Now we must speak of Honor, which, in its essence, is the way to do.

Of course, honor is more than that, and if I am going to talk about honor I should probably clarify what honor is and how it works. Our Modern or Post-Modern world here in the West, hasn’t really dealt with honor on a personal level since, well, at least three, maybe four generations ago. At least since the 1960′s in someways, when our parents/grandparent threw off the old world for the new, liberated, progressive one we have today, that has no “need” of such archaic and “patriarchal” concepts such as honor. So what any of us really know about honor comes from either old stories (most of which are largely ignored these days), other cultures (hello, Mr. Samurai), or modern fiction in the form of the “Proud Warrior Race Guy.”

Sometimes you mix all three

As these things go, however, we still don’t have much in the way of Honor active in our culture anymore. Used to be, our leaders had to at least pretend to be honorable. Time was before that, they really had to be. These days, not so much.

I could write an entire article about why we have lost our concepts and practices of honor, and I just might, but that’s not what I’m going to talk about today. Today I speak of honor itself. Because Honor is more than just a way to behave, it was also a currency of sorts, a way to judge the measure of people, and something to aspire too.

In the old days, honor could get you a lot if you had it. Our modern credit cards actually can trace their origins back to the concept of Honor. An honorable man could be known as “Good for it” and be allowed to purchase things with the promise of payment later. Those who were dishonorable, dishonest, or whose honor was unknown, could not do so. These days, of course, anyone can get a credit card regardless of how good they are for it, or how honorable they are.

How did one gain honor? It wasn’t easy, but when you have something worth more than gold and precious jewels, that’s to be expected. Keeping your word, regardless of the personal cost and hardship. Performing valiant and great deeds, again often at great personal risk. These are just some of the deeds that could earn one honor.

Of course, it could be lost easily, through cowardice, lying, betrayal, and forsaking one’s oaths. And considering how much of life used to be based on one’s honor and reputation, the loss of honor could bring about terrible consequences not just for the individual, but for their family as well. An insult was serious business. Of course, how one dealt with that insult could determine the honor regained.

This is where different cultures, however, deal with matters of honor differently. We’ve all heard of duels, where two people battled matters of honor personally to determine things. This, however, is not universal. In Europe, were a young woman raped, one could count on her family going after the rapist. In Biblical Israel, one could find the young woman being married to her rapist. In modern Islamic nations you might find the young woman married to her rapist, or simply murdered by her own family for dishonoring them (though I have read that in the case of Islamic honor, the young woman can simply talk to a man not of her family, or wear “indecent clothing” and shame her family enough for them to kill her).

This may sound rather bad, as honor tends to seemingly involve a lot of violence, risk, and death. Many would ask, why do we need such a thing in our Modern World, surely we are above such petty things and the need to senselessly risk our lives for something so ephemeral. After all, we get along just fine without it, don’t we?

I’m not so sure. Certainly we could do a lot better if our politicians were honorable, rather than a bunch of corrupt scumbags who do as they please and never have to worry about the consequences. It would be much different if a senator had to worry about being challenged to a duel, or the governor of a state had to put his life on the line for his policies, rather than nothing.

Heck, I’d settle for them standing on principles.

I was watching the news a while back (I think it was Anderson Cooper) and he was talking about President Obama using Super PACs after Obama had talked about how unethical they were and so on. The person defending Obama basically said “For the sake of his principles, Obama can’t risk loosing, so he has to set aside his principles.”

Uh…yeah. I could spout some fortune cookie stuff about how a house of principles built on a foundation of setting aside those principles will fail, but it seems kinda obvious. Apparently hope and change aren’t good enough to stand on their own, because going down holding to your principles to the end is bad, better to toss them aside rather than even risk losing.

This is what happens without honor. People don’t stick with things. They toss them aside when its convenient, because there’s not price, no cost, to make trash that which you should have used to build.

This is why honor is important in the Nine Noble Virtues. Strength gives us power, Courage gives us will, Joy keeps us going in the dark, and Honor makes sure that we stick with what we start since there is glory and a reputation to be gained and upheld, and deep personal loss for giving into weakness, cowardliness, and guilt when you set aside your integrity.

See, to me, Magic and Faith are two different things. They can work independently of each other or together. Perhaps it’s my hard polytheist nature insisting the two are different, but within myself they seem to function differently. Both are Power, or are different types of power, depending on how you look at it. Still, one can use/have one without the other, and as Paganism grows and we have more “lay” pagans who do not work the magic like so many of us do, we are going to have to cross the “faith barrier” and start dealing with it. Because those Pagans who come, not by magic, but by faith, are going to be just as important to us. Not everyone can be a Magi, you need all kinds.

So, what is Faith? I’m not going to get into the present understanding of it, because I think most people know what it is and a lot of us came to Paganism because we lost it. Indeed, it seems a lot of Paths out there will have nothing to do with faith, and will work through the divine via Magic, but not anything like faith.

I think the best place to start talking about faith is with the Latin word from which we derive our word of Faith: fides. Fides means Faith and Belief, which is not surprising. But it also means Confidence and Trust. This is something that is often ignored in the debate about faith (not that there is much of a debate these days. The Abrahamics all know what it is, and those of us outside there really don’t talk about it.)

See, mostly faith is treated as belief in the unknowable. This flies in the face of Science which seems to insist that if you can’t know it, it can’t exist (a rather odd concept, when you think about it). It also flies in the face of Paganism a bit, because most of us like to believe we can know our Gods and Goddesses (or God and Goddess, depending on your point of view). But it is the second part that is important, the Confidence and Trust aspect of Faith that is where we must find ourselves as much as it is the Faith and Belief.

See, I can’t really talk to Gods and Spirits (at least not yet). Apparently it’s because I over think stuff, my brain won’t shut up, and so I have trouble doing magic and “hearing” the spiritual. It’s annoying, but it’s part of life at the moment till I can figure out how to get around it or through it. Or smash it with a hammer. But what I can still have if Faith. Faith that these things exist (I see the Thunderstorm, so I see the work of Thor, even if I cant’ see Him.) I trust that he will be in the storm, and I have confidence that he and the storm will do what storms are meant to do. This is my Faith. It is the same Faith that lets me see the touch of Hel in dead things, the touch of Freyja and Frigg and Sif in beautiful women, the feelings of home, or in the growing of life. It is my faith that Tyr, Odin, and Mars walk on the battle field (with Freyja and Hel as well) bringing valiant deeds and death and doom. I feel it deep in the earth and in my blood.

People can mock and sneer at the Blood and Soil philosophy (which I suppose is fair, considering how it has been used), but it is something I have been considering. There is a profound connection there that breeds strong faith. There is power in belonging to a Land, and there is power from one’s ancestry (regardless of who or what that ancestry is).

Still, that trust and confidence can come from a lot of places. Like anything though, Faith takes work. And it will also need acceptance from the larger community of Pagans. There aren’t really any how to guides for Faith. Unlike magic, which in many ways is a “mechanical” system based on will and belief, there no way to train yourself for faith. I think this is another reason why so many Pagans seem averse to dealing with matters of Faith.

The other part of Pagans’ issue with faith is it is tied so much into Religion. Perhaps that’s why I don’t have as much an issue with having and using faith, because I don’t really have an issue with Religion. I’m a something of an eclectic Asatru, though I like working with Re-construction. I suspect that other Re-Cons probably don’t run into the ideological problems as much as others. Then again, so many Pagans insist on being “spiritual” rather than “Religious” that they avoid anything to do with religion. And we seriously need to get over that. We here in the West have allowed Three Religions to define our understanding of literally Hundreds of Religions, most of which have nothing in common with those Three. If we want to have religious equality and respect for our religions, then we are going to have to admit that a number of us are Religious and have Religions.

