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.