Sacrificing Ourselves to Ourselves: The Pursuit of Wisdom

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‘Esoterically, the Hanged Man is the human spirit which is suspended from heaven by a single thread. Wisdom, not death, is the reward for this voluntary sacrifice during which the human soul, suspended above the world of illusion, and meditating upon its unreality, is rewarded by the achievement of self-realization.’ – Manly P. Hall                          

In Norse mythology, Odin – the All-Father god of war, death, poetry, runes, magic and wisdom – made a tremendous sacrifice for wisdom and knowledge. Odin’s quest for wisdom is relentless, and he is willing to pay any price for the understanding of the deepest wisdom and knowledge of the mysteries of life and the cosmos that he desires more than anything else. 

In Norse cosmology the center of the universe was the great world-tree Yggdrasil,  which which spanned nine realms. Odin, the tireless wanderer, traversed these diverse realms, seeking esoteric knowledge of magic, death, and the nature of the universe.

In order to obtain such knowledge and wisdom Odin sacrificed himself, to himself. 

Seeking to gain knowledge of the runes, Odin sacrificed himself by throwing his body onto his spear Gungnir and hanging from the Norse Tree of Life. For nine days and nine nights, he fasted from food and drink, enduring this ordeal to discover the secrets and wisdom of the runes. During this sacrificial act, he experienced visions and received sacred wisdom.

On another occasion, Odin ventured to Mimir's Well, also known as the Well of Urd, located amongst the roots of the world-tree Yggdrasil. There, he gouged out one of his own eyes and dropped it into the well, in order to drink from the sacred waters that would grant him wisdom and knowledge of the entire cosmos.

To attain a profound, cosmic and sacred understanding of existence, Odin willingly sacrificed his physical form, enduring excruciating pain and hardship fueled only by his indomitable willpower, perseverance, and resilience.

At the end of the ordeal, Odin learned something from this deathly experience that he could not have obtained in life. On the ninth day, he attained a sacred, divine understanding of the runes - the mystical symbols of the Norse alphabet and magic. On the ninth day,  Grasping their profound meanings, Odin returned to the realm of the living, compelled to share his newfound knowledge, believing it could better the world. From that day forward, he was revered as the 'Allfather', the wisest of the gods, his unparalleled wisdom sought by both deities and mortals alike.

Odin's physical form may have endured the sacrifice, but his psyche underwent a profound death and resurrection. This symbolic rebirth represents the "dark night of the soul" - a transformative process of personal death and renewal, akin to the mythical Phoenix rising from the ashes with newfound illumination, knowledge, and wisdom.

The depictions of a one-eyed Odin represent the sacrifice to our “lower self” to our “higher self", of our shadow for our soul and of the earthly in exchange for the sacred and divine.

The journey through 9 days, 9 nights, and 9 realms represents traversing all aspects of the human psyche and inner realm. Knowledge and wisdom demand time, endurance, patience, and perseverance to attain. Acquiring such wisdom inevitably requires sacrifice and effort, and no sacrifice or effort is too great in the pursuit of wisdom

Odin teaches that our adversities, pain, and suffering are initiations to obtain the deepest wisdom. There is wisdom to be found even in the darkest of times, wisdom that would otherwise remain elusive.

He also reminds us of our willpower and perseverance to rise as more wise beings.


     ━━ ᚠᚢᚦᚫᚱᚲᚷᚹᚺᚾᛁ ᛃᛇ ᛈᛉᛋᛏᛒᛖᛗᛚᛝᛟᛞ ━━

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