Feast of the Einherjar

There is a very good reason why the First World War armistice between the Germans and the British happened on the 11th of November. It is also the ancient Nordic Feast of the Einherjar. Steve McNallen describes this holy day which honors Odin and the select warriors who earn their seats with him in Valhalla.

Why Did Christianity Defeat Paganism? Part One: The Birth of Monotheism

Religion is natural to mankind. It is one way we relate to the world around us. Nature and human experience have many aspects, so it natural for us to give these various aspects an identity and to seek a relationship with them. This natural human impulse is what created the pagan gods.

But why were these pagan gods, representatives of specific phenomena, overthrown in most of the world so that now, apart from animist religions among primitive peoples, paganism only exists in India and Japan as a higher level religion? Like a self-fulfilling prophecy, the success of the monotheistic religions seems to prove their truth to their believers.

Here Comes the Tengu!

Tablet of Double-faced Tengu (1880) from Osugi shrine, Ibaraki

Maybe it's because of the big nose and the red face — like some grotesque characterization of my fellow Europeans and me — or it might just be the aura of a potent figure existing on the margins of a society. Whatever it is, since arriving in Japan, I've always felt a strong affinity with the Tengu, the winged goblins of Japanese folklore. Now "Here Comes the Tengu" at the Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Cultural History allows visitors to take a closer look at these legendary creatures, one of the most colorful folkloric threads running through Japan's unique cultural history.

With a wealth of materials, the exhibition explores the origins and varied manifestations of these fascinating figures. Originating in China as doglike comet beings (the Chinese characters for Tengu mean "heaven's dog") whose arrival portended war, Tengus were soon invested with birdlike attributes of wings and beaks, possibly through conflation with the Hindu eagle deity Garuda, which was introduced to Japan through Buddhism. The beak was later transformed into the characteristic long red nose.

Although all the explanations are in Japanese, there is still much for non-Japanese-speakers to enjoy, from elaborate mandalas and colorful scrolls to bugaku (dance) masks with swinging noses from the 10th century, as well as impressive statues of Tengu and associated figures. These include the aforementioned Garuda and En no Gyoja, a 7th-century hermit and ascetic whose legend became entwined with that of the Tengu.

The history of Tengu is a good example of the Japanese tendency to transform dangerous aspects of nature or the supernatural to something friendlier and cuter. From his origin as a harbinger of war, the Tengu gradually mellowed into a protective mountain spirit and then became a convenient marketing tool for various brands of goods. Having said that, the large Tengu masks at the entrance still have the power to reduce small children to tears.

C.B.Liddell
Japan Times
8th October, 2010

The Pagan Sites of Europe Remembered (13): Goodmanham, Yorkshire

Goodmanham is now a small village in the Eastern part of Yorkshire, but in the 7th century it was the site of an important temple of the Germanic god Woden.

Slaves of the Semitic Sky God: (1) Michele Bachmann

Christianity is essentially an alien religion that has no place outside the Middle East, never mind in the heart of the American Midwest, part of the world represented by this lady, Michele Bachmann. Given Western Civilization's long history as part of Christendom this may seem like a rather extreme and radical thing to say. That's because it is. But when you hear people like US Congresswoman and prospective presidential candidate Michele Bachmann talk the way she does in this video, who can really doubt my assertion?

In this video message she basically uses her Christian identity to self-subjugate herself to Jewish and Israeli interests, all in the name of Christianity's affinity with Judaism. Of course, some would argue that Christianity is distinct from Judaism, and is an admixture of certain Greek philosophical tenets with aspects of Judaism, and also that while Christianity is a universalist religion, Judaism is a particularist faith for a specific tribal group. To a certain extent this is all true, but Bachmann is nevertheless essentially right when she points out that her "Christian faith is rooted in Judaism" and implies that unconditional support for the Jewish interests is a logic outcome of being a Christian.

This is because belief in Christianity effectively endorses the Jewish idea that they are the chosen people, as practically everybody in the Christian bible is a Jew and the so-called 'Christian' God clearly has a special relationship with that people. How can you believe the bible and not believe the Jews are special and the Holy Land is theirs?

Bachmann may sound somewhat brainwashed as she spouts her perverted views, but there is no denying the inherent logoc of what she is saying. This quality of being brainwashed and manipulated, by the way, is the inevitable result of having no tribal beliefs of one's own to form a cohesive identity and group interest focus, and is the result of Europeans having lost their own indigenous religious cultures through the cultural genocide committed by the Christian Church over several centuries.

Taken to its logic conclusion, the universalized goyim version of Judaism that has been marketed as Christianity makes its adherants "useful idiots" for the Jewish lobby. The fact that Christianianity has often been hostile to the Jews in the past, only strengthens the final, guilt-ridden realization of Christianity's inner logic in the present day. This process is especially true in America, but it can also be seen generally, even in Rome, where the present day Catholic Church shows a similar tendency. Those who espouse Christianity are always susceptible to meekly serving the interests of others rather than their own.