Once we can do that, we can start working on building Faith in our religions. In our Gods and Goddesses. We can have Faith in ourselves, not just belief. This is something we want, because Faith is it’s own power, and in many ways Faith can do things that magic can’t, and more people can use Faith than can use magic. It can empower us to act in ways that Magic can’t. It can inspire us to great deeds, both wonderful and terrible. And if our ways are to withstand the coming decades, perhaps even the coming centuries, we are going to have to regain the abilities of Faith as well as Magic.

Let there be dancing, and drinking, and celebrations! Let libations be made in her honor! Hide eggs that they may be found! Make offerings of Chicken and Rabbit! (peeps may or may not be acceptable). Let glory be unto Ostara! Let there be merriment! For spring has come, and the cold days of winter shall be but a memory!

This may seem like an odd virtue to have, since the first two were Strength and Courage. Not to mention that other virtues tend to be thing like Chastity, Humility, etc. Certainly there should be things that would work much better as a virtue than Joy.

Well, maybe not. While it isn’t easy to really have and hold any of the Nine Noble Virtues, upon reflection I think Joy is both fitting, and incredibly difficult to have and hold onto. Yet it is very important to have in life.

There is a building in the Nine Noble Virtues, one building upon each other. Strength is the foundation, but without the will it is useless. Courage comes next, giving us the Will to, well, use our Will. But when you take up the ways of Power, it is often a sad and lonely road. Hence the need for Joy, so that you can enjoy both the power you have, and the life you live.

In my own Path, the Path of Power as I like to call it, a part of that path is the Way of the Warrior. And something I have found in that is the fact that I embrace life fully. This may sound odd, a path of death leading one to a heightened sense of life, but it’s not as counter-intuitive as you might think. When you stand on the edge of loosing something, it suddenly becomes far more precious. This is something my ancestors knew well.

The life of a warrior is like a sparrow in a storm flying through the mead hall. A brief moment of furious joy in the wild destruction.

That’s my mangled version of an old Norse saying.

Each bite of food becomes more flavorful. Each drink sweeter. Each breath is savored. Life itself floods into you on the edge of your blade. Mors Certa, Hora Incerta. It fills you, overwhelms you, and you become a being full of life even as you walk with death.

But how does one find joy, especially in dark times, which these certainly are with the horrible economy, world falling about our ears, and religious radicals parading about screaming for the submission of the non-believers? There seems little to take joy in these days, when all seems to be lost, or well on its way there.

This, however, is when the Virtue of Joy is most needed. One must Affirm the Joy in one’s life, just as one Affirms their life. The first step is the hardest, you must affirm your life, look over every part of it and first say “This is my life, I shall affirm this life, and in all its horror I shall glorify my life.”

It doesn’t matter if your life is terrible, you’ve lost everything, you’re being abused, etc. You have to take that life in both hands, grab it tightly, look dead into its horror and say “MINE!” You must will yourself into every part of your life, gather it too you, and draw it in, because all the joy and horror is what has made you who you are.

And once you have all that joy, pain, darkness, light, sorrow, stress, and doom in you, then you can change it. People try to escape the pain in their life, but this is a mistake. You can’t escape pain, one because there will always be pain and two be cause your pain will always follow you until you defeat it. So you face it, and in facing it make it yours, and in making it yours and affirming it, you regain the power of it. It will not matter if you have lost everything or are being abused, because once you can affirm your life, and all the things you have done (no matter how horrible) you can then affirm yourself. And once you can affirm yourself, take pride in yourself, no one can take that away from you for as long as you Will the Affirmation. This ability comes from ones Power and Will, from ones Strength and Courage.

These are not idle words. I have lived them, everyday through many hardships.

Once you have done these, then you can find Joy. When you affirm your life, suddenly your burdens are blessings, the fires of your destruction become the fires of your rebirth. You have faced death, and embraced it, and thus do you find life once more. And in finding life, seek the Joy in life. Do not chug your expensive coffee, but savor each sip. Let it roll over your tongue, see if you can’t pick out the individual flavors. Make each sip as if it was the last you would ever have, make each cup as if it was the last you would ever have. Do the same for your food (you might find you need to eat less. We eat sometimes for the comfort of eating, and by changing the act from the repetitive motions, but to the savoring of flavors, you might need less. I myself find that I don’t eat much in the way of junk food, because I approach it this way. A chip or two at a time, savoring the flavor, does more than stuffing my face). Do this when listening to music, or watching a show. Take a walk, and take it slow. Listen, see how many birds you can hear, or cars for that matter. The feel of the ground, the wind, everything. Sink into it, and embrace it. Act as if it was your last walk ever, and you wanted to make it last as long as you can.

It is also important because Joy is better than guilt. We are taught so much these days that we should feel guilty. This is largely because of our culture being dominated by Monotheistic beliefs, and we all know the stereotypes of Jewish guilt, Catholic guilt, Protestant guilt, etc. Then of course we have racial guilt, environmental guilt, capitalist guilt, and so and so forth. But guilt does nothing but weight us down. Heathenism isn’t about feeling guilty for what you do, it’s about taking joy in what you do. Some might argue that this is a bad thing, that too much joy and pride are bad, but i heartily disagree. To live life without regrets (or without regretting) is far better than to go through life regretting everything “bad” you’ve done. So cast off your guilt, and take up your joy!

Black and white seem to be very important colors in a lot of magic practices. I don’t know if I agree with that, but I figure it won’t hurt to go with it. Some suggest two knives, one white and one black, the first for purification, the other for defensive/aggressive magic. I’m probably cheating by having my knife be both, but if I really need two, I’ve got a lovely black knife with a scorpion on it that I tend to carry on my person as much as I can. So the knife pictured is more for ritual, rather than practical use.

It hasn’t been cleansed or enchanted yet. I’m going to do that when I do the dedication for my Altar, which as of writing this is pretty much finished coming together and is already seeing some use before being cleansed and dedicated. This may sound bad, but I’m not as good about following the rule of cleansing stuff before I use it. I got my wand and I’ve already started trying to charge it up without having cleansed it. Perhaps this is because one cleanses their magic items to remove excess and stray magical energies, while I tend to just “bull rush” and “overwhelm” with my own energy (or like to think I do). Still, a cleansing will happen, and we’ll see how it affect things.

Keep the Faith.

She rides across the fields, chariot drawn by twin cats, their paws silent upon the sky. Golden hair flows behind her, and weapons flash about her person. Her eyes are piercing, judging, and they see what many would have hidden. She is beautiful, to the point there are not words in all the tongues of the world to describe her, and she wears the necklace Brísingamen. Her grace is the grace of the seductress, and the warrior beyond peer who seems to dance the dances of death and blood and steel. She is the Vanic Goddess, Keeper of the Fields of both Life and Death, and she reaps her crops of produce and of men. To her goes the first pick of the slain, which she takes to her field Fólkvangr and her hall Sessrumnir. She and her brother Freyr reside in Asgard, though born of Vanaheim, for they led the war between two realms and remained there afterwards as an accord of the peace.

She is the Vanadis, the Chooser of the Slain, the Mistress of Seith Magic. She is the Goddess Freyja.

When I started the blog, I said that the three Norse Gods I was closest to were Thor, Hel, and Freyja. As of late, I can’t say that I’ve felt that close to Freyja, but still I couldn’t pass up this chance to talk about her, because if I could I think I would like to be close to her, though perhaps not for the obvious reasons.

