My post on Thor and Odin has gotten some responses that kind of prove my point.
I will however not do it while im still p*ssed off.
It is clear however that what i see when i look around me in Sweden is all wrong and academics and museums are ill informed and i will henceforth ask teenage people in other parts of the world about my own culture.
The term ethnocentrism was coined by William G. Sumner, upon observing the tendency for people to differentiate between the in-group and others. He defined it as “the technical name for the view of things in which one’s own group is the center of everything, and all others are scaled and rated with reference to it.” He further characterized it as often leading to pride, vanity, beliefs of one’s own group’s superiority, and contempt of outsiders. Robert K. Merton comments that Sumner’s additional characterization robbed the concept of some analytical power because, Merton argues, centrality and superiority are often correlated, but need to be kept analytically distinct.
Just as it may take “deprogramming” to get out of a “cult” (in the modern meaning) it may take some to get into a cult (proper).
A deprogramming of the norm so to speak.
It is very easy to by way of structuralism and ethnocentrism attempt to apply a teaching or way to ones life that is really nothing more than ones original one in other trappings.
I would say that this is true regardless of weather it is a mystery school such as Thelema, Kabbalah or Raja Yoga or if it is a reconstructivist or ethnic path.
I sometimes find myself struggling with sexual ideas, ideals as to what is “sacred” and what is “profane”, the nature of morals, philosophical and cultural ideals and so on that i can clearly see are Christian (despite not having been a Christian for decades), Post-Modern or other strains of philosophy that are part of contemporary mainstream society.
This despite a number of initiations, years of religous practice and study.
This is probably (one reason ) why banishings are so essential to the Ceremonial Magician.
Taking out the trash leaves room for any other work.
Just like when studying another contemporary or ancient culture, the glasses of ones own has to come off.
Paralells that dont exist must be exorcicised and the subject must be studied objectively and with some degree of honesty.
This however also applies to the praxis that might follow.
Just like an ethnocentric antropologist would be more or less studying his own culture, a mystic or reconstructivist stuck in the norm of today would simply be a guy changing robes.
Four stags or harts (male Red Deer) eat among the branches of the World Tree Yggdrasill. According to thePoetic Edda, the stags crane their necks upward to chomp at the branches. Their names are given as Dáinn, Dvalinn, Duneyrrand Duraþrór. An amount of speculation exists regarding the deer and their potential symbolic value.
Early suggestions for interpretations of the stags included connecting them with the four elements, the four seasons or the phases of the moon.
In his influential 1824 work, Finnur Magnússon suggested that the stags represented winds. Based on an interpretation of their names, he took Dáinn (‘The Dead One’) and Dvalinn (‘The Unconscious One’) to be calm winds and Duneyrr and Duraþrór to be heavy winds. The stags biting the leaves of the tree, he interpreted as winds tearing at clouds. The fact that Dáinn and Dvalinn are also dwarf names, he connected with dwarves having control of winds.
Many scholars, following Sophus Bugge, believe that stanzas 33 and 34 of Grímnismál are of a later origin than those surrounding them. Finnur Jónsson surmised that there was originally only one stag which had later been turned into four, probably one on each side.This is consistent with stanza 35 of Grímnismál, which mentions only one hart:
Grímnismál 35Askr Yggdrasilsdrýgir erfiðimeira enn menn viti:hiörtr bitr ofan,en á hliðo fúnar,skerðer Níðhöggr neðan.Thorpe’s translationYggdrasil’s ashhardship suffersgreater than men know of;a hart bites it above,and in its side it rots,Nidhögg beneath tears it.It has been suggested that this original stag is identical with Eikþyrnir, mentioned earlier in Grímnismál.
Veðrfölnir (Old Norse ”storm pale,” ”wind bleached” or “wind-witherer”) is a hawk sitting between the eyes of an unnamed eagle that is perched on top of the world tree Yggdrasil. Veðrfölnir is sometimes modernly anglicized as Vedrfolnir orVethrfolnir.
The unnamed eagle is attested in both the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, while Veðrfölnir is solely attested in the Prose Edda. In both the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, the squirrel Ratatoskr couriers messages between the unnamed eagle and Nidhöggr, the wyrm that resides below the world tree. Scholars have proposed theories about the implications of the birds
John Lindow points out that Snorri does not say why a hawk should be sitting between the eyes of an eagle or what role it may play. Lindow theorizes that “presumably the hawk is associated with the wisdom of the eagle” and that “perhaps, like Odin’s ravens, it flies off acquiring and bringing back knowledge”.
Hilda Ellis Davidson says that the notion of an eagle atop a tree and the World Serpent coiled around the roots of the tree has parallels in other cosmologies from Asia, and that Norse cosmology may have been influenced by these Asiatic cosmologies from a northern route. On the other hand, Davidson adds, the Germanic peoples are attested as worshipping their deities in open forest clearings, and that asky god was particularly connected with the oak tree, and therefore “a central tree was a natural symbol for them also”
Ratatoskr (Old Norse, generally considered to mean “drill-tooth” or “bore-tooth”) is a squirrel who runs up and down the world tree Yggdrasil to carry messages between the unnamed eagle, perched atop Yggdrasil, and the wyrm Níðhöggr, who dwells beneath one of the three roots of the tree. Ratatoskr is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. Scholars have proposed theories about the implications of the squirrel.
In Norse mythology, Gróa (Old Norse ”growing”) is a völva and practitioner of seiðr, the wife of Aurvandil the Bold.
“I am the giant Skrymir” (1902) by Elmer Boyd Smith
Thor and Loki in front of Skrymir (really Utgårda-Loki), Tjalfi and Röskva (Thors servants) turning away in fear.
The story can be found in Gylfaginning in the Prose Edda
Weddings were held on Friday or “Friggas-day” to honor the goddess of marriage.
The bride wore the bridal crown.
