EVOLUTION OF ESOTERIC ODINISM: --A look into the conspiratorial manipulations of a myth-- By Nathaniel Leagael We are all familiar with the mythology of Odinism. The "All Father" with his mighty Runespear, Thor with his hammer Mjolnir, and some of the stories related to us by Richard Wagner. But it is not with the stories that I am interested in, as much as it is in the origins of the man and his myth. Who was Odin? Where did he come from? How did this once very real historical figure become the basis for one of the most famous mythologies in the world? As a result of my search to find answers to these questions, I discovered a very disturbing link between the myth and the manipulators. In the first part of this entry I will trace the origins of Odin and in the second I will give a brief account of the use of his myth to further the agenda of our enemy. The Origin of Odin--- In a caption under an illustration of Odin from Manly P. Hall's massive book, An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic and Rosicrucian Philosophy, (opposite p.XXXIII) we learn of the meaning of the word 'Odin': "The etymology of the word Odin, shows its various forms as Woden, Wodan, Wotan, Wuotan, and Odinn. These words are now generally defined as meaning `wood' or 'wind'." Mr. Hall goes on to quote Godfrey Higgins: "'Thus it appears that Woden, the Northern God, is simply the Talmulic method of pronouncing Buddha. (Sir William Jones also believed that Buddha was Woden.) That Woden came from the North, not the South, of India cannot be doubted....' It is peculiarly significant that Woden should be linked through his name with the ancient source of Aryan culture in Northern India. Higgins further says: 'In the Syriac tongue Odin is Adonis; but the O, in Syriac or Pushto, (which we have found is the same as Tamul) was the emphatic article THE. Then Odin would be the Dn, Dun or Don; but Don, we have found, meant wisdom or knowledge. Thus we come again to the tree of knowledge or of the garden of knowledge, or garden of Adonis.' As Woden therefore means both 'wood' and 'wisdom,' it does not require a great stretch of the imagination to see in this symbolic name an allusion to the tree of knowledge growing in O-DON (thE-DON, or Eden), the garden of wisdom." Interesting to note that Frederick Haberman (Tracing Our Ancestors) in the second chapter of his book places the garden of Eden just north of India, near the Pamir plateau, in Central Asia. The Garden of Eden was of course the birth place of the Adamic people. Later on the Adamites would be known to history as the Israelites. This seemed like a weak link between Identity and Odinism at first, but I decided to look into it a bit further. In his Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright, Mr. Allen wrote that Odin was descended from King David. Mr. Haberman confirmed that Odin was descended from the Israelites. Mr. Haberman wrote: "The English, the German, the Dutch, and the Scandinavian languages are all branches of one central stem, the ancient Gothic, the early symbols of which were the Runes and Futhorks, which in turn are derived from the Aryan-Phoenician, as Prof. Waddell has shown and as any study of the history of the alphabet will reveal....A persual of the Eddas, a collection of ancient Sagas of the Goths, collected by Snorri Sturluson in the twelfth century tells us how Odin led the Asa, who called themselves a Divine race, from the shores of the Black Sea through Russia into southern Scandinavia, where they became the aristocracy (pp.132-3)." Odin, as we have seen, originated in the East and travelled westward, using the same route apparently, as many of the Israelites did. Haberman continues: "The Hebrew-Phoenician inscriptions found in the Crimea and vicinity indicate that the Saki, who left those inscriptions there, were not a heathen people and were conscious of their Israelitish descent, while on the other hand the mythology of the Goths shows that they were pagans. The enigma thus presented can only be explained by the fact that most of the Gothic Sagas center around Odin, who, although made a deity in later years, was nevertheless a man and leader of the Aesir, Asen, Asa, or Asia men, whose capital was at Asgard in Asaheim....Odin's actual existence was in the last half of the third century A.D....As Odin is the central figure of Germanic mythology, it appears, therefore, that the Odin saga itself cannot be much older than the fifth century A.D." It would appear then, that Odin was descended from the Israelites. I didn't see the controversy in that, but then I noticed the "disturbing link" between Odinism and the Conspiracy.... Odinism and the Conspiracy--- Recently I read a chapter from Secret and Suppressed:Banned Ideas and Hidden History, edited by Jim Keith. The Chapter heading was called 'Secrets From The Vatican Library.' In order to give justification for my use of the supplement, I feel it necessary to quote, in part, Mr. Keith's introduction to it: "The following document was anonymously sent to me during this book's preparation. It purports to be a secret history of Western civilization gleaned from secret documents in the Vatican library by a member of the Franciscan order. The inked imprint of a Vatican library entrance chit affixed to the original document and duplicated at the end of the article is a strong indication that the author does have access to Vatican sources...." The importance of this article will