Orthodox Temple of Natural Religion

There once was a distinguished gentleman whom the townsfolk respected as a holy man, for his actions and words were always in good form, blameless, the picture of virtue. Yet despite his efforts, the lower elements of the town increased continually. One day, this purported holy man was walking with his daughter to the market when they were held up by bandits, who immediately recognized the famed man. They asked the man where he was headed, and he replied, “The market,” and they asked him why, and he, knowing the purport of their inquiry yet bound to his conviction to never lie, replied, “To buy, sirs.” At that, they knew he must be carrying a significant sum of money and summarily beat and robbed him. Then, they asked him about his daughter: “Who is this woman to you?” Again, he replied honestly, “This is my daughter.” “I see. Is she married?” they replied. Again seeing the purport of their inquiry yet resolved not to lie, he replied, “No, sirs, she is a virgin, but I beg of you in the name of all that is good to not lay a finger on her.” The bandits laughed at the man and gagged him and made him watch as they raped his daughter. Adrenaline surged through the man’s body and he saw an opportunity to steal one of the bandit’s guns while they were distracted, but instead, he turned his eyes to heaven, prayed, and asked his God to spare them and move the bandits’ hearts to mercy. When the bandits finished with the man’s daughter, they shot her, turned, shot the man, and escaped without detection by law enforcement. The man and his daughter found themselves in a dark corridor dimly lit by torches ensconced in increasingly shorter intervals until they reached the Chamber of Judgment and stood before Anubis and the Scales of Maat. When the man’s heart was removed and weighed upon the scales against a feather of Maat, the scale sank under the weight of his heart, and he protested that his heart was pure, as his actions were blameless and virtuous even until the bitter end. Anubis retorted that the man’s actions were not virtuous but only appeared to be virtuous, “For, how can your heart be as light as Maat when you have not been an agent of Maat (order) but have increased the disorder of the world, allowed it, and failed to stop it? And now you argue with a God Himself? You are a blind and foolish man.” “But, my Lord,” replied the man desperately, “would You have had me lie, steal, and kill to stop those bandits?” “Precisely,” said Lord Anubis, his black maw showing his sharp teeth, “for this is virtue when it is just and good. Did not Horus Himself kill Seth to establish justice? You have failed to see this, because you have not reflected on virtue but have rather been concerned with dogmas and self-aggrandizement.” And with that, Lord Anubis destroyed the man’s spirit and sent the cleared soul back to the Source of the Great River. Trembling, his daughter stepped up to the scales and placed her heart upon it. As the scale began to dip beneath the feather of Maat, the young lady desperately began to recite her negative confessions: “Hail, Hail, Usekh-nemmt, who comest forth from Anu, I have not committed sin. Hail, Hept-khet, who comest forth from Kher-aha, I have not committed robbery with violence—" “Enough, child,” Lord Anubis smiled, “Fear not, for though your heart is not as light as Maat, it does not weigh heavily upon the scale: It is not enough to confess what you have not done, but rather I expect you to also recite what good you have done, and I can see you have done but little. You will not inherit the spiritual reward of heaven, for you have not lived a spiritual life, yet your life was not a bad one either, simply vacuous and insignificant: Your spirit will not be destroyed, but you must undergo the pain of rebirth and renewed ignorance and struggle. Do try to remember to do something with your life next time, and do not let yourself be led to ruin by the ignorance of a father.”

