“My Medallions” – Odin’s Eye

January 15, 2020January 15, 2020 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Woden’s (Odin’s) Day.

Discussion:

I was never one for any kind of jewelry when I was a Christian, but since my deconversion, I have had a small taste for a medallion necklace around my neck. My Medallions alternate depending on the day. Most of them have some meaning or significance for me.

Sol’s Day – Valknut with Rune Circle – it represents my new philosophy of life with the nine sides of the triangles being representative of the Nine Noble Virtues. The three triangles being representative of Love, Justice, and Wisdom. The rune circle being representative of the mysteries of life. The overall idea being the following of virtue allows me to engage the mysteries of life effectively. Also, the Valknut is associated with death so there is a constant reminder of my mortality.

Mani’s Day – Wolf Yin-Yang Symbol with Rune Circle – A reminder to stay balanced while engaging the mysteries of life.

Tyr’s Day – Small Thor’s Hammer. I am looking for something like a Viking shield with axes or something similar. More of a martial reminded of courage.

Woden’s Day – I wear a Viking compass with a rune circle that reads – ‘Not all who wander are lost” originally it was representative of my desire to wander and search for truth but it is also a medallion I probably will wear hiking as well.

Thor’s Day – Wolf Thor’s Hammer – Its a much larger thor’s hammer with a wolf’s head as the handle. The need for savage courage at times is represented and the not so subtle reminder to men and women that with this person is an alpha wolf.

Frigg and Freya’s Day – Two Wolves Facing Each Other Howling – One wolf soul calling to another.

Sif’s Day – Wolf Head (Fenrir) – I reminder that my end, my final battle will come. My own personal Ragnarok. Live life fully and savagely.

Time to Look Through the Eye:

“To see the truth, change one eye for another”

Meditation:

My medallions have become part of my meditation. Mostly they mark the end of it as I reach for the one for the day and then place it around my neck to end the meditation time. Each of them represents something heart oriented and thus are good closing thoughts.

Mystery:

There is much mystery to life and the medallions call me to engage it with a certain attitude – with virtue (most notably courage and honor), remaining balanced, and a savage heart. To be a searcher for Truth that doesn’t take shit from anyone. To live for a savage love of life. My own mortality coming motivating me to act today whenever possible.

Spirituality:

I guess this is one small part of a ritualistic spirituality of mine. I don’t believe any of these medallions have and spiritual power of their own. They, however, do remind me of the quality of heart I wish to possess and stand to others that I am not ‘safe’. I am a pagan atheist. If the word ‘pagan’ causes someone to fear me, so be it. I am not out to be loved anymore. Fear, respect, and honor, yes. Loved is a bonus I will accept but you have to take me as I am and my medallions tell you a little about that.

Conclusion:

I will continue to wear my medallions whenever I can. I find they become great discussion starters at times. Mostly they remind me of things that are important to me at a core level – the level of passion and strength inside myself.

I remain,

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

Skaal!!!

“Fidelity, Atheism, and Asatru” – Of Wolves and Ravens – Fidelity

January 13, 2020January 14, 2020 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Mani’s Day

Discussion:

I always have a little twinge of guilt when I write about fidelity or loyalty. I have had an affair. I am not proud of it but it happened. I can’t say that all of it was bad either as the reasons I did it were real and in some ways could be justified as I felt at the time loyalty was harmful to me in a lot of ways. My loyalty to my wife was harmful because it seemed to benefit her far more than it did me. It led to a passive-aggressive relationship. My sarcasm is usually playful but at the time with her, it could be biting and it was the same the other way.

As an atheist, fidelity has a give and take to it. For a long time, I felt love was to sacrifice even to the point of being loyal to a fault. If anything has changed it has the realization that the person I need to love the most and be loyal to the most is myself. I am all I really have no matter what others may do. The blind loyalty expected of Christians I now see for what it is – the groundwork to use people for your own ends by playing on their loyalty. Pride is removed in Christian loyalty which means you can make people do anything because they have no honor and no shame.

