by Sean Jobst
18 February 2023
“Seek the Mysteries!” A simple phrase of three words containing all that is within us, including the entire cosmos. Depending on the source, its either an ancient expression of esoteric wisdom or creation of a modern guild of Rune initiates – perhaps that’s the point for a mantra beyond the bounds of time. When I first came across this saying, it inspired me immediately as a Germanic equivalent to the Hellenic maxim famously inscribed on the Temple of Delphi: “Know Thyself”(1), with much the same meaning and implications.
The phrase itself comes
from the Old Norse Reyn til Runa, literally “Seek toward the Mysteries!” As
might be expected, reyn has a direct root to “rain” which can be viewed esoterically
as the cleansing energy descending from the skies percolating within the soil to
ascend again as the nourishing mist and dew. We can understand our initiation
within this animistic cycle through a shamanic technique called Huul Breath(2):
The primordial energy of Hagalaz comes down to regenerate the world, melting
into the energy-filled water of Uruz flowing as conduit through our bodies,
coming out the feet to become the grounding Earth energy of Laguz.
A possible
Proto-Germanic reconstruction can be *Sokijana “to seek” + *werthaz “toward” + *Runa
“secrets, mysteries.” Not surprisingly given the close connection between these
two kindred peoples (especially in my ethnic regions), Runa carries the same
meaning in Celtic languages.(3) Runa is the sense of seeking what is hidden
within ourselves and the world, the sacred mysteries imbuing all Nature. Another meaning of Runa is "whisper", indicating the importance of contemplation and the fact that esoteric workings occurs in silence. The
appreciation and awe at knowing mystery is in the journey itself, knowing that
no matter how much we become initiated to it there is still beauty in the
mysterious.
Runa stems from Proto-Indo-European *rewHn “to roar, grumble, murmur, whisper”, the primal recognition of sounds and vibrations that birthed the universe and will continue to create the universe.(4) This is to be known energetically, as expressed by the third Hermetic principle of The Kybalion (which expresses Natural Law inherent in all Indigenous spiritualities): “Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates.” It continues: “Every thought, emotion or mental state has its corresponding rate and mode of vibration. And by an effort of the will of the person, or of other persons, these mental states may be reproduced.” Even emotions are energy in motion - we can be empowered even with our thoughts.
This includes the human will to seek the mysterious, encoded through Germanic traditions about the primordial giant Ymir (*Jumjaz/Jumjos) whose name literally means “screamer” and simply affirms that everything manifests from life-force energy and consciousness.(5) These resonate at varying levels of vibrations and frequencies as encoded throughout language. I defer to Natural Law teachers, including this concise yet comprehensive introduction which points out even the word Universe means “one song” (the principle of Mentalism), whose different “notes” are individual stories and experiences: “The universe is both a playground and a school.” As he brilliantly sums up: "You are in motion - animation - and breathing in life-force energy."
Our soul is "experiencing itself through a limited subjective experience" coming from the primordial: "The consciousness of the universe created an illusion that separated itself in order to have an experience; an object and subject to have that experience." That coming from separation provides the depth, width, meaning, and complexity of the universe. Even through our individual purpose (life itself being an ongoing process to discover and live that mystery), there is this universal purpose to expand consciousness by forging and creating our experience with none of the false separation between spirit and matter exhibited in the religions (and their secularist variations): "Spirituality is the human experience of living as matter imbued with consciousness exploring itself."
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| Wodan through His example inspires with His favor the Journey at all levels of Consciousness, so we may Seek the Mysteries and balance our ravenous Thought and Memory into Individuation. |
The soul command-mantra of Seek the Mysteries is so instinctive and beyond words that it can be best expressed through those ultimate Mysteries – the Runes. Not mere letters forming words, the Runes are vibrations that reverberate on all levels of conscious and unconscious thought and action. They contain the animistic interconnectedness of all life being spirit and consciousness manifesting at various levels. They are tied to the folk-soul of a distinct people emerging from a specific landscape, but are truly primal so similar equivalencies can be found within other cultures (i.e. Celtic Ogham, Turkic Runes, Chinese Daoist Bagua, Mayan Glyphs, etc.) - these are all spiritual concepts expressed through the vibrations of language where the creative process of Imagination is also paramount. “Seek the Mysteries” is charged in a Bind-Rune combining Othala and Tiwaz.
