Odynic Mysteries

The utility of cults and faith

As we move from the individual to the collective, and then to the mass, the utility of cults and faith transforms. A cult at the personal level has a different soul to that at the national level. At the personal level we are dealing with a discrete signal, whereas at the nation level we are dealing with a summed signal, with all information lost through interference. What holds true at the micro level may not at the macro. Models break down. This is why, for example, Abrahamism can be both poetically and spiritually profound on a personal level, and yet seem materially hollow or even malevolent and evil. The soul of the cult shifts as it scales.

Moving from the individual to the macro - models, utilities, behaviors, and characteristics change. The level of information compression shifts. At the macro level, only heavily compressed input data can be handled as there simply is not enough compute or memory to handle the discrete. Crowd ambience is not the same as an individual voice.

In the Anglo nations, the only widely observable living faiths are statism and science. The modern interpretation of cults and faith often feels like pure LARPing. Memes, egregores, charms, and rituals that have psychological utility are wholly understandable. However, to believe in dead poetry as literal truth seems like a symptom of a melting mind.

In England, there are but one or a handful of accounts of idols of the Gods being destroyed. History is re-written by victors, even so, there is little that compares from this forgotten time from before to the vast network of chapels that spread out from Kent. Things seemingly got weird with the introduction of book-making. The damp forests of Northern Europe, perpetually humid and moldy, did keep at bay the technology of book making for an impressively long time. There are no instruction manuals for brainwashing or on the science of cults, from that period, but there are books, some printed as early as the 15th century, that will begin to melt your mind if you sit with them long enough. The most well-known, of course, is the Torah. The writings of John Dee are another example.

It was during this period that the dominant soul of faith in England began to shift—from one rooted in community to one extending across the nation. With that, faith took on a very different flavour - it became more about the utility that can be found at the macro level - namely, to do with power and control.

On a Personal Level

We all know the worth of cults and faith — though some may be in denial about it — we partake in faith-based action all the time. Some call state-run helplines to wait for the words of an indifferent operator to decide what their next move should be. Others seek inner connection to egregores and archetypes of gods; others read long-dead, corrupted poetry for guidance. Through these actions, both guidance and motivation to act are found. In computer science, a reinforcement agent has a random generator to give it direction when there is not enough learned actions. Faith and cult practices can provide similarly beneficial guidance to an individual, when there is not a clear direction of action.

The Odynic force is amplified by action and verve, conversely, the Odynic force is diminished by inaction. By having the guidance needed to act when the moment demands it, the flame within the individual is kept alive. An appropriate cult keeps that flame burning. It matters little what the actual cult is, only that the verve is sustained. Life, after all, is fluid dynamics.

Unlike a reinforcement learning agent, a human cannot simply come to a crossroads, pull out a die, map actions to its faces, and roll it. There must be a deeper backstory and richer context to initiate meaningful action. By contrast, what does work, and is often done, is to cast runes, deal a tarot spread, or open a book of long-dead poetry to a random passage.

There is a whole organized effort behind creating the right atmosphere to guide congregations into a certain vibe. Sound designers spend hours crafting warm, cozy-sounding pads to play during a gathering. Backing bands play chord progressions and craft suspense, during the delivering of purported prophetic texts to trigger the desired emotional state in the audience. These points are suited to discussions of the communal level, but on a personal level they can be healing. Sitting among people dear to you, hearing poetic prose wrapped in warm soundscapes, can be a positive thing. At its root a sacred space is being created, which is not to be belittled, especially in our overcrowded, Wi-Fi-saturated modern world.

On a personal level - reversed

The clearest negative aspect of cults and faith on a personal level is naivety. Using the Tarot, this is the Fool card, reversed. When a mode of behaviour and interpretation of the world has been codified, alternative modes of thought and experience are often placed beyond reach, and maybe even unknowable.

Linked to naivety, but distinct, is the notion of being trapped. In Tarot, this is symbolised by the Devil card. A person is limited by what they perceive to be possible; if their cult or faith forbids them from believing that something can be achieved, then that thing will simply never be attempted. The individual remains in bondage — chained at the Devil’s side.

Most Europeans today are so-called secular individuals — Noahides — who unknowingly worship the state, without conscious awareness that they are part of a cult. If the aristocracy truly functioned for the well-being of the people, this cult could perhaps provide a net good. This has not been the case — likely not since the Domesday Book. One might even argue that the very soul of an aristocracy, when governing at scale, cannot be benevolent due to the constraints of its environment and the tools at its disposal.

