Guldize Seed Thought - The } Quality

It is a little known fact that our modern digital world is massively indebted to a little known theoretical (physical) architect.  My work is as an I.T. or Digital Architect.

This architect was Christopher Alexander https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/106728.The_Timeless_Way_of_Building  who was in turn influenced by Taoist theory.

There are a few places where you can see his influence in the physical world – the Café at https://www.westdean.org.uk/ and Oregon University in addition to a few others.

Whenever you use or engage with the digital, world be it a website to fill out a form or complete a service like renewing your insurance, and at any time you use your smartphone.  Then you use two things that Christopher Alexander articulated:

1.       Design Patterns – taken from his book ‘A Pattern Language’.  This applies not only to the user experience/interface (UX/UI) but also to the way that computer systems are developed

2.       Object Orientation (OO) – which is based upon ‘A Pattern Language’ and ‘The Timeless Way of Building’.  Most modern computer languages have some basis in OO.

Whilst the passage below is rooted in Taoist terminology this applies, as a universal wisdom, to Gewessi (Druidic Heathen) thought.  It explains why it is hard to define what is wrong with a design – a missing ‘un-named quality’.  I’ve taken a part of his seminal work and replaced the architectural language with the more abstract word design in the text below to clarify why it was used in Computer Programming…

 

"THE WAY

 

What looks at first sight like an accidental quality which marks the designs (towns and villages) of the past, turns out to be the most fundamental physical property of the world we live in.

This is simply the character of design (buildings) which reflect the forces in them properly.

 

The prismatic design of our own time, the design built with the simple geometry of cubes, and circles, spheres, and spirals, and rectangles; this geometry is the naive order, created by the childish search for order. We happen to think of this order as the proper order for a design (building), because we have been taught to think so; but we are wrong.

 

The proper order for a design, which comes about when designs are correctly fitted to the forces in them, is a much richer order, with a far more complex geometry. But it is not merely rich and complex; it is also very specific.

And it will show itself, under any circumstances, where designs are actually correct.

Whenever anyone manages to make a design which is alive, it will have this specific character, because that is the only character which is compatible with life.

 

When I myself first started to make designs with this character 'the un-named quality', symbolised as }, the character amazed me.

At first, I was afraid that I must really be a conservative at heart and that I was unconsciously striving to re-make the past.

 

ITS AGELESS CHARACTER

 

But then I read a passage in an ancient Chinese painting manual — the Mustard Seed Garden manual of painting — which made the situation clear to me.

 

The writer of that manual describes how, in his search for a way of painting, he had discovered for himself the same central way that thousands of others like him had also discovered for themselves, throughout the course of history. He says that the more one understands of painting, the more one recognizes that the art of painting is essentially one way, which will always be discovered and rediscovered, over and over again, because it is connected with the very nature of painting, and must be discovered by anybody who takes painting seriously. The idea of style is meaningless: what we see as a style (of a person or of an age) is nothing but another individual effort to penetrate the central secret of painting, which is given by the Tao, but cannot itself be named."

Deus sive Natura

"God is Nature, as Nature is God".Spinoza
  Thoughts on Nina Lyon's 'Uprooted' on the trail of the green man. 
It is weird hearing about integral events in your life, such as the rave scene & the 1988 Summer of Love and its impact on the modern world from the perspective of someone 10 years younger, your life as history.  That's getting old I guess. Being taught by people younger than you, whilst in your head you're the same age as them.

What is interesting, I find, is kicking against the perception that each generation grows up thinking it can change the world.    Mine didn't, I remember our head of History a young 30 year old, so ancient to our 17 year old minds, railing at our cynicism & belief that little we did would change the world.  We'd seen the various waves of young adults like the hippies, punks and others fight the system, the man and seemingly lose or even worse become ' the man'. 

O Fuck it, we weren't gonna do that.  I became an 80's yuppie by day and raver by night.  There were a lot of us, ecstasy was our drug & it turned haters into friends, opened closed minds & we became one people.  Then we discovered we had power.  The police had to be cautious of violently break up a rave of 1000s of people from all levels of society - there were Lords & Ladies, children of judges alongside those from the poorest estates, gay's with straights, Chelsea and Arsenal fans hugged.  Everyone was behaving peaceably, loved up and would be dressed in anything from DJ and ball gown to a fully fluorescent outfit.  No one cared, the dance was everything.  A few police couldn't incite us as the repercussions of attacking a mob high on amphetamines would've been too great.  Many of us were the children of the Tory establishment not poor Labour miners who they could brutally attack & then lie in the media to get away with it.

The establishment were scared.  They changed the rules, allowing night clubs to stay open all night as well as banning raves to remove the reasons for raves to happen.  The world was changed, football violence declined, it was a step change in the acceptance of being different.  There's some power in a youth movement not thinking they can change their world and managing it by accident, only realising it as the world turns and they look back.

As we reach the equinox, the time when the Green Man dies in some traditions, it is appropriate to think of these transitions.  As I move into my Gold Days/Golden years so my son moves into his Beltaine years.  The cycle within & without a cycle.
I liked the book, it reminded me of ZAMM , Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, but for a neo pagan world.  A philosophical critique of where it is right now, as well as a warning for the future.

St. Nectan and his glen

Now if you listen to Druidcast you may have come across St. Nectan, where you can hear the wonderful vocal tones of Roland Rotherham talk about him it starts at Druidcast 99, and I had the joy of visiting his legendary glen. It sits between Tintagel and Boscastle, between the myths of the ancient British King Arthur and the Witches museum. Walking up to the glen brought back memories of playing in Cornwall's granite and quartz laden streams, there is even traces of gold in the rocks too.

Nectan is also a water deity within the Irish mythology. Which would make the waterfall at St. Nectan's Cleave or Glen a pool of the well of wisdom. It is certainly a place of pilgrimage to many folk who visit. In this respect it has been treated as a Clootie Well for healing and spiritual help.

It is undoubtedly a place of magic and mystery, although we failed to get down to Rocky Valley

, pics from here, due to the lateness of the hour when we left the Glen. The carvings are Neolithic, 4000 years old, and provide links between ancient Crete and Glastonbury too.

The stacks of 'fairy' rock formations within the glen add to the magical feeling as you walk to and from the waterfall.

Ultimately for the strong spirited the waterfall and it's cold, cleansing waters are the main attraction:

This is the upper part of the waterfall, the plunge pool is shallow enough to stand in but deep enough to become immersed in the water. The afternoon we spent there was certainly a special one. Whilst there is a car park where you can walk to the Glen for the stronger walkers I would recommend it as an essential mid-walk stop on the coastal path between Boscastle and Tintagel.

Belated Lughnasadh seed thought - being happy in the moment

The Lughnasadh period is a busy one for anniversaries; Lughnasadh itself is my wedding anniversary, with a break for the 2nd August and then in sequence my departed Father's birthday, a good friend's birthday, my wife's best friend deathday and then a breather until my birthday. Which this year was a significant one. As it also aligns to summer holidays it is a busy time of year.

Whilst mindfulness has now become a widely known meme, as such ripe for parody, it is still a useful technique for dealing with stress. I have become unemployed for the first time in my life and as such it is easy to become prey to anxiety and my internal negativity. It was as I contemplated the garden, the worry of still not having a job lurked like a sinister mould at the back of the fridge, that I remembered to focus in the moment. It was sunny, I had completed many of the jobs in the garden and I had applied for a number of jobs. There's enough money in the bank too, so I was...

Being where you need to be

If you are, like me, something of a mental list maker then you can become subject to the tyranny of the to do list. Whilst a list can be useful in knowing what to do next it must not be allowed to ruin the moment with self negativity. I used to do this a lot, particularly around the garden...I should have planted those seeds, weeded that border...aarrrgh the hedge needs pruning.... Who was I hoping to please with this? Me, the kids don't care, my wife cares about the garden sporadically and only the bit she can see. The hedges don't care if they look neat to the human eye and we will not starve if I forgot to plant the brassica's. I've earned the money sitting in the bank so I can live without a job for a few months (not that I intend to do that) so I can...

Allow yourself

The garden is not perfect and is not finished, I've not written a blog post for a few weeks and probably gamed a little too much but I've not had a whole summer off in 30 years. I think the last summer I had off was in 1985 when I spent much of it sailing, including racing J24 yachts.

So for Lughnasadh choose a day to throw off the shackles of the mental to do list, enjoy the moment and prepare for the work of the harvest.

The Cauldron of Poetry and the Romantic Continuum

From the Venerable Bard to the Wandering Minstrel

What is the difference between the Celtic Bard and the Medieval Minstrel?
I think the difference is that the Celtic Bard seems, like the Fili/Filidh in Ireland, to have had a formal instruction and a formal role in ancient and early medieval societies. Similar to the Norse Skjald and the Anglo-Saxon Scop, whose roles seem & training seem to have been less formal, the Bard maintained the history of the tribe which included spiritual, ancestral and legal knowledge. In this respect they came from a pre-Christian culture & their ability to hold an audience (via their performance) and play an instrument were by-products of their function. They had a high office within the society as keepers of the people's knowledge. The leaders of the people needed to refer to them in many matters and they were often protected by law.
The Minstrel, or Old English Gleeman, from the later medieval Christian Feudal culture was more of a performer and musician. Their function was merely to entertain the audience in an informal way, often whilst referring to the news and issues of the day. Most of the powerful functions of spiritual and ancestral knowledge were now held by the clergy and with the written word there was development of the legal profession. The leaders no longer needed to refer to the Bards but for the folk, now demoted from free men to serfs they provided an essential source of news.
However, as the later medieval Christian Feudal culture took over from the early Medieval Pagan culture it would seem that many of the earlier Bards accepted their loss of social status and became wandering Minstrels. It was probably a gradual decline that took place over several generations.

The intriguing part, I find, is with the Angevin Queen (you could almost say Empress) Eleanor of Aquitaine. She created the model Medieval court and brought in learned people and Minstrels, many of whom seem to come from Brittanny. They (and this is conjecture) may well have been from families that were historically British (Welsh) or even Irish Bards. These Minstrels took the ancient Celtic Myths and forged them into the Arthurian Legends and helped to define the Chivalric code, which has many parallels into Celtic ideas of Good Kingship but within a Christian context. It was at this court, which became a cauldron of culture, that the Celtic world mixed with the love stories from Moorish scholars of the Mediterranean and the Germanic feudal culture of England and France. Here are a series of quotes from sites about this legendary court...

