The Saga of Reverend Roy

Roy felt the burn for his lord Jesus as a young boy.  Brought up in an evangelical Christian church, Roy took advantage of ample opportunities to electrify the congregation with his youthful fiery orations of salvation through Jesus Christ.  Before he graduated High School, Roy won a full scholarship to the most prestigious bible college in the country.  Roy truly felt that his lord Jesus was guiding his life.  He graduated at the top of his class and was quickly ordained.  Roy was ready to convert the Heathen where ever he found him.  His first encounter did not take long.  

Soon after his ordination and just before his first church posting, Reverend Roy stumbled over a group of folks gathered around a fire at a state park.  What first caught his eye was the large animal horn that was being passed around the gathering; it appeared to have something in it that the people were drinking.  Very strange and not Christian, Roy thought.  He decided to linger in the trees and continue to observe.  Could be Heathens in need of salvation was the thought that pounded inside his head.  

Roy heard words like - Wodan, Thor, Frigga, and ancestors.  Added to those were some boasts that sounded more to Roy like pledges or oaths.  But no words about his Jesus.  These were Heathens, Roy thought, and must be saved!  Being somewhat socially backward, Roy never had the chance to crash a party, a wedding, or any event where he was not invited.  But there is a first time for all things.  

Roy stumbled out of the trees and demanded that they immediately stop their activity for the sake of their immortal souls.  Fortunately for the Heathens, the Sumbel was over just as Roy made his outburst.  Seeing that he was being ignored, Roy stomped over to the man who was intently watching him; he was the man who led the activity that made Roy increasingly antagonistic.  Roy did not expect this Heathen to be so articulate.  

The Heathen leader would neither debate nor argue with Roy in any fashion.  This enraged Roy all the more.  His professors at his bible college alma mater taught him that Heathens were ignorant and would easily convert to the superiority of Christianity.  The parting words of the Heathen leader to Roy was that he should purchase James C. Russell's The Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity, A Sociohistorical Approach to Religious Transformation.  Roy never heard of this book, neither did his "professors."  But he did buy it.  

And he read less than fifty pages.  Blasphemy, Roy screamed out loud.  How can something like this, something not bible based be allowed in print?  Roy's formal education did not bother with real history, science, and sociology; if it was not biblical, it was false.  For what ever his reason, Roy packed this book, along with his worn bible and other personal belongings in preparation for his first posting:  missionary work in Africa.  

Based on his ignorance, Roy believed that he would save many souls for his lord Jesus.  Once again, he relied on what he was taught; what he was taught his entire life is what he believed.  And, belief based on fallacies and innuendo is like believing that the world is flat.  At his youthful age, Reverend Roy was grossly disappointed.

The African tribesmen were offered medicine and basic education for themselves and their children in exchange for baptism.  They underwent baptism but as soon as the medicine and education was delivered and administered, the church was empty.  Roy was frustrated about this.  His fellow missionaries, those with a lot of time in Africa, tried to explain.  They told Roy that the Africans practiced their ancient folk religion. A folkish religion, they tried to tell to Roy, is world accepting and one that finds security and stability in the family, clan, and tribe along with the Gods adherent to that group. His fellow missionaries told Roy that since there was no great social upheaval in their lives, even though they did not have any sort of economy, Christianity was a hard sell.  For Christianity to be really successful, they said, there had to be tremendous political, economic, and social upheaval, similar to that in southern Europe when the Roman Empire began falling apart.   The lead missionary finally stepped up and told Roy that Christianity was world rejecting because it puts its emphasis on a hazy kind of afterlife reward while giving up the present, something that the practitioners of a folk religion cannot agree with; their worldview is such that there is no separation between all of creation and that life is important, all in life is good.  For the first time in his life, Roy wanted to get drunk, but because of his religious belief, he would not drink the fermented juice of the grape.  At least not yet.  The next morning he put in for a transfer.  In a few days, his request was granted; he was going to Japan.

