Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's getting toward midnight, so we can proceed with a new Magic Monday. Ask me anything about occultism and I'll do my best to answer it. With certain exceptions, any question received by midnight Monday Eastern time will get an answer. Please note:  Any question or comment received after then will not get an answer, and in fact will just be deleted. (I've been getting an increasing number of people trying to post after these are closed, so will have to draw a harder line than before.) If you're in a hurry, or suspect you may be the 143,916th person to ask a question, please check out the very rough version 1.0 of The Magic Monday FAQ here. Also: I will not be putting through or answering any more questions about practicing magic around children. I've answered those in simple declarative sentences in the FAQ. If you read the FAQ and don't think your question has been answered, read it again. If that doesn't help, consider remedial reading classes; yes, it really is as simple and straightforward as the FAQ says. 

The picture?  I'm working my way through photos of my lineage, focusing on the teachers whose work has influenced me and the teachers who influenced them in turn. I'm currently tracing my Martinist lineage.  That's rendered complex by the Martinist tradition that one does not name one's initiator, so we'll have to go back through less evasive routes. Both of the last two honorees, and most of the other Martinist lineages in existence, were also taught and influenced by this man, Robert Ambelain, a prolific writer and occult scholar whose work extended from astrology and Freemasonry to Druidry and Martinism. Ambelain was born in 1907; he became an astrologer in the 1920s, proceeded to become a major figure in the Martinist scene and a bishop in one of the French Gnostic churches, played a central role in reviving several defunct occult orders, published 42 books, and earned the Croix de Guerre for his service to France during the Second World War. He died in 1997.

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With that said, have at it!

***This Magic Monday is now closed. See you next week!***

Comments

Re: Asatru Folk Assembly

[causticus]

I'm not a Heathen myself, though I did seriously consider it a few years back after doing a ton of background research on the Norse/Germanic religion and the modern-day attempts to revive it, and consider myself to be an amateur scholar on comparative religions, FWIW. So take the following with a hefty grain of salt.

On that first bit:

"Racist hate group" today has mostly devolved into a neoliberal establishmentarian, thought-stopping slur-word for any human endeavor in the contemporary West that strays too far from the imperial orthodoxy of pseudo-cosmopolitan globalism. Yes, there are some historical groups that are deserving of this term (like the KKK, Nation of Islam, ect.), but the self-appointed "hate watchers" of today massively overstate the influence of a few selected examples over today's affairs, and of course has zero shame in conflating other, more currently-relevant groups when them; when in fact they usually have nothing much at all to due with historic "hate groups." As our gracious host as pointed out on several occasions, "hate" is to today's comfortable classes what "sex" was to the Victorian middle classes. "Hate-watching" has become the new form of heresy-hunting for those eager to score brownie points within those circles.

On AFA in particular:

To me, they seem magnitudes less hateful than their (very loud) detractors from the left/progressivist side of Germanic Neopaganism. From what I've seen, the average AFAer just wants to do their thing and be left alone. Sure, AFA's web site proclaims wignat (white nationalist) sorts of views on race (which I personally find rather cringe, but to each their own) and see their form of Heathenry as being foremost an ethnic religion. But so what? If someone doesn't agree with their views, there's plenty of other Heathen groups for them to choose from. Why can't people just do their own thing and leave others alone?

It does seem like AFA is one of the few modern pagan groups in the US who has successfully (besides maybe ADF) built local pagan communities and has actually established brick-and-mortar places of worship. Perhaps there's some envy going on, coming from the terminally-online type of pagan who can't even set up a proper temple in their living room, much less in a public place.

I think primarily, leftist Germanic pagans hate AFA and similar groups with such zeal because AFA membership tends to be comprised primarily of ordinary, working class white people, which is the primary demographic that is very fashionable and permissible for the affluent/comfortable classes to hate on in the current year. Leftist/Prog pagans OTOH tend to come from the latter classes. As per usual these days, most of the genuine hate seems to comes from those who are shouting the loudest and accusing everyone else of being hateful bigots.

On the Folkish ideology in general, I find it to be rather lacking philosophically, among other things. Like practically all of the alt-spirituality that emerged out of the 1960s counterculture, these movements are based a ton more on emotionalism, sentimentalism, and a sense of resentment against the Christian overculture, rather than any set of reasoned, systematic views on the Divine. Some Folkish views on the gods seem to border on atheism; like the notion that the gods are merely a product of the ethnic groups that worship them. The seems to reduce the Divine to mere anthropological and sociological phenomena (this rivals the "archetypalist" view embraced by other types of neopagans). The massive time-discontinuity of practice and belief between pre-Christian peoples and today is probably a major factor at play, and something that has plagued all the forms of "authenticity"-seeking modern paganism in general.

Having said all of that, if you happen to work in a PMC-adjacent career field or swim in that sort of social circle, public knowledge of you associating with a group like AFA could become a seriously liability to your reputation.

I do find it pretty sad that there isn't much of a middle-ground, third option between the woke/wignat binary that plagues much of Heathenry today. There is however a marginal "sect" of Germanic paganism, Theodism, which might be to your liking if you don't mind very pedantic reconstructionism with an exclusively Anglo-Saxon focus. They do seem to do a very thorough job keeping ALL politics out of their public materials and group functions, which is a refreshing (IMO) thing to see in this current year.

