Yuletide Rites

This may seem to be a strange time to look at the Yuletide Rites, since we have just passed the Yuletide for another year. But I suggest that people look towards the next one now so that they can get ideas of how to improve their Yule Rites. There are some things that I would like to bring up that may help for the 2018 celebrations.

The use of a Yule-Wheel is important, so anyone who does not as yet have one should think about this. This is not really a 'Yule' wheel since it can also be used at the other points of the year, as I will show later. But it should be a six-spoked wheel bought from a source that makes them, or from an 'antique shop' (you know the ones, they buy 'rubbish' from you and then sell them as 'antiques'). You should also get a forked stave about 2-3ft high which fits into the hub of the wheel. A smaller wreath is hung from the forked stave and this is decorated. Do this early and it will be ready to use throughout the year. The best source for its use comes from the 'SS Handbook' which tells all about the use of the wheel.

I always decorate my Yule-Wheel with evergreen twigs; now, I would suggest using pine, spruce and holly and not fir since fir-twigs shed their needles all over the place within a few days. The others do not and will last across the Twelve Nights of Yule. Make a note of this for next year if you have not already found this out the hard way - as I have. I also cut up small (9" long x 3" diameter) logs of birch which I drill out and put the same evergreen twigs along the logs. Holly is also hung around the room too. This brings greenery into the house for the Twelve Nights of Yule. 

The best time to start doing these things is around 2-3 days before the Winter Sunstead (21st December); this is so that not too long a period and not too short a period is left to prepare. It is wise to do it at around this time as as to prepare the mind for the coming rites and celebrations. But it is wise to get hold of the materials such as the birch-logs and the wheel-stave well before so that they have dried out. 

The other thing to consider for next year is the kindling of the Need-Fire through the use of Friction-Fire. In a comment made on 'The Triple Godhead' our Langbard Comrade, Dragonerosso, mentions the most ancient use of the Swastika in birthing Agni, the Fire-God. This can be done with the use of a Swastika-Wheel made with a central hub which produces Friction-Fire when the wheel is turned quickly. This could be tried as an experiment.

As I said before, the Yule-Wheel can be used for rites throughout the year - Easter, Midsummer, Ancestral as well as Yule. To do this another wheel should be made, shorter than the one that hangs from the top parallel to the wheel, and this should be made into a 'Sunwheel' by crossing it with two staves. The wheel is decked out with flowers and other things for each festival - see the 'SS Handbook' for this. 

The following is the Agni Myth which refers to the Winter Sunstead and the Triumph of Light -

Agni (The Fire) is the son incarnate of Savitri (The Sun), conceived and born of the Virgin Maia, and had the carpenter Twasti (Maker of the Swastika) as his earthly father. In the Cave of the One of Twin-Sticks, which has the name 'The Mother', lives the Goddess Maia, the embodiment of Creative Power, who gives birth to the Son under the influence of Vayu (Spirit), the breeze of the wind, without which the fire cannot be lit. The first spark that came from the cavity (cave) of the sacrum of Maia, by turning the Fire-Twirl (Pramantha) represents the birth of Agni; this spark is called 'The Child'. 

Hereward the Wake

Harold Godwinsson is the hero of Englisc Nationalism; as the last 'Anglo-Saxon' king he is still honoured today at Battle Abbey each year by many Englisc Nationalists. What has always seemed strange to me is the complete rejection of the Danish and Norse influence on the English Folk. This seems strange in view of the background of their hero - Harold Godwinsson. 

Harold Godwinsson was the son of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, and Gytha Thorkelsdottir (Gytha - Daughter of Thorkel) who was the sister-in-law of King Cnut of England and Denmark, descended from the 'Vikings'. Gytha's brother was Ulf the Earl who married Cnut's sister, Estrith. Even the name 'Harold' stems from the Danish Vikings. Anglo-Saxon-Dane might be more appropriate, and thus the input of the Danes and Norsemen placed into its rightful position in English history. Harold Godwinsson was 'Anglo-Dane'. 

With the death of Harold Godwinsson the power of Wessex decreased somewhat, and the pockets of resistance against the Norman outlanders arose mainly in the Danelagh where they held out for seven years against the Norman oppression. The heroes of the time were Robin Hood, Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough, William of Cloudeslee, Edric the Wild and the famous Hereward the Wake who held out in the Fens of East Anglia. 

