Ragnarok

In Northern - Scandinavian and Germanic mythology, the story of Loki, the Fenriswolf, of Thor and Wotan, describes Man's battle of the soul as a result of the Luciferic infection and resulting Ahrimanic influence affecting Man's bodily principles during the development of the I and the changing consciousness of the Human 'I', see also Human character - the I and threefold soul.

The story 'Twilight of the Gods' originates in Northern European mythology, and is called Ragnarok in Norse and Götterdämmerung in German.

It is a set of stories that appears primaraly in the Poetic (and Prose) Edda. Ragnarok stems from the original old Norse 'Ragnarök' or 'Ragnarøkkr'. Richard Wagner's opera Götterdämmerung is part of his tetralogy the Ring des Nibelungen.

Contemporary culture references this with various names eg Doomsday of the Gods, Loki and the Fenriswolf, etc.

Myth of Baldur

The myth of Baldur is about "one of the greatest historical events, the gradual disappearance of the old unclouded knowledge". The Baldur powers represent the old clairvoyant vision. Man had the natural tendency to receive Baldur's influence, and would have developed in accordance with this influence if he had not received Loki's influence. The slaying of Baldur represents the fact that this old clairvoyant vision is extinguished through Man's devotion to the blind Hœnir. The disappearance of Man's clairvoyance was expressed as Loki (appearing with his kinsmen, the three Beings) that killed the clairvoyant power in Baldur. In the tragic story, Loki brings the mistletoe with which blind Hœnir kills Baldur, the one who sees.

Wotan, Thor and Freyr vs Loki and Fenriswolf

Central to the storyline is the fact that due to the Luciferic influence (Loki, the death-bringing power) on the human body, the resulting Ahrimanic influence (Fenris wolf, characterized by lying and untruthfullness) gets into a fight with the regular spiritual hierarchies representing the normal development of Man (battle with Odin). In the end Ahriman is overcome by the Michaelic impulse: Vidar overcomes the Fenris wolf. See Schema FMC00.382.

Aspects

• The Twilight of the Gods tells the story that old old innate clairvoyance eroded and was replaced by current waking consciousness, to be replaced by a new clairvoyance. It tells the story of the luciferic infection and consequent ahrimanic influence (oa 1907-10-21-GA101)
• characters and names appearing in the story:
  • Loki (Lucifer), Midgard, Fenris, Hela, Mimir, Freyre, Thor, Surtur, Vidar
    • three counterforces mapping to Luciferic, Ahrimanic (Fenris or Fenrir), and Asuric counterforces
    • Lucifer influence is represented by Loki
      • the third child or off-spring of Loki (influence on the human physical body ) is called Hel or Hela, producing sickness and death (1910-06-15-GA121)
    • Ahrimanic influence (as consequence of Loki influence):
      • human consciousness alternated, just as a certain cosmic being alternated between the blind Hoenir and the clairvoyant Baldur, who could see into the spiritual world. ... Loki brought it about that the Hoenir nature (current waking consciousness of Maya) ,overcame the (clairvoyant) Baldur nature, expressed by Loki bringing the mistletoe with which blind Hoenir kills Baldur. (1910-06-15-GA121)
      • Baldur (or Balder): the most beautiful and perfect of the gods, the one who sees (represents clairyoyance)
      • Hodur: the blind god, son of Odin and his wife Frigg; name is also spelled as Hod, Höd, Hoder, Hodr
    • from 1907-10-21-GA101: Loki who stems from an older generation of gods (Lemuria), and has three descendants: the Midgard Snake, the Fenris Wolf, and Hel. Loki is forged to the three elements of the human head, trunk, and limbs.
      • The Midgard Snake is thrown into water by the Æsir, the gods of the late Atlantean the early Postatlantean epochs .. meaning the old wisdom got lost when the nebulous masses of Atlantis condensed to water, and current waking consciousness developed in the human being.
      • The Fenris Wolf is the primeval uniform language (see alphabet) that was received from nature, divided by Æsir into separate languages and the process of individuation (and egoism leading to battles and wars)
      • the god of war, Tyr (or: Ziu = Ares), puts hand to the pharynx of the wolf
  • Odin (or Wotan) (1910-06-14-GA121) - see also Germanic gods on: Germanic mythology#Other
    • Odin is 'Lord of the power of Speech' - Odin stories represent the way in which the soul (through the etheric body, whilst in the physical body) acquired speech through the corresponding archangel
    • Odin's companion archangels
      • normally developed:
        • Hœnir - archangel who gave Man the imaginative faculty of clairvoyance
        • Lœdur - who gave race characteristics of skin color and blood character
      • abnormal beings
        • Villy and Ve - work still more intimately within the soul. The ‘I', which is itself at an abnormal stage of evolution, where it is present even when the subordinate soul-powers are being developed, feels itself to be intimately related to an abnormal archangel.
  • Mimir: the ancient bearer of Wisdom
  • Asgard, Mittelgard, and Jötunheim represent the Realm of the Gods, the Realm of Man, and the Realm of the Giants (see FMC00.446 and 1921-07-15-GA205; also lesser reference 1923-06-01-GA276 below)
    • for link with Externsteine and a physical location in central Europe, see the 1910-06-12-GA121 quote on Druidic and Trotten mysteries#Externsteine
    • see also wikipedia page for Asgard
• illustrations and appearance in art:
  • see Schema FMC00.383 below and the wiki page for Ragnarok for a first sample of example illustrations
  • The Gosforth Cross is a large stone Anglo-Saxon cross at Gosforth the United Kingdom, dating to approx. the 10th century AD
  • Richard Wagner's included the story in his opera 'Götterdämmerung' (1876) or 'Twilight of the Gods' that concludes his tetralogy 'Der Ring des Nibelungen'
• see also:
  • Yggdrasil
  • for more info on the Edda, see also: Germanic mythology

