Stephen McNallen Part 4: Stella Natura and What Can be Done
Table of Contents
Part 1: Metagenetics and the South Africa Connection
Part 2: Roots of Racialized Religion
Part 4: Stella Natura and What Can be Done
Everything done to date brings us to two recent actions by McNallen which silence all doubt on his affiliations, ideas, and what he wants for his organization. In 2012 the Asatru Folk Assembly formally sponsored Stella Natura, a folk rock festival in the High Sierras with a band list which included some of the most infamous names in neo-fascist music.
One of the highlights of the festivities was when McNallen got up on stage with Robert Taylor and opened the set for his band Changes with a blot (sacrifice or offering) to Odin. Changes was later joined during their set by none other than Michael Moynihan, frontman for Blood Axis and the editor of Tyr.
While not as well-known as the notorious Moynihan Robert Taylor is a man with a long history in the American New Right. In the 1960s Taylor, who at the time as too young to join the American Nazi Party, signed up with the Minutement; a clandestine anticommunist “last line of defense” militia founded by millionaire Robert Bolivar DePugh. In an interview with Stigmata magazine in 2005 Taylor had this to say on the Minutemen and his involvement:
My involvement in the Minutemen was considerable. I became a member of the newly formed organization at about 14 years old. I first was a member, then became the principle organizer and leader in the Chicago area. Then I became a member of the Executive council of ten as the director of intelligence. By the time I was 24 years old I was the editor of the organization’s publication, On Target as well as the national spokesman for the group. My involvement lasted through most of the years of the organization’s existence.”
What made On Target uniquely different from other anti-communist or right-wing publications was that in addition to articles and commentary on various current issues, it also contained names, addresses and phone numbers of its assumed communist and liberal enemies. Often literal dossiers on such people were featured. Combine the slogan, cross-hair masthead, and such detailed information on perceived enemies, and the potential threat was implied, without ever being actually stated.
The Minutemen, as is implied, did not shy away from violence or overt support of it as the March 13, 1963 issue of On Target and Taylor make abundantly clear:
The March 13, 1963 issue of On Target began with the following: JOIN THE MINUTEMEN
…We have studied your Communist smirch, Mao, Che, Bhukarin. We have learned our lessons well and have added a few homegrown Yankee tricks of our own. Before you start your next smear campaign, before you murder again, before you railroad another patriot into a mental institution…better think it over.
See the old man at the corner where you buy your paper? He may have a silencer equipped pistol under his coat. That extra fountain pen in the pocket of your insurance salesman that calls on you might be a cyanide-gas gun. What about your milkman?
Arsenic works slow but sure. Your auto mechanic may stay up nights studying booby-traps.
These patriots are not going to let you take their freedom away from them. They have learned the silent knife, the strangler’s chord, the target rifle that hits sparrows at 200 yards. Only their leaders restrain them. Traitors beware! Even now the cross-hairs are on the back of your necks…”
After leaving the Minutemen Taylor wandered around the Chicago subculture for a number of years until 1976 when Taylor and his wife Karen founded Northernway, a Pagan group in the Midwest. The group later split into two factions, one of which would become the Tribe of the Wulfings(1). The Tribe of the Wulfings, at the time known as the Wulfing Kindred, was a member of the old AFA and participated in the founding of the still-functioning and openly racialist Asatru Alliance. They left the Alliance in 1999 but have remained very active in the white nationalist scene after experiencing something of a second revival thanks to the assistance of Blood Axis frontman Michael Moynihan who is also a member of the Tribe of the Wulfings(2).
On the question of his music Taylor actively infuses the concepts McNallen articulates in metagenetics into his creative process. Says Taylor in an interview with the website Psicoterror:
Our music is distinctly European both in sentiment as well as musical structure.
I can’t imagine how it could be otherwise if anyone was creating anything true or real, it would be the product of the people and culture out of which they come.
I don’t write Blues music because I am not a Negro. If I were to mimic such music I would feel myself to be insincere; a cultural parasite playing off of the culture of other people. For a Black blues’ musician singing within his own tradition there is always something real and sincere – it is what is always lacking when whites steal this style and profit off of it. So in that sense Changes music is a reflection of the European soul, and I am a European soul-man. We do the music that arises out of that experience for us.
This is not so much an abstract motivation as it is an organic outgrowth of who we truly are.
Which he contrasts in another interview to the music of artists like Eric Clapton:
The folk music of Changes is absolutely European in nature. It comes from the folk soul of our own folk which resides within us. I think that is why are greatest acceptance and popularity to date has been in Europe among real Europeans. You?ll find no stolen Delta Blues rifts. No Brazilian drum sections, no world beats. If we use any drumming it will be Euro- martial music. And we won´t have to plagiarize it from anywhere because it already is present in our own genetic soul-scape. So it`s original in that sense. I could sit down at an instrument and work out any number of Medieval melodies every day. It?s all there inside. Basically we never set out to sound like anyone else or some era. It was entirely natural and personal.
I personally find performers like Eric Clapton to be really pathetic on the one hand and embarrassing on the other. This is little more than a new version of a minstrel show in which white people with black painted faces mimic Negroes. One must ask themselves if people like this have a soul of their own or are empty vessels who feed on the cultures and souls of other peoples. Most of these people whom they are mimicking must view such culture vampires with a certain disdain and repugnance.
As an example of his fidelity to what he considers to be European Taylor is calling his new 2013 tour “Ride the Tiger”, subtitled “an intimate evening of music for aristocrats of the soul”, which bears a more than passing resemblance to the title of one of Julius Evola’s more famous works Ride the Tiger: A Survival Manual for the Aristocrats of the Soul.
Which such neo-fascist, white nationalist superstars involved in the festival what has the AFA done? They are sponsoring Stella Natura 2013:
Topping it in notoriety is Michael Moynihan’s Blood Axis, Robert Taylor’s Changes, Fire + Ice, and Gaahl currently fronting for Wardruna who became infamous after a 1995 interview where he described people as “subhuman”, “niggers”, and expressed support for the ideas of Varg Vikernes and Adolf Hitler along with several other bands who make a living generating what researcher Anton Shekhovtsov calls apoliteic music and metapolitical fascist culture.
Stephen McNallen is, without a doubt, a heavily active figure in the modern American neo-fascist white nationalist movement. His position in the Heathen community has enabled him to facilitate the infiltration of our community by neo-Nazis, corrupted our lore to justify a racialist agenda, and inflict grievous harm on the reputation of Heathenry due to these associations with organized hate. The only excuse that has been given for continuing to turn a blind eye is to talk of all the good he’s done for the Heathen community usually followed by exclamations of, “But he stood up to the Nazis back in the 70s! He can’t be racist!”
As the facts show not only is this not the case, it is dangerously wrong. Arguing for patience, tolerance, and peace has given the fascist invasion McNallen is spearheading the opportunity to grow unchecked and unhindered. So much so, his ideas and organization are rending communities abroad as well as at home. As we have learned from several confidential sources a month prior to McNallen’s recent visit to Denmark a schism erupted. A clique in the leadership Forn Sidr Denmark, the Danish national Heathen organization, purged all who disagreed with their “folkish” stance; a stance which matches the gospel of the American AFA almost word for word. Thanks to him something is very rotten in Denmark. For every day the growing perception of the Pagan community and the public at large that our spirituality is inseparable from white supremacism goes unchecked in ways we are paying the price in ways large and small.
This must end. History has cruelly shown us the price of appeasing fascism. It is a beast whose hunger knows no end, a giant which would devour everything in the world before turning upon itself with equally depraved vigor. Worst of all it thrives in our current socio-economic conditions where desperate people turn to anything to alleviate their situation.
But nowhere is it written the nightmare of the jackboot must be repeated.
