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18276066 GRIMM JACOB TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY VOL 1

gods, will hardly bear even a forced' interpretatio eomana. if in the place of sun and moon we put apollo and diana, they at once contradict that deeply rooted])eculiarity of the teutonic way of thinking, which conceives of the sun as a female, and of the moon as a male being, which could not have escaped the observation of the eoman, if it had penetrated deeper. and vulcan, similar to the norse loki, but one of those divinities of whom there is least trace to be found in the rest of teutondom, had certainly less foundation than the equally visible and helpful deities of the nourishing earth, and of the quickening, fish-teeming, ship-sustaining water. i can only look upon caesar's statements as a half-true and roughcast opinion, which, in the face of the more detailed testimony of tacitus

star (listens) osinn hlisscialfo i, sjem. 89. 1 lata fylgja nafni, sfcm. 142. 150\ fornm. sog. 3, 182. 203. gefa at nafnfesti (name-feast, sn. 151. fornm. sog. 2, 51. 3, 133. 203. islend. sog. 2, 143. 194. vocabuli largitionem muneris additione commendare, saxo gram. 71. 2 longobardi a longis barbis vocitati, otto fris. de gest. frid. 2, 13. but osinn himself was named ldiigbarsr. 136 wodan. when loki wanted to hide, it was from this seat that osinn espied his whereabouts, sn. 69. sometimes also frigg, his consort, is imagined sitting by his side, and then she enjoys the same prospect: osinn ok frigg sdto i hlisscialfo, ok sd urn heima alia, ssem, 39. the proem to the grimnismal bears a strong resemblance to the legend in paul; for, just as frea pulls her favourites the winili through, in

the side of thorr and freyr, but by the side of hdr and lafnhdr (the high and the even-high or co-equal, ohg. epan hoh) as the third high (see suppl, sn. 7. yngl. saga 52. stem. 46. as we might imagine, the grade varies: at other times he is tvcggi (duplex or secundus. again, in a different relation he appears with his brothers vili and ve, sn. 7; with hoenir and lo&r, seem. 3, or with hmnir and loki sffim. 180. sn. 135; all this rests upon older myths, which, as peculiar to the north, we leave on one side. yet, with respect to the trilogy offinn, vili, vc, we must not omit to mention here, that the ohg %oillo expresses not only voluntas, but votum, impetus and spiritus^ and the gothic viljan, velle, is closely connected with valjan, eligere; whence it is easy to conceive and 1 when osinn

be connected the as. wela, os. welo, ohg. wolo, welo= opes, felicitas [weal, wealth, and wela conies up several times almost as a personification (conf. gramm. 4, 752, like the lat. goddess ops (conf. infra seelde, note; there is also a vali among the norse gods. in the case of ve, gen. vea, the sense may waver between wiho, sanctus (goth. alima sa veiha. holy ghost, and wih, idolum. in seem. 63, loki casts in the teeth of frigg her intrigues with ve and vili; this refers to the story in yngl. saga cap. 3, from which we clearly gather the identity of tlie three brothers, so that frigg could be considered the wife of any one of them^ lastly, a principal proof of the deeply-rooted worship of this divinity is furnished by wodan's being interwoven with the old saxon genealogies, which i shall

the giant may have been called firnez, and the plant firnezes folma. we remember how, in beow. 1662, grendel has torn off the hand of a water-sprite, and presents it as tacen of his victory, just as tristan chops off the giant urgan's hand, and takes it with him to certify the deed, 16055-65-85. the amputation of the huge giant-hand seems therefore part of an ancient myth, and to have been fitly loki, grendel, saturn. 241 retained in the name of a broad-leaved vegetable; there is also a plant called devivs-liancl, and in more than one legend the evil one leaves the print of his hand on rocks and walls. if these last allusions have led us away from the beneficent deities rather to hurtful demons and malignant spirits, we have here an easy transit to the only god whom the teaching of the ed

lso a plant called devivs-liancl, and in more than one legend the evil one leaves the print of his hand on rocks and walls. if these last allusions have led us away from the beneficent deities rather to hurtful demons and malignant spirits, we have here an easy transit to the only god whom the teaching of the edda represents as wicked and malevolent, though it still reckons him among the ases. 5 (loki, grendel, saturn. lofji, as we have seen, was a second son of forniotr, and the three brothers hler, logi, kari on the whole seem to represent water, fire and air as elements. n"ow a striking narrative (sn. 54. go) places logi by the side of lohi, a being from the giant province beside a kinsman and companion of the gods. this is no mere play upon words, the two really signify the same tiling

orniotr, and the three brothers hler, logi, kari on the whole seem to represent water, fire and air as elements. n"ow a striking narrative (sn. 54. go) places logi by the side of lohi, a being from the giant province beside a kinsman and companion of the gods. this is no mere play upon words, the two really signify the same tiling from different points of view, logi the natural force of fire, and loki, with a shifting of the sound, a shifting of the sense: of the burly giant has been made a sly seducing villain. the two may be compared to the prometheus and the hephajstus (vulcan) of the greeks; okeanos was a friend and kinsman of the former. but the two get mixed up. in loki, sa er flestu iuu raesr (sn. 4g, who devises the most of ill, we see also the giant demon who, like hephaestus, set

may be compared to the prometheus and the hephajstus (vulcan) of the greeks; okeanos was a friend and kinsman of the former. but the two get mixed up. in loki, sa er flestu iuu raesr (sn. 4g, who devises the most of ill, we see also the giant demon who, like hephaestus, sets the gods a-laughing; his limping reminds us of hephsestus and the lame fire (n. cap. 76, his chaining of prometheus's, for loki is put in chains like his son fenrir. as hephaestus forges the net for ares and aphrodite, loki too prepares a net (sn. 69, in which he is caught himself. most salient of all is the analogy betw^een hephaestus being hurled down from olympus by zeus (ii. 1, 591-3) and the devil being cast out of heaven into hell by god (ch. xxxiii, devil, though the edda neither relates such a fall of loki, no

nd aphrodite, loki too prepares a net (sn. 69, in which he is caught himself. most salient of all is the analogy betw^een hephaestus being hurled down from olympus by zeus (ii. 1, 591-3) and the devil being cast out of heaven into hell by god (ch. xxxiii, devil, though the edda neither relates such a fall of loki, nor sets him forth as a cunning smith and master of dwarfs, probably the stories of loki and logi were much fuller once. loki's former fellowship with osinn is clearly seen, both from srem. 61^ and from the juxtaposition of three creative deities on their travels, ocfinn, hcenir, locfr, ssem. 3% instead of which w^e have also offhm, hmnir, lohi, sasm. 180, or in a different order o&inn, loki, hcenir, sn. 80. 135 (conf. supra, p. 162. tliis trilogy i do not venture to identify wit

the norse mythology, and with lis in germany he has vanished without leaving a trace. but the fire-god too, who according to that gradation of sounds ought either to be in goth. lauha and ohg. loho, or in goth. luka and ohg. locho, seems with the loss of his name to have come up again purely in the character of the later devil. he lasted longer in scandinavia, and myths everywhere show how nearly loki the ^s approaches logi the giant. thorlacius (spec. 7, 43) has proved that in the phrase' loki fer yfir akra (passes over the fields, and in the danish' locke dricker vand (drinks water, fire and the burning sun are meant, just as we say the sun is drawing water, when he shines through in bright streaks between two clouds. loka daun (lokii odor) is icelandic for the ignis fatuus exhaling brim

n moulting time, people say they' gaae i lokkis arri (pass under l.'s harrow 'at hore paa lockens eventyr (adventures' means to listen to lies or idle tales (p. syv's gamle danske ordsprog 2, 72, according to sjoborg's nomenklatur, there is in yestergotland a giant's grave named lokchall. all of them conceptions well deserving notice, which linger to this day among the common people, and in which loki is by turns taken for a beneficent and for a hurtful being, for sun, fire, giant or devil. exactly the same sort of harm is in germany ascribed to the devil, and the kindly god of light is thought of as a devastating flame (see suppl. on this identity between logi and lold rests another vestige loki, gkexdel, sxvtukn. 243 of tlie xorse da?mon, which is found among the other teutonic races. if

ficent and for a hurtful being, for sun, fire, giant or devil. exactly the same sort of harm is in germany ascribed to the devil, and the kindly god of light is thought of as a devastating flame (see suppl. on this identity between logi and lold rests another vestige loki, gkexdel, sxvtukn. 243 of tlie xorse da?mon, which is found among the other teutonic races. if logi comes from liuhan ^hicere, loki will apparently fall to the root lukan (claudere, conf. claudus lame; the on, lok means finis, consummatio, and loka repagulum, because a bolt or bar closes. in beowulf we come upon an odious devilish spirit, a thyrs (beow. 846) named grcndel, and his mother, grendeles modor (4232-74, a veritable devil's mother and giant's mother. an as. document of 931 in kemble 2, 172 mentions a place calle

an odious devilish spirit, a thyrs (beow. 846) named grcndel, and his mother, grendeles modor (4232-74, a veritable devil's mother and giant's mother. an as. document of 931 in kemble 2, 172 mentions a place called grcndlcs mere (grendeli palus. now the as. grindel, ohg. h'intil, mhg. grintcl is precisely repagulum, pessulus; so the name grendel seems related to grindel (obex) in the same way as loki to loka; the on. grind is a grating, which shuts one in like bolt and bar. gervase of tilbury (in leibn. 1, 980) tells of an english firedemon named grant. it is very remarkable, that we germans have still in use a third synonymous expression for a diabolic being, its meaning heightened no doubt by composition with' hell; hdllric(jel vectis infernalis, hell-bar, a hell-brand, devil or the dev

cancelli' tramar gneypa j?ik skulo' stem. 85; and in tlie swedish song of torkar, troutram is an epitliet of the devil who stole the hanmier. as this is the thrymr of the edda, one might guess that trami stands for jn-ami, with which our dremil would more exactly accord. thus from several sides we see the mythical notions that prevailed on this subject joining hands, and the merging of logi into loki must be of high antiquity. foersom (on jutl. superstit. p. 32) alleges, that the devil is conceived of in the form of a liissetra, i.e, the pole with which a load is tied down. beside loki the as, snorri sets another before ns in the edda, utfjarffalojci, as a king whose arts and power deceive even godlike thorr; it was one of his household that outdid the other loki himself, sn. 54 seq^ saxo

beside loki the as, snorri sets another before ns in the edda, utfjarffalojci, as a king whose arts and power deceive even godlike thorr; it was one of his household that outdid the other loki himself, sn. 54 seq^ saxo, who in the whole of his work 1' tliorlacius's theory, of an older nature-worsliip supplanted by the aso:=i, rests mainly on the antithesis of an okul^urr to asaf^orr, of lo^'i to loki, and probably of hler to oegir, each pair respectively standing for thunder, tire, 244 othee gods. never once names the eddie lold, tells wonderful things of this' ugarthilocus' pp. 163-6: he .paints him as a gigantic semi-divine monster, who dwells in a distant land, is invoked in a storm like other gods, and grants his aid. a valiant hero, named thorkill, brooks the adventurous journey to u

