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Asatru, Heathen & Northern Magick Surgery

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17:43 / 20.05.05

I've been poking around with runes lately, and I'm getting curious about the esotericism that goes along with all that Viking mystique.

Today, while trying to find the word for a Norse seer*, I found this interesting definition:

Wod: A part of the soul that can be seen as the function of "divine madness." Wode can lead to the heights of artistic and intuitive inspiration, and can also lead to berserker-frenzy or other manifestations of apparent madness and/or psychic overdrive. The effects of moving totally into the wode-part of one's being are generally temporary in nature, and are usually followed by a period of great weakness or unconsciousness. Generally Odin is the bringer of wode, which is often accomplished by a draught of his "mead of inspiration," Odhroerir. He is considered the patron of those who are inspired by wode, such as poets and berserks.

The shifting spellings (wod/wode) don't inspire too much confidence in me, but I have a memory of the word popping up in Morte D'Arthur, describing Lancelot (he experiences a major breakdown, runs off and lives in the woods like an animal -- but becomes absolutely unbeatable at arms, so no one can bring him back).

And it seemed to intersect in a coincidental way with my "opposite of magick folk=the sane" crack, which I had made only moments earlier over here.

So... to start with, can someone who knows tell me, like, what the difference is between, say, wod and gnosis?

------------
* according to this glossary, it's Sjåmadhr for boys and Seidkona for girls. They also give two different definitions for wod and wode.

18:40 / 20.05.05

I expect you're right about Lancelot - that term shows up in archaic English (Arthurian lore, Chaucer, maybe Shakespeare as well) variously as wod, wode or wood, denoting a state of frenzy or battle-mania, or simply insanity.

I've seen some claims for association with woad as well (woad being the blue war-paint the Celts used, which apparently had some chemical properties that helped induce their battle-frenzy). I'm not sure that etymology is as substantiated, though...

19:14 / 20.05.05

Apparently the wod in Chaucer is a spelling variation of woad ("wád" in Old English). For the record, the Oxford English Dictionary does not enter wod or wode except as obsolete variants of other words (wood, hood, void, and woad; past tense of wade). Not terribly helpful, I know, but it's all I have to contribute. :S

19:47 / 20.05.05

Bow to the OED!

(No, really, bow. Cuz the one I have weighs about 30 pounds and takes a magnifying glass to read.)

Know anything about the popular claim that wod is the root word of Woden? It makes sense, but in a way that seems almost too pat...

Unconditional Love

20:02 / 20.05.05

a feminine leader of the Wild Hunt appears, called Fru Wode or Fru Gode; the Wild Hunt is also said to be led by a Frau Gauden in Mecklenburg (Lisch, Mecklenburger jahrbuch, 8, 202-5). Grimm also suggests that Hackelberend (Westphalia) may be interpreted as "cloak-bearer" and seen as another name of Wotan (Teutonic Mythology III, p. 923). In 1666, the Swedish Johannes Scheffes mentions the nocturnal specter host in connection with Odin and identifies this with the German Wutensher.

folklore of the wild hunt

The theme that the Hunt is led by a nobleman doomed for his sins is common to both Scandinavia and Germany. A characteristic example of the story comes from Rugen: a great prince who loved the hunt more than anything else. When a herdboy cut the bark of a young tree to make a pipe, the prince tied the youth's guts to the tree and chased him about it. A farmer who killed a stag that was eating his corn, the prince bound living to a stag and let the animal run free in the wood until it had battered the man to death. "For such cruel deeds the monstrous man at last got the payment he had earned." He broke his neck while hunting, "and now it is his punishment after death, that he also has no rest in the grave, but must about the whole night and hunt like a wild monster. This happens every night, winter and summer, from midnight to an hour before sunrise, and then people often hear him crying: 'Wod! Wod! Hoho! Hallo! Hallo!', but his usual cry is 'Wod! Wod!' and from this he himself is called 'der Wode' in many places" (Jahn, Ulrich. Volkssagen aus Pommern und Rügen, pp. 4-5).

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23:11 / 21.05.05

Jan Fries, in his wonderful book Helrunar, breaks down the components of Wodan's name through the ages.

In Old High German, wout means "insane," in Old Icelandic wod means "raving," in Old English wod means "sound, voice, poetry," and in Old Icelandic odr means "poetry."

Now it gets really interesting. Here I quote:
"The modern German 'wut' means rage, wrath, but in the old days the word used to be applied for madness and ecstasy, too. As the god of the howling storm, wild Woide rides over the fields, leading the "wild hunt" on a jolly chase that is certainly much more fun than being the serene chief god of Valhalla."

Fries also has a book called Seidways: Shaking, Swaying and the Serpent Mysteries, dealing with seidr and techniques of possession.