be seen as I quote certain passages that pertain to our subject. To start off, the Franciscan viewed the struggle for world domination as that between Northern Europe, which he called the "Teutonic/Zionist clique," and Southern Europe (later to be the Vatican), all of which began after the fall of the Roman Empire. In the North, "the pagan tribes of Europe split into several factions, some accepting the Church as at least their titular head (that is, submitting to the disciplines of Christianity and incorporating the Faith into the Mythos of their tribes), some choosing to oppose the church under any means fair and foul, and some vacillating between the two poles, though even these did ultimately choose one tack or the other. To simplify, the southern tribes formed a generally pro- Church clique, which expanded to include the Franks (though this primarily due to rivalry with their fellow Germanics to the north, who led the opposing camp); and those who opposed, whether by outright force or subterfuge, the Church-and hoped to either destroy or assimilate the power wielded by Rome. The tribes of modern England were of the third type, but their neighbors the Gaels and Celts of Eire were among the most steadfast supporters of the Church, even after the forcible dissolution of their own unique and beautiful Celtic Communion by the English, in AD 664, who imposed a more Roman variety, more in accordance with the Rite as practiced in England." Here we learn that the base of operations for the northern clique, long before Cromwell, was in what would become England. It is important for me to dedicate large portions of the body of this work to quotes from the Franciscan's document, in order to show the "disturbing link" that I mentioned earlier, that being the connection between Odinism and what will from here on be referred to as either the "Northern Clique," or the "Teutonic/Zionist Clique." In 826 AD, the northern clique took its first action against the south by creating an alignment with anti-Roman pirate Muslims who set up a base at Crete and were therefore expelled from Omayyid, Spain. The war began. "The Roman/Etruscan clique, in reaction to this, used their influence with the Church to establish the Venetian Order of St. Marc, which received full Papal recognition just five years after the establishment of the base at Crete. Skirmishes at sea would continue through the Crusades, to the early sixteenth century. Around the year 850, a new group of players entered the picture: [Khazars] began settling in Germany, under the direction of a very secretive Zionist Elite, who forged ties with the Germanic clique, especially the Prussians and Bavarians. While racially different, they had in common a form of religion; the Zionists and the north Germans both practiced ritual sacrifice of humans. It must be understood that the Jewish Elite never expressed the actual practices of beliefs of the Jewish commoners under them; they were an Elite, who considered their own people far beneath them, and fit only for use as fodder, which autocratic mode appealed to the north Germans, being but a minor variation of their own most ancient practices." Just what were these practices? The Mysteries of the northern clique were based on the historical figure of Odin. Eventually, the man was transformed into the myth for two reasons: 1. The northern clique needed a religion to compete with Christianity and, 2. They needed a basis for a secret society that could combat Rome. Mr. Hall comments on these 'Mysteries': "The date of the Odinic Mysteries is uncertain....Robert Macoy, 33 degree, gives the following description of their origin: 'It appears from the northern chronicles that in the first century of the Christian Era, Sigge, the chief of the Aser, an Asiatic tribe, emigrated from the Caspian sea and the Caucasus into northern Europe. He directed his course northwesterly from the Black sea to Russia, over which, according to tradition, he placed one of his sons as a ruler, as he is said to have done over the Saxons and the Franks....'(General History of Freemasonry.) After his death, the historical Odin was apotheosized, his identity being merged into that of the mythological Odin, god of wisdom, whose cult he had promulgated. Odinism then supplanted the worship of Thor, the thunderer, the supreme deity of the ancient Scandinavian pantheon....Like many other pagan cults, the Odinic Mysteries, as an institution, were destroyed by Christianity, but the underlying cause of their fall was the corruption of the priesthood (XXVIII)." Actually, the corruption of the priesthood was the beginning of the Odinic Rites. The corrupt priests, called the twelve Drottars, were established by the northern clique to recruit the Odinists into their secret order. The Drottars claimed to be "illumined," or carriers of the light of wisdom, and if one wanted to become illumined, he must join their order. Mr. Hall continues: "The Odinic Mysteries were given in underground crypts or caves, the chambers, nine in number, representing the Nine Worlds of the Mysteries. The candidate seeking admission was assigned the task of raising Balder from the dead. Although he did not realize it, he himself played the part of Balder [Odinic order's version of the Masonic Hiram/De Molay ritual?]