AMA Jive Talk, September 2025

   

 

The annual Ask Me Anything stream on Jive Talk

Documentary: LOST GODS: The Future of Christianity and Paganism in The North

 

While I was filming “Sagas of the Raven Land” my colleague Matt Eng of North Hugr was making his own film called Lost Gods. It’s truly brilliant. It includes interviews with me as well as a Danish Lutheran theologian and the TikTok influencer Ian Byington. 

It's is a philosophical exploration of the problem of disenchantment in the West, with a focus on Icelandic and Norwegian nature to tell the tale. Highly recommended viewing!

Survive the Jive & Gnostic Informant on Break the Rules

 

I appeared on Break the Rules with Gnostic Informant. I go over the revelations in Indo-European studies and the revival of pagan religions in this new interview

Jive Book Review: Theurgy and the Soul by Gregory Shaw

 

 
 

Jive Book Review of 'Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus' by Gregory Shaw, Professor of Religious Studies at Stonehill College. In this work he outlines the philosophy and ritual practise of Iamblichus of Syria (ca. 240 325), whose teachings set the final form of pagan spirituality prior to the Christianization of the Roman Empire. Theurgy literally means "divine action" or "godly work" I describe how this work is useful for modern polytheists including Heathens like myself.

Is UK Society anti-Pagan? The Future of Polytheism in Britain

First published in WhyNow magazine 11th May 2022

It is estimated there are now over 250,000 pagans in the UK, in addition to a similar number of Hindus, who, like pagans, worship many gods. This summer the latest census results are due to be published and it is expected there will be a significantly greater number of pagans than in any previous year. The growth of pagan religions in the UK over the 20th and 21st centuries has been accompanied by an overall decline in religiosity, and a growing tolerance of religious diversity. The Witchcraft Act of 1735 was repealed in 1951 and common law offences relating to blasphemy were abolished in England and Wales in 2008 and in Scotland as recently as 2021. In light of these developments, it would seem Paganism is now just another faith among the diverse religions practised in modern Britain, but closer analysis reveals that ancient prejudices against traditional polytheistic religions still result in exclusionary language and policies from powerful institutions, even those which claim to promote diversity and interfaith dialogue.

Transnational organisations like the United Nations present themselves as representing the values of a “global humanity”, yet that organisation was founded by Westerners on a specific set of uniquely Western (and therefore Christian) values which they are attempting to impose on the world. While they condemn the old colonial European powers, they are in fact the natural continuation of them. The ancient Indian custom of Sati (ritual suicide of widows) appalled European colonists so it was banned by French, Dutch, Portuguese and British administrators who viewed it through a Christian moral lens. This is hardly different from the UN crusades against other religious customs which are unpalatable to Western tastes such as female circumcision and child marriage. The British government generally conforms to the same values as the UN and so we can see the notion of “religious freedom” is applied selectively both here and abroad.

The author Tom Holland has demonstrated in his book Dominion that the values of the modern West, even when it professes atheism and humanism, are rooted in Christianity. The idea of a global humanity exists in the Bible with the myth of the common ancestors Adam and Eve. The metaphorical description of time as a kind of space, through which one “progresses” becomes possible only with the invention of linear history and the “year 0” of Christ’s birth. Among traditional religious groups such as Hindus and European pagans, time is regarded as cyclical, so for them it is merely an abstraction to speak of “progress”. Yet unshakeable faith in progress is the defining belief system of the modern West and of global powers in general. This faith, looking ever forward to salvation in a future governed by ‘reason’ and furnished with the marvels of technological innovation, has inevitably become affiliated with the rather flimsy but popular philosophy of transhumanism.

Transhumanism has recently been promoted by the UN affiliated World Economic Forum and by UN promoted author Yuvel Harari. This is nothing new for the UN though - way back in 1957, the first director of UNESCO, Julian Huxley, expressed his desire to reject old superstitions and make way for a new belief he called "transhumanism". Its adherents assert that mankind is “limited” and that these limitations need to be overcome through technology. Just as Christ was said to have “conquered death”, some transhumanists see death as undesirable and unnecessary - an obstacle to be overcome through technology. Yet unlike Christians they do not believe in an immaterial, transcendent realm or God. The early Christian Gnostics asserted that this natural world is evil and that we must instead seek unification with God in the next world. Similarly, many transhumanists anticipate the emergence of a super artificial intelligence which shall surpass man, an event called the technological singularity, and that man may unify with this posthuman intelligence in a man-made realm of pure data - the materialist heaven. Feminist author Mary Harrington has coined the term “fully automated luxury Gnosticism” to describe the goals of certain very-online technophiles with an aversion to the natural world. This Messianic anticipation is also connected to the idea of the “posthuman” - the alleged next stage of non-biological human evolution (progress). This is no fringe cult. It is a hugely influential belief system promoted by the most powerful organisations on Earth. It is poised to become a global religion - a desirable outcome according to UN Assistant Secretary-General Robert Muller, “the philosopher of the United Nations'' who said the world’s religions must “globalize themselves” so they can “give birth to the first global, cosmic, universal civilization.”

