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Chapter 2. Connections 20
fill the Well, and these layering strata themselves structure and influence the
affairs of men.” 2
Bauschatz writes, however, from the angle of a literary critic and offers only a
smattering of information which could lead to the practical application of such a
worldview. On the other hand, such a world-view was apparently normal to the
everyday life of the ancient Teutons, in general, and may have been necessary to the
work of their Cunning Folk 3 or Healers/ Whole-makers, 4 in particular. To understand
Bauschatz, it is mandatory that one withhold any preconceived ideas about
the nature of space and time as it pertains to the average person, and because this
requires a fairly large shift in the perception of reality from that which is commonly
accepted in the 20 th century, some explanation, description, and discussion are
probably necessary.
Because 20 th century society is extremely literate and because much has been
written in the past 50 years on what has been called the “East/ West Connection,”
those seeking to interpret the spiritual path of the ancient northern Europeans often
have a difficult time not incorporating the prejudices of the modern worldview into
their understanding of the philosophies of northern Europe. There are phenomena
which are described and defined extensively in modern books on spiritualism/ religion/
New Age, such as reincarnation, out-of-body experiences, karma, and UFOs,
which are occasionally “tacked on” to Germanic spiritual philosophy. This type
of patchwork is unnecessary. The Germanic worldview handles these phenomena
quite well, and there is no need to dilute the beauty and richness borne in the
Saga-Masters’ minds. One simply needs to look deep enough into the system itself!
How these phenomena are stored within the Germanic worldview and how
they relate to other events within it often results in explanations, definitions, and
descriptions which differ greatly from the “Eastern view,” for example, but there is
no need to generate the “patchwork quilt” philosophy so common today. The system
of the northern Europeans has always been complete in itself.
An important feature of the ancient Germanic worldview that is often overlooked
in modern discussions about northern folklore, anthropology, sociology, psychology,
2 Paul Bauschatz, The Well and the Tree: World and Time in Germanic Culture (University
of Mass. Press), p. 19, 1982.
3 Cunning Folk is a loose translation of the words fjölkyngi (”much knowing” or ”much knowledge”
or, possibly, ”knowledge of the many things”) and kloka män (”clever man”: cognate in
modern German kluger man).
4 ”Wholemaker” is a modern term based on the Anglo-Saxon epithet for Christ the ”Savior,”
Heliand, which basically translates as the ”Primary” or ”Best of Healers.” In modern German, the
phrase zum Heil machen means to make ”well” or ”whole.” Because these words all stem from the
same Indo-European root-word, the term ”Wholemaker” was developed and is used in this text
with ”whole” in its very broadest sense.