This post is about our ancestor’s version of Salvation, which is the vision quest.
Major Arcana cards and the Vision Quest
The Major Arcana cards are about the Vision quest. I believe there are 3 versions of the vision quest in the Major arcana; Fool to Hierophant, Lovers to Justice, and lastly, Hanged man to World.
With the stories I am about to share, you might come to realise that our ancestors knew us better than we know ourselves. Put yourself in their shoes. If you were to tell a story for people to listen to thousands of years later, what wisdom would you share? Our ancestors knew one day they could only reach us through stories. And they wrapped all of their wisdom in clever riddles for us to discover.
The hero in the stories is often a male, similar to the suit of wands in a tarot. This is the active force of the individual who wants to go on a quest. The hero meets a maiden with mead. This is the receptive cup element. If you are familiar with tarot, the metaphors used in these stories will be easy to recognise.
They did not aim to ascend. They were only interested in going deep. They believed all the answers were in the subconscious mind. Your subconscious wants to free you from limitation, but only in a way that keeps you safe from harm. Your subconscious tries to do a controlled demolition of limiting beliefs. It doesn’t want it to happen too fast. It knows that if it happens in a way that alters your beliefs too much, your sanity is at risk. 70 per cent of people who have had NDE end up divorced. Your subconscious tries to keep everything stable. It wants to help you grow without overwhelming you.
Our Core Programming.
In the first 7 years of our lives, we are in a deeper brainwave, often in the theta brainwave. This is a hypnotic state. To change our subconscious, we need to access a deeper state of consciousness. Our ancestors used the vision quest to do this.
There is one Yogi in Norse Mythology called Völund, and he is a master at the Vision quest. The story of Völund teaches us that we can become masters of our own minds and emotions by going on this quest again and again.
Snorri Sturlason
Snorri Sturlason was an Icelandic chief and politician in the middle ages. He was a skilled Skald poet. He wanted to preserve the art of Skald. A person skilled in Skald had an enormous impact. Skald was the key to influence and power in society. Skald is a specific linguistic skill of speaking in metaphors, riddles, and parables, sometimes metaphors on top of metaphors, and quite a lot of exaggerations. Snorri was concerned that the youth of his time was forgetting how to interpret these stories. He died in 1241 so you can only imagine how we might misinterpret these old stories today.
The Real Meaning of Rindr
I will share the story of Rindr. Rindr’s Wikipedia entry says she is violated in the most awful way. But what does Rindr represent in the story?
I will translate the names as I tell the story but imagine what this story would sound like unless the names are translated. This story is so ridiculous without translations. It is very important to translate names when reading Norse Mythology.
Odin and Frigg have two sons named Hódr and Baldur. Hódr is blind and his name means hypocrisy. Baldur is the most loved of all the gods and his name means broad as in broad-mindedness. Hódr accidentally kills Baldur. He does not mean to do it. He is ignorant after all. Baldur descends into the underworld and leaves the godly realms devoid of any joy and happiness. Odin cannot avenge Baldur himself because Hódr is also his son. In Volupsa, the first poem in the poetic edda, Odin has summoned his fate goddess, and she reveals to him everything that has happened and everything that will happen. Odin has already been told that Hódr will kill Baldur. And the fate goddess told Odin that the only one to avenge Baldur is a son with a goddess name Rindr. The son’s name is Vali. Odin finds Rindr and woos her, but she keeps rejecting him. Twice she rejects him, so Odin does Rune magic on her disguised as a witch called wecka (week). He spends the night with her and she has Vali. When Vali is one day old, he avenges Baldur.
Who is Rindr? Her name used to be written as Vrindr, and Vri is Norwegian for Turning. She is the turning of the seasons. Vali means chosen. He is one day old when the time has turned and time will give you resolution.
Vali sends Hypcricy into the underworld. With time, truth always prevails.
Baldur also represents Summer. His wife Nanna represents vegetation and she dies of a broken heart and descends into the underworld with Baldur. Hódr is the cold and dark Norse winter. Odin’s other son, Hermod tries to get Baldur back again. Hella, the goddess of the underworld, states that everything in nature has to weep for Baldur for her to release him. Everything wept for Baldur, except for a Jotun called Thok. Her name according to The Myths of the Norseman means coal, thus she had no need for the summer sun and did not share a tear for Baldur.