Pagan thinkers like the Neoplatonist Iamblichus rejected Gnostic beliefs entirely, instead asserting that the material world is divine - existing within the divine. Most modern pagans also regard the natural world as holy. Hinduism and European forms of paganism revere death - some believe that in death you unite with ancestors, others that you are purified in the underworld so that you can be reincarnated. Death is itself deified as various gods of the underworld like Hela, Hades and Yama. As it says in the Atharva Veda “Praise to that Yama; praise to Death!” Whether you seek freedom from samsara, rebirth as a descendant or unification with the divine, death is essential and desirable. 

Another part of what defines pagan religions is their regional and temporal character - gods are worshipped because they are the gods of our ancestors, and rites are observed in sympathy with the cycles of the natural world. We cannot decouple paganism from the natural world - nor can paganisms be integrated into a global religion without ceasing to be pagan since they are defined by their regional and ethnic character.

So pagans are justifiably concerned about the rhetoric echoing from the halls of power which marginalises them, while claiming to represent them. That’s why we are coming together in London on the 25th of June 2022 for the Pagan Futures conference. The speakers are myself, Tom Rowsell, a practising pagan of 13 years, known for my YouTube channel Survive the Jive, and Dr. Borja Vilallonga, also a pagan and a scholar of history and religion previously at Columbia University, New York University, and the University of Newcastle. There will also be a live musical performance from the pagan folk artist Wolcensmen and a Q&A session during which the audience will be able to ask us about the pressing issues regarding the future of paganism in an increasingly anti-pagan, neo-Gnostic world.

Odin the Cuckold?

 

"Myths are things that never happened but always are" Sallustius

“Now, the myths imitate the gods themselves in terms of what is expressible and inexpressible, unclear and clear, manifest and hidden, and they imitate the goodness of the gods. So, as the gods have made the good things stemming from perceptible things common knowledge for all, but those stemming from intelligible things only to the wise, in the same way, the myths tell everyone that there are gods, but who they are and what they are like, they tell only to those who are able to understand.” Sallustius 

Myths can be interpreted in many ways; some are simply crude naturalistic or material stories which associate a god with natural phenomena. In addition to these Sallustius also describes Psychic myths which pertain to the activity of the soul and appeal to poets, and also Theological myths which do not pertain to material attributes and behaviours associated with the gods but convey aspects of the gods and divine wisdom philosophically. This last kind requires interpretation by the wise with specific reference to the nature of the gods in the context of the entire tiered cosmos. There are myths of this kind in which the gods behave in ways that are metaphysically problematic such as when a god kills, rapes or consumes another god - which naturally confuses those who attempt to interpret them literally. There are also certain myths which combine aspects of all three kinds of myth and can be understood by different kinds of people differently but must be dissected appropriately by the learned.

Here I shall offer an exercise in public myth interpretation, in the hope that the method I demonstrate not only illuminates the divine meaning of this particular myth, but that the method here shown shall serve as a model that others may use to aid them in their understanding of the gods and their pursuit of pious worship. 

This particular myth, which concerns Odin and his two brothers, has quite naturally confused many for centuries, since it is only recorded by Christians who have deliberately used it to defame the immortal gods, and one would be inclined to attribute the myth itself to Christian fabrication, were it not for the fact that it is recorded in similar forms by quite chronologically and geographically remote sources. 

Óðinn means “ecstatic one” and is formed with the prefix óðr which refers to the divine frenzy or ecstasy with which that god was associated. In Völuspá He and His brothers Vili (“will” as in “will power”) and Vé (“holy” or “holy space” which is cognate with with Gothic weiha 'priest' and with Old English weoh “idol” or “sacred space”) create the world through the first sacrifice of the primordial being, Ymir. This act is the foundation of all sacrifice and establishes order in the cosmos. All subsequent sacrifices recreate and participate in the same sacred moment when Ymir was slain, and from his disordered body came forth the ordered forms which constitute our world. The names of the three brothers demonstrate the prerequisites necessary for a sacrificer to perform a proper sacrifice; divine ecstasy, will and sacred space. 