Romanz

" William IX, Duke of Aquitaine one of the first troubadour poets "from here It was defined by the use of the Latin word Romanz as distinct from what was known as ‘real’ literature, which was ironically written in Latin. Romanz with its captivating themes of love, ladies and passion in the courts of Europe it was not long before it became known as romantic literature. Eleanor had grown up at the court of her father William X Duke of Aquitaine, but she was really a chip off the old block of her grandfather (William IX).
"Of all her influence on culture, Eleanor's time in Poitiers between 1168 and 1173 was perhaps the most critical, yet very little is known about it. Henry II was elsewhere, attending to his own affairs after escorting Eleanor there. Some believe that Eleanor’s court in Poitiers was the "Court of Love", where Eleanor and her daughter Marie meshed and encouraged the ideas of troubadours, chivalry, and courtly love into a single court. It may have been largely to teach manners, as the French courts would be known for in later generations. The existence and reasons for this court are debated."

Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Court of Love

"Eleanor’s time as mistress of her own lands in Poitiers (1168-1173) established the legend of the Court of Love, where she is reputed to have encouraged a culture of chivalry among her courtiers that had far-reaching influence on literature, poetry, music and folklore. Although some facts about the court remain in dispute amidst centuries of accumulated legend and myth, it seems that Eleanor, possibly accompanied by her daughter Marie, established a court that was largely focused on courtly love and symbolic ritual that was eagerly taken up by the troubadours and writers of the day and promulgated through poetry and song. This court was reported to have attracted artists and poets, and to have contributed to a flowering of culture and the arts. But to whatever extent such a court existed, it appears not to have survived Eleanor’s later capture and imprisonment, which effectively removed her from any position of power and influence for the next 16 years."

Troubadours

Troubadours: "They flourished between 1100 and 1350 and were attached to various courts in the south of France. The troubadours wrote almost entirely about sexual love and developed the concept and practice of courtly love There was no tradition of passionate love literature in the European middle ages before the twelfth century, although there was such a tradition in Arabic-speaking Spain and Sicily. This Arab love poetry was readily accessible to Europeans living in Italy and Spain and was a major source of the Troubadour-developed cult of courtly love.
Troubadour love poetry, although conceptually adulterous, inspired the man (and perhaps the woman) and ennobled the lover's character. Eleanor set up a court controlled by women which aimed at "civilizing" the rather rough society of the area. Many gifted poets and scholars came to her court at Poitiers. A unique situation where wealthy powerful women were able to create their own environment. The doctrine of Courtly Love was designed to teach courtiers how to be lovely, charming and delightful. Its basic premise was that being in love would teach you how to be loveable and pleasing; so love taught courtesy."

The Romantic Continuum

What we see in Eleanor is a medieval Queen who set up a court and created the rules to empower women in what had previously been a purely patriarchal society. As her various sons, including Richard the Lionheart and King John, grew to age the society reverted back to its patriarchal ways but the shining light of her legendary court lived on in the Romantic stories of the day. These continued to inspire subsequent stories, kept alive in the hearts of the people by the wandering minstrels and troubadours until the printing press could disseminate them more widely.
What we see in the bards and troubadours is that, like the folk they represented, their position in society may have declined with feudalism but the themes of love, justice, honour and virtue still resonated with aspirational yet human characters searching for an idealized future. As the role of the folk in society rose during the Renaissance, Enlightenment and into the Modern world each age generated and continues to generate it's own Bards and Troubadours who learn from and re-visit those continuous themes.

I viewed Prince as a modern day romantic and troubadour R.I.P.

The role of a Gothi / Gythja

This was prompted as a follow on to the post on Lordship and from the discussions on the role of Heathen Guru's or Priests - The Gothi .
"The Gothi leads the ceremonies. That is fairly vague. Also stated was that the Gothi was a respected member of the group. Again, vague, but telling more. If you want to be a Gothi, you will have to be respected by an Asatru group and know enough to lead ceremonies." from here.
So from a Gewessi point of view think about the personal growth part of this; to be a Gothi to yourself you need to respect, love and understand yourself. You need to understand ritual, sacrifice and be knowledgeable on the lore of your land.   As Woden did upon Yggdrasil...
I trow I hung on that windy Tree
nine whole days and nights,
stabbed with a spear, offered to Odin,
myself to mine own self given,
high on that Tree of which none hath heard
from what roots it rises to heaven.
You will need to learn about all of the seasonal blóts and symbels, as well as days dedicated to the Gods and Goddesses and ancient heroes to honour. There may also be ceremonies particular to your group (even a solitary like me has links to groups or tribes) if you are a member of one, such as its founding or the birthday of its founder, and you will need to know those. For a solitary it's important to know and develop your own, these are mine:

1. Ritual Year - the 8 fold cycle from modern paganism and particularly Druidry
2. Full Moon Meditation - Druidry meditation on peace and healing to the worlds
3. Festum Prophetae - 17th June road ride to honour Eddy Merckx and road cycling
4. Virum Honorem - 24th August MTB ride to honour Jason McRoy
5. Life Events - these are ad-hoc

Rituals should involve either a Blót or a Symbel. Here is a prayer
When ale thou quaffest, call upon earth's might --
'tis earth drinks in the floods.
Earth prevails o'er drink, but fire o'er sickness,
the oak o'er binding, the earcorn o'er witchcraft,
the rye spur o'er rupture, the moon o'er rages,
herb o'er cattle plagues, runes o'er harm.

A Gewessi must decide when & know when to hold them and the difference between a Symbel or ritual feast where you need to give a toast, a boast & a promise, and a blót or sacrifice (ritual times of year & ad-hoc) - the text here is a Blót description:
To this festival all the men brought ale with them; and all kinds of cattle, as well as horses, were slaughtered, and all the blood that came from them was called "hlaut", and the vessels in which it was collected were called hlaut-vessels. Hlaut-staves were made, like sprinkling brushes, with which the whole of the altars and the temple walls, both outside and inside, were sprinkled over, and also the people were sprinkled with the blood; but the flesh was boiled into savoury meat for those present. The fire was in the middle of the floor of the temple, and over it hung the kettles,
which then moves onto a Symbel description...
and the full goblets were handed across the fire; and he who made the feast, and was a chief, blessed the full goblets, and all the meat of the sacrifice. And first Odin's goblet was emptied for victory and power to his king; thereafter, Niord's and Freyja's goblets for peace and a good season. Then it was the custom of many to empty the brage-goblet (Brage is a poem often to the departed); and then the guests emptied a goblet to the memory of departed friends, called the remembrance goblet.
This is a historical account, in our modern world I do not think that re-construction is appropriate with its unlicensed butchery and spraying blood everywhere! In our modern age alcohol such as beer, wine or vodka could be used or smudging with incense smoke. Most of all the sense you get from the lore is that this is not a puritanical, staid and boring experience but one of joy, laughter and good-natured flyting which in the modern world we call banter.

To sum up being your own Gothi or Gythja

you need knowledge of ritual and when to perform it, experience of working with your Gods and finally, but most importantly, the personal growth to have confidence and respect in yourself as your Gothi/Gythja.

The Role of an Anglo-Saxon Lord

A long time ago, at the request of Beith a noted scholar prevalent on the OBOD Forum I wrote a long essay on this & lost it when my PC crashed (she left due to the badgering of less-than-scholarly people convinced, due to the Dunning Kruger effect, their unstructured opinions were correct). It has taken me many years to write it again.

Heoric Lordship

The key nature of Lordship in the Anglo-Saxon world is in the relationships and incumbent duties around gift giving. It is not a world where the divine right of Kings, with its underlying social caste structure, is a given. This 'divine right of kings' develops later as part of the ossification of structure in the Feudal world. In the Feudal world kingship become hereditary rather than the meritocracy of the Heroic Age (aka Age of Migrations, Dark Ages, Early Medieval period).

The Heroic Age is a world where a lord is reliant upon his people just as his people are reliant upon him. A good lord is much more aware of the symbiosis and potential fragility of this relationship. A lord is either given power by the Witan (wise leaders of the people) or takes power through his own abilities as a warrior and leader. As a lord he gains wealth which is then distributed as gifts. This ties into the act of giving as an oath, which is related to the rune Gebo, the X, which is the handshake of the act of giving between gift-giver and gift-receiver. The act of giving is a sacred one involving responsibility and duties. Thus both the acts of giving & receiving is an oath. Which ties into the religious and cultural significance of the oath and sacrifice. In an oral world one's spoken word becomes very important your 'word is your bond' and it is these ties of bond-ship that uphold the cultural structure of the heroic world. So when a lord is described as 'ring-giver' there is more than just the transferral of wealth involved.

The only thing more sacred than your word would be an oath-ring carved with runes and given to the gods - many oath rings have been found sacrificed at archaeological digs at Heargs & Hofs. The oath ring is sacred to Thunor (Thor) and Wuldor (Ullr), so the ring is related to divine power. So that when a Lord is named ring-giver it also relates to the Oath as Law and the Lord's role as Law enforcer. "Many times this object was the oath ring and this oath ring was a holy item in the hof. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle gives an example of the oath ring being used by the Danes in 876 and there is an account of a ring called Thor's ring on which oaths were sworn. Thor presided over the Assembly, which opened on Thursday (Thor's Day) in Iceland. In Eyrbyggja Saga the oath ring was described as being 20 ounces of silver. When not in use it lay on the stalli and during feasts the gothi wore it on his arm. In the description of Thórólf's hof in Iceland, the ring is described as being 2 ounces and was worn on the finger of the gothi during all assemblies. Like the description in Eyrbyggja Saga, this ring laid on the stalli of the hof when not in use. "

A lord uses the gift of wealth as a contract, he does not give lightly and expects loyalty from the gift receiver. The Battle of Maldon poet says this when describing Godric's cowardly betrayal of his duties as gift-receiver
"and left his good lord
Who had often given him many a mare,
He sprang upon the horse that his lord had owned,
Upon the trappings where no right had he"
The poet contrasts the act of the good lord giving a horse with the crime of stealing a horse. Upon seeing the Lord's horse leave the field of battle it causes the shield-wall to break because the people believe their Lord had broken. The shame of betraying your oath, your Lord and your kin will long be remembered. You will not go to the Halls of the Honoured dead but will instead end up in the grey purgatory of Hel or worse; back to the mud un-remembered and un-mourned.

The Germanic peoples, like the Celtic people, had a long history of tribal law handed down as part of an oral tradition. The Lord holds the Hall, the hearth of his people. This hall is the central point within the Garth, the boundary, of the people. In this respect the Lord has to be aware that he holds the spiritual & physical power of his people, if he breaks or betrays this then his people will break and the line of tradition is broken. As King he is also Gothi to his people and so responsible for their spiritual well being too. So if the Gods don't favour him then his people will break oath with him. If his people break oath with him then he breaks and his lineage can be broken.