Inspirational quotes

From 1910-06-17-GA121

.. the world of Odin and Thor, of Baldur and Hoeder, of Freyr and Freya withdrew for a while into the background, away from human vision. But that world will return after a period when other forces have meanwhile been at work upon the human soul.

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.382 provides a simple summary of how the Luciferic influence attacks Man's bodily principles and is in conflict with the regular beings of the third hierarchy. All are represented by figures in the myth. Click to enlarge.

Schema FMC00.446 relates the counterforces and the tension field dynamic they represent, as was known in earlier previous ages both in ancient Norse Germanic mythology (see also Ragnarok) and the ancient Persian cultural age and the teachings of Zarathustra.

As explained in the quote from 1921-07-15-GA205, contemporary Western culture 'has become very greatly confused [regarding evil], and this confusion pervades all thinking' as it fully based on the conception of a duality (good-evil). Instead, one needs to take a view based on a trinity, whereby the essence consists of a balanced middle path represented by Christ.

Schema FMC00.383 shows illustrations of the myth. Left Gosforth Cross with details on the right. On the right, various illustrations from 10-13th century in Norway, Iceland, UK (Isle of Man), showing Odin being swallowed by Fenris.

Lecture coverage and references

Coverage

Rudolf Steiner mentions various (Ragnarok) stories from the Edda in dozens of lectures, and the wealth of artwork and literature available makes it difficult to underestimate the importance of this legacy. The approx. 20 lecture references below help to develop an insight and appreciation of how the 'modern' contemporary teachings of spiritual science are contained in these stories. See also Yggdrasil for another similar example.

For:

• Wotan, Thor and Freyr vs Loki and Fenriswolf: see 1907-10-21-GA101, 1910-06-14-GA121, 1910-06-15-GA121, 1910-06-17-GA121
• most other references below are about the Baldur myth

Reference extracts

1905-03-22-GA90B

(DE edition p 339-340)

links Baldur to the three stages in the Druidic initiations and positions the Baldur myth as part of the Druidic Mysteries and wisdom

1905-12-10-GA90B

(DE edition p 371)

The Earth Sun is Baldur. What still contains the Old Moon nature, is symbolized by Loki, as Baldur's enemy. Loki wants to kill Baldur, and to do so takes nothing from Earth (as that could not hurt him), but takes the mistletoe to slay the blind Baldur.

see more: Germanic mythology#1905-12-10-GA90B

1907-10-21-GA101

is called 'Germanic sagas' (Part 3)

covers o.a.: the circle of the gods Wotan, Thor and Tyr and their fight against the (southern) fire god Loki and his following: Fenris wolf, Midgard snake

1910-06-14-GA121

synopsis includes:

Germanic Scandinavian Mythology. In old India the experiences of the I objectively came later than it did in the Scandinavian. ...