Necessity is the highest Goddess, and we must answer to Her. Her form is not always noble, so why do we fool ourselves into thinking that the conduct of noble individuals or the noble state must always appear to be of a noble form? For, what is nobility but the acquiescence to higher principles? Thus, the noble acquiesce to the thunderous or unsettling forms of Necessity when it is time to, and they sacrifice their own appearance of nobility for the sake of true nobility; it makes them truly noble indeed that they are willing to appear ignoble for the sake of Necessity, and it also makes them truly noble that they learn the arts of good form and effective direction even though they would rather be candid, for Necessity sometimes dictates candidness and sometimes dictates tact. Sometimes Necessity even dictates dark forms for the protection of life. Necessity is unconquerable and reigns the world with iron chains and enwrapping Fire, but Sweet Aphrodite is kind to us and disguises these chains with her beautiful, flowy garter. Yet the truth still stands: Aphrodite is married to Ares, the Indomitable King of Strife, and She answers to King Zeus, the Divine Willpower, Launcher of the Fiery Thunderbolt, and Necessity has Her bloody way, and those who understand Her live and prosper and those who don't are fools who blunder and do violence upon themselves. She isn't always nice and pretty; she isn't expected and won't conform to our ideals; but if you are wise, you understand that She Herself is the Ideal, and that you would be a fool to reject Her. Hail Ananke forever, and may she remain undepicted, unbound by man's limited understanding.

UPDATE Orthodox Temple of Natural Religion is switching its focus from online ministry to local ministry. What this means is that we will no longer offer catechetical programs nor host meetings for online members. Those who were members enjoy the privilege of contacting me or using their resources to assist them in their private spirituality. OTNR will offer training for priests for a considerable sum of money (at least $1,000) and a lifelong vow of ecclesiastical subordination after it has updated its learning materials for priests. The details of this must still be determined and finalized. I will announce when this program is ready to launch, but you may also please reach out to me to express any serious interest in this program at petesephdrakontos@gmail.com. In the meantime, I will soon publish our learning resources under my legal name, Joseph Brennan. I will operate under my legal name as a priest henceforth, and I will focus my energies on building local faith communities and serving people in my personal life. I will also record videos if I ever get the time in order to help guide others spiritually, especially the youth who are growing up in an increasingly dark, lost, backwards, and intolerable world. Finally, as the Roman New Year begins with the beginning of March and as tax refunds come in and you have some spending money, don't forget to purchase one of our religious calendars. The Germanic ones are selling quickly (and will sell out soon), and the Greco-Roman ones are of the highest quality in design, beauty, and information. I will primarily post on here information about publications, my videos, fundraising appeals, and about my local activity if you care to support my work with a donation. However, my priority is not to post writing online, as that is very unfruitful. One should get off the computer and get back to real life; I only use these computers to enhance what I am doing in real life, not to live vicariously or seek wisdom from fools practicing rhetoric; if one has already found the Truth, why should one continue this desperate reading or viewing online instead of immediately participating in God by celebrating love in your personal life, leisure, and work and maintaining meditativeness and grace?

Thuraze, Keres, ouk eni Anthesteria. Begone, Keres, Death Spirits, the Anthesteria are finished!

2025 Germanic Pagan Religious Calendar Now Available! Orthodox Temple of Natural Religion is proud to present our Germanic lunar calendar. Our calendar contains precisely reckoned lunar months that adhere to ancient Germanic customs and precise modern astronomy, and it contains dates of the holytides, exact days and times of quarter and cross-quarter days, unique Temple Seasonal Celebrations, brief description of each month's religious activity, and information on how to use the calendar. It is also features handsome typography and beautiful pictures. This calendar is ideal for beginning Germanic pagans seeking to take their worship to the next level by adhering to the Germanic religious calendar, for advanced Germanic pagans seeking accurate historical dates, or for Temple Germanics who consider the elements and powers of the eight seasons and observe the Temple's Seasonal Celebrates on the lunar phases corresponding to their nearest quarter and cross-quarter days. The calendar's lunar days and seasonal dates also make it able to be used and cherished by any heathen or neo-pagan. Get them quickly from our Etsy store while supplies last: https://otnr.etsy.com/listing/1857616237/2025-germanic-pagan-religious-calendar

2025 Greek & Roman Pagan Religious Calendar Now Available! We are overjoyed to announce the publication of our 2025 Greek & Roman Pagan Religious Calendar! Updates to last year's calendar include: - A few new holidays listed - New information about the months - New pictures throughout the calendar - Improved typography - New notations for the public holidays and ill-omened days of the Roman religious calendar - Accurate reckoning of this year's lunar months - The specific dates and times of the quarter and cross-quarter day events - Our customary notation of the lunar phases corresponding to the quarter and cross-quarter days, which we call the Temple Lunar Seasonal Celebrations - And more! Last year's calendar got rave reviews, and this year's is even better. Get them quickly from our Etsy store while supplies last: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1841505258/2025-greek-roman-pagan-religious Note: The 2025 Germanic calendar will be available within the next few days.