When Baldur is sent away on his longship to the underworld, a Jotun called Hyrrokin is the only one strong enough to send him on his way. Her name means curled up flames, denoting the colors of fall when all the leaves curl up and fall off the branches in the colors of red, yellow, and orange.
Thor does the last consecration of the funeral pyre when the dwarf Lit provokingly stumbles into his way. Thor kicks Lit into the fire and the dwarf was burned to ashes with the divine pair. Lit means color. So with clever metaphors the tell us that fall and winter are the coming seasons.
Hanging Ritual
Every story has many depths to them. When Odin hung from Yggdrasil to gain the wisdom of the Runes, he hung for 9 nights. He has to let go of what he believes to be true to gain spiritual truths. This is the most famous metaphor for Odin, the one-eyed man, who is you and me. He gains spiritual sight. He hangs, he spears himself, he dies (ego death) and becomes divine knowledge.
It is clearly a message to us from our ancestors that we also have the ability to change our reality. But we cannot run away from ourselves.
I believe the Hanging ritual is a metaphor for the sleep paralysis that occurs by taking the famous mshr0om (cannot mention which one due to censorship). It is the one taken by the Siberian shamans. :) They worked with altered states of consciousness. They knew the ins and outs of their own mind.
I also believe Odin hanging on Yggdrasil is where he becomes breathless, an ancient yogic practise that takes a lot of training and practise to master. You can learn more about it in this post here.
Yggdrasil
Yggdrasil is the map of the human mind. Our Norse ancestors were expert at psychology, especially their own. They knew themselves very well.
How to interpret Norse Myths
There are two things to keep in mind when reading the old myths.
- Names must be interpreted.
- Read them with the context that it is a riddle and the hero is often on a vision quest meeting his fylgia. (Fylgja means Follower and it is the feminine aspect of your soul that can merge with the divine). The fylgja is whoever presents the mead and is often a female, either a valkyrie, a jotunn, or a goddess. You are the hero in the journey and the fylgja is your soul. The mead is Creator of all, the divine essence in all things. It speaks of sacred marriage with the divine. This leads to a drastic improvement and change in the hero’s character and often a realisation. These are also wrapped in riddles and metaphors.
The whole Fool’s journey is a vision quest. The Hanged man is the hanging ritual. From there they travelled to the underworld. This is the death card. They had to face their fears before they received the precious mead. Precious mead and sacred marriage are seen in the Temperance card. They often had to face their own negative traits. This is the Devil card. Some of Odin’s names are a symbol of these negative traits. Then the false ego collapses. This is the Tower card. Then the Seeker comes out of their vision quest and becomes increasingly conscious. This is symbolised in the Star, Moon, and Sun. There is the continuous awakening of the Seeker’s true self which was the whole purpose of the Vision quest. This is the Judgement card. Lastly, full integration between their body and soul is seen in the World card.
The next story is a vision quest story wrapped in very clever riddles and metaphors. This is the holy grail of Norse mythology, the story of Odin becoming a Skald.
The Holy Grail of Norse Myth ~ How Odin got the Mead of poetry
Odin has many names in the stories about him, and many of these names have given him quite the reputation, such as warmonger, womaniser, schemer, evildoer. In this story, he is Bolverk, which translates to Evildoer. He is in this story disconnected from his fylgja. Her name is Gunnlöd, meaning War initiator. She has precious mead for him, but it is stored inside a mountain. It is not easy to get to. But as her name translates, she is raging a war inside of him.
Every character in this story is a symbol of the Seeker, who is deep within themselves on a vision quest.
This story is found in the Prose Edda’s Skaldskapersmal, written by Snorri Sturlason. The Aesir and the Vanir gods reconcile and bring an end to their war by creating Kvasir. Kvasir means kvass, a type of fermented beverage. So he is precious mead and said to be pure knowledge. But perhaps there is more improvement needed because Kvasir is killed by two dwarfs called Fjalar (error) and Galar (flaw). They tell everyone that Kvasir choked on his knowledge. Dwarfs in Norse mythology often make magical items, such as magical jewellery and weapons for the gods.
