ABOUT THE PICTURE ABOVE:

We see Balder rising from Hel after Ragnarok. In his right hand are the copies of the Draupnir rings. In his left hand is Odin's spear, Gungir. Above his head is Aegir's Cauldron, in which a holy ale is brewed from Balder's blood with regenerative powers. Around Balder is the Futhark. Balder is wearing a garment made from the red cloth that Odin covered his body with when it laid on its funeral pyre.

BALDER WILL RISE WITHIN YOU!!!!!

THE REBIRTH OF THE GODS

The old order is in advanced decay. The world as we know it is rapidly falling apart. The West is in a state of decline and the forces of darkness are rapidly spreading across the world.

We stand between two ages—the wheel turns. The previous age is fading into the past as Loki is rallying the forces of destruction to assault the old order, plunging the world into chaos. The darkness and oppression of the great winter, Fimbul, is quickly overtaking the ordered world of the previous age. We are entering a time of the Giants, when their chaos will rule over mankind, shattering the institutions, traditions and nations that gave meaning and hope to our people and ancestors. We are entering a new dark age–the Age of Fimbulvetr.

The previous age was one in which the Gods of our ancestors spoke to us through the facade of an alien creed. They existed in a semi-comatose state, because we had adopted a facade between us and them. That facade was the alien creed of Christianity. But now that Christianity is fading, and the old Gods are beginning to awaken once more, they are readying themselves to throw off the yoke of the foreign garb of a false identity, and speak to us once more in their true form. Our people have passed through two ages. In the first, they were born but were scattered and separated into different nations, ethnic groups and even civilizations. The Gods of our ancestors soon took on different names and were worshiped in various ways depending on the environment in which they chose to settle. Thus, the old Gods took on many different guises and names. Our ancestors tried to give order to the many different interpretations of their Gods, but eventually the confusion grew worse, until finally, a creed completely alien won out over this confusion of faiths. Because they were weakened and divided, they succumbed to the alien creed.

But the Life Force of the Gods that gave birth to our people could not be denied, and soon the alien creed was transformed by the spirit of the old Gods. The Gods that gave birth to us still spoke to us, but instead of speaking to us in a confused manner through various identities, they spoke to us through a single, but alien identity. But even this would not last, and that alien creed is now fading away. We are no longer divided into various nations and tribes. Within America we have come together as one people. Even in Europe there is a coming together of the many different nations and nationalities of our Folk. A time of unification is dawning, and the opportunity for the Gods of our ancestors to speak to us once more in their true form is upon us. And this time, they will speak with one voice to all our people.

There are still great dangers ahead. The turning when one age dies and another is born is always a dangerous time. Chaos rules, and within the confusion Loki has the opportunity to lead our people astray. If he is successful, his father, Sutur, will lay waste to everything, and fearfully; the devastation could be so great that we never rise again. If that is so, the Gods will not return and there will be no rebirth, and hence the bright light of enlightened humanity will never again bless this world with the wonders capable of being manifested through the soul of our Folk. Darkness will rule, the gifts given to us in the beginning of time will be lost, and humanity will revert to the level of a beast that roams the wilderness.

But hope still burns bright, and we have only to fan its flames to transform it into a beacon that will blaze a path through the darkness and unleash the regenerative powers of Balder. For in the Netherworld, Balder and his dear wife, Nanna, are preparing to return. They can see the light which has broken through the roof of Hel, like a translucent staircase for them to ascend back to the world of the living. All that awaits their return is our call for them to return and give new life to the old Gods and Goddesses, so that we might re-forge those bonds that once united mortal with immortal, and thus herald in the new Golden Age of Gimli.

The three monotheistic religions see God as someone with a master plan, who has laid down the law and demands that everyone obey this law, and if they don’t, they will suffer the most excruciating pain for all eternity.Are we all supposed to be a part of his plan, whatever it may be? Ironically, everyone who happens to be unfortunate enough to be born in a part of the world that has never heard this law is just as damned as those who heard it and rejected it. Thus, their God, who is supposed to be all-knowing and infallible, has deliberately created billions of people whom he has damned to Hell. He is all-knowing and infallible, so that means he knew that billions of people would never have the chance to be saved, and that billions more would choose to reject his law, and thus would be condemned after death. He is supposed to have created us so that he can torture us. He created the Devil to tempt us away from him and make us weak so that the great majority of us will fall victim to the wily ways of Satan. He then deliberately makes our lives a living Hell by sending earthquakes, tornadoes, fires, floods, hurricanes, disease, and storms our way, to test our faith, all the while killing thousands, even millions in wars and plagues.

Why would a God do such a thing? Well, the followers of monotheism like to say, "We can never know what God does, or why he does it, but we have got to have faith," and our clergy try to reassure us that it’s all part of "God’s will" and that the fallen are "in his hands." This is poor comfort for those billions burning in Hell. Of course, that doesn’t concern those who know that they are saved! But if God is in complete control of the universe, why does he send such horror to torment us? Is this the behavior of a truly loving and merciful God?

Pagans do not believe this. We don’t see God as passing judgement on everyone, condemning billions to eternal suffering. We don’t fear a God or his wrath. We know that a God does not inflict pain and suffering on us. We know that the terrible things that happen to us are not the "Will of God." For us, the Gods, by whatever name you refer to them, are a balancing force in the universe. They represent the natural laws of science that act as a balancing factor in nature to counter the chaotic and destructive forces that are represented by the Giants. The Gods are far too broad a force to be concerned with the pain, suffering, and salvation, of every little individual on the face of the earth. But this does not mean we cannot tap into their power. It does not mean that we are completely disconnected from the power that is the Gods, which maintains order in the universe and can be used to help us succeed in anything we do.

