Yule and Saturnalia

.

Yule and Saturnalia (with graaaaaagh, Survive the Jive and Jarnefr Waggener)

Millennial Woes

Three modern Pagans educate me on the festivals that lit up Europe every December before Christianity. This recording was a difficult one to arrange and produce, so I hope it is not completely over-shadowed by the hangouts.

graaaaaagh:
http://www.graaaaaagh.com

Survive the Jive:
https://www.youtube.com/user/ThomasRowsell/
http://fromrunestoruins.vhx.tv/

Jarnefr:
http://www.jack-donovan.com/axis/2014/06/a-time-for-wolves/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtfBLJv_024

[This video is not intended to condone violence or hate.]

[This project is my livelihood. Please see http://www.millennialwoes.com/donate. Thank you.]

ALTERNATIVE CHANNELS:
http://www.vid.me/millennialwoes
https://www.bitchute.com/channel/millennialwoes/
https://www.minds.com/millennialwoes

.

Great 2009 interview of Dr. Stephen Flowers by 'The Phora'

Excellent interview lays out the history and current state regarding Heathen/Neopagan folk interests.

http://www.fromtexttospeech.com/


A Conversation with Dr. Stephen Flowers [aka Edred Thorsson]

By Michael Moynihan - The Phora - 2009 (republished in 2015 by Renegade Tribune)

One of dominant paradigms of modern society is fragmentation. In the world of popular culture this translates into dazzling distractions and endless ephemera, while in the world of academia it engenders over-specialization and an unspoken refusal to even attempt to understand the “bigger picture,” especially from a metaphysical perspective.

In this atomized environment, anyone extolling a cohesive vision that is marked by traditional values – not to mention high standards – automatically becomes an anomaly. So it is the case with Dr. Stephen Flowers, who is the rarest of breeds: a scholar with spirit, one who is single-minded yet open-minded. For more than a quarter-century he has dedicated his energies toward unraveling the mysteries not only of the ancient symbolic alphabet of the Runes, but also of the deepest realms of the Germanic myth and culture from which they arose. For Flowers, this quest is summed up in a single word, RUNA, which is the old Gothic language form of “rune” and was equivalent to the Greek term mysterion (“mystery”). It was in the early 1970s that Flowers heard this word audibly whispered in his ear, and since that time he has tirelessly pursued a path of understanding its implications.

Following graduate work in Germanic and Celtic philology under the esteemed professor Edgar Polomé (1920–2000), Flowers received his Ph.D. in 1984 with a dissertation entitled Runes and Magic: Magical Formulaic Elements in the Elder Tradition (later published by Lang, 1986). In the mid-1980s Flowers also began a more public writing career under the name Edred Thorsson. His books on the Runes and Germanic magic (Futhark, Runelore, At the Well of Wyrd, Rune-Might, Northern Magic, The Nine Doors of Midgard, and A Book of Troth) have become classics of sorts, and although they are aimed at the occult book market, they reveal a depth of understanding and degree of knowledge that is unusual to find in this genre.

Under his own name he also published less speculative material, for example Fire & Ice, about the German magical order the Fraternitas Saturni, and his translation of the Galdrabók, a medieval Icelandic grimoire. His interest in Germanic topics extends not only to the distant past, but also into more recent and controversial manifestations, such as the völkisch period at the turn of the 19th century or the esoteric aspects of the Third Reich, and his translations of Guido von List’s Secret of the Runes, S. A. Kummer’s Rune-Magic, or the writings of Karl Maria Wiligut (The Secret King: Himmler’s Lord of the Runes) all shed scholarly light on these topics. He has also written Lords of the Left-Hand Path, a lengthy study of darker occult currents, and an innovative analysis of ancient Greek magical texts entitled Hermetic Magic.

Unlike many who possess academic credentials, Flowers was never content to relegate his interests to a purely intellectual level, and thus he has long been active in the contemporary revival of Germanic heathenism, variously called Odinism or Ásatrú (a coinage derived from Old Norse, meaning “loyalty to the gods”). He was an original member of Stephen McNallen’s seminal organization the Ásatrú Free Assembly (which still exists today as the Ásatrú Folk Assembly), and in 1979 founded his own initiatory group, the Rune-Gild, dedicated toward the serious exploration of the esoteric and innermost levels of the Germanic tradition, as well as the greater Indo-European culture of which it is but one branch.

Underlying all of his work is a belief in the profound importance of traditional Germanic thinking and the eternal relevance of its mythological expression. After all, English is a Germanic tongue, and our society – fragmented or decayed as it now may be – owes its true origins as much, if not more so, to northern Europe than to Athens or Rome. Dismayed at the ongoing erosion of support for Germanic studies at most universities across the Western world, Flowers has recently unveiled his latest project: the Woodharrow Institute. This non-profit educational institution aims to maintain and foster the tradition of Germanic scholarship, offering courses and publications, and interacting with academic circles wherever possible. Besides administering the Institute, Flowers and his wife Crystal also direct the Rûna-Raven publishing house, which issues an ongoing catalog of titles concerning varied aspects of ancient Germanic culture, along with specialized language studies and works in related areas.
The Conversation

Michael Moynihan: Can you recall what initial event or events led to your setting out upon the path you’ve taken toward understanding the mysteries of the Germanic tradition?

Stephen Flowers: I started out my “career” in understanding the mysteries of the Germanic tradition as what I would later come to understand as an “occultizoid nincompoop.” I was interested in a variety of pretty nutty things. One of my first passions was monster movies. Perhaps Famous Monsters of Filmland was my first bible. My “favorite monster” was the one created by Frankenstein. There was simply something about the “Gothic,” Germanic origin of the myth that appealed to me. Before that I can remember being drawn to all things Germanic (and Scandinavian) the films The Vikings (which I saw during a childhood trip to San Antonio) and the Fall of the Roman Empire vaguely inspired me with certain scenes of Germanic “barbarism.” Later this slightly matured into an interest in the Morning of the Magicians/Spear of Destiny mythology, and culminated in my “hearing” the word RUNA in 1974. This was a catalyst for a quantum leap in my development. It caused me to delve into the scientific and academic basis of what it was that had so fascinated me from childhood. All of this experience laid the foundation of the nature of my own teaching, following this pattern: (irrational) inspiration, leading to (rational) objective study, leading to (subjective) internalization, which ultimately leads to objective enactment (= understanding/personal transformation).

Michael: What brought about your initiation into organized Ásatrú or Odinism, and how do you look back on this period now?

Stephen: Back in the mid-1970s there were only a very few individuals entertaining the idea of the revival of the old Germanic religion. My own individual journey started as early as 1972. However, I will say that it remained rather haphazard and undirected until 1974 when I heard the word RUNA whispered in my ear. But even then, with the inspiration from a higher source, the struggle to understand the full significance of it all was a significant one that had to be carried out in the earthly plane. I saw notices in places like Fate magazine for the Ásatrú Free Assembly and was intrigued, but for some reason I thought it unwise to contact this group until I had something significant to offer. By 1975 my work had taken the direction of being more guided by scholarly discipline. Once I had made significant progress in the reformulation of my runic philosophy (which found expression in the manuscript that became Futhark) and in my graduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin, I felt prepared to make contact with Ásatrú groups.