capital importance is the agreement in tlie myths themselves. to what was cited above, i will here add something more. our nursery-tales have made us familiar with the incident of the haii plucked off the devil as he lay asleep in his grandmother's lap (kinderm. 29. the corresponding norwegian tale makes three feathers be pulled out of the dragon's tail, not while he sleeps, but after he is dead. loki, in punishment of his misdeeds, is put in chains, like prometheus who brought fire to men; but he is to be released again at the end of the world. one of his children, fcnrir i.e, himself in a second birth, pursues the moon in the shape of a ivolf, and threatens to swallow her. according to sn, 12. 13, an old giantess in the forest gave birth to these giants in wolfskin girdles, the miglities

he phxce of? none? and was his being not one of the primeval ones 1 &c [quoted from suppl, vol. iii^ goth. fanareis? ohg. fanari, feniri? can it be our fahnentrager, pannifer? but the early norse does not seem to have the word answering to the cloth, fana, ohg. fano (flag [has the fox holding up his tail as a standard, in the unrighteous war of beasts against birds, anything to do with this] o. o loki, grendel, sa-turn. 245 the wolfe and the warldis end (see suppl. but the popular belief seems to have extended generally, and that from the earliest times, all over germany, and beyond it. we still say, when baneful and perilous disturbances arise' the devil is broke loose/ as in the north they used to say' lohi er or bondum (ch. xxiii. in the life of goz von berlichingen, p. 201' the devil w

e' this too is like the wolf devouring the sun or moon. eclipses of sun or moon have been a terror to many heathen nations; the incipient and increasing obscuration of the luminous orb marks for them the moment when the gaping jaws of the wolf threaten to devour it, and they think by loud cries to bring it succour (ch. xxii, eclipses. the breaking loose of the wolf and the ultimate enlargement o( loki from his chains, who at the time of the ragnarokr will war against and overcome the gods, is in striking accord with the release of the chained prometheus, by whom zeus is then to be overthrown. 1 lanionnaye, glossaire to the noei bourguignon, dijon 1776, p. 242. 2 conf. ps. 72, 7: donee auferetur luna. 3 may we in this connexion think of the fable of the wo^f who goes down the well to eat up

overcome the gods, is in striking accord with the release of the chained prometheus, by whom zeus is then to be overthrown. 1 lanionnaye, glossaire to the noei bourguignon, dijon 1776, p. 242. 2 conf. ps. 72, 7: donee auferetur luna. 3 may we in this connexion think of the fable of the wo^f who goes down the well to eat up the moon, which he takes fur a cheese i 246 other gods. the formula' iinz loki ver&'r lauss(=imz riufaz regin, till the gods be destroyed, answers exactly to the greek irplv av ev heafiwv xax-ciadr] upofit^devq (aesch. prom. 176. 770. 991; the writhings of the fettered loki make the earth to quake (siem. 69. sn. 70, just as)(9(siv a-ea-axevrai in the case of prometheus (aesch. 1081. only the greek titan excites our noblest sympathy, while the edda presents loki as a hat

uss(=imz riufaz regin, till the gods be destroyed, answers exactly to the greek irplv av ev heafiwv xax-ciadr] upofit^devq (aesch. prom. 176. 770. 991; the writhings of the fettered loki make the earth to quake (siem. 69. sn. 70, just as)(9(siv a-ea-axevrai in the case of prometheus (aesch. 1081. only the greek titan excites our noblest sympathy, while the edda presents loki as a hateful monster. loki was fair in form, evil in disposition; his father, a giant, was named farhauti (boatman, his mother lcmfey(]eaf-ea) and ndl (needle; thin and insinuating, mio ok ausjjreiflig, 355, all of them words easy to translate into ohg. as farpozo (remex, loupouwa, nadala, though such names are nowhere found. he is never called farbauta sonr, but always after his mother, loki laufeyjar sonr (sffim. 07'

bauta sonr, but always after his mother, loki laufeyjar sonr (sffim. 07' 72^ 73, which had its origin in alliteration, but held its ground even in prose (sn. 64) and in the locke loje, loke lovmand, loke lejemand of the later folk-songs. this laufey (swed. lofo) is first of all the name of a place, which was personified, and here again there is doubtless reference to an element. by his wife slgyn loki had a son nari or narvi, and by a giantess angrloda three children, the aforesaid fcnrir, the serpent idrm.unrjandr and a daughter hd. it is worthy of notice, that he himself is also called loirir (aiirius, and one of his brothers helhlindi, which is likewise a name of 05inn. i just throw out these names, mostly foreign to our german mythology, in the hope of enlisting for them future inquiry


ALEISTER CROWLEY MAGICK WITHOUT TEARS

, and by a german poet and philosopher: one can hardly believe that the subject of any two of these biographies is the same man. but upon certain points the identity is bound to transpire; even when we read of his crushing and classic defeat at waterloo by the belgians, the man is detected. transferring the analogy to the gods, it is then open to us to suppose that tahuti, thoth, hermes, mercury, loki, hanuman and the rest are identical, and that the diversity of the name and the series of exploits is due merely to the accidents of time and space. but it is at least equally plausible to suggest that these gods are different individuals, although of the identical order of being, characteristics and function. very much as if one took drake, frobisher, raleigh, hood, blake, rodney and nelson


BLAVATSKY H P ANTHROPOGENESIS

y) accused of divulging the mysteries of heaven" he combines and uses the two for purposes of human, instead of super-human, procreation. henceforth "man will beget, not create* but as, by so doing, he has to use[[footnote(s* returning once more to the most important subject in the archaic cosmogony, it may be said that even in the norse legends, in the sacred scrolls of the goddess saga, we find loki, the brother by blood of odin (as typhon, ahriman, and others are brothers of osiris and ormazd, becoming evil only later, when he has mixed too long with humanity. like all other fire or light gods- fire burning and destroying as well as warming and giving life- he ended by being accepted in the destructive sense of "fire" the name loki, we learn("asgard and the gods" p. 250, has been derive

evil only later, when he has mixed too long with humanity. like all other fire or light gods- fire burning and destroying as well as warming and giving life- he ended by being accepted in the destructive sense of "fire" the name loki, we learn("asgard and the gods" p. 250, has been derived from the old word "liechan" to enlighten. it has, therefore, the same origin as the latin "lux, light" hence loki is identical with lucifer (light-bringer. this title, given to the prince of darkness, is very suggestive and is a vindication in itself against theological slander. but loki is still more closely related to prometheus, as he is shown chained to a sharp rock, while lucifer, identified with satan, was chained down in hell; a circumstance, however, which prevented neither of them from acting in

ce of darkness, is very suggestive and is a vindication in itself against theological slander. but loki is still more closely related to prometheus, as he is shown chained to a sharp rock, while lucifer, identified with satan, was chained down in hell; a circumstance, however, which prevented neither of them from acting in all freedom on earth, if we accept the theological paradox in its fulness. loki is a beneficent, generous and powerful god in the beginning of times, and the principle of good, not of evil, in early scandinavian theogony* the greek mythos just alluded to a few pages back, namely the mutilation of uranos by his son kronos in the greek theogony, is an allusion to this theft by the son of the earth and heavens of the divine creative fire. if uranos, the personification of t

ple of all things" that developed on the globe later on. and our geologists have ascertained that there was such a terrestrial conflagration in the early geological periods, several hundred millions of years ago* as to the tradition itself, every country and nation had it, each under its respective national form. it is not alone egypt, greece, scandinavia or mexico, that had their typhon, python, loki and its "falling" demon, but china, also. the celestials have a whole literature upon the subject. in king, it is said that in consequence of a rebellion against ti of a proud spirit who said he was ti himself, seven choirs of celestial spirits were exiled upon earth, which "brought a change in all nature, heaven itself bending down and uniting with earth" and in the "y-king" one reads "the f


BLAVATSKY H P COSMOGENESIS

as born of water; hence primeval wisdom was to be found in that mysterious element("asgard and the gods" 86. the eye which odin had to pledge to acquire that knowledge may be "the sun, which enlightens and penetrates all things; his other eye being the moon, whose reflection gazes out of the deep, and which at last, when setting, sinks into the ocean (ibid) but it is something more, besides this. loki, the fire-god, is said to have hidden in the water, as well as in the moon, the light-giver, whose reflection he found therein; and this belief that the fire finds refuge in the water was not limited to the old scandinavians. it was shared by all nations and was finally taken up by the early christians, who symbolized the holy ghost under the shape of fire "cloven tongues like as fire- the br


BUCKLAND RAYMOND COMPLETE BOOK OF WITCHCRAFT

remember and love them again. but to be reborn you must die, and be ready for a new body; and to die you must be born; and without love you may not be born. and these be all the magicks" the meaning of witchcraft gerald b. gardner, aquarian press, london 1959 "all day had freya, most lovely of the goddesses, played and romped in the fields. then did she lay down to rest. and while she slept deft loki, the prankster, the mischief-maker of the gods, did espy the glimmering oibrosingamene, formed of galdra, her constant companion. silent as night did loki move to the goddess' side and, with fingers formed over the ages in lightness, did remove the silver circlet from about her snow-white neck. straightway did freya arouse, on sensing its loss. though he moved with the speed of the winds yet

eck. straightway did freya arouse, on sensing its loss. though he moved with the speed of the winds yet loki she glimpsed as he passed swiftly from sight into the barrow that leads to dreun. then was freya in despair. darkness descended all about her to hide her tears. great was her anguish. all light, all life, all creatures joined in her doom. to all corners were sent the searchers, in quest of loki; yet on the subject of deity names, let me explain the ones chosen for the seax-wica. from time to time i hear comments from people who haven't troubled to check beyond the ends of their noses, to the effect that woden and freya were not the original "pair" of saxon deities. of course they were not and nobody least of all myself has claimed they were. here is how the founding of the tradition

uch a task would be impossible. it is merely a workable tradition built on a saxon framework, and the deity names were chosen specifically and for the reasons given. any comment regarding their being "incorrect" is, then totally erroneous. knew they, they would find him not. for who is there may descend into dreun and return again from thence? excepting the gods themselves and, alack, mischievous loki. so it was that, still weak from grief, freya herself elected to descend in search otbrosinga-mene. at the portals of the barrow was she challenged yet recognized and passed. the multitude of souls within cried joyfully to see her yet could she not tarry as she sought her stolen light. the infamous loki left no trail to follow, yet was he everywhere past seen. those to whom she spake held to

as that, still weak from grief, freya herself elected to descend in search otbrosinga-mene. at the portals of the barrow was she challenged yet recognized and passed. the multitude of souls within cried joyfully to see her yet could she not tarry as she sought her stolen light. the infamous loki left no trail to follow, yet was he everywhere past seen. those to whom she spake held to freya (that) loki carried no jewel as he went by. where, then, was it hid? in despair she searched an age. hearhden, the mighty smith of the gods, did arise from his rest to sense the bewail-ment of the souls to freya's sorrow. striding from his smithy, to find the cause of the sorrow, did he espy the silver circlet where loki mischief-maker had laid it: upon the rock before his door. then was all clear. as he

then, was it hid? in despair she searched an age. hearhden, the mighty smith of the gods, did arise from his rest to sense the bewail-ment of the souls to freya's sorrow. striding from his smithy, to find the cause of the sorrow, did he espy the silver circlet where loki mischief-maker had laid it: upon the rock before his door. then was all clear. as hearhden took hold ofbrosingamene (then did) loki appear before him, his face wild with rage. yet would loki not attack hearhden, this mighty smith whose strength was known even beyond dreun. by wiles and tricks did he strive to get his hands upon the silver circlet. he shape-shifted; he darted here and there; he was visible then invisible. yet could he not sway the smith. tiring of the fight, hearhden raised his mighty club. then sped loki