We pagans, followers of the Folk Faith, realize that the universe is ruled by physical laws, and that the actions and reactions of nature are the opposing forces of chaos (the Giants) and order (the Gods). We were not created out of dirt to be tested and judged. We were created from the same Life Force that holds the universe together, the same Life Force that is the essence of the Gods, known as Vril. We are a part of the life-changing, evolutionary process that holds the universe together. This Life Force keeps the planets rotating around the sun, and billions of stars around the galaxy, while it propels billions of galaxies through space. This means we are part of nature and ruled by the same laws that govern all things on all worlds. Because we are part of the action-reaction of order and chaos that governs the universe, all our actions contribute to one or the other. By the way we live, the decisions we make every minute contribute to either the chaotic, destructive forces that are the Giants or the ordered forces that are the Gods. There are no sins or commandments, but the environment that surrounds us, the society we live in, the way people interact with each other and treat each other, are all determined by the way we act. If our actions are destructive, we will live within a chaotic destructive society, but if we live by the golden rule, we will live in a healthy, orderly and progressive society. The Gods have set up the rules by which the universe works. If we adjust our lives according to those rules, we will benefit from them, and eventually we, both individually and collectively as a people, will become great. Over time, generations from now, our children will become Godlike.

We are not governed by commandments by which we will be judged. The only rule we should live by is the simple golden rule of treating people in the same way that we want them to treat us. At the same time, we must recognize that if others treat us badly, we will not tolerate it. Thus, we hate no one, and seek to do harm toward no one, but we are not pacifists, for pacifism is permitting others to dominate or harm you. We do not sit around praying for God to intervene for us, but we do seek to forge bonds with our Gods so that we can tap into the Life Force that we share with them to help us in our actions, and give us the power to succeed. We do not sit back and accept fate without doing anything about it. We know that, like the dwarf-forged weapons imbued with magic powers for the Gods to use in their struggle against the Giants to preserve order in the universe, so too are our minds powerful tools capable of harnessing and shaping the currents of vril energy to transform the world around us and the reality within us. We know we must act productively if we are to be successful in all things that we do. We know that we can be successful only by positive thinking backed up by positive action.

We do not believe in sin, because we have no commandments to break. We understand there are right and wrong actions, and when we make mistakes we don’t pray for forgiveness. Instead, we accept the fact that we are not perfect and recognize that we did wrong and make a promise to ourselves and our loved ones to try not to do it again. We know mistakes are part of life and we can learn from them and grow, becoming a better people by trying not to repeat them. Thus, while we should own up to our mistakes, and when necessary, make amends for the wrongs that we might do, we should not feel guilt or shame, especially if we truly recognize the wrong that we did. In fact, we should even talk about our mistakes as lessons, especially to our children and young people, as examples of what not to do if they want to lead happy and successful lives. We all know that it is often better to confess our mistakes than to keep them bottled up inside, permitting them to fester and eat away at our minds and souls with guilt and shame that festers within our Orlog and bends our Wyrd, creating pathways in our future filled with more of such negativity.

One problem with the monotheists is that they are intolerant of anyone who disagrees with them. Monotheists claim that anyone who disagrees with them is condemned. Even among themselves, they cannot agree and have a long history of hating each other, waging wars against each other and persecuting each other. Christians have always considered Jews the children of the Devil because they rejected Christ, and Jews consider anyone who does not belong to the chosen people inferior. Even within Judaism and Christianity there is disagreement. Orthodox Jews disagree with Conservative Jews and both disagree with Reform Jews, and then of course there are the Hasidic Jews and other sects which don’t agree. The Christians are even more divided. Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox Christians all disagree. Catholics believe all Christians who do not belong to the Catholic Church are condemned to burn in Hell. Orthodox Christians believe the same about everyone who does not belong to the Orthodox Church. They are all condemned to burn in Hell. Protestants consider both Orthodox and Catholics to be heathens and "pagans." The Muslims are also divided and war among themselves. They consider everyone else heathens who can be killed, enslaved, raped, and tortured with impunity because they do not believe in Allah. Of course all of this is insane.

As pagans we do not hate any other faith, even the monotheistic religions. We respect all religious beliefs. Even if we disagree with the interpretation, we respect the religiosity. Most of the people who practice these faiths are basically good, or seek to do good, but their faiths are damaging. We respect anyone, no matter what they believe, who wants to lead good lives—as most people do! The ancient Romans made a custom of trying to associate their Gods with the Gods worshiped by other people. There were certain practices that the Romans abhorred, such as human sacrifice and homosexuality, but as for the actual Gods that other people worshiped, the Romans tolerated and even adopted them into their own pantheon. As a pagan, I have no problem with saying a prayer to Jesus, because I know that the spiritual essence of the God, Jesus, that is worshiped, is essentially a God of peace, and I can associate Jesus with Balder or any other God of peace.

RELIGION AND THE FOLK SOUL

Religions flow from the soul of a particular people like rivers from a spring. They are the expression of the soul of the race that gives birth to them. They are the expression of a particular people’s spirituality, and flourish within the genetic landscape of that people, and kindred folk, who gave expression and form to the spirituality. Religions are manifestations of the way a people or race view the universe and the local environment they live within, and give birth to them as nation. This is true of all the pagan religions as well as the universalist, monotheistic religions.

