"So, since I am not a "nazi" I began to use another term, in the late 90ies. I did it not just to avoid confusion, but also to find a term more suitable and accurate than the other terms I had used. This new term was odalism, from Norse óðal ("homeland", "allodium", "allodial law", "nobility", "noble", "inherited goods", "fatherland", "land property", "distinguished family", "distinguished", "splendid", "kin" and "the nation"). This term replaces everything positive about all the other -isms I have ever used, and in it lies Paganism, traditional nationalism, racialism and environmentalism. It is not only a more accurate but also a more inclusive term that can be used by all Europeans (and others too for that sake). Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it is not a term tainted by history. If we have a positive relationship to our homeland, to our blood, to our race, to our religion and to our culture we will not destroy any of this with modern "civilization" (id est capitalism, materialism, Judeo-Christianity, pollution, urbanization, race mixing, Americanization, socialism, globalization, et cetera). The "nazi ghost" has scared millions of Europeans from caring about their blood and homeland for sixty years now, and it is about time we banish this ghost and again start to think and care about the things that (whether we like it or not) are important to us."
Varg Vikernes
(July 2005)
www.burzum.org/eng/librar...ory07.shtml
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varg_Vikernes
First of all I would like to mention how disturbing the above quote is to me... But I would like to mention why it is that I thought it important to post it...
As in many ideologies the fascism is hard to see...
I have lots of friends who are into METAL, lots of black metal and, Norse inspired metal is becoming popular in the PNW and local cascadian black metal bands with heavy pagan undertones are becoming very popular, some focusing on bioregional concepts as well as pagan roots, maybe its the cloudy weather... its like Fenris has still eaten the sun here. A fascinating aspect of the metal culture is the embrace of paganism, and traditional norse roots. There is a very hard core rejection of judeo-christian spirituality, and a violent one at that some times. This rejection has even moved into European movements towards radical race based bioregional paganism. Ancestral and tribal in nature working the same father land like values of the Germanic people of world war too. The notion is reject that which is not of the father land. We are the father land, those that are not the father land are not our people, they are not human, their ways, and traditions do not belong on our land, nor do they. The identification and association of race, land and heritage, along with politics, and spirituality is not an old notion, it is still prevalent in MANY cultures, and many traditions, including native American sentiments. This relationship of race with bioregionalism and spirituality can be a dangerous one. Rights to land, rights to traditions and much more can be utilized to alienate others and to create societies of exclusivity. Depth psychologists such as Thomas Moore have dubbed this relational dynamic over the years Tribalism, and have equated it to a sort of alienating sort of practice which has seeds in nationalism, racism, religiosity, and ethnocentrism. Ive not always agreed with him on this note... however with the above quote from norse black metal musician and convicted murderer Varg Vikernes ( one of the original church burners) we see signs of what he is saying quite strongly. We see it in Norse pagan hate crimes in Europe. The Mentioning of Race Hygiene and Eugenics among "Odinists"...is another such example as is the notion of Odalism in the above quote.
These are ways of relating... and I would not say healthy ones at all.
I would never hope to see Bioregional animism, or paganism adopted by such notions or racial purity and entitlement. In fact I think that Bioregional animism as we know it and paganism is in direct opposition to such ways of relating, in that BRA creates a understanding that we are all the land we live upon regardless of race. Our bodies are all composed of the place we live within,and BRA encourages a full awareness and identity of that fact... but not in a socio-political format but a transpersonal/ecopsychological stand point. When we are in full awareness of our self as place we see others in the same light. We see others in our land as part of that ecological self we share with one another.
But what does this say of race and identity and place? Race from what my old anthropology teacher used to drive into our skulls is a political perspective and has no other foundation in reality. Given enough time people adapt to the ecology of the life place, it is the politics of culture and ethnicity that we confuse with these adaptions. What does this mean to the concepts of traditional lands? what does this do to the concepts of ancestral heritage and entitlement to place? These are highly complex issues, but they are political in nature and it is important to understand that. It is also important to recognize that regardless of these politics the reality of the matter is... we are the life place, despite, or nationality, despite our ethnicity, despite our politics, and ancestral heritage, those who live within the life place for 7 years are that place, every cell of their body is that land we stand upon the the sky we fill each cell with. This is the reality... we share this one body and self we call the life place, the bioregion. The politics that ignore that fact are aberrations.
