Do You See As I See?

Asatruar are typically familiar with the tale of Odin’s sacrifice on Yggdrasil to obtain the runes,

the mysteries of life and sacred secrets of the cosmos.[1] Proudly they retell the story of All-Father’s quest for wisdom and His nine-day ordeal.[2] Like warriors raising a horn in praise of their chieftain, they brag of Odin, His victory, and His selfless and gracious bestowal of those sacred runes upon His folk for their own progression and enlightenment as well.

Contemporary Asatru Folk, on a much more exoteric level than perhaps ever before, are also beginning to recognize the tale of Odin’s ordeal as not just a tale which gives some linguistic or historical account of how the rune staves came into being; but, personalizing, internalizing and owning the text, they have come to understand the myths as a series of linguistic symbols written within a spiritual literary genre for their reader’s own receipt of the “runes,” the Northern Gnosis, if you will. With the spiritual revolution and reawakening of our Folk, the “self-authorizing” language used by the ancients and the subsequent meaning of the text is being attuned to the European psyche en masse, moving from the esoteric halls of the few to the more common and exoteric hofs of today’s awakening Odinic spiritual-warriors.

Remembering, recognizing, accepting, and acting upon the truth that our lore was not simply written as some childhood fairy tale to be forgotten once one attained to adulthood is the call heard by today’s guardians and protectors of Bifrost. The traditions recorded within our myths were purposefully, intentionally, and with the same attitude of every other piece of spiritual text ever written set to parchment to deliver and reveal some gnosis, some intuitive knowledge (understanding intuition as being that which is taught from within) inherently tied to our Northern mysteries. This is that “yell,” that awakening which has ignited the amber of our soul and sheds new light upon our Way, revealing in the process new avenues of approach to the Holy Powers perhaps never considered before.

Prayer as Bipolar Communication!

On the ninth of each month, I participate with a group of about eighty Asatruar from around the world to make an Odin blot in veneration and honor of All-Father Odin. The event itself is called the Odin World Prayer Day; there is naturally neither a formal liturgy which needs to be read nor a particular ritual which needs to be conducted; and, the intent of our combined efforts is that, as a collective Odinic-consciousness, we might “reach beyond ourselves and touch the Divine.”

Participation in the Odin World Prayer Day is left to the dictates of one’s conscience. The blot may be a short observance or an elaborate ceremony. The work of Stephen McNallen having resonated with me for over a dozen years now, I personally prefer to use the Odin Blot model provided in Appendix Two in his book, Asatru: A Native European Spirituality.[3]

One such day, during my evening reflection, I became aware that, though I had asked for protection during my ritual earlier so that “I may listen to the wisdom within [me] and without [me]”; I blessed my horg (alter) so that my mind could be made “hallowed and whole, given to the good of the Gods and the Folk”; I proclaimed adamantly that I heard Odin “in the rustling leaves of the grove, and in the wild fury of the full-blown tempest….in the cry of the raven, and in the call of the wolf….in the shout of the warrior, and in the words of the skalds”; I had heard nothing.

Veneration to Odin earlier that day having now created a vacuum in need of being filed, and thoughts on the matter returning me in attitude to the very time and place of my earlier activity, placing my once again in that altered state of prayer and communion with Pure-Consciousness, I was able, despite my earlier perception of a missed opportunity, to hear and recognize the intended lesson from my earlier ritual—which was, “With all that you said,….you forgot to listen.” Truly a humbling proclamation by one’s Higher Self toward one claiming to be on the alert for the sound of Heimdall’s Gjallarhorn.

When making the Odin Blot on these particular monthly occasions now, in response to and in the hope of never hearing such an admonishment again, I also insert an element which I have designated my “rite of contemplative prayer.” The intent of this additional rite is to purposely set aside, and thus literally make sacred, a period of conscious listening for the bipolar communication that is intended during periods of prayer and ritual.

The Rite of Contemplative Prayer

What is Contemplative Prayer?

