“Battle’s End” – Dark Shieldmaiden – Prelude

April 8, 2020 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Odin’s Day!

September 25, 1066

Anya the Bold knew she was dying. She still clung to her sword while sitting with her back against the tree. She had lost so much blood through her wound on her left side that she was sure death would come soon. She had seen this many times before in others but now she knew it was coming to her. A mortal wound that she knew would be her end.

Not that she feared death. Vahalla awaited and now she had more than enough reason to enter its gates. She had watched her husband die as a warrior. Vagnar had stood on the bridge with his great axe holding off the Saxons long enough for the rest of them to escape. She knew he would fall but she had not waited around to see it. She honored his sacrifice while hiding the fact that she herself had been stabbed by a Saxon sword.

She lay dying she thought of his embrace knowing it would soon be renewed in Vahalla. Her thoughts turned to his strong arms around her and the last time they had made love on the morning of the battle when King Godwinson’s army then surprised them. They had enough time to arm themselves and then battle ensued. Had not their own king fallen and their ally Earl Tostig, King Gdowinson’s brother fallen as well, things might have been different. The Saxons had completely surprised them.

She knew her husband had felled many Saxons that day. How many had fallen would surely be the stuff of legend as the tale was retold. For now, though she knew he had only proceeded her in death by some hours. She stared at the trees in front of her while her vision darkened…

She awoke but it was not the hall of Vahalla she saw. The same English trees lay before her and she felt strange. It was now nightfall and she was alive; something she had not expected. She actually felt renewed and yet also had a feeling like she had downed far too much mead. She could move which when she had fallen asleep she could not do. She had lost too much blood. How was this possible?

Looking down at her wound, her breath caught in her throat.

“Odin.”

It was healed like it had never existed. Her head swam in disbelief.

“It’s alright, You were dying and I saved you. You might not, however, believe how.”

She looked to see one of her fellow Norseman standing over her. He had a strong young face, but his eyes betrayed an age much older. She had seen him before but did not know his name.

“Why?”

“Because the wife of a brave man needs to be around to hear his tale.”

He held out his hand and helped her to her feet. Then she smashed her fist right into his face, knocking him on his backside.

“You rob me of Vahalla and my husbands embrace. I should kill you.”

The man sat there, rubbing his chin. He smiled.

“No. You will join your husband someday, just not yet. And killing me might prove far more difficult than you might imagine.”

Anya raised her sword and drove it down; but in a motion, which she did not see, the man stood to his feet and caught her wrist. The strength of his grip caused her hand to flex and the sword to fall from her fingers. He then put the arm behind her back and his other arm went around her holding her still. His strength was far superior to any man she had ever met.

“I have given you a gift. A gift that you need to understand and I am willing to teach you, but you must calm down and listen. I have given you a chance to tell your husband’s tale for generations to come. But more than that, I have given you a chance to truly live.”

Anya relaxed.

“Why would you do this.”

“Because your husband was not the only one who has loved you.”

He let go of her and she spun and looked at him.

“Anya the Bold. I have watched you for a long time. From the time you were a child. You have a strong spirit and an intelligent mind. You are brave and a passionate heart. I have come to love you, but I would not dishonor your marriage.”

“Who are you?”

“Just call me Erik. Listen, If you want to honor your husband’s sacrifice, live and give him vengeance. What happened today cannot go unpunished.”

Anya looked at Erik grimly and then nodded. She then held up her sword. The sword her husband had given her a few years ago.

“I shall avenge my husband, twenty Saxons will fall to this blade, I swear by Odin the All-Father.”

“Good, and I will tell you more about what happened to you. But for now, we must join the others and return home. The Saxons will wait until another day.”

As he turned and she followed a tear formed in her eyes. If only she had known the horrors that awaited her, she might have killed Erik for his ‘gift’.

Writer’s Notes:

Its been a bit since I started something new. My hope is this series is intriguing enough and entertaining enough for me. It is a story I wanted to read but seeing no one has written it yet, I decided to do it.

I remain.

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

“Viking Philosophy – Part 4 – Be a Good Merchant” – The Pagan Pulpit

March 22, 2020April 6, 2020 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Sol’s Day!

Announcements:

We don’t pray here – we figure God, the gods, goddesses, or whatever powers that be (if any) either know already, don’t give a fuck, or are busy with more important matters than our petty stuff. We also kind of assume that they expect us to do stuff that we can do for ourselves and that we will do them ourselves and not be lazy. We also believe in being good friends, so we don’t presume on our friendship with the powers that be by asking them all the time for stuff while giving them nothing in return.

