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| Frequently Asked Questions |
| Q. Has the Odin Brotherhood existed literally since 1421? According to historians, Lithuania was the last pagan stronghold in Europe. Officially converted in 1386, pagan elements supposedly did not survive beyond the fifteenth century. A. The Brotherhood’s claim is impossible to prove, but it is not extraordinary. The oldest industrial firm in the world--The Fabbrica d'Armi Pietro Beretta S.p.A. in Italy--has existed since 1526 and is now run by an eleventh generation Beretta. If a family business could show a great longevity, why not a secret society/religion? Gnosticism--a quasi-Christian movement going back to the time of Christ--was once considered extinct by scholars. Of course, that was until the Mandaeans were "rediscovered" in southern Iraq. The Parsees--followers of Zarathustra who fled to India in the medieval period--once thought their religion had perished in the Iranian homeland. Several centuries after their flight, they discovered that their belief was false. In history, centuries are nothing. Ma Yu Ching's, a restaurant that opened in China in AD 1153, is still functioning today. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Q. Why do you not provide specific details--names and places--when you describe the Odin Brotherhood? Even Gerald B. Gardner, who started the Witchcraft revival with Witchcraft Today, named his source. A. Traditional Odin Brotherhood devotees are serious about their anonymity. If asked about the Brotherhood, they will deny they belong and some will deny even the Brotherhood's very existence. They call this "the ruse of the warrior." On the subject of Gardner, it is an interesting fact that his alleged source was named Dorothy Clutterbuck. Although Clutterbuck’s existence has long been denied by academic historians, Doreen Valiente proved through birth and death records that Gardner's source was indeed a real person. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q. Why is secrecy still necessary today? A. Odinism thinks strategically rather than tactically. Although ridicule has replaced the stake as the preferred method of persecution, the violence of the “burning times” may some day return. Remember, the future may not be a continuation of the present. Besides, real heroes are not honored in our decadent time. Our society puts the true hero in a prison or a circus. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q. Some individuals search for the Brotherhood and never find it. Why is that the case? A. To see something, you must know how to look. Did ancient Sparta have walls? The barbarians could not see them, but every Greek knew the truth. The warriors of Sparta were its walls. People who look for a formal structure--a temple or a post office box--will never find the Brotherhood. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q. Some witches are solitary practitioners. That is to say, they learn the lore, initiate themselves, and never have contact with a larger group. Are some members of the Brotherhood solitary practitioners? A. In centuries past, all members of the Brotherhood learned the secrets from older and wiser warriors. Heroes who knew how to rule, fight, hunt, and procreate! In recent years, however, solitaries seem to be growing in numbers. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q. When members of the Odin Brotherhood are solitaries, how do they recognize one another? The initiation lesions cut during “The-Sojourn-of-the-Brave” would not be visible in most circumstances. A. There are subtle clues that identify a warrior as a member of the Brotherhood. No other Odinists, for example, refer to Idun’s magic food as the “peaches of youth.” -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q. Odinists claim that the gods are real beings who often visit earth. Have the gods made contact with the Brotherhood? A. That is the belief. Although it seems implausible, I have a letter sent from Hamburg, Germany supposedly from Odin himself. A letter sounds odd--Judaic/Christian culture has conditioned us to think in terms of burning bushes, “clouds of glory,” and pillars of fire--but anything is possible. Ezra Pound, in Canto 113, wrote: "The Gods have not returned. They never left us. They have not returned." |
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