Untitled - Awaken Video

Chapter 2. Connections 38
There is a complex of words in all old and modern Indo-European languages
based on the proto-Indo-European root ”kailo-.” The following is taken from The
American Heritage Dictionary:
Kailo-. Whole, uninjured, of good omen. 1. Germanic hailaz in: a. OE hal, ‘hale,’
‘whole.’ b. OE halsum, ‘wholesome.’ c. Germ. compound hailewidis ( widis =
‘wide’) in Fr. feminine name ‘Heloise.’ d. ON heill, ‘healthy,’ ‘hale’ WASSAIL:
2. Germanic hailitho in OE hælth, ‘health’: 3. Germanic hailjan in OE hælan,
‘to heal’: 4. Germanic hailigaz in: OE hælig, ‘holy’; Germanic derivative vb.
hailagon in OE hælgian, ‘to consecrate,’ ‘to bless,’ HALLOW; c. ON fem. name
‘Olga,’ ‘Helga’ ( = ’holy’).” 27
Modern writers have come to depend on the concept of balance when talking about
healing, and to depict the concept, they often resort to the Chinese Yin/ Yang. The
symbol shows two slightly curved raindrop shapes in perfect balance completely
filling and surrounded by a circle. Modern writers usually focus on the balance
between the two raindrop figures, but the early Germanic spiritual philosophers, at
least in light of the kailo word-complex as described above, apparently focused more
on the wholeness of the circle surrounding the figures.
Stephan Glosecki in his Shamanism and Old English Poetry expanded upon this
concept of “wholeness” somewhat. He cites several verses from “Beowulf” where
the skald (ON = “poet”) speaks of Beowulf having to “cleanse” ( fælsian = to
cleanse or purify) the Hall, Heorot, of the “unholy wight” (OE wiht unhælo =
unwholesome or unholy being). 28 Although Glosecki’s discussion on this topic is
short and rather loose, he clearly demonstrates that the Anglo-Saxon mind-set was
in terms of whole-unwhole, healthy-unhealthy, holy-unholy, and also in terms of
prosperity-dearth, whole-wounded, and lucky-unlucky all related to hæl-unhæl.
In another related argument, Glosecki presents the idea that early after the
arrival of Christianity to the North, Jesus was deemed the “Healing One” by the
English-speaking people through the use of the epithet Heliand related to the OE
word hælend. It is highly probable that one of the main reasons that Jesus was
acceptable to the early Englanders was because He, as the primary god-figure of
the religion, was considered the “fore-most Healer,” the One who would maintain
the “wholeness,” “holiness,” “health,” and “prosperity” of the Germanic peoples. It
is also important to note that in some cases, at least early on during the conversion
27
1520.
American Heritage Dictionary, William Morris, ed.( Houghten-Mifflin; Boston) 1978, p.
28 Glosecki, Stephen Shamanism in Old English Poetry (Garland Publishing,Inc.; New York)
1989, pp. 176-79.