The origin of this blog was inspired in part by Nietzsche referring to himself and his philosophy as a Northwind. For more details see my google document here where I provide excerpts from the 2012 research paper Nietzsche and the North by Filip Lucian, that covers how Nietzsche was seeking to revitalize the ancient vitality of the Indo-Europeans and their heroic physiological natures and life-affirming mythos.
I am ancestrally from the North, i.e. I am Indo-European of Nordic or Scandinavian ancestry, being mostly Swedish. I wanted to appreciate my Nordic and/or Indo-European ancestors.
I see many similarities in the mythological energy and utility of Greek mythology and Norse mythology because both are at their core what I call solar-pantheons. For example, this video, by a YouTuber begins by saying that
[Anceient] Greek and old Norse religion...although separated by about 1,500 years ... I would not exactly call them two separate religions. They were far more similar than they were different and they both have the same Indo-European roots; if we go back far enough to proto-European times, 7, 8, thousand years ago, we were all one and the same. But by the time the Greek and North peoples migrated and evolved they developed two separate belief systems.
So the North wind energy is a reference to the Nordic "Hyperborean spirit" of vitality that descends from the common ancestors of the Norse, Celts, Greeks and "Indian/Hindu"peoples, etc., who are known as the Proto-Indo-Europeans. So what we find is that this ancestral cultural energy or Northwind has been funneled through the physiologies and mythologies of the Indo-European ethnolinguistic branching ancestral family groups, from the Norse to Greeks to Hindus. For these groups are all basically the same in spiritual energy and vitality as they descend from the same ethnolinguistic and mythological source (the Proto-Indo-Europeans). For we can trace them all back to the same Proto-Indo-Europeans and a likely original Proto-Indo-European mythology from which all these groups grew separate based on environment yet retain similar ethnolinguistic mythologies.
Note as well that according to this university page:
Seen genetically, Indo-European heritage encompasses all peoples of Germanic or Scandinavian or southern Mediterranean or Persian or Russian or northern Indian descent, any of a wide range of national groups stemming from India to Iceland.
The Proto-Indo-Europeans basically branched out into different groups and mythologies, from the Scandinavians with their Norse mythology to the Hindu mythology in India.
One reason for this blog is to honor and respect my own Germanic and Scandinavian (Swedish) ancestry and heritage as an American. For it was my ancestrally Germanic and Norse grandfathers and grandmothers, their unique lives and creativity, which formed the Norse mythology. So by appreciating and respecting their mythology I am connecting with my genetic roots and my ancestors as an American.
The second reason is like unto the first. I realized that every ancient people produced a cultural mythos from their own life experiences and pre-conscious psychology and physiology as a people and culture; much like seeds and soil producing a particular kind of plant that's either healthy or unhealthy. So that from out of my Scandinavian ancestry their grew up from cultural memory a vitally alive mythology of gods and monsters, great heroes and deadly adventures. This mythical storytelling energy has inspired recent movies and TV series like Conan the Barbarian, The Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, and the 2013 series Vikings, etc.
On Heathenry & Racial Ideologies
To avoid any confusion, I want to be clear up front in this introduction that I don't identify as a "heathen" like some others refer to themselves. I am not a practitioner of Heathenry. Unfortunately, I have to make this crystal clear. For having mentioned my desire to respect and revere my Indo-European Scandinavian ancestry, I need to separate myself and distance myself from various fraternal organizations attempting to return to the literal worship of Thor and Odin. Many of these types of groups (note: no, not all of them) often unfortunately practice controversial ideas regarding race. In this regard, to be clear I am not in any way interested in any kind of racist ideology.
My views are somewhat similar to Nietzsche's vision of future Superhumans. This was Nietzche's vision of the ideal next stage in human evolution: which he believed could be accomplished through any mix of races or ethnicities, and not just one so-called "superior race" (ethnically speaking). In other words, the natural process of evolution throughout thousands of years has mixes traits from various human genomes toward growing new, healthy, functionally successful and thriving organic forms of hominids. I do not believe in any version of "white supremacy." Instead, similar to Nietzsche, I believe in the growth of a healthy future humanity and even potentially a future hominid species evolving beyond humans in the next stage of evolution.
I don't completely agree with everything Nietzsche wrote but I find his vision of focusing on the future by envisioning the best version of a healthy future humanity in contrast to his hypothetical Last Man an interesting thought experiment. I find his hypothetical concept of a future post-human hominid species (which he called the Overman or the Superhumans, meaning those that culturally and/or "spiritually" evolve beyond-mankind, over mankind, over the bridge of speciation) an interesting thought experiment on the trajectory that human hominid life can take in either growing toward a great health or a degenerate decline. Thus, I see his idea as a kind of theism, a theistic humanism where the Divine is the Heroic, and the good is the rank ordered lifeward successes. Thus, it's be an interesting psychological method for grounding our "spiritual" need to hold up an ideal (to live up to and revere) in the form of a future god-like future form of humanity at its highest and healthiest form imaginable.