Others have resisted McNallen and the racialists before but nearly always on their own. While this has brought some small successes on the whole it has failed to seriously disrupt McNallen, the AFA, and the racialist invasion. At the most basic level what every Heathen can and should do is stop supporting McNallen’s efforts and organization with their time, their words, and their money. Stop buying his books, cancel your AFA membership, and make it clear you do not support Stephen McNallen’s twisted vision for Heathenry. For those interested in more direct participation the most effective and enduring way to defeat such a cohesive, ruthless, and corrupt force is to find like-minded Heathens who oppose their infiltration of our Folkway, bring them together, and organize ourselves into cohesive groups to resist. As history and the example of mighty heroes shows there is nothing more powerful in the world than an organized, committed group of individuals fighting for a cause they know is right.
In times like these brave people, facing similar challenges to those arrayed against us today, organized and rose to face mightier foes. These heroes, in spite of all risk, danger, and threats to themselves and their loved ones stood against mighty forces not because their victory was guaranteed but because it had to be done. For Heathens we have many great heroes from our ancient cultural past. There is Arminius who defied the might of Rome and broke the Eagle’s beak, the Lindisfarne raiders who struck back at encroaching missionaries and their imperialist backers, and mighty Sigrid of Sweden who refused the demands of Olaf the Lawbreaker and engineered his downfall. Standing equally proud are the nameless heroes of Stiklestad, Thorgnyr the Lawspeaker who rallied the Swedes to force an arrogant king to make peace, and the first colonists of Iceland who braved the harsh waters of the North Atlantic to rebuild the freedom they had lost in Norway.
These mighty ancestors are joined by others who gave their lives for the cause of human dignity and human liberation. There’s Joe Hill, the Swedish-American Wobbly labor organizer who was shot dead by a crooked verdict, and Rosa Luxembourg, the German revolutionary who stood for real freedom against authoritarian socialism, who could only be stopped by a Freikorps death squad. There’s also Nestor Mankho, the Anarchist Cossack, who fought to free the people of Ukraine from Tsarist tyranny and Bolshevik authoritarianism and the peerless Buenaventura Durruti who freed the people of Catalonia and Aragon before losing his life on the front lines of the war against Franco. We have the selfless Abraham Lincoln Brigade, groups of American volunteers who left home and country behind to fight and die alongside the Spanish Republic against the forces of fascism. Last but not least are the heroes of Norway from the Second World War, from mighty Max Manus to the unknown and equally courageous men and women who tirelessly fought against the Nazi occupation of Norway any way they could.
Whether you agree or disagree with our politics or theories the facts we have presented speak for themselves. The question that lies before all Heathens is not if what we say is true; most of our evidence are his own words and actions.
The real question is what you are going to do about it?
Fascism is not to be debated. It is to be smashed.
Buenaventura Durruti
NO COMPROMISE, NO SURRENDER!
1. Gardell, Mattias. Gods of the Blood. Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2003. 264.
2. Gardell 265
Death in June Outreach Sample Letter
Here is a sample letter graciously provided to us by New York Anti-Racist Action for sending out to the venues scheduled to host Death in June.
We recommend you adapt this as needed for your particular locale and have as many people as possible email the information below to the hosting venues:
To the [VENUE]-
We are writing you with concerns about your choice to allow Death in June, an openly fascist band, to perform at your venue on ________.
The groups tour poster is the SS design of the Totenkopf (Death’s Head) emblazoned on the American Flag. The group also uses the esoteric, exclusively neo-Nazi symbol the Black Sun as an image on their recent record.
The project of former Left-wing musician Douglas Pearce, the fascist motifs of the band are often thought to be merely an act of provocation. Unfortunately, Pearce is also a fascist activist, and he will likely bring this message with him on their 30th anniversary tour.
Here are some key instances, copied from this
well-researched http://www.whomakesthenazis.com/2012/11/james-cavanagh-death-in-june-coming-to.html blog post:
In May 1999, a few days after BNP member David Copeland nail-bombed Brixton and Brick Lane markets and The Admiral Duncan pub in Soho, Death In June played The Garage in Islington (with fellow Nazi-admirers NON and Der Blutharsch). Copeland killed 3 people and injured 129. It has been widely corroborated that Pearce dedicated a song from the stage to the ‘White Wolves’ – a neo-Nazi grouping who had initially claimed responsibility for these atrocities. In much the same spirit, a valedictory message was posted to the Di6 Yahoo group forum immediately following Anders Breivik’s Utoya massacre, and mainland bombing.
,,,
“the Something Is Coming album, the proceeds of which were donated to the Bolnichi Clinic in Zagreb, Croatia during the Balkan conflict, Pearce has said “This was not purely a humanitarian gesture. It was a cultural one. A socio-Euro political one.”
The inference here is clear, despite the characteristic coyness; a diffidence which extends to the endlessly recycled back catalogue items listed for sale on the official Death In June website. “We STRONGLY recommend that all those living in Germany wishing to order ‘BROWN BOOK’ (Achtung!) UeBER DO NOT(!!) order direct from NER as random Customs checks do exist between the U.K. and the mainland of Europa… Talk to any of the million zillion illegal immigrants that now wander lonely as a black cloud through Europa’s streets forlorn….. Those not living in little red angel’s po-faced, goody 2 shoes Germany are also free to take advantage of these internet mail order firms….” he advises. The album in question, 1987’s Brown Book contains a version of the SA anthem ‘Horst-Wessel-Lied’, and has therefore been totally banned for sale or distribution by the German authorities”
…
From Libcom:
“In 1992, DIJ backed out and refused to play the Dark X-Mas festival in Hamburg after the organizers issued a statement condemning a spate of fascist attacks on immigrant asylums in Germany. Likewise, DIJ also refused to play a 1994 Festival of Darkness because the show was promoted as being against racism and neo-nazism.”
Their name comes from the “Night of the Long Knives,” June 6th, in which the Hitlerian wing of the Nazi party assassinated the Strasserian wing, considered the Nazi’s “left-wing” for their more socialist ideas about fascism. This slain group has remained a focal point for National Socialists to this day, who believe the Third Reich could have succeeded were some other Nazi besides Hitler to come to power.
Those who defend the band point to the fact that Douglas Pierce is openly homosexual, has worked with Jewish artists, and has played in Israel. Many modern fascists have skewed their positions a bit to be more popular, and many homosexuals and Jews have been involved the rising “New Right” constellations of recent decades.
Needless to say, their new found inclusiveness does not justify their politics. The dream of Pearce and New Rightist is still a European-centered (Occidentalist) Nationalist resurgence. Of his show in Israel, for instance, Pearce claims to appreciate the Zionist state for it’s assertion of superior Western ideals, which is a disgustingly anti-Arabic/Sephardic Jewish stance. Pearce and his cohorts are anti-Immigrant, anti-Left, and anti-integration. He continuously reiterates these positions in almost every interview.
Death in June shows have been protested, sabotaged, and even banned in certain regions for decades. Especially in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, where they have particularly strong neo-Nazi followings.
We’ve included some links to recent communiques and events below.
We have no reason to believe that anyone involved at ______ condones these types of politics, and we understand that the show will almost certainly sell-out. Our hope, however, is that ______ takes a stance against fascist imagery, slogans, and the neo-Nazis who will undoubtedly come from around the regiont to attend he show.
We hope to hear back from you, and start a dialogue!
Sincerely,
__________
http://www.whomakesthenazis.com/2010/11/what-ends-when-symbols-shatter-my-time.html
http://www.whomakesthenazis.com/2012/11/james-cavanagh-death-in-june-coming-to.html
http://libcom.org/library/death-in-june-a-nazi-band
Stop the Death In June Tour 2013 USA
Death in June, the notorious neo-fascist folk group, is going on tour this fall! Death in June shows, along with utilizing blatant fascist imagery, are frequently recruiting grounds for neo-Nazi and neo-fascist organizations. We need to do whatever we can to non-violently disrupt, harass, and shut down the tour.