The I of the Westerner awoke much earlier but in a lower state; when conscious of angels. Wotan or Odin and speech. Mimir, wisdom. Hoeder, imagination. Loder, complexion, blood. These were normal archangels; but Villy and Ve, abnormal, working within. Thor remained behind as angel to guide the German-Scandinavian, upon waking the I. Thor, son of Odin. Odin transforms air into words. The air passes through into I and produces blood, whose pulsation the hammer of Thor. Nebelheim and Muspelheim. Ginnungagap. Riesenheim

from RSH, on germanic mythology:

• Odin or Wotan is an abnormal archangel who had renounced his higher development. He is the creator of human speech; people perceived him as working macrocosmically in the wind. Also his companions Vili and Ve are abnormal archangels.
• Thor, one of the loftiest angels, who had renounced the higher ranks as well, was seen active in the warmth and pulsation of the blood (Thor’s hammer) and macrocosmically in lightning and thunder.
• The Vanir were the gods perceived in Atlantis who were detached by the Æsir (archangels and angels), leading the Germanic peoples from the late Atlantis and during the post-Atlantean epoch.

(SWCC)

Man then passed further from the Atlantean epoch, and saw the weaving of the angels and archangels, whom they called the Asa. Those were the beings who busied themselves with the ‘ I ’ of Man, which then awoke at its lowest stage; those beings were placed at the head of these peoples. What the other peoples of the East slept through, seeing how the soul worked its way up by means of the various forces which were bestowed upon it by the normal and abnormal angels and archangels, had to be gone through by the peoples of Europe beginning from the lowest stage; they had to be consciously present, in order that these soul-forces might gradually develop.

Thus, therefore, the figures of the gods, which placed themselves before the souls of the Germanic Scandinavian peoples, were the figures of the gods who worked directly upon his soul, and that which he could observe by direct perception, as the development of the human soul out of the cosmos, that was something which he directly experienced. He did not look back in remembrance at the manner in which the souls worked themselves into the bodies, he saw this more as though it were just happening then. It is his own evolution and he with his ‘ I ’ is present in it. He understood this down to the eighth, ninth and tenth centuries after Christ. He had preserved a comprehension of how the soul-forces gradually formed themselves, crystallized themselves into the body.

[Wotan - Odin and speech (and runes)]

At first he gazed upon the archangels who worked in his soul by giving him what were to become his soul forces, and he found there as the most predominant of these archangels, Wotan or Odin, and he saw him at work upon his soul, he saw how he worked into his soul.

What did he see there? How did he perceive Wotan or Odin? What did he recognize him to be? As what did he learn to love him, and above all to understand him?

He learned to recognize him as being one of those archangels who once upon a time reached the point of renouncing the ascent to higher stages. He learned to know Odin as one of the abnormal archangels, as one of the great renouncers of antiquity, who had assumed the office of an archangel when undertaking the important mission of working into the souls of men. The Germanic Scandinavian experienced Odin in his activity at a time when he still went about the work of inoculating speech into the souls. The manner in which Odin himself worked upon his peoples in order to make speech possible to them has been preserved in a wonderful way It was described as a divine initiation.

The way in which Odin gained the power to endow the souls of the Germanic and Northern peoples with languages is thus described Odin, before he had acquired this capacity, had gone through what is represented to us as the initiation by means of the Potion of the Gods, that divine Potion which once upon a time in the primeval past belonged to the giants. This Potion contained not merely abstract wisdom, but it represents to us the wisdom which expresses itself directly in sound.

Odin at his initiation obtained power over the wisdom which expresses itself in sound, he learned how to use it when he went through a long initiation which lasted nine days, from which he was then released by Mimir, the ancient bearer of Wisdom. Thus Odin became Lord of the power of Speech. It was for this reason that the later sagas trace the language of the poets, the language of the skalds, back to Odin.

The art of reading runes, which in olden times was thought of as being much more closely related to speech than the later kind of writing, was also traced back to Odin.

Hence the way in which the soul — indirectly, through the etheric body, whilst making itself at home in the physical body — acquired speech through the corresponding archangel, is expressed in the wonderful stories related about Odin.

[Hoenir and Loedur]

In the companions of Odin we have similar archangels:

• Hœnir who gave the imaginative faculty, and
• Lœdur who gave that which still touches the race most closely, the color of the skin, and the character of the blood.

These two archangels belong more to the normal side, so to speak.