Christianity originated as a breakaway Jewish cult based on the teachings of the Essene cult leader whom we call Jesus. He preached a heretical variation of Judaism that caused the Jewish leaders to goad the Roman leaders to condemn him to death for his heresy. But Christianity did not die with Jesus, for several reasons. His followers claimed that Jesus was divine, the son of God, and that he rose from the dead. They were able to do this by incorporating the spiritual beliefs of the many different pagan religions that existed in the Classical world. The idea of virgin birth through impregnation by a God was the foundation of both the Roman state and religion. Romulus, the founder of Rome, was born of a Vestal Virgin, who was impregnated by Mars, the God of War. There were many other religions during the classical period that claimed a demigod was born of a human female and fathered by a God. Hercules is just one example. Jesus was born of a God and rose from the dead, just like Balder and many others. The early followers of Jesus kept alive their movement by incorporating pagan ideas and belief systems into their Jewish cult, thus transforming their belief system into a non-Jewish religion.

The cult still seemed destined to remain insignificant and obscure, existing within the peripheral lunatic-fringe of Jewish society, until a Jew who possessed Roman citizenship converted to the new religion. Saint Paul had converted after claiming he had a vision in which Jesus spoke to him and told him to go out and convert the pagans to Christianity. I will not go into the entire story of Paul’s life and mission, but only note that he tirelessly preached among the mostly Greek, Celtic, and Roman populations of the Roman Empire. During his lifetime and afterwards his followers began incorporating pagan ideals and belief systems into the Jesus cult, creating the image of Jesus that has come down to us today, and giving birth to a paganized version of Christianity. This was in opposition to the followers of Saint Peter, who wished to preserve the distinctively Jewish character of Christianity. One example is the issue of baptism verus circumcision. The latter custom was a common tradition among different Semitic peoples, but considered a barbaric and abhorrent practice by the Romans and Greeks. The Jewish followers of Saint Peter wanted to make circumcision a fundamental principle, just as it is within the Jewish religion, for anyone seeking to convert to Christianity. Paul knew that would sound the death-knell of Christianity. If Christianity was ever to spread among the non-Jewish population, as a means of conversion he had to replace circumcision with the common pagan practice of baptism. The entire story of John the Baptist was probably manufactured by Paul and his followers to justify the practice and its replacement of circumcision.

As Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire during the next several hundred years, it continued to be transformed by paganism. Even the date of Jesus’ birth, December 25, was borrowed from the religion that worshiped the pagan Indo-European God Mithra, who was born in human form on that date. Incorporating pagan ideas into Christianity—including the idea of the Holy Trinity; the Mother-Goddess worship of Mary; the image of Jehovah, which was taken from the face of the great statue of Zeus in his temple; and adopting the name of the head of the Roman pagan religion as the head of Christianity, Pontifex Maximus—helped to transform Christianity into a religion palatable to the racial soul of the Roman people. By the time of Emperor Constantine, Christianity had become a religion that was more pagan than Semitic. Then as the Roman Empire divided politically and culturally into two halves—the Latin West and the Greek East—so did the spirituality of Christianity.

The western half of the Roman Empire was culturally and racially Roman/Celtic/Germanic, while the eastern half was culturally and racially Greek/Oriental/Egyptian. The former was more racially unified, as the Romans, Celts and Germans were all Indo-European peoples, sharing a similar spirituality and ancestry that once inhabited Europe thousands of years in the past. The religions they worshiped and the Gods they celebrated were really the same Gods that their ancestors worshiped, and thus the spirituality they instilled within the new Christian religion was pure and vibrant and strong enough to survive the collapse of the political order when it came in 476 A.D.

In the eastern half of the Roman Empire, there was a greater mixing of peoples, cultures and religions that were fundamentally different. The form of Christianity that evolved in eastern Europe, often referred to as Greek or Orthodox, was Oriental as compared to the more Occidental form in the western Roman Empire. Thus its spirituality was not as strong and it never had the life-vibrance or expansion that Roman Christianity had. Even after the political collapse of the Western Roman Empire, Roman Christianity not only survived, but continued to expand into regions that were never under the control of Rome. Soon Germany, Scotland and Ireland were all converted, and in the next five to six hundred years, Scandinavia, Poland, Hungary, the Baltic States, and parts of the Balkans.

By contrast, Greek or Orthodox Christianity survived only because the political structure of the Eastern Roman Empire survived. Its political authority was more Oriental and Semitic, and thus Orthodox Christianity never expanded, and in the next five hundred years it actually shrank as the political boundaries of the Eastern Roman Empire, or as it came to be referred to as, the Byzantine Empire, shrank. Eventually, the Byzantine Empire was reduced to a third-rate power and Orthodox Christianity all but collapsed. It only survived because it was eventually adopted by the Russian Slavs to the north. After the last remnants of Constantinople fell to Islam in 1453, Orthodoxy was reborn as a purely Slavic or Russian religion, and thus was instilled within a new European racial spirituality.

The rise and growth in power and strength of Western Christianity, and the decline and withdrawal of Eastern Christianity before the rise and advancement of Islam, are reflected by the zeal and determination of Western Christianity, which was purely European. Thus it was Western Christianity which was able to halt the advancement of Islam and eventually turn back the Semitic tide, culminating in crusades in Spain, Sicily, and the Holy Lands, and eventually the exploration and conversion of North and South America. In the east, Byzantium, which was a unified state, fell, and the Muslims burst into the Balkans and continued to threaten Europe right into the 17th century, but were eventually halted and turned back by Western Christians. Orthodox Christianity survived because its center of spirituality was transferred from Greece to Moscow. The Russian/Slavic European soul gave it new life and prevented it from completely becoming extinct. The new Russian state prevented the Turks from extinguishing Orthodox Christianity within its empire by applying force and pressure. Unlike Western Christianity, which was totally European, both racially and spiritually, it never became a great expanding religion. Even after the Russians had crossed the length of Asia, the Orthodox Church never sent armies of missionaries to try to convert the peoples of China, India, or even those non-Christians within the Russian Empire.