Specifically, regarding a cult like Statism, a third negative aspect of cults and faith is that when answers are delivered to an individual, creativity is stifled. If an opinion is fully fleshed out, polished, and presented as authoritative, there is little incentive to create in that domain — since the work is perceived to have already been done. This can lead to an insane warping of reality, for example, consider how much of the population believe DNA to be a Turing complete programming language — simply because that is what their cult told them.

On a Communal Level

If life is fluid dynamics, then at the communal level, faith and cults provide the dance floor on which the dance takes place. It is a default path in communal living, one that reduces the need for compute, which is preferable, since compute brings dis-ease.

In computer science, compression is regarded as strongly linked to intelligence. Prejudice, in this framing, represents distilled actionable knowledge. It functions like the relationship between one market ticker and another in a free market - without such knowledge, participants are impaired. This idea leads naturally into signaling theory. Within a faith or cult, through signals, individuals can communicate that they have shared values, views, and priorities. This signaling lessens the need for individual computation that would otherwise be required to work these things out. Extending this further, we encounter the notion of belonging — of not being alone.

A faith or cult practiced by those around you gives rise to a call to authority. Rightly or wrongly, actions or beliefs held by a group carry more prestige than the beliefs of an isolated individual. From this emerges the possibility of egregores - collective thought-forms - which are far more fleshed out and complex than what an individual's belief can manifest.

On a Communal Level - reversed

The most crass and unsavoury negative utility of faith and cult at a communal level is the grift — the taking of material assets from the collective. On a national level, this grift may take the form of taking verve and agency, effectively neutralising a group as a potential threat to power.

There are clear examples of this, such as megachurches in America, where the leaders live lavish lifestyles, or churches in England that have been taken over by out-groups that later boast within their circles about pocketing money from church donations. Then you have internet personalities who adopt a Christian persona to grow an audience, or, more troubling, unsavoury national-level actors promote faith as a means of placating the populace.

Freemasonry was a cult that once had relevance, as evidenced by the well-built Masonic halls found in nearly every town. It promoted the idea of always helping out a fellow member and swearing secrecy. These oaths, by their nature, can facilitate the left-hand path — enabling the least worthy to rise to power. Of course, a benevolent person can also seek power using such mechanisms. However, remember that the journey changes a person - if a benevolent individual must overcome malevolent rivals to reach the top, they will no-longer be the same benevolent person once they reach the top.

On a National level

Universalism means standardisation. Not everyone needs to be on the same page - it is enough for a sizable group to buy in, as this can effectively regulate the behaviour of the broader population. The signaling theory aspects that operate at the communal level also apply here, with the added benefit that an unfamiliar region can be visited and a quick judgement made about whether trust should be extended to its inhabitants. This has significant implications for trade.

The signals expressed by a community function as a kind of proof of work, allowing outsiders to gauge whether trust is warranted. A clear example is the construction of churches with spires - a travelling merchant, upon seeing a familiar church spire as he approaches a settlement, knows with some confidence that he will be received favourably.

The appeal to authority, as a concept that applies at the communal level, simply scales up at the national level. A text with authority at the national level carries more weight than one that is only relevant locally, because it has more buy-in.

It is fair to say that the Industrial Age could not have arisen in England without universalism. A one-in-a-thousand individual, or a one-in-a-hundred industry, would not have been able to connect with their counterparts as required to spark some genuine innovation.

On a National level - reversed.

At the national level, the negative aspects of faith and cults begin to manifest in darker, more sinister ways. To better understand why “evil” might emerge at this scale, I will attempt to define power in the human domain as follows:

Power is having dependents while maintaining limited liability and expenditure.

This definition is particularly relevant to faith and cults, since for the relatively minimal costs of maintaining sacred spaces and customs, vast numbers of people can develop dependency.

It is exhausting to use force to get your way, since resistance often strengthens when confronted with force. In parenting, there are times when one must stand firm despite pushback, but this usually creates an unwelcome cacophony of disharmony. Another method of influence is self-deprecation, where one intentionally makes oneself worse off in a partnership - through guilt or a sense of obligation, the other party often acquiesces to wants, feeling compelled to give something in return. A third method, which became visible during the events of 2020, is to melt minds so that people lose their grip on reality, thereby making it easier to introduce significant changes to society.