Used in Eastern mysticism (to include some Eastern Orthodox and Christian Contemplative Orders like those of St. Francis of Assis), gnostic instruction, and as a fundamental component in today’s methods and techniques of path-working, whether on an individual or group meditative level, contemplative prayer is a proven and an effective tool for promoting this kind of bipolar communication—which not only transmits petitions to the divine, but which receives messages and answers to those requests from the divine as well.

By its very design contemplative prayer fosters an atmosphere for the practitioner’s meditative, mystical, spiritual, and subjective experience. The practice creates a one-on-one, face-to-face communicative state with the psyche that most people may only experience during their deepest moments of REM and the dream state.

A Basic Rite of Contemplative Prayer  

• Spend some time reading a particular myth, saga or section of such that you wish to develop a deeper understanding of, familiarity with, or mystical experience from.
• Read your selection at least two or three times so that you get a good flow of the story and are able to retell it in your own words;
• Having placed yourself in a meditative state, “watch” the myth or saga with the mind’s eye, allowing the subconscious to fill in those areas not specifically detailed in the story line itself. Remain conscious of the activity enough to keep the details of the tale true to the written lore, while allowing intuitive knowledge, i.e. gnosis, to fill in that which is left by the myth for the Holy Powers (i.e. the deepest consciousness) to express, reveal, and teach.
• Research, Contemplate, Apply, and Record your personal experience.

Potential Hazards of Contemplative Prayer

To satisfy those who would point their fingers and shout UPG from the roof tops at such a practice in reconstructionist Asatru, there are always two specific guidelines followed by those proficiently practicing and propagated by those properly teaching contemplative prayer among Asatru Folk: 1) our Holy Powers are not tyrants, and 2) the Lore is black and white.

Recognizing “Unverified Personal Gnosis”

Bedrock for the Asatru faith is that our Holy Powers never present themselves as tyrants and authoritarians to their people. On a psychological level, one experiencing such a mystical and meditative state as that encountered during periods of contemplative prayer then, when communion with these Holy Powers is expected to be at its most personal and intimate, perhaps even ecstatic, would never expect to be “commanded” to act in any particular manner. Commands and demands sensed by the participant during such exercises are to be recognized then, as has become the term, as “unverified personal gnosis” and should not be given the weight of true gnosis.

Instruction during this time will typically come in the way of a question realized by the participant, and typically with the intent to cause the participant to then realize some eternal (i.e. divine) principle within the nature and character of the cosmos, the participant him- or herself, and subsequently, even of the divine Themselves.

Avoiding “Unverified Personal Gnosis”

The second guideline for an effective rite of contemplative prayer is that the participant remembers—the Lore is black and white. Now for those who are still with me and have not gone into cardiac arrest because of that statement, let me assure you that this has nothing to do with any dogmatic, liturgical, or orthodox enforcement of either our tradition or our mythos. The wording of this admonishment itself, however, is meant to be followed quite literally.

For those who participate in the exercise of contemplative prayer, especially when drawing inspiration from a written myth or saga, the tale that is constructed by the black space of the ink on the page must never be violated. This is the supportive structure of our temples and the skeleton upon which the body of our teachings is given form. Like other religious and spiritual writings however, to think of this black space formed by the ink on the page as all there is to our lore is not only a grave error in the process of one’s spiritual growth, but it is as much an error as one’s flawed observation of the written lore before them, which is physically, as well as mystically, presented through both the mode of the black of the ink on the page as well as the white space which is caused by the absence of any such ink. It is in this white space that one is free to use and allow the imagination and intuition to act as a guide along the road paved by that ink on the page.

My “Odin World Prayer Day,” 3-9-17.

An additional reason for today’s Asatruar taking a different perspective of their written spiritual literature is that contemporary Asatruar are thinking more about their religious beliefs, what that means to them in their daily life, and how that meaning will then influence their lifestyle choices from the management of their households, the education of their children, and even the rendering of decisions related to political issues and national interests. But, can simply altering one’s perspective as described in the single, four-pointed paragraph above really make such a drastic and profound difference in one’s spiritual experiences and everyday lifestyle?