I first met the leader of the AFA, Stephen McNallen, at the first AFA Althing in the summer of 1979. Meeting Steve was a life-changing experience for me. He is an embodiment of a kind of Germanic spirituality that puts words into action. It was at that time that I was named a godhi [the Old Norse designation for a spiritual leader] in the AFA. It is now the only credential that I hold as being of any significance in the world of Ásatrú /Odinism. Despite whatever history might have passed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, there can be no doubt that Stephen McNallen is the guiding light of American Ásatrú. I count Steve McNallen as a friend and colleague and very much value the fact that it was from him that I received my godhordh – or “authority as a godhi.”

Michael: You have often spoken about how essential disciplined scholarly training can be for understanding the esoteric aspects of the religion and how to most effectively put these into practice. Presumably, such an exchange also functions simultaneously in the reverse direction – in other words, what positive ways did your active involvement with the religion impact your academic work?

Stephen: The esoteric, spiritual aspects function as initial forms of inspiration to the mind. This is essential to the Odian approach to life. First there is an “irrational,” or supra-rational, impulse – a bolt out of the blue that sets the conscious mind on its mysterious course. That impulse can, for many, be a disorienting stroke from which they never recover. They simply sink deeper and deeper into a sea of subjectivity. For another group, the subjectivism is eventually re-balanced with rational work. Understanding of the inspiration is gained, without “explaining it away.” The allowance of subjective inner experience and insight to coexist with objective, rational analysis is essential to the process of truly understanding the tradition in a scientific way, as well as to the process of personal development based on the traditional symbology.

It was noted by outside observers, my mentors in the academic world, that I had an uncanny ability to make sense of obscure myths and to apprehend the hidden connections between and among various mythic structures. This ability stemmed from my inner experience which was constructed on a basis lying outside the purely rational models. If one is trying to delve into the mysteries of the symbolic culture of an archaic world – one very much separated from our own contemporary society and values – then obviously some key must be found which is something other than plodding logic or wild speculation. For me this key is the balanced openness to the mythic spirit of Odin. I was lucky enough to have academic mentors who supported me in this approach, who were themselves spiritual men. Without their inner support I could not have achieved whatever it is I have achieved.

Michael: Why is the notion of a scholar of pre-Christian religion who actually adheres to the spiritual ideas that he also studies such a radical one? Is this simply a byproduct of the situation in the West where any religious path outside of the “mainstream” monotheistic faiths is painted as cultic and marginal?

Stephen: I think this attitude stems almost entirely from two sources: 1) the antagonism of the materialist worldview toward the traditional spiritual one, and 2) the opportunity the adherents to the materialistic worldview have taken to attack the spiritual view based on historical events surrounding World War II. This materialist worldview is “monotheistic” in the sense that it allows for only one set of orthodox values. In this way it is really a secularized form of monotheistic religion. The Judeo-Christian system of thought has lent itself very well to being secularized in such a way that it can be turned into a model for modern political and economic theories. As a side-note, Islam has been much more stubborn in its adherence to its original values, which has caused it to be very much “out of step” with its monotheistic cousins.

Judaism and Christianity can be tolerated by the establishment scholarly world because they can be viewed as theoretical prototypes of the materialistic and positivistic model that now dominates thought in the West. Earlier traditional models are seen not so much as a threat to religion as they are seen as a threat to the monolithic political and economic order. The pre-Christian, traditional philosophies are too divergent and multivalent to be coerced into one single “market” of ideas. This points to the fatal hypocrisy of the current crop of modernistic “thinkers,” who spout off about “multiculturalism” and tolerance, but who exclusively support monolithic socio-economic models that enact the opposite of what they publicly espouse. Surely the ancient, traditional and pre-Christian world is more in line with what really sounds best to most people. Are not ancient, pre-Christian Athens or Alexandria more ideal models for the future over medieval Rome or Constantinople?

Clearly the animosity to those who see value in pre-Christian models stems not from the religious side of the debate, but rather from the secular challenge traditionalism poses to the current political order. What is needed is a campaign for the re-education of the academic world to show that the idealized future is one that is more likely to be based on the mosaic of pre-Christian traditions than it is to be based on the monolithic Christian model.

Scholars of pre-Christian tradition must indeed be sympathetic and even empathetic to the paradigms they are studying. If they do not have a subjective link to the paradigm they are seeking to understand, then they have categorically placed an insurmountable barrier between themselves and the “object” they seek to understand. Hence they have in fact disqualified themselves from ever being able to really understand the patterns of thought in question.

Michael: You have always tried to encourage those involved in neo-heathenism to uphold a higher intellectual standard, and whenever possible to actively pursue serious academic study. Have you noticed any significant number of people willing to rise to the challenge?

Stephen: To this point I would say that there has indeed been a significant number of people who have taken up the challenge to pursue academic goals as a way to put their inner, spiritual lives on a more firm foundation. The number may be significant, but not large. It is hoped that with the advent of the new Woodharrow Institute a greater number of people will “get” what it is I am trying to convey in this trend. The whole “neo-pagan” world has been made a part of the Bohemian “underground” sort of mentality of the Anglo-Saxon (this includes the imitative American) culture. What I am trying to do is simply call the Anglo-Saxon culture back to its more organic Germanic roots. This includes the way in which the idea of “neo-paganism” is approached.

As I outlined in my essay “How to Be a Heathen,” printed in the volume Blue Runa (Rûna-Raven, 2001), there was a time when “pagan knowledge” indicated something that was rigorous to begin with, and gradually evolved to higher realms of the ordinarily ineffable. “Christian faith” was something which opposed “pagan knowledge” and was characterized by subjectivism and infinite appeals to unverifiable authorities from the beginning to the end of the process. In this way it can be seen how the typical “New Ager,” or “wiccan” [sic] is in fact paradigmatically much closer to the original Christian model of thinking than is the average “Christian believer” today. Serious Christian seminarians would not think of ignoring the study of Latin, Greek and Hebrew, yet the many aspirants to the “priesthood” of Ásatrú today think that learning Old Norse is an unreasonable thing to require. It is remarkable to note how many people don’t even get the grammar of their supposed “Norse name” right!

The reasons for this apparent virtual hostility to learning are a part of the Anglo-Saxon “anti-egghead” mentality. By contrast it can be noted that some of the turn-of-the-century German revivalists were in fact professors, e.g. Jakob Wilhelm Hauer (Tübingen) and Ernst Bergmann (Leipzig). This inner cultural bias must be first recognized before it can be overcome. Do not think for a minute that I am extolling the great wisdom or character of the typical modern academic. The academy is presently in decay. However, the basic and systematic knowledge possessed by those who have spent decades in specialized studies, and who have been the traditional recipients of knowledge handed down from several previous generations of scholars is a resource that is indispensable to us.

Michael: While your focus is usually on traditional Germanic or northern European culture and religion, you have also addressed other areas in some of your work, such as with the book Hermetic Magic. What was your reason for doing so – and how do these seemingly distinct realms fit together or cross-fertilize?

Stephen: In Hermetic Magic I concentrated on the operations from the Greek magical papyri that made use of the symbolic power of language and the alphabet (i.e., the more Greek-influenced operations). Indeed there is a great deal of possible cross fertilization between the Germanic and Greek traditions of verbal and alphabetic magic. The book Hermetic Magic was an experiment in the use of the principle of RUNA in the decoding of a tradition other than the Germanic. It proved to be generally successful. Much of what Hermetic magic was all about has been lost in the Golden Dawn/OTO-style magic of the Victorian gents. Hermetic Magic is an attempt to go ad fontes, i.e., back to the sources of what Hermetic magic is, in order to arrive at a fresh and eternal perspective on the power of the human will. This is an exercise in the power of RUNA, Mysterion, as I see it. Hermetic Magic shows what can be done with the principle of RUNA/Mysterion. That it has been generally ignored by the run-of-the-mill “hermetic” crowd is a sign of just how esoteric the actual tradition is.