"The Monotheist Mindset and its Secular Modalities" by Dr. Tomislav Sunić

Dr. Tomislav Sunic critiques monotheism as proto communism and a vital element in the totalitarian egalitarianism of modern secular society. This speech was delivered at the two day seminar "Revolt Against Civilization" hosted by the Danish Society for Free Historical Research in Denmark, May 2011.

The Pan Within by The Waterboys

The Pan Within is a song by Mike Scott of the Waterboys that has an obvious pagan inspiration in the name of the god Pan. In the lyrics (see below), Pan is identitfied with nature, both external and internal, with references to the stars and the wind and hints of sexual love attaining a spiritual dimension through harmony with the elements.

The Pagan Sites of the Middle East Remembered: (2) The Temple of Jupiter at Damascus

It is almost a rule that any major religious centre of the monotheistic religions is founded on a previous pagan site. One of the most famous mosques in the Islamic world is the Umayyad Mosque, also known as the Great Mosque of Damascus.

The Pagan Sites of The Middle East Remembered (1): Mecca

Christianity is not the only totalitarian globalist religion to usurp the sites and rites of the ancient pagan gods. Islam too has played its part in the cultural genocide of pagan belief. Indeed, the case of Islam is an even more blatant example of religious appropriation. While Christianity chose Rome, basically a political centre as its symbolic centre, Islam made its centre Mecca, a town which was mainly known as a pagan religious centre.

The importance of Mecca to Muslims is also greater than that of Rome to Christians. All Muslims turn and pray to Mecca several times a day and each Muslim is expected to make a holy pilgrimage, called the hajj, to the city at least once in their life where they will revere the Ka'ba a sacred black stone.

Semitic Sky God Married and Divorced

God's ex

Biblical scholarship has slowly been chipping away at the idea of the all-powerful and absolute Jehovah, beloved of Jews, Christians, and Muslims. As it turns out, he was just a normal little pagan god who, for various historical reasons, got blown out of all proportion.

The latest blow to the cult of the "Almighty" comes from a three-part documentary series by Francesca Stavrakopoulou, a senior lecturer in the department of Theology and Religion at the University of Exeter, which reveals evidence showing that the first version of the Semitic Sky God, the Jewish god Yahweh, was actually paired with, or 'married' to, a fertility goddess called Asherah, known across the ancient Near East by various other names, such as Astarte and Ishtar.

This means that the Semitic Sky God is not the all-encompassing, universal, unchanging, eternal, and absolute deity that his followers have made him out to be, but actually a very specific, local god, whose marital status hasn't even been stable.

The blame for the divorce seems to lie on the heads of the Jewish rabbis who decided that Asherah was 'too much woman' for either them or Yahweh to handle, and accordingly started to write her out of Judaism thousands of years ago.

Fair-minded people might think it is high time the Semitic Sky God faced up to his responsibilities and paid a proper alimony to his ex out of the enormous proceeds of the three major religions now based on him?

More details of Stavrakopoulou's work can be found in this article from Discovery News.

Pagan Art: Slavic Creation Myth by Ivanov

This painting by the Russian pagan artist Vsevolod Borisovich Ivanov appears to depict the Slavic creation myth.

According to this myth, the universe started from a golden egg surrounded by dark nothingness. The primordial god Rod emerged from this egg, depicted in this picture as the emanating light. At the same moment the mother goddess Lada was created to serve as Rod's helpmeet. We can see her immediately below the universal egg as a spectral and angelic figure.

Ivanov is hardly a purist. In true Neo-Pagan style, he incorporates many anachronistic elements, including what appear to be aliens and pyramids. The whole composition also seems to invoke the Big Bang Theory. I could easily imagine this as an Iron Maiden album cover.

Pagan Slavic Paintings by Vsevolod Borisovich Ivanov

This video serves as a brief introduction to the paintings of Vsevolod Borisovich Ivanov, a Russian pagan artist. (Note that the video title gives the wrong patronym!)

Ivanov was born in 1950 and began professionally illustrating in the late 1970s. In a recent interview he took a vehement anti-globalist and pro-regionalist position. He also said that he wants to continue illustrating what he describes as his "Vedic Russia" series, showing ancient Slavic myths and pagan beliefs, until he dies.

William Wordswith: "The World Is Too Much With Us"

In this poem, Wordsworth expresses dissatisfaction with the materialist emptiness and alienation from nature that is inherent in a rootless globalist religion like Christianity, and craves for the more spiritual relationship with one's environment that is only possible through paganism.

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

The Pagan Sites of Europe Remembered (12): Teltown, Ireland

Teltown Cottage

Teltown, also Telltown or the more Gaelic Taillten, is the name of a place in County Meath, Ireland, that once held great significance, but is now just a bend in a country lane that runs parallel to the main road between Navan and Kells, and is near the Blackwater River, a major tributary of the Boyne.