Conflicts of interest

A good Lord is also aware of the conflict of interest a person may have between their Lord and their Kin, he will use his generosity as a gold giver and law giver to ensure loyalty to him. A Lord does not inherit his position it is given to him by the people (or for a King the lesser Lord or Thegns of the people). The bond between a lord and his housecarls is one of blood-brotherhood, in that respect the Lord's companions are also bound by the kin-oaths. Whilst a Lord's thanes may not have the kin-oaths, his housecarls should live and die with him...
'Soon in the struggle was Offa struck down
Yet had he done what he boasted to his friend
As he bragged before to his ring-giver:-
That they both to the burg should ride
Hale to their home, or in the battle fall,'
This sentiment is common throughout the A-S literature; in 'Beowulf' at the end Wiglaf articulates the same sentiment and it's a theme within 'The Wanderer' too.

There is a common theme of holding your counsel until you know your mind and not being a loud braggart; 'That with proud minds many did then speak
Who later at need would not endure.'
Which in our modern world we would call 'talking the talk but not walking the walk'. So a good Lord must know when to listen and when to talk wise counsel. This passage from 'The Wanderer' sums up the approach of a good lord...
'A wise Lord must be patient
nor too impulsive, hasty of speech,
nor weak as a warrior
nor reckless,
nor pessimistic
or overly optimistic
nor greedy
or eager for boasts.'

Gewessi Mindfulness

What does this mean to a follower of the Gewessi path? I would say that just as a Gewessi is a Gothi/Gythi it is incumbent upon you to behave a like a Lord (or Lady and I'm not going to get into a Transgender argument about terminology!). So that in your daily mindfulness of interacting with people think of the relationship between gift-giver and receiver and the advice above about how a wise Lord behaves. I find the advice above very useful when dealing with social media.
Picture from here
ref: Heroic Age
Wanderer

Einigen Gawr - Some Giant

This a mash-up of various times I've come across Einigen Gawr, one a story written by a Tom Byrne and I can't find it via google. I can't find much on Einigen, so it seems his story is consigned to the hidden recesses of the internet. This is because Iolo Morganwg and his Barddas is regarded by many as a fraud. His is not authentic, provable Medieval knowledge but he suggested it was. The question of quality is not considered, particularly in this digital binary age when the Twitterati and Face-achers leap upon liminal knowledge with a howl of faux-outrage and vent their spleen from the safety of their mobile profile.

However, I suggest it is time to reconsider Iolo's place in the Druidic continuum as his was one of the spark's that ignited the Romantic movement to explore the Celtic Twilight which led to the Meso-druidic movement and then onto today's modern Druidic paths. Many of those interested in the Druidic path have not heard of Einigen Gawr, einigen in German means 'some', gawr in Welsh means giant. Which is about right, Einigen Gawr is some giant that in Iolo's Barddas is the primary giant, perhaps a little like Ymir to the Norse. There is a quality that continues in the symbol of Druidry the /|\ . So here are three views on the Druidic primal giant of wisdom.

THE GOGYRVENS

This is taken from Iolo's Barddas

1. The three principal elements 2 of every thing: power; matter; and mode.
2. The three principal elements of sciences: life; intellect; and affection.
3. The three elements of wisdom: object; mode; and benefit.
4. The three elements of memorials: understanding from affection; distinctive sign; and reverence for the better.
5. The three elements of letters, ; that is to say, from a combination of one or other of the three are letters made.

They are three rays of light. Einigan the Giant beheld three pillars of light, having in them all demonstrable sciences that ever were, or ever will be. And he took three rods of the quicken tree, and placed on them the forms and signs of all sciences, so as to be remembered; and exhibited them. But those who saw them misunderstood, and falsely apprehended them, and taught illusive sciences, regarding the rods as a God, whereas they only bore His Name. When Einigan saw this, he was greatly annoyed, and in the intensity of his grief he broke the three rods, nor were others found that contained accurate sciences. He was so distressed on that account that from the intensity he burst asunder, and with his [parting] breath he prayed God that there should be accurate sciences among men in the flesh, and there should be a correct understanding for the proper discernment thereof. And at the end of a year and a day, after the decease of Einigan, Menw, son of the Three Shouts, beheld three rods growing out of the mouth of Einigan.

AODA - John Michael Greer

The eminent Druid John Michael Greer refers to him in his book "The Celtic Golden Dawn" and paraphrases Iolo as follows.

In the beginning of things Einigen Gawr, the first of all created beings, beheld three rays of light descending from the heavens in which were the all the knowledge there ever was and ever will be. These were three voices and the three letters of one name, the Name of the Infinite One:

• A, Knowledge, the sign of Gwion, the Bounty of Nature
• W, Power, the sign of Cerridwen, the Cauldron of Annwn
• N, Peace, the sign of Taliesin, the Child of Light

GewessiMan says If Gwion, Cerridwen and Taliein don't call to you then Beli, Arianrhod and Lleu may or for us Gewessi we could look at Ingvi-Freyr, Frig and Balder.

Another view

Excerpts from a long story by a Tom Byrne, internet denizen that I can no longer find..."You may have come across the story of Einigan Gawr, the legendary discoverer of the Coelbren. Here is my amplification of the tale:EINIGAN GAWR To meet with their instructors of the soul, The pious pack together in their choir and worshipped an idol.
And does the wind's swift passage have one goal?
And is one briny mass the sea entire?
And is one spark the fierce unbounded fire?
- from the Spoils of Annwn. In unwritten time, Which compressed itself in the memory, not a chronicle, When a word had life for as long as air would resound with it...

But the Hot Years came. And the sun and rain did not shine and fall as they had before, But the sun shone on and excluded all of the cooling rain, And the barley was burned in the ground and the apples on trees. The withered flow thrashed, and writhed ineffectively over scorched stones. And the deaths began. First the lambs and calves on the parched hillsides when the grass was browned, Then the old and young, when their weakened frames could not fight disease. The adherents all stood at their idol and called on his name, But Einigan Gawr dug graves for his wife and his child.

Then he found a cave and the burning sun made him seek the cool, dark interior. And within the cave were a brackish pool and a bed of moss. So the water and mosses, he mixed them together and drank, And when the sun set, he sat at the mouth of his cave and he called:
"What did we do wrong?
At the cave's mouth, Einigan Gawr saw clouds calm the sun's raw ire. For a long time, Einigan Gawr gazed skyward and did not squint. Then the cloud broke apart in three places and sunbeams streamed out.A triad of light, one left and one right and one streaking straight down.

And the air was still, But he heard a voice, and it called him: "Einigan Gawr, your wail Cut a corridor from your mouth through brain, through your heart to soul, And your body became a huge horn for that note of pure grief. Your case has been made. Your anguish is answered, so listen to me: See your vale below. All the life down there is down there to change, to be born and die, And if some die soon, and if some die late, that is as it is...

Then you must reach out in the boiling broth and collect yourself. You must find the "I". Then your thoughts and words and your deeds will flow from one source, which is solid and sturdy, to stand the fierce tides. Integrity then, I name as the second support for your leap. But of course your life will be brushed by storms and by eddied force that you can't control, and from time to time you'll be prised away from the cauldron's rim. When you know this, at once you must turn and kick out for the brim; You must persevere, till courage and honour shall strengthen your grip.
There are three supports: They are Perseverance, Integrity and Courageousness.
They are all required for your salmon-leap from the cauldron broth.

Imbolc Seed thought - Quality over Quantity

Do what you can with what you have...

The recent deaths of many iconic people; Motorhead's Lemmy, David Bowie, Glenn Frey and Alan Rickman has brought focus, for me, not on their deaths but how they lived their lives. This quote from Glenn Frey's obituary could (I think) be applied to any of them they all had "a work ethic that wouldn’t quit. He was funny, bullheaded, mercurial, generous, deeply talented and driven."

All of them were true stars in a world of celebrity. Bowie, as ever ahead of the game, seemed to recognise this in the way he retreated from public life as celebrity culture rose to prominence. He learnt to toy with the digital age by recording 'The Next Day' in complete secret at a time when Tarantino's script was released into the social media 'digiverse'. He then goes onto completely stage manage his own death as art and neatly side-steps the mawkishness of a funeral turned into a digital-media feeding frenzy by having a quick, unattended cremation without friends and family in attendance. His last image then become his climbing, miming reverse into the cupboard at the end of Lazarus. A perfectly scripted, from this pagan's perspective, passing with a respectful control over his death in comparison to Outside's dystopian view of 'death as art'#. His is a positive message about managing to die with dignity.

Similarly Lemmy never compromised, unless you count moving to vodka & orange from JD & Coke, and was the ultimate rock & roll star to the end. Although his funeral had the full digital coverage it avoided the fake sentimentality by sticking to it's core rock'n'roll, coke'n'hookers, live fast and fuck the consequences ethos.

They all lived quality lives & rather than fading through dementia into nursing home twilight were still doing what they loved until the end. So if there's a particular seed thought for this Imbolc it's around Quality over Quantity; living a life that is driven creatively and allows you to honour your principles yet generously gives back to society.

# For 'Hello Spaceboy' Bowie played just after Oasis, Oasis had recently been slagging Bowie off as past it and not rock'n'roll; with that performance he slayed them, particularly as their performance was lacklustre

Pantheist Metaphysics

So picking through my Notes from the year I came across this which I don't think I've blogged, although I am getting old and notice that I repeat myself...

The Gods : What are they, and where do they come from?

Whilst the Jungian Collective Unconscious theory from psychiatry is appealing and has some validity within a view of the gods, I think it only represents one side of the coin. If the coin has two faces and a middle, the middle being the relationship between the 2 faces, then it can represent the middle view of the gods. If you interpret the collective unconscious with a cultural explanation - that each culture has it's own Collective Unconsciousness, which in day to day language is explained by cultural stereotyping. I don't think it explains the other faces, the god/esses face OR an individuals own viewpoint.

Which then raises the question of their origin - are they purely human constructs, which supports the Collective Unconscious theory, or natural phenomena that humans interpret as Gods? I tend towards the natural phenomena theory on most days (other days I tend towards the Jungian Collective Unconscious). I'll probably cover whether the gods are 'real' in another post as that leads straight into what is real and what is the nature of reality which as the link shows is a big, big subject.
To continue the coin analogy this means that the gods themselves are a natural phenomena, whilst our interpretation is individual but filtered through our Collective Unconscious which is represented by our language and cultural bias.

