Odin’s Wisdom & Primitive Fire Making
Norse mythology has been coming into my field again lately.
I’m particularly drawn to the tales and travels of the great one-eyed god, Odin. I’ll spare you the finer details, but the imagery of how Odin came to sacrifice that eye is one worthy of rumination.
After a long and arduous journey through the land of the giants, Odin reached Mimir’s Well; the waters of wisdom that bubble up from deep within the earth and feed the roots of the great world tree.
Odin requested a drink, however Mimir, the guardian of the well and keeper of memory, stated in clear terms the sacrifice needed for such a drink.
Odin obliged, and without a second thought, he gouged out his eye and dropped it into the Well. The sacred vessel known as the Gjallarhorn scooped up the water, Odin drained it down, and just like that, knowledge and wisdom came flooding in. Odin could see farther, with more clarity, with that one eye, than he’d ever seen with two.
Well, the imagery, the metaphor, of sacrificing one way of seeing for another, is likely obvious. And lately, I’ve been wondering about the intersection of Sacrifice / Commitment / Integrity / Compromise.
As you may be aware, I recently completed a 30 Day Dirt-Time Challenge of Primitive Fire Making, every single day (alongside a daily video episode on social media).
While the video episodes stopped at Day 30, I decided to keep going with Fire Making, and it’s Day 46, with no end in sight.
That kind of daily commitment has it’s challenges. Obstacles arise, sacrifices need to be made, the question of compromise has a seat at the table, and so too does integrity - the yin/yang, or masculine/feminine qualities of integrity.
(I riff on that in Episode 11 on Instagram/TikTok)
And really, while it’s been a long while between email exchange, what I want to offer this community is a moment of rumination.
Is there a Dirt-Time practice / skillset that you’d like to commit and apprentice to?
What are you committed to?
What’s your relationship with commitment?
What do you need to sacrifice?
Where are you making compromises?
The Festive Season and New Year holds a lot of collective weight, so it’s as good-a-time as any to muse on these questions.
And there’s certainly a cliché saying that gets around in these types of healing / awakening communities...
“I’m ready to let go of what’s no longer serving me and step into the new.”
Well, dare I drop an unpopular opinion on that regurgitated phrase… It’s lazy thinking. If you use it, I’m encouraging of more nuanced layers of enquiry.
WHAT exactly are you ready to release?
HOW is it NOT serving you?
HOW is it STILL serving you?
Because if you need to release, you’re still attached, and if you’re still attached, it's still serving you.
Read that one again to let it land ^
Are you really ready to sacrifice an eye? To give up one way of seeing for another? Are you ready to make that commitment? To seek newfound determination, discipline, focus?
If you make that choice, epic.
Perhaps a (new) long and arduous journey awaits, through the land of the giants, towards the Well’s of Knowledge and Wisdom.
And if you do fully commit, the journey will pay off, in good time. Either in what you build, or who you become along the way.
Many of you may not have heard from me in quite some time.
I’ve been deep in my own dreaming: making fire, carving spoons, trekking, journeying back and forth for an 8 month Nature Connection Teacher Trainer Program, reflecting on the past year and the many allegiances that have come to end and the new ones being made...
And reminding myself to pay attention to the symbols, experiences, interactions, imagery, dreams, and unfurling myth of my own life, and what that may mean for the greater direction and expansion of my soul path and why I’m truly here.
Despite that fact, rest assured, many of you have been on my mind and heart and I’ve been sending only well wishes and good tidings your way. If the gods will it to be, I’d love to reconnect in good time.
Whether you celebrate the Festive Season or not (I’m impartial to it myself), may we find the courage and commitment to actualize our dreams and visions as the New Year rolls around…
