Odin and Nietzsche: Will and Service to Folk
By Taven Odinkaur AOR
I don’t wear a Hammer.
I am going to admit right now, Folks, I only wear a Valknut. I am an Odinist , literally. Nothing against Thor and his hallowing Hammer, the mighty weapon of the common farmers. I greatly respect the Friend of Man, and his personal devotees are good Folk, but Odin is where my affinity lies.
Why?
Because I see Odin as the archetype we need the most of – in dire need of. We have a lot of good Folk…but we also need dynamic leaders who are like the All –Father, and lots of them too. My personal problems so far in this life, and our biggest problems as a Folk, are answered by who and what Odin is. I’ll expand on this in a moment. But first…
Don’t get me wrong, I am not speaking of those who run around with a lot of ideas, a Hammer (or what have you) and a big mouth, but nothing else. Self-Confidence without an active purpose is what is called arrogance. There’s a sizable difference between a self-important wastrel, and a self-confident leader who is capable of taking the Folk in hand and creating miracles, even if he is harsh and hard to council. I am writing this about the latter, and not at all about the former type, just so we’re clear.
Odin sought personal power endlessly. He embodies, he anthropomorphizes, the Nietzschean concept of “Will to Power”. However, it rarely went to self- gratification. It almost always went to further the interests of the Gods and secure their garth as well as the garth of man – Asgard and Midgard. This is, to me, the most superior strategy to make the Great Awakening reality. Not militant self-sacrifice as the first and only means of action – it’s noble, but it is not the most powerful. Odin was the par excellence Creator in our lore, and it can’t be doubted that creating values makes us more powerful than just giving them up. The deed of Brave Tyr was a last resort, and the Gods didn’t have better options. If it’s possible, the best strategy is to exercise our inspired will, to do the unforeseen, to make new solutions.
I will be the last one to say our connection with Mother Jorth should be lessened, because we are one with Her. But I oppose a hard focus on survivalism, pursue rather “thrivalism” – becoming business savvy, understanding local government and law making, as well as using this to our advantage; incorporating townships; founding Hofs in cities to reach out to pre-ghettoized Folk youth; setting up education and business funds to maximise powerful potentials we are rarely tapping; exploiting every ounce of alternative, and even mainstream media formats; advertising; and music and arts, which the Rite is plat forming as you read this – all these things will serve us better than just trying to “make it through” whatever “last days” scenario we fear. Am I perhaps the only one who’s noticed Odin does not succumb to an X-tian style “catastrophobia” when he learns of Ragnarok? Neither, ever, should we.
This is using the powers of ‘Fehu’ and ‘Ansuz’ to their fullest extents. This is Odin’s example. Then there is the other fear plaguing us, besides catastrophobia, is the fear of disunity. Let me venture to say that conflict is a fact of life, as each Folk have his or her own mind, and it even serves a divine purpose: conflict causes movement, it causes momentum, it creates motivation. Our fear of disunity is often more a fear that our way in it will fail in the conflict, but regardless of the psychology of it, a focus on frith for friths own sake misses the point. What does not miss the point is each of us striving for personal mastery like Odin, each of us in our own ways, and using the power we create to make any other bodily sacrifices less necessary. Again, what Tyr did was a last resort. Creating solutions for the Folk is the best strategy, the strategy of Odin, I am convinced.
Being liked is often overrated. Look at our own place in this world, for example. Or another example is the All-Father himself. How many Heathens or Heathen groups (not just us Odinists) really like Odin? He’s not terribly popular, or a very gregarious sort like Thor is. But that ‘fits’ a sort like The Raven God – his very name can mean ‘fury’, ‘ecstasy’, ‘inspiration’, all of them key elements of a strong will. In daily life, such a dedicated one track minded person (as Odin is a God), would always seem remote, or preoccupied, even with all the wisdom he has to share. He was perfect to be the “General – King” among the divine tribes. As awe-inspiring as the feats of other High Ones, Odinism is named for Odin for a sound set of reasons. He is intellect combined with endless will.
My past personal problems were the same ones stifling our Folk. Poor Self Discipline, hedonism, no vision, self-hatred and Folk guilt, family dissolution, no cultural centre in myself – all a microcosm of our collective problems. And what was the solution? Will. A return to Will-Health (to coin a term). In other words Odin. Not simply anger or stubbornness, or reasoning, as useful as all those things can be, but real Purpose, and the Self-Faith, that cannot be persuaded there isn’t solutions that can’t be found or made. It isn’t even about” the Truth” as we of European descent so often speak of, but about our faith in ourselves. Will, as purpose plus Self-Faith, is what fixed my entire life. The chains had been cut off me and everything was and is possible again.
Self-Discipline becomes easy when what I truly wanted became clear – and that what I wanted was what I would have. Hedonism became an annoying, unsatisfying distraction from real happiness. Self-hatred and “White Guilt” became incomprehensible demands upon me that I derisively refused, shook off like cobwebs from a sword. The lack of centre is re-set, dissolution of family is stopped as pettiness and selfishness disappear. Even obstacles and suffering doesn’t make me blink anymore. As Nietzsche said, “The man with a strong enough WHY can bear almost any HOW” Quite true sir, as I have experienced. Sum to say, Odin was a revelation to me, reflecting true Will-Health and Heilgar. How could I not follow that lead?
These problems, and ones on a bigger sociological level, our Folk have had for thousands of years now. Dysgenic mixing, softness resulting from a hedonist consumerism, the same hospitable sympathy that allowed us to thrive as a Folk in the Ice Times now used to justify and support Folk-destroying universalist creeds, or Folk-destroying state policies. Once I read a poignant definition of tragedy, its essence being the arrest and undoing of one’s self by one’s own nature. And it’s true, that is as sad as it gets, to be destroyed by our own hands, in utter confusion. Is the current sicknesses we face as a Folk to be our final tragedy? It naturally begs the question, “Not if we grasp hold of Odin’s hand”. His nature as archetype, that is, a set of our most excellent qualities reflected back to us – could be the best lesson we ever teach ourselves. That we can create solutions, many of them to our biggest obstacles, and become more than what we were in doing so. That is Odin.
So, far from being frightened or diminished by the words of the Volva, I believe Odin is the unique one to be able to devise a solution to this ‘fate’. A subtle twist of the wrist and the All-Father prevails for all of us yet again.
It may lie in the mystery of those whispered words he spoke in the dead Baldur’s ear, as his slain son lied in state. What did he say? As bound up as fair Baldur’s death had been in Ragnarok, those words must relate to it somehow.
And what if, and what if we as modern Folk decided to supply the words he uttered? Do we not, after all, take credit for creating our lore and myth? Can we be this daring again? I am going to dip my toe in the waters – please, follow and don’t tarry.
How about “When the world has burned, Freya will return to us”. She, and perhaps Odin also, had the power to return from death in some views. Doubly apt too, as the beautiful women of our Folk are where our Folk are ‘reborn’. But I think letting our world burn is too much credit to the foe. Will we do to the Christians as they have done to us all these centuries, and invert their greatest truths? Did Odin whisper “Into your hands my son, do I commit my Spirit”. Baldur is resurrected or reborn after the war, we all know. But still, I’m not one for using such alien terminology for our way, and the war still happens.
How about this: “I have found the victory Son, for I have created what even the Sisters nor the Seeress could foresee. I cannot speak of it, lest it be a secret stolen. I have found the way, Son – for I, and I alone have made one”.