Michael: The work of Georges Dumézil, the French scholar of Indo-European comparative religion, has been a strong influence on your own outlook. What do you consider to be the most important aspects of his work, and why did they resonate with you to such a degree?

Stephen: First of all, I suppose I came to it as a matter of tradition. My own teacher, and Doktorvater, Edgar Polomé, was a (qualified) Dumézilian. Beyond what I learned in his classrooms, however, I saw that his objective studies (which involved making detailed dossiers of the various Indo-European Gods, etc.) coupled with his structuralist approach allowed for the beginnings of a contemporary and living synthesis of ancient ideas with those of Jung and others. The ideas of Dumézil are 1) accurate and objectively verifiable to a great degree, and 2) are potent tools for current self-transformational work.

Michael: In recent years there seems to be a consistent effort on the part of certain segments of the academic community to discredit Dumézil’s work, and especially his formulation of the tripartite/tri-functional model. Such attempts are reminiscent of those directed against Mircea Eliade and other scholars of religion and myth. Why this animosity, and what are these discreditors so afraid of?

Stephen: They are afraid of the resurgence of Indo-European culture. They have intellectually invested in the idea that internationalism is good and that anything that glorifies the non-European world is preferable to anything that seems to lend prestige to European culture. All of this is so ironic because the ideals from which they draw are entirely of European origin. Nevertheless, as a matter of ideology, but probably more as a matter of an intellectual fashion trend, the academic establishment frowns on anything that they see as “glorifying” the European culture. They would probably argue that their reasons for this vaguely have something to do with Germany in the 1930s. In conversations with German academics in runology I discovered that the same things are happening at German universities now as happened in American ones in the 1980s and 1990s – anything relating to ancient or medieval northern Europe is being dismantled.

There is also the fear that Europe will really be able to make peace within itself based on the Indo-European model, rather than the Christian and/or Marxist model. This would discredit their intellectual prejudices once more. Specifically on Dumézil and the tripartite theory, his theories have the potential of forming the basis of a pan-Indo-European cultural unity. They are the greatest challenge to Christianity and to materialistic positivism in the 20th century. So it is not without some justification that Dumézil has been so widely attacked. His theories do pose a challenge, and are not merely intellectual curiosities. They call for some sort of action and some sort of change on the part of the reader of his ideas.

The dirty little secret is probably merely that in academia the study of old languages and ancient history is hard, whereas what they are replacing all of this with is relatively easy. So that the “war on the Indo-Europeans” is really part of the general “dumbing down” of the academy.

Michael: Not so long ago you attended an international scholarly conference on runology in Denmark. What were your impressions about how this discipline is faring in today’s academic world?

Stephen: The academic field of runology, like any other academic discipline, is subject to the dictates of fashion and changing intellectual trends. (This is where an academic discipline differs from a Traditional discipline.) Most of the 19th and early 20th century runologists accepted the relationship between religion or magic and the runes as a given fact. They accepted this uncritically because it appeared to them (perhaps rightly) as the most obvious conclusion based on all prima facie evidence. Because they were uncritical in their acceptance, however, this left the door open to a subsequent generation of runologists to question the earlier generation’s assumptions. In the world of science this is a good thing. If those who did not question the “magical” nature of the runes had not been so uncritical, then a deeper and more insightful exploration of the idea of runes and magic might never have been undertaken.

I was very gratified to have younger individuals – many still students – at the runic conference discreetly approach me and tell me that part of the reason they came to the conference was to meet me, and that they had first been exposed to the wondrous world of the runes and the esoteric Germanic tradition through my more “popular” works.

The changing face of academia dictates that what is “in” today, will be “out” tomorrow. The seeds of the next generation of runologists have already been planted. On some level, perhaps, those who are foes of tradition have sensed this. Their strategy is perhaps to prevent the seeds from growing by not allowing the seeds to exist in fertile soil. The whole fields of runology, comparative religion, Indo-European studies, etc., are being systematically rooted out of academic institutions. Especially in America this is occurring with simultaneous impetus both from the “right” and from “left.” The international left sees the European tradition as being in power, and their myth of the dialectic determines they should seek to disestablish whatever is in power for “revolutionary” reasons. The right, on the other hand, is dominated in America by a Christian sentiment, which sees interest in our ancient traditions as being hostile to the Christian model. It is interesting to note that these apparently divergent interests of the “left” and “right” are, in America at least, in agreement that at least one of their common “enemies” is the organic national traditions of Europe.

This is occurring not just in America, but in Europe as well. Recently the position of Prof. Dr. Klaus Düwel at the University of Göttingen in Germany was terminated by the administration of the university. At the runic conference in Denmark the runologists signed a petition aimed at the university administration to ask that this prestigious position be maintained. The roots of the academic study of runes at that institution go back to the Grimms.

Michael: Is the founding of the Woodharrow Institute for Germanic and Runic Studies in some ways a response to the current situation regarding these areas of study?

Stephen: The Woodharrow Institute is not only a response to this current situation in academia, but also to shortcomings, as I see them, in the “esoteric subculture.” The Institute stands apart from the current “magickal subculture” in that it is informed by, and on its most basic level must conform to, all the legitimate rules and regulations of scientific procedure – all of which are beneficial to the overall process if kept in perspective. These methods infiltrate our way of approaching esoteric areas, or areas of inner work, as well. As has always been the case with the Rune-Gild – which in the future will be re-established within the context of the Woodharrow Institute – we start with what is objectively known and move from that base into an exploration of the darker corners of the unknown.

So the Woodharrow Institute is intended to meet a challenge from two ends of a pole: it is to bring an objective and scientific basis to the beginning of inner work, and to re-envision the final purpose or aim of intellectual work itself as a completion of the self. It is to bring objective standards to a morass of subjectivity (the occultizoid culture) and to bring inner purpose to the often sterile and pointless pursuits of academia. This is a formidable challenge, to be sure. Yet this is what makes it worth undertaking.

Michael: What role do you see the Institute ultimately fulfilling, and how might it interact with more established or formal academic institutions?

Stephen: It is clear from what has already been said that the academic discipline of runology, as well as those of older Germanic studies and Indo-European studies, etc., are in trouble. If scientific runology is left to its normal cycle of intellectual fashion, there is no harm done. The radical traditional runologist would be free as always to partake of the fruits of that intellectual labor and have his inner work enriched by it. However, if the traditional academic fields are uprooted and marginalized to extinction then this would no longer be possible.

The Woodharrow Institute is designed to be a refuge for the academic tradition – and to foster to some extent a sort of guerrilla scholarship. The basic work for the Institute must not in any way be compromised by “occult thinking”; it should be entirely historical and academic. We will “play the scholarly game” according to its rule and according to its standards. Then and only then can the Institute fulfill another of its major tasks: to act as a “think tank” for those interested in inner work. The fact that the word “academic” is used to describe only that kind of work which is “purely scientific,” is in a sense a misuse of the term. Plato’s school, the Academy, from which our modern use of the term is ultimately derived, did not have as its final aim the production of scientific data limited to what can be quantified and objectively known. That was only a stepping stone to the true purpose of the school, which was the transformation of the individual into a higher form of being – in other words, the final “product” was the completed soul. This whole ultimate purpose has been lost in the modern academic institution, except perhaps where secret pockets of scholars might preserve it unofficially.