This must be kept in mind when addressing the myth which is the subject of this blog post. The myth itself is alluded to in three sources; First in Lokasenna, a poem which may have been composed in the 10th century, and in which Odin’s wife Frigg “beloved / wife” is accused by Loki “lock / bound” of taking both Vili and Vé as lovers. Second, in Ynglinga saga, written by Snorri Sturlusson in the 13th century, there is an allusion to Odin’s long absence during which His brothers took over His kingdom and His wife.

“Odin had two brothers, the one called Ve, the other Vilje, and they governed the kingdom when he was absent. It happened once when Odin had gone to a great distance, and had been so long away that the people of Asia (nb. Anatolia - Snorri wrongly connects the Aesir to Anatolia by way of folk etymology) doubted if he would ever return home, that his two brothers took it upon themselves to divide his estate; but both of them took his wife Frigg to themselves. Odin soon after returned home, and took his wife back.” 

Ollerus surfing on a bone

The third source, Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum, is more complicated to interpret because the Christian author reduces all the gods to mortal humans with histories in Scandinavia and the near East. Saxo tells two or three heavily distorted stories which appear to pertain to the same original myth; in one of these, a euhemerised version of the god Ullr “glory” with the Latinised name Ollerus replaced Othinus (Odin) after the latter was banished for His rape of Rinda. Ollerus is described as a cunning wizard who could travel across the seas on a bone - He ruled for ten years, but was ultimately expelled by the returning Othinus, and killed by the Danes in Sweden. A second refers to another wizard called Mithotyn (Mit-Oðinn) who wanted to be worshipped as a god, and so seized the opportunity during another of Othinus’ journeys abroad, and led the people to pay holy observances to his name. Just as in the other story, Othinus returns and the usurper flees, but this time to Finland, and is there killed by the locals. Mithotyn apparently haunted his barrow thereafter - which is likely Saxo’s way of downplaying the significance of his cult which evidently spread to Finland. Saxo does not mention Frigg’s infidelity in either of these stories but he does in a third;

“But his queen Frigga, desiring to go forth more beautified, called smiths, and had the gold stripped from the statue (of Odin). Odin hanged them, and mounted the statue upon a pedestal, which by the marvellous skill of his art he made to speak when a mortal touched it. But still Frigga preferred the splendour of her own apparel to the divine honours of her husband, and submitted herself to the embraces of one of her servants; and it was by this man’s device she broke down the image, and turned to the service of her private wantonness that gold which had been devoted to public idolatry. Little thought she of practising unchastity, that she might the easier satisfy her greed, this woman so unworthy to be the consort of a god; but what should I here add, save that such a godhead was worthy of such a wife? So great was the error that of old befooled the minds of men. Thus Odin, wounded by the double trespass of his wife, resented the outrage to his image as keenly as that to his bed; and, ruffled by these two stinging dishonours, took to an exile overflowing with noble shame, imagining so to wipe off the slur of his ignominy.” 

From Saxo’s three mangled stories we can discern there was an original myth, free of Christian moralising and euhemerism, in which Odin was absent and during this time He was usurped by one or two other gods and that His wife Frigg was unfaithful during this absence. This then matches what Snorri preserved in Ynglinga saga and what we see in the earlier Lokasenna poem. 

Despite what pop culture representations and ill-informed online commenters may tell you, Germanic paganism was not at all tolerant of infidelity. Tacitus described the practices of the Germanic tribes of the 1st century as follows: 

“Very rare for so numerous a population is adultery, the punishment for which is prompt, and in the husband's power. Having cut off the hair of the adulteress and stripped her naked, he expels her from the house in the presence of her kinsfolk, and then flogs her through the whole village. The loss of chastity meets with no indulgence; neither beauty, youth, nor wealth will procure the culprit a husband.” 

1000 years later the Vikings of Iceland were less brutal towards such women but hardly any more forgiving. Adultery resulted in either divorce or fines, or both. So we cannot conclude that the infidelity of Frigg reflected a social tolerance of polyamory, promiscuity or infidelity since none of these were remotely acceptable. Therefore this myth must belong to the category which Sallustus termed Theological and must be explained philosophically. 

