Latest / Random Heathen Ramblings / Sacred Silence As Heathen Practice [RHR S7, EP10]

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Sacred Silence As Heathen Practice [RHR S7, EP10] · Random Heathen Ramblings

0:01
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Random Heathen Ramblings
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podcast where we discuss all sorts of things Germanic
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Heathenry related. My name is Jesse and I am your
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In a world that never stops talking, silence has become
1:10
almost uncomfortable. We fill every quiet moment with
1:17
noise, music, podcasts, scrolling, conversation.
1:27
But if we look back at the older ways, we see something
1:32
interesting. Wisdom in the Germanic world is
1:37
very often tied not to speaking, but to restraint, to listening,
1:46
to stillness. Today I want to explore
1:51
something that doesn't get talked about very often in
1:53
modern heathen spaces, the role of sacred silence as a spiritual
1:59
practice. Silence is an emptiness in many
2:06
traditions, including our own as heathens.
2:10
It is a tool. For cultivating awareness,
2:13
discipline, and connection. Well, Helen, hello there,
2:26
everybody. Thank you for joining me back
2:28
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You can come or go. So anyway, however you choose to
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support, however you choose to absorb this podcast, I greatly
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appreciate that. Another real quick thing before
4:44
we get into today's topic, No guests this week, by the way.
4:46
It's just going to be another solo show.
4:49
Excited to talk about this topic today that you kind of got a
4:52
preview of that after our housekeeping things and intro
4:57
stuff there earlier. But yeah, just another real
5:03
quick announcement or a couple of quick announcements.
5:05
You know, there's there's stuff in the description or the show
5:08
notes of this podcast, all the things that you should check
5:10
out, things that I might be having coming down the pipeline.
5:14
You know, there's my book that's out the Saga of the Heron that
5:16
Flies to Hell. There is the new music album
5:21
that I'm putting out called Till the Final Twilight Dies that is
5:26
dropping on May 1st. And links for that if you want
5:31
to pre-order it or down there along with a a link to a post
5:35
that talks about what you get in the pre-order.
5:38
You know. So if you order it before, I
5:39
think it's a week prior to the release, you get 2 advance
5:44
tracks including the title track and you save a, a decent amount
5:49
of money on the on the purchase of it.
5:51
Now, just as a reminder, all the funds minus the basic cost to
5:58
cover my expenses, you know, on, on producing it, all of the rest
6:02
of it is going to be donated to a local charitable organization
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or a local organization in my area that is focused and
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dedicated on land stewardship, nature conservation.
6:18
So if you're ever thinking about wanting to support the project,
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just realize that that's what you're supporting.
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It's not going into my pocket for any sort of monetary gain.
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Just covering my basic it's, you know, costs.
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The expenses that for the software to use 'cause they are
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AI generated songs, although the lyrics, I've written the lyrics
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and there are some audio samplings like drumming that
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I've added to the tracks that the software then enhances and
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so forth. So anyway, all that is detailed
6:52
down below. And then lastly, for those of
6:55
you who are going to be out in North Carolina in May, I think
7:00
it's the New London area of North Carolina for the Norse
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Forge gathering. This will be its sixth year
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returning, I believe, my first year attending, and my wife and
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I are going to be there along with a bunch of other folks,
7:15
some of whom you've seen on this show before.
7:18
I'll be there working with the thealvatier who you hear about
7:22
in the beginning with all of their crafts and stuff will be
7:26
there helping them out and just socializing and seeing, you
7:29
know, there's a lot of great things going on there.
7:32
This this weekend, I think it's a Memorial Day weekend, so the
7:35
last weekend of May. So come on out Norse Forge
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gathering. You can find them, you know, on
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their website. I'll I'll put a link to that
7:43
down in the show notes too. If you just if you want to check
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out and see what all that's about, but I'll be there and a
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bunch of my other friends and supporters will be there as
7:51
well. So you see me or I see you and
7:54
you want to, you know, get a picture or just say hi or
7:56
whatever. Would love to meet you and yeah,
8:00
definitely come on out. All right, so good bit of time
8:03
spent in the beginning. Thank you for muscling through
8:07
all of that stuff, all those announcements as we get into
8:10
this topic this week. You know what I mean, another
8:15
solo run, as I mentioned before, we're going to be going over
8:17
today, something that's been on my mind that as I mentioned all
8:22
in that pre recorded intro, there are things that I don't
8:24
think get a whole lot of. I've I've been seeing some, some
8:27
more attention put to it, the right amount of attention.
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But you know, that, that sacred silence in heathen spaces and,
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and where that kind of fits into our practices.
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You know, a lot of times, you know, especially maybe for
8:48
newcomers to heathenry, they, they come to this, they, they
8:54
come to this way, they discover this path and they, they think
8:57
it's all about, you know, loud boisterous skull and cheers and,
9:01
you know, hail the gods and all this loud, loud and proud noise
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generating things. And yeah, sure.
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While there is clearly a a place for that, I think it's equally
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as important to remember the times that even get mentioned of
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in our sources that support the notion that silence is, you
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know, it's important. And it's not just, it's not just
9:35
important, it's, it's necessary, I think, for connection, for
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discipline, you know, and where do we see some of these things
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reflected in our sources? You know, I've, I've been the
9:52
type for almost as long as I've been doing this.