This time Fjalar and Galar turn Kvasir into Mead of poetry. They put him into three vessels: Són (doing time as in redeeming), Boðn (inviting the divine), and Odhrærir (meaning calmness). They did magic on the mead and ensured that whoever drank it would get the gift of Skald, the high art of poetry. Fjalar and Galar invite the jotun Gillingr (son of screamer) who they also kill. To compensate for this murder they give away the Mead of poetry to Gillingr’s son, Suttungr (heavy with drink). Suttungr takes the mead and stores it inside a mountain called Hnitbjörg (clashing rocks) and his daughter Gunnlöd guards it. Gunnlöd means war initiator.
Odin now enters the story. He meets 9 slaves of Suttungr’s brother Baugi, and he tricks them into fighting over a scythe and they all kill themselves trying to get the scythe. Odin introduces himself as Bolverk (meaning Evil doer). He says to Baugi he will replace the 9 slaves and begins the work of 9 men. In payment, he wants the Mead of poetry. They both set out for Suttungr’s mead. Odin has a digging tool called Rati, meaning correcting. Baugi was boring the rock. Bolverk realises Baugi wants the mead for himself so Bolverk turns himself into a snake and sneaks into the mountain. Baugi throws the auger at him but misses.
In the vision quests, there are a lot of facing oneself and also facing one’s fear. We get the sense that this is not easy mead to get to. Now the Seeker meets a deep part of himself, our war-initiating soul, who has called out to us, inviting us to show up. Bolverk spends 3 nights with her, drinking the mead called Redemption, Prayer, and Calmness. He flies out of the mountain as an eagle and is chased by Suttungr who is also in the shape of an eagle. Odin spits out mead so he can fly faster, thus he shares the Mead of Poetry. This is a metaphor for a change in Odin’s character.
This story is told by Bragi who is born out of the divine union of Bolverk and Gunnlöd. Bragi is pure poetry and music and he has a golden harp. He is the best version of us and Bolverk is the worst version of us. In Yule, to honor Bragi, people used to tell each other all the wonderful things they would do the next year. This was the Bragi ritual, now known as Bragging. Bragi means noble.
Every character is the Seeker. The Seeker is unrefined and arrogant knowledge, Kvasir, who is killed by flaw and error. The Seeker is Son of screamer. This speaks of generations of avoidance. The Seeker is Heavy with drink. The Seeker is War initiator hidden inside Clashing rock mountain. The Seeker brings forward a part of themselves that needs precious mead, Bolverk, the evil-doer. It doesn’t matter if we work for 9 men, we cannot avoid ourselves forever. Another part of us, Baugi, tries to stop us from reaching ourselves. We have to overcome fear, doubts, and disbelief.
In Myths of the Norse Man by Guerber, the foreword by Kaufmann goes ‘They may not rise to great spiritual heights, foremost students of Icelandic literature agree that they stand out rude and massive as the Scandinavian mountains.’
It is true that the Norse deities do not ask us to aim high spiritually. Their invitation is to go deep. Their practice is the Vision Quest where we will journey deep inside ourselves and deal with generational hurt, grief, and harm.
The Subconscious
The goddess of our subconscious is called Hella. She is the part of our subconscious where our difficult emotions are stored. Her name either comes from Hellig meaning Holy, or Hel meaning Whole. The holiest journey we can be on is investigating the halls of our own subconscious. Hella’s halls have terrible names. She has a hall called misery, a man called idleness, a bed called sorrow, a knife called greed and so forth. They didn’t name her halls this so that we avoid her. We must go on the vision quest and find out why we feel this way. We can only heal by facing ourselves.
The true meaning of Grimnismol
Another favourite story of mine is where Odin has the name Grimnir, meaning the hooded one. In this poem, Odin and Frigg have two foster sons, Agnar (fear-army) and Geirröth (spear-reddener). Frigg takes care of Agnar and Odin takes care of Geirröth. Geirröth becomes king and Agnar ends up living in a cave with an Oger.
