ÄÄRETÖN
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RADIO WYRD PODCAST #9 - A DEATHRUNE FOR JOHN MURPHY
RADIO WYRD PODCAST - Episode 9: A Death Rune for John Murphy
The ninth episode of the Radio Wyrd podcast is a death rune for John Murphy, who passed away on October 11th 2015. It features an interview with John recorded in Helsinki, Finland, in the spring of 2008.
John Murphy was a legendary Australian-born musician, a multi-instrumentalist, drummer and percussionist, who dedicated his life to music. John was also a seeker of truth and knowledge, often in the realms of esoteric tradition, of which he was a curious and open-minded explorer and seeker, as is reflected in the wide subject matter of this interview.
The interview covers John's background as a drummer, as well as his experiences with more special areas of percussion, such as “voodoo drumming” and Indian tablas; his interest and experiences with a variety of worldwide metaphysical healing techniques and harmonic vocal sound therapies; his involvement with the seminal industrial event of the eighties, “The Equinox Event”, as well as his portrayal in the book England's Hidden Reverse; his role in the film Dogs in Space, where he played a biker on crutches; his experiences playing with Nico, Orchestra of Skin and Bone, and Whitehouse; the ideas of Vril, Odic force or orgone energy; and his interest in gnosticism and hermeticism.
John Murphy is survived by his wife Annie, his numerous friends and allies worldwide, and his considerable musical legacy.
The final KnifeLadder album, "This World On Fire”, featuring John Murphy, has been released digitally. All proceeds will go directly to his wife as a contribution to funeral costs and to support her over the comings weeks and months. Purchase it here.
Music selections (used with permission from the artists):
KNIFELADDER: Scorched Earth (from the album: Organic Traces)
MAA: Toive (excerpt from the album: Tuhkankantajat)
OF THE WAND AND THE MOON: Sunspot (from the album: Lone Descent)
DEATH IN JUNE: Death of a Man (Unreleased recording, live in Tampere, Finland, 2003)
RECENT MEDIA
There is a new lengthy article about me (in Finnish language) in the magazine Sielunpeili #7/2015. The magazine can be bought in R-kiosks and department stores. The article can also be read here as a PDF-file (click link to open file).
Recently, I gave a lecture at a widely attended "spiritual conference" in Helsinki, Finland. My lecture was largely a critique of the very dubious nature of modern, Western pseudo-spirituality, that the fair in question ironically represented. Quote from the talk:
The Kali Yuga is characterized by the loss of spiritual life and traditions, the valuing of everything through materialism and money, and the escalation of degradation and conflict on every level of existence. The so-called ”spirituality” of the West today is, rather than an antidote for the Kali Yuga, a symptom of it. The dominant Western religions in their current form are void of vitality and elán – they can no longer sustain and nurture the spirit, if they indeed ever did. The same goes for most of what falls in the realm of so-called ”alternative spirituality”. It is almost always incredibly superficial and hopelessly imbalanced, erring too much on one side or the other: either the nauseating, neurotic ”lightness” of the new age, or its opposite, the childish affection toward all things dark and morbid. Lacking authority, much of what passes as ”esoteric tradition” in the West is resting on little more than the flimsy ideas and idle speculation of its makers. Often shunning its own inherent pagan traditions, lore and wisdom, the West freely borrows and adopts foreign traditions from supposedly ”more spiritual” (often more primitive) cultures and, ultimately, misappropriates them. The sedate, feminine and commercial world of modern Western yoga, for instance, seems like the exact inverted mirror image of traditional Yoga as I had come to see it in India; how different are the naga babas, those wild, untamed god-crazed yogis of old, from the starry-eyed health- and fitness-enthusiasts veiled in Indian aesthetics that we have grown accustomed to in the West. The motive, of course, for many modern movements is often all-too-familiar: monetary gain (and sometimes sexual favours). But then again, echoing even the sentiments of some traditional gurus in India, magic has seemingly always been done for those things - power and sex.
In contrast to modern Western pseudo-spirituality, I presented a summary of my first-hand experience of an authentic pagan, pantheistic/polytheistic spiritual tradition - that of ancient India, as represented by the Naga babas, the warrior-mystics of Shiva, as I had encountered them and their world.