We also don’t take an offering here. We figure the powers that be probably don’t need it. Let’s be honest, offerings are not given to the divine powers, they are given to an organization to support it. Just being honest. God, the gods or whatever never sees a dime, farthing or peso of that money; it all goes to the church, mosque or shrine.

Theme Song: Trobar de Morte – ‘Summoning The Gods’

Meditation:

Text:

Sermon: ‘Viking Philosophy – Part 3 – Be a Good Merchant’

One of the unknown historical things about the Vikings is that they were good traders. Most see the Vikings as raiders but their main long term objective was trade routes. Now the Vikings if they seemed to have shortcoming militarily it was siege\ing cities so the better strategy was to threaten economic warfare but then offer trade as an alternative to war. Sometimes it was simple once the Vikings colonized they traded with the new colony. In any case, being a good merchant was part fo the game of being a Viking.

Finding Out What the Market Needs – selling means filling a need. You can try to sell ice and snow to Eskimos all you want but they don’t need them.
Do Not Promise What You Cannot Keep – No one will do business with a person who can not deliver on their promises. The great correcting force of the market is if you sell shit people will stop buying it and if you don’t deliver – same.
Do Not Demand Overpayment – Make sure your prices are affordable and you will get long term business.
Arrange Things So You Can Return – The long term is the focus in the end. Being able to do business and keep doing it repeatedly. This is why being honorable and truthful leads to self-reliance.

Parting Thought:

I remain,

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

“Two Toms, John and Me” – Of Wolves and Ravens – Libertarianism

October 14, 2019October 14, 2019 / Ed Raby Sr / 1 Comment

Happy Mani’s Day

Discussion:

Last week the discussion centered around anarchism where I basically stated that I consider it the morally purest and yet most naive idea about government – that is it is best not to have one. In that post (link), I also stated that the government, if we are going to have one, needs to have certain qualities. This whole idea and the three things I said government needed to have comes direct5ly from my readings of John Locke and the practical application of his principles by two Toms – Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine. These were in my mind the beginnings of practical classical liberalism which sees its incarnation in the United States of the late 18th century.

It is from these men that much fo my own libertarian philosophy is derived from. Granting people as much freedom as possible is actually a key to prosperity. I suppose I do look a little romantically toward the founding of my nation and then look at the current state of things a go – what the serious fuck. The enlightenment founding fathers were probably the first men to really ask the question of how to have an effective but small government with the maximum amount of liberty and actually put what they wanted more or less in place.

To the Wolves and Ravens:

“Feed the Wolves, but Listen to the Ravens first.”

Needs (Geri):

Through these gentlemen, I come back to my three things needed to do this:

Recognizing that the citizens are the boss, the government is the servant, not the master.
Having a great concern to defend the rights of individuals, in fact, it should be made as one of the central duties of government.
The citizens should have the means to overthrow said government if it attempts to violate the two above.

As the anarchist reminds us, we don’t need government, but we are probably going to have one, so what we need is safeguarding against tyranny and totalitarianism.

Wants (Freki):

The kind of government then that we want gives us the three above conditions. It starts with the Idea of ‘We the People’ establishing this government and granting it powers and then limiting them. It makes sure the rights of the citizen are spelled out and gives restrictions and limitations on what the government can do in regard to those rights. Mostly protect them but not interfere. It also should protect the means to overthrow the government if it becomes tyrannical. Weapons stay in the hands of civilians.

Reason (Huginn):

Led by Paine and Jefferson and using Locke’s principles all three were maintained in a constitution that granted powers to the government by consent of the governed. It created a bill fo rights that the government could not strip from the citizen regardless of democratic action. One of those rights the right to keep and bear arms for the very event and purpose of revolution against tyranny.

Wisdom (Muninn):

What was created was a very wise government that was small. The problem is as we go along this constitution and the principles behind it are regarded as a tradition rather than law. This seems to have the same effect as when the Roman republic began to see its traditions erode and tyranny became more possible.

Much the same is happening in the United States right now as the Constitution must be evoked by those who are willing to back it up with force and there seems to be less and less of those people. I am not one of them but I am also not an idiot. No government lasts forever. But the principles of liberty, life, the pursuit of happiness and property ownership, need to remain regardless.

Conclusion:

As I consider my reading list for next year I am thinking Locke, Paine and Jefferson need to be among them. I need to apply my libertarian principles and my sense of practicality to the modern issues fo how to maintain freedom in the face of two parties that seem hell-bent on restricting or limiting rights which they have no authority from the people to limit. Making sure people can act in self-reliance is a worthy quest.

