The Crown of the Martyr

As a child, I thought that Martyrdom was quite a logical end to Life.  It represented meaning rather than random Death.  It was the best punctuation for the end of the sentence of Existence on this Earth.  I always have been a deeply spiritual individual, although in time, I came to have little trust in organisations and the 'human' elements in any religion.  My own Faith is Roman Catholic, primarily because of the 'magic' of the Sacraments, and especially the belief in transubstantiation...  Whatever the priest may or may not be in his own time, he holds that incredible power to transform a wafer and a cup of wine into the Body and Blood of God!  The other reason I adhere somewhat to this Faith is the Blessed Virgin.  I do not trust any religion that does not place any Women in high regard. Motherhood is another form of Magic and the Blessed Virgin suffered almost as much as Christ, yielding to the necessity of the Ultimate Sacrifice of her Beloved Son.  That is no small achievement.  I doubt I could watch as my Child met a terrible torture and death!

At the same time, I am some one who has studied and followed the ancient Northern 'Pagan' traditions, who sees Odhinn in the same light as Christ, who has participated in the rites of Muharram and wept for Imam Hussayn.  I do believe there is more than one path to Wisdom and more than one path to find 'nearness to God' or as it is put in Arabic 'qurbatan ilallah'.

Martyrs are extraordinary of course.  I have nothing but admiration for the Martyrs for Palestine.   Martyrdom for a cause that is above and beyond any consideration of personal gain or profit is noble in theory.  The problem is that so often, Causes are controlled by dishonest individuals.  Martyrdom for Freedom from Occupation in Palestine is indeed laudable but who would benefit?  It is not the people of Palestine, but the often corrupt Leaders who purport to represent them who reap any rewards in these cases.  In most cases, it is the People who are punished as well, who carry the burden of the cost.

A childhood hero of mine was the Stuart King, Charles I of England.  He was a true Martyr, who did not falter nor seek mercy when he realised he would be executed by his enemies.  In my own imagination, I have lived through the drama again and again and wondered if I would show any courage or be a coward ultimately.  As people have declared over and over, it is impossible to know until one is tested.  Do I want a martyr's Crown?  It once was thought to be the ultimate goal for any one who had principles, but apart from anything else, the irony is that the older one grows, the less invested one is in sacrificing life for 'ideals'.  Yes, I still have ideals and I wish that the world were different, but what I see in the end is that martyrs for the most part die for a cause that has corrupt elements.  Their hearts are pure, but the cause is NOT pure.

For what or whom would I be willing to die now?  I suppose the answer to that is less clear than it once was.  Circumstances probably would dictate it entirely.  If my daughter's life were in question, I hope I would have the courage to give mine instead.  As far as my other heroes are concerned and their own sacrifices, Odhinn remains very high on the list, although, as a God, he did not perish despite the pain and suffering he offered in sacrifice.  To risk life for wisdom and the knowledge of other realities or worlds still to me is a worthy aim.  Unfortunately, although I suffer from severe chronic pain, that does not catapult nor draw me towards any real enlightenment or vision for the most part, except for one point in hospital when I believe I 'flatlined' briefly and had a very clear and detailed vision of Our Lady and Christ.  The message there, when I asked why one had to suffer so much pain was that pain is what gives us the ability to empathise with other creatures.  Fair enough.  It does make sense!

Spirituality of the Old North and Death by Hanging

'The Vikings', a recent series made by the so-called 'History Channel' has many fine points and undoubtedly has made thousands of individuals in the early 21st century aware of the name and fame of the old Viking hero, Ragnar Lodbrok.

I am not that bothered by historical inaccuracies for the most part.  They alter events in the interest of time and drama.  What bothers me a little is the depiction of the religion of the Old North.

Last night, I watched the sacrifice made by Queen Lagertha wherein she used a curved scimitar to cut a beautiful young man through the breastbone.

There were a few elements of this that bothered me.

First of all, the God who was followed by most Warriors would have been Odhinn, whose method of sacrifice, including the sacrifice of Himself was hanging.  The young man in this scene stands between two poles.  He holds thongs or ropes on each of the poles but this is nothing like the old descriptions of sacrifice to Odhinn.

There are many bodies in museums that show ritual death by hanging and then placement in a body of water, usually a bog.

I do tend to subscribe to the theory that the Aesir were foreign invaders from the far East who brought their rites with them and that the Vanir were the native agrarian gods.  Odhinn and Thor were members of the Aesir family of gods.  Freyja, Freyr and Frigga were members of the Vanir.

Based on mystery religions throughout the world, I have come to the conclusion that one of the sacrificial rites practiced by followers of the Vanir would have been ritual castration.  The Edda tells of Freyr's own sacrifice to the Giantess Gerd as a condition of his sacred marriage to her.  The Giants were one of the elder races, powerful and primitive, equal to the Gods in their own way.