Japan was even more a disaster for Roy; thinking that he would have a fresh start, he soon discovered how wrong he was.  Japan's Christian population stood at one half of one percent.   The Japanese, Roy found out, were quite happy with their folk religion.  And they had a robust economy that provided their citizens with everything.  This was worse, Roy thought, then Africa; there was no trade off of medicine and education for baptism - the Japanese had all of that in abundance.  A fellow missionary repeated what he had heard in Africa and added that people who follow a folk religion put the group, the family, clan, and tribe ahead of individual desires.  The idea of individual salvation, another foreign idea, was not part of their world accepting world view.  The Reverend Roy was on overload; he has come face to face with the real world.  Within days, Roy suffered a major nervous breakdown and after initial treatment in Japan, was sent home for rest and recuperation.

To say that Roy was depressed was an understatement; he was below crushed.  He managed to get himself out of bed and went to a liquor store where he bought a bottle of cheap fermented red.  When home, he promptly guzzled it all and soon puked.  Now Roy knew, you do not drink alcohol to drown your sorrows, even though its tastes good.  After cleaning up his mess, Roy opened up the book that the Heathen had recommended to him, which was the one that he had dragged along with him to Africa and Japan.

He started from the beginning, re-reading the first fifty pages that he initially declared as blasphemy.  In light of his experiences in Africa and Japan, the book now made sense, but all the while Roy wondered how could what he was taught, what he believed in could be so wrong.  Roy was reading real history, not made up stuff to keep people in fear and subjugation.  He was confused, but not conflicted.  He decided to look for the Heathen who recommended the book.

Roy found the man in the same park at the same place but the number of participants around the fire sharing the horn had doubled.  The right reverend took a time check and realized that it was only a few months over a year that he was here for the first time.  The Heathen recognized Roy and asked him to join in the gathering.  At first Roy was apprehensive but he thought after Africa and Japan, what could go wrong; to his pleasant  surprise, nothing did.

When Sumbel was over, Roy and the Heathen had a long conversation; it was the first of many.  The man explained to Roy all that he could about Asatru, the modern word used to describe the ancient northern European folkway/religion.  And the reading list was exhaustive; Asatru, Roy found out, was a religion with homework.  Roy just breathed all of it in and could not get enough, so much so that he gave up the shackles of Christianity and warmly embraced Asatru.  Although Roy took quite a bit of abuse from his former Christian brethren, he was at peace.  He knew that he was finally home.

                                                     Copyright @2015 Terry Unger      

    

  

The Problem With Aging

Getting old is a major pain in the ass.  Some things work, while others do not.  And I am not referring to a person's mental or physical abilities.  Today, we are living not just longer, but healthier.  We can recreate longer but also have the time to reminiscence more deeply.  Things just seemed to work better when we were "kids."  

At one time, and for a long time, a nickel bought you a Snickers Bar and a local telephone call from a telephone booth.  Our kids today can relate to the Snickers and gladly tell you that they cost at least a buck and a quarter.  As for the phone booth, not a clue except that Clark Kent changes into Superman in one so it must be real.  And then we have music.

Boomers fondly remember Sinatra, Dean Martin, Elvis, the Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, the Everly Brothers, Johnny Cash and so many more that brought harmony to radio.  When mentioning these iconic artists, the kids may wonder what planet you just teleported from, but are quick to ask you if you heard the latest from the musical group, "Vomit."  Well, no; we equate vomit as something we do when we are ill. Looking deeper, we see that Vomit's youth appeal may really stem from their constant use of our cities' jails as their personal youth hostel.  Is this a disconnect?  Probably not, at least when it comes to music.  Boomer parents complained about rock and roll much the same way that we look at "Vomit."  But there is something else that has nothing to do with music.

We live in a socially upside down society (the problem is really not aging.  Getting older is part of life.  The problem is by living longer, we remember when the "apple cart" was not upset and disrespect of anything earned the offender some kind of punishment. Now it seems that the offender is some kind of social hero). As we age we have lost touch with our ethnic culture and heritage.  In our fast paced world of progress, getting ahead, staying ahead, and putting food on the table we have lost our personal and group identity.  To keep up we bent a knee for many things.  Now most of our kids are fully prostrated.  Unfortunately, that's how they think they should be.  For many of our kids, political correctness has become a way of life; it does not have to be this way.

