Hello, Peter! Thank you for sparing me to tell our history again. Intentions for the new year do hardly last very long in most cases. As for myself, I don't have any big intentions. Only to stay in good condition and to progress with my music. And you?
2) Sein und Werden is Halgadom's third and up to now latest work. The album is divided into two chapters of five neofolk and five metal tracks. As for myself, I like Halgadom best when the neofolkish aspects dominate, and I have to admitt that your second output, Verdunkelung des Göttlichen, still belongs to my absolute favourites when it comes to neofolk music. But I'm disgressing. My question is, how did people react on your song texts? They are not very typical for the subculture of Heavy Metal and do not at all stick to any clichees related to that genre. For exampel, on your latest album we find a song calles Gott in uns (God within ourselves). Most of your listeners are from the Metal, especially the Black Metal scene, and it would be interesting to hear whether there were reactions from the „true-and evil satanic blood-and-slaughter“ fraction? How many units of the new have been sold up to now?
It is hard to understand for me, but there are people who like the Neofolk
songs from Verdunkelung des Göttlichen better than those from Sein und
Werden. Some of them find the new ones to professional, which is a little
confusing for me. As a musician, I try to become a little better with each
new release. This of course goes not only for the music, but also for the
production.
In general the reaction have been very positive, and I am still glad about
this. A lot of time and energy had been invested into music, texts and layout,
but if not only you, but also the people are satisfied with the result, it
has been worth the while. The reactions on the lyrics in special were nice.
Many liked their profundity. Anyway, it would oppose my convictions to let
Halgadom belong to any special kind of subculture. Otherwise I would not play
music from such different genres. It is surely mostly metalheads who listen
to Halgadom, but also „normal“ people can at least listen to the
more quiet stuff.
Gott in uns is inspired on the equally named essay by Daniel Junker on the
folkish movements in the Republic of Weimar, especially on the Germanische
Glaubensgemeinschaft (GGG). Those who read the text can easily see that it
does not refer to the asian desert god, but to the divine in man itself.
Up to now we have sold about 2000 units. It could be more if I had started
earlier to change them into other CDs for my Sonnenkreuz mailorder.
3) A wise individual once said, the god that man can understand (entirely) is a creation of man himself, while that which is real is out of reach for the human mind. Furthermore it is said that God IS, no matter whether you think of him as one or many gods, since every number is just an expansion of the number one. I find this very accurate, but what is your opinion?
I fully agree here. First thing to understand is what religions are anyway. Religions are views on God or the gods made up by peoples, based on and fitting their own folkish mentality. In other words, a people's own worldview and mentality is reflected in its religion, as well as in its culture. It's this diversity that makes mankind interesting, and I feel nothing but contempt for all those religions that strive to destroy this diversity by proselytisation. It takes a disgusting arrogance to travel to a foreign country in order to impose one's own strange belief on people who have been living very well without alien beliefs for milleniums, be it Christianity, Islam or any other kind of sect. If the true divine and the true God exists beyond our own mind I can't say right now. As said above, our mind is not made to understand this. When it comes to question of one or many gods, usually there is one main deity that includes and represents the different aspects of all the others, Allfather in our case.
4) Let's keep to this special topic a little longer. It seems like due to a lack of knowledge most occidental people of today look upon natural religion as nothing more than a useless superstition. But as I see it, the whole topic of nature and creation should be researched from an intellektual-spiritual point of view to see behind the pure symbolism and understand what heathenism actually is all about. It's not a secret that you are very positive towards our ancestors' religious attitudes. But what do you think about the attempt to practice the old spiritual way exactly the way it was many centuries ago? Is it usefull/constructive/meaningful, or do you have to chose your way according to the current era with its own special characteristics?
If we had sticked to our original beliefs in the past, time wouldn't have stopped as well. Quite the opposite, actually. Christianity with its hostility towards research and progress has been a regression of centuries for mankind's development. Our ancestors did not worship false gods, they lived and understood the natural laws of Mother Earth. Germanic priests were not only wise in spiritual matters, they were also astronomers, maybe even scientists. Thus I find it ridiculous to continue heathenism as it was „official“ many centuries ago. Of course there are contents that have to be preserved, such as a large fire is still obligatoric for a sun feast. But to move into a cabin in the mountains and live on berries and roots is pure escapism, as I see it. We should never loose our bonds to nature. I like to wander through nature, and I don't like big cities. What is important for me is to find an equilibrium among all the given facts around us that we can only affect to a certain degree.