DAVID ICKE CHILDREN OF THE MATRIX

indian brahmans adopted the moon and serpent cult. so too, according to waddell, did the "semitic priests of the nile valley".31 he says that they replaced the original sun worship of asar or osiris and deliberately introduced the serpent and sacrificial cult to egyptian culture. balder, who is el and wodan's malicious son in the edda, corresponds with the green man of the king arthur legend and loki, the original of lucifer, according to waddell. he says that balder is also lancelot in the arthur stories from his title in the edda of "the lancebearer. like his mother, el, balder has been depicted with wings. th dragon queens 157 the mother-son cult of the serpent scene one in the edda portrays a world awash with the violence, human sacrifice, and blood-drinking rituals of "the mother-son

uch after he stole it from the habsburgs during the annexation of austria. also, the "holy grail" of the arthur stories is supposed to be the vessel that caught the blood of jesus after he was pierced in the side by the spear- the "serpent" blood, in fact, of "balder, the legendary martyred hero of the serpent cult or illuminati. the term illuminati or illuminated ones links with balder's name of loki. this became lucifer "the light bringer, waddell says. jesus is said to be the "light of the world. the jewish father-son was also depicted sometimes as an ass-headed man crucified on a tree. balder, tammuz, and jesus are the same entity. the illuminati created christianity to fool the people into worshipping symbolic reptilian deities while believing they were worshipping the opposite. what


ENCYCLOPEDIA OF OCCULTISM AND PARAPSYCHOLOGY VOL 1

range that in mexico, mictlantecutli, lord of hell, is a much more directly satanic figure than any european or asiatic ruler of the realms of the dead. but in some mythologies, there are frequent allusions to monsters that may quite easily have colored the modern concept of satan. such is the hindu serpent ahi, the hebrew leviathan, and the principle of chaos. teutonic mythology has the menacing loki, originally a god of fire, but afterward the personification of evil. the concept of satan, too, appears to have some deeply rooted connection with ancient serpent worship, which seems to have penetrated most oriental countries. thus we find the tempter in the old testament (gen. 3) in the guise of a serpent. the serpent or dragon is generally regarded as the personification of night, who swa

the zohar, the seven halls of the world of yetsirah, the divine halls into which the seekers for the chariot( merkabah) strive to enter. here dwell the angels, presided over by the angel metatron, as well as the souls of men not especially noted for their piety (the souls of the pious dwell in the world of beriah) hel (or hela) in teutonic mythology, the goddess of death, one of the offspring of loki and the giantess angurbodi. the gods became alarmed at her and the other monsters that were coming to life in jotunheim, so all-father advised that they be brought before him. hel was cast into niflheim, the realm beneath the roots of the world tree yggdrasil, reserved for all those who die of sickness or old age. according to the myth, hel governs this world, which is composed of nine region


ENCYCLOPEDIA OF OCCULTISM AND PARAPSYCHOLOGY VOL 2

hell, said to be of an icy temperature. it lies in the lowest depths of niflheim, is a dark abode far from the sun, and its gates face the cutting north. its walls are formed of wreathed snakes, and their venom is ever falling like rain. it is surrounded by dark and poisonous streams, and nidhog, the great dragon that dwells beneath the central root of ygdrassil, torments and gnaws the dead. here loki is chained to a splintered rock, where the venom of the snake skada falls on him unceasingly, and it was believed that his shuddering was the cause of earthquakes. nastrond is featured in the voluspa, a poem in the icelandic poetic edda. sources: the poetic edda. oxford: clarendon press, 1969. nat an evil spirit (see also myanmar) national astrological association (naa) at various intervals t


GRIMM JACOB TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY VOL 3

y conjectures that i will not add to their number here. if, as appears most likely, he is synonymous with paltar (balder, he must pass for a god of light, but also of fire, and again of tempest; under another view he haunted wells and springs. he approximates the higher elemental powers, and could the more easily be perverted into a diabolic being. equally lost to germany is the name of the norse loki, who represents fire in another xx peeface. aspect, and was still better qualified to stand for the devil. the stories of his artfulness, his cunning tricks, have reproduced themselves repeatedly in all branches of our race. i now turn to the goddesses. a mother of gods, nerthus, is named to us by tacitus; her name is the exact counterpart to that of a norse god, who confirms her existence, a

turn of kindness, thou shalt for a punishment be never satisfied' then to the ox' thou good-natured beast shalt conveniently appease thy hunger, and after chew the cud at thine ease, for thou wert ready to serve me' this myth likewise inculcates kindness to the stranger, and for perkunos subsequent narrators could without x] peeface. scruple substitute the saviour. in the edda it is always osinn, loki and hoenir that go on journeys together, the same three ases that also co-operate in creating (p. 560, for losr and loki are apparently one (p. 241, and in this connexion loki has nothing base or bad about him. hoenir is called in sn. 106 sessi, sinui, mali o'sins (sodalis, comes, collocutor odini. these three ases set out on a journey, and at night seek a lodging; in the stories preserved to

o-operate in creating (p. 560, for losr and loki are apparently one (p. 241, and in this connexion loki has nothing base or bad about him. hoenir is called in sn. 106 sessi, sinui, mali o'sins (sodalis, comes, collocutor odini. these three ases set out on a journey, and at night seek a lodging; in the stories preserved to us no mention is made of a trial of hospitality. in a later saga o^inn with loki and hcenir rides to the chase (miiller's sagabibl. 1, 364; and a remarkable lay of the faroe isles (lyngbye pp. 500 seq) presents the same three, ouvin, honer and lokkji, not indeed as travelling, but as succouring gods, who when called upon immediately appear, and one after the other deliver a boy whom giant skrujmsli is pursuing, by hiding him, quite in fairy-tale fashion, in an ear of barl

423. as bearing upon their subsequent transference, it must not be overlooked that in fornm. sog. 9, 56. 175 osinn on horseback calls one evening at a blacksmith's, and has his horse shod; his identity with hermes becomes quite startling in these myths. at other times however it is thorr with his heavy hammer (p. 180) that seeks a lodging, like zeus, and when -he stays the night at the peasant's, loki accompanies thorr (sn. 49; then again heimdallr, calling himself rigr, traverses the world, and founds the families of man. the finnish legend makes wiiinamoinen, ilmarinen and lemminkainen travel (rune 23, quite on a par with o^inn, loki, and hoenir. if now we look from these heathen myths to those in a christian dress and of a later time, the connexion between them can be no enigma: that of

of lung off the roast, as in marchen no. 81 brother lustig, travelling with peter, steals the heart of the roast lamb, and elsewhere the landsknecht or the swabian steals the liver. this seems to be all the same myth, for the circumstance that peter plays by turns the culprit and the god whose attendant is in fault, may itself be of very old date: even the heathen stories may have made oc)iun and loki change places. loki is all the more a cook, a roast-stcalcr, and therefore on a line with peter, as even the edda imputes to him the eating of a heart (the suspected passage in sa^m. us" i emend thus 'loki athiarta lundi brenda, fanu liann halfsvi^inn hugstein kouu' lokius comedit cor in uemore assum, invenit semiustum xlii preface. mentis-lapidem mulieris, and in our ancient beast-fable the

nge places. loki is all the more a cook, a roast-stcalcr, and therefore on a line with peter, as even the edda imputes to him the eating of a heart (the suspected passage in sa^m. us" i emend thus 'loki athiarta lundi brenda, fanu liann halfsvi^inn hugstein kouu' lokius comedit cor in uemore assum, invenit semiustum xlii preface. mentis-lapidem mulieris, and in our ancient beast-fable the slyfox (loki still) carries off tlie stag's heart half-roasted (reinh. xlviii. lii. nor does this by any means exhaust the stock of such tales of travel. hans sachs 1^ 492 made up a poem in 1557 (and burc. waldis 4, 95 before him in 1537) how peter journeying with christ wished in the pride of his heart to rule the world, and could not so much as manage the goat which the lord had given into his hands for

d twelves of the edda are indicated, p. 335. the greeks however differ in having only one twelve, consisting of six gods and six goddesses, while of the ases and asynjas there are twelve each, making together twice as many deities as the greek. twelve chairs are set for the gods sitting in council (p. 858. sometimes the highest god has twelve inferiors added to him, which raises the total by one: loki is called the thirteenth among the gods, and gna among the goddesses. snorri 21 p names thirteen ases, and even more asynjas. these triads and twelves of the gods are reflected again in the heroes and wise-women: mannus begot three sons, heads of races (p. 345. 395, heimdall founded three orders, the ynglinga saga 2, 7 calls odin's fellow-gods his twelve princes (hofdingjar; westmar has twelv

flee; in a moment worm and treasure sank into the mountain, and the earth closed up again, the uproar was over and the sun shone sweetly; only a few coins remained, which when thrown away had fallen outside the serpent ring (reusch's samland no. 3. the great hoard on which fdfnir lay was made up of gold that the gods had been obliged to hand over for the covering and cramming of otter, but which loki had pi-eviously taken from the dwarf andvari. sigur'sr, having got it into his power after slaying the dragon, conveyed it all safely away on grani's back, hence gold was named byrd'r grana (granonis sarcina, ohg. nibelungs' hoard. 979 would be kraniii purdi, so, 139. it is remarkable that in a swed. folksong (arvidsson 2, 193) the maiden awaiting her betrothed says: vore det den ungersven (w

at they could not divide the treasure, is a highly mythic feature, which i shall illustrate further on, when i come to treat of wishing-gear. as a union with goddesses, wise-women, white-women, results in danger to heroes, so does their winning of the hoard turn to their misfortune. he that has lifted the treasure must die soon (mone's anz. 7, 51-3. because andvari laid a curse upon the ring that loki extorted from him, the same ring brought destruction upon hreismar and his sons, who insisted on having it, and upon sigui"s and brynhild, whose betrothal was accomplished by it (sn. 140. an on, name for gold is* orms be'sr' or' fafnis boeli' worm's bed, dragon's couch, who lies brooding on it, so to speak. bui turns into a worm, and lies on his gold-chests, fornm. sog. 11, 158. draco thesaur

of this unity there grow up trilogies (brahma, vishnu, siva; zeus, poseidon, pluto; wuotan, donar, fro; har, lafnhar, thri'si, dodecalogies, and the plenitude of pantheism. but it is to my mind a fundamental feature of polytheism, that the good and beneficent principle in the divine preponderates; only some isolated deities, subordinate to the whole, incline to the evil or hurtful, like the norse loki, whose nature even then is more on a par with that of hephgestus (vulcan) than of the christian devil. goodness predominates even in elvish sprites: to the nix, the homesprite, nay the giant, it is but partially that cruelty and malice are attributed. in harmony with this is the mild way in which our antiquity pictures death and the underworld. but for all that, amid the vast variety of chara

e dowy-rush, of the devils, gramm. 2, 703 988 devil. unlovelij (unliol(ie)j as antitliesis to the good kind gracious god. the thought is often expressed in roundabout phrases or in adjectives, often enshrined in appropriate appellatives' der nie guot geriet/ who never counselled good, dietr. 40 'der ie tugende storte/ ever thwarted virtue, kolocz. 254; like the edda's* sa er flestu illu rsesr' of loki, sn. 46, or the epic periphrase in reinh. xxxii. xxxvi to describe the fox and wolf as beasts of devilish nature 'dich hat nilit guotes uz gelan 'twas nothing good= the devil) that left us you, dietr. 8-347; as we still say' i have looked for him like notliing good' der ilhele tiuvel, iw. 467(3. nib. 215, 4. 426,4.1892,4. ms. 1, 59 ^ev iihel vient, gregor 2849. the evil foe, evil spirit, evil