The conclusions I arrived to were partially echoed in those of esoteric thinkers of the past, such as traditionalist author René Guénon (although, what constitutes a genuine Western tradition suitable for our times I have different views on than Guénon):
”It is thus only a question, in short, of reconstituting that which existed before the modern deviation, with those adaptions necessary for the conditions of a different era. The East may well be able to come to the rescue of the West, if the latter really wants it, not in order to impose strange concepts, as some people seem to fear, but to help the West rediscover its own tradition whose meaning has been lost.”
How this might happen is the subject of my book Pyhiinvaellus ("Pilgrimage: Journeys in the Kali Yuga"), as well as my forthcoming work.
As a sidenote it can be mentioned that, after my lecture, an old lady came up to me and asked if so-and-so was my father. I said he was. She told me that, 30 years ago, she worked for 13 years as an assisting nurse for my father who was a surgeon. She said, "your father was a spiritual man". Then, she returned to me a book my father had borrowed to her over three decades ago. "I never got to give it back to him personally, so now I give it to you", she said. Inside was my father's stamp. The book was called "Joy of Life".
***
At another recent public event, I spoke with my friend, journalist Perttu Häkkinen, about a highly recommended book that he co-authored with Vesa Iitti, titled Valonkantajat: Välähdyksiä suomalaisesta salatieteestä ("The Light-bearers: glimpses of Finland's esoteric world", currently being translated into English language). We also spoke at length about the subject of some recent new biographies, Aleister Crowley, and, having both visited the ruins of his Abbey of Thelema in Cefalú, Sicily, what relevance his somewhat faustian magical legacy and life has for us today.
Lastly, I got to meet Richard Stanley, director of the great documentary film The Secret Glory, which deals with Otto Rahn and his quest for the Holy Grail. Stanley has also written a book about the magic and mystery at Montségur called Shadow of the Grail. As we visited Montsegur last spring, and as a chapter of my forthcoming book will deal with my experience there, I learned a lot of things about it from Stanley, who is now a resident of the Montségur village.
A DEATH RUNE FOR JOHN MURPHY
John Murphy
July 11th 1959 - October 11th 2015
Polaroid by Aki Cederberg
“Deyr fé,
deyja frændr,
deyr sjálfr et sama;
ek veit einn,
at aldri deyr:
dómr um dauðan hvern.
Cattle die,
kinsmen die
you yourself will die;
I know one thing
which never dies:
the fame of a dead man’s deeds.”
It was an unusually calm October afternoon at my ancestral summer house in the countryside of Southern Finland. It is an old house by the sea, surrounded by forest. A slight haze of clouds drifted slowly across the sky. Sometimes the cold sun would come out from behind the clouds, but it was far away and did not warm us anymore this late in the year. It was very quiet, as the birds had left for warmer regions for the winter. Everything was still. It felt like something was missing.
We had come here to light a twilight fire for the newly departed. This time of year, harvest time, is thought of traditionally as a time when the veils between worlds are thin. As I started building the fire on the shore, a lone white swan drifted close by and seemed to be overseeing what was happening. In Finnish folk-religion and mythos, there is a mystical swan that swims around Tuonela, the land of the dead. It was a good sign.
I had brought John Murphy to this place a few times over the years. We had bathed in the sauna, sat by a fire on the cliffs, talked and stared over the ocean. This time, it was to be a different fire – a funeral fire.
I knew John Murphy for well over a decade, since the early 2000's. I had, of course, known about John and appreciated his work well before I knew him personally. He was a creative, talented and productive lifelong musician, a multi-instrumentalist, drummer and percussionist. John had dedicated his life to music. He had seemingly worked with “everyone” in the industrial, post-punk, ambient, neo-folk and related underground music circles (SPK, Orchestra of Skin and Bone, Nico from the Velvet Underground, Death In June, Boyd Rice & Non, Current 93, Whitehouse, Blood Axis, Naevus, Of the Wand and the Moon, Die Weisse Rose, ad infinitum), not to mention his own bands and projects including Kraang, Shining Vril, Knifeladder, Foresta di Ferrio, Last Dominion Lost, and others.