The process of sexual purification is a long one if you can achieve it in this life and takes many lives to overcome in the first place, and you must accept that you will have failures and not go too hard on yourself, because going hard on yourself is only going to make you feel negative and seek out the dopamine-flooding stimulus that brought you to that state in the first place. In order to break out of that loop of negative feedback, you must think about and do something positive. As I said, movement is key and devoting yourself to higher things (a higher aspiration, sacred duty, familial duty, etc.) is key. Ultimately, you must conquer lust through real divine love, not through fear or spiritual terrorism like the fear of hellfire. One who achieves chastity by fearing hell has not achieved a spiritual accomplishment but has rather only achieved a mental configuration that amounts to a warping of the mind. Yes, you will fail again and again, but that doesn't make you a hypocrite or a failure, nor does it make your efforts futile or unnatural: It makes you someone who strives to be great and live according to our highest, divine nature, the most difficult task: It makes you brave, great, persevering, capable of eventual success, and beloved by the Gods even in the midst of failure. The Gods love you and sustain you every moment, my friend. Take heart, reunite your mind with the Divine Lifeforce, and keep striving. You will conquer. And when you fail, say the prayer of purification as you bathe, ask the Gods of Willpower and Warfare to enkindle your will to triumph, and get right back at trying again and again.

I recommend reading Plato's Alcibiades I and Gorgias for good reflections on the reality of the soul if you need help in this matter. Plotinus is another great luminary on the soul, but parts of his work can be challenging to parse through. The Buddhists practice an excellent technique for reminding themselves of the impurity of the body called asubha meditation. When they feel lust, they instead reflect on the reality of the body: it is full of disgusting organs, crap, piss, mucus, disease, parasites, and it will rot and decay. This provides a powerful reconfiguration of the mind and its priorities in the immediate present. The Greeks did something similar, I believe, when they imagined that the spirits of lust were disgusting, ugly, monstrous old woman-demons, and they would berate and cuss at these demons and then laugh at them and ridicule them for their ugliness and foulness. This is another powerful technique for use in the immediate moment one feels tempted. Some people take cold showers, but I prefer to take a walk in nature or do some push-ups if I am so tempted. It can also help get you started (get momentum) to go on a brief vegetarian diet, but I don't feel this is necessary, though some at present and historically have reported that it helped them. You can also combat the urge through music and through contemplating certain Gods like Ares. If you listen to a beautiful musical score like The Hall of the Mountain King and do some push-ups or go for a jog, it will completely reconfigure your mind and rebalance your energy levels. Thirdly, foster greater loves and direct your attention to greater things. When one learns of something truly great, they no longer desire the lower thing. When one has tried Belgian chocolate, for example, one will no longer desire Hershey's. Plato reports that a great priestess named Diotima referred to this as ascending the ladder of loves. Love greater things and pursue higher endeavors, and you will no longer desire the body. Become too busy with greater things, and you will have no time or mind for low trivialities and absurdities. After you set your mind upon greater things, you will attain unto a greater position in life and achieve a greater character; you will become a more aristocratic person, but beware Plato's admonition that you must not let yourself become misanthropic. It is easy to become misanthropic when we see inane fools jiggling their stuff for millions of views while you have few to no followers as a truth-seeker, but that is the nature of this world: Everyone (except for the few hidden heroes/boddhisattvas/immortals/"traveling angels") has reincarnated here because they are impure, and so as a rule, the mob is foolish and desires what is low and base, and we have enemies in our midst besides who are trying to sabotage us by promoting such filth. (And, even those enemies, the Gods will it, shall always arise to push us to become great and divine.) Therefore, let yourself become truly aristocratic by having grace and perseverance and not giving up on the people, even if they kill you for your great love and encouragement of them (yet work wisely and practice discretion/silence/tact when it would be best to do so). Finally, as you are doing, don't put yourself in a situation that will tempt you to indulge in lust. Blocking sites, not keeping materials on your devices or in your home, etc. are effective measures. This is why traditionally, one should not cohabitate before marriage, enter the bedroom of someone they are dating, or even "go back to their place" after the date. Indeed, going out is a good way to date, whereas "Netflix and chill" inevitably turns into casual sex because the temptation is there.