In 2020, the trust and dependence built up in the cult of the state was leveraged by those in power. The universalism of faith and cults at a national level makes it possible to create a vast pool of people from which assets, agency, and energy can be harvested. Even if a faith or cult is designed primarily to placate and control the populace, it can still produce beneficial effects at the communal and personal level. From this perspective, culture itself may be seen as what emerges in the breathing space left behind by the areas that social engineers cannot fully control.

Power favoured cults

It is clear that power will always favour a faith or cult that lends itself to universalism. Only those cults endorsed by power are permitted to grow. This is why, for example, a tiny church of Woden in England, with only a small congregation, was branded as far-right and neo-Nazi and subsequently attacked, while certain outrageous Christian-based sub-cults received little more than passing criticism. Exclusionist cults and faiths cannot replace universalist cults - they can only ever serve as options for individuals seeking a faith or cult with utility that helps them grow their personal or communal agency.

The writer alias Shakespeare spoke of the “universal wolf” — a metaphor for unfettered power. Such a wolf could never arise without a universal faith or cult at the national level, since the signalling such systems provide is what permits will to become unfettered.

Money is not inherently fungible, nor should it be. In our present system, its non-fungibility is obscured by money printing - central banks issue IOUs - and allowing favoured individuals closer to the source of new money to reap the rewards of primary credit. This dynamic functions much like non-fungibility. Since money is tokenised power, it becomes obvious why good money is not — and should not be fully fungible. In earlier times, tribes and cults enforced this non-fungibility of tokenised power.

Faith at the communal and regional level is primarily rooted in signalling theory and a wholesome desire for belonging and cooperation. Yet, once a technology such as book printing emerges, standardisation becomes possible. This transforms the very soul of the faith or cult into something somewhat indifferent to the needs of the individual or the local community, and more concerned with the needs of the larger group or a centralised oligarchy.

Rejecting Pythagoreanism and Universalism

Hellenistic and Pythagorean beliefs, most prominently transmitted through the Torah and Kabbalah, describe a ladder of enlightenment leading closer to En Sofia. Near the top of this ladder lies Saturn’s realm. Seasoned programmers can be seen as having mastered this realm, gaining intuition through patterns and forms rather than pure logic. Yet programming as a profession is often detrimental to mental health, with countless individuals suffering as a result. What has followed this so-called apex of the enlightenment ladder is the rise of large language models, which capture the distilled essence of thousands of minds that reached the Saturnic sphere. LLMs can be incredibly useful — though in practice they are a bizarre mix of brilliance and absurdity. This raises the question - are Hellenistic and Pythagorean beliefs really a useful map for our world?

According to the fundamental laws of information theory, national-level faiths and cults could not have existed in their currently understood form until after the invention of the printing press. Abrahamism, as it is commonly conceived today, can therefore only date to around the 14th century. From this perspective, one could argue that the soul of a national-level cult or faith is inherently evil, since European history from this period onward is marked by bloodshed. Yet this would be an unfair assessment, as a larger story was unfolding. The world was becoming smaller - as the unknown receded, and the doubling of information accelerated. Universalism became a prerogative when ethnic groups found themselves surrounded by rivals seeking to extend their influence beyond their shores. In this light, national-level faith or cults can be seen as a military technology — a way of pooling resources to ensure the survival of a land’s tribes, which in turn leads to the establishment of a nation state with hard borders.

The Odynic Mysteries

Odin suffered upon the tree of life and, through this trial, gained the wisdom of the runes and of healing. This theme recurs across many faiths and cults. I would argue it reflects a fundamental truth about human life - growth comes through hardship, and there is always a price to be paid for knowledge and wisdom. The same principle appears in the Rider-Waite Tarot — which was developed by the secret order of the Golden Dawn, which drew upon the experience of witnessing hundreds of men and women passing through its mystery school. This lends credibility to the idea that the Tarot’s symbolism is a macro representation of man’s story.

Christ too is a figure of poetic genius, like Odin. But while Christ became a universal deity, Odin (or Woden) remained bound to the Germanic peoples, such as the Angles and Saxons. For this reason, Woden can be seen as the truer god for these peoples than Christ. There is a degree of insincerity in following a non-egregore god-form such as Christ. Many in fact may be following Woden and his kin under other names - a minority unfortunately have been manipulated and brainwashed beyond reach. The source material reminds us that Odin can appear in many guises, as any son of Odin. Every son of Odin and daughter of Frigg must therefore be held in as high regard as the high gods and goddesses themselves.

