gullindagan

So how does Magic actually work again? Well, in ALU:An Advanced Guide to Operative Runology, Thorsson quotes the scholar Ronald Grambo  as saying that "the first step in understanding how a magical act works is the comprehension of the "frame of reference" in which the act takes place." Ok, so there is a whole cultural context that has to be understood in order to even comprehend what actually happens when somebody does "magic", and perhaps, the cultural context both informs and limits the effects of the magical act. Maybe that can explain the legends of magicians from previous ages who did things we can only dream of. Of course, to somebody who is not an inmate of industrial civilization, I'm sure much of what we take for granted would be considered "magic." Thorsson states explicitly that "For an operation to work, it must work within a frame of reference." Whether or not he is right is one question, but this thread leads me to a concept coined by the great 20th century occultist/prankster Robert Anton Wilson: "Reality tunnel," which, according to Wikipedia means "a theory that, with a subconscious set of mental filters formed from beliefs and experiences, every individual interprets the same world differently"

This would imply that one's world view impacts the way that one can affect the world magically. The modern atheist-materialist thus can't even imagine the things that magically literate inmates of the same culture can do; he can only imagine Harry Potter. Of course, since we all inhabit the same world, even though we all experience it differently, that materialist can still be affected by magic, and according to folks like JMG, the ones who don't believe in magic (or have an unrealistic view of it) are even more easily influenced by it.

Thorsson continues his thought by saying that "Our major endeavor in current operative runology is to restore our lost frame of reference, which will in turn cause our operations to be better. Our ancestors lived in a culture with a high level of cultural context--they spoke a Germanic language, worshiped Germanic gods... We on the other hand, live in a society with a relatively low level of cultural context. We speak a Germanic language, but one that has been hybridized with French, Latin, and Greek elements; the majority of the people worship a foreign god; and our aesthetic universe is eclectic, if not chaotic, in the extreme." 

I see what he's saying, but here is the part where we diverge. I like the eclecticity of our world, and I think that it's a possible source of great strength, if one can get over the feelings of overwhelm and nihilism that is... the fact is we don't really know that much about the magic the old Germanic tribes performed, but we do know that the Roman Christians very systematically converted them. Sometimes by massacre, as with Charlemagne, but more often by having more powerful magic, and using the cultural capital of "Romanitas." The systems of magic from the Mediterranean are powerful, even the fragments that we have. Just Astrology alone is way more powerful of a tool than anything we know of from the North. So this is one of the reasons that I am excited about this Heathen Golden Dawn project, and think that it's a project that the Wandering Wise One approves of. Why would we not seek far and wide for the greatest magic to integrate into our kit?

Well, it can be easy to get overwhelmed, to stake out in too many directions, get nowhere except diluted, and never hit water. So this is where I agree with Thorsson. By grounding ourselves deeply in a particular mythos, and I mean deeply, we can cultivate a frame of reference that we can then integrate new skills and tools into.

For instance, the concept of "the planes". This tool has been very helpful for me, especially in my goal of personally integrating the Northern and Western traditions. We have the Material, the Etheric, the Astral, the Mental and the Spiritual. Divinity, which is unknowable to a human, resides on the highest plane (but also, imo, in everything) The human mostly exists in the Material, semi-consciously on the Etheric and the Astral (if you can watch your thoughts, then you're working more consciously on the Astral), but are only at an early stage of developing a Mental body. The Astral and the Mental planes are then the interface between the Human world and the Divine world, or a Rainbow Bridge between Midgard and Asgard... The god forms that exist as images are a way for both the human to reach up towards the divine, and for the divine to reach down to the human. By immersing ourselves in the myths, by making offerings to the gods, by making images of the gods, by praying and listening, we open that channel. We cultivate a frame of reference.
 

A reader, (shoutout to JP!) asked that I write " a post where you discuss in more depth your preferred sources for magic and religion, especially the Germanic ones." so, here goes.

