If you find yourself in the cockpit of an aircraft, pilot and co-pilot dead, passengers screaming, the ground rushing upwards at a hundred feet per second, there are two things you can do. Firstly, you can grab the radio and scream, “Mayday! Mayday!” Secondly, you can grab the controls and attempt to rectify the situation yourself.
As frightening as the above scenario would be, can you imagine, in the face of imminent death, calling for help but doing nothing with the controls? Even if you knew nothing about aeroplanes, you would surely know to pull back on the stick. After all, we’ve seen it in the movies.
Of course, you would do something. You would take action. If your granny was in those shoes, even she would grab the controls and pull.
Now let me re-frame that question; it is 2024, the West is nose diving into a cesspit of political corruption, general degeneracy and total control by uncaring corporations. What do you do? Call “Mayday!” or take the stick?
I was drawn towards Odinism due to its logical, rational spiritual lineage, from mythical Hyperborea to today. However, I acknowledge that many of my folk look to other religions for their teachings, and when I write I attempt to aim it at those in our lands who are genuine about wanting a future where our children can grow up safely, live healthily and thrive.
Unfortunately, many folk have a feeling of disempowerment that leads them to look for a saviour to fix all their ills. Sometimes that saviour is a god and sometimes it is a politician.
This should not be seen as an attack on those who do not share my faith or political views. Rather, I would like it to be seen more as a wake-up call for those who have fallen into the trap of wanting others to do their work for them. This is Loki’s trap (the god of illusion) for if you allow outside forces control over your life, you allow an unknown quantity to set the course of your vessel.
When I look back at my ancestors, I see an ingenious people. However, going forwards, I see changes from generation to generation. My own father would fix things around the home, from the washing machine to the car. In fact, he took pleasure from being able to get things working again. I noticed some time ago that my own mindset was to think of replacing a broken item rather than fix it.
As part of my spiritual practice, I meditate. Meditation helps one to see things as they really are, including oneself. Therefore, I thought about my attitude to fixing things in comparison to my father. And when our own washing machine broke, I got out my toolkit, unbolted the motor, identified the problem, replaced the brushes, and much to my wife’s joy I got it running again without having to replace a costly item. My wife was happy not simply because I had fixed the machine, but because, in her words, “I didn’t think it could be done.”
She had the same mindset as me: replace rather than fix.
Fixing the machine gave a feeling of empowerment. I wondered why the ‘replace not fix’ attitude prevails in the modern world. I also considered it in the wider context of our political and spiritual life.
Have we been made to feel generally disempowered? I think we probably have.
It is fitting that in Odinism a common symbol is Thor’s hammer. A hammer is a useful tool. It won’t fix things for you but you can pick it up and take action. Of course, there is a deeper, ancient, historical, esoteric symbolism to the hammer, i.e. the swastika or fylfot. But taken at face value, it is a tool to be used by the empowered man of action.
There are many forces at work in our world. The Yugas cycle onwards, the greedy corporations stomp roughshod over our once fertile folklands and our politicians continue to make promise after empty promise. It is easy to feel like taking a backseat.
But, staring death in the face, would you leave this metaphorical cockpit disaster zone and sit in the cabin with the other disempowered citizens or would you take the controls and get to work?
A saviour may indeed arise, but it would be a good idea to hedge one’s bets and pull on the control stick too.
Because once you find you have the ability to avert disaster and level off the aircraft, the enlightened spiritual practitioner may then consider raising the nose a little higher and setting a course for the stars.