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Well, I've been thinking pretty much since the beginning of, of
9:58
creating content at all, but definitely since the beginning
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of this podcast, you know, seven seasons now is, is to let yous
10:07
all know, right? I, I, I practice Heathenry in,
10:10
in the way that I do it is, is not hardcore reconstruction, but
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I, I always like to find or see where the things that are being
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done that call it Heathenry. You know, the things that are,
10:24
that are done that are called Heathenry.
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How is that example of what's being done reflected in our
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sources? Can we, do we have anything in
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lore? Do we have anything in the
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sagas? Do we have anything and even
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other contemporary scholarly work that provides a source
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wherein this is, you know, this is the way that the Germanic
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peoples, the pre Christian Germanic peoples may have seen
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the world or, or perceive things.
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So with silence and with that stillness and with all of that,
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there's definitely enough of it existing in several sources,
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some of which I'll refer to. And one of the cup, one of the
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first ones that come to my mind is in the Hove of Them All.
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It's an infamous poem. Look, you know that that you can
11:14
find in the Poetic Edda. It's one of the original, you
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know, primary sources, Codex Regis.
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The Hove of them all is been translated probably dozens of
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times at this point by different by different academics, some of
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whom are heathen, but you know, so, but we know that this is a
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source that is a primary source. It it exists in the oldest parts
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of our written sources. And for those that might be new
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to Heathenry, when I talk about written sources, you know, I'm
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not talking about anything that could be the equivalent of what
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the Christians have in their Bible or the Muslims have in the
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Quran or, you know, the Jews have with the Torah or any of
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thing like that. It's not sacred text that we,
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you know, have as heathens that have been believed to be written
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or or passed down through divine means through, you know, holy
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intervention or holy inspiration.
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Now, you know, interesting. With that being said, the
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Hovamal is a poem that that word hovamal translates to words of
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the high one or it means something like, you know, the
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sayings of the high 1. And it is widely believed or
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accepted that these are bits of wisdom that are passed or shared
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by Odin, you know, so, but but it's the one thing that I think
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needs to be clearly stated is, is most heathens that I've
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encountered hold the halve them all in a very high regard, But
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they don't see it as like Bible level importance, right?
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It's not like these are instructions that we must
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follow. And if we don't, there's
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something wrong with us as heathens or whatever.
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It's practical, good advice that aligns with behavior that is
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generally a, you know, something that's going to be able to
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function, that allow for society to function well, you know, in
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in orderly and in an organized fashion.
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So when we pull things from different sources, whether it be
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the of them all or any of the other poems, whether it's
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scalded poetry, etic poetry, sagas, whatever, realize that at
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least from my angle, what I'm doing is I'm not trying to
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convince anybody that this is the way it ought to be.
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And if you're not adhering to this, that somehow you're bad
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heathen inherently it's, it's more like this is the source
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material that we have that supports very strongly or or
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pretty pretty strongly the the world views of our pre Christian
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Germanic ancestors. Whether those Germanic
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ancestors, you know, settled in the the far north in Scandinavia
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or whether, you know, we have ancestry that is on the
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continent or further South, mainland Europe.
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So anyway, now that we've got that disclaimer kind of out of
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the way, going back to the whole importance of silence in the
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Hava Mall, I believe it's around stanza 27, depending on the
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translation that you are reading from some of the stanzas,
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especially later on in the poem due to the translation get
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misnumbered, you know, so 75 and one translation, that stanza
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might be stanza 74 or 76 even or whatever.
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But anyways, if you're looking around stanza 27 of whatever
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translation of the Hava Mall you might have on hand or look up,
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there is a so that stanza in around that stanza.
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It says something along the lines of that a foolish man
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thinks he knows everything if he sits in a sheltered corner, but
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he does not know what he should answer when men question him.
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So it's basically that, you know, in the wisdom that we find
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in this this literary source that we believe to have some
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sort of, you know, something coming from from Odin, right?
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Obviously written by someone at around a certain period of time.
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But that inspiration from Odin or attributed to Odin is that
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restraint in speech is repeatedly praise.
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And this is just one example. You know, the fool thinks that
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you know, he knows everything if he just sits and and doesn't
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interact, but he you know, he he's just blabbing on.
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He just he just he doesn't know what he should answer when men
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actually question him. So they get cat got your tongue
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kind of situation. They like to talk a big game,
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but they actually don't know what it is that they're talking
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about. Another stanza earlier on in the
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in the poem or in or around stanza 7 is is that, you know,
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the wary guest. Again, loose translation, but
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the wary guest comes to a feast, keeps silent and listens with
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his ears. There's a lot of that kind of
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theme in the beginning of the of them all that talks about being
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more aware of your surroundings and not being, you know, out to
16:32
lunch or checked out of, of things.
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And so part of that awareness, part of that diligence is to not
16:40
be yapping your mouth and, and not to have all this noise going
16:43
on it to be quiet. You know, it's, it's, it's,
16:50
excuse me, got a little bit of indigestion.