5) The so called heathenism tells us that in addition to the visible, material world there are other levels of existence that can be entered by humans, as long as their inner senses are adequately trained and developed. It sais that every cosmic level interfuses the next, higher one with its „oscillation structure“. Even today's science tells us that solid matter does not exist. Instead, the world's microstructure consists of different states of oscillation. This would explain the existence of etherical astral beings. They could be understood as states of oscillation made manifest. Natural religion confirms the existence of suchlike beings. Could nature spirits and beings be seen as materialized forces of nature and living thoughts created by humans respectively?
The door to other levels of existence is widely open in the twelve holy nights after winter solstice and at Samhain. Everything is oscillation and can be affected by oscillation, be it positively or negatively. Even a stone consists of oscillating atoms. So called nature spirits might be nothing but very strong oscillation fields that can be tapped by humans.
6) I guess you have read the Edda? In this mysterious collection of old nordic texts we find the following in verse 24 of the Grimnismal: „Fivehundred doors, and forty still, I know are there in Valhall: Each eighthundred lone warriors pass when they head for the north to fight the wolf“. Hence the total number of warriors is 540 x 800 = 432000, which at the same time is the number of years of the Kali Yuga, the dark age of ancient Indian mythology, at whose end mankind is supposed to be right now. Since the boundaries between different epochs are diffuse, it is hard to say when the new one will begin. However, the lore of world ages of all high cultures is based on star cycles, briefly put. Do you think we are still in the dark age? After all there are old texts (the Vedes or the Edda for example) that describe the today's state of society exactly...
According to Rudopf John Gorsleben it's not „eighthundred lone warriors“, but „eighthundred-and-one warriors“. Read backwards this is 108. The pentagram has five angles of 108° (5 x 108 = 540) and is thus supposed to be the emblem of Valhall, just in addition. Overlaps of Indian and Germanic mythology occur quite often. For example, in both we find a primordial giant which plays an essential role. In one this is Purusha, who founded the caste system (from his mouth grew the Brahmans, from his arms the Kshatriya, from the legs the Vaishya and from the feet the Shudra), in the other one it's Hymir, out of whom the world was created. The reason might be the the immigrated light skinned Aryans founded the caste system and placed themselves at the top, and in the following they taught their own myths to the native population. Regarding your question whether we are in the Kali Yuga let me quote the Edda:
Brother will fight brother
and be his slayer
brother and sister
will violate the bod of kinship;
hard it is in the world
there is much adultery,
axe-age, sword-age,
shields are cleft asunder,
wind-age, wolf-age,
before the world
plunges headlong,
no man will spare another.
Kind of fitting, isn't it?
7) Within the past 100 years there were several scientific discoveries
that are in contrast to our the common, official version of our history. The
peoples of Europe, apart from Greece and Rome, are usually described as primitive
and barbaric, and only with the dawn of European Christianity culture began
to develop, at least to a certain degree.
But as time went by, evidence arose that already several milleniums a highly
developed culture with amazing scientific standards existed in Europe. For
exampel, there are the remains of a 7000 years old sun temple in Goseck, Saxony-Anhalt
[German federal state, translator's remark] (up to now the world's oldest
sun observatory that, among other things, made it possible to determine the
date of summer and winter solstice), the golden hats of ancient Germanic priests,
decorated with cosmic-astronimic designs, and the sun discs from the bronce
age that indicate a great knowledge as well. But certain dogmatic institutions,
like the church, were not so pleased with all those discoveries, and neither
schools nor mass media do really tell about them. How do you imagine the future
when it comes to this?
The church sticks to the common view on history in order not to loose their state of a messenger of culture. In question four I wrote quite a lot on this. But also a vast majority of the so called historians seems unable to let go of their deadlocked dogmatic view on history. New discoveries require new perceptions, but a lot of scientists refuse to change the perceptions they have become familiar with, since this would of course cause some difficulties. Many books would have to be rewritten. Luckily there are associations and institutions like Trojaburg e.V. (www.forsite-verlag.de) with their magazine Trojaburg, that deal with suchlike topics and try to bring it to a wider audience. Internet is another good way to bring supressed facts to the public. After all, there's hardly a home without a computer today.
