Written by Jamie Kessler and Sean Michael Smith

Of all the systems of mythology, only the Norse mythic cosmology, along with its own pantheon and language, the Runes, doesn't claim its origin in an ancient super civilization. The Norsemen saw their religion as coming directly from their gods, primarily Odin. The Roman pagans and Druids of Gaul and Britain claimed their teachings, as well as those of Egypt and Sumeria, were from an earlier ancient culture. The Druids claimed to receive their teachings from Atlantis as did the Romans, claiming all their gods knew of or came from there. "Julius Caesar, when he overtook Gaul was greatly amazed when he saw the northern and remote Gauls worshipping Mercury, Apollo, Mars, and Jupiter in a manner similar to Latin countries. There has been shown many times the Druids had a large number of Roman deities in their pantheon which they claimed they received from Atlantis." (Thomas Maurice, Indian And Ancient Antiquitie, year unknown) The Romans claimed through Plato, Proclus, Hermes Trismegistus and Asclepius that their teachings and those of Greece came from Atlantis, also called Poisedonis, and Ethiopia. Pythagoras was always said to have Egyptian and Ethiopian teachers who taught him the ancient wisdom of sacred geometry that originated in Atlantis and Egypt. In fact the myth of the day was that all teachings, including those from Thoth, originated in Atlantis, went to Ethiopia and Egypt, then all over the Earth.

In the Nordic Mythology, from the people of Iceland, we are introduced to a rich Pantheon of gods and goddesses, each taking on elemental roles and temperaments of a warrior's mentality. Every character seemingly embodies many of the vital characteristics that one might wish to have at one's side in battle; the approval from the god of war, the strength of the thunder god, or the graceful falcon flight of the fertility goddess. Along with these things to embody, there are deities and elements in the myths that could greatly assist in an understanding and coping with the unpredictability and chaos that can occur. Within the myths we see that it doesn't matter what side you're fighting on. Good and evil are portrayed as a balance that can sway back and forth, thus any one of them can come out on top.

Nordic Background: History, Geography, and Culture

The Nordic People (Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians) originate from the cold and inhospitable landscapes of Iceland. During a period of Scandinavian expansion in the years 800-1100 A.D., the Nordic people, known most commonly as the Vikings, traveled long distances in their uniquely built long ships. These recognizable ships were built for long journeys and were able to navigate through shallow rivers and steams. This ability gave them great advantage over their neighboring countries who did not expect attack from the sea.

With their abilities to explore and move about the Northern Oceans of Europe, they traded and raided along the northern seas, founded Dublin in Ireland, conquered much of England, invaded France, and descended the rivers of eastern Europe as far as Kiev and Constantinople. Norse Vikings led by Leif Eriksson sailed west to Greenland, Iceland, and Vinland (probably present-day Newfoundland and Labrador).

Icelandic landscape is described as harsh, barren, cold and inhospitable. The island is situated in such a northerly position that the seasons of winter and summer are delineated by the amounts of ambient light in the sky. During the summer months the sun never fully sets, making nighttime a perpetual dusk. But during the long winter the darkness is nearly complete. This unrelenting darkness adds to the already harsh wintry climate, including windstorms of considerable violence.

Sadly, little is known about the people themselves prior to them converting to Christianity in the 1100s. Many of the records and history that remain of the early Vikings are contributed by archaeological and physical evidence, on their literary reconstructions of their myths, and on those who were frequently their enemies and victims (which leads to obvious bias). There are but two main texts that we draw these myths from, the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda, both written by Snori Sturluson in the 1200s CE. From what we do know, the Nordic peoples were a warrior civilization heavily reliant on the sea. Their settlement was thinly scattered and they lived by farming, fishing and trade. Social structure was small, free farmers who owed loyalty (along with taxes) to the headmen or patriarch of the family, or to the head regional noble or warrior chief. The society also functioned on the use of slavery. When the chiefs went to battle, the farmers immediately took the role of both sailors and soldiers for their conquests. Because of the harsh climate and the many enterprises that took men away from home for extended periods, free-born women possibly enjoyed a base of power and responsibility for family and economic affairs not matched by women elsewhere in Western Europe.

