Last posts on tradition scandinave

Wulf Grimsson’s Loki’s Way

2011-09-30T00:05:00+02:00

A Band Apart:
Wulf Grimsson’s Loki’s Way

By James J. O'Meara

ex: http://www.counter-currents.com/

Wulf Grimsson
Loki’s Way: The Path of the Sorcerer in the Age of Iron ^[2]
Second Edition
Lulu.com, 2011

A few weeks ago I was privileged to receive this unsolicited manuscript, “the result of over 30 years of research, study and practice,” by Wulf Grimsson. I’ve been trying to read, and then review, the contents ever since, but found it difficult. Not because of the writing — Wulf is admirably clear and free of both “scholarly” stodginess and “occult” rigmarole — but precisely because of its dense content of interesting and important ideas. Almost every page gives one something to think about, a source to look up and perhaps reconsider, a inspiration to a new connection made for one’s self.

Why I should have been selected for this privilege is plain from the contents. Loki’s Way covers the whole range of topics we’ve explored on this blog, outside of the more pedestrian political and economic ones, from the Männerbund to mystery traditions to runes, from Nietzsche to Evola to Colin Wilson. I am above all grateful for Wulf’s freeing me from the mild guilt I have felt about all the topics I haven’t done to adequate length, as well as my regret that the late Alisdair Clarke did not live to produce a similar treatise from his path breaking blog, Aryan Futurism ^[3]. Constant Readers of this blog will find Loki’s Way to be essential reading.

But first let Wulf define his subject:

Loki’s Way is an adaptation of the Left Hand Path or sorcery for the Kali Yuga. This tradition has taken many forms throughout the centuries, in the modern age it must be updated to deal with new discoveries in science and psychology. [62]

The last part there also brings up another reason I’ve had trouble writing about this book. I have grave reservations about much of the material in the first third, and thus, as Wulf expresses it here, in a sense his whole project. I would prefer that he take Guénon’s advice and forget about “reconciling” science and Tradition and especially “updating“ the latter by the former. Not only should the process be reversed, judging Science by the timeless principles of Tradition, but the process is necessarily unending, as Science by contrast is the realm of the amorphous and ever-changing, requiring the “synthesis” (really, as Guénon would point out, syncretism) to be redone over and over — although I’m sure the publishers appreciate that!

In particular, I think that Wulf’s claim that “the esoteric is the physiological,” i.e. the “discovery” that what esoteric Tradition has been talking about in guarded language can “now be revealed” (as the New Age publishers would shout) as being techniques for manipulating the endocrine and other bodily systems, is really just a misreading of what Evola among others has described as the starting point that remains when all dogmas and theories have been tested and abandoned, in the alchemical abyss:

But then the individual finds himself confronting his body, which is the fundamental nexus of all the conditions of his state. The consideration of the connection between the ego principle in its double form of thought and deed and corporeality . . . and the transformation of said connection by means of well-defined, practical, and necessary acts, even though they are essentially interior, constitutes the essential core of the Royal Art of the hermetic masters.

Evola adds:

The latter will be directed first of all to the conquest of the principle of immortality, and then to the total stable nature, no longer transitory or deteriorating . . . by which the human manifestation is established within the realm of becoming. (The Hermetic Tradition, pp. 98-99)

Immortality! Yes, indeed:

Loki’s Way gives us the opportunity for individual immortality. It means using the very structures that are in place to satisfy the replicators and which sustain collective immortality for our own benefit. We are literally making a u-turn; the very things that sustain the immortality of the collective must be used against the norm to achieve a permanent, discrete and individual self.

This, of course, is extremely difficult and confronting and accordingly the path to immortality is one that only a few will attempt and less will achieve. It is hard to conceptualize just how radical such a process must be. The best way is to seriously consider that absolutely everything you believe, feel and think could be wrong. Your tastes, choices, preferences, likes and dislikes are all conditioned. Nothing about your life is authentically real. It is as though you were conditioned as a government agent and everything you believe to be true about yourself, your life, your career even your family is simply brainwashing. The truth about the human condition is really that terrifying. Most will find such a scenario so frightening and so personally confronting that it is easier to look away and find fault with this book than to wake up and smell the coffee. (p. 58)

What Evola calls alchemy or The Royal Art Wulf calls . . . sorcery:

What is sorcery? Sorcery is a means by which an individual is able to wretch control of the evolutionary processes to become individually aware and immortal. He or she becomes a discrete, isolate intelligence which exists beyond the confines of the collective processes of eternal re-occurrence. . . . Within Loki’s Way this change is the transformation of human to post human through the focusing of the Will. (p. 61)

The bit about the Will reminds us that Evola was compelled to treat Crowley with some respect, despite his deplorable life and personality, as someone who Knew Things. Wulf goes Evola one better and brings in Crowley explicitly.

Another thing he brings in explicitly, and much to my heart, is the Männerbund, which Evola only relatively briefly discusses. Wulf connects the dots between the historical Männerbund and the esoteric path to individual immortality followed by the elite — in contrast to the common fate in store for the followers of the Vedic “path of the fathers,” Evola’s realm of society beneath the State, my own contrast of Family Values and Wild Boys. For Wulf it’s replicators versus Sorcerers.

