LIBRARY
Finding back to yourself
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 then. 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).
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 then. 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...
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...
Varg Vikernes
28 April 2022