Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 2, 2002, Page 18
(a.k.a. Edred Thorsson, his craft pseudonym), and the Ásatrú Alliance, headed by Michael
Valgard Murray of the Arizona Kindred, were formed to answer for the deficit of organized
Ásatrú. Each group was distinct in its approach to Ásatrú. The Ring of Troth concentrated
on the creation of an Ásatrú priesthood and the practice of rituals (i.e., blot, sumbel, rune
divination). The Ásatrú Alliance (AA) focused on community, and, unfortunately, maintained
a degree of racialist ideology in that it connected ethnicity with faith. The connection was
inevitable, given Murray‘s previous affiliations.
Kaplan recaps Murray‘s history of affiliation and his spiritual journey through the shadow of
the racialist beliefs of Odinism and his eventual discovery of Ásatrú:
As a teenager in Phoenix, Murray was involved in the local National Socialist
scene through Rockwell‘s American Nazi Party. With the commander‘s 1967
assassination, Murray remained briefly with the renamed party under Matt
Koehl and was a member of the odd National Socialist White People‘s Party‘s
Nazi Motorcycle Club...Murray left the world of National Socialism and in the
early 1970s found Else Christensen‘s Odinist Fellowship... Murray first met
McNallen in 1972, but it was not until 1980 that, deeply moved by the
spirituality of the rituals led by McNallen, Murray would officially join the
Ásatrú Free Assembly. (Kaplan, 1997, p. 20)
Following the breakup of the AFA in 1987, Murray assumed a leadership role and founded
the Ásatrú Alliance. In response to his first encounter as a leader with questions regarding
the AA‘s racialist affiliation with the National Socialist group, New Dawn, Murray said, ―The
Alliance does not advocate any type of political or racial extremist views or affiliation‖
(Kaplan, 1997, p. 21).
Years of struggle with this infamous affiliation would plague the Ring of Troth as well as the
Ásatrú Alliance. A former member of the Ásatrú Free Alliance, the aforementioned Rob Meek
joined the Ring of Troth circa 1988 and quickly rose into the group‘s high ranks.
Complications from a brain tumor made Meek unstable and difficult within the group. In
1991, he murdered his wife and was arrested. Accusations of Satanic affiliation ran strongly
through pagan communities. Meek passed the accusations along to Flowers (a.k.a.
Thorsson), an act from which neither Flowers nor his Ring of Troth could recover. Flowers‘
interests and alliances did not serve to help his situation either (Kaplan, 1997).
Flowers specialized in sexual magic, rune divination, the polarity of pain and pleasure, and
the darker, shamanistic aspects of the Odinic figure. He was a member of the Order of the
Triskelion, a group devoted to the study of sexual dominance and submissiveness. Within
the Order of the Triskelion were the ―Roissy Society for male dominants and female
submissives and the Onyx Circle for female dominants and male submissives‖ (Kaplan,
1997, p. 26). Unfortunately for Flowers, the membership of the Order of the Triskelion
contained a mixture of members from groups such as the Temple of Set, a Satanic group
led by U.S. Army Lt.-Colonel Dr. Michael Aquino (Langone, 1993). Meek‘s exposure of the
connection damaged Thorsson and the Ring of Troth in a way that could not be undone. In
1992, leadership of the Ring was handed over to Prudence Priest. Priest, too, was soon
ousted, continuing the legacy of infamy for which the Ring of Troth had come to be known
(Kaplan, 1997).
Regarding the AA, Kaplan says:
the Alliance, in stark contrast to the Troth, never attempted to exercise
control over local kindreds. While the Troth‘s Elder Training Program
undertook the ambitious task of creating an Ásatrú ―priesthood,‖ the Alliance
left the spiritual direction of its member kindreds to the local leadership.
(Kaplan, 1997, p. 31)
(a.k.a. Edred Thorsson, his craft pseudonym), and the Ásatrú Alliance, headed by Michael
Valgard Murray of the Arizona Kindred, were formed to answer for the deficit of organized
Ásatrú. Each group was distinct in its approach to Ásatrú. The Ring of Troth concentrated
on the creation of an Ásatrú priesthood and the practice of rituals (i.e., blot, sumbel, rune
divination). The Ásatrú Alliance (AA) focused on community, and, unfortunately, maintained
a degree of racialist ideology in that it connected ethnicity with faith. The connection was
inevitable, given Murray‘s previous affiliations.
Kaplan recaps Murray‘s history of affiliation and his spiritual journey through the shadow of
the racialist beliefs of Odinism and his eventual discovery of Ásatrú:
As a teenager in Phoenix, Murray was involved in the local National Socialist
scene through Rockwell‘s American Nazi Party. With the commander‘s 1967
assassination, Murray remained briefly with the renamed party under Matt
Koehl and was a member of the odd National Socialist White People‘s Party‘s
Nazi Motorcycle Club...Murray left the world of National Socialism and in the
early 1970s found Else Christensen‘s Odinist Fellowship... Murray first met
McNallen in 1972, but it was not until 1980 that, deeply moved by the
spirituality of the rituals led by McNallen, Murray would officially join the
Ásatrú Free Assembly. (Kaplan, 1997, p. 20)
Following the breakup of the AFA in 1987, Murray assumed a leadership role and founded
the Ásatrú Alliance. In response to his first encounter as a leader with questions regarding
the AA‘s racialist affiliation with the National Socialist group, New Dawn, Murray said, ―The
Alliance does not advocate any type of political or racial extremist views or affiliation‖
(Kaplan, 1997, p. 21).
Years of struggle with this infamous affiliation would plague the Ring of Troth as well as the
Ásatrú Alliance. A former member of the Ásatrú Free Alliance, the aforementioned Rob Meek
joined the Ring of Troth circa 1988 and quickly rose into the group‘s high ranks.
Complications from a brain tumor made Meek unstable and difficult within the group. In
1991, he murdered his wife and was arrested. Accusations of Satanic affiliation ran strongly
through pagan communities. Meek passed the accusations along to Flowers (a.k.a.
Thorsson), an act from which neither Flowers nor his Ring of Troth could recover. Flowers‘
interests and alliances did not serve to help his situation either (Kaplan, 1997).
Flowers specialized in sexual magic, rune divination, the polarity of pain and pleasure, and
the darker, shamanistic aspects of the Odinic figure. He was a member of the Order of the
Triskelion, a group devoted to the study of sexual dominance and submissiveness. Within
the Order of the Triskelion were the ―Roissy Society for male dominants and female
submissives and the Onyx Circle for female dominants and male submissives‖ (Kaplan,
1997, p. 26). Unfortunately for Flowers, the membership of the Order of the Triskelion
contained a mixture of members from groups such as the Temple of Set, a Satanic group
led by U.S. Army Lt.-Colonel Dr. Michael Aquino (Langone, 1993). Meek‘s exposure of the
connection damaged Thorsson and the Ring of Troth in a way that could not be undone. In
1992, leadership of the Ring was handed over to Prudence Priest. Priest, too, was soon
ousted, continuing the legacy of infamy for which the Ring of Troth had come to be known
(Kaplan, 1997).
Regarding the AA, Kaplan says:
the Alliance, in stark contrast to the Troth, never attempted to exercise
control over local kindreds. While the Troth‘s Elder Training Program
undertook the ambitious task of creating an Ásatrú ―priesthood,‖ the Alliance
left the spiritual direction of its member kindreds to the local leadership.
(Kaplan, 1997, p. 31)