The Woodharrow Institute seeks to restore the complete model of the old Academy in a Germanic context. As such its ultimate purpose is transformational, and not merely “scientific” as understood in modern parlance. Participants in, or members of, the Institute will, however, not be required to pursue this inner work as any sort of prerequisite for membership. The Institute will develop a full range of areas of interest and research.

It is hoped that the Institute will in the future be able to establish good relations with mainstream academia. We could offer practical programs in language study, experimental archeology and, most importantly, experimental or experiential ideology. Our mission in mainstream academia would be merely to restore traditional areas of study where they have been lost and to help retain them where they are in jeopardy.

The Institute then has two main purposes in the world:

1) to act as a refuge for displaced scientific work in the fields of runology, Germanic studies, and general Indo-European studies; and 2) to act as a think tank for individuals interested in making use of the scientific work as a basis for inner development. The Woodharrow Institute is a weapon in the struggle against both modernism and occultizoid subjectivism.

Michael: In the ancient Germanic cosmology, a cyclical dynamic exists where the old order collapses and is torn apart from both within and without, but this is a necessary step that precedes the unfolding of a new beginning. Is it a stretch to look at contemporary events in this light? And if not, what is the best way for the aware individual to approach the present situation?

Stephen: It is my contention that traditional views are eternally valid and ever-meaningful. The Germanic cosmology, ragnarök, which can actually refer to the beginnings, middle or end of the cosmological process, involves at the end of the process certain ages. These are referred to in the poems of the Elder Edda with terms such as the “Wolf Age,” which refers to the “greedy,” “covetous,” or “appetitive” nature of the age. Clearly the world as a whole is in a “Wolf-Age.” The individual, and certain groups of elect, can, as Julius Evola put it, “ride the tiger.” This means that certain individuals and groups can, exercising their will against the grain of consensus reality as informed by Tradition, lay the personal and transpersonal foundations for the next (inevitable) cyclical development. This next cycle will (naturally) be more imbued with Tradition, as the developmental wheel turns.

Michael Moynihan is a writer, artist, and publisher from New England. He is co-editor of the annual journal TYR: Myth – Culture – Religion, published in Atlanta, Georgia. He regularly contributes to cultural and music periodicals worldwide, and is also the North American Editor of Rûna.

.

Ancient Aliens - 'The Viking Gods' - Part 3

The following text apparently no longer has any type of copyright, and I wanted to save this particular writing from being lost. I would suggest using FromTextToSpeech.com for anyone who just wanted to sit back and listen rather than read. I find the "Heather" voice to be clear and easy to understand. I can recall republishing a wonderful text interview which the Odinic Rite conducted with a representative of the Slavic Faith Association from Poland a few years ago. I was very surprised that the OR discarded it. Also, I wanted to add that this isn't necessarily a "Norse Creation Myth" as much as it is a Teutonic Creation Myth. It could very well have originated in the original Teutonic homeland north the the Himalayas, probably well over 10,000 years ago, and perhaps much longer. "Nordic" is a region, while "Teutonic" is a people who lived in many regions over the course of time. 


Odinic/Asatru Creation Myth
   
In the beginning, there was Ginnungagap, the yawning void or the vast abyss. It was a region so tremendous, so limitless that it extended for ever in any direction, with space to contain a million universes and still have room for another few million. To contemplate it would make you sick with dizziness, would make you weightless, would bend your mind with terror for it had no length, no breadth, no up, no down. In the beginning there was nothing in Ginnungagap that any human thought could grasp, not a drop of water, not a blade of grass, not a even a grain of sand. There was no light, no darkness, no silence and yet no sound - only a yawning void. Although this nothingness was so vast and shapeless, it was still not empty.  It had no form but it was definitely not empty. Only the gods know this secret. After the beginning, this nothing began to be something and there were seen to be in it two contrasting regions.

First of all was a region of fire, called Muspell (also known as Muspellheim). No ordinary being could live there for the land was ablaze and the air aflame. Later the combusting fire giants were to make Muspell their home. Muspell means "Home of the Destroyers of the world".

The second of the great regions in the vast abyss of Ginnungagap was cold, bleak wilderness of ice and snow and freezing fog, called Niflheim. Niflheim like Muspell, had existed for countless ages before our earth was created. In the center of Niflheim there surged and foamed up the mighty fountain of Hvergelmir, the Roaring Cauldron. All the rivers of all time proceeded from Hvergelmir. Their names were fearsome and their forms were magic: Howling, one was called, others Storming, Frightful, Bubble-blasting. One was said to be composed entirely of chunks of ice fighting their way along in the shape of weapons - spears, javelins, swords and battle-axes.

Another tumultuous fountain in Niflheim was Elivagar or Icy Waves. Elivagar, too had welled up from its unknown source since time immemorial. Some even say that Hvergelmir and Elivagar were only different names for the one primeval fountain. However that may be Elivagar's crunching, creaking, groaning mountains of ice expanded and exploded and spread lay upon layer as glaciers all over the northern quarter of Ginnungagap. And across the ever growing sierras of ice, whirled winds of hail, blizzards and frozen torrents of rain.

Most important, there bubbled up through Elivagar a poisonous scum which set the slag which runs out of a furnace. This hardened into black ice. When the mass stopped and flowed no further it hung suspended, forming colossal icicles and icebergs log jammed up and up, one on top of another. So between them, Hvergelmir and the poisoned Elivagar completely filled the northern part of Ginnungagap. At last the yawning void which lay to the north quarter was blocked with heavy and crushing ice and frost; while in contrast, the southern sky of Ginnungagap glared with sparks and molten gases gushing out of Muspell.

It was quite obvious that after eons of time the regions of fire and ice in the yawning void must meet. When this eventually happened there arose that most amazing of all phenomena, which no one since the world began has been able to explain - Life. When the two elements came together in space, the yawning void was as mild as the windless air, but as the ice of Niflheim touched the fire of Muspell there was a tremendous explosion and a mighty booming band. The fermenting drops of venom bubbling up through Elivagar were fused to life by the fire and across the length and breadth of Ginnungagap their there formed the body of a giant. He was shaped like a man and at first he hardly moved. A broth of bubbling and boiling mud and ice gave birth to his ferocious head, his arms, his torso and his sludge-streaked legs. His later descendants, the frost giants, named him Aurgelmir which meant Mud Boiler, for they knew the secret of his creation; but others called him Ymir.

For long ages Ymir lay sleeping in his porridge of poisonous, seething mud and ice. At last his body was solid and he began to sweat. Under his armpit grew a male and a female; then one of his feet mated with the other to produce a six-headed son, Thrudgelmir, who in due course gave birth to Bergelmir, the direct ancestor of the frost giants.

Not all the ice of Niflheim was impregnated with the poison from Elivagar, and where it remained pure but was still melted by the fires of Muspell, a vast cow appeared in the thawing ice. Her belly spread across the heights as a colossal cumulus cloud and her legs were columns at the corners of space. From the udder of this great cow the giant Ymir suckled. The frost giants called her Authumla meaning Great Nurse. Authumla herself needed sustenance and she began to lick the continents of ice about her, finding them pleasantly salty to her taste. Just as a master sculptor sees in a block of marble an image which only he can release, so when Authumla  licked the ice something new began to appear.

