So now we’re going to finish up the second part of Sarenth Odinsson’s “Cutting Ties Part 2” in which he tries to justify basically being an immoral piece of dog shit by insisting Galina and Sannion are immoral pieces of shit.

“This amount of separation has given me time to think on Galina’s role in my life as a Heathen. She came into my life not too long after I became a Heathen. At the time there was a fierce divide in the Heathens and Heathen communities I encountered between folks who were more experiential and those who weighed everything by “The Lore”. It was a fierce one too, one I found fairly inhospitable as a good chunk of the latter were composed of ‘blood and soil’ types, Neo-Nazis, and white supremacists. Galina’s books at the time, and Raven Kaldera’s too, opened up my Heathen exploration to experiences with the Gods in dynamic and powerful ways that still affect me to this day.“

Ah yes, the classic “they were Nazis” line one always sees come up in Heathen discussion. I’m not sure when Sarenth got into Heathenism, but I don’t think it was that much more before me, and I notice he is ignoring the “Universalist/Folkish” divide that was just as present as the “Lore Hound/other” divide. And yes, I freely admit the Lore Hounds were obnoxious as fuck and lacking any and all imagination, but I rarely found them to be the “blood and soil” types, much less neo-nazis, and certainly not, on average, white supremacists. Of course, we are talking about Sarenth “I support Anti-fa’s fight against ‘Fascism'” here so his definition of those terms may be far broader and less based in reality than my own. I’m sure he considers me something of a neo-nazi white supremacist even though I’m not.

Me, Galina, Sannion, Raven, and Sarenth all fall pretty heavily on the Theistic/Deistic side of the alignment chart. It’s not as big a circle as we like, and boy do we get more than our fair share of mockery over it as the years have gone by. It makes me sad, in a way, to see one who would be so close to the Gods, betray so much of what they actually stand for.

“When I cut Galina and Sannion out of my life I questioned everything. I asked questions like “Is everything I experienced complete and total bullshit? Do I actually have skill with the Runes? Am I really an Odinsson? Am I a spiritworker? Am I a good Heathen?”

Was it all bullshit? I don’t know what he experienced, but I doubt all of it was bullshit. I can’t speak to his skill with the runes. Is he really the Son of Odin? That would be between him and his adopted father. Is he a spiritworker? Sure.

Is he a good Heathen?

Absolutely not.

I do not say this lightly, but the sad fact of the matter is that Sarenth is not a good Heathen. A good Heathen holds that oaths are sacred. Sarenth supports Oathbreakers who publicly and proudly break their oaths. A good Heathen upholds the law as sacred (if fallible) and that Murder is wrong. Sarenth not only proudly supports those who break the law and murder the innocent, he is publicly denouncing a Heathen who has stood up against this lawlessness and murder. A good Heathen stands in defense of his Kin and Folk. Sarenth supports Islam, a religion of oath-breakers who would see every single heathen dead.

No, Sarenth is not a good Heathen. Oh, he may make his offerings, say his prayers, and honor the Gods in his way, but he violates the fundamental nature of what it means to be a good heathen. He supports murderers, thieves, and oathbreakers. You cannot do these things and be a good heathen.

“Again and again I parsed those questions and those like them, sometimes at intrusive times. They would pop up when I was trying to sleep or relax. When I was in the shower, about to pray, before divination sessions. I could put them aside for awhile, and they would still be there. Eventually, I came to my understanding in conversation with dear friends and in self-reflection.

Galina was my Elder, mentor, and for most of the relationship after the first four years or so, a colleague to me. We knew each other since about 2007. However, she was not the container of my relationships with the Gods, Ancestors, and vaettir. She was a bridge in them, but she did not contain them. She did not make me a spiritworker any more than she made me a child of Odin. Being a child of Odin was a revelation I came to well before I met her, and being a spiritworker is something I have always felt called to in some fashion or another. Whether it was through her, another teacher, or just my interactions with the Ginnreginn I was likely going to be doing something like what I am now whatever else I did. It is clear from my experiences with and feedback from others that I am a good Heathen, a skilled spiritworker, and skilled in working with the Runes. Looking over my experiences, and the effects they have had on others, most of what I experienced as Galina’s apprentice, student, and colleague was genuine. I have enough people in my life who live genuine, good lives who were willing to call me on my bullshit if I were anything else.”

“It is clear from my experience and feedback from others that I am a good Heathen.”

I have been to Sarenth’s blog a few times and he is, by all accounts far, far more popular than I am. I don’t begrudge him this fact, honestly it doesn’t surprise me. My blog is largely dead, and when it was alive I spent much of my time fighting people rather than focusing purely on the spiritual side of things. Sarenth posts near daily on spiritual matters, and he was the student of one of the most famous Heathens we have in the world, which probably granted him a pretty good starting point to begin with, one he has maintained though constant work. I like to think that if I too had posted virtually every day on purely spiritual matters, and bothered to make more social and political connections, I too would be as successful on the internet Pagan sphere as him. But that was not my path nor my fate.

Here’s the thing though, just because you’re “famous” and just because a lot of people tell you something like “you’re a good heathen” doesn’t make it true.

Pat Robertson, Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell Sr, Joel Olsteen. These are all very famous Christian Ministers. They have, in the course of their lives, had millions of followers. All of whom insisted that these men were good Christians and good Men.

