Effective 5/11/2026, I’ve resigned from my post in The Grove of Odin.

It’s my sincerest hope that, whomever takes my place, takes it farther than I could. It was an honor and a privilege to be selected for something like this but I’m at the end of what I’m able to do for the group.

I’ve also effectively resigned from the group on Minds as well.

In short, I’m done with groups entirely.

If they’re not raging Hitler sycophants, it’s the people with their hair a multitude of colors, probably haven’t washed in a week or two thinking their vegan diets deter body odor (it doesn’t) and generally shrieking. Both shriek at you and each other.

The thing is, they don’t care so much about you. They want another solid number for their turf war.

I’m not interested.

I know that building a third option as an actual church, for want of a better term, is impossible as both extremes love to invade and fight over the newly-formed group as though they’re owed that turf as well.

In that, I’ve come to a decision.

I won’t.

I won’t go out of my way to join or create an organization with a 501 (C) (3) attached to it.

Fact of the matter is that we, as pagans are now operating in hostile territory. The worst of it is that the temperature is not getting turned down.

Throughout my life, groups have come and gone. Every one promises more than the last or less than the last, every one of them promises “We’re not that group. We’re so much better.” until it devolves into the same old schtick you were trying to get away from with a different T-shirt on.

The real path for me has been and probably shall always be a solitary one.

The great news is that it’s a huge load off my mind. There are no dates to have to keep, no having to coordinate with others. It’s just you. It’s all on you whether or not you do the work. It’s all on you whether or not your witchcraft works because it all rests on your shoulders. No one to lead you astray or tell you you’re wrong.

While that’s great, it’s also the problem. Most do not like trial and error, looking at a grimoire they just bought wondering how the hell they’re going to do some practice like the Lesser Banishing Ritual of The Pentagram (The LBRP) if they don’t have the tools or something to suffice. There’s a lot of dense language and not many places for the beginning practitioner to start.

There’s a serious problem to address for the solo practitioner and, rather than start some church for someone to get hurt that they’re not in power or making the rules, I decided to keep things simple. I do what I know I’m good at and the pieces that I used to share on The Grove of Odin can now find a home here, away from the groups, groupthink and noise.

Here, all you will find is the work, the notes and the findings of my studies, right or wrong. That is all I will promise you.

Here, all you will find is the path that I’m on. You can do with it whatever you like. Share best practices or different points of view on something I post. Add one of my own practices to yours and let me know if it worked for you.

Listen, here’s a case in point. once remarked in my article Wooden Trees & Bones that I was only reading half of the Mannaz rune. Turns out, after a second look, he was right. I made sure to note it.

That can happen. In the intensity of the moment, being able to perceive both Thanatos and the Threshold all around me, sometimes the concentration isn’t easy. Sometimes an outside pair of eyes does help.

It’s right there in the comments section when he mentions that Mannaz or Magnus, the Grandson of Tyr. I wasn’t really sure what that was sticking with me.

Until the realization that there was a pattern in my family.

Dad was a Marine, I was a corrections officer, my brother was a cop, my sister worked for the Parish Courts system, one uncle in the FBI, another who’s an attorney, my grandfather killed my great-grandfather’s would-be killer at the age of 19, preventing that man from finishing the job he tried to do just seven years before when he shot my great-grandfather in the back.

Every one of us have served in the cause of or in the pursuit of justice in some form or another.

I’ve also seen another problem in grimoires that confuses the practitioner, that concept of a “Magickal Name.” According to most of these texts, it’s given to you by a member of your coven or group.

Great for that jerkwater who found a group but…the hell happens to the solo person? Was the expectation a complete and total silence? Could they assign one to themselves and when should they divine this name so that it resonates? That question was never honestly answered.

But that Mannaz Rune, Magnus, as it’s liked to be known would be the thing to give me mine, Magnusson. I’m here, I’m operating on Official Business.

Hence the name of the new spiritual space for me; Magnusson Speaks.

Today, May 12th, I’ll be going into Philadelphia with a friend of mine. He’s a younger man who seeks guidance from me from time to time. We’re the only two pagans in the area that we know. I told him about those two shops I found and I’ll be taking him to them. I’m really not sure if he’s ever been to such a shop but if this is his first time, then, as his spiritual advisor, I advise him to take his time, don’t let himself get overwhelmed. I know what I came for. I left two titles behind last time and I intend to grab them.

