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Traditie

Traditie Jaarboek 2024

15 Years after the last Traditie magazine a few people picked up the idea to once again create a physical publication. Not a magazine, but a proper journal, one to publish annually. Here is the first issue of the new incarnation now called Traditie; jaarboek voor traditionele erfgoedbeleving in de Lage Landen, or ‘Tradition; yearbook for traditional living heritage in the Low Countries’. Like before, it is written in Dutch.

Like the publication of days past, the new journal has A4 size, but this time 120 pages. Within the covers you will find full colour glossy pages filled with 23 texts differing in size from half a page to 17 pages. For those who know (or remember) the previous incarnation, there will be some familiar names. Herman Vanhove (still chairman), Benny Vangelder and Koenraad Logghe, to name a few. Good to learn that there are also new names to be found.

The subjects go from the symbolism of the knot (Logghe), heralds and guardian spirits (of the late Aat van Gilst), building symbolism (Wolf Pyck), Midsummer and Midwinter (Axnot Wedasunu), fate and magic (Lianne Kooistra), sacred kingship (Vangelder) to interviews, poets and songs. I myself contributed a text prompted by the publication of the English translation of Arvid Ystad’s book The Freemasons in the Viking Age, but I enlarged the subject based on my Masonic Heathens website placing Ystad in the context of other authors who have dealt with similar themes.

As you can see, a varied publication, available for € 20,- plus shipping costs. Click on the cover to get your copy.

2024 Traditie vzw

Traditie 2008/4

Traditie 2008/4I expected a short word of our chairman, since this is the last issue of this publication, but beside a short note in the inside of the cover, there is nothing. For several reasons (stated in earlier annoucements), the magazine will cease to be, but nothing is mentioned. Perhaps the opening article is telling. The articles of Herman Vanhove are usually humerous, this one is about someone who passed on. Further there are a couple of articles by Benny Vangelder about the World Tree/Christmastree, man made from wood and the ‘nephew’ peoples of the Oeral region. Other articles are about another “sibbe” involved in our movement, the original version of the “Little Red Riding Hood” tale, Indo-European mythology (by the Belgian scholar Koenraad Elst) and a story about mistle toes and witches wisdom.
Also this magazine is written in Dutch, get in contact with Werkgroep Traditie if you are interested.

Traditie 2008/3

The newest issue of Traditie magazine has reached me even before the autumnal equinox! The contents are as follows:
Herman Vanhove is “singing in the rain”; as always a very humorous article, this time about hospitality. Next up is a look in the life and house of chairman Stefaan Van den Eynde and his girlfriend Heidi Lemmens. After that an article quite like this one of myself is published, followed by a very interesting article “Do you, know how to offer?” by Alwin Goethals. A short poetic interlude brings us two articles about the meaning of faery tales, the first by the recently departed founder of our movement Koenraad Logghe and the next of “Mummelaar Vandenhangzak” (obviously a pseudonym).
As always Traditie makes a nice read in Dutch. If you are interested, contact Stefaan.

Traditie 2008/2

Traditie 14/2Fortunately I didn’t have to wait for this summer solstice issue of the Traditie magazine as I had for the last one. This is the second issue with the ‘new style’: different writers, less scholarly and with more focus on the present and ‘living Asatru’. Herman Vanhove still opens the magazine as he has done for years and he speaks a little about his Chinese friend who has passed away… 2500 years ago: Confucius. As always a humerous article about daily life. Next up is an interview with Vanhove and his family. This marks the start of inviews with “sibbes”, an old-fashioned term which means roughly something like “household” or in a larger context “family”. The Vanhove sibbe is questioned about their pagan past, their raising children, heathendom in daily life, etc. Next up is founder Koenraad Logghe who uses the allegory of an old car to explain why Traditie keeps away from politics, a subject that has brought many problems with outsiders in the past. “W. Heydens” wrote an article about “the holy book of the pagans”. Alwin Goethals wrote something about “Sacred War, traditonal grounds and elements of struggle”, a lengthy article that gives the current state of the man’s lifelong investigation (both literary as practical) of Western martial arts. After a poem “Elcmar Bölverkr” says that we don’t become pagan, but we are pagan and then “Mummelaar Vandenhangzak” presents a ‘light version’ of the lengthy series of articles of Jurgen Vandenbotermet that could be found in the ‘old style’ issues of the magazine. Benny Vangelder wrote a text about goddesses and the last text is a story about a man’s obsession with fire.
As always the magazine is written in Dutch, it is well-printed and available only from Werkgroep Traditie vzw. For information or a sample copy go to the website and click “tijdschrift”.

