knowledge of Odinism, or an aspect of it, this can never equal the inner, intuitive knowledge and appreciation that comes from a person actually and directly experiencing our living faith.

Finding Ourselves Through Odinism

WITH every advance in science the order that exists within the physical universe becomes more apparent. Nothing is haphazard. And it becomes increasingly difficult for any thinking person to dismiss a metaphysical dimension to the universe.

YGGDRASIL AND THE INDIVIDUAL – Part 2

As we have seen in previous articles including part 1 of this work, our mythology is applicable on various levels of reality and understanding. At a profound level it is an illuminated guide to our own individual evolution to more highly evolved sates and levels of consciousness. A path we progress upon over many lifetimes until we achieve the highest state of awareness, which we may call Odin Consciousness.

YGGDRASIL AND THE INDIVIDUAL – Part 1

It is one of the great majesties of Odinism that our mythology is multi-layered and is therefore accessible to the Odinist at all levels of personal development. While this may at times be confusing to those studying the faith from a non-experiential point of view, to those actually and truly practicing it, it is a way of learning and growing.

A Reply to Charlemagne

MOST of us are familiar with the Saxon Oath of Renunciation which Charlemagne, Kaiser Karl, forced upon our Folk with the blessing of the Roman church. Among his many atrocities he destroyed our great religious centre, the Irminsul, in the year 772 and conducted mass baptism of POWs by force, even clubbing unconscious those who rightly objected. Those who continued to resist his Oath and still served the ancient gods of their fathers, lost their homes, their property and often their lives. Here now is my ritual response to all of this outrageous mummery, in which I have tried to use an entirely Germanic vocabulary, with no Mediterranean words (apart from 'prophet' and 'saint'):

Commitment

# The Oxford English dictionary says the word 'commitment' means: 1. Dedication to a cause or policy. # 2. A pledge or undertaking. # 3. An engagement or obligation that restricts freedom of action. So there is a question which we should ask ourselves. As Odinists, just how committed are we to Odinism and its advancement?

Kindness in Odinism

We all agree that oaths and vows are to be kept at all costs, that courage is preferred to cowardice, that honor is better than disgrace. I wonder then, how it came to be that one of the greatest virtues known to man, kindness, seems to be overlooked in most Odinist circles. That is not to say that Odinists are not kind, or that we look down on kindness, certainly not! What I am talking about is the actual promotion of kindness as a virtue within the community.

ODINISM: MY PATH BACK HOME

At a difficult junction in my life I was searching for something with more meaning, more depth than the conventional Christian church seemed to provide. I had never been comfortable as an Christian and the religion never seemed to be quite right. Like others of our folk who had been torn from their roots, I looked at many different ways, many different cultures and religions. But none of them gave me a sense of belonging.

The OR Hama – Their Need & Expected Personal Benefits

The Hama unit of the Odinic Rite was introduced to give lone members the opportunity to function as a kind of "hearth of one" and encourage personal development. Here Eowyn OR explains the benefits to both the individual and the Rite.