I remain,

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

“Revising the Ten Commandments – Part 3 – Additions and Final Copy” – The Rabyd Skald

September 30, 2019September 30, 2019 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Mani’s Day

Now for the part of this where I ask the question about ‘is there something else that could be added?’ What stands outside the commandments as edited by myself that should also be on par with the other ten. In this regard, most people don’t realize the original ten commandments does the same thing. In one place after the ten, more are listed and it has a lot to do with additions or other ideas that need to be addressed. I think that there is a call for me to do this as well. Some other things should be emphasized.

Additions:

#11 – Until a child can make decisions for themselves, they should not have parts of their body removed, be abused or otherwise manipulated to further the agenda of adults.

Sorry, I think children should be protected and make such decisions about circumcision, sexuality, and other religious and political matters when they are old enough themselves. Adults should respect it is their body and their choices and until they can make informed decisions they should be protected until they can do so themselves.

#12 – In case it wasn’t already clear, the following activities should not be done as they are morally bankrupt: rape, genocide, and slavery.

I don’t really need to say anything here do I. Other than I have just contradicted many of the commands of the Law of Moses and the ‘history’ of the Biblical Story of god’s people to say so. Christopher Hitchens is right. The reason these are not in the original ten is that God’s people will be asked to commit genocide and will later both enslave and rape the survivors.

#13 – Don’t do to others, what you would not want to be done to you.

Kind of a catch-all and a negative version of the golden rule. This is because the negative so it actually prevents bad behavior in this case.

Final Copy: The Grey Wayfarer’s 13 Commandments:

#1 – You were born free. People will try to enslave you through many means; Don’t let them. Respect the freedom of others; Don’t enslave them.

#2 – Be an artistic human. Express yourself and enjoy the expression of others.

#3 – Uphold the truth and be truthful with your words. When you’re wrong – admit it.

#4 – Take one day a week off and do what you want to do. Life is too short not to enjoy it.

#5 – If you have children, remember that was your decision, not theirs; so be responsible parents, earn their respect, and teach them to be good human beings.

#6 – Don’t Murder

# 7 – Engage in responsible and consensual sexual activity.

# 8 – Don’t Steal

# 9 – Don’t lie to convict or harm the innocent.

#10 – Think Freely. Never accept any tyranny, especially that of the mind.

#11 – Until a child can make decisions for themselves, they should not have parts of their body removed, be abused or otherwise manipulated to further the agenda of adults.

#12 – In case it wasn’t already clear, the following activities should not be done as they are morally bankrupt: rape, genocide, and slavery.

#13 – Don’t do to others, what you would not want to be done to you.

They still need refining, but a definite improvement. In the end, I think I have demonstrated that it does not require religion to come up with a solid moral code. Rather, it seems that one simply being human can actually come up with something better than the supposed ten commandments of God through Moses.

I remain,

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

“Revival – Asatru (Part 5)” – The Pagan Pulpit

August 11, 2019August 11, 2019 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Sol’s Day

Announcements:

We don’t pray here – we figure God, the gods, goddesses, or whatever powers that be either know already, don’t give a fuck, or are busy with more important matters than our petty stuff. We also kind of assume that they expect us to do stuff that we can do for ourselves and that we will do them ourselves and not be lazy. We also believe in being good friends, so we don’t presume on our friendship with the powers that be by asking them all the time for stuff while giving them nothing in return.

Theme Song: ‘Herr Mannelig’ – Garmarna

English Translation: https://lyricstranslate.com/en/herr-mannelig-sir-mannelig.html

Meditation:

The situation is always changing and it is not always in your favor. Regardless there is always the best way to play your hand and it is your obligation to find it.

Text:

If you want more details about Asatru, I can’t recommend this book enough.

Sermon:

It is hard to say when the revival of the interest in Pagan Norse Religion really began. In some cases, we might say that it was preserved through family traditions and merging pagan traditions with Chrisitan ones. There was also a limited amount of writing done by historians and literature experts on Norse Mythology and religious practice.

Some argue that it was the early 20th century with the interest in Germanic ancient culture by the Germans that saw the start of it. It is also a criticism that it might be colored by the Nazis but it is probably more likely to be the case of the Nazi’s using cultural trends to their advantage as far as PR. Symbols and history are often coopted by those that rule to form a romanticism they tap into. The romanticism though already existed because a lot of it can be traced back to the 19th century long before the nazi’s perverted the mythology and the Swastika. I and many other people who study Asatru and history would say the chief deity of the Nazi party was Adolf Hitler himself, not Odin, Thor or Tyr.