[Villy and Ve]

To the abnormal side belong the Beings appearing as Villy and Ve. These are Beings who work still more intimately, within the soul, as I explained in the preceding lecture. But the ‘ I ’ which is itself at an abnormal stage of evolution, where it is present even when the subordinate soul-powers are being developed, feels itself to be intimately related to an abnormal archangel.

Odin is not perceived as an abnormal archangel, but rather as one whose remaining behind is somewhat like the way the Western souls remained behind, who experience more consciously in their ‘ I ’ that which remained behind when the migration through those countries took place, — whereas the Eastern souls passed beyond certain stages of soul-life, before they decided to awake. Hence there lived above all in the souls of the Germanic Scandinavians all that is bound up with those agitating and working archangel-forces of Odin, which are at work in the primitive depths of the soul-life.

[angelic Thor]

Whereas we have said that it is the angels who carry down into the individual human beings that which the archangels bring about, so also an ‘ I ’ which awakes at such an early elementary stage of soul-life, is above all interested in having the affairs of the archangels carried into it, as it were. Hence the Germanic Scandinavians have an interest in an angelic figure who possesses special power, but who at the same time is closely related to the separate human being and his individuality. That angelic figure is Thor. Thor can only be recognized by knowing that in him one must recognize a being who might indeed have been very advanced if he had evolved himself normally further, but who made the renunciation comparatively early, and remained behind at the stage of the angel, in order that at the time when in the course of the soul's evolution the ‘ I ’ should awake, he might become guide in the soul-world of the Germanic Scandinavian countries. What one feels so directly in Thor as being related to the individual human ‘ I ’ is, that that which was to be carried into every single ‘ I ’ from the spiritual world, could actually be so carried in. If we bear this in mind we shall also better understand many things that have been handed down. For us it is a question of being able to understand these individual Gods correctly. The Germanic Scandinavian man perceived and experienced this imprinting of the soul into the body. He was present when the ‘ I ’ membered itself into the body and took possession of each single human being.

Now we know that the ‘ I ’ pulsates in the blood of the physical body and that everything within corresponds to something without, everything microcosmic to something macrocosmic. The work of Odin who gave speech and Runic Wisdom, who worked indirectly through the breathing, corresponds to the movements of the wind outside in the macrocosm. The regular penetration of the air through our respiratory organs, which then transforms the air into word and speech, corresponds in the macrocosm outside to the movements and the currents of the wind. Just as it is true that we must feel the ruling of Odin within ourselves in the transforming of air into words, so it is true also that we must see him ruling and working in the wind outside. But one who still possessed the old Germanic Scandinavian capacities, to which especially belonged a certain degree of clairvoyance, really saw this. He could see Odin everywhere ruling in the wind, he saw how he formed speech by means of his breath. This the Northern man perceived as unity. Just as that which lives in us and organizes our speech, — that is to say, in the way speech existed among the Scandinavians, — just as that presses through into the ‘ I ’ and produces the pulsation of the blood, so does that which organizes itself into speech correspond outside in the macrocosm to thunder and lightning. Speech is there before the’ I ’ is born. Hence the ‘ I ’ is everywhere felt to be the son of that Being who gives speech. In the imprinting of the separate ‘ I ’ Thor is specially concerned, and that which in the microcosm corresponds to the event in the macrocosm, is the pulsation of the blood. That therefore which outside in the macrocosm corresponds to the pulsation of the blood in man, is what as thunder and lightning goes through the sighing winds and weaving clouds. That again is seen by the Germanic Scandinavian in his clairvoyance as unity, and he sees that the movement of the wind, the flashing of the lightning outside is inwardly connected with the weaving of the air he breathes in. He sees how that passes over into the blood and then causes the ‘ I ’ to pulsate. That is looked upon as a material occurrence at the present day, but it was still an astral one to the Germanic Norseman. He saw the inner relationship of fire and lightning, with that which goes through the blood. He felt the pulse-beat in his blood and he knew that it was the beating of the ‘ I ’; he knew: ‘That which thus beats I am able to perceive, and I shall be able to perceive it again in a little while;’ but he did not notice the outer material event. All that was clothed in clairvoyant perception. He perceived that which caused his pulse to beat and made him return again and again to the same places, as being the act of Thor. He felt the Thor-force in his ‘ I ’ as the constant returning of the hammer of Thor into the hand of Thor, he felt the force of one of the most powerful Angels that had ever been known and revered, because he was a mighty Being who was seen to have remained behind at the Angel stage.