Do the myths reflect their origins?

Not in detail, the Norse creation myth has large gaps around the genealogy of many of the Gods - particularly Mimir and Frige but also Hana/Hoenir. There is no Celtic creation myth so that it is unknowable. Particularly if some deities seem to have had human avatars/incarnations such as the Celtic Taliesin or the Norse Rig (thought to be Heimdall) additionally things can get confusing when our culture has been overlaid with monotheism and the cultural filter has been biased by a coherent view of a single god.
I think the myths reflect a culture's relationship with their Gods and how they've listened to their Gods.

How are the gods of different pantheons related?

If the Gods are a natural phenomenon then their appearance will be impacted by their location. Just as my behaviour is different at work and at home, or in a foreign clime I think so are theirs. So are the Celtic Taranis, Ango-Saxon Thunor and Norse Thor one and the same? To be honest I don't know - I suspect that in the same land they are one and the same but the names reflect their appearance at different times viewed through their relationship with a different Collective Unconsciousness.
Is the Greek Zeus the same as the Italian Jupiter or the Celtic Dagda and the Norse Odin? Personally I don't think so or rather we should certainly not treat them so, the differences are too great in both the landscape and the Collective Unconsciousness that they relate to.
Which raises the question, which Neil Gaiman uses as the conceit for his book American Gods, is someone working with Thor in the US working with the same Thor as someone in Sweden?
Are they one and the same or different? The American working with the North American Thunder God whom they have called Thor, the Swede working with the original Norse Thunder God known, amongst other names, as Thor.
I think I tend to believe the latter situation - so for me there is the Gewessi Thunder God in Southern Britain, I feel that his range covers to the south of Brittany in Northern France and North up to the Borders of Britain, in the west it's Wales (it could extend to Ireland but I've never been there) and in the East across to Germany. He has many names, I know him best as Thunor but often use the name Thor as everyone knows that name and few know him as Thunor. Thunor is different to the Nordic Thor but they are more similar than the Thunder God of the American Plains.
Part of the reason, in the example above, the Thunder god is different is because their wives, as Goddesses of the land, are quite different. To take Zeus and Odin as an example Hera, possibly started as a corn goddess, is epitomised as the jealous wife, whilst Frige, whose home in Fensalir suggests a more generic fertility role, is known as the wise wife out-smarting her husband. This may well also drive the differences between the two societies in how women were treated.
Within the Northern tribes and the Indo-European tradition there is the Father Sky - Mother Earth model, and the deities mostly worked in pairs so within the Indo-European tradition I think what we know from both the Celtic and Germanic traditions show similarities to the Shiva/Shakti Hindu tradition e.g. this would relate to the passive feminine Sunna and active male solar energy in Balder, with Mani as the passive male lunar whilst the Disir or possibly Freyja (I would argue) represent the active female lunar energy. The Celtic may have a similar view if we return to the Breton Legend of St. Anne and update it with a pagan Celtic view
“In the beginning there was Annwn, Gwynvyd and Abred and within Gwynvyd there was heaven and earth. And the earth (Anne, Anu or Danu) was without form and void (Anne, Anu or Danu was barren). And darkness (affliction and confusion) was upon the face of the deep (on the face of Anne), and the Spirit of Heaven (Joachim, Beli Mawr or the"Fair Shining One") moved upon the face of the waters (the waters of Anne’s tears to console her). And He said, ‘Let there be light (Mary, the great music or Oran Mor) … and the gathering together of the waters (the gathering of the graces) they called maria (the seas, Mor or Mary).”

How do they interact?

With whom? On an individual basis they appear during meditation, dreams and via natural coincidence or synchronisity. They are the transrational within the patterns of our lives.
On a macro level through their influence on our language and culture they have wider influences which may explain differences between the historical role of women in the Gewessi lands and other lands, such as the eastern Mediterranean. These patterns ripple down to us through history. I would argue that the Northwest European cultures have had a much more equal bias with women than the Classical and Middle Eastern cultures due to this influence, but that is another post.

What is the significance of & the relationship between the natural and cultural attributes they are associated with?

My personal perspective is that the natural and cultural attributes control the perspective that we understand them by - this enables the follower of a pantheon to interpret and gain wisdom by understanding their interactions. The nature of the interactions between land, sea and the sky and the wider natural cycles provide clues to their attributes. For me I think the Gods choose you, not the other way round. Exploring why a God/ess is important to me has enabled me to deepen understanding of myself. This all started, for me, when I chose to be pagan. I verbally and emotionally renounced being a Xtian and chose a pagan path, that seemed to be the invite that brought my pagan pantheon to me. At the time I was naive, cynical and with only an intellectual grasp of natural philosophy as an abstract concept. Events and coincidences which could be wrapped up as 'life lessons' appeared. Loca or Loki, my pagan tutor had turned up, but I didn't know it and was a slow learner, he was a harsh tutor from the school of hard knocks. It took me a couple of years to work out who 'he' was! I'd always felt the energy of the Green Man, who to me is known as Ingvi-Freyr or The Lord (which is always useful at Xtian festivals) once Loca had got me started on this Gewessi path Ingvi then worked with me to deepen my understanding of the gods and the land. Finally when it came to knowing myself my main tutor has been Frige who, turns up unexpectedly and usually within my home - her area of influence.
And yet Zeus, Thor, Thunor, Taranis, Indra, Jupiter and many others could be distinct entities.

What is the function/identity of a thunder god in relation to natural storms?

In my epxerpience Thunderstorms are naturally different in their formation and effect and this is different in different parts of the world and happen at different times of the year. The typical thunderstorm in southern Britain is an exciting event, often providing release from oppressive summer weather and one you'd stay up for and watch - at the right time it provides the water needed to ripen the harvest and at the wrong time can damage the harvest. A typical thunderstorm in Texas is a very different affair, a bigger (well everything is bigger in Texas) and more violent event that you might see from a distance but probably don't want to get caught in.

And to other thunder gods of other cultures?

So Zeus (I'm not lived in Greece and so this is conjecture) is much more of a mightily smiting God and friend to the Aristocracy whilst Thor, although he mightily smites the Jotuns, is seen as a benevolent God who is responsible for the fertility of the land and is a friend to the common farmer.

What is their relationship to the land and ancestry?

Personally I think that the relationship of the Gods is part of understanding a natural landscape and environment. It takes walking through the land, understanding the history of your landscape and feeling the land to understand that relationship - then going to other lands (for example on holiday) and doing the same in a new landscape to realise there is a difference. It goes back to the concept of the male-female energy working together to produce a unique
I think the view of a pantheon is related to a cultural ancestry rather than a biological one. I don't think the gods of the Northern Tribes care too much about our modern racial views of ancestry.
And finally, are these things important to consider or does a simple belief/experience of them suffice? Yes I think they are important to consider so that you can know your own mind and beliefs as a pagan. To know thyself, which I think is one root of modern paganism, you need to understand and. be able to answer questions from outsiders, these questions will tend to relate to your pantheon and the nature of the Gods. If each Pagan owns their relationship with Gods/Goddesses/Spirit or is an atheist it is necessary to understand and be able to articulate your beliefs.

Of course all of this is just my personal view - I could be utterly and completely wrong

Samhuin Seed Thought - requiem for the year

Being both dead and alive

I spent the evening of Samhuin listening to John Rutter's Requiem, performed by my wife's choir. Rutter is a modern composer but uses his medieval influences to create works that are both modern and old at the same time, much like Druidry. Which is interesting as Rutter has written much Christian religious music but is not, as such, a practising Christian he is agnostic, tending towards atheism when he describes life as a numbers game. As it was Samhuin I meditated, listening to the music, looking at the translated latin Christian lyrics. The theme that the meditation brought was that Samhuin is not only that key boundary between life and death but is also a time when life and death merge...

a picture on our wall

Quantum Samhuin

We are both dying and living at the same time and this is the river of the here and now, where the Awen flows. The cells in our body are constantly dying, creating and living. Cancer is when the cells don't die when they remain alive. Modern western liberal society is a cult of youth that fears death. Contrast that with the Gewessi path where the Anglo-Saxon quote "wyrd bið ful aræd" is very meaningful; my translation is that "Destiny is very determined" can be viewed against the traditional translation that "Fate remains wholly inexorable". My translation is from my modern pagan understanding of the Germanic worldview that Orlog, how a person behaves when facing their wyrd/destiny/doom/fate, has an affect on the web of wyrd afterwards. Whilst the traditional view comes from the classical christian scholarly interpretation that the quote supports a fatalistic worldview. Our Anglo-Saxon forefathers knew full well that death could occur at any time and so their awareness of the balance between life and death was much closer; they lived in a much more uncertain world.
Samhuin is the time to be alive in the balance between life and death.

Jenn, mentioned in my Guldize seed thought, crossed the veil 2 weeks ago

Knuckers, Abraxas and Alchemical transformation

It's funny how a single post on the OBOD forum can start off an interesting & recursive investigation with a sprinkling of Awen and a dash of Alchemical salt. The start was with a post on Water Dragons, which referred to the Lambton Worm and Knuckers. Sussex being a famous place for Knuckers, and from an alchemical point of view, the more important Knucker Hole. The recursive element comes from a story about my childhood - I grew up in a semi-detached house where our neighbour was a single man in his 30's. Throughout the 70's he would have parties, quite loud parties but us kids could only really hear the bass beat coming through the walls. There was one bass beat in particular we loved but we never knew what the song was, or the album. Before the 80's he'd moved house so we never had a chance to ask what that music was. In the 80's we hit our teens and our own musical exploration began, then my sister's boyfriend brought an album round - Santana Abraxas - we heard it and instantly knew that we'd discovered that musical grail from our childhood.

Knucker

The Water Dragon card from the Druid Animal Oracle mentions a myth where there is a little ditty about the Lambton Worm which I noticed has some similarities to the story where Thor goes fishing with the Jotun, Hymir for Jormungand who is one of Loki's children by Angrbodra and is the World Serpent or Ouroboros; the snake eating it's own tail which, some, philosophically relate to Self-reference.
Self-reference or recursion is an essential mathematical understanding for computing and being able to code a successfully recursive routine was part of my early computer coding training. So I am well versed in the mathematics of recursion if not the philosophy of recursion. Although I think my journey through the Ovate work has been pretty recursive.

