Heretic

By Ron McVan

A stark, solemn, wooden pillar stood in ominous contrast against an early morning sky in Rouen, France on May 30, 1431. Tied to a rough cut pillar was a 20 year old girl, crowned with a miter on her head, reading, “Relapsed Heretic, Apostate, Idolater.” The girl was placed on the pillar so that the flames would reach her slowly. As soon as the flames had singed off her garments, the executioner slacked the fire so that the lusty rabble of Medieval priests could gaze at all the secrets that adorned the natural symmetry of a woman. The unfortunate girl was known as the Maid of Orleans, or Joan of Arc. At the blossoming of her life, the Christian Church had condemned her to agonizing death as a heretic. In the middle Ages the label heretic was a classification that gave the Christian Church free license to brutally torture and kill. The word “heresy” is derived from the Greek language, which means “free choice”.

Joan was born a simple peasant girl, a plowman’s daughter, with the rare gift of prophecy. Early in her life she demonstrated exceptional spiritual dedication and was hardworking and industrious. By the age of 13 she became spurred on by voices and visions. Joan grew up in the village of Domremy in Lorraine, close to the border of the Kingdom of France, which at that time covered the region of Paris, and was being constantly harassed by the English. A nationalist at heart, Joan strongly objected to foreigners on the sensible ground that they were not in their proper place in France.

The prophetic voices and visions that Joan received and interpreted would come to her often at a particular local village tree known as the Lady’s Tree, better known by the ancient Celts as a Fairy Tree. Local villagers at Joan’s trial, when asked about the tree in question, testified, “As for the tree, that was called the Lady’s Tree, I have sometimes heard that ladies who cast spells—fairies they used to call them—used to come in the old days and dance under that old and mysterious tree.”

The world has always seemed to be full of spirits—unseen agencies working for or against man. Trees, for instance, have long been held as sacred to the Druids, particularly the great oaks. When great oaks are cut down, they are known to make a sound much similar to a high pitched human scream. During the times of the early Druids, the chopping down of a great oak was punishable by death. It has always been an ancient pagan belief that anything that comes up out of the underworld, such as a spring, a stone, totem animals or birds or a tree, can therefore speak with the unified voice of the ancestors and the land. Ancient augury was concerned with the motion of the plants, animals, smoke, the wind and trees and similar patterns. Even the highly developed ancient civilizations, such as Greece and Rome, retained augury within their political structure; the Roman Haruspices were inherited from the ancient Etruscans. In such a system, the land was viewed as a whole entity in which the wisdom of Gods and Goddesses and the power of the underworld were expressed through specified natural rhythms.

In the modern, industrialized and high-tech world, such customs may appear frivolous. Scientists today are just now starting to comprehend the unseen forces in our universe: the electron, radio waves, the atom, magnetism and gravity. Possibly in another thousand years scientists may even unravel what our Pagan ancestors understood through millennia about communication with the non-corporal entities. The highly revered alchemist John Dee wrote down this insightful passage, which he interpreted from spirit voices, “Ignorance was the nakedness wherewithal you were first tormented and the first plague that fell unto man was the want of science….the want of science hindereth you from knowledge of yourself.”

Mankind lives in a virtual sea of unseen frequencies and force fields. All life and matter appear to be a visual display of thought. Man has the ability to become a medium to any variety of universal communications. Those who develop such a gift become known as prophets, seers, shamans or sejdrs. What makes Joan of Arc so phenomenal is that she cultivated and controlled the gift at a very early age with seemingly divine authority. With all of this in mind, consider the career, powers and leadership potential of Joan. In the words of Celtic writer Bernard Shaw, he states: “She was a village girl, in authority over sheep and pigs, dogs and chickens, and to some extent over her father’s hired laborers when he hired any, but over no one else on earth. Outside the farm she had no authority, no prestige, no claim to the smallest deference. Yet she ordered everybody about, from her uncle to the King, the Archbishop, and the military general staff. Her uncle obeyed her like a sheep, and took her to the castle of the local commander who, on being ordered about, tried to assert himself, but soon collapsed and obeyed, and so on up to the King, as we have seen. This would have been unbearably irritating, even if her orders had been offered as rational solutions of the desperate difficulties in which her social superiors found themselves just then. But they were not so offered. Nor were they offered as the expression of Joan’s arbitrary will. It was never ‘I say so’, but always, ‘God says so’.”

On occasion Joan’s gift as visionary would be put to the test by those who doubted her phenomenal abilities and accuracy. Upon a visit to Charles the Dauphin (eldest son of the King) at the royal court, Charles disguised himself, having another man of the court dress in his regal attire. Entering the room, Joan walked past the imposter and directly to Charles.