Fidelity under Asatru, however, is different. It has honor as its foundation so no amount of loyalty should robe you of your pride. If anything fidelity should either build your pride and thus lead to greater honor or it should cause you shame when you fail so you work to make it right and truly a two-way street. Above all, there is no demand to sacrifice your loyalty to yourself – ever.

To the Wolves and Ravens:

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

Needs (Geri):

The need here for me was to change my expectations of loyalty to myself. If there has been one struggle that is affecting all my relationships it is the fact that sometimes I have walked away because I still have my pride and I will not deal with people who do not respect it. I will not tolerate disloyalty, even from myself, and the challenge is to know when that is happening.

Wants (Freki):

What I want is to restore my sense of honor and loyalty to myself. I do not want compromise to the point where I am in any relationship that has all the benefits or even most of them are going one way – away from myself to the other person. Mutually beneficial is what I am after here; where loyalty is the strength of those relationships.

Reason (Huginn):

The problem is I can usually rationally see what needs to be done in each relationship. I have done the infamous INFJ door slam to several people but it takes a lot for me to get there. Mostly though I don’t want to cause pain to others because I get a feedback loop emotionally. It’s kind fo bitch to know how far you can go before the negative emotions of others start to affect you emotionally. Reasonably, I can see each relationship and know what to do or should do. It is the emotional lines in the sand I don’t want to cross that can get in the way.

Wisdom (Muninn):

The wisdom is never let loyalty to be slavery to the other person. Someone who cares about you and is loyal to you will want you to be free and not want you to be their slave. If they cross that line too many times it might be time to let go – self-respect, honor, and fidelity to self are far more important than any relationship.

Conclusion:

Fidelity is important to me and mostly the shift caused by the crisis and becoming an atheist has been to be a person who is loyal first to himself and then everyone else. My moral philosophy and my loyalty to it and myself are the central things in my life. Every other relationship needs to build that loyalty to myself or respect it, or I am going to have a problem with it.

I remain,

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

Skaal!!!

“Fate and Nine Worlds” (Asatru – Part 24) – The Pagan Pulpit

January 12, 2020January 12, 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: “Iceland Viking Battle Song”

Meditation:

Text:

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

Sermon:

Of course, the centerpiece of any religion is ultimately its cosmology. Where did we come from? How did we get here? Who are we in the universe? What happens after we die/ how will the world end? These questions are in part what the religion clings to as they seem to be questions with no way to have a definite answer. Asatru is no exception.

The Nine worlds are probably well known to most followers of Asatru and anyone who has even a passing interest in Norse mythology is the idea of the nine worlds and their interaction with each other tat dominates cosmology. Midgard is the realm of earth. Asgard the realm of the gods. And with seven others there is no simplicity here and that makes sense. All the nine worlds are part of the Yggdrasill the world tree.

There’s a concept of fate to the Asatru way but not in the way you think at first. One’s day fo death is fated but how and in what ay one dies is up to the person. One cannot know that day so one must live bravely knowing each day could be that day. This makes vk=ikings tend to live on the edge and push life to its fullest knowing one cannot determine the day of one’s death but one can determine how one lives so one might have a good death. I suppose this is a practical cosmology in this sense. The philosophy being live fully and bravely at all times.

One’s ultimate fate is then determined by how one died. Common death often earned Helheim with its queen Hella, but for the brave who died in battle – Valhalla. There are of course many other options for all the other deaths. But these are probably the two most well known. One could say that how one dies has a great bearing where one will spend the next phase of one’s life until Ragnarok.

I suppose for an atheist such as myself, the lesson is one of living life fully as one can not know when one is going to die so making a memorable end would be worth something to those that love me. This s one area of Asatru where I think the cosmology is interesting but the real world is little like the world of Yggdrasill.

Parting Thought:

I remain,

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

Skaal!!!

“Viking Virtues – Part 3” – A Skald’s Life – Self Virtues

January 11, 2020January 11, 2020 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Sif’s Day.

Journal Entry:

The self virtues do have their outward toward others component but their main focus is on strengthening me, myself, and I. It is the strength of Discipline, Perseverance, and Fidelitycombined into the wisdom they bring that gives me my personal overall strength. All of them either build that strength or preserve it.