Hereward the Wake was Lord of Bourne and of the ancient family of the Wake; his symbol was the 'Wake Knot' which is in the form of a 'W'. His lineage is not clear from history, since anything English was heavily suppressed by William the Bastard. The most famous (fictional) book written on Hereward the Wake is that done by Charles Kingsley, and he traces Hereward's lineage to that of Leofric of Bourne (Leofric of Mercia) and the famous Lady Godiva. Hereward also seems to have had some Danish ancestry. Most of the names of the followers of Hereward the Wake are distinctly English, Anglo-Saxon names in areas ruled by the Danes, proving how far integration between Anglo-Saxon and Dane had gone by this time. Scholars have also suggested that he was of Anglo-Danish descent. 

Hereward's following was made up of unruly brawlers - Geri, Winter, the Wulfrics, the Wulfards, the Azers and other wild fighters. Hereward is described as being short but strong-chested, having one grey and one blue eye, and long locks of golden hair that marked him out as being 'of ancient royal race'. His wrists and throat were tattooed in blue patterns, which, like the statement made by William of Malmesbury, shows the English to have tattooed themselves. He wore a gold ring around his neck (torc, worn by Germanic Tribes in this area) and gold rings on his wrists. At least this is the way he is described by Charles Kingsley. 

I am not going to go into the history of Hereward the Wake since it should be pretty well known, and would take up too much space in a short post. Kingsley has him slaying a bear, which takes us straightway into Archetypal Myth. History now becomes myth and legend -

"And they talked and sung of The Wake, and all his doughty deeds, over the hearth in lone farmhouses, or in the outlaw's lodge beneath the hollins green; and all the burden of their song was ' Ah that The Wake were alive again!' for they knew not that The Wake was alive for evermore; that only his husk and shell lay mouldering there in Crowland choir; that above them, and around them, and in them, destined to raise them out of bitter bondage, and mould them into a great nation, and the parents of still greater nations in lands as yet unknown, brooded the Immortal Spirit of The Wake, now purged from all earthly dross - even the Spirit of Freedom, which can never die."

"England A-Wake!" This was the rallying cry we have used since Woden's Folk was first formed back in 1998. This was spelled as it is to incorporate the great English Folk-Hero - Hereward the Wake - into our Wodenic Myth. The 'Immortal Spirit of The Wake' does live on, it lives on in the blood of those Englishmen and Englishwomen who today stand true against tyranny and the loss of freedom that we endure, a direct parallel to the times of Norman tyranny some thousand years ago. Kingsley calls him 'The Last of the English' which is fitting, but today we shall proclaim ourselves as the 'First of the New English' as the phoenix rises out of the ashes of destruction. 

The Merovingian Franks

In a spurious work called The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail the authors attempt to link the Merovingian Kings to the 'Bloodline of Jesus'. This is done through the 'Priory of Sion' which is supposedly a secret society and offshoot of the Knight's Templar which held the 'secret' of this bloodline. Unfortunately, the theme has been taken up by others and continues to spread these ideas to the masses. There is a problem with this theory, and a theory it is - not fact. The book itself hints at the true origins of the Merovingian Franks -

'It is just possible that, in the Merovingians, we may have a dynasty of Germanic Heerkonige derived from an ancient kingly line of the migration period.' 

The authors quote this statement from Wallace Hadall (The Long-Haired Kings page 171) and go on to ignore it and get on with the theory that the Merovingians descended from the 'Bloodline of Jesus'. There seems far more proof that this Frankish Royal Line descended from the Wolsungas than this 'Jesus' of the Christian world -

• On December 23rd 679 Dagobert, King of the Franks, went hunting in the Forest of Woevres. He lay down to rest at the foot of a tree. One of his servants, his godson, acting on the orders of Pepin, pierced him through the eye with a lance. This tells us of an archetypal myth being played out here since Dagobert's Legend is the same as the Legend of Siegfried. Thus, the Merovingian Franks were a 'dynasty of Germanic Heerkonige derived from an ancient kingly line of the migration period' - the Wolsungas.
• If this is not enough the title of the Franks was the Sigambrian Franks or Sicambrian Franks, which suggests that they were descended from Sigi the sire of the Wolsungas. 
• The Origins Legend of the Merovingians suggests a link between them and the founders of Rome - Romulus and Remus. I am not going to go fully into this, but I have featured it some years ago and will perhaps look further into the legend. 