8) I'd like to bring up the subculture topic once more. As we all know, the Black Metal scene likes to present itself as elitist. Terms like „elite“, „pride“ and the like are often used to describe oneself. But are you allowed to be proud of yourself before you have ever done something meaningful? And by the way, is pride something necessary for the true elite of the species of Homo Sapiens, or is this rather other virtues like modesty?
Modesty is indeed a virtue. You should be proud of what you've done on your own, but not adorn yourself with borrowed plumes. I can also be proud of my ancestors, without whom I wouldn't even exist today, but only if I follow their good example or at least try it. Or shouldn't this rather be a „feeling honoured“ instead of feeling proud? However, I can be proud of my descendants, since they are my own flesh and blood, and I have taken care of them since the day of their birth. But how can somebody claim pride for his fatherland if all he does is sitting in front of the TV and drink beer? Pride is a virtue as well, even a very important one, since pride also has something to do with self-esteem. Pride and modesty are therefor not contradictions. Overdrawn pride is arrogance, and this is the pride that goes before a fall.
9) Do you think a more profound, universal knowledge can be archived only by reading and scientific research, respectively, or is there need of a certain intuition as well, which means an insight into the meaning of existence which comes spontanous or unconsciously over a long period of time?
Only reading and learning is not enough, I think. The intuition you mentioned is an essential part of true understanding.
10) How much time do you use to spend in front of the TV and what which programmes do you like? With respect to your numerous activities I could imagine that most of the time you have other things to do, but what I really wanted to ask is: Don't the TV programmes become poorer each year? There are families with children that refuse to buy a TV, and regarding all the insanity, the glorification of unbridled consumism and all the thing that do harm to a free mind, the idea seems not to bad to me. Although I like to watch certain programmes from time to time, like for exampel nature documentaries.
The time I spend in front of the TV is almost zero. Since I don't feel like paying the high taxes for a TV, I asked to disable my connection. I don't see why I should pay to be told lies. The programme indeed gets poorer and poorer, just like the spectators do. Now one could ask what was first, the poor programme or the poor spectators. Everything must be „catchy“ in order to entertain the oversatiated people. But on the other hand, nobody is forced to switch on the goggle box. There wouldn't be so many fat children if parents spent more time with them. But of course it's easier to just leave this task to the TV. Smart scientists found out that there is a direct connection between TV consumption and the ongoing stupification of our youth. Children must be offered alternatives. This means to switch of the TV and take them out into nature. There's so much to discover. In TV there's actually only a small amount of programmes worth seeing. Besides The Simpons, Spiegel TV and Rosamunde Pilcher this would be some documentaries and the news.
11 )Via your Sonnenkreuz mailorder your already published a number
of several CDs. Can we expect something new in near future? What about a new
release of In Acht und Bann?
Your mailorder's logo is a cross in a circle, a sign that existed already
long before Christianity was born and has a number of meanings, like for example
the unification of antipodal polarities. Why did you choose this logo?
As far as I know, the production of a new In Acht und Bann CD is in progress, but other releases will take a little while. Among others we plan a release from another pagan band, but nothing is sure up to now, so I won't comment on this here. When this interview has been printed the new Frostkrieg LP, Das astrale Fenster, a co-production of Nykta and Sonnenkreuz, is sure to be out. The suncross in the circle is, as far as I know, the oldest way to symbolise the sun. Later the quarterparts of the circle were left unclosed to illustrate the rotation. That's how the svastica developed. The sunwheel is is a symbol of life, balance an force. Since I am a rather positive thinking man, at least mostly, I chose a logo that symbolises positive forces. Quite simple.
12) You are one of the authors of the Runenblut zine. Among others, this zine offers interviews with several metal bands that are usually more into the „heathen“ sector than into typical Black Metal. In addition, there are articles on esoteric and (natural) religion, culture and social criticism. The name Runenblut („rune blood“) has a certain symbolism in itself. What is it supposed to express? And by the way, is a fourth release of the zine already in progress?
We are working on Runenblut IV. Among others, there will be interviews with
In Acht und Bann, Theudo, Shava Sadhana, Obscure Vortex and Massenvernichtung.
Wait and see!
The name Runenblut was an idea of Necromoon another author of the zine. Above
all else, it should bear reference to mythology, just like the zine itself.