In demonstration of my affirmative answer to the question just presented, and in the way of a short introduction and presentation on the practical application of contemplative prayer, I offer a brief example using the story of Odin’s other sacrifice for the sake of obtaining wisdom, that of the sacrifice of His eye at Mimir’s Well as recorded in The Poetic Edda, Völuspá, stanza 28; and The Prose Edda, Gylfaginning 15.

On this occasion, and always in search of cosmic knowledge, Odin traveled to ask Mimir, guardian of what some believe to be the Well of Urd among the roots of Yggdrasil, for a drink from the well so He too might see with the wisdom that Mimir possessed.[4] Mimir’s requirement for such wisdom, as a gift will always require a gift, was the sacrifice of an eye by Odin. Ultimately determining the value in such a trade, Odin eventually proceeded to gouge out and drop one of his eyes into the very depths of the well he wished to drink from.

After reading the text several times at the designated time in my ritual, and fast forwarding beyond the most de facto interpretations of the myth—that no sacrifice is too great for wisdom and that Odin’s trading of an eye was a literary symbol for the exchanging of one form of vision, or perception, for another (i.e. the mundane and profane for the sacred and spiritual)—there were two vivid instances in the play-back portion of the exercise that stood out for me to investigate and consider further: Odin’s initial response to the anguish and fear of having to gouge out His own eye and the future ramifications that would create, and, the contemplative process in which Odin Himself went through in determining the value of spiritual vision over physical sight. As I thought about these elements of the myth, I began to see that they were not actually two elements needing separate interpretation or consideration, but that they were meant to be seen as complements to each other as an aid in revealing an even deeper truth—that whether dealing with the psychological mechanics of fear or the physical properties of vision, we as humans are creatures of the reality we create for ourselves.

Serendipitous to this particular myth and that of Mimir’s name meaning The Rememberer, the thought of Odin’s having to deal with the fear of going blind merged with His subsequent altered perception of reality as a single piece of instruction came not from some miraculous opening of the sky; but, from a powerful flood of memories which came over me of a motivational speaker which I had heard some months earlier.

Following through on the gift of that particular memory and sharing the personal, individual, and subjective significance of its manifestation; the personal, individual, and subjective result of my use of contemplative prayer; and, my personal, individual, and subjective belief in the effectiveness of such mystical tools and meditative practices, I offer several excerpts from that 2016 lecture by Isaac Lidsky, the lecture which came to the forefront of my thoughts during my time of ritual and prayer:

Going blind taught me to live my life eyes wide open….

I learned that what we see is not universal truth. It is not objective reality. What we [each] see is a unique, personal, virtual reality that is massively constructed by our brain....

Sight is one-third of your brain by volume, and can claim about two-thirds of your brain’s processing resources….

Sight is an illusion….

To create the experience of sight, your brain references your conceptual understanding of the world, other knowledge, your memories, opinions, emotions, mental attention. All of these things, and far more, are linked in your brain to your sight….

So, for example, what you see impacts how you feel, and the way you feel can literally change what you see….

We have arrived at a fundamental contradiction. What you see is a complex mental construction of your own making but you experience it passively as a direct representation of the world around you. You create your own reality and you believe it.

Sight is [however] just one way we shape our reality. We create our own realities in many other ways. Let’s take, fear, as just one example.

Your fears distort your reality. Under the warped logic of fear anything is better than the uncertain. Fear fills the void at all costs, passing off what you dread for what you know, offering up the worst in place of the ambiguous, substituting assumption for reason….

Fear is self-realizing. When you face the greatest need to look outside yourself and think critically, fear beats a retreat deep inside your mind, shrinking and distorting your view, drowning your capacity for critical thought with a flood of disruptive emotions.

When you face a compelling opportunity to take action, fear lulls you into inaction, enticing you to passively watch its prophecies fulfill themselves.

I knew blindness would ruin my life. Blindness was a death sentence for my independence, it was the end of achievement for me. Blindness meant I would live an unremarkable life, small and sad, and most likely alone. I knew it!

This was a fiction born of my fears; but, I believed it. It was a lie; but it was my reality. If I had not confronted the reality of my fears, I would have lived it. I am certain of that!