First, we need to ground ourselves in our culture and heritage.  We must seek out our ancestors to help us answer questions about our family line.  And we must delve deeply into history to gain an understanding of why things happened the way that they did.  All of us have a culture and heritage and the right to peacefully celebrate them; never feel ashamed of who you are and where you came from.

It may seem that this process of getting back to your roots is self-centered and selfish; it is not.  It is about knowing your family line, your ancestors, and your heritage - a very large group of which you are a part.  Then you can teach your kids and grand-kids.  These things are a source of great pride. Who knows, you could do so well that in the future, kids will refer to vomit for what it really is - a gut wrenching experience that tastes really bad.

                                                       Copyright @2015 Terry Unger


                                                       





                                                 

The Saga of Billy the Butcher

When they were young, Billy's paternal grandparents came to the United States from Northern Europe to start a new life.  They brought with them a special skill:  they knew meat.  They knew how to cut it, smoke it, and how to prepare it for maximum taste and nutrition.  After struggling for while like most immigrants do, they managed to scrape enough money together to purchase a small corner property; the downstairs was their butcher shop and the upstairs their living quarters.  Their shop was a success.  Soon they were blessed with their one and only child who one day would become Billy's father.

Billy's dad loved the business he grew up in.  Under his guidance, that small corner butcher shop grew into three supermarkets.  During this productive and busy time, Billy's dad married his mother and they had two boys; Billy and his older brother.  Sadly, tragedy struck and Billy's older brother died in a freak accident.  Being the younger brother, Billy was spoiled from day one.  But after his brother's death, Billy got whatever he wanted from parents and grandparents.  And Billy wanted many things but one thing he did not want was the family business; he hated it.

He used women for his momentary pleasures but otherwise considered the female sex to be a burden. Billy treated the family business's employees like dirt and referred to them as bloodsuckers.  He never gave a thought that the employees where a part of the family's success.  For as much as he despised the family business, it did provided him with a college education, but only after he was booted from his first two schools for his outlandish behavior.  After graduation, the business that he so hated provided him with a no-work luxury lifestyle, at a steep cost to his parents.  But things have a way of just happening.  Billy's parents died in a fiery car crash on their way to see him.  Like it or not, Billy now was the head of the family business that he so despised.

One of the first things he did as the boss, was to fire all the full time employees with the exception of a manager and an assistant manager per store, of his choice.  Billy filled in the job ranks with part-time employees at minimum wage and worked them no more than 25 hours a week.  He thought that he improved the bottom line but cutting the "obvious" fat, like employee benefits and higher wages. He put many good people out of work to save a few bucks.  He also started selling cheaper cuts of meat and passed them off as the more expensive variety. Billy thought that the general public, his customers, were stupid.  Unfortunately, along with these crooked moves and without the old management and the skilled full time employees, the business lost customers.  But he refused to see it that way.

When Billy was living the high life after college, he developed some bad habits; gambling, prostitution, and drugs.  After he assumed the mantle of the family business, he felt the pressures and stresses that his father handled very well, but of which he had no clue.  His gambling became his distraction while prostitution and drugs his addiction.  As his debt grew, so did his addictions.

Gradually Billy had to sell off one supermarket at a time to pay his debt to men you never want to owe anything to.  Finally, he was at the end.  Broke and destitute, Billy could not meet his debt payments.  He paid with this life.

As a disembodied soul, Billy stood in line with others of his stripe to face the final judgement of the Gods.  Always impatient, Billy jumped the line; his action did not go unnoticed - he was called next. Wodan and Tiwas were more than happy to show Billy a review, in living color, of his rotten life.

He was born with so many privileges, Wodan said, but pissed it all away.  He had many chances to turn his life around, added Tiwas, but chose to continue on a path of ruin.  Billy was sentenced to the coldest, darkest part of Nifelheim, where he would have plenty of time discover the errors of his ways.  So ends the Saga of Billy the Butcher, a man who disgraced his ancestors.    