Yet what about celebrating our diversity, our uniqueness, our differences? Bioregional animism and paganism does not seek to homogenize culture and do away with concepts of race? No not at all! We wish to celebrate it from point of view of difference not being a force of separation, but instead we recognize that like all of the unique other than human persons of place we are one. We are land, and sky, starting first and for most in our life place... and moving on from there to the whole of creation, this includes all peoples. Though not all peoples will get along peacefully all the time, the cat people and the dog people are excellent examples of this, it is something to strive for.
It is my hope that I have been able to share these ideas in such a way that does not inspire bioregional cultures of exclusivity, racism, nationalism and religiosity, but the opposite.My hope is that as Cascadian black metal spreads, the concepts of bioregional idenity and spirituality within examples such at Burzum can be seen as the ecofacism they are,and that concepts of Odalism do not become prevalent and preached within the subculture but can be identified as what to avoid within these emerging bioregional counter/sub cultures.
Posts
16 comments:
a response from Paolo Nugent posted by me by request...
"i tried posting this comment to your most recent post on the band Burzum and Varg Vikernes, but the page wouldn't let me submit the comment because of some HTML i used or something.... argh! this internet stuff confuses me! maybe you could post it for me?
and thanks for your writing. you have no idea how extremely inspirational it's been to me!
i wear a Burzum patch on my backpack, but i don't at all identify with Vargs politics. i think Aaron Weaver from the amazing Cascadian black metal band Wolves in the Throne Room puts it nicely in the interview he did with Heathen Harvest:
"Well, I think black metal really is the most important music of our time right now. It really does speak to something so deep and so true and so pressing that you cannot help but be entranced by it. And to me, the reason black metal is important is that it’s an uncompromising call to destroy the modern world. And not just by burning down a church, or by smashing a window or whatever, but to destroy it in a spiritual apocalypse. So it has more to do with destroying the worldview of modernity, destroying the way that it makes you think and the way it makes you perceive the world, and the way that it affects your spiritual being. Black metal expresses in such a clear way to me this ancient, primal, transcendent spirit that I think is lurking just below the surface of all human beings, a kind of spiritual undercurrent to our world and our universe, and I think that modern people are deaf to that.
part I...
Part 2 by Paolo
I think that’s why black metal has become such a worldwide phenomenon, because people crave that connection to that kind of transcendent energy, and I think maybe in the 60s or 70s, people might have touched that through whatever they were into back then, through psychedelic rock music, or through living in communes and the back-to-the-land movement, but man, the hippies failed, you know? And I think there’s this desperate call coming from the universe, or coming from the collective unconscious of humanity, if you will, and black metal is a manifestation of that. So that’s the connection we make between black metal and our ecological concerns, and the questions we have about civilization. It feels like a perfectly natural and necessary connection to make.
HH: The thing is, when you start talking about the callings of the ancient primordial spirit, it’s quite a short step from there to some right-wing ideologies, isn’t it? I know that you’re from Olympia, Washington, which, a few years back at least, had a reputation as a stronghold of political correctness and strident left-wing activism. Did you encounter a lot of resistance to the idea of using black metal to promote progressive environmental themes, given that BM is more often associated with reactionary, right-wing attitudes?
AW: Definitely not. No way. In Europe, absolutely – we’ve gotten into big trouble. We’ve had shows cancelled, we’ve had protests, which just blows my mind. I have a lot to say about this, so I’ll try to say it all in order. You know, back home, every crusty punk wears a Burzum patch, and there’s just no conflict in that, there’s no thinking twice about it.
HH: That seems kind of contradictory to me.
AW: Yes, it does, because in Europe, the history is still so fresh, and it’s still such an issue, that it’s on everyone’s minds all the time, the echoes of World War II and the spectre of some sort of new fascist right-wing movement. But because we’re Americans, six or seven thousand miles away, and we live in this very kind of almost hermetically sealed community, we’re able to look beyond the obvious and surface political viewpoints of Varg Vikernes or whoever. What we’re more interested is this underlying sort of spirit, which I don’t think the actual musician has much to do with. I think that those [Norwegian] black metal bands were just fucked-up kids on speed. They were the same kind of people who, given different circumstances, would have been into GG Allin, if they’d lived in New York in the 80s. The thing that we’re interested in is some sort of ephemeral spirit that I think they were unknowing or unwitting conduits for. I think that all really great bands, especially bands with members who are 17 or 18 years old, they’re following the orders of the universe. And because in America, we’re so far removed from World War II, culturally and historically, we’re able to see that much more easily than Europeans are. So that’s the first thing I’ll say.