The Männerbund or Warrior Band is the origin of the esoteric path, because the latter is, au fond, a battle; which Wulf explains, typically, in equal parts Sufism and Dawkins:

Memetic eugenics is the process whereby we weed out unworthy memes and replace them with memes which will help us evolve. This is what Loki’s Way is all about. We dissolve conditioning and replace it with memes which are conducive to our own process of godmaking. This book is a meme, bringing esoteric traditions in line with science and hopefully awakening the small number of people with the potential to become more than what they are.

Sorcery is found in many ancient traditions. In the Norse we can see that the warrior ethic was an expression of the battle against the flawed aspects of the emotions and psyche to achieve a true Self which would enter Valhalla. The berserker or warrior is a great “type” of the seeker for the Overman. An even more intriguing example is in Sufism where the concept of Jihad is interpreted in a unique way. The outer form of Jihad is a just war but the inner form of Jihad, the more significant, is against the false and flawed aspects of the personality. This model of the internal battle where we wage a sacred war against genes, memes and frames to achieve a Self is an expressive and poetic way to represent our sacred quest. (p. 66)

So, paradoxically, only the Warrior Band, the Group, can provide the context for true individuation:

This is one of the reasons cell, unit or Männerbund work is so significant, it keeps you grounded and stops the fragments of the ego from influencing your worldview. A good group of fellow working sorcerers can bring you to earth quicksmart! (p. 95)

This warrior elite, devoted to realizing a higher principle, is the origin of the Traditional Aryan State, which is oriented to a transcendent principle, in contrast to the common herd and its promiscuous “wants” and “needs” (think: peasant frivolity vs. the Templars) and thus also the social stratification characteristic of Aryan society (p. 72):

The sorcerer and warrior both have the potential to become Overman via different means or by combining paths. Loki’s Way is the modern equivalent of [Georges Dumézil‘s] first function combined with a warrior ethic. It can be applied via the mode of the lone wolf, with a blood brother or in a Männerbund. The teaching level of the sorcerer and warrior is esoteric and left hand path. (p. 74)

At this point, the story takes a turn that may give the average reader a turn himself, but not our Constant Readers:

As organic and social memes are dissolved new forms of sexuality and emotional bonding needs to be created. Every man has androphilic potential, it just has to be activated and directed. Since the transition to the Overman is unnatural and works against the normal evolutionary process which favours reproduction then the focus must be on same-sex bonding. (p. 112)

I am not suggesting that every screaming queen or muscle-mary is a spiritual warrior or engaged in Platonic love. I am suggesting that to cultivate a unique form of androphile friendship based on esoteric ideas is the highest form of relationship and for the Overman naught else will do. (p. 109)

Which leads to chapters discussing both historical traditions from India to the Norsemen, and modern theorists from Edward Carpenter to Hans Blüher to Jack Malebranche. Especially important are his careful dissection of the various “models” of homosexuality that have gone into creating the modern notions of “homosexual” and “gay,” and analyzing their usefulness for the Left Hand Path.

The [Uranian] model was popularised by both Ulrichs and Hirschfeld and ultimately proves wanting. It confuses intersex and transgenderism with homosexuality. While this is not surprising due to the early period of their work it is still a view popular today. It seems an ongoing slur in a culture which devalues women and sees them as “less than men” to associate men who take the passive sexual role as female. It could be argued that this identification has its roots in misogyny and was later fed by Judeo Christian thinking. Many also believe that the idea of seeing a homosexual as a woman in a man’s body led to the medicalization of homosexuality which continued right through to the 1960s.

The Intermediate Sex model [Carpenter] is significant as the shaman, priest and androphile warrior existing outside the normal structures of the society. At the same time I think we need to be careful using the term third or intermediate sex as it infers a state which is not quite one or the other, rather than as one which is both. The masculinist model of Brand and others (it is also found represented in the work of Jack Malebranche today, Androphilia) is appealing and certainly relevant.

Personally I we think we need to develop a new model for our sexuality hence terms like Androphilia and the Männerbund need to be understood in a new way. This is especially significant since we are talking about same-sex relations in terms of a unique goal not as an everyday preference. For the Männerbund androphilia is a special form of “sacred” bond which is expressed between warriors; it is also initiatory.

All comrades have a male and female side and clearly since they are working to transcend human restrictions would have no problems exploring passive or active sex roles. The genders within us, so to speak, represent a great source of power and we may use cross dressing or passive techniques for Seidr work but also have no issue with being warriors for Galdr (active runic sorcery) or even in battle. (p. 129)

I think Wulf is on to something important here. All of the existing ‘scientific’ and especially “historical” models seem skewed against the correct understanding of the telos of esotericism being to transcend by uniting male and female, active and passive, etc.

