Let me share with you something of a personal matter. For as long as I can remember, being aware of my troth to the gods of my forefathers and awakened to my northern heritage, I always placed spirituality above everything else. Because to me, spiritual matters are part of what is eternal in essence, that which is not bound by the chains on time and space. What occurs on Midhgardhr in our physical bodies are limited to the hold time exerts upon us. There is nothing we as humans can do about this fact. The Norns have weaved our destinies and we must live our lives honourably and with courage. We cannot choose when or how we die, but we can choose how we live.

The arguments I had in the past with fellow heathens, Odinists or not, have often been regarding this spiritual predominance of mine over the more earthly matters. The esoteric, over the exoteric. I was and am still by no means downplaying the vital importance of being in tune with the earth ad its cycles, but as I was trying to explain to them was that, in my own understanding of the Völuspa, although mother earth gave us birth from her womb (Ask and Embla) it was father sky (Odin) that gave their bodies the breath of life. To me, that signifies the predominance of the spiritual over the physical as the true completion of what makes us whole: Fylgia, Hamr, Hugr.

A body (hugr) without the spirit (fylgia) will not be blessed with conscience (hamr). But the spirit alone will exist without its earthly cage. When we ascend to the golden halls of Valhalla, it is not the Hugr that rides across the rainbow bridge, but a manifestation of it at a higher level of existence, one that is not bound by time and space as prior mentioned. ..Valhalla.. represents the highest level of spiritual awareness. It is of course romanticized with great halls where fallen heroes feast and drink and brawl until the Ragnarök, but it is much more that a mere banquet of Einherjärs.

Asgardhr, where the halls of ..Valhalla.. reside, is the realm of the sky gods Aesir: Gods of war. The sky and the sun have always been associated with wisdom and knowledge revealed (masculine aspect). Just as the earth and the moon represent occult mysteries yet to be discovered (feminine aspect). No sexist insinuation here. This is true in many other non-European cultures. This association of sky-spirit and earth-body is as old as there were religious beliefs on Midhgardhr. Wherever our vital energy came from, it could return after bodily death and pursue its eternal existence. But our bodies simply return to the earth and dissolves, as all “living” organism must. This rather metaphysical approach to Odinism has been met with some disapproval and even anger at my un-glorifiction of mother earth and her gifts. But this is not true, as it is often the case with such discussions, I was misunderstood. I would never insult and diminish the importance of the earth and it's blessings to our folk, but there is a line to be drawn between the glorification of earthly vessels and that of spiritual symbolism.

One easy example: What is more important in essence, the wisdom of the Eddas, or the book itself? The same can be said about a man and his words. What is more important, the actual speaker or his message? It is the same with spiritual/earthly matters. Without taking away the valour of the vessel transmitting the message, what is truly important IS the message itself. A tree, a stone, a stream, flowers, all can be respected, loved and protected but never “worshiped”. Even the gods are not to be worshiped in reality. Worshiping implies lowering oneself before the gods. We Odinists do not bow our neck on bended knee before the gods of our fathers. We stand proud and look at them in the eye. We Honour them and pay respect with Blotar. Through history, man has misplaced it's faith in earthly matters, idolizing men to a godhood stature when it was the wisdom they brought to the world that needed attention. The actual vessel became more important than the symbol it represented. This was the case with Hitler. Individuals venerating the man when in fact, the man is just transmitting something that does not belong to him. He was simply given the task to pass a message to the folk.

That is what I mean when I imply that earthly bound, material things, in my opinion do not hold the same value as eternal spiritual ones. We need the land, we need water and food for our bodies to survive and bring forth new life so that our folk can grow and prosper, but all this is useless; children, folk, race, life itself, if there is no higher purpose for our immortal Fylgia to ascend too after physical death. A race without spirituality, “existing” only, NOT living, has no divine flame in its folk soul. Without that Flame, the eye of Odin burning, what are we? Mere biped humanoids walking the earth? Eating, reproducing and dying? Our folk have a higher purpose than simply breathing it's life away like soulless zombies as the modern agents of dissolution (ZOG) would have us all become.

It is time for understanding. Time to rediscover a lost spirituality which has been misplaced and misinterpreted. The Flame never died, it simply dimmed behind the mist of ignorance. Those of our folk who have walked and are still walking the northern path can see through that mist with the light of the All-Father. You need only to close your eyes and listen…the calling of the bronze horn will echo in the silence. Follow that echo to the source, deep down inside. For that echo comes from within you as it always had. You were only deaf to its sound. Let your ancestors long gone guide you, for even though they may not be with you in flesh and blood, their spirit never left.

May Odin guide and guard you well.

Vjohrrnt O.Wodansson 2259 runic era.