What is Ragnarök?

[Leonardo17]

This thread is a continuation of the thread called “A Basic Definition of True Faith / Spirituality” and the Thread called “How is this supposed to work?” in the “Islam” section of this forum.

 

   Here I am going to try to explain how this oral tradition of the old Norsemen might actually be a description of the current crisis that we are facing and be a specific warning to our generation in particular.

    Here is a link where the Nesir Edda might be found and read by the more interested reader:

https://sacred-texts.com/neu/pre/index.htm

 

1) The Gods are very real

 

Since antiquity the “Gods” are the to represent the ideals or some immortal ideas of our societies.

 

The eye of Providence or the Eye of Horus for instance represents the Universe itself that knows everything even if we can hide things from fellow humans and watches over us no matter where and in which situation we are. It’s a very powerful symbol even in today’s monotheistic Egyptian society.

 

Another example is Minerva (the Goddess of Reason) her hat is a Phrygian (Anatolian hat). In Greek mythology Zeus hits his head and she is born as Athena the Goddess of Love and War (with roots in the Middle-East where she was known as Astarte). In Roman time she becomes the Goddess of Reason. After the French Revolution, she is put in public spaces and in French coins as “Marianne” or “La Raison”. Descartes also refers to God as “Reason”:

 

In this 1830 painting by Eugene Delacroix the same Goddess becomes “La Libertée” Liberty (The Same as Lady Liberty that was built by Gustave Eifel in 1886:

 

Than of course there is “Justice” and the rule of law. In journalism they talk about “La Confience” (a feminine word) meaning thrust. Than there are other principles like Equality (All men are created equal), Fraternity (meaning that humanity is one big family that does not allow any sectarian activity, social or political class or other group of people that has privileges and threats the rest of humanity as crap).

 

In a less rational and more Pagan manner I may also mention these “Forces of Nature” which are very real to me. In Athelstan’s Joutnal (2015) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4622118/

The Christian Priest called Athelstan explains how he still believes in Jesus (the White Christ as the Norsemen called him ) but that he knows about Viking Gods.

 

I don’t expect everyone to understand this. But if you go and connect with nature in a regular manner this is a fact that is not hard to discern. If you see a huge rock you can close your eyes and try to get in touch with it. Another fun activity is tree hugging (really). If you make the effort you can feel this life-force that is present almost everywhere in natural settings.

 

So I may end this part with Neptune or Poseidon as the Greeks called him. You need to respect these forces. Once I was swimming very far from the coast all by myself. The coastguards even sent a ship to pick me up. But In my “I am a good swimmer” attitude I just sent the guys away. Then there was this current. So I didn’t drown (obviously). But it took me almost 2 hours to make it back to the shore.

 

SO the moral of the story is what every surfer or true seaman would tell you: You just need to respect the sea. If the coastguard came to help you, you may hop in their boat and if you get bored, you can always go back to the sea later if you want.

 

/I can also mention industrial fishing in many third world countries. These swimming factories are literally draining the sea of fish. There is no more Salmon in the Baltic Sea for instance. In many places, traditional fishers are merely able to make any catch anymore because Chinese vessels are simply fishing everything away.

 

So again: This is very disrespectful. Nothing “belongs” to anyone. The Greeks understood this but our modern society seems to have completely forgotten it and as a result: Fish is not even a healthy thing to eat in many instances.

 

II- Giants are also real

 

   I am not an anti-capitalist or anything like that. But Fossil fuel companies knew about climate change since the 1970’s. Can you imagine: What if our governments had started acting on climate change since the 1970’s? Next good option: Carl Sagan testified in front of the US Congress on Climate Change in 1985:

Carl Sagan, US Congress, 1985

What if we had taken him seriously started acting on climate Change in 1985?

 

As a reminder: This is 2026 and our emissions are still rising. That’s because Big-Oil had paid scientists to deny the reality of climate change and just like tobacco companies in the 1990’s they did anything just to do business as usual even in thousands / millions would die as a result of their behavior.

 

Than there is “İgnorance” for instance. These are zombie herds who come upon you in masses. They know nothing. Think they know it all. And wave after wave they will just coming at you to destroy anything that is logical, more humane and simple enough for everybody to grasp. Because they keep coming this is usually a battle you cannot win. So when they come, the best thing to do is usually to abandon everything and try to restart things later

 

So here is Giant number two. Another giant is populism. Since the end of fascism after WWII, it has become almost “fashionable” to be a racist, or an ultra-liberal, or a anti-LGBTQ+, or a bigot type of conservative. Again: nothing seems to stop them. France has seen its third heatwave this year already. There has been an unheard of number of forest fires including one near the capital Paris. And their N-1 candidate for the next elections of October 2026 is a populist woman who has been charged to a year in prison on corruption charges.

 

So demons do not do that. These are these dark forces. Like the urge for easy profit, the urge to dominate other fellow human beings, the belief by a group of people that they have it all right and others have it all wrong.

 

Last example: There are very evil forces operating in my country. Here we have a democracy that was created in 1923 by our quite remarkable leader Atatürk. And since day 1 of the republic we have had these “Islamist” forces who spent decades looking for ways to dismantle it all and go back to a more religious-oligarchic type of society that prevailed in the final decades of the Ottoman rule in this region. Today they take artists, philanthropists, journalists, professional athletes, politicians, scholars etc. all of this in a sustained effort to create a IRI 2.0 in this region that will serve their interests betters than a free and secular country.

 

So it’s not “Satan” who is doing this. We are sort of doing this. Because these are the Giants and the giants or Titans are very real too.

 

3- What is Ragnarök?

 

It’s simply a story like the Iliad or the Odyssey. A message from a Volva or seeress. An oral tradition (the Illiad was also an oral tradition before being written down by the blind poet Homer).

 

So there should be some sort of wisdom, perhaps a warning or some sort of teaching for us in this text too.

 

In Egypt they have “The Maxims of Ptah Hotep” that dates from the early second Millennium BC. It’s a collection of philosophical ideas and guideline for everyday life that was written to remind future generation about some basic approaches in life.

 

So yes, in some cases, ancient people need to tell us something. So what if “The Twilight of the Gods” is a warning about limitless globalization and free-market capitalism that is going to kill us all (and even our Gods) if we keep doing nothing about it?

 

What if we have (for instance) forgotten that we as human being are part of something greater? What if the idea that we own and are entitled to dominate nature with zero respect for anything than our own short term profit is some sort of blasphemy? What if this is a huge warning from ancient people who somehow managed to see that our natural evolution would bring us to this point at some level of our historical evolution?

 

I think this is very possible. And in the end, “The tree of life itself (Ydrassil) is going to die and from its ashes a new world will be born”.

 

And this is very powerful too. History is full of endings and new beginnings. So to me it means that history ends at some point (so does our disrespect for nature and other forces in life) and a more intelligent way of doing things will emerge (because no civilization can be on this path and hope to survive)