In light of my brief explication of the creation myth from Völuspá above, we can also understand the cuckold myth as relating to the danger of imbalance which threatens the stability of the sacrificial act whence the world and divine order proceeds. When one of the three essential prerequisites of sacrifice is absent; divine ecstasy, then the other two constituents expand beyond their natural limit, taking its place and thereby resulting in an abominable crime, here represented as cuckoldry - the defilement of the beloved - as well as the usurpation of the divine kingdom. The wise see the need for the balance of the three sacred components, but the unwise may proceed with a blót having only intent and a sacred space but none of the óðr and this lack produces an imbalance as shown in the myth. 

Óðr is often translated as “frenzy” “fury” or “madness” but it can equally be translated as “ecstasy”, from the Ancient Greek ἔκστασις ekstasis, "to be or stand outside oneself” and this more properly reflects the state of being one must first achieve prior to communion with the gods. As a noun the word can also mean "mind, feeling" and also "song, poetry" - the former pertaining in this context to the mindset or feeling proper to ritual space and time, and the latter pertaining to the sacred galdra “chants, songs” which Odin himself created, since he is called ein skǫpuðr galdra “the sole creator of galdra”.

There also remains the question as to the Identity of Odin’s brothers in other myths. Separate from the creation of the world, we also find in Völuspá a story of Odin and his two brothers who created mankind but here his brothers are named Lóðurr and Hoenir.

“17. Until there came three from that company, powerful and pleasant Æsir to a house. They found on land, lacking vigour, Ash and Embla, free of fate.

18. Breath they had not, energy they held not, no warmth, nor motion, nor healthy looks; breath (Önd can mean breath or spirit) gave Odin, energy (óð can mean energy but refers to a natural force present throughout nature) gave Hoenir, warmth gave Lódur, and healthy looks (the gifts of Lóðurr can also be translated as blood/flesh and good colour/hue/complexion).”
 Völuspá - Andy Orchard translation

Whether Lóðurr and Hoenir are identical to Vili and Vé is the subject of much scholarly debate but I will not cover that here, suffice to say that this is a possible interpretation. There is also a possibility, suggested by Hilda Ellis Davidson, that the three manifestations of Odin encountered by Gylfi in the Prose Edda and named Hárr “High”, Jafnhárr “Just-as-High”, and Þriði “Third”, can be identified as Odin, Vili and Vé. Each of these theories has merit, but even if they are incorrect, it does not affect my interpretation of the cuckolded Odin myth.

JIVE TALK: What is Shamanism? with Chris Luttichau

I went to Cornwall to meet Chris Luttichau who is a shaman who runs the Northern Drums Shamanic Training School and leads wilderness trips in northern Finland. Chris is Danish by birth but he trained with indigenous elders in North America, and now trains others in shamanic techniques. I visited him to learn more about shamanism which is now the fastest growing “religion” in the UK.

Anglo-Saxon roots of British Monarchy and the Coronation Ceremony

 His Majesty Charles III, King of the United Kingdom, will be crowned in May 2023 in a ritual which is nearly 1050 years old! The British monarchy and the ritual of coronation both have their origins in Anglo-Saxon England and its pagan kings who claimed descent from the King of the gods - Woden who the Vikings called Odin. In this video you will learn all the pagan elements that have survived in the modern coronation ritual - some of which date back to Ancient Rome!

Art: 

Raven god by Christian Sloan Hall
Sky father by Andrew Whyte
Wartooth Viking by Christian Sloan Hall
Odin and Sleipnir by Christopher Steininger
Odin and dead by Christian Sloan Hall
Hengist and Horsa by Graman

Sources:

Chaney, William, The Cult of Kingship in Anglo-Saxon England: The Transition from Paganism to Christianity, (Manchester University Press: 1970)
Dumville, David. N., 'Kingship, Genealogies and Regnal Lists' in Early medieval kingship, P.H. Sawyer & I.N. Wood (eds), (Leeds: 1977).
Eliade, M. ‘The Myth of the Eternal Return’ (1954).
Faulkes, A., Six papers on The Prose Edda: Descent from the gods. 2nd ed, (Viking society for northern research: 2007).
HENRY MAYR- HARTING, 'The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England, (3rd ed. Philadelphia, 1991) Bath Press.
Rowsell, T., “Woden and his Roles in Anglo-Saxon Royal Genealogy”, University College London, (2012).

