Summer Solstice Message 2008 - The Path of the North
The rediscovery and renewed appreciation of my culture and heritage was a critical moment in my life where true paths were revealed and I took the path less chosen. After years of comparative study and practice of different religions, myths, magic, and other occult subjects, I came to the conclusion that the spiritual path inwards is also a journey back in time, not in a physical sense, but as a paradigm shift in my spirituality to a time when the traditions for my own people was forged. To reconnect to that tradition is to rejoin the path from which we have strayed. Our traditions can be forgotten in the memory of the mind, but never in the memory of the blood. This is why it is vital to connect to the traditions of your _own_ ancestry, whatever it may be, and seek not salvation in foreign, invented myths and and religions.
When we learn the history of times past, we often fail to connect with the different way of thinking and living life that is foreign to the modern mind. For ultimately, our ancestors worked in a cyclical, heroic time, not "linear" time as we do. They lived with and honoured the passing of the seasons, they understood the cycles of birth, death, and rebirth. In the modern world, we follow a direct line from our birth until the seconds run out and our time in this world is done. What afterlife we think of is typically in terms of some heavenly spiritual abode where we spend the rest of our days in some form of incoherent bliss. We can call it "heaven", or "nirvana", or "somewhere in the Cassiopeia star cluster" (for you new-age types), but ultimately, the end is the same. Most people want out of this world, for what could be worse than all the pain, loss, and misery that we find here, there must be somewhere where our troubles simply go away. All of us have at some point have thought that is better to pass away into oblivion than have to face the responsibilities, reality, and often stupidity of life as we know it. But no growth ever comes from stasis, no creations come from those who have lost the will to create, and no great changes in our world have come about without great struggle.
When we learn of the Northern traditions, we read of a people who are always on the move, always exploring, always struggling to survive. The seasonal changes and daily struggles for the necessities of life during these changes created a hardy people who quickly adapted to nature and learned to live within its bounds. There were good times and dark times, of war and bloodshed, when people fought for their very existence continuously. A dynamic life is the centre of the Northern traditions. It is not chance that throughout history circular or spinning symbols are found throughout the traditions of the Northern peoples. They symbolize this dynamism, the cycles of creation and destruction, of life, death, and rebirth. And in these myths, the Eddas, the sagas, and all the wonderful literature that has come down to us from the North, we find that even the gods know that Midgard, our world, is the centre of all realms. Other cultures and religions believe that this world is just a stepping stone to some other nebulous "higher" realm, and see themselves as souls trapped in a body and seek to escape this world. The Northern gods did not float around in an afterlife doing nothing, they wanted to be incarnated into the flesh to fight, to love, to hate, to experience all they could to evolve their spirit via the experiences of Life itself. In these tales, the gods were real beings who could love, fight, bleed, and die.
For the spirit and body must exist together on this plane of existence for the soul to experience growth. But we fear not the end of the physical body, for we know the cycles of rebirth, and sense that we will live on in someway, somehow, in this time or place or the next. In days gone by, to die a good death on the battlefield meant that you were dynamically taking action within Midgard and living heroically, and not simply living in "linear" time and fearing death while fading away on a sick bed at the end of a long and dull life. It is our deeds and our acts during our struggle in this world that truly exist forever, and the cycle completes itself for a new generation.
Cattle die, and kinsmen die,
And so too must one die oneself
but there is one thing I know that never dies,
The fame of a dead man's deeds.
-- HavamalIn the modern world full of emasculating, socialist, "nanny-states", the concept of struggle disappears. The self-reliance, vigor, and dynamism that defines Northern European civilization has been replaced by an overreaching, soulless, governmental bureaucracy and consumer society of stasis that seeks to remove "struggle". In past times, the cornerstone of any healthy person was the support and protection of the immediate family or tribe, whose common ethnicity, traditions, spirituality, and laws, brought them together as a dynamic, healthy nation. By stripping away the need for life's vital basics and nullifying the need for the fundamental building block of any healthy nation and people, the family, this soulless entity continues to beat down the health and strength of a people, remove their sense of self-reliance and personal freedoms, and sedates them into economic, consumerist slavery.
On this Summer Solstice, the day when the spinning sun reaches its highest zenith before continuing its cycle, reflect on what changes you can make in your life to reconnect with this dynamic northern path, to live heroically, to remove yourself from "linear" time and live in "cyclic" time, and to honour and protect your family and the traditions that have come down to you. The modern world will crumble, but we and our deeds will live on. The Northern children of today must struggle and walk the dynamic path of Fire and Ice to become the gods of tomorrow.
I didn't realize I didn't do any Autumnal update, but I was in the middle of yet another move. It seems whenever I am in the middle of recording a CD, I have to pickup and move to another city, and this time was no different. So unfortunately, there has been delays, but I am closing to completion on recording the next SIG:AR:TYR CD "Beyond The North Winds", with only a couple more songs to go. Then it's on to the mixing phase, and getting the CD layout ready, so I am crossing my fingers for a Spring release.
A Tale of Two Beowulfs
The last few years have seen a resurgence in getting the classic "Northern" tales onto the big screen, such as Lord of The Rings. The most recent movie adaption of a Northern myth is "Beowulf" which I went to see a few weeks ago. Although I had heard of some of the actors that were in it, I had no idea that this movie was mostly animated/special FX, and the actors faces were integrated onto computer generated characters like a bad Xbox game. I almost walked out after the first five minutes, but decided to stick it through.
A common thread of Hollywood in regards to classics of Northern European mythology is to strip out all the primary positive elements that underly the entire European tradition, that of heroism, courage, and loyalty... and fill it in with low-brow character motivations typically revolving around money and sex. In contrast to the primal heroic ideals, these types of movies emphasize and exaggerate the hero's flaws, and revel in mocking a deep and meaningful culture.This movie is no different. "Beowulf" resembles nothing of the courageous hero who fought three great monsters to save his comrades and kin. Instead he is turned into a selfish braggart, philanderer, liar, and author of his own doom. When reading the original Beowulf, we had to imagine what sort of monster Grendel is, but I'm sure the last thing most people imagined was some giant, retarded Gollum-like creature with flesh-eating disease and an oversized ear-drum. The comical fight scenes rival the hideous CGI-Yoda lightsaber fights from the later Star Wars movies. It turns out in this story that the king Hrothgar slept with Grendel's mother, a nubile Angelina Jolie, and Grendel was the result. It gets even worse... where in the original myth, Beowulf slays Grendel, and then goes to their lair and slays his mother, he ends up falling under her spell, and sleeps with her, and the third monster of the myth, the dragon that attacks his people later in time, turns out to be Beowulf's son. One wonders why such a simple plot had to be turned so complex and ridiculous in true soap opera style. The northern tradition is full of myths will all sorts of plot twists, irony, revenge, without falling to such lowest common denominators.
After "Beowulf", I was loathe to approach the subject matter again on film, but I had no idea there had been another earlier adaption in 2006 called "Beowulf and Grendel". Refreshingly, these were live actors, live locations (the movie was filmed in Iceland), and even had live monsters that were not the outlandish product of some feverish-CGI artist, but realistic 'monsters' from a world gone by. Though not without its faults, there was something very organic and natural about it in contrast with the hideous monstrosity that was the animated "Beowulf". Although itself taking some liberties with the original story to give some motivations for the character of Grendel, the remaining story is mostly intact. Although even this Beowulf (Gerard Butler of "300" fame) falls prey to a female witch's wiles (Sarah Polley with bad American accent). At least this adaption of Beowulf retains some mythic and transcendental qualities that take the motivations of the characters into higher realms of action on the heroic level.
"Superior men find themselves in continual inner and outer peril."