By the evening of the first day her questing tongue had licked out the hair of a man. All next day she nuzzled and slobbered until a man's head appeared. By the third day she had licked a complete man into shape. The gods called him Buri for they claim him as their firs ancestor: he was beautiful and bright to look at, a great and mighty god. As time went on, Buri had a son called Bor, a name which means born, for all those thousands of years ago there were still not very many words available. Bor's wife was Bestla the daughter of a giant known as Balethorn. Bor and Bestla had three sons called Odin, Vili and Ve.

All these beings, the ancestors of the giants and the gods, and the universal cow Authumla, had formed the primeval form lessness Ginnungagap. Because of the venom proceeding from Elivagar some were evil. Others, like Buri, were good. But it is well known that good and evil cannot live peacefully together and before long there was a tremendous battle between the cosmic powers.

The frost giants were a dark and violent race, misshapen, monstrous and noisy. Old Ymir's son, born by the union of his foot with the other, was a glacier-like being with six-heads called Thruthgelmir or Mighty Roarer, and his son was known as Bergelmir or Rock Roarer. When they and their ancient father and grand father Ymir met in council with the notice was ugly and and Odin, Vili and Ve, the sons of Bor were irritated beyond endurance.

Odin and his two brothers quarreled with old giant Ymir and after a great battle they killed him. When he fell, hacked to pieces, so much blood flooded from his body that all his giant family were drowned except the youngest, Bergelmir, and his wife. Bergelmir swam through the billows of blood dragging his wife by the hair until he was able to scramble on to a giant mill and there they sprawled across the millstone gasping for breath. In this way, the race of frost giants and hill ogres was able to continue.

Odin, Vili and Ve dragged Ymir's carcass, still pouring volumes of blood into the middle of Ginnungap. There were so many wounds in Ymir's body that the blood flowing out formed the sea. All oceans, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, pools and streams came from Ymir's blood.

Wondering what to do with the remains, the sons of Bor decided to sculpt it into something useful, so they set to work. They pounded, kneaded, chopped and slashed his tremendous corpse, pushing and pulling his flesh this way and that as though it were clay until they were satisfied. When they had finished the first part of their gruesome task they had produce the groundwork of the earth: the rolling hills, plains, dry river beds, empty lakes, and empty sea-bed. Into all these hollows they poured Ymir's blood so that the earth lay entirely surrounded by the sea with rivers running through it. His bones they hacked and splintered to make mountain crags. They made individual rocks and seashore pebbles from his toes, double teeth and remains of broken bone. They used Ymir's hair for tree's and bushes. For soil the made out of his flesh, and the race of dwarfs appeared spontaneously rather like maggots. Bor's sons had now created the earth and the beaches and the sea but yet there was no sky. So Odin, Vili and Ve between them heaved up the mighty skull of Ymir to form a dome over the earth. Now they had to find a way to keep it in place.

Fortunately (because without a sky the earth would been a dark and miserable, not to mention uninteresting place to live in) a solution was at hand: they were able to make use of the dwarfs. Odin, Vili and Ve peremptorily ordered four of them to stand forever at the four corners of the world to hold up the sky. They called them Nordi (North), Sudri (South), Austri (East) and Westri (West). A little later on Odin created the winds by posting a giant (one of Bergelmir's sons) in the form of an eagle at eh ends of the earth to flap his wings for ever. And into the stream of air Bor's sons cast Ymir's brains to make the clouds.

The dome of the sky was now firmly fixed, but it remained dark and menacing. Freed from the supporting sky, the sons of Bor caught the glowing cinders and sparks which were thrown up and out of Muspell and poised them in the middle of the yawning gulf to light both heaven and earth. They appointed positions to all the stars: some were fixed in heaven, some were to pass backwards and forwards in regular patterns. In this way the seasons of the years were marked out, but as yet there was no sun and moon, and day was not separated from night.

Odin, Vili and Ve now gave a great grant of land encircling the outward shores of the ocean for the race of giants to settle in, calling it Jotunheim or Giant land. Finally the gods took Ymir's brows to build a circular stronghold of the cliff-like walls around the earth. They called this fortress Midgard, meaning the Middle Enclosure. 

Creation of Night and Day

Narfi, one of the first giants to colonize Jotunheim, had a stunningly beautiful daughter who was quite unlike the Viking women in appearance. She had a dark complexion and dusky hair. Her name was Nott (Night). Beautiful she was, she made herself more so by wearing bright stars in her long dark hair. Naturally enough, many men wished to marry her and being a young woman of strong character, she married three husbands, one after another.

 Nott's first husband was a handsome young fellow called Naglfari or Darkling, who may well have been a distant cousin of hers. Their marriage did not last long, but long enough for them to produce a son called Aud (Space). If you happen to be alone on a dark night with no clouds and the stars twinkling away into infinity, you will be well aware of the presence of Aud.

There was some mystery about Nott's second husband. Nobody ever called him anything else but Annar (Another). It looks suspiciously as if 'Annar' was simply a bye-name, a name employed to disguised the person's identity. People frequently speculated about who could really be or where he came from. There seems no doubt that he was not a giant and if that was the case, then he must have been a God, for no other beings have been created at that time. It is probably no was to find out whether Annar was someone of supreme importance who felt embarrassed about acknowledging a relationship by marriage to the giants. Whoever he was, Nott and her second husband Annar had a lovely daughter who was named Erda (Earth). Now, here is the surprising thing: of all the gods, Odin himself also had a daughter called Erda - so people are left to draw their own conclusions.

Night's third and last husband was Dellinger (Dawn), god of Dawn, He was definitely a relative of the gods and as his name implies, he was bright and fair. Their son Dag (Day), took after his father's side of the family and was very blond and beautiful.

It is clear that the Gods knew all about Nott and her various children and they were only too happy to work them into their scheme for the universe. The gods decided that each twenty-four hours should be divided into twelve and twelve and that half should be light and half dark. They gave Nott and her son Dag each a chariot and a pair of horses and sent them up to the heavens to drive around the earth, one after the other, once every twenty-four hours.

Nott drove first with her lead horse, Hrimfaxi (Frostymane) who each morning sprinkles the ground below with dew as he champs at his bit. The froth and glitter of his spit can be seen as it gathers in beads on the leaves and petals before dawn.

Behind, gallops Dag. His lead horse Skinfaxi (Shiningmane). The resplendence of his two shining steeds and of his own long golden hair, illumines all the earth and the sky with light. 


Creation of Sun and Moon

In the old days the sun and moon, made like the other stars and planets from the flames of Muspell, swung unguided across the heavens. At that time there lived on earth a man named Mundilfari. It is not clear whether he was of the giant race of a poor relation of the gods. His name means 'the world turner' and in the beginning he man well have charged with making the world spin round - under the direction of the Gods of course. Perhaps this important work may explain his rather arrogant nature which in the end, got him into trouble.

Mundilfari had two children so bright and handsome that he thought nothing in creation could compare with them except the sun and the moon. Proudly he called the boy Mani (Moon) and the girl Sun (Sol). When the Gods heard about this they took offense. Vainglory of this kind was too much for them to bear and they snatched the children away from their father and put them to work in the heavens. It is these children we see as bright lights in the sky.