Odin says to Frigg, your foster son Agnar lives in a cave with an Oger, and my foster son Geirröth is a king. Frigg is a symbol of his fylgja in this story, and she is similar to war initiator because she stirs the pot by saying that Geirröth tortures his guests. Then she tells Geirröth that a magician will soon arrive to bewitch him. Geirröth is Odin’s false ego and he is very fragile and easily wounded, as is Odin, since he made Geirröth king.
When Odin travels to Geirröth to investigate, Geirröth captures Odin and hangs him in the fireplace. Now we have the hanging ritual again. He does not recognise Odin. Odin has introduced himself as Grimnir, meaning the Hooded one. Geirröth who is now an adult has a son named Agnar. This is a soul retrieval story. Agnar is clearly Odin’s true self, but Odin who is now named the Hooded one has to realise this himself.
While he hangs there, Agnar offers him precious mead. This is the most intense moment for Odin who has avoided himself for so long. This is the moment the flames in the fireplace burn him. He has precious mead and begins to speak. He gives a full map of the cosmology of Yggdrasil. He shares how everything is connected in all that is. Then he gives his own names, all 52 of them. He becomes fully aware of all of his identities. At last, he speaks his name, Odin.
Geirröth panics, realising he has tortured Odin, and he trips on his sword and dies. Odin vanishes and Agnar is the new king.
Pinocchio on the vision quest.
Watch Pinocchio coming alive in this classic comic book strip from 1967.
A quick translation of Pinocchio reveals his name as pineal nut. Pinocchio is a symbol of the activation of the pineal gland. It is true he hung on the Oak tree as punishment for the trouble he caused. He is rescued and taken to the blue fairy. We know now who the blue fairy represents. She is of course a vital part of his vision quest, his soul.
She tries to teach him good morals and Pinocchio begins a new chapter in his life. He works really hard in school and in his job, but nothing he does turns him into a real boy. He goes through many humiliations. He is turned into a donkey at one point and in the end, he is discarded into the ocean. The ocean is the precious mead. This is where he finds his heart. He is eaten by a big fish, the same fish that ate Papa who has been looking for him everywhere. Pinocchio realises how much he loves Papa.
He works out a way to escape the fish with Papa and he swims them both to shore. This act is what turns him into a real boy. It is his heart that is awake, similar to when Odin shares the Mead of poetry or when he realises it is Agnar who is his true inner self.
The transformation into animals is a common mythological metaphor for seeing ourselves in a way that can be less than flattering. It has to do with ego death and is an integral part of the vision quest.
Poem of Harbarth vs Beauty and the Beast
In the poem of Harbarth, Odin is a ferryman and Thor wants the ferryman to take him across, but Odin who is now a symbol of the subconscious denies him. In their exchange, they share stories of their journeys. They speak of their journeys to the east another metaphor for the subconscious. Thor reveals the women he met were more like wolves than women. Meeting oneself as a primitive self is symbolised in the Strength tarot card. There is sacred marriage between the most innate, primal self that has to survive and the soul. You have the lion, the woman, and the infinity symbol.
Beauty and the Beast is another example of this sacred marriage. Time was about to run out, but as soon as she could love the animal part of her soul, time was restored. This is the infinite timeline of Creator of all that is, symbolised by the infinity symbol.
Again, enlightenment was not the goal, but self-discovery was their mean to salvation.
Loki is Yggdrasil
How I realised Loki is Yggdrasil.
Loki’s name means Lid and he is all the layers in or mind. He is the divide between all the programs running. In the vision quest he is very useful because he can take you to the exact program where your trouble started. You will also see how your limiting program serve you. This way, you can gain a high perspective and find another way. The vision quest creates lasting changes in the Seeker.
To sum it up, Heimdallr is the conscious, Hella is the subconscious, and Loki is all the layers of our minds. Odin is the motivation we need to change ourselves and Frigg is our soul that is always connected to Divine Essence (Creator of all that is, God). I believe Thor is Magnetic energy and represents our thoughts as well as magnetic energy in our bodies.
Elves and Dwarves in Norse Myths
Elves and Dwarves are the most uncorrupted part of our psyche, very similar to Hobbits in Tolkien.
