Perceptions of Wyrd

[Lee]

A rather deep, philosophical post coming up! :)

I’ve been looking into the concept of Wyrd, as I find it to be a very interesting subject. Perhaps the most useful source I have found online for wyrd has been this essay:

http://www.wyrdwords.vispa.com/heathenry/whatwyrd.html

I’d like to gauge other Odinists’ opinion on how they see Wyrd and how it affects their lives.

From my research, my own view on wyrd is this:

We think far too linearly. We should always live in the “now”. Although the now becomes the past, the past was, at one split second,the now. Whatever we do in the present will eventually become the past, and will have great repercussions for our present actions and as a result, our “future”.

So all our actions, past, present and future, are all one and as such we should always consider what we do as our actions at any time will have serious and unchangeable effects on all that we do.

This is not to say that outside influences are irrelevant. Indeed, they are vital factors in the way your wyrd pans out. Other people’s wyrd interacts with our own, not often to our betterment, but this is still something that, like it or not, we have to accept and admit that it works its way into our own wyrd.

However, we have a certain space for making our own wyrd. The Norns may well have already decreed our fate, but we are not aware of the end result. So we can strive as much as we can to live fruitful, prosperous and successful lives. Because although our lives may be a combination of factors that we, in many cases, have no control over, it is better to always not assume that the Norns have it in for you! Your life is your own and you can do with it what you want and it is always better to strive to commit yourself to a life of waiting for your wyrd to unfold for you.

Anyway, that’s my take on wyrd. I’d be most interested to hear other people’s opinions on my interpretation and indeed if they have different takes on the concept.

[pinlighter]

I'm beginning to age, and I am beginning to see that I will achieve just so much in my life.

Because I have - how can I put it? Just so much strength and no more.

I don't know if this means my life is or was fixed by fate, but it's like there were limits laid down before I was born. You can progress up to them, but you can not exhaust them.

It's not a matter of good or evil, either: more like some thing growing to its limits.

[Trothskjold]

Back in school, one of the parts of the curriculum of an English class of mine was to learn what Wyrd is...however my teacher, though as sweet as a basket of peaches, was intellectually not unlike a box of nails; but I still think it was good at least that it was incorporated into the class's yearly schedule.

Anyway, I concur with your interpretation. However, I'm wrestling (and have been for some time) with the concepts of Fate, Death, and Free Will, so my opinion is fairly undeveloped and somewhat void at this point in time.

[Liffrea]

I have always viewed wyrd and the concept of free will as offering so many strings all accounted for in the scheme of things. Example you go for a job you have two choices, you will either be offered it or you will not, both are written into wyrd. Lets say your offered it, then you have two more choices, you can either take it or leave it. All possible choices are woven into wyrd and take into account human choice.

The only thing I have not figured is the concept that all life is linked. So how would this affect us in a folk sense? If we are linked by "life force" to say blacks how does this shape wyrd?

[Der Einzelgänger]

Regarding your question about all connected life, I think that yes, all life is connected, but the connection between certain beings is stronger than others. We have a stronger connection to ours gods than other races. While we do not have a strong connection to their gods, like they do. I think the strong connection lies in our blood. We have the blood of our Northern European ancestors in our veins, the same blood that our gods have called to for generations. Their blood sings to our blood and the blood of our ancestors.

I'm not really sure what to think of Wyrd. I need to do some more reading on it before I form any thoughts on it.

[battleax]

it is,
it was,
it will,

it is all 3 at once

[Lonnie]

Time, Wurt , & Urlag... Below is an article by Hjuka on the subject...

http://vta.gamall-steinn.org/vta-article-twu-hj.htm

THE WELL AND THE TREE -Paul Bauschatz
...the most comprehensive study on urlag and the effects of wurt ever written! Long out of print, you can find bound reproductions of the work here at UMI's Books on Demand site. An invaluable text for the serious student!
ISBN: 0-87023-352-1 get it at: http://wwwlib.umi.com/bod/fullcite?id=146424

The only thing in our lives that can be said is "Fated" (I hate using that term, to many folk wrongly compare the norns to the greek fates), that is the time of our death. How we reach that point is up to us and the choices we make...

[aud_friggsdottir]

The only thing in our lives that can be said is "Fated" (I hate using that term, to many folk wrongly compare the norns to the greek fates), that is the time of our death. How we reach that point is up to us and the choices we make...

Hail Lonnie!

First, thanks for the resource....you are full of them and I love that you post them all the time :)!