They made the girl he named Sol ride like a jockey on one of the horses pulling the chariot of the sun. The two horses drawing Sol's chariot, Arvakr and Alsvin (Early-Wake and Supreme-in-Strength), had to be protected from Sol's great heat, the Gods fixed an indestructible shield known as Svalin (Iron Cool) between the horses and Sol. Year after year, until the end of time, they follow their path across the sky, varying its height and length with the regular pattern of the changing seasons. 

Sol's brother had to ride one of the horses of the moon, called Alsvider. But because his journeys were much more complicated than because the moon he was set to a guide of waxes and wanes each month so that it is never quite the same for two days in a row. Mani could not manage this himself and he in his turn kidnapped two other children from earth. A little boy named Bit and his sister Hiuki, had been sent up a high mountain by their father to fetch water from a well. That was the last the old man ever saw of them.

As Mani drove behind the peak in his glowing chariot, he snatched the unsuspecting children and took them along with him. On a clear night of the full moon they are both visible: people on earth call them the children in the moon and it is they who make the moon wax and wane. How exactly they do this is a puzzle. No one knows whether they draw a curtain across Mani's face, or whether they persuade him gradually to turn his head sideways and then back again.

From the earth both the son and the moon can be seen racing across the sky. This is not only because they are drawn by splendid galloping horses. They have a pressing reason for losing no time in their journey: they are both being pursued by wolves.

A long, long way away from Midgard, where it is almost always winter and dark forests stretch as far as the eye can see, in one desolate ravine where the tree trunks are corroded iron, live evil witches, troll women known as Ironwooders. Evil breeds evil. The worst of these witches became the mother of dozens of giants, all born in the form of wolves. Their brutish father was himself a wolf or at least a werewolf and it is said that he was no other than the famous Fenrir. Two of his cubs grew into such huge, terrifying animals that the powers of evil were able to set them like ravening dogs onto the sun and the ever-changing moon.

Bounding through the sky, the wolves chase the horses and the chariots as though they are rabbits or hares. One shaggy, dark wolf pursues the sun; the other just as hideous, leaps along, following the moon. Sun and moon have no hiding place from these evil beasts and are doomed to run away until the doom of the Gods.

The prophecies say that in the end the wolves will overtake Mani and Sol and swallow them up completely. 

Creation of Humans

The three sons of Bor were at first known as Odin, Vili and Ve. Though Odin developed many names during his years, he was still mainly known as Odin. Vili was sometimes known as Hoenir and Ve often called Lothur.

One morning, when all creation was new, the sons of Bor were walking together along the ocean shore. As they looked about them they could not help admiring the world they had made. The pure air sparkled with light for everything was running according to their plan - the sun was thinning, the breezes were blowing enough to cool and refresh the skin, puffy white clouds adorned the blue sky and the waves lapped pleasantly along the vast empty strand.

Empty? Well, not quite. In the distance, just beyond the waterline, the three gods made out two logs of driftwood. They had only been recently deposited on the yellow sand by the waves sweeping in from the ocean and were so near the water's edge that the tide still splashed the side of the one nearest to the sea.

Odin looked at his brothers Hoenir and Lothur and a wild idea came into his mind. Together they strode along the firm golden sand until they stood over the two logs. As the bay curved round, the sun happened to be behind them and Hoenir's shadow fell along the log nearest the water while Lothur's shadow lay along the other one.

Odin watched as the shadows of their legs and arms moved, making it look as if the logs too, were moving. He dropped down onto his knees by the log nearest the shore; it had been the trunk of some primeval elm tree. Placing his lips to the rough bark of the tree, he breathed out his divine spirit. Then he stood up and the three stepped back to watch.

Slowly, perhaps even hesitantly, the bark of the elm log began to shrivel and split and roll back until the body of a naked woman appeared. She was very beautiful but her skin was blanched like plant grown for a long time with out light and her eyes were vacant. She lay quite still without moving a limb.

Odin bent over the other log, which had come from an ash tree. Once more he breathed on the thin bark and this time the figure of a man appeared in the wood. His eyes open vacantly and he, too, lay motionless.

All this time the shadows of Hoenir and Lothur lay alone the newly released bodies. The three young Gods looked at each other and without speaking each knew what to do.Odin had released Woman and Man and given them a soul and life. Now the other two brothers made their gifts.

As Lothur looked down on the woman he transferred to her the flush of youth, the use of her five senses and the power of understanding. Slowly she sat up, looking around the new world. Then she turned to look at the body still lying motionless and empty beside her.

Lothur then transferred his power to Man. The warmth of blood began to course through his veins and he, too, received understanding and the gifts of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch.

Hoenir's gift was the faculty of speech.

The two new beings, the first man and the first woman, looked at each other in full understanding, rose to their feet and embraced. Odin name the man Ask (Ash) and the woman Embla (Elm), from the trees out of which they had been formed. He took off his clock and draped it over the woman and put his tunic around the man's shoulders. Together the first human beings turned away from the sea and walked hand in hand into their new world.

.

The Arctic Home in the Vedas: Part 18 - "Arkaim"

Although I find myself shifting a bit while looking at all of this evidence, it seems virtually certain that the "Aryans" were neither Germanic, Iranian, or Indian in the modern sense of those terms; but rather clearly were a special fusion of ancient true-Mediterraneans with south-migrating pure Teutonic people. When I say "pure," I mean that they were a little different than modern Germanic people who are basically a proto-European and Teutonic mixture. I think they probably would resemble each other though. It would be fair to loosely label them "ancient Persians."

Arkaim: a time when science and magic were one

Arkaim (Wikipedia)

Arkaim is an archaeological site situated in the Southern Urals steppe, 8.2 kilometres (5.1 mi) north-to-northwest of Amurskiy, and 2.3 km (1.4 mi) south-to-southeast of Alexandronvskiy, two villages in the Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, just to the north from the Kazakhstan border.

The site is generally dated to the 17th century BC. Earlier dates, up to the 20th century BC, have been proposed. It was a settlement of the Sintashta-Petrovka culture [probably speakers of the ancient Persian-Aryan language].

The evidence shows that the general territory which we now call Kazakhstan was likely one of the first Teutonic settlements after the last glacial movement. As to whether or not Arkaim itself was constructed by Teutons, Mediterraneans, or Aryans--I don't think is truly known, and may obscure more important questions. I would guess, based on it's northern location, that the population was "Aryan," with more of a Teutonic mixture.

Settlement

Although the settlement was burned and abandoned, much detail is preserved. Arkaim is similar in form but much better preserved than neighbouring Sintashta, where the earliest chariot was unearthed. The site was protected by two circular walls. There was a central square, surrounded by two circles of dwellings separated by a street. The settlement covered ca. 20,000 m2 (220,000 sq ft). The diameter of the enclosing wall was 160 m (520 ft). It was built from earth packed into timber frames, and reinforced with unburned clay brick, with a thickness of 4–5 m (13–16 ft). and a height of 5.5 m (18 ft). The settlement was surrounded with a 2 m (6 ft 7 in)-deep moat.

There are four entrances into the settlement through the outer and inner wall with the main entrance to the west. The dwellings were between 110–180 m2 (1,200–1,900 sq ft) in area. The outer ring of dwellings number 39 or 40, with entrances to a circular street in the middle of the settlement. The inner ring of dwellings number 27, arranged along the inner wall, with doors to the central square of 25 by 27 m (82 by 89 ft). The central street was drained by a covered channel. Zdanovich estimates that approximately 1,500 to 2,500 people could have lived in the settlement.

