Here Comes the Saga of Ragnar

The Sagas of Ragnar Lodbrok by Ben Waggoner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ragnar Lidbrook, made famous by the TV show “Vikings”, however the real Norse Sagas are nothing at all like that. First off Ragnar is a prince the eldest son of a king. The sagas contain two different versions of Ragnar’s life. In the first version, the Prince Ragnar goes to a neighboring kingdom to save a maiden, named Thora from a snake that has surrounded her house. Thora is a kings daughter and this snake eats its tale . Kind of like the Midgard serpent. After Ragnar rescues and marries her he has two sons. One is named Agnar and I forget the other one. After a few years she passes on and Ragnar meets another princess. In the first version she is the daughter of s slain king. Harelig hides her in a harp and travels the land protecting her. Later he is betrayed by an older couple that kills him for his money. The princess lives the life of a servant girl until Ragnar comes and rescues her. They marry and have children. The first is Ivar the boneless, the Vitserk, Bjorn Ironsides and finally Sigurth the snake. Ragnars first two sons from the first wife are killed in battle. The other brothers take revenge. Upsalla in Sweden becomes theirs. Ragnar will meet his end in England in a pit of snakes after his magic shirt is removed. Ivar the boneless exacts a cunning revenge and in the first version he founds London. The brothers raid all over Europe. Many are killed in battle but Bjorn and Ivar live on as kings.

The second version goes more into the background of Ragnar’s family . Ausug Ragnars second wife is known in the second version as of elven descent and has some magical abilities. She is also descended from Sigurd and Brunhild. In the second version Ivar founds York instead of London.
Enjoy the read and learn Ragnar’s real story

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The Image of the Witch

The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present by Ronald Hutton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In our minds eye she flies across the nighttime sky on her broomstick . The embodiment of evil casting spells over a a cauldron of dark poisonous herbs. To those who have studied the witch you will have images of women dancing naked in the forest, serving the devil and his minions. What contributed to our negative vision of the witch? Do witches even exist? And if they do are they really that bad?

Ronald Hutton, scholar par excellence on the subject, has analyzed the image of the witch throughout history . Starting from our most earliest civilizations in a broad cross cultural context all the way to the early modern times. The author looks at a broad section of world wide society and combines the disciplines of anthropology and history .

All across the continents and different cultures the witch figure seems to cut the same image. Dancing naked in the night , meeting with other women to perform dark nefarious magic. Or perhaps they eat children or suck blood after they have flown through the night time sky. It seems that witches charge many characteristics across the board.

Witches no matter where they are in the world seem to have a lot in common. They use uncanny means to perform acts of evil against others. Within their community they are viewed as a threat to only those within. Societies believe that the witch must be resisted. Witches are usually part of a hereditary tradition or perhaps they are born with it.

Ancient societies were not stranger to magic. The Egyptian were rather cool with magic and it was ok to bind deities to your will or other entities. Mesopoatamia and the ancient Hebrews did have a fear of witches. In Persia practicing magic outside the official religion was akin to Worshipping the dark one. Greeks had a negative view of magic outside the official religion as well while the Hittities forbade magic outside the kings temple. The worst fear came from the Romans who despised witches and magic workers. They even had their own witch hunts.

Many negative attitudes towards the figure of the witch come from the Roman era. In fact the Romans had two points in their history. The negative attitude of the witch was carried forward into the Christian world. Was there is fact a conspiracy of witches and did they have a religion. Records state witches had familiars, flew at night, had nighttime procession with the devil.

Pre-Christian shamanism is examined as a source for the visionary experiences of the witch. Shamans had experience traveling to the spirit world and having spirit allies . They would cure people and help the community and sometimes they would fight spiritual entities. While elements seem to have shamanistic elements that have survived into the Christian Era it is rather difficult to prove. Even some Christian saints and other magic worker had the ability to leave their bodies in spirit form to do battle. Shamans never changed form. There are many similarities as there are differences.

Analysis sometimes leads to a pre-historic fertility cult or a cult of the dead that helped nurture the world. Thee author sites other authors who examined the visionary experience and so called religious practice of the witch. Most of these practices were conjured up by the Christian inquisitors. The night flight and the wild hunt are examined in detail.

Around the 13 century persecution began against magic worker in general . At first it was the ceremonial magicians and service magicians that were targeted later it went to the witch. Ceremonial Magic is believed to been started in Egypt and from there it went through the Greco Roman world all the way to the Christian world. It mostly consisted of binding demons using the name of god to the magicians will. THe persecution lasted well into the 15th century.