Wyrd, this is a complicated thing to explain via the net....I agree with the last statement...I think the only thing set is our demise, but it is completely up to us the "shape" we are in when we leave this existence and move to the next. Also, and I don't know how this will come across, but I believe that every decision we make, conscious and unconscious, and every person we meet all create the strands of Wyrd and sets us on a course. The course could be a right path (positive), wrong path (negative) or a circular, go no where path. We should always strive for the positive because that moves us forward and adds to our positive orlog, hamingja, litr, etc... (excuse my spelling) I always tell my Hearth and my children that it is vital to make good, well thought out decisions/actions now because you may not be able to see where that decision with lead you later. Try and have foresight to determine where a decision/action will lead you. Some decisions are life changing and some are rather benign, but all should be taken with care and forethought. I always conceive Wyrd as a sphere of webs that we sometime revisit those webs...and also past lives are part of that web (of course only in regards to our Family line)as well as decisions/actions your parents and their parents made...at anyrate...it isn't some flat or linear type thing...Guaranteed...one will revisit the consequences, both positive and negative of his or her actions or the actions of a ancestor, recent and past.

Also, just to keep rambling, we don't live in separate bubbles or on separate webs (just to be consistent). Folk that we are intimate with (Hearth kin, family, friends, etc...) affects us. What they do affects us...including what they do in their "personal life". Once they have entered the sphere of influence...they influence both positive and negative. Again...the webs become connected at a point and are set on a course.

It annoys me to no end when people say to their friends, "thats none of their business what I do....", actually according to my belief...it is very much our business because now my life, orlog, etc... is wrapped up in his or hers and now I must feel the "tremors" of their poor, negative behavior on my web. So I must do all I can to help them remain on positive paths until our paths separate and perhaps meet up again. Totally within my power to effect change.

Ok....LOL....MUCH more than I really wanted to write about Wyrd...but this is something I think about often and I think is a very important subject for folks to understand. And much is UPG.

We are all bound to it, including the Gods and Goddesses. Like Nature, we must submit to its laws and learn to navigate it, so we can leave this existence with honor attached to our name and family!

[Lonnie]

Good post on the subject :)

Your absolutly right, the choices those around us make is indeed our business for the exact reason you cite... One of the best descriptions I have come across is along this line; Every choice you make is like dropping a rock in a still lake, it causes ripples to go out. The choices others make do likewise and thus effect the ripple from your decission, and vice-versa... And it goes on and on...

As for what we get from our parents, and then pass along to our kids... I tend to like to use the concept of a tarten. Every choice we make effects the patern of the weave, as did the choices of our folks before, and our children after...

[battleax]

I'm curious what some of you think about the future. And the ability to see glimpses of it?

Here is my opinion on how I think wyrd works. I'm probably way off on this but oh well.

I think of wyrd as trillions of cycles within a cycle. Each of those cycles are connected threw different paths. As the big cycle is moving I think they are certain events that are inevitable due to the spinoff from the larger to the smaller cycles.

That said I think even the most smallest of change in the smallest path can have massive change in the larger cycle.

I do know the ability to see events in the future is real. I do wonder when it happens if it was just chance or luck that it happened. Sometimes though things are just way to wierd to be a coincendence. I think if your in the right frame of mind that somehow you able to see changes in wyrd and either perdict the next change using common sense or perhaps something more.

it is,
it was,
it will,

it is all 3 at once

the "it will" portiton of that

There are things that are completly out of our control in the larger scale that we can not change. Like the fact that someday we will die and that the sun will in a trillion years burn out. Or perhaps earth will be hit by a asteroid tomorrow etc, etc. We can change the circumstance of many events but in the end, the end result will be the same. The best we can do is try and make the best choices in life but there is no telling how our paths will reach thier destinations. And will the paths really end there. When you have children they carry on what you started.

the "it is all 3 at once"

If you look at individual path, it takes in account the connections it has with other paths. Past, Present, Future.


lol, ok

sorry for going on. this is crap that sits in my head and I have to get out. I have a feeling none of it makes any sense. If any of it does great if not oh well I feel good now. lol

[Lonnie]

I would say your probably on the right track, but...


it is,
it was,
it will,


Looking at the Norns we see a slightly different take...

What HAS Become,
What IS Becoming,
What MAY Become...

The only point where you are at "it will" is the point where present becomes the past... There are way to many random factors to say "This Will Become".
That is not to say that one can not predict a possible outcome, or the possibility of someone glimpsing "That Which May Become" long before it happens...
But thats just MHO...

