Odinist beliefs about life after death

[Mike_76]

An article I found:

here. (http://www.geocities.com/osred/after_death.htm)

Not sure how acurate this article is, but I found it very interesting. I invite any comments. One thing though, it sure looks better to me than ending up here:


http://www.die-hoelle.de/bosch_hell.jpg


Hieronymous Bosch; "Hell."

[Mike_76]

At the end of the article it said, and I quote:


Even though an article of this length can only expound it in the starkest terms, the Odinist view of the after-life is beautiful, consoling and innately moral. Small wonder that our ancestors objected to exchanging it for the banal, immoral and intimidating heaven and hell of Judeo-Christianity.

[Der Einzelgänger]

I've been thinking about it, and I'm not to worried anymore about where I'll go. I think the best thing to do now is concentrate on the now and just live my life as the best Odinist I can be.

It's fun to debate about the after-life, whether there is one or not, and if there is, what it is like, but frankly, no one will know until we pass from this world.

I like to think that I will live on through my offspring a tiny piece of me will be carried on through this life, and that I have tiny pieces of my ancestors in me, that I will also pass on to my children.

But all in all, I guess I'm just tired of guessing. I'll let the gods choose my fate for me when I die.

[Mike_76]

These are a few paragraphs I found interesting, and dwelt on the part of the soul or the person:

"Even in modern Icelandic fylgja means "attendant spirit, guardian spirit". This is an aspect of the soul that accompanies people throughout their lives. It can take the form of a personal reserve of spiritual power, and can be used to attack one’s enemies – as happened to Gunnar of Hlíðarendi. Before the fight at Knafahólar he was attacked in his dreams by a pack of wolves, the form taken by the fylgjur of his opponents.

Hamingja, which is also used in modern Icelandic, means "destiny, fortune, mana". We have trouble with this word in modern English because we have largely forgotten its original meaning. It can be seen as that aspect of the soul which commits us to the great task in this life for which every individual is incarnated.

Then there is the Kynfylgja, a part of the soul that has been conferred by one’s family or ancestry. This word usually refers to family traits, but we get a sense of its earlier power in the Morris/Magnússon translation of Volsunga Saga: "I wot, by my fore-knowledge, and from the fetch of our kin [kynfylgju], that from this counsel will great evil fall on us …"

The Odinist soul, then, was seen as having many parts, or aspects, or dimensions. (Any reader who may have thought the earlier description of the Christian soul-concept as "primitive" and "simplistic" could do well to meditate on the few aspects of the Odinist soul touched on above.)

In life, as we have seen, different aspects of the soul did not have to be present in the same space – and in some cases they couldn’t be. There is no reason to assume this to be otherwise in the after-life, either."

I tend to believe a lot of this because of some "spooky" personal experiences

[Sigurd]

The Judeo-Christian way of seeing it is indeed very intruiging and very hmmm...primitive... much better how we see it... :D

[Mike_76]

I agree, Sigurd. It's like the difference between reading an complex and exciting novel (our way) and reading a comic book (J-C way). The threat that Hell might exist kept me hanging on for years...sigh. This is much better.

[Der Einzelgänger]

Hey, atleast you found this way, some people never find their way out... And I agree, Odinism just feels more natural and personal than anything else.

[Sigurd]

Hey, atleast you found this way, some people never find their way out... And I agree, Odinism just feels more natural and personal than anything else.

It indeed does.

What I especially also like about our belief is that you can have your own interpretation of things, that you can feel more connected to one god than to another as well.

It is also not so exactly prescribed how an Odinist shall live his life as it is for a Christian. An Odinist tries to achieve in life what is best for himself and his family, friends, kind, nation, etc. Christians do this just because they believe that this will make them go to heaven and sit beside "God". And they base their whole life on the book written by four people (the Evangelists).

X-ians are often also very materialistic: "God" is a joke, the real Judeo-Christian god is $$$$$." And if they do everything to get $("money, reputation, position etc."), they find a place beside $$$$$ ("God") in $$$$$$$$$ ("heaven"). Full stop.

BTW, sorry for so many offtopical comments in this post.