. He called himself a wanderer; the caverns through which he passed were symbolic of the worlds and spheres of Nature. The priests who initiated him were emblematic of the sun, the moon, and the stars. The three supreme initiators-the Sublime, the Equal to the Sublime, and the Highest-were analogous to the Worshipful Master and the Junior and Senior Wardens of a Masonic lodge. "After wandering for hours through the intricate passageways, the candidate was ushered into the presence of a statue of Balder the Beautiful, the prototype of all initiates into the Mysteries. This figure stood in the center of a great apartment roofed with shields. In the midst of the chamber stood a plant with seven blossoms, emblematic of the planets. In this room, which symbolized the house of the Aesir, or Wisdom, the neophyte took his oath of secrecy and piety upon the naked blade of a sword. He drank the sanctified mead from a bowl made of a human skull and, having passed successfully through all the tortures and trials designed to divert him from the course of wisdom, he was finally permitted to unveil the mystery of Odin-the personification of wisdom. He was presented, in the name of Balder, with the sacred ring of the order; he was hailed as a man reborn; and it was said of him that he had died and had been raised again without passing through the gates of death." The use of the symbol of Balder is significant. Balder was the son of Odin who was innocent of any wrong doing. He was a peaceful man, a holy man, the personification of the North. He was murdered by Loki, who caused the god of fate to shoot Balder with a mistletoe arrow. Loki was the personification of the Franks, who were their brothers and yet were traitors. The Franks aligned themselves with the southern clique, and therefore could not be trusted. Alberich, the evil antagonist of Odinism who dwelt beneath the earth, symbolized Southern Europe. The nine worlds in Odinism, Asgard, Alfheim, Midgard, Svartalfa-heim, Hel-heim, Niflheim, Muspellsheim, Jotunheim and Vanaheim, when originally arranged geometrically, formed the union-jack, the prime symbol of the northern clique. Haberman wrote that "Odin's people, the 'Mighty Asa," considered themselves to be a Divine race. Prof. Waddell in his Aryan Origin states that in the Gothic Runes the letter A is pronounced asa or ace, meaning 'the one,' or 'the first one.'....our A is derived from the Phoenician letter Aleph (bull), which originally lay on its side...representing the horns of a bull..." The Goths also wore the horns of bulls on their helmets. Could this be the origin of the northern clique's nickname, John Bull? Odinism was transformed from a myth to a cult by the Teutonic/Zionist clique. In an advertisement page in Ed Fitch's The Rites of Odin, one can still see the perverse philosophy in use today. The ad is for the well known "Western Mysticism" publisher, Llewellyn Publications. I feel that this ad is very revealing so I shall quote it in part: "Teutonic magick is as vast as the northern sky and as deep as the shrouded northern mists. Many of the most powerful forms of magick in the West were developed to an early perfection by Teutonic magicians: Albertus Magnus, Agrippa, Paracelsus. Some, such as Faustus, were elevated to legends. Teutonic magick is multifaceted and it has its own innate traditions-those of the ancient Germanic peoples....In addition it has incorporated the general Western Tradition, which the Teutonic magicians received from southern Europe....The world of Teutonic magick is full of truly secret, and some sinister, corners as well. Many of these, like so much else that we believe to be sinister, are thus characterized simply because they are unknown and perhaps misunderstood. There are whole realms of Teutonic magick that have largely been kept secret until the latter part of this century. Llewellyn's Teutonic Magick Series is the first to explore this world in a systematic and authoritative way. It will reveal secrets of German rune magic, the obscure mysteries of Gothic Kabbalah, the magic of Faustus, and the deepest mysteries of the German occult orders such as the Rosicrucians, the Illuminati, the Fraternitas Saturni, and the dreaded FOGC-Lodge. The path of Teutonic magick is focused on the expansion of consciousness through a will to power and knowledge-the way opened for the Teutonic magician by the archetype Woden and followed by Faustus and most modern magicians." The Teutonic/Zionist clique also used the Nordicist philosophy to further their aims. Nordic Europe was already racially motivated against Southern Europe by the time of the expeditions of Leif Ericsson. The Teutonic/Zionists, seeking a way to further unify the pagans, Jews, and Christians who differed from Rome on sectarian issues, began introducing doctrines in their cults that called for the combined effort of these groups towards racial domination. This would seem to have been a great task, considering how racially different the Nordics and Jews were from each other, but the Teutonic/Zionist clique needed to accomplish such a feat in order to unify the independent Northern cliques. They did succeed, however, and their teaching has continued into modern times. To confirm this, I include the following excerpts taken from The New Age, 'The Official Organ of The Supreme Council 33 Degree A.