In any case, in the last 70 years or so a revival of interest in ancient Northern European mythology has arisen. Becoming more popular, as Diane Paxton observes, starting with the writings in England with Tolkein and CS Lewis. Robert E. Howard with Conan chimed in during the 1950s. Is it any wonder that I have an interest in this mythology when what sparked my interest was these great writers and my own heritage.

In 1969, the same year I was born, the Odinist Fellowship was founded, followed by Viking Brotherhood in 1971 and Asatru Free Assembly in 1976. All in America. In Iceland, Asatru became an accepted religion by their parliament in 1973 thus opening up the most direct route to a religious revival of ancient ways through Asatru.

What has followed has been a process of Norse paganism in Asatru arising and organizing into various groups. The 1990s saw a great deal of expansion and development. Publications and books are becoming more and more frequent. I would say interest has been revived and increase due to the television series Vikings among many others.

For me, my personal story of ‘conversion’ to Asatru is a long one. Like I said, I loved fantasy books from an early age. devouring CS Lewis, Tolkien, and Howard. Conan became a favorite hero of mine along with Gandalf. I was a Dungeons and Dragons player and Dungeon Master for many years and that has this culture and religion as a large part of it. The more I learned the more it fascinated me. I suppose the crisis moment and conversion point would be me leaving Christianity for good last year and realizing my need for a new code of conduct. I looked at many warrior codes, but Asatru appealed more than all of them because of this connection to my culture, history, and interests. My pagan tendencies tend to line up very much with Asatru.

This ends part one of my Asatru analysis. Next will be a discussion of many of the Norse gods and goddesses and their significance to the followers of Asatru.

Parting Thought:

Paganism does have some bit of a ‘dark’ side. In that, most of us will do terrible things if the ones we love are threatened. There is no turn the other cheek or forgiveness without restitution. And if the person opposing us doesn’t offer us restitution or threatens to take what is ours, then we can get such restitution by other means. You might say justice has a different meaning to us. Your best course of action in dealing with us is being honest and respectful and mind your own business.

I remain,

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

“Objections to Christianity – Part 1 – The Bible’s Inspiration by God” (Revised August 2019) – Odin’s Eye – Theological Objections to Christianity.

August 8, 2019August 8, 2019 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Thor’s Day

August 2019 Revision Notes:

It has been almost a year since I wrote these originally starting in November of 2018. When I got to the rotation in Odin’s Eye the last time where I was going to deal with these objections again, I saw no need for revision but rather simply laid it out there that no one had responded to them to that date and moved on into the rest of the Rotation for Odin’s Eye.

This time though I feel that I need to spend four weeks of Odin’s Eye doing some revisions that will either clarify my position, add some other thoughts or edit for other issues. Such edits will be marked by italics. When archived, they will appear under the original post on this Page: My Four Theological Objections to Christianity

Mostly though this is a cut and paste with some revisions. As the series goes on there will be more revisions as I can see the need for things to change a bit in the other three objections. In this one, however, the objective remains pretty much the same.

Introduction:

I want to state upfront, this is a long post. I want to be complete as possible in stating this objection and the ones that follow. Mostly as I will state later that I for a long time wanted answers; I still do. It was hard leaving my faith because I wanted so desperately to believe. Reason itself eventually prevailed and I will stand by that decision. The reason I am putting a lot of words into this is that I still would accept answers: if they could be proven rationally that Christianity is the true religion.

I have written on my crisis of faith a couple of times. Despite some people’s assertion that this was due to personal events, it actually started in 2015 with my second objection which is that I think ‘sin’ is a man-made up concept. It started when I preached a message about sin and I had heard a quote that week from a critic of Christianity that basically said sin was made up and that because of it Christianity solves a problem of its own making.

I will get into this moment in more detail in my second objection post, but it got me rethinking everything in the light of skepticism and I began to form four theological objections for which I still have no satisfactory answers. While the sin question got my original thinking going, it is this first question involving the Bible and divine inspiration that forms the foundation of the other three.

Now, I want to state for the record that I am no amateur when it comes to the Bible or Theology. 1) I have degrees in both Biblical Studies (BA) and Theological Studies (MA). 2) I am a ‘professional’ theologian and have been since 1996. 3) I was a Christian from the time I was eight and as I approach my 50th birthday that would have been close it forty-two years. 4) I was a pastor (now retired) for twenty years and have spent many years since school studying the Bible and engaging theological questions. 5) I have had several crisis moments in my theology and up until two to three years ago I could answer them all or found ways to explain them. Not anymore.