Firstly, I'd like to state that I am at least as much of an "occultist" as I am a "heathen", though I will write a future post on what "heathenry" means to me. I am also a bit idiosyncratic in general.  I have tried multiple paths over my years seeking Beauty, Power, Wisdom, and Truth, and have learned from each of them. This mixture of heathenry and Golden Dawn magic that I am currently working on seems to finally fit just right, at least for now (though I am fully committed to mastering this system before I move onto anything else anyway.)

In regards to magic in general, John Michael Greer is my main go to. I've read a lot of his books, and many of the other books on magic that I've read have been recommended by him. Dion Fortune is big for me, I've read almost all of her books (maybe 75%). I've also read a wide variety of other authors, including folks like Israel Regardie, Mark Stavish, Christopher Warnock, Gordon White, R.J. Stewart, Jason Miller, Franz Hartmann, Mouni Sadhu, as well as classics like Levi, Ficino, Picatrix, Agrippa, etc and many more, but JMG and Dion Fortune have been the ones I've dived the furthest into. I've also listened in depth to many podcasts, including Glitch Bottle, Rune Soup, The Secret History of Western Esotericism, Plant Cunning Podcast, and many others.

As with most things, my style of learning is to take in a wide swath, going deep into what interests me the most, and synthesizing up my own mind by taking into account all the information, weighed against my own experience and ideas.

With Germanic religion and magic, this is essential. There really isn't that much known about it, so there are a lot of opinions. I have read a lot of Edred Thorsson/Stephen Flowers, as well as books by Maria Kvilhaug, Nigel Pennick, Thomas Karlssson,  Alaric Albertson, Diana Paxson, Stephen Pollington, Galina Krasskova and Raven Kaldera. I've also watched a lot of Jackson Crawford's youtube videos and have a translation of his. Now this is just a fraction of the authors who have written on the subject, and if there are books that any of you dear readers have found especially useful, please let me know!

The main thing though, is to read the primary sources. I like to read multiple translations of the eddas and look at the actual old Norse and see what the words are signifying. Reading and meditating on the eddas is essential to understanding them, and to getting the mythic framework deep into the subconscious. Same thing with the runes. Meditating on the runes and learning the rune poems is essential. The sagas, Tacitus, etc, are also important to read, as well as a general reading of history, especially the time period from the fall of the western Roman empire til the high middle ages. In this regard, Pagan Europe by Nigel Pennick and Prudence Jones is good, so is The Barbarian Conversion by Richard Fletcher, as well as The Last Apocalypse: Europe at the year 1000 A.D. by James Reston.

In regards to my opinions of the Germanic magicians that I've listed, none of them do I agree with 100%. But then again, there aren't many people who I agree with that much. Reading all of them as foils against each other, getting rid of the dross and keeping the gold has been a good strategy. That being said, Thorsson/Flowers is a very competent, well educated, and successful mage in any regard, let alone in the Germanic/Heathen milieu. His book Futhark was my first introduction to the world of Heathenry and Germanic magic, and it was a good intro. His book ALU: An Advanced Guide to Operative Runology is likewise a very solid advanced book. Some of his others are hit or miss, and he has some obvious problems (I'm just not into satanism,setianism, the Left Hand Path or Traditionalism... very meh to me) but he's the standard that I compare other Germanic occultists to. I also really liked Maria Kvilaug's Seed of Yggdrasil. It's big, sprawling, large, not well edited, and it kinda seems like she wrote half of it on mushrooms, but I really did love it and it gives a very interesting perspective on the myths from somebody who was raised with them and studied them at an advanced academic level.

In regards to religion, books, blogs and videos by Galina Krasskova and Raven Kaldera have been very helpful, but again, I take each of them with several grains of salt.

Also, Jackson Crawford is about the furthest thing from an occultist that you can get, but that's kinda nice, and it's nice to compare things to his perspective.

All in all, I'm basically using a framework that I developed by reading Greer, Fortune, bits from Thorsson, and then going directly to the myths and other primary material.


Hope that helps, and if anybody has any other books they think would be useful for me to read, please let me know! And of course I'm down to continue this conversation in the comments and in future blog posts if you want clarification or there's a fun tangent to explore.