- NietzscheTill next time,
DS
Winter Solstice, 38th Winter
Two new demo songs from the forthcoming album "Beyond The North Winds" are now posted to the Myspace page. A three song demo is being distributed to record companies to try to garner interest in supporting the new album. As I've previously mentioned, the new album is more organic, more based on the mysteries of the earth and nature, in contrast to the snow and ice theme of the previous release. "King of the World" is about the enduring myths of the mysterious ruler of the world that dwells within the earth in a subterranean kingdom. "Under the Mountain" runs along a similar theme where the dark, latent powers of an ancient tradition that dwell deep in the earth, and deep in our souls, grow in strength in preparation to reveal themselves to the world when the time is right. Hope you enjoy them!
Time for another quarterly message. As usual, its been so busy lately. I'm reminded of the epitaph on the grave of the infamous S.S mystic Karl Maria Wiligut, Himmler's so called "Rasputin"...
"Our life passes away like idle chatter..."
Seems the days just run into each other in a blur, with little time to focus on anything solid and meaningful. But here we are, Midwinter's Night, Yule... another time to stop, rest, reflect, and then move ideas forward, just as the Sun begins to run a new course through the sky to brighter days beyond Winter. Things are coalescing slowly with the new CD, ideas are written, recorded, trashed, reworked, tested, rewritten, trashed and so on. The sounds are definitely much different than previous works, but hopefully still retains that SIG:AR:TYR atmosphere.
Speaking of dead S.S. men... I finally obtained an English translation of Otto Rahn's "Crusade Against the Grail". This book and its ideas formed the core of the song "Against The Grail" on the Stranger CD. I managed to find a few translated quotes of Rahn in other books, and incorporated them into the spoken parts of the song. I've already written about Otto Rahn in a commentary, "The Cup and the Stone" for that song.
Here is an excerpt:
"A young German writer and historian, Otto Rahn (1904-1939) became interested in the ruins of Montsegur and the Grail legend. In the late 20's, he descended upon the region, and explored the ruins of the castle and the surrounding caves of the mountain. He wrote a book of his findings, published in 1933, called "Crusade Against The Grail", linking Montsegur with the Grail castle and the treasure of the Cathars with the Holy Grail."
What I want to concentrate on here is the old gnostic/Catharist beliefs that the god of the Old Testament was really the Rex Mundi, the Lord of This World, of materialism and greed, not of light and spirt. The real light-bringer of wisdom was actually Lucifer, who brought them the knowledge of immortality that Yahweh had denied them.
One can think of all the hideous things in this world that drive mankind from the pursuit of the spirit: their jobs, the rat-race society, materialism, greed for money, MTV culture, the list goes on and on. We are bombarded with these soul-destroying forces on a daily basis, with little time to truly rest and reflect on the true important things that should be in our life. In this way, the "Yahweh", the god of the materialistic world rules us, we let him guide us on the path he wants us to follow, not the path that our true selves yearn for.The Lucifer of the world is the one who seeks to show us the true light, the truth about spiritual immortality. And when I say immortality, I do not mean living forever, since we all get reborn in the great cycles of many lives. Yet how many are merely born to live the same boring life, the same boring lessons that they never learn, to live a life in bondage and slavery to the world around them, over and over again? True spiritual immortality is being able to overcome a reliance on the materialistic world, to be able to "Become" and evolve our spirits rather than trap them in mortality and stagnation.
We can be reborn into flesh again and again, but each time we do we should be more conscious of our true spiritual selves and path. We should have a greater sense of who are are, where have we come from, and want we want to create next in our world, and to create so powerfully that we are able to extend this into our spiritual realms.
I don't use Lucifer in the Judeo-Christian "evil" context, for how is freedom and knowledge evil? The "Crusade Against The Grail", the crusade of materialism against the true spiritual forces of your blood and and spirit, the crusade of Yahweh vs. Lucifer, the Catholic Church vs. the Cathars, the Modern World vs. You.Choose your path wisely...
Till next time,
DS
Midwinter's Night 2006
September 22nd, 2006 (Autumnal Equinox, 37th Year)
"An encounter with the dark side of nature..."
The nights are becoming cold and crisp, and a pale autumnal moon looms over all, blanketing the starlit evening hours with an eerie luminescence. It blankets my late night walks with a foggy glow, my breath revealing its misty light with each step. A cool, gusty wind brings echoes from the surrounding trees, their mocking laughter a reminder of the frailty and non-importance of the human kind. They sing their immortal dark song, gleefully taunting those of supposed higher existence, haunting the night air with the shrill power of nature.
It is these times when one's thoughts turn to dark and unknowable things. The mind, calmed from the every day world of light, is numbed to the presence of every day noises and the presence of other human souls, toiling in their daily routine of nothingness. For when these human lives have come and gone, the trees still stand, tall and proud, strong and wise. The wind still whispers a primordial secret, an ancient cant foreign to mankind, its knowledge only understood and answered by the elementals of like kind.
What do I feel when I walk among these hostile forces? Do I search for sympathetic spirits who feel the yearning in my soul for contact? Do I merely want to subsume myself in their engulfing chaos, to return my body to the dust from whence it came? Do I wish to let my soul drift on the winds, the breath of the world, to take me to another time, another place? Do I seek foolish mastery over its dark forces, to stand among them as lord of their ancient energy, to siphon and drain them, the dried husk of an ancient world that lost its magic?
The thoughts drift from my mind as a sharp blast of frozen wind strikes me. I pull my jacket closer around my neck and raise my hood to cover my head from the elements around me. The trees loom closer, and an unnatural darkness descends, as if warning me away from further encroachment on their world. Nature is essentially hostile to us. The earth has spun its way around the sun for millions of years, and will continue to do so when mankind has died and been forgotten. We are an interloper, a foreign substance that could be scrubbed away in a moment's notice in a fit of volcanic activity or cometary shower. Man seeks mastery over Nature, yet when it seems Nature is losing, it unleashes a terrifying retort taking hundreds of thousands of souls with it in a blink of an eye.
A creeping sense of apprehension comes over me as I make my way through the trees who are cautiously eyeing me for my intentions. Their waving limbs seem to ward me away, the demonic opposite of the sword-wielding angel who guards Eden. Then, a strange silence ensues. The wind has dropped, and even the animals and insects seem to have fled the immediate area, sensing something that I was only now beginning to comprehend… as a warning. The air becomes more difficult to breathe, the silence is suffocating. The lack of wind means I am breathing in the stale rotting breath of decaying leaves drowning in the moss and mud beneath me. The musky, heady smell infects me with the ancestral memories of the grand cycle of life. A life and death more ancient than our mere mortal lives can comprehend. It chokes me with its grandeur, I am prisoner to its toxin, as if its desire is to pull me under and recycle me within its natural chaotic order. I walk faster, at the very least to catch a breeze of fresh air, but the trees enclose closer, and the stillness cements me further into its spiritual stasis. My legs wobble on the muddy hills as I navigate my way by the moonlight, yet now and again, and with increasing frequency, dark clouds are cast over my sentinel like a death shroud.
I am not wanted here. Nature has cast me out of her kingdom. I am to leave, to rejoin the human kind, of which I had been outcast and initially fled from to what I thought were the welcoming arms a more spiritual world. But this spirit of nature is far from benevolent to the human spirit; it is of a frightening elemental power that existed far beyond our time. The earth barely detects our wanderings upon its face, as if vibrating on a completely different plane of existence. And if by chance it does detect an intruder in its presence, by some fate of circumstance, or deliberate human attempt to reach beyond its veil of existence, the door is violently shut fast in the face of Mankind. For dark things dwell there that devour souls of light. Dark elemental beings more powerful than anything we could even hope to dream of in our dim imaginations. Hideous things so removed from our sphere of existence that the tenuous barriers that lay between our realms rarely fill one with any sense of safety from the Unknown.