The six-pointed hexagram, sacred ancient symbol for Saturn

Surrounding Arkaim's walls, were arable fields, 130–140 m by 45 m (430–460 ft by 150 ft), irrigated by a system of canals and ditches. Remains of millet and barley seeds were found.

The 17th century date suggests that the settlement was about co-eval to, or just post-dating, the Indo-Aryan migration into South Asia and Mesopotamia (the Gandhara grave culture appearing in the Northern Pakistan from ca. 1600 BC, the Indo-European Mitanni rulers reached Anatolia before 1500 BC, both roughly 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi) removed from the Sintashta-Petrovka area), and that it was either an early Iranian culture, or an unknown branch of Indo-Iranian that did not survive into historical times.


Arkaim: Russia’s Ancient City and the Arctic Origin of Civilization

This is a fascinating article, but long. I would recommend  http://www.fromtexttospeech.com/ for long articles. You can enter large blocks of text, and it will read it back to you... and you may even save the audio file. This important article both clarifies the bigger picture, as well as poses even more questions. Recent stunning archeological finds have added more credibility to these ideas. These very ancient sites were both cities, as well as "wisdom centers." They were constructed with magical properties aka "sacred geometry" based on ancient wisdom aka "science," with astronomical observatories. Their "Cult of the World Pillar" may have been the basis for the "World Tree" from numerous cultures.

Ancient symbols--such as the Swastika, the Triskellion,  the six-pointed Hexagram ("Star of David"), and the Pentagram--were a big part of this sacred geometry. Ironically, the Swastika (symbol of our "primary sun") and the six-pointed Hexagram (symbol of our once "second sun") were both once beloved sacred symbols of scientific geometry within this bio-astro-theology. Today, when the twin-spiritual infants--closed-minded religious supremacists and closed-minded scientific atheists--engage in debates, we can see just how far we have devolved spiritually.


Arkaim: Russia’s Stonehenge and a Puzzle of the Ancient World
 

Arkaim structure

Arkaim may have functioned as both a preemptive place of refuge, as well as centers of spirituality, science, and wisdom. A place where ALL FIVE POINTS of science were honored.


Arkaim Google images (must see!)

Saturn the dwarf star, once our "second sun"

The original Teutonic race first dwelt north of the Himalayas, and up to the north pole when Saturn was our active "second sun" in the north sky, and this region was daylight twenty-four hours a day. The Triskellion was likey their main pre-Aryan cultural symbol early on. Arkaim was one of the post-glacial cities, constructed within the science of sacred geometry. They lived in spiritual harmony with the Earth, and utilized its free energy. Magic and science were one. When Saturn became a dwarf star, this changed everything. The word "Satan" is really just another word for Saturn. There exists today, a strange "Cult of Saturn" which somehow believes that there is a competition between the suns, and the mere existence of the ancient Saturnian sun is something which must be kept from us... as an unfortunate part of "this fetish."


Arkaim swastika city 1 (video)

These videos are based on the above article, and are from a Slavic-nationalist view of the world. I think this outdates the world of 4,000 years ago by a lot, and we shouldn't be rushing to conclusions. Mainstream Western historians and archeologists, in usual fashion with things they cannot explain, for the most part... have simply chosen to ignore it. 

The Teutonic sky god Odin

Arkaim swastika city 2 (video)

Arkaim

Arka = "Earth"

Im = "Sky"

"The place where the sky touches the Earth"

The city was constructed in the model described in ancient text of Troy in Homer's 'Iliad', in Plato's "Atlantis," Electris in "Hyperborea," and Asgard in the Norse 'Edda'.


Arkaim swastika city 3 (video)

Arkaim was a shrine dedicated to the Aryan Sun religion. yet the roots of its dedication would have lain ultimately in the far older cult of the Pole star (Saturn). 

Swastikas are featured prominently among the many artifacts unearthed in Arkaim. It should also be mentioned that there are other ruins connected to Arkaim in the surrounding area.

It is the oldest religion known to us and goes back to the most remote antiquity when men saw the heavens as revolving around the axis of the Pole Star. Only later did the Sun, as the center of the revolving stellar system, replace the Pole Star as the supreme deity of the Pillar cult and lead to the elevation of the Sun God of the Indo-European peoples.

There it is. The "Pole Star" Saturn fizzled out thousands of years ago, and was replaced--at least in the northern hemisphere--by the Sun as the "supreme deity."

"Troy towns" like Electris--and Arkaim--were built as stellar observatories. Their function was to unite earth to the starry cosmos above according to the principle of "as above so below" by means of a central axis symbolized by a stone pillar.

Now it gets into some of the roots of early Paganism, some of which exists to this day; as well as early astro-theology and the "electric universe" mentioned in earlier sections. Just the fact that some of the concepts survived in forced underground schools of knowledge--or even within family lines!--is amazing just in itself.

Arkaim swastika city 4 (video)

Some "Slavic nationalist" types have taken this pretty far, as you may see here with their history of "Slavic script." I think this should be pondered, but it seem pretty clear that this civilization predated modern ethnic groups as we may know them today.


Arkaim swastika city 5 (video)

The various types of Swastikas and sun wheels found in Arkaim and with the Tarim mummies brings up the inescapable question of... what did the National Socialists really know about this ancient region? These finds were not known to the world then, yet some of these symbols were used by the Third Reich. One major symbol associated with some of those former Teutonic territories was the Triskellion, a symbol not used by them.


Arkaim swastika city 6 (video)

It should be stated again that Arkaim has much to do with the old "Golden Age" covered earlier. A time when two suns were present in our sky. As far as where "Atlantis" or "Lemuria" fit into this, that's more than I'm willing to cover here due to lack of evidence and continuity. But that doesn't mean that it's not possible. Also, the many large and very long-skulled remains found on different continents likely fit into this somehow.


Tracking the Aryans 2011 , with Bettany Hughes ,Arkaim swastika

There really shouldn't be "political implications" to ruins and artifacts. The "Aryans" were not Iranians, Indians, Germans, Scandinavians, Semites, or Slavs. They were the fusion of ancient Teutons from north of the Himalayals, who migrated south after the last glacial movement, and ancient true-Mediterraneans. There's almost a neuro-psychological fear of the world "Aryan," who were merely ancient Persians... and those who eventually migrated outward. Arkaim and its allied cities may have been a northern flank of the Aryan civilization. There may not be a single word in existence which makes so many people, so stupid, so quickly!

Archeologist David Anthony--much like any religious zealot--clearly is horrified at the mere thought of a northern origin of the ancient Aryans... so he apparently has decided to play what I would call the "willful ignorance card." He's playing it off as if modern demographics are the same as they were 4,000 years ago... and the perceptions of the average person would tend to go along with his train of thought. On the other hand, archeologist Bettany Hughes is open-minded and follows what the evidence shows... and is much more worthy of the title of the profession, as well as the spirit of exploration.

The gods and goddesses of this northern flank culture seemed to resemble those of Asatru. There was a chief deity, a sky-god. Well, Odin is/was a "sky god." There was a god of "war and thunder," which sounds a lot like Thor. There is evidence that the native spirituality of the Teutons seems to have had a great impact on the Aryan civilization, and as it migrated elsewhere. Indians, who tend to be ethnocentric, don't like ideas like this; yet we are still presented with the question of why the Icelandic and Sri Lankan languages are in the same language family? The only explanation seems to be 1) that the world population was comparatively low; 2) that the basic root of the Indo-European language family was from the early Teutonic language; 3) that most of those Teutons--over thousands of years--migrated westward into Europe and strongly influenced those languages; and 4) that other Teutons migrated south into ancient Persia, where they strongly influenced what was to become the Aryan language... which later migrated and dispersed into India. The mainstream theory is one of politically correct paranoia and nationalist megalomania; the ideas here project something of a shared world heritage, and the facts support it.