Jung related Ouroboros, self-reference, to having archetypal significance as part of the universal unconscious - this fits into the story cycle of the Knucker hole which is a really deep watery hole; one where you can't find the bottom and thus travels into the underworld or the deep unconscious mind. Sussex ponds, like the Lyminster Knucker Hole, were/are muddy ponds famous for their muddy deeps and ability to swallow a horse & carriage whole, thus they were feared as a place to get lost in. BTW the mud really stinks I remember my mother being less than pleased after I fell into our local one as a lad.

"In alchemical symbolism dragons are associated with fire and the primal chaotic material. " The Massa Confusa "Mythologically, the night sea journey motif usually involves being swallowed by a dragon or sea monster. It is also represented by imprisonment or crucifixion, dismemberment or abduction, experiences traditionally weathered by sun-gods and heroes ". The night sea journey, described in Jungian thought, is where the hero traverses a difficult and dangerous journey in order to overcome an obstacle and be transformed and strengthened for any trials ahead. This can also be related to a water underworld journey through the Knucker Hole, similar to Beowulf's journey to fight Grendel's mother.

The night sea journey is essential to the Western Mystical tradition and Individuation, in my personal gnosis. Individuation is what made the western mystical path feel like the correct path for me, it's not something that seems to be part of the Eastern Mystical tradition. Individuation is:

1. The act or process of individuating, especially the process by which social individuals become differentiated one from the other
2. The condition of being individuated; individuality
3. Philosophy a. The development of the individual from the general or universal. b. The distinction or determination of the individual within the general or universal
4. In Jungian psychology, the gradual integration and unification of the self through the resolution of successive layers of psychological conflict

Alchemical Transformation

Something else in the investigation of the Knucker also resonated - that in Alchemical thought it can be related to the primal chaos or Massa Confusa. So I wanted to investigate what other creatures are associated with Alchemy and found this list, which relates back to my older post on Alchemy here...

• Blackening - Black Crow, Raven, Salamander, Massa Confusa (or Ouroboros)
• Whitening - White Swan, White Eagle, skeleton
• Greening - Green Lion, Green Dragon
• Rapid cycling through iridescent colours - Peacock's Tail
• White Stone - White stag, Unicorn
• Reddening - Pelican feeding young with its own blood, cockerel
• Final transmutation - Phoenix reborn from the fire

And hidden amongst this search was this virtual bookshop which had a little book about the Search for Abraxas. Hello! Abraxas now that's intriguing! What does Abraxas have to do with Alchemy? Apparently quite a lot...

Abraxas

The seven letters spelling its name may represent each of the seven classic planets or the 7 Alchemical stages. In the system described by Irenaeus (2nd Cent Bishop of Lugdunus in Gaul who was criticizing Gnosticism and it's Alchemical/Magical foundations),..

"the Unbegotten Father" is the progenitor of Nous, (intellect) and from Nous Logos (reason), from Logos Phronesis (practical thought), from Phronesis Sophia (sophistication) and Dynamis (potential), from Sophia and Dynamis principalities, powers, and angels, the last of whom create "the first heaven." They in turn originate a second series, who create a second heaven. The process continues in like manner until 365 heavens are in existence, the angels of the last or visible heaven being the authors of our world. "The ruler" [principem, i.e., probably ton archonta] of the 365 heavens "is Abraxas, and for this reason he contains within himself 365 numbers."  Which takes us back to the Self-referential or recursive nature of the Ouroboros.

Allegedly Abraxas is a mis-translation in Latin of the Greek Abrasax but this led my mind-flow to think of the stages as an equation like this
Abrasax -> Nous -> Logos -> Phronesis -> Sophia -> Dynamis -> Abraxas
which is a self-referential alchemy of logical steps moving from the initial "unbegotten father" of Abrasax to the "first heaven" or paradise of Abraxas. The sum of the numbers is Abrasax is 365 Α = 1, Β = 2, Ρ = 100, Α = 1, Σ = 200, Α = 1, Ξ = 60 and is "the power above all, and First Principle,"

So there we have a flow from the Water Dragon to the Knucker to the deep dark unconscious self, via the Knucker Hole, and this led me to the Alchemical transformation which led me back to my childhood and Abraxas and the musical paradise that is Santana Abraxas. As a youth I must have read Ursule K LeGuin's 'A Wizard of Earthsea' a hundred times and every time I listened to Santana's Abraxas on repeat, the music and story would mean that hours could pass without me recognising the passing of time and barely remembering turning the LP record over. A story about a magical transformation, listening to music about an alchemical transformation whilst I myself was going through a transformation... now how recursive or self-referential is that! It also explains the mystery that my youthful mind had around the cover to Santana Abraxas, the teenager in me viscerally appreciated it, but it's meaning is now revealed; a vision of paradise.

With my earlier post on the Alchemy for personal growth there are now many symbols that can be related to the 7 alchemical steps;

• the Classical planets - Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Sun
• the emotional states - Thinking, Feeling, Rationalising, Rectifying, Dreaming, Condensing, Realising
• the metals - lead, tin, iron, copper, quicksilver, silver, gold
• the animals - Knucker, White swan, Green lion, Peacock, Unicorn, Pelican, Phoenix
• the algebra - original thought, intellect, reason, practical thought, sophistication, potential, enlightenment

These lists of alchemical transformations and logical steps reminds me of the Ogham associations. More importantly what I take from this is that it is an iterative process. Once you have cycled through the stages from one Abrasax to Abraxas state then that becomes the starting point for the next cycle. In computing mathematics the essential part of a recursive routine is the exit clause. What then, philosophically, would be the exit clause within the western mystical tradition from the recursive alchemical cycle of personal transformation? I would posit that the exit clause is complete enlightenment; the western mystical equivalent to the Buddhist nirvana.

Alban Elfed / Guldize Seed Thought

Mortality is a funny thing, just as our media and the British Medical Council like to promote stories that a healthy life will stop you dying young the veneer is stripped away. In the same way that the gold days of Autumn make the land look full of summer vigour before the first storms strip the leaves from the trees. Two things have hammered this message home over the past couple of weeks.

'About Jenn' appeared on my MTB forum a couple of weeks ago. She's an MTB'er and writer for the MTB magazine I subscribe to, I don't know her but I know of her via mutual acquaintance and, when she lived in Sussex, we used to pass each other and give each other a nod on an occasional basis. Mostly when one of us was taking the long way home on our cycle commutes to/from work. She is a local legend, the woman who climbed the Clayton bridleway uphill to the Jack & Jill on a singlespeed MTB without stopping. The woman who would have broken The Great Divide record but for spending 2 days in hospital with a serious illness caught from some dodgy water.

"Well, Jenn Hopkins hit the Mexican border early this morning, making her the seventh and last finisher of this year's Great Divide Race. Given that this English singlespeeder who I had never heard of before last month is my new hero, I was really happy to hear she finished " From here. She was my local hero too and lived the MTB'ers dream.

'About Jenn' told how she's spent the last year diagnosed but living life normally and has now given up work to enter a hospice. She's younger & fitter than me, has had a better healthy vegetarian lifestyle than me, without smoking, and she is dying from lung cancer. It shows how random life can be and that this veneer of control that ourselves and our institutions like to promote is, to quite a large extent, an illusion. You never know when your winter storm will come.

The second thing that happened is I got ill, just a cold, but a couple of days of barely being able to breathe shows that my body is aging, autumnal as I move to being a 50 year old sage next year. Jenn's stoic strength over the past year enabled her to enjoy happy gold days before her strength was sapped by illness. It is a lesson to us all that the autumnal gold days should be seized and enjoyed with passion. Without recrimination or regret about what could or should have been,
Carpe Diem.

Owning your path...

If there's one thing I have learned during the Ovate work of the OBOD Gwersi it is best summed up by this quote about ritual
"you enter Druidry for yourself, not to be part of a club. Clubs have rules and procedures. Druidry does not. The Gwers are there to help you express Your Druidry. Not mine or anyone else's. If your idea of ritual is sitting at home or under a tree mulling over the words and intent of a ritual, then so be it. That's fine. Just make the ritual your own. And yes (horror of horrors!), if you don't like ritual, don't do it! There is nothing in Druidry that says you have to. Just accept that some people find it deeply meaningful and helpful."

But above all, at all times, be your own Druid.

Which links into this quote from Monty Python's Life of Brian "You've got to work it out for yourselves..." because this is not a path where some representative of a doctrine is authorised by the powers of that doctrine to tell you how to act, interact and think. You have to take responsibility for your doctrine, your own thoughts and represent that doctrine with how you choose to live your life in your actions and interactions. You can't abdicate that responsibility, and your freedom, to another being. This is both empowering and harder at the same time. Much like life generally empowerment only comes through effort. From a Gewessi perspective I don't think that the gods want passive sheep, we honour and respect the gods. By being empowered individuals we earn their respect and honour.

Effort is uncomfortable and the greatest rewards are in hindsight, whilst at the time every atom of your being was not enjoying the moment. That your will power overcame the negative wilfulness to achieve the rewards is the key. This ties into the Willa, from my post on the Northern Soul, in the bright Willa brings power in the murk it brings weakness.

Litha seed thoughts

May the smoke bless us and the fire light joy in our hearts

take time to enjoy the moment, smell the roses and be rewarded for your efforts. The days are warming and lots of sunlight means the whole of nature is busy outside maximising the moment and so should you.

When the Long Man of Wilmington leaps into vision of a morning,
when the rising Sunna soaks the Downs in gold,
then you ken the gates are open
and thats a vision for the mind to hold.

I was at a concert, an amateur choir and orchestra with professional leads, performed a Ralph Vaughan Williams programme. Serendipitously it covered the Druidic elements of earth, Towards the Unknown Region, air, The Lark Ascending, and finally the sea with a Sea Symphony. Instead of railing that it meant I would be too tired for an early Solstice dawn I realised that Druidry is about being in the here and now. I was in an architecturally and acoustically fascinating late Victorian Arts and Crafts church listening to a Surrey composer with a Sussex choir and an orchestra from Kent. Gewessi is about the spirit of place and nothing can be more related to the spirit of south east England than that mix.

Prefaced to Vaughan Williams' score of The Lark Ascending is this poem from George Meredith...
He rises and begins to round,
He drops the silver chain of sound.
Of many links without a break,
In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake,
For singing till his heaven fills,
'Tis love of earth that he instils,
And ever winging up and up,
Our valley in his golden cup,
And he with win which overflows
To lift us with him as he goes.

'Till lost on his aerial rings
in light, and then the fancy sings.
Hear the Skylark here which is the sound of summer across the South Downs and from my garden. If Yule is about hearth and family then I think Litha is about getting out and enjoying arts and culture be it a festival, concert or any event that means you appreciate the long days.

