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"The big joke on democracy is that it gives its mortal enemies the tools to its own destruction."

Josef Goebbels, 1939

Is the new Sith symbol supposed to look like the Nazi version of Othala with the feet? Because a fellow geek who isn't even a heathen saw it and alerted me to it, so it's not like I'm just seeing Nazis behind every tree. Even a non-specialist noticed it.

If it is a conscious Nazi reference, why the Sith? I mean obviously the Empire is Nazis, that's why their shock troops are called Stormtroopers. But the Sith had a long history before the Empire existed.

When I say the footed Othala is a Nazi symbol, I mean it was used by the German government during World War II. It's also used today by those who admire the Nazis.

Despite the Sith being villains in the Star Wars universe, many fans identify with the Sith, wear their costumes, use their symbols, etc. The Sith are cool. Some fans even see them as the real heroes, since their nemesis the Jedi were revealed in the prequels as a child-stealing cult that props up a massively corrupt government / corporate alliance in the late Republic, which was verging on fascism and setting the stage for the rise of the Empire. Even the fans who recognize the Sith are supposed to be the bad guys still like them and costume as them. Fans are going to wear this symbol. So what does it do, magically?

It's basically the footed Othala, or what heathens call "the wrong Othala," with a circle around it. A circle around a rune doesn't really change the symbol, as the long history of the Peace Sign shows. The Peace Sign is Elhaz-reversed, or an upside-down war rune, with a circle around it.

The regular Othala rune without the feet is a historical letter O in the related alphabets known as futharks. Its magical and religious symbolism is all about the enclosure, the innangarth or "inner yard," meaning one's home or one's village or city. The symbol resembles the wall around a walled city. People are on the inside and wolves are on the outside. Magically, it represents inheritance, either literally, in the form of real estate, the actual physical house, or metaphorically, in the form of talents with which one is born.

The Nazi version of Othala with the feet is a perversion of the Othala symbol, turning the concept of inheritance into a racial symbol of white Aryan heritage. It's disgusting. It's magically and spiritually unclean. Just thinking about it makes me want to flick negative energy away from me. Which I just did, while writing this. That's without even looking at it.

I suggest those who find themselves around this symbol, say at a convention, reinforce their personal psychic shields. They can also cleanse and do whatever they usually do to get rid of bad energy at the end of the day.

You can view the new Sith symbol and learn more on this link:
https://comicbook.com/starwars/news/star-wars-new-sith-symbol-insignia-rise-skywalker/

There are photos circulating on social media of the stage of CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Caucus. One is included in this blog post. The stage is an odd and awkward looking design that could not have arisen purely from functionality, it looks like "the Odal Rune," and it appears that the speakers at CPAC will be standing on a Nazi platform.

Let's talk about Othala as distinct from "The Odal Rune." The symbol you see in the photo is "The Odal Rune" which is 100% a Nazi symbol. The upturned feet on the ends of the legs appear only on the Nazi version, Odal, not on any version of Othala, the historical rune used in historical heathen alphabets.

A curious thing, though. Modern rune magic has adopted the "symbol upside down = opposite" thing that is common to Tarot cards, aka regular or reversed, and of course the dichotomy between the regular cross and the upside down cross. From the perspective of speakers backstage, the symbol is right side up in this photo, but from the perspective of the audience it's upside down. Regular Othala in rune readings basically means real estate or psychic inheritance, but the "Odal Rune" is usually said to mean "heritage." So, whose "heritage" is being protected and encouraged in this photo? Not the audience's. If whoever designed this stage actually understands magic, the intent is to concentrate power in the hands of the speakers, away from the general public. Magically, it would take heritage energy from the audience and allow the people standing on the platform to vampirize that energy for their own use.

