I just recently listened to Dan Carlin’s newest Hardcore History show, Twilight of the Aesir II, and in this show, he gives a primer on the Norse religion of the Scandinavians. I’ve also just finished reading Dumezil’s Mitra-Varuna which also touches on the Norse Gods. With that in mind, I’m going to preface that I don’t usually like to lean on the Norse or Germanic Paganism on RESAVAGER because there are many problems you run into.
Mortals are but playthings of the gods, subject to their whim and caprice. One moment they help you, the next they fuck you over. Very much like people in that respect but much more powerful of course. In many respects, comparable to the Archons the ancient Gnostics wrote about. Humans seem to have a proclivity to misunderstand and misinterpret the ancients and their beliefs. Many have said that the Druids, who met and enacted their rituals in oak groves, worshipped the trees. They did consider the Oak tree to be sacred, however they did not worship these trees, they worshipped WITH them, "that which watches". The difference is fundamental and enormous. Great articles, B.D.
I like how Pagans believed they have the blood of the Gods in their own veins, versus Christians who believe the blood of Jesus was separate and superior ,and in which salvation came from. Pagans ancestors are the gods and therefore the keys to “salvation” are already within. It is a religion of power. Christians believe in, and glorify, inherent weakness and self-hatred of original sin.
Think yes! If it’s episodic tale each nugget of Havamal wisdom could be kernel for each episode like a series of short stories maybe like Canterbury Tales. So mote it be!
I have a somewhat similar idea to create my own Pagan inspired fiction. Some of the themes you talk about with Odin I have adapted for a story about an Immortal and his adventures, his intention to become a king of a vast intergalactic empire and an otherworldly evil he must battle in the future. Very similar.
Thanks for these articles, I bought Barbaric Vitalism and am getting through it a few chapters at a time.
How do you and other commenters square your understanding of Norse gods with Varg V and Marie C’s Secrets of the She Bear interpretation? Namely that WE are Odin—a continuation of Odin—and all figures, symbols, and names of the gods only point to our reincarnation as our god-like ancestors. We must become like the gods and BE the gods for the gods to remain. They make a compelling case for the World Tree being the placenta structure and many other numerical features related to reincarnation/re-birth. Logically their arguments appeal to me, spiritually I am animist and cannot be in nature without a sense of spiritism all around in all objects natural.
Odin is our ancestor; he is also a higher being one who created the realms from the corpse of Ymir. There is nothing contradictory about this, divine blood runs in our veins. Our ancestors believed in a plethora of supernatural phenomena, spirits, monsters, elves; and I see no reason to believe that everything they sincerely believed and wrote about was just made up or symbolic.
Mortals are but playthings of the gods, subject to their whim and caprice. One moment they help you, the next they fuck you over. Very much like people in that respect but much more powerful of course. In many respects, comparable to the Archons the ancient Gnostics wrote about. Humans seem to have a proclivity to misunderstand and misinterpret the ancients and their beliefs. Many have said that the Druids, who met and enacted their rituals in oak groves, worshipped the trees. They did consider the Oak tree to be sacred, however they did not worship these trees, they worshipped WITH them, "that which watches". The difference is fundamental and enormous. Great articles, B.D.
I like how Pagans believed they have the blood of the Gods in their own veins, versus Christians who believe the blood of Jesus was separate and superior ,and in which salvation came from. Pagans ancestors are the gods and therefore the keys to “salvation” are already within. It is a religion of power. Christians believe in, and glorify, inherent weakness and self-hatred of original sin.
Think yes! If it’s episodic tale each nugget of Havamal wisdom could be kernel for each episode like a series of short stories maybe like Canterbury Tales. So mote it be!
I have a somewhat similar idea to create my own Pagan inspired fiction. Some of the themes you talk about with Odin I have adapted for a story about an Immortal and his adventures, his intention to become a king of a vast intergalactic empire and an otherworldly evil he must battle in the future. Very similar.
Thanks for these articles, I bought Barbaric Vitalism and am getting through it a few chapters at a time.
YES. Thank you
How do you and other commenters square your understanding of Norse gods with Varg V and Marie C’s Secrets of the She Bear interpretation? Namely that WE are Odin—a continuation of Odin—and all figures, symbols, and names of the gods only point to our reincarnation as our god-like ancestors. We must become like the gods and BE the gods for the gods to remain. They make a compelling case for the World Tree being the placenta structure and many other numerical features related to reincarnation/re-birth. Logically their arguments appeal to me, spiritually I am animist and cannot be in nature without a sense of spiritism all around in all objects natural.
Would be a banger, i would read such a story with enthusiasm. The way you describe him makes him sound like a private eye protagonist from a noir film
Lol yes it would be FIRE
Odin is our ancestor; he is also a higher being one who created the realms from the corpse of Ymir. There is nothing contradictory about this, divine blood runs in our veins. Our ancestors believed in a plethora of supernatural phenomena, spirits, monsters, elves; and I see no reason to believe that everything they sincerely believed and wrote about was just made up or symbolic.