Athenadorus

As a member of the Scottish Clan MacLeod (Clan 'IcLeòid, Na Leòdaich), Athenadorus is descended from Olav the Black, Norwegian Viking king of Western Scotland and the Isles. By other branches he arises from the Danish Vikings of East Anglia in England, and from Swedes who settled the colony of New Sweden, in present-day Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland in the United States. Athenadorus has dedicated his skills to the veneration of the Great Goddess, Njörðr (or Nerthus) of the Norse, known as Freya or Frigg among the Saxons, the Goddess, whom he venerates as Athena. He acknowledges Her as the bountiful source of any skills he may possess, calling himself Athenadorus--AJhnadoroV: "the gift of Athena".

One line of descent shows Athenadorus's parentage includes William the Conqueror, Charlemagne and Charles Martel, thence back to the emperor Claudius, whose maternal grandmother was Octavia, sister of the divine Augustus; his maternal great-grandmother was Julia, sister of the divine Julius. This line of ancestry goes back to Julus, Pontifex Maximus and founder of the Julian "gens" (and who appears in Vergil's Aeneid). The legendary mother of the Julian gens is the Goddess Venus.

Athenadorus is the third child of the sixth of nine sisters, the eighth of twelve siblings, whose father was, in turn, the twenty-first of twenty-seven children. The center of devotion of all these was his grandmother, Gertrude. She was delivered of each of her twelve in their remote homestead, without the benefit or comfort modern medicine can afford.

Altho his maternal grandfather had been gifted with around seventy living descendents by the time Athenadorus was born, he was the one his grandfather called 'his baby', a special relationship that endured until his grandfather died when Athenadorus was three years of age. This exceptional relationship laid the foundation of Athenadorus's self-confidence and of his recognition of the fundamental importance of the riches of human relationships in establishing and strengthening the treasures of self-worth and compassion.

The benefit of learning to speak French came to Athenadorus when he was eleven years old. (This was a product of the extraordinary dedication of his fifth grade teacher, Carolynn Courtenay.) To his subsequent formal studies in French, Spanish, Latin, German, Greek (classical and modern), Chinese and Japanese, he has joined his private studies of Ancient Egyptian, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Gaelic, with exploratory forays into the several other languages. He continued studying languages and world culture throughout his graduate work in German and Musicology, and his earning a Master of Science degree in Business Administration--an unusual turn that has enriched his mystical outlook with the power of Statistics (with its gift of logical insight that dispels superstition), Accounting, and Finance and furthered his endeavors in computer programming.

This pervasive exposure to the riches of world thought, science, and the logical, humanist perspective they bestow has resulted in a reservoir of facts and insights that now continues to surge forth in works of forceful, joyous, pagan rediscovery.

Athenadorus possesses an unusually acute sense of history. He is knowingly descended not only from that Norse chieftain of nearly a thousand years ago, but (as his family has been in North America since before EY 5.2650 [1628 CE]) he is also possessed of forebears recognized as heroes of the American Revolution, and is great-grandson of one who survived, albeit wounded, the East Woods/Cornfield carnage of the Battle of Antietam in the American Civil War. (This great-grandfather was in Colquit's Regiment, Co. B of the 6th Georgia, commanded by Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson.) His Southern heritage and experience has fortified him in his committment to the responsibility--and the opportunity--modern Americans have to work for Civil Rights.

This sense of history, coupled with a wide knowledge of Biology, Psychology and the other Natural Sciences, along with his commitment to Human Rights and healthy, liberating psychology have led Athenadorus away from the flawed, vicious and silly myths of christianism back to the original religion, the veneration of the Great Goddess: the Universal Spirit of Life.

Maria Asherah Rose, a nationally important Wiccan high-priestess, has recognized Athenadorus as priest and voice of the continuing renaissance of Goddess Devotion. Athenadorus's teachings are very much in line with the Dianic tradition of Wicca, though based on much more ancient, pre-classical and classical traditions, which predate the essentially mediæval nature of Wicca. Yet at the same time his teachings span both several millenia and many thousands of miles as those precepts forge a bond between East and West, for they combine insights derived from Taoism, Shintoism, Hinduism and Native American religions with the wisdom of the ancients--the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians. The deep understanding bestowed from this is worked into doctrines based firmly in scientific fact, creating principles that unify all life throughout space and time, guiding one again to the transcendent Goddess, the Source of All.