So, how do you live your life with eyes wide open? It is a leaned discipline. It can be taught. It can be practiced. I’ll summarize very briefly:

• Hold yourself accountable for every moment, every thought, every detail;
• See beyond your fears;
• Recognize your assumptions;
• Harness your internal strength;
• Silence your internal critic;
• Correct your misconceptions about luck and about success;
•  Accept your strengths and your weaknesses—and understand the differences;
• Open your heart to your beautiful blessings.

Your fears, your critics, your heroes, your villains, they are your excuses, rationalizations, shortcuts, justifications, your surrender. They are fiction you perceive as reality. Choose to see through them. Choose to let them go.

You are the creator of your reality. With that empowerment comes complete responsibility.[5]

---

[1] The Poetic Edda, Hávamál, stanzas 138-163. 

[2] Use of capital letters when referencing deities (e.g. He/She, His/Her, They/Theirs) stems from a contemporary, 21st century element of respect and veneration, as well as an aid in textural criticisms, and not from any Victorian superstition.

[3] (Nevada City: Runestone Press, 2015), 195-198.

[4] Paul C. Bauschatz, The Well and the Tree: World and Time in Early Germanic Culture (1982).

[5] “What reality are you creating for yourself?” Ted Talks. Published Oct. 27, 2016. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmpu58yv8-g

The Way of the Einherjar

Hung I was on the windswept tree;

Nine full nights I hung,

Pierced by a spear, a pledge to the god,

To Odin, myself to myself,

On that tree, which none can know the source

From whence its root has run.

None gave me bread, none brought a horn.

Then low to earth I looked.

I caught up the runes, roaring I took them,

And fainting, back I fell.

Nine mighty lays I learned from the son

Of Bolthorn, Bestla’s father,

And a draught I had of the holy mead

Poured out of Ordrerir.

Then fruitful I grew, and greatly to thrive,

In wisdom began to wax.

A single word to a second word led,

A single poem a second found.

–Odin's Song
Hávamál, stanzas 138 – 141

(emphasis added)

'One of my first mentors—a Jesuit priest, Martinist initiate, and Christian mystic in his own right, Frater I:.N:. I shall call him—insisted that I study, of all things, my own ancestral “old testament”. Fra. I:.N:. often stressed that, while adopted by the Christian church to act as the “catholic,” or “universal,” folk religion for all its initiates, the Old Testament of the Bible is actually specific to the tribes of Israel, as it is a record of their ancient religion and how they interpreted the divine within their particular culture.[i]

Being of South American descent himself, Fra. I:.N:., in conjunction with and compliment of his own studies in the Christian Mysteries, had made it a point to also study the ancient religions of the Incan, Aztec, and Mayan tribes.[ii] It was Fra. I:.N:.’s connection with, appreciation for, and perspective from his ancestral religion which he considered the most significant contributing factors in his own spiritual pilgrimage and religious experience.

As the “Northern-gnostic” among his protégés, Fra. I:.N:. naturally directed my studies toward the Pre-Christian folk religion of the indigenous Europeans (the Celtic, Scandinavian, and Germanic tribes)[iii] and that of their even earlier ancestors, the Proto-Indo-European Aryans.[iv]

