As one of the founding members of Valhalla – one of the most silent questions we are surprisingly almost never asked is “Why?” – Perhaps because I started a marketing company in 2010 which vaguely yet clearly answered this question called “Why? Simply Because!” (also know as W?SB! Media) but such doesn’t justify my thirst for the true answer!
People always ask questions about How?, What?, Where?, When? and Who? but never Why.
Where is Valhalla?
Who is involved?
What are you trying to build?
When do you plan to start construction?
How are you going to build this community center?
Then it dawned on me. I was reminded of a particular TED talk about the “Golden Circle” something discussed by Simon Sinek in one of the top 10 most popular TED talks of all time. (Video embedded below) He eloquently says:
He couldn’t be more right. Now Valhalla isn’t selling you anything – or looking to have you buy some products or services at its core. At its true core Valhalla is about changing the world. About making sustainable living mainstream – about building the world that we know is possible in our hearts today and not waiting for others to build it for us.
We advocate nothing more or less then action, community, and sustainability as the pillars to successful change.
We believe that each and every human contains their own inner superhero – and Valhalla is merely the training grounds for people to be able to unleash and further develop such. We believe that change starts within the self and is our responsibility – a duty – OUR WHY.
So what struck me? The simplest way I can truly explain it is as follows:
You – ya YOU – have understood our why and it resonates with you.
You also see this as your duty and can no longer wait for change to happen.
You cannot ignore your inner superhero any longer.
You are doing your part to take action.
You believe what we believe!
For this we thank you. I leave you with this quote and inspiring video – simply…
“…because there are leaders and those who lead. Leaders hold a position of power or authority but those who lead inspire us. Whether they are individuals or organizations we follow those who lead – not because we have too – but because we want too. We follow those who lead, not for them, but for ourselves.”
-Simon Sinek
so true
Great video :) great post!
Merci! :)
Bien dit
Valhalla is a place were us Norse pagans such as myself go when we prove our God Odin by dieing in battle
However, it still remains rather incomprehensible for Scandinavians such as myself, why the Hell people perpetuate nazi associations with the cultural heritage of our ancestors. Particularly when the people do not even appear to be nazis – Why for instance has the Valhalla Movement adopted the nazi-shape of the Odal-rune, and put it in what appears to be a copy paste of this “Wotan mit Uns” nazi version of the socalled “walknut”.
http://tightrope.cc/catalog/flags-wotan-mit-uns-flag-p-1480.html
Conclusion: Their logo is strongly and unambiguously nazi.
I study History of Religions in Sweden, and I have written them and made them aware of this. I also took pains to give examples of the abundance of norse symbolism that has NOT been hijacked by nazis – as for instance figurations of ships with trees growing out of (a suitable symbol for an earth ship eco commune). But the fact that the Valhalla Movement is still insisting on displaying hard core nazi heraldry as their logo, seriously makes me doubt that they really are who they say they are. If you know these guys personally – allright ! You can be sure that they are not really some weird white power militia. But if you don’t know them, I would advice caution particularly if you are considering to support their cause economically.
Its amusing you’re trying to *scare* these guys into fixing their logo. I say ‘fix’ because they are unfortunately not getting back to the roots of blut und boden.
Its clear these guys just got on google image search and grabbed a few images without an understanding of their larger context. It really does not look like the ‘wotan mit uns’ logo because the valknut is inverted and there are no oak leaves. This project clearly has nothing to do with Norse Paganism.
By the way, are there any white people left in Sweden?