We Are Our Deeds?
We're Going To Put This One To The Test, Finally
There have been some concerns and we need to talk about them.
In this case, Rev. Dr. Raven Wulfgar is speaking only for himself from this public-facing platform because it does concern our faith and something that was brought up in the group.
I want to begin with an assumption, bring in an example and then proceed solely on what has been absolutely proven. We will dispense any conjecture or speculation. If it cannot be one hundred percent confirmed, it is irrelevant to the discussion.
The Assumption: We Are Our Deeds.
This is the core of our faith. It is what builds our Hugr and our Hamingja in equal measure. It’s not a system of merits or demerits against you, though, it can be in some way. That’s another discussion for another time. We are talking about our life in the here and now. Right here in the corporeal, physical, this moment and this moment alone.
Doing and being in alignment with your hugr provides an effortless growth in your hamingja. Working to perfect the two while accepting that you’ll never achieve perfection is shooting for the moon, missing but still landing among the stars. One person attempting to sabotage your standing among peers will find themselves in the “It Was Right Then That They Knew…They Done Fucked Up” area of our minefield. It backfires horribly.
Evangelicals have something similar in the Bible when it mentions judging someone’s intentions, not by what they tell you but by what they do (Matthew 17:16-20) ("By their fruits you will know them") meaning that someone can talk up a great game and when time comes to put money where mouth is, they’re either overdelivering, walking the talk or they’re flaking on you worse than a bowl of that sad breakfast cereal you’re eating while streaming old Saturday-Morning cartoons. In any case, watch what they do, not what they say. Talk is cheap. Actions speak far louder.
We’re all on the same page, I’m assuming? No matter your faith, what you do in the bedroom, what you do in spandex or with Crisco in your off-time, this is something on which we can all agree, correct?
Take some time. Break away for about 30 minutes. Go grab a cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate and come back to this.
I’m serious, I want you to think over those very words that you just agreed upon and I want you to think of someone who embodies their deeds. Whatever they tell you they’re going to do, you can count on them to do it. Go crack a notebook, think of that one person and I want you to write down what makes that one person so solid. Go.
Now that you’re back, go over that list. See all those qualities? I want you to do one more thing.
I want you to take all the things that make that person in your life so solid and dependable and reliable and your go-to…and I want you to compose a scenario where they turn. Something shifted and now…they’re the exact opposite of everything you actually loved about them. Go write down what that looks like right now.
Did you feel betrayed by that person? Did you feel personally attacked when they were unavailable?
Guess what? I want you to do one more thing.
Take that scenario where they became the exact opposite of what you loved and I want you to write down what it would take for you to forget that period and allow them back into your life just as things once were…with some slight differences. The situation won’t be quite the same. Both of you are different people now.
Write down what that looks like?
Okay, we’re all done. It’s storytime. Because, if that test didn’t clarify your stance on We Are Our Deeds, then this will tell me and you everything we need to know.
Enter: Stephen Flowers aka Edred Thorsson
Now, we’re getting into sticky territory.
Flowers was one of the founding members of Odinic Rite. During his time with Odinic Rite, he did some work and the ideology behind it during that time in the 80s & 90s was that you had to have a genetic link to that area of the world (Scandinavia) in order for the magick ceremonies and rituals to properly work for you.
During that time, such ideas did begin attracting more extreme elements in Heathenry.
That put them on the scope of the FBI. Flowers had some internal differences with the direction of Odinic Rite and resigned from office.
In that time, The Troth emerged as a response to Odinic Rite and then because of a rift in Odinic Rite, The Asatru Folk Assembly emerged.
So that’s kinda the TL;DR version.
What happened to Flowers in all of this? Well, he continued writing and teaching but he’d seen that the ideology was getting in the way of the work, so he made a pivot. The attitude went from “You need to be genetically-linked for this to work for you.” to “This can work for you if you’re willing to put in the work, effort, focus and discipline.”
The Troth won’t associate with him because “he’s tainted” and the AFA and parts of The OR feel “betrayed.”
So now, here’s the test.
If someone reads Flowers’ work, are they to be regarded with suspicion or do you treat it as if it’s none of your business? How do you treat that?
Because if it’s “tainted” then there is no reason to make any attempts at appeasing you. It simply won’t work. Your mind is made up and you’re beyond any ability to reach.
If you’re treating it as information, now we’re on to something.
Speaking personally, I will never buy the idiocy that you have to be genetically-linked to a specific region of the world to assume practices, aspects or even systems of magick in order for them to work for you. Anyone telling you otherwise should be met with a scoff and a “Get Ready To Explain Me…” as the only correct response.
Fact: When it comes to creator deities, they are not tied to one specific region of the world. If our gods created us, then they did so without exception. If my studies are to be believed, then our Creator is able to reveal itself to us in many ways
Also, if we our our deeds, then it is reasonable to assume that, if our deeds have changed, then we must have followed suit.
It was the subject of Flowers that brought up this very question.
Some will tell you that, after 1990, Flowers was compromised and his work was approved by government, others will tell you to dismiss his work whole-cloth because of “the taint.”
I’ll be listening to neither, as neither are relevant to the discussion at hand and what is, to me, most important is the work that has been done.
Flowers started with one group. Supported by it and even boosted and promoted by it, saw that it was getting in the way of what he really wanted to present to the world, something far more important than ideology and went his own way, now, he’s equally despised by both groups.
Sounds like my kind of guy.
When both groups hate you because you’ve looked at them and concluded “We’re just not aligned” then, that signals, to me, that you’ve found a path that works and the rest are completely blind to it because you stepping onto that path feels like they might be wrong and, when it comes to ideology, it’s very black and white, also zero-sum; either they’re right or you’re wrong.