PAGAN FUTURES - Talks, photos and Key points

The playlist below contains the talks of Dr. Borja Vilallonga and myself, Tom Rowsell, as well as the live musical performances by Wolcensmen and the Q and A panel session with the three of us interacting with the audience.

Several people have requested that I post the summary of the core assertions of pagan belief from the talk as text for people to refer to. To reiterate them simply; 

• We revere nature as a path to the divine and therefore require access to sacred natural spaces 
• We revere death as a path to the divine and therefore reject any ideology that seeks to escape death
• We revere our bodies as a gift from the gods - which were created according to divine will and are therefore neither incomplete nor imperfect - but must be maintained and kept healthy and strong 
• We believe that the diversity of mankind is a manifestation of divine will, not a problem to be overcome - and that to approach the divine we must follow the example of our own ancestors, revering the sacred spaces of our own ancestral homelands in order to become closer to the gods of our ancestors
• We must therefore live in accordance with our own ancestral laws and customs

My talk "Pagan Tradition in a Globalized Future" is also available on Odysee and several podcasting websites.

PAGAN FUTURES: London Conference

• Date –   25th June 2022

• Place –   London, UK

• Theme –   European polytheistic traditions in a globalised future

Pagans represent a small but growing force within the diverse religious landscape of the UK and Europe at large. Despite this, the philosophical and political foundations of British, and Western institutions in general, presume common values predicated on thought systems which exclude pagans. How can the integrity of our tradition be upheld going forward?

Key Points

• This conference is being organised in association with the Survive the Jive™ Historical Research Project.
• The theme of this conference is- 'Preserving European spiritual traditions in a globalised future'.
• The purpose of this conference is to bring together polytheist thought leaders of the Indo-European traditions to consider building a philosophical framework for preserving the integrity of our traditions within an emerging new world order
• Historian, YouTuber and renowned polytheist Thomas Rowsell known for the Survive the Jive YouTube channel shall be the keynote speaker.
• Dr.Borja Vilallonga, Ph.D. is a scholar of history and religion previously at Columbia University, New York University, and the University of Newcastle. He has devoted his research to the relationship between traditional religion and modernity and runs a YouTube channel called 'The Modern Platonist'
• There will a live musical performance from the pagan folk artist Wolcensmen
• Audience participation is encouraged during a Q and A session with the speakers
• It is estimated there are over 250,000 pagan polytheists in the UK in addition to a similar number of Hindus
• Current political rhetoric regarding alleged ‘common values’ of ‘global humanity’ deliberately marginalises, excludes or misrepresents the deeply held beliefs of polytheists
• Advancements in technology pose challenges to those who uphold pagan systems of ethics
• Let us address these issues and more, together

Tickets available via eventbrite

JIVE TALK: Acharya returns to discuss Vedic wisdom in the Kali Yuga

Belief in the Unknown and Unknowable

Once more, before I move on
and set my sights ahead,
in loneliness I lift my hands up to you,
you to whom I flee,
to whom I, in the deepmost depth of my heart,
solemnly consecrated altars
so that ever
your voice may summon me again.

Deeply graved into those altars
glows the phrase: To The Unknown God.
I am his, although I have, until now,
also lingered amid the unholy mob;
I am his—and I feel the snares
that pull me down in the struggle and,
if I would flee,
compel me yet into his service.

I want to know you, Unknown One,
Who reaches deep into my soul,
Who roams through my life like a storm—
You Unfathomable One, akin to me!
I want to know you, even serve you.

—Friedrich Nietzsche, 1864. Translated by Michael Moynihan

Nietzsche here frankly expresses a strikingly honest form of spirituality which I believe typified the highest sentiments of the Indo-European spiritual worldview. It combines faith, which most religions require, with an honest appraisal of what is truly known of the divine by mortals. In this case the existence of the god is unquestioned, but the exact nature or even the name of the god are not known.

In this post I will provide some examples of this heroic spiritual view of the divine and of death. Consider the Nāsadīya Sūkta also known as the Hymn of Creation, the 129th hymn of the 10th mandala of the Rigveda (10:129). In it, the speaker or singer asks philosophical questions about Creation, and answers himself - we do not know and maybe even the creator himself does not know.

1. Then even non-existence was not there, nor existence,

There was no air then, nor the space beyond it.

What covered it? Where was it? In whose keeping?

Was there then cosmic fluid, in depths unfathomed?

2. Then there was neither death nor immortality

nor was there then the torch of night and day.

The One breathed windlessly and self-sustaining.

