Polemos: The Dawn of Pagan Traditionalism

by Askr Svarte, Jafe Arnold (Translator), Richard Rudgley (Foreword by)

What is paganism? What does it mean to be a pagan in today’s world? What do the Gods, the Sacred and Myths of pagan traditions tell us about what has transpired over past millennia, and how do the developments of recent centuries affect our understanding of them? Polemos: The Dawn of Pagan Traditionalism takes up these and other penetrating questions in a conceptual tour de force, exploring a worldview long thought lost under the weight of monotheistic conversions, the science and technology of Western Modernity, and the deconstructions and simulacra of Postmodernism. In this wide-ranging study and compelling manifesto, Askr Svarte illustrates how, far from a fragmentary relic of the past, paganism is very much alive and wields a critical analysis of the past, present, and future with the potential to return to the forefront of consciousness.

Polemos: The Dawn of Pagan Traditionalism, the first book of the two-volume work published in Russian in 2016, sets out not only to rediscover and redefine the pagan legacy, but to orient paganism’s understanding of the paradigms which have confronted it. Titled after the ancient Greeks’ divine representation of war, which the philosopher Heraclitus deemed “the father and king of all”, Polemos maps paganism’s positions on the battlefield of ideas between paradigms, polemics, and trends. From ancient rites and myths to contemporary technologies and socio-cultural dynamics, few stones are left unturned in this extensive articulation of the pagan worldview in the twenty-first century.

Genres: Paganism

402 pages, Unknown Binding

Published July 1, 2020

About the author

Askr Svarte (from misspelled Old-Norse Svartr Askr: Black Ashtree, [means Black (side) of World Tree Yggdrasil], real name Evgeny Nechkasov (Cyrillic: Евгений Нечкасов) is a Russian Odinist priest. He is also an author, artist, poet, lecturer, and philosopher. He is the founder of the Svarte Aske Community of Pagans. His work has focused on the philosophy of the Left Hand Path in Odinism, traditionalism and existential experience. He was born October 5, 1991.

Askr Svarte is the author of several books on Left Hand Path in Odinism and a lot of articles about traditionalism and different aspects of Odinism, including Gap (2013),Problems of Pagan Traditionalism (2013), Dobroslav: traditionalist view (2014), etc.

His articles are featured in the eighth edition of the first magazine for Rodnover "Родноверие". (2014) and in Internatianal Almanah "Традиция и Традиционализм (2012-2013)".

He is also an author of first documentary movie about paganism in city Novosibirsk "Языческий Новосибирск" (2014).

Source: Wikipedia

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Svarte addresses the legitimacy of contemporary pagan practice from a Traditionalist perspective. Most Traditionalists were explicitly anti-pagan, partly due to being ill informed and prejudiced. Even Evola, who was more sympathetic to pagan religions, was against Neopaganism. Svarte does not really take these authors to task properly in my opinion, although this problem is addressed. The book focuses instead on some of the practical and philosophical obstacles that modern pagans face and the errors many have made. He devotes a lot of space (rather too much in my opinion) to criticising various pagan groups and authors in Russia and America. He has successfully integrated the anti-modern and revolutionary aspect of Radical Traditionalism with a pagan religious perspective; detailing sections on cyclical time, the golden age, the question of initiations and legitimacy of tradition, and other Traditionalist talking points.

His attempt to conflate the forces of modernity and technology with the Titans and Jotnar of Greek and Norse mythology was very interesting and central to his call for a religious war against modernity. However he does not address the fact that no such religious opposition to technology can be seen in these cultures. He ought to have specified exactly what kind of technology is classed as "Titanic" since evidently swords, chariots, books, sewage systems and many other technological breakthroughs in the ancient world were never seen as a spiritual threat, and were frequently integrated into sacred mythology and rituals. I do sympathise with a philosophy which opposes technophilia, but the attempt to refer to technology itself as a manifestation of the chaotic anti-gods required a stronger argument than Svarte provides here.

As far as I am aware he is the only author to seriously attempt a Traditionalist treatise on paganism. I myself attempted this ten years ago and abandoned the project. Therefore this book (part 1 of 2) is valuable and his efforts commendable. However the book is not focused on the crucial questions of how to practise and overcome the numerous obstacles of Traditionalist pagan practice, nor the reconciliation of said religion with a philosophical school which has conventionally opposed it, but rather focuses on criticising various counter-traditional currents within the numerous revivals of paganism that have occurred around the world. These are interesting to read about, but this amounts to a form of trivia which is not essential for understanding or practicing paganism with a Traditionalist mindset.

[Mariasole · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a complete and compelling essay about Traditionalism and Paganism, with an in-depth overview of the nordic-western world lore. The book sets off with the major pagan symbols, as created and developed in ancient times in Europe and Asia, then goes on displaying the main differences between creationism and manifestationism, the latter being the fundamental belief of the ancient religions, along with the notion of the cyclical time. There are also comparative studies among the nature of the different peoples and their Gods, a brief and accurate analysis of the Indian casts (Varna), and the interesting correlation between them, the four stages of the time (Yuga) Golden, Silver, Copper, and Iron (Khali Yuga ) and the three Tantric states of conscience (Tribhava). From the pure idea of Traditionalism ("not preserving the ashes of the past, but transmitting the Fire") the author presents the utterances of Evola and Guenon, and concerning Russia he evokes the studies of Dobroslav and the famous traditionalist Cherkasov and dedicates some interesting chapters to the origins of the Slavic language and mythology. He emphasizes the decadence of Postmodernity and the Consumer society in which we live nowadays, where men are chained by Titans and are at the farthest distance from the Divinity. He also critics many new pagan movements whose aim is to make money or to assemble diverse traditions and mix them to create something that is not at all connected to Tradition.
I highly recommend this book.