Untitled - Awaken Video

Chapter 5. The Underworld 139
Modern psychologists have interviewed people who have endured near-death experiences
rather extensively, and there are certain factors in these interviews which
are quite common to most of them. The survivors report an increased passion for
life in general, and a decrease in taking for granted simple things like health, and
a sense of well-being. For the ancients, these things were gifts passed on through
family lines, things such as luck, health, and prosperity. For them as well as for
those who have faced death, these things were not simply part of being human nor
were they birthrights; they were “gifts” handed up through the family lineages and
were ”granted” by forces outside themselves. If these things were truly part of being
human, then humans should have complete control over them, but the fact is “they
do not.” The fact is that luck, health and prosperity can whither away slowly or,
sometimes, very quickly with no rhyme or reason. The Hávamál says:
“Better living than not living.
Only the living know wealth.
I saw fire blaze up in a rich man’s home,
But death stood outside the door.
I knew Fitiung’s sons when they had sheep in their folds.
Now they carry the beggar’s staff.
Wealth changes in the twinkling of an eye.
It’s the most fickle of friends” 35
Birthrights are meaningless when one is dead; they only apply to the Land of the
Living.
The idea that the ancient Germanic peoples lived in a world of illusion does not
hold up well. Their worldview which contained otherworldly beings and an Underworld
to which their sense of luck/ power was inextricably tied helped maintain
some organization in a chaotic universe much the same as modern mathematics and
quantum mechanics serve the 20 th century. By living out their ancient spiritual
philosophy, they were able to access a passion for life which seems to be sorely
missing in the 20 th century. They were able to tolerate changes theoretically at
least, better than their modern counterparts because of no need to view “time” as
a linear progression of events, and because of their worldview, were potentially able
to access the wisdom that comes from having few, if any, illusions about their own
mortality. In view of these arguments, it is difficult to tell who the “world of illusion”
35 R. I. Page, Chronicles of the Vikings, pp. 141-142, 1995.