The biggest problems of finding back to our own heritage is of course that the Judeo-Christians have actively tried to destroy it, murder those who kept it alive and replace it or at best empty it and fill it to the brim with their own alien contents. They have even done this for more than a thousand years most places in Europe, and at least for hundreds of years.

This problem is rather obvious though, but we also have another and much less known problem in this context. You see, when we think of e. g. the Viking Age, we assume that the Scandinavians living at that time knew the ins and outs of their heritage perfectly well. The same applies to the Romans and the Ancient Greeks, the Galls and the Britons as well as all other ancient peoples in Europe.

In reality, we see clear evidence that they did not know their own traditions very well, even back them. One such evidence came to light with Sir James Frazer’s “The Golden Bough”, where he discussed a priest of Diana by a sacred tree by the Nemi lake. Other Romans, such as Ovid, clearly did not actually know why this priest was there, why he protected the sacred boughs of the tree, why he had to be replaced by a stronger priest and so forth. It was actually already a mystery by then. One writer, the Greek geographer Strabo, even called it a “barbarian” element.

Do you really think that if they actually knew their own traditions in and out, they would not know what this was all about?!

The fact is that even in Classical Antiquity, our “Pagan” heritage had become veiled in mystery. Many no longer knew why they prayed, why they made sacrifices, what the myths meant, what the gods were, why they buried people with their most appreciated belongings, what their high festivals were actually all about, and so forth.

Before I explain why this was the case, let me make a point I really wish to stress here: when we use sources from Classical Antiquity we actually use sources written by people who often did not know what they were talking about. Even to them all of this was veiled and incomprehensible, and they were left to simply parrot what others said about this, without actually understanding much about it, if anything at all.

We see clear evidence of this lack of understanding of our own heritage all over Europe, from Classical Antiquity to the Viking Age and well into the Renaissance, when we still had parts of our populations (uninterrupted since the Stone Age) practising our own traditions.

Why?

Well, this is complicated, but I will try to explain it as best I can. You see, our pre-Christian “Pagan” heritage stems from the Bear Cult of our most ancient forebears, the Neanderthals. It is hundreds of thousands of years old, and yes, we practised this tradition continuously from the Stone Age and into historical times. For most part, it was unaltered throughout, but yes, even in fairly near pre-history something changed. First of all our forebears adopted agriculture, after hundreds of thousands of years of hunting and gathering. This lead to a dramatic increase in the population, because food became easily available for everyone and in abundance. But it also lead to war, famine, tyranny, slavery and malnutrition. War because when the crops failed in one place, they would try to take the food from someone else, whom had have better luck. Famine because some times the crops failed and warfare as well. Tyranny because someone came to control the food production, and thus decided over the fate of others. Lords (“Hle-worð”, meaning “Bread Warden”) and Ladies (“Hle-dige”, meaning “Baker of Bread”) emerged; rulers who could distribute bread only to loyal men, and let the others starve. Slavery because the Lords and Ladies needed people to work in the fields. Malnutrition because they went from eating a little bit of everything in nature, to eating mainly one thing.

Before agriculture the traditions applied to everyone. Every single boy and girl had to go through the same rites of passage, they had to experience the same, know the same, see the same and grow with and because of this. They all reincarnated. They all emerged from the Bear Cave when they were around 7 years old; reincarnated!

They also had to understand the same. If they failed to understand, to solve the riddles, to find the way, to remember the passwords, to become themselves again, they would probably not be eligible for marriage and thus reproduction. There was little room for weakness, of any kind.

With agriculture and the multiplication of man this changed. Only some were granted access to the sacred sites, to the burial mounds, to the sacred items. To reincarnation. To the mysteries. The rest were left to wonder; to participate without any enlightenment.

Another problem with agriculture is that over time it does not improve the species. Malnutrition alone leads to smaller muscles, weaker bones and smaller brains, and of course famine does the same. Slavery leads to smaller “hearts”, if nothing else. War leads to the butchery of the courageous mainly, and the survival of cowards who run away to safety rather than fight. Tyranny leads to dishonesty and submission. So when you practise agriculture for thousands of years, you end up with a Neanderthal who might still look like a Nordic man, but he is a weaker, more coward, thinner, less honest, less kind and much less intelligent version of himself.

The “problem” with the Bear Cult of the Neanderthals was that it was a scientifically sound world view. It was based on facts and reality, and the pre-requisites to understand it and learn from it were many. So as time passed by, with agriculture, fewer and fewer even of the select group of Lords and Ladies still allowed to actually benefit from this tradition, were able to. Yes, indeed. As they became less and less intelligent, strong, courageous, honest, and kind, fewer and fewer of them passed the tests.

That is, they went through the same rites (education), but fewer and fewer of them actually benefited from this. Thus fewer and fewer of them actually understood the traditions and what they were all about. Think of mathematics. If you teach complex mathematics to very intelligent and well-educated adults, they are likely to understand and benefit from this education. But if you try to teach complex mathematics to children with no education, they will learn nothing, or at best very little. Our hunter-gatherer forebears were able to benefit from this education, but with the rise of agriculture, fewer and fewer were able to.

Then, as if agriculture had not been enough, civilization arrived, and the drop in human quality accelerated dramatically. Even the bits that had made sense thus far, even to ordinary people, lost all sense and meaning, and those who kept on doing it lost all understanding of why they did it and what they were doing.

And this is where we enter into history, when people started writing down much of what we today know – or think we know – about our history and heritage. Alas!