Othala is Rune of both the spiritual inheritance from genetics and the Ancestors, and the material inheritance of land or possessions. As with its shape, Othala relates to the enclosure which can be understood on various levels: Our place within the enclosure of this world (Midgard/Mittilgart “middle enclosure”), 3D reality of space-time through which our souls experience life. Othala also relates to enclosure of a clan or tribe, our resonance to a specific landscape – even more broadly our responsibility to something greater than ourselves. On a more cosmic level, it’s the enclosure of the electromagnetic field holding everything in their proper balance and measures. Othala is the transformative awareness that the psyche is not so much within us but that we are within its enclosure.
We understand our personal boundaries through various levels of enclosures. The electromagnetic field enclosure holds all the energies preserving our physical bodies down to the cellular level so our soul may experience; without it there would be no personal identity which can only come through differentiation. What is life but a continuous journey to discover our identity? Contraction and expansion occur in a continuum – hence Othala is enclosed on top while its “legs” extend outward. Boundaries are what allow us to assert our identity. Much evil results from not knowing or respecting boundaries; even the concept of evil (the very inverse of "live") stems from ignorance about one's boundaries.(6) As noted by Mark Passio, respect comes from Latin re “again” + spectare “to see, to look at”, so “we re-examine ourselves, our worldview, our mindset, our beliefs, and our behaviors. Then, in light of seeing ourselves with new eyes, we willfully decide to change these things about ourselves, and in doing so, re-create who we are in this world.”
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| "The Cycle of Birth and Death" by the artist Jadurani Dasi |
Othala is also the Rune of “Home” – knowing ourselves in relation to the world. It’s the sense of peace and safety coming from the sense of “home”, simultaneous to the necessity to go outside our “comfort zone” to seek new experiences for growth without the delusion that we can only find it in the external.(7) This is the whole-ness of Individuation - a grounding in individual identity that also expresses itself through concentric circles of healthy, balanced social interactions. We were never born as a tabula rasa but carry on conscious and unconscious memories from our genetic lines and past incarnations. To Seek the Mysteries is to unveil our own “veil of forgetfulness” – its no accident Wodan / Óðinn fears most the raven “Memory” would not return.(8) The deeper wisdom is that perception itself is only the act of processing in the moment the memory of our experiences every preceding second - so the past and present operate in a continuous cycle.
Othala
overcomes the various external control and internalized programming that perpetuates
that veil. Othala is the enlightenment grounded in Ancestral wisdom, including
the responsibility we have in co-creating a better world for not only ourselves
but our Ancestors who will be reborn into our descendants. After our mortal
death we will leave some impact and legacy upon the world – it’s within our
power how that will manifest: “Cattle die, kindred die. Every man is mortal:
But the good name never dies of one who has done well.”(9) Or as expressed by Athenian military leader Pericles: “The sepulchre of famous men is the
whole earth, not only the epigraph engraved on the columns in their own
country, since also in foreign lands there dwells the unwritten memorial of
them, graven not on stone but in the hearts and minds of men.”(10)
The second Rune in this combination is Tiwaz, which is inseparable from balance and interconnectedness: A center pillar, the World Tree (Irminsul / Yggdrasil), as a conduit of energies flowing upward with the sky as its canopy and grounding downward into the Earth. This Rune stirred within and spoke to me especially on the hiking trails that are paths to my “temple”: Nature. Applying the Hermetic principle of Correspondence, the World Tree parallels our bodies as the physical vessel for souls to experience life in this reality; and the spine which channels the electromagnetic/spiritual energies (kundalini) that reflect the terrestrial Maha Kundala. Tiwaz contains metaphysical truths of the entire universe, reflecting the Sky Father (Ziu) joining in a continuous union with Mother Earth which is the primal cosmology of all Earth-based traditions.
There is a basic format shared across cosmologies as diverse as Daoist, Vedic, Germanic/Norse, and various Indo-European traditions. A primal nothingness out of which arose one – not “oneness” of the monotheists but the undifferentiated pure potential creating all life-force energy. Out of one arose two, the polarity of masculine and feminine energies, the Ying/Yang balance personified as Ymir in the Germanic tradition. From that two arises three, an Indo-European “trinity” that has absolutely nothing to do with that of the Christians which only arose later. We have each of the three within ourselves. Out of those three arise the five, which are the five elements. And out of the five elements flows infinity since it’s all a cycle of eternal recurrence. How can we decode and apply the patterns to ourselves?