I am close to Thor because I’m a lot like him, middle wise and more willing to solve my problems with action and force than with cunning and trickery. I am close to Hel because I am dark, know the value of death, and like to think of myself as something of an inevitable, unstoppable, unrelenting force. The reason I would like to be close to Freyja is because she embodies things that I would dearly love to truly be, gifted beyond measure in the arts of love, seduction, magic, and war. While I am not unskilled in these things, or at least not lacking in potential, when I am honest with myself I admit I am no where near what I would love to be in those area.

Still, Freyja is probably one of the Norse Gods I would be most careful around. Though many would be blinded by her beauty and think her naught but a sex kitten or seductress, too familiar are they with Greek Aphrodite or Roman Venus, for though Freyja is a Vanic Goddess rather than an Asgardian, still she is amongst the most deadly of all the Gods and Goddesses of Any Pantheon. She may equal Aphrodite in the talents of sex and sexuality, but she is well the equal of Ares, Odin, Mars, Tyr, or any other God of War when it comes to battle (Word is still out on Kratos). It says something about my ancestors that it was a Woman, not a Man, that was seen as highest of the War Gods and who got first pick of the slain warriors that would fight at Ragnarok.

It also suggests there were at least two main “War Cults” among the Norse, one dedicated to the “Frenzy” of Odin, the other to Freyja. We can only guess what those dedicated to the path of Freyja were like, but no doubt they were as much a sight to behold on the battle field as the fearsome Berserkers. I wonder if they were as graceful in granting death as the Berserkers were fearsome.

But just as there was more than sensuality, there is more than slaughter. Freyja is the Goddess of fertility and this is both of lands and people. Many a plant bears here name in the Norselands, and/or were sacred to her. Of these Rye is a sacred grain, the flower Polygala vulgaris bears the name Freyja’s Hair, and the Birch Tree was sacred to her (I almost got a birch wand because of this, but more on wands in another post). An offering of Rye will not do you poorly, and I have heard through UPG from others that she has a great love of strawberries. She is also the Goddess of young women seeking love, sex, and children, and watches over them.

She is also the only God besides Odin who has two of the Eldar Futhark Runes dedicated to her. The first is Fehu (she shares it with Odin’s wife Frigga), which is the Rune of Cattle and Wealth, as well as success. The Second is Berkana, the Birch Goddess, which represents the feminine, birth, and fertility.

Ultimately, Freyja is a Goddess who has no problems using any and all of her talents to achieve her ends. She will use magic, sex, or violence as easily as each other to obtain her desires, and she is truly gifted in each to the point where few can stand against her. Indeed, in terms of power both raw and refined she is equaled only by Odin, Frigga, Thor, and Hel. Even then, I am not sure that she is surpassed by any but Thor, who is said to be strongest of all the gods. But if he passes her in strength, he is passed in other areas by her. Such is the balance of life.

Hail unto Freyja, most beautiful, most deadly, most gracious, and most cruel! Glory to thy name, Warriors to thy hall, and Honor to thine person! Hail, Goddess of my people!

In the center is Jera, which means success, happiness, and cycles. Running around it clockwise are Ansuz, Ingwaz, Hagalaz, Berkana, Othala, Fehu, Thurisaz, and Teiwaz, representing six/seven of the gods, and then wisdom and home. I probably could have used better paint and a better brush, but for a rough first time attempt, I think it came out pretty well and will serve its purpose excellently.

It has yet to be “cleansed” and consecrated for use, like the chalice, mostly because I’m wanting to get all of the Alter put together, then I’ll do it all at once, possibly with a ritual of some sort. I will be sure to write about it.

There are people out there who talk a lot about how bad it is that “white” people go around delving into other people’s cultures and taking what they want in attempts to find themselves. And then of course many of those same people complain about how “white” people complain when other cultures won’t share, something about it being “white privilege” to have access to said other cultures.

As one person put it, “white” people need to realize they have their own culture.

Personally, I agree, “White” people have their own culture. But it’s not enough to have your own culture, or to recognize that you have your own culture. For that culture to be able to do anything for you, you have to have something for that culture.

You have to have Pride.

Of course, this is something very hard to have at this point if you’re “White.” Start walking about “White Pride” and, well…you can pretty much say goodbye to friends, family, job, social status, and in some cases, even your freedom. Even if you don’t talk about “white pride,” if you just go around being proud of your heritage as a European American, well, you’re gonna run into problems of various degrees depending on if your WASP, Italian, Russian, Scandinavian, French, German (especially German), or otherwise. And that’s if you’re going Ethnically, which is different from this “construct” of Race. You start going by “race” and well…see above.

Interestingly enough, if you’re from Spain, you get tossed in with the Hispanic crowd, despite being from Europe as well (but that is another discussion).

We are constantly bombarded with how “White” culture is, well, Shit. It’s imperialistic, patriarchal, misogynistic, violent, racist, and, well, everything Evil in this world. And for a group of people taught from birth that they should be good, righteous, etc, well…you can’t really take pride in something you’re clearly taught is Evil. It doesn’t do you any good as a culture. It just makes you feel horrible.

So what do you do? You see the pride other people have in their culture, because they are allowed to have pride in their cultures, to celebrate and glorify their culture and the accomplishments of their culture. And “white” people are no different from anyone else. They want something they can take pride in, can be a part of, something that fills the void left by having their own culture torn away from them for being all that which is “evil.” So when they go hunting in other cultures, it’s not the actions of the “dominant” stealing from the “other.” It’s the “Lost” looking for a “Home” with those who have one.

In a lot of ways, I was lucky. I didn’t have a culture growing up. I was as sheltered and locked away as the monk on the mountain. I was taught that all were equal, that no one was better or worse. So when I came into the world, and having looked around and taken up the culture of my ancestors, I saw a Truth. Like the immigrant to a new land, I saw what those who were natives could not see, had been taught not to see.

“White” people aren’t any better or worse than other people. In fact, for all intents and purposes, they are far from the “worse” by the standards by which “white” culture is judged so harshly. We certainly are one of the least “Patriarchal” cultures around these days (want to see the Patriarchy in action, go visit the Middle East, any Muslim country will do. Or China, China is a great example, seeing as they killed most of their female babies). Hel, in history, Europeans were some of the most gender equal in nature, not perfect, but considering that in the Germanic cultures, Spartan Culture, and even to an extent Roman culture, women had more rights than almost anywhere on the planet that’s something. In terms of racial equality, we’re not perfect, but we have gotten further than anyone else around the world, we were the first ever to free our slaves, and we made the other nations do the same. Yes, we were imperialistic, but then so was and is everyone else on the planet. The history of the world is the history of empires. No, it hasn’t always been perfect, but it’s done a lot better than many. In terms of violence, well, everyone is violent. Not everyone brought you the Geneva Convention.

But those things aren’t relevant to the main discussion, it seems. What is relevant is that because of that last paragraph, a number of people probably think me horrid and evil (or at least more horrid and evil, I don’t think people will ever consider me nice and good). But the fact is, I am proud of my heritage. I am proud of where I’ve come from, and what my people have done, and I think that as it goes, we’re a pretty okay group of people. Not perfect, but still okay.

Of course, that’s the problem. I have pride in my culture. So do a lot of Heathens. And what do we get for it? We get called racists. Even by fellow Pagans, who you’d think should know better and show more respect. Even some fellow Heathens view their fellows and call them Racists.

This is because there are two main branches of Heathenism: Universalist and Tribalist. There is a third branch, which is racist, but this group is attacked by both the main branches. The Universalists say that absolutely everyone, regardless of ancestry or heritage, should be allowed in. The Tribalists say much the same thing, but they think that heritage and ancestry are important, and wonder why anyone of another heritage or ancestry wouldn’t rather go worship their own ancestral way instead of coming to “ours.” The vast majority of Tribalists, including the most hardline Tribalists, do not think that our “Ways” are in anyway “superior” to another because of ethnicity or “race.” Quite the opposite, in fact, they view other tribal ways and cultures as very important and to be glorified.