Death in June will be playing at eight locations across the United States. Please contact the venues, tell your community, and organize non-violent direct action if necessary.
Tour Dates and Venue Information:
THURS. 12TH SEPT. THE VEX LOS ANGELES CA.
FRI. 13TH SEPT. MEZZANINE SAN FRANCISCO CA.
SAT. 14TH SEPT. INFEST AUSTIN TX.
MON. 16TH SEPT. REGGIES CHICAGO IL.
TUES. 17TH SEPT. RESPECTABLE STREET COCONUT CREEK/WEST PALM BEACH FL.
FRI. 20TH SEPT. THE BELL HOUSE BROOKLYN NY.
SAT. 21ST SEPT. OLD TOWN HALL SALEM MASS.
SUN. 22ND SEPT. THE OTTOBAR BALTIMORE MD.
NO COMPROMISE, NO SURRENDER!
A Special Shout-out
Over the course of our recent investigation into Stephen McNallen a number of sources have provided with invaluable leads, tips, and other pieces of evidence which have guided our research from day one.
We would like to thank all of our allies and our anonymous and confidential sources, some of whom have come to us at at great personal risk, for the help they’ve given us. Without you this investigation would not have been possible.
If you, or anyone you know, has any information on racialist activity, sympathies, or affiliations by Stephen McNallen or any other Heathen leaders in any Heathen organization anywhere in the world please contact us at circleansuz@riseup.net and share anything you know. Even the smallest of tips or the most mundane and unremarkable clues can lead to surprising discoveries.
Stephen McNallen and Racialist Asatru Part 3: In His Own Words
Table of Contents
Part 1: Metagenetics and the South Africa Connection
Part 2: Roots of Racialized Religion
Part 4: Stella Natura and What Can be Done
McNallen’s words and actions in the years following the founding of the new AFA show these early associations were not aberrations but the first symptoms of a much larger pattern. McNallen has used his position and organization as a platform for advancing thinly-veiled white nationalist talking points. His actual views on a number of popular topics among the New Right like immigration and the environment show his efforts in advancing a racialist agenda under the cover of spirituality.
An excellent example of this is an article on the topic of immigration he wrote and published in 2010 titled, “A down and dirty breakdown of the ‘browning of America'” in Western Voices World News, the news site for the white separatist group European Americans United. In the article he makes this astonishing claim:
4. Illegal immigration on the present scale is a form of conquest.
There are many ways to seize power in a country. Mao Zedung, Che Guevara, and Nguyen Vo Giap favored rural-based revolution involving guerrilla warfare. Leninist theory revolves around taking over existing institutions – “the organizational weapon.” In societies with just the right kind of bureaucracy, eager colonels can force a coup d’etat.
Today we are witnessing a new method of takeover. The formula is simple: Infiltrate an area with large numbers of illegals with strong ties to their home country. Encourage each new immigrant, legal or otherwise, to bring in his or her extended family. Obtain the diplomatic and political support of the sending country – in this case, Mexico. Build a network of nonprofit organizations with money from liberal foundations and government grants. Interlock the nonprofits and local political entities to form a comprehensive alternative governmental structure. Maintain racial and cultural solidarity while driving out competing races and cultures – one neighborhood, one town, one county at a time. If anyone objects, accuse them of “racism.”
It is working. Or rather, it has already worked over vast regions of what is still technically the American Southwest.
His solutions are equally reactionary in their intent. McNallen calls for a border wall to be built by imprisoned immigrants, the deportation of all illegal immigrants to Mexico, and an immediate overhaul of immigration law to put a halt to all non-European immigration into the United States.
This is not the only word he’s had on the subject. On the AFA site is posted another essay titled, “Wotan v. Tezcatlipoca: The Spiritual War for California and the Southwest.” In this essay McNallen argues Mexican immigration into the United States is driven, not by the fallout of neoliberal trade policies, fleeing the violence of drug cartel wars, or the simple desire for a better life which drove many immigrants — including McNallen’s Irish ancestors — to the United States, but by a crusade commanded by the Aztec God Tezcatlipoca:
The great majority of Mexican-descended people are solidly Christian, at least on the surface. You’ll find them in church most Sundays, and there is no reason to doubt their sincerity. But what lies beneath this ordinary exterior? Can a whole group of people manifest religious forces of which they’re not even consciously aware?
Carl Jung, one of the most famous psychologists of modern times, would say so. In an essay titled “Wotan,” he wrote how the God of fury and frenzy – as an archetype in the collective unconscious – had gripped the German people during the early part of the Twentieth Century. This was manifested in a great many religious and social movements, the most notorious and tragic of which was Nazism. The result was a great spiritual revival on one hand, and war and destruction on the other.
Would Carl Jung’s comments on Wotan as an archetype in the Germanic soul also have its parallel in the psychic functioning of the Mexican people? Are Tonatzin and Tezcatlipoca (the God, not just Leo Guerra) moving among their folk, stirring them to conquest?
What is even more curious is his claims follow the exact same line of reasoning as is presented by David Lane and Ron McVan on page eleven of the infamous white supremacist tract Creed of Iron:
Wotanism came back in force among the Germanic peoples and became manifest during the first and second World Wars. A new but ancient mythos was developing, a mythos of the blood, and it began reviving the light, order, spirit, and folkishness again within the Aryan race. The great Swiss psychologist and renowned founder of analytical psychology Professor Carl Gustav Jung stated that, “The power of Wotan (the principal deity of our pre-Christian forefathers) was possessing or incarnating in the entire German folk.” Professor Jung further stated in a letter to his friend, Miguel Serrano, in 1960 that “Wotan in reality never died, but has retained his original vitality and autonomy. Our consciousness only imagines that it has lost its gods; in reality they are still there and it only needs a certain general condition in order to bring them back in full force.”
Yet when these highly visible connections come to light McNallen is quick to muddy the waters. In 2011 the white nationalist National Policy Institute held their 2011 conference which Media Matters reporter Brian Powell covered. Amidst the discussion of carving out white ethnostates, post-apocalyptic doom and gloom, and serious discussions of re-instituting apartheid Powell encountered a group of Heathens affiliated with the AFA attending the conference. When word of this hit the Pagan press McNallen was quick to release a statement disavowing all responsibility putting the spin machine into overdrive with, “A Response to Recent Defamation”:
I have investigated the current controversy and have discussed it with the AFA Board of Directors. Here is my statement:
Four (not “seven to fourteen”) members of the Asatru Folk Assembly did attend a conference hosted by the National Policy Institute. They did this as private individuals, not as representatives for the Asatru Folk Assembly. The only way the original blogger, Brian Powell of the left-wing blog Media Matters, knew that they were AFA members is because, by his own admission, he craned his neck to see what one of them was writing on a piece of paper. At no time was there any attempt to speak for the AFA or to identify the ideals of the AFA with the subject matter of the conference.
The AFA will not dictate to its members which meetings they are permitted to attend as private individuals. There are suggestions that we discipline them for the crime of being present in a room where extreme statements seem to have been made. We will not do this. There will be no exposure, no witch-hunt, no apologies, and no reprimands.
A careful reading of the original post on the Media Matters blog makes it clear that Mr. Powell “cherry picked” the most extreme comments possible while ignoring the rest. He admitting that he expected “a little more anger, a little more foaming-at-the-mouth hatred of non-whites.” He further notes that “foremost on the minds of the attendees was not white dominance, it was white extinction.” His main objection, in short, was that people of European descent dared to meet to quietly discuss issues of concern to them as a group.
Let me very clearly state these two points: 1. The AFA will never advocate, condone, or excuse illegal or dishonorable acts directed at any person because of their race. 2. That said, men and women of European descent have exactly the same right to meet and to promote their collective interests as do any other group. To demonize them for doing this, when every other group is encouraged to do so, is to indulge in a vicious double standard.