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| The Ginnungagap / Ginunga "gaping abyss" of Nothingness, the ginn- prefix represented a sacred, "magical (and creative) power- filled space" as noted by Jan De Vries. Hence, the ginn-heilagr and ginn-regin (the Gods) and ginn-runa (the Runes). |
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| "Ymir being slain by the gods" by the German artist Franz Stassen (1869-1949) for the 1920 edition of the Eddas. This is not a literal portrayal but should be seen as allegory. |
The name Ymir,
one of the “giants” (unknown chaotic forces of the universe and within), means
both “screamer” (primordial vibrations) as I decoded earlier, and the “twin”
(literally “hermaphrodite”) of masculine/feminine energies – or as expressed by
The Kybalion: “Gender is in everything; everything has its Masculine and Feminine
principle; Gender manifests on all planes.” This is a spiritual energy not
material gender contained in varying measures within everything. In terms of
the psyche, Carl Jung termed it the Anima and Animus – adopting both names from
the same word for “breath” (life-force energy) and “animism”. The Sacred Feminine includes
the heart-based intelligence, creativity, intuition, imagination, empathy,
nurturing, and caring about what is right and true. The Sacred Masculine
includes the logical mind, reason, drive, power, will, analytical thinking, and
figuring out solutions. We need these qualities within ourselves and manifesting outward. Much evil has resulted from imbalance
between masculine and feminine.
What we know as our three-dimensional reality and thus ourselves, is the interplay of three separate spiritual/psychic qualities (one of whom is also a Deity). So it was that Ymir was “killed” by the three figures of Odin/Wodan, Vili, and Ve, meaning they took the unmanifested energy of the cosmos (Ymir’s “corpse”) to delineate and differentiate the three-dimensional reality – just as we create and manifest our reality every second. Only one of these is also a Deity who appears throughout the Myths, which is why the last two are sometimes interchanged with the names Hönir and Lodurr as a metaphoric formula as decoded by Norwegian scholar Maria Kvilhaug. It is through these three functions within us that we experience the universe as ambient life-force energy manifesting our reality; and that we may know ourselves and our Journey.
Vili,
whose name comes from the Proto-Germanic *Wiljo (itself from *wiljana “to
want”), represents the power of will and desire. He personifies the intent,
desire, and passion to will into existence. Our intention and desire determine
our actions and most often manifest their results. As Lodurr in the myth of the
“first” human beings Ask and Embla(11), he is the vitality who gave them blood,
heat, and hue (Völuspá, Stanza 17). In other versions Vili is Loki, “the fiery
one” and “mover of stories” whose role is always as a catalyst – a neutral force creating the conditions sparking
others to actions they know are necessary but held back by their own fears or
complacency; he holds the unconscious mirror up to their conscious awareness. Its
no accident he most often accompanies Wodan, the wisdom, spirit and awareness,
or Donar, the life-force energy.(12) Vili is the passion creating motion, the
internal spiritual fire that includes the intensity to alter our consciousness.
We need passion to inspire us and develop that awe of life – but it needs grounding
in our reason and logic. Yet without passion we become stagnant and mechanical, not growing into our potential that only becomes from the
Mysterious.
Ve, whose name comes from Proto-Germanic *Wihaz “sacred, holy” (itself from Proto-Indo-European *weyk “to choose, separate, set aside, consecrate as sacred”), represents the awe that comes from a sense of the sacred within and without. This is why the same root can be seen in Germanic words for sanctuary, witchcraft, and village. The sacred heart-center and “hearth”, the numen or spiritual power imbued throughout the entire external world (Animism). That spiritual energy concentrated into some sense of “space” so we can relate to it – Ve personifies the Will-Power without which our Soul could not experience life. He is the Hönir who “gives” sense to Ask and Embla. As noted by Kvilhaug, this name means “chicken”: “a humorous way of referring to the chattering, clucking, cackling sounds of thoughts in our heads.” This is why he is “quick” and “long-legged” - an allegory for the speed of our thoughts, which are dynamic and not passive, just as passion creates emotions. Other Myths express how he is "advised in all matters" by Mimir “Memory” – exactly how the Mind works as it processes the Soul.