This Nietzchean view can even be treated as a healthy alternative form of belief, as a naturalized kind of God-belief. In that instead of projecting into the sky an invisible, inaudible god we can't prove exists -- the god of the sectarian Christian Creeds: a god without bodily parts or passions, which Thomas Jefferson said such "immaterial existences is to talk of nothings" -- Nietzsche instead offered a practical way of grounding our "spiritual" impulses in the real world of biological evolution and our human potential for greatness or decline; by envisioning a possible future god-like human species we could evolve towards over time. So that the future Superhumans could replace current "god beliefs" with instead the concept of the Superhumans as a more realistic ideal: in that we could in fact evolve toward the Superhumans both culturally and in biological reality rather than culturally devolving into what Nietzche called the Last Man.
From this bio-realist Nietzchean perspective, any ethnicity can come together and intermix with others, with the most healthy among each ancestry producing the next stage in human evolution in a natural and organic process.
This type of "Nietzscheanish spirituality" I am discussing has nothing to do with eugenics or racist ideologies, but is simply about each individual person living their most life-affirming and healthiest life possible, like a man living his most heroic and noble life possible as a free spirit; and procreating with women of any race or ethnicity he chooses, who will provide him with healthy offspring. In other words, what I am talking about has nothing to do with racism or eugenics or any such thing.
Solar Pantheonism
I coined the term solar-pantheonism to refer to a universal spiritual philosophy found in nearly all ethnic religions, from African pantheons to the Aztec pantheon (which is the ancient indigenous religion of many Spanish speakers). A good example of seeing how there are various indigenous religious gods as a product of each ethnic people, see this clip Hall of the Gods, from the television series American Gods, Season 2. This clip illustrates how each of the gods has a clear and obvious cultural and ethnic component based on a particular people and their lives which is projected onto the formation of their gods.
The word solar refers to the Sun which is a common source of inspiration in most religious mythologies; even in Christianity which is also solar religion. In her article, Constantine's Conversion to Christianity, Rebecca Denova writes:
During the reign of Emperor Aurelian (r. 270-275 CE) the cult of Sol Invictus ("the invincible, unconquered sun") was promoted as his [Constantine's] family cult. This cult also embodied concepts of Jupiter, Apollo, and Helios. Sol Invictus merged with another popular military cult, that of Mithras. At the same time, Aurelian also reorganized imperial finances and regulated imports and the price of food throughout the provinces. His ideals may be summarized as "one god, one empire". Constantius and his son Constantine were both members of the cult of Sol Invictus. ...
... The Arch of Constantine (erected in 315 CE near the Colosseum) lacks Christian symbols and contains sculptures of offerings to Apollo, Diana, and Hercules.
... Constantine issued coins with himself in the figure of Sol Invictus and Helios. ...
... While native cults and traditions remained, Constantine favored Christians both financially and theologically. As their supreme patron, Constantine endowed Christians with funds to build their basilicas and to acquire property, returned confiscated property, named Christians to high-ranking offices, and exempted Christian clergy from taxes. In theological support, his position as head of the Church as well as the empire contributed to imperial dictates that promoted Christian unity of belief.
In the article Sol Invictus: The pagan Sun god that helped Christianity conquer the Roman Empire, we learn that:
historians argue [that]...Sol Invictus, a ... Sun god whose role in Roman society was eventually supplanted by Jesus Christ .... Rome’s transition from polytheism to monotheism isn’t about Christianity replacing the cult of Sol Invictus so much as it is about non-Christian Romans accepting Christ as the replacement for the Sun god."
Greco-Nordic Americanism
Norse and Greek Gods as Metaphorical Archetypes of our Pre-Conscious Instincts & The Heroic Ideal
This heroic adventurism in Norse mythology is connected to my genetic roots, as the myths and stories are intertwined with my own ancestral memory as a people and culture. The Norse gods and sagas were forged from the actual experiences of my very own ancestors which were molded with artistic creativity into tales of elves and giants, dragons and wolves, Thor's hammer and Odin's spear. For example see the video, Sources on the Norse Gods as REAL Living Humans by Norse Magic and Beliefs YouTube Channel. At the start of the video the author explains that for him the Norse gods are only symbolic: representing aspects of nature, our Universe, and parts of our own body and psyche. He then goes on to say that it's possible that the Norse gods and myths are not only metaphorical, but also, to paraphrase him, they could also be exaggerations as mythologized legends based on real humans and their heroic status and valorous accomplishments. I agree with this assessment.
So to clarify upfront, I am not in any way attempting to return to a literal practice of the worship of pagan gods. I have seen some people on YouTube literally offering forms of sacrifice to gods like Thor and Odin. I personally think this is silly and superstitious, but to each their own. So I do not consider myself a "pagan" because that is a loaded term which can include superstitious practices. If anything I would be promoting secular or naturalistic "paganism."But even there I still cringe at the term "paganism" even with the term secular in front of it, because I often think of New Age woo nonsense and pagan Wicca, all of which I completely reject for many reasons.
Another term I've seen thrown around is European Paganism, like on The Ark (Heroic Ideal) YouTube Channel, which is probably closer to what I would find value in. In other words, I'm not promoting a literal belief in pagan gods or returning to pagan sacrifices! I am instead seeking to revitalize the pro-instincts psychology of the heroic ideal embedded within the Norse and Greek mythologies.
I think a better way to describe what I find value in is not "paganism," which again has supernatural connotations; but what I would maybe call Heroic Instinctualism.
No comments:
Post a Comment