Woden's Folk and mental illness

Wulf Ingessunu

Woden's Folk has been a recurring topic on this blog for a while. Founded by a man who calls himself Wulf Ingessunu, the cult has a number of bizarre beliefs - such as its insistence that a line of dialogue from a 1980s TV series is an "ancient prophecy", or its claim that Hitler is a divine avatar. But exactly what is it that drove Ingessunu to these outlandish notions?

I now have a pretty good idea of the answer to that question.

Wulf has been active on his blog lately. "Woden's Folk - The Year to Come" is a typically garbled post which starts by raving about "the Coming of The Man to Come - The Avenging God" before going on to quote dialogue from the film The 13th Warrior; it is inexplicably illustrated with a 1934 Latvian propaganda poster and clipart of some wheat.
More interestingly, however, he recently posted this statement:

When I went through the Shamanic Initiation back in the spring of 1997 I was watching the TV with my family and could at one point see letters moving across the screen, letters which no-one else could see! Over and over I said that I could see 'subliminal' letters but no-one else could see them. They were very much like the above 'Occult Symbols' which are a Masonic Alphabet.

What Wulf is describing here is clearly a hallucination. The NHS has a list of more likely causes for this "shamanic" occurrence:

• taking illicit drugs or alcohol
• a mental illness such as schizophrenia or dementia
• a progressive neurological condition such as Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease
• loss of vision caused by a condition such as macular degeneration – this is known as Charles Bonnet syndrome

Wulf's post abut his hallucination made it to FSTDT, where it received a very intriguing reply from an anonymous poster:

I agree with what this Grand-Master is saying, he appeals to the Englisc-Folk, and everyone who is right-thinking has seen the secret Masonic codes lurking on TV. I am a proud member of Woden's Folk, and I am not Wulf Ingessunu who is brilliant, has mystic powers and he is the avatar of Woden, thus he is Woden. His words are divine law. 

I have to deal with my friends, who have been tricked by the shadow that clouds most of the Englisc, who have not Awaked yet. They like branding me as a trans-woman in denial, how daft. Yes, I do want to be a woman, but then, doesn't everyone? 

Most men long to be women, as a result of the mind being exposed to the Dark-Forces that threaten to stop Woden's Folk, who have Awaked to their True Role in stopping the evil from growing any stronger. Also, I want to get rid of the more bigoted parts of Woden's Folk, who belong to the shadows. They disgrace Woden's Folk. 

I've tried to tell Wulf Himself not to talk to them, but he never listens. How hard can't it be for Woden Himself to spot these Occult-Nazis? This must be part of a cunning plan by Wulf who is Woden's Avatar. 

So mote it be. This is the truth. What do you think of it?

Now, we should consider the possibility that this person is a troll. If they are sincere, however, then they clearly have some sort of mental disorder. Sadly, they have fallen under the sway of Wulf Ingessunu, a man who has his own untreated issues and is in no position whatsoever to provide guidance to any similarly troubled individuals. Both people need professional help, not mystical hocus-pocus about Woden.

For more evidence of Ingessunu's mental health issues, consider this post from his Guerrilla Survivalism blog:

Water - this is a product that is today sold to us through our water-authorities; it is filthy water purified by chemicals such as chlorine, and added is fluoride which helps our teeth - we are told! It is dead-water that contains no Life-Energy because it comes through pipes and through the tap. This can only be understood when we consider how water flows in the natural world - it flows through water-courses which create movements of water and vortices which swirl one way and the other, a movement that energises the water. These water-courses are the earth's veins, arteries (rivers), and blood-vessels (steams and brooks), which carry the Earth's Blood (water) around the Earth. 

Wulf follows this gibberish with advice on how to restore "life-energy" to water:

As for tap-water, some of these 'energisers' are nothing more that methods of 'spinning' the water in a vortex-movement, using left and right spins alternatively, just as water moves along a river or stream. If this is so then the most simple way would be to fill a bottle with filtered tap-water and then spin the water round one way, emptying the bottle into a glass jug. Then the water would be put back into the bottle, spun the other way, and emptied into the jug again. The water in the bottle would empty in a spiralling vortex fashion emulating the natural flow of water. This could be done Nine Times one way and then Nine times the other way. 

Wulf's paranoia about unclean and "dead" water, and his nonsensical belief that water takes on special properties when swirled back and forth nine times, suggests obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Take a look at some of the OCD symptoms listed in Fundamentals - A Guide for Parents, Teachers and Carers on Mental Health and Self-Esteem by Lynn Crilly and Natasha Devon:

• Fear of being contaminated by germs or dirt, or of contaminating others
• Excessive focus on religious or moral ideas
• Order and symmetry - the idea that all physical objects must line up “just so
• Special attention to something considered lucky or unlucky ("superstitions")
• Praying or engagin in rituals triggered by religious fear to an excessive extent.

Wulf Ingessunu's absurd ritualistic behaviour and obsession with perceived contamination certainly overlaps with these symptoms.