lf into an animal for a time. the devil in retiring is compelled unawares to let his horsefoot be seen (p. 326; a kobold (home-sprite) is also horse footed (p. 511. to the water-sprite the whole or half of a horse's figure is attributed; that is why horses are sacrificed to rivers. a british demon grant, possibly connected with grendel (p. 243, shewed himself as a foal, gerv. tilb. in leibn. 980. loki changed himself into a mare, and bore sleipnir to svasilfori, sn. 46-7. the devil appears as a horse in the stories of zeno and of brother eausch, and in legends (zappert pp. 68 71; black steeds^ this many-handedness agrees with that of giants, but i do not remember to have seen the devil represented with inore heads than one, except in the shape of a dragon. anticlirist however was pictured

oth the compounds it has been transferred to the beast, and so preserved; and as phol is paltar, it may now appear less ventm-esome to bring in as belonging here baltero the boar's name in reinardus. a soul-snatching wolf the devil was already to the fathers (greg. m. opp. 1, 1486. in the laws of cnut he is 'se wodfreca werewnlf (schmid. p. 148; ditmar of merseb. p. 253 calls him lupus vorax, and loki's son is fenris illfr; out of mhg. poets i have not noted down a hellewolf, but i hardly doubt their having used it, as simplic. 2, 72 still does hollenivolf. and a slavic name for the devil, pol. wrog, boh. wrah, serv. slov. vrag, puss, vrag, vorog, though it means malefactor, enemy, latro, is the same as the ohg. tvarg (lupus, reinh. xxxvii. the devil has monstrous jaws and throat in common

bdax fjivia, fly-god (2 kings 1, 2. ahriman in 1 der alte slange mit sinen genozen von liimel wart her abe gestozen, sins libes wesen tcilt er eudriii (divides in three, etc. renuer 3100 seq. names taken from his figure. 999 the shape of a fy pervaded all nature. lith. mussd hirhijcs, flygod (mielke 231, birbiks usu. blowing, buzzing. fairytales have diabolic spirits imprisoned in phials as flies loki turns into a flij (fluga, when he wants to defraud freyja of the brisinga-men. connect with this a lombard story in paul diac. 6, 6 of the' malignus spiritus' who settles on the window as a flij, and gets a leg chopped off; and one in acta bened. sect. 1, p. 238 of a devil being cast out' in muscae similitudinem prorumpens cum sanguine de naribus egressus est inimicus' as a fly, loki finds hi

xion between the heathen and jewish beliefs. and the same might be the case with riegel (bolt: vedis is not only a thing to fasten doors with, but to shove and thump with, lever, pole, almost malleus over again. leviathan is called vedis, quia usque ad necem percutit (greg. m. 1, hi. the mhg. hellerkjel, as. grendel (p. 243) might be an imitation of this vectis, and also have an older relation to loki. i think i have often noticed that the devil unwinds himself out of a ball of yarn. one fairytale makes him roll down the mountain as a millstone, altd. bl. 1, 297. this displays his affinity to giants, for swedish legend tells of giants who, when frightened at thor's lightning darting through the air, come rolling down the mountain into the meadows in various shapes, mostly as bundles of thr

old gods. 1005 188' troll taki liann' orvarrodss. cap. 9' fara i trolla liendr' laxd. p. 230, it answers exactly to our devil, yet also to the older and more pagan one' eigi j'ik gramir' or* iotnar (p. 990-1. in seem. 39 we read' farj^u nu 7ar smyl hafi j;ic! it seems that scandinavian sorceresses call the devil urdar mdni (luna saxeti, biorn sub v, which i know of nothing to compare with. and as loki is next of kin to hel (p. 312, we find the devil in close contact with death (p. 854' den tiuvel and den tot viirhten' frid. g7, 9. so far our survey of a great variety of names (from which however all merely jewish ones, like beelzebub, asmodi, belial etc, had to be excluded) has already shewn an admixture of heathen ingredients, or betrayed a still older identity or similarity of christian

of mors a beetle, meloe proscarabaeus/(umeus riihejst (schade p. 215; in switz. the libellula, devil's needle, devil's hairpin, and the caterpillar devil's cat in the vale of rimella the black snail, tiiifulsnahlie, and a tiny black beetle s' hozios ajo, the evil one's mother, albr. schott pp. 275. 334, a counterpart to the marienkiifer, p. 094, but also suggestive both of' devips needle' and of loki's mother ndl, p. 246; so that dona,-nadel (p. 490 n) may be correct, as the name of an evil river-sprite. in holland some herb, i know not which, is called duivels naai-garen (sewing yarn. the alcyonium digitatum or palmatum is devil's hand, manus diaboli, thieps hand, engl, devil's hand or deadman's hand, nethl. doode mans hand, oude mans hand, fr. main de diahle, main de ladi'e, de larron

moner in the sagas. if we might spell it sey&r (as one poem has it in fornald. sog. 2, 130, we should get both an easy derivation from sioisa to seethe, and another point of contact with goth. sau]>s, p. 40. sei&mac^r is magician, sei&kona, seycfkonct a wise woman, one that skills to seethe and cook magic remedies^ meanwhile seisr occurs clearly as a vowel-change from sicfa, yngl. saga cap. 16-7, loki reproaches osinn with having practised sorcery ?ik sisa koso^ ssem. 63% and i have never seen siosa put for it; so the two words, even if cogaate, must remain apart, or find their justification in an exceptional shifting from the 4th to the 5th series of vowel-change. the ohg. puozan, as. hetan, is emendare, but also mederi, to remedy, heal; in westphalia hoten" still expresses the action of

8 i select only this: a witch twisted her girdle together, and laid it on the threshold of a house where there was a wedding; when the newly married pair stepped 1 it is also believed, that every ninth day the seal (selr) doffs his iishy skin, and is for one day a man (thiele 3, 51. in medieval germany the nine years' wolf was supposed to give birth to adders, ms. 2, 234; to which may be compared loki's begetting the wolf fenrir and the snake lormungandr (p. 246, and that gandr again means wolf" a married couple lived in poverty; yet, to the man's astonishment, his wife contrived to serve up meat at every meal, concealing for a long time how she obtained it; at length she promised to reveal the secret, only, while she did so, he must not pronounce her name. they went together to the fields


GRIMM TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY VOL 2 1883 COMPLETE

orth, they make war upon the gods, like the heaven- scaling titans, and the gods hurl them down like devils into hell. yet there are some gods married to giantesses: niorsr to skasi the daughter of thiassi, th6rr to larnsaxa, freyr to the beautiful ger3r, daughter of gymir. gunnlos a giantess is osin s be loved. the asin gefiun bears sons to a giant; borr weds the giant botyorn s daughter bestla. loki, who lives among the ases, is son to a giant farbauti, and a giantess angrbosa is his tw lf^nt6;^110011011111118; mhg ungevilege, applied to giants, nib. 45g, 1. kua ^geviiege knabe, er. 5552; knabe, as in der rnichel kuabe/p 518n giants, 531 wife. the gods associate with oegir the iotunn, and by him are bidden to a banquet. giants again sue for asms, as thrymr for freyja, while thiassi carri

oon into the bargain. the gods took counsel, and decided to accept his offer, if he would undertake to finish the building by himself without the aid of man, in one winter; if on the first day of summer anything in the castle was left undone, he should forfeit all his claims. how the smith/ with no help but that of his strong horse sva&ilfari, had nearly accomplished the task, but was hindered by loki and slain by thorr, is related in sn. 46-7. well, this myth, obeying that wondrous law of fluctuation so often observed in genuine popular traditions, lives on, under new forms, in other times and places. a german fairy tale puts the devil in the place of the giant (as, in a vast number of tales, it is the devil now that executes buildings, hurls rocks, and so on, precisely as the giant did b

a fowl to it (82. a distinction seems to have been made between friendly and malignant fires; among the former the greeks reckoned brimstone fire, as they call sulphur oelov, divine smoke (ii. 8, 135. od. 22, 481. 493. in 0. fr. poems i often find such forms of cursing as: mal feu arde! tristr. 3791; maus feus et male flambe m arde 1 meon 3, 227. 297. ren. 19998. this evil fire is what the norse loki represents; and as loki or the devil breaks loose, we say, when a fire begins, that it breaks loose, breaks out, gets out, as if from chains and prison: worde viir los/ doc. in sartorius s hanse p. 27; in lower germany an alarm of fire was given in the words fiir los! on. einn neisti (spark) war$ laus/ forms of exorcism treat fire as a hostile higher being, whom one must encounter with might

zellweger s gesch. von appenzell, trogen 1830. 1, 63; who observes, that with the ashes of the fire so engendered they strew the fields, as a protection against vermin. need-fire. 607 but tobler 252b says, what boys call de tiifel hdla is spinning a pointed stick, with a string coiled round it, rapidly in a wooden socket, till it takes fire. the name may be one of those innu merable allusions to loki, the devil and fire-god (p. 242. nic. gryse, in a passage to be quoted later, speaks of sawing fire out of wood, as we read elsewhere of symbolically sawing the old woman in two. the practica of berthol. carrichter, phys. in ord. to maximilian ii, gives a description (which i borrow from wolfg. hildebrand on sorcery, leipz. 1631. p. 226) of a magic bath, which is not to be heated with common

as the sovereignty given him alike over 1 and therefore ostroni, westroni, sundroni, nordroni are masc. nouns; the golhn forms would be dustroneis, etc. 2 russ. volksmarchen, leipz. 1831. p. 119. 3 vetre vetrilo gospodine, hanka s ed. pp. 12. 36. 4 e.g. in nalus, p. 180 (bopp s 2 ed. kinderm. nos. 15. 88. vol. ii. o 632 elements. water, wind and fire (p. 217; and_lopr (aereus) is another name for loki (p. 246. a phrase in caedm. 181, 13 seems worthy of notice: lyft-helme be)?eaht/ galea aerea tectus (see suppl. when in our language we still call one kind of tempest (ohg. wiwinty graff 1, 624, the windsbraut (wind s bride, and it was called the same in our older speech, ohg. wintes brut, 0. v. 19, 27. windis prut, gl. hrab. 975b. jun. 230. diut. 2, 182. gl. florent. 982a-3b-4b; mhg. windes

ing and wailing of the hapless men, which as it (346 elements. straps, till its veins drop blood/ msh. 2, 235b, suggested no doubt by the veins which run through some stones (see suppi. in closing this chapter, i will group together the higher gods who more immediately govern the four elements. water, springs, rain and sea are under wuotan (nichus, donar, uogi, holda. fire, lightning under donar, loki. air, wind under wuotan, fro. earth under nerthus and many others, mentioned on p. 641-2. were penetrated their ears. so in holberg (ellefte juni 4, 2: horte jeg en sukken og hylen, som en steen maatte grade ved. and ovid (met. 9, 303: moturaque duras verba queror silices. luke 19, 40: ol \idoi kckpafrvrai [habak. 2, 11: the stones shall cry out of the wall. chapter xxi. trees and animals. as