The irony is that the Heathen Tribalist isn’t doing anything different than say the Native American Tribalist when he asks someone of another race why they want to be a part of his culture. The only thing different is skin color. Make of that what you will.

Doesn’t stop us from being called racists, all for the simple fact that we embrace our culture and have pride. We’re…”white” and that’s all that matters to some people. So they attack, and they show any “white” people out there the price of taking pride in their culture. So the “white” people wander around, digging into other cultures, trying to find something that makes them feel whole and like they belong to something. And get called racists for doing that too.

I leave you with a song.

But what does it mean, to have courage? What is courage for that matter? Courage is not the Will, but it comes from the will and allows one to use one’s will to be sure. Strength is easy to classify, but courage is harder. Getting up and speaking in front of a group of people is certainly courage, so is killing the spider in your bathtub (often an epic quest worthy of Frodo himself, although his spider was a bit bigger than average).

Gonna need a bigger newspaper!

Sometimes though, it’s a bit harder to be courageous. If what you’re doing is “socially unacceptable” you will face much greater challenges to your courage. Standing up for what you believe in the face of giant forces that would see you forced to knuckle under to their ways takes great courage. Some are lucky enough to have it.

I don’t know that I’m one of them though, I’m probably just insane.

Then again, a lot of courage is insane to those who do not have courage. Probably one of the most courageous men I have ever heard of was Teddy Roosevelt.

He laughs, because even Death fears him.

The list of his mighty deeds would be worthy of three posts in and of themselves. One tiny example is the time he was out hunting, and his dogs cornered a cougar or mountain lion (I can’t remember which). Roosevelt, who shared his kills with no one, promptly got off horse, kicked the dogs away, and killed the great cat with a knife. By hand. And that story barely makes a blip on the screen of what he did. The best part about Roosevelt? He started out as underweight asthmatic book worm. Of course, you know you’re a courageous badass when you cross of the River Of Doubt, after which it is renamed The River Of Unquestionable Certainty.

If you know anything of South American Amazonian rivers, you will understand how bad ass that is. And that feeling in your gut? It’s him, hitting you for not even trying to be a fraction of how bad ass he was. I’m feeling it right now.

Standing tall, standing up, taking action, these are the ways of courage. It is easy to join the masses, it is harder to stand against them. To stand above, you must will, to will you must have heart, and that is what Courage is. It is Heart. And when people ask what kind of lame power is Heart, remember Teddy. Remember a little asthmatic who went on to be the biggest bad ass in history. Remember your Pagan and Heathen ancestors who fought for centuries against the invading Christians, and then remember your Christian ancestors who fought for centuries more against the invading Muslims. Remember the samurai and the soldier, remember those from every land who stood and fought in the battlefields of blood, of law, and of spirit. Feel that power within yourself, and stand up.

Stand up and fight for what you believe, with Courage!

The story of Midgard’s creation, like most stories involving the Norse Gods, starts with a fight. The first giant, the father of all Giants/Jotun, was Ymir. He was a massive creature, and one day Odin and his brothers Vili and Ve rode out to fight him. The battle was massive, as befits a battle between Gods and Jotun, but in the end Odin, Vili, and Ve were victorious and Ymir was slain. Of course, this left them with a massive corpse, so they set about to bring creation from destruction.

Ymir was taken and his bones were made the mountains, his flesh the earth, his blood the rivers and seas, his skull to make the sky, and his brains to make the clouds. From there Odin, Vili, and Ve set about to make Midgard what it is and was. This culminated in the creation of the first Man and Woman, Aske and Embla, formed from two trees that the Brothers Three found and formed and breathed life into.

I will come out and say I do believe in what some people call “Intelligent Design.” I believe the Gods and Goddesses are real. Now, that doesn’t mean they don’t work within fundamental laws such that science likes to find and run around with. I believe in the myths and legends of my ancestors and hold them to be true. To me, the world is so complex and beautiful in its majesty and horror that it could not have arisen with out intent and will behind it. I think that pretty much all the creation myths are real, and that the world got formed by the combined forces of the various Gods and Goddesses.

Of course, I’m sure people will find it laughable to think that the earth is made from the body of a giant, but then I do not find it so strange. After all, we are living beings made from the same matter as the earth, so I do not find it so hard to believe that a being containing much, if not all, of the earth’s material could have been some time long ago. Sadly, I don’t have access to the stuff I need to be able to figure out just how big such a Jotun would be to provide the mass of the earth. You need various ratios, conversion tables, and a calculator that can go that high. I could get some of that, but the calculator has eluded me. Maybe someday I’ll be able to figure it out.

Hail to Odin, Vili, and Ve. This day we remember their mighty deeds which brought forth Midgard and life hear. Raise the mead horn high in their honor! Skoal!

It is sad that we know so little of those ancestors of ours that died fighting the invasion of Christianity. But ours is a way of heroes, not of martyrs, though we do well to remember them. It may not seem like much of a difference to call such people heroes rather than martyrs, but a Martyr is someone who lost their life for their cause, and I’d rather think of it as they denied their soul to the enemy, which is pretty heroic to me. Then again, I’m not going to make a big deal of it.

Maybe such people are both. Certainly they can inspire us, for if they died for the Old Ways, can we be wiling to do anything less than equal them and still stand in honor before them? Certainly, if we cave to the often non-violent (or at least less-violent) opposition to our ways these days, we cannot. Our ancestors fought and died for their beliefs, can we do less?

No, we cannot. They and the Gods watch our deeds here on Midgard.

The enemy can defame us. They can call us ignorant, backwards, racist, fools, stupid, barbaric, or anything else they wish. They can hurt us, hurt our loved ones, ruin our jobs and our education and our lives. They can even kill us, destroy our sacred places, and crow with victory. But these things do not matter, if your faith is strong, strong like your ancestors. And remember, our ways have nothing against us striking back, and with our Gods and Goddesses of battle, and the spirits of our ancestors, we are far more suited to the arts of war in all its realms than they will ever be.

So remember your ancestors, and their sacrifice, and their heroism. And let them speak in the Halls of the Gods of our deeds, not less, but greater than those that came before.

Strength is the Virtue from which all other virtues flow.

It is also the first of the Nine Noble Virtues that I am going to be looking at in this series. Because, as the saying goes, all other virtues flow from Strength. Without Strength to defend and enforce them, all other virtues are nothing but ideas without power behind them. You can believe in honor, courage, kinship, etc, but without the Strength, the Power to uphold and enforce those virtues, they amount to nothing.

So what is Strength?

Essentially, Strength is Power. It is Might. It is not just found in the muscles, but in the mind, in the will, in the soul, and in faith. It is one’s personal power and ability, through which one enforces their views, protects them, upholds them, and makes them into being. It comes from many places, and takes many forms, but at its core to have Strength is to have Power.

And Power, though most would like to deny it, is everything in this world. Nothing functions without power. Nothing can be done without power. Without the power to defend ourselves, our nations fall, the virtues of those nations fall, and their people fall. People like to argue that Might doesn’t make Right, that there is a Universal Morality that lies beyond what can be made by Strength, but ultimately this is a false. Without Might, without Strength, one cannot enforce one’s Right.

And then the one with the Might will decide what is Right, even if you think it to be Wrong.

It is Strength that builds civilizations. It is strength that allows the development of culture, art, science, etc. Because it is Strength that both defends us from those that would do us harm, and allows us to legislate the morality we will.

People will risk life and limb to gain that Strength, that Power. It is only through embracing this reality and embracing Strength that we can protect, and enforce, our virtues.