Traditie 2008/1

www.traditie.beThe first issue after we moved arrived with some delay, but here we finally have the spring equinox issue, the first issue of the 14th year this magazine is made and also the first issue in the ‘new style’. From this issue on there will be shorter articles by more different writers, more focussed on the present and more variety in the writing style. In short: there will be more participation of members and readers. Fortunately nothing changed about the opening. Herman Vanhove as always opens with a nice and humorous article, this time about his “hammer of Thor”: his photocamera. Next article is anonymous (at least, under pseudonym) and calls for a digital answer to all the rubbish that is published on Youtube and similar canals under the banner of Asatru. Alwin Goethals, our very own mead-brewer, has written an article about mead, its history, its uses and the forms it took. Another pseudonym tells us a bit about the tree as a symbol in our faith and chairman Stefaan van den Eynde does something similar when he describes the habbits surrounding the May-pole in the next article. Founder Koenraad Logghe contributed two texts in a style we are not really used from him. The first is slightly religiously Christian, but makes the bridge to our own beliefs, the second is a “Hávamal” based on a notebook with Western-Flemish sayings that his mother used to collect. Between these two articles by Logghe, there is one of myself about Traditionalism and our Werkgroep Traditie and an interview with Gunther Theys of the Flemish metal band Ancient Rites. Theys takes some distance from the black metal scene, yet the interview is made up with “vintage” black metal kids with “corps paint”… Yet another pseudonym wrote a nice article about the sacred meaning of marriage. Two of the pseudonyms use the metaphor of Taliban to describe certain Christians and also the third anonymous has some quite anti-Christian rethoric. Hopefully this shows us more that some individuals have such feelings while this says nothing about our movement and perhaps it is just because these are the first articles published not written by an almost fixed group of writers.
In any case, the articles are still very interesting, the publication is still about 40 pages and the lay-out looks fine as ever. So, if you can read Dutch and you are interested in “Germanic and Celtic culture and spirituality”, be sure to get in contact with Traditie. To visit the website, click on the cover the of journal.

Traditie 2007/4

Traditie 2007/4Here we have the winter solstice issue of the publication of Werkgroep Traditie vzw. of Flanders. As always the magazine opens with a nice article of Herman Vanhove, this time about work and duty. Benny Vangelder follows with a short text in which the spiritual path is explained by birds in a tree. Chairman Stefaan van den Eynde presents the second and last part of his lengthy article about the role of the female in Celtic society under the great title “Of swollen neck-arteries, grinding teeth and snowwhite arms”. I myself wrote a text which hopefully explains a bit about the Dumezilian tripartite theory that is used heavily by ‘prominent characters’ in our movement, so that ‘the average member’ will understand the idea. After a poem by Urd, this issue is closed with the final part of Jurgen Vandebotermet’s about myth, folklore and symbology in the landscape around Halle in Belgium.
If all goes as planned, from the coming issue (spring equinox), there will be much more material of Traditie members and less lengthy articles of the editors in the publication with which the editorial staff hopes to appeal to a larger group of readers.
To receive a (specimen) copy of this publication (which is in Dutch), contact traditie [at] scarlet . be.

Traditie 2007/3

The autumn equinox issue of the magazine of the Flemish Asatru group Traditie finally made it to me. In the last months there has been some thinking and discussion about the future of the periodical. The articles were regarded too long and too difficult for/by the average reader, so from the spring equinox 2008 issue, there is supposed to be more variety, lower-level articles and more input of the members of Traditie. Also the articles should be less historical and more focussed on the present and our religion in daily life. It seems that for this issue some of those remarks have been kept in mind, because the founder of the movement Koenraad Logghe has written an article about “our mental attitude” which deals with the ‘pagan’ position in the hastiness of our time. Current chairman Stefaan van den Eynde wrote about the ‘heathen’ conception of time, which is not as linear as modern man sees it and in which the present is also the future. Other articles are the always amusing opener of Herman Vanhove, this time about a ‘goody-goody’ under-priest which proved to be a beloved and wise man; Jurgen Vandebotermet writes about the “Nekker” and other “pagan motives”; further we have Benny Vangelder about “the Celtic Odin” and Sonja Vanmeiren who tells us something about the spirituality of doing the garden.
As always the periodical is well-printed, written in Dutch (Flemish) and available from Koenraad Logghe.
Link: Traditie (website will some be completely reworked.)

Traditie 2/2007

The summer solstice edition of the magazine of the Flemish “Werkgroep Traditie vzw.” is available. Again printed on heavier paper and with a nice colour front and backcover. The magazine as always opens with a nice article by Herman Vanhove, this time called Mijn boezemvijand; an article about Loki and breastcancer. Then follows Benny Vangelder with a text about Being happy (however the Dutch term “gelukkig” is a bit stronger than just happy). Chairman Stefaan van den Eynde has a lengthy interview with the ‘Amerindian’ Franci Taylor about traditional living in a anti-traditional world. Founder Koenraad Logghe continues his series about Myth and rite. Jurgen Vandebotermet closes this issue with women/femininity (in a very broad context) in mythology and folklore.
Of course the magazine is in Dutch/Flemish. If you are interested in the magazine or the Asatru movement Traditie, visit their website by clicking on the cover of the magazine.
If all goes as planned this is the last issue in the current concept. There are plans to change the magazine a bit in order to appeal to a wider (and non-Traditie) audience. The results I will of course give you somewhere around autumn equinox.