The Mythology & Lore of Northern & Western Europe have been largely forgotten in modern day America despite the original founders and colonizers hailing predominantly from exactly that region. To this day a majority of Americans could trace their ancestry back to that rather small geographic region if they cared to do the work.
In school we are told that America is a young country and therefore our history is limited. This may have been true in the past, but technology has helped render this barrier obsolete. Genetic tests are readily available through online order at sites like 23&Me which give some remarkable insights into where your family line has migrated from over the past 10,000 years.
Just because the United States was born in 1776 doesn't mean your own personal history started then. It doesn't mean the ancestral memory of those you have descended from is gone either. Those cultures developed and refined the ways we express our human nature, each adding it's own unique language & style to the story of our Human species. We are told the Germanic & Norse cultures were primitive barbarians during the time of the Romans and Greeks, although a study of the available history versus what's promoted and taught in America will show you otherwise.
While the Greek and Roman peoples occupied themselves with building Empires, the peoples of NW Europe preferred to build Family and Independence. The United States of America was founded by the People who felt that undeniable pull towards freedom and out of the grasp of Kings or Emperors. That genetic desire for Freedom speaks loudly once awoken and the values of Life, Liberty, & Pursuit of Happiness were the three prime reasons the Declaration of Independence was created. That was the cultural heritage of NW Euopre speaking. Demanding Freedom from the asshole claiming he was their King.
http://constitutionus.com/images_declaration_engrav.html
Many of our laws have descended from the empires of Greece & Rome, but our values and cultural desire still reign from further north. Once a few layers of this onion called history are removed we will learn that much of what we do in American Culture is derived from the same region.
The days of the week are mostly derived from Norse deities;
- Sunday honoring the goddess of the Sun, Sunna.
- Monday honoring the god of the Moon, Mani.
- Tuesday honoring the god Tiw, who personified honor and justice, among other qualities.
- Wednesday honoring the god Woden, who is complicated beyond the scope of this article.
- Thursday honoring the god Thunor, who represented so much more than hollywood potrays him to be.
- Friday honoring the twin god/goddess duo of Freya & Freyr, who were all things Feminine and Masculine.
- Saturday is the lone day of the week with a name not originating in the NW of Europe for some reason.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_days_of_the_week
Our very language originates from Germanic roots, although the language of the previous Empire has defined a large percentage of our current dictionary. Our holidays are painted by the Christian faith, but their shape and substance is much older than Christ. The stories we grow up with as children today are rather sinister twists on tales that a family in germany before the forced conversion of 1,000 years ago would recognize.
This history isn't known by many, but it's right there in front of us. It just takes a little elbow grease & mental muscle to pick out.
With that introduction out of the way, let us examine what this Lore & Myth you are here to read about really are. If you haven't seen them already, the video series on youtube by Maria Kvilhaug gives a good glimpse at some of the ways knowledge and understanding of the universe was hidden in these stories. Her Book offers much greater detail on the same subjects co
The Gods & Hero's of the Saga's represent human qualities, and in some cases, actual humans who accomplished Great Works. They represent Archetypal thought & behaviour which was passed onward in time in the form of Song & Story. For many generations, these stories would have been the largest source of imagery and symbolism available to their subconscious. The standard to which they dream and imagine.
The purpose of the Younger Edda's by Snorri Sturluson was to be a textbook which would be used to teach people how to understand the kenning (allegory / metaphor) embedded within the story. It would have saved me a lot of trouble if his lesson plans would have also been found with the poems he compiled.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prose_Edda
As the video's I have mentioned above by Ladyofthe Labyrinth sum up very concisely. The Edda poems do indeed describe Initiation Rituals as well as a sort of road map for the beginning of the journey towards one's Great Work. The Great Work itself being the perfection of one's Soul and the completion of their Destiny.
This knowledge is within all Humans, though it expresses itself differently to each of us, the core message is the same. Self Discovery of the Divine. These stories of the Edda Poem's I will be thin slicing are expressing keys which open the doors to the Mystery Tradition of my own ancestors. It hasn't been actively taught or explored by many since the Catholic Church took over the spiritual reigns of power hundreds of years ago, but Yggdrasill is still alive and bearing fruit. Here is the beginning of what I can tell you of it;
There was once a very deep and beautiful Mystery Tradition that lived with the people of Northwestern Europe & Scandinavia. The Catholic king Charlemagne massacred as many as 4,500 of the most important leaders, most likely in dishonest and vile fashion. This began a cultural genocide that left little in the way of written evidence by the time it was done and the Catholic church was able to stamp it's approved metaphor and allegory on spirituality in that part of the world.
My own study of history has led me to question exactly how far that crusade went in destroying the culture. Anatoly Fomenko brings serious questions against the officially accepted history books' recollection of our past for anything more than several hundred years ago. Stories like the Bock Saga also claim history is very different, with the Catholic Church destroying a great Holy Site in Finland around the year 1,000 A.D. and obliterating the spiritual beliefs of the people.
Perhaps the only way we discover the real truth of this part of our forgotten history is for the Vatican archives to be made 100% public. There is very compelling evidence that the Vatican destroyed other similar types of thought in the Gnostics of the Mediterranean region as well. Their gospels which were recorded by contemporaries of Jesus in some cases tell a very different story about Christ and his spiritual ways. One that actually corresponds in many ways to many of the other religious institutions of antiquity.
Those systems of developing spirituality have been largely forgotten by modern day humans. Through the huge increase in knowledge sharing created by the Internet, much of the remaining works of those who lived in the old times are available. This means the allegory and metaphor which explain the deeper meanings of the Holy Books is also available to any who wish to search for it.
My own Spirit is drawn to the lore and mythology from Northern Europe, Scandinavia, the British Isles, and Iceland. I also have reason to suspect many other cultures have left similar trails of their real spiritual roots, look into your own ancestry and see where it leads you. Find the theories of archaeologists and scholars of these times and places. Search for the myth and legend left to us in writing from those times and apply the same scrutiny to it which I will be describing in this series of writings. If you find the same information and spiritual core as I did, have the courage to approach it and see if anything stirs within yourself.
The big picture of my Northern Mythology series is to describe the several layers I have unravelled while studying the writings and symbolism of Northwest Europe & Scandinavia. This information has been dishonored and ignored for far to long and it is my hope that by discussing what is possible I can help balance that wrong.