My ancestors new well the Value of Strength. The God we most praised was Thor, the God of Thunder, who was the strongest of all the gods, and responsible for fighting the Jotun, and protecting both Asgard and Midgard. For the Norse, indeed for pretty much all the Germanic Tribes, it was Strength and Cunning that were the skills most prized, and both are forms of power greatly needed in life. Our myths and legends filled with the tails of men and women of Strength and power who defended their kin, sought glory, and reveled in their power.

To truly obtain and use one’s strength, one must embrace life fully. One must affirm one’s life with that strength, and in using that strength they affirm life most fully. For the weak seek to deny life, and retreat from it. Because life is a battle like no other, and strength is one’s weapon in that battle. The Strong seek battle, and battle seeks the Strong!

This is why Strength is the First Virtue.

Be Strong!

2) I don’t have a single god. I have dozens upon dozens of gods. Need help with Law, I go to one of them. Need help writing a poem, I go to another. Need help in a fight, I have my pick from at least half a dozen. If for whatever reason I piss one off, there’s always another I can go to for help. Jews, Christians, and Muslims piss of their god, they’re screwed.

3) My Gods and Goddesses aren’t some high and mighty beings who demand obedience from me. They’re family, my ancestors, who joined with my ancient human ancestors and mixed their blood together. I don’t have to bow and kneel to them, I get to walk with them as friends and family.

4) I pretty much get to define my own morality. The closest thing Heathens have to anything like the “Ten Commandments” are the Nine Noble Virtues. And they don’t ban actives, they just tell you nine things that are good to live by.

5) I bloody well get to use magic!

Okay, I’m a little bit excited. This is kind of a landmark for me. Never successfully done this with a blog, though I will admit the scheduling function is what makes it possible.

Anyways, upholding tradition, I have done a rune reading for March. Sadly, I don’t have a picture this time, mostly because I forgot to take the pic before I started reading the runes. This time what I did was run the Runes through my fingers in the bag holding them, then drew out those that “stuck” to my hand. I tossed them upon the “Circle Grid” lay out I’ve talked about before. Inner circle is the present, middle circle is the future, outer circle is the distant future. North is Physical, East is Mental, South is Passion, and East is Emotion.

Teiwaz and Uruz fell into Inner Circle North, while Nauthiz fell in the Inner Circle South. Algiz fell into the Outer Circle East. Dagaz fell in the Far Outer Circle East and Perthro in the Far Outer Circle West. I have translated what I believe this to mean below.

The Physical Power of Leadership shall be Passionately Constrained in the Present. The future Awakening of Minds comes, followed later by the Breakthrough of Hidden Truths.

Seeing as we have both the Primary run going on this month as well as the whole mess going on in the Middle East, I do not expect any strong resolutions happening in those situations. Certainly, passions are explosive and unfocused, and this hinders the will needed to take strong steps with leadership. However, since this reading is of March itself, I would like to think that the future and far future are all included in this month. We’ll know by the end, but I think what ever happens, by the end of March we will see something important come to light.

As for this blog, it will mostly be business as usual. We will be having the first of the actual Vices and Virtues Topic Post coming out on Monday, and it will be about Strength. On the following Mondays a new Vice or Virtue will be discussed. The Introduction Post and Overview of the Nine Noble Virtues are already up, if there are any questions. I will also be continuing with the Pagan Blog Project, and this Friday’s letter is E. Hopefully, it will be a good one. And of course, there should be more updates in the Crafting section as more and more things get found and completed. All three of which have Categories in the drop-down box.

If it wasn’t for you readers, I’d just be a mad man howling in the abyss, so thank you all for reading. This little blog has been growing since it started, and that wouldn’t happen without you folks. So thank you.

May the Gods and Goddess bless us this month, and may we bless them. Hail to all kin, doom to all enemies, and may your feasting table never be empty of good food, good drink, and good friends. And beware the Ides of March!

But there is one area where I know I am good enough to speak with power: Philosophy.

I’ve spent almost a decade working on the philosophical arts, and adding things to them from my various studies. I like to think I’m pretty good at it, conceptually, even if I can’t list the philosophers categorical. So, while I build up my magical knowledge, I’m gonna start with what I’m good at.

Thus the Vice and Virtues Project. While I’ve posted every day so far, I haven’t really talked about what it means to be a Heathen and a Sorcerer to me. I’m sure parts of it have come through, but I haven’t made a dedicated effort towards sharing my beliefs. Hence VnV, where I’m gonna look at some of the Nine Noble Virtues of Heathenism, Then look at the Seven Deadly Sins, and the Seven Heavenly Virtues, which people are a bit more familiar with through the lens of my personal Heathenism. There may well be a few other things I look at during this project as well, but those are the main things.

The Vices and Virtues Project is going hopefully going to be published every Monday. The fact that I can scheduled these things ahead of time should help with this. If for some reason they aren’t I will make a note on Monday’s post about when it will be appearing. If anyone would like to join in, just leave a link in the comments section to your blog. There is a dedicated “Category” for the Vices and Virtues Project in my categories drop down box, which should make them easier to find all at once.

I love being an evil sorcerer.

As you folks can see, once again I’m bringing out the altar. I have been lazy about the other projects, but I actually had money to spare and went out looking for an altar cloth. Sadly I couldn’t find the “suede” style fabric I found last time I was at the craft store, so I got some kinda slinky/silkly looking stuff. I got about two feet of it, but didn’t really pay attention to how “Wide” the fabric is. (For those not in the know, fabric comes in “widths” and then you get the “length” you need. At least as I understand it).

Yes, I have a crappy camera. I know.

So anyways, with all the extra fabric it got folded up like four times. I might nab some scissors at some point and cut it so I have multiple cloths, and thus spares and it doesn’t lay as thick on the alter. That, however, is something I am going to worry about later. Now the only big thing is to get stuff in my house cleared out of the area I want to set it up, cleans it, and then place my idols upon it and start making it into a more proper alter.

They’re called Kennings.

But enough of my lame punnage. I wanna get to the reason for the pun. See, there’s all kinds of politcal names out there that get thrown around. Conservative, liberal, libertarian, right-wing, left-wing, progressivism, etc.

I’m not really any of those things. Oh, I’ve been called Right Wing and Conservative (and a number of unsavory nicknames for said side of the field) but I’m not right wing. I might be considered Conservative, under the very old meaning of the term, which mean “To Conserve” or “to keep,” namely of the Old Ways. Honestly, if I hung out with conservatives, they’d probably start bashing me for being a liberal.

To be honest though, I’m probably too liberal for the conservatives, to conservative for the liberals, and i’m probably too totalitarian for the anarchists, and too anarchical (is that the right word? Anarchistic? No idea) for the non-anarchists. I just don’t fit in anywhere. I like empires, and I think Pagan Rome, for all its inhumanities, was a freaking cool place. I hate having people tell me what to do, and I would be happy to live as my Norse ancestors did where there were no lords, only free peoples who met maybe one a month to once every three months at the Thing to settle issues of law, and then went home.

When it comes down to it, I have the political outlook of a pre-7th century Norseman. There really isn’t any political ideology out there like that. So I guess I just muddle through.

Can you halt the storm from raging?

Can you stop the fields from growing?

Can you prevent death?

Can you make all of existence cease?

Can you do these things?

No, you cannot do these things.

And so you cannot take my Gods from me! For my Gods are the storms, and the sun and the moon, the life of the fields and the deaths of all things. Thor Thunderer! Sol and Mani! Freyja and Hel!

Can you destroy ideas?

Can you prevent the seeking of knowledge?

Can you prevent all wars?

Can you prevent all peace?

Can you make all things dark?

Can you make all things light?

Can you do these things?

Nay, it cannot be done!

And so you cannot take my gods from me!

For these are my Gods! Odin AllFather! Tyr! Balder and Hodr!