16:54
I didn't mean to make a inappropriate sound there a
17:03
little water to wet the whistle. Anyways, what the saying is that
17:10
is you know it. It seems that that these themes
17:12
that we that we hear repeated in the hall of them all talks about
17:16
a ideal situation or ideal person in this time frame, in
17:21
this culture as being someone who is more observant before
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they say anything more observant rather than vocal.
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You know, you might have an opinion about something, you
17:34
might have something to say, but it is to be slow to speak and
17:39
and more quick to hear. More quick to listen very much
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to me sounds like a very obvious form of mindfulness.
17:54
OK, awareness before reaction. One of the things that just in
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me personally right my, my personal growth and in my
18:04
journey as a heathen has taught me is to understand the
18:10
differences between reaction and response.
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Response takes time. Yes, you can respond quickly.
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You can respond appropriately with the right action in many
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cases, especially with, you know, things going on in the
18:32
world now and then, just people in general.
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But you know, this is this is advice that is, you know, over
18:39
1000 years old from a time that where the world was much
18:43
smaller, if you want to call it that.
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It was a different place culturally and societally and
18:49
politically even. But all of that reflects that,
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you know, to respond takes time. You've got to kind of think
18:58
about what you're going to say before you say it, whereas to
19:01
react to something, whether it be an action or a verbal answer
19:08
to, to, to his, to a situation. If it's quick, more than likely
19:14
in, in most cases, I think it's going to be something that does
19:16
not have the appropriate amount of mindfulness attributed to it.
19:22
You can take the the right amount of time to respond
19:25
appropriately being more like tear rather than Thor, you know,
19:32
thinking more through the situation instead of just
19:35
throwing down the hammer and bashing your way through things.
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Now, like I said, is, you know, are there times when that
19:41
response is appropriate and action does not require any
19:45
extra length of time to think about it?
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It's time to do 100% yes, but to be, but to be aware of it,
19:53
right. And to be mindful that in, in I
19:58
think more cases than not, you got to, you got to have your
20:03
wits about you and you got to be observant to know what the
20:06
appropriate measure level, tone, all of that is to to the
20:14
responses that we give. And we're talking now about, you
20:17
know, the the differences between silence.
20:21
And noise and, and all these things that can attribute to the
20:24
noise that is causing us to, to not hear what's happening,
20:29
what's going on around us. And you know, those, those
20:31
thoughts are noise. They may not be external noise,
20:35
but it's internal noise that's, you know, creating that
20:40
tumultuous spirit within us or the, the tumultuous ways of, of,
20:48
of another in our near proximity, you know, arguments
20:51
and debates and, and disagreements that can befall
20:56
even kin, especially when we talk about things of a political
21:01
nature here and now. You know, it's, it's, it's hard
21:04
for me to think or, or to believe that in medieval
21:09
Scandinavia or, you know, medieval Europe, in, in, on the
21:13
mainland or in anywhere on the continent, that, that the
21:16
political climate at that time, you know, was what it was.
21:19
And, and there had to have been plenty of disagreements and
21:23
debates and quarrels and, and disagreements and all those
21:27
things that could have, you know, then that did clearly,
21:30
obviously, 'cause, you know, that noise caused a lot of, of
21:36
issues. So they're lessons.
21:38
They're, they're, they're, they're things that we should
21:40
take heed to and be reminded of that this happened.
21:46
This is a piece of history. What can we learn from that?
21:51
And you know, as we look at these examples, just the two
21:54
that I gave right in the whole of them all and and that the
21:56
whole of them all is, is, is attributed to the wisdom of
21:59
Odin. And, and how Odin usually gets
22:04
one of the things that he gets also attributed to is the kind
22:09
of an archetype of the silent seeker, the wanderer, you know,
22:14
going out away from his tribe, away from Asgard and all the
22:23
wide places of the world, even mingling with humankind in the
22:27
form of an old man with a wide brimmed hat and a staff.
22:30
And you know, all these things, he, he, he bears the archetype
22:36
of the silent seeker, that wanderer, the the, the, the only
22:39
way that I'm going to learn anything is to go out and be
22:44
quiet in that seeking of it. And so in the myths, in the
22:52
lore, there's, you know, a number of powerful examples and,
22:59
and, and, and things that gives us a powerful model of this,
23:05
mainly Odin, right? Constantly being depicted or, or
23:08
repeatedly, maybe not constant, but repeatedly being depicted as
23:13
undertaking those long periods of isolation, the wandering
23:18
ordeal by himself hanging from IGRA seal, right?
23:23
No man gave me food, no man gave me drink.
23:25
No, there was no relief for him. He was alone in that agony,
23:29
suffering the ordeal in silence. And we're going to get to that
23:35
too with the runes. I mean that's you read that
23:40
section of the of them all. You know, I know that I hung on
23:43
that windy tree 9 long nights myself to myself given and very
23:49
infamous portion of of the rune a mall section later on in the
23:53
Hava mall, you know where, where Odin discovers the runes and he
23:56
doesn't discover the runes during this ordeal.
24:00
He's not the, the mysteries are not revealed to him through a
24:05
conversation, you know what I mean?
24:08
He's not sitting there talking to the Nourns, the Nordenaire.
24:11
He's not, you know, there's no instructions that come with this
24:18
revelation or with this exposure to the mysteries.