04:36 / 24.05.05

To my understanding, wod is a combination of inspiration and battle frenzy. It was a state of mind associated with the bear-shirts (berzerkers) who called on Oðinn for inspiration to induce this state. Don't doubt the importance of the mead in that situation either. I've witnessed both it's capabilities for opening the mind to inspiration, and for leading to aggressive behavior in person, and it can inspire both.

Incidentally, I always used the term vitki when doing rune work. It's more of a generic term for one who does both divination and galdr with runes. Neither spaekona (skrying-woman) or sjåmadhr (see-man) exactly connote rune work.

15:50 / 24.05.05

This is all very cool.

Unconditional Love

22:46 / 25.05.05

No one knows how many families with the old spelling of Wode came to Britain with the Anglo-Saxon invasion but you can see on a map that the two men that were killed at the battle of Hastings in 1066, held their farms, Alviva la Wode held a great manor and farmlands at Fawley in Buckingamshire near to the present Fawley Court,this manor was used up to 1644 and was then pulled down for the building of Fawley Court. Alviva's son Aelfgifa la Wode held a great manor and a larger farm at long Crendon were the new Norman Earl Walter Giffard's family built a Castle. This Wode family seat was at Woodley near Twyford, and the first farm was at Woodham near Weybridge.

the wood family

Please note in books on Surnames it states: Wood living in or near a wood, and Wood Wild and Frenzied I have never found any firm evidence to substantiate the first meaning : that we lived in or near a wood, unlike other surnames of Bywood, Underwood, Redwood and many more, I firmly believe our name derives from a trade-name, and stands apart from all others and by its self. The second definition: Wild and Frenzied, although the meaning is lost, I think that it came from the fight put up by Aelfgifa la Wode at the battle of Senlac Hill at the town of Battle in 1066. Many of the old Wood coats of Arms depict naked ,wild, warriors on their shields and they may have known the true definition of this saying.

Unconditional Love

22:54 / 25.05.05

Undoubtedly the most famous of Santa's cousins, RobinHood began as Robin Wode, Wode or Hode, also known as Robin Goodfellow. The only acquaintance most of us have with Robin Goodfellow is in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream as Puck, a leaf-clad scamp. This woodcut of Robin from The Mad Pranks shows Robin as the ultimate Wild Man. You see, in an even earlier woodcut how Wode was pictured before he became our less hair-ied Robin Hood.

robin wode

12:53 / 26.05.05

Off the subject of Wode (or maybe not...) I've been contemplating the story of the mead of inspiration - from the creation of Kvasir all the way through Odin's flight back to Asgard with a bellyful of liquid enlightenment. I suspect there is a lot more going on here than meets the eye.

(The tale may be found in the Skaldskaparmal of the Prose Edda; text here and here.)

I have my suspicions about the actual nature of the mead (consider that Kvasir is made from spittle, the mead from his blood, and that the price for three drinks is three nights of intercourse with Gunnlodh. Augers boring through mountains, snakes going through holes. Body fluids and sexual imagery... Getting a bit of a Chapter 69 vibe here.)

There's a lot more to pick apart, too - in the dwarves' unremitting treachery, the slaying of the thralls, the taking of the name Bolverk ("ill-doer")... Anyone interested in helping me dissect this thing?

13:06 / 26.05.05

Alternatively, here's a link that won't produce any pop-up ads - sorry - Skaldskaparmal

(pages 92-96)

Less searchable M0rd4nt

15:15 / 28.05.05

Re-thinking the Lokasenna:

On the face of it, this text is simple. It's the words of a bitter, angry, evil character, lashing out at his former companions (for reasons that don't seem to be adequately explored). It looks almost like a bunch of playground insults--all the guys get told that they are teh ghey, all the girls get called slags.

But because this is a flyting, everything said must contain truth. A flyting has rules--you're not allowed to make stuff up, you're not allowed to fall back on mere prurience and vulgarity.

Hence: Lokasenna as a revelation of certain hidden, essential and sacred aspects of the pantheon...

F'rinstance: Freya is presented (by Snorri at least) as chaste and monogamous, but Loki has her partying down with the gods in true Vanir abandon; thus we can see that fertility is one of her mysteries. Odin's "unmanly" knowledge of siedr is a fascinating part of his nature--he is a necromancer and a psychopomp. (Lots of resonances here, which I might go into later--cross-dressing shamans anyone?)

We're being reminded/informed that like parfait and ogres, the gods have got layers.

Thoughts, anyone?

21:12 / 28.05.05

I would like to know more about the connection between Loki and Freya. She is incredibly accomodating to someone who apparently betrays her. In fact he rather stalks her like some peeping tom, steals from her, yet she offers her cloak to him to use at any time he wishes. What actually went on between them?

