Evil ?

David J Jones (March 2006)

Those of us who had the privilege to attend the recent world moot in Schleswig heard the Yrmin Drighten speak on the subject of goodness, as it applies to our Tradition, and the role of the gild within this. A means to gaining an insight into how this concept can be understood, and more importantly applied, could therefore be beneficial. Such insight is provided, in this authors opinion, within the work Dark Nature by Lyall Watson (1995), an examination of the concept of evil within ecologies. It is often the case that the nature of a thing can be better understood by examination of its polar opposite. This can be viewed within the Odian paradox in seeking the mysteries. Watson (1995;41) states Life is elaborately interconnected, largely for the common good. The web, however, is so intricate that some of the links are fragile, which means that things happen, often unexpectedly, some of them good, some bad. Sometimes it is hard, in the short term perhaps impossible, to tell the two apart. But in the long term, and in general, it looks as though good is what is right for the whole; and bad is what is wrong for the whole. Evil is far more difficult to define but could perhaps best be described as that which is consistently or deliberately bad.

A Tradition such as ours can be seen as organic and society can be viewed as an ecology. Spengler (1959) speaks of the organic nature of both history and culture. The symbol of a cosmic tree populated with interacting worlds and organisms can be irrefutably seen as having aspects of ecology about it. With this in mind, the author will endeavour to examine Judeo-Christian monotheism using the Three Orders of Pathics as outlined by Watson (1995) and its subsequent effect on the ecology of Northern European society.

Watson (1995) describes how ecologies go bad due to the effects of one or more of the Three Orders of Pathics:

1st order. Order disrupted by loss of place. Concerned with distribution, things not being where they should be. Watsons examples include ecological disasters resulting from misplaced or introduced organisms - rabbits into Australia, or the invasion of our own bodies by micro-organisms. stability suffers when something is removed from, detached from or distanced from, the locus where it works best and set down somewhere else, where it is no longer part of a larger system of mutual advantages and constraints. Watson (1995;26).

When abstracted from its indigenous environment an organisms numbers may swell disproportionately, not being subject to the factors limiting its population within its native ecology (Watson; 1995).

There are two separate elements here to be explored.

Within the first principle of

pathics Judeo-Christianity is a Middle-Eastern originated belief system and could therefore be viewed as misplaced in Northern Europe. De Benoist (2004) argues that Christianity is Judaism in a mutated form, appropriate only to a specific people and place. It could therefore be considered that Christianity operates very much in line with this first principle of pathics. 2nd order. Order disrupted by loss of balance. This order concerns quantity - either too many or too little of one or another organism causes the system to go bad. Watson cites the example of lemmings (by nature fairly solitary creatures) whose numbers swell periodically from one lemming to every five acres to over one hundred per acre. This results in aggression, not due to competition for food, but due to the close proximity of other lemmings. Watson (1995;31) states

The Second Principle of Pathics draws attention to the disruptive effect of such

imbalance and it is significant that in lemmings at least, the cure for disorder happens to be a dramatic increase in behaviour such as assault, battery, child abuse, murder, infantacide and finally suicide.

Watson goes on to draw the irresistible comparison between this and certain features of modern urban living. In summing this order up Watson (1995;32) says

Aristotle was right. Bad desire consists of wanting, not just too much, but also too little. And anything which isnt just enough or just the right number for an individual, a population, a species, a community or an ecosystem is bad for the whole and evidently evil. And if limits, both high and low, apply to all living populations, then humans cannot be exempt.

Traditional or pre-Christian belief systems were and are, by their nature, self-limiting in numbers one has to be born into their particular life stream. Conversely,

Judeo-Christianity actively seeks to limitlessly increase its numbers, and is, by its own admission, all forgiving and all encompassing. This could be argued as being concerned with quantity and not quality and falls therefore directly within the second principle of pathics.