24:21
There's no dialogue. It's it's just, it's, it's the
24:27
isolation of having to endure the silence, the stillness, the
24:34
ordeal, the agony to get this knowledge, to get the to get the
24:41
those those mysteries revealed that, you know, the mysteries
24:47
were not presented. They were not given to Odin in
24:52
the form of a lecture. You know, I mean, he didn't, he
24:55
didn't go and sit at the, at the roots of Igor seal and in a nice
25:00
comfy Lotus position or in a, in a seated position or even
25:04
standing and, and then have the winds tell him anything.
25:09
It was no, he was pierced by his own spear, thirsty, hungry, in
25:17
agony for 9 days, nine nights, you know, and then it wasn't
25:24
until after that the ordeal had been completed that the runes,
25:28
the mysteries emerged screaming, I fell when I took them.
25:34
They, they emerged once that period of suffering and
25:38
contemplation. And I think inward focus, you
25:42
know what I mean, the hanging there.
25:45
What else you going to do without?
25:45
Well, you know, it's it, it takes that dedication, it takes
25:49
that discipline to use that and allow that moment to be a
25:54
teaching moment, right? That alone right there, I feel
25:58
is something that tells us a lot about how wisdom itself is
26:02
acquired. You know, it's not going to be
26:08
yes, you can learn a lot of things through the interaction,
26:11
through the shared experience. You can sit and have
26:15
conversations with elders. You can be.
26:17
Taught things of a tradition by those who have done it and who
26:22
have had those traditions passed on down.
26:26
This is how this is the way that our ancestors knew what to do,
26:31
the way they did it. It's it's how you know the
26:34
orthopraxic nature of Heathenry started.
26:40
I think is is that it wasn't something that you could pick
26:44
up. Off of a shelf, in some sort of
26:48
public space, a library of sorts, or whatever.
26:50
You couldn't, you know, you had to learn it orally.
26:55
It was spoken, it was, it was taught much like the traditions
27:00
of a lot of indigenous people. You know, I live in, I live in
27:06
the United States and in the indigenous tribes of, of North
27:09
America and in other parts of the Americas.
27:15
You know, these, these ways, these traditions of these
27:18
indigenous people have been passed down orally for thousands
27:23
and generations and taught that way amongst their amongst their
27:26
people. And the fact that they have a
27:30
tradition, so many of these tribes still have that tradition
27:33
that that hasn't been eradicated despite the, the, the terrible
27:39
things that their people have had to endure is a testament to
27:42
the strength and the will of appreciating and, and giving
27:48
space to that silence. To, to, to know that in these
27:51
quiet times, in these moments of listen, you don't talk when I'm
27:56
speaking, you listen. And let the elder, let the one,
27:58
let the, let the, the story keepers, let the tradition
28:01
keepers, let those people share those things and be quiet and
28:04
listen because then it's going to be on you or, or on that
28:09
person or on them to, to pass those things down.
28:11
So the only way that we learn in these.
28:14
Ways is to be quiet is to be silent.
28:18
So again, it's it's. I went off a little bit down the
28:21
down the, down the rabbit hole there with the, with the saying,
28:24
you know, it's was learned in silence.
28:27
You know, it's not the same as learning in that way, but it, it
28:30
correlates. It has a correlation, I feel to
28:32
the importance of silence and that if you're going to learn,
28:35
you got to listen and you're not going to listen if you got all
28:38
this noise going on. So there's, there's, you know,
28:43
some, some mythic, I think examples, some mythic, you know,
28:47
mythical. Examples of of the importance of
28:51
silence. In addition to that, you've got
28:59
some sagas that reinforce this as a somewhat of a cultural
29:04
trait. You know, you take for example,
29:09
the figure of a Gill, Scala Grimson.
29:12
You know, so a Gill's saga talks about a Gill as being known or
29:17
famous for many things. Obviously he he has a saga
29:21
dedicated to him. But one of the things that is it
29:24
like a defining characteristic about a Gill is that sort of
29:29
brooding silence. He's, you know, kind of
29:31
described repeatedly as sitting quietly and and being observant,
29:36
thinking, contemplating and then taking appropriate response, you
29:41
know, decisively responding to things rather than just, you
29:46
know, knee jerk reaction. That's that's a that's a that's
29:52
an epic, that's a tale. It's a heroic saga that again
29:56
reinforces the cultural trait of silence and learning and silence
30:01
and the sacredness of it. I think it's AI think it's great
30:10
that, you know, if you're willing and if you're of a mind
30:15
and of a heart and of a spirit that wants to learn that you can
30:19
pick these things up from the sagas.
30:21
You know, I don't think that they were.
30:24
I don't think that that any of these things that are in the
30:27
sources that we have are documented arbitrarily.
30:31
I don't think that what we do have as written sources where,
30:35
you know, the details were included for the sake of just
30:39
filling up blank spaces. I think that learning to write
30:43
and, and having that skill was a commodity at the time, was a hot
30:48
commodity and you were, you were good at it.
