On Archetypes, Elhaz, Horned God and Holdstock

[Caveat: Rambling musings inspired by a conversation.]

I have worked lately with Elhaz rune. and come across with the idea of Icelandic concept of the fetch (fylgja). It was believed that every human had a guardian spirit which was seen in various forms, both human and animal. The fetch is closely related to the valkyrja, or dís entity.

This resembles the Jungian concept of anima/animus. As all archetypes, animus has its dark side. It seems to be a source of difficulties, a kind of black spot in our minds. Jung described this complex as a ‘node’ in the unconscious; it may be imagined as a seat of unconscious feelings and beliefs, detectable indirectly through behavior that is puzzling or hard to account for. This could be true for the most of us, but when realized and brought to the consciousness, animus can become a great source of power.

(Elk’s) sedge has its home
most often in the fen
it waxes in the water
and grimly wounds
and reddens with blood
any man
who, in any way,
tries to grasp it.

This rune poem reminds me of the Germanic Vanir god Freyr as well as the Celtic Horned God. I have never considered either of them as a gentle Lord of the Animals. For me  they definitely have their darker aspects and because of this these archetypes have their power but also dangers.

As a pagan I have also noticed that often people are thinking archetypes and gods having their existence only in the subjective universe. In my opinion, they do not exist only in our minds but are living forces all around us, influencing things and situations. The Horned God, for example, belongs to the wilderness, into the border area of our consciousness. There is something dangerous and uncontrollable in him, as in the wild nature, in its beasts and untamed woods.

Whenever I think of archetypes, or the Horned God, Freyr and similar deities,  Robert Holdstock’s book Mythago Wood comes to mind. There is a connection to Elhaz rune here as well. Deep within the dark woods everything feels more alive, dangerous and alluring. The Horned God as the other mythagos belong to the underworld, which is the world of reflections and hidden things. You can’t really see whether it is only nature or is there something supernatural about it that creates the feeling of being observed, followed or sometimes mislead.

Before the Winter

The shining ambre of autumn
flames around me
Leafs are sparkling in their colours
soon waning away

The Sacred Rowan pours
red blood berries
like a woman crying
the Great King on his pyre.

Stiffening winter soon coming,
silent snow on the ground
like ashes from a burning ship,
gone with the Northern wind.

Thought and Memory

Hugin and Muninn fly each day
Over the spacious earth.
I fear for Huginn, that he come not back,
yet more anxious am I for Muninn

It is said that every day Odin sends his ravens Huginn (Thought) and Muninn (Memory) to fly out into the World. The more precious of them is Muninn, because through memory we can remember who we are and why we became what we are now. Beside of that, memory is our ability to reflect our thoughts to past experiences. Without memory we are unable to make sense in our thoughts.

This idea of three necessary things stems from my studying of Charles Sanders Peirce’s (1839–1914) theories and from his definition of semiosis. He sees that a semiosis is “…action, or influence, which is, or involves, a cooperation of three subjects, such as a sign, its object, and its interpretant.”

At the end of each day, Huginn and Muninn tell Odin what they have seen in their journey. It can be said that thought and memory are not enough but we need Odin, the third element to bind the two together.

To make this clearer I quote Peirce again “To say, therefore, that thought cannot happen in an instant, but requires a time, is but another way of saying that every thought must be interpreted in an other, or that all thought is in signs. (Peirce, 1868)
This fits very well with my recent ideas about runes Eihwaz, Jera and Pertho.

Jera is the world around us; our surrounding thoughts, emotions and physical things in their eternal cycle of becoming, being and passing away. Pertho is connected to Muninn, and to the three Norns weaving the web of our destiny, bringing our past to this day; making us to act and react.

Eihwaz has its roots in Hel, in our unconsciousness and its branches in Asgard, in our consciousness. Through Eihwaz the time stops and we reach what we have been and what we will be, sometimes even overcoming our destiny. Eihwaz is the process of stretching the polarities, surpassing our skills, intelligence and true understanding, making things our own and creating ourselves again from the inside out.

Isa

Ice is the rind of the river
and the roof of the waves
and the danger for fey men.

- Old Icelandic Rune Poem

Annoying and Cute

My dog is annoying and cute. There is too hot outside but my fridge is too cold and because of that the drink is aching my throat. I could continue this list of conflicting things forever, but it is not helpful, because the examples are too simple and too obvious.

What is not obvious is that there are different parts of me that like or don’t like some things. There is a council of people inside me voting what ‘we’ like and if I am not careful I don’t know which staff is making decisions.

In fact it is very helpful to know if one likes or dislikes something. From these little wills I believe I will some day find my Will. There will be more agreement inside me and the voting will be easier. It is like seeking my self through the opposites, through fire and ice. What is too cold and what it is too hot for me? Too often people really don’t know what they want and by avoiding extremes it is difficult to learn these tastes.

Another problem is that too often what I want is not what I need. Needing something is a sign and it is quite easy to follow. If I need rest it is a sign that tells something important about me. If I don’t want to rest even if I know I need it, I am not getting what I need but what I want.

It is self-evident and yet so tricky task to learn. Often something external keeps us from doing what we want. We don’t have money, we have a demanding partner or we are too busy of thinking what other people will say. You can name your own favourite!