The way in which the spiritual force holds the physical body together, is expressed in the Germanic Scandinavian mythology where it says, that the ‘ I ’ is that which, when the soul and body are woven, holds them both together. The Germanic Scandinavian man sees the weaving of the body and soul, from within; and later on he still understands the way in which, coming from the astral, his inner being unites itself with him; he understands how the inner answers, so to say, to the outer. He could also understand when Initiates told him how the world forms itself into man.

Then he understood how to go back to the earlier stages, to that which was told him about the events which represent the relation of the Angels to the Archangels, to the earlier stages when man was born out of the macrocosm in a physical-spiritual way. He was able to see how the individual human being was built up out of the macrocosm and how he rests in it.

He sought in the macrocosm for those occurrences which take place microcosmically in such a way, that out of the human North, out of the cool domain of the spirit, are woven the thoughts of man, and that from thence the human body is supplied with the twelve brain-nerves in the head. He sees this process which microcosmically have become the twelve brain nerves. He sees the weaving Spirit in what he calls ‘Nebelheim’ or ‘Niflheim’ (Home of Mist), he sees the twelve brain-nerves of man; he sees how that which comes from the human South, from the heart, works towards that which comes down from above; he seeks for it outside in the macrocosm and understands when he is told that it is called ‘Muspelheim’.

Thus even in the Christian centuries he still understood how to comprehend the microcosm from the whole macrocosm; and one can go back still further for him, by showing how man gradually originated out of the macrocosm as an extract of the whole world. He is able to look back into that time and he can understand that these events have a past, which he himself can still see as a working of Angels and Archangels into his soul. He can perceive that these events have a past, and the conceptions which he thus acquires are what we meet with in what is known as the old Germanic Scandinavian Genesis, as the origin of humanity from the entire macrocosm.

Where the Germanic Scandinavian Chaos begins, in Ginnungagap, is about the time when the earth begins to form itself anew after it has gone through the three earlier states, Saturn, Sun and Moon, when it emerges again from pralaya, when the kingdoms of nature are not yet differentiated, and men are as yet quite spiritual beings. Then the man of the North understands how the later conditions formed themselves out of that one.

Now it is interesting to see how in the Germanic Scandinavia mythology events which took place in those times, are depicted in pictures of imaginative form, events for which we, in our anthroposophical teachings, only make use of riper expressions, viz., concepts instead of those former pictures. The events which took place when the sun and moon were still united, are described to us. The going forth of the moon is described, and how evolution then passes over into what later becomes ‘Riesenheim’ (Home of Giants). Everything which existed during the Atlantean epoch is described to us as a continuation of what had happened formerly and which were the affairs of the Germanic Scandinavian people themselves.

I only wanted to-day to give an idea of how the Northern ‘ I ’ awoke while it was still at a lower stage of evolution, and how the Northern man looked into the Folk-soul, into the soul of Thor and so on. I wanted to call forth a feeling of how the ‘ I ’ was then present, of how it was able to acquire a direct interest in the inweaving of still higher Beings, who, however, came from quite another quarter than those we find among Eastern peoples. We shall to-morrow try to find access to the more remote parts of the Germanic mythology. We shall recognize how those remote parts are precursors of that which dwells in the Folk-souls, and we shall see what is the nature of our Western Folk-souls.

1910-06-15-GA121

synopsis

Elucidation of 8. To the Indian, the objective I is unimportant; to the Westerner, all important. Lucifer in inner being or astral. Freedom and the possibility of evil. Lucifer from within leads to Ahriman outside. Old Testament conscious of Lucifer not of Ahriman. St. Mark mentions Satan, Ahriman. Difference between Mark and Matthew. Old Persian realised Ahriman. Old Indian realised Lucifer not Ahriman.

The German-Scandinavian realised Lucifer and Ahriman. Loki. Lucifer influences both etheric and physical body from the astral body; and turns the etheric body to lies. The astral body which is the inner part of man, is turned to selfishness. The physical body to sickness and death.