There was that One then, and there was no other.

3. At first there was only darkness wrapped in darkness.

All this was only unillumined cosmic water.

That One which came to be, enclosed in nothing,

arose at last, born of the power of knowledge.

4. In the beginning desire descended on it -

that was the primal seed, born of the mind.

The sages who have searched their hearts with wisdom

know that which is, is kin to that which is not.

5. And they have stretched their cord across the void,

and know what was above, and what below.

Seminal powers made fertile mighty forces.

Below was strength, and over it was impulse.

6. But, after all, who knows, and who can say

Whence it all came, and how creation happened?

the gods themselves are later than creation,

so who knows truly whence it has arisen?

7. Whence all creation had its origin,

the creator, whether he fashioned it or whether he did not,

the creator, who surveys it all from highest heaven,

he knows — or maybe even he does not know.

This reflects the religious attitude of the Bronze Age Aryan, in which no insincere claims are made about what can actually be known with any certainty by mere mortals. Obviously this is less consoling than a religion which claims to have all the answers, but in this spiritual worldview, truth comes first.

This same attitude is evident in Greece where there was a shrine to the unknown God at the Areopagus. St Paul exploits this in his sermon, twisting the pagan honesty about that which is unknown of the divine, and calling this a failing of the pagan faith.

"As I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship — and this is what I am going to proclaim to you."

Either in ignorance, or as a technique of deception, Paul missed the pious and honest religious meaning of celebrating that which is unknown and unknowable of the divine by mortals. Christianity can not accommodate this kind of expression of faith, if it did we should see Christian prayers where they ask frank questions about what it is possible for them to know with certainty:

"Did the angel really appear to Mary or was it a daemon? We cannot say.
Was Jesus really a god or was he possessed by a daemon? It cannot be known.
Is YHWH the only god or is he lying? Maybe even He himself doesn’t know for sure.”

Instead, even uttering such things is called heresy. The Bible and the Abrahamic faiths in general provide only a tautological argument that their claims are true because of the scripture and that the scripture is true because it says it is true.

We have seen how Christianity exploited the frank admission by Greek pagans of what can be known of the divine by manipulating the less secure and less knowledgeable pagans who longed for consoling answers to the great unanswerable questions. I believe the same thing occurred 700 years later in England.

In Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, Bede describes how the pagan King Edwin of the Northumbrians calls a council of his wisest retainers to debate whether they should convert to Christianity and it is at this point that one of the "king's chief men" gave the following speech:

“The present life of man upon earth, O King, seems to me in comparison with that time which is unknown to us like the swift flight of a sparrow through the mead-hall where you sit at supper in winter, with your Ealdormen and thanes, while the fire blazes in the midst and the hall is warmed, but the wintry storms of rain or snow are raging abroad. The sparrow, flying in at one door and immediately out at another, whilst he is within, is safe from the wintry tempest, but after a short space of fair weather, he immediately vanishes out of your sight, passing from winter to winter again. So this life of man appears for a little while, but of what is to follow or what went before we know nothing at all.”

Evidently the anecdote is provided by Bede as an example of a pagan feeling hopeless with the uncertainty of pagan beliefs, and thus wanting something more solid in the form of Christian doctrine. However, this story is intended to impress pagans and encourage them to convert and is part of a conversion narrative, therefore we should expect to see in it tropes that would be recognised by pagans. For that reason I believe that Bede has used a well known pagan poetic metaphor about the uncertainty of life, not only after death, but before birth! I have covered in my videos how Germanic and Celtic pagans believed in a form of reincarnation so the fate of the “soul” prior to birth was also a concerning question for them.

The idea that this passage was just an expression of Christian belief is unsatisfactory because Christians do claim to know the fate of the soul after death and they certainly do not consider that souls have a similar existence prior to birth as they do after death. The possibility that this passage is a modified pagan metaphor, misrepresented by Bede in a similar way to how Paul had misrepresented the unknown god, seems very likely and it is therefore mysterious to me that no other historian has suggested it (as far as I am aware). The passage was, after all, put in the mouth of a pagan Anglo-Saxon, so why should we not presume it is intended to reflect a pagan world view to some extent?

I am also convinced it has pagan provenance because it matches the heroic and frank attitude toward death and the divine which is seen elsewhere in Indo-European religions and which I have outlined above.