When I first started following the Nine Noble Virtues it was about having a code to give me an overall foundation for my life after casting off the shackles of my former faith and life. Virtues have become the centerpiece of my life and the Asatru virtues are some of the best and a list that resonates with me and my personally the most. My realization I am an atheist and have been for quite some time does not change that. The goal is to live a good life and the virtues lead me to that regardless of where they came from.

Discipline:

“Discipline is the willingness to be hard on oneself first and then if needed help with the development with others, so that greater purposes may be achieved.”

Principle: Apply discipline to every aspect of life that it can be applied.

Goal: To be following a full Paleo Diet by March 31, 2020.

Bucket List: Do a rebellious act on April 30th, 2020 – Beltane.

My routines are the main expression of this virtue. I don’t think I am hard enough on myself. I need to make sure that each and every day the checklists and routines are done so there is peace of mind as I go into times of relaxing and enjoying life.

Perseverance:

“Perseverance is the ability to stand up and return from defeat and failure”

Principle: Keep getting up after every defeat or failure.

Goal: To engage in an exercise program that involves weightlifting, hiking/walking, and stretching/ yoga an average of three days a week from April 1st, 2019 to March 31st, 2020

Bucket List: To get at least one tattoo by March 18th, 2020.

I guess part of perseverance I should add is to learn from each defeat and failure. yeah, I still want to get up every time, but I would also like to fall down less and that comes form learning.

Fidelity:

“Fidelity is the will to be loyal to one’s moral philosophy, to one’s family, one’s friends, and most important to one’s self, and loyalty to one’s friends is valued as highly as loyalty to one’s family.”

Principle: Be loyal to those who have been loyal to me.

Goal: ~~Celebrate my wife and I’s 30th anniversary (June 10th, 2019) with a mini-vacation~~ (achieved)

Bucket List: Discover all the countries of origin from my genetics and visit them all by March 18th, 2029.

This is a hard virtue because I have very high standards of loyalty. So to me, a person can appear to betray me a lot easier than I should probably think. It’s my perception that it can be a problem. I am as fierce as a bear when it comes to protecting my own and those who are loyal to me, but that is a very exclusive club.

Higher Virtue – Wisdom:

The whole point of all the virtues in many ways is to gain and live by wisdom. I just need to understand the center of this and its core in many ways is my understanding of myself and learning to discipline myself better.

Rest Day Routine:

Morning Routine
Wife: Communication / Cuddle Time
Blogging – Organize, revise, write a new post for the next day, 15 min. work on fiction.
Cleaning – varies but one room of the apartment at least.
Reading – 1/7th of a book
Writing – 3000 Words

Solid. I actually had some success with this routine this week.

Goals and Bucket List Items Achieved (Since Summer 2018):

Goals Achieved: 5

Graduated College with a BS in Political Science and minors in Economics and International Business – December 2018
Finalize last requirements for my degree – Internship by May 2019 – May 2019
Celebrate my wife and I’s 30th anniversary (June 10th, 2019) with a mini-vacation – June 2019
Maintain a daily blog streak of one post per day for an entire year (365 days).
By March 31st of 2020, to be the leader/participant in a group of some kind.

Bucket List Items Achieved: 0

I remain,

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

Skaal!!!

“Counseling Thoughts” – The Rabyd Skald

January 10, 2020January 10, 2020 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Frigg and Freya’s Day!

I would normally be doing a Freya’s Chambers today but I need to do some more research on some things before I wrote about them. Part of the problem is my thoughts are a jumbled mess since meeting with both my job coach and my therapist on Wednesday so I feel the need to write about this at least in general terms. It is not really a The Grey and The Wayfarer kind fo post. More of thoughts being conflicted sort of post so I am trying to sort them out by writing about them.

Every time I think about the job situation it brings up a whole pack of emotions because of the fact that my last church fired me instead of accepting my resignation so it leaves my job history with a huge hole. Of course, I don’t feel I want to use any of those people as contacts for new jobs because I clearly can’t trust them. That resource is gone and so I am now painfully aware I need to do something very uncomfortable for me which I build my network back up and that means talking to people about what they do and seeing if it fits me. I am just not very good at just starting cold conversations like that.