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| Suche die Geheimnisse! He is a multifaceted God of wisdom, shamanic journeys, higher awareness and initiation, and the Wild Hunt. He is the "Wode/Od" of ecstasy and frenzy, the "swaying" (literal meaning of his spear, Gungnir) wind of storms and Kundalini. |
Out of the three, Odin / Wodan is the only one who is a God and thus appears in all variations. Odr or Wode means “spirit, frenzy, fury, ecstasy, inspiration, poetry” – all of these qualities come from the same energetic properties, whether the passion to seek higher awareness, the concentrated rage and fury to overcome challenges, or the ecstasy that inspires deep transformation. Od bears some relation to Othala. The -in/-an suffix has dual meanings of “the one” and “death” – for He has relation to a specific kind of death (as survives in His folkloric role as leader of the Wild Hunt) as well as the ancestral memory that is paramount to any individual whole-ness. As Spirit, Wodan is multifaceted as we can only expect with a God who travels across all the worlds and dimensions – all contains a spiritual energy of its own. It is He who offers the Soul and Breath to Ask and Embla – to breathe is to animate and respire, so is synonymous with spirit and anima.
Wodan is the archetypal(13) power of self-awareness, grounded in our spirit and essence but able to expand beyond limitations – just as He travels across all worlds in a tireless quest for more knowledge and wisdom. It’s a quest not just for more knowledge for the sake of it, but to truly transform and raise consciousness, to know oneself better. This is why His two “brothers” – Vili (desire, intention, passion) and Ve (sacred space, mind, thought) – are actually aspects of Himself. Just as we need the Soul as the sacred space to contain self-awareness, the Mind to process what the Soul experiences, and the will, intention and passions to inspire and guide that Journey. All these range of emotions are the companions and guides on our internal journey, often manifesting outwardly what is within our internal state. Yet none of that is static – we have that Wotanic energy to inspire, empower and propel us to Seek the Mysteries and experience transcendence into our higher awareness.
Footnotes:
(1) γνῶθι σεαυτόν - gnothi seauton.
Despite efforts by some philosophers to attribute it to previous philosophers,
traditional Hellenic folk-faith understood it as a greeting by Apollo. As with
Wodan, Apollo is well-wisher to those seeking the mysteries, knowing ourselves through an initiation both internal and external.
(2) A powerful technique created by the spiritual teacher
Thunder Wizard (Michael William Denney) related to the Goddess Holle, who most personifies Mother Earth within my continental Germanic Pagan/Heathen perspective. Known as Frija in other contexts, she is the Goddess most connected with Wodan, archetypal
God of seeking the Mysteries. These two sacred masculine/feminine Deific energies are both connected to the Wild Hunt, with its dual chthonic and airy connotations.
(3) Runa is also self-identifier for the Quechua for whom it means “man, person, human being” (hence Runakuna “the people”) – it was common around the world for tribes to identify themselves with names indicating their human status, such as Alemanni “all-men”. I agree with the many Indigenous American oral traditions that indicate ancient Transatlantic cultural diffusion. In the Andean context, I see similar traits between the wisdom-bringer Viracocha and his serpentine power, and the energetic qualities of Wodan and serpent symbolism within Germanic Mythos.
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| Comparison of image of Viracocha from the gateway at Tiwanaku in Bolivia (top) and Bronze pendant of Odin found at Uppland, Sweden (bottom). These are simply stylized not literal representations of Deities. |
(4) As with other tribal cultures, the Germanic expressed a cyclical view of time. They even lacked a future tense – only past and present as documented by Paul C. Bauschatz in his book, The Well and the Tree: World and Time in Early Germanic Culture (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1982). We can visualize the World Tree whose branches extend into the skies and trunk grounds deeply into Earth: Above-ground is manifestation, while below is unmanifested potential and the past – hence the relation to the Underworld as realm of Ancestors. We move as a circle accumulating lessons and experiences along the way within this Cosmic Web of Wurt/Wyrd/Uurd. Bauschatz argues that the Norn Skuld, whose name is often translated as “future”, properly means “debt, obligation”. This is the Natural Law of Karma (which our Ancestors would have known but under a different name) – our choices in the present moment will have consequences, and the patterns from which the present comes into being at every moment. Incidentally, Skuld is related to the word "should", expressing this sense of obligation and action.
In one of her podcasts (which first brought this book to my attention), Carolyn Emerick notes how the Germanic past-facing culture meant our Ancestors were impervious to apocalyptism, thus from the fears and anxieties used to easily control people. Our concept of Time was subverted so the salvationist mind-virus could fester gradually making us ripe for conquest. In his talk "What It Means To Be A Human Being," the late Santee Lakota poet John Trudell gave an excellent overview of the Indigenous concept of Time (also shared by indigenous Europeans): "We are in time and space, but we're from beyond time and space." Venerating Ancestors for help and guidance is understanding that "we were borrowing today from the past and the future." There is incredible personal power in knowing we are creating and manifesting our future in this moment. On a personal level, many self-help thinkers advise the wisdom of treating every day as separate from the one before - truly inculcating a sense of the moment. Magic practitioners stress the importance of putting out one's will and intention without obsessing about the outcome.