And suddenly, the moon glistens again, and my path is lit up before me. I exit the barrier of the trees, and with a shove I am cast out of the forest by another rude gust of wind. The stars shine bright again, and the cool breeze has returned. It no longer moans in dreadful agony, but now softly lilts about me in modest repose. I am free again to walk among the mortal world, but the warning has been heeded. No matter how close to Nature we feel, we are merely the tiniest of particles that ebb and flow in its grand design, specks in its mass of unfeeling chaos. Again, I walk alone back into my world. For all that I thought was hostile in this corrupted atmosphere of material existence, that which only apes life and does not create or sustain it, it is at least still familiar to me. For that feeling of non-being that I felt in those dark forests in the black heart of Nature was ever more terrible than our current existence.
DS – Autumnal Equinox 2006
June 21st, 2006 (Summer Solstice, 37th Year)
"Distant Early Warning"
It's hard to believe we are at Midsummer already. The seasons seem to change with every quickening purpose, hurtling us towards futures yet unseen. Or rather it feels like the future hurtling towards us like a great wave, a typhoon of potentialities that demand to be manifested lest some unfortunate cosmic event snatches it from the clutches of Fate itself.
It seems Time moves ever faster, not just as a physical sensation, but a spiritual one as well. On the previous Winter Solstice, I took some time out of the day for deep reflection, yet all I saw were dark shapes clouding my vision. The future seemed murky, like the feeling of a gathering storm, a whirlwind of chaotic elements, a growing darkness...
Now half a year later, as the sun reaches its most Northernly point and casts its light far into the souls of men, some clarity has broken through from the Future, but instead of just fleeting glimpses of a distant destiny, I sense images rushing outwards with great velocity. It is a 'distant early warning', a warning cast from those in the future to those of the Now.
"An ill wind comes arising
Across the cities of the plain"This sense of of the impending chaotic is no more evident than in the great upheavals this planet has seen the last several years. The Asian Tsunami of December 2004, caused by a massive earthquake in the Indian Ocean, rapidly wiped out over a quarter of a million people. Last year, a series of hurricanes battered the US Gulf Coast, culminating in the disasters of Hurricane Katrina. It's not only the death toll of these rapid disasters that is frightening, it is the fantastic number of 'environment refugees' who must fend for themselves for the basic necessities of life after one of these events hits. One sees in the case of New Orleans how quickly a situation can deteriorate without proper leadership and aid.
And what of the governments and their plans to deal with these types of disasters and massive human displacement? One wonders why it took at least three days for any help to get to the people of New Orleans. Sure, no one knows what's going to happen when a disaster strikes, but this wasn't some Third World Country (or was it?), it was the United States of America, supposedly the most richest and powerful nation on the planet. It is my guess that poor New Orleans was used a testing grounds to see what would happen in the event of a disaster of that magnitude. What better way to plan for future disasters than to let a city stew in its own juices for a few days and see what happens before sending the troops in? And what happened? Total and complete anarchy and lawlessness."I know it makes no difference
To what you're going through
But I see the tip of the iceberg
And I worry about you..."Much darker things are afoot. The fear that creeps inside me, these images of the future that strike through the veils of Time to invade my restless dreams see far greater disasters that anything we ever witnessed. Yes, there will be more hurricanes, more earthquakes, volcanoes, more strange, violent weather that will kill and displace hundreds of thousands of people. And then it will come from the skies... this planet will eventually (if it hasn't started already) enter an area of space and time where it will be bombarded with cometary showers and meteorites. I've had these dreams most of my life, and they are all very similar. I'm watching the night sky, and then suddenly a meteor streaks across the sky, and then a great explosion is heard not far away. Suddenly there are more of them, and the sky is filled with them.
Imagine the deaths, damage, and amount of 'environmental refugees' from such a pummeling? Think this can't happen? The last several years has seen a great increase in the amount of meteorite activity. For example, just two weeks ago, the largest meteorite ever to hit Norway flashed across the sky and exploded into the side of a mountain, described as "an impact comparable to the atomic bomb used on Hiroshima." http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1346411.eceThe same phenomena is occurring throughout the world, and rarely reported by the worldwide media. Just a few days before the Norway hit, another fireball blazed over the northern sky of Minnesota and Manitoba, with one astronomer stating "Anyone who saw it should count themselves as lucky -- they are probably not going to see another one like that in their lifetime." http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/14759319.htm?source=rss&channel=duluthsuperior_news
Our planet is pummeled by meteors every day, but they are usually tiny and burn up quickly in the atmosphere. What we are seeing now are larger fireballs that are making it through and crashing into the earth with greater frequency and violence. It is my belief that as our solar system whirls around the galaxy, it periodically drifts into zones where it great clusters of meteors and cometary fragments abound. Only one look at our crater filled moon shows proof of this. Earth itself is riddled with fantastic meteor craters, most covered up after hundreds of thousands of years. In 1908, a meteor exploded over Siberia in Russia. Estimated to be between 10 and 15 megaton TNT, it crushed roughly 60 million trees over 2,150 square kilometers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event
"It's so hard to stay together
Passing through revolving doors
We need someone to talk to
And someone to sweep the floors"How could any government cope with the aftermath of such an event over a crowded metropolis? They can't. Just a few days ago on June 19th, approximately 4000 government State agency workers took part in a disaster planning exercise to ensure the government could run after a major disaster. "They will take to the bunkers in an "evacuation" that my sources describe as the largest "continuity of government" exercise ever conducted, a drill intended to prepare the U.S. government for an event even more catastrophic than the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/02/AR2006060201410.html
One wonders just what exactly they are preparing for... as of course any sane government would not tell the populace of an impending disaster where nothing could be done to protect them before or afterwards. What the world witnessed in New Orleans is nothing compared to the coming disasters that will see millions upon millions of refugees from up and down the East and West coasts of the U.S., not too mention all of Europe, in the aftermath of a meteor strike or massive tsunami.
I'm not writing this to cause fear, since I think most people realize these sorts of events are natural and happen on a regular cyclic basis. But one must be prepared for all eventualities, including a quick breakdown of social order that immediately threatens the health and safety of yourself and your family. These events could be well off into the future, even after our lifetimes, 25 years from now, 10 years, maybe even tomorrow. Considering the already terrible shape of our 'modern' world, one wonders if such a cyclic disaster is the universe's way of the occasional 'cleansing' of the most dross elements of creation. The worlds myths are replete with vivid descriptions of such past disasters. Who really knows what advanced civilization had risen and fell in Atlantis before sinking into the ocean. But mankind rebounded, as it always has, usually to fall right back down again. The forces of Fire and Ice pull and tug at Midgard, but it never ceases to exist. Ragnarok is not only an end, it is a new beginning.
Till next time,
DS
December 21st, 2005 (Winter Solstice, 36th Year)
A rant on some current issues facing those of us who revere the world of tradition
We live in a strange age where the rediscovery of traditional European spirituality, paganism, (and dare I say even "new-age" type of spirituality) of the 20th century has given way to a frenzied return to the extremist, eschatological nightmares of the primary monotheistic religions, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. A war to end all wars in the Middle East seems inevitable as these competing ideologies fight to stand alone above the ruins of Megiddo. What does this mean to the rest of us who revere traditions from primordial times, whose spiritual, moral and ethical values of tens of thousands of years, whose physical and spiritual existence are endangered by upstarts barely 20 centuries young. A mere blip in history compared to the vast ages of the earth as we know it.