Islam originated deep within the Arabian Peninsula. Its spirituality reflected the soul of the Semitic Arabic people. When it burst upon the stage of history, it swept aside the declining power of Orthodox Christianity, but was eventually stopped by Western Christianity in Western Europe. Islam remained a powerful force, expanding into Central Asia and India, and eventually reaching as far east as present day Indonesia. But Islam soon reached its apex as it overran the confines of its Semitic base. The Semitic Arabic people migrated and settled throughout North Africa and Central Asia, and even moved into Spain. But over the passing centuries, the Semitic population assimilated and disappeared within large sections of the Islamic world. In places like Indonesia, India, Central Asia, Iran and Spain, where the Semites either remained a tiny minority or disappeared entirely through intermarriage, Islam eventually retreated or was transformed. In Iran, where the mixed population was not Semitic, Shiite Islam was born and spread to other regions, while most of the Semitic world remained loyal to Sunni Islam. Other divisions also rose in India, in Lebanon and North Africa, reflecting the different ethnic divisions within the world that Islam conquered.

Islam remained vibrant and expansionist for centuries, but its height had passed. Unable to expand into China and Western Europe, it continued to expand against the declining power of Orthodox Christianity until the center of Orthodox Christianity was transferred to the young, vibrant Russian nation. Islam eventually began a period of withdrawal and decline before the advancement of Western European Christianity.

From 1 to 500 A.D., Christianity split into Roman and Orthodox Christianity, reflecting the split between the Latin/Celtic/Germanic Western Roman Empire and the Greek/Oriental/Egyptian Eastern Roman Empire. Because the former was racially and spiritually more homogeneous, Western Christianity evolved into a new and vibrant spirituality. This was due to the incorporation of European pagan spirituality that transformed Western Christianity. But Orthodox Christianity remained spiritually divided, a mixture of Greek/Hellenism and the more Semitic and Egyptian spiritualities, which prevented the Orthodox Church from becoming a stronger force than the political authority, and thus it remained subservient to the Emperor. In the West, the political authority declined and disintegrated, as the Western Church continued to grow stronger and outlived the Western Roman Empire’s secular authority.

From 500 to 1000 A.D., the Western Church continued to grow stronger and was responsible for the resurrection of the secular authority of the Roman State. But the Church remained the dominant power until 1500 A.D., while in the East, the Orthodox Church remained subservient to the secular authority of the Byzantine state. Orthodox Christianity declined before the expansion of Islam and its only expansion was into the Russian Kiev Empire, which remained weak until after the decline and eventual fall of the authority of the Orthodox Church (1000-1500 A.D.).

Between 1000 A.D. and 1500 A.D., Western Christianity became a powerful force which continued to drive the Muslims back from the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and the Holy Lands during the Crusades, and even challenged its hold over North Africa. The spirit of Western Christianity was purely European (Latin/Celtic/German/Slavic). It had incorporated the essence of European paganism into it, creating a new European religion motivated by the soul of Europe. This culminated in the expansion of Western Christianity throughout the world.

It was during the decline and fall of the Orthodox Church that Orthodox Christianity was able to transplant its center of spirituality to the purely European Russian Empire and move its center from Constantinople to Moscow. Afterwards, Orthodox Christianity experienced a minor resurgence with the rise of the Russian Empire (1500 to 1900 A.D.). Though the Muslims conquered the Balkans, they could not completely wipe out Orthodox Christianity among the peoples of Greece and the Balkans, because of the transfer of the center of Orthodox spirituality outside of the authority of the Islamic World, to Russia.

Between 1500 A.D. and 2000 A.D., Western Europe began expanding beyond its borders, spreading Western Christianity throughout the world. North and South America was converted in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, followed by Africa and Asia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. However, even as Western Christianity was spreading throughout the world, the seeds of its own destruction were taking root. This was initially heralded by the schism that resulted from the Protestant Reformation. The next blow was the conversion of non-Europeans to Christianity.

In the 16th century, the Protestant Reformation began with Martin Luther. In the next hundred and fifty years, Europe was rocked with one religious war after another, culminating in the disastrous Thirty Years’ War that almost depopulated central Europe. The split in Western Christianity caused the Protestants to abandon the old Christianized pagan ceremonies, customs and traditions that had been incorporated into Christianity more than a thousand years earlier, and turn toward the Old Testament, thus becoming more Semitic and less European. Since then, Christianity has become progressively more secularized. In the twentieth century, even Catholicism underwent a secularization after Vatican Two. The result has been a steady decline in Christianity throughout the Western World, especially in the West’s homeland, Europe. This trend was followed by a second–the "browning" of Christianity. Beginning with the conquest of South and North America, Western Christianity began converting non-Europeans to their faith.