with other traditions is an additional guarantee of the epic nature of the former. two wolves, geri and freld, were sacred to osinn: whatever food was set before him, he gave to them to eat, sn. 4; they were, so to speak, the hounds of the god (vrsris grey. i should like to know where hans sachs picked up that striking notion of the lord god having chosen wolves to be his hunting dogs. 2 a son of loki, fenrisulfr, makes his appearance in wolf s shape among the gods; no metamorphosis occurs more frequently in our antiquities than that of men into were-wolves. both wolf and bear are a favourite cognisance in coats of arms, and a great many names of men are compounded with them: neither fact is true of the fox. hence the dearth of mythical conceptions linked with the fox; a few traces have be

orbis terrarum, graff 4, 1163. according to the edda, a huge serpent, the miffgarfo ormr, lies coiled round the earth s circumference, umgiors allra landa: evidently the ocean. when alexander in the legend was carried up in the air by griffins, the sea appeared to him to twine like a snake round the earth. but that world-serpent/ hateful to all the gods (su er go$ fta, ssem. 55a) was the child of loki, and brother to the fenris-ulfr and hel; he was called idrmungandr (sn. 32, the great, the godlike (conf. p. 351, and like hel he opens wide his jaws, sn. 63 (see suppl. everything shews that the notions of time, age, world, globe, earth, light, air and water ran very much into one another; in earth-ring/ ring indicates the globular shape of the earth and 1 the finnic ilma? festus says mundus

ings, long held in check and under spell, break loose and war against the gods: a wolf swallows the sun, another the moon (p. 705-6, the stars fall from heaven, the earth quakes, the monstrous world-snake lormungandr, seized with giant fury (iotunmcvsr, p. 530, rises out of the waters on to the land, fenrisulfr is set free (p. 244, and naglfar afloat, a ship con structed out of dead men s nails.2 loki brings up the hrimthurses and the retinue of hel (heljar sinnar, all the hellish, wolfish kin dred have mustered together. but it is from the flame- world that the gods have most danger to dread: surtr and his glitter ing host come riding over bifrost the rainbow (p. 732) in such strength that they break it down. the single combatants are disposed thus: oftinn fights with fenrisulfr, thorr wi

ar, all the hellish, wolfish kin dred have mustered together. but it is from the flame- world that the gods have most danger to dread: surtr and his glitter ing host come riding over bifrost the rainbow (p. 732) in such strength that they break it down. the single combatants are disposed thus: oftinn fights with fenrisulfr, thorr with lormun gandr, freyr with surtr, t$r with garmr,3 heimdall with loki; in every case the old gods go down, though garmr and loki fall too, and fenrisulfr is slain by vrsar.4 that loki and all his kin should come out as allies to the sons of flame, follows from his 1 pers. rache is said to mean vapour; may the sanskr. rajani (nox) be also brought in? the slav, rok tempus, amrns, terminus, fatum, lith. rakus, is worth considering; its abstract meaning may have sp

juxtaposition: fnec tremor est terrae, judiciive dies; and servian songs( ili grmi, il se zemlia trese? does it thunder, or does the earth shake (vuk 2, 1. 105. but the earth s quaking, like the deluge, is oftener represented as a past event, and is ascribed to various causes. the greek fable accounts for it by imprisoned cyclops or titans (ov. met. 12, 521; the norse by the struggles of chained loki when drops of poison fall upon his face (saem. 69. sn. 70, or by fafnir s journey to the water (fornald. sog. 1, 159. 160. the earth also quakes at the death of certain heroes, as heimir (for nald. sog. 1, 232, and of the giant (vilk. saga cap. 176. at roland s death there is lightning, thunder and earthquake, rol. 240, 22. to the indians the earth quakes every time one of the eight elephants

y hyndla, whose name she dare not pronounce (j?a kemr annar enn mattkari]?6 j?ori ec eigi]?ann at nefna, seem. 119a; conf. the strengra of the as. homily (p. 812. but why should she have shrunk from naming surtr, of whom no secret is made in sasm. 8ab. 9a. 33a, the last passage positively contrasting him with the mild merciful gods (in svaso go? the invasion of surtr in company with the liberated loki must anyhow be understood as a hostile one (of giant s or devil s kin; his very name of the swart one points that way. the unuttered god may be likened to the ayvcoo-to? oeos (acts 17, 23, still more to the word that osinn whispered in the ear of his son baldr s corpse, as it ascended the funeral pile: a secret which is twice alluded to, in saem. 38a and hervarars. p. 487; so an etruscan nymp


LEWIS JAMES SATANISM TODAY AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION FOLKLORE AND POPULAR CULTURE

he new york times, it was a wellattended event held at a new york city art gallery. see also heavy metal music for further reading: baddeley, gavin. lucifer rising: sin, devil worship and rock n roll. london: plexus, 1999. sadie, stanley, ed. new grove dictionary of music and musicians.washington, dc: grove s dictionaries of music, 1980. dragons 73 dogma two modern-day fallen angels, bartelby and loki, are condemned to a fate almost as bad as hell when they are sent to wisconsin. although the cast of this 1999 movie is great, the plot is lame and too much time is wasted on boring nonsense and excessive profanity. dragons often depicted as a mixture of several creatures, the dragon is a fantastic beast that appears in mythology and folklore worldwide. although in oriental mythologies the dr


LIBER 777

i. some scandinavian gods. xxxiv. some greek gods. 0 nerodha-samapatti, nirvikalpa-samadhi, shiva darshana. pan. z1z1 unity with brahma, atma darshana wotan zeus, iacchus 2. odin athena, uranus[[hermes] 3. frigga cybele, demeter, rhea, her[[psych, kronos] 4. wotan poseidon[[zeus] 5. thor ares, hades 6 vishvarupa-darshana. iacchus, apollo, adonis[[dionysus, bacchus] 7. freya aphrodit, nik 8. odin, loki hermes 9. zeus (as d, diana of epheus (as phallic stone[[and[[eros] 1010 vision of the higher self, the various dhyanas or jhanas. persephone [adonis, psych 11 vaya-bhawana valkyries zeus 12. hermes 13 vision of chandra. artemis, hekat 14 success in bhaktioga freya aphrodit 15. athena 16 success in hathayoga, asana and prana-yama [her] 17. castor and pollux, apollo the diviner[[eros] 18. apol


LINDOW JOHN NORSE MYTHOLOGY A GUIDE TO THE GODS HEROES RITUALS AND BELIEFS

t it describes the journey of frey fs servant skirnir to woo the giantess gerd. the following four poems are probably to be assigned to thor. the first of these is harbardsljod (song of harbard, in which thor and a disguised odin exchange insults and anecdotes. the next is hymiskvida (hymir fs poem, an account of thor fs journey to the giant hymir and fishing up of the midgard serpent. lokasenna (loki fs verbal duel) follows, and in it loki insults all the gods. it is a thor poem because it is thor who finally chases loki away. the last of the thor poems is thrymskvida (the poem of thrym, a burlesque in which thor, disguised as freyja, retrieves his hammer from the giant thrym. the last two mythological poems are volundarkvida (volund fs poem) and alvissmal introduction 13 pages from the f

alvissmal has another such creature in alviss, the gall-wise h dwarf who sues for the hand of thor fs daughter and is kept dispensing synonyms by the god until the sun comes up and turns the dwarf to stone. at this point the heroic poems begin, but the gods are by no means wholly absent, especially from the poems telling the early parts of the story of sigurd the dragon-slayer. odin, hoenir, and loki appear in the prose header to reginsmal (reginn fs poem, and loki appears in the poem itself. there are several allusions to odin, and these poems contain much fascinating information about such mythological beings as norns, dwarfs, and the like. there is a second main manuscript containing many of these poems, but, unlike codex regius of the poetic edda, it is not apparently ordered. because

rs of rognvald, met their deaths and where they were buried. the poem clearly originally served a dynastic purpose, but, especially in its discussion of the earliest kings, it has much to tell us about mythology and religion. thjodolf also composed the shield poem haustlong (autumn-long, which may refer to the poem fs gestation period. he describes two mythological scenes that adorned the shield: loki fs betrayal of idun and her apples to the giant thjazi and her rescue, and thor fs duel with hrungnir, the strongest of the giants. from the earliest skaldic tradition come three geddic praise poems, h poems in eddic meters (but in which the meters are ordinarily more strictly adhered to than in eddic poems proper, composed to honor not gods or ancient heroes but recently deceased kings. two

axdoela saga, ulf composed a drapa celebrating the building of an ornate hall by olaf pai (peacock, an important chieftain in western iceland. the hall was decorated within with scenes from the mythology. three of the scenes are in what we now think we have of the poem, which ulf recited at the wedding of olaf fs daughter. these are baldr fs funeral, thor fs fishing up of the midgard serpent, and loki fs fight with heimdall. another skald who lived during this period was eilif godrunarson, about whom nothing is known.not even his nationality.other than that he was patronized by hakon sigurdarson, jarl of hladir, a notorious pagan. eilif composed thorsdrapa, a complex and difficult account of thor fs journey to geirrod. besides these poems treating mythological subjects, there are numerous

ds linked them by using one kenning as the modifier of a base word to create another, for example, gtree of the din of spears h for warrior. the examples i have chosen so far are relatively obvious, but skalds also made kennings based on narrative, that is, on heroic legend and myth. for example, they called gold gthe headpiece of sif, h which is only comprehensible if one knows the myth in which loki cuts off sif fs hair and has the dwarfs make golden hair to replace it. kennings can be helpful in dating myths, for a kenning that relies on a myth indicates the myth was known to the skald and his audience at a given time. seeing whether a minor god or goddess is used in the base word of a kenning.for example, ggna of rings h for woman.can give us some indication as to whether the figure in

for his journey, and he conceals his name. har stipulates a wager of heads, but this motif is dropped; indeed, the nearest introduction 19 king gylfi of sweden questions har, jafnhar, and thridi, from dg 11, a fourteenth-century manuscript containing snorri sturluson fs prose edda (werner forman/art resource) analogy to the hall fs disappearance at the end of the text is thor fs visit to utgarda-loki, not any myth of odin. gylfi takes the odin-role in this contest of wisdom, as the traveler under an assumed name, and indeed this assumed name, gangleri, is one of odin fs in grimnismal, stanza 46 and elsewhere. this is somewhat ironic, since har, jafnhar, and even thridi are also names of odin, the latter two also in grimnismal. but as we shall see, har, jafnhar, and thridi probably also, i

exts are usually called thattir (sing, thattr, which etymologically means gthread h and suggests the interweaving of such texts in larger works, as would be the case when they were recorded in manuscripts. some of these are quite relevant to the subject. for example, sorla thattr tells how freyja acquired the brisinga men, a torque or necklace, by sleeping with dwarfs in order to outwit a cunning loki who is odin fs liege man. whereas sorla thattr seems like a mythic-heroic saga, thidranda thattr ok thorhalls shares the setting of the sagas of icelanders and presents some of the evidence regarding the disir, female spirits. not all the important source material is from iceland or even in the vernacular. an extremely important source is gesta danorum, a danish history written by the priest

se, often rather ornate but still thought to be translated from scandinavian originals. certainly the versions of the myths he presents often vary widely from the versions we have from iceland. to use the example of baldr fs death: in saxo fs version, baldr and hod are not brothers but rivals for the hand of nanna, a human beauty. hod is not blind.indeed, he is a most accomplished fellow. neither loki nor frigg appears in the story, and there is no mistletoe. no attempt is made to restore baldr from the world of the dead, and he enjoys only an attenuated funeral. saxo fs story adds some odd forest maidens and some magic food and sets the death of baldr in the context of several pitched battles between the forces of baldr and hod. yet saxo fs version does include disquieting dreams, baldr f