Northern Soul - an essay on my view

Introduction

Extending existing heathen research

This essay aims to explore the concepts of the Soul in Heathen terms. Diana L.Paxton, Swain Wodening and the Troth (Ragnar and Rurik) have done much work on this. The term Northern Soul comes from my perception of the commonality between the tribes of Northern Europe whom I group under the term the 'Northern Tribes'. Within this group are the Norse, Germanic, Slavic and Celtic tribes who met in the cultural melting pot of the early medieval period (400CE – 900CE). Evidence to prove this convergence of tribes can be seen most clearly in modern day Scotland where Pictish, Irish, Saxon and Norse people traded, raided and intermingled. In modern times Scotland is regarded as a Celtic nation however during this period it was a mix of the nations of Dalriada (Irish Gaels), Pictland (Proto-Celts?), Strathclyde (Romano-British Celts), and Lothian (Angles/Saxons) but then later on the Vikings (Danes, Norwegians and Swedish) overlaid this by taking control of the Northern and Western isles. I believe that this intermingling of cultures occurred across Europe through trade, marriage and war. This work builds and extends, in my opinion, the work of those mentioned above. It aims to provide a structure for improvement and rune work that will prove useful to other OBOD members following a heathen path. I have also chosen a title that has another meaning, or kenning, here in the UK: "The simplest definition of 'Northern Soul' is Black American Soul music which became popular in a sub-culture in the North of England." A cross-cultural fertilisation in modern times.

Overall Concept

How the Gods created Man

Fundamental to this is the Voluspa of the Poetic Edda where it is described how the Gods created Man. Within this context Man is it's true Anglo-Saxon meaning of person, the word Man is probably derived from the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) word for Mind/Soul/Spirit. Below are two translations of the Poetic Edda text:

Standard translation	Voluspá" (17-18, Hollander's translation)
17. Until there came three mighty and benevolent  Æsir to the world from their assembly.  They found on earth, nearly powerless,  Ask and Embla, void of destiny.	To the coast then came, kind and mighty  from the gathered gods three great Æsir;  on the land they found, of little strength,  Ask and Embla, unfated yet.
18. Spirit they possessed not,  sense they had not, blood nor motive powers, nor goodly colour.  Spirit gave Odin, sense gave Hoenir,  blood gave Lodur and goodly colour.	Sense they possessed not,  soul they had not,  being nor bearing, nor blooming hue;  soul [ond] gave Öthinn,  sense [oðr] gave Hoenir,  being gave Lódhur and blooming hue [lá, læti, litr].

To modern people Odin is the one-eyed All Father and leader of the Norse Pantheon in the Icelandic tradition, Tolkien certainly took many characteristics for Gandalf from Odin.  Hoenir is a little known God who was renowned for his silence.  Lodur is only mentioned in this passage but many, myself included, think that Lodur is another name for Loki.  This triad of Gods (Odin, Hoenir and Loki) appears several times in the Norse myths so it would fit the pattern if Lodur was Loki.

From this we gain a triple view of Man - which we all know of as Mind, Body and Soul.  I have translated this into the concepts of Intellectual Capacity, Physical Capacity and Spiritual Capacity. .  However this is still too simplistic to describe the complexities of the Soul and the Heathen view of the Soul.   A first clue is given in Beowulf:
"ðæs mannes sáwl hæfþ on hire þreö þing, öæt is gemynd and andgit and willa. ðurh öæt gemynd se man geþencþ öa þing öe he gehýrde oòòe geseah oòòe geleornode
man's soul has in it three things, that is memory and understanding and will. By the memory a man recollects the things that he has heard or seen or learned, Homl. Th. i. 288, 18-21: 28."  This triplicate relates to Man's intellectual capacity.  There are other Anglo-Saxon words, besides sáwl/soul that also relate to their view of the soul in it's spiritual capacity:

Fylgja a spirit, often of the opposite sex to the person to which it was attached, which is similar to Jung's Anime/Animus and
Hamingja which is like a guardian angel associated with the luck of an individual or clan.

The various essays on the soul mentioned above combine to produce an emerging picture of the Northern Soul as a 3 x 3 pattern where each of the Capacities is sub-divided into 3 :

Intellect	Memory	Will power
Breath	Spirit	Luck
Body	Skin / Hide	Health

What is foremost here is that the whole is made up of 9. Within Heathen terms 9 is the most powerful of numbers - there are 9 worlds on the World Tree, Odin's ring Draupnir drops 8 rings (which plus itself makes 9) every 9 nights and Thor takes 9 steps at Ragnarok before dying. In these circumstances it is a logical extension that the soul should contain 9 interactive components.

The 3 Parts of Intellectual Capacity

Hyge - Intellect

hyge m: thought, mind, heart, disposition

In Modern English Hyge can best be translated as 'reason'. The definition of reason is a philosophical and psychological question of the highest order and one that I shall not define here. This essay is not about the methods of reason but the view of reason with regards to this heathen's viewpoint on the Soul. How do we view reason? We talk of a person's intellect in terms of bright, dim, strong, weak, quick, slow, shallow or deep. This provides a clue on the person and how we view them. Some people are 'too clever by half' which shows a level of distrust that is mirrored in the Havamal verse (“It is best for a man to be middle wise”).

The Northern view of the intellect should be like Odin's Raven Hugin - our thoughts travel the ether. A Raven flies directly to and from its destination and with its piercing eyes can see all. In this respect the Hyge is our external or conscious representation of intellect. Within working with your own Hyge it is necessary to know yourself. Using a bird analogy is a useful tool to reach this understanding. Consider what sort of bird are you?
An Eagle, lofty, with a keen eye for the bigger picture but not getting involved unless it is to snatch your prey;

A Magpie that is quick and detailed but prone to distraction from bright ideas that pique your interest;

Or maybe you're a Wren busily working on the detail but with little overview for the bigger picture.

To summarize the Hyge is the external representation of one's intellectual capacity. Another theorist, Raymond Cattell, described intelligence as having two distinct factors. The first he called Crystallized Intelligence, representing acquired knowledge, and second, Fluid Intelligence, or our ability to use this knowledge. This reflect the Odin's ravens; If Fluid Intelligence is our Hugin then Acquired Intelligence is the Munin….

Mynd - Memory

gemynd f: memory, consciousness, mind
gemyndig adj: (with gen.) mindful of, remembering, thinking of
The other of Odin's Ravens is called Munin, or Memory, and so between Hugin (thought) and Munin (memory) Odin sees all that occurs in the world. If the memory is a carcass Munin picks over the pieces and retrieves the best morsels for Odin. For most people it is the disorganized state of their connections that means things are forgotten. The process of mind mapping (see links), which is also utilised in the OBOD Gwers, is one to improve the structure of the connections so that they can be searched more efficiently thus improving memory.

The memory is separated into two main parts - the short-term memory and the long-term memory. The short term is said to have a capacity of 7 +/- 2 things. This gives a maximum of 9 and minimum of 5 - things, some people will be able to cope with more, some with less and this will vary depending upon many other factors such as stress, tiredness etc…. These things to remember can be activities, tasks and all the other multitude of things that man has to remember. Once the short-term memory reaches it's maximum it starts to drop things from the list, or in other words, you start to forget things. The long-term memory is where you store all that knowledge that you've learnt. Association is the tree by which the branches and nodes connect to retrieve stored long-term memories.

Your memory is where all you have learnt is stored, parts of the OBOD Gwers are related to improving your memory, it is thought that the Ogham were the basis of a mind mapping system for the Druids. This would explain why there are so many lists of relationships for each of the Ogham. Each of these relationships can extended to create a searchable tree starting at each Ogham letter and then branching onwards. Similarly the Runes can be viewed in the same way - the Ogham tracts include Runes amongst the Ogham. For a non-literate society the memory is important in a way that a literate society finds hard to understand. The third and final aspect of our intellectual capacity is the power that controls the Hyge and Mynd….

Willa - Will

Willa Will is defined as:

1. The mental faculty by which one deliberately chooses or decides upon a course of action: championed freedom of will against a doctrine of predetermination
2. The act of exercising the will
3. Diligent purposefulness; determination: an athlete with the will to win
4. Self-control; self-discipline: lacked the will to overcome the addiction

It has been said that our forebears in the Northern Tribes believed in predetermination because of the existence of the Norns, the 3 weaving women, who knew the future and fate of all things. However throughout the Norse literature there is the thread that individual will and action could affect the outcome of the future and even of fate itself. The Norns maybe weaving the strands of the future but they, and only they, could know all the outcomes. Not even Odin seems to know all there is of the future.

However the will is an essential part of the soul. If one's intellectual capacity is a sword then the Mynd is the material of the sword: stone, bronze, iron or steel, the Hyge is the blade: dull or sharp whilst the handle is the Willa. Some handles are perfect and will work all day whilst others are fragile and collapse under the first strain. The emotions have a direct link to the will - how you feel about something is directly involved with the amount of effort put into it and pleasure received from it. If you enjoy doing something then the will is in harmony with the task.

This is also where it ties into Hoenir's gift. Rydberg best explains this concept: " they received from Hoenir the gift which is called óður. In signification this word corresponds most closely to the Latin mens that material which forms the kernel of a human personality, its ego, and whose manifestations are understanding, memory, fancy, and will.

Vigfusson has called attention to the fact that the epithet langifótur and aurkonungr, "Long-leg" and "Mire-king" applied to Hoenir, is applicable to the stork, and that this cannot be an accident, as the very name Hænir suggests a bird, and is related to the Greek kuknos and the Sanscrit sakunas (Corpus Poet. Bor., i. p. cii.).

There is a story of the creation of man by three wandering gods, who become in mediaeval stories Jesus and SS. Peter and Paul walking among men, as in Champfleury's pretty apologue of the bonhomme misere, so beautifully illustrated by Legros. In the eddic legend one of these gods is called Hæne; he is the speech-giver of Wolospa, and is described in praises taken from lost poems as "the long-legged one" [langifótr], "the lord of the ooze" [aurkonungr]. Strange epithets, but easily explainable when one gets at the etymology of Hæne = hohni = Sansc. sakunas = Gr. kuknos = the white bird, swan, or stork, that stalks along in the mud, lord of the marsh; and it is now easy to see that this bird is the Creator walking in chaos, brooding over the primitive mish-mash or tohu-bohu, and finally hatching the egg of the world. Hohni is also, one would fancy, to be identified with Heimdall, the walker, who is also a creator-god, who sleeps more lightly than a bird, who is also the "fair Anse," and the "whitest of the Anses," the "waker of the gods," a celestial chanticleer as it were (Vigfusson, Corpus Poeticum Boreale, vol. i., Introduction, p. cii., quoted by the translator).