The point of all this was, I wanted to bring something up. Flowers was right even well over 30 years ago: Ideology gets in the way of everything.
If we are our deeds, then that’s what we should seek, first and foremost. If you can’t show me who you are in what it is you do without performing, then, I hate to disappoint you but I didn’t buy a ticket, nor would I.
Between these organizations, which of Flowers’ texts you read or if you read them at all serves as some type of purity test.
Since I am neither a member of any of these groups, nor do I owe them (Nor any of us in The Grove owe a single soul in those groups an explanation as to what we read, how or why we recommend it or if we recommend it.
I know I’ll see keyboard warriors mounting up but look back about three paragraphs. That’s the wall you’ll run into with me.
Perform all you want to an empty hall. It is what it is.
Instead, the reasons I recommend books or materials has nothing to do with ideology. For instance A Modern Guide To Heathenry by Galina Krasskova is one that I’d recommended while I was with The Troth. It upset members who couldn’t tell me why it upset them. I continued recommending it.
Why? Because I’d read it three times and found concepts and ideas in there that were compelling. I don’t give a damn what anyone else’s problem with it is. If you have a problem with it, simply do not read it.
I’m full of life lessons here.
I’d also recommend Dr. Jackson Crawford’s work as he approaches the translation from a linguistics point of view as well as Dr. Carolyn Larrington’s translation of The Poetic Edda. Having both translations of The Poetic Edda provides the seeker with fresh information and perspective, having more than one POV on the matter. The stories are still the same and what you take from it is still the same.
I’m going to pick on some work next. These are two books on astrology that I can’t recommend because Louise Edington has toyed with masculine and feminine energies in order to make the language “inclusive” for “everyone.”
Everyone, that is willing to trade good, solid, time-tested information we’ve literally used for centuries in order to “include” people who are confused about which bathroom to use.
Some will see a minor shift in language but anyone remarkably with ballpark of at least basic knowledge will note one thing; Words Mean Things.
When you begin to change the language, you change the entire energy and when changing energies and you don’t clearly understand what it is you’re dealing with, what seems to be a slight shift in wording can produce results no one wants.
As pointed out earlier, ideology getting in the way again.
I have two of her books. I have been through them.
Recommendation: Leave Louise Edington’s books for those who are just too bent on the ideology and go for a book like The Secret Language of Astrology or even Astrology For Dummies because when it comes to divination, what is appropriate is a tech manual, not a lecture on Current Year nonsense that wastes your time, makes your efforts exceedingly difficult and puts you in the crosshairs of Karmic Backlash that you neither want in your life, nor need.
Keep in mind, these are my opinions and are in no way meant to be taken as the word from on high.
It’s not a purity test of any type.
You have to read that which calls to you, of course.
I simply recommend caution.
If you read Louise Edington’s work and found it useful and that it yielded positive results for you, I won’t argue. If your opinion differs, fine.
I should be able to articulate, intelligently, without having to rely on buzzwords and catchphrases, the reasons why I do or do not recommend someone’s work. It will largely depend on what it is you’re looking for.
My reasons for writing this are to show those just starting out that we don’t have any central or ultimate authority to whom you can appeal. Like much of the literature that litters Occult sections in stores and even online stores, you’ll have to use much of your own best judgment.
The work is what’s most important to me. Factions and their wars have nothing at all to do with me, nor will they. It’s precisely why I belong to none of those groups.
That being said, the same scenario did recently present itself and I found myself thinking that the adage We Are Our Deeds is now heavily in question.
In my opinion, in our current climate, the adage ‘We Are Our Deeds’ is being weaponized to mean ‘We Are Our Ideologies.’
It is being used to police thought rather than measure action.
So, until the world catches up, I am changing the rule for myself. I am no longer waiting for the world to prove its innocence. I am no longer waiting for factions to stop their wars.
I am guilty until I prove my deeds.
Not guilty of a crime, but guilty of ambition. Guilty of sovereignty. Guilty of walking a path that makes others uncomfortable.
I will not apologize for the work. I will not explain the path. I will not justify the books I read or the gods I call.
If you want to know who I am, do not ask me what I believe. Ask me what I have done. Ask me who I helped. Ask me what I built. Actually, don’t ask. Sit back and just watch. After that, whatever mental gymnastics you want to employ to make yourself feel better, go ahead but if your expectation is that I won’t read that book, listen to that music, play that game, watch that movie or watch that TV show for a fee per year, I would like to direct your attention to The Catholic Church (I am still confirmed to them) and ask them how all of that worked out. You’ll be in for a hell of a spoiler.
At least with Catholicism, I can get guilt, shame and all that crap I just psychologically self-surgeried our of my head but the difference is, it costs me nothing out of pocket for it.
Hard Pass…
The factions will have their purity tests. The keyboard warriors will have their lists. I will have my deeds.
And when the dust settles, when the ideologies fade and the groups dissolve, the only thing that will remain is the work.
We Are Our Deeds.
And that is the only test that matters.
If you’re coming from these groups and joining The Grove, then I’d like to put this in front of you, yes, we each individually have our world views, however, speaking only for myself, I’ve come to the conclusion that, if this is truly our thing then it should be ours and should be the door that the extremes claim does not exist.
They’re all dead fucking wrong and here I am…evidence. The Anomaly again. The one telling you the code is fallible and stop trying to integrate with it because you owe either of these extremes only one thing and you should absolutely give it to them; Nothing. Silence. Deaf ears that won’t hear. Cold shoulders that turn from them. A perpetual back facing them and all their energies spent for just that…nothing at all.
Finally, if I am going to stand and identify the problem, I’m going to offer a solution, however, that is all I can or will do. The rest is up to you.
Keep in mind…I’m watching.