Both Protestant and Catholic Churches have spent a great deal of time and resources in spreading the Christian faith to Africans, Asians and American aborigines. As a result, in the twenty-first century, about 80 percent of all Christians are of non-European ancestry. This has caused tremors throughout the Christian world. The European paganization that took place two thousand years ago, when Christianity was first brought to Europe, has been being undone in the last five hundred years, beginning with the incorporation of customs, traditions and rituals of the pagan religions of the American aborigines into the Christian Churches of South and Central America. This same process is now taking place in Africa and Asia, as hundreds of millions of Africans and Asians have converted to Christianity. The result is new spiritual chasms appearing in Christianity. Even within the "universal" Catholic Church there are divisions appearing, as the Church in Africa is becoming distinctively African, while the Church in India is becoming distinctively Indian. The same is true of the Catholic Church in every part of the world, and eventually they will have nothing in common with each other. The end result will be its collapse into separate churches, while in the European homeland of Christianity, both the Catholic and Protestant Churches have declined to the point that only about 20 percent of Europeans today consider themselves Christians, most of them are over fifty years old, and only about1 percent claim that they go to church every Sunday.

In the United States, Christian Churches have declined and resisted decline at the same time. Among European-Americans in the United States, Christianity has been declining in importance for the last fifty years. But the churches have been replacing their declining constituencies with immigrants from the Third World. Today the membership of the Catholic Church in the United States is more than 50 percent non-White. The same is rapidly happening to the Protestant Churches. Even the Mormon Church, with a high birth rate among its original all-White membership, has become about 50 percent non-White, as it has conducted a rigorous campaign of conversion among Third World populations.

As the constituency of the Christian Churches become more and more diluted in a diversity of races, nationalities and cultures, the original Folk Soul of Europe has lost its spiritual hold over Christianity, thus weakening its spirituality. Our people have turned away from what has become an alien religion. They no longer find a spiritual solidarity within the Christian Churches. They have begun searching for a new spirituality, and many have turned to Eastern and other exotic cults. Still others have sought to try and resurrect the old spirituality which once existed within the Christian Churches. Many Protestants have turned to an evangelic form of Christianity, in hope of recapturing that lost spirituality. The same has been true of Catholics. Many have turned to Churches that have resurrected pre-Vatican Two customs, rituals and the all-Latin Mass. But their efforts are too little, too late, and cannot reverse the tide of diversity and multicutluralism that is transforming every aspect of Western Civilization. The poison has seeped too deep into the institutions. Our people have lost contact with the Gods of their ancestors. Even though the bonds they shared with them were through a Christian filter, it was enough to ensure their spiritual vitality. Today those bonds have been cut and our people are adrift.

Islam is experiencing a revival partly due to the vacuum that has been created within the spiritual and moral decline of the West. Islam was born of the Semitic Folk Soul. It conquered a large section of the old world, passing beyond the ethnic and geographic boundaries of the Semitic homeland. Non-Semitic populations were conquered and many, though not all, were forced to convert to Islam. This diluted the spiritual power of Islam, which has begun a long decline. This decline was accelerated after another non-Semitic group of people, the Turks, invaded the Middle East and converted to Islam. They were a fierce, brave and determined race of nomadic warriors from the steppes of Asia. The Turks established a great empire that was centered in the territory of the old Byzantine Empire, and stretched west to include all of North Africa (except for Morocco), the Sudan, Arabia, parts of Persia, the Balkans right up to the gates of Vienna, the northern coast of the Black Sea, and the Caucasus. But the Turks were not Semites and their soul was alien to the spirit of Islam. Thus, as soon as the Turks established their great empire, decay and decline rapidly set in, and the Ottoman Empire lingered on for four hundred years only because of the rivalry of the European powers which actually fought to prevent any single nation from conquering the Turks, and thus upsetting the balance of power in Europe. Turkish domination of the Islamic world helped to smother the spirit of Islam. The alien race and its alien Folk Soul caused the Islamic world to remain weak and divided.

Eventually, the European powers carved up the Turkish Empire and divided the Islamic world among themselves as part of their colonial empires. But with the decline and fall of Europe and the Turkish Empire, Islam has been able to reassert is spiritual identity. The Semitic Folk Soul has been unleashed and Islam is now a great force for change. Unfortunately that change is destructive. It has been unleashed by the Loki Effect (internal corruption) that has plunged the West into a state of helplessness, due to its domination by the Hoder Effect (blind ignorance). Thus, the rise of Islam and especially Islamic terrorism and militancy is part of the horde led by Loki in his assault on Asgard. The Loki Effect caused weakness within the West by striking the leaders of the West with ignorance about the true nature of the world, blinding them to the threats that the West face. Loki is now marshaling the forces of chaos and destruction to assault the gates of Asgard. We are now suffering through the great winter, the Age of Fimbul. Soon the forces of darkness will cancel out those of the light, and a new age of darkness and barbarism will reign supreme.

There is still hope that our people will survive the coming conflict and darkness, but to do so, we must turn to Balder. For only through Balder can we survive, and begin the task of rebuilding a new civilization, heralding in the Age of Gimli.

THE ODIN CONSCIOUSNESS

"In reality, only a change in the attitude of the individual can bring about a renewal in the spirit of the nations," wrote Carl Gustav Jung. He understood that for a people to change, individuals must change first. I wrote The Book of Balder Rising because if our people are to survive the coming collapse of the old order (Western Civilization) we have got to begin to change the spirit of our people. By that change I mean unleashing the essence of the Gods which lies dormant within each and every one of us. The Gods and Goddesses are asleep within our very DNA. They are waiting to be called back and once again forge a new bond between mortal and immortal. This process is known as Balder Rising. To accomplish this, we must begin with the individual. The essence that lies dormant is the Odin Consciousness, which manifests itself in the mythological symbols, folk tales and legends of our Folk. We can tap into these images, which reside deep within the subconscious, and release their power to transform us. They govern the religious, artistic, philosophical, heroic, and idealistic impulses that provide the traditional archetypes, by which we—the race, nation or Folk—express ourselves as a people. These instruments build our culture and civilization. Some might refer to this as the racial memory, and we as both individuals and collectively can respond to these archetypes. These archetypes can initiate a revitalization of the soul and the will on both the individual and collective levels.