The second thing is that WITTR was protested in Germany as a neo-Nazi band. We had shows cancelled, crusty punks were angry, it was quite a big deal, and it came as an absolutely insane shock to me, because I think we’re the only band who works within this genre who are explicitly, not exactly a left-wing band, because I don’t think we have any political agenda at all, but you know, in interviews, I must have said 50 times that I hate the idea of racism, I hate the idea of a fascist, totalitarian, militaristic state, I hate the right wing. I just do not like the right wing. I have absolutely nothing to do with it philosophically or spiritually, and that goes for the American right wing, and what I perceive to be the right wing in Europe, and the right wing throughout history. I don’t have much interest in the left wing either, but it was just insane to be branded as a fascist band."
source: http://www.heathenharvest.com/article.php?story=20090209095537452
again, thanks for your blog. your writing is wonderful.
-Paolo
Part 2
I think that’s why black metal has become such a worldwide phenomenon, because people crave that connection to that kind of transcendent energy, and I think maybe in the 60s or 70s, people might have touched that through whatever they were into back then, through psychedelic rock music, or through living in communes and the back-to-the-land movement, but man, the hippies failed, you know? And I think there’s this desperate call coming from the universe, or coming from the collective unconscious of humanity, if you will, and black metal is a manifestation of that. So that’s the connection we make between black metal and our ecological concerns, and the questions we have about civilization. It feels like a perfectly natural and necessary connection to make.
HH: The thing is, when you start talking about the callings of the ancient primordial spirit, it’s quite a short step from there to some right-wing ideologies, isn’t it? I know that you’re from Olympia, Washington, which, a few years back at least, had a reputation as a stronghold of political correctness and strident left-wing activism. Did you encounter a lot of resistance to the idea of using black metal to promote progressive environmental themes, given that BM is more often associated with reactionary, right-wing attitudes?
Part three...
AW: Definitely not. No way. In Europe, absolutely – we’ve gotten into big trouble. We’ve had shows cancelled, we’ve had protests, which just blows my mind. I have a lot to say about this, so I’ll try to say it all in order. You know, back home, every crusty punk wears a Burzum patch, and there’s just no conflict in that, there’s no thinking twice about it.
HH: That seems kind of contradictory to me.
AW: Yes, it does, because in Europe, the history is still so fresh, and it’s still such an issue, that it’s on everyone’s minds all the time, the echoes of World War II and the spectre of some sort of new fascist right-wing movement. But because we’re Americans, six or seven thousand miles away, and we live in this very kind of almost hermetically sealed community, we’re able to look beyond the obvious and surface political viewpoints of Varg Vikernes or whoever. What we’re more interested is this underlying sort of spirit, which I don’t think the actual musician has much to do with. I think that those [Norwegian] black metal bands were just fucked-up kids on speed. They were the same kind of people who, given different circumstances, would have been into GG Allin, if they’d lived in New York in the 80s. The thing that we’re interested in is some sort of ephemeral spirit that I think they were unknowing or unwitting conduits for. I think that all really great bands, especially bands with members who are 17 or 18 years old, they’re following the orders of the universe. And because in America, we’re so far removed from World War II, culturally and historically, we’re able to see that much more easily than Europeans are. So that’s the first thing I’ll say.
The second thing is that WITTR was protested in Germany as a neo-Nazi band. We had shows cancelled, crusty punks were angry, it was quite a big deal, and it came as an absolutely insane shock to me, because I think we’re the only band who works within this genre who are explicitly, not exactly a left-wing band, because I don’t think we have any political agenda at all, but you know, in interviews, I must have said 50 times that I hate the idea of racism, I hate the idea of a fascist, totalitarian, militaristic state, I hate the right wing. I just do not like the right wing. I have absolutely nothing to do with it philosophically or spiritually, and that goes for the American right wing, and what I perceive to be the right wing in Europe, and the right wing throughout history. I don’t have much interest in the left wing either, but it was just insane to be branded as a fascist band."
source: http://www.heathenharvest.com/article.php?story=20090209095537452
again, thanks for your blog. your writing is wonderful.