ompasses a move from a stasis between the two major groups of gods to a state of enmity. during this near past the gods also enabled the reckoning of time by assigning stations to the heavenly bodies (voluspa, stanza 5, and they similarly enabled culture by creating tools (voluspa, stanza 7. they created the races of dwarfs and humans. finally, i would assign the incorporation of the vanir and of loki into the asir as the final events of the near past. with the completion of these incorporations, the mythological world looks as it does in most of the myths. snorri fs catalog of the gods in gylfaginning includes the vanir and loki, and also baldr, whose death is yet to come. i would call this state the mythological present, the time when most of the myths take place. although it hardly matt

two groups. it is one of odin fs most powerful weapons in the ongoing struggle with the jotnar. similarly, the construction of the wall around the stronghold of the gods, told most fully in snorri fs gylfaginning, is a story of the early mythological present. it explains not only how a wall gets built around valholl (which is mentioned in several myths, e.g, odin fs interaction with hrungnir and loki fs rescue of idun, but also how sleipnir, odin fs eight-legged horse, is created. here again, strict chronological consistency is lacking, for the account of the acquisition of the mead of poetry in skaldskaparmal implies the existence of the wall (the gods put the kettles for it in the enclosure, but the incorporation of the asir and vanir, which is the precondition for the mead, occurred in

the wolf fenrir, when ty lr lost his hand. in the mythological present hel presides over the underworld, thor fishes up the midgard serpent in offshore waters, and ty lr is without his hand, while fenrir awaits the end of the world. odin fs myths tend toward the early part of the mythic present: already mentioned are the mead of poetry, war and peace with the vanir, oath of bloodbrotherhood with loki, and disposition of loki fs children. in addition there is odin fs self-sacrifice, which gained him much of the rest of the wisdom he uses in the mythological present. odin myths in the mythological present would include in particular the stories of his visits with the giant vafthrudnir and the human king geirrod, in each of which wisdom plays an important role. nearly all of the thor myths t

hological present, and the foremost of these is the death of baldr. as the first death among the gods, it changed all the terms of the game. even if it did not make ragnarok inevitable, it made it possible, for now the death of any and therefore of all the gods is a possibility. if we follow the baldr story in snorri fs gylfaginning, we see that odin fs strategy of swearing blood-brotherhood with loki has failed, for it was loki who brought about baldr fs death. the gods now bind loki, and like his sons the wolf fenrir and the midgard serpent, he awaits ragnarok, the end of the world and the final period in the mythology. many of the events in the mythic present look forward to ragnarok: the failed oath of blood-brotherhood, the binding of evil creatures, and the gathering of einherjar, th

f the mythology: the entire system is implicit in any of its details, and a myth is equally present in a kenning or an allusive skaldic poem from the pagan period, and neither of these requires any kind of chronology but, instead, implies a kind of simultaneity of myth. the second is a linguistic aftereffect and may be presented here by discussing stanza 28 of lokasenna. frigg has just admonished loki. you know, if here i had in agir fs hall a son like baldr away you would never get from the sons of the asir, and you would be struck down in anger. loki fs response is a boast about his role in the slaying of baldr. the second half of stanza 28 goes literally as follows. i arrange it, that you never see baldr afterwards ride up to the hall anymore. most translators render the first three wor

wards ride up to the hall anymore. most translators render the first three words as something like gi am responsible, h and indeed the present tense of the verb might be understood that way. conceivably it might also be read literally as a progressive: gi am arranging, h that is, i fm taking care of that right now. but in medieval icelandic the simple present tense also is used for the future, so loki may be saying gi will arrange it. h and although the word is quite clear in the one manuscript retaining the poem, the difference between present and past tense is just the vowel, and some editors have chosen to print the past tense rather than the present tense. in other words, when loki was insulting all the gods, he had killed baldr, was planning it, or would take care of it later. the sam

h the gods, his inclusion in the thulur as a giant seems questionable. the eddic poems often show agir as host to the gods. hymiskvida is set in motion because the gods expect to visit agir and will need a huge cauldron in which to brew the beer that will be consumed. the poem tells how thor acquires the cauldron from the giant hymir. the next poem in codex regius of the poetic edda is lokasenna, loki fs flyting (that is, verbal duel) with the gods, and it is set at a feast hosted by agir. indeed, paper manuscripts call the poem agisdrekka (agir fs drinking party. according to the prose header to the poem, gagir, who was also called gymir, had prepared beer for the asir. h after enumerating the guest list (most of the asir except thor, who was away to the east bashing trolls, the author re

e poem agisdrekka (agir fs drinking party. according to the prose header to the poem, gagir, who was also called gymir, had prepared beer for the asir. h after enumerating the guest list (most of the asir except thor, who was away to the east bashing trolls, the author reports that bright gold was used there in place of firelight, and the beer served itself. it was a great place of sanctuary, but loki kills agir fs servant fimafeng, and eldir, agir fs other servant, is the first with whom loki exchanges words in the series of flytings that make up the poem. loki fs last words are reserved for agir: you made the beer, agir, and you never more will have a feast again; all your possessions, which are here inside, may fire play over, and may it burn your back. 47 agir fs prowess as a host is t

was chanted by the dwarf thjodorir, before the doors of delling: ghe chanted strength for the asir/ advancement for the alfar/ and mind for hroptaty lr [odin] h (stanza 160. the formulaic association of asir and alfar is also found in grimnismal, skirnismal, and lokasenna. although the plural refers to all the gods, the singular seems to have a special association with thor. thus, when thor tells loki about the theft of the hammer early in thrymskvida, he says: gthe ass has had his hammer stolen h (stanza 2. thor is called asa-thor (thor of the asir. no other god is described in this way, and it has been suggested that this extension of the name means that he was regarded as best of the asir. the most interesting use of the word asir is that of snorri sturluson in the euhemerization projec

rked his culinary magic. see also eldhrimnir; sahrimnir andlang the second of three heavens in the cosmology of snorri fs gylfaginning. no other text refers to this place or to a second heaven, so it may be snorri fs invention. the name appears to mean gstretched out h but might conceivably derive from a longer form meaning gspiritual heaven. h see also vidblainn andvari (careful) dwarf from whom loki and the gods extract gold to pay compensation for their killing of otr, the son of hreidmar. the story is told in snorri fs skaldskaparmal, in the prose header and opening stanzas of reginsmal in the poetic edda, and in volsunga saga. the gods involved are odin, hoenir, and loki. loki kills otr( gotter, h who had in fact taken the form of an otter, and hreidmar demands compensation. using ran

ld to pay compensation for their killing of otr, the son of hreidmar. the story is told in snorri fs skaldskaparmal, in the prose header and opening stanzas of reginsmal in the poetic edda, and in volsunga saga. the gods involved are odin, hoenir, and loki. loki kills otr( gotter, h who had in fact taken the form of an otter, and hreidmar demands compensation. using ran fs 58 norse mythology net, loki captures andvari, who has been swimming about in the form of a pike, and extracts from him all his gold, right down to a ring the dwarf wishes to keep. when loki insists on having it anyway, the dwarf curses it, saying that it will lead to death and discord. so it does. andvari is also mentioned in the catalog of dwarfs in voluspa and in the thulur. the thulur also include the word as a noun

xtracts from him all his gold, right down to a ring the dwarf wishes to keep. when loki insists on having it anyway, the dwarf curses it, saying that it will lead to death and discord. so it does. andvari is also mentioned in the catalog of dwarfs in voluspa and in the thulur. the thulur also include the word as a noun for gfish. h see also dwarfs angrboda (she-who-offers-sorrow) giantess mate of loki and mother of monsters. the name is found only once in poetry, in hyndluljod, stanza 40, a part of the gshort voluspa. h loki sired the wolf on angrboda, and got sleipnir on svadilfari; the witch alone seemed most evil the one that came from the brother of byleipt. snorri makes angrboda, ga giantess in jotunheimar, h the mother of three monsters: the fenrir wolf; jormungand, that is, the midg

da, and got sleipnir on svadilfari; the witch alone seemed most evil the one that came from the brother of byleipt. snorri makes angrboda, ga giantess in jotunheimar, h the mother of three monsters: the fenrir wolf; jormungand, that is, the midgard serpent; and hel. this raises the possibility that the witch in lines 3.4 of the stanza quoted above from hyndluljod may be hel. see also fenrir; hel; loki; midgard serpent arvak and alsvin (early-awake and very-swift) horses that pull the sun. grimnismal, stanza 37, is the main source: arvak and alsvin, they should up from here, the bold ones, pull the sun; and under their traces the blithe powers, the asir, hid giron cold. h the names of the horses are bound by alliteration, and they also occur as a couple on the other occasion when they appea


MANLY P HALL THE SECRET TEACHINGS OF ALL AGES

wounds were healed and the boar whose flesh they ate renewed itself as rapidly as it was consumed. balder the beautiful--the scandinavian christ--was the beloved son of odin. balder was not warlike; his kindly and beautiful spirit brought peace and joy to the hearts of the gods, and they all loved him save one. as jesus had a judas among his twelve disciples, so one of the twelve gods was false--loki, the personification of evil. loki caused h thr, the blind god of fate, to shoot balder with a mistletoe arrow. with the death of balder, light and joy vanished from the lives of the other deities. heartbroken, the gods gathered to find a method whereby they could resurrect this spirit of eternal life and youth. the result was the establishment of the mysteries. the odinic mysteries were give

people the full advantage of his intellectual light, he continued his path through the heavens, visiting the peoples of other nations and converting all with whom he came in contact. plutarch further asserts that the greeks recognized in osiris the same person whom they revered under the names of dionysos and bacchus. while he was away from his country, his brother, typhon, the evil one, like the loki of scandinavia, plotted against the sun god to destroy him. gathering seventy-two persons as fellow conspirators, he attained his nefarious end in a most subtle manner. he had a wonderful ornamented box made just the size of the body of osiris. this he brought into a banquet hall where the gods and goddesses were feasting together. all admired the beautiful chest, and typhon promised to give

used it to be accepted as the proper symbol of esthetic abandon. deer were objects of veneration with many nations. in japan, herds of them are still maintained in connection with the temples. the wolf is usually associated with the principle of evil, because of the mournful discordance of its howl and the viciousness of its nature. in scandinavian mythology the fenris wolf was one of the sons of loki, the infernal god of the fires. with the temple of asgard in flames about them, the gods under the command of odin fought their last great battle against the chaotic forces of evil. with frothing jowls the fenris wolf devoured odin, the father of the gods, and thus destroyed the odinic universe. here the fenris wolf represents those mindless powers of nature that overthrew the primitive creat