Even more frightening is the prospect of a vast new order whose dark machinery has been churning for quite some time. An empire based not on spiritual values, but of materialism, economics, globalism, an all-encompassing slave state ordered via valueless paper money and laws of repression and control. Globalism in itself is the erasure of all that makes us human beings, our ethnicity and nationalism, our ties to nature and the land, the bond of spirituality with our own souls and our gods, and our ancient laws based our moral and ethical values of what is right for all. In the overreaching effort to destroy ethnicity and nationality, to destroy the bonds of fellowship and community between those of the same blood and land, to gather all of mankind under an iron curtain of repressive economic and political control. Globalism in all its forms, most exemplified by the various world trade and bank organizations, by political monstrosities such as the European Union, who seek to control the finances and laws of all European nations (even now trying to pull in non-European countries into its icy grip). I use the term "Iron Curtain" deliberately. The world rejoiced when Soviet Communism fell in the late 80's, the end of the most anti-spirit and anti-human ideology the world had ever witnessed. Although the political structure of Communism died, its corrupt core still lived on as like a virus it fled to other institutions to infect its soulless ideology. The European Union itself is beginning to show its true colours, not the blue and yellow of a idealist united Europe, but the red and yellow of a anti-human machinery that seeks to crush all elements of being human out of the human race.
In the Western nations, the capitalist machinery has seen the pure economic benefits of globalization and supposed free trade. As massive layoffs of honest, hard working people of European ancestry occurs here, the same companies are opening up factories in the third world to take advantage of slave labour where little pay results in higher profit margins. The massive non-European immigration to western countries has resulted in this slave labour being transferred to these first world countries. One has to fully comprehend this anti-human machinery to see its inherent evil. The world itself is being turned into a slave factory where the middle-class is completely wiped out by low pay and high debts. All to serve the profits of a lazy, soulless, economic elite. And what are these "profits" exactly? Most of the "money" in this world, is entirely worthless. It appears only as digits in someone's bank account, unbacked by any sort of concrete capital of any form. This "money" could be put to good use, to be distributed, shared, invested, but it isn't. It is simply locked away, to gain more imaginary interest, and a supposed "higher" value. Digits added on to digits to exist in an imaginary place on microscopic pieces of silicon, with no benefit to the human beings who generated this "capital". Has it been to the interest at all of East European nations who broke from the shackles of one form of totalitarianism to wear the chains of another totalitarianism based on economics?
Ultimately, as human beings, what we need to subsist are food and water, land to support the creation of the food, shelter on that land to protect our family, a strong abundant family to support each other and to maintain the land, a strong group of families to create a community that supports each other, and a chain of these communities to create a nation that supports the interest and protection of all. This creates not only a physical nation but also allows a *spiritual* nation to endure, who common goals and ideals are upheld by deep-seeded loyalty based on common blood and spirit. This concept is the cornerstone of what we call Tradition, a name we give to the type of life our ancestors lived in a remote, primordial past. The anti-human ideologies of the modern world may try to erase this from our minds via repression of freedom and economic totalitarianism, but it can never die in our spirit and blood.
Between the determination of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism to bring on the final battle, and the globalist aspirations of the soulless money masters for economic totalitarianism, what are those of us dedicated to Tradition, the "aristocrats of the soul"? to do? Suffer another world-wide conflagration and pick up the pieces afterwards to rebuild our nations and identity? In the book "Ride The Tiger", Julius Evola recommends that by "riding the tiger, not only does one avoid having it leap on one, but if one can keep one's seat and not fall off, one may eventually get the better of it." If these forces are currently too great, we may have to ride the beast to its bitter end.
So how do those of us who support the concept of Tradition fight against this modern day nightmare? I will have to leave this for a future article.
Till next time,
DS
Themes dreamed of while writing for a new CD, and a visit with H.P. Lovecraft
Greetings once again as we close towards the Autumnal Equinox, when the sun crosses the celestial equator from north to south. This is my favourite time of year, as the temperatures become more bearable and the air seems fresher, even though contrasted with the smell of the leaves decay. Work continues on writing for a new set of songs, and I hope to record over the winter months. As mentioned before, the atmosphere seem to be gathered around the various themes of earth, mountains, and stone. I've had visions of ancient times, a primordial spirituality, a current of blood and spirit linking the past to the future, Earth, mountains, and stone seem timeless, as something that always was and always shall be from time immemorial. But even the great cycles of the universe cast these seemingly immovable objects to and fro as the earth churns through its spirals of evolution. And when the dust has cleared, and new mountains have thrust out of the ground to the sky, and stones of civilizations that have risen and fell are scattered like child's blocks across the far reaches of the planet, and blackened earth is regenerated to feed the next generations of the ancient kin, a new cycle of mankind begins. But linking them with their past, beyond the material vestiges of ages and races of eld, there is still the unbroken bond of spirit and blood lying at the core of each and every noble being. It cannot perish...
I recently took a vacation through the east coast of the U.S. and Canada. I managed to stop for a short while to visit the gravesite of the famous American horror writer H.P. Lovecraft in Providence, RI. His tales have long entranced me, and the descriptions of ages gone past, the elder races that ruled them, and the suggestions of the hidden, unknown lurking horrors which creep around us in dimensions unheard and unseen, waiting for a slight rip in the fabric of space and time to enter our world have tested the sanity of many a mere mortals, including myself, who inhabit this plane of existence. I actually first discovered Lovecraft when playing the role playing game Call of Cthulhu in the early 80's. I finally managed to find some long out of print paperbacks of some of his stories and was enthralled with his style (19th century Poe-esque, still out of place even in his early 20th century). They always tended to involve an intellectual character suddenly faced with the unknown and all the lurking fears that call these dark unseen places their home. Many a biographer and critic have tried to tie up his writing in a neat package of suppressed Freudian sexuality and abject xenophobia, and other such rubbish. Any reader will tell you that HPLs imaginative stories and erudite delivery bring a shuddering sense that there are things out there that we were never meant to know and understand, and any such revealing of this alien world to us only leads to instant insanity.
Sometimes even more intriguing than his stories is the voluminous correspondence he kept up with many weird writers of the day, including Robert E. Howard (of Conan fame) and Clark Ashton Smith. From long discourses on ancient civilizations, and despairing of the decay around him, his letters are an incredibly insightful look inside the mind of an English gentlemen born into the wrong age, increasingly depressed by his isolation and detachment from the modern world. It shows in his writing, and any sympathetic soul would find a kindred spirit in his stories and letters. The gravestone shown below was actually erected by fans in the late 70's. His real resting place is in front of this stone on the Lovecraft family plot.
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of the black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage too far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of disassociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." - HPL - "The Call of Cthulhu"
Star Wars and the Two Paths
For anyone born in my generation, Star Wars was the be-all and end-all of our existence. I was 7 years old when during the late summer of 1977 in the U.S. on a family vacation, we spent a night between destinations at a drive-in theatre where Star Wars was playing. At the time, it was all anyone was talking about, and my father was determined to finally see it. I really don't remember much from that time, except the wild space battles, the loud epic music, and one character in particular, the menacing Darth Vader.
Of course since then, I have seen this movie more times than I care to admit, and with the release of Episode III, _The Revenge of the Sith_, we have come full circle since those glorious times of our youth spent playing mock battles with our Kenner Star Wars figures and toys, the painful attempts at trying to master our plastic glow-in-the-dark lightsabers, and the headaches of trying to use the "Force" to bring the TV remote control from across the room into our outstretched hand.
If "Star Wars" was an epiphany, "The Empire Strikes Back" our ascent to become fully one with the Force, and the "Return of the Jedi" a slight disappointment to our then jaded 13 year-old minds, the "new" trilogy of Star Wars have been traitorous (The Phantom Menace), a complete abomination (The Attack of the Clones), and the final destruction of our childhood fantasies (The Revenge of the Sith).