Many people have probably seen John Murphy perform with Death In June, whom he was the live- drummer of for many years, giving the shows some of their ritualistic force. I too first met John when I drove him and Douglas P. (of Death In June) from Helsinki to Tampere for a performance. In conversation he told me about the significance of the “Knife ladder”, which gave name to one of his bands: there is an Asian tradition where, during a special time, a group of select men climb a tall ladder of sharp knives in order to “open the heavenly gates”, as well as invoke benefits for their people in attendance. It is a dangerous, spiritual ordeal, where the goal is something often intangible - such as blessings. I would like to think that this told something about John's own musical performances and even his life as whole – that it was a sometimes dangerous, sometimes painful, but ultimately honorable and spiritual journey towards a perhaps elusive end. Indeed, those who knew John, knew that he was essentially a gnostic, endlessly curious and ever seeking both knowledge and experience of various, wide-ranging fields of esoteric tradition.
Over the years, I met John in various countries throughout Europe, often connected to some musical event. But it was only when he was down on his luck, having been denied re-entry into the UK for various dubious reasons, that I perhaps really got to know John. He needed some help and a place to sort things out, and so he stayed at my home in Helsinki for some time. He was in a rather dour mood. The UK had been, if not his home, at least his base. He was missing his wife to-be, Annie, and he was missing his friends and band. All of it was taxing on his health. On top of it all, in trying to enter the UK, he had been thrown in a cell, during which he had lost some jewelry of personal significance. I gave him my Finnish Ukko's (the thunder god) hammer pendant in the hope that it would help alleviate the lost lucky charms.
I have some vivid memories of this time in early spring of John staying at my place. In the daytime we visited various places of interest in Helsinki – historical sights, museums, music shops – or simply took a walk by the sea. In the evening, we often sat around, listening to music and talking late into the night. Our conversations would often cover a wide array of interests in the fields of esoterica, culture, history and music. John had led an eventful life and was full of interesting stories, delivered with his often sardonic wit and extremely dry sense of humor. During those nights, we also watched several classic films, such as The Night Porter, Carnival of Souls and Night Tide (which is sampled heavily on the album that John was part of making, Alarm Agents by Death In June & Boyd Rice).
It was out of these nightly sojourns that an interview arose, which we conducted in the black room of my house over the course of a few days. It covers John's background as a drummer, as well as his experiences with more special areas of percussion, such as “voodoo drumming” and Indian tablas; his interest and experiences with a variety of worldwide metaphysical healing techniques and harmonic vocal sound therapies; his involvement with the seminal industrial event of the eighties, “The Equinox Event”, as well as his portrayal in the book England's Hidden Reverse; his role in the film Dogs in Space, where he played a biker on crutches; his experiences playing with Nico, Orchestra of Skin and Bone, and Whitehouse; the ideas of Vril, Odic force or orgone energy; and his interest in gnosticism and hermeticism. The interview is soon being published posthumously through our podcast Radio Wyrd – available at www.radiowyrd.fi
It was also during this time that we collaborated musically. The result was a cover-version of the classic tune “Wenn ich mir was wünschen dürfte”, made famous by Marlene Dietrich. We recorded it with our band of that time, MAA, and it appeared later as the last song, “Toive”, on our album Tuhkankantajat (put out by the label Anima Arctica). The track took shape one evening in my living room, where we had set up our various devices, effects and recording equipment and dimmed the lights down. Afterwards, John's mood seemed elevated above the difficulties he had been facing. I overheard him on the phone to his girlfriend Annie, saying how he had been really low from all that had been happening, but that now the music had uplifted his spirits.
We also recorded several of John's drum solos, where he free-flowed, “Captain Beefheart” style, on my old Ludwig drum kit. Being a drummer myself, I could appreciate John as a classically trained percussionist with his distinctly original style of drumming. If he was sometimes laconic in person, he was always expressive and bombastic behind his instruments. The music was his language.
A year or two later, I organized John's and Annie's wedding in Helsinki. The festivities were held in a cavelike restaurant named Walhalla, built into old castle walls on a small island off the coast. The place had reputedly been used as a meeting place for secret societies in the past, so I thought it was a perfect fit - not to mention the name which comes from the feasting hall of the slain heroes of Odin. On that warm high summer day, I remember seeing John and Annie walking on the grassy wall of the sea fortress, the open ocean wide behind them, the sky above them filled with seagulls. It was the happiest I have ever seen John.