I am creating multiple prototypes of my life to come but all of them require either moving to the one place I still have contacts and that is not going to sit well with my wife and perhaps even my family. I WANT a completely fresh start just to move on. Just to have the feeling that I am not going to run into somebody I know and have to explain things all over again. I won’t have the fear of running into Miss Salty or the Dirty Pig because I still don;t know how I would react to either. I just to be with my best friend and start over in a new place with new people. This involves a big move literally and figuratively.

I don’t know how to express this any way that is spoken, so I write about it and I am trying to be careful about being open about what I talk with my therapist about in detail but the fact that I continue to struggle with doing what would make me happy versus what makes everyone else happy has become the BIG struggle of my life. This is my frost giant to fight right now. The problem is sometimes I see the face of the frost giant and it’s my own.

Part of me died with my faith, but it keeps acting like a ghost to haunt and attack my thoughts and feelings. I am trying to bring new life to the place of deadness, but to me, that means a lot of new things need to happen and soon. As an atheist, life is much more precious to me now realizing it will be the only one I get and is finite. I want my own happiness to be central and I want to do all I can to secure it. I just don’t feel that will ever happen if the situation does not change drastically.

Both my job coach and my therapist have helped me sort out my own thoughts on this and for that, I am very grateful. I truly think people should get over the stigma of therapy. I am glad to have it. I have to thank The Clergy Project for that.

Thanks for reading this very personal post but it needed to be done. My writing has stimied and so has my reading. Sometimes getting things off my chest helps.

I remain,

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

Skaal!!!

“Atheist Meditations” – Odin’s Eye

January 8, 2020January 7, 2020 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Woden’s (Odin’s) Day.

Discussion:

As an atheist who meditates and practices a little paganism to ground that meditation, I proceed with the only thing I can know for sure – I have thoughts. My mind is the only thing I can confirm exists as far as consciousness and the nature of consciousness is such that it has debates about it. I have very little doubt that consciousness is something that develops and grows as our brain does and that it takes a long time to become fully aware of how it works.

I find that meditation is not about clearing my mind so much as it is centering and capturing my thoughts. Like taming a wild bronco, at least temporarily so I can ride it for a little while before it throws me off. It allows me to have some order in the chaos of what I think if even for just a little while. Much of life is chaos so discipline keeps part of it sane from our perspective. For me that is what meditation does for my thoughts.

Time to Look Through the Eye:

“To see the truth, change one eye for another”

Meditation:

My meditation time is on the Nine Noble Virtues because virtue is what I am striving for. Regardless of spiritual questions, virtue and following it has benefits. I would doubt any jsut god would reject honest striving for virtue. Malevolent gods should be rebelled against and if there is no god, well virtue has its own rewards. Cue Marcus Aurelius. My issue during meditation is to thing deep in a specific virtue in relationship to myself.

Mystery:

There is still a lot of mystery to how this works but change does take place as I have become much calmer in recent months. That is I feel much better about my thoughts. Probably because I recognize there is no such thing as sinful thoughts only human ones and in particular my thoughts. No thought rises to holy or falls to sinful They are thoughts and nothing more, but it is the mystery of how to make them work for my benefit that keeps me at the meditation altar.

Spirituality:

Consciousness, Relationships, and Virtues are the essence of my atheist spirituality. Nothing more or less. It is true real spirituality because it is grounded in that which can be proved to be real – for the most part. At the end of the day this is part of meditation – what can I prove is real other than my own thoughts.

Conclusion:

So I will spend my morning at least in part at the meditation altar for the reasons of taming the raging thoughts into something more focused and useful. But at the same time, it is the wild bronco of my thoughts that I admire. The wild nature of them is their strength and power. I jsut seek to ap into them for a little while.

I remain,

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

Skaal!!!