The reader is reminded that the first and second principles of pathics recognise that order is affected by loss of place and balance respectively. Good things get bad if they are not in the right place in the necessary quantity. Watson (1995) states that every businessman knows these are the ground rules of economics and ecology proper distribution and supply. If either or both fail, there are problems that lead to dysfunction. 3rd Order. Order destroyed by loss of diversity. This is more general in its scope and presumes that the requirements of the first two principles have already been met. Watson (1995;31) discusses The Law of Association and the nature of relations

order can be not just upset, but totally destroyed, if connections are impoverished. It matters who you know and how you manage your affairs. And more than that, it matters desperately how rich these associations are allowed to be .

Watson goes on to describe how a loss of diversity reduces opportunities for change within ecologies resulting in stagnation and eventual total breakdown of the system resulting from this lack of organic vigour (ibid;40). It is the peculiar strength of our biosphere that its interconnections the food webs, symbiotic associations, ecological guilds and kinship groups - are so rich and so complex. Nobody knows quite why things need to be this way, or how such diversity began. It remains mysterious, (Watson; 1995;40).

Judeo-Christianity arose and thrived in the theological chaos of the Roman empires urban settlements here, a mass of humanity was crowded together (remember the lemmings) abstracted from family and tribal structure. It could be argued that the growth of

Judeo-Christianity depended on the eradication, demonisation and persecution of the existing culture and thus eliminated diversity. This propagates the continuation of the state of anomie, which in turn impoverishes the communication between individuals within the ecology. This impoverishment also extends to other organisms. De Benoist (2004) states that the current abusive relationship between humankind and animals plants and the ecology generally, is a result of adopting the world rejecting Manichean paradigm that is Christianity.

Having now examined Judeo-Christianity within the framework of Watsons Three Orders of Pathics it could be considered to present less like a theology and more like a pathogen, a disease or a cancer. Ultimately and blindly seeking its own etinic The reader is

reproduction - eventually fatal (or at least debilitating) to the host.

reminded of Watsons comments regarding evil: difficult to define but consistently or deliberately bad wrong for the whole. It is proposed therefore, by this author, that Judeo-Christianity falls into the realms of evil in this context.

It is amusing to consider that certain adherents to deliberately dark antimonian or toxick magicks and systems might consider becoming born again Christians - the most assured route to contact with the forces of true evil. The rumour that a notorious satanic mage in England has recently converted to Islam may therefore come as no surprise, one monotheistic mutant being as harmful to the whole as another.

We must return to our starting point of what is good or healthy for our tradition. The fine balancing act required between organisms, or worlds for that matter, is described by Watson (1995;37), using a motif from European Fairy tales, as the goldilocks effect. Things being neither too hot nor too cold, too hard or too soft etc. but just right. This precarious ecological balance mirrors that of the forces of consciousness and those of entropy and of the interplay of all the wights and worlds within the world tree. This is not to suggest that we must seek an unchanging balance, in an organic system change is healthy and necessary. disarray can be useful, even creative.

It is part of human nature to be

rebellious; that has always been one of our strengths. But nice as it may be to be a little wicked, we have to understand the consequences. We ought to know how far we can go without destroying not just the system but ourselves along with it. We must become aware of exactly who wins, who loses and at what cost. We need, in short, to put a price on evil (Watson; 1995;42).

It is advisable perhaps for those of us within the Gild to contemplate the advice in Runarmal (1996;7) and to consider how we approach working rightly in the world that the four fold process described, is one creating a link or bond of action with the goals of the gods.

By the application of the ways of virtious action or Thews we may seek the goldilocks effect on a macrososmic and microcosmic scale and so effect healing from the previously described pathogen in Midgard. This is, of course, no easy task as Edred (1996;7) states The bond is sealed by deeds and not by thoughts alone. We should take heart at that which lies ahead, as that which is untested has no value.

REFERENCES

DeBenoist, Alain (2004). On Being a Pagan. Atlanta: Ultra Flowers, Stephen Edred (1996). Runarmal I. Texas: Runa Raven Press. Spengler, Oswald (1959). The Decline of the West. London: George Allen & Unwin. Watson, Lyall (1995). Dark Nature: A Natural History of Evil. London: Hodder & Stoughton.