Modern examples of this phenomenon are the Star Wars movies. When the first Star Wars movie was released, millions of our people responded to the archetypical symbolism in the movie without thinking. The themes in the movie, which were Arthurian, Western, and Manichaean, acted like a key, unlocking a deep response to those heroic ideals that we all hold dear as a people. The average person did not consciously see the connection to Arthurian legends, or Western tales, or even the cosmic struggle between the forces of Light and Darkness that predominate much of our European metaphysical subconsciousness. But whether people understood or not, they responded to it. Jung wrote an essay, "Wotan," which explored the relevance that the power of the Gods has to our lives through our subconscious. He wrote, "We must go back to the age of myths, which did not explain everything in terms of man in his limited capacities, but sought the deeper cause in the psyche and its autonomous powers. Man’s earliest institutions personified these powers as gods and described them in myths with great care and circumstantially according to their various characters. This could be done the more readily on account of the firmly established primordial types that exercise direct influence upon them." Jung is telling us that the Life Force of the Gods remained within our subconscious though it was suppressed by the intrusion of Christianity. This Life Force still manifested itself by transforming Christianity greatly.

Now, with the decline of Christianity in the West, our people are once again freed from the oppressive imagery of an alien cult, and this will permit the opportunity for the rebirth of the Odin Consciousness. Jung, as many others who lived in the beginning of the twentieth century, understood that Christianity was failing and that this would permit a resurgence of the old Gods, especially Odin. With the decline and eventual collapse of the old order, the Odin Consciousness will have the opportunity to rise once more and come to dominate the will of our Folk. It will herald in a resurrection of our Folk-Ways. This process is Balder Rising. Balder Rising will permit the resurrection of the Odin Consciousness, to again govern the future course of our Folk.

THE WYRD AND YOUR JOURNEY

As each of us travel through life, we must make decisions that will change the course of our future—or so we think. This is the belief in free will. But nothing is free in the universe. Everything we do, say, and think has a price. Thus every decision will have consequences. The Norns are believed to weave the threads of our destiny, and some interpret this as predestination. But what the Norns weave are simply pathways that we may take. There are many crossroads in these pathways, and when we come to a crossroad we must make a decision. There is a certain degree of free will involved, but at the same time we are limited to the choices provided for us. I consider these choices tests the All-Father presents to us to prove our worth. This process is referred to as Wyrd. What destiny lies in wait for us depends on the choices we make—which pathways we decide to travel. If we make the wrong decisions, then the Gods may choose another to fulfill their plans.

However, even the pathways that wait for us in our future are not carved in stone. We do have the power to create those pathways we wish to travel; this is a principle that lies at the foundation of Vrilology. You may explore this possibility in books on the subject by Robert Blumetti.

Here is an example of the role free will plays: An individual might decide to abandon the traditional religion he was born into. In the West, this will most likely be Christianity. He might then begin to explore other belief systems. If he is chosen by the Gods, they might offer him the opportunity to attend a study group or lecture on the religions of our ancestors. He must decide if he will go, and then he must make the decision whether to begin the long journey back to the Gods. He might then spend twenty to thirty years exploring the old religion and celebrating his reunion with the Gods. In the course of his life he might affect the lives of many others. Perhaps one individual will be convinced by him to join him on this journey. This individual might then prove to be one who can fulfill the plans of the Gods better then he. It is possible that the first person will even lose faith in the Gods and turn away from them, even turn back to his own faith, but he will have fulfilled his role in the Gods’ plan. This process is called Wyrd.

Each individual is born into certain circumstances, possessing certain abilities and is presented with certain opportunities. His experiences and the way he deals with them can lead him to the Gods and fulfill their plans. But he must make that decision and then decide if he is to continue to serve the Gods, or turn away from them once he has fulfilled his great part. No one individual is indispensable to the Gods. There is no Moses or Mohammad within the Folk Faith. We are all the Gods’ prophets, and we can all play great roles in the recreation of the bond between them and their children. That choice is one which each individual must make. There is within our individual Wyrd our own road to fulfillment, our individual route to inspiration that brings us closer to the Gods. Every individual has his own Wyrd. He has the ability to serve and exercise his genius, to reap his rewards and live and work with the Gods. Within a man’s Wyrd is his destiny and free will, as well as his rights and duties by which he can find happiness and peace. If we continue to think that we are entities that exist independent of the cosmic forces that govern and hold the universe together, then we will remain slaves to forces that are beyond our control. But we have it within us to direct our destinies, and this can be done by understanding the nature of the Vril and learning to harness this universal power.