“Perseverance, Atheism, and Asatru” – Of Wolves and Ravens – Perseverance

January 6, 2020January 6, 2020 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Mani’s Day

Discussion:

Perhaps the most challenging thing for me and perseverance is that I can take it for granted. I keep getting up and moving on regardless of how hard I get knocked down. The problem with this is I don’t always learn lesson associated with getting knocked down as I take it for granted I will jsut get back up.

Being relentless is an Asatru virtue. Continuing despite obstacles and opposition until the goal is reached. No retreat, no surrender, death or glory. This is probably them ost all or nothing philosophical viewpoint I have because of the fact that now as an atheist I realize that it is essential or life simply stops.

There will be a final opponent that will truly beat me. It is the last breath and last battle that we all have fear about in the end. My goal is to face it knowing this last thing may have knocked me down for the last time, but from a standpoint of all my other battles, I got up and kept going. Without a god, the only one that can keep me going is myself – period. Others can encourage, but it is up to me to keep going.

To the Wolves and Ravens:

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

Needs (Geri):

I think the need for perseverance is obvious. You stop without it. Sometimes this can be figurative or literal but the main issue is that with perseverance, you will continue as long as you are able to continue.

Wants (Freki):

I would also say that perseverance leads to the quality of being unbeatable. That is no defeat ever stops you from trying again to finding a different way. Is a person who lives perseverance ever really defeated?

Reason (Huginn):

Of course, each defeat has a lesson and this is where I often fail to grasp it. I jsut get up and don’t really think about why I fell in the first place. If I did give this some thought, I might find myself knocked own less often. I might be able to avoid it in the first place.

Wisdom (Muninn):

The wisdom side of perseverance is not directly beneficial to me, it is about those who watch me. I never want my kids, grandkids, friends or even enemies to ever see me quit. Ever. One the one hand those that love me will draw inspiration from me and me from them. As for my enemies, may it remind them constantly how relentless I can be and I will refuse to submit or give up. Fight me knowing you have to destroy me. Beating me will not be enough.

Conclusion:

I find perseverance the virtue of Asatru that is most natural to me. It has its pitfalls because of this, but I embrace it fully. It has in many ways become part of my personality.

I remain,

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

Skaal!!!

“Some Special Announcements” – The Rabyd Skald

December 22, 2019 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Sol’s Day!

I have to apologize for no The Pagan Pulpit this week, but I have been wrestling with a question all day and it involves identity. The specifically is: What have I always been? Today has been a day of thinking on this question and watching the Marvel Superhero Movies. Sometimes with my wife and sometimes alone. I was still wrestling with this question when my Facebook feed had this memory from a year ago today. I don’t believe in fate or destiny or anything but this a remarkable coincidence and I think I have found my central answer to the question of what I have always been and always will continue to be. It is summed up in the threefold point of this quote above.

To be a person who pays homage to the facts no matter where they lead him.
To be a person of free and clear thinking – no gods, no masters – just reason and free thought.
To be intellectually decent at all times which to me is being comfortable with “I don’t know” while at the same time saying “I am going to try to find out though”.

I have been all these things regardless of form, belief or persuasion all my life. I strived to be these things and a believer in Christ and now as an atheist. In large part is was these things that lead me to atheism when answers could not be found in my faith. Or when I painfully concluded that my faith was a glorious fiction or worse completely false.

These three principles have been my core since I first picked up a comic book and saw representations of heroes who despite all the powers they were granted tried above all to be true to the ethics and morals that made them into heroes. Get past the special effects and you get a very human core.

Today I have decided to continue to follow them and remind myself of them more often. The Virtues remain because they are reflections fo these central tenents of life. But I also have always been a preacher and teacher and this is something I wish to be again. The pulpit, lectern, and message may change; but to proclaim what I feel is factual, true and right remains a passion.