& A. Scottish Rite of Freemasonry S.J. U.S.A.,' of September 1950, article entitled "God's Plan In America," by C. William Smith: "God's plan is dedicated to the unification of all races, religions and creeds. This plan, dedicated to the new order of things, is to make all things new-a new nation, a new race, a new civilization and a new religion, a non sectarian religion that has already been recognized and called the religion of 'The Great Light'....Just as Providence has chosen the Jewish race...so also Providence has chosen the Nordic race to unfold the 'New Age' of the world-a "Novus Ordo Seclorum." That 'Great Light,' or 'Illumination,' originated with the Odinic order. The same article claimed that even though an Odinist, Ericsson's mission was to spread the word of the Christian God. In doing so, all religions were claimed to be same, which resulted in a unified Northern Europe, something the southern clique couldn't even accomplish in Rome. The Teutonic/Zionists made it the mission of Nordic and Jew alike, to create the New World Order, the One World Government. And if Odinism should fail, they would have British Israelism to fall back on, which is another subject altogether. These examples are only a few of the many 'Mysteries' of the corrupted Odinic mythology, used to initiate the followers of Odinism into the northern clique's war for domination. Even though it seems that the Teutonic/Zionist clique has abandoned the use of Odinic cults, it also seems that all of their modern secret societies are the direct result of the Odinic orders. But back in the days of the Vikings, the cults were most certainly needed. Soon, any opposition to the Church would be led, openly or subversively, by Odinic initiates. The Franciscan goes on to explain how the northern clique sought to gain dominance over the known world and beyond: "The northern clique...made certain to have their own people in place in Rome, attached in whatever fashion to the Papal retinue. It was by the efforts of one of these agents that the northern clique acquired knowledge of the continents to the west, the Americas, which had been known to the upper echelons of the Church hierarchy since the last quarter of the First Century of the common era....With this information in hand, the northern clique entreated one Leif Ericsson, son of Eric the Red (a trusted Norse associate of the north European clique), to sail westward along a northern route, to ascertain the feasibility of taking these lands for themselves and using their wealth in an outright battle against the southern hegemony....When news of this expedition had filtered back to the southern clique, it caused more than a little consternation. Since the move had been covert, and the southerners desired to keep their own friends in place among the northern elite, plans were quietly laid to facilitate a successful southern effort in the event of overt action; stores were replenished, training of mercenaries upgraded, and to culminate, the Order of Knights Hospitallers of St. John-an order of warrior- monks/provisioners-was founded, in AD 1070." Leif Ericsson, of course, was an Odinist, an initiate just like his father, into the Odinic Cult. In fact, the Scottish Rite publication mentioned above clamed "It is easy to sense that Leif Ericsson was sent by the Guiding Hand of Providence to bring the Norse spirit of the 'All-Father' to the shores of the New World." So apparently the modern Masonic initiates recognize Leif Ericsson as someone who was on their side. As an initiate, Leif knew that he was there to examine the amount of wealth the new lands furnished, and he knew that the wealth had to be of the sorts that could be used to destroy the southern elite. It is interesting that following the Norse expedition, the warrior caste of Hospitallers should be formed. Odinism is known as the 'faith of warriors' and Leif was certainly a member of this warrior caste. In reaction to the growing threat and advances of the northern warrior caste, Rome created its own, thereby establishing the fact that Rome must have known about the secret Odinic Cult. The Odinic secret society had, as mentioned earlier, an alliance with Muslim mercenaries. The northern clique came to the rescue of the Muslims many times and the mercenaries agreed to help fight the northerner's war against the south. "...the southern clique had known for some time that the Muslim mercenaries who sacked their coasts were in the employ of the north, which by AD 1100 was being more and more dominated by the Prussian/Bavarian/Zionist clique. Nonetheless, a concordat of sorts was reached when Muslims not in European employ began taking advantage of the factional in-fighting, and it was to a relatively united Europe that Urban II promoted the First Crusade. It was at this time that the Order of Knights Templars was founded, much a duplication of the Order of Hospitallers, but less concerned with provisioning as with actual warfare." It is this temporary alliance against the Muslims who worked against both sides that is of great importance. When the alliance was formed, the northern clique found another use for their Odinic order...the Crusades. If they could keep control of the war against the Muslim anarchists, and at the same time come out with the upper hand as opposed to the Church, this alliance would be worthwhile after all. With this in mind, the northern clique quickly became the inspiration and majority of the Knights Templar. Later, this would become not only the basis of the Church's change of opinion about the Templars, but it would also become the basis of modern European Masonry. The Odinic order soon realized that if the Templar ruse failed, they would need another avenue for their continued