With this in mind, let us take a look at some of the other members of Woden's Folk. Look at this discussion from a now-defunct forum, in which Woden's Folk cultist Paul Young claims to be in personal contact with invisible entities:

In addition to the Aesir gods, my Hearth recognize and relate to a wide variety of spiritual beings or 'wights'. These include the Norns - who are three female entities who weave the web of wyrd - and the Disir - who are female ancestral spirits attached to a tribe, family, or individual. we also work with 'hidden folk' such as elves, brownies, dwarves and etins (giants and other not so pleasant folk). They interact with the landwights who occupy features of the landscape such as streams, mountains, forests or fields. Having a relationship with landwights is an important feature of in our religion and outdoor rituals we carry out only proceed until the permission of landwights is sought and obtained.

Does Young actually believe that these elves and giants are talking to him? Can he hear their voices? If so, he should pay attention to the advice offered at Mentalhealthcare.org.uk:

Researchers have estimated that up to 90 per cent of people who have schizophrenia and up to 80 per cent of people who have bipolar disorder or psychotic depression hear voices either talking to them, or talking about them. 

Voice-hearing experiences are very individual. People may hear just one voice, or two or more voices, and the voices may be speaking at a normal level, or they may be whispering or shouting. The voices may say individual words or sentences, or have detailed conversations – with each other or with the voice-hearer. Someone may hear the same voice or the same voices regularly – each voice may have its own distinct qualities and characteristics, including a name. 

[...] 

Voices can also be noisy, strident, annoying and disturbing. Sometimes they are persuasive, or demanding, telling a hearer what to do – these are called 'command' voices. 

People who are unwell sometimes feel they have no control over the voices they hear, and may be very frightened and distressed by them. They may believe the voices are powerful and will harm them if they do not do as they say.

Wulf, if you are reading this article, please seek help. You are not "awakened", you have not undergone a "shamanic initiation", you have succumbed to mental illness. There is no "Woden", there is only a voice in your head. Your followers have not "heard the call of the blood", they have heard auditory hallucinations. Convincing them that they are a divine elect will do nothing but harm. These people need help, not hocus-pocus.


UPDATE: Wulf Ingessunu has replied to this post, although his response has done little to sway me. He confirms my suspicion that the aforementioned posting from FSTDT is a troll, rather than a genuine Woden's Folk member, but he says nothing about Paul Young's claims that elves are talking to him.

Ingessunu's defence rests on the bizarre notion that conventional psychiatry  has no bearing on him because he has a "Germanic Psyche":

The problem is that today's psychiatry, psychoanalysis or psychotherapy is based upon Sigmund Freud rather than upon Carl Gustav Jung, the latter having a far better understanding of the Germanic Psyche - i.e. the Germanic Gods. Thus, any form of 'diagnosis' through psychiatry, psychoanalysis or any other 'psycho' that 'Maggie' would like to quote in regard to these likely causes comes through in a form that is not suited to the knowledge of the Germanic Psyche. I am not suggesting that 'Maggie' is not an expert in her field but that expertise may not be right in regard to the Germanic Psyche.

He also complain that "We on the so-called 'Far-Right' are always accused of being 'a loner' or having 'childhood problems' that make us believe what we do". I didn't mention anything about childhood problems in this post - the fact that Wulf felt the need to bring this topic up in his rebuttal suggests that it is a sensitive topic to him.

Another comment that seems to have particularly bothered Wulf is my suggestion that he has unchecked issues. He apparently responded by obsessively looking up the word "issue" in the dictionary, which would only reaffirm my suspicions:

I have been through various English Dictionaries to find what the word 'issue' really means, and not one of them comes up with the answer 'problems', which is what is clearly meant in this statement. The modern usage of the word 'issue' is typical of the people who have influence in the 'Progressive Society'. One meaning of the word is 'topic of interest' so maybe that is what you mean Maggie....'What do you think?'

Commenting on the list of OCD symptoms identified by Crilly and Devon, Wulf dismisses the authors by claiming that "these people are what is termed 'Cultural Marxists' who cleverly promote Marxist Communism through destroying all genius amongst our Folk, and by attacking those who do not conform to the material economic society."

Wulf also restates his absurd belief that swirling water around in a glass gives it "Life-Force":

Since this part of the attack was about what I said about the water supplies I will explain to Maggie what I meant, since she (he) clearly does not understand. The water that comes through our taps is 'dead water' unlike the water that comes from a spring or well etc. The suggestion that I made was not based so much upon 'magic' as such, but when you spin the water around it collects air, and since air is the medium for the Life-Force then it collects Life-Force. (Quantum Science or Aryan Science recognises this in terms of what scientists call Zero-Point Energy; Materialistic Science cannot do so because only the material world is recognised).

Not everyone is convinced by this claim, however:

At the start of this post I mentioned that Wulf Ingessunu had, without explanation, quoted dialogue from the film The 13th Warrior on his blog. When responding to me, he made the bizarre decision to do it again, this time claiming that the lines were "chanted by the Angel of Death":

Except that, as I have already demonstrated, this song was not "chanted by the Angel of Death", it was made up for a film. It does have a loose historical model, but this was spoken by a slave-girl shortly before she was sacrificed to Odin - not "the Angel of Death".

Is Wulf Ingessunu trying to tell us that he has heard this "Angel of Death" reciting the above piece of movie dialogue? If so, this is clearly another auditory hallucination.