Playing to the standard tactics of imaginary double-standards, shooting the messenger, apple pie words, and accusing everyone else of racist intent McNallen is quick to appeal to the narrative of victimization. Rather than address the content or issues he argues the AFA has no right to dictate to individuals what they do in their own time while simultaneously distancing the organization from any illegal or dishonorable acts they might do. For all his vocal support for individual freedom he is quick to dismiss any possibility of holding them accountable by providing the “private activity” loophole.
When the spotlight is turned away McNallen, using the AFA blog and Facebook as his podium, advances an agenda which is clearly inspired by and feeds the appetites of white nationalists. On the AFA’s own blog McNallen publishes multiple pieces where he insinuates and in some cases openly claims whites around the world are facing a campaign of genocide. In Asatru and the Most Heroic Age of All McNallen says, “We European-descended folk are cut off from our spiritual heritage and flounder, lost, in a swamp of alienation and apathy. Everywhere, our numbers are dropping.” In What Makes the Asatru Folk Assembly Different: Purpose! he points to the AFA’s Declaration of Purpose, enshrining the first two above all others:
What does matter to us is purpose! This, in the form of the Declaration of
Purpose, is the guiding star of the Asatru Folk Assembly. The first two points
of the DOP deal with the practice of Asatru and with the existence of our Folk,
respectively. The remaining points are elaborations on these.
The two points in question are, “The preservation of the Peoples of the North (typified by the Scandinavian/Germanic and Celtic peoples), and the furtherance of their continued evolution” and “The issuance of a call to all our brothers and sisters of the People of the North to return to this, their native religion and way of life“. What makes these claims even more questionable is their striking similarly to the latest line of propaganda from the white nationalist movement: global white genocide. He makes his feelings on the issue even more clear in the 142nd issue of the AFA newsletter:
OUR CULTURE, OUR PEOPLE
Most Whites believe “the American dream” is dead
According to an ABC News/Yahoo poll, only about half of all Americans feel “the American dream” – the belief that if you work hard you’ll get ahead, and so forth – is alive.
Generally, respondents with more education and greater income said the dream was alive and well. We might expect, then, that most European-Americans (roughly synonymous with “whites”) might be in the optimistic camp. However, this is not the case: Only 48% of whites said the dream was alive for them. Of non-whites, 57% said the dream was alive.
What does this tell us about the mood of Eurofolk? We’ve known for years that the group with the highest rate of suicide in this country has been European-American teenage males, and the “prize” for the lowest self-esteem has gone to teen European-American females. Despite all the politically-correct assumptions about “white privilege,” more and more of us are sensing that the current system is stacked against us and that something is very, very wrong.
Our sickness, of course, is ultimately spiritual. We must find our ancient soul. We must realize we are a people. Each of us is the latest expression of a continuity stretching back to the earliest inhabitants of Europe, a continuity that transcends space and time and mortality.
“Only when we realize we are a river will we stop drowning in puddles.”(1)
When not advancing an overtly white nationalist line of reasoning McNallen dabbles a bit in environmental advocacy through the Facebook page. Through this page McNallen gave his qualified endorsement of Deep Green Resistance, a radical environmentalist movement which advocates an end to modern civilization and the use of guerrilla warfare to achieve it and damn the consequences:
In the first of the two posts: “Why I Like Deep Green Resistance” McNallen lays out the positives:
SOME THINGS I LIKE ABOUT THE BOOK “DEEP GREEN RESISTANCE”
Deep Green Resistance, by Aric McBay, Lierre Keith, and Derrick Jensen,is controversial for an understandable reason: It advocates the dismantling of civilization to save life on Earth. Personally, I don’t think the human race needs to go back to the hunter-gatherer level – which is basically what they advocate but I agree that some radical changes are in order. Another problem is their overall radical-left worldview. That said, there are some very good things about this book.Things I like about this book: First, the authors understand the seriousness of our situation. They understand that not only humans, but many or most animal and plant species on Earth, are in danger of extinction. With just a little effort, we could actually kill everything down to and including bacteria (the “Venus syndrome.”) That’s pretty serious.
Second, the DGR crowd gets a really important fact: Corporations and government are not going to stop what they are doing just because we ask them nicely.
Third, they know we don’t have a lot of time. If we had a hundred years, or even fifty, we might change enough “hearts and minds” to keep us from going over the cliff. But time is something we don’t have: Earth’s climate for the next few thousand years will be determined by what we do in the coming decades.
Fourth, I like their passion, which they often express with great eloquence.
In tomorrow’s post, I’ll cover what I DON’T like about DGR.
Asatru serves Life! We stand with the Aesir, the Vanir, and our mother Earth.
Steve McNallen
And what he doesn’t like:
SOME THINGS I DON’T LIKE ABOUT THE BOOK “DEEP GREEN RESISTANCE”
Yesterday I told you four things I really liked about DGR. Today, you get to read about the downside.
First, like radical leftists everywhere, they analyze things in terms of class struggle. I reject this out of hand. An Asatru approach would stress the spiritual values of our tribes, our nations, and our ethnic heritage. The ideology of class struggle only disrupts and obscures the primary importance of organic religious and ethnic ties. My loyalty is not to the “workers of the world,” but to my extended kin – all men, women, and children of European descent.
Second, they oppose hierarchy. The peoples of Europe, however, have long been hierarchical: Our tribes had a distinct leader who was often chosen from specific distinguished families, advised by a council of often influential or wealthy leaders, and who was held in check by the votes of the freemen.
Third, they are anti-masculine. Men are basically accepted only to the extent that they are psychologically neutered. Put-downs on men are scattered throughout the book. The proposed DGR society would be driven by female values, not by a balance of male and female as we have in Asatru.
Fourth, I cannot accept the idea of rejecting our hard-won scientific and technological discoveries. As Eurofolk, we have an innate drive to frontiers whether they be geographical or theoretical. We have been to the moon, and our descendants will explore the Galaxy. Our task is to make a technologically-advanced civilization compatible with a living Earth. This can be done.
Despite my criticisms, there is much in “Deep Green Resistance” that is of value and it is a real thought-provoker.
Hail the Gods!
Hail the AFA!Steve
There are a few things about this pair of posts that are very unusual. The first is, in spite of his opposition to their goals of ending civilization, McNallen ultimately recommends reading it. The second is the total lack of any mention of the use of violent terrorist tactics to achieve their ends. The only thing he says on the matter is he agrees with their sense of urgency while saying nothing about the means behind that urgency. Third is DGR itself. Far from being the norm in radical environmentalism Deep Green Resistance is seen by many other environmental radicals, anarchists, and other fellow travelers as fringe extremists. As a result of this firestorm of controversy several DGR members resigned from the organization in protest, citing these criticisms and others as their main grievances. Fourth and finally his reasoning depends, like all his other works, heavily on his ideas on metagenetics, heritage, and the centrality of race in culture and spirituality.
His relatively recent promotion of environmental issues fits with an alarming and growing trend in the global neo-fascist movement: a serious push to co-opt the green movement. This element of neo-fascist ideology traces its roots back to the concept of Blut und Boden (blood and soil). This theory is one of many central justifications for their pathological anti-semitism and their demands for “living space“. In 1953 Julius Evola would take some of these ideas to the next step in his book Men Among the Ruins. In it he calls for a retreat from modernity as part of the necessary personal transformation to build reactionary consciousness.
In practice this leads to fascist movements attempting to co-opt the ideas and imagery of the green movement. As was observed at the blog Climate and Capitalism the main avenue for their co-optation is the overpopulation argument. This argument has a surprising level of support among some segments of the environmental movement. Fascist organizations turn this into a call for banning immigration to reduce the number of undesirable poor degrading the environment. One excellent example is Golden Dawn’s “Green Wing“, an organization set up to advance an eco-friendly image for the openly neo-Nazi political party. Central to Golden Dawn’s party platform is the call to build a “Greece for Greeks” where immigration would be banned, all immigrants would be expelled, and entrance into the country would be sharply limited.
