Post by red on Jun 22, 2019 17:57:56 GMT
Got offered to be lead of a group of "pagans" in my area that would lead to them and me being incorporated into the Asatru Folk Assembly (AFA), with me as lead of my city's branch. I'm gonna decline. I'm not a member of the AFA and even if I went as far as to participate in the rituals and holidays which I regard as not really relevant to me or my area, I wouldn't join some national group, which would pretty much just be in name only. I'm about local community and society, friends and family. I'll do my thing, other people will do their thing, and I'm good with that and at peace with them.
On another note, I've been thinking about altered states of consciousness and of how the berserkgangr is like the technique of frenzy as much as shamanism is the technique of ecstasy. Wayland has described the berserkgangr as being like weaponized shamanism. It stems from archaic techniques used mainly by the primal Germanic Tribes. The archaeological find of the female Shaman of Durrenberg may be a very early version of the womenfolk's art of Seiðr as practiced by the Vǫlur, but before the weaving theme was introduced, thus being more along the lines of the Ancient Hex Tradition of Central Europe as is alluded to by Tacitus in his Germania or Plutarch's description of the womenfolk of the Cimbri and Teutons. As is described in the Malleus Maleficarum or the Hammer of Witches, the witch craze of the Middle Ages primarily came out of Germany, but I’d say partly France as well. There seems to be a connection, though the Witch Craze was mostly a revisionist movement as much as the Wicca movement is nowadays. Viktor Schauberger alluded to the Hex Tradition in Austria and its connection to Hydromancy just like what Tacitus says. Either way, based on the aforementioned sources and archaeological evidence, including the Shaman of Durrenberg, the Bronze Age Petroglyphs depicting typical Vanir fertility symbols of the sun, water, and earth, not to mention the numerous so called “Venus Figurines” of the Paleolithic Era later associated with the goddess Freyja, I’d say things are pointing towards a primeval, but hardly unified European shamanic tradition later associated with the Vanir Cult, which certain aspects of it have really only been preserved among the Sami of Lapland and eventually blended into the art of Seiðr and lost its popularity when the Aesir of the Danes/Norwegians came in during the time of the Vikings, though the Cult of Wōðanaz goes much farther back, though before that there was Donnar as the father of Wōðanaz , connected to the Thunder archetype god like Tengri, Taranis, or Sucellos, according to Snorri Sturluson and then there was the cult of Tiwaz or Tyr during the time of Arminius or Herman as some prefer to call him. It was after the war between the Aesir and the Vanir that Wōðanaz married Freyja and tried to learn the arts of Seiðr from her, even though it was thought unmanly to learn the art, as is pretty typical with shamanism being associated with unusual sexual tendencies. By the way, I understand how controversial and difficult to follow all that was and it’s only a working hypothesis, but I can’t deny that this seems to be where things are pointing and there are other connections to be made, such as Loki accusing Oðinn of beating a drum on Sam’s Island, witches being tested by being thrown in water to see if they’d float and then being burnt to death like in the Völuspa, or Wōðanaz’s clear shamanic initiation, involving a Near Death Experience on Ygg’s Horse, etc.
Back to altered states of consciousness; I find personally that it’s very easy for me to enter into minor states through the use of music, dancing, or even caffeine, which has weird effects on me, sometimes making me angry to the point of violent, which is a little hilarious in retrospect, but there it is. Other times, caffeine can make me access more of my brain and memory, causing me to be extremely logical and spit out a ribbon of thoughts like I am now, which kind of feels like channeling or something weird. That's probably decently typical of caffeine consumers, which I'm actually not. Like once every other week, I like to "blitz" my body and mind with it. I think nightclubs have a similar trance-like effect on people akin to shamanism, wherein there’s the drum beat or reverberating beat in the club that shakes the whole building and gets everyone into the same vibration and allows them to enter an altered state of consciousness that can be used as a form of escapism from the work week or allows them to blend into the mass of people, essentially blending into the collective unconsciousness. Just a weave of thoughts here. I'll try to keep things more focused on the berserkgangr in the future.
On another note, I've been thinking about altered states of consciousness and of how the berserkgangr is like the technique of frenzy as much as shamanism is the technique of ecstasy. Wayland has described the berserkgangr as being like weaponized shamanism. It stems from archaic techniques used mainly by the primal Germanic Tribes. The archaeological find of the female Shaman of Durrenberg may be a very early version of the womenfolk's art of Seiðr as practiced by the Vǫlur, but before the weaving theme was introduced, thus being more along the lines of the Ancient Hex Tradition of Central Europe as is alluded to by Tacitus in his Germania or Plutarch's description of the womenfolk of the Cimbri and Teutons. As is described in the Malleus Maleficarum or the Hammer of Witches, the witch craze of the Middle Ages primarily came out of Germany, but I’d say partly France as well. There seems to be a connection, though the Witch Craze was mostly a revisionist movement as much as the Wicca movement is nowadays. Viktor Schauberger alluded to the Hex Tradition in Austria and its connection to Hydromancy just like what Tacitus says. Either way, based on the aforementioned sources and archaeological evidence, including the Shaman of Durrenberg, the Bronze Age Petroglyphs depicting typical Vanir fertility symbols of the sun, water, and earth, not to mention the numerous so called “Venus Figurines” of the Paleolithic Era later associated with the goddess Freyja, I’d say things are pointing towards a primeval, but hardly unified European shamanic tradition later associated with the Vanir Cult, which certain aspects of it have really only been preserved among the Sami of Lapland and eventually blended into the art of Seiðr and lost its popularity when the Aesir of the Danes/Norwegians came in during the time of the Vikings, though the Cult of Wōðanaz goes much farther back, though before that there was Donnar as the father of Wōðanaz , connected to the Thunder archetype god like Tengri, Taranis, or Sucellos, according to Snorri Sturluson and then there was the cult of Tiwaz or Tyr during the time of Arminius or Herman as some prefer to call him. It was after the war between the Aesir and the Vanir that Wōðanaz married Freyja and tried to learn the arts of Seiðr from her, even though it was thought unmanly to learn the art, as is pretty typical with shamanism being associated with unusual sexual tendencies. By the way, I understand how controversial and difficult to follow all that was and it’s only a working hypothesis, but I can’t deny that this seems to be where things are pointing and there are other connections to be made, such as Loki accusing Oðinn of beating a drum on Sam’s Island, witches being tested by being thrown in water to see if they’d float and then being burnt to death like in the Völuspa, or Wōðanaz’s clear shamanic initiation, involving a Near Death Experience on Ygg’s Horse, etc.
Back to altered states of consciousness; I find personally that it’s very easy for me to enter into minor states through the use of music, dancing, or even caffeine, which has weird effects on me, sometimes making me angry to the point of violent, which is a little hilarious in retrospect, but there it is. Other times, caffeine can make me access more of my brain and memory, causing me to be extremely logical and spit out a ribbon of thoughts like I am now, which kind of feels like channeling or something weird. That's probably decently typical of caffeine consumers, which I'm actually not. Like once every other week, I like to "blitz" my body and mind with it. I think nightclubs have a similar trance-like effect on people akin to shamanism, wherein there’s the drum beat or reverberating beat in the club that shakes the whole building and gets everyone into the same vibration and allows them to enter an altered state of consciousness that can be used as a form of escapism from the work week or allows them to blend into the mass of people, essentially blending into the collective unconsciousness. Just a weave of thoughts here. I'll try to keep things more focused on the berserkgangr in the future.