Primal Faith Foundation

Bahá‘í Faith.

I bear witness, O my God that Thou hast created me

to know Thee and to worship Thee. I testify, at this

moment, to my powerlessness and to Thy might, to my

poverty and to Thy wealth. There is no other God

but Thee, the Help In Peril, the Self-Subsisting.

                 -Bahá‘u’lláh, Prayers and Mediations.

That is a mouth full and that is the shortest of the three daily prayers that they must embrace everyday. The Bahá’í faith is one of the newest accepted faiths in the world, at only one hundred sixty-six (166) years old. I admit that I am impressed, if it were not for the monotheism and the call for total peace I would find no fault with it. For those who know me that is saying something, I’m kind of critical.

Some of the Bahá’í core beliefs are progressive beyond their time and include sexual equality, the fusion of secular science with religion and living in a social community. The people of this faith are encouraged to gather with people of different faiths to “seek righteousness” for the sake of sharing good counsel and good community.

There is a lot of information out there about the Bahá‘í and they have a growing community, thankfully unlike when Madonna became “Kabbalistic” the few celebrities that are in the Bahá‘í ranks they don’t seem to be promoting it like a new project . The biggest source of in formation and most comprehensive is at http://www.bahai.org/ . The Bahá’í is instead of a stand alone faith or a multi-faith system states it’s self as being an evolution of all the major religions leading up to it and hold that each was true at the time and that each of the prophets leading up to Bahá’u'lláh were true prophets speaking the truth as it was then.

I find it very refreshing to see an accepted faith with this structure and they appear to be flourishing.

Sources: http://www.bahai.org/

             The ULC Monastery: Guide to Divnity

             Bahá’u'lláh, Prayers and Mediations

Nine Heathen Virtues

Searching through the Eddas and other stories of Norse faith we Asatru can find traits in our gods and heroes that exemplify what we as followers of the old ways should seek to emulate. These nine virtues show each of us how to live a life that is full of strength and honor.

Asatru is not filled with dogma and is not to be ritualized to the point of weighing down our lives. This is a faith that is to be lived not acted, our day to day lives can be an homage to our gods and honored dead everyday without ever uttering a prayer or making mention of Aesir gods. We honor them and ourselves by living our lives.

Each virtue listed here is supported by the one before it and leads directly to the next. There are many more than nine that often get added and some are taken away but these nine seem to be the ones with the highest frequency. I am not the first to compile a list like this and hopefully not the last. I am going to list them here in what in my opinion is ascending order.

1. Steadfastness- Certainty and purpose of action will make you steadfast in all you do. Being steadfast will mean that you will not waiver from your goals and makes you easy to follow.

2. Independence- We should all seek to be our own person, dependent on no one else for your own well being. When this is true you are accountable for your own success and failures. No one can claim your victories and you will owe no one anything.

3. Diligence- Put simply is working hard for yourself and those in your care, even after defeat a diligent person will get up learn from their mistakes and go at it again. We should not be discouraged by our obstacles but see them as a chance to grow.

4. Hospitality- This means so much more than just offering your friends a drink when in your home, though that is part of it. Hospitality is key to building a strong community, being mindful of the needs around you and offering help without being asked helps others maintain dignity. This however is the virtue that is most abused by outsiders who will attempt to leech off of your hospitality. No one is under any obligation to maintain hospitality to someone who is abusing your kindness.

5. Discipline- Funny that Discipline should fall in the middle of the list because the main focus of this virtue is moderation. Discipline yourself so as to never go into excesses in any aspect of your life. Remember all things in moderation because too much of anything detracts from everything else. We often admire the people who can go whole hearted into any seemingly good thing, studies, exercise, faith… but think about the people you abandon when you do so. You study too much and you will ignore the life going on around you, exercise too much and it quickly becomes vanity and put simply if you delve to far into your faith you begin to alienate the people who don’t follow as you do. I could really go on about this but that would be excessive.

6. Courage- This word so commonly conjures macho imagery of fighting and facing monsters, but there is courage in facing the day when you have a hostile work place or when you live in a bad neighborhood. Courage is found in so many places and is over looked, parents of handicapped children and people fighting cancer and any number of daily battles where there is no guarantee of success. I mention all of this but courage does still mean facing threats boldly such as bullies and thugs head on and standing your ground in the face of defeat. Remember that the Aesir have foreknowledge of Ragnarök they know of their battle to come and who will and will not make it out and yet they still fight the agents of chaos where they find them.

7. Honor- Honor is probably the hardest virtue to define because it means so much to so many people. In my opinion having honor means that you are trusted by people because you have earned it by action and by your expectation of honorable action in others. It may seem naive but this expectation of others is key. If you hold everyone to your high standard then others will not bring you dishonor. Another key ingredient to honor is honoring commitments you have made and sticking to both the word and spirit of an agreement, written or spoken over a handshake. Every kind of contract a job, offering to help a friend move and Marriage.

8. Truth- Is the simplest thing and yet almost the most important thing. A lie damages a person in many ways. If you get away with it, it creates this little gray area in your morality that makes you think it’s okay and will just continue to do it. But all anyone should need to know is that the truth is just easier and keeps life simple. If people know that you will tell them the truth even if it is detrimental to you then they will trust you to tell them the truth about anything. This virtue feeds directly to honor and speaking the truth is the easiest and best way to maintain honor.

9. Troth- Troth speaks of loyalty and commitment to people, the most important virtue in my opinion. Loyalty to our jobs, our friends, our Gods and spouses. Our Troth is our bonds to people. These bounds kept people together when survival depended on the whole community working together. Caring for the community as a whole depends on many small commitments to friends neighbors and most importantly to our families. Namely our spouse, the commitment and loyalty we show our wives and husbands is a microcosm for our life in the rest of the world. If the people who have committed themselves to us can’t depend on us then no one can. This isn’t just the big things like Fidelity and supporting the family, it is the small things like keeping up with the small tasks in the home, like making meals or cleaning the home, making repairs, and keeping the home safe. Placing the needs of the family above personal needs. The need for Troth is a deep seeded one that effects us emotionally when it is broken. Not to be taken lightly because breaking troth makes you untrustworthy and no amount of any other virtue can make up for not being trusted at home by the people who depend on you the most.

It is important to note that the people who followed the gods and set the traditions we know now, lived very harsh lives in an environment that other people could not handle. Harsh winters, short summers, wild animals and war. It is no wonder that the name of the country most commonly associated with them is Germany which translates directly as Spear-Man. When life is so hard there is no time for things that aren’t directly related to dealing with the harshness of that life. The communities depended on everyone in them doing their part. We can learn a lot from them. A simple life filled with virtuous people is the only life worth living.