Golden Dawn and Stephen McNallen aren’t alone in holding such extreme views on immigration and the environment. In the words of Derrick Jensen, one of the founders of Deep Green Resistance:
And you’ve heard the arguments. The United States needs to close its borders to immigration from poor countries. Having finally gotten our own birthrate down sufficiently to more or less stabilize our population, the last thing we need is a bunch of poor (brown) people moving in to crowd us out (we know, also, that once they’re here they’ll breed faster than we do, and soon enough will outnumber us).
I often respond to this argument by saying I’m all for closing the border to Mexico (and everywhere else, for that matter, all the way down to closing bioregional borders), so long as we close it not only to people but to resources as well.
McNallen’s speech and advocacy are not limited to the online world. Coming up on September 20th in the High Sierras is the latest and most blatant of Stephen McNallen’s promotion of fascist ideology: Stella Natura.
Continued in Part Four: Stella Natura and What Can be Done on Monday, September 9th
1. AFA Update, Issue #142, January 5th, 2011
Table of Contents
Part 1: Metagenetics and the South Africa Connection
Part 2: Roots of Racialized Religion
Part 4: Stella Natura and What Can be Done
From the beginning McNallen would employ a concept, well understood to anyone with an education in political science, infamously described by BNP leader Nick Griffin years later as, “apple pie words” in crafting his organization’s messaging. While overtly denouncing racism McNallen argues for many key elements of racialist, white nationalist and separatist ideology. This is clearly stated in the second point of the Asatru Folk Assembly’s Declaration of Purpose:
The preservation of the Peoples of the North (typified by the Scandinavian/Germanic and Celtic peoples), and the furtherance of their continued evolution:
Ours is an ancestral religion, one passed down to us from our forebears from ancient times and thus tailored to our unique makeup. Its spirit is inherent in us as a people. If the People of the North ceased to exist, Asatru would likewise no longer exist. It is our will that we not only survive, but thrive, and continue our upward evolution in the direction of the Infinite.
All native religions spring from the unique collective soul of a particular people. Religions are not arbitrary or accidental; body, mind and spirit are all shaped by the evolutionary history of the group and are thus interrelated. Asatru is not just what we believe, it is what we are. Therefore, the survival and welfare of the Northern European peoples as a cultural and biological group is a religious imperative for the AFA.
The belief that spirituality and ancestral heritage are related has nothing to do with notions of superiority. Asatru is not an excuse to look down on, much less to hate, members of any other race. On the contrary, we recognize the uniqueness and the value of all the different pieces that make up the human mosaic.
This is followed by the exhortation to:
The issuance of a call to all our brothers and sisters of the People of the North to return to this, their native religion and way of life:
We would impose Asatru on no one. But we earnestly invite those whose heritage it is, to return to the belief that is a part of them as surely as blood and bone.
Asafolk have traditionally been restrained when it comes to seeking converts. However, we do feel that our brothers and sisters will be healthier and happier once they have returned to the religion that expresses their heritage. Also, we need them! The restoration of our ancient ways, and the building of a secure future for our religion and our people, is a huge undertaking that can use all the willing hands we can find. For these reasons, we call our kin to rejoin the great family of men and women who honor the sacred ways of the Northland.
Which bears considerable resemblance to the central tenets of Dutch ultranationalist theoretician Dr. Abraham Kuyper, one of the key figures in the development of Afrikaner nationalism in South Africa. Kuyper argued for, “a nationalism of separate, unique national identities as created by God”. According to Kuyper’s theories it was necessary for these divinely-mandated nations to maintain their cultural and linguistic purity. These beliefs very rapidly saw racialist elements easily grafted on by the late 19th century Afrikaners who were already inculcated in similar ideas via Afrikaner Calvinism justifying their treatment and enslavement of the native Africans.
Afrikaner Calvinism, similar to Kuyper’s theories, argued an unusual variant of Calvinist predestination. In mainstream Calvinism this doctrine was seen as a matter of individual salvation but to the Afrikaners entire groups were pre-destined by God for paradise or damnation. If any of the group stray all suffer, making it the responsibility of the whole of the community to work for salvation by shunning, expelling, or even enslaving and killing those who threaten their prospect of heavenly reward. It was this obsession with communal salvation, coupled with Boer opposition to the British abolition of slavery in 1833, which led to the migration away from the British-dominated coast known as the “Great Trek.”
These values of racial superiority, communal salvation, and ethnonationalism formed the basis of the South African apartheid regime, one of many examples used by modern white separatists to validate their arguments. In many ways Boer separatism is founded on similar ideals as the call as demanding everyone, “drink from their own well.” It also fits quite well with the admirable, glowing words McNallen uses to describe Afrikaner Resistance Movement’s paramilitary training:
They were good people [Afrikaners], and they were the bastion of European culture on the African continent. Their insistent Christianity cannot conceal the truth that they are a wandering Germanic tribe; the fact that they confuse the God of the Bible with Wotan does not keep them from being a part of that great Northern family whose way we follow.(1)
The AFA’s Law of the Hall further reinforces the organization’s authoritarian, racialist foundation saying:
We can think of the AFA as a vast chieftain’s hall from the heroic age, and our fellow AFA supporters as our benchmates within that hall. To preserve peace in the hall and to protect the reputation of those who inhabit it, we have certain rules. These rules constitute the “Law of the Hall.”
Rule number five says quite clearly, “Strive that our Folk shall live forever, though all the forces of Muspel march against us. Work for the good of the Folk Within (Asatruar) and the Folk Without (the Greater Family of our people who have not yet come to the Gods) in all ways that are honorable and noble.”
While these central principles demonstrate a strong tie with white nationalist themes of victimization further evidence shows the connection between the AFA and American neo-fascism runs far deeper. In 1998 the Southern Poverty Law Center reported one of McNallen’s key organizers had proven ties to the national socialist movement: Ronald Schuett, the guildmaster of the Teaching Guild. Schuett, prior to his affiliation with the AFA, was the Colorado state organizer for the neo-Nazi SS Action Group and once told a reporter while wearing a Nazi uniform,”I’m a white racist and proud of it”. He was also believed to have connections with the Hammerskins, a notoriously violent white supremacist skinhead gang.
The first demonstration of action by McNallen to prove his fidelity to racialist ideology was his involvement in the Kennewick Man controversy. The issue erupted when unidentified remains were discovered in Washington State on July 28th, 1996. The Umatilla tribe demanded the remains be handed over as part of the terms of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. A group of anthropologists sued the US government for the right to perform DNA testing leading to a court battle between the anthropologists and the Umtailla. McNallen waded into the controversy arguing, “While we share the belief that the government has no right to keep anthropologists from studying the Kennewick Man, we continue to seek mitochondrial DNA testing to determine his genetic links to our European ancestors.” Stephen McNallen’s legal efforts were spearheaded by attorney Michael Clinton, a known supporter of Holocaust denier David Irving with ties to skinheads and the American Front who was the editor for McNallen’s(2) short-lived Wolf Age magazine. On August 20th, 1999 the AFA had their day in court arguing Kennewick Man was one of their own to justify their claim to DNA testing. The court ruled otherwise and their request for DNA testing was denied. Scientists later concluded the sample was so old it had no viable DNA samples for testing.
Valgard Murray (left) and Stephen McNallen (right)
In 1997 McNallen further affirmed his connections to the white nationalist movement when he married Sheila Edlund. Valgard Murray, co-founder of the Asatru Alliance, performed the ceremony blessing the new couple while Blood Axis frontman Michael Moynihan performed for the guests. While on the surface the wedding doesn’t seem like much out of the ordinary as far as Pagan and Heathen ceremonies go, much more than meets the eye was going on there.