In the following years, I kept in contact with John and would meet him on an irregular basis. I could see how his dedication to his music and perhaps the lifestyle that it had required, were wearing down on his health. We had talked about collaborating again on a project. Send me those horn sounds, he would say, referring to animal horn trumpets I had played for him. But time was against us.
As the sun was setting, against the darkness I lit the funeral fire with a piece of birch inscribed with runes. I rang a bell nine times, into all nine worlds. We called on all gods and goddesses, ancestors and friends, present and far away, to be with us here, at this crossing of worlds.
I had brought a special Odin-beer to toast with, and now, I filled the drinking horn to the brim. John had been an Odinic seeker of knowledge and of the great secrets themselves, so it seemed suitable.
First, some of the liquid was poured on the ground by the fire. Then, words and libations were raised high for John.
As I held the horn and spoke, a tear ran down my face. “Friends are few and rare indeed”, as the song goes, and today one of them had left this world. But John had never necessarily believed that this earthly plane was the only world, and so we wished him a safe passage to the next one, whatever that might be.
It is hard to write about death without sentimenal clichés. Still, most clichés are rooted in truths that have become such only in our postmodern world, where sincerity is rarely valued.
John, you better fucking hear me now, I said aloud, as if thinking to myself. He always had problems with his cell-phones and was often hard to reach. I had tried contacting John several times during the week before he passed, but much to my disappointment, had never reached him before it was too late. Now, every time I raised my voice in libation, the silence would be broken by sudden waves that would come crashing in on the shore, or someone would start banging on something in the distance. Perhaps John could hear us after all.
As the drinking horn was drained and the libations came to an end, I took the last bundle of birches that remained from summer and burned them, holding them above the fire. They burned with a glistening flame. Then, quietly, we watched as the pieces of glowing ash rose up in the air and drifted above the surface of the mirrorlike sea, flickering against the darkening sky.
Have a good journey, my friend.
- Aki Cederberg, Helsinki-Porvoo, October 14th
TOWARD THE SUN
After a two-month long journey which began around Easter (Ostara), we have returned to Finland, our home in the North.
On our pilgrimage of our spiritual homeland, Europa, we visited a multitude of holy places and special sites in Sweden, Denmark, Germany and France. These sites are, in our view, beacons of spirit and beauty in a soulless, crass age. They stand like monoliths against time, which by their majesty preserve something of the nobility of a timeless truth. We were exposed to local pagan traditions thought long-forgotten, and explored various esoteric and exoteric strands of history, lore and knowledge connected to these sites. If one is seeking a deeper sense of connection, one needs only to look at the sun and soil which one is springing from: the mythic wells and fountains of ancestral wisdom and memory are right here in Europe, and even if shrouded, they run deep and strong. Indeed, there seems to be a hidden sun radiating at the heart of these lands, shining its light on seekers such as ourselves, whom are legion.
These travels, as well as many already undertaken and more yet to come, will form the book we have now began working on. It will feature the highly aesthetic and artistic photography by my wife and companion Justine Cederberg, and english-language words by myself. We are currently interested in making connections with interested publishers.
As the Sun reaches its apex, we reunite with our tribe and light our Midsummer Fire, whose flame we carry within us as the Sun starts its descent toward darkness again. It reminds us that we cannot fixate on one point only - the light - but that we need to welcome and understand all that makes up the whole.
We wish to give a great "Thank You" to all old and new friends we crossed paths with, everyone who opened their homes to us and who gave us help and hospitality along the way. Our horn is truly one of plenty, having shared libations with so many kindred spirits.
OSTARA
This Spring Equinox, my wife made colored eggs from the first green ferns of the season. These eggs will be left as offerings at an old sacred site during Ostara, as we travel through Europe.
Eggs have a central place in the mythic drama of rebirth which happens every spring. They tell the story of (re)creation, which happens everywhere around us, and equally, within us as well.