I will also say I am not hostile to Christians, I get it. It took me a long time to face the facts of the objections I will present in this series. I still am open to anything that answers them. My largest problem when I discuss this is people sometimes get offended because I seem to be very aggressive, but I am not really doing that, just being as honest as I can. People don’t always like it when you ask questions that are hard about what they believe. Cognitive dissonance is a real thing, so I get. Understand I am not being hostile to your faith if you have it. I am just being hostile to mine or what mine used to be. That’s because I take as a central core idea that if the God of the Bible is the real god and the Bible is inspired by him, then it should make sense and have rational proof this is so.

Faith:

Bottom Line, faith is trusting in something that you have no evidence for and that is the problem. You hope it is true and you believe it is true, but you don’t know it is true. This is particularly true for many church doctrines and one of the most notable is the divine inspiration of scripture. The reason I can say this is no matter what school of thought you follow in looking at inspiration, there is no evidence that God came down and inspired the Bible. You simply have to believe the simple statement “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.” There is no attempt to prove this, just a statement of fact that the reader must simply accept.

An example is probably in order:

“The Rabyd Skald’s writings are inspired by the god Odin. Everything he writes comes straight from the mouth of the god Odin.”

You say ridiculous. I ask why? You say because I simply have made an assertion and have offered no proof that what I say is true. I want to tell you the Bible does the exact same thing with the exact same level of proof that God came down and directly inspired the writers of the Bible – none. It’s pure faith, no evidence even from the Bible itself. The Bible writers simply assert this; they never prove it.

Religion:

Looking at the doctrine of inspiration historically, once again we have no proof of the inspiration of Scripture by God, just the creation of the doctrine of inspiration and various councils of men deciding which books are inspired. There is no record of God coming down and saying – “these books are my inspired word.” Just groups of men doing that. That is what you actually see.

It stands to reason that religions do this. In the end, you need a common core of beliefs and authority and it is far easier to make a group of writings do that because it has a greater chance of standing the test of time. Especially if you inject a tradition of copying and transcribing these books from one generation to the next. Even in this though, two problems develop. 1) People abuse the authority of said books and can twist their meaning and 2) the transcription of said books can be flawed.

The second brings up an additional inspiration question which is: ‘Is the Bible still inspired even though people have put mistakes into it and changed it from one language to the next where meaning is going to get changed?’ The human factors are definitely present in the Bible. Does that undermine inspiration or simply point to the fact that the Bible is a wholly human book? Because we don’t really have proof God is involved, are we just making up the whole divine inspiration thing in order to make this human book have more significance?

Theology:

I spent a great deal of time and digital ink pouring over this question of inspiration. On my blog All Things Rabyd (which is still there although no longer active) I spent nine posts looking at the various theories of divine inspiration. You can find the link to all of them here. I eventually settled on Dynamic Inspiration as the best possible explanation to handle the human element of the bible. That much like the doctrines of Christ state Jesus was 100% God and 100% Man, so was the bible the same way. It satisfied me for a while but there was a fatal flaw in the whole thing.

The flaw? I still had no proof positive that the 100% divine inspiration part was real. There is no photograph of God reaching into the head of Paul or Moses inspiring them to write things. I mean you could say God is the inspiration for the Bible like a person might be inspired to write about nature from being outside. There is however no proof that God took an active hand in telling the authors what to write or how to write it. That is purely a matter of whether you believe that or not. It really is blind faith when you consider that particular question.

Spirituality:

I will probably handle other objections involving scripture at a later date. My purpose today is to get the main parts of my first objection to Christianity out there. The question always comes – do I still read the Bible and what value do I place on it? Well, yes I do. I value it in that it contains a lot of ‘truth’ small ‘t’. I just don’t think it’s the Truth with a capital ‘T‘. Rather a lot of men wrote about their sincere belief in God. God inspired them in that way and they wrote but in the end, it was human inspiration ABOUT the divine. It was not God coming down and whispering in their ear what to write, no matter what their claims.

It also, because it is a human book and not divine to me, contains a lot of Bull Shit and spiritual opinion by ancient authors which may or may not be valid. You still have to use a lot of judgment in looking at the Bible because if some of it is objectively true then the god of the Bible becomes at times both inconsistent and a sadistic tyrant.

For me, I still draw a lot of inspiration from the Bible. Some of its stories are great. It has men wrestling with the question about God. Some of the teachings of Christ are some of the best on human relationships you will ever see. That said, it is only one avenue of being inspired, not the only one and it is a very human book. In short, it has its flaws, and I think some of the morality it promotes could be questioned as to whether it actually does good or not.

