Comments by "" (@bjornekdahl721) on "Norse Magic and Beliefs" channel.

  1. A VERY VERY interesting aspect here is the top chakra ve∂rfölnir (Väderfölne in Swedish), basically meaning 'the fading/subsiding wind'. If we take the concept nirvana (to find peace and no longer being reborn) it literally means 'nirva' - wind, and 'na' - no, i.e. 'no wind'. It's the same as the moksha. So hinduism (sanathana dharma), buddhism and jainism all basically say that when the individual mind (atman – also meaning 'breath', just like what Odin blew into us) understands that it's a part of the Brahman it will find peace, the 'wind' will no longer blow. Don't we have something here?!
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  2. The pumpkins used at halloween nowadays represent the skulls of the ancestors that people used to pick up from the graves and put outside the houses this time a year, to be able to communicate with them. Indo European spirituality was almost more about ancestor veneration than one of worshipping the gods. One day you'll be an ancestor. Don't forget that one is immortal until the last person utters your name. So make sure to live a life full of hamingja and worth being remembered. And don't forget to 'sing the names' of your ancestors. That way we're immortal.
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  3. Complex topic. Certain people and places definitely 'belonged' to a certain deity. Pythia, the oracle of Delphi, was appointed to Apollon. The warrior class of Norse society was appointed to Tyr, Odense means 'Odin's ve' i.e. Odin's holy place. Thor's hammers are overrepresented in Skåne and Denmark. But that all seems to have been on an institutional level. And tbh also 'fashion'. In general I don't think people in their everyday life belonged to ONE deity like in Christianity. That would be like wanting to win Champion's league in football, but your team only consists of a goalie. Pagans are opportunists. They're like 'Ok, we've got a ghost here. Who you gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS!'
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  4. We all die in battle. 'The death of the warrior' means having finally defeated false ego. In the Vedic scriptures we can read about that we choose (VAL!) our swadharma before entering a new life. To die in battle and entering Valhall is having fought for becoming a better and more conscious person. You have chosen your destiny that the next life will be less attached to ego.
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  5. We're all pagan by instinct! Greetings from the Hamingja Foundation
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  6. Magni. The word itself related to mægen/megin, i.e. the force of life. In an animistic world everything has life force, the power to act. Therefore everything is related to Magni. The name is also related to English 'make', 'might/mighty' and also German 'machen' and 'mag'. Same thing with Swedish 'makt' (power/force) and 'mäktig' (powerful). Magni has to do with life force, the ability to act and to change. What has Magni (megin) is animate. What doesn't is inanimate.
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  7. Tbh the Nordic glima wrestling reflects the ethics of our ancestors – get your opponent down on the ground quickly, and you win if you show that you can immediately get up and away from danger. Nothing like today's cowardly and dishonorable fighting with 10 on 1 and not stopping until the person on the ground is dead.
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  8. I actually hadn't seen this video before, but here we once again have the things I've mentioned – that the physical cosmos is created from the resonance from a sound; the word AUM that The Divine (brahman) utters. A stands for creation, U stands for conservation and M for destruction, which later became Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. And when the Divine manifests physically it does that with a roaring Sound (i.e. Rudra, or let's call it Big Bang if we'd like) and takes an elliptical shape (lingam). It's so clear that all the Indo European peoples have the same source.
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  9. On top of what I've written before, about ritual and yogic prana breathing, I'm thinking that this came from the Vedic soma (homa in Zoroastrianism). Indra drank large amounts of Soma before and while fighting the serpent demon Vritra. It is said to give immortality. The steps of the ritual and procedure of Soma are also connected to 'conquering territory' (like the kóyros we've mentioned before). In Rig Veda there's a chant - 'what can hostility do to us now, and what the malice of a mortal? You are elixir of life, achieve physical strength or light of god, achieve control over senses; In this situation, what can our enemy do to me?'. The Zoroastrians drank homa to grant speed and strength to warriors. Since the Vedic and Avestan periods the peoples have changed plants over time (I have many examples, if you're interested) so it's quite likely that so did the Norse.