PHILIP NEIL MYTHS LEGENDS EXPLAINED

ance, play, and humor into humanity s relationship with the gods. obatala, the creator, is hymned by the yoruba as the father of laughter, who rests in the sky like a swarm of bees. the mandans believe that first creator actually turned into the trickster god coyote. such tricksters, whose mischief may lead them into wickedness, are found throughout mythology, from the greek dionysus to the norse loki to the japanese susano (see pp. 58, 69, and 123. but another theme is the creator s care for the beings he has made. it is this care that leads vishnu, the hindu preserver of the world, to take on his many avatar forms in order to help humanity in times of crisis. his final avatar, kalkin, the white horse, will appear at the end of this era, to usher in a new age. the great mother creator god

t myths offer us wisdom and comfort to prepare us for our own journey to the grandfather, into the hands of the unknown god. neil philip hermod descends to the underworld this 18th-century manuscript illustration shows hermod, the son of odin, descending to the underworld on odin s eight-legged steed sleipnir to try to rescue his brother balder, who had been slain through the treachery of the god loki. hel agreed to let balder go if all the world wept for him; but loki refused. as a result, the gods hunted loki down and tied him up in torment but at ragnarok, loki will break loose, and lead the hordes of the dead to war in a ship made from dead men s nails. the creation 12 the creation in the beginning, egyptian myth tells us, there was nothing but the dark endless ocean of nun. all the el

unshine. he is also a god of fertility, and some kind of ritual marriage seems to have formed part of his rites. his sister freya, who was probably originally a fertility goddess, became regarded as a goddess of battle, love affairs, and soothsaying. thor, god of thunder this bronze statuette depicts thor, the thunder god whose weapon was the hammer mjollnir. mjollnir was given to thor by the god loki (see p. 71, who had tricked the dwarves into giving it to him. it could never miss its mark, and returned to the thrower s hand. thor s hamm er, mjollnir, enabled the aesir to protect asgard against the giants. a giant did once steal it and would only return it if the goddess freya would marry him. so thor and loki dressed up as freya and her maid. when mjollnir was placed in thor s lap to bl

germanic battle god, is the source for tuesday. tiw survives as tyr in norse mythology, but most of his functions seem to have been transferred to odin. hammer rav en friends of odin odin is often depicted with his two ravens, huginn and muninn (thought and memory) perched on his shoulders. he sent them flying abroad each day from his chair in asgard, from which he could survey all of the worlds. loki and the giant after the war between the aesir and the vanir, asgard was left without a defensive wall. one day, a man came on horseback and offered to rebuild the wall even stronger than before. but his price for the job was the sun, the moon, and the goddess freya for his wife. on the advice of the trickster god loki, the gods agreed but only on condition that the work was done in six months

onger than before. but his price for the job was the sun, the moon, and the goddess freya for his wife. on the advice of the trickster god loki, the gods agreed but only on condition that the work was done in six months which they considered impossible. but the man and his horse svaldifari worked so fast that three days before the deadline the wall was almost complete. the gods were horrified, so loki, who could change shape, disguised himself as a mare and lured svaldifari away, leaving the man unable to finish the wall in time. at this, the man became so angry that he began to swell and revealed himself to be a rock giant, a race who hated the gods. thor killed him with one hammer blow. months later, loki returned leading a strange foal loki s child by svaldifari. this was sleipnir, odin

l of fate. gag fenrir howled so terribly when he knew he was bound, that one of the gods stuck a sword between his upper and lower jaw as a gag. river of spittle the drool from fenrir s mouth runs down to form the river of hope. this viking stone at kirk andreas on the isle of man shows fenrir swallowing odin, who has one of his ravens on his shoulder. fenrir the wolf fenrir the wolf was a son of loki, the trickster god. he was brought to asgard, but grew so fierce that only the god tyr dared to feed him. here, he is shown bound and gagged by the gods. they tricked him into letting them bind him with two chains called laeding and dromi by teasing him that he would not be able to escape. he did so with ease. but then they bound him with a magical chain and he was unable to escape. he will r

de by the dark elves from the sound of a cat s footfall, a woman s beard, a mountain s roots, a bear s sinews, a fish s breath, and a bird s spittle. it was as soft and smooth as silk. the battle of ragnarok ragnarok, sometimes called the twilight of the gods, is the final cataclysm that will destroy this world and the gods. after three terrible winters, a universal war will break out and the god loki now an enemy of the aesir and his son, fenrir the wolf, will break from their bonds. loki will then sail with an army of the dead to the final battle, in which fenrir will swallow the sun, and kill odin; thor will slay the world serpent, but die from its poison; and the gods will perish. finally surt, guardian of the fires of muspell since the beginning of time, will release them and engulf t

ill provide shelter for a man and woman, lif and lifthrasir, who will feed on the sweet morning dew, and be the source of new life in the age to come. although it was prophesied that at ragnarok, fenrir would swallow the sun and devour odin before being killed in turn by odin s son vidar the gods refused to profane the holy ground of asgard by killing him, so they chained him up instead. spawn of loki fenrir was the son of loki and the giantess angrboda. his brothers, also fathered by loki, were jormungand, the world serpent, which encircled middle earth, and was once fished up by thor, and hel, ruler of the dead. three roots spread three ways under the ash yggdrasil. hel is under the first, frost-giants under the second, mankind under the last. the lay of grimnir loki, the trickster god c

f loki and the giantess angrboda. his brothers, also fathered by loki, were jormungand, the world serpent, which encircled middle earth, and was once fished up by thor, and hel, ruler of the dead. three roots spread three ways under the ash yggdrasil. hel is under the first, frost-giants under the second, mankind under the last. the lay of grimnir loki, the trickster god capable of good and evil, loki is an ambiguous figure, who in later records becomes entwined with the image of the christian devil. although he was brought up as odin s foster-brother, he was actually a giant. he was accepted among the gods because of his lively wit, but it is perhaps his outsider status that is at the root of his later bitterness and vengefulness. he plays tricks on the gods, stealing or hiding treasures

omes increasingly malicious after he causes the death of balder, odin s son, the handsomest of the gods. for this, the gods catch him and bind him to a rock with the entrails of one of his sons, and a snake drops poison in his face, which his wife catches in a cup. when splashed, his writhings made the entire earth shake. he does not escape until ragnarok (see above. this 12th-century stone shows loki bound to a rock for killing balder. sigurd the dragon-slayer 72 sigurd the dragon-slayer sigurd, son of the hero sigmund and a favorite of the norse god odin, grew up an orphan. a valiant youth, he slew the dragon fafnir at the behest of regin the smith and took his treasure (see below. but the treasure hoard was tainted by a ring that had been cursed (see box) and disaster followed. sigurd s

that deed as payment. dragon-slayer when fafnir returned, sigurd drove the sword through him, killing him, but drenching himself with blood, thus becoming invulnerable. it is possible that originally it was sigurd s father sigmund who was the dragon-slayer the eighth-century anglo-saxon poem beowulf (see above) says he killed a dragon and gained its treasure. otter s ransom one day the gods odin, loki, and honir visited middle earth. they saw an otter about to eat a salmon and loki threw a stone and killed it. coming to a house, the gods offered the meat in exchange for a room for the night. but their host hreidmar s smile soon faded, for the otter was his own son, otter. skilled in magic, hreidmar made the gods helpless and, with his other sons fafnir and regin, tied them up and threatene

d the meat in exchange for a room for the night. but their host hreidmar s smile soon faded, for the otter was his own son, otter. skilled in magic, hreidmar made the gods helpless and, with his other sons fafnir and regin, tied them up and threatened to kill them. instead, odin offered to pay a ransom, so hreidmar demanded as much gold as would fill and then completely cover otter s flayed skin. loki was released to search for the gold. helped by aegir and ran, the sea gods, he caught the dwarf andvari, who was hiding disguised as a fish, and forced him to hand over his treasure. loki would not even allow him to keep a magic ring that would enable him to build up his fortune again; so andvari cursed the ring to bring misfortune to whoever owned it. when loki returned, he had almost enough

gods, he caught the dwarf andvari, who was hiding disguised as a fish, and forced him to hand over his treasure. loki would not even allow him to keep a magic ring that would enable him to build up his fortune again; so andvari cursed the ring to bring misfortune to whoever owned it. when loki returned, he had almost enough gold to pay the ransom one whisker was still left uncovered. so malicious loki took out andvari s ring, and added it to the pile, and with it, andvari s curse. lohengrin 74 lohengrin lohengrin the swan knight is a hero of medieval european myth who was eventually absorbed into arthurian legend, as the son of the grail knight parsifal (percival, see p. 80. according to the 13th-century folk epic lohengrin and related sources, when the duke of brabant died, he urged his o

, with the other orisha, or benevolent gods, created dry land and human beings. the orisha, such as shango, god of thunder (see below, ogun, god of iron and war, and ifa, god of divination, are opposed by the ajogun or malevolent gods, such as iku (death) and arun (disease. in the endless cosmic struggle between good and evil, one of eshu s key roles is to trick the ajogun. but like the norse god loki (see pp. 69, eshu is related to the ajogun as well as the orisha, forming a link between them; and like loki, he has sometimes been wrongly identified with the christian devil. the wrath of the tester of humanity ajogun can be turned aside by sacrificing to eshu, and his role might be best expressed as god of fate. eshu tests human beings to discover their true nature. if they resist temptati


RUBY TABLET OF SET

riginal or specific essence of an ideal. this is certainly an area that needs deeper investigation. the workshop session discussion however left the topic of abstract forms, and instead investigated the historic use of symbols in various cultures. looking first at the more complex god forms, it seems each major culture has a "trickster" god: coyote fills this niche in several amerindian cultures, loki in the norse mythos, and thoth (hermes and mercury) in the egyptian (greek and roman) mythologies. the trickster is that spirit who makes you think. he is the spirit who is unpredictable in his actions or reactions, who gets himself and everyone else into trouble. in the process of doing so. most often after everyone is already in trouble. he makes people think, and in the end he generally ge

th his essence) as the north star, which is at the head of the constellation known as ursa minor or in germanic tradition the lesser wain or wain of the moon. also the fact that the moon is closer to the earth than the sun is reemphasized. 2. in this passage woden states that he became the blood-brother of set, making a pact with him. this is reminiscent of the blood-brotherhood between woden and loki, but we learn that this pact was made for rulership of the "worlds- the entire cosmos on all "planes" the method of the ritual referred to is one in which the blood of the participants is mixed with earth. it is possible that here the "earth" referred to is the reality of man on this planet. man as we know him is the vessel of this blood-pact, and is the third partner in a triad. the physical