Conclusion:

When the doctrine of inspiration goes, then you can look at the Bible objectively. This caused me to really realize the god of the Bible has a few problems. 1) Sin seems to be made up as a concept and used to control the behavior of people 2) The plan of salvation God comes up with does not speak well of supreme being because it makes God both sadistic and masochistic. 3) God’s justice seems a little suspect especially when you consider final judgment.

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

“The Christian Invasion – Asatru (Part 4)” – The Pagan Pulpit

August 4, 2019August 5, 2019 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Sun’s Day

Announcements:

Theme Song: “Viking War Song – Fehu” – Wardruna

Meditation:

There have been a lot of really shitty things that were legal for people to do. Legal is no metric for right and wrong. Truth and Justice are not about what is legal.

Text:

If you want more details about Asatru, I can’t recommend this book enough.

Sermon:

It is at this point, that I hope that why I am going through the history of the Germanic/Scandinavian religion that it will be clear why the modern movement of Asatru is necessary as a reconstructionist effort. The main cause is that the Christians were very good a wiping out paganism for the most part. It certainly made sure that whatever aspects of paganism that survived had to 1) go underground or 2) hide in the midst of Christian tradition.

As a former Christian pastor, I lived with a couple very terrible bits of historical revelation. 1) That the spread of Christianity was due in large part to missionary efforts that involved bribery, diplomacy and violence more than the truth of the religion as it stands on its own, and 2) That these tactics have continued to the present day. There is what Jesus taught and what Christianity does to spread the faith, and they are miles apart. Light years really.

Paganism in the middle ages started to face a new invasion from a religion that was relentless in its missionary zeal. The basic tactic of Christians was to approach a ruler and offer them salvation in the church. The offer was often sweetened by the fact if that ruler was facing an opponent that was difficult or wanted some sort of help in a conflict they were having with a neighbor, conversion to Christianity brought church financial support as well as the support of Chrisitan allies as they went after those ‘unwashed’ heathens.

Inside each new ruler’s country then the process would start of identifying pagan practices, making them illegal and then purging the pagan practices and if necessary the pagans themselves. There are stories that survive of the slaughter of heathens on a grand scale, destruction of pagan sacred sites and the seizing of pagan property which found its way either into the church’s hands or the ruler of the country. There came a tipping point in Europe where it was either join the church or die and many chose to join the church. A few brave souls chose to die with honor along with their countrymen.

The problem for those who now follow Asatru with all this is that Christianity was very effective in wiping out a lot of the old ways to the point that much has been lost. Asatru is a reconstructionist movement at its heart trying to search out and find things that were lost and then restore them.

It is only recently in the history of the world that some countries have added the Norse/Germanic religions to their list of accepted state religions and thus opening up even the ability to try. For the most part up until then, pagan practices survived by bastardizing their practices by combining them with Christian ones. See Easter’s bunny and Christmas’ trees and lights. Or they went underground passed secretly from one generation to the next. Some things survived in ancient writings and mythology. This is why Asatru is necessary as it is trying to put back into place what has long been lost.

For myself, I knew all these things as a Christian for many years about what my faith had done but justified it. Now, I call it out for what it is – gross hypocrisy. I would also say that Christianity has acted in greed, malice, and lust but called it manifest destiny, the divine right of kings (government), and missionary zeal. They really should be ashamed of their history, but they go on merrily talking about how loving and humble they are and a force for ‘civilization’. There is nothing very civilized about running a sword through someone simply because they have a different faith than you.

The problem for me is I live with a Chrisitan and my family is mostly Christian. They are good people and for the most part ignorant of their religion’s history. That said, I know that their faith has blood on its hands going back quite a bit and in some contexts, they would, because of their faith, do some pretty shitty things to others. For Me, Asatru is about getting back to my spiritual roots before Christianity came into my ancestors’ lives and changed things. It is about finding that which is lost and restoring it back to my weary soul.

Parting Thought:

An obvious note in Asatru. Loyalty is, but not obedience. That belong to the religions that expect blind loyalty and servitude. We are free people and respect and allegiance are earned.

I remain,

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

“Viking/Germanic Paganism – Asatru (Part 3)” – The Pagan Pulpit

July 28, 2019July 28, 2019 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Sun’s Day

Announcements:

Theme Song: “Song of Odin (A Cappella)” by Alchemical Poetry

Damn son, this kid can sing and all the parts too. Salute.

