Comments on: Woden, Fear, and Frey

By: Svartesól

Svartesól — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:39:18 +0000

Frey can be a very good ally to have when facing your fears. Speaking from personal experience… ;) I have a long way to go, however.

And Woden and Frey are often conspiratorial.

By: Volksfreund

Volksfreund — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:39:00 +0000

The poignant point is the giving of oneself to Runa.

The German notion of Hingabe (note the relatedness of Gebo to Gabe) as devotion is lost in the individualistic appropriation of reality in modern life, and that includes many spheres of occultism, as Henry often points out.

In the apparent loss of self in giving, recognition by the supraindividual other comes into being – call it Muse, Woden or Manjushri. In that moment, transformation of the spirit takes place. One does not walk the same way anymore.

By: Volksfreund

Volksfreund — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:38:18 +0000

My point is that a close study of Norse mythology can help us overcome the dualistic notion of finitude that sustains monotheistic narratives. Heathen gods do not have to be infinite to be gods; the same applies to Indian, Central Asian and Japanese notions of gods. What is at stake here? I think it is an interpretation of world and destiny that is not based on humans as the lords of the earth. The scheme of things – what the Greeks called “metra” – is already there, and it is up to the human species to be harmonious with it. With the running loose of human subjectivity in modernity, this harmony is lost, and the great reckoning has already begun, as we can now see in environmental crisis and in the disease-like spreading of financial unsustainability.

How can heathens contribute to life in these critical moments of history, when history may in fact undo itself, and possibly bring in an age of mythology where the gods and goddesses can be among us again?

Who and where are the Nietzschean midwives?

By: Dan Nahum

Dan Nahum — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:37:43 +0000

Not quite sure I can put my finger on why, but the finite/infinite distinction seems somehow irrelevent when discussing Ragnarok – more like we and they transcend discreteness (or submerge into indiscreteness) and are reabsorbed into the noumenon. Which they and we were fully absorbed in anyway, not that we notice it that often. You could describe it as some type of violent change of state.

As for the “human” failings of the gods in many traditional systems of belief – well, consider a world that is complex, multifaceted and often comes with (subjectively) bad things bundled right up with (subjectively) good things…

In such a world, you would both expect archetypal/atavistic representations of the world and its inhabitants to be be kinda contradictory, unhappy and have faults, indeed Achilles’ heels. And you’d be downright sure of it if you believed that these beings *governed* this world.

By: Volksfreund

Volksfreund — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:37:10 +0000

When the being of the gods flows into our own being of finitude, does it allow for an ethos to flourish on earth that is inspired and touched by the divine? Does Woden actually want to see his “will” established on earth? Ideologues may say yes, but that is to fall back into the mould of monotheistic thinking. In my understanding of pagan or heathen attunement, Woden and the other deities are already there in the being of totality that we in our higher moments can experience, in ecstasy as well as in anguish. The gods and goddesses are not separated from being itself – heathen divinity and spirituality are not determined by the monotheistic dualism of immanence and transcendence. Does this mean that heathen deities, too, belong to finitude like us? The eschatology of Ragnarok certainly leads one to think so. Heathens – and other pagans as well – are comfortable in the wonder of finitude, which is manifest in such thing as life, which is what we are. Finitude itself is no longer “finite” in the ordinary sense. World and experience are transformed, because the latter is.

Fearlessness in our attunement to the gods is at the same time a fearless embracing of fear. This is honesty as inspired by the truth of the mythos of the heathen gods and goddesses. Great is Woden, great is Frigga!

By: Seidh, Odin, Frey « Elhaz Ablaze

Seidh, Odin, Frey « Elhaz Ablaze — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:13:52 +0000

[...] And Frey is there with me. And he is frowning. And he says to me “you know, you’re not supposed to be pursuing me as you have. It’s not good for you. You are not made to accept my gifts. There is only one who is right for you, and he is a god of wolves, not boars”. (c.f. for example this post). [...]