You cannot destroy existence! You cannot take my Gods from me, for these things Flow from and to my Gods! And even if you could, I have a God for that!

I have literally spent ten minutes looking for something on a shelf that was right in front of my face. Multiple times. It gets annoying.

Back to the topic though. I want to state it here and now that I see a difference between people and the ideas they believe in. I want to make it clear that when I attack an idea, or a flaw in an idea, that I am not trying to attack those who believe in that idea. I went through academia, and learned the whole “question everything” thing pretty well. Okay, to be honest, I learned it years before under very bad circumstances. I’ve literally put everything I ever believed in to harsh questioning. That’s why I believe as I do, because it’s what has stood up to the hundreds of thousands of questions I’ve asked.

But that doesn’t mean my way is any better than what anyone else has.

So when I attack Christianity, I want it clear I am not trying to attack Christian people. I don’t even really have a problem being Christians. I’d like it if they were Heathens or Pagans who followed the ways of their ancestors and had never had those ways stolen from them. But it is not the People I have issue with. Just their Ideology and the actions brought forth by it.

Same goes for Muslims. It is Islam that I take great issue with. But I have nothing against the people themselves. Just the actions they take because of their religion. I mean, the Middle East had some amazing Pagan Civilizations. Things worthy of honor and remembrance.

Judaism too. I don’t have issues with the Jewish people. Hell, I admire the Israelis a lot. They have balls of titanium that drag the ground when they walk. When your a tiny state like theirs, surrounded people that out number you in the billions and all want you dead, and you stand up for yourself then I don’t care what God you follow. I raise my fist in respect. I have just have issues with their religion is all.

As for Atheism, again, I have issues with an Ideology that claims its methods are superior to everyone else and whose followers go around like their crap don’t smell simply because they have “reason and logic.” Honestly, I got reason and logic myself, in spades. But that stuff lead me to my magic and my Heathenism. I don’t have an issue with the people. There’s some nice people who are atheists, and I ain’t got beef with them because they don’t pray to my Gods or even think my Gods don’t exist.

See, I believe in what I believe. But for whatever reason, probably because I have questioned it so much, I can take people not believing as I do. I kinda wish more people could separate their beliefs from themselves and not get so uptight about it. Questions really aren’t going to hurt anything in the long run, and frankly if we dealt with some of the problems we’d all get along better. So I hope the people who read this, and who visit my site understand:

I’m not out to get you when I start “Bashing” stuff. I’m just out to poke ideas where I see problems. Nothing personal.

This post is about something I talked about yesterday. I said that I figured it was better to do the wrong thing, rather than to do nothing. I wanna talk about that a bit more.

Some people like to think that you should only act if you’re sure you’re doing the right thing. Of course, figuring out what is the right thing is kinda hard. Some like to think they have the right answer, because they have training, or because of their religion, or their lack of religion, and so forth. But really, none of us really know if we have the right answer to something. All we really got is answers we think or believe are right, for various reasons.

I don’t know how many people have seen the movie Kick Ass, but there’s a scene where the title character is out in his superhero costume, trying to get back a lost cat, and he sees three guys beating up a fourth man. He doesn’t know the situation, doesn’t know if the fourth guy did something to deserve the beating. But he goes over and gets the crap beat out of him defending the guy. Because he believed it was better to jump in and stop it, than to let it keep going.

Was he the right person doing the right thing? I don’t know. What I do know is that he is a person who did something.The guy might have deserved it, been a rapist, or a mugger, or anything. But the title character still jumped in and stopped the beating.

If you saw someone being abused, what would you do? We all like to think that we’d step up and stop it, but to be honest we don’t. What if you didn’t because you knew, in your heart, that i would just make the next round worse on the victim. So you didn’t do anything. Because there’s others who were better qualified to deal with it. Even if they weren’t there.

I don’t think I’m all that heroic. But I do think it’s better to do something, even the wrong thing, than to do nothing. I look at it like this. Even if you make the situation worse later, stepping up, stepping in then, when you’re there, might just give the person being hurt the chance to face what comes later. Might give them the strength, the knowledge that they are not alone, so that even if the next round is worse, they have the hope and the will to move themselves, and get away.

That’s why I tend to be harsh on the monotheistic religions, and even atheism at times. It’s why in the past I’ve been hard on my fellow Pagans, when they stopped being tolerant and started being cruel to paths they didn’t like. Because it’s a chance to step in and maybe not do the right thing, but try to do something. And some people might think me ignorant, or a bully, or wrong, but I do it. And if I bully the bullies, at least I can say I’m trying to do something.

Because I figure it’s better than not doing anything.

I wish to start off by saying I recognize the values and merits of pretty much anyone out there, regardless of race, gender, creed, or what have you. I know I don’t talk about other paths much, but I’ve been at this thing for like a month and a half. Give me time. It will come up.

I may say that my path is the right one for me, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right one for everyone. Nor do I think everyone should follow my path. There’s so many out there, why not let people explore them all?

Yes, I have issues with Monotheism, or pretty much anyone who is dogmatic and intolerant about stuff. Before I blogged here, I gave some Pagans a lot of guff about being dogmatic. Just happens I’ve given others some guff here on occasion.

But that’s not the heart of this post.

The heart of this post is she told me I’m doing the wrong thing with my “intolerance”. That two wrongs don’t make a right, don’t solve the problem, aren’t the way to go. That I’m wrong in my views and actions.

Maybe I am wrong.

I’m willing to admit the possibility. I never really figured myself to be any more “right” than anyone out there. Hel, a couple times I’ve joked/talked here about being “evil.” Because on some base level, I realize, that’s probably what I am.

Maybe I do the wrong thing, for the wrong reason, at the wrong time, in the wrong place.

I’m not Harry Dresden. I’m not Spiderman, or Thor, or Power Girl, or Corran Horn, or anyone, really. I’m not the hero of the story, the savior of the day, or the guy who rides off into the sunset with the girl and the glory. I’m not any of these things.

I’m not the good guy, even though growing up I wanted so very much to be.

So why do I do what I do, even if it is wrong? Why do I speak with anger towards monotheism, or sometimes even atheism? Why do I talk with pride about my Norse heritage and gods? Why do I do the wrong thing?

That’s a question with an easy answer that really isn’t easy.

Because I believe that sometimes, it’s better to do the wrong thing, than it is to do nothing. Because sometimes the right person isn’t there. They aren’t there to do the right thing. All that’s left is the bullies, the monsters, the intolerant, and they keep grinding away at those they can, forcing their way upon everyone else.

I’m not the right person.

I’m not a hero.

But sometimes, I am there. And when I am there, because I’ve been the person who didn’t have a hero in his time of need, because the only thing that kept me from being crushed under was my will and my “hate” and my determination not to give up. It was the knowledge that there were other options, other ways, other paths, that I drew strength from, like my Norse ancestry.

I didn’t get a hero. And there wasn’t anyone to stand up and do the wrong thing. So I did it. I did the wrong thing, at the wrong time. I did it for the wrong reasons.

But there wasn’t anyone else. There were no right ways to act. Not and stay who I was, stay true to what I was becoming.

There’s a reason I am close to Hel. Why my role models are guys like Itachi, Kisame, Sesshoumaru, Kenpachi, Darth Bane, and others like them. Because I was told I was wrong, that those who attacked me were the ones in the right, and that was that. I accepted that. I decided that was fine.

Because sometimes you don’t get to be the hero.

Sometimes you get to be the villain.

But sometimes, what you need is the “villain.”

Sometimes there hero isn’t there. He doesn’t show up in time. He isn’t there to do the right thing. Because the Gods do choose people to do things, the right things. But sometimes they aren’t where you need them.