-Paolo
Part three...
AW: Definitely not. No way. In Europe, absolutely – we’ve gotten into big trouble. We’ve had shows cancelled, we’ve had protests, which just blows my mind. I have a lot to say about this, so I’ll try to say it all in order. You know, back home, every crusty punk wears a Burzum patch, and there’s just no conflict in that, there’s no thinking twice about it.
Part Four...
HH: That seems kind of contradictory to me.
AW: Yes, it does, because in Europe, the history is still so fresh, and it’s still such an issue, that it’s on everyone’s minds all the time, the echoes of World War II and the spectre of some sort of new fascist right-wing movement. But because we’re Americans, six or seven thousand miles away, and we live in this very kind of almost hermetically sealed community, we’re able to look beyond the obvious and surface political viewpoints of Varg Vikernes or whoever. What we’re more interested is this underlying sort of spirit, which I don’t think the actual musician has much to do with. I think that those [Norwegian] black metal bands were just fucked-up kids on speed. They were the same kind of people who, given different circumstances, would have been into GG Allin, if they’d lived in New York in the 80s. The thing that we’re interested in is some sort of ephemeral spirit that I think they were unknowing or unwitting conduits for. I think that all really great bands, especially bands with members who are 17 or 18 years old, they’re following the orders of the universe. And because in America, we’re so far removed from World War II, culturally and historically, we’re able to see that much more easily than Europeans are. So that’s the first thing I’ll say.
The second thing is that WITTR was protested in Germany as a neo-Nazi band. We had shows cancelled, crusty punks were angry, it was quite a big deal, and it came as an absolutely insane shock to me, because I think we’re the only band who works within this genre who are explicitly, not exactly a left-wing band, because I don’t think we have any political agenda at all, but you know, in interviews, I must have said 50 times that I hate the idea of racism, I hate the idea of a fascist, totalitarian, militaristic state, I hate the right wing. I just do not like the right wing. I have absolutely nothing to do with it philosophically or spiritually, and that goes for the American right wing, and what I perceive to be the right wing in Europe, and the right wing throughout history. I don’t have much interest in the left wing either, but it was just insane to be branded as a fascist band."
source: http://www.heathenharvest.com/article.php?story=20090209095537452
again, thanks for your blog. your writing is wonderful.
-Paolo
HH: That seems kind of contradictory to me.
AW: Yes, it does, because in Europe, the history is still so fresh, and it’s still such an issue, that it’s on everyone’s minds all the time, the echoes of World War II and the spectre of some sort of new fascist right-wing movement. But because we’re Americans, six or seven thousand miles away, and we live in this very kind of almost hermetically sealed community, we’re able to look beyond the obvious and surface political viewpoints of Varg Vikernes or whoever. What we’re more interested is this underlying sort of spirit, which I don’t think the actual musician has much to do with. I think that those [Norwegian] black metal bands were just fucked-up kids on speed. They were the same kind of people who, given different circumstances, would have been into GG Allin, if they’d lived in New York in the 80s. The thing that we’re interested in is some sort of ephemeral spirit that I think they were unknowing or unwitting conduits for. I think that all really great bands, especially bands with members who are 17 or 18 years old, they’re following the orders of the universe. And because in America, we’re so far removed from World War II, culturally and historically, we’re able to see that much more easily than Europeans are. So that’s the first thing I’ll say.
Part5
The second thing is that WITTR was protested in Germany as a neo-Nazi band. We had shows cancelled, crusty punks were angry, it was quite a big deal, and it came as an absolutely insane shock to me, because I think we’re the only band who works within this genre who are explicitly, not exactly a left-wing band, because I don’t think we have any political agenda at all, but you know, in interviews, I must have said 50 times that I hate the idea of racism, I hate the idea of a fascist, totalitarian, militaristic state, I hate the right wing. I just do not like the right wing. I have absolutely nothing to do with it philosophically or spiritually, and that goes for the American right wing, and what I perceive to be the right wing in Europe, and the right wing throughout history. I don’t have much interest in the left wing either, but it was just insane to be branded as a fascist band."
source: http://www.heathenharvest.com/article.php?story=20090209095537452
again, thanks for your blog. your writing is wonderful.
