Alright I think all my readers should just start visiting this blog.

Skaldi's Rock and the Rocky Mountain Kindred are tight.

The Universe and Humanity - Church of Thor Cosmology

I would categorize my belief in Thor as heavily influenced by Joseph Campbell-ian thought process. 

Thor to me represents a carnal human identity. He represents both my living subconscious and the underlining immensity of our shared ancestry. The unspoken willpower of the dead. 

In this way I see him as an anthropomorphized concept of Humanity. He is not the idealized Earth-Gaia people are prone to talk about. Not some harmonious force of nature. This concept of Gaia is a lie.

Life is not harmonious. Life is war. 

99% of all species who have ever existed are now extinct. Extinction is the norm.

The cold physical universe is entirely apathetic to our existence. It is the ultimate in Lovecraftian Deity. Incapable of empathy and vast beyond all imagination - it neither endeavored to create us, nor will it endeavor to destroy us. That doesn't mean it wouldn't destroy us in an instant, merely that if it did it wasn't on purpose. No more than when you crush an ant beneath your foot on your way to work. 

It is against this Universe of physics and matter that life wars. A bitter war of survival since life's first inception. A million choices, a million combinations; life rages against an apathetic and hostile universe.

That does not mean life is harmonious within itself. Nor that it is even our friend. 

For while the Universe might accidentally destroy us; Mother Nature would do it on purpose. 

Life's War Against the Universe is so draconian that Mother Nature can afford neither empathy or sympathy. Individual species are merely weapons in Natures arsenal. Constantly tested and refined in a process known as Natural Selection. It is through this competitive process that we earn our right to exist. Mother Nature constantly tries to destroy us so that when the Universe finally does do something - we are hardy enough to survive. 

We forget this in our modern world. If Mother Nature could destroy us it would destroy us. 

Mother Nature, my personification of the process of life, has no special love for humanity. 

It is into this cosmic war that humanity was born. 

In the heavily jungled Africa a small sub-group of ancestral primates moved onto the plains. The adapted to this new environment and became upright. Their feet became their defining attribute. 

At the time their were numerous primate species and there was no reason to believe this specific species was anything special. Indeed they themselves were limited to the plains, which made up only a small amount of this primordial Africa. 

But then the climate shifted. The forests of Africa shrunk and the plains grew. A vast Savannah formed that only one primate group was capable of utilizing. The marginalized plains-primates soon became the primary primate species. 

We had won this early position of prominence because we gambled on the plains. Our species could have relaxed, we could have became complacent. This was a great and resounding victory. Our permanence had been assured. If we did stop there, we'd be similar to up-right walking gorilla's or chimpanzees. Plains-primates. 

Instead we continued to adapt. Over the next few million years our brain's grew constantly. Finally we achieved a new level of consciousness. Once we understood how to utilize our new intelligence, we once more won a great battle over our competitors in Nature. 

Each generation of hominid worked towards our gradual accession. We might be the result of Life's struggle with the Universe - but we did not struggle so that life could win without us. 

We fought for ourselves. We fought for our version of life. We lived and survived for humanity - for each other. It is from our human drive to survive that Thor comes. The spirit of Man. 

From the striving of our ancestors to the vigor of our still pumping blood - he is the embodiment of our past and future accessions. 

We are still in the midst of this very real cosmic war. The Giants still threaten our Shores. 

The time for illogical dogmatic deities who encourage alienation, tribal entitlement and esoteric elitism is over. 

Drop your haughty religious exclusivity and pick up the Hammer of Thor to join him this day in the only battle that truly counts.

The future of the human race. 

We may have forgotten Thor, but he never forgot us. 

Religiosity of the Church of Thor

Thor Doesn't Care.

While the Semitic Gods vied for worshippers and dominance...

While the Greek Gods demanded sacrifice and devotion...

While the Norse Gods plotted for the end the time..

Thor didn't care.

He didn't care what you did on Sunday. He didn't care if you worshipped other gods. He just didn't care.
Personal esoteric matters on the nature of reality and worship were of no concern to him.

He fought Giants. He gave the fields rain.
He is the God of expediency, he is a the God of practicality.

The Giants had to be held at bay or they would have destroyed the order of the Universe. It didn't matter what anyone thought, what rituals they had performed, or what level of salvation they had earned for their soul. Not to Thor at least. All that mattered was that an immediate threat was dealt with.

Same with the fields. Believe what you want about what you are doing; but they need to be planted and properly tended despite whatever you want to believe.

It is upon this expediency and practicality that the Church of Thor is based.

Thor can be what you want him to be..
He can be the Literal God of Thunder.
He can be an avatar for the Universe.
He can be a metaphor for a better way of living.

What he is for the Church of Thor, is a label for an ideal.
And that ideal is living a life worth living.

The Strangers of Today

Long ago the world was different.

People lived in communities in which everyone was known. In these communities concepts like laws and government were elastic.

A good example would be a modern day small town. A young boy goes for a joy-ride in his father's car and gets pulled over by the Sheriff. Instead of writing the boy up and participating in a lawful and extremely regulated legal process - the Sheriff simply drives to the boy's house, talks to the father whom he knows personally, and leaves it in the father's hands.
The Sheriff knows the boy, he understands that kids will be kids, and he knows the father will take care of it.

In a small community this is entirely acceptable. The Sheriff likely knows everyone and therefore he can interact with everyone on a personal and elastic basis that benefits the community as a whole.

However it breaks down when the community becomes so large that the Sheriff doesn't know everyone. Where there the Sheriff's dealings with people he knows and people he doesn't know would create a measure of injustice.

This is the heart of all modern laws and regulations. This is the heart of modern government and society.
Laws are Regulated and Venerated because most people these days are Strangers.
The Constitution simply exists to protect individuals from Strangers. 

In a society where every single person as complete and easy to access to any one else; where they can have an in-depth discussion with them - the need for extensive protective legislation is non-existant.

This is why the world is the way it is today.
Because we live in society of strangers.

And it is suffocating.

Dane - Bishop of Thor

My name is Dane.

Years ago I was involved in a religious ceremony. This was with the religion of my family, the one I was born into, and the ceremony was considered a sacred and powerful one. One of the results of this ceremony was a possible future for me was divined. 

That possible future, to the great delight of my family, said that one day I would be a Bishop. 

An unlikely future for me at that time, it's now practically impossible. 

Or so I thought. 

Through an ironic and purposeful twist I am now proving the 'validity' of the ceremony of a religion I've rejected. 

I am the Bishop of the Church of Thor.

Personally I'd prefer to call myself Herald, and perhaps that is a tile I can earn in the future. But for now, for obvious reasons, I am the Bishop. 

Church of Thor

Welcome. 

There have been times in my life when I have been weary. When I have been alone. When I have felt a lacking in my heart. Where I have felt lost. 

There have also been times in my life when I've been hungry for something more. Starving for something better. Malnourished in mind and soul. 

I've sat before an empty search engine and contemplated its' enigma. A mere keystroke away from the gathered knowledge of humanity - yet none of it fulfilling. I didn't know what I was looking for - only  that no google search could find it. 

The Church of Thor is for anyone who is looking for something more.  It is the path to the place we don't know how to find. It is the blind journey we are all afraid to take.

A place for the lost to gather, for the tired to rest, and for the hurt to heal. 

It is both Harbor and Ship.

Shelter and Storm. 

Sanctuary and Campaign. 

Journey and Rest.

Intermission and Performance. 

This is my place, but it can also be yours.