And then where are you left?

With Nothing.

And…I don’t like that. I don’t like leaving people with nothing. I may be wrong, so insanely wrong that I’m as far away from right as you can get. But I can at least say I’m not nothing. I may not be something. I may not be someone. I may be the wrong thing. But…I would have been happy to have the wrong person step in, do the wrong thing, all just to try and help me. Even if it came out wrong.

I didn’t get chosen by the Gods. Nobody elected me to do what I do. Most probably don’t want me. But I didn’t see anyone else. People like to talk about how no body does anything, they call it the bystander effect. I just stopped being a bystander.

I’ve lost a lot of friends. I’ve probably made a number of enemies out there. All for doing the wrong thing. It doesn’t matter though. Because if I live my entire life in battle, doing the wrong thing for the wrong reasons, and I die, and go to Hel, and she says to me that I made one person’s life better for doing the wrong thing, that in their darkest moments I was the black beast of nightmares that drove away the thing that was hurting them….it would all be worth it.

I’m not Harry Dresden. I wish I was. Sometimes I wish to all the Gods I was. But I’m not. I never will be.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t fight. It doesn’t mean I can’t stand up to all the things I see trying to crush people and tell them that No More! No more shall they go unchecked, unchallenged! Because I am here, the wrong person, for the wrong reasons, doing the wrong things! And if only for a moment, a brief, unheroic moment, full of hate and pain and everything else, I will do what I can for someone else! I can be the wrong person that helps them, rather than leaving them to face their foe alone because I’m not the right person doing the right thing!

I may be an intolerant ass-hat. I may be wrong. I may be a horrible, horrible person.

But that’s okay. It’s who I am. I became who I am for a reason. So that no one else would have to. I may make it worse for the right person to do the right thing at the right time. I might even end up being the one the right person has to stop.

But it’s worth it, if it means that one person doesn’t have to deal with what I dealt with, and they don’t have to become like me.

That is my path. That is why I am what I am, why I seek power, and use it, and say what I say. Why I believe what I believe, and do what I do. Because I’ve seen this world tear down so, so many heroes. I’ve seen the world without heroes. I’ve been one of those who had to live without one. And if I have to be a villain in order to do the wrong thing, in the hopes of helping one person, I live it without regrets. Call it bullshit if you want, but it is my way.

I do think there are some religions out there that need to get the dogmatic and supremacist stick out of their ass (and their hands) and learn to get along with the rest of us. However, as a whole of all the religions on this planet, I don’t think they are inherently bad. Regardless of the truth of the matter, be religions right about the world or not, we’ve had religion since pretty much the first humans.

Something tells me that something that has stuck around that long is probably beneficial, one way or another. Certainly under the principles of evolution, it has proven itself fit to survive as a concept. And considering that the vast majority of religions out there haven’t been the source of any real problems I don’t think it is fair to hold all religions as bad.

See, I don’t see religion as being inferior. No one yet has made what is to me me a convincing argument about why religion is any worse than say science. Both are tools for understanding the universe, and under the principles of how they each work, both fulfill the function well enough. Scientists and Atheists disagree on this, which is no surprise, because they (like certain religions out there) like to believe that theirs is the only right path for understanding. And, ultimately, both have been used to do bad things. Those religions that do bad things in their name justify them as being “moral.” Scientists, it seems, justify the bad things done with science because science is “amoral.”

Maybe it’s the amorality that makes it superior?

But here’s the thing, Science as a path cannot be superior to religion for the very reason for why so many atheists and scientists say it is superior. Science is “Rational” and must be logical and drawn from reason. But it ignores, demeans, and suppresses something key to life:

Instinct!

It is our pure, baser instincts that have made humanity what it is and has permitted us to rise in this world. Religion is born of mankind’s instincts, drawn from nature and combined with the divine that lies withing us all and about us in the entire universe! Certain religions may seek to control these instincts (as Monotheism does) or to embrace these instincts (as Paganism and Heathenism does). It is our instincts to love, dominate, learn, protect, gain power, and hundreds more things, that make us humans and compel us in our lives. Any path that vilifies the existence of these instincts, denies them their rightful place, and insists that it is only through reason that man should live and attempt to become more than he is, is inherently weak! Rationality is not superior to instinct. It can be combined with instinct, to great effect, but it is not superior.

Religion comes from our instincts. A good religion will embrace them. To me, this is why religion is not bad.

Anyways, I’m sure there’s gonna be people who agree with me, and people who disagree, and frankly that’s fine. We all gotta get through this world the best we can, and frankly we’ll never really know who is right till we get to the other side. And even then, we may not find all the answers.

Well, they say it takes about three weeks to build a habit, so here’s what you do.

Go out and buy a Halloween witch hat. (One can also use a wizards hat, robes, necklace, helmet. or whatever you want that symbolizes what you are. Heck, a Harry Potter house scarf works too, go Slytherin!). No, it doesn’t mean anything, but we associate the hat with witchiness. Wear it. Especially while you do your witchy stuff.

Get a calender, preferably a weekly one, that flips open and you have room to write in. I have a Sports Illustrated swimsuit weekly calender (each week has it’s own picture on one side, and the days on the other). Go to something like the Pagan Calender, or anything like it, and write down every holyday you want to celebrate, that belongs to your path, or that you’re just curious about.

Now, take your calender and pick out three days a week when you have time. On each of those days, write down 1 (one) thing you wish to do. I don’t care if it’s meditate, talk to your deities, make potions, grow herbs, research a term or holy-day you found, or whatever. Write them down.

This is the most important thing, Stick With What You Write Down.

Now, this may not give you any instant gratification. But what it will do is give you something physical to start with. Once you build the habit, you won’t have to think about it so much. Try and get it to where you do something every day, and even do specific things every day. But do not do more than one thing each day, at least for about a year, so you don’t run out and don’t burn out. Once you can do those without having to focus on the task, then you can begin to focus beyond the task to the things beyond it.

Right now I’ve gotten through writing down the holidays. Still working on setting aside days myself, but I try to work on my blog every few days, and I try to do rune readings on Fridays. Hopefully soon I will be able to set up an alter, and start on praying/meditating more often, at least a couple days each week.

So the daughter of Thor married Allwise and left Asgard with him to journey home. But on the way, they met Thor. Now Thor was angry, and did not like the idea of his daughter forever living in the lightless realm of the dwarves, but he could not change her mind. Nor could he outwit Allwise, who knew all things, for Thor was naught but a brute with a hammer.

Or so the dwarf thought.

But they sat down together, and Thor sought to test the knowledge of Allwise, who answered every question. There was no question Allwise could not answer, for his knowledge was so great! But there was one thing that Allwise did forget, as brutish Thor asked his questions.

The sun.

The sun did rise, and turned Allwise to stone! And Thor, brute he was thought to be, knew this of dwarves. For Thor was not dumb, but middle-wise, and like the common man he is closest to, he has common sense. He knew that Dwarves turned to stone in sunlight, and so he defeated Allwise, and returned to Asgard with his daughter.

No mention of how his daughter felt about this.

So, why did I just tell that story? Because of winterbright’s comment on my On Atheism and Religion post. It got me thinking.

We Pagans and Heathens often have to deal with people being against us and our paths. Most often this is Christians, and for the most part we are well trained to deal with Christian arguments. We have about a thousand years of philosophy to use to show the weaknesses of Christians, and we have their own deeds. Occasionally, some of us run into Islam, though that is more often in places like Africa or Europe, than in the US, so most haven’t battled it. But there is one group who we sometimes run into, but often have no defenses and counter arguments against.

The Scientific Atheists.