Re: Asatru Folk Assembly

[jprussell]

Let me just second causticus's recommendation to look into Theodism, especially if your interest is in the Anglo-Saxon Gods specifically. The Ealdrice Theod is the currently most active group and has gotten the blessing of the founder of Theodism, Garman Lord. From the outside looking in, it seems mostly due to the very active efforts of Thorbeorht Ealdorblotere, the current Cyning (Sacred King). While I am less drawn to their very reconstructionist approach, they have put out some extremely well-researched books.

Their website: https://ealdrice.org/
Their Lulu Store: https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/haliggyldbooks

Re: Asatru Folk Assembly

[brenainn]

This looks very interesting, Jeff. Except for Mithras, my devotion is mostly to the Anglo-Saxon Gods. Theodism might very well be a good option for me.

Re: Asatru Folk Assembly

[brenainn]

Having done a little research the past hour or so, I will say that I find the "Sacred King" thing a bit off-putting. Do you know much about that aspect? I don't want to misunderstand it or otherwise get an inaccurate impression.

Re: Asatru Folk Assembly

[jprussell]

So, I also find it kind of off-putting, but I haven't really come to a firm answer. Here's my understanding of their position and the history of it (as remembered off the top of my head - so I don't have direct sources for each claim/summarization, and doubtless I introduce some errors):

- Garman Lord had some kind of visionary experience involving Woden, who basically said "go start up my worship again!" This was apparently in the 70s and he was not directly involved in the burgeoning Neo-Pagan movement for some time, nor was it an offshoot of Asatru, which originated with Icelanders reviving their religion, but spread to the US pretty quickly
- From the start, Lord and the other early Theodsmen maintained that the social organization of personal oaths and service that made up early Germanic groups was an integral part of the religion - the religion and the social organization supported each other, and the Kings were literal descendants of the Gods, and so had a key sacred role to play
- So, for many years, Theodism was arranged as a basically feudal system, but the spot for King was left open, as Lord didn't feel like it was right for him to do that. New members of the Theod would come in with lower status titles, but as they proved good members, could be elevated. They used Old English titles for this, starting as a thrall, becoming a churl, and maybe eventually a Lord. Crucially, though, these roles were based on personal oaths to a specific person, and they had to be approved by the Witan (council)
- From what I can tell, they never made any attempt to make this temporally significant - like, if you were a "thrall," the guy you swore your oath to couldn't make you come clean his house or something. But having higher position was seen as having more spiritual responsibility (provide more of the food for the festivals, do more in the rituals, and so forth)
- At some point Lord did as the other folks in the "Winland Rice" (Kingdom of North America) and took on the title of King
- Now, I'm inferring a bit here, but it seems like Theodism kinda fell on some hard times in the 90s - maybe the broader Neo-Pagan movement attracted folks who had otherwise been there, maybe Americans were squicked out by feudal oaths and titles, maybe they were embroiled in some of the drama of the wider Heathen world, I dunno all the details, but I think it might have gone nearly dormant
- Then, from what I can gather, Thorbeorht Ealdorblotere basically took it upon himself to revive things - reaching out to Lord, forming a new, but subordinate group, and so forth. One key innovation he brought was the idea that trying to mirror mannerbunde-style warbands as the form of organization might not have been the best, and instead introduced the haliggild (Holy Guild) model. Historical research suggests that guilds used to be used for all kinds of things besides craft, including religious observation and organization, and they may have had pre-Christian roots
- In the last few years, Lord stepped down as King and named Ealdorblotere as his successor, who was approved by the Witan and sworn in

So, that may be way more detail than you were looking for, and some of it is my speculation from reading between the lines in some of Lord's and Ealdorblotere's books. I think there's a strong case to be made that the role of "king" had a very important religious function in pre-Christian Germanic societies, and that if you are going for strict reconstructionism, you just might have to grapple with that. But as an American, I'm deeply suspicious of anyone being a "King." That being said, from checking out the Ealdrice Theod page, it looks like being "King" mostly just means Ealdorblotere runs the organization and heads the seasonal rituals and does weddings and stuff, and I haven't heard of anything untoward, but I also haven't seen any of this for myself, since it's up in Virginia and I'm in Texas.

Re: Asatru Folk Assembly

[causticus]

From what I understand, a "Sacral King" is a prehistoric European formulation of a High Priest or Hierophant; not to be confused with a secular King or other type of chief executive political leader. My impression that a lot of ancient European cultures had a system of dual-kingship The Romans seemed to have preserved this with the Rex Sacrorum, an ancient priestly position they likely inherited from the Etruscans.

In this case, if we're to take the autobiographical account of Theodism's founder, Garman Lord, at face value, it was Woden Himself who taught GL the concept of Sacral Kingship, and (grudgingly) approved of him taking on this title, for lack of a better candidate at the time. Then when Lord stepped down, a new "King" was proposed and then approved after many rounds of divination. The organization does seem to be in good hands now.

Re: Asatru Folk Assembly

[brenainn]

Thanks for this. I'll think over several of your points here, and I'll also look into Theodism. Fortunately, I am not a member of the PMC nor do I run in those social circles. Most of my social circle consists of White working class people. I don't imagine AFA membership would cost me any social standing.

Re: Asatru Folk Assembly

[(Anonymous)]

You might enjoy this website: Linguistuc, not religious. But....

https://anglish.fandom.com/wiki/Main_leaf#

And its news site: https://theanglishtimes.com/

Sample: "The leader of the Wagner sellswords has called for a meeting with Russian leadership, or else will take his fighters straight to Moscow...."