Please introduce yourself and/ or your project. Please give a brief relevant history.

I am Árni Þorlákur Guðnason. Teacher and musician from the north of Iceland, living in rural Germany. My political beliefs are: Anarchy is Order. Artistically and religiously I believe in the creative tension between opposites.

NORN was born out of a juvenile fascination with satanic black metal and anarchist crust punk. Logi (a.k.a. Agnostic Pulse) and I had been working together in various black- and death-metal projekts. I was playing drums at the time but had a bunch of chaotic guitar riffs laying around. He wrote some even more chaotic bass lines on top and NORN (the witch) was born. Now we only needed a drummer who could play d-beat as well as count in 9/13. As they do not exist we ended up building our own robot, Mechaniac (a.k.a. Hilmar Gylfi Guðjónsson) and the rest is history.

Please tell us a bit about your history and time in Iceland and about the place you call home now. What similarities and differences exist?

I grew up in the north-west of Iceland. The most sparsely populated area of an already sparsely populated island. In the time I grew up there, it was a place people moved away from, and only in hindsight one would realize the beauty of what seemed mundane to me growing up. The untouched subarctic tundra of the north. I see a similarity with my new home in East-Germany. People are moving back, because, after being away for a while, they realize the place they grew up in has its own unique beauty. Especially through the closeness to nature. The north-west of Iceland is largely uncultivated and wild, and here in east Germany we have, among other, the return of the wolves.

What does the word “Animism” mean to you… This can be as literal or abstract as you wish.  Does it find life in your project or in your day to day movements?

The most obvious way that animism finds its way into my (our) day to day life, is that depending on what instrument you have in your hands, or through what amp you are playing when it comes to that, you write different riffs. The melodies, or the lack thereof, are a conversation between you and that thing you hold in your hands.

Animism is for me the connection between nature (objects) and spirituality. It represents the spirits in nature. Not only of living organisms, but seemingly inanimate Objects as well. This may seem obvious, but because a piece of Rock, or a stretch of river does not have a brain, we as modern humans, have a hard time conceiving of them as having a spirit. Because we relate a spirit to our mind, and our mind to our brain. Indeed, we have a hard time conceiving of inanimate objects as subjects at all.

Furthermore, it is in my mind a legitimate question to ask. If we indeed perceive a spirit in, for example, a waterfall. Is that spirit really from the waterfall, or does the waterfall trigger something inside us? Something from the subconscious. Does the spirit actually dwell within the waterfall, so to speak, or does it really live within our perception, in our own mind? Does the waterfall speak to a part of ourselves that we did not know before, but was there, within us the whole time? Like a Jungian archetype, sleeping, waiting to be awakened?

However, that may be, a spirit within the object, or a part of our subconscious talking to us. It is real. And it is the reason we have elves, faes, trolls, angels and sijins in our language. They are there, and you can feel it. Even if you lack the language to express it. I think they live both in nature, as well as in our subconscious. Because they are inanimate, it is our mind that gives them a voice. As within, so without.

People make fun of Icelanders for diverting roads around hills with elves in them. I think it is profoundly important to do so! If these spirits are sentient relies, in my observations, on our ability to interact with them. If you speak to them, do they speak back?

Let each be their own judge of that! Have you spoken to a river? Has it answered? Have you spoken to the wind? Did it answer?

Do you talk with spirits or deities? Do they answer back?

At the risk of sounding crazy I will say this bluntly. Because saying it cautiously will not make it sound any more sane. I have had numerous experiences in my own life, with elves, ghosts and angels. It would be heretical of me to speak of gods, but yes, they do answer. Old and new. On the other hand, have I spoken to the wind, only to hear silence? Obviously.

I mean this quite seriously, and I stress the method of scientific critical thinking. How does this go together… spirituality and science? I would invoke the image of yin and yang and the way of the dao (yes, I realize this translates to the way of the way). If we aspire to achieve spiritual heights, we need to take materialism and scientific skepticism all the more serious. The higher you want to build your (wizard) tower, the broader the (scientific) base needs to spread. The more transcendent you want to become, the broader and firmer your positivist empirical foundation must be! So above, so below.

If you want to wield magic, you have to study science. This is what hermeticism is all about!

 

If you could have a secret magickal power (or have one), what would it be? Or, what is it  lready?? And finally, what would you wish to do with such a power?

If I could have one magical power, it would be to curse people with empathy. Maybe this is gods growing curse on humanity, because I know I would use it with a vengeance. If I think humbly, I realize, maybe there is a reason that god does not imbue this burden upon humanity indiscriminately. And to homage my own arrogance, my own struggle is quite real, having empathy with people who support fascist leaders. I am not sure I am ready to be cursed with empathy for them.

 

What is the season of the year that resonates most deeply with you and why?
Do these vibrations appear in your work?

I dream of destroying the capitalist destruction of our biological foundations of life.

 

What do you dream of creating?

I dream of creating a community where everyone can experience self-realization.

 

What keeps you up at night?

It keeps me up at night trying to understand why so many people see the extreme right wing as a solution to modern problems. I truly want to understand that. I would also like to understand why the ideological left, and by this, I mean the fundamentalists, not the pragmatists, becomes toxic and divided so fast.

Is it not poetic irony that the left preaching solidarity and community is internally divided, and the right preaching individualism stands united?

I´m sure there is an answer to that, hidden in the Qabalah somewhere.