-Paolo
My personal response...
Thanks man.
I live in Oly... I know a lot of the people in this community. Ive been part of the spiritual community hear for a very long time, and from what I am seeing there is a disconnect that is still occuring between relating to land as our mutual source in the scene here. Some are trying to make that connection really strongly. I ADMIRE THAT! But there is still a socialized disconnect thats part of the art aspect of the subculture. Perhaps I see it because Ive worked with many indigenous cultures, perhaps its just being so close to it for so many years and being a healer for people in this culture. But I see it so close to people here. I see people really starting to connect to the land, and to these gray skys and seeing themselves in the devils club and fern as the skokomish did before Europeans came here. I see the land reaching up through some of the people and I see it moving them. What i really was hoping in this article was to try to shed some of the social concepts backing the sub culture revoling around the art form of the black metal here in cascadia, and encourage these people to look past the sub cult social perspectives being traded around in the scenes, encouraging some seriously authentic spiritual growth in how people relate to self and land. I grew up in this crusty scene, my freinds grew up with WINTR and all those cats running around oly... We have to lay down the culture, the manufactured ideas and be truly co-creative. Its a matter of humility honestly. To allow the land and sky above us to move us literally move our bodies and minds, and to find identity in that and not these ideas that come from our attempt to own what we are, the ego that comes in the act of creation instead of co-creation. I always have scene and ALWAYS will see that the crusty folk ARE the strongest connection to spirit here in cascadia., why I do not know. Perhaps it is the climate, the will it takes to feel at peace here, the perserverance, maybe just the damn mood. But there is a connection that the norse, or northern peoples had with place that cascadians have hear, a mutuality. My fear is that the politics and lack of co-creation with land that Varg speaks of will engage people who are finding themselves in the land and the music that is speaking to them through cascadian black metal. I am already seeing so much disconnect, so much over indulgence in the darkness that people forget that the raven carries the sun in its beak here, that its the light that casts shadows, that the dark green of the trees is that dark so it can absorb as much light as possible. There is a lack of clarity and I see it because there are few role models for them to follow. We are creating something new, a new relationship with the life place. But we are fools if we think that there is a "I" to do so, the land shapes us. It always has every face and nose is shaped by the land and sky, not ideas, not politics or philosophy or art. it is shaped by relationship, with being land and sky. The art we make, the culture we make must be like the skokomish river,it must flow through us, it must shape our river sides and curves forever changing but always the river. It is a mutalistic co-creation, if it is not we might as well channel these rivers of our mutual life force in concrete as they do in LA. the river must run wild and shape us and the work we do here with out our Egos getting in the way. I see some doing this, and its amazing. But few people are even drawn to that work now...this has to change or we are going to make the same mistakes of Vikernes, and we cant afford that right now.
I am really grateful that you brought this up and connected here.
Part one...
Thanks man.
I live in Oly... I know a lot of the people in this community. Ive been part of the spiritual community hear for a very long time, and from what I am seeing there is a disconnect that is still occuring between relating to land as our mutual source in the scene here. Some are trying to make that connection really strongly. I ADMIRE THAT! But there is still a socialized disconnect thats part of the art aspect of the subculture. Perhaps I see it because Ive worked with many indigenous cultures, perhaps its just being so close to it for so many years and being a healer for people in this culture. But I see it so close to people here. I see people really starting to connect to the land, and to these gray skys and seeing themselves in the devils club and fern as the skokomish did before Europeans came here. I see the land reaching up through some of the people and I see it moving them. What i really was hoping in this article was to try to shed some of the social concepts backing the sub culture revoling around the art form of the black metal here in cascadia, and encourage these people to look past the sub cult social perspectives being traded around in the scenes, encouraging some seriously authentic spiritual growth in how people relate to self and land. I grew up in this crusty scene, my freinds grew up with WINTR and all those cats running around oly... We have to lay down the culture, the manufactured ideas and be truly co-creative. Its a matter of humility honestly. To allow the land and sky above us to move us literally move our bodies and minds, and to find identity in that and not these ideas that come from our attempt to own what we are, the ego that comes in the act of creation instead of co-creation. I always have scene and ALWAYS will see that the crusty folk ARE the strongest connection to spirit here in cascadia., why I do not know. Perhaps it is the climate, the will it takes to feel at peace here, the perserverance, maybe just the damn mood. But there is a connection that the norse, or northern peoples had with place that cascadians have hear, a mutuality. My fear is that the politics and lack of co-creation with land that Varg speaks of will engage people who are finding themselves in the land and the music that is speaking to them through cascadian black metal.