Now, we see a heritage left impotent by the decline in man, but at the same time there were indeed people who still understood what our heritage was all about. People who kept it alive, and practised it as it was intended. They however, did not live in any civilizations, they were all “barbarians”, and as you know, they did not write any books – and more often than not they fell victims to the greed and wrath of more numerous civilized peoples. The last of these superior human beings amongst us probably perished in deadly torture, flames or gallows, as the foreign Judeo-Christians went forth screaming “burn the witches”, with the intention of halting the Renaissance (of Pagan ideas and ideals).

***

Conclusion: when writers even in Classical Antiquity did not really know the ins and outs of our heritage, you must mainly seek elsewhere to be able to find back to your roots and what grew from them. You must use your brains and heart, your blood and the soil your forebears walked on, to find back to your heritage and to your real yourself; your purpose, direction and happiness.

The long shadow and impenetrable darkness of agriculture and civilization, and of that spiritual plague that we call “Christianity”, can be banished by one single ancestral light. Kindle it, and you shall see…

V.

28/04/22

There seem to be a discussion going on amongst Pagans regarding the nature, use and purpose of prayers. On one side we have those who say that prayers are useless and on the other those who pray to the gods like Judeo-Christians (and Muslims) pray to their “god”. So let us shed some light on prayers…

Be it English, German, Dutch, Latin or Norse, the term for “pray” means simply “to ask for”. When you pray you ask your deity for something.

To find out more about prayers we need to go back in time, to the origins of prayers. Naturally, like with pretty much everything else adopted by the Abrahamists, prayers go back to the Stone Age, when our “savage” forebears roamed the forests of Europe. They discovered that when you take a seed and put it into the soil, a plant will grow from it. That is, if the right amount of sunlight and rain falls upon the spot where you put the seed into the ground. They kneeled down, with seeds in their (folded) hands, and sowed… when done, they looked to the sky, asking, hoping for sunlight or rain, or rather both, in the right amount.

They had collected these seeds for food, but by sacrificing them this way, they could give to nature so that nature could give to them, later on. They asked for Mother Nature to give. They prayed to the Earth goddess. They asked for the Sky to give. They prayed to the Sky god. Like the Romans described their relation to the deities: Do ut des (“I give in order that you may give”).

A prayer is called a “bøn(n)” in Scandinavia. The original meaning of the term is “speech”, but it also means “bean”. Yes. They put beans into the soil. They prayed that Mother Nature would give to them, because they had given her beans.

You don’t believe me? Well. Have you ever seen a “rosary”? “Prayer beads”? They are made up of a thread with… beans on them. The beans are used to count the number of prayers or chants or mantras of the religious person. So even today, beans are still used for prayers. In pretty much all religions.

The problem, I think, is not whether or not prayers were used, or whether or not they worked, but rather whether or not we understand what a prayer actually is, or indeed what Ancient Man meant by it in Classical Antiquity, when much about prayers was recorded.

The idea that “I give in order that you may give” is where our attention should be here. Making sacrifices and praying. Yes. They did it, and they did it because they understood that there need to be a balance in nature. You cannot take everything for yourself without consequence. In fact, you cannot take everything for yourself without dramatic consequences. If I come across a group of oak trees and I cut down the trees for firewood and take all the acorns for myself, then no new oak trees will grow there. I have to make a sacrifice: give back to nature something I have harvested, lest I will suffer. So I pray; I plant some of the acorns. I give (sacrifice) in order that Mother Nature may give. She cannot if I offer no prayers and make no such sacrifice.

They understood that you had to give to the gods in order for the gods to give something back to you. If you gave nothing, of you offered them no prayers or sacrifice, the gods would “punish” you.

To maintain a good relationship to the gods was incredibly important. For tens of thousands of years, they prayed to them and made sacrifices to them, as I have described above. When harvesting, they always left some for birds or other animals, and for the soil, as a sacrifice to the gods. When they hunted, they always left some of the meat, as a sacrifice to the gods. They gave so that the gods could give.

When mankind became civilized he gradually lost contact with nature and thus the gods. Prayers and making sacrifices became more illogical and abstract, where it before had been perfectly logical and concrete. Instead of actually planting seeds in the ground with folded hands, asking the gods for the seed to grow into a plant, they just kneeled down with folded hands, asking the gods for something else. Instead of holding the hands to the sky, asking the gods for sunshine or rainfall, they held their hands to the sky asking for something else. Prayers and making sacrifices lost their meaning.

They still believed that it was important to pray to the gods and to make sacrifices to them, to avoid their wrath. But of course, it had all lost its meaning and purpose.

And this is where we are today, with all these different religious people praying to their favourite god or gods, using rosaries without knowing why, kneeling down with folded hands without knowing why, addressing the sky without knowing why, etc.

The original tradition was about moderation and enabling a species, mankind, with great potential for destruction, to actually live in harmony with Mother Nature. Making sacrifices and praying (sowing) to ensure the continued growth of the plants he harvested or cut down – or sharing fish or meat with other animals, so that they would not starve because man had hunted too many of their prey.

Today prayer is basically just a means for useless or lazy people to have some fictional power they believe in to give them something they do not deserve to begin with. When they claim their god or gods answer their prayers, this has more to do with mental disease or simple dishonesty than anything else. Mother Earth does not “answer” your prayers that way. The Sky God does not “answer” your prayers that way. They answer in form of growth of the seeds you sow, or in form of sunlight and rainfall. All you could ever want.

As a Pagan I make sacrifices every day, and I pray almost every day. Not like some civilized clown with zero contact with the divine, but like my most ancient forebears. I give to the gods so that they may give to me. I sow seeds, I plant, I give a share of my food to birds and other animals. I help myself by helping the gods. I live as part of Mother Nature, instead of as one in constant conflict with her.

The gods help those who help themselves.

27/04/22