With this reminder of this continuing commitment I have a few announcements:

The Grey Wayfarer will continue much as it is except I am pretty much breaking it down to be a journal of my progress. The Pagan Pulpit, Of Wolves and Ravens, Odin’s Eye, Freya’s Chambers, and my three Journal Posts will remain with the occasional The Rabyd Skald thrown in. But this is going to be it here because I want to turn my attention to my writing for publication and another project I will announce shortly.
The rest of this week will however not have journal posts or the normal slate of posts, rather I want to finish out all my ficitonal series on this blog. I am doing this to clear my slate and give myself a little philosophical downtime.
I want my family to know that up till now I have been very passive with my anti-theism and my conviction that belief in God or gods or whatever as a means to base your life is nonsense. That changes today where my anti-theism, while it will remain compassionate, is going to turn active. Very active. All of you are free to believe as you see fit but understand I will be working hard to show that Christianity is false, that the Bible is just a book and a bad one at that, and that we would be better off without religion in our lives. I am sure some of you will not like what I am about to do as you are believers, but I feel compelled by reason and intellectual honesty to do this.
By active I mean I will be writing books to this effect, I will be blogging here with the desire at times to show how any person can live without god very well; thank you, and I will be joining organizations that oppose religion in politics and government. I also am about to start at least one new project devoted to this task.
That project will be to start a YouTube channel as a new more vocal pulpit for my viewpoint. I don’t any specifics yet, or if it will even work, but I feel compelled to convince anyone who will listen to give up the make-believe and start living in the real world. I am particularly focused on young people who are considering the ministry as a career and being apologists for the Christian faith. All religion is poison to me and I want to tell people why using this platform.

If I can convince one young person to not follow my mistake, give up the ministry and embrace doing something truly useful for humanity, then I will consider my mission a success. Of course, the more I can convince the better. I also hope to make some money with this to at least justify my time doing it.

My main goal is to get back to being a preacher and proclaimer of what I feel is reasonable, factual, truly free in thought in a spirit of intellectual decency. That “I don’t know” is a good thing to say when it is true and yet maintain that insatiable curiosity I had since I was old enough to read and look at the word with inquiring eyes. I am simply a pilgrim on this journey we call life, and I don’t think I can enjoy it as much if I don’t take the opportunities presented to warn people of my mistakes and false understandings of the world. To tell people what are dangerous paths to take and the dead ends seem like a decent thing to do from this traveler of life to others.

I remain,

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

Skaal!!!

“My Morning Routine” – A Skald’s Life – Foundational Virtues

December 17, 2019December 17, 2019 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Tyr’s Day

Journal Entry:

My daily routine is shit these days. I hate the holidays and I need more things to be habits rather than struggles. This is why I added a week to specifically discuss routine because it is the key to a better future. Life has a way of passing and how we control what happens to our time and what we spend our time on is important. For me, this is particularly true.

My morning routine is pretty messed up at times. It is simply the fact that I need to spend more time doing other things at this time of year. I really wish I had a job that had a more stable schedule as this would help all my routines but the morning routine is simply a matter of me getting up and doing what needs to be done. Not just that but what needs to be done in terms of keeping myself balanced emotionally and that starts with meditation. Something this last month I have struggled with.

I think this stems from my atheism. Meditation seems too ‘spiritual’ even though I know it has psychological benefits that have nothing to do with divine anything. It can feel like my old religious past and that is something I find distasteful anymore. But virtue is true regardless of religion and I know when I am meditating regularly, I am more stable emotionally. This is the part of my morning routine I need to make more consistent and I think that it will require a meditation altar and a consistent form.

Honor:

“Honor is the feeling of inner value and worth from which one knows that one is noble of being, and the desire to show respect for this quality when it is found in the world”

Principle – To possess a feeling of inner value about myself and my future with a desire to find the same in others.

Goal: ~~Maintain a daily blog streak of one post per day for an entire year (365 days).~~ (achieved)

Bucket List: Hike the Northern Lakeshore Trail along the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan by March 2024.

My morning routine is probably the thing that develops honor in myself more than any other time. It is about me finding balance and strength and being prepared for the day.

Courage:

“Courage is the bravery to do what is right always.”

Principle – Act with Courage at the right time.

Goal: Cross one thing off bucket list every year. Deadline March 31st.

Bucket List: Go Back to Budapest, Hungary for a vacation by March 2029.