Having said that, "The Revenge of the Sith" is at least much better than the previous two prequels, but fails in the end to still leave us with those feelings that we had in the late 70's and early 80's where even though Cold War tensions were strained, the Middle East was just screwed up as it is now, and U.S. Presidents were being shot at, all was right with our galaxy and everything was going to be OK.
In an attempt to tie everything together back into its firm Gordian Knot of our childhood years, George Lucas gives us cameos of Chewbacca, a certain Captain Antilles taking possession of our favourite droids, the Death Star in its alpha construction version, a young Peter Cushing-like Grand Moff Tarkin, and Obi-Wan Kenobi finally learning the secret of how to come back in ghostly form after death, as he just might need it soon in some sequel a long time ago in a galaxy far away. We see Yoda kicking it Jedi-style with a rather spry Emperor, and find out why all the other Jedi were killed off. (They were stupid and they sucked.)
The rather wretched love story between Anakin and Padme finally comes to its natural conclusion with the birth of the wonder twins Luke and Leia and the death of Natalie Portman's and Hayden Christensen's Star Wars careers. The comical "virgin birth" story of Anakin's creation in "The Phantom Menace" is at least put aside as Luke and Leia receive their midichlorians the natural way. At least we finally learn that the Force (or control over it) isn't really innate in everyone except those of the "divine" blood.
The creation of Darth Vader was somewhat disappointing, in many ways it was like Frankenstein's monster rising from the operating room table after getting hit by a good dose of lightning. In this case, Anakin is bested by Obi-Wan Kenobi in the lightsaber duel and is left to die a stump on a piece of lava before being rescued by the Emperor.
This rather slavish relationship between Darth Vader and the Emperor is no where to be found in the original Star Wars movie. The Emperor actually first appeared in the "Empire Strikes Back" in a small walk-in hologram part. His importance to the plot only really came out in "The Return of the Jedi" when Vader is forced to kill him to stop him from killing Luke.
As I got older and continued to watch the original Star Wars movie several times, the archetypal nature of the story and characters were much clearer. From its beginnings as a simple space adventure story, it evolved in my mind as a grand Wagnerian Space Opera.
I found the Darth Vader of my childhood, the simple menacing figure with equally menacing screen music, choking out rebel soldiers, killing Ben Kenobi (or at least sending him to the next world), and almost snuffing Luke while chasing him with his TIE-fighter, turning into a much more majestic and wise figure. What seemed to be most important, rather than the petty political issues of Empire vs. Rebels, was the notion of the Jedi, the Sith, and the Force.
Even though Darth Vader seems to be under the charge of Grand Moff Tarkin (even Leia gets in the jibe that he is holding Vader's leash), it is obvious at the conference room meeting of the Imperial's on the Death Star that even he is tired of the simple day to day politics of the Empire. Chastising the gathered generals on their over-reliance to technical wizardry in the form of the Death Star, he states:
"Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to destroy a planet, is insignificant, next to the power of the Force."
The officer sneers back:
"Don't try to frighten us with your sorcerer's ways, Lord Vader. Your sad devotion to that ancient religion has not helped you conjure up the stolen data tapes, or given you clairvoyance enough to find the Rebel's hidden fortress..."
He is then cut off due to Vader's telekinetic strangulation.
"I find your lack of faith... disturbing."
It was the reference to "that ancient religion" that really got me. I had finally come to the conclusion that the Jedi and Sith were beyond good and evil. Beyond the simple everyday politics, petty ambitions, and material cares of their contemporaries, whether it be the Empire or the Rebel Alliance. Where the recent prequels strengthen the good/evil dichotomy between the Jedi and their adversaries, the original Star Wars did not immediately emphasize this, relying more on the good/evil aspects of the Imperial Empire itself and the Rebel Cause. The Jedi and Vader were simply following their own ambitions and goals in this world and beyond it. Obi-Wan's travels that finally take him to the Death Star reveal that he is less concerned about getting the Death Star plans into the proper hands, and more interested in confronting his formal pupil once and for all.
In the original movies, we were given little glimpse into what exactly constituted the religion of the Force. Obi-Wan Kenobi describes it as:
"Now, the Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, it penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together."
So simply the Jedi and Sith were able to tap into or manipulate this energy field. What was actually done with the field is up to the user, unrestricted of any man-made morals, and certainly not hampered by juvenile simplistic notions of good and evil. The Jedi and Sith were very much alike in their methods, but there was a difference in motive.
The Jedi simply seemed to exist to create a "balance" in the galaxy, and it is even mentioned there there needs to be a "balance" in the Force itself. This means that Jedi were not forging any new ground in exploring their powers, they simply wanted to protect and balance what already existed (including the feeble democratic Republic.) The Sith, however, were keen on expanding their powers over the Force beyond any limits. In "Revenge of the Sith", Anakin learns about the power to heal and resurrect someone, a power only known to the Sith.
Only the Sith realized the "true" spiritual evolution can only really come when incarnated into physicaity, and therefore, powers that can retain that physicality are much desired. The physical death means nothing, merely a transfer of energy into one another type of existence. But then a reincarnation into physical form is vital to continue the quest for power and evolution, to learn all the secrets of creation and destructions and become as the Creator.
The hypocrisy of the Jedi is revealed when near the end of the movie, even the Jedi suddenly learn the secret of retaining their consciousness in the Force after death (eventually used by Obi-Wan when he is struck down by Vader in the original Star Wars movie.) This betrays their actions of seemingly selfless acts meant to only aid others and not themselves. Earlier in the movie, Yoda warns Anakin:
"Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force. Mourn them, do not. Miss them, do not. Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed, that is."
And then later, Yoda receives this communication from the dead but conscious Qui-Gon:
"The ability to defy oblivion can be achieved, but only for oneself. ...It is a state acquired through compassion, not greed. "
How can the Jedi justify such addition of powers without succumbing to their notion of "attachment". Anyone with some knowledge of Buddhism will recognize the similarities between Lucas' vision of the Jedi and the Force and Buddhism. The result of this renouncement of material attachment is the destruction of the self and consciousness and its total unconscious merge with the Force. Obi-Wan can whisper advice from his ghostly lair, but he is just that: a ghost. A shadow of his former powerful self.
Even the Jedi must know that you cannot have your consciousness and eat it too.
Ultimately, the Jedi and Sith must be eternal enemies, even if the Jedi hypocrisy is evident. The Jedi seek to retain order and balance at the cost of stagnation. The Sith know the secrets of the chaotic powers of creation and destruction, necessary for the spiritual and physical evolution of life. This is infinitely dangerous to those who simply serve the balance.
Till next time,
DS
On the Origins of the name SIG:AR:TYR
It is always a fun task trying to come up with a band name. After carving up a list of possible names to fully represent the overall essence of your creativity, you scan the possibilities from the simply stupid to the sublime, and then find that nothing seems to click.
I won't bore you or make you laugh with all of the things I came up with in my initial list, but most of them seemed to come from some backwards 80's metal dream where the more grandiose and evil the names seemed at the time, the more ultimately silly they became in retrospect.
To complement the acoustic folkiness of the music and the ancient sound I was looking for, I had several variations with the words "Forest" or "Ancient" and everything in between. Unfortunately, they all sounded too much like some unknown black metal band from Nebraska.
My affinity with certain stars in the sky led to some variations on the dragon star, Alpha Draconis. Names like simply "Draconis" seemed a little too gothy, while "Axis Draconis" sounded more like a video game name than a band.