Would we agree? Would we say that they are good Christians? Would we say that they are good men. Would we agree that they are these things simply because millions of people have told them that they are?

I bear these men of christ no ill will, but I would hardly accept mere “morality by acclamation” as any form of proof that a person was a good, moral man. So when Sarenth says “people tell me I am a good person” and I look at the type of people he supports (and likely surrounds himself with) I find myself not only unconvinced, but frankly rather insulted. He surrounds himself with murderers and oathbreakers, or at least the people who also support murderers and oath breakers. Hardly what Heathens would or should consider “good and moral” people.

“The Runes as vaettir, as spirits? It made sense to me, and given the experiences I had of Them before I ran into her work, it hit me like a bolt of lightning. I have no doubt the Runes are vaettir, powerful ones at that. When you cut someone this meaningful to your spiritual journey out of your life, though, you question everything.”

It is a shame you did not question enough, Sarenth. You questioned the people you were involved with, but instead of questioning the murderers, you question those who spoke up for the murdered. Instead of standing by those who kept their oaths, you chose to side with those that break them. For all your questions, for all they taught you, you never bothered to learn the correct answers according to Heathenism and the Gods.

“Looking back, I think the biggest tragedy between the both of them, and those who have similar stories to them, is the incredible amount of good they could have done. Through their actions they have tainted their work, probably irrevocably. Their work helped provide firm foundations from which others grew. It could have informed many generations of polytheists.“

It could, and it will, Sarenth.

For all their faults, and they do have them as every mortal does, Galina and Sannion have done good. When the time came, they took a stand against theft and murder, violence and terrorism. Sannion has committed no sin that Sarenth has not also committed by his own standards. If standing against these things is vile, if it has truly tainted their work irrevocably, then we must ask ourselves what we are truly doing here, what we truly believe, and if it is truly worth it.

If standing against Islam, Anti-fa, and BLM is evil, if it is truly antithetical to what Heathenism should be…then to be a Heathen is something vile.

But I do not believe that Galina and Sannion have done wrong. I do not believe that standing against what BLM, Antifa, or the Political Left as a whole is doing today is wrong or antithetical to Heathenism. I believe what they have done, to my limited knowledge, is right. Every day I look out at what the Left and its followers have done. I have seen their hypocrisy, their cruelty, their injustice, and their ever growing authoritarianism and their constant violation of our civil rights. I see them support murderers and thieves, calling for political based violence in one breath, and then crying when even faced with even the most mundane of the same by who oppose them.

Sarenth speaks of the harm Galina and Sannion have brought forth and says that is why he cannot support them. But he does not speak of the massive amounts of harm, the countless victims, of those whom he does support.

What is good is good, what is evil is evil. Yet Sarenth would hold that what he supports is good, and what he does not support is evil, even when both groups do the same actions. Much less when those he supports do far worse.

Skipping forwards over some self promotional stuff we reach the end:

“I apologize to my loved ones, my family, my friends, and my community for holding my tongue when I should have spoken out. I apologize to the Heathen, Pagan, and polytheist communities for actively promoting Galina and Sannion’s work over the years. I apologize for defending and going to bat for people I should have recognized as actively harmful and toxic.”

A year ago, I asked Sarenth about the over thirty people killed at the hands of Black Lives Matter?

He held his tongue and was silent.

I asked him about the people whose lives and property had been ruined by BLM and Antifa?

He held his tongue and was silent.

When he condemned Sannion for using a symbol created by the SS, and I asked then why he supported Anti-fa who uses the symbols of an ideology that has slain 160 million people, and proved it was such when he tried to deny it?

He held his tongue and was silent.

It seems holding his tongue when he should have spoken out about something actively harmful and toxic is a habit of Sarenth’s.

He will not speak out against theft and murder. But he will eventually speak out against those who stand against those things. Because they are harmful and toxic.

“I am not who I was. I made my mistakes, and I own them. I will keep on doing the Work that is mine to do. My Work is not here to make amends. My Work is here for the Ginnreginn, and if amends are part of that, then that is what it is here for. All I can hope is that my Work shows my worth and my quality.“

He has made mistakes and he owns them.

But he does not own his true mistakes.

He has had a year to learn and yet he has learned nothing. He has had a year to see the true nature of BLM, Anti-fa, and the Left he supports. He has had a year to learn their true nature. He has decided that he supports them still, over those who taught him and stood up for what was moral and just under Heathen theology.

So I hold to what I said a year ago as well.

Pray, Sarenth, that you do not find yourself in the straw death. Pray, that some other force takes your soul upon your passing. For should you find yourself in Helheim, in my beloved’s realm all that awaits you is the poisoned river and the gnashing of the serpent’s fangs. You are yet still immoral and without honor. You glorify in the deaths and suffering of the innocent, you speak with a hypocrite’s tongue, and you break your oaths to the very faith you claim to champion.

Let Sarenth be a warning to those out there who read these words. Do not follow in his path. Do not support murder, theft, or oath breaking. Do not live hypocritical lives, thinking yourselves good and others evil when you both do the same actions. Do not think that just because the multitudes tell that you are good, that you are good. Heed the ancient words of the Gods instead if you wish to know what is good and what is wrong. Keep your faith in them, not in men like Sarenth Oath-breaker.

Hela Bless