; and every spell and scourge may be obedient unto me. i am, myself of essence, unto myself a being, through the fulfillment of my will and the will of set. hail set, might of hell unleashed, i seek to find and reach my destiny, which is xem! oh mighty, great gods and goddesses of the infernal pit, i do conjure you, i command, demand these things i request shall come to pass. oh! hear your names! loki -teutonic devil t'an-mo -devil of covetousness, desire hecate -goddess of the underworld and witchcraft mormo -consort of hecate emma-o -ruler of hell melek-taus -devil asmodeus -devil of sensuality and luxury bast -goddess of pleasure mammon -god of wealth and profit saitan# balaam -devil of avarice and greed damballa -serpent god tunrida -female devil beelzebub -lord of flies midgard -serpe

nic devil t'an-mo -devil of covetousness, desire hecate -goddess of the underworld and witchcraft mormo -consort of hecate emma-o -ruler of hell melek-taus -devil asmodeus -devil of sensuality and luxury bast -goddess of pleasure mammon -god of wealth and profit saitan# balaam -devil of avarice and greed damballa -serpent god tunrida -female devil beelzebub -lord of flies midgard -serpent- son of loki hail set! insistent summons oh great lurkers in the darkness, oh guardians of the way, oh minions of the might of thoth! move! appear! present yourselves to me in your benign power in behalf of the temple of set and set's temple in each of his initiates! with the anger of anquish and the wrath of the stifled, i pour forth my voices, my heart, my mind, my love, wrapped in rolling thunder, that

knowledge as part of my eternal being, and do become. to the hebrews, thou was called belial, he who lived without a master. you were separate from the cosmos! a being who willed itself to live! you were the master of the true indepen-dence! to i the black magician, you gave your freedom. you granted me the power to break the bonds of the profane, and to live as i will. to the teutonic, thou was loki, god of fire. they called you the one who brought "sin" into this world. how easily in their stupidity did they not understand you! you came forth to exalt their beings, yet they cast thee down and rejected your words. to i the black magician, you gave your words of purification, and i accepted them with my whole being, so that my highest self could come into form. to the greek, thou was name

the daemon which taught certain dinee the powers of skinwalking. he is the generator (father/mother) of the skinwalkers. thus it is the daemon trickster whom a skinwalker honors by wearing the wolf pelt draped upon his shoulders. it is always difficult to be accurate when crossing cultural lines to find comparisons. this case is no different. i have been asked if trickster correlates to the norse loki. this may very well be. i am far from expert in the norse religion/cosmogony. however, if i may be permitted an indulgence, i feel more of a connection between trickster and fenrir (fenris. this connection goes deeper than the outward appearance of a wolf. fenrir is feared because of his power and the premonition that he will destroy the established hierarchy at ragnarok. if death itself is v

unto us that the power of sith may be one with the flesh of the hornless offspring of the fifth angle. in the sight of the majestic daemons that are and are not save in the mind of the elect do we command these angles to form. come forth o frothing spawn of the bottomless pit, and answer us by your mighty names of power [call of the sith lords] beelzebub ashtoreth asmodeus azazel diabolus tchort loki mammon [partake of the chalice] we drink from this chalice and therein partake of the life and death and life in death [benediction of the chamber] with this infernal rod do i spew forth the carnal nectars of writhing harlots and screaming banshees unto the logos of indulgence and the majesty of satan [invocation of the four elements] with my sword in the south do i invoke the lords of fire t

s through the storm of this world. what i am and what i have been are become as the ravens huginn and muninn, to fly ever higher and farther, and my will is become as the spear gungnir which strikes as lightning amidst the thunder of mjollnir. from the twilight tyr descends to place upon my heart the trapezoid of the dark fire, that i may be more than i seem. my honor is known by my faithfulness. loki attest to this my seal: the seidhr the official compendium of documents relating to the order of the trapezoid shall be entitled the seidhr. it shall be separately available to all members of the o..t. and shall also comprise a separate section in the sapphire tablet of set. the seidhr is named after a collection of black magic spells and songs attributed to wotan in ancient teutonic legend


SATANGEL

rld, and how he and the fallen came to be. his name probably derives from the egyptian horus. hecate (greek. triple headed queen of sorcery, who dwells where the roads meet. known also as enodia, trioditus, and antaia, she who encounters you. identified in some witch traditions as the mother of lucifer. hel (old norse. the queen of the underworld, and the name of the realm itself. the daughter of loki and the giantess angrboda, sister of fenrir and the midgard serpent. even the gods must tread the way of hel. helel ben shachar (hebrew, morning star, shining one. the phrase as it appears in the original hebrew, isaiah 14:12. thus taken to be a name of lucifer. heramael (grimorium verum. a subordinate spirit of satanachia. teaches the art of medicine, gives absolute knowledge of all diseases


SATANIC BIBLE

the devil's game to fill their tabernacles and pay the mortgages on their temples. alas, too long have they studied "righteousness, and poor and incompetent devils they make. so they all join hands in "brotherly" unity, and in their desperation go to valhalla for their last great ecumenical council "draweth near in the gloom the twilight of the gods" the ravens of night have flown forth to summon loki, who hath set valhalla aflame with the searing trident of the inferno. the twilight is done. a glow of new light is borne out of the night and lucifer is risen, once more to proclaim "this is the age of satan! satan rules the earth" the gods of the unjust are dead. this is the morning of magic, and undefiled wisdom. the flesh prevaileth and a great church shall be builded, consecrated in its

abites, later a devil cimeries- rides a black horse and rules africa coyote- american indian devil dagon- philistine avenging devil of the sea damballa- voodoo serpent god demogorgon- greek name of the devil, it is said should not be known to mortals diabolus (greek "flowing downwards" dracula- romanian name for devil emma-o- japanese ruler of hell euronymous- greek prince of death fenriz- son of loki, depicted as a wolf gorgo- dim. of demogorgon, greek name of the devil haborym- hebrew synonym for satan hecate- greek goddess of the underworld and witchcraft ishtar- babylonian goddess of fertility kali (hindu) daughter of shiva, high priestess of the thuggees lilith- hebrew female devil, adam's first wife who taught him the ropes loki- teutonic devil mammon- aramaic god of wealth and profi

adam's first wife who taught him the ropes loki- teutonic devil mammon- aramaic god of wealth and profit mania- etruscan goddess of hell mantus- etruscan god of hell marduk- god of the city of babylon mastema- hebrew synonym for satan melek taus- yezidi devil mephistopheles (greek) he who shuns the light, q. v. faust metztli- aztec goddess of the night mictian- aztec god of death midgard- son of loki, depicted as a serpent milcom- ammonite devil moloch- phoenician and canaanite devil mormo (greek) king of the ghouls, consort of hecate naamah- hebrew female devil of seduction nergal- babylonian god of hades nihasa- american indian devil nija- polish god of the underworld o-yama- japanese name for satan pan- greek god of lust, later relegated to devildom pluto- greek god of the underworld p

ring? if god is so merciful, why do people have to fear him? are we to believe there is nowhere we can turn to escape fear? if you have to fear god, why not be "satan fearing" and at least have the fun that being god fearing denies you? without such a wholesale fear religionists would have had nothing with which to wield power over their followers. the teutonic goddess of the dead and daughter of loki was named hel, a pagan god of torture and punishment. another "l" was added when the books of the old testament were formulated. the prophets who wrote the bible did not know the word "hell; they used the hebrew sheol and the greek hades, which meant the grave; also the greek tartaros, which was the abode of fallen angels, the underworld (inside the earth, and gehenna, which was a valley near

ective working may be chosen. whether all or only some of the names are called, they must be taken out of the rigidly organized form in which they are listed here and arranged in a phonetically effective roster. abaddon euronymous o-yama adramelech fenriz pan ahpuch gorgo pluto ahriman haborym proserpine amon hecate pwcca apollyn ishtar rimmon asmodeus kali sabazios astaroth lilith sammael azazel loki samnu baalberith mammon sedit balaam mania sekhmet baphomet mantus set bast marduk shaitan beelzebub mastema shamad behemoth melek taus shiva beherit mephistopheles supay bil metztli t'an-mo chemosh mictian tchort cimeries midgard tezcatlipoca coyote milcom thamuz dagon moloch thoth damballa mormo tunrida demogorgon naamah typhon diabolus nergal yaotzin dracula nihasa yen-lo-wang emma-o nija


SATANIC RITUALS

r werden die annerkennung haben! we shall have recognition! celebrant: wir wollen die anh nger! we desire followers! all: wir werden die anh nger haben! we shall have followers! celebrant: was wir wollen, werden wir haben! wir werden haben, was wir wollen! das zwielicht ist hier- die g tterd mmerung ist hier- siehst du im osten das morgenrot! der morgen der magei ist hier! die welt ist ein-feuer! loki lebt auf der erde! the twilight is come- the twilight of the gods- the dawn breaks in the east! it is the morning of magic! the world is afire! loki lives upon the earth! heil, loki! hail, loki! ave, satanas! participants: ave satanas! celebrant: rege satanas! participants: rege satanas! celebrant: heil, satan! participants: hail, satan! a night on bald mountain homage to tchort how much more


SYMBOLISM

riginal or specific essence of an ideal. this is certainly an area that needs deeper investigation. the workshop session discussion however left the topic of abstract forms, and instead investigated the historic use of symbols in various cultures. looking first at the more complex god forms, it seems each major culture has a "trickster" god: coyote fills this niche in several amerindian cultures, loki in the norse mythos, and thoth (hermes and mercury) in the egyptian (greek and roman) mythologies. the trickster is that spirit who makes you think. he is the spirit who is unpredictable in his actions or reactions, who gets himself and everyone else into trouble. in the process of doing so- most often after everyone is already in trouble- he makes people think, and in the end he generally ge


THE GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE UNUSUAL UNEXPLAINED VOL 3

n associated with communication with a higher source or with the rites of passage. numbers one of the most widespread of superstitious beliefs is that the number 13 is unlucky. so pervasive is this notion that many hotels and office buildings in europe and the united states do not have a room number 13. in scandinavian mythology there were 12 aesir or gods living in relative harmony until the god loki came among them, making the 13th. loki was cruel and evil, and according to the myths, he took special delight in causing human misfortunes. because he was evil, and because he was the 13th member of the hierarchy of the gods, the number 13 came to be looked upon as an omen of ill luck. another explanation for the origin of this superstition also comes from scandinavian mythology, which state


THE GOD OF THE WITCHES

emonies55god be into this house, and all that belangs us."many charms and spells surviving to the present day contain the names of pre-christian gods. these spellsare usually connected with cures for diseases in human beings and animals, and are generally accompaniedwith certain manual gestures without which the charm is of little avail. one of the most interesting brings inthe names of woden and loki, and as the hammer is of importance in the charm it is possible that thor alsois indicated.[39] it is a cure for ague "nail three old horse-shoes to the foot of the patient's bed, with thehammer placed crosswise on them. take the hammer in the left hand and tap the shoes,saying[*1. shoop= shaped.*2. yaits= gates *3. steik= shut]"father, son, and holy ghost, nail the devil to the post; thrice


THE MIDDLE PILLAR

rah tiphareth netzach hod yesod malkuth nudjer ptah thoth isis- amoun horus- osiris ra hathor- anubis khnum shu khonsu geb aither- uranus rhea hera zeus ares- apollo- aphrodite- hermes- artemis- demeter aether- coelus juno- jupiter mars- sol- venus- mercury- diana- ceres dagda- lugh danu- llyr morrigan- angus mac og brigit- ogma- cerridwen- cemunnos ymir- odin frigga- frey thor t y balder- freya- loki bragi nanna- nerthus brahman- vishnu mahasakti- indra shiva- krishna surya lakshmi pamati hunuman- chandra soma ganesha daath nephthys hypnos janus arianrhod heimdall aditi- pushan color and visualization as regardie stated in chapter five, once students are familiar with the basic exercise of the middle pillar (and the three pillars, they can expand their practices by visualizing the sephiro


TYSON DONALD NEW MILLENNIUM MAGIC

et a more flexible response. the gods of the teutonic peoples (the saxons, germans, norse) are dangerous. there is no more polite way to phrase it. by modern standards many would be classed as demons. they represent the crudest of elemental forces and are very dif- ficult to control once invoked. they have a disturbing tendency to lose their reason and commit general mayhem. a person possessed by loki, donar or woden could easily become berserk and go on a killing rampage if the power of the god were not contained. because of their nature, these northern gods are often used for mali- cious purposes. although not evil themselves, they care nothing about human suf- fering-just the opposite, they delight in seeing the human will struggle against adversity, and view human disputes and wars as

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