The Norse Pre-Christian Religion

The pre-Christian religion of the Nordic people consisted of a number important gods and goddesses collectively called the Aesir. The most prominent gods include: Odin, the god of war, poetry and leader of the Norse gods; Thor, the god of thunder, strongest of the gods; and Balder, the god of light, the most gentle and beautiful. To every god there was a goddess wife, who were all highly esteemed but were not central characters in many of the stories. In many cases they take on a role of loyalty and mothering.

Worth mentioning is the mortality of the Aesir, high creator gods. These deities understood that a time would come when they would meet their own death. This fatalistic mindset seems to resonate with the mentality of a race of people whom are greatly involved in war. One of the noblest things a Norseman could achieve was to die honorably in battle fighting against the world's evils, be those evils in the form of a rival clan, inclement weather, or a pack of wolves. To the Norse the world must have seemed full of evils. In their harsh landscape, seemingly all was against them. It's no question why the enemies of the gods would happen to be giants of frost. It was believed that if they died heroically they would be called to dwell with Odin in Valhalla, his palace in the realm of the gods. Since their religion emphasizes that all was impermanent, even the Aesir, one can imagine how this mentality manifested on the battlefield. They thought it only right to fight fiercely, and to their deaths.

Ritual and ceremony of the Norse were held in temples of the gods. They were attended by priests responsible for the reading of omens and other types of divination. They also guarded the sacred groves and objects. Their duties were frequently performed by the chief of a particular tribe. Festivals and religious ceremonies were held throughout the year, usually for the celebration of the harvest or of victory in battle. At festivals, animal (or sometimes human) sacrifices and libations were offered to the gods, and the dead were commemorated. The dead were believed to retain their faculties and to affect the fate of the living. Burial places were considered sacred, and sacrifices were made at the sites.

Odin

The Norse mysteries centered around the concepts of the Rune as Logos, Odin as the Divine Lord over the Gods and his Father, called All-Father. The date of the founding of the Mysteries of Odin is uncertain, however they are of ancient origin. Robert Macoy tells us that they could have been syncretised into a concrete system of initiation as late as the first century A.D., a completion of a system of knowledge that is at least as old as 200 B.C. Archeological evidence of proto-runes are found to match this early antiquity.

"It appears from the northern chronicles that in the first century of the Christian era, Sigge, the chief of the Aser, an Asiatic tribe, emigrated from the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus into Northern Europe. He directed his course northwesterly from the Black Sea to Russia, over which, according to tradition, he placed one of his sons as a ruler, as he is said to have done with the Saxons and the Franks. He then advanced through Cimbria to Denmark, which acknowledged his fifth son Skiold as its sovereign, and passed over to Sweden, where Gylf, who did homage to the wonderful stranger, and was initiated into his mysteries, then ruled. He soon made himself master there, built Sigtuna as the capital of his empire, promulgated a new code of laws, and established the sacred mysteries. He himself assumed the name Odin from the Eddas "god of magic," founded the priesthood of the twelve Drottars (Druids) who conducted worship and administration of justice." (Robert Macoy, History Of Freemasonry, 1993) The Scandanavian and Tuetonic Eddas, the book of lore of the Mysteries, served as the source text of magic and law for the Druidic priests of Odin. After his death the historical Odin was apotheosized, his identity being merged into that of the mythological Odin, god of wisdom and magic, whose cult he promulgated. Odin based worship then spread with Druids and Vikti (Rune Magicians) over Northern Europe. Odin centered worship supplanted the worship of Thor, the thunderer, the supreme deity of the ancient Scandinavian pantheon. The mound where King Odin is buried can still be seen near the site of his great temple at Upsala.

The twelve Drottars (Druids) who presided over the Odinic Mysteries evidently personified the twelve holy and ineffable names of Odin. The rituals of the Odinic mysteries were similar to the Greeks, Persians, and Indians in that cycles of ritual and offering dedicated to the gods brought empowerment. The 12 Drottars, each for a section of the Zodiac, were the custodians of the arts and sciences, which they revealed to those who passed initiation. Like many other pagan cults Christian believers destroyed or absorbed the Odinic mysteries.