The Finnish creation myth tells of the Goddess of Air, Ilmatar ("Ilma" means "air", hence "Ilmatar" literally means "goddess of air"), who rested on the cosmic ocean for countless ages. She called out to Ukko (literally "old man", from whom we get "ukkonen", thunder) in the heavens and was impregnated by a storm. A large duck landed and made a nest on her knee, and laid seven eggs (six of gold and one of iron) . As she move from the heat caused by the nest, the eggs shattered, creating all of the world, the earth, the sky, the sun and the moon. Ilmatar also gave birth to Väinämöinen, the first shaman and bard, who continues creation by singing the world into being with his magical incantations, runes and songs.
One egg's lower half transformed
And became the earth below,
And its upper half transmuted
And became the sky above;
From the yolk the sun was made,
Light of day to shine upon us;
From the white the moon was formed,
Light of night to gleam above us;
All the colored brighter bits
Rose to be the stars of heaven
And the darker crumbs changed into
Clouds and cloudlets in the sky.
In his work The Phallus, Alain Daniélou writes about the cosmic egg:
"Totality is often represented in the form of an egg. The universe appears to man as an egg divided in two halves: the earth and the sky. The egg is considered the origin of life. In it the male and female principles are reunited. The form of the egg is also a sign, a lingam."
In all of nature we see this sign. Eggs, as well as stones, rocks and other egg-shaped formations mark and remind us of this primal unity and totality, which is the source of all, and hence to be venerated as the highest principle.
HOMELAND
Some time ago, in the spirit of remembering ones ancestors (including the forgotten ones), I undertook a DNA-analysis at 23andme.com, which traces ones ancestral lineages several hundred years back.
According to the various models of the ancestry composition, I am from 98,7% to a 100% European. More specifically I am 83,2% Northern European, 13,5% broadly European and 2,1% Eastern European. Over half of my DNA can be traced as dominantly Finnish. The other half is a mixture of (in this order) broadly Northern European, Scandinavian, French and German, British and Irish, Eastern European and slightly less than one percentage of Ashkenazi Jewish.
My family from both the paternal and maternal sides has its roots in areas by the Baltic sea of southern Finland. According to what I know and have heard of my family tree and history, outside of Finland I have ancestors in Germany and Sweden. These two countries came up first after Finland in the "Countries of Ancestry" tool of the website, which seems to verify the stories of my parents. I was previously unaware of some of the less dominant genetic ancestral streams which were revealed.
As far as recent ancestry, my forefathers have been doctors, priests and seafarers. To these hereditary lines I have attributed my strong wanderlust as well as many of my interests and passions.
Most modern Europeans, like myself, are a result of an intermixing of European tribes, which is still surprisingly homogenous and Eurocentric. Instead of obsessing over nationalities and petty, surface differences, Europeans should recognize their deeper unity and spiritual connection. If anything, Europe is a family of nations.
Contrary to popular belief, as humans we are not mere rootless automatons, who enter into the world as tabula rasa, with no particular inborn, inherent qualities. This view is the dogma of universalist religions and ideologies, who want to make everyone subservient to the one true god or obedient believers, consumers and workers.
We are formed by our forebears stretching back millennia, from whom we inherit not only our physical qualities, but also spiritual sentiments and attitudes particular to us. These sentiments reflect the specific worldview that has been born from a long-standing interaction with (and often struggle against) nature specific to the people. This worldview in turn emerges as authentic culture, which is the outward expression of the soul rooted in spiritual homeland.
In my case, my compass points North - and to its often both brutal and beautiful nature. My earliest childhood memories involve experiencing the tumultuous sacrality and terrible awe of this nature - a thunderstorm that shook the windows of our ancestral countryside house, and the clear, starry sky at midwinter night. As a Finn and Northern European, I feel that these things, and the pure, crystalline lakes, the lush, dark forests and the stormy sea have been etched into the soul of my ancestors and left their imprints deep in mine.
Universalist gods and their prophets will offer us nothing but slavery. Rejecting our inherent, ancestral nature and superimposing some foreign identity on ourselves, whether religious, political or ideological, will ultimately lead to a dead end, as it is rare for things to grow without roots. We cannot become something we are not. Rather, we should try to connect with the vestiges of spirit as they are manifested closest to us, via our ancestral roots, common culture and spiritual heritage.