With the Northern European theme, I went through all the gods of the Scandinavian pantheon. From Iduna, to Njord, Aegir, but they kept reminding me of perennial Canadian viking metal band "Thor" (Gotta keep the dogs away...)
Then one day I was reading a book on runes and the thought struck me to name the band after the names of runes. Not just any runes mind you, I would use the actual rune symbols! It wouldn't spell out anything, it would just be some runes thrown together in some type of symbol. That would be original! No one had done that before. No one had actually used runic symbols as a band name.
Then reality set in as I thought of where in the record store would they put it? And on top of that, wouldn't I be nothing more than the artist formerly known as Prince by turning myself into a symbol? Maybe people would think I am some Lord of the Rings freak, or an East European NSBM band.
Another idea into the garbage so it seemed. But then I thought, why not just use the names of the runes themselves? There is many to choose from between the original reconstructed alphabet of 24 runes, the Scandinavian 16 rune set, and even the 29/33 runes of the Anglo-Frisian futhark. So then I set to work on finding the runes that would best represent my project.
One of my primary spiritual beliefs is that the universe as we know is comprised of two basic components, Chaos and Order, representing both destructive and creative elements respectively. In Germanic/Scandinavian mythology, this was represented as Fire and Ice. A balance must exist between the two to allow existence as we know it. I wanted the project to represent this dualistic struggle and the fact that we must have both pulling and tugging at us to cause us to evolve.
SIG
This is actually a short form version of the Old English word "sigel" which is the sun. "Sig" is actually the germanic word for "victory", but in this sense I use it as short for Sigel: the sun (besides Sigel:Ar:Tyr doesn't have the same ring to it!) The original reconstructed germanic name of this rune is "Sowilho", which is the Roman "S".The "S" Rune to me has always been considered the primal fire, or the root of Chaos, for that's what exactly the sun is on a physical (primal ball of fire) level and a spiritual one where it represents the logos and initiator of life for the particular galaxy it created. The loss of the sun, or its explosion as a supernova, would of course destroy all that is, at least for our solar system. It can be the creator or destroyer, something that we must mirror in ourselves to break free of the natural ordering of the universe. The energy released from a supernova as a star dies (or at least is transformed into something 'else') contains the only source of certain primal elements that feed new star systems as they coalesce. So you see, what we consider Chaos is not only an entropic destructive force but also a powerful creative force that transgresses the boundaries of an ordered universe.
AR
In the Scandinavian runes, AR mean "year", or more specifically a "good year". This rune represents the culmination of a successful year in the symbol of the harvest. It is the completion of a cycle. In the Elder Germanic Futhark of 24 runes, this is the middle 12th rune (Jera). In this respect, it repesents "balance" in the universe when the struggle of Chaos and Order are even in power resulting in the perfect time (the "good year") for physical and spiritual evolution. This is a symbol of Midgard or "Middle Earth". This is the middle of the worlds between the higher spritual realms and the lower chthonic realms. In Northern mythology, it was the place sought after most of all by gods and men. In contrast to salvation-based religions such as Christianity, or spiritually negative ones such as Buddhism where Earth is considered evil and release from earthly physical bonds are desired, the physical centre of the Universe is considered to be the most important realm for spiritual evolution. The Norse gods did not laze around in some pointless heavenly abode where nothing happens. This would lead to spritual and physical decay and eventual dissolution of the soul itself into the organic universe. The gods recognized that this realm provides the most opportunity for evolution and would play out their adventures in life, love, war, and death in this realm to become more powerful in the next. This is why Midgard is considered the "crucible" of initiation.TYR
As discussed in my commentary for _The Stranger_, Tyr is actually the original "sky-god" and most powerful of the Northern pantheon before being supplanted by Odin. The older Germanic form of his name, Tiwaz, is related to Zeus (the leader of the Greek pantheon) and Jupiter (Dyaus Pitar). These are the names which are derived from "dieus", the Indo-European word for "god". So the basic root word for a god is that of Tyr. One of Odin's many names is that of Sigtyr (God of Victory). The English day of the week, Tuesday, is derived from Tyr, which in French is Mardi (Mars, Roman god of war). Odin and Tyr are both related to war and death, but where Odin's objectives are chaotic, destructive, and bend the balance towards entropy, Tyr's battles are based on tipping the cosmic balance towards law and order. Tyr represent the concept of sovereign power based on justice. His name is related to the "Thing" the people's legislative assembly in olden Germanic times where they would mete out law and justice for their community. (Tuesday in German is called Dienstag "Assembly day"). As such, Tyr in some ways is the polar opposite of what "SIG" represents. It is like "ice" because it is like a permanent concept frozen in time, an eternal law that always was and always will be. But it is not "ice" of the natural universe (as represented by Isa), it is something beyond the natural universe that causes it to be ordered as it is. It is also interesting to note that the ancient Northmen associated the pole star with Tyr. In this form, Tyr is the immovable center, the axis of the world, and the balance on which it revolves.Together the terms SIG:AR:TYR strung together become a formula illustrating the forces of chaos, balance, and order. Their interweavings manifest in our existence as a physical creature, brought into being in an ordered Universe, where the chaos of our souls yearn to birth, live, and die, to further its power and evolution.
Till next time,
DS
Artwork updated for "Sailing The Seas Of Fate"
Hail and sorry for the long time between updates. Things as usual have been very busy, including another move, and fighting to get the last bits and pieces together for the new CD. The original artwork had to be scrapped because the artist could not finish it due to personal issues, and so I've had to rush around a bit to get the artwork for the CD sorted out. This whole mess unfortunately put back the whole CD release for quite a few months.
I'm happy to report that I managed to get into contact with Paul McCarroll in Ireland who has done layout and graphics design work for Primordial, Mourning Beloveth, and his own band Scald. We decided in the interest of time to use some of the same type of illustrations that I had used for The Stranger demo, which was by the famous 19th century illustrator Gustave Dore. I took images primarily from his illustrations for "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and "Idylls of the King", and Paul has pieced them together to bring the whole story of "Sailing the Seas of Fate" together in a form similar to an old illustrated book. Bottom line, it looks wicked, and thanks to Paul for bringing it together so quickly. I have posted the new cover on the web site.
As far as the written word goes, I have been slowly but surely putting together an entire commentary for "Sailing the Seas of Fate". Similar to the small research pieces I did for the songs on "The Stranger" demo, I think it will go a long way in explaining the inspiration and ideas that brought the whole project together and the meaning behind the lyrics. Although it is based on a Viking quest to turn back the tides of Christianity, there are several themes and non-traditional ideas explored that lay outside of the traditional Scandinavian myths, and drift into German, Greek, and other Indo-European tales. I'll also be posting an article on the origins of the name SIG:AR:TYR soon.
I'm already looking ahead to the next release, which, contrary to the "seas, ships and ice" themes of "Sailing the Seas of Fate", seems to be gathered around the various motifs of earth, mountains, and stone. It will not be a concept album, but will revolve around those central themes. It is tentatively titled "Beyond the North Winds" (the literal translation of "Hyperborea") but don't look for it until early-mid 2006.
I recently had another recurring dream involving a meteor/asteroid plunging into the Earth. Another aspect that I find weird about these dreams is that I am usually staring at the night sky, only to see many stars moving rapidly across, some are meteors, but the way some seem to move around, they are... intelligent?
Till next time,
DS
On the Perils of Home Recording
The Autumnal Equinox is nigh, and I figured its as good as anytime for an update on the activities of SIG:AR:TYR. This is the time when night and day are nearly the same length and the sun crosses the celestial equator to head southward (at least in this hemisphere) to lead into colder and darker nights.