Briefly stated, the sacred drama and rune lore of the Odinic Mystery is as follows: The Supreme Invisible Creator of all things was called All Father. His regent in Nature was Odin, the one-eyed god. Odin was elevated to the level of the Supreme Deity by his initiation in the tree of Yggdrasil, in which he traded his eye for the knowledge of the primal Runes, and in this, the magic of All Father. According to the Drottars, the universe was fashioned from the body of Ymir, the hoarfrost giant. Ymir was formed from the clouds of mist that rose from Ginnungagap, the great cleft in Chaos into which the primordial frost giants and flame giants had hurled snow and fire.

Ymir was slain, and from him formed the cosmos of the Nine Worlds, which will be discussed shortly. From Ymir's various members, the different parts of Nature were fashioned. After Odin had established order, he created a wonderful palace and paradise called Asgard on top of a mountain. Here the twelve Aesir (gods) dwelt together, far above the limitations of motal men (similar to Mt. Olympus where the Greek Gods dwelt. On this mountain was also Valhalla, the palace of the slain, where those who heroically fought and died feasted, day after day. Each night, their wounds were healed and the Boar whose flesh they ate renewed itself every morning. Among the Aesir, were Balder the Brave, the beautiful son of Odin, who dies and is resurrected, Hothor, who was the blind god of fate, and Thor, the thunderer and war god. They all lived at Asgard. Loki, the dark shaman, who was the antagonistic member of the Aesir, lived among the gods but never fully given that status, for he was a trickster and manipulator of the other gods and men.

In one instance, Balder is killed by one of Hathor's arrows due to Loki's tricks. Crushed with grief, the other Aesir devise a method for resurrecting the spirit of beauty embodied by Balder, creating the Runic Mysteries of Odin and the Magic Ring, guarded by the Nibelung that revives all life and removes death. Odin was known as the god of magic (and the hanged god) because of the experience he had of trading his eye for the Rune wisdom of the All Father. The lore explains that Odin hanged himself from the branches of Yggdrasil, the World Tree, for nine nights. Because of all this, in later symbolism Odin was sometimes pictured on a gallows tree. It is through Odin, god of magic, that the gods and men are able to receive rune wisdom. At the same time he had pierced his own side with a sacred spear and traded his own eye. As a result of this great sacrifice, Odin, while suspended over Nifl-heim, received the meditation of the sacred Rune alphabets by which the people could command the elements by rune-gandr or the magical force of the runes. They could begin to command time by keeping record of their history.

Each night, hanging over another World of Yggdrasil, Odin received a new power. While suspended over Hel, the Death World, the runes were permanently inscribed into his being. Odin is the first being to be fully initiated into the runic mysteries; that is, he first extracted the rune wisdom directly from its source and formulated it within his being. This initiatory myth is represented in the Elder Poetic Edda in the song called Havamal, the sayings of the Highest One, Odin. Stanzas 138 and 139 of the song read: "I know that I hung/ on the windy tree/ all of nine nights/ wounded by spear/ and given to Odin/ myself to myself/ on that tree/ which no man knows/ from what roots it rises. They dealt me no bread/ nor drinking horn/ I looked down/ I took up the runes/ I took them screaming/ and fell back from there." The Adept of Norse culture would be given a shamanic type initiation in which the initiate passes through the nine worlds of the world tree to the realm of Hel (Death) and momentarily enters death's sphere. At that moment the initiate receives the entire body of rune wisdom, and it is etched into his being. In the next instant the initiate returns, like Odin to Midhgardhr, with his rune wisdom permanently encoded into him.

The Norse mysteries centered around the concepts of the Rune as Logos, Odin as the Divine Lord over the Gods and his Father, called All-Father. The date of the founding of the Mysteries of Odin is uncertain, however they are of ancient origin. Robert Macoy tells us that they could have been syncretised into a concrete system of initiation as late as the first century A.D., a completion of a system of knowledge that is at least as old as 200 B.C. Archeological evidence of proto-runes are found to match this early antiquity.