To only write about music seemed to superficial to us, just we didn't want
to go to much into politics. Our intention is to call attention to the dying
of the peoples of Europe. Even in the public news we see gangs of racially
foreign people in degermanised gettos beat up people for being German, see
Non-Europeans that force France into a civil war to get their part of the
country's wealth they have never done anything for. Every man with a sound
mind should see that something is wrong.
I avoided to speak of „non-nermans“ on purpose, since I have many
non-german friends who have the same problems at home. If you ask me, those
who still support the insanity of what they call the multicultural society
today belong into a closed phychiatry, for abnormal self-injury. Those who
want to help foreign people can do this by donations, although I find it obscene
to ruin a whole people economically (by taking his money for questionalbe
development aid programmes) and biologically (immigration). The German government
is no longer able to cover the needs of social welfare, but to donate billion-dollar
submarines to Israel seems to be no problem. But if things go on like today,
there is hope that the madhouse of the „Federal Republic of Germany“
will soon be history.
13) In Runenblut No. 2 there is an essay on nordic shamanism. This special branch of ancient European religion got lost almost entirely, so that today we can only try to bring it back to life somehow. Since the article is not by you, I'd like to ask if you are a little into shamanism yourself, in theory and practice.
I found the article quite interesting, but only on a theoretical level. I took part in a totem quest several years ago, but it didn't really work. You probably have to be prepared properly and need a certain amount of experience. The rune invocations at the sun feasts make me feel some kind of power, but I would not call it practised shamanism.
14) In addition to a couple of print magazines that come out unregularly we find a truckload of so called webzines in the internet. After all, it's not too difficult today to create a badly designed homepage and fill it with ridiculous content. I'd like to mention a special case here, but on the other hand, this would be a gratis advertisement... Let me just say that it's one of those great pseudo-tolerant and fully adapted online metal mags that do not only offer the boring, obligatory blah. No, they also offer lies and misguiding comments on people with an opinion that does not fit the old moronic worldview of their „Rock 'n' Roll attitude“. The low intellectual standard is of course also reflected in the forum posts on their site. But let's leave it to that. How do you think about the Internet in general? After all you run a number of web sites yourself.
I think very much of the Internet. Just think of what I would have to pay if I sent all my mails through the post. When I write to my friends in Athens, I do not have to wait two weeks for reply, only a couple of hours. All this complaining about the net is a little exxagerated. Of course, everything is twofold, but I can just stick to the pages I want to read. Why care about the rest? Of all the offers on the net I have to pick out those who are useful for me, or to say it with Ebola: If I can't defeat the tiger, I must learn to ride it. Neither do I stop reading just because there's so much junk literature around, nor do I emmigrate because I don't like every person I'm in contact with. One should not make things more complicated than they actually are.
15) Just a few words regarding the following topics:
a) Zio/Tyr
Highest god of the sky, later on replaced by Odin/Woden. Zio/Zeus?
b) Antarctica
Who know's how much there's still to discover?
c) Alchemy of Soul
As far as I know it's about the reobtainmant of a soul free of sin in order
to ennoble man. The roots of the word are probably in alchemy and freemasonry.
d) Hag-All
Hag-All = „nourish the universe“ [German: „Hege das All“,
translator's remark]. The universe's maintaining force, symbolised by the
Hagal rune.
e) Franz Bardon
Probably one of the most important magicians and occultists of the 20th century.
Later an expert in naturopathy and was supposed to be able to heal cancer
up to the second stadium using only his own medicine made of plants by the
use of alchemy.
f) Raunächte [twelve nights that follow winter solstice, translator's
remark]
The booming wild hunt, the gate to the other world is widely open.
g) Solar spirit
Appears in several cultures. Characterizes a godlike being.
h) Suffism
I've never dealt with islamic mysticism, and up to now, it's not on my agenda.
i) Brahma
The creating god that emerges from the „egg“ of the universe.
He has four heads, one for every Yuga. When Shiva destroys the world, Brahma
will recreate it.
16) Okay, I think that should do it. I'd sure like to pose one more question or two. but I must say that after all the other interviews for this magazine, I'm running out of inspiration. However, have fun answering all the questions, and thanks a lot in advance! The final words are yours.
Well, this was the second time I made it into the Minutum Mundum. Three times is a charm, purportedly, hehe... All the best for your zine!
Regards,
Frank/Halgadom, January 24th, 2006