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A Delicate Balance: Why the Aesir, Vanir, and Jotnar Are All Necessary

If you do not think the Jotnar are necessary, consider this.

1. What Beings, if working within a Northern Tradition context, might be responsible for a global climate change?  (I did not say "global warming", I said "climate change".)

2. Why is there an increase in severity of hurricanes?  Tsunamis?

3. Why are there more frequent earthquakes?  Volcano eruptions?

4. Why are so many endangered wild animals dying out?  (As opposed to domesticated pets and farm animals.)

Do you think that perhaps offering to the First Ones, the primordial Gods, might make even a small difference?  When Paleolithic man was extant, he was very aware of the balance of nature, and that life depended on death, and all things were part of a cycle.  That fire can cook food and also burn people to death, that rains can bring relief and also floods that wash everything away, that ice can make stable walkways and good fishing but also trap people beneath with no hope of rescue, that caves were good for hiding but not good if the cave collapsed on itself, that bringing down a deer was good for feeding a family and bringing down too many would not leave deer to feed anyone at all.  When Paleolithic man was extant, he was more survival-oriented, and more aware that the bounties of nature could also bring death.  So the Jotnar, in all of Their chaos, were invoked, most likely from what archaeological evidence we have of Northern Europe, and humanity lived.


If you do not think the Vanir are necessary, consider this.

1. Are modern farming practices -- such as polluting the soil to kill pests, and feeding animals with hormones and antibiotics -- healthy, both for the quality of life of the plants and animals, and the humans who eat them?  Are they sane?

2. Why are the oceans becoming more polluted, and especially local creeks, lakes, ponds, and rivers?

3. With society becoming more and more urbanized, natural places are being destroyed, which leads to ecological disharmony for local flora and fauna.  Is this healthy?  Is this sane?

4. Children are becoming sexualized before they are ready: girls starve themselves to become more desirable, boys feel like disrespecting women is a sign of manhood, and both are becoming parents before they can take on that responsibility in a sane and healthy way.  Why is this happening?

5. Why, when the earth is over-populated, are humans still feeling compelled to breed in abundance?

The Vanir are the Gods of fertility, of the land and the people.  Doubtless They are offended by the pollution of land and sea, and by plants and animals that are not given a good quality of life, and humans harmed by what should be nutritious food.  Doubtless They are offended by seeing the beauty of nature destroyed -- some has to be sacrificed for people to live well, and to control overpopulation of local flora and fauna, but not so much.  Doubtless They are offended by the abuse of sexuality that starts in childhood, before humans are old enough to be sexual in an appropriate way.  And just as the Vanir control fertility, They also control un-fertility: Gerda, the wife of Frey, has no children, and can be looked at as a patroness of those who use birth control or have had abortions.  It was not unheard of for the elder Heathen to use herbs to control their fertility if it was not safe to have children: mugwort in particular is a well-known herbal abortifacent.


If you do not think the Aesir are necessary, consider this.

1. Do you want to go without running water, a flushing toilet?  Light to see your way?  Do you think modern invention has helped improve our quality of life?

2. Why has our society become increasingly violent, to the point where children are raping and murdering other children?  What has happened to law and order?

3. Why are people who are traumatized by acts of violence being treated like their reaction is pathological, and segregated into lives where they are forced to live below the poverty level and not have a place in "normal" society?

4. Why are schools in the United States graduating people who are functionally illiterate?  Does learning not matter anymore?

5. Why, when any religion (including Heathenry) becomes organized, does it become devoid of meaning and passion?

The Aesir are the Gods of civilization, and we do need Them if we want to live comfortably and without hardships that caused people to die younger and with more suffering, in generations past.  However, there is a difference between comfort and excess, and the Aesir are necessary to bring civilization back to balance: to teach honor that instills a sense of law and order, to give people -- even the weakest among us -- a place in their community, to foster a desire for wisdom and living wisely, which leads to honor.  The Aesir want Their worship, and that of the other Northern tribes -- and other Deities of other pantheons -- to mean something, for religion should rightly be re-linking Gods and humans.


We as Northern Religionists cannot ignore the Jotnar, nor can we dismiss Vanir worship as "Wiccatru", nor bash the Aesir as being "warmongering evil-doers".  Our Gods are not all benevolent, but nor are They all monsters.  Loki and Odin are both complex characters and "two halves of a whole".  That Odin has Jord and Gunnlod, that Thor has Jarnsaxa, and that Frey has Gerda, are not just "seasonal/cyclical myths" but evidence that we need a bit of Jotun, Vanic, and Aesic working in this world to be balanced.  Sure, not every Deity fits well with each individual person.  There are Deities of the Northern pantheon that I don't particularly feel compelled to or get on with, and this is fine.  We are individuals, should not be expected to become mindless drones.  But all the time invested in pedantic wank over "doing it wrong" is taking time away from offerings that should be given to these Deities and magickal and ritual work with these Deities to try to bring things back into balance.  Not a utopia, but not the global crisis we are surely headed for.

Ragnarok is just a prophecy.  It has not already happened, as some would claim -- the Gods are not dead last I knew.  Nor is it definitely destined to happen: the ancients thought Wyrd was changeable, and so we have a chance to stave off Ragnarok.  I believe that the war between the Aesir and Jotnar, in the Voluspa, is meant as a kenning for humanity getting away from the Jotnar who helped us survive the Paleolithic era, and the Jotnar are angry that we have ignored Them for so long.  A handful of people who recognize this to be true may not make a whit of difference.  On the other hand, it may, if only to know we have not forgotten Them and They do have a place in our world.

If you are concerned about where our planet is headed, and if you can see any kind of truth in what I and others like me are saying, please, think about it.  It is better to be right before the Gods and wrong before your "co-religionists", than the other way around and make a potentially fatal mistake.

(C) 2008 Sigrun Freyskona.