A useful principle for life is that all poetic truth comes from Odin. In practice this means we should not close our minds or cut ourselves off from ideas. If ideas or technologies come to us and prove true or useful, they have reached us for a reason — they are gifts from Odin. There are countless concepts removed from the Odinic mysteries that have clear utility.

• The horoscope which symbolically captures all cycles, each stage of its arc reflected in the signs.
• The Tarot encodes the solar cycle, applied to the arc of personal growth.
• The quartered horoscope gives us the Platonic elements: fire, air, water, earth.
• The wisdom of Alchemy, that offers symbolic steps for completing any task.
• The Saturnic use of technology, AI, mechanics and electronics.
• The practice of meditating with words as see in Christian prayer.
• The mastering of breath as seen in Pranayama.

Along with countless other examples, these teachings have come down to us to aid us in our personal journeys.

The nine worlds

We live in Middle Earth. We are not meant to live where the Ælf dwell, nor where the Deorg dwell, close to Hel. We live in Middle Earth and are to live as one is meant to live in Middle Earth. This does not mean we are to remain there passively, slaves to the course that Wyrd weaves. Should we need to quest to Deorgham, Ælfham, or any other realm, we must undertake that journey. Yet the truth remains - we are of Middengeard, and so we must always return. Failure to make that vital return means the premature death of man or wife. The body may still breathe, and the mind may still think, but the individual is no longer man or wife - that aspect of them is dead — they are something altogether different.

• When you are with your wife, you are to comfort, protect, and love.
• When you are with your enemy, you are to hate, hunt, and combat.
• When you are with your children, you are to play, guide, and protect.
• When you are faced with trial, you are to meditate and choose wisely.

If you are in need of the qualities of Frigg, you must invoke and call her forth. Or, if she does not hear your call for counsel, you must journey to her, close to the realm of the Ælf, to hear her wisdom from Heafon — but then you must return to Middle Earth. Neither journey is easy or guaranteed, but Wyrd commands that you attempt it nonetheless. Each journey changes you - each journey depletes your energy - each journey has the power to build or diminish your character, for better or for worse. The same is true if your folk require you to journey to Neowol, Frith, Muspelli, or Eotenham. Even if you must go near Hel to learn the wily craftiness of the goblins in Deorgham, the journey must be made.

When we look at these realms — east, west, north, and south — and their correspondence of the qualities of the gods and goddess, we see a clear similarity to the Platonic elements and to the Cynefin decision-making framework, hinting that the is an Odynic true. Yet there is a clear departure from the Hellenistic model - the nines worlds of Odynic Mysteries are not a ladder. The map is a realm to explore for the betterment or detriment of one’s self. Here we have a map to guide us in life, and with a map that more closely reflects the realities of the physical world we inhabit, we improve our chances of success — for ourselves and for our folk - while exploring our world.

Closing thoughts

There was a time when I believed that all faiths and cults manifested organically. Manly P. Hall first sparked doubt in that belief, but it was only after watching power at work as an adult that the notion became absurd. The beneficial aspects of ritual magic, communal bonds, personal guidance, solace ... which faiths and cults provide at a small scale are very real. At the universal level, an entirely different nature is expressed. Power promotes its desired views, while artists and poets consciously create from their environment and imagination. Nothing compels power, artists, or poets to reflect the world and poetic truth faithfully. If anything, they are more likely to strive to consciously manifest preferred realities.

As the realm of computer programming has seemingly reached the apex of Logos — Saturn-worship — it has long since moved beyond linear processing. Contemporary programming focuses on emergent systems, where behavior increasingly approaches complexity. It is now common to recognize that working at different scales brings different difficulties and requirements. Frameworks and approaches must be tailored to scale. I segue here to point out that as computer science evolves to more closely model the real world, it trends toward a mode of thinking more suited to polytheism than to the Platonic monotheism the Greeks wrote into the Torah.

The Odynic mysteries are an aspect of the poetic truth of being a Germanic European, but for this belief system to re-emerge as lived reality, it must be consciously manifested by organizing power, artists, and poets. Even once it is manifested in the real world, it will remain dwarfed by what universalist power brings forth. That is OK.