The same heroic, Indo-European fatalistic resolve in the face of death survives in Buddhism and is beautifully portrayed in the film Kagemusha by Kurosawa. In the scene below, Oda Nobunaga the demon king, quotes the following lines:

"Human life lasts only 50 years, compare it with the life of Geten (a form of Buddhist paradise, where one day lasts years of our world), it is truly a dream and an illusion. Life, once given, cannot last forever”

The text recited by Oda Nobunaga is from a Japanese Noh play called "Atsumori" which was named after Taira no Atsumori, a Taira soldier who died during the Gempei war 1180-1185 (Taira vs Minamoto clan). The Oda clan claimed descent from the Taira and this dance and song is famous for having been recited by Oda Nobunaga which is why Kurosawa included it in Kagemusha. Watching this performance, I can imagine the story of the sparrow in the hall was sung in a similar way, in a meadhall by a scop to all the Thegns and the Lord. I imagine them moodily pondering the unknowable destiny of the soul as the scop strummed his lyre and recited the holy verses.

Holy holes: Passing through and looking through

 

Passing through rituals involving holes in stones and trees are widespread in Europe and beyond and are related to rituals that involve looking through a hole to see spirits. In this video we look at the passing through rituals associated with megalithic structures in Britain and Ireland, and the arboreal passing through rituals associated with oak and ash trees all over Europe, known as träddragning in Nordic countries. We also look at the related customs of looking through holes among the Sami and the Welsh, the Odinic ritual of looking through an arm akimbo as described in the Viking saga of King Hrólfr Kraki, and at the hagstone or adderstone tradition from Britain and the associated magical practices. 

Animations by Castor and Bollux animation: 

Will  

Eliot  

Efa 

Additional art by: 

Thomas Cormack - Elf blot 

 Christian Sloan Hall - Odin 

Graman Folcwald - Anglo-Saxon burial 

Christopher Steininger - Odin

Sources:

Camden, W., ‘Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland’ (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610) Copyright 2004 by Dana F. Sutton. 

Campbell, J. G., ‘Witchcraft & second sight in the Highlands & islands of Scotland’ (1902). Davies, J. C., ‘Folk-lore of West and mid-Wales’ (1911). 

Evans, George E., ‘The Pattern Under the Plough’ (1966). 

Guðmundsson, H., ‘Handan hafsins’ Háskólaútgáfan (2012). 

Hand, Wayland D. “‘Passing Through’: Folk Medical Magic and Symbolism.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 112, no. 6, 1968, pp. 379–402. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/985938. 

Kuusela, T., 'He met his own funeral procession': The Year walk-ritual in Swedish folk tradition. Chapter in: "Folk Belief and Traditions of the Supernatural". Edited by Tommy Kuusela & Giuseppe Maiello. Beewolf Press 2016. Pp. 58-91. 

Saxo Grammaticus. Gesta Danorum: the History of the Danes I, ed. Karsten Friis-Jensen, and trans. Peter Fisher (Oxford, 2014), book 2, ch. 7, pp. 138–39. 

Marwick, E. (1975) The Stone of Odin. In Robertson, J. D. M. (1991) An Orkney Anthology: The Selected Works of Ernest Walker Marwick (Vol 1). Scottish Academic Press: Edinburgh. 

McDowall, Sue ‘PASSING THROUGH & UNDER: A RITUAL HEALING IN ENGLAND’ Folklore Thursday blog. 

National Folklore Collection, University College Dublin. https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/5009137/4990205/5100637 https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/5009301/5005811/5133480 https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4922361/4874175 https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/5009277/5003835/5131790 

Ryan, Derek ‘Hag Stones, are they an example of authentic Irish folklore or a neo-pagan import?’ The Tipperary antiquarian blog (2019) 

Rydving, Hakan. (2010). The 'Bear Ceremonial' and Bear Rituals among the Khanty and the Sami. Temenos. 46. 31-52. 10.33356/temenos.6940. 

Skott, F., ‘Passing Through as Healing and Crime’ (2014). 

Thoms, William J. “Divination by the Blade-Bone.” The Folk-Lore Record, vol. 1, 1878, pp. 176–179. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1252358.

The Afterlife and the secret Odin Brotherhood with Dr. Mark Mirabello

Mark Mirabello, Ph.D., is a professor of history at Shawnee State University in Ohio and a former visiting professor of history at Nizhny Novgorod University in Russia. He has appeared on Ancient Aliens and America’s Book of Secrets on the History Channel as well as in the documentary The Kingdom of Survival. He is the author of The Traveler's Guide to the Afterlife which Examines beliefs from many different cultures on the soul, heaven, hell, and reincarnation; and also The Odin Brotherhood, first published in 1992, in which Mirabello reveals some of the secrets of a mysterious society in Britain which values "knowledge, freedom and power" as part of their occult work which honours Odin and the other Norse gods. I asked him about these and other subjects pertaining to magic, the afterlife and pagan beliefs.