"It appears from the northern chronicles that in the first century of the Christian era, Sigge, the chief of the Aser, an Asiatic tribe, emigrated from the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus into Northern Europe. He directed his course northwesterly from the Black Sea to Russia, over which, according to tradition, he placed one of his sons as a ruler, as he is said to have done with the Saxons and the Franks. He then advanced through Cimbria to Denmark, which acknowledged his fifth son Skiold as its sovereign, and passed over to Sweden, where Gylf, who did homage to the wonderful stranger, and was initiated into his mysteries, then ruled. He soon made himself master there, built Sigtuna as the capital of his empire, promulgated a new code of laws, and established the sacred mysteries. He himself assumed the name Odin from the Eddas "god of magic," founded the priesthood of the twelve Drottars (Druids) who conducted worship and administration of justice." (Robert Macoy, History Of Freemasonry, 1993) The Scandanavian and Tuetonic Eddas, the book of lore of the Mysteries, served as the source text of magic and law for the Druidic priests of Odin. After his death the historical Odin was apotheosized, his identity being merged into that of the mythological Odin, god of wisdom and magic, whose cult he promulgated. Odin based worship then spread with Druids and Vikti (Rune Magicians) over Northern Europe. Odin centered worship supplanted the worship of Thor, the thunderer, the supreme deity of the ancient Scandinavian pantheon. The mound where King Odin is buried can still be seen near the site of his great temple at Upsala.

The twelve Drottars (Druids) who presided over the Odinic Mysteries evidently personified the twelve holy and ineffable names of Odin. The rituals of the Odinic mysteries were similar to the Greeks, Persians, and Indians in that cycles of ritual and offering dedicated to the gods brought empowerment. The 12 Drottars, each for a section of the Zodiac, were the custodians of the arts and sciences, which they revealed to those who passed initiation. Like many other pagan cults Christian believers destroyed or absorbed the Odinic mysteries.

Briefly stated, the sacred drama and rune lore of the Odinic Mystery is as follows: The Supreme Invisible Creator of all things was called All Father. His regent in Nature was Odin, the one-eyed god. Odin was elevated to the level of the Supreme Deity by his initiation in the tree of Yggdrasil, in which he traded his eye for the knowledge of the primal Runes, and in this, the magic of All Father. According to the Drottars, the universe was fashioned from the body of Ymir, the hoarfrost giant. Ymir was formed from the clouds of mist that rose from Ginnungagap, the great cleft in Chaos into which the primordial frost giants and flame giants had hurled snow and fire.

Ymir was slain, and from him formed the cosmos of the Nine Worlds, which will be discussed shortly. From Ymir's various members, the different parts of Nature were fashioned. After Odin had established order, he created a wonderful palace and paradise called Asgard on top of a mountain. Here the twelve Aesir (gods) dwelt together, far above the limitations of motal men (similar to Mt. Olympus where the Greek Gods dwelt. On this mountain was also Valhalla, the palace of the slain, where those who heroically fought and died feasted, day after day. Each night, their wounds were healed and the Boar whose flesh they ate renewed itself every morning. Among the Aesir, were Balder the Brave, the beautiful son of Odin, who dies and is resurrected, Hothor, who was the blind god of fate, and Thor, the thunderer and war god. They all lived at Asgard. Loki, the dark shaman, who was the antagonistic member of the Aesir, lived among the gods but never fully given that status, for he was a trickster and manipulator of the other gods and men.

In one instance, Balder is killed by one of Hathor's arrows due to Loki's tricks. Crushed with grief, the other Aesir devise a method for resurrecting the spirit of beauty embodied by Balder, creating the Runic Mysteries of Odin and the Magic Ring, guarded by the Nibelung that revives all life and removes death. Odin was known as the god of magic (and the hanged god) because of the experience he had of trading his eye for the Rune wisdom of the All Father. The lore explains that Odin hanged himself from the branches of Yggdrasil, the World Tree, for nine nights. Because of all this, in later symbolism Odin was sometimes pictured on a gallows tree. It is through Odin, god of magic, that the gods and men are able to receive rune wisdom. At the same time he had pierced his own side with a sacred spear and traded his own eye. As a result of this great sacrifice, Odin, while suspended over Nifl-heim, received the meditation of the sacred Rune alphabets by which the people could command the elements by rune-gandr or the magical force of the runes. They could begin to command time by keeping record of their history.