                                                Copyright @2015 Terry Unger

The Problem With Krampus

The scourge of long ago Germanic Yuletides, Krampus was a character a child did not want to encounter.  From the folklore and legend that gave him birth, Krampus was quite the ugly fellow.  He was rather tall, hairy, had cloven hoofs, two large horns on his head, and looked more like a goat on two legs than anything human.  And, let's not forget his very long, almost snake-like tongue.  This guy would never be the cover page of GQ.  That was the point; he was supposed to scare the hell out of children. Krampus also had a very special appetite - he loved to devour kids.  But not just any kids.  

At the height of his "popularity," (sarcasm intended), Krampus showed up a few days before St. Nick/Santa Claus and carted off the naughty kids to his forest lair and ate them one at a time.  As myth and legend have it, he was never hungry, because he served as the effect to a cause.    

Throughout the year, parents would constantly scold their kids into better behavior and to not be lazy.  Naturally, a switch was employed a time or two, but the ultimate consequence for poor behavior was to be a midnight snack for Krampus.  And, it worked on most of the kids; being eaten alive by this hairy monstrosity was not desirable by young and fertile minds.  These kids grasped the concept of becoming their words and deeds:  Do the right things, be industrious and rewards, in the guise of St. Nick, would come your way.  Being a layabout and constantly causing grief for your parents earned you a spot in Krampus's gumbo pot.  Unfortunately, none of this can be applied today.  

In the upside down world, we live in, kids and adults are constantly rewarded, regardless of personal, positive words and deeds.  Today, every kid gets a trophy, just for showing up (because we don't want to hurt their feelings).  Kids are pushed through and graduate from high school with incredibly poor math and English skills (because we don't want to damage their self-esteem).  The latter has forced colleges and universities to carry remedial math and English courses in an effort to bring their new "students" up to speed.  Then we have all of the B/S in the work place.  Nowadays, this list of reward for poor behavior seems endless.  

Today in Germanic speaking countries a few folks don a Krampus costume and parade about the towns, a reminder of Yuletides from a by-gone era.  But the modern Krampus does not have the "bite" of the past.  Maybe we need to give him a new set of teeth.  

                                                     Copyright @2015 Terry Unger

         

Abortion and Other Rants

Planned Parenthood and I never did get along; something about the killing of innocents that offends me.  Even the name, Planned Parenthood, I find strange.  If they were helping people plan for children, then why abortion?  But, that is just not it.  The real reason - you have an unwanted pregnancy, they say.  Come to us and we will rid you of that problem, for a "small" fee, of course. Now we have a multitude of birth control devices available with a doctor's prescription or for over the counter purchase.  Abortion is not a form of birth control.  In my opinion, if you forgot to do what you had to do and your thoughtlessness results in pregnancy, that's too bad for you.  Now, your actions have created responsibility.  And how you handle that responsibility will mark you until the day you die.  Enough pontificating:  Planned Parenthood is back in the news in a big way.   

An official from Planned Parenthood was allegedly caught on tape admitting that PP sells body parts of aborted children to help them "break even," financially.  The parts with the highest value - the heart, lungs, and liver.  Even if just a smidgen of this is true, we are living in dark times, the Wolf Age.  This is a reverse of Soylent Green, and worse.  Who and/or what is next?   This is liberalism at its gory best, so far.  Then we have a guy with a hair problem.  

In my opinion, the Donald became the stalking horse of the GOP presidential field by speaking out on a thing or two that struck a cord within the man on the street.  How do you explain to the nation how an illegal alien who was tossed out of the USA five times with at least as many felony convictions comes back into the USA illegally, again, and kills an innocent young woman.  This is not a rare thing that happened.  Suck it up cupcake, it happens in varying forms everyday.  Well thank you Donald, for bringing it up.  But this past weekend, the Donald made a move in the wrong direction.  He said that Senator John McCain is not a war hero.  ***

If you recall, McCain was a naval aviator and was shot down during the Vietnam War.  He spent five and a half years as a POW.  During his incarceration, McCain was repeatedly beaten; check out a recent picture of him to see how well his jaw healed.  McCain also turned down early release to allow others to leave first.  Guaranteed, John McCain and I do not agree on everything but in my eyes the man is a hero.  Period.  Trump went off track about McCain and should get back "on point," forcing the other GOP candidates to begin addressing real domestic and foreign issues, political correctness be damned.  Speaking of the politically correct......