Ancestry and spirituality are intimately linked. Soil and soul are inexorably connected. Blood is a fountain of memory. Embrace who you are and where you come from, wherever that might be. Find your tribe and find your soul.
STANDING ON SLEEPING GIANTS
It was late evening on Kalevala Day, the 28th of February. Our small group had gathered in central Helsinki by the Kalevala statue. As I poured some libations into ceremonial cups, its worn stone faces watched over us in silence, which seemed to surround the statue even on a busy Saturday night. A wreath and some flowers lay at its base, put there by the Kalevala society and visitors earlier in the day.
The statue depicts Elias Lönnrot, the compiler of the national epic, along with characters central to the Kalevala, and especially the 17th poem. Old Väinämöinen, the rune-singer, the shaman-bard-hero, the god of magic and poetry, rises from the left side of the statue, holding his magical instrument, the Kantele, made out of the jawbones of a great pike he slayed. Resting by the statue is the melancholic Impi maiden, stroking her hair. There is also a hidden, but central motif to the statue. On closer inspection it can be seen that Väinämöinen rises out from the mouth of Antero Vipunen, the ancestral giant, whose mustachioed face is upside-down on the left side of the statue. Antero Vipunen has a striking feature: an "inverted" pentagram on his forehead, a common sign in old folk magic. Relating to this, on the statue is a verse from the Kalevala, "Sain Sanat Salasta Ilmi" - "From Secret Source I Wrought these Words".
As said, this motif relates to the 17th poem of the epic, in which Väinämöinen travels to visit the sleeping giant and ancestor Antero Vipunen, in order to gain three magic words needed to construct his ship. In the forest, Väinämöinen falls into the mouth of the now awakened Vipunen, and into his stomach inside the earth, where Väinämöinen "makes of himself a smithy". After long lamentations and curses, Vipunen finally releases Väinämöinen from his stomach to get rid of the pain caused by Väinämöinen and gives him the secret words. Väinämöinen sings:
"Jo nyt sain sa'an sanoja, tuhansia tutkelmoita, Sain sanat salasta ilmi, julki luottehet lovesta."
- Kalevala, Seitsemästoista runo
"Spells a hundred have I gathered, And a thousand spells of magic, Secret spells were opened to me, Hidden charms were all laid open."
- Kalevala, Poem XVII
This motif central to the statue tells, of course, of the shamanic journey of Väinämöinen to the interior of the earth and to the land of the ancestors in order to gain secret knowledge, here in the form of "three magic words". It has been speculated that the "three magic words" here refer to knowledge of three things: first - the subject (the inner world), second - the object (the outer world), and third - their interplay and unity. Or pehaps they refer to a knowledge of all three worlds - above, middle and below - that is, to the totality of existence as exemplified by the tripartite axis mundi, or world tree with its roots, trunk and branches reaching ever toward the infinite. But in the end, what these three words are is never revealed and remain secrets, only to be whispered into the ear of the seeker who strives for them as did Väinämöinen.
The said motif can also be seen to mirror the alchemical process in its stage of internal purification, marked by the motto V.I.T.R.I.O.L. - Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Ocultum Lapidem (Veram Medicinam) - Visit the Interior of the Earth, and Rectifying (Purifying), you will find the Hidden Stone (True Medicine).
The ship Väinämöinen is building is no ordinary boat, but an initiatory vessel, aimed to carry him across the unknown waters and the great abyss. It represents a journey between worlds. To gain wisdom and "the secrets", he does not rely on external forces, but instead makes "of himself a smithy"; it is a process of overcoming, and in essence, of self-deification. Such is the perhaps perilous path that must be taken by those who realize that the gods - such as Väinämöinen, narrator of worlds, rune-singer, traveller between realms and seeker of wisdom- are not to be submitted to, but to be emulated. Our native gods are in our blood as something to become, and eventually even overcome in an eternal cycle of birth-death-renewal.