Each night, hanging over another World of Yggdrasil, Odin received a new power. While suspended over Hel, the Death World, the runes were permanently inscribed into his being. Odin is the first being to be fully initiated into the runic mysteries; that is, he first extracted the rune wisdom directly from its source and formulated it within his being. This initiatory myth is represented in the Elder Poetic Edda in the song called Havamal, the sayings of the Highest One, Odin. Stanzas 138 and 139 of the song read: "I know that I hung/ on the windy tree/ all of nine nights/ wounded by spear/ and given to Odin/ myself to myself/ on that tree/ which no man knows/ from what roots it rises. They dealt me no bread/ nor drinking horn/ I looked down/ I took up the runes/ I took them screaming/ and fell back from there." The Adept of Norse culture would be given a shamanic type initiation in which the initiate passes through the nine worlds of the world tree to the realm of Hel (Death) and momentarily enters death's sphere. At that moment the initiate receives the entire body of rune wisdom, and it is etched into his being. In the next instant the initiate returns, like Odin to Midhgardhr, with his rune wisdom permanently encoded into him.

The Nine Worlds

The cosmology of the Norse mythology was composed of Nine Worlds growing on a single World Tree called Yggdrasil. The Nine Worlds were:

1. Asgard, the divine world of the Aesir


2. Alf-heim, the World of the Light and Beautiful Elves and Spirits


3. Nifl-Heim, the world of cold and darkness in the north


4. Jotun-heim, the world of the giants which is in the east


5. Midgard, which is the middle earth of humans in the middle place of the World Tree


6. Vana-heim, the world of the Vanes in the west


7. Muspells-heim, the world of fire which is established in the south


8. Svart-alfa-heim, the world of the dark elves, which is under the Earth


9. Hel-heim, the death world at the lowest point in the multiverse.

Usually the other worlds beside Midgard are invisible to mortal man, but during initiation, the priests liberate the soul of the initiate and he or she is able to walk freely in these other worlds among their various inhabitants.

The Teutonic pagans' myriad gods of nature who manifested as geometric forces composed of inforlation, rather than a singular deific form, influenced the cosmology of nine worlds in the Odinic mysteries. This is very similar to initiation in the Eleusian mysteries of Greece in which the initiate is brought through nine planes of existence comprising reality.

The Norse adept simulated Odin and figures such as Gandalf, the Vikti and Wizard from the poetic Eddas. The adept in Norse culture was called Gobbi meaning High Priest and would serve as an intermediary of the Aesir. Bards were masters of the oral tradition, reciting the Eddas of the gods and warriors of the past. The Drottars or Druids were special elder priests who would have been Gobbi for many years. The Vikti was the Rune-magician; an adept who would use Odin as his primary example and could wield power with the use of runes. The Nordic Wizard was a composite master of all these principles of adeptship and would be considered to be an emanation, like avatars in Hinduism, of one of the Aesir. In the Eddas, Gandalf is recognized as a wizardly emanation of Odin and All Father.

Loki

The mythology as a whole, as was stated earlier, seems to consist primarily of warrior archetypes. Loki is an obvious contrast to the other gods. His abilities lie not in strength and bravery but in wit and cunning, which time and time again is what saves the day. He is the trickster and transformer, with the ability to change shape and gender. Snorri Sturluson, the author of the two main literary pieces that these myths are drawn from, introduces him with the following in his book Edda (1987) "Loki brings misfortune upon himself and the other Aesir with his clumsiness, haplessness, or malevolence, he always redeems himself by dint of his cunning, his magical capacities, or his eloquence."