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  10. ​ @norsemagicandbeliefs8134  In the Somayajna ritual today it is the somalatha plant that is used, and the Zoroastrians that are left use ephedra mixed with pomegranate twig (and used in the battle between order and chaos). Historically and trying to find the original identity of the soma plant they're mainly talking about 10 plants – in fact the fly agaric (rød fluesopp ;) is one of the most commonly mentioned. The others are: the already mentioned somalatha, the psilocybin mushroom Psilocybe cubensis, Ephedra, the perenn Peganum harmala, the Lotus flower Nelumbo nucifera, the fungus Claviceps purpurea, the sugarcane Saccharum Sara and cannabis. Haven't had time to figure out which of them grow in Europe. What we DO know – and here it gets very interesting is that the original proto-Indo European word for this drink is *medhu – 'methu' in Greek, ('mead' in English and 'mjöd' around here) and the Greeks had another word for wine, so it was NOT alcohol (in fact the Sanskrit/Hindi word to describe the characteristics of Soma drink is 'madhu', meaning sweet or honey). Odin actually steals 'the mead that's been mixed with blood and been fermented' and uses it to create peace between the Aesir and Vanir. The Celts had the 'Flaith' drink, meaning 'red ale'. In Homer we find several ritual drinks beside the 'methu', for example the Nekter drink (ambrosia meaning 'not dying' in Koinë Greek). I could go on and on, but as you know YouTube comments aren't the right forum for this ;) One thing is for sure – the Indo European tradition is FULL of ritual drinks, made out of everything from alcohol to hallucinogen mushrooms and plants. It's part of our history and worldview and very important in my opinion.
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  11. Don't know if I've mentioned it before, but a recent study from Florence University proves that based on IF and HOW you speak to plants and trees they grow more and live longer. Not only because of the carbondioxide in your exhalation, but based on the tone and vibration of your voice. Plants that were spoken to nicely grew more, while plants shouted at or ignored grew less or stopped growing. Our ancestors understood this, while the Christians forbade pagans by law to 'talk to trees'. They also cut down the lion's share of European forests. For me it's just getting clearer and clearer that animism is real, not 'immature superstition'.
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  12. Thomas Rowsell (Survive the Jive) has made a fine video on the parts of the self. In the traditional Indo European animism we knew that the self had several parts, and only one was immortal and later merged with the divine (atman/brahman - that later became Valhall). They also had the view that if a thing, like a stone, had so few 'parts' in this dimension, then it must have the other parts in higher realms. It is therefore likely that our ancestors cherished and appreciated things that so obviously had so few parts left in this realm and therefore must be able to 'lend you' the energies of higher realms. As we both know it was all about the 'ghosti' principle – being the guest and host, exchanging gifts and building a relationship to every spirit.
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  13. Great video! Another idea: Considering that (Indo)Europeans always have lived close to the spiritual leader (not the least because communities were small) there must've been rites of passage, like the Vedic 'samskaras'. If we listen to 'He who must not be named' one of them was for the child to enter the grave of the ancestors at the age of 7 or 8, to sort of 'become' him/herself (i.e. the ancestor). It would be interesting to dig deeper in what we know about rites of passage among the Germanic tribes. If you want I can help with information as research and ideas. All the best / Björn
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  14. I've heard that Mjölnir was originally, during the Stone Age, 'just' a (flint)stone that was put on the chest of a person who had died, and it was believed that the life force (megin/mægen) went in there, and when a child in the village was turning seven he/she entered the grave, took the stone and hung it around the neck and by doing so actually 'became' the ancestor. That was also when you took the ancestor's name.
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  15. Thanks for once again pointing out that our gods are metaphors for forces/phenomena in nature. People need to hear it; in their judeo-christian context they still think it's supernatural bearded men sitting on clouds.
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  16. To pragmatic people who don't believe in the divine or the afterlife I always say that at least they believe in the laws of physics, from which we know that energy can't be created nor destroyed – only converted from one form to another (1st law of thermodynamics). So we are de facto immortal, in one way or another.
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  17. I personally connect Ullr with Skadi. She's also the hunter, and the personification of winter and darkness. The reminder that life is ups and downs, that night is the mother of day, and that hardships strengthens you. Skadi – and Ullr too for me – is the reminder to strengthen yourself, physically and mentally, cause life will be hard and only the strong survives. Prepare during the day what it'll take to get through the night (🎵 When night falls / she cloaks the world in impenetrable darkness / a chill rises from the soil / and contaminates the air / suddenly life has new meaning). When I think of Ullr I also think of the episode in Bhagavad Gita when Arjuna wants to give up on the battlefield but Krishna forces him to continue fighting – 'You have to fight!' – a reminder that we can't just lay down and die, we are all Dharma warriors and our actions will come back to us whether we want it or not.
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  18. Hi again! Since we have so few texts and sources from the Norse and Germanics I often go to the Vedic and early Persian texts. Considering the (Proto)Indo European heritage we share it’s quite likely that this is what the Norse and Germanic worldview looked like. And the similarities are immense.