It is the dwarves Fjalar and Galar (fault and error) who knows that the Seeker must be redeemed and set Bolverk (evildoer) on the path to get mead of poetry (who they made out of Kvasir). Bolverk has such a transformation, he becomes Bragi (where we get the word bragging from). Bolverk represents our worse self and Bragi is our best selves.
Dwarves create magical weapons and jewellery aiding the Seeker on the vision quest. Dwarves made Odin’s spear Gungnir and his magical ring Draupnir (dripping). Draupnir is a symbol of the vision quest, thus, it is the dwarf in us that will tell us when we need to go within ourselves.
According to the poem Faerie Queenie, dwarves made a magical girdle that could reveal if the Seeker is virtuous or a hypocrite.
Dwarves heal Sif (wife) by giving her beautiful hair. Sif is the soul of the Seeker and it is the Dwarves that bring her back to her former glory, perhaps even better than she was before.
It is the elf Völund that is the most competent in the Vision Quest. His name means Land of the holy path. He is a yogi. Our Norse Ancestors didn’t believe we would get bigger by going on the vision quest. They believed we would let go of so much ‘unnecessary’ beliefs that we would become a light being. We would become so grounded in ourselves, that we would become like an elf.
Norse Apocolypse
I want to end this post with Norse apocalypse. Ragnarök. What does this word mean? It means Decline of the Gods. It is likely that Ragnarök refers to real or many real events that have already happened.
A terrible winter sets in called Fimbulvetr, meaning terrible winter. According to Snorri, it is three winters back to back, with no summer in between. The world of men will be a very hard place to live in. There is conflict between brothers and cousins break peace with eachother. Before the earth sinks to the sea, there will be no man left who is true to another. This is a very biblical warning.
All the Gods and Jotun fight each other.
Understanding Ragnarok
Ragnarok is Loki’s vision quest. Loki is Yggdrasil.
To understand the Gods and what they represent, it is helpful to see their offsprings, siblings, and consorts as avatars of each other. Ragnarok is Loki’s vision quest because Loki is Yggdrasil. Many of Loki’s offsprings (avatars) are also hanging before Ragnarok commences. Garmr, the wolf of Hell, Fenrir, and Jordmangandr are all tied up. Loki has been hung up below a snake who releases venom on Loki. Loki’s wife, Sigyn, held a basin over his face to protect him from the venom. The venom is now the sacred mead, and Sigyn is Loki’s soul. The metaphor is used to add tension to the story. Loki’s vision quest is Ragnarok. This is not an easy journey.
Who fights who in Ragnarok
A great earthquake releases a Garmr from the underworld. Heimdallr (awareness) blows his horn Gjallarhorn. Bifrost (trembling) bridge is broken and the Utgard Jotuns can now cross. Loki (lid) escapes his chains and captains a ship with Jotuns (devour) from Jotunheim. This ship is called Nagalfar meaning nail-farer. Fenrir (flood rider) escapes the magical rope he is tied up in. Jörmungandr (earth serpent which is a metaphor for the equator) releases his ouroboros.
When Fenrir’s rope is broken, he floods everything. Now he is precious mead in this Vision Quest story. The Seeker is experiencing ego death.
Surtr (darkness) kills Freyr. Thor kills Jormundgandr, but is killed by the monster’s blood. Odin is killed by the wolf Fenrir (flood rider). Fenrir is killed by Odin’s son Vidar (wide). Loki fights Heimdallr, and they kill each other. Tyr fights the wolf of the underworld, Garmr. When all these battles are over, Surtr burns all the worlds, including Yggdrasil. The world will rise again out of the sea. Both Baldr and Hodr come back. So do Vidarr and Vali. Thor’s sons Modi and Magni also come back.
Loki is restored through all the layers (lids) that are created in Gimle. A new Midgard serpent goes around the earth, Odin’s runes (universal and spiritual laws) are reborn, Odin’s brothers Vili and Ve forever live in ‘wide wind-home’.
Vision Quests
Dream Incubation is a very effective and easy way to do the Vision Quest.
I ask Creator of all to give me the Vision Quest dream I need the most. I am taken to a realm where I live out the programs in a dream filled with metaphors and parables. In the morning I write down the dream and analyse it.