Less searchable M0rd4nt

21:22 / 28.05.05

The Eddas seem to be silent on that point. You'd probably have to ask Frejya.

00:45 / 29.05.05

Mordant - I read an interesting version of the Lokasenna online recently, in which the whole thing was framed as a relatively lighthearted game of insults (the rule being that if you reacted to the insult, you were out of the game). It was a modern reworking, but intriguing - I'll see if I can find a link!

Less searchable M0rd4nt

10:40 / 29.05.05

Getting back to the wod state/other altered states, this comment from vargr was very interesting:

Don't doubt the importance of the mead in that situation either. I've witnessed both it's capabilities for opening the mind to inspiration, and for leading to aggressive behavior in person, and it can inspire both.

In my recent deity work I've found myself drawn to using alchohol as an entheogen; it seems that it would have been used the same way by the ancient heathens. I was wondering, however, if there is some chemical constituent of mead that makes it especially good for this kind of work? Perhaps the particular alcohol molecule, or something present in honey?

Unconditional Love

11:44 / 29.05.05

Xtabentún liqueur and conjectured use of psychoactive honey in balché have parallels in the classical and modern worlds. Pliny noted meli mænomenon of Asia Minor was made into a mead or metheglin, and toxic Ericaceæ honey was traditionally added to alcholic beverages in the Caucasus, to enhance their inebriating properties; while such toxic honey, deli bal, is taken in Turkey as a tonic in milk. Deli bal was an important export from this region in the 18th century, widely used to potentiate liquors in Europe - called miel fou, 'crazy honey' in France (Mayor 1995). "very intoxicating" honey, likely from spp. (mountain laurel) was used in 18th century New Jersey to 'spike' liquor sold under the appropriate trade name 'Metheglin' (Jomes 1947;Kebler 1896)

Toxic honeys are not unusual (I have intentionally ignored the literature on non-psychoactive plant (and industrial) toxins sequestered in honeys), nor are accidental inebriations by psychoactive honeys exceptional. In satisfying the universal human "sweet tooth" during human explorations of any given ecosystems, foragers would encounter psychoactive and other toxic honeys. Having consumed such honeys and experienced psychoactive or other medicinal properties of their contained alkaloids and allied phytochemicals, it would require no special technology nor great imagination to follow the bees to the nectar source, thereby easily finding valuable plants. It has been suggested that ethnomedicinal and culinary plants were discovered by a systematic process of ingesting all species, in the eternal search for food. Some have questioned whether such an extensive bioassay program were feasible in areas of extraordinarily high biodiversity, such as Amazonia, thought to be home to at least 80 000 species of higher plants (Schultes 1988)! Apart from observation of the effects of bioactive plants on domestic wild animals, serendipitous encounters with phytotoxins in honeys could have served as highly specific and efficient pointers to medicinal, especially psychoactive, plants, which would thus stand out in deep relief, even against a backdrop of extreme biodiversity.

toxic honey

Less searchable M0rd4nt

11:48 / 29.05.05

Fascinating! I wonder if any plants indigenous to the region would have produced such psychoactive honey? Must check...

09:02 / 30.05.05

At an althing about 9 years ago, I got to try mead which had been made with psychotropic mushrooms supposedly indigenous to Scandinavia added as an adjunct to the fermentation process. Technically, I guess it would be metheglin or melomel though rather than mead.
It lead to an increased euphoria, and a little bit of sparkle in the vision, but nothing much more potent than a good mead alone can deliver.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

09:16 / 30.05.05

Interesting... Can't find much about local headfuck plants except various nightshades and our old friend the amanita mushroom.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

22:55 / 12.06.05

Loki in "not always being a dick" shock

Came across this recently: Lokka Tattur, a Faroese ballad first collected in the 18th century (but probably much older). It tells the story of a peasant who has lost a wager with a giant and is faced with giving up his son. He prays to the gods for aid, first to Odin, then Hønir (generally identified as Thor, although these things always seem to be up for debate). When these two can't help, he prays to Loki, who delivers the goods by first tricking the giant and then killing him.

This is interesting to me, because it's pretty much the only text I've seen that shows someone actually praying to Loki. One wonders about the origins of the story--was the third god always Loki, or has he been inserted at a later date?

Less searchable M0rd4nt

11:53 / 14.06.05

Following my little episode back in mid-April, I've been trying to build (or perhaps I shoud say rebuild) a healthy relationship with the rest of the Aesir. I've already done one altar service to the Allfather, since I'm rebooting my runecraft. (I had a rather odd night, it must be said, but on the whole it went okay. Never offer him tofu, it doesn't go over at all).

This coming Thursday I'm going to be approaching Thor, not so much to ask him for anything as simply to pay my respects to him. However, I have much less understanding of his nature than I do of Odin's or the clever guy's. I'm going to be using the same basic ritual techniques I used before, but beyond that I'm not really sure how to approach him.