Loki plays the role of both villain and hero in many of the tales. He is a chaotic trickster and saboteur, often causing great trouble to the kingdom of the Gods, known as Asgard. Loki was sometimes compared to Satan. By the same token though, he is quick to fix all that he has done, often leaving things better than they began.

Loki often changes into a women as a guise to fool those seeking him. In one tale he changes into a mare to help save the Aesir (after he has of course put it in danger) and gives birth to the legendary eight-legged stallion Sleipnir, the fastest steed in the universe. At another point Loki and a giantess give birth to monstrous children: the Midgard serpent, the goddess of death Hel, and Fenrir the wolf. Eventually he leads these children into the battle against Aesir, which make his forces equal to them as a whole. So we see very different sides of Loki, a weak and timid prankster who is quick to surrender and volunteer to set things right, and also a most powerful being who can actually rival the entire forces of the gods.

The German Scholar Schjodt, in his book Om Loke Endnu Engang (1981), talks about how the Norse subscribed to a cyclical understanding of time characterized by the eternal return of stages beginning with a golden age, the creation of the world, it's subsequent demise, and the emergence of a new golden age. It should be noted that Loki begins as a helper to the Aesir playing simple tricks here and there, and later he evolves to become a much darker enemy responsible for the murder of Balder and the battle of Ragnarok. This progression is seen in Schjodt's eyes to be indicative of the increasing malevolence and moral disintegration of the world that ultimately leads to its downfall. Loki eventually turns completely against the gods and leads the frost giants (enemies of the gods) and his own horrendous children to an attack on the Aesir known as the battle of Ragnarok. In the end, most of the gods and goddesses die including Odin, Thor, Balder, and Loki. From the destruction a new, peaceful world would emerge from the disaster and would give the opportunity for a new beginning.

To the Norse People there was little question as to why they would need a god such as Loki. He is indicative of all that is chaotic and unpredictable, as much in their world must have been. Interestingly enough, he seems to also show us that even when things go wrong there is often a better outcome for us. This is a most dreadful and difficult guise of divine to embrace in our lives at times. Loki as the thief helps us let go of the things that mean most to us. Lawrence Russ says it quite well in his article in "The Cosmic Bee" (1984) on Loki and thievery. "Loki forces us...to feel how the divine transcends our desires and our visions, how the suffering or destruction of the finite is sometimes required by the creative purposes of the infinite, however cruel it may seem to us...If nothing is so consistently true of Loki the thief as that he cannot allow any "rightful" boundary or separation to remain intact, it is because Loki is the active, "aggressive" agent of the Whole, the catalyst by whose action all that seems finite is dissolved in the Infinite...As for Loki's thefts and fearsomeness, all creativity and growth require the displacement of old forms to create new combinations, the destruction of old boundaries to create new syntheses. And it is certain that new creations often inspire fear and loathing in those who cling to old structures."

Events with the greatest gains in wisdom are often those that seem the most dreadful and puzzling at the time of their occurrence. Like the thief, Loki could also be called the saboteur, the unpredictable element of sabotage. He can no doubt be quite troublesome, always sending things in disarray. At the same time this character reveals that which needs to be examined, and tended to. With the saboteur's recurrence we can see sabotage before it happens and make things stronger than they ever could be.

Valkyrja: "Chooser of the fallen," a linking force between men and gods who collect the valiant dead and take them to Valhalla. They were usually women in warrior garb, especially designated to take fallen warriors to their heavenly destination which is a reward for their valiance in battle. (Also known as Valkyrie)

Valhalla: The Norse word for Heaven.

Vanir: This was the group of gods corresponding to the fertility function. The principle deities of this group are Freyja, Freyr, and Njodhr. After a long war with the Aesir, they all exchanged hostages and lived in peace. The vanir who came to the Aesir camp became assimilated with the Aesir, while retaining their own characteristics and powers. These are the female lineage of Norse goddesses.

Ve: Sacred enclosure, the place of working magic and the name of Odin's brother.

Yggdrasil: The cosmic World Tree of nine worlds or planes of the multiverse.