subversion of the Church. That other avenue would be the nobles. "That both orders [Hospitallers and Templars] served as bankers to much of the European elite, both northern and southern cliques, led to struggles between the two groups, which were to have dire consequences at a later date. There were, as yet, some factions of the southern clique still true at heart to the precepts of the Faith, rather than the power thereof, and these factions saw their opportunity in the power struggle between the Welf Family and the Hohenstauffens, also called the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, respectively, beginning in AD 1125. With the victory of the northern-sympathizing Hohenstauffen clan, the balance of power began a slow but inexorable shift to the northern clique, becoming ever more heavily dominated by the North German/Zionist faction. The shift, however, was not immediately apparent to the southern clique, who found themselves receiving a rather rude awakening in AD 1154, when a northern candidate, one Nicholas Breakspear, became Pope Adrian IV; almost immediately he gave Ireland as a gift to his mentor, Henry II of England, which has resulted in nearly a millennium of domination of the only northern ally of the southern clique." This is one of the most important of my quotes from the Franciscan's document. First off, the northern-controlled Templars later became the inspiration for the Teutonic/Zionist banking system, for they dominated Europe through their usury. Funck Bretano in his Le Moyen Age (1922, p.386) wrote of the Templar's usury: "As the Templars had houses in all countries, they practiced the financial operations of the international banks of our times; they were acquainted with letters of change, orders payable at sight, they instituted dividends and annuities on deposited capital, advanced funds, lent on credit, controlled private accounts, undertook to raise taxes for the lay and ecclesiastical seigneurs." In other words, they economically dominated Europe and sought to force the members of the Church into debt. Nesta Webster in her Secret Societies, wrote concerning the financial matters of the Templars (pp.60-1): "Through their proficiency in these matters- acquired very possibly from the Jews...the Templars had become the 'international financiers' and 'international capitalists' of their day; had they not been suppressed, all the evils now denounced by Socialists as peculiar to the system they describe as 'Capitalism'- trusts, monopolies, and 'corners'-would in all probability have been inaugurated during the course of the fourteenth century in a far worse form than at the present day, since no legislation existed to protect the community at large....The Templars thus remain the only body of capitalists, with the exception of the Jews, to be not only pardoned for their riches but exalted as noble victims of prejudice and envy." Thus the Odinic order, under the guise of the holy Templars, became the inspiration for what most of us refer to as the most un-Godly, anti-Western system of control...Usury Banking. But the Franciscan also touched on another important topic, the battle between the House of Guelph and the House of Hohenstauffen. The Hohenstauffens are well known and hopefully need no introduction. The anonymous Franciscan correctly identified them as "northern-sympathizers," but apparently he did not realize that the Guelph family was probably even more so. The struggles between the families was always a northern-controlled conflict. Haberman states that "From the sons of Odin and Frea is descended Rurik, the founder of the Russian Empire in 840; the house of Wettin that has furnished the royal families of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Saxony, and Coburg-Gotha; and the house of Guelph, to which belong the houses of Hanover, Brunswick, Luneburgh, Mecklenburg, Bavaria, and a host of other German noble families (p.138)." The Guelphs were descendants of Odin and were most certainly northern-aligned. In fact, the Guelphs were the Rothschilds of the Odinic orders. Odinism was structured in such a way as to insure aristocracies and dynastic rule. This is easily observed when one studies the structure of Norse society, or the form of government set up by the House of Rurik. Unfortunately, I cannot give more examples of how Odinism was manipulated by the northern clique to gain control over Rome without quoting the whole of the Franciscan's document, and making this entry much longer, (and it is already much longer than I had intended). Although the Franciscan does not seem to have knowledge about the manipulations of Odinism to further the Teutonic/Zionist agenda, he does seem to have a fairly decent understanding of the order's functions and rites (excluding Odinistic rites). Not minding his lack of knowledge about the use of Odinism in the northern elite's cults, he does comment (briefly) about the use of the darker side of Zoroastrianism, that being of Ahriman, the equivalent to a dualistic view of Satan. Manly Hall claimed that the Odinic Mysteries were patterned after the Persian myths and Zoroastrianism, so I don't believe that I see any contradiction in the use of both myths in the Odinic order. This entry was not intended to defame the historical significance of Odin, but the conspirators who have manipulated the myth into a sick and perverse basis for one of the most secretive and powerful of the Old Order secret societies.