Again, I feel the need to clarify yet again. This has nothing to do with Teutonic supermen founding civilization. Civilization overwhelmingly was a product of ancient true-Mediterraneans. These migrating Teutons must have been fascinated by the Mediterraneans they encountered. The Teutonic symbol may have been their symbol for the Sun, the Swastika; however, the evidence is still unclear as to the origin of the Swastika. For the Mediterraneans of that time and place, at least one of their chief symbols was the six-pointed Hexagram, the symbol of Saturn. Quite ironic, in light of the projected "controversy." Just the fact that modern society isn't even aware that this Hexagram is in fact the symbol of Saturn, says so much about the superstitions and paranoia of the modern world. Modern scientific careerists might look down at the superstitions of some tribe in the South Pacific, yet many display an equal array of paranoiac quirks. In a hypothetical "fair world," both the Swastika and the six-pointed Hexagram should be renamed and only associated with the ancient cultures from which they sprang. There aren't very many things more immature than protesting against ancient symbols.

Arkaim

Arka = "Earth"

Im = "Sky"

"The place where the sky touches the Earth"

Odin, the Teutonic "sky god"

Arkaim: "The place where the sky touches the Earth"... "The place where Odin connects with his people"... long ago... on that vast central Asian plain... which may have been a woodland. Unlike the Saturn-worshiping Sumerians, Arkaim was a temple of the Sun.

An understanding of the forces which have shaped human history is predicated not only on facts to be learned, but also on secrets to be discovered.
  .

The Almother, Carnuntum, and "Pagan's Gate": The ancient cultural and spiritual overlap between the "two Austrias" and the north Balkans

Heidentor aka "Pagan's Gate"

From an overall historical point of view, the Austrians could seem more like an old rival than a kindred people. The region of the eastern Alps and north of the Adriatic Sea has long been a tri-cross-cultural area between the Italo-Roman speaking world, the German-speaking world, and the Slavic-speaking world. For example, some parts of the north Balkans are more culturally and politically tied to Russia than to nearby Austria or the Veneto; in most ways, the tri-Veneto area has more in common with Rome than to St. Moritz; and in general, Austrians would tend to see themselves as being more ethnically tied to Scandinavia than to the nearby Venetians or Slovenes.

By the "two Austrias" I mean the original, and actually proper term "Austria," state within the old Langbard Kingdom... which was approximately the northeast Italian peninsula between Lombardy and the tri-Veneto area. Much later, the term "Austria" was clumsily resurrected as the English-language nickname for Österreich... or the Austria we know today.

Five thousand years ago, there would have been no difference at all between peoples of this region. They would have all been proto-European. The early stream of Teutonic migration formed the loosely defined Celtic culture, which later overran the general Lombardo-Venetian area. Still, approximately three thousand years ago, there was little difference. I'm guessing that this would have also included the north Balkans as well. Without going into the entire history of it.... a later "final push" of Teutonic tribes burst into Switzerland, Austria, Bavaria, Hungary, Bohemia, etc.... an equally intense migratory push of Slavic tribes moved into the Balkans... and--of course--the march of the Roman Empire overtook generally all of what is now "Italy."

The Roman province of "Raetia" was north of the Alps, even though the original "Raetians" were an ancient people who lived in a much larger area at one time. Although a clear lingo-ethnic divide was established between the three, each clearly influenced the other two. For example, in the Middle Ages when parts of the Friul were decimated by plagues, Slavic people were invited in to repopulate, and there is a clear Slavic influence in the Friulian dialect. Also in the Middle Ages, Cimbrians from Bavaria migrated into the Veneto, and many Cimbrian villages were still very linguistically and culturally distinct until the Fascist era. That particular brand of nationalism actually destroyed regional culture. One modern Camunian surname is "Mitterpergher," which is probably of Cimbrian origin, meaning "a person from the middle of the mountain"... and with the old-Bavarian spelling for "mountain person".... "pergher" rather than "berger."

During the Roman era, the Romans did most of the pushing, while the Germanic tribes took over that role in the early Middle Ages. Of course, the ancient territorial struggle between Germans and Slavs occurred over a very long time. In the first century, the Romans established a military base on the Danube River, in what is now Austria, called Carnuntum. This camp served as a trading center, as well as a political headquarters for further Roman expansion. This particular Celtic kingdom was called Noricum. Interestingly, in typical passive-aggressive Roman political style, they used a regional Celtic name.. which was apparently "Karnuntum" originally. I'm not absolutely certain, but it appears that a migration of northern Teutons--separate from the regional Celts--later invaded and destroyed Carnuntum.

The Teutonic destruction of this Roman expansion was glorified in Guido von List's late 19th century book 'Carnuntum'. This book has not been translated into English to my knowledge, so I can't vouch for it in any way... although I would like to read it. For some reason, List was fascinated by what is apparently the leftover opening gate to Carnuntum... after the invading Teutons demolished the walls, or perhaps this occurred over a longer period. That leftover ruin is now called "Heidentor," or evidently "Pagan's Gate" in German. Ironically, "Pagan's Gate" could be seen as a monument to both the Romans and the Germans. To List, I think it represented a regional Austrian symbol of the glory of past victory. Also, there were many old legends surrounding the ruin. In List's day, historians and archeologists didn't know anything about ancient German-Celts. It actually got it's name in the Middle Ages because it was once thought to have been constructed by ancient pagans. Austria is now reconstructing Carnuntum if you would like to look that up.

Flag of Lombardy-Venetia

Venus of Willendorf is a 27,000 to 32,000 year old artifact discovered in Austria. This little statue was carved from limestone not native to the area, and I believe was part of a much larger proto-European archetypical symbol of the "mother goddess." Also significant is its age, which would make it a counterpart to the "horned god." Because there are so many regional names for this goddess, which I think are linked back to the last glacial movement, I refer to her as "the Almother"... the proto-European equivalent to "the Alfather" Odin within old Teutonic culture. Among other things, the Almother was a fertility goddess in those early days. As strange as this may sound, there is ample evidence that the Roman goddess Diana of the Carnuntum era, and Venus of Willendorf, have a common origin going back to the last Ice Age. The Almother in the Italian peninsula, of course, going through many more manifestations over time. However, when half of Europe was covered under a massive continental ice sheet, the local manifestations of the mother goddess and the horned god would have been very likely of the same origin.

As far as the later colonial aggression of the Habsburgs... I mean lets face it, this was basically a soft dictatorship in which the average citizen of Austria-Hungary was not really responsible for national/monarchial policy anymore than a Roman citizen was responsible for Roman imperialism. The Austrian soldiers stationed in Lombardy-Venetia could, at times, be brutal... but probably not any more brutal than other occupations. It could be said with certainty that during pre-Roman times---which would have been pre-Teutonic and pre-Slavic times as well---this tri-cultural region would have been largely of the same people. Nobody there spoke Italian, German, or Slavic back then. Three very aggressive peoples came later and staked their territorial claim, and consequently the past etho-cultural dynamic was forgotten.

.