Meditation:

It depends very much on what you value: power at the cost of freedom or freedom which has a power all its own.

Text:

If you want more details about Asatru, I can’t recommend this book enough.

Sermon:

My purpose for going through the history of paganism in regards to Asatru is to assess whether it is possible that the current practitioners of Asatru have as a genuine foundation the beliefs fo old. It is also to point out that once we hit the Christian invasion that for the most part religion was not a cause for people to fight so much as needs and wants That would change with Christianity’s arrival.

It can be simply stated that as the area entered the Viking era, religion had become far more sophisticated. The pantheon much more developed and regional differences smoothed over. To the area’s credit, it seems that any religious differences were actually swallowed up by the mythology itself where the Vanir and Aesir both made peace and one pantheon formed. Rituals evolve and the priesthood of the pagans established.

With the fall of the Roman Empire, the areas did gain some distinction as the Scandinavians pretty much became separated and developed their own lines of religious thought while the Germanic peoples on the continent continued to be influenced by the Empire’s final gasps.

What the Viking people became was a culture based on the old gods, fishing, herding, and some farming. They became very adept at either trading for the other things they needed and raiding for the rest. Their gods evolved to reflect their culture and became integral parts of it with festivals, rituals, and calendar. The population grew and the Viking leaders began to adopt the style of government on the continent known as feudalism. This caused migration and that lead to the Vikings doing their raiding more and more frequently not just for loot but for land.

The one thing religion did id create a ‘professional’ clergy for the gods. The hof was a place where the gods were worshiped and the idea of being a friend of the gods or a particular god is born. Being ‘Thorsman’ of “Maiden of Freya” is reflected in this time and some Scandinavian names still reflect this. The idea of worship in one place – the hof while the rulers were in their ‘hall’ was in some respects the first ideas of religion and state being separate but integrated.

For my part, I like this part of history because everything is unspoiled by Christianity. If I had lived then, I would be an Odin’s Man and perhaps a teller of tales – A Skald. It would have been my desired profession to keep the stories alive. It makes me wonder if one of my ancestors was a skald or bard.

This, of course, would all change as the pagans and Christians would begin to clash. But it should be noted that modern practitioners of Asatru look a lot to this time for their inspiration. More on these things in the coming weeks.

Parting Thought:

There will always be someone better than you at something. The quest we should be on is self-improvement. The only competition we should have is what we were yesterday.

I remain,

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

“Asatru – Norse Paganism – Introduction” – The Pagan Pulpit

July 7, 2019July 7, 2019 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Sun’s Day

Announcements:

Theme Song: “Alfadhirhaiti” – Heilung

Little mood music for you.

Meditation:

Text:

Sermon:

I am beginning a series here of an indeterminate length. I have just finished the basics of Paganism that all pagans share. I want to move into my own particular brand of paganism I have chosen for myself – Asatru. This is the path of Norse Paganism which is in some ways old as time and in other ways new.

I will be referencing a book I am reading Essential Asatru by Diana L. Paxton. I have been reading this book with a slow measured study for a bit now but I want to start digesting it piece by piece. I can think of no better venue than the Pagan Pulpit to do some of that and share what I am discovering at the same time.

In this series, I will start as Ms. Paxton does by examining the history of Viking paganism and discuss its recent resurgence in Asatru. I will then talk about the spiritual and religious aspects of Asatru and the in the end talk about the current practice of Asatru in the Modern world. Basically, I am going to follow the book and discuss any interesting points along the way.

Asatru is simply the following of the old Germanic and Norse gods. It is a dedication to Norse pantheon and to the values they teach.

How old is Asatru? That is a matter for debate as those that follow it would say it is an attempt to reconstruct an old faith that was wiped out by Christianity after the Viking Age. To some Asatru is as old as time but the term is also used of people who are modern trying to reconstruct the old ways as well so it has a dual use.

This should be interesting and fun.

Parting Thought:

Yep, that is the truth of it.

I remain,

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

“Thoughts on Freedom” – A Skald’s Life – Business Virtues

May 29, 2019May 29, 2019 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Wooden’s (Odin’s) Day

Journal Entry:

Governments don’t grant freedom. Religion doesn’t grant freedom. The right to liberty and freedom simply is, it is others who are arrogant in their presumption that they have the ‘right’ to take it away or grant it. If you need permission to do something from the government, religion or any other force, you are not free to do it. If we are going to say liberty is an inalienable right, no permission is needed for it to exist. The best we can do with the government is hope it will defend our liberty. The best we can hope from religion is that it minds its own business about the way we live our own life.