Valgard Murray
Valgard Murray has a long and proven past with the racialist movement. He first became involved in the racialist scene in the late 1960s when he first came into contact with Odinism. In the 1970s Murray would co-found the Arizona Kindred with Elton Hall, the man who first introduced him to Odinism and the American Nazi Party’s state organizer(3). In 1976 the Arizona Kindred would become the first kindred to be certified by Else Christensen’s Odinist Fellowship with Murray later serving as organization’s vice president(4). Following the collapse of the old AFA Murray partnered with Tribe of the Wulflings founder Robert Taylor to found the Asatru Alliance in 1988(5). The structure of the Asatru Alliance was based on the system used by outlaw biker gangs of hangaround kindreds, probationary kindreds, and full members; not surprising considering Murray’s past history as a spokesperson for the national socialist Iron Cross outlaw motorcycle club(6).
Michael Moynihan performing with Blood Axis
Moynihan, is a well-known member of the modern neo-fascist movement. As the face of the neo-fascist group Blood Axis Moynihan is a long-time member of the American New Right. Contrary to the usual stereotype Moynihan is not a blood-hungry bruiser but a slick intellectual operator. Aside from his role as the frontman for Blood Axis and work on other neo-fascist musical acts Moynihan works to help disseminate neo-fascist thought. In 1992 he edited and provided the introduction for the book Siege, a collection of the writings of neo-Nazi James Mason. He followed up in 1995 with the publication of Lords of Chaos, a book about the black metal subculture. In it he argues the entire sub-culture was an expression of the suppressed atavistic archetypes of the Nordic psyche(7).
Moynihan has continued to focus on the more mystical elements, working with Edred Thorsson on his translation of of the works of Karl Wiligut, Heinrich Himmler’s personal occultist, as the editor of The Secret King: Karl Maria Wiligut, Himmler’s Lord of the Runes which was first published in 2001. He also edited a translation of Julius Evola’s Men Among Ruins, a book that calls for a violent counter-revolution to overthrow democracy and replace it with a fascist warrior society. Evola, an Italian fascist philosopher whose works are the foundation of modern radical traditionalism, is a particular favorite who shows up much more frequently in Moynihan’s later projects. In his later work with Joshua Buckley at the radical traditionalist journal Tyr, who published their first issue in 2002, Julius Evola’s writings are a popular subject along with the works of famed French New Right thinker Alain de Benoist. All three volumes of Tyr‘s issue collections are available, among other places, at the AFA’s online store in the books section which is not too surprising since McNallen contributed to Volume 2.
Asatru Folk Assembly online store, books section
Since founding the AFA on such principles in 1994 and solidifying his ties to the movement in the later part of the decade McNallen has continued to advocate for veiled, family-friendly white nationalism. Posing as defenders of a genuinely multicultural world McNallen, using the AFA as a support base and megaphone, has worked to blur the line between fascist, radical traditionalist politics and Heathen spirituality. If anything as time has gone by he’s grown bolder and more outspoken.
Continued in Part Three: In His Own Words on Monday, September 2nd
1. Wolf Age, Winter 1995 issue from The Dignity Report, Volume 5, Issue 1, Winter 1998
2. ibid
3. Mattias Gardell, Gods of the Blood, the Pagan Revival and White Separatism, (Durham and London: Duke University, 2003), 261.
4. ibid
5. Gardell 262
6. ibid
7. Gardell 300
Stephen McNallen and Racialist Asatru Part 1: Metagenetics and the South Africa Connection
Table of Contents
Part 1: Metagenetics and the South Africa Connection
Part 2: Roots of Racialized Religion
Part 4: Stella Natura and What Can be Done
Stephen McNallen is, without a doubt, one of the most famous names in American Heathenry. A long-time participant, organizer, and writer in American Asatru McNallen has been active since the early 70s when he helped found the Asatru Free Assembly. Following the organization’s collapse over the issue of racism he traveled the world, writing for Soldier of Fortune magazine, before founding the Asatru Folk Assembly in 1994. Since then he has led the AFA to becoming a large, well-known, and established element in the American Heathen community. So great is his influence and fame that many say he is the most important man in American Heathenry. His proponents claim, quite loudly, that without McNallen Heathenry would not exist in the United States.
Stephen McNallen
The story is very powerful, compelling, and is a carefully crafted myth. Stephen McNallen, far from being the messianic figure he is held up as, has for some time been an active participant in the American neo-fascist radical traditionalist movement. It is not certain how long he has been involved in the neo-fascist movement but what is certain is since at least 1985 he has been an unapologetic advocate for white nationalism. Far worse, he has actively worked to advance his brand of Heathenry by concealing it behind an appealing mask of twisted heritage and falsified traditions. The damage he has done to American Heathenry is incalculable.
It is not clear when McNallen first subscribed to racialist practice but the first proof we have of him articulating such a position is from 1985 and the time of the Asatru Free Assembly. During the 70s and 80s the old AFA, as it is known, was kicked off by a dispute over what to do about a kindred in Arizona who included open neo-Nazis. The debate steadily split the AFA into two camps: those who supported excluding those from the community who were not of proven Germanic descent and those who welcomed all interested seekers. The tensions of the debate would lead to the AFA dissolving sometime between 1986 and 1987. As the schism in the Asatru Free Assembly was gaining momentum McNallen would write and publish the document that would be the foundation of his form of Heathen practice: Metagenetics.
In “Metagenetics” McNallen lays out his case for racialized, ethnocentric spirituality. He begins by saying:
One of the most controversial tenets of Asatru is our insistence that ancestry matters- that there are spiritual and metaphysical implications to heredity, and that we are thus a religion not for all of humanity, but rather one that calls only its own. This belief of ours has led to much misunderstanding, and as aresult some have attempted to label us as “racist”, or have accused us of fronting for totalitarian political forms.
No doubt, on an earlier and deeper level of psychic development, where it is still impossible to distinguish between an Aryan, Semitic,Hamitic, or Mongolian mentality, all human races have a common collective psyche. But with the beginning of racial differentiation, essential differences are developed in the collective psyche as well. For this reason, we cannot transplant the spirit of a foreign religion ‘in globo’ into our own mentality without sensible injury to the latter.”
In the years following the dissolution of the old AFA and the founding of the Ring of the Troth Stephen McNallen traveled the world, particularly in South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana, as a writer for Soldier of Fortune magazine.
Soldier of Fortune May 1995 Issue cover
One piece he published was in the May 1995 issue covering the notorious mercentary outfit Executive Outcomes, one of the first modern private mercenary corporations.
Soldier of Fortune May 1995 Table of Contents
The byline for the article McNallen introduces them with, “If you are willing to occasionally fire up a few friends from a long-time, pro-Western, anti-communist guerrilla group, Executive Outcomes is looking for a few good mercs.” The true story behind Executive Outcomes is much less glamorous than this implies. Founded in 1989 by former Lt. Colonel Eeben Barlow of the South Africa Defense Force’s infamous Civil Cooperation Bureau, an apartheid-era government hit squad, Barlow took advantage of the downsizing of the SADF to recruit now unemployed veterans & special forces operators to form the backbone of his new business venture. EO would do the dirty work for corporate interests all over Africa until their dissolution in 1999.
McNallen’s time in South Africa would have a profound impact on his form of racialized Heathenry. When he returned to the United States in 1994 from his travels abroad and founded the Asatru Folk Assembly, he began promoting many concepts central to Afrikaner nationalism as if they are inseparable from Asatru itself.