Fra. I:.N:. strongly believed (and passed that belief onto me), that our deepest, most innermost and meaningful spiritual experiences, as well as the keys to unlocking their mysteries, are inherently linked to our knowledge of ourselves, our ancestors, and our cultural heritage.[v] This eternal principle, he would point out, is embedded within Wagner’s Parsifal, allegorized within the Hermetic text Pistis Sophia or the Christian parable of the Prodigal Son, shadowed within and echoed throughout the lectures of a masonic lodge, and even portrayed and cinematized as part of Neo’s introduction to the Oracle or Luke Skywalker’s training under Yoda.[vi] 
In addition to Fra. I:.N:.’s parallel instruction on modern metagenetics and DNA gnosticism,[vii] to “know thyself” has been a vital element in the spiritual training of aspiring priests and clerics since antiquity. The ancients were astutely aware of the significance which past events, and one’s responses and actions to them, had in providing insight into the aspirant’s ministerial forte. These ancients recognized and taught that one’s experiences of “self-healing” both provided and indicated the arena in which one would discover and develop their specific niche in the service and healing of others.[viii]
Adamantly emphasized in modern Ministry programs as well, within just weeks after beginning my graduate studies I had been assigned the Spiritual Transformation Inventory (STI), the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the Strong Interest Inventory (SII), the Spiritual Gifts Inventory, and the DVC Learning Styles Inventory. Expressed within such formal academic settings however, the admonishment to know one’s self does not typically stem from an attitude eager to foster celebration in one’s spiritual victories. Contemporary factors for the administering of these inventories include: 1) the necessity for clergy to have a realistic view of their strengths and limitations so that they might accurately focus their efforts to the betterment of their ministerial community; and 2) to prevent the unconscious influence of the clergy’s own experiences, preconceptions, stereotypes and prejudices to be projected upon individual community members.[ix]
Donald Tyson, author of New Millennium Magic: A Complete System of Self-Realization, summarizes his thought on self-knowledge for every individual, clergy or laity, when he writes:

Only through self-knowledge—needs, desires, limitations, and abilities—and by being receptive to the guidance of the light can the magus hope with reasonable confidence to tread the single true way of his or her life. This is the esoteric Tao of Chinese philosophy, always unique yet always perfectly suited to each individual.[x]

The path of Asatru is a path to the Source which traverses the most Northern route, cleared and marked specifically for the European psyche. It is a path traveled by our Initiator Odin Himself and then revealed to us by Him as a journey distinguished by one’s self-discovery and self-awareness of, self-celebration in, and eventual self-sacrifice to one’s Self.
Those who travel the path of Asatru as Einherjar—or, as Edred Thorsson might refer to them as, modern day “operative runologist”—

…must first and foremost be dedicated to the development of the self—of the very capacity or ability to do magic. This development consists of three components, the internalization of three things: staves, myths, and culture. The meanings and very living essence of each of the rune staves must be absorbed into one’s very being. The myths must likewise be synthesized into one’s being. Finally, the general underlying cultural principles which eternally give shape to our mysteries must be understood and absorbed. This is a process which requires time and considerable effort. But without it operative runology is difficult to effect.[xi]

These “living deads” of Odin, the Einherjar, protect this ancient Norse tradition. Each day they rise and hone their battle skills in “the uncreated place where the battle surges.” These warriors are commissioned for eternity to protect Bifrost, that “royal road” to Asgard and they are ever attentive to the sound of the Gjallarhorn, that call from the Guardian Heimdall, which signals a threat to their tradition’s safety.
At the end of each day, before they are welcomed to feast peacefully among the gods, their character is judged, not by any man, but by the Goddess Freya and Warlord Odin Themselves. The development of noble virtues, the conquest of vices, and the mastery over base passions has always been that ancient path to divinity. It is along this path that the Einherjar find the opportunity to uphold their warrior’s oath while pursuing a wizard’s wealth.

Ultimately, as depicted within our myths, these “commanders-of-one” and “peer-less” warriors

are destined to become the Philosopher-Kings of themselves, ever striving to emulate both the Patriarch of their order Heimdall and their Vitki, All-Father Odin.'

Excerpts from:

EINHERJAR-GNOSTIC WARRIORS OF THE NORTH

WAY OF THE EINHERJAR, VOL. 1.

By Roland Jos. L’Heureux

Published February 27, 2017
Available at https://www.createspace.com/5928930

“Spiritual Healing through Educational Empowerment and Cultural Awareness” 

___________________________

[i] For further study in this area see John Barton, The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Interpretation (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998). Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for all its Worth (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003).

[ii] Patheos Online Religious Library: South America. http://www.patheos.com/Library/South-American

[iii] Donald A. Mackenzie, Teutonic Myth and Legend: An Introduction to the Eddas & Sagas, Beowolf, The Nibelungenlied, etc. (London: Gresham Publications, 1912); Hans F. K. Gunther, The Religious Attitude of the Indo-Europeans, Vivian Bird, trans. (London: Clair Press, 1963); H. R. Ellis Davidson, Gods & Myths of Northern Europe (London: Penguin books Ltd, 1990); Ranko Matasouie, A Reader in Comparative Indo-European Religion (Zageb: University of Zageb, 2010); Stephen A. McNallen, Asatru: a Native European Spirituality (Nevada City: Runestone Press, 2015), 191; Viktor Rydberg, Teutonic Mythology: Gods and Goddesses of the Northland (New York: Norrœna Society, 1907).

