The birth of the human being
According to Norse mythology, the three gods discovered two humanoid logs while walking along a riverbank. The gods then approached the two logs and brought them to life.
The woman will be made from “Embla”, an elm tree, while the man was made from one of the “Ask” trees, an ash tree of the same species as Yggdrasil.
All three gods will provide him with the divine spark that will transform these woods into a living human being, just as the fairy godmother does with Pinocchio in Disney’s fairy tales when she waves her magic wand adorned with a star.
- Odin will give him the spirit, the lifeblood and the soul;
- Ve (Lodur), the blood and bones;
- and Vili (Hönir), the intelligence (manas) and conscious senses, which will enable him to conduct experiments in the manifested world to approach the eternal realm.
The pure mind is metaphorically equal to the serpent in the great tree, just as the human being is fractally a Yggdrasil on a different scale. It is the connection that keeps the heavenly realms connected to the earth and allows humans to communicate with the gods.
The tripartite structure of Greek philosophy – body (Soma), soul (Psyche) and intelligence – is analogous to this vision (Nous).
An intriguing symbolic element is the formation of the particle, which corresponds to the initial letter of the word “lord,” the appellation by which Odin and his sons are known when the first letters of the Ask and Embla trees are combined.
As a result of the intimate union between a man and a woman, the human being shares the same divine origin as the gods.
Asking important questions and reaching knowledge of the timeless through reason are two traits that define the human being.
Ask
The term “Ask” is a play on the English word of the same name, which means to inquire. Man, by name, remains an inquirer seeking to understand the truth.
The great historical figures of his time may have been destroyed along with their ships by the Vikings because they were originally made of wood. For the bodies and activities of people were to be the fuel that kept the eternal fire of the gods of Midgard burning.
Bifrost
The Bifrost Rainbow Bridge, which links Asgard and Midgard, allows the gods to converse with the human realm.
For example, Antahkarana among the Hindus symbolized consciousness, allowing one to consciously unite the world of being, where the gods reside, where the deity resides in each one, with the personality, or the mask, with which this celestial being appears in life.
The duty of creating this bridge within oneself, from the ground up, to connect the two worlds of heaven and earth, would fall to the human being.
Heimdall
Heimdall, another very significant deity associated with the Bifrost, will protect the bridge. He is a representation of the will in motion, ready to rally the gods for battle when the giants approach Asgard with their ram helmets and resounding horn.
The sacred spark that ignites the eternal fire that lies dormant in the heart of every human being, Heimdall is the father of conscious humanity, not its body or soul.
He resembles the Socratic daimon, the voice of conscience, in that he constantly calls upon the inner hero to protect the timeless from the harm of inertia and greed. The human person will respond to this call by attempting to join the gods and become a hero.
Asgard will be the home of men and women who lived their lives heroically, just as Helheim is the place of souls in misery and the region of oblivion where cunning, lying, selfish and worthless people will reside.
These were some of the memories Volpa gave Odin, among many others.
Warrior culture
The Nordic peoples had a strong sense of warrior culture. Life was governed by a never-ending struggle; facing duality, participating in this conflict between desires and the eternal, transformed the thrown wood into a living entity.
The life of the Vikings was shaped by their courageous defense of timeless principles and virtues and had an impact on all of Europe and modern Western civilization.
Perhaps we can keep some of these lessons in mind and apply them to our daily lives.
Fight the giant ice children that occupy each of us and that are nothing more than greed, lies, laziness, materialism, selfishness and all the other forms of separation that tear us apart as a species and as individuals as we listen to the cry of Heimdall.
Perhaps then we can bring back to this world -which resembles Hellheim’s hell- the brightness of Middle-earth, illuminated by noble deeds, eternal truths and lofty ambitions.
With information from Acropolis Magazine