30:50
That it was, it was important what was written down so it
30:53
wasn't wasted with filler words. It wasn't wasted with blank
30:57
spaces. It wasn't like nowadays where if
30:58
you mistype something, you have autocorrect and you can just
31:01
backspace over it. Or, you know, I mean, not even
31:06
all that long ago. I mean, I'm, I'm old enough to
31:10
where when I was a kid growing up, we didn't have, there were
31:14
typewriters still being used. Computers obviously did have
31:21
their place in, in some schools and in some, but not every home
31:26
had one. Hell, I didn't have my first
31:28
desk desktop computer until like the late 90s, almost year 2000,
31:35
you know, before the big Y2K stuff.
31:38
And it was, you know, it was a basic.
32:10
Better, but my point being is that I, I, you know, I'm from a
32:15
time, even as recently as, you know, 35 years ago that
32:21
handwritten letters, handwritten notes, you know, you made a
32:25
mistake, you had to erase it, but you took your time.
32:27
It was you write carefully, you know, and write carefully.
32:38
Take your time, use the words that you're writing
32:44
purposefully. I guess the whole point of me
32:46
bringing that up was to say that I think personally, this is just
32:49
my own personal thing that if if if a Gills saga describes him
32:53
throughout repeatedly as being someone who was contemplative
32:57
and observant, there's a reason why that was written down.
33:01
It was important enough for it to be to use up the ink that
33:07
that paper was, was, was was written with, you know what I
33:10
mean? Like the paper that it was used
33:12
to write on, like those words, those describing things were
33:16
important enough to be included. Otherwise they wouldn't have
33:18
been included. It's my own thoughts.
33:23
What's another one too? Niall's saga.
33:27
So I believe that the main characters, Niall Thorgierson
33:33
was a Chieftain right in there. And he's regarded and respected
33:41
in his story, not because of his, you know, domineering
33:47
conversations, his, you know, dictator, like authority or
33:51
anything, but because he was the one to speak carefully and
33:56
deliberately, you know, not loose with the tongue and not
34:00
loose with his emotions and, and all that, you know, you got
34:07
these two examples just alone that suggests that in the
34:12
culture, just because you are the loudest brute, the loudest
34:17
guy, the biggest, you know, the noisemaker, whatever, like that
34:21
was rarely associated with wisdom.
34:26
It was rarely associated with anything that was deemed as
34:30
wise. You know the reputation of one
34:34
that a good reputation was earned yes through action, yes
34:39
through through right action, but it was it belong to those
34:42
you know that were ones to observe first, speak with
34:49
precision, respond accordingly, respond and respond
34:52
appropriately, respond deliberately and that cannot
34:56
happen in in noisy. Spaces there, there requires
35:00
that, you know, time of science, a time of even meditation, you
35:04
know. How many times do you come
35:07
across something in your own life?
35:09
A decision that you have to make or or a call that needs to be
35:14
made and it's nothing so dire where the.
35:19
The answer needs to be produced immediately.
35:23
And so the response is, let me sleep on it, let me meditate on
35:27
it, let me think about it, you know?
35:32
Because in those quiet times, in that silent sacred time, we're
35:39
allowed to listen to what the spirit of something is trying to
35:44
teach us. And I think for some of us,
35:49
there's a there, there, there, there are some that have a
35:56
propensity to be more. Reactive and there are others
36:00
who have and I believe it's through a lot of inner work,
36:04
through a lot of dedicated time within silence that that voice
36:09
does not require as long of a period of silence for it to be
36:11
heard and for it to be acknowledged.
36:14
You know what I mean? Like I may not need a whole
36:17
overnight thing to to sleep on or to be in quiet time about
36:21
before I know what the right answer is that that right answer
36:24
is, is vibrating within my my gut kind of thing.
36:28
That gut reaction, that gut response.
36:32
Again, sometimes that's that small voice within us that that
36:37
may not be very loud, that may not have the biggest volume to
36:44
carry along with it resonates the strongest.
36:50
I, I grew up hearing it as being described as a still small
36:55
voice. You know, your, your
37:00
instructions aren't going to come.
37:01
You're, you're what you're supposed to do is not going to
37:04
come screaming at you from the sky or yelling at you from, you
37:10
know, the mountain or from a tree, you know, shaking and
37:15
that's on fire. Any kind of like crazy
37:17
miraculous looking thing. It's going to come from within.
37:21
That voice is, is not going to yell.
37:24
It's not going to try to compete over the noise, but it's there
37:29
and in order for you. To hear it for in.
37:30
Order for us to heed to that. It requires silence.
37:38
Now this goes into other things as well.
37:41
I'm talking mostly now about practical reactionary type
37:46
things responding to in a situation.
37:49
Like we hear about with, you know, examples in like Aegial
37:52
saga, the old saga, the hall of them all, and what things can be
37:55
taught, what things can be. What lessons can be brought to
37:59
us through silence? And then why the stillness in
38:02
the silence is so important for right action to be administered?
38:08
But in addition to that and beyond that sort of day-to-day
38:15
application, I believe there is, there's, there's something to be
38:20
said for it in its importance in ritual space, you know, silence
38:26
and ritual and, and, and having silence and sacred space.
38:29
And you know, how many of us approach that sacred time,
38:37
whether it's with a group, whether it's a private ceremony
38:43
or, or private ritual of our, that we ourselves are, are
38:46
performing or conducting, whichever, you know, whichever
38:52
audience there is or is not with you, you know, with us.