Existence is a battle. If we are to heroically fight this battle, we must develop the power within us to control the Vril and use it to advantage, to evolve upward. Within the multidimensional European soul is that part known as Orlog. It is within the Orlog that all our past experiences, thoughts and feelings are stored. Stored there are also experiences had by our ancestors, passed down to us in a form that Carl Jung referred to as the collective unconscious or the racial soul. Those things that are stored in your Orlog are constantly at play, affecting the way you think and feel, causing you to react to whatever you face in the present. The interplay of what is stored in your Orlog (the past) with what is happening in the present will help shape and form the pathways that will guide you toward a future of your own making. You might not be conscious of this process, but once you have discovered the applicable methods in Vrilology, you will learn that you can cleanse your Orlog of things that would otherwise cause you to create pathways that lead to the things you least desire. With the power of your mind, you can learn to create pathways to all the things you desire.

There will always be a side to the Gods that is beyond our understanding, and we must not concern ourselves about this. The Gods will choose to bestow upon us something of their essence, and each of us has the opportunity to learn something by it. The decision whether or not to partake of that offer lies with each of us. This is also part of Wyrd. Wyrd can be described as a form of fellowship between us and the Gods, and thus with the entire universe, along the path that we follow through life. In this way we can each play our individual part in the grand orchestra of time and space. Know that once you discover the method of using your mind to shape Vril into pathways you desire, you are in effect sending the Gods blueprints that they will incorporate into their great plan for the universe. If you seek the Gods or Goddesses, they will hear your call, but when and how they will answer one cannot say. But if you seek them, you can be assured that you will eventually have an experience in which you will meet one or more of them face to face. You will then be given a choice we cannot foresee.

When the time comes, you will have to decide. Robert Blumetti writes of such a time: "Twenty years ago I was part of a little group of people who were not believers in the Gods, but were researching the old religion. Some attended with the intention of simply expanding their knowledge of the universe; others because, like me, they had an interest in mythology; and still others because they believed in the occult. I always loved tales about the Gods, and heroes in general, and everything and anything that had to do with European folklore and mythology. After several years we had progressed beyond just studying the legends, and were deep into the practical end of forging new links with the Gods. One experience was very profound and changed my life forever. Through Rune meditation and chanting, we were able to put ourselves into a trance-like state. We accomplished this many times and had many wonderful experiences. I discovered I was psychically talented and could easily slip into a deep trance. At that time we were concentrating on Freyja, and it was She who first spoke to me. (You should concentrate on a God or Goddess of love and joy when forging your link or bond with the Gods, because the path you travel to them should be a joyful experience.) On this occasion I found myself on a ship I guess we can call a Viking ship. I was at the bow. The ship was made of gold and surrounded by a golden halo. It sailed in a sea of black under a black sky. In the waters floated huge gold icebergs. Then before me appeared a woman who was beautiful, powerful, and surrounded by a halo. She told me that she was Freyja, and if I would dedicate my life to the Gods and fulfill a task that would later be revealed to me, she would choose me to spend eternity with her in her hall, Sessrumnir, in the Folksvang. She also told me that those she and the Valkyries took back to Asgard weren’t just heros who died in battle, but anyone who led a heroic life. It was the battle of life and the willingness to dedicate oneself to something higher than oneself that was truly the heroic deed. She said there were many ways one could live a life of heroism. One way was to remain faithful to the Gods throughout one’s life, and perform deeds in their celebration. She told me that every person is a child of the Life-Force of the Gods, and that we each have a divine origin. We all have a divine mission to fulfill according to our individual abilities, but the choice to do so is up to each of us. She was now presenting me with my choice. She told me many things that day, but for now I will simply say that I had agreed to dedicate my life to the Gods. When I woke from my trance, I discovered that the room where we had held our meetings was filled with a strange and eerie ether. It seemed that the air in the room was charged with a living presence. We could all feel it and it was moving beyond words. All of us admitted to some form of experience while in our own individual trance-like state, and we knew that the Goddess Freyja had actually presented herself to us in that room. For me, it was a life-changing experience."

BALDER’S RETURN

We know that Balder will return, so we have to ask ourselves how. After reading The Book of Balder Rising, many have asked the author if Balder will appear on earth in human form and walk among us like some twenty-first century Christ. Is he a Norse messiah, who will appear and judge us? The question reflects a state of mind of someone who has read the book through a Christian mind-set. This is understandable. As one who had been raised Catholic, the author found himself constantly having to check his own perception of things, which were constantly clouded by traditional Christian upbringing. It is difficult to truly change the way one thinks and feels, when traveling along a road toward a new spirituality. The statement in The Book of Balder Rising that Balder will rise from Hel and that his resurrection will herald the return of the Gods, was believed by the author to be clear that it was not referring to some kind of "Jesus" prophecy—predicting that Balder will appear in human form, claiming he is some kind of messiah. Balder is not Christ, though elements of the Balder tale were borrowed and incorporated into the Jesus myth. When Christians, especially European Christians, pray to Christ, they are really praying to the God Balder without realizing it. Jesus was transformed from a heretical Jewish prophet into a neo-pagan deity by the early Christians in the transformation of Christianity from a Jewish heresy into a quasi-pagan religion as explained above. Other pagan Gods such as Adonis, who was born in human form in a place called Bethlehem, as well as Mithras, who was born on December 25, were also incorporated into the myth of Jesus Christ.

No, Balder is not some kind of pagan Christ who will rise and judge us, condemn the sinful and set up some kind of mythical paradise on earth, thus ending history for all time. Here, to say that Balder will rise from Hel is not prophesying an actual, physical event that will take place on a certain date. Rather, this means the rebirth of the Balder-Force, which is the Life-Force of the Gods (Vril), which will restore us to a celestial state of existence. This process is symbolized by two Runes: Elhaz, the Rune of Balder rising, and Sowilo, the Rune of Balder risen. This spiritual force has existed, and will always exist, within each person of every race, but will take on different characteristics depending on one’s race and the pantheon of Gods that created them. Each race was given form and substance in the most ancient times by different pantheons of Gods. Within our Folk, the strength of the Life-Force of our ancient Gods decreased because our people turned to an alien religion, but that Life-Force did not die out.

