TEUTONIC MAGIC - Awaken Video

16: AESIR
The Aesir are largely gods of spiritual awareness, intellect, and war. The masculine Aesir are generally
characterized by air and/or fire; the feminine (Asynjur), by earth and/or water, often overlapping with the
Vanic goddesses.
ODHINN
The greatest god of the runes is, of course, Odhinn. Saying this, you must keep in mind that the word
"rune" speaks not only of the runic alphabet, but also means "secret." Odhinn is the lord of hidden
wisdom and of the roots of power.
The name Odhinn means "fury" or "inspiration." It is derived from the Indo-European Wodanaz,
"Master of fury/inspiration"[1] and related to the modern German wuetend and archaic English wood, both
of which carry a meaning of "furious," "mad," and "wild." His name has been suggested to be roughly
cognate to that of Vata, Lord of the Winds, in the Rig Veda.
Odhinn's first form was probably that of a wind-god known by his furious rushing through the sky.
He is the leader of the dead, as seen in that most enduring survival of Teutonic lore, the Wild Hunt. The
Wild Hunt is thoroughly documented in every country where Germanic people have settled. It has even
been suggested that the song "Ghost Riders in the Sky" is a contemporary version of the same.[2] This
first naming of Odhinn as the lord of fury and death is one of the keys to his being: considering that fury
is also inspiration and death the pathway to the greatest knowledge, one can see the pattern forming
behind the seemingly capricious and sinister being of the greatest of the gods.
Odhinn's late usurpation of Tyr's position as All-Father brings into focus an interesting anomaly of
Teutonic belief: in no other Indo-European religious system is the god of writing (and/or conductor of the
dead) set in the highest place. The Roman invaders of Germany identified Odhinn with Mercury-both are
psychopomps; both are associated with intelligence, swift movement changeability, and deception; and
both encompass aspects of the archetypal Trickster - characteristics that are not normally associated with
rulership in the Indo-European mind. While it has been suggested that Odhinn is analogous to Varuna as
the king-magician of Dumezil's tripartite Indo-European system, Tyr being the king- judge, the problem
with this is that the cult of Odhinn All-Father is a fairly late development, found and spreading at a time
when the tripartite system might naturally be expected to be breaking down as a consequence of
migration and changing circumstance, rather than shifting back into the exact pattern of the Rig Veda.
Indeed, the tripartite system is not supportable within Germanic social or religious history.
Part of Odhinn's change in status is undoubtedly due to his association with war: from leader of the
dead he became chooser of the dead and Valfather (father of the slain), hence finally the chooser of
victory in battle. However, the primary source of Odhinn's cultic might is the source of his own power:
Odhinn's rise to the All-Father's seat corresponds closely with the rise of runic magic among humans,
both in time and in space. This is borne out by the great importance given to runic wisdom among the
Teutonic peoples and the respect in which those who knew it well were held, as contrasted to the less
complimentary view of the Vanic seidh-magic-the magic of a cult which, though never displaced by the
Aesir and more beloved by the folk than the cult of Odhinn, was nevertheless overshadowed by All-
Father, especially among the skalds, of whom Odhinn was the patron.
As the lord of runes and incantation, Odhinn also became the lord of poetry. The story of his theft
of Odhroerir, the mead of poetry, offers great insight into his nature. Here Odhinn is seen as shapechanger,
trickster, betrayer, rescuer of the hallowed mead, and giver of poetry's power to other wights. He
mingles the holy inspiration which is the height of Teutonic spirituality with oath-breaking, the act most
despicable to the Teutonic mind, because both are part of his purpose; he becomes serpent and eagle at
need.
Thus, by the mystery and paradox of Odhinn's nature, he holds all things within himself. He builds
the walls to ward Midgardhr and Asgardhr, but wanders outside at will. He is a lord of oaths and of
betrayal, of making and unmaking. As a god of war he makes his heroes invincible till he himself comes
to take them in battle. It is said, and rightly, that Odhinn enjoys stirring up strife: only through struggle
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