Midgard, snake, selfishness. Fenris-wolf, self-deceit. The wolf pursues Sun. The eclipse, Moon in front of Sun. Hela, sickness, death. Loki is the parent of these three influences. These myths originate from clairvoyant consciousness: Loki cause blind Hoeder to kill Balder, the one who sees clairvoyantly and Ahriman arrives. Norse mythology was actively experienced before and after the time of Christ, whereas in the Greeks it was a memory. Difference in the East. John Baptist. To the Norse man, Christ's coming meant return of Balder and the time spent on earth was a time of transition. The Northern initiates taught that men would again see into the spirit world but other powers will be added and conditions changed. Ragnarok, twilight of Gods.

quote A

[luciferic influence]

Now we proceed to the influence of Loki on the physical body, in which he brings about sickness and death. His third off-spring is, therefore, that which produces sickness and death. That is Hela.

Thus you have, in fact, expressed in a wonderful way in the figures: Hela, the Fenris Wolf, and the Midgard Serpent, the influence of Loki or Lucifer, in the form in which the old clairvoyance, which we may describe as a dreamy clairvoyance, perceived it. If we were to go through the whole history of Loki, we should everywhere find that these things throw light upon the matter, down to the smallest details. But we must clearly understand therein that what the clairvoyant sees is not merely an allegorical symbolical description, but he sees real entities, Beings.

quote B

[ahrimanic influence]

Now the Germanic Scandinavian did not know merely of Loki, of the Luciferic influence; he was also aware of the influence of Ahriman which came from another direction; and he knew more, he knew that the exposure to the Ahrimanic influence is the consequence of the Loki influence. You must now transpose yourselves back to the time when Man did not look at the world with external physical vision, but contemplated it with the old clairvoyance, and you will then find that this myth is formed for that clairvoyance.

What does the myth say?

Loki's influence has come upon man, and this is expressed in the action of the Midgard Serpent, the Fenris Wolf and Hela. Man has become such that his view, his clear luminous vision into the spiritual world has become dimmed by the increasing pressure of the Luciferic influence. At the time when this view developed, man alternated between seeing into the spiritual world and living on the physical plane, just as one now alternates between waking and sleeping. When he gazed into the spiritual world, he looked into the world out of which he was born. The essential point is, that the myth originated from the clairvoyant consciousness. But human consciousness consisted in this alternating state of seeing into and not being able to see into the spiritual world. When the condition of dream-consciousness was there, one saw into the spiritual world; when the condition of waking day consciousness was there, one was blind to it. Thus the conditions of blindness and of being able to gaze into the spiritual world alternated.

The consciousness alternated, just as a certain cosmic being alternated between the blind Hoenir and the clairvoyant Baldur, who could see into the spiritual world. Thus Man had the tendency to receive Baldur's influence, and he would have developed in accordance with this influence if he had not received Loki's influence. Loki, however, brought it about that the Hoenir nature overcame the Baldur nature. That is expressed by Loki bringing the mistletoe with which blind Hoenir kills Baldur, the one who sees.

Loki is therefore the death-bringing power, like Lucifer who has driven Man to Ahriman. When Man is devoted to the blind Hoenir, the old clairvoyant vision is extinguished. That is the slaying of Baldur. This is felt by the Northman as the gradual loss of the Baldur-powers, the vision into the Northern Germanic world. Thus the Northman felt the disappearance of his clairvoyance as though it were Loki having killed the clairvoyant power in Baldur, and all that remains to him is his impotence as regards this clairvoyance. Thus one of the greatest historical events, the gradual disappearance of the old unclouded knowledge, is expressed in the myth of Baldur, Hoenir and Loki. On the one side we have Loki with his kinsmen, the three Beings, and on the other the tragic act of the slaying of Baldur.

Thus, reflected in the Scandinavian mythology we have that which we can draw from spiritual science: the twofold influence, the Luciferic and the Ahrimanic. That it is which spiritual science always tries to place before you as a presentation of the clairvoyant knowledge of ancient times, and as a working out of the myths from the old clairvoyance, which then began gradually to disappear.

1910-06-17-GA121

see oa Nerthus#1910-06-17-GA121

also, from synopsis:

Old clairvoyance will take a different form, but the world of Odin and Balder will return when other forces have been working in the human soul. The Folk-spirit of Scandinavia has a special clairvoyant faculty. Etheric clairvoyance is the next clairvoyance. Freyr overcome by flaming sword of Surtur. Fenris Wolf (false clairvoyance) remains to fight Odin.