[P]rohibitions against same-sex relations hence the fear of homosexuality comes from an alien desert religion and has little to do with our traditions. . . . Many of these same phobias were passed down into Christianity and Islam. Many traditions had a very different attitude to same-sex relations prior to their infection by Christianity. Japanese Buddhism had a strong homoerotic element as did the Samurai, it was only Christian missionaries that did away with such traditions. Sadly many of the Eddic references to same-sex relations are negative but that is to be expected considering they have come down through the hands of Christian scribes! (p. 219)

One could add here Daniélou’s similar comments on the importation of Victorian and modernist prejudices into Hinduism, as we have frequently quoted on our own b

Fire in Northern Mythology

2011-01-25T00:05:00+01:00

Fire in Northern mythology
Ex.: http://www.gangleri.nl/
Fire, a concept that is very present in Northern mythology and also a concept that I have broken my head over for some time now. The symbology is multi-layered and however I still haven’t fully worked out the subject, I want to present some thoughts and come to an interpretation of some elements of Northern mythology.
Creation
There are two primal forces in Nordic myths, two forces that are known under the names, “fire” and “ice”. Before there was anything, there was Ginungagap, a “yawning gap”. In the south of it, fire ‘resided’ and in the north, ice. When these two came together, everything started. So, fire is the primal force, one side of the Divine. Some symbology!
It is not strange that fire keeps coming back in the symbology of Nordic mythology. What may be strange is that fire is much better represented than ice, but this is not the subject of this article.
Later in the creation myth, the triple divinity Odin, Hænir (sometimes Hoenir, or Hnir) and Lodur give capacities and make man. “Spirit gave Odin, “óður” gave Hoenir, “lá” gave Lodur and the form of gods”. This is how Rydberg translates Völuspa 18. More often you will read something like “Soul gave Othin, sense gave Hnir, Heat gave Lothur and goodly hue”. (Ari Odhinnsen) In the Prose Edda it is Odin, Vili and Vé who are the givers of these things.
Loki
Lodur is often said to be Loki. In the preface to the Reginsmal Odin, Hænir and Loki are named together, so this is not strange. Loki is the most famous of ‘fire Gods’ from the Northern pantheon. The name Loki has been explained in different ways of which two are most interesting in our story. “Logi” supposedly means “flame” and the terms “liuhan” (Gothic) and “lecht” (Anglo-Saxon) are linked to the English word “light”, but also to the term “flame”. The same goes for the term “Lód”.
Fiery triplicity
When you think of it, there are three Gods connected to the concept of fire and also connected to eachother: Heimdallr, Balder and Loki. Heimdallr is the “white As”, the watchman on the Bifrost bridge and is therefor the middleman between the world of men and the world of the Gods. Heimdallr is not only the connecting smoke-pillar representing the Irminsul in the fire ritual, but also unchanging fire. He is the metaphysic flame, beyond time and space. In this regard Heimdallr can be equated with Brahman of the Hindus.
The second name that I mentioned is that of Balder. Balder is Heimdallr, but on another plane. We can place Heimdallr on the godly level, Balder on the human level and Loki on the underwordly level (or Asgard, Midgard and Utgard). Balder is the incarnated fire, the fire in ‘our world’ so to say. He is the warmth of our heart, the sun, the ancestral hearth-fire. To use another Hindu term, Balder may be seen as Atman.
I have already said a few things about Loki, but you can imagine that in regard of the previous, Loki is the destructive, incinerating, consuming fire. Loki is longing and desire.
When I draw this line further, I can say that Balder and Loki are dual aspects of Heimdallr, but on other levels.
Lightning
Lightning is often connected to fire and when I say lightning, I say Thor. Lightning is sparks of fire when Thor’s hammer hits something. The hammer makes an interesting connection, since with his Mjölnir, Thor kills giants (ice-giants!), but the Mjölnir is also connected with right (the judge’s hammer), consecration (for example of marriages) and initiations (a ‘higher’ form of consecration).
Ragnarök
To bring the above together, we get the following picture. Loki, the lower self, turns against the higher self (Balder), causing Ragnarök. During this Ragnarök, Thor kills the Midgard-snake (‘manifestation’), Heimdallr (our divine spark) fights Loki and all this in order to have our higher self ‘become divine’ (in other words: to develop and realise our Balder to become Heimdallr).
An interesting point that does not fit completely in the above is that Surtr, the leader of the fire-giants who raise up to fight the Aesir, also seems to be the cause of the sparks coming from Muspelheimr and thus creation. During Ragnarök Surtr destroys the Bifrost-bridge (Heimdallr’s ‘domain’), kills Freyr and sets the world to flames. Whereas Heimdallr seems to be some ‘overhuman’ fire-aspect, Surtr is more of an ‘underhuman’ aspect. Both larger than our petty selves, but completely opposital. In this regard Surtr maybe represents the outside forces that try to disconnect us from our divine origin. Whatever we may call “evil” maybe. Surtr seems to have always been there and whereas Loki, Balder and Heimdallr are ‘part of us’, Surtr is not.
Of course there are more figures that can be connected to fire, but here I present a certain aspect that may shed light on some of the symbolism in Northern mythology.
-13/3/07-
24 May 2007