Secondly, we must keep our mind situated in what is real. This means using reason, meditation, and movement. By reasoning, review the doctrines of true freedom, benevolence, the intended and natural function of the genitalia for procreation, the metaphysical truth of soul as real and body/material as illusory, and the metaphysical truths of the importance of spiritual purity. We have discussed the first three items of this list; now, let us consider the latter two. Recall that the Good (that which leads to life, or the Divine Lifeforce) is the ultimate reality; one may understand this as Love once the Divine Will (the second Demiurge) arises, and if one understands it as Love, then one understands that we must truly love the one we let ourselves desire, and that to stray from Love is to stray from divinity and fall from grace in a sense: to become lost in ignorance, darkness, and the punishments of samsara, the Furies and the punishing daimones, and the hell realms. Though the soul is immortal, it fears death. Why? Because it ignorantly thinks death is the end of life and not simply a passing on and transformation, and so it instinctively fears death because the soul constantly strives towards life/the Good, but when one has mastered the fear of death through metaphysical learning as the philosopher does, then the soul no longer fears death but rather sees it as a necessary stage in the grand play of the Divine Good, a real zinger in the great Divine Comedy. But folly, darkness, despair, suffering, and punishment are no laughing matter, and these are the lot of all those who are not wise, including the lecherous. I believe the soul also fears death because passing on and rebirth are a long, difficult, and sometimes painful process. I personally believe that divine punishment (or administration of justice, more accurately) for our sexual indiscretions in this life is promptly visited upon us in this life in multiple forms—disease, disharmony, and social degeneration—and that most people are not punished in the afterlife for sexual indiscretion but are rather forced to reincarnate due to their enslavement to lust. Indeed, lust is the foremost reason souls must continually reincarnate; not until they are free from ignorance (attachment to particulars instead of to the Good Alone) can they be worthy of re-inheriting the bliss of heaven. But, most mildly impure souls who die (and receive proper funerary rites) simply go to a place of dull contentment with their relatives like the Fields of Asphodel and wait there until it is time to reincarnate; they may have to go through a period of brief hardship, life-review, and punishment, but for the most part, the afterlife is not some fiery hell of torment for normal people. However, consider that you may die at any time, consider the hardship of a long trek through dry territory, the pain of some punishment by daimones, the pain and hardship of having to go through a hard upbringing all over again, the shame you would feel standing before the God for your weakness and spiritual debasement, and you may hesitate to indulge the lust or even desire the body any longer. These reminders are key, but it is even more powerful to master your mind and maintain a still and unshakeable mind, and this is ultimately achieved through Oneness Meditation, though expenditure of excess energy and acts that make one proud of oneself also help tremendously by preventing the mind from becoming preoccupied with and tempted by these things (lust, fantasy, the body) of no real value. Thus, maintaining meditativeness is the most powerful method, and exercise, walks in nature, movement and work in general, and doing duty or making sacrifices are great methods. In addition to these, maintain that prayerfulness I spoke about earlier and infuse that prayerfulness with devotion to a God. Devotion is the fastest, surest, and most powerful way to spiritual perfection for most people. Another reminder of the soul's true, divine nature is to recall the reality of the soul and the illusory nature of the body/matter.