Recently nine good folks were gunned down while at a prayer service in their church.  The lunatic who perpetrated this heinous crime did so for no other reason than he did not like the color of their skin.  In their initial discovery period, the police discovered a picture with said lunatic holding a Confederate Battle flag.  Thanks to the politically correct liberal police, the shit really hit the fan. Washington and Jefferson are labeled racists.  The flag of the USA is labeled a variety of things, none of them worth repeating.  Once again, politically correct liberalism running amok.  Yes, take down the flag flying at that government building in South Carolina (now done).  But let history, heritage, and culture right where it is.  When you throw the previous three into a closet and pad-lock the door, you become a defacto history revisionist.  We learn nothing by hiding our history, warts and all.  It must be studied and learned so that the past does not repeat itself.  

But when you stick your head up your ass you are acting just like that big bird who hides its head in the sand; you see nothing and hear nothing, content with a status quo that does not exist, except in your own mind.  Because - you did not take to heart the lessons from history.  Appeasement politics never work well for the good guys.  If you get to meet Neville Chamberlain, ask him if he would have handled Hitler differently, since we now have the past history of that mistake, and others, to learn from.  We have not learned that lesson about Iran.  They hate us and want us destroyed; that's the long and short of it.  And what did we get out of that deal?  Not a single American citizen (5) was or is to be released.  In ten years or less, Iran could have nuclear weapons.  Ask Saudi Arabia and Israel how they feel about having that gun to their heads.  Negotiations with bullies and tyrants should never happen; they only understand brute force.  Maybe what we need is for John McCain to recruit Trump, to swoop up all the Planned Parenthood hacks, and invade Iran carrying the Confederate battle flag.  The Donald could talk them to death, Planned Parenthood would make sure that they could no longer reproduce, and the flag would just confuse the hell out of them.  

                                                   Copyright @2015 Terry Unger  

 *** Thanks to how the sensationalist media reports - in Sound Bites - Trump, after being pressed, admitted that McCain was a hero.  Coming from a guy who lived the high life while McCain was struggling to servive, I guess we can call that acceptable - the author.                                                     

         

The Saga of Joe Lunch-Box

On any given day, Joe came directly home after an unsatisfying work day.  He always kissed his wife, hugged his kids, and then turned on the boob-tube to soak in the daily media dirt.  But thanks to his smart phone, Joe saw the short version of malaise on his work breaks; he was primed for the evening's full plate. Joe found all of it quite negative with nothing bright or pleasing to lighten his mood.  And after so many great dinners that were constantly punctuated by having to take away his kids' smart phones, Joe would check out his social media links.  More of nothing again, he thought, but brain-dead cyber warriors hell bent on unfriending, then outing as racists all who did not share in their politically correct world view.  Joe felt in his soul that there had to be more to life then this kind of emptiness.  He knew that this could not be real life, but just an existence that amounted to being a number in a consumer frenzied social order.  Joe began to listen to his heart, and decided to follow.  

Even though Joe's grandparents passed on when he was a teenager, he still had fond memories of them.  He easily recalled the special food, drink, and the family gatherings with old world friends that were filled with tales of by-gone yesterdays.  It was these memories that finally led Joe to discover his culture and heritage.  He began to learn all that he could; it became his obsession.  But it was an obsession that came with some perks.  

The more Joe Lunch-Box learned about his culture and heritage, the more his inner pride grew.  He smiled more, he stood up straighter and squared his shoulders, and he began to radiate a positive attitude.  And as he learned more, Joe discovered a thing or two that had blocked not just him but others from knowing their heritage and culture.  One of those things was the universalist monotheism known as Christianity.  At first, this greatly disturbed Joe.  He and countless others had been taught that only through Jesus and his religion could a person gain salvation.  But the more Joe learned and understood, the easier it was for him to jettison that false and crippling belief.   