[iv] Albert Pike, Indo-Aryan Deities and Worship—As Contained in the Rig Veda (Louisville: Standard Printing Co., 1930); Charles Morris, Aryan Sun-Myths: The Origin of Religions (New York: Nims and Knight, 1889); David Frawley, Wisdom of the Ancient Seers: Mantras of the Rig Veda (Salt Lake City: Passage Press, 1992); Stefan Arvidsson, Aryan Idols: Indo-European Mythology as Ideology and Science, trans. Sonia Wichmann (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006).

[v] Dan Rayner, Asatru Mindset & Reinvigorating the European Spirit. Red Ice TV, published July 21, 2014. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3KEbgdCBBA&t=2217s; Edred Thorsson, ALU: An Advanced Guide to Operative Runology (San Francisco: Weiser, 2012) 145-161; Moe Bedard, The Order of the Gnostics: Ancient Teachings for the Modern Gnostic (Moeseo, Inc., 2015); Stephen E. Flowers, Restoring the Indo-European Religion. Red Ice TV, published March 16, 2016. Retrieved from https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=VomiUEsqvAg; Stephen A. McNallen, Ancestral Roots & Metagenetics. Red Ice TV, published July 12, 2014. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= B546mQQZ-sE&t=270s; Asatru: A Native European Spirituality (Nevada City: Runestone Press, 2015), 76-83.

[vi] Pistis Sophia, retrieved from http://www.gnosis.org/ library/pistis-sophia/index.htm, Biblical text from the Gospel of Luke, 15: 11-32; Max Heindel, Parsifal: Wagner’s Famous Mystic Music Drama, “Rosicrucian Christianity”, Series no. 12 (Oceanside: The Rosicrucian Fellowship, 1909) 8, 13; Richard Carlile, Manuel of Freemasonry (Leeds: Celephais Press, 2005); Star Wars, written and directed by George Lucas (1977, Lucasfilm Ltd., 20^th Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2011), Blu-ray Disc; The Matrix, written and directed by The Wachawski Brothers (1999, Warner Bros., Warner Home Entertainment, 2009), Blu-ray Disc.

[vii] Dan Rayner, Asatru Mindset & Reinvigorating the European Spirit. Red Ice TV, published July 21, 2014. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3KEbgdCBBA&t=2217s; Edred Thorsson, ALU: An Advanced Guide to Operative Runology (San Francisco: Weiser, 2012) 145-161; Moe Bedard, The Order of the Gnostics: Ancient Teachings for the Modern Gnostic (Moeseo, Inc., 2015); Stephen E. Flowers, Restoring the Indo-European Religion. Red Ice TV, published March 16, 2016. Retrieved from https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=VomiUEsqvAg; Stephen A. McNallen, Ancestral Roots & Metagenetics. Red Ice TV, published July 12, 2014. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= B546mQQZ-sE&t=270s; Asatru: A Native European Spirituality (Nevada City: Runestone Press, 2015), 76-83.

[viii] Shelly West, Kabbalistic Psychology, Gnostic Warrior, published February 1, 2017. Retrieved from gnosticwarrior.com/shelly-west-2.html.

[ix] American Association of Pastoral Counselors (2012). Code of Ethics Retrieved from http://aapc.org/Default.aspx?ssid=74&NavPTypeId=1161; American Counseling Association (2005). Code of ethics and standards of practice. Retrieved from http://www.counseling.org/Resources/aca-code-of-ethics.pdf; American Psychological Association. (2010). American psychological association: Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/ethics/code/principles.pdf

[x] St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1996, 309.

[xi] ALU: An Advanced Guide to Operative Runology (San Francisco, CA: Weiser Books, 2012), 166.