Recording is mostly complete for the CD, "Sailing the Seas of Fate", and now I am touching up things and getting the mixes right. This is turning out to be quite a diverse album, with a few straight up metal songs, acoustic intstrumentals, and minimalist atmospheric pieces, but overall it all runs together into an interesting tale.
I must add that recording on your own in your own home, while certainly saving money, is quite a daunting process. If all I had to do was play the track, instead of messing around with mic placements, preamps, eq, and so on, I'm sure this would have been completed a lot sooner! Not to mention other issues such as construction crews ripping up the road outside your place the week you took time off work to record, neighbors mowing their lawn at the most inopportune times, laying down an excellent acoustic track then realizing a passing car had honked their horn halfway through, and so on... but you just battle through and do the best you can.
Dungeonlight Studios is not a real place in the sense of the word, it manifests in temporal reality when I need it, as it existed at my home in London, and now Toronto, and wherever else I create things. It has less to do with the physical environment (usually cramped in some dark, musty, basement room surrounded by wires), but more with the spiritual element of the act of creation. I do this in defiance of the mindless Universe that whirls about me, trying to integrate me into its light.
The universe rebels against creative activity. It hates those who try to create something beyond its machinations of ordered chaos. For the "fall of man" is when he decided to create horizons for himself and be a creator, not ruled by one. It was not his fall but his rise. When all I see around is mindless activity, I know I can retreat into my dungeon to form the core of something new to unleash upon them, whether they listen or not.
It is interesting to note that those civilizations and cultures considered to be of the Northern Polar Tradition have as their primary symbols spinning wheels and circles to represent the sun, not as some static force that sustains life, but the dynamic current that *creates* it.
Till next time...
DSQuote of the Month - "It is one of the most frightful consequences of increasing age that one finds fewer and fewer of one's contemporaries worth talking to. One is forced more and more to seek society either with the great masters of the past or with discarnate intelligences." — Aleister Crowley
The Death of Quorthon
Sorry for the long delay in communications. The last few months have been very busy, mostly with having to move from London to Toronto, and all the crap that goes along with that. It probably couldn't have come at a worse time when I was in the middle of writing the debut album for SIG:AR:TYR. It has given me little time to devote to where all my time should be going, to get my music and thoughts out into the world. Ever the stifling decay of an ordered Universe seeks to still my chaotic mind!
But it has also given me time to sit back and see where I want to take this little project of mine. What started out last year as a little experiment in acoustic ramblings, has turned into a chance to get my music and message to a wide audience. Whether this will bode for good or ill, I am not sure yet, but it must happen.
Here is the tentative track listing for "Sailing the Seas of Fate":
1. Dreaming of the Dawn
2. Frost on Dead Leaves
3. Under the Dragon Star
4. Snowborne
5. To Cronia
6. The Dead Giant's Tale
7. Urd
8. Verdandi
9. SkuldI learned of the untimely passing of Thomas "Quorthon" Forsberg of Bathory this week. Apparently, he was only 39, and died of heart complications. It is quite easy for me to say that the main influence for what turned into SIG:AR:TYR is the groundbreaking Viking-metal album "Hammerheart".
I think the first time I had heard of Bathory, way back in the 80's, when I borrowed the tape "Under the Sign of the Black Mark" from a friend, as I was intrigued by the album's name, not to mention the cover which was a weird guy in a cave wearing a goat's head! I wasn't terribly impressed by the music at the time, which seemed like some hyper-Slayer with a Motorhead groove.
A year or two later, I saw a picture disc of their latest album, "Blood, Fire, Death" in the local record store. The front cover was a majestic painting depicting Odin's Wild Hunt. Although I didn't buy it that day, I took a mental note to at least see if my friend had that tape too. I figured, "Hey, at least the guy had a better cover this time." When I finally heard the album, I was quite taken with the opening intro track, "Odin's Ride over Nordland" the sound of simple acoustic patterns, the sound of horses galloping, the ooooohs and ahhhhhhhs of the voices, drifting into the bombastic "Fine Day to Die". The rest of the album was mostly rough, fast stuff again, (what can I say, I mostly listened to Iron Maiden and Helloween at the time!) but I could hear the hints of impending greatness. For many years, when I used to do ritual magick, "Odin's Ride over Nordland" became the theme music to get me in the mood, to take me to a place far away in my mind and amongst the stars.
And then the day came when I was poking around in the record store and found the next release, "Hammerheart". This time the cover was just as majestic, a Viking funeral on a burning ship. Entranced, I snapped it up and took it home, threw on the headphones, and to this day I still haven't come back from that journey! A very ground-breaking album during a time when the rest of the metal world was going faster, heavier, and sicker, this music was driven purely from the heart. This is THE Viking Metal album that has influenced so many bands over the years.
I was so used to listening to very slick bands like Iron Maiden and so on, and even though Quorthon could never sing that well, the guitars always seemed to be slightly out of tune, the wall of sound often clipped and distorted, instruments occasionally hummed into the mix, but all that was totally overcome by the pride, honesty, and purity of heart that poured forth from this recording. I honestly don't think there is anything quite like it.
It's strange but you know everyone has that certain album that is a "soundtrack" to their life, and this is it for me. I remember the day my father died, and all I could hear in my head all day was "Father to Son" and how I realized that everything my father had taught me had now passed on to me to teach my children. At a time when I first started to become more interested in my family history and heritage, I visited Lindisfarne in the north-east of England, where the Vikings made one of their great raids at the monastery on the island in 793. I stood out on the rocks and gazed out at the water, and had a strange vision of dragon ships charging out of the fog, the song "Home of Once Brave" thundering in my mind. It was then and there that I fully dedicated myself to the Northern path.
It is very sad to hear of his passing. The way he died sometimes worries me too, because here I am into my 35th Summer, and my family also has a history of heart problems. May we meet in Valhalla! This has now given me the final inspiration to work hard over the next number of weeks to get my visions out there, for they dwell in the same fires that forged "Hammerheart".
Till next time...
DS
Sailing the Seas of Fate, and a rant on Economic Totalitarianism
Things have been very busy as of late, and I haven't had much time for the written word. Writing and recording for the new CD is progressing slowly but surely, but I will be interrupted by my eventual relocation to the Toronto area soon. Nothing like real-world shit to get in the way of your creative self!
I've seen a couple of live shows the last month, Opeth and Woods of Ypres. Woods is an excellent fellow Canadian band you must check out. I sometimes wonder if I will ever put together a band to play my stuff live, but I can't see it happening any time soon. I just don't have the time and patience to put together a group, rehearse, make futile attempts to get the dreams in my head into their heads, lose and gain a few members, and so on. Bathory has gone on for years and years without touring, so why can't I? Besides, although music is a big part of my life, I also do a lot of writing, and I am currently working on some dark fantasy stuff, and also even a children's oriented ghost story!
Back to the new CD, which is tentatively titled "Sailing The Seas of Fate", and as mentioned before, is a concept "Viking-metal" album. Although the metal parts will be few and far between, I think it will add a nice dynamic to go along with the acoustic/ambient atmosphere. As mentioned before, the lyrics/words/poems etc... were written in a four-hour inspired fit, and I really don't quite know for sure why this concept suddenly came to me as it did. It's an alternate history of sorts, with Vikings against Christians and so on. I believe there is some inspiration from the Harry Harrison novel, _The Hammer and the Cross_. I think it is also inspired by the pseudo-history and myth behind the legend of the grail stone, Hyperborea, Thule, the mysteries of the blood, the soul, genetics, and our relation to the gods and demi-gods of myth. In many ways, its another envisioning of the archetypal grail quest, like Parsifal, Jason and the Argounauts, and so on. It will take you to our primordial beginnings, the Eternal Now, and the ever changing future. Enough said for now...
