"I ride the Steed of Darkness
and wield the Sword of Light.
Bright Autumn lights my weary way
And Odin knows I'm right."

Once we find our true spirituality and the splendid strength this gives us for dealing with the problems of the world, the next step is to address those problems and try to make the world a better place. Higher spirituality must lead to constructive action.

The Children of Odin is a minor Asatru group founded by Eric F. Magnuson in a company of fifteen friends in a stiff wind on the north shore of Echo Lake in Franconia, New Hampshire, March 21, 1993. We are a nonprofit organization who individually teach our ancestral mythology. In 1998 we stopped recruiting new members. Those seeking fellowship should look elsewhere. Our number is eighty three, mostly USA with a few in Europe.

As citizens of Earth we are driven by serious concern for the future of life on this planet and believe that it is important to address spiritual values in this regard. First some definitions.

"In this context the term 'spirituality' is differentiated from 'religion' because it represents something much larger. It includes all of a person's values as these are reflected by actual conduct over the course of a lifetime, rather than merely by the parroting of doctrine with only partial adherence as we usually find in religion. A person's spirituality comprises everything in life. This may include religious activity or no religion at all."

"A truly viable spirituality must have perfect integrity between three basic components:
~ an intellectual premise consistent with all known scientific data
~ a moral basis reflecting absolute Libertarian reciprocity
~ a source, not of irrational belief, but of archetypal inspiration, preferably grounded in one's own ancestral mythology."

Diversity ~ Tolerance ~ Unity

There is no true separation of "church and state" anywhere. All government does is to institutionalize the goals of the prevailing spirituality within society. The basic precepts, values, and expectations of the people determine the type of government and economic system that they create or condone. Unfortunately, most of the world's population is currently afflicted with spiritual nihilism and moral apathy. This slavish majority is responsible for instituting and condoning the unworkable collectivist governments which are destroying life on this planet.

The rate of decay is increasing and can only be reversed through worldwide education. For moral excellence to prevail however, nobody needs to be converted to anybody else's spiritual tradition. Ongoing tolerance between separate unique indigenous cultures is superior to the bland beehive spirituality of worldwide universalism. Our studies have shown that, for every worthwhile idea in any one system, there is usually a parallel idea in every other system. Differences in practice reflect only differences in emphasis or consistency of application.

As Nordic descendants we seek to educate kinsmen about our common ancestral mythology (1). The name Odin is Norse. Wotan is Teutonic. Woden is Anglo-Saxon. These are one. We have found the use of any of these in daily and seasonal rituals to be innately satisfying. We want children of Nordic ancestry to be healthy, well educated, and raised in accordance with traditional Nordic values. We also however, encourage them to be cosmopolitan.

We promote "unity in diversity." It is good for all people to have at least a rudimentary understanding of other spiritual traditions. It leads to respect and tolerance for others. Indigenous mythology however, has more spiritual integrity and archetypal relevance for people than unnecessary utilization of "outland" personifications. We would love to see people everywhere experience the deep inner joy and potent exultation that comes from contemplation of their own ancestral mythologies, especially when this is fused with an uncompromising devotion to absolute individual Liberty for all people on Earth.  

Liberty ~ Prosperity ~ Peace

"There is a putrid cauldron aboil and the stench
of it hath befouled the entire earth!" - Elof II

There are many who worry that finding one's own culture must necessarily involve angry divisiveness. This causes some to speak out very much against what they believe to be hate. We only wish these moral champions where as opposed to institutionalized injustice as they are to normal emotional reactions against injustice. They treat symptoms instead of disease. There is today massive government oppression everywhere. Most of this occurs out of ignorance or greed without any hate involved at all. None of this is necessary and occurs only because people are not awake.

"Every problem in every society on Earth can be traced back to a point where someone in government decides to sacrifice individual liberty for some other goal. Like any breech of natural law, this produces a distortion. One compromise seems to justify another and soon the cause and effect relationships of societal decline become obscured by time and complexity. The achievement of harmony on Earth simply involves eliminating the complex of false dependencies that have arisen because of these past mistakes."

The one thing that threatens this planet more than ignorance is the illusion of knowledge. Those uninformed about economics often label people who work for absolute liberty as hating the weak. If you refuse to be arbitrarily and unnecessarily sacrificed for others, you must hate them. There are however, proven better ways to help those less fortunate than by government theft and destructive economic policy. We must however, occasionally read something besides old heathen mythology books to learn about such things.

"Too many today accept the dispiriting specter of looming global monoculture simply because they think there is nothing else possible. The advance of monoculture is occurring because people suffering economic oppression must immigrate to get away from it. When there is liberty and Capitalism everywhere, there will be prosperity everywhere. People won't need to flee from their homelands, there will be no trade deficits, and no war. Then we can put all the wasted energy into exploring outer space, while enjoying the full undiluted potency of indigenous cultures here on Earth through cross cultural tourism."

We think the future is more important than the past. For the Children of Odin the most heroic aspect of the New Aeon is Ragnarok, conceptualized not as destruction, but as rebirth (2). We feel no need to reconcile our teachings with sheepish popular trends propounded by those too frightened to explore the heroic possibilities of spirituality. We extend our purpose just a little bit beyond the mythological to make people aware of the potential for ongoing prosperity, full employment, and peace that can occur only through the worldwide implementation of Libertarian Capitalist principles. To this end, since our function is not political, we refer the reader to the link at the foot of this page. It explains the superior workability of, and method for, structuring societies on the "uncompromisable premise" of absolute individual Liberty as opposed to any form of collectivism.

We call upon heroic individuals in all countries on earth to act autonomously in defense of individual Liberty. The goal here is the achievement of absolute spiritual unity, so that through the inspired actions of liberty loving people of all races and cultures everywhere, light may prevail against darkness. By working with the United Nations, through diligence and education, this can be actualized early in the New Aeon as the throwing down democratically of unjust collectivist governments all over the world.

Footnotes:

1. Nordic refers to Western or Northern European heritage. Norse is specifically Scandinavian.

2. The true geological Ragnarok or "Black Hole Sun" may not happen for another 50,000,000 years. There is no reason for us to wait that long for simple justice on Earth.