Other cultural item connected to the witch image is the faery lore of Europe and how faery kingdoms developed and how faeries were morphed into demon. Finally the witches relationship to animals is examined. Eventually after the 15th century these witch trials Came to an end. THe Church put in measure to limit the cruelty.

I am not convinced there was a witch religion. There were workers of magic in various forms. In any case this is an excellent book. Totally scholarly with well documented cases to support his points.

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Nazis: Deluded Idiots and Worse

Occult Secrets Of The Third Reich by Timothy Green Beckley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Nazis under Hitler committed some of the worst atrocities known in human history . Many have wondered what caused such a phenomenon to occur. Was Hitler evil, possessed by a demon or was he a misguided idiot who some how rose to power? Hitler did not consider himself to be evil rather he thought he was doing humanity a service. Some would say he was demon possessed.

Long have the rumors of Nazi involvement with the occult been circulated. To be sure there were Nazis who were into the occult, Heinrich Himmler being the most notable . Hitler himself thought the occult was nothing but hooey and had a rather scornful attitude towards the subject.

When one speaks of Nazi occultism one often thinks of ritual summoning the devil or other Pagan gods. But in reality the mythology of the Nazi occult involvement takes in many factors. Going back to the World War I era we find that two societies were around and they were the Vril society and the Thule society. Vril is the energy or chi that Germans possess. Thule was a mythical northern paradise that German people are supposedly descended from. Mythology is the gist of it and the Nazis bought into some pretty wild ideas.

Many Nazis were obsessed with the Aryana origins of the German people. Some myths stated that in really ancient times the Aryans descended from Thule which is a land in the Arctic region. Once they left that land rumors state that some people went to live underground while other legends say they went to live in India and the Himalayas before getting on to Europe. The Nazis were obsessed with Tibetan mysticism. Several expedition were sent over there to commune with the hidden masters so the Third Reich could take power. In fact when Berlin was taken over by the Russians they found several cells of dead Tibetan monks. Apparently they were involved in a ritual to help the Nazis take power. Many appeared to have committed suicide. Tibetan legend speaks of underground cities of Agatha and Shamballah. One a spiritual place and the other a sinful place. The Nazis were obsessed with finding these places.

They took a strong belief in the Hollow Earth theory which states that there is an advanced civilization living at the center of the Earth. Some Nazis were deluded enough to believe that we ourself are living in the Earth and that there is no outer space. There was a group of psychic woemen or valkyries who had or claimed to have had psychic connection with aliens from Venus and these were Aryan aliens

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Tale of Circes Retold

Circe by Madeline Miller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As a young nymph wandering the halls of her father Helios, young Circe had always been one to never follow the herd. It is something that comes with a price. Her first feelings of difference are made apparent when she show compassion to Prometheus , that guy punished by Zeus for giving mankind fire. Offering comfort could have brought her in a lot of trouble. The Gods were always shallow and cruel.

As Circe grows older she begins to study herbs and witchcraft. Her experimentations cause her to turn a mortal fisherman Glaucos into a fish faced deity. She thought he would love her but she was wrong. Glaucos fell in love with Scylla. Circe ends us doing some witchcraft on Scylla and that turns her into a multiheaded sea monster that kills sailors as they go by. As punishment for her misdeeds she is sent on an isle to live out her days in exile.

Upon arriving at the island she begins to gather up her herbs and fix up an abandoned cottage. Soon she makes friend with the animals and the animals become the subjects of her island kingdom. Hermès, messenger of the gods begins to make his rounds to the island delivering prophecies , news and over all sharing companionship . After a bit other rebellious nymphs are sent there as a sort of reform school.

Circes gets her first break from the island when her sister Pasiphae invites her to Crete in order to midwife her child. Circes has to pass by Scylla to. Get there which she does. Pasiphae gives birth to the Minotaur, which injures Circes hand. The Minotaur eats human flesh so to keep the monster under control Circe casts a spell so that it is hungry only during certain times. Daedalus constructs a maze to keep thee creature contained.

When Circes returns to her island exile after the birthing of The Minotaur she dedicates herself to feeding sailors who are not so savory if you catch my drift. HEr adventures drive her into the arms/of Odysseus and cause her to have intersections with Jason of the argonaughts. She has a child with Odysseus and as a mother she must face what all mothers face, letting go. Save that Athena wants to kill her son. What will Circes do?

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