Let's answer the question: Why is sex a matter of morality? Two reasons: Firstly, it is our moral duty to have goodwill for all people for their own sake (as a matter of respecting the dignity they bear as creations of God, and as a matter of realizing divine perfection by extending goodwill to the world in the same fashion the Good Itself and Zeus the Shaper do). We must have this fundamental goodwill for others rather than approaching them with the selfish/evil mindset of using them for our own selfish gain or pleasure. Even if the act is private (masturbation) or mutual (casual sex), the act is not morally permissible, because it is not okay to foster a mentality of using others. Approaching the opposite sex with this lustful mentality makes one a pervert and prevents us from seeing the person as they truly are, the soul, the person loved by God into existence; it debases us into beasts unworthy of humanity, much less divinity. See, the beast sees and wants the body; the human, a rational being, sees and wants the mind; the purified soul sees the wonderful goodness/loveliness of this particular person as they are; he or she loves the other for their own sake: "To love someone is to know the reason God had to create this person." We cannot have a proper, lawful, orderly, just, responsible civilization if everyone has become corrupted through sexual perversion and has the essentially sociopathic mentality that they can use others for pleasure or self-gain. Such a mentality gives rise to a brutal social state unworthy of humanity: slavery, tyranny, consumerism, godlessness—Everybody becomes coomtarded, treacherous, and brutal. Secondly, we are only free to do what is good; freedom is the capacity to assume responsibility. If one is not prepared to assume responsibility for children, one should not have sex. Therefore, casual sex and masturbation are morally impermissible. To meet the moral criteria for sex, then, we must focus on a few things. Firstly, we must combat lust by instead looking past the desired body and seeing the person/soul itself, having pity on that soul for its ignorance, and praying for them. Do you see a desirable woman? Pray for her, that the Gods may excuse her for her immodesty and you for your lust. Having this prayerfulness and reverent regard towards others souls is a powerful tool.

Beyond the marital obligation, it is important to try to abstain from sexual activity for your physical and mental health and your spirituality. This effort may take many lives, but it is the standard we must bear morally, and it is the hallmark of a spiritually purified/perfected person. You should not go hard on yourself if you are struggling in this area (masturbating once a week for example), because the body does need to sort itself out, though nocturnal emissions will happen if necessary to balance your body out. We must observe the moral law, but we cannot fight against nature either. So the question is: What is the natural way to uphold sexual morality? The answer: To use the sexual organs for their intended purpose: procreative sex. And when is procreative sex morally permissible? Within matrimony, after having pledged before bridge, God, and community to protect and provide for the mother and the children—in other words, to assume responsibility for the action of procreation. Therefore, the moral sexual act must be both procreative and unitive; it must happen within marriage and be open to the possibility of children. This means that contraception is against natural law morality. Is "pulling out" morally permissible? I would say so: You are open to the possibility of children but are using reason (natural means) to plan your family, not to escape the the moral dictate to not use others for pleasure, and simultaneously, you are fulfilling your marital obligation to your wife and helping keep her normal hormonally. (The choice of the couple to engage in regular sex or regular chastity is up to them, but if any party disagrees, the couple must default to regular sex, for one-sided chastity can destroy the marriage and drive the other mad; usually, it is the woman who requires sex, and it is rare to find a woman who does not need it and can be chaste. Marriage must not be barren, but chaste marriage is something you will see saintly couples of the highest caliber observe, especially among those who have benefitted from being raised in the Hindu and Buddhist religions.) This is morally strict territory, again the highest of standards; we don't expect everyone to be able to master this, but the standard must be set. My next paragraph will discuss why.

