Saturday, November 3, 2012

Wotansvolk flag as an Umbrella Symbol of European Neo-Paganism?: Part 3

I thought that there were a few last items on this issue, then I will give it a rest for awhile. In short, the basic idea is to explicitly form a "Folkish neopagan community" collective label for all applicable concerns; and basically divorce it from the universalist crowd. Quite frankly, I have had about a bellyful of reading comments like this..... or this.

So in other words, a new pragmatic construct; not in thought-form or wishful-thinking, but explicit. Not an organization, but a loose structure. I won't go into my ideas for that now, but it's pretty simple. No "unification," but merely a system of periodic, informal, geographically-based discussions.

Apparently there has existed a "Wotansvolk" association of some type. As stated before, Odinism--or any of its other names--seems to clearly be the largest related tradition, so why not informally utilize this flag as a symbol for this collective? We probably will never agree on a flag or emblem anyway. Odinic tradition is--in one way or another--tied into almost all of the others. In addition, outside of this "collective," the general public would very unlikely give the smaller traditions individual respect. The flag at least represents a pragmatic symbol for this "movement"; and it is a movement, or more accurately, a collection of movements. A dozen arrows tied together. But since "movement" is sometimes perceived as an aggressive word, "community" would be more pragmatic.

Ron McVan has a new book out entitled 'Wotan's Holy Rites and Ritual: Book of Blotar'. I believe that he designed, or helped design the above flag. He has written a number of books tied into the subject discussed in this entry. Even though Odinism--or Wotanism--is the main theme, 'Creed of Iron' delved into many related areas; and he wrote one book about Druidic tradition. I think Ron McVan was saying more-or-less the same thing proposed here. All I'm adding is that, why not just recognize that there are a dozen more more chief spiritual traditions of native European origin, each with many offshoots. For example, there are German magikal traditions, which are not Odinic. One-size does not fit all; therefore why not form a "Folkish neopagan community," which would actually be a defacto "movement?" This idea is actually perhaps more important than the flag idea, which may already be the flag of a group.

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Note: Unfortunately, Runa-Raven Press is now out of business. They seemed to have been the only publisher who were releasing other works by Guido von List in English. A publishing company represents a good step in the direction of having friendly media and a voice. It's difficult to establish a specialized product line. Perhaps if the word had gotten out more that they were translating various works into English, the demand would have been greater. There are others like it; we just have to look for them.... and support them.

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2 comments:

  1. I had those patches made. I used Ron McVan's flag design but changed the ravens. We use this for our tribe Gallows Tree. You see, this isn't a "movement" but a kindred/tribe that has grown over the years to different areas. It isn't about "converting" others, but more keeping our traditions alive separate from a Universalist mind-set.

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    1. It's such a great design, and resonating spirit. Basically what I was getting at was that there probably have been so many times where, for example, a folkish Asatrar, Druid, or Gaulish polytheist lived a very short distance away from each other and never knew each other existed. Wouldn't it be great if they could associate (not merge)...

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