It is easy to fight Faith with Faith. All you have to is believe harder, and have a more reasonable argument. But it is harder to fight “Science” with Faith, because the Scientist not only doesn’t believe in Faith, they don’t even recognize belief as valid. Rather they demand “scientific proof.”

This is where a lot us run into problems. We can’t scientifically prove the things we believe. Every tried to take a picture of a fairy? Even if you’re gifted enough to see one, they probably won’t let you take a picture, and if they do I’m sure a scientist would find a way to claim the picture was “edited.” I can believe, I can Know, that Thor is in the thunderstorm, but I can’t produce “evidence” of it.

And when it comes to discussions, scientists will use logic, reason, and science to disprove the existence of the spiritual and of our beliefs. And I will be honest, faith and belief aren’t the best tools against reason and science. Which makes sense, because science originally came about fighting Christianity, so it adapted itself to fight said religion.

One thing many Pagans like to do is fight religion in the schools, because they worry that Christianity will try to taint the young. What they often fail to consider though, is that Science is also doing the same thing, but you rarely see anyone fighting its supremacy in the textbooks. Yet I think in someways, unless we develop a way to guide future generations in standing against science’s supremacy, we will lose this dream of bringing back Pagan ways.

So where to start? The story of Allwise and Thor, in fact. It offers the best way.

Now I’m not saying we start asking scientific atheists questions till the sun comes up and turn to stone. Alas, such a thing will not work! And we are likely to find our beliefs sorely tested, because we have been raised from birth to embrace logic and reason. And those who haven’t, well, they aren’t going to be our best resource.

So, what is the best way? I believe that the best weapon to use against someone, be it in a fight, or an argument, is the weapon they bring and use themselves. This is for a very simple reason. It is built on their psychology. It will be shaped to attack what they think is a weakness, and to defend their weaknesses.

Let me give an example from  my own experience, a comment I made while discussing the fact that dogmatism is wrong, in relation to science driving creationism from schools. I argued this was dogmatism, and was given the defintion of dogmatism to show that evolution and the forcing out of other opinions was not dogmatic. Here is my response:

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Ah, this is most fun. Permit me to respond.

As to your definition, let us break it down, and I shall show you your dogmatism.

1. Arrogant, stubborn assertion of opinion or belief

Let’s see, the insistence that yours is the only viable and rational system on the planet and refusal to even consider the validity of another opinion or belief, Check

“If your conclusion in this statement is that the masses “will no doubt chose (sic)” the viable option if given the choice, I would like to see the premise on which that conclusion is based, considering the extremely weak assumption that the masses are people of reason. In the anti-intellectual United States of Lowbrowlandia the masses are clearly NOT people of reason.”

So by your reasoning, they must be forced to wisdom, because they are too stupid to come to it on their own, and your wisdom is the only one. My my, that sounds an lot like religions like Christianity and Islam.

Hmm, that is certainly arrogant. Double Check.

2. A statement of a point of view as if it were an established fact.

Ah, now if you truly followed the Path of Science and its teachings you would realize that science provides only Theories, but never facts. Ask any scientist and they will tell you that Evolution, Gravity, etc, are only Theories that science has to explain the world we live in. Despite all the evidence in the world, it remains a Theory for the simple fact that Science has been proven wrong before and will be proven wrong again, as more data and technology comes about.

Therefore, by scientific reason, Evolution is nothing more than a Theory based on Current Evidence, and Subject To Change. And if Science is allowed to put forth its Theory (Not its Proven Fact) then by rights it must respect the right of others to put forth their own Theories.

You, however, act as if your science was an Established Fact, rather than recognized theory.

3. The use of a system of ideas based upon insufficiently examined premises

This one is interesting. For instance, you would claim that Science, which has only been around in its present, recognized, “scientific” form for a couple centuries has sufficiently examined its premises, but that other ways of looking at the world, which have been around for thousands of years have not.

Remember that arrogance thing you mentioned?

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Give a man long enough, and he will give you the rope to hang himself. As Allwise arrogantly believed that because he “knew” more than Thor, he had nothing to fear. So too, does the Scientific Atheist leave himself open because he believes he knows more than us anti-intellectual Heathens!

A few tactics to use.

1) Get them ranting. When most people are emotional, they aren’t thinking. So ranting, lecturing, being all smug, that’s where you want them.

2) Realize that you probably aren’t going to beat them outright, but if you’re discussing in front of an audience, it is the audience that is your target.

3) Listen to them, wait for anything you can use. If they give you definitions, take them, then show them how their argument meets that definition.

4) Never, I repeat, Never attack the person. Attack the argument, attack the logic, attack everything, but do not attack the person. The instant you sink to attacking the person rather than the argument, you’ve lost in a rational argument. Lose that, you lose the audience.

5) Make them attack you as a person. Doing the above right means that you’re going to get them up, arrogant, ranting, and then you’re stinging them by breaking down their logic. They will get mad, and when they get mad they stop thinking clearly, and when they can’t capture your argument, or defend their own against your attacks, they will attack you. That’s when you have them. But do not attack them personally when this happens. You can still lose. Keep attacking the argument and let the audience build sympathy for you.

6) Learn. Philosophy, Logic, and especially Quantum Physics and Mechanics. If there are any two branches of science that help prove the existence of magic and spirit, it is these two. You may need to pick up a little alchemy to translate it into Pagan.

7) If you’re in a lecture, take notes. It will make you look studious and it will help you spot things you can use. If you’re in a debate, try it, but remember to focus on the debate.

8) Don’t get mad. You have to stay calm. If you are calm and they are furious, you look better to the audience. You look more rational. Speak calmly and with authority.

9) Believe. Believe in yourself and the things you believe in. If you don’t believe, no one else will. You must believe with Will, but do not let it cloud you. Remember, nothing they say can make your experiences any less real. They can try, they can use logic to say that X is Y, but you experienced X. Hold it. Call upon the spirits and gods for strength if you need to. Invoke the Tricksters, the Wise ones. Odin, Loki, Athena, etc. If you have magics that can influence and make you more like able, use them. This is a battle, there are no rules. You stand not just for yourself, but for all Pagans. Play dirty.

Remember, there are truths that can be proven, and truths that can’t be proven but are no less true. They can’t take away your beilef. You can only give it up. Find the holes in their logic, punch through them, make them dance to your tune, and you’ve won. Take that win, and let it make your belief all the much stronger, because Science is just another Path in this world, and is not more or less true than any of the others.

Which got me thinking about the nature of beauty. And since they say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I took a bit to go find some.

Sadly, there are not as many holders of b’s any more, even on Sesame Street, and those that I could find were rather against the idea of me taking there eyes so I could get the beauty out. So I’m afraid I don’t have any beauty to show you all.

But never fear, because just because I don’t have that means I’m gonna shut up! (loud agony filled screams in the back ground.) And as I am many things, including an alchemist and a philosopher, I shall share my great and terrible wisdom.

Stole this from Juni’s post. Hopefully she won’t hex me.

Answer: It didn’t.

This of course is a very, very small selection of all the kinds of beauty out there. I could post ever single kind out there, but I’m not going to drag everyone through that (as much fun as it would likely be). The fact is, though, is that for every kind of woman out there, there are people who find her type beautiful.

Now, I have no idea if this is one of those additions from Monotheism where there can only be One Type of beauty, but for a polytheist like me, no such type exists. The Norse, my people, have at least four gods and goddesses of beauty: Freyja, Balder, Frigg, and Sif. We’ve probably got more, and we’re just one pantheon.

The fact is that skinny or full figured, flat, curvy, plump, etc, there’s all kinds of beauty in both women and men. That’s not to say people shouldn’t try to be attractive or be in shape. We should, but we don’t need to get on each others’ cases. So let’s all stop picking at each other for not being the “Type” and just recognize the sacred beauty in us all.