The Judaic religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - all await their 'Messiah', so it would be in their favour if the royal line of the French were to descend from 'Jesus' rather than from an ancient Germanic Kingly Line. Especially since there are certain prophecies that indicate that the French Royal Line will be the reinstated (after being overthrown through the French Revolution). 

Dagobert was slain in order to destroy this Germanic Royal Line, and the Carolingians took over from the Merovingians, the latter being the true and original Royal Line of the Franks. The Merovingians were the 'Long-Haired Kings' and their symbol was, amongst others, the Tribal Spear, the Spear of Woden. The legend of the Spear of Destiny stems from this time, and indeed has been dated to this period by experts. These were Sorcerer Kings and similar magical objects have been found amongst their grave-goods as have been found in the Sutton Hoo Ship-Grave of the Wuffingas. 

There is one part of the Archetypal Myth which may interest us here, and that is Dagobert's death by being pierced through an eye, not through the back as we find in the Legend of Siegfried. Dagobert is not the only one to die through being pierced through an eye, for King Harold Godwinsson was also pierced by an arrow through the eye - or at least this what legend tells us. It has been suggested that this was added to the Bayeaux Tapestry, and this would be even more proof of its importance as an Archetypal Myth.

There is a quatrain from the Prophesies of Nostradamus which mentions a death through being pierced through an eye -

Dessouuz de chaine Guien du ciel frappe,

Non loing de la cache le tresor:

Qui par longs siecles avoite este grappe,

Trouve mourra, L'oeil creve de ressort.

This prophecy mentions an 'Oak Tree' (OF chene for 'chaine') struck by lightning where a treasure lays hidden; when found a man will die, his eye pierced by a 'spring'. Any piercing of the eye, and thus blinding in an eye, suggests the god Woden, of course. I have quoted the original French version because translations are not always accurate; not having a knowledge of French I am not in a position to translate. Another translation of 'chaine' could be 'chain of mountains' but this hardly fits with the 'blasted oak'. 

It is also interesting to note that the 'Forest of Woevres' is where Dagobert was said to be slain. The word 'woevre' (I think) means 'serpent'; Miguel Serrano mentions Woevre Saelde which appears to be the original Germanic name for 'Isalde' or 'Isolde', the lover of Tristan. This forest has a long connection to the Druids I think. 

The Sons of Bor

Legend has it that there was an island in the Far North inhabited by the Hyperboreans, ruled by a kingly-line named Boreades, the descendants of Boreas. This was a long time before At-al-land appeared in the North-West, the latter appearing after the destruction of Thule-Hyperborea.

Woden-Will-Weoh are the Sons of Bor and Bestla - of Boreas and "Best Blood' (Vargs Vikernes translation of Bestla). The Hyper-bor-eans are the 'Sons of Bor', the 'Sons of Buri' who was the Primal Man. I have quoted a Bulgarian Legend before on several occasions but for the sake of this post will do so again -

Seven Aryan Tribes survived the Ice Age; they formed a tribal alliance called idel (*); their emblem was the sarman or surban (swastika) which represented the Sun's victory over the Ice. The mightiest of these Aryan Tribes was called Alp Buri - 'People of the Wolf'.

Here 'Buri' means 'wolf' and is an Indo-European word from which we get 'boar' and 'bear'; its original meaning would have referred to a wild beast. The legend tells of a time after the Ice melted away, after the destruction of Hyperborea and the Aryan Lands of the North. 'Bor' is merely another version of 'Buri'. We are the 'Sons of Bor', descended from the Gods of the High North. 

The Hammer of Thunor

In the above photo I am wearing a Thor's Hammer, to the right of which is a 'Thunor's Hammer' which I have just bought from Scyld at WyrdArt (*). History and archaeology tells us that the Vikings and Norsemen first brought the Thor's Hammer over to these islands - history and archaeologists are wrong! This Thunor's Hammer was found in a sixth century grave in Kent, this being the time when the Anglo-Saxons were still heathens, and obviously worshipped Thunor the Thunder-God. 

Osgar first mentioned that this Thunor's Hammer has been held in a Liverpool Museum for some years, marked as an 'amulet', even though it is clearly a Thor's Hammer. Osgar has been doing a great deal of research on this to bring this into the light, and Scyld has taken this up by getting these pewter amulets (around 3") out to our Folk. 