Elder Drákontos's Moderation Advice and Teachings Q: Hey, Elder, I want to ask you for some advice if possible. I noticed out of the four virtues my weakest is temperance. I am doing my best to fast and meditate to better myself into a more moderate person. Do you have any advice or other practices to help me on this part of my journey. A: Hi! I think the key is to know when enough is enough, to “Know the Measure.” One thing that helped me from overeating was internalizing the Gita’s message “The sage stops eating when he is satisfied that he has had enough.” Be satisfied with enough, be grateful for your lot, be content with life as it is, and know that our joy and perfection (grace and true freedom) lies in adhering solely to the Good. Observing contentment and grace will go a long way and will slowly perfect your character. Take it upon yourself to style yourself as a yogi or ascetic, and challenge yourself to see how powerful spiritually you can become as you accrue more good karma and purify/augment your spiritual vessel. Make a vow to mimic Odin’s self-sacrifice by observing austerity for 10 days. Exercise and, most of all, nature walks will help a ton. Making it an act of devotion to a god makes it more likely to succeed. Then, instead of perceiving moderation as a negative, a deprivation, you perceive it as a positive, an enhancement of your life with divine energy. Ultimately, you have to take more joy in denying the thing than you do in indulging it. You have to see the excess as thoroughly harmful and unappetizing, so that it holds no sway over you. So, you have to see the excess as a negative and the self-denial as a positive. You have to have self-respect and esteem yourself as a higher person, and then you will become that higher person. The continual self-denials will become habit and shape your taste, and then your character will be improved altogether, and these things will hold no sway or appeal to you. Q: Another question about moderation as well but about sexual moderation. I currently have blockers on my browser for illicit video sites and the such. It is an addiction I gained in my teens. Is your advice for dealing with it similar for moderation related to food or is there something else in particular for this you think might help. Thank you for your previous advice again my troubles with overconsumption of food has greatly diminished these past days since. A: I am glad to hear your moderation in food intake has improved. My advice for sexual moderation is largely the same. I don't recall if you are married or not. When you are married, it is a good practice to make love to your wife on a weekly or monthly basis to maintain marital satisfaction. Some people refer to that as "slay day" lol.

The movement of the soul to the Good precedes the unique qualities/limitations of the posterior body. The primacy of the Good is the ultimate object of religion, and the exclusive-folkist’s exaltation of lower, material truths above the object of religion is altogether a hindrance to the true seeker, a blasphemy against the highest Divinity, and a seed of discord planted among men. It is the beginning of confusion, disharmony, and evil. By neglecting to establish a legitimate basis of philosophy and theology, the tribalist who creates religion in his image faces the danger of becoming a genocidal monster as soon as some popular figure in his tribe encounters some racially flattering private revelation and declares it binding. This is the concern and disappointment I and others in the Temple have with much of the Germanic sphere today. On the other hand, we praise their general political understanding and their developments in terms of local worship, aesthetic, and membership, but this celebration of their revival is constantly dulled by the concern that these developments will lead to greater cultural confusion and difficulty if their errors are left uncorrected. Furthermore, there are brilliant minds among the Germanics who recognize the value of philosophy, study it, and seek to guide their tradition more meaningfully, if only they could prevail against the predominant religious mentality of myopia and conformity. I pray that the Germanics recognize the worth of the Temple, subordinate themselves (as we have) to the four core doctrines necessary for orthodoxy, pay us due respect, and work with us to further our Mission of uniting and restoring authentic natural religion. Until then, our work continues for the sixth year as a Temple, trying to raise funds for our own sites of worship, authoring important works for proper religious education and practice, reaching out to other organizations in the hopes of alliance, and recruiting, educating, and developing Temple members. I ask the Gods to witness my sincerity and the faultlessness of my doctrines, and I pray my efforts are fruitful and that those who benefit from my education are loyal and noble.