There is another way to look at what happened. Vril is a never-ending current of life energy, always flowing into each of us. The archetypes which inhabit our subconscious give shape to our perceptions of the spiritual realm. After Christianity spread throughout Europe, the way we viewed the Gods was altered due to the new, alien archetypes that were laid over the pagan memories and images within our subconscious, thus weakening the bond we share with the Gods, causing a weakening of our Bifrost Gland, and thus causing the God-forces within us to weaken, or fall into a state of sleep. But now, as Christianity is declining, the Life-Force of the Gods that created us has the opportunity to reassert itself among our people. This can only happen if we make an effort to restore the conscious bond with the Gods that created us. This is the essence of what we mean by Balder Rising. The Life-Force of the Gods fills us and pulsates through every cell in our bodies, and for this reason, the Gods exist within us. Their influence has been warped, but now we have the opportunity, by turning to the Folk Faith, to awaken the Gods that sleep within us. We can do this by celebrating the Gods, and by creating new communities based on this celebration. These new communities must be filled with the joy of life, the love of ourselves and each other, our families and ancestors, and the children that we bring into the world. By living this way, we will be living pure lives, physically and spiritually, and it is through this way of life that the Balder-Force will grow strong. It is with this Balder-Force that we will awaken the Gods once more, and together we will be able to face the dark ages that are approaching and threaten to engulf not only our people, but the entire world.

In the Semitic Bible, God created man from the dust of the earth, from dirt. But in the Folk Faith, the first man and woman were created from two trees–the ash and the elm. So are we claiming that we are actually living vegetables–like the creature in the movie The Thing? No! Unlike the Semitic Bible, we don’t interpret our tales literally. The tree is a living thing. In Indo-European mythology, it is often a symbol of the divine Life Force. Thus the Gods created the first humans from the Life Force, from Vril. The myths are tales passed down to us by our ancestors, who lacked a fundamental knowledge of the physical laws. They understood the esoteric meaning of the universe, but could not explain it within its physical workings. We have to understand that when the Gods created man and woman from two trees, the tree is symbolic of the Life Force of the universe. The Life Force is symbolized by the World Tree, Yggdrasill. Yggdrasill is Vril, and Vril is natural law—the essence of the gods. This leads us to an understanding of why the Gods created mankind, which is a very different understanding than what the followers of the Semitic Bible (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) believe.

The God of the Semitic Bible is a tyrannical God who created man to be ruled over. Man is the plaything of this God. He gives them paradise and then creates Satan (evil) to tempt them from paradise, so they must suffer. They have to suffer to prove themselves worthy to spend eternity with him. He creates trials and tribulations, plagues, natural disasters, wars and oppressions that are inflicted upon mankind. Then, He chooses only those who know of Him and submit to Him as the Elect, who will be saved. The rest are condemned to suffer the greatest horrors in Hell for all eternity. Even if you did convert, you might be condemned to Hell if you broke even one of His laws. You could lead a virtuous life and then, in the end, you commit one sin, and Bam!–you are condemned to suffer for all eternity. These poor unfortunate victims are not restricted to those who rejected or turned from Him. They also include the billions of people who never heard of Him, and who never had the opportunity to convert to his religion. They also include those that submitted, but failed to prove themselves worthy of His laws! Think about it. Whether it's Judaism, Christianity or Islam, why did God not send his messenger, whether it be Moses, Jesus or Mohammad, to earth in the very beginning, and travel across the entire face of the world, to permit the entire world to hear the word of salvation? But then again, who would want to spend eternity with such a cruel and sadistic being?

The Gods of the Folk Faith did not create mankind to torture them. Mankind was created as a part of the organic nature of the world. We evolved according to the laws that govern nature. If we want to be successful, we must live according to those laws. We can decide if we want to align ourselves with the Gods, and become part of their divine order, or submit to Chaos, and live a life of decay and destruction, at the mercy of the haphazard forces of the universe personified by the Giants. Thus we are part of the natural order of the universe, either contributing to the order that the Gods maintain, or contributing to the chaos that is the essence of the Giants. We are part of the universe, and part of the process, along with every other living thing. If we live by those natural laws, we will be successful and help maintain order, but if we don’t, we won’t. If we do, we will also be closer to the Gods. When we die, we will join the Gods in either Sessrumnir or Valhalla, or inhabit that section of the Netherworld known as Odainsaker, where Balder and his wife, Nanna, dwell. If we inhabit the two former realms, we will continue to play a role in ordering the universe. When we enter Valhalla, we join the ranks of the Einherjar, who ride out with Odin to do battle with the Giants. This process is part of the turning of the ages, the evolutionary process of becoming. Only those who are worthy join such ranks, but the rest are not condemned to suffering. There is no final judgment, no such thing as sin. You create the aftermath that you will inhabit by your actions in this life—the sum of all your actions in this life.

The life you lead in Midgard will either support the Gods in ordering the universe or the Giants in trying to destroy that order. By returning to the Gods and joining the Folk Faith, you are joining the ranks of those who have dedicated their lives to helping the Gods hold back the destructive forces of the Giants. It is through this process of dedication to the Gods that will ensure the resurrection of Balder.

BALDER WILL RISE WITHIN....

YOU!!!!!

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