38:56
I think that there's enough scholarly or academic work to
39:02
support that for for. Heathens for the Germanic people
39:11
and other cultures too. But I'm just saying, even with
39:13
the Germanic people's right, that that ritual silence had
39:16
meaning. I've not read a whole lot of his
39:21
stuff personally, but I know he he does he does get reference a
39:25
lot. I'm referring to Neil Price.
39:29
I think he's he's got several books out, but the Viking way is
39:34
is one that I know gets referred to quite often amongst heathens
39:40
in modern time. Now he's a contemporary scholar,
39:44
a contemporary author that offers a good bit of useful
39:49
information. I've seen enough of and and
39:52
referred to enough of his work to say that with enough
39:56
conviction. But he has discussed or talked
40:02
about in some of his work about how ritual ritual specialists,
40:10
ritual practitioners have have often entered a an altered state
40:17
of awareness through focus, practices and silence.
40:23
Is as much of one as any other method one could say, whether it
40:30
be through the use of substances, whether it be the
40:34
use of sound to achieve altered states of awareness or
40:38
consciousness. Silence is a powerful medicine.
40:42
It's a powerful tool that works with the practitioner, works
40:48
with the man or the woman of the person who is working in that
40:59
space, working with spirit. In that way, it's like because
41:08
we're being quiet, because we're entering sacred stillness,
41:11
sacred silence. No distractions, no rhythm, no
41:15
bells, no humming, no wisp, nothing.
41:17
Just as quiet and as still as we can get it.
41:21
Think of like what modern day sound deprivation chambers can
41:26
do to our mind and to our consciousness.
41:30
Like this is this is a known method of working through
41:36
trauma, of working through a lot of different mental and physical
41:41
health things. But sound deprivation is like
41:46
the you can't get more quiet than that in, in the complete
41:51
and utter dark with no echoes, no nothing around you.
41:54
So it creates a shift in consciousness because now you
41:58
don't have anything to distract you.
41:59
You don't have any. Again, no, no, no echoes, no,
42:05
you know, it's just you, your breath, you.
42:10
And that's in that stillness. So your perceptions are
42:15
heightened, you know, and I'm honestly like, you know, you
42:20
talk about me talking about this and you know, I'm, I'm, I'm
42:23
talking as much to myself right now as I am to you that listens
42:26
or watches this because first of all, I'm doing it to me.
42:31
I'm doing it in front of a camera without anybody else
42:33
here. So it's like I'm hearing this
42:37
from myself to myself because man, that, that, that silence,
42:42
that it's, it's hard nowadays. It's hard to get anywhere where
42:46
you are deprived of any sort of distractions, you know?
42:52
There's something else going on anywhere else, everywhere, you
42:55
know? I mean, even even when I want my
42:57
own house, you know? Got neighbors outside, I got
43:00
cars going down the road, right, So there's always.
43:03
Something, no matter where I go, that if you're thinking of it as
43:10
a distraction, it is. It is one.
43:13
So it's it's it's how to dedicate yourself to that.
43:20
Focus on that stillness, focus on that silence and everything
43:25
else that's happening just kind of goes around you.
43:28
It doesn't go through you. It doesn't become a part of your
43:31
experience. It just goes on as it always
43:33
has. Your perception is heightened in
43:37
in that way and it becomes, I think something especially for
43:43
ritual practitioners and, and those that that would be be keen
43:48
on leading in ceremony and doing things like that.
43:54
It's something that is discovered independently.
43:57
It's not done with other people. You've got to be alone.
43:59
You've got to do it on your own. OK, those, those spirit
44:10
journeys, those medicine journeys, whatever, like I don't
44:14
want to miss Miss name the, the tradition in, in like North
44:19
American indigenous Indian practices, you know, but that
44:22
medicine walks or that spirit, those spirit walks where you are
44:24
by yourself and you go and you suffer through things.
44:27
You're, you're, it's a, it's a kind of an initiation thing.
44:30
But but to be alone and to be forced to face the silence,
44:34
forced to face the self, forced to face that stillness.
44:40
So these are things that have been, this is a thing obviously,
44:43
and these are cultures, not just dramatic.
44:46
There are cultures that have been using silence as a tool to
44:53
to grow spiritually, to become closer to the gods, to feel
44:59
closer to experience a closeness with their holy powers that
45:05
shouting, bells, drums, chants, all of those other things that
45:10
are a part of the culture as well.
45:12
There's something about silence that elevates our connection.
45:20
So what kind of where do we find that now in modern times?
45:25
We we have already thus far, you know, etic poems, scalded poetry
45:33
in the hall of them all, even and.
45:35
You know, mythology that that supported all, and we have some
45:40
academic or scholarly types to support the notion, but what
45:46
does it mean for us now in modern times?
45:48
How do we apply it? You know, and I and I go back to
45:55
my, my situation, you know, it's, it's as because you know,
45:59
I'm a very mentally active person.
46:01
It's. Sure, I'm not the only one that
46:06
goes through things like this where you know, you'll feel
46:13
rejuvenated, you'll feel energized to do something and
46:16
then you'll hit a point during the day where you're just kind
46:18
of drained you, you can almost fall asleep right then and there
46:21
and then you know, well, I can't fall asleep right now, right?