Continued in Part Two: The Roots of Racialized Religion on Monday, August 26th
Fascist “pagan” Varg Vikernes arrested in France
-An analysis of the events and its meaning to the heathen community-
Kristian Vikernes AKA Count Grishnackh AKA Varg was arrested recently in France on the suspicion he was planning a “massacre”. A statement by the French Interior Minister said both Kristian and his wife were a “potential threat to society”. That’s right, the most infamous White Power “pagan” is at it again, this time, he is in France.
Vikernes house in France
Some may remember an odd, charismatic, young Norwegian musician of the pioneer black metal bands Burzum and Mayhem, who was found guilty of murdering his band-mate Øystein ‘Euronymous’ Aarseth by stabbing him to death in 1993 and of burning down Christian Norwegian Stave churches (the arson of Åsane Church, Storetveit Church, Skjold Church and Holmenkollen Chapel in Oslo) beginning with his suspected arson of Fantoft stave church. These events all helped to contribute to the “Satanic Panic” of the late 80s and early 90s when the western world media mistook his “pagan” reasoning for the arsons as “satanic” and “occult” in origin. He is also suspected of forming small radical nationalist racialist pagan cells which burned other churches as well as founding and participating in a Neo-völkisch prison gang after his incarceration called the “Norsk Hedensk Front” (“Norwegian Heathen Front”). The reasoning for the arsons, as he writes in his book Vargsmål was that:
“For each devastated graveyard, one heathen grave is avenged, for each ten churches burnt to ashes, one heathen Hof is avenged, for each ten priests or freemasons assassinated, one heathen is avenged.”
To Kristian, Christianity is responsible for the moral decay of society (including race mixing, international monied interests, and the subjection of the individual to religious authority), specifically in regards to Norwegian society. This corrupting influence stems, according to Vikernes, from the Jewish origins of Christianity (amongst other things). Thus we find the origin of his anti-Semitism and Nationalist tendency. Really his ideology is a right-wing/fascist reaction to encroaching modernity that was felt during the “McDonaldization” of Norway in the late 80s and early 90s as a result of globalization. Kristian’s participation in the revolutionary violent far Right European political scene and his self-expressed links to “paganism” and “heathenry” have caused long term damage not only to the image of paganism but also contributes to anti-pagan sentiment all over Europe and North America as well as continued suspicion of all self-identified heathens as secretly subscribing to neo-Nazi ideologies.
Kristian was released in March 2009 on parole he served 15 years of his 21-year sentence under Norwegian law. Days after his release a church in Våler was destroyed by arson perhaps the work of his sycophants of a self-styled “Einsatzgruppen” he once hired to break him out of prison.
It is important to note that when “Varg” was arrested, for the murder of Øystein, he was found to have 150 kg of explosives and 3,000 rounds of ammunition in his house with the intent of blowing up an anarchist community center and squat in Olso called “Blitz House”. To us this shows his clear intent to escalate from arsons of empty buildings to mass murder. In the documentary Until the Light Takes Us Kristian retells stories from his childhood:
“Rode our bikes up to McDonald’s and we set down and started to fire on their windows. You know, we were sneaking up and “Boom!” We were shooting at McDonald’s. We stockpiled weapons, munitions to prepare for war.”
The Norwegian government shows how it deals with racist terrorists: lock them up and let them go. Kristian’s recent arrest in France shows that the Norwegian government, known for its progressive social democratic state, let a known racist terrorist walk free to take his reign of racially motivated terror international.
The Vikerneses
We were at first surprised to find Kristian in France. Then we quickly realized why he might have picked up and moved residence from a small Norwegian farm in in Bø, Telemark to modern, multicultural France. The New Right and associated crypto-neo-fascist groups are coalescing in France (as well as England) stoking anti-Muslim and anti-foreigner sentiment in hopes of building political and military power to ‘take back Europe’. This particular brand of fascism draws heavily on the fascist idea of “Europe for Europeans” and a “Grand Euro-ethnic awakening”. Obviously the new fad in fascist organization is based around exchanging the racially charged term “white” for a pseudo ethnic pan-European identity similar to the Pan-Germanicists of the late 1800s in Northern Europe. This mirrors the approach of most racialist tendencies in the American Heathen community to gather followers under the banner of pan-Europeanism (of course always mixed with a heavy dose of patriarchy and unchallenged misogyny). Despite the obvious fact that Europe and thus Europeans are a diverse mix of people, beliefs, and origins, this holdover ideology from the 19th century still is a pervasive belief. Mirroring again modern fascist groups, racialist authoritarian heathens typically reject Christianity on metaphysical and cultural grounds using it as a scape goat for the ills of modernity and to explain their withdrawal from mainstream culture into idealized racial enclaves and small tight knit white communities.
Again the basic idea promoted by the “Count”, other fascist groups in the US and Europe and racialist heathens is that because Christianity came from Judaism (and because Jews are the classic bogey man of the White Right), Christianity is a cultural poison with the cure being a race war of some sort (sometimes couched in cultural terms and sometimes posed as a calamitous event cause either by corrupt political or economic forces controlled by other races) which results in a purge the ‘desert God’s poison’ from society. Replace Christianity with Islam and you find the other half of a modern fascist organizers coin. We were also less than shocked to find out Kristian was possibly stock piling arms and munitions in France, a hallmark of race warriors everywhere. The main take away is that modern fascist ideological currents are mirroring that of racialist Heathens and their organizations in hopes of creating a base of which to recruit from.
Another aspect of this story central to us, and the Heathen community (as well as our physical communities), is how locals in his French community dismissed him “I didn’t notice anything strange other than that he liked to wear military costumes and liked Gothic music“. This is exactly what covert and overt white nationalists depend on: the apathy and ignorance of their physical communities to dangerous fascist cultural flags or markers. Fascists want people to think white revolutionaries are simply eccentrics and really nothing more than people who have passing weird or dark interests. They count on our communities’ ignorance of things like their symbology to catch the community into their ideological web. Our inoculation from these unwanted incursions is education and dissemination of information about fascist culture so others can identify and expose them for what they are.
We sincerely hoped that the French government might be successful in prosecuting and imprisoning Kristian so French antifascists can catch up with him behind bars. Despite arguments about unfair State repression against “innocent” Kristian, we do not mind seeing State power used to tie up the funds and movements of known fascists. Although as they showed, in typical fashion, the State failed to do anything real except add to the martyr complex “Varg” banks on to sell records and books. The rule that rarely does any State move to prosecute fascists in any real way is proved yet again. Typically governmental powers utilize the desire of fascists to kill others to fill the ranks of their military, police and security apparatus and ignore their violent organizing until it boils over into a mass shooting or bombing which they claim as an isolated event of someone who was mentally ill. This is what is known as the medicalization of violent racists which is used by a system of institutions to reinforce white supremacy as a pervasive element within both North American and European societies. Even in the U.S. rarely are people such as neo-Nazis prosecuted for obvious hate crimes in relation to their criminal political activity.
The story of “Varg”s life should be a wakeup call to all pagans and heathens around the world. If these Outlaws go unchecked they will continue to gain footholds in our communities. These jötunn are amongst us, they help run national heathen organizations and are helping to build a movement of white race radicals very quietly by leeching our communities of their power to fill their ranks with disposable race warriors. Our counter message is simple:
If you express racist/fascist beliefs or views, you are not welcome in our communities! Freedom of speech does not protect you from the consequences of your speech!
The work that the Circle Ansuz Collective and our allies do, are in part, to undermine the organizations, like those started by Kristian and others, and to prevent and disrupt their violent anti-social agenda. We will not back down to Outlaws who wish to use our community as a base to build violent fascist organizations. By building a culture, and a community based on anti-fascist heathen values we show our strength. When fascists see a circled Ansuz rune they will know that they are not welcome and that Outlaws cannot hide.
