The Norse Myth
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Condensed Transcript
Jan Cox Talk 2598 – October 30, 2000
Notes by DB
Suggested title: The Norse Myth
Begin:
If you recall the Norse mythology, which I say is as old as… if not older than… Babylonian, Hebrew or Greek mythology…then you will remember that Odin, the head God, is in constant battle with the giants who were the original Gods. These Teutonic stories reflect something more ancient, more initial in the sense of having to do with man’s brain becoming conscious than even Homer. Such stories represent something more ancient than those of the Greek’s or of Adam hearing the voice of God.
03:52 Everyone who has ever been alive senses some sort of struggle going on…a battle…and from a metaphoric stand point this struggle is going on within man. Such struggle is endemic in these early mythological tales. From a very early age humans are aware of death. From the “crudest” point of view the battle is a struggle between life and death… or between good and evil.
05:28 The Norse stories are unique in two ways: One way is that when the giants or evil triumphs then that’s the end of time. It’s the end of everything. There are no other stories or myths wherein there is no afterlife. In Norse mythology nobody gets rewarded, nobody gets punished, nothing is straightened out to suit any imaginary or intellectual requirements of humans that everything be put into some sort of balance.
The second unique component of Norse mythology is that on that day of the big battle the giants are going to win and everybody knows it. Once Odin and the brave warriors with him are defeated then that is the end of creation or consciousness.
08:50 There is a new book out about Norse mythology in which the author points to the brutishness of these stories when compared to all other such tales. He attributes this brutishness to the geographically cold, hard climate and conditions prevalent in the Scandinavian part of the world.
11:30 A side trip here is that all these stories have their origins at the human brain’s cellular level. Something is driving our brain’s curiosity. As a result, and at several layers later, out comes these stories. Once these stories are verbalized and become accepted thoughts they are honored and believed to be true by the throngs of humans that hear them. If an analysis of such stories is made it is often with the view that they are intended to provide a code of conduct concerning how one’s life should be lived. A more profitable analysis is an examination of how they arise in one man’s cellular structures.
18:00 Back to the story. The hero is always at the center of the tale and evil is always on the periphery. Much is known about the hero…his origins, his upbringing and his character. Very little is known about the nature of evil…other than it’s inability to be defeated and that it predates good.
Odin tells his warriors that the battle is coming and that they will all be killed. There is no way that they can win yet they continue to go through the motions. To carry on the struggle
22:32 I see this as the struggle to awaken. A very advanced story version of the struggle to awaken. Knowing that he will be defeated Odin continues to go through the motions of attempting to awaken.
In the story there is a hidden repository of secret knowledge guarded by one of the giants. Odin is required by the giant to give up one of his eyes to gain a peek into this secret knowledge. Even knowing that his fate is sealed and defeat is assured Odin willingly surrenders one of his eyes in his futile pursuit of awakening.
24:20 Central to this story is that there is nothing that you can do. You will go down in defeat. According to Odin there is only one admirable thing that a hero, a real person can do …you have to fight. That is the only thing you can achieve in this life. The only thing you can do is to die fighting.
Does this not sound familiar to your own Damn life?
27:30 I like this more than all other myths. I find it most applicable to trying to awaken . It is a fairytale free story that is applicable to life. This story ends where it should…with it’s natural organic conclusion…death. There is no tomorrow. It is the end of time. There are no lies about the hereafter. No pretending or wishful thinking. The giants kill Odin and the warriors and it is the end of time.
35:00 Take a look at the brain cells of a man who would write such a story. Regardless of what he might have called the process he had to have tried to wake up. He saw what was inevitable. There is no greater definition of being asleep than to deny the inevitable. There is something liberating in seeing the inevitable. He did not see another page to the story that promised a life after death.
Notice how easily pleased the cellular activity of most people is.
Tell them that there is a life after death…that they will wake up in Heaven and they say, “Well, OK.” Belief in an afterlife will not wake you up.
38:23 There have been stories written during the Dark Ages of the Arthurian legend. After all the great progress man had made, the very people that we have been talking about…the Germans…the Huns…and the fall of the Roman Empire…led to a thousand years of set back for civilization …and a stand still for consciousness. A thousand years where men forgot what they knew. It was like consciousness and all the great strides it had been making went into hibernation. The Dark Ages.
40:00 It is considered from the Western perspective that the dawn of the Arthurian legends was the dawn of a whole new day. It represented the (re)-arising of consciousness. Men began to fight for honor, for love, for the Mother Church…for principles. The brutishness and crudeness of Odin and the Norse mythology gave way to fighting for love.
I say that a man awakening has lived through that whole process. I have never seen a person in my life who has not gone through a process in which he believes that to awaken he must go through a religious renaissance …a belief that to awaken is religious. Up in the cellular structures of the brain you went through the brutish crudeness of Beowulf into the chivalry of knights bowing to each other before they enter into conflict.
Passion had been brought under control. In the Greek and Norse legends women were not fought over. The Arthurian legends were the beginnings of Romantic Love.
The arts and sciences began to flourish and the Church began to have an all domineering power over Western Europe.
48:00 The same thing that went on historically is going on in the cellular level of your brain. To see the inevitability of defeat or death, as seen in the Norse legends, is liberating. What kind of warrior would it make if he knew that he was not going to emerge from the battle victorious? What kind of efforts would you make if you knew that the outcome of the battle was inevitable? (aside)…And you know I’m speaking allegorically here. I am speaking about something else.
55:27 Odin told his men to fight without reservation. To fight to the last drop of blood. And he said that the only thing that would make their existence meaningful was to die fighting whole heartily.
That’s the only thing that makes a hero. That’s the only thing that makes a human worthy of being alive.
Now take that whole thing and put it inside of your brain… and it’s the struggle to change your state of consciousness…it’s your struggle to awaken…to achieve enlightenment. Think about what it is like to be in the state of mind of that warrior. To be able to throw yourself whole heartily into something in spite of the outcome.
What if you are in a cell and were told that in the morning you are going to have your head cut off. What would there be to be pensive about? What would there be to reflect on? What would there be to think about?
59:33 If you have faced the inevitable, and you are not chicken-shit, and you don’t go berserk… and you are a hero…then perhaps you could fight the extraordinary life of a warrior there alone in that dark cell. That would be your battle with the giants.
Would that not be justice?… And you wake up and become more enlightened than anybody on the planet…along about 6:50AM…just before they take you out and cut off your head!? That would be my poster for justice.
End