A little Daemonskald craziness now: I don't pay much attention to the daily news and politics etc..., but over the past few years, you can see the noose slowly being worked around the necks of western civilization (and those other areas of the world that the US and cohorts seek to takeover) via economic tyranny. It does not matter what leader you vote for at your silly elections, right/left wing whatever, everything is controlled via banks and the little green pieces of paper that everyone holds so dear. Corporations now basically control the price and distribution of natural resources, your power, your oil and gas, soon even your drinking water. All prices are going up rapidly, yet people work for the same amounts they made 10 years ago. It's all going to crash down soon, don't you worry. And then you will see unrest and revolutions in the west that you only typically see in Europe. I also see natural cataclysms aiding this process, keep your eyes on the stars! While officials are happily beaming you silly pictures of water and snow on Mars to keep you entertained, hulking asteroids and comets lurk close by. Don't you realize that civilizations probably rose and fell thousands of times on Mars before being pummeled by space rocks? Do you realize Earth has gone through the same thing many times over already? Do you know why they called it the Dark Ages? It's because some form of natural disaster drove Europe into chaos and barbarism for 500 years! Don't think it won't happen again! Our new barbarians and their kings will be much crueler, and will have no mercy on the green paper lovers!
Till next time...
DS
The Dominion of Canada and the Concept of Kingship
Some people ask me why I like to sign my address in my correspondence as being from the Dominion of Canada. It is actually our original name from the time of Confederation, I don't know if it is legal anymore, as of the 1982 constitution, this reference was removed, and we even changed our national holiday, Dominion Day, to Canada Day for some strange reason. The term "Dominion" was used as at the time by the fathers of Confederation, as Canada was something in between a colony and an independent state, but still part of the British empire. Most older maps and atlases clearly show it named as the Dominion of Canada.
Personally, I strongly support the idea of a monarchy. Now, the current British Royal family isn't exactly what I would consider the ideal rulers of our lands. Although now that recent reports out of Britain indicate Prince Charles was plotting to kill Lady Diana, I am refreshed to see that the concept of regicide is still alive and well!
Although most people consider democracy the most "fair" way of government, I don't exactly support the idea of millions of idiots choosing my ruler. In traditional times, the leader or king was not deemed ruler because people voted for them, it was the right of their heritage, blood, and their spiritual superiority. They acted as a bridge between the natural order and the higher realms. The roots of this authority were metaphysical in nature, and the success of his rule and the health of the kingdom were based on this. (See the story of King Arthur and how his ailing caused his kingdom to wither.)
"Every traditional civilization is characterized by the presence of beings who, by virtue of their innate or acquired superiority over the human condition, embody within the temporal order the living and efficacious presence of a power that comes from above."
Julius Evola — "Revolt Against the Modern World"These rulers were obeyed and feared because of their transcendent qualities. I can tell you now that when this planet starts to come undone at the seams, and oceans boil, and rocks from the sky pummel the earth, that the frenzied populace will not listen to their elected leaders, but gravitate to those who give them both spiritual and temporal balance.
So you say, "but Daemonskald, what about all the crazed Kings and tyrants of the past?" And I say that when the ruler has lost this ability to keep their kingdom stable both temporally and spiritually (and the decay of the latter is the cause of the former), they simply destroy him!
Now you say, "oh Daemonskald, you want to be King now eh?" Well, personally I'm not interested in politics or leading men. I'd rather be an advisor to someone in power, a Merlin to a King Arthur, a Vader to a Governor Tarkin. They may dance but I call the tune! Great changes often require subtle forces working behind the scenes.
This brings us to the latest installment of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, The Return of the King, which I finally saw a few weeks ago after the crowds died down. There is not much that can be said that has already been stated about these movies, they are great fantasy, the casting was absolutely perfect, the sets, costumes, props and so on were all well crafted and very authentic. I was a little disappointed with the music, which seemed to have a bit too much "new age celtic" style vibe to them, and not enough Wagnerian epic power and emotion in them, such as John Williams did with the Star Wars movies. Of course, like most anal Tolkienites, I disliked the changes to the story by the director. It wasn't so much the leaving out of certain scenes such as the end of Saruman, Tom Bombadil etc…, but the addition of things that never existed such as the large role of Arwen, and many of the characters more noble motivations for how they acted were completely removed in favour of typical Hollywood cliché moments. Don't even get me started on how Boromir, Faramir, and so on were treated in the movie, or how Sauron, supposedly the great, powerful, dark lord threatening Middle Earth, is depicted as nothing more but some evil lighthouse!
But let's turn to Aragorn, who, as the title suggests, is the returning king, and the focal point of the story. We go back to Julius Evola's concepts on regality, and then see a key line from the first movie when Elrond is addressing the council concerning the fate of Men,
"The race of Men is failing. The blood of Numenor is all but spent, its pride and dignity forgotten."
Quite a true statement, since at the time, as Theoden of Rohan was ailing and weak under the spell of Saruman and Wormtongue, the steward of Gondor, Denethor, slipping into madness, culminating in the attempt to burn his own son Faramir in the pyre. Aragorn, nobly played by Viggo Mortensen, represents the return of the true blood of elder times. But I think this whole concept was totally downplayed, and in fact after he is crowned, it was seemingly just a segue way to bring in his elven groupie for a tearful reunion!
At the end of the movie, we are shown the keepers of the three great rings and the bearers of the One ring sailing away from Middle Earth to end the Third Age, as the time of magic was done, and a new cycle of men had begun.
Contrast this with my other favourite fantasy series, and most inspirational to who I am today, the Saga of Elric of Melnibone, by Michael Moorcock.
"The era of the Bright Empire, even that of the Young Kingdoms, is drawing to a close. Chaos formed this earth, and for aeons, Chaos ruled. Men were created to put an end to that rule.
"Because of you the world shall know progression and its new people shall have the opportunity to advance by degrees to a new state of being."
It seems now our age of men here on Earth is slipping down a dangerous slope, as its pride and dignity of its blood and spirit continues to be spent. Who knows what dark days lay ahead, and what new types of races and beings will come from it, if anything does at all? Will it be a return to golden times, or the coming of a new, barbaric dark age (if we are not in it already)? What does this mean for those of us today who seek a return to the way of tradition? As the cycles move, there are opportunities to influence the next world, but the work begins now and it requires leaders, not followers. We must ever step forward to walk to the beginning.
Till next time,
DS
The Beginning of the Vision
I've now sent out the demo to a number of magazines and zines for review, and also a few record labels.
The general consensus that I have received so far is that the demo is good, but everyone wants to hear what I can do with the electric guitar in the mix to "metalize" it. The next demo I am working on will be more of a Viking metal concept, but one thing I am planning is not to have any traditional "metal" drums on it. Hopefully the sound will be somewhat more orchestral and epic sounding.
My initial goal of SIG:AR:TYR was to be an acoustic/ambient project. I love metal, but I am just a bit tired of it these days and wanted to do something a bit different. Not long after I finished working on "The Stranger", something came to me during meditation (for me this is basically day-dreaming, not doing some yoga thing), and the concept for "Sailing the Seas of Fate" was born. In fact, the next day after I had the vision, I wrote all the words for the whole story in about 4 hours straight. It was like a flood of images I tried to put into words.
I am now putting the music to the words, and hope to have a 3-4 song demo and maybe even the rest of it ready in about 6 months. But I will post things as they become more concrete.
Another thing that some people asked is about singing and vocals, and unfortunately, I can't really sing. But my idea of SIG:AR:TYR was to have sort of a story-telling atmosphere where the vocals would be more like spoken-voice like you hear with narrated books-on-tape. I'm a story teller, not a singer. I'm no bard, but at least I am the Daemonskald!
Till next time,
DS