Learn more about him and his published works on www.markmirabello.com 

Podcast: Interview with Ralph Harrison of the Odinist Fellowship

This Podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, Player FM and all good podcasting apps and platforms.

Ralph Harrison has been an Odinist for 40 years. He is the Director of the Odinist Fellowship, the UK’s only registered charity for the indigenous faith of the English people. They acquired a 16th century chapel in Newark which was consecrated on Midsummer's Day 2014 as the first heathen Temple in England for well over a thousand years. You can donate to the charity or the temple using the links below. Ralph and I had a nice chat about the Heathen religion, its rise in popularity in recent years due to the success of TV programs like Vikings, and also the dangers the faith faces from new age influences like Wicca and naturalism.

Contact the Odinist Fellowship

 Email  OF website 

Address:
ODINIST FELLOWSHIP,
B.M. EDDA,
LONDON WC1N 3XX.

Newark Temple website
Newark Temple Facebook page

Where did Celts come from? Who were the Druids?

Celts are known for tartan, faeries, druids, bagpipes and the British Isles - but the origins of the Celtic culture lie in the Unetice culture of Bronze age central Europe and it spread out with the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures. In this history documentary, I look at the genetic evidence for the spread of Celts into Britain and Ireland in the Iron Age, as well as the Galatian Celts into Anatolia. Then I examine some Celtic archaeological artefacts such as the Gundestrup cauldron and the Marlborough bucket and I introduce the viewer to some of the basic aspects of Druidry and the Indo-European religion of the ancient Celts.

Celtic chariot warrrior art by Alex Cristi

Aristocratic Iron age Gaul and Caledonian Death Lord art by Christian Sloan Hall

T-shirts with the Gaul design are available here...

Jive Talk: The Role of the Pagan Priest

Arya Akasha and the Nordic-Vedic alliance

Big-brained Barbarians! with Dr. Edward Dutton (The Jolly Heretic)

Cognitive evolution and European history.
Modern population genetics shows that enormous genetic replacement occurred in Neolithic Europe which, as well as changing the religions in Europe, surely had an effect on heritable traits like intelligence and behaviour. I am speaking to Dr Edward Dutton aka The Jolly heretic about what the implications of these genetic shifts are in terms of the cognitive evolution of Europeans - can cognitive archeogenetics help us to understand the massive success of the Indo-European cultures over the Bronze Age compared with their Neolithic predecessors? Were the Indo-Europeans really clever chaps? Watch and find out!

The Living Wooden Idol that Speaks - Tremann

The word Trémann (tree man) appears several times in Norse sources, referring to some kind of living wooden idol. In Flateyjarbók, Ogmundr the Dane goes ashore at Samsey and finds a "trémann fornan" (ancient tree man) 140ft high and covered in moss and he wondered who worshipped this enormous god. In other cases the tremann is alive, such as in one story one is sent by pagan Hakon Jarl to kill Thorleifr Jarlaskald. This one was made from driftwood and dressed in human clothes with a human heart placed inside it and it was named Þorgarðr. The fact that Þorgarðr is referred to in a kenning as the Gautr of the battlefire, associates him with Odin, since Gautr is a name for Odin. In Havamal 49 a verse describes how Odin clothes two wooden men with the armour of noblemen, and in so doing turns them to demons of battle, presumably for his army in Valhöll.

There are other sources that associate Odin with the creation of idols that he makes live, such as The Old English gnomic poem Maxims I phrase 'Woden worhte weos' ('Woden made idols'’) and the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus, who pretended that Odin was only a man, still admitted that he had the power to make inanimate statues speak.

All this was brought to my mind when I witnessed the funerary puppet dancing of the Batak people in Sumatra. Batak pagan priests made human-sized puppets which were dressed like those who had died and were manipulated by the Datu to dance, weep, gnash their teeth, and speak in the voice of the deceased. The puppets were used to revive souls of the dead and communicate with them. An extraordinarily Odinic form of necromancy. There is no historic link between Indonesia and the Odin cult of course, but the similarity is testament to the perennial nature of pagan truth. You can see it in my new video here.