46:24
Because I have a quote UN quote job to do.
46:27
I have obligations, I have responsibilities.
46:29
I can't just check out and take rest.
46:31
I can't, you know, or so we say. So we think, right.
46:34
I can't just step away. And and then that's that's the
46:41
way that that this that society has has molded us into being as
46:46
humans now. Or you have a job, you know, so
46:48
from, you know, nine to five, you are obligated to be
46:52
productive. And So what if you're tired
46:55
halfway through the day, can't take a nap, you can't recharge,
46:57
you can't experience that moment in silence.
47:01
And so when you come home or when you finish your, your, your
47:04
work and you're doing the other things of your life that require
47:09
your attention, whether it's family or extracurricular
47:13
activities, other activities, other obligations that you have,
47:19
when it's all said and done for the day and the night time comes
47:22
around, all of my mind, all of our minds are still running.
47:29
There's all this noise that's, that's occurred through, through
47:31
all of this activity. And, and we're, you know, now we
47:34
have to lay down how it's, you know, getting late.
47:36
And I have to be productive tomorrow to do this all over
47:39
again. And I just cannot sleep.
47:45
I can't even in that quiet, even in that dark, you know?
47:51
It's like because it's so quiet, I get.
47:57
More noise coming in it's like no, we can't we can't have that
48:00
we can't have that silence. We can't have that quiet.
48:01
We got to be productive, right, always running, always running,
48:04
always running and I've it's been tough, you know, just being
48:09
real. It's it's tough to turn it off,
48:16
turn it down, unplug it be done. It's Nope, we're not dealing
48:21
with this right now. And that's OK and that's
48:23
necessary and into to learn how to approach that, you know, I
48:29
mean, shoot guys like when was the last time you watching this?
48:34
We're listening to this. When was the last time you sat
48:37
in intentional silence? Intentional silence.
48:42
Not with a meditation app, not with music, not with guided
48:47
audio, not with a podcast playing, but just pure.
48:51
Quiet. When was the last time you sat
49:00
in intentional silence? You know, there's, there's
49:04
another practice in, in, in, in Nordic's dramatic beliefs of, of
49:14
mound sitting, you know, going out and sitting on the, on the
49:17
ancestral mound to commune with the dead into, into, you know,
49:22
and that's done in silence. Yeah.
49:30
When was the last time you did that?
49:31
And I asked myself, right, when was the last time I did that?
49:34
I mean, it's been a couple weeks, if I'm being honest, at
49:40
least almost a month, maybe close to now 'cause it's almost
49:46
a, you know, a week and 1/2 into the, into the third month of the
49:48
year. It's March, mid March already,
49:52
you know, and I think the last time I intentionally sat in
49:55
quiet, Yeah, been longer than if it, if I have to think about it,
50:06
you know, and if any of us have to think about the last time we
50:09
did it, then it's been too long right now.
50:13
So what do we do with? That you know.
50:16
Oh, wow. Yeah, you're right.
50:18
I need to do this more. I need to be more focused on
50:20
this. What are what are practical
50:22
ways? How do we do it?
50:26
Go for walks in nature, man, go for you know, I've I live near
50:30
the Greenway here. But, and I know a lot of people
50:32
don't necessarily have that as a close proximity or something
50:35
like that as a close proximity, but I'm sure that no matter
50:38
where you are, no matter where you're listening to this from,
50:41
no matter where you live, that a silent hike in nature, a silent
50:47
walk in nature isn't terribly far away from you, you know, And
50:56
if it's terribly far and you can't do it as often as you
50:59
want, you still have a place that is quiet.
51:04
Dedicate a space in your home. You know, I have my, my, my away
51:09
place, you know, that's my kind of sanctuary, you know, not a
51:15
common area. It's a, you know, the room that
51:17
I filmed this podcast in. You know, this is this is my
51:20
kind of safe haven. This is where I sit with the
51:23
gods, with my ancestors, with myself.
51:27
I cry, you know, and I feel things and I go through the
51:32
human experience alone. There's a space for that for you
51:36
too, talking about, you know, going on hikes in nature and
51:43
stuff. It's, you know, if you can't
51:46
hike it very far, you can find a quiet place and just sit.
51:50
You know, don't turn your meditation app on, don't turn
51:54
your music on, don't put your earbuds in.
51:56
Just sit. Sit in the stillness and focus
52:03
on your breathing. The things around you will drown
52:09
out eventually and it it's a conscious focused thing.
52:20
Silence during important holy tides.
52:22
You know what I mean? Like we've got secret bloat
52:24
coming up for those of you that are are heathen that are
52:27
observing the kind of historical calendar of of time reckoning
52:31
that the pre Christian Germanic folks adhered to that Luna
52:35
solar. Reckoning of time.
52:38
You know, we have we have cigar bloat coming up and you know,
52:42
what is it a little over a month and a half?
52:48
You know, it's a three night long celebration as all of the
52:54
dramatic holy tides where you know, Yul was three nights.
52:56
Winter nights is 3 nights. Cigar bloat would be for three
52:59
nights as well. There's three days, three nights
53:04
that you can dedicate sometime during, whenever you celebrate
53:09
it, however you celebrate it for silence, you know, a moment of
53:15
silence, you know, 'cause these are, these are things, these are
53:24
practices, folks that, that I really believe force us to
53:28
confront ourselves, you know, and why do we avoid that?