Joe delved deep into his study of Christianity in general and then how as a quasi conqueror it did its awful best to to whitewash the past of pre-Christian northern Europe.  But time, education, and scholarship, like fog lifting off of a lake, broke through the cross's thin veneer.  This is how Joe discovered Asatru, the reconstructed ancient folkway of his ancestors.  

He soon found out that Asatru was a folkway/religion that required a lot of "homework."  And Joe sucked it up.  This man quickly discovered that charlatans, with their UPGs and MUS should not to be read or quoted, let alone trusted as any kind of reliable source.  Only solid scholarship, he knew, must be taken into consideration.  Joe's wife, who was also disenchanted with the status quo, joined her husband in his deliberations.  In time, they decided as best as possible, to raise their kids Asatru. The fate and fortune of Joe Lunch-Box and his family changed dramatically.   

Joe's overall personal improvement garnered him a promotion and a fat raise; his wife became a community leader who was sought out to solve many problems.  And their kids impressed many with their accomplishments in academics and sports.  The Lunch-Box family was happy, productive, and content.  Joe and his family's life changed for the better when they discovered their roots; they knew where they came from and who they were - they had identity and purpose in life.  

It does not take great intelligence to see that the Saga of Joe Lunch-Box is a work of fiction, but one rooted in fact.  Folks who come back to their roots, to Asatru, are happier and productive because they found themselves; they are no longer lost.  It's just that simple.  So northern soul, are you ready to come home?   

                                                  Copyright @2015 Terry Unger

         

        

A Spiritual Revolution

It's one helluva world out there.  Dog eat dog, and then some.  The struggle to pay the bills and at the same time eat has pushed many over the brink.  People getting screwed out of promotions and pay raises are commonplace; personal effort goes out the window, due to political correctness and the prevalent attitude of hurrah for me and the hell with you.  And in many instances, it does not matter what you know and what you have done but who you know.  An incompetent can control the destiny of many.  Why does this guy get this or that when he/she has not earned it?  All this wears thin on body and soul.  If you are not spiritually centered, this crap can utterly destroy you; it's time to take stock of who you are and what is important. If you are of Indo-European descent, and in particular northern European extraction, take heart, there is help but you may not like it.  

For centuries, the Western world has been awash in Judeo-Christian doctrine and dogma that allows for what was mentioned in the preceding paragraph.  Our Ancestors understood hard work, honest effort, honor, and fair play.  This is lost in our modern world, again, because of the above.  But northern soul, are you ready to make a change?  A change that may not at present eradicate these false rewards as mentioned but one that can nurture your body and soul?  A change that can give you some peace, satisfaction, and a knowing of who you are?  

If you are ready for change, the answer is Asatru, the reconstructed, ancestral folkway that now guides so many to peace, harmony, and success.  There always will be those people who condemn the past just because it is the past - it is not "modern."  But todays Asatru takes the past and tailors it to our present; old wisdom for today's living.  And Asatru promotes life.  

Monotheism in general promotes a desirable (for them) but vague after-life while dismissing the importance of the present; the body and all of creation is evil, sinful, etc.  This is a sad commentary on living.  The Good News - Asatru promotes life to its fullest.  Life, according to Asatru is meant to be lived, even with all of life's pitfalls and sorrows - the pitfalls and sorrows help us to learn. Divinity is nothing like the Abrahamic religions, made in man's image (a spoiled 13 year old condemning everything. Do not confuse the divinity represented in the Eddas with that of the bible, for many reasons. Our Ancestors knew the difference and so should we).  The Gods are our elder kin, love us, support us, and wish us the best.  Within today's Asatru, as with our Ancestors, life is good, and prosperity is good.  Hard work, honesty, and self-reliance are good things to possess.  And creativity and imagination are respected.  

So northern soul, are you ready and willing to make a change?   Or are you content with your current life?  The choice is up to you.  

                                             Copyright @2015 Terry Unger