Untitled - Awaken Video

Chapter 6. The Sky 167
The word “worship” in its modern sense has taken on the meaning “one giving
absolute devotion to,” and, over the years, it has also picked up the flavor of the first
Commandment as written in the Old Testament of ”above all others.” The word
is actually from the OE weorth-scipe which literally meant “the act of honoring”
or “honoring the worth of” something. So to say, for example, that the ancient
Teutons “worshiped” their ancestors would be true in this older sense since they
honored them through funeral rites and minne-ales or “memorial feasts.” There is
no reason to believe that they treated their Gods any differently since their Gods,
although powerful, were not infallible and were subject to the same forces flowing
out of the Well of Urð as men were. But, because they were powerful, they ruled
over the forces of nature which provided the cyclical movement of the seasons, and
they had gifted humankind not only with life, but also lineage, luck, and a sense of
art and beauty, They were worthy of feasts in their honor.
In this modern age, man would do well to pick up the practice of weorth-scipe,
honoring, of those forces outside his realm of control as the products and effects of a
Power or Powers outside of himself. Modern folk greatly lack any sense of gratitude
for simple things with the exception of money and material possessions. A gift of
money or a new job opportunity is certainly something to be grateful for, but the
reality is that each individual participates in a world which moves through time and
space providing that person with an endless stream of events and an endless string
of opportunities for both participation and personal growth. The American secular
holiday of Thanksgiving was initially intended to serve the purpose of “feasting to
honor those things,” but some of the meaning has been lost over the past 50 years.
A revival of this holiday with its original meaning would serve the purpose well. In
essence, the ancient Germanic peoples, according to Snorri, had three such annual
holidays on a large scale where communities or groups of communities would gather
for a “grand Thanksgiving,” and, according to some of the sagaic sources, families
also engaged in this practice at home both during and in between the national
holidays.
Showing gratitude is one of the best ways that individuals or groups can align
themselves with those Powers that are unseen but whose effects can be felt at any
single given moment. Nothing needs to be asked for. Gratitude draws the attention
momentarily away from the self, to the great mysterious forces outside the self, and
this is something that anyone can benefit from. People have become self-absorbed,
ego-centric, and, as stated in Chapter 2, many consider this to be the root of physical
and psychological illnesses which seem to plague modern man. No matter how it is
adapted, the Germanic form of “worshiping” those large Powers existing beyond the
human understanding can be of great benefit to this self-indulgent, self-absorbed
society.