1915-04-02-GA161

(also 2 and 3 april, only one in GA161)

1921-07-15-GA205

But in this connection it is necessary that man should develop the right feeling for the relation of spirit to matter. You may remember that there is a poem belonging to the old German culture called “Muspille,” a poem which was first found in a book dedicated to Ludwig the German in the ninth century, but which in reality goes back to very much earlier times. In this poem there is contained a purely Christian element. It describes the battle of Elias with Antichrist. But the manner in which this battle of Elias with Antichrist is described, the whole way in which the story is unfolded, reminds one of the old battles which took place between the inhabitants of Asgard and the inhabitants of Jötunheim, the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Giants. All that has been done is to change the Kingdom of the Asen into the Kingdom of Elias, and the Kingdom of the Giants into the Kingdom of the Antichrist.

The manner of thinking which we meet with here conceals the real truth less than the thinking of a later day. A more modern thinking speaks always of a duality, of good and evil, of God and the Devil, and so on. But this manner of thinking is of later development and no longer coincides with the thinking of earlier times.

Those people who created the story of the battle between the Kingdom of the Gods and the Kingdom of the Giants did not see in the Gods an equivalent, they did not see the same as that which the Christian of today understands as the Kingdom of his God, but

• the thinking of an earlier time placed Asgard above, for example Asgard the Realm of the Gods,
• and below was Jötunheim, the Realm of the Giants.
• Man himself was to be found in the middle region, in Mittelgard.

This is the Germanic-European way of expressing what in ancient Persia was understood by Ormuzd and Ahriman. In our manner of speaking today we should say Lucifer and Ahriman.

We ought in reality to speak of Ormuzd as Lucifer and not merely as the good God. And the error so frequently met with is this, that one understands this dualism in such a way that Ormuzd is looked upon as the good God, and his enemy Ahriman as the evil God. In reality the relationship is that of Lucifer to Ahriman.

The region of Mittelgard is represented quite accurately in the time when this poem “Muspille” was written, for it was not said: Christ allows His Blood to stream down from above, but: Elias is there, it is he who allows his blood to stream down, and man is placed in the middle.

Ideas belonging to the time when Ludwig the German apparently copied this poem into his book are truer than those of a later age, for later on things took a strange turn, and people no longer remembered the Trinity; that is to say, they looked upon the Upper Gods which are in Asgard, and the Lower Gods which are in the Realm of Ahriman, as being the All; they conceived the Upper, the Luciferic Gods as being the good Gods, and the others as being the evil Gods. That happened in later times.

An earlier humanity still understood rightly the contrast between Ahriman and Lucifer, and therefore placed a being such as Elias, Elias with his emotional prophecy, with all that he was at that time able to foretell in the Luciferic Realm, because it was felt that Christ must be placed in the middle region, in Mittelgard.

see further also Schema FMC00.446 and Christ Module 14 – the counterforces: Lucifer, Ahriman and Sorat#1921-07-15-GA205

1923-06-01-GA276

Thus, in terms of European mythology,

• the head of the human being contains, above, as it were, Asgard, the castle of the gods;
• in its middle part, Midgard, Man's earthly home;
• and, below, what also belongs to the Earth, Jotunheim, home of the giants.

These interrelationships do not become clear through abstract concepts; they become clear only if we perceive the human head artistically, in relation to its spiritual origin; only when we see in it heaven, earth and hell.

Not hell as the abode of the devil; hell as the home of the giants, Jotunheim. There lives in the head the entire human being: a whole.

Note: to avoid misunderstandings about the duality heaven and hell, see Christ Module 14 – the counterforces: Lucifer, Ahriman and Sorat#1921-07-15-GA205

Roy Wilkinson

On the war between Aesir and Vanir

[short story summary]

A race of gods older than the Aesir was that of the Vanir. Their home was a region far above the top of Yggdrasil. They worked in everything that grows and lives, in the wind, in the warmth, in sprouting seeds, in the rising sap of the trees and, of course, in human kind as well. But the Aesir worked in men's thinking, feeling and willing.

A visitor from the Vanir, called Gullveig, once came to Asgard but talked of nothing but the Golden Age. The Aesir thought she wanted to hinder them in their work and tried to get rid of her. This proved impossible. They threw her on a fire three times and she burned up three times but three times she became alive again. Loki ate some of her burnt heart. Gullveig, resurrected however, stayed in Asgard, changed her name to Heid and became a witch.

The Vanir were angry at the way their messenger had been insulted and swore vengeance. Thus a war started but it soon became clear that no one side would win and, growing weary, the two contestants called truce. They made peace and exchanged hostages. Njord and Heimdall came to live in Asgard and were soon accepted as Aesir.