-the Circle Ansuz Collective
The general theory of Heathen anarchism
There are two main pillars that serve as the foundations of Heathen anarchism. The first is the justification based on historical data, the social practices of the ancient Germanics, and modern archeology. The second justification is rooted in the most commonly accepted creation epic, the Voluspol, and in the spiritual truths inherent in a cyclical cosmology.
The first element is based on the surviving records, evidence, and known practices of the pre-Christian Germanic cultures of Northern Europe. Their societies developed organically and free of states and state-like institutions. Prior to the establishment of the power of the warrior-aristocracy before the fall of the Roman Empire and in the later years of the Viking Age the peoples of the Germanic tribes governed themselves through popular assemblies known as Things or Dings. These assemblies allowed all free people, men and women alike, to speak, vote, and seek peaceful redress for grievances. Along with self-governance came self-policing; in these ancient societies all free people were expected to take part in the defense of the community and maintaining of order. One of the best manifestations of this was the widely-held custom requiring all free people to possess and know how to use arms.
The self-governing pre-Christian Germanic societies had no coercive, oppressive state to rule them or socio-economic institutions, like churches or corporations, to dictate their daily lives. Lands were held in common by the families that lived on them. Their economy was founded on producing to meet the needs of people and not for the purposes of accumulation of massive personal wealth at the expense of the people. Trade was conducted for the purposes of acquiring useful goods and commodities.
The second element is the spiritual one. In the Voluspol it is stated at one point in the distant past the world was nothing but a yawning void stretched between fire and ice. One day the fire and ice collided, creating a massive cloud of steam from which came the giant Ymir and the cow Audumla. Ymir would sire the frost giants living in a world that was nothing but tundra and frost until Buri, the grandfather of Odin and his brothers, was released from the primordial ice. For three generations the sons and grandsons of Buri would intermarry with giants and live in these circumstances until one day Odin and his brothers, Vili and Ve, rose up and slew Ymir. Working in conjunction with the other gods they used the giant’s corpse as source material for building Midgard in the howling void. In the future it is said in the Voluspol the Nine Worlds will burn and the gods will fall in battle at Ragnarok and in turn be succeeded by a new world rising from the ashes of the old.
The cycle of creation, destruction, and re-creation from the bones of the destroyed world shows in the end that all things, even gods and worlds, will meet their end. In turn their ends will lead to a new, more refined creation using the elements of the previous state of existence as the materials for their construction. In Heathen anarchism this cycle is central to the justification of synergy with the anarchist ideals social revolution and creating the new in the shell of the old. If it is a cosmological truth that gods and worlds are destined to die one day then it follows this applies to all other things whether living, nonliving, or abstract concepts. Socio-economic systems, as history has shown, are not eternal, perfect, or unceasingly enduring but are in fact fallible and replacable. It logically follows that if all things in this universe will meet their end then it is impossible for any socio-economic system to be perfect, everlasting, and irreplaceable.
The other side of the spiritual justification lies in the creation of humanity. In the Voluspol it is stated humans were created by Odin, Hoenir, and Lodur from two pieces of driftwood they found on a beach. The gods imbued the dead wood with life, consciousness, and intelligence creating man and woman simultaneously and equally before letting the new creations go on their way. They gave no commands or issued any decrees demanding obedience or overlordship. Furthermore while the gods do give Ask and Embla life, consciousness, and intelligence they do not give them free will. The first two humans, upon coming to life, exerted their free will by going out into the world and the gods did nothing to infringe on their free will.
In Heathen anarchism this process is proof that free will, free choice, and autonomy are inherent elements of all life. The gods do not give humans freedom or constrain their freedom because they acknowledge that humans, by the simple virtue of living, already possess these qualities. If even the gods that created us have no right to place any constraints on our autonomy then no human institution has any right to limit our inherent autonomy by force, fraud, or coercion. Just as the gods created the universe through discussion, council, and consensus it follows all human systems should be founded on similar principles.
The creation of the sexes further reinforces this point. In creating humans the gods use two different kinds of tree to do the job, an ash and an elm. In spite of the different materials used to create each neither is declared superior or inferior to the other. They are different yet at the same time they are peers and equals. This is because they are, regardless of these differences, equally alive. As such they both possess the autonomy inherent to all life. Neither is “naturally” superior to the other because just as it is not possible for human institutions to claim coercive power over other humans it is also not possible for one human to claim power over another human based on outward differences in appearance or physical form. These differences do not negate the fundamental autonomy both share.
Equally crucial in the creation epic is humanity’s place in the world. Quite unlike the ideas which originate in the Book of Genesis the gods of Heathenry do not place humanity in any superior position to nature. There is no command to be stewards of the earth or any implication humans are somehow above the natural world. In fact the creation itself shows an intimate connection. The first humans are made from two pieces of dead driftwood, not unlike the creation of the world from the body of the slain giant Ymir. The driftwood, being dead, was once alive and an indisputable part of the natural world. Coupled with the lack of any superiority given to humans argues humanity is just as much a part of the natural world as the trees we are said to be made from.
Finally we have the example of the coming, inevitability of Ragnarok. This fated, destined end to reality as we know it is certain and unavoidable. Yet in spite of predestined fate the gods struggle to stop the end of all worlds, even though they know their efforts only delay the inevitable. It is because the deeds of protecting those they love and fighting to defend others from harm are right in and of themselves. It does not matter if the odds are impossible or defeat is certain. What matters is that you fight on for what you believe is right.
It is from this foundation, in conjunction with established anarchist and radical theories and ideas advanced by thinkers like Emma Goldman, Piotr Kropotkin, Mikhail Bakunin, Murray Bookchin, Karl Marx, and others that Heathen anarchism relates with broader anarchist ideas. In Heathenry reality is complicated. Our universe consists of nine worlds populated by uncountable deities and cosmic powers great and small. Gods, heroes, and people are complex and multifaceted.
Thanks to this perspective we view the world around us in the same way, seeking to apply the most appropriate, beneficial, and effective solution to specific problems. Heathen anarchists are anarcho-communists in spirit, anarcho-syndicalists in matters of labor and economics, green anarchists in relation to the environment, anarcha-feminists on matters of gender, queer anarchists on matters of sexuality, individualist anarchists on the question of the individual, and mutualist anarchists on questions of community. We believe just as there is no single God ruling from on high no single answer alone is sufficient to tackle complex problems but the ideas of many sources feeding an effective synthesis builds the strongest, most effective, and beneficial solution.
Counter-Currents on the Run!
Over the last several months the Circle Ansuz Bay Area Leidang has been working to push Counter-Currents Publishing out of the Bay Area. We’ve hit them on three occasions so far, raising public awareness of their presence and ideas.
We have recently learned, care of an anonymous tip and a recent update on their site, Counter-Currents is claiming they moved to San Diego, California!
We have followed up to confirm they are operating at the location they claim to be at and the building staff said there is no tenant named Counter-Currents on the site. They also stated there is no tenant listed for the suite they claim to be in.
Based on this information we have one of three possible interpretations of the evidence. The first is Counter-Currents is operating under a false name at the address they claim to be at. The second is they are in San Diego and claiming to be at the address listed to throw off pursuit. The third is they never left the Bay Area and claim to be in San Diego to hide.
No matter what one thing is clear: they are hiding and on the run!
Like all neo-fascists they fear exposure and confrontation more than anything else. They do not care who gets caught in the crossfire as long as they are able to continue their racist, fascist organizing undisturbed & unchallenged.
Below is the contact information for Counter-Currents’ alleged new location and their two main operators Greg Johnson and Michael Polignano. We ask all members of the public in San Diego & the Bay Area to be on the lookout for these two men and anyone they associate with. We also ask you call State Street Offices and tell them who Counter-Currents is.
State Street Offices
info@statestreetoffices.com
(619)516-8100
Michael Polignano
Greg Johnson
NO COMPROMISE, NO SURRENDER!
Circle Ansuz 