I know of no routine that prepares one for the necessity of courage other than to meditate on courage. That is definitely why meditation is important.

Truth:

“Truth is the willingness, to be honest, and to say what one knows to be true and right. It is often better to not say anything at all if one cannot be honest.”

Principle – To Honestly Pursue, Accept and Speak Truth to All who will Listen.

Goal: To Write a Non-Fiction Book by March 31st, 2020

Bucket List: Read 52 books (one per week) in the year 2020.

The reading and writing as part of my daily routine need to be more solid. Too many things hinge on them.

Higher Virtue: Love:

I recently heard a speaker via YouTube make a simple statement that learning to love oneself is key to everything and that one should take the chance and love yourself first and then the rest will flow out of that. I couldn’t agree more but my personal struggle has always been to put myself on the back burner for others. Finding balance here is the key and routine is the process of turning that key. Of spending time on what is important to me.

Morning Routine:

Stretching / Yoga
Shower, Personal Hygiene, Breakfast, Morning Meds.
Review Nine Noble Virtues (NNV), Principles, Goals and Bucket List
Meditation – 5 min.
Check Communications and Email.
Paper Journal: Create a Daily Log and To-Do List.
Get Dressed for the Day

There is no need to change this. There is a need to be more consistent in doing it. But that is probably true for all my routines.

I remain.

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

Skaal!!!

“Discipline, Atheism, and Asatru” – Of Wolves and Ravens – Discipline

December 16, 2019December 16, 2019 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Mani’s Day

Discussion:

Right now discipline is difficult because of two reasons. Firstly my thoughts right now are a jumbled mess. Secondly, the holidays are so different than regular life and I am struggling to stay above all that. I hate the chaos at times because it is a people chaos, not regular life chaos. I can handle a lot of things but not a jumbled situation where I have to say ‘hi’ to a lot of people which I haven’t seen in a year. This weekend was a prime example of a weekend that is just not me.

I spent Saturday driving somewhere to spend the day shopping with my wife. Lots of travel in a car and people being everywhere is not my idea of a great time. The time with my wife was good, but I felt pressured all day and I certainly did not have time to do what I like to do. Then yesterday afternoon was two family Christmases back to back. Not a fan. It was my wife’s family so I also get half of the family that is cool because they are outcasts like me and the other half that still seems to hold something against me.

From a discipline standpoint, this all combines to make December a difficult month to keep mental focus for me and thus difficult to be disciplined. The negative effect is a lot of things are slipping and I am going to have to double down as soon as all this shit is over.

To the Wolves and Ravens:

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

Needs (Geri):

Discipline is a needed thing. It is what is the machine that drives success and I need it so much to do what I want to do. The issue is my own thoughts being jumbled because of depression, being put in situations that are uncomfortable. These all just drain me and my discipline suffers as a result.

Wants (Freki):

What I want is a focused life that is getting the results I need. As an atheist, I am not waiting for some divine white knight to come and help me out. I need and want to be the warrior that gets it done for myself. Discipline is the key. That starts with saying “I can do better.”

Reason (Huginn):

I think I am at another crossroads in my life. They happen quite a bit, but 2020 seems more pivotal if I am going to get anywhere near my goals. There is no achievement without discipline and I am looking forward to a time where discipline brings about results. But it is also just a rational nod of the head if there is no action that is disciplined behind it.

Wisdom (Muninn):

I need to find a wise way out of all this jumbled mess. There is a part of me that just wants to wisely withdraw from it all and start somewhere else. But this is the struggle of burning bridges sometimes – do you have the discipline to keep them burned and lying in ashes. No regrets.

Conclusion:

The only master I want is me. The mastery of my own life is key here and I am starting to feel worn out with all the chaos of thought and life. Some order needs to be brought to it. In the meantime, I endure the holidays and wait for the storm to subside.

I remain,

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

Skaal!!!

	Ed Raby Sr on Pause, Reset, Re-Align, R…
	Dawn on Pause, Reset, Re-Align, R…
	Edi3C on “Different Values”…
	Norse Mythology – Od… on Norse Mythology – O…
	Johadel on My Three Writing Projects