Honir and Mimir went to Vanaheim but the Vanir were not pleased with their guests. Honir never seemed to be able to answer a question properly and always said: 'Ask Mimir'. The Vanir realised that Minir was not a real member of the Aesir and they began to look upon him as a sorcerer. They felt they had been tricked. They cut off his head and sent it back to Asgard. Odin smeared it with herbs to preserve it and sang charms over it so that the power of speech came back to it. So Mimir's wisdom became Odin's.

[commentary]

The Vanir were the gods active in distant Atlantean times before other gods intervened in the soul nature of Man. The war between the Aesir and  Vanir represents conflicting interests concerning the future of Man.

• The Vanir are deities concerned with cosmic rhythms to which Man is exposed but which affect him subconsciously.
• The Aesir are concerned with the soul of man and his coming to self - consciousness.

The visitor represents former supersensible forces and when she talks of a Golden Age, it is an age of innocence -- before the Fall. Since, however, she now brings forces of an earlier time which are not transmuted and therefore no longer appropriate, she becomes a witch. When Loki partakes of her flesh it signifies that he misuse supersensible powers. The visit marks the end of the Golden Age, historically.

The Aesir lead men from dependence on the gods to independence and the way leads through contact with the physical world. They, therefore, have no patience with one who continually talks of times past. There is conflict, but gods also evolve and there is eventual agreement. Hostages are exchanged. The significance of this is that there is now a working together. The fact that Njord leaves Vanaheim means that there is to be a change in the manner of reproduction. Njord represents the reproductive forces which are now to be governed by different conditions.

In the Golden Age there was no conscious sexuality. Conception took place in a somnambulistic state under divine influence and hence one could say of a woman that 'she knew not a man'. People lived in accord with cosmic rhythms and, like most animals today, conception only took place at certain times. The urge to reproduce is to come no longer from without but from within. It becomes a conscious act as Njord comes to live in Asgard.

Heimdall was already mentioned as a high ranking spiritual being, who, although a member of the Vanir, worked in the sense world. He had obviously changed his nature and could therefore be at home in Asgard.

Honir and Mimir go to Vanaheim, the home of the Vanir. Honir, who had given the first man and woman a mind, represents a part of the human being which was withdrawn from entanglement with the senses, the higher self, which is preserved for the advent of a new spiritual impulse later. He was 'innocent' and hence could not answer questions properly.

Mimir, as bearer of the world memory, is at home in any realm and was therefore no real hostage. When men lose spiritual vision, the event is described as if the gods have withdrawn. Similarly, Mimir, cosmic memory, spiritual perception, recedes further from the earthly world.

When the Vanir cut off Mimir's head, it is the Norse way of saying that cosmic memory is no longer available to men, -- men lose contact with the spiritual world. Nevertheless, cosmic reality still exists and Odin's 'embalmed' this. The head was able to speak to Odin, that is to say, Odin had the faculty of understanding. He had learned cosmic language.

Discussion

Note 1 - Gosforth Cross

Information from wikipedia:

The Gosforth Cross is a large stone Anglo-Saxon cross at Gosforth the United Kingdom, dating to approx. the 10th century AD, with a combination of Christian and Nordic symbols. The cross shows scenes described in the Poetic Edda such as

• Loki bound with his wife Sigyn protecting him.
• The god Heimdallr holding his horn.
• The god Víðarr tearing the jaws of Fenrir.
• Thor's failed attempt to catch Jörmungandr, the Midgard Serpent.

It is currently debated whether sources were added to the Cross out of reverence for Viking beliefs and still clinging to their own identity or as a way to parallel Norse mythology (ie Ragnarök, the death of Baldur) with Christian beliefs (ie the Apocalypse, the crucifixion of Christ). Among the parallels is Loki being bound is allegorical for Satan being bound, the death of Baldur accompanied by Hod and Nanna interchangeable with Christ's death as witnessed by Longinius and Mary Magdalene, and the battle Odin has with Surtr similar to how Christ ultimately conquers the Devil. Another is how the base of the cross has a tree-like design, looking like bark. This is a possible parallel between Yggsdrasil and the Tree of Life, both featured heavily in their respective mythologies.

Related pages

• Ancient history of myths and legends
• Nibelungen
• Yggdrasil
• Man - the human being
• Evolution

References and further reading

see: Germanic mythology#References and further reading