By this time Joan had become imbued with a determined fixation to free France from English oppression. The Hundred Years War between England and France had already seen six treaties signed and broken. Most of the fighting had been on French soil. As Joan was reaching the age of sixteen, the countryside was grimly divided and devastated from this long war of liberation. It seemed that England was very close to obtaining the French crown. What France sorely needed was a leader with a real sense of destiny, coupled with genius and national passion. Joan possessed all of these qualities with something far greater, Divine Will. In a short time Joan was able to impress upon the Dauphin Charles that she was moved by the guidance of divine spirits and that her mission was to defeat the English and have Charles crowned the King of France.

Charles had her prophetic authenticity inspected and scrutinized by the clergy, and she passed the test. Now, provided with troops, Joan would lead them into battle in shining armor upon a white steed. Such a tactical display would work ideally, for the French troops would be inspired to fight their very best fight, and the English morale would be discouraged upon learning that this symbolic courageous woman in armor was fighting a holy mission with the Gods on her side.

True to her visions, she raised Orleans in May 1429. Two months later, Charles VII, as predicted, was crowned King of France, Joan and her family were then ennobled with the surname Du Lis, and enjoyed enormous popularity among the people as the savior of France.

Unconsoled by such honors, she rode away from the court to assist in the defense of Compiegne against the Duke of Burgundy, and on the 24th of May she led an unsuccessful sortie against the besiegers, when she was surrounded and taken prisoner. Charles VII, whom Joan brought to power, made no effort to effect her ransom, and never showed any sign of interest in her fate. Joan was then sold for 10,000 francs by the French turncoat John of Burgundy, who was holding her captive for the English. On the 3rd of January 1431, at the insistence of the University of Paris, Joan was delivered over to the Inquisition for trial.

The segregating nationalism of boundaries and division among our own kind along with political opinion and religion have always been a great setback for Aryan man. Such division today only contributes to our own extinction. If the White Euro Races expect to survive as a species, then it is not only necessary but absolutely incumbent upon us to overlook our divisive and self-destructive differences and refortify our strength pride and ethnic heritage as a race-nation. Our nationalism must become the voice of one people united and there is no greater security or human power on earth stronger than that.

The first move of England was to discredit Joan as a witch, and thus weaken Charles VII. With the Christian Inquisition in full swing, it took less than one week to brush aside and condemn Joan’s clairvoyant powers as black magic, and her battles as diabolical crimes.

Joan’s indictment now held that she was superstitious, a soothsayer, an idolater, an invoker of devils, a blasphemer against God and His saints. It enumerated her as detestable and wicked, her crimes and sins as fruits of her ‘proud spirit’. The Inquisition refused to believe that spirit entities had visited her, Charles VII’s coronation had been a work of hell, because she had invoked evil spirits. It was further maintained that she was perfidious, cruel and tainted with human blood. The University of Paris in addition, claimed that Joan was a woman of Belial, Satan and Behemoth. On these grounds the accused was found guilty of heresy, and liable to the extreme penalty unless she submitted. Appalled by the charges and horrible fate, which was imminent, Joan first chose to recant as she was brought before the scaffold, pardoned and taken back to prison. She was then induced by those who had her in their charge to resume wearing men’s clothes, unbeknownst that this account would be used against her as a heretic. Joan was again whisked through a speedy trial, judged and condemned to burn at the stake. Like a true Valkyrie maiden, Joan exhibited no fear of her impending fate, just as she would exhibit no fear of the fiendish style of execution that awaited her. After repudiating her recantation, Joan stated, “If I were to be condemned and saw the fire lit and the wood prepared and the executioner who was to burn me ready to cast me into the fire, I would not say anything other than I have said, and I will maintain what I have said until death.”

At her young age Joan had already secured her rightful place with the Einherjar in Valhalla. One of the foremost prerequisites of all noble warriors is bravery against all odds. The philosopher Thomas Carlyle in his writing, “The Hero As Divinity”, makes this observance on the subject, “The Norsemen understood in their heart that it was indispensable to be brave; that Wotan would have no favor for them, but despise and thrust them out if they were not brave. Consider, too, whether there is not something in this! It is an everlasting duty, valid in our day as in that, the duty of being brave. Valor is still value. The first duty for a man is still that of subduing fear. We must get rid of fear; we cannot act at all till then.”

Nearly five centuries later in 1909, the Roman Catholic Church, who had so heinously condemned Joan, decided that she really was a divinely inspired woman after all and canonized her as a Saint in 1920.

The path of the avatar, savior or hero is a hard road. Anyone who proposes to follow their heart and strike out in a new direction away from the herd will more than likely find unmerciful forces of inertia arrayed against them. Tomorrow’s heroes and heroines will undoubtedly face difficulties not un-similar to those that confronted their predecessors. In the ever vigilant and noble quest for truth and freedom, may the annals of Western history never forget the valiant effort and sacrifice of that young noble and gifted pagan warrior queen, this undaunted and indomitable spirit, The Maid of Orleans, Joan of Arc.


Source Article from http://www.renegadetribune.com/heretic/

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