Further guidance on folkism, with much love and respect. As pagans, we well understand the error and danger of exclusive universal religions: Christianity genocided and culturally erased our organic religious traditions and has brought us to the humble state we now endure. Sadly, many of us do not yet understand the error and danger of exclusively folkist religion. We are attracted by the prospect of preserving our folk, but many of us, out of reaction and impressionistic understanding and Christian conditioning toward antagonism and binary thinking, jump to the expedient conclusion of exclusively folkist religion, which does damage to humanity and religion and establishes a false religion no better than Judaism. Folkism itself is a completely legitimate form of natural religion, as is universalism (e.g., Hellenism, Buddhism, Sanatana Dharma, Confucianism), but the error arises when either form tries to lay an exclusive claim on legitimacy. Indeed, the folk relies on universal Truth, and the universal Truth gives rise to the folk. They depend on each other and are not contradictory opposites. (Let it be noted that the Temple recognizes that Germanic religion is fundamentally folkist, and we protect it as such within the Temple by prohibiting foreign membership to the Germanic chapter.) There is a serious error currently prevalent among neo-pagan Germanics that universal religions are invalid, that only folk religions are valid, and that a person must belong to the tradition of their ancestry. (A person should only belong to a folkist religion of their ancestry if they are going to follow a folkist path, but a universal religion is permissible, which they deny.) It is a nuanced argument, but religion can prescribe folkism (can take a folkist form), but religion itself is not folkist, though it protects and fosters the folk. Religion exists before folkism, just as the soul exists before the body: The quest for understanding stemming from the soul’s movement towards the Good exists before material limitations to that understanding. Ultimately, our religions are to some (probably overstated) degree unconsciously limited by and colored by our racial character but not consciously determined by it (they are consciously determined by logic and experience, and therefore our subscription to the universal aspect of religion is not only completely natural and valid, it is more natural, at least to the man capable of reason); we try to develop religion as best we can given our nature, rather than limiting our religions at the outset according to our nature; religion is meant to lift us up despite our limits; we are not meant to limit religion because of our limits. To shape religion based on racial character instead of letting it embody the racial expression naturally is to create an absurd caricature of the folk’s natural religion. Exclusivity in religion is a risky and dangerous business; it has little place, and there isn’t one man in a million who understands its place and can exercise it without turning their religion into a counter-religion. Let religion be both folkist and universal, for it protects the race and native traditions on both levels, while the folkist advances expression and form, creates the identity, and fosters unity among the folk; and the universal advances knowledge and harmony and provides the legal basis for the protection of particular peoples. The folk rely on the universal, and the universal depends on the folk. Attempting to extricate one from the other would only end in failure. It is a matter of knowing one’s place, and the orthodox folkist must understand that, just as the soul exists before the person, and divinity exists before organized matter, so too does religion (logic, the endeavor to understand) exist before race (that which limits our understanding).

Today, on the Roman holiday to Vica Pota, ancient Goddess of Victory, three brilliant, pious men completed the catechetical program and join us as lay members of the Temple. This marks the graduation of our third catechetical cohort. These men come with a wealth of wisdom, experience, and heroic virtue: They speak of learning from and honoring the natural religions of the world; they speak of priesthood and service; they speak of the necessity of high religion and praise the Temple for its organization, vision, doctrine, and spirituality; they speak of foundation for greatness and heroism to be born. We welcome them enthusiastically and pray the Gods advance our Temple to greatness and Victory.

Don’t let them take from you that faith in truth and love, because it’s all we have.