(5) Decoding the Voluspa’s emergence Myth, Maria Kvilhaug explains the passage Ar var Alda – “In the beginning was a big wave.” Alda means waves, rivers, streams – part of the primeval forces of the universe. Another form later used is “little waves”, so it’s a poetic metaphor for movement and vibrations. Ymir “Screamer” has his body “divided” – it’s the waves and vibrations of the cosmos experiencing differentiation.
(6) To put it simply, all control systems are
ultimately founded upon blurring these personal boundaries so there becomes a “need”
for their own “boundaries”. People who do not know their own boundaries will
not demand more for oneself and so will cede their responsibility and power to these
authorities. These control systems are often in a nation-state, but efforts to
erode these physical boundaries and consolidate them into some broader Globalist
institutions, perpetuate and intensify this erosion of personal boundaries
(i.e. “You will own nothing and be happy,” certain mandates restricting free
will and medical choices, etc.). From my Anarchist view, Othala as Rune of
inheritance is intertwined with personal boundaries which flow and thrive through
decentralism. Political concepts of boundaries shouldn’t be confused with the natural boundaries arising organically between tribes and clans.
(7) A perfect example of this is travel. I experienced
and benefited much from my own travels, whether reconnecting with my heritage (thus truly knowing Myself) in Stuttgart/Swabia and Madrid/Castilla; the hospitality and welcome I received from locals in
Turkey and Albania; the warmth and friendliness I felt in Cape Town from South Africans and other African peoples; the poetic and artistic sense of “Saudade” I discovered in Portugal; learning
more about this continent of Turtle Island and my own place within this world among
the Oglala Lakota of Pine Ridge. All the while also coming to better appreciate
my sense of “home” as something both grounding and dynamic - its truly where the Heart is. Its no coincidence Wodan is The Traveler, for He awakened the enlightenment within after accumulating growth and experiences from travels across the various worlds.
(8) Grímnismál, Stanza 20. The various
mythologies and traditions making up the lore should be seen as the sacred
living spirit with many levels of allegory and symbolism, rather than as a “holy,
revealed” literalist scripture.
(9) Havamal, Stanza 76.
(10) From his Funeral Oration for fallen Athenian
warriors, as quoted by Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, II.43.3.
(11) This should be understood as allegorical and not a literal “creation” such as exists in Abrahamic religions. The Myth simply states they were the Ash and Elm trees who lacked Orlog/Urlag, “fate, destiny” – they already contained sentient life. Their emergence from the water indicates the originating role of the Mother Goddess, who is also a river or sea Goddess in Mythology. This is a continuation of the earlier Myth that mentions waves (see footnote 5) - its about primal movements and change in the cosmos. This Goddess is none other than Mother Earth, a co-emergent creation as old as She whom morphed into the Earth. Ask and Embla are inseparable from the same Nature that imbues all the elements of life. Even now we breathe in oxygen from trees while they breathe in our carbon in a harmonious mutual exchange of spirit and consciousness.
(12) Since there is no duality between “good” and “evil”. Yes, sometimes our actions result in negative consequences, but we learn and grow most from challenges - we accept responsibility for our actions while having the capacity to rise above and correct errors. The mischievous trickster represents a spark inspiring others to take action and evolve to their potential. This often results in the Gods “discovering” their powers, such as Donar (life-force energy) and his Hammer (the heart-beat). Loki is not a deity himself – he doesn’t exist in continental Germanic lore and is barely attested outside Scandinavia. Rather, he is a neutral energetic force bound up with action, similar to the Greco-Roman figure of Lucifer: an agent of change who is that potential spark of self-illumination through the quest for knowledge and awareness. The “children” of Loki personify one’s lower instincts and unhealed traumas – not considered “evil” but simply what needs to be put in check lest we allow those aspects overtake us. One of these is the World Serpent Jormungandr.
(13) If the Divine holds inspiration and reflects into the human psyche at various levels; if our stages of growth are subject to the Web of Wurt/Wyrd; then there is no reason to dismiss seeing the Deities as Archetypes. It doesn't make them any less "real" - a presumption many still hold on to from Abrahamic dualistic thinking. It takes stepping outside the conditioning and into a deeper perception to realize that Animism expresses how everything (including Archetypes) have their own spirit and consciousness. There are multiple layers of meaning and relation to ourselves and the Deities.
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