Freyr looked to the North and when he beheld the 'gleaming arms' of the beautiful giantess Gerd, he fell in love with her to the point where he became ill.  He did not eat, drink or sleep.  He journeyed north to her dwelling and she made it a condition of the marriage that he surrender his 'sword' to her.

One of the most ancient of mystery religions is that of the goddess Cybele and Attis.  Cybele is, like Gerd, an ancient and powerful Goddess who dwells within the mountain, cave or rock.  The traditional sacrifice to Cybele was voluntary castration.  The man to be sacrificed would be bound to an evergreen, usually a pine tree, and then would have his genitals severed.  He would become the tree and like the evergreen, which never loses its needles, would be reborn.

As in many Native American tribal traditions, the sacrifice of the male genitals was a means to gain freedom from gender.  The individual then could be androgynous, neither man nor woman.  Often the priests in Native American tribes, especially those of the Plains, would dress as women after this.

It is sad to me that the West has lost much of its focus in terms of the priority that once was given to spiritual gains above mere sexual gratification.  Whenever I hear about individuals who want this or that in terms of 'gender' or 'sexual orientation', spiritual gains NEVER are mentioned.  They want orgasms and a lifestyle that somehow satisfies them on a physical level, for whatever reason.  The old sacrifices of genitalia or gender to the Mother Goddess were not an attempt to gain some sort of sexual climax at any price.  They were 'sacrifices', something given for something greater.    Attis died and was reborn through castration as were Adonis and the other gods of the ancient Fertile Crescent.

Some say that Heliogabalus or Elagabalus actually was an intensely spiritual follower of the ancient Mysteries... his name and reputation were blackened by the scurrilous political 'history' written about him and the other later Emperors.  What was perceived as wanton lawless sexual behaviour may have been legitimate 'Eastern' practices.

Here is a link to the original text in English translation:

History of Elagabalus

More on this later.

In a very different sort of sacrifice, Odhinn hanged himself from the world Tree Yggdrasil for nine nights and days and at the end of that time, 'screaming took up the runes'.  It was a ritual designed to give him wisdom and knowledge in the same way that plucking out his own eye and depositing it in the Well of Mimir gave him vision of the 'other world'.

The two primary forms of sacrifice to Odhinn were by hanging and burning.  Cremation or submersion in a body of water rather than burial in the earth was common, but for followers of the Vanir, I would expect burial in the earth instead as they were earth gods.

At this point, this post consists really of notes to myself to be reviewed and consolidated later...
I was thinking early this morning about erotic strangling and its effects.  Perhaps Odhinn's sacrifice was based on similar considerations, the altered state of consciousness prompted by the loss of breath, dizziness, even heightened sexual arousal.  Furthermore, in support of this, the very name of Odhinn means breath.  'Od' is wind or breath and he carried the mead of inspiration in his mouth when he transformed to an eagle.

Elagabalus
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What actually can be perceived as 'fact' and what as pure libel in the so-called history.  Here is one achievement of this emperor that made him very unpopular:

As soon as he entered the city, however, neglecting all the affairs of the provinces, he established Elagabalus as a god on the Palatine Hill close to the imperial palace; and he built him a temple, to which he desired to transfer the emblem of the Great Mother, the fire of Vesta, the Palladium, the shields of the Salii, and all that the Romans held sacred, purposing that no god might be worshipped at Rome save only Elagabalus.  He declared, furthermore, that the religions of the Jews and the Samaritans and the rites of the Christians must also be transferred to this place, in order that the priesthood of Elagabalus might include the mysteries of every form of worship.

Then, when he held his first audience with the senate, he gave orders that his mother should be asked to come into the senate-chamber.  On her arrival she was invited to a place on the consuls' bench and there she took part in the drafting — that is to say, she witnessed the drawing up of the senate's decree.19 And Elagabalus was the only one of all the emperors under whom a woman attended the senate like a man, just as though she belonged to the senatorial order.

3 He also established a senaculum  or women's senate, on the Quirinal Hill. Before his time, in fact, a congress of matrons had met here, but only on certain festivals, or whenever a matron was presented with the insignia of a 'consular marriage' — bestowed by the early emperors on their kinswomen, particularly on those whose husbands were not nobles, in order that they might not lose their noble rank.

What can be gleaned from all this?  That he was extremely progressive, desiring that all mystery religions be combined into a single religion accessible to all.  Second, that WOMEN should be given rights and power.  He allowed his mother a place in the Senate and he established a senate for women.

Coins from the reign of Elagabalus.  I own some silver coins like these but obviously do not own the gold one, which fetches an enormous price!