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  19.  @noahriding5780  This was the most entertaining comment I've ever read. I'll see you in about 30 years when you've studied maths, history, linguistics, anthropology and history of religion.
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  20. #MakeEuropeForestAgain
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  21. One of your fellow compatriots – who apparently mustn't be mentioned on YouTube, but who is very knowledgeable – has spoken a lot about this topic. Among other things the old peoples in Scandinavia entered graves to 'become the ancestors' – when someone died they put a flintstone on the chest of the dead, where the mægen accumulated, and when a child was 7 years old they entered the grave of the ancestor to take the stone and hang around the neck, to take the mægen and 'become' the ancestor. They then also took the ancestor's name. If they dared doing all this they got gifts at jul, otherwise not. The name elves (alfar) itself comes from this; the dead were wrapped in white fabric and painted with ash in the face, and were thus called 'the white ones' (with alfr meaning white, compare for example latin 'alba'). On top of this the old Scandinavians also took things from graves to 'remember previous lives', by possessing the looted things. Another thing they did in the graves was to take out the skulls of the ancestors and put outside the houses in the autumn to remember them. This tradition later became halloween, and when the christians forbade using skulls they started using pumpkins as a substitute. Edit: When finishing the video I saw that you mentioned the compatriot who mustn't be named.
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  22. Pyrrhichios (the Pyrrhic dance), the Greek weapon/war dance, is extremely ancient and also well-attested.
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  23.  @pauladee6937  Haha, this person was so out of bounds that it was quite amusing. I don't think there was one single correct statement in his comment, so it just got ridiculous enough to laugh at. For 2000 years the 'merchants' and desert religions have tried to erase our true roots, but they'll never succeed. We're pagan by instinct!
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  24. I'm quite sure the Norse/Germanics followed the principle of least effort/resistance when meditating or at seidr/utiseta etc. Not because they were lazy, but because they were pragmatic and smart. Imagine doing utiseta for hours and hours if you're not comfortable at all under your cloak.
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  25. Do like you do with 'normal people' – the foundation of Indo European spirituality has always been generosity and hospitality; being the host and the guest at the same time and exchanging gifts, creating a relation. And like in all relationships you might receive insight and knowledge as a gift back.
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  26. Writing a book about megin I definitely know about the amazing energy related health benefits of walking barefoot. And personally I know of those you mention too, but it’d be nice to know where you’ve found this information. I definitely believe you, but I always want to check sources before I myself claim something to friends and acquaintances. So it’d be nice to know where your information comes from. Lovely video as always, btw. All the best / Björn
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  27. The small city of Höör in Skåne is actually named after hörgr, so something must've been very important there. And many other Swedish places got -hörg or -harg in them, but often became -herge, -hälla or even -erid. Btw, a video on the sacred places and groves (ve) would be very interesting. I've heard that our ancestors sometimes built the hörgr inside a ve, and the whole site was the 'altar'. Then there was also a fire in front of the hörgr. Speaking of ve – so many Scandinavian places are named with that, not the least Odens(v)e, Vä, Ullvi, Karlevi, actually even the city of Skövde, that was originally Skedevi. Hälsningar från Sverige!
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  28. To circumambulate something is to honor that which is circumambulated, and the spirit associated with it. (Proto)Indo-European rituals often included this, since movement is to act in natural accordance with the Xártus. Interestingly enough, compared to the later phenomena you describe, is that the original (P)IE way was always to circle clockwise, since this is how the sun moves, and it'd be to act in accordance with natural order. You invoke the power of nature, you become the sun – and the object becomes that which the sun orbits. Also, for the (P)IE it was important to move clockwise since then you'd always have your right side toward it – meaning you honor it. Moving counterclockwise did happen, and that was the kind of magic when you wanted to disestablish something, to break things up and open them, so that your prayers may enter the realm that way.
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  29.  @norsemagicandbeliefs8134  The 'A raven shit on my car what is Odin trying to tell me?' pagans often accuse Rowsell for being 'not pagan enough' (not the least because I think he married his wife in a Christian church), but he's a historian and extremely cunning. I'd say that he's one of the most well-read (and eloquent!) pagan sources on YouTube. He's posted many a fine video here, not the least his 'From runes to ruins' and the interview with the Vedic guru Pravartaka Acharya.
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  30. I'd say that Loki is evolution.