It should be borne in mind in this connection that the stork even to this day is regarded as a sacred and protected bird, and that among Scandinavians and Germans there still exists a nursery tale telling how the stork takes from some saga-pond the little fruits of man and brings them to their mothers. The tale which now belongs to the nursery has its root in the myth, where Hoenir gives our first parents that very gift which in a spiritual sense makes them human beings and contains the personal ego." Quoted from Viktor Rydberg, pg 95.

The 3 Parts of Spiritual Capacity

Ond - Breath

Ond can be translated as 'breath' but really means 'inspiration' as in 'to breathe into' or 'give life to', and in the sense of being poetically, religiously (etc.) 'inspired'. Ond is the gift of life and all that means in terms of desire, vitality and existence.

Rydberg states that it was an old German custom for a father to breathe into his newborn child's mouth. He was thus, symbolically, re-enacting Odin's gift of life to man. In English the term 'to breathe life into', meaning regeneration, is still used. In this respect the heathen and yogic worlds refer to the same Proto-Indo-European heritage.

" Breathing is so simple and so obvious we often take it for granted, ignoring the power it has to affect body, mind and spirit. With each inhale we bring oxygen into the body and spark the transformation of nutrients into fuel. Each exhale purges the body of carbon dioxide, a toxic waste. Breathing also affects our state of mind. It can make us excited or calm, tense or relaxed. It can make our thinking confused or clear. What's more, in the yogic tradition, air is the primary source of prana or life force, a psycho-physio-spiritual force that permeates the universe." Taken from www.yogasite.com

Odin is the giver of Ond and thus life. This is why he is the all-father. His name means furious-inspiration or ecstatic-consciousness, which is similar to the Welsh Awen or Irish Imbas Forosnai. This is all done through the breath - within yogic tradition various breathing exercises can be used to control or balance our state of mind. It is in this respect the relationship between how (and what) we breathe and our state of mind that Ond is important within the soul. This spiritual aspect can thus be seen as the connective point between the Lich, or body, and the Hyge, or mind. The breath is also linked to the voice - singers and in older days speakers (including the Celtic Druids and Heathen Skalds) were taught how to breath and speak; oratory. It is within the breath that the power of the voice can come through.

Like the Hyge the Ond thus becomes the external representation of our spiritual capacity which is why they appear on the same axis.

Fylgja - Spirit

Fylgja(literally: she, who follows) is a supernatural being which accompanies a person.

It could be conceived of as a person's ethereal spirit that was separated from the body. However it could also be conceived of as a guardian angel (often a female ancestor) who protects one during their life. The fylgja could appear in a form that was most appropriate to the need. A warlike man consequently could have a wolf, boar or a bear for a fylgja. The fylgja appeared during sleep either in dreams or physically, but the sagas relate that they could appear when a person was awake as well. Seeing one's fylgja was an omen of one's death c.f. doppelganger. Many modern heathens, inspired by Jung, see the fylgja as ones anima / animus. In these terms it is the complementary inner workings of the external person. This is why it is the opposite gender to the physical person.

"The persona, the ideal picture of a man as he should be, is inwardly compensated by feminine weakness, and as the individual outwardly plays the strong man, so he becomes inwardly a woman, i.e., the anima, for it is the anima that reacts to the persona. But because the inner world is dark and invisible . . . and because a man is all the less capable of conceiving his weaknesses the more he is identified with the persona, the persona's counterpart, the anima, remains completely in the dark and is at once projected, so that our hero comes under the heel of his wife's slipper.[Jung, "Anima and Animus," CW 7, par. 309.]"

within the terminology here it can be seen as the core self of the individual. It is the basic guts of the spirit or soul, in other words the 'astral body' of the person. This would be the ancestral, spiritual element that is brought to an individual as well as the non-physical energy of the individual. The astral body travels with the mynd and hamr during sleep.

"No man is an island." We are the product of millennia of people, generation upon generation, that have come to fruition in a single person. Whether the fylgja is some sort of internal, instinctive link to ourselves and our ancestors or an actual presence within the world is not the focus of this essay. That it does exist and is an element to be understood and related to is the focus of this essay. The more this element is repressed by the conscious persona the more it retreats into the dark, unconscious world where it's workings cannot be understood.

In this respect the Fylgja is also the physical ancestral memory of the individual - which is why Fylgja is on the same axis as the Mynd.

Hamingja - Luck

Hamingja is a kind of female guardian angel in Scandinavian mythology. It was believed to accompany a person and to decide his luck and happiness.

Consequently, the name was also used to signify happiness, and this is what it means in modern day Icelandic. When a person died, the hamingja passed to a dear relative and so the hamingja accompanied a family during several generations and decided its luck and happiness.

The luck of a person was central to their Orlog and Wyrd, or karma and fate in more modern parlance however the Hamingja could be inherited from the clan or tribe. However what is 'luck' - some people are born lucky whilst others make their own luck. However luck has been described as the place where 'opportunity meets ability' - this seems to sum it up. A family with a strong Hamingja will probably be a family that encourages opportunity but it will require an individual with strong ability to be exceptionally lucky. Equally an individual can increase their ability to such a level that they seem exceptionally lucky whilst nominally coming from an unlucky family.

The main effect of the Hamingja is upon one's attention and focus. True happiness has been described as that moment when you are fully and totally engaged in the moment within time and space. In many respects the Hamingja is similar to what sports psychologists call 'the zone'. The zone has been described as 'the place where the mind and body are united in purpose' also as the 'ultimate in human experience'. The Hamingja is the representation of this ineffable quality. Within the modern world it can be seen that instead of the clan or tribe having a group Hamingja it can be applied to teams or other groupings of people. Within sports it can be seen how the Hamingja can affect a team and how team's have their own Hamingja, usually grouped around certain emotional leaders within the team. These emotional leaders have strong Hamingja.

When a person has lost contact with their Hamingja then they remain unfocussed on the essence of the here and now and, in Hindu terms, are subject to the illusions of their existence. This is why the Hamingja is thought of as a 'female guardian angel' or Disir. I have taken Disir to mean a female ancestral spirit who acts as a guardian over the individual. Obviously this will often be a grandmother or great-grandmother but can also be a mother or an even older ancestral spirit. A mother makes a powerful Disir. If one's actions upset or anger the Disir then bad luck is sure to follow and, in extreme cases, death. In Fornaldar Sögur: Hálf's Saga (XV) it says:
Dead must be

All your dísir

Luck is gone, I say,

From Hálfr's warriors,

I dreamed this morning

That our powers

Vanquished yours

When they met together.
It is these aspects where the Hamingja is the ineffable spiritual quality within an individual it is aligned with the Willa as the ineffable intellectual quality.

The 3 Parts of Physical Capacity

Lich - Body

lík, n. (1) the living body (við þat l. at lifa); (2) the dead body, corpse (jarða l. e-s).

Whilst not used in the Eddas I've used this to mean the outward physical appearance of a person. Although the literal translation is blood and blooming hue within the Eddas the translation appears to mean those physical aspects of a person. The physical aspects of a person are those things that you are born with. This outward appearance has archetypes associated with it that affects all people as they grow - the cute blonde, the concorde nose, the hare lip or other physical difference affect the individual and the external worlds reaction to them.

The physical aspects can be changed such as hair-style and colour, clothing and all the other things that our consumer body conscious culture provides - contact lenses to change eye colour, fake tans and designer clothing. These can change the outward appearance but none of them are long lasting or, as with cosmetic surgery, completely integrated into the whole person.

It is dangerous though to underestimate the power of the lich. Whilst people who are obsessive about their outward appearance are thought of as vain and shallow, the effect of changing the lich can be tremendous. The archetype of the ugly duckling that wears drab, dowdy clothing being turned into the swan is a powerful one with good reason. Sometimes changing the physical aspect of the lich can have profound affects on the whole spirit. Just like dressing up in your 'glad rags' to go out will improve one's mood and dressing in a uniform can affect a person's whole bearing. Similarly growing or cutting the hair can have a dramatic affect upon how one is perceived - a long hair and beard gives a 'wild man' appearance whilst a smooth face and short hair cut is regarded as professional.

It is this external representation of one's physical appearance that aligns the Lich with the Ond and Hyge.

Hamr - Hide

hamr (-s, -ir)m. (1) skin, slough; hleypa hömum, to cast the slough (of snakes); (2) shape, form; skipta hömum, to change one’s shape.

In this essay Hamr will mean the underlying physique & chemistry of a person. However there is also a non-physical aspect to the hamr. The can be viewed not only as their physiology but also their charisma. The physiology contains such things as the pheromones and your body type - whether you are an ectomorph, endomorph or mesomorph - which not only affect your inner world but also affect how the external world views you.

Everyone, despite what some dictionaries may say, has charisma. However a great leader will have innate positive charisma whilst a great actor is able to manipulate and project charisma. A good way to understand the Hamr is via acting. The greatest actors, like Kevin Spacey for example, can manipulate their hamr to really 'become' the part they are playing so that the audience believes in their portrayal. Celebrity actors, such as Sylvester Stallone, can only affect their Lich whilst all along the audience can see through to their hamr and see the celebrity playing a part.

Some people have negative charisma - those who come across as smelly, slimy or untrustworthy reflect this - but the Hamr can be changed. Physical training can change your physique and physiology from a 'lard-arse' to a 'racing snake'. This has affects on your body chemistry and charisma.

There is one final part that relates to the Hamr and that is muscle memory. It is where repetition of physical exercise becomes ingrained into the body so that it can be performed sub- consciously. Within the martial art of Karate Kata aims to achieve this. This is also why the Hamr is on the same line as the Mynd and Fylgja.

Feorh - Health

feorh(1) life, soul, spirit (2)a living being, person (3)life-blood feonda feorum, 'with the life-blood of foes'

Here the term feorh is taken to mean life-blood in respects to the physical well being and health of the person. The blood affects the health in many ways - an endurance athlete's body will produce and contain more blood than an average person. This is a physiological affect from their training. However the health can also be called a person's physical constitution - they can be as 'strong as an ox' or as 'frail as a bird'.