Part one...
Thanks man.
I live in Oly... I know a lot of the people in this community. Ive been part of the spiritual community hear for a very long time, and from what I am seeing there is a disconnect that is still occuring between relating to land as our mutual source in the scene here. Some are trying to make that connection really strongly. I ADMIRE THAT! But there is still a socialized disconnect thats part of the art aspect of the subculture. Perhaps I see it because Ive worked with many indigenous cultures, perhaps its just being so close to it for so many years and being a healer for people in this culture. But I see it so close to people here. I see people really starting to connect to the land, and to these gray skys and seeing themselves in the devils club and fern as the skokomish did before Europeans came here. I see the land reaching up through some of the people and I see it moving them. What i really was hoping in this article was to try to shed some of the social concepts backing the sub culture revoling around the art form of the black metal here in cascadia, and encourage these people to look past the sub cult social perspectives being traded around in the scenes, encouraging some seriously authentic spiritual growth in how people relate to self and land. I grew up in this crusty scene, my freinds grew up with WINTR and all those cats running around oly...
Part 2...
We have to lay down the culture, the manufactured ideas and be truly co-creative. Its a matter of humility honestly. To allow the land and sky above us to move us literally move our bodies and minds, and to find identity in that and not these ideas that come from our attempt to own what we are, the ego that comes in the act of creation instead of co-creation. I always have scene and ALWAYS will see that the crusty folk ARE the strongest connection to spirit here in cascadia., why I do not know. Perhaps it is the climate, the will it takes to feel at peace here, the perserverance, maybe just the damn mood. But there is a connection that the norse, or northern peoples had with place that cascadians have hear, a mutuality. My fear is that the politics and lack of co-creation with land that Varg speaks of will engage people who are finding themselves in the land and the music that is speaking to them through cascadian black metal.
Part three...
I am already seeing so much disconnect, so much over indulgence in the darkness that people forget that the raven carries the sun in its beak here, that its the light that casts shadows, that the dark green of the trees is that dark so it can absorb as much light as possible. There is a lack of clarity and I see it because there are few role models for them to follow. We are creating something new, a new relationship with the life place. But we are fools if we think that there is a "I" to do so, the land shapes us. It always has every face and nose is shaped by the land and sky, not ideas, not politics or philosophy or art. it is shaped by relationship, with being land and sky. The art we make, the culture we make must be like the skokomish river,it must flow through us, it must shape our river sides and curves forever changing but always the river. It is a mutalistic co-creation, if it is not we might as well channel these rivers of our mutual life force in concrete as they do in LA. the river must run wild and shape us and the work we do here with out our Egos getting in the way. I see some doing this, and its amazing. But few people are even drawn to that work now...this has to change or we are going to make the same mistakes of Vikernes, and we cant afford that right now.
I am really greatful that you brought this up and connected here.
I also want to say how good it is to know that there is an awareness of this in the music scene. That WINTR can communicate this, and articulate what they have is a very good sign. artists are leaders... hesitant as they maybe to acknowledge that. But the piper and drummer always led the charge.
So what is migratory living then, like birds? I mean if I were to travel from here to there, from glen to vale, ,, etc, how come all places are not meaningful for me? I am saying they would be. That the whole planet should be felt like that, not HAVING to just see a particular place like that. you CAN do, but embracing other alternatives of living
You are the place where you live. I don't live every where do you. Perhaps in a certain intangible way yes, but my daily awareness is very much focused on my current locality. If you are mobile and migratory, then you belong to many bioregions for brief times, which is a very different relationship dynamic with that which you are..
Your questions have been answered quite a bit on the blog and on the tribes forum.
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