There are unknown parts of ourselves, which keep us not knowing what we need. We are diminishing our needs because we want something which is in fact coming from the outside. We don’t hear the more evolved part of ourselves and continue to listen the wrong parts. For me the task is listening not thinking, living not doing and feeling, not analyzing.

the Willed harmony

Many times people think that they would be happy if they just could have a new partner, a new car or better salary. Even if they got what they wish in double, they wouldn’t be happy, because happiness is not bound into anything outside human soul. I know this is a cliché, but it is also the truth.

In fact I wish I could buy an ecstatic balance with a new car, because it would be so much easier than do any kind of esoteric work. If that would be a pathway to heaven there would be much less suffering in world and a lot of joyful people all around. Maybe it is worth trying, but I am too masochistic person to seek my joy from something so conventional like a new car.

At the very begin of my path I fell in love with the idea of enlightenment. I was waiting some kind of blissful state without pain, suffering, conflict or sorrow. I thought that if I would sat on my meditation couch long enough I would some day be a female Finnish Buddha, a kind of stoic hero who would only rise her eyebrow while the world would fall in pieces around her. I still feel a little sorry about finding out it would not happen…

Now I have a new theory. Being stable or happy is only a matter of attitude. If I want to be happy, I concentrate on things which make me happy or give me joy. I also decide to be happy. I have spent too much time being afraid and waiting bad things to happen. I realized that I just need a strong enough will to shape the world around me according to my wishes and focus on the bright side of life. If I will not find perfect happiness I can at least find some kind of harmony or a state of being in which I can handle my pain. After all there is at least one nice thing in every day; the day lasts only til sunset and when the sun rises there will be another day to will more harmony.

the Green Serpent

From DeviantART by Elfessa

Me & Me

Lust and death are closely connected also outside of the horror movies. The polarity of the creation is the death. The poem is dead when I write it down; it needs to be if I want it to be unique, otherwise we should be telling the same story again and again, unable to create nothing new. The process of creating has always its aspects of the death and rebirth.

So the act of creation is voluptuous and painful and there is both the rapture and horror in this ability. Sex, this life giving force, keeps things in the eternal cycle of moving and is creating the obligate evolution. Sex is the force that can bring together the polarities and unite them. Being sensual is the anecdote for being a zombie.

Everything is based on sex. While feeling the attraction between opposites, people often cease to understand that we fall in love with the things we are hiding in ourselves. All the reactions the other people manage to awake in us, are just reflections of our inner and often hidden characters, towards which we navigate -also in the bed. We make love with our own rejected parts, we are coddling ourselves and we are punishing our weaknesses. We are running after our shadows and try to catch the fog, reach toward dreams and are tortured in fires of our own lust. We are obsessed or evading. Everything is connected into the sex. Everything.

If we are unable to face the truth, make love with our own incongruent selves we are unable to really love ourselves or the other people. The holy marriage, archetypical “me and you” is just the delusion and there are just two of us: me and me.

Which Witch Identity

I have spend my vacation by reading some books I have saved for this purpose. One of those is a treasure: Witchdom of the True by Edred Thorsson. Particularly here in the natural landscape of my ancestors I feel my roots and this excerpt of Edred resonates with my Work:

The purpose of the book is to give a Wiccan (or Vanic) option to those who are true to the old Gods and Goddesses of the ancient North. When we say ’True’, we mean it in the sense of being ’loyal’. The True religion is the one in which one maintains age old loyalties of blood and ancestry. We are True to our God and Goddesses as we might be True to our families or lovers – for are the Gods and Godesses not our ultimate families and our ultimate lovers?

Something to Desire

A few days ago I had a great conversation with a friend about the inspiration and how it has been seen at the old times. This friend told me that it is quite a Christian concept to think that the inspiration is an ecstatic kind of stage when people have been taken by supernatural forces to produce something. In fact, the inspiration is more connected with an idea of a gifted person working with his skill. Some kind of inspiration is needed, but there must be underlying potential and willingness to commit to your work on hand.

Thorn T. Coyle has said that magick is breath, will and desire. I think her concept is quite fitting with this idea of inspiration; being inspired is a kind of magick. It is feeding the sources of the sacred and creativity within. Like the bonfire needs some air to be able to burn, inspiration needs the fire of will.

The English word desire comes from Latin desiderare “long for, wish for.” The original meaning has been perhaps “to await what the stars will bring.” This would come from the phrase de sidere “from the stars” or from sidus (gen. sideris) “heavenly body, star, constellation”.[1]

In fact I think that inspiration comes from the Star indeed. It is like a breath of God, which makes us feel alive and working toward our goals. Inspiration is one of the gifts we humans have received from the greater intelligence than our own, but it is useless without commitment. The Stars will not bring us anything without our own efforts.

I can say, at least for my own sake, that it is much more difficult to put together these three things than it appears. It is almost too desirable to be lazy and first wait for some “moment of ecstasy” in order to create something. It is too easy to forget to breathe; just inhale everything that comes outside. Receiving without exhaling is useless.  It is easy to say a lot of things that I want, but forget what I really need or will. The creativity is a tricky thing and the mead of poetry is not for everyone, or least it can be said that the strong blend is for the wise and not for fools.

---

[1] From Online Etymology Dictionary, http://www.etymonline.com/