If the intent behind the choice of the shape was not magical, though, it's probably meant to be a dog-whistle to neonazis. Experts on neonazis are mostly being more cautious about calling this out. American Iron Front tweeted the picture and called it "probably a coincidence." I'm glad that the anti-fascist community is being careful not to stomp on heathens and pagans when they aren't sure what symbol they're looking at. But I'm an expert on heathen symbols and I know this isn't one. There is no possible way an actual Asatruar drew the footed or winged version on a design program thinking it was a nice historical heathen rune. It's unlikely the stage designer is heathen, anyway. That is not Othala, the heathen rune, it's Odal, the Nazi symbol.

You can read about more symbols in my article Heathen Vs. Hate in the latest issue of Witches & Pagans Magazine.

Photo: news photo composite copied for news editorializing purposes, consisting of a photo of the CPAC stage and two historical photos of SS insignia

A happy candle doesn't flicker. Candles burning in a place with no wind shine with a light as steady as an incandescent light bulb. Or at least they do normally, so, when I had different candles burning in various places in my home during the 12 Days of Yule and one of them consistently guttered no matter where it was placed, it felt like a sign that the power associated with that particular candle was unhappy for some reason. The photo illustrating this blog is that candle, a red pillar candle nestled in a circular candle ornament of plastic mistletoe, an old family decoration I've seen my whole life. As I learned more about heathen mythology I came to associate mistletoe with Baldur so this became the Baldur candle.

Now there are many possible reasons Baldur could be unhappy, starting with, he's dead, and awaiting rebirth into the next universe, which will be better than this one. Like many of the residents of the quiet realm of the goddess Hel, he may not want to be bothered with human concerns and attempts at Yuletide cheer. Perhaps he just wants to be left in peace. I have certainly encountered human dead who don't want to be bothered by the living, even with small sacrifices of candles or toasting. My mom reached that stage fairly quickly, having already reincarnated, and having satisfied herself that I knew that. (See prior post on Reflections on Spiritual Changes Since My Mom's Death.)

Anyone who's been around the pagan community for very long can tell you that we have our share of the broken and the damaged, and then some. Hai mai, it's a hard world.

But every now and then there's one that's just too broken, even for us. Eventually even the largest of heart realizes that this one's needs are just too great, and we send him or her off into the outer darkness. Well, you can't heal everyone. We're a small community; we simply don't have the resources.

In 40+ years in Paganistan, I've seen a handful of these folks come and go: too weird even for the pagans. Now that's saying something.

From across the yard, I pegged this guy as one immediately: a taker. He's not here for what he can give, I thought, he's here for what he can get. So I avoided him. My time is too valuable to waste on those who don't know how to listen.

He'd followed someone in from the Heart of the Beast May Day Parade. The black eye he got fighting with antifa folks. (Another crowd for whom I have no respect.) One after another, he leeched onto people and wouldn't shut up.

Well, we may look like a group of (mostly) white, (mostly) middle class Minnesotans. Do not be fooled.

It's a credit to us that we didn't let it be about him. Around him, Beltane went on: the dancing, the song, the laughter. The food was good, and the conversation was good.

Finally, the witches decided: enough. As he seated himself at the fire and launched into a harangue, the witches began to sing. They sang the nazi up from his chair and out of the yard. Call it levitation.

Then the host took him by the elbow, led him to the curb, and übered him into oblivion. Sieg heil!

Ritualist to the Third Reich Leni Riefenstahl must be spinning (widdershins, probably) in her grave.

Nazis with tiki torches.

Now ain't that pitiful.

They didn't even care enough to make themselves real torches.

If this had been a pagan event, of course, we would have had a community-wide Potluck and Torch-Making a few days before.

But for the organizers of the Charlottesville alt-Reich event, apparently buying bulk at the nearest minimum-wage Big Box store was good enough.

Sorry, folks: as a ritualist, I'm just not impressed. If this is the Great White Hope of the “white race” (whatever that means), I'm afraid the prognosis isn't very good.

The legendary concentration camp over which Oskar Schindler held authority is turned into a museum. Mongolians question whether a country needs a "strong leader" or not. And disputes rage in Taiwan over who qualifies as an "indigenous person" in the country. It's Fiery Tuesday, our segment on political and societal news from around the world. All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!