[The Divine Cynic]

Time, Wurt , & Urlag... Below is an article by Hjuka on the subject...

http://vta.gamall-steinn.org/vta-article-twu-hj.htm

THE WELL AND THE TREE -Paul Bauschatz
...the most comprehensive study on urlag and the effects of wurt ever written! Long out of print, you can find bound reproductions of the work here at UMI's Books on Demand site. An invaluable text for the serious student!
ISBN: 0-87023-352-1 get it at: http://wwwlib.umi.com/bod/fullcite?id=146424

The only thing in our lives that can be said is "Fated" (I hate using that term, to many folk wrongly compare the norns to the greek fates), that is the time of our death. How we reach that point is up to us and the choices we make...

The Well & the Tree is such an excellent work. One of the parts I enjoyed the most in book was the discussion of the lack of a future tense in germanic language & its relation to the folkish view of time & wyrd.

One of the illustrations I use to explain wyrd is the concpet of causulity. Wyrd can be seen as a web of causality. Granted wyrd is a far deeper concept, but the illustration is a good starting point & helps to distant the concept of wyrd from the ideas of fate & destiny.

[Liffrea]

One thing I don't understand about Wyrd is the idea that all beings have a certain amount of spiritual energy that can increase or decrease according to one's deeds. Now what do we define as beings? All things are connected in Wyrd, but does my dog possess this spiritual energy? Or is it just conscious beings?

[Lonnie]

One thing I don't understand about Wyrd is the idea that all beings have a certain amount of spiritual energy that can increase or decrease according to one's deeds. Now what do we define as beings? All things are connected in Wyrd, but does my dog possess this spiritual energy? Or is it just conscious beings?


Well actually, what your talking about is Maegen/Magan. Its not Wyrd, it is spiritual energy (or some Heathens refer to it as Luck) that one possesses. Ones Maegan can be increased or decreased by ones deeds. IMO, I would not think that an animal such as a dog, would really possess such a thing. The thinking behind that is I believe the construction of a animals soul (so to speak) is vastly different than that of man. But then again I could be wrong, but we don't really know how an animals soul (or such thing that they have) is formed... There are some Heathens who have the belief that all living creatures have Maegen, I don't personally agree with that belief...

[Lonnie]

Alittle from Gronbechs "Culture of the Teutons"...

*************

We may call it by the name of megin; in this word there lies an idea of power, and in this word all living things meet. The soul of the earth, its megin, is often spoken of as a costly essence. A drink with which earth-megin has been mixed is stronger than any other liquor, while earth-megin on the other hand seems to contain a spiritual strengthening to counteract the too powerful effect of ale. “The weather too has its megin,” the megin of the weather is the clouds, it is said. In the earliest days, before the world was fully set in order, moon and sun existed, but they knew not their soul, their megin, they did not know what was their power, their purpose, their career.

These suggestions will help us to understand man's megin. Man's megin is his power — and first of all his bodily strength. But there is something beyond muscle in man's megin; there is power, action, victory. And finally, megin reaches up into the strength of the soul, so that he who loses his megin will fall unconscious, as we should call it.

That which distinguishes the god or ase --- from all other beings is naturally the fact that he has ásmegin, the soul of an ase, or god, with its mighty qualities. “If you grow, Vimur, then my asemegin grows as high as the heavens,” cries Thor when he stands midway out in the Utgard river and it swells up till it foams about his shoulders. Thor had, in the course of his perilous wanderings, plenty of occasion to put on his full asemegin, when the giant powers gathered thickly about him, and we understand that his godhead swelled out not only in marvellous strength and wrath, but also in divine greatness of stature.

[Der Einzelgänger]

I'm not really sure what to think about animals having magan. But I do think they something something akin to a soul. Whether it is anything like our I cannot say.

Taking into account man has evolved from animals, I think maybe that animals could possess some sort of magan, but maybe not as rich a form as us. As we evolve and change so do our forms of spiritual energy. Man has been blessed with higher intellect and reasoning than animals, and I think that our Magan and Wurt are more powerful and influential as a result.

[Liffrea]

Interesting quotes Lonnie.

I suppose it depends how you come at it. I think that the gods gifts were intellect and conscience and that these set us apart from animals. I don't think that the gods physically created man or the Earth, more that they found proto-humans, and decided to nurture them and open their minds to the divine. In this sense other species would not have a soul, since the gods did not give them these gifts.