The silence by the statue was broken as I raised my voice in recitation of the old magic verses. Toasts were made high and poured unto the root of the statue, the upside-down face of Antero Vipunen. There in the shadow, I sensed something strong, something old and familiar moving inside me. Tears came into my eyes, and turned my vision of distant streetlights into shimmering magical lanterns. People, my people, search for the divine far and wide, in unknown lands and on distant shores. They desperately long for meaning and connection, and throw themselves into the all the joys and follies of this modern world in search thereof. And in all these things, they seem to come up empty. But perhaps it is like old Antero Vipunen, hidden in plain sight, that we have our old gods right here if only we can perceive them. Perhaps we are standing on a sleeping giant.
The Kalevala ends with 50th poem, describing the arrival of christianity and the receding of paganism and the old gods. With a heavy heart, Väinämöinen departs with his ship to loftier shores, but leaves his songs and instrument to the children of Suomi. While leaving, he says that a day will come when he will again be needed, looked for and missed "when in the air no joy remaineth". That day has now come. We need our old gods back now, and await for the furore of their return!
"Annapas ajan kulua, päivän mennä, toisen tulla, taas minua tarvitahan, katsotahan, kaivatahan
uuen sammon saattajaksi, uuen soiton suorijaksi,
uuen kuun kulettajaksi, uuen päivän päästäjäksi,
kun ei kuuta, aurinkoa eikä ilmaista iloa."
Siitä vanha Väinämöinen laskea karehtelevi
venehellä vaskisella, kuutilla kuparisella
yläisihin maaemihin, alaisihin taivosihin.
Sinne puuttui pursinensa, venehinensä väsähtyi.
Jätti kantelon jälille, soiton Suomelle sorean,
kansalle ilon ikuisen, laulut suuret lapsillensa.
- Kalevala, Viideskymmenes runo
"May the time pass quickly over us,One day passes, comes another, And again I shall be needed. Men will look for me, and miss me, To construct another Sampo, And another harp to make me, Make another moon for gleaming, And another sun for shining. When the sun and moon are absent, In the air no joy remaineth.”
Then aged Väinämöinen Went upon his journey singing, Sailing in his boat of copper, In his vessel made of copper, Sailed away to loftier regions, To the land beneath the heavens.
There he rested with his vessel, Rested weary, with his vessel, But his kantele is left us, Left his charming harp in Suomi, For his people's lasting pleasure, Mighty songs for Suomi's children.
- Kalevala, Poem L
NEW AGE
I was recently invited by one of the largest annual New Age fairs in Finland to give a lecture on the runes at their event (probably because of my recent radio-interview with Perttu Häkkinen on the subject). I declined. Had it been a literary or academic event, or had it been organized by a proper, intelligent media-outlet, I would have gladly agreed to participate. But the New Age is where I draw the line, and where we should draw the line.
Runes are not and should not be part of the what is called the New Age. If anything, they are "old age". Runology is the study of existing historical runic futharks (alphabets), inscriptions, runestones etc., and forms a subset of Germanic linguistics. Esoteric runology in turn strives to understand the mytho-poetic "secrets" the runes are thought to embody or express - it is a form of knowledge-seeking where the goal is initiatory wisdom rooted in tradition, or at least as close to what we have left of such in Northern Europe.
The New Age markets the runes as a form of Nordic divination and "oracle". They publish incredibly stupid and aesthetically offensive books on runes, lacking in any academic or traditional knowledge and brimming with misinformation (such as the "mysterious 25th, empty wyrd-rune"). They sell brightly colored factory-made rune-sets - made in China, of course.
The New Age is a modern commercial venture based on fooling gullible, stupid people out of their money (and sometimes, sexual favors). Its apparent universalism and eclecticism are based on cynical capitalism. People are certainly free to believe in any flowery falsehood which makes life seem more meaningful and tolerable - and the New Age markets and sells these falsehoods by the dozen. Anyone can become a white-light warrior of healing energy (not of course a warrior in ANY real sense of the word), anyone can buy their way into all kinds of ill-digested and poorly represented spiritual pseudo-traditions from around the world, and anyone can pick-and-choose any gods from any pantheon to worship, because, "like, u know, we are all one." It is ultimate spiritual commercialism, fit to our soulless, rootless age.
Let the New Age have its fools - they are welcome to them. But let us not defile our already fragmented traditions with such associations. Let us stay pure.