The first is A Practical Guide To Pagan Priesthood by Rev. Lora O’Brien. Though it seems geared toward Wicca, like any good tabletop role-playing gamer, you re-purpose with care and find what works. The other is A Modern Guide To Heathenry by Galina Krasskova. I can’t tell you how many times I have quoted this book because I first had to skip back about 30 seconds in the audiobook to make sure I’d heard Galina correctly when she made remarks about disregarding the empty promises of modernity and socialism. I stopped walking when I heard that, skipped back about thirty seconds and listened again. I am aware of her former affiliation with the AFA and that’s exactly what it is to me…former. I want a physical copy of this one, finally.

I’m going to be bouncing ideas off the man. I’ll take him to lunch. We’ll go through Washington Park for the beautiful view and what you’ll see unfold here is the best idea for a third option, I could possibly come up with.

I am aware that this will not be an overnight success.

Might even flop. I might just write to air.

Happens to be my element.
Libras…whaddayagonnado, hah? Ah, fuggeddaboutit.

Here’s what I really want to do with you. You can just read if you like. If you just get entertaining reading material about a guy talking to you from between the worlds, on the paths of the Sephiroth, through The Nine Worlds, utterances at the altar, consulting the tarot or stories of me doing my LBRP on Steroids Pentagram Power Armor with Tetragrammaton Shields and Full Runic Activation, then hey, glad I could entertain you from your phone while you took a dump.

I’m a minister, not a saint, okay? Let’s not get the two falsely equated.

All of these entries will be ministries in some way. This is not my grimoire, I may or may not share replicable practices with you…probably more may not. The internet is full of truly unhinged people and the last thing I want to do is provide ammunition to them. Our government is too. In fact, I can’t point out a single one among them who isn’t a complete and total sociopath who read Machiavelli…all wrong.

I’ll warn you that sometimes, this will get deeply philosophical. I can understand if that isn’t your bag. I can understand if you see this and deem it spiritually caustic and nope out, that’s fine. I have to admit something to you.

This will not be for everyone. That’s alright. I’m okay with that.

Think of it like a church. The Rev. Dr. Raven “Magnusson” Wulfgar, at your service. You come in, we talk about life, we apply the pagan, the esoteric and the mystical to the very real world in which we live. We use those powers and abilities to change ourselves if we don’t like something about ourselves.

If you’re willing to put in the work on yourself, I’m willing to put in that moment to light the candle on my altar during my nightly closing ceremony because you wanted it so badly that it deserved nothing but my support and for you to know that you have it, not the other way around. This isn’t for my validation or approval from you, more of what can I do for you within reason?

It’s not a performance or a song and dance.

It’s an ongoing adventure of one guy walking between this world and the next, making an attempt in the finite to understand the infinite.

That’s all.

It’s all I have to offer you.

This third option is real and it’s not built as a monument to the things I’m doing, it’s built in service to my gods and to you. Then you take it from there and do your one part, whatever that is, to make improvements in your life to yourself or maybe find someone, point at one of my worst days ever and go, “He’s still being a minister and he had that shit happen to him…” and maybe that turns them around. I don’t need to know you did it. I just need to roll the dice on the possibility of it happening. That’s it.

You…come and go as you please. You’re bound to absolutely nothing at all but I would hope you would come along with me on this one

Keep it cool, keep it respectful, don’t be a dick, choose to be kind instead sometimes, give someone a reason to laugh rather than give you the side-eye…that kind of thing. While I’m a free-speech absolutist, here, that can’t be the case. This is where we come together, not divide any further than we already are. You can get that kind of thing anywhere else, a multitude of places, in fact.

It’s off-limits here.

Let me give you a quick breakdown of the rules:

1. First and Foremost, No, Zip, Zero, Nay, Never, Any Politics. Not even the politics with which I agree. This simply serves the mission that I just set forward, those that want to truly come to see each other as people again will gather here but you have to kill that part of yourself that constantly sees “the other” in order to get the most out of joining us. Speaking of…

2. No racism. None. I’m not even going to put a color or nationality on it. Anyone for any reason. Absolutely zero exceptions. This is our church, not your battleground. Your battleground is out there and inside you. Here, I arm you to fight that war and I’m in your corner until you’re not.

3. Be Respectful, Be Civil. I shouldn’t have to explain this.

4. If you can do better, then don’t spend time boring me to absolute death with your bloviating about it, just go do it then hit me up when you have the result.

5. Ad hominem attacks are grounds for immediate block. I’m gonna lump slurs in with this one because that’s even easier to prove.

6. No Excuses. The real work is done on yourself. You find what resonates. You find what works and you do it. You provide yourself with iron discipline. Learn from the punches life is throwing at me sometimes but…

We don’t need to gather in a physical building for that. If writing for The Grove’s Substack taught me anything, it’s that we can have a ministry right here.

The rest can be built as we go along.

Together.

Let’s restore what was lost and

Make Religion Personal Again.

Magnusson, Out.

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