I was wondering if anyone here has worked with Thor. What would you say his mysteries were--what is it important to aknowledge about him? What sort of offerings should be included in the blot, and how might one decorate the ritual space--colours, items (aside from the obvious one, I mean)?

14:21 / 16.06.05

Hello, Mordant -

just a short one, have to get to work:
According to Snorri, Odin doesn't eat, he just drinks wine. So tofu probably wasn't a good idea.

Thor: foods mentioned in the Eddas are oats and herring (I'd choose oatcakes). In Norwegian folk tradition, juniper is sacred to Thor. You could use it as incense, or offer/drink ale or mead spiced with the stuff. You could try sitting on a goatskin (Thor's goats have been interpreted as shamanic animals who carries him between the worlds). Thor has a magic girdle that gives him strength. Maybe an alternative symbol..

Thor seems to have been the protector/god of the common man (farmer) and as such much more widely venerated than f.e. Odin. Adam of Bremen describes him as sitting in the highest seat in the main temple. It seems that in Germany the oak was sacred to Thor ("Donareiche"). maybe you could do something with that? Do the ritual outside under a big oak, preferably during a thunderstorm? Just thinking...

Maybe more later.

Kauna

14:28 / 16.06.05

Here's the scandinavian 'shroom:

http://www.norshroom.org/OldSchool/fleinsopp.htm

Kauna

Less searchable M0rd4nt

16:52 / 16.06.05

Ooh, this is interesting: A couple of old charms against ague, used in the UK, which mention "Wod" and "Lok".

From Lincolnshire, found here:

An old lady who was troubled by this complaint devised the following cure which she insisted worked. At the foot of her bed she nailed three old horse shoes with a hammer placed crosswise upon them.

‘When the old 'un comes to shake me, Yon'll fix him safe as t'church steaple; he weant nivver pass yon’. She explained: ‘It's a chawm. Oi taks the mell i' moy left hand and I taps they shoes an' says : ‘Feyther, Son and Holy Ghoast, I Naale the divil to this poast. Throice I strikes with holy crook, Won fur God, an' won fur Wod, an' won for Lok.’

So you have a classic bit of British hoodoo, mentioning Odin, Loki--and of course, that's surely Thor's hammer.

ORA ORA ORA ORAAAA!!

08:59 / 17.06.05

Are you sure that's not just 'one for luck'?

Or, to take the other view, is 'one for luck' accidentally/unintentionally invoking the smaller of the big three guys?

Less searchable M0rd4nt

12:24 / 17.06.05

Pretty sure, yes. "Luck" in a Lincolnshire accent wouldn't sound like "Lok". Also, I've seen this rhyme in a few places, and it's always interpreted as referring to Loki.

12:27 / 17.06.05

Quite interesting bit of syncretism with the mention of God, Wod and Lok.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

12:40 / 17.06.05

It's excellent, isn't it? Calling on Jesus and Team Norse to help you nail down the Christian devil.

01:42 / 18.06.05

does that mean 'god' is thor? whats the (alchemical) difference between wearing a hammer and wearing a cross? where does that leave thor and baldr? except an excellent idea for slash fic, that is.

thor=demiurge
wod=fate
lok=luck

i have a friend who invokes a mild thor by hosting parties, being a generous and easygoing host, that kind of thing. thor seems to be milder at home, like in his 'smart' myth where he outwits a dwarf by stalling him with pointless conversation. thor often arrives late, when the party is in full swing. often he doesnt arrive until called, but calling him usually seems to work, as long as youre calling him to do some smiting.

02:58 / 18.06.05

I found that retelling of the Lokasenna I mentioned:
Loki's Taunting

Funnily enough, it's on a site devoted to Thor. Some interesting stuff.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

03:13 / 18.06.05

(Bloody hell, I found that by chance and I just finished reading it 20 minutes ago... you get out of my head.)

Yes, the working with Thor went very well. Remarkably approachable guy, I found. Heavy on the plain speaking--just chatting to him, telling him honestly which of his characteristics you most wish to emulate in your own life, and toasting him with beer went over much better than anything fancy. No scary visions or two-hour attacks of ecstatic dancing with this bloke.

If Thor was standing as my MP I'd totally vote for him.

21:13 / 20.06.05

Weird -- just today, without having read this thread (been away for a week), I wrote this bit about Honir, Odin & Loki in the Barbelith Futhark: Uruz thread.

What makes you say Honir & Thor might be cognates?

Less searchable M0rd4nt

21:54 / 20.06.05

Well, having read over the actual sources: Um... hehe. Mostly my having read a bunch of crap written by other people who'd decided that it was just prettier that way so there nerrr.

I'm a bit new at this still. I'll be more careful in future...

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