The real authors, whose works survive the ravages of history, are devotees of the highest Goddess, Necessity. They speak through Time to spirits noble enough to understand. They are ignored in our unheroic and godless age, for modern man is too uncomfortable with veneration to give proper recognition to kingly and godly men while they still live, and the Christians are too hostile to philosophy to accept truth when it is demonstrated. We shall undergo a long march of deplorable stupidity and ignorance before the wise are restored to their rightful place and mankind is no longer existentially objectionable. But, my Temple provides a space for the wise, that they may be spared the despair of inextricable association with the foolish masses and the despair of helplessness against the reigning forces of evil directing mankind’s course. What have I written? For the public, a book of wisdom literature titled The Wisdom Transmission, and soon, a polemic against revealed religion titled A New Foundation. I have also written liturgical calendars for Hellenic and Germanic religionists that are available to the public. For my temple, several internal publications, each hundreds of pages in length: the Book of Lay Worship (including a catechism), the Seekers’ College, the Book of General Liturgy, and the Book of Festival Liturgy. These publications remain internal to protect the unique excellence of our organization and to keep sacred things from being profaned. I say this, because I have as much of a right as anyone else to participate in discourse and to be acknowledged for my work and my merit as an author and entrepreneur, even if it causes discomfort to the Christian and atheist majority, who are wracked with a guilty conscience. My message is this: Let us adhere to natural religion, which is the effort to understand the universe and live rightly, to understand divinity and align with it. There is no more that needs to be done. No special formula, no chosen people, no revelation, no genocide or erasure, no spiritual terrorism, no obstinate ignorance. No epistemological or moral relativism, no degeneracy, no unaccountability or corruption, no defiance of nature, no damage to humanity or confusion of its natural and well-ordered state. Of this divine logic and universal love I am certain, and no amount of spiritual terrorism or absurd what-ifs would ever make me recant my understanding. It is time for a return to classicalism and Platonism, and time for a paradigm shift of our culture to natural religion. The true Gods, the real and living principles of the Divine Intelligence who operate and govern the cosmos, directing and ordering the ebullience of the Good, have not gone anywhere. I speak of the foundation of our civilization and the knowledge it had when it was at its best, classical and Renaissance times. You must ask yourself what world you prefer: one of piety, righteous men, kings accountable to God’s laws, good cheer, grace, beauty, inspiration, and a common folk, or one of consumerism where the person is reduced to a commodity, of corruption and countless cowards hiding behind other cowards in an unaccountable mess of a system, of rogues and bastards and junkies, of family-shattering antagonisms over issues our votes have no power to affect, of thugs and reckless idiots cutting beautiful lives short, of a diverse and frustrated mob of incompatible and uprooted people who resent each other and have no hope, cheap ugly veneers, deconstruction, and boorishness. The better world is possible, because we had it in the past, and it is possible, because we who believe make it possible. We can achieve it peacefully with mutual understanding of benevolence as we restore each component to its natural place. Through those great goddesses Justice and Good Order, through adhering to God in law, politics, and society, we can elevate humanity to unimagined levels of happiness, health, prosperity, and enlightenment. It takes courage: faith in truth and love. And, that takes nobility: subordination to higher good.

Our 2025 OTNR Greek and Romanic Pagan Religious Calendar and our 2025 OTNR Germanic Pagan Religious Calendar were ordered with the printing company last week. They should arrive in the mail next week (Jan 6 - Jan 10) and appear in our Etsy store at that time. We will send out a link at that time. I am very excited about some of the aesthetic updates (new pictures, font improvement, etc.) I made to the calendars, as well as how I have notated the public feriae and ill-omened days of the Roman calendar this year.

Divination Fundraiser, and Lunar Rites Reminder Tonight is the Deipnon. This is the day of monthly home-cleaning and self-purification, and the night when one makes offerings (of which they do not partake) to the ancestors and to Hekate. It is also the best day of the lunar month for divination, and it is an ancient tradition to perform divination for the new year. This year, I am going to perform divination for those who make a fully tax-deductible donation of $15+ to the Temple. My preferred method of divination is I Ching, but I am also trained in Tarot, Futhark, and Ogham. Unless you have a particular preference, I will provide I Ching divination. If you have deep, burning questions about your personal or spiritual life or about the nature of things, or if you are curious about your future or outcomes of the next year, this is the service for you. I will perform the divination at the hour of sunrise Monday morning on the lunar day of the Deipnon just before the New Year, a triply propitious time to perform this work on the most powerful planetary hour and planetary day possible to perform it. You must donate within the next 19 hours (before 7:30 a.m. EDT on Monday) if you would like to receive this service at the most propitious time of the year. The next propitious time will be chosen for those who donate after this time. Donate at https://otnr.net/donate/ for the Custom Amount $15 or greater, and check the box "Write us a comment," leaving the comment: "For Divination by I Ching/Futhark/Tarot (choose one). My question is "What will/would be the outcome of ___? Please send fortune to [First and Last Name] at [email address]."

As you begin planning to purchase a calendar for the 2025 year, please note that we will be selling our 2025 liturgical calendars next year. We will sell our traditional Greco-Roman-Celtic lunisolar calendar, as well as an easy-to-follow Germanic one. These beautiful, highly informative, and helpful calendars are highly recommended by all who use them. Calendars will not be available for purchase until early January. We hope you will consider supporting us and elevating your religious life. 🙏🏻