Once again one's basic health is not something that can be changed. However outside factors such as training, diet and lifestyle have been proven to have large effects upon health. Within Yogic and ancient Greek Epicurean thought 'you are what you eat' was one of their driving principles. It is as true today as then with the 'fast food' culture being pointed to as the source of our modern obesity problems. As we learn more about allergies and illness it can be viewed that we are organisms within the world we live. Every teaspoon of earth-soil has more living bacteria than there are people on the earth-planet. In this respect the 50's anti-bacterial, over- cleanliness culture created an unnatural environment where a child's body is not trained to be healthy in the world. We now seem to be learning that a sanitised, centrally-heated / air- conditioned environment is both unnatural and unhealthy.

Those with ox like constitutions are often brought up in a natural warts-and-all household that prepares them for the temperature changes, bugs and challenges that Mother Earth provides. However one's health is the ineffable individual physical quality - which aligns it with the Hamingja and Willa.

Working with the elements of Northern Soul

Relationships between them

The next thing is to evaluate these 9 parts and the relationships between them. A good way to start is to use a SWAT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Advantages, Threats) analysis of each of these parts. The next aim is to achieve a balance of the whole. The aim has to be to develop the weakest parts up to the same level and then the whole can be worked upon. The other concept to understand is that each part is in a constant state of flux. Our natural biorhythms will affect it, the growing up and aging process will affect it and one's life events will alter it. In this respect the OBOD Gwers provide lessons on developing many aspects of the Northern Soul, but not all. In concept this all seems easy, in reality the stresses and strains of everyday life make this balancing act akin to plate spinning (a circus act where the performer balances spinning plates on top of poles).

Unlike plate spinning each of these parts has an impact, like the ripples from a stone dropped in a pond, on the others around it. I shall describe some examples to explain the point:

• A strong Mynd will directly influence the Willa and Hyge and Fylgja - the strength of memory means that lessons learnt are remembered better - this strong memory means that outwardly it is perceived that your are smart or clever. This is its affect on the Hyge. The strong memory feeds the Willa; meaning that the memory of the pain of past lapses of will encourages the growth of willpower in the future. Having strong memories of childhood, grandparents and ones wider ancestry provides a greater connection and interaction with the fylgja. This is aids in the knowledge of who you are and how you got here.
• A weak Feorh will mean that energy levels are low, this shows in the Hamr as lethargy. Due to bad health it feels like the Hamingja is lacking, when you are ill you become clumsy and unlucky. Similarly the Fylgja becomes depressed, introverted and weak.
• A strong Fylgja can almost override any weakness in the other parts - it is the sign of what Xtians would call a saint, such as Mother Theresa, who have an internal aura that shows through the other parts.
• A beautiful Lich will encourage the individual to develop their Hamr to keep themselves good looking. As they are attractive their Ond will be often be attractive to others and will give them confidence to speak, also this beauty will affect how people behave towards them and this will affect the development of their Fylgja.

The theory is that each section affects most heavily those surrounding it - this is why the Fylgja affects all the other parts. On the second level of separation it depends upon the effect upon the first level section and the strength of that section.

It is necessary for each individual to examine their self and understand, in an analytical way, their strengths and weaknesses. Obviously this is a hard thing to do and often it is only by using each part that one can understand it. I firmly believe that each part can be developed though and that in developing each part the whole is strengthened. Like a plant though it is the weakest parts that need the hardest work. There is a difficulty and risk within this though - to fully understand an aspect of yourself it is often necessary to push that aspect to its limits. Pushing yourself to your limits, in whatever respect, contains risk but as Nietzsche said "there's no gain without pain".

Developing them

Once the Self-SWAT analysis has been investigated then it is time to see which areas need to be balanced. I have listed this with a view to Advice and Guidance for individuals to find their own path. It is impossible to guess what is best for an individual; only that individual or their close circle of friends and family will be able to understand them well enough to make the choice. These choices will also change over time either through desire, growth or other necessity. Below are some paths that I have either tried or had close contact and communication with people who have followed these paths.

Meditation

Meditation can be done in many ways - obviously OBOD has it's own ways of meditating whilst Zen Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism and Yoga all have their own influences. The Heathen type of meditation can best be summed up in the old proverb "Sometimes I sits and thinks, sometimes I just sits." Within the Epicureans of ancient Greece they also understood that time to contemplate the past, present and future is necessary to a human's well being. If someone is uncomfortable with prescribed meditation they could try finding somewhere with a beautiful view, sitting down and watching the world go by for sometime.

This will develop the Willa to control the constant chatter of the mind that comes from the Hyge and Mynd. Meditation can also develop the Ond via it's concentration on breath control during some sorts of meditation. I see the deeper purpose of meditation is greater connection with the Fylgja through the Willa. Obviously as you practice more meditation becomes ingrained into the Mynd and the calmness it produces affects the Hamingja.

Puzzles, Games and Learning

Rather than sitting in front of the television why not do something else - the benefits are proven that reading, learning new things, playing puzzles and other games are proven to stem the onsets of aging. All of these things help keep the Hyge sharp and the Mynd in use. This is why they are important in child development but it is dangerous to think that "I'm an adult and don't need to do them" as that is the way of stagnation and dis-ease. As with all things it seems that "use it or lose it" is the order of the day and so it is necessary to build them into your lifestyle in order to keep growing.

Physical Training

Exercise, in it's many forms, obviously develops the Hamr and can develop the Ond. It will also affect the Feorh and Lich - the body (Lich, Hamr and Feorh) can be seen as an engine. If any engine is left unused or un-maintained then it doesn't function effectively. Over time it becomes clogged up and eventually performance is irrevocably damaged.

Humans are efficient by being like water - they find the path of least resistance - which is a great survival trait in a harsh, unforgiving world but in the modern western world it leads to dis-ease. In many respects this is what the pain of exercise is - the lazy body complaining. Once past that pain pleasure comes from the release of endorphins and adrenaline. This advice comes with the cautionary message about being able to recognise between the types of physical pain. Sharp-stabbing pain is bad and it is usually best to stop doing the exercise if you receive a sharp, stabbing pain. If it's a fatigue like pain (within the first half-hour of exercising) this is often just the body being lazy. As with all exercise no program should be started without consulting your doctor or proper training from a professional. With all physical training it's important to find something:
a) You enjoy

b) Fits in with your lifestyle - ideally something that you can do daily.

Stretching

I've deliberately separated this from physical training as in many respects they are quite separate. Usually a physical exercise program includes some stretching but only stretching relating to that sport. Most low-impact exercise systems such as Tai Chi, Yoga or Pilates include an all over holistic stretching programme. This holistic approach to the body is important in keeping balance overall.

During youth this does not seem important as the body remains supple and recovers quickly, however, it is also important in avoiding injury & muscle imbalance at all ages. With the onset of maturity and older age gradual imbalances in the holistic body can become the source of chronic pain symptoms. Regular use of an exercise system can help control this and encourage the body to recover.

There is an added advantage to a holistic stretching programme - they usually strengthen the inner core body. This inner core contains the deep, underlying muscles that support us each and every day - our head, pelvis and back. These are the muscles that could be related, in yogic terms, to your Kundalini power. Physical training is usually about training the outer muscles, in doing this they incidentally train the inner core, but the holistic strengthening of the inner core is essential to every day well being in a way that physical training is not.

Chi / Qi / Nwyvre

The Chi of Taoist thought would correspond directly, in my opinion, to the following sections: Ond, Mynd, Hamingja, Hamr and of course Fylgja. That is Breath, Memory, Luck, Physique and Spirit. However the martial artists develop Ond, Mynd, Hamingja, Hamr in order to perform their feats of agility, strength and power. By developing these four aspects they enhance / tap into the Fylgja. This doesn't mean that you must immediately take up Kung-fu or Karate! There are many other ways of developing it. Any physical activity can develop the Qi, such things as singing will develop the Breath & Memory whilst not necessarily influencing one's luck and physique.

Obviously Tai Chi is directly aimed at the development of this. Yoga is another form of development through the Asanas (Yoga posture), Pranayama (breathing exercises) and Meditation. Any programme to develop Chi relates not only to physical training but is a holistic approach to physical and spiritual well-being and development.

Ritual & Runework

Ritual

The power of ritual is used within all cultures – even non-religious organisations (such as communist ones) use ritual. Within the Heathen view the Blot (a religious ceremony) can be used to connect with and strengthen the Fylgja & Hamingja, exercises like the Light-Body exercise also do this. Ritual is dealt with extensively elsewhere and is specific to one’s path or organisation (such as the OBOD Gwers) I am noting here it’s aspect which it primarily influences.

Runework

Within runework I have found that picking 9 runes and placing them in a deosil spiral, corresponding to the 9 parts and starting at the Hyge, then the Mynd, Willa, Hamingja, Feorh, Hamr, Lich, Ond and finally the Fylgja provides a good reading. There is an assumption here that the reader will already know and understand the Runes and my intention is only to give some advice and guidance on things to look for in the patterns.

First analyse each rune and it's position, then analyse the patterns and the relationships in the patterns. Think about how the Rune relates to that position and what it could be saying. Once this has been done it's best to look at the patterns and relationships of the Runes to one another. There are 9 patterns to view:

The Horizontal Patterns

• The Intellect - Hyge, Mynd, Willa
• The Spiritual - Ond, Fylgja, Hamingja
• The Physical - Lich, Hamr, Feorh

The Vertical Patterns

• The External - Hyge, Ond and Lich
• The Ethereal - Mynd, Fylgja and Hamr
• The Internal - Willa, Hamingja and Feorh

The Complex Patterns

• The Chi - Ond, Mynd, Hamingja and Hamr
• The Pentagon - Hyge, Willa, Feorh, Lich and Fylgja
• The Soul - all 9 runes laid out

Via the Blog I would be interested in hearing other Runeworkers experiences in this.
Has it been helpful, worthwhile or not?

Does this just work for me or more generally?

What insights has it given (if any)?

And finally...

Conclusion

Whilst this does not intend to be the all and end all on the subject I hope it's provided food for thought. I have found it beneficial in use for myself and as a model it has been useful within self-analysis. I find it's cheaper than a psychotherapist ;-) Within Runework I have found it to fit naturally into my method of usage which is why I am curious as to whether this is a purely personal approach or would have a wider benefit. I believe that each person's interaction with the Runes is unique and subjective and so any feedback both positive and negative would be useful.

In the advice and guidance above I have not mentioned the Stav Academy which is a holistic training programme within the Runes that includes Yoga like stances and healing knowledge. The reason I've not mentioned it is that I've not met anyone who uses it. However for further information please go to Stav International.

Links

• D. Paxton
• V. Rydberg
• Swain Wodening
• Mind Maps
• Memory
• Yoga
• Hamingja
• Body Types
• Old Norse