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The Odin Brotherhood is a secret society for warriors and pagans. From the beginning, the movement--in spite of its name--has included women.

The Brotherhood practices the old warrior religion that is today called Odinism. Consecrated to the pagan gods of the norse pantheon, these deities are viewed as "older, better, and truer." Members of the Brotherhood use the Eddaic Verses–also called the Poetic Edda–as a kind of scripture.

Members claim their pagan order was established in 1421 to protect the ancient religion during the "Burning Times," and they insist it has existed in unbroken lineage to the present. If the claim is accurate, the Odin Brotherhood resembles the Tariquat, the secret brotherhoods in Islam that sustain the traditions underground in times of intense persecution.

1 Who Established the Odin Brotherhood?
2 How Does One Join the Odin Brotherhood?
3 The Rite of Blood
4 Theology, Devotion, and Ethics
5 Death and Afterlife
6 Discovery and Exposure of the Brotherhood Today
7 Bibliography
8 External links
9 See Also

[edit] Who Established the Odin Brotherhood?

Like the story of Hiram Abif in Freemasonry, the foundation myth of the Brotherhood involves a crime against innocence.

In the legend of the Brotherhood, the story begins when a young pagan widow was caught honoring the gods and goddesses in a remote grotto. For her action, an angry mob burned her on a pyre composed of green wood.

After the murder, the woman’s three children used an ancient and forbidden rite from paganism (a rite called necromancy) and summoned her from beyond the grave.

Answering the summons, the slain woman instructed her children to save the ancient wreligion by taking the movement underground. They were instructed to form a secret society–a "conspiracy of equals"--dedicated to the old gods.

According to the Odin Brotherhood, all of these events occurred somewhere in Eurasia–somewhere north of the Black Sea--in the fifteenth century of the current era.

They also insist that buried artifacts exist which will some day confirm their tale.

[edit] How Does One Join the Odin Brotherhood?

Traditionally, the teachings were spread by word of mouth, from person to person.

Today, however, with more written information appearing in manuscript and in published form, solitary practitioners (“lone wolves” who initiate themselves)are becoming more common.

In its current form, membership in the Odin Brotherhood is secret–as in the so-called Illuminati conspiracy. The objectives of the Odin Brotherhood are stated publicly, as in the legendary Rosicrucians.

Secret Societies are still illegal in some countries. As Nick Harding points out in Secret Societies, for example, they are forbidden by the constitution of Poland.

[edit] The Rite of Blood

Joining the Odin Brotherhood involves a kind of vision quest cemented by a "ceremony of blood."

In ancient religion, without blood there is no power. That is the reason that animals were cut in half when the biblical Jehovah made his covenant with Abraham.

Also, because of the power of blood Jewish boys are circumcised on the eighth day.

The initiation rite of the Odin Brotherhood--which is based on the “marking with the spear” rite described by the medieval author Snorri Sturluson, involves solitude, a diet of bread and ice, a white shroud, a dagger, and a fire.

The initiate –after proper purification– makes three incisions on his body. He then "devotes, hallows, and sanctifies" his soul to the “gods who live” by penetrating a fire three times with a dagger stained with his own blood.

Mercia Eliade, in Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, notes that secret society initiations resemble shamanic initiations, and include seclusion (symbolizing the "beyond), some sort of prohibition (as in a diet), covering the face and body, usually with something that is white, and a difficult ordeal, which involves the infliction of "cruelties."

[edit] Theology, Devotion, and Ethics

The Odin Brotherhood embraces polytheism. The gods, which include Odin, Thor, Frigga, Heimdall, Vidar, Tyr, Freya, and the other beings in the Norse pantheon, are viewed as powerful entities that are finite in nature. The gods are not omnipotent—they are not omniscient—but they accomplish their wills through struggle, not fiats. Humanoid in shape, the gods are physical beings that inhabit hidden corridors in the universe. Often appearing on earth in disguise, they are known by many names in many languages. Odin, for example, appears also as Hermes and Rudra. Believing in direct contact with the gods, the Odin Brotherhood teaches that deities typically communicate with humanity through a system of "messengers and spies."

Devotionally, members of the Odin Brotherhood do not worship the gods on their knees. Refusing to be slaves, Odinists admire the gods but do not grovel before them.

Ethically, the Odin Brotherhood creates no laws, only virtues. The Odin Brotherhood glorifies "thought, courage, honor, light, and beauty." They pursue "knowledge, freedom, and power.”

A tradition for warriors, the Odin Brotherhood teaches that "when the gods made man, they made a weapon." The Odin Brotherhood represents "strength over weakness, pride over humility, and knowledge over faith."

[edit] Death and Afterlife

The Odin Brotherhood teaches that all beings ultimately experience death. In poetic terms, death is personified as beautiful females--called the valkyries--who exist "in an endless variety of exquisite forms."

Since death is not annihilation, the "transfigured life form" will go to one of three Other-Worlds. The most famous of these "Other-Worlds" is Valhalla.

In cosmic terms, death is described as Ragnarok, the final battle which destroys every universe. According to the Odin Brotherhood, Ragnarok is an "orgy of purification" from which a new cosmos is born. The cycle of destruction and rebirth--which will go on forever--is called the "Law-of-the-Endless-Circle."

Also called the "eternal return," the "Law-of-the-Endless-Circle" teaches that existence never ends with destruction. "Nothing dies forever," and all beings--and all things--will return.

[edit] Discovery and Exposure of the Brotherhood Today

The Odin Brotherhood's was first exposed to the general public in 1992 with the publication of the book The Odin Brotherhood by Dr. Mark L. Mirabello, who is a professor of European history at Shawnee State University.

First contact was made when Mirabello encountered a silver-haired man in a bookshop in Leith, in the United Kingdom. At the time, Mirabello was conducting historical reseach as a doctoral student in Scotland's University of Glasgow.

The gentleman, who called himself Lodur's Friend (in honor of the mysterious god in the Eddaic Verses), was holding a peculiar cane adorned with the images of the serpent and the ass, the two animals that speak in the bible.

"Blind loyalty is a virtue in a dog, but it is an offense in a human being," declared the stranger, when he noticed Mirabello studying an obscure essay on faith.

The two men became friends, and "Lodur's Friend" introduced Mirabello to a "circle of fascinating individuals." The group met for unusual feasts, normally in Edinburgh or London, always at night, and always during the time of the new moon.

The feasts were referred to as "conventicles," and they were by invitation only. Those who "feared" or "hated" authority were excluded, but those who "laughed at" authority were welcome.

Some years after the publication of Mirabello's book, the anonymous and privately printed Teachings of the Odin Brotherhood began to circulate. Copies of the latter are rare.