What brings you solace?

It brings me solace to know, that no matter how much we damage nature, mother earth does not care. We will destroy the biodiversity of our planet, and it will restore it in a million years or two. With or without us. Probably without us.

What does the word ritual mean to you? Do you incorporate any rituals into your daily life? Your practice? Your performances?

Ritual is a powerful aspect of life I have gravely underappreciated in my daily routine. Being inherently chaotic and hard to regulate, I have painfully missed out on the positive aspects of disciplining one-self through ritual. Although, I do confess, I do thank God for every meal and regularly humiliate myself through the sign of the cross. Both rituals have proven quite beneficial to me. But by far not being the Buddhist monk, there is still much to be aspired towards!

It may seem mundane, but a ritualistic part of our performances is keeping Logi alive. Evoking him by playing his songs. And offering the first sip of beer on stage to him. A bit stupid. A bit emotional.

On a religious note, I must state this for the record: What official religion has the most appeal to me is totally dependent on the time of year. Paganism in the spring and summer. Monotheism in autumn and mysticism in the winter.

Do politics enter into, inform or speak through your creative workings? What are your thoughts on the creative process’s responsibility to, or freedom from politics?

Everything is political. Where you book your concerts it political. Where you release your albums is political. What your artwork looks like and who you commission to do it is political. Is it elitist to say that your music is not for everyone? Art is a mirror to society. It always is. The question is, what kind of society are you striving for with your mirror?

As we watch right wing movements grow internationally, what strategies might we use collectively to disrupt this trajectory? How do we productively engage in meaningful dialogue with people within and without of our political perspectives? How do we strengthen community? How could we change minds?

As we see right wing movements growing in our community and internationally, there are just two things we can do – 1. Work harder, 2. Organize.

In order to outperform the neo-nazis, we need to be harder working and better organized.

A third point is that we need to think strategically. Seek out allies, even if they don‘t agree with you 100%. As long as they are willing to work against our shared enemy of xenophobia and authoritarianism. If we are to beat the far right, we need to have more than half the population on our side. Don´t antagonize people in the middle by pushing them to the right with our self righteousness. More than half the population is not leftist, feminist, vegan and activists. We have to contend ourselves with them being one of those things. Do we want to live in a egalitarian environment friendly utopia? Of course! But we won´t reach that goal by making more than half the population our enemy. We need to live with that and make friends and allies of as many people in the middle of the spectrum as possible. This means not judging them, even if they do not share our standard on every single issue. We need to let go of our Kantian categorical imperative! Germans have a hard time embracing utilitarianism. In war, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Strategically and unethically, we need to adopt this approach if we are to beat the rising right-wing wave.

On the long run, authoritarianism eats itself from within. So even if we fail, fascism cannot and will not work. But the price of their stupidity, when they come to power, is high. So, we have an obligation to fight them, by being more hard working, better organized and by being strategic about it. Read Sun Tzu‘s „Art of War“ goddamnit!

This answer is getting to long by far, but I have to get this off my chest. Number four: be informed!

A part of standing firmly against fascism, is knowing that christian nationalism contradicts christian doctrine. And that racist nordic paganism does not align with the archeological record of e.g. the Vikings.

The contradiction between the typical gun loving, antisemitic, xenophobic fundamentalism exemplified by the religious right in America and the pacifist Jewish mystic of the first century called Joshua, later know as the Christ, is obvious.

But it is equally important to know, that nordic pagan society did not divide people along racial lines, but was structured around nobility. One of the most renowned characters of the settlement era of Iceland was a chieftain in the West-Fjords called Geirmundur Heljarskinn, meaning Geirmundur Darkskinned. He inherited his dark complexion from his mother.

Nordic pagan society was not egalitarian by any modern standard. But thinking that your skin colour makes your value as a human being higher or lower is totally misunderstanding how nordic pagans ranked individuals according to honour and nobility. It seems a persistent pattern, that those preaching the superiority of the so called white race are most often not a very good case in point.

To put it grotesquely, the Hitler-Fan-Boys of today are the same people he would send to the front as cannon-fodder for being inherently antisocial troublemaking morons.

Knowing this, you can stand your ground with confidence and ease.

What does the word community mean to you and how does it influence
your process and practice?

A community is where I feel at home. It is a place where people understand where you come from, without you having to explain it. Underground concerts are such a place. Interestingly, sociologically speaking, a community is a group of 150 people or less. This is the limit of people we can emotionally connect to. Check it out. Its pretty much the limit our biological brain holds. It’s the amount of people nature intended us to bond with. We can, obviously, have empathy with the whole of humanity. But we can only have a personal relationship with about 150 people at a time.

How does this influence my practice? More people do not make a concert or a festival better. Quality over quantity. Always.

Any last departing offerings? (Anything you would like to talk about
that wasn’t covered?)

How does all of these different topics figure into music?

Writing a song is a trail of thought woven into emotion. Some of our songs are monotonic and penetrating, like persistent thought or an emotion that won´t let you go. Other songs are a confusion of contradictions chasing each other in a sea of frustration.

Just like life.

When I feel good, I don´t write music. When I feel bad, I write music and then I feel better. Everything is vibration. It is a connection to nature, within and without. A connection with the divine and a connection with my fellow humans. Our community.

That’s why I can´t let it go.

Final thoughts: Everything has a price. Fighting for what you believe in has a price. Not fighting for what you believe also has a price.