Once again our true history is coming to light, breaking through the lies and distortions that have succeeded in distorting our true English Identity. English Wodenists can now wear the Thunor's Hammer in pride, beside the Thor's Hammer of the Vikings. 

(*) You can get the amulet from Scyld at WyrdArt and thus help to promote this symbol next to the Thor's Hammer. Invariably, the Anglo-Saxon period of our history is pushed to the back, and it needs to be brought to to the fore again now. 

The Triple Godhead

We can see the Triple Godhead in the trinity of Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva, where Brahma represents creation, Vishnu represents preservation, and Shiva represents destruction. In Folkish Wodenism this would be Woden representing creation, Heimdall representing preservation, and Thunor representing destruction. Or at least this is one way of looking at this, since as within Hinduism the god-roles overlap considerably.

But as with the so-called 'Tripartite System' of the Indo-Europeans the three naturally implies a fourth, which suggests that spirit comes prior to manifestation into matter. This is also true of the runic systems since there are Three AEttir, and yet we have a Fourth AEttir within Folkish Wodenism, as if the spiritual world breaks forth into the material world through the fourth.

So, how does this change things with the Triple Godhead, since there has to be a fourth and a specific role for the fourth. Creation-preservation-destruction is a linear sequence unless we add a fourth - renewal. We can thus see now that the role of Wid-Ar has been omitted within Odinism which sees this as a future role, but within Folkish Wodenism we see Wid-Ar as having a role in our times -

Woden - Creation.

Hama/Heimdall - Preservation.

Thunor - Destruction.

Wid-Ar - Renewal or Recreation.

Woden, of course, is swallowed by the Fenris Wolf (Chaos or Technology); but his spirit is released when Wid-Ar rips open the Wolf's Jaws to allow him to escape. Thus Wid-Ar is the reborn Spirit of Woden, but resurrected in a new form as the young and virile Warrior-Hero. The archetype of the Hanged God has given way to the Crowned and Avenging Son of the Sun. Thus Wid-Ar appears every 26,000 years at the ending and beginning of a new Great Year Cycle. 

The Secret of Power

The secret of power is to foresee the course of things to come, to recognise what we call Becoming through recognising Archetypal Myth which moves in cycles, history repeating itself. Then it is necessary to shape your own life in accordance with what is foreseen, being prepared to sacrifice all. Spiritual power is set in motion by the act of self-sacrifice. Spiritual power is set into motion through the Will. 

We are all individuals with an individual destiny; but we are more than that, for we are part of a mighty dragon - the White Dragon - and as individuals we matter far less than the survival of the Folk. The Folk-Destiny is what matters, and in that respect self-sacrifice must come before self-survival and self-interest. 

Power is accumulated through the heroic deeds we do throughout our lives; every act that is part of this struggle makes for a stronger individual, and thus a stronger Folk. Spiritual power is more important than physical power; a spiritual movement will be far stronger than one based firmly in the physical world. This is why it is so important to create a new Folkish Religion for our Folk, a religion based upon a strong and virile archetype. 

This archetype is more than just a symbol, it is something that has to be worshipped in order to give life to it. The term 'worship' is not used in the sense used by the Judaeo-Christian Church but in its true sense of 'to emulate', this being what the Old English weorthscip really means. Of course, the symbol, once created, has a life of its own, and the archetype gains power through its use, and through it being worshipped, i.e. through people striving to become that archetype.

We can see how this works with the White Dragon which was revived through the White Dragon Kindred and Odinism, and then taken up by Woden's Folk and Folkish Wodenism when it became the prime symbol of English Nationalism. The symbol itself means the Folkish Movement; it is the Folkish Movement; it has gained power along the way, like a snowball rolling and rolling and becoming an avalanche. It is the most powerful symbol of the English Awakening, and indeed it has spread beyond the borders of England as a Germanic Symbol. The attacks upon this symbol show how much power it has gained and how it has become a problem for our enemies.

Power and Will are in the realm of Ingwe (Agni) whose Fiery Will dwells within the Sacred Blood. The importance of Ingwe has yet to be fully recognised; he is not only the Divine Ancestor of the English but also the Divine Hero who ruled over At-al-land. The rising of At-al-land is the key to the awakening of the English Folk. The archetype of Ingwe is an ancestral atavism that arises within the Blood of the English Folk.