"Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance." - Article 18, Universal Declaration of Human Rights

"Arman says that he was given the revelations so that false religions would be smashed and our people would awaken to the truth and finally follow God no matter which humans don't like it," said Homeless Jack. "Arman says that we are to serve God, not man, and that all other religions are false, corrupt and harmful to us.

"Arman says that Armanists in Europe are being prevented from following God. They are being persecuted by repressive governments for practicing their religion or displaying their religious symbols. This is in violation of Article 18, Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These evil doers who are persecuting us must be fought against with all the might we can muster. Arman says that we must display our religious symbols right in their faces and God will be with us.

"Armanists?" I asked.

"Yeah, that's what we're calling Arman's religion until a better name evolves.

"Anyway I don't really know how many Armanists there are. See, in Armanism we don't yet have any central structure, at least none that I know about. We're all united, assuming that there is an "all," by The Guide. One is an Armanist if one has right blood, right belief, right action, a copy of The Guide, and if one declares that he or she is an Armanist and follows The Guide.

"Arman says he wanted things to be done this way so he wouldn't be some sort of cult leader with people following him around. Instead, he says people should just follow The Guide.

"Well, okay, can you tell me in your own words and in brief form what it is that Armanists believe?" I asked.

"Didn't you read The Guide?" asked Jack

"Sure, but give it to me in more conversational terms," I replied. "I want to hear what you, Jack, think it's all about."

"Well," said Jack, "I'll give it to in a stream of consciousness way just as the thoughts pop into my head.

"We believe that Arman received revelations about everything and that's what's in The Guide. Arman says that we're asleep and that we need to be awakened and then we need to strip away centuries of false beliefs and ways and impurities to get back to our essential selves and to become a new people separate from all other peoples until the end of time. He says that we must be Ourselves Alone and that we must purify. He says that we were once on the right path, but that we took some wrong turns and we must go back to correct those wrong turns. He says that our normal life span is about 1200-1500 years when we're pure. Our present short lives are an indication of how impure we presently are. Arman says that we don't even reach our true adult stage until we're around 500 years old and that at that age the change in us is even more marked than the change into puberty. Since we don't live that long now, we never reach our full potential and don't develop fully but are born and die as mere children.

"We believe that we can will our own evolution and that we are to surround ourselves with the things, the images, the symbols, and the conditions that help us evolve. It's sort of like method acting for us. We have to believe and we have to become what we want to become. Our images and symbols, and all the rest, help us.

"We believe that we must pray at dawn and at dusk and especially during storms and that we must put ourselves in God's hands completely, and we must trust in Him and do his work. We believe that we must live God centered lives.

"We believe that we are to wear plain, dark, cotton clothes and that we are to cover our heads when we pray.

"We believe that one of our highest duties is to breed as pure and as much as possible and that we are to live as long as possible so we can have as many children as possible. We believe that we live on in our children on this earth so long as they remain pure. We believe that polygamy is ordained by God so that we may have as many children as possible. We believe that each of our children is a spark of God. The more children we have the greater is the light.

"We believe that we are not to deny our senses and that sight is the king of the senses. Our sight is our most important way of finding the external signs in our people and to find mates to help improve our lines.

"We honor our ancestors and try to keep our lines pure so that they will not die off, but will live within us as long as we are pure.

"We believe that we must always have our sacred symbols within eyesight. Some tattoo them on their bodies, others have them on jewelry or other places. We believe that the fylfot or swastika is the most active of the sacred symbols and most clearly shows the eternal spinning and that it must be displayed and viewed. We believe that it banishes evil and that it should be on our bodies, in our homes, and everyplace where we find ourselves. It is this symbol that the haters and the evil doers are really trying to deny us. They hate this symbol because it is a symbol of light and it dispels their darkness and evil. They must not be allowed to deny us this symbol given to us by God. We must and we will display this symbol as we choose and where we choose, and God willing we will prevail against the evil ones.

"We believe that the good or bad that we do will be returned to us.

"We believe in life and we honor all life.

"We believe that we have a purpose in life and our purpose is God's purpose. We serve him, he does not serve us. We believe that He made us for His purpose and that we are to move ever higher. We believe that everything in existence must struggle and that the struggle is part of His plan. To stop struggling is to go against the will of God.

"We believe there are powers and forces unseen that will help us with our struggle when we truly give ourselves to God, so long as what we struggle for is what God wills. We can feel these powers and forces at certain times and when the conditions are right. They are a dim call to us from out of the far places and we hear them in nature.

"Anyway that's it in a nutshell as I understand it. Of course, I'm not perfect and maybe I got some stuff wrong, but I'm still studying The Guide each day and trying to be the best Armanist I can be.

"Well, Jack, it's been interesting. Keep me informed. Take care." With that, I left. Jack's an interesting guy. He's probably nuts, but maybe anyone who believes in any sort of God is nuts. Or, maybe not.

There was a news story this week about a study that seems to indicate that our genes determine how religious we are and maybe even how we are religious--that is, how our religious feelings take form. Since Jack's religion deals a lot with genes, I found this new study interesting. Our genes make us who we are physically, so why not religiously as well?

Maybe it's God who has not only given us our genes to make us who we are physically but maybe He has also given us the religious genes so we'll worship Him. It's chicken and egg stuff. A thought formed in my brain about going around in circles trying to think about this, and then I realized that such a thought about circles was also as Jack says it is; because Jack says that everything is about the spinning and circles and swastikas and spirals, and when we look at genes we see spirals.

Maybe the symbols that Jack talks about and maybe his belief that the eyes are the king of the senses means that by seeing the symbols, as Jack says we must, activates something in the genes. I'm starting to think that there are deeper meanings to everything Jack says, but I'm not sure yet and I'm not sure he's even conscious of it. Circles within circles within circles within circles. Genes for the skin, genes for the eyes, genes for the hair, genes for believing in God. First came the genes and then came God or first came God and then came the genes? Such is religion. Such is faith. Let everyone believe or not believe as their conscience dictates.

I'll be watching the news to see if any Armanists challenge the repressive European regimes by openly displaying Jack's swastikas. It'll be interesting to see how the tyrants try to ban a religious symbol that they don't like while letting other religious symbols be displayed. I expect they'll twist themselves into pretzels trying.

#  #  #

THE OUTSIDER - (ISBN: 0-595-19424-9)
H. Millard’s underground classic story of alienation is
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• References: (Note: links may expire and content not necessary endorsed by H. Millard
  or New Nation News but presented for further study for those interested in the topic by the NNN editor.)
• Religiousness lies in the genes!
• Nature more than nurture decides how religious we are
• Furor of Harry's Swastika yet to down in UK:
• Swastika Ban Plan Dropped
• Rune tattoos * Runic Tattoos
• The Mystery and Magic of the Runes
  
• Google search Armanism
• Google: Guido von List * author of the famous "Secret of the Runes"
• von List taught that the Swastica was "...the very act of creation" based on the Norse legend about the creation

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