But as the anarchists will point out, the very fact that government exists is an affront to the idea of rights and liberty specifically. I agree with them theoretically. I have always felt the problems with anarchism are not the theory and philosophy of it, but rather the practical application. It overlooks one key thing about human beings – we are inherently tribal. I think the founding fathers of the United States using their reason recognized this, so they understood that government is a necessary evil and tried to create one that actually protected the rights of its citizens and one that was so restricted as to not encroach on rights quickly or without restraint. Smart practical men, but they knew over time even their system would fail if it wasn’t maintained by people who value freedom and liberty.

For me personally, I am free because I am free. I alone bear the responsibility of my actions and The Book of Rabyd 2:2 kicks in a lot. It is the following of the virtues of Self-Reliance, Industriousness, and Hospitality that do more to maintain and follow after freedom than anything else.

Self-Reliance:

“Self-Reliance is the spirit of independence, which is achieved not only for the individual but also for the family, clan, tribe, and nation.”

Principle: To achieve and maintain personal independence and advocate for independence in my family, state and nation.

Goal: Find a new, better paying job by the end of June 2019 or before.

Bucket List: To own and run my own successful business or company.

Liberty and Freedom are the two reasons why I work so hard for self-reliance. Anything else is dependence and it can lead to slavery. The cage can be guided but it is still a cage. The more you are independent through being self-reliant, the more options you have that are created by you and that leads to freedom.

Industriousness:

“Industriousness is the willingness to work hard, always striving for efficiency, as a joyous activity in itself”

Principle: Work with the enjoyment of work itself.

Goal: Working on it.

Bucket List: Write A Novel and Get it Published.

This kind of freedom and liberty doesn’t just come to you, you have to work to create it. It doesn’t mean you have to work harder but that may be involved. You can work smarter or create something that does some of the work for you. But freedom and liberty are found in the fact that you have chosen the work for yourself and that you enjoy it.

Hospitality:

“Hospitality is the willingness to share what one has with one’s fellows, especially when they are far from home.”

Principle: To share out of my abundance to help people where I can with their life’s journey.

Goal: By March 31st of 2020, to be the leader of a support group of some kind.

Bucket List: To own my own home by March 2024.

Being prosperous enough through liberty and freedom with the other two virtues, allows you to be generous. I think this is the one missing element of the entire capitalist structure. This is not the fault of capitalism but rather capitalists who succumb to greed rather than hospitality which would lead to greater overall prosperity. If you can’t let go of what you create then you truly are not free of its control over you. Slavery takes a lot of forms and one of those forms is being a slave to having to own and control everything.

Higher Virtue – Justice:

The best way to live creating justice is to live in liberty not just for yourself but for others as well. Justice means you let people be free to pursue their own path and don’t interfere or meddle in any way. You respect freedom and liberty as forces enough ot let others have it.

Daily Routine:

Wife: Communication / Cuddle Time
Blogging – Organize, revise, write a new post for the next day, 15 min. work on fiction.
Reading – half-hour. Priority order: work, school, pleasure
Study / Homework / Research: half hour per day minimum or until all necessary work is completed.
Personal Business: record financial transactions, savings plan actions, budgeting, appointments, other actions, etc.
Check Communications and Email after 2 pm but before 4 pm.
Weekly Routine Items
Nutrition: Daily Carb Count – 2

June 2 starts another full week for me and I am going to try to be in a position to put all my routines into action more fully. I have a few goals that depend on these routines so I need to get better at getting them complete.

Still walking,

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

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The Grey Wayfarer

A Blog of Ed Raby, Sr. – The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard and Philosopher

History

“Battle’s End” – Dark Shieldmaiden – Prelude

“Viking Philosophy – Part 4 – Be a Good Merchant” – The Pagan Pulpit

“Two Toms, John and Me” – Of Wolves and Ravens – Libertarianism

“Revising the Ten Commandments – Part 3 – Additions and Final Copy” – The Rabyd Skald

“Revival – Asatru (Part 5)” – The Pagan Pulpit

“Objections to Christianity – Part 1 – The Bible’s Inspiration by God” (Revised August 2019) – Odin’s Eye – Theological Objections to Christianity.

“The Christian Invasion – Asatru (Part 4)” – The Pagan Pulpit

“Viking/Germanic Paganism – Asatru (Part 3)” – The Pagan Pulpit

“Asatru – Norse Paganism – Introduction” – The Pagan Pulpit

“Thoughts on Freedom” – A Skald’s Life – Business Virtues