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  31. För att hitta tillbaka till sig själv och studera magi är det viktigt att betänka att ett av orden som de gamla skandinaverna använde för magiker var 'vitki', som tex i meningen man hittat på runstenar och runstavar – 'Ek vitki rist runar' (Det vill säga: 'Det var jag, magikern, som ristade runorna'), och att ordet vitki kommer från verbet 'veta' eller 'känna till'. Tänk till exempel på tyskans wissen, anglosaxiska witch och Wicca, ja till och med hinduiska Veda-skrifterna är samma ord! Någon som var magiker var alltså någon som visste hur saker och ting fungerade, hur allt sitter ihop. Det går alltså att söka och lära sig, och till slut få vetskap. Men det är skillnad på att 'bi∂ja' och 'blóta' – för att be om något måste man också offra något. Titta bara på Oden!
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  32.  @norsemagicandbeliefs8134  I wanna point out that I follow the Norse path, but that I use the Vedic (and proto/indo European) sources to find my own roots. You know that already, but just so you know that I can help not only with the Vedic part! And I'd gladly help you with research, input, ideas etc. Your channel is much needed! Btw, look at the Wikipedia article on (or Google) Kóryos – an Indo-European warrior phenomenon that was the origin of Berserkr/ulfhednar.
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  33. Konstruktiv feedback: Musiken i bakgrunden är lite väl hysterisk. I övrigt STORT tack för en informativ video. Hell Oden, och varma hälsningar från Skåne!
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  34. Once again I go to the Vedic/Hindu sources. Tomorrow they celebrate Ram Navami – the victory of good over evil and offerings to the solar deity. Thanks for another good video! (P.s. The Hindus are celebrating for 'níu' days.)
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  35. ​ @HroduuulfSonOfHrodger  You're missing the point here. I and the channel owner here have several times discussed the similarities between Germanic and Vedic views. It's not about what we 'want to do in 2021' but the FACT that all these views come from the same (proto)Indo-European people. For example the trimurti Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva (Varuna-Mitra-Aryaman) is one of the most significant views of all the Indo-European beliefs. Just like the worship of the sun and the moon, veneration of the fire Agni/Lógi, the natural law dharma/wyrd/örlog, karma/hamingja, Prana/megin and so on and so on.
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  36. In the Hamingja Foundation's Discord server we've discussed the relation between Viking raids and the many millennia older Kóryos tradition; the coming of age period/ritual where young people (-ingr) became outcasts for a year and had to survive, raid and up their honor before being allowed to return home. This makes me think that Viking rather stems from 'vigd' – dedicated/devoted – and 'ingr' – youngling, youth, of someone's kin etc. So a young person who's dedicated his life to raiding in the Proto-Indo-European Kóryos tradition.
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  37. Heathen (hedning/hei∂ınn/hai∂no) in itself is Jewish/Abrahamic terminology, both used in Mark (7:26-) and Talmud to pejoratively describe Hellenistic people living outside the Jewish community – i.e. being non-Jewish. The word hai∂no/hæ∂en/hai∂I was the Gothic try to translate the Old Testament's word for Hellenistic.
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  38.  @janosch1097  No news yet. I'm working on it, but just like the owner of this channel I'm a busy man, so things take some time. Keep your eyes open for Hamingja Foundation (my Indo European community showing up soon) and you won't miss any info in the future.
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  39.  @HroduuulfSonOfHrodger  Interesting that you've spent 12 years of your life as a Vedic monk and still don't see the connections between ALL the Indo-European spiritualities. Sorry to hear that not only the third eye has been closed. I could honestly give you a thousand examples right here and now. But let me give you only one: If you can't see the connection between Shiva/Rudra – 'the first breath', the first atman, the first manifestation who 'roared' (Rudr) when he came out to teach us about the mysteries of atman/brahman – and Odinn, literally meaning 'breath' – who sacrificed the physical to learn about the metaphysical and 'breathed life' into everything and encourages us to a lifelong growing and learning, just like Shiva, well then I'm getting worried.
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  40.  @norsemagicandbeliefs8134  I recommend the YouTube channel DharmaNation, with the amazing guru Sri Acharya, an American who's possibly THE most cunning living person in the field in the world today, who's also ... how shall we put it ... pro Indo European, haha. It's just ASTONISHING how much I understand my own path by understanding Vedism.
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  41.  @svetislavljubisavljevic674  Slavs, Norse, Anglo-Saxons, Celts, Germanics, Greeks, Romans, Hindus, Zoroastrians and many more. It's the faith (and languages) of the Proto-Indo Europeans. And don't worry – we'll be brothers again. It's happening as we speak.
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  42. It's important to point out that in none of the Indo European paths the gods are the 'solution' or 'end goal'. That is an Abrahamic thought (and you can clearly see it in today's very monotheistic so called Hinduism too). The traditional IE view is that there is a divine order – xártus – to which all individual souls – swártus – belong. It is the atman in the brahman. It is the hieros gamos; the marriage between heaven and earth. The gods are neither omnipresent nor omnipotent. They may be powerful beings, and they can definitely help you towards your goals, but they're not THE goal. They are 'persons' just like we are, albeit non-human persons and very powerful ones. Paganism and animism is to realize the divine natural order and to establish a RELATIONSHIP to spirits that can help you to the xártus. The death of the material body is the true sacrifice to the divine. (Even Jesus understod this, sacrificing his body to ascend into the xártus. It was those coming after him not understanding what he was doing.) The Vedic ritual of darshan, where you 'visit' the god, derives from the Sanskrit verb 'drush' – to see/regard. Like Tacitus states our ancestors were spiritually intellectual people and they worshiped what they de facto SAW with the eye of reverence (3rd eye). They went to visit the god here it belongs, and they believed what they saw and experienced. If you experience the birth of summer and the importance of it, you also worship the inner essence of it. Personally I actually think that the idols and figurines of the late paganism were remaining parts of the original animism – that they used them as talismans/amulets where the the spirit 'lived' and with which they created a personal relationship. They kind of visited the god.
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  43.  @hyperelon5067  Haven't seen it, but it wouldn't be the first time Disney borrows from history, right?
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  44. Ovaries! No wind! Selection of dharma! Read all about it! Knowing that all the Indo European peoples – no matter where they ended up – were very aware of the self-realization and the atman going up in the brahman and had a reincarnation world view, Valhall as a 'heaven you go to when you die in battle' is out of the question. Possibly much later on someone might've thought that – when it all comes down to it we all actually die in battle, since life is struggle and suffering (not the least according to Buddhism). Jung's Warrior archetype has Indo European roots, and 'the death of the warrior', i.e. the death of the ego with self-realization as a result, is something we all have to go through, and the Indo European peoples did this both physically and symbolically to reach your higher level (the YT account Thoughts on thinking has a great video on the strive for excellency in Homer). Nirvana – nirva=wind and 'na' is the negation, so meaning 'no wind' – and moksha is the most probable origin of what later became Valhall. Where there's no struggle and suffering (wind) there's peace, i.e. no more rebirth. In the Vedic texts they talk a lot about that death is just a state where you choose (VAL!) your soul's swadharma before being reborn. I personally also think that Valhalla is a metaphor for the ovaries – a place where you choose your swadharma but also where you are the one chosen to be reborn. Of millions of sperms the egg (Freja) chooses one sperm to fertilize. We are all the chosen one – we have been 'VALD' (VALGT in Norwegian). In nature it's all a selection. And a very interesting last point is that the norn Skuld (meaning both 'debt' and 'what will come' simultaneously, for our non Scandinavian readers) means that you actually are in debt to your own future, the future and the duties you have CHOSEN before this life. You have a choice, but you gotta fulfill your duties, your personal dharma. And you will die in battle while doing it.
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  45. @Blanc Neige There will also be a Discord group (for serious people) coming up soon.
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  46.  @neutral2380  That two people kiss doesn't prove there's love between them. But if you feel it you know it.
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  47.  @norsemagicandbeliefs8134  I read and listen a lot to Ceisiwr Serith (his taken Indo-European pen name) and he's extremely well grounded when it comes to sources. He's always talking about the IE and already PIE peoples having clockwise and dawn as their two most important foundations. Interestingly then that somewhere down the line it must've changed, or we're just missing the point, that some rituals and actions were meant to be made counterclockwise.
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  48.  @norsemagicandbeliefs8134  Nowadays they say it's mainly a Vishnu festival (hence the name Rama), but below that they celebrate victory for goodness and the light.
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  49.  @norsemagicandbeliefs8134  I've definitely read it in Varg's books – and if we disregard his reputation and politically correct opinions about him he's an extremely cunning man in this field. I've also read about the above in at least one more source, but I just can't remember which at the moment.
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  50.  @wulfheort8021  What you write is the perspective Thor brings up in the video, and nothing new to me. You heard me present another theory. There's no doubt the Viking tradition (just like Berserkr and Ulfhednar tradition, and the Lupercalia in Greece and Rome etc) stems from the Kóryos. Ingr has to do with youth and being of the same kin. Also; the letters K and G were often used interchangeably.
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