53:39
Why do we avoid the silence? Why do we, why do we find it so
53:46
easy to be constantly exposed to noise?
53:54
Because the noise hides us from us.
54:00
You know, silence exposes. That exposes.
54:04
Us to ourselves forces us to confront ourselves.
54:07
That's uncomfortable. I don't want to do that.
54:10
No, no, no, no. No right, turn up the music,
54:11
turn on the this turn on the that right distract us.
54:22
But it's where we really. Grow man when we when we just
54:26
turn it off turn turn things down and.
54:29
Towards just us. And then that, that thing that
54:32
comes through, those those things that come through, yeah,
54:37
it's going to be uncomfortable. You're not going to like it.
54:42
But it but it's meant. It's meant to be dealt with.
54:44
And it and it deserves attention.
54:47
It deserves presence. It doesn't deserve to be
54:49
ignored. It doesn't deserve to be drowned
54:52
out. It deserves to be given
54:56
presence. It deserves to be given space.
54:58
Now, how that space is occupied is up to us.
55:02
We decide. We determine.
55:05
What space, this uncomfortable aspect of ourselves is occupying
55:11
the real estate that it takes up, we determine that, but it's
55:15
still there and it's still is important for it to be there.
55:20
You know, 'cause it, it's clarifying.
55:22
I think it's it's liberating in a way.
55:29
And, and why that is so important, guys and gals, like
55:31
why I feel like that is so important is because of all of
55:34
the things that are going on in our modern times.
55:36
We live in constant states of stimulation.
55:41
You know, again, I, you know, we go to bed just knowing that at
55:45
some point after we close our eyes for that night, we are
55:49
expecting an alarm to wake us up, another noise to break us
55:55
out of that stillness, to rock our world back to a state of I
56:00
got to be productive. I got to do whatever I've got to
56:02
do. You know, so you and that's just
56:09
that you've got other things that are constantly stimulating
56:14
us. You know, you got freaking
56:17
social media things stimulating us.
56:20
You know, algorithmic distractions, performance, a
56:23
performative spirituality. Like how many?
56:26
Gosh, how many how many pages do you come across?
56:30
How many? You know, I don't know what
56:33
everybody listens to or how they interact socially, you know, on
56:38
social media these days. But if you know, if you're on
56:40
Facebook, it's, you know, groups and timelines and, and, but if
56:44
it's TikTok, you know it's. It's the for you pages.
56:46
If it's the reels, it's the. It's the shorts.
56:48
It's. How many?
56:51
How many things do you see? That are just for the
56:54
algorithmic. Feed, right?
56:58
It's it's just to do things that keep somebody in somebody else's
57:04
views doesn't mean anything. It's performative spirituality,
57:10
right? Oh, so you're scrolling.
57:11
You see this person dressing up in ritual garb or whatever and
57:14
it's, you know, it's meant to look performative because it is
57:23
performative. It's not, you know, they're not,
57:27
I have it. And, and it goes back to like,
57:29
why I have such a huge problem with this is my own personal
57:35
thing, OK? Why I personally have had and
57:39
continue to have such a problem with heathens on these spaces,
57:45
whether it's YouTube, whether it's Instagram, whether it's
57:48
Tiktok, wherever you are, you're posting videos of your ritual.
57:56
It's, it's performative, sure. It's going to maybe inspire
57:59
somebody to do something because they're going to see you holding
58:05
up your horn or you're going to, or they're going to see you and
58:07
your community standing there around a fire.
58:10
And then algae stands with your arms extended to the heavens.
58:13
And there's going to be smoke and there's going to be, you
58:15
know, maybe Koutane spreading meat or blood or whatever as a,
58:19
as part of your ceremony. But you're getting those
58:20
highlights and it's going to look very theatrical, very
58:22
performative, very cinematic. And that's great that you're
58:25
experiencing that. But why the hell does it have to
58:29
be for everybody else that isn't there?
58:30
Why does it have to be advertised and, and turned into
58:34
the spectacle? Why do you have to put it out
58:37
here for people to, to see? It's nobody's business but the
58:41
ones who were there to experience it, they can be
58:46
inspired by other ways and through other means.
58:49
Not that. Yeah, it's, and I'm sorry for
58:53
getting a bit heated about that, but it's, it's, it's the thing
58:55
that bothers me the most about seeing people actually record
59:02
ceremony or record ritual and put it in any sort of clipped
59:07
format. You know, I've done things, I've
59:10
put things out that and and made it look performative as and I've
59:14
learned my lesson from it, you know, but I've never, not even
59:18
once that I ever put a camera up outside of sacred space to film
59:22
bloat, to film ceremony, to film ritual and then put it on a
59:27
YouTube channel video for everybody to watch and give me
59:30
likes and reactions to and views on and earn money even from it.
59:35
Yeah. There's people out here, you
59:37
know, recording ceremony and then putting it up and then
59:40
earning revenue through monetization.
59:48
Like stick to talking about things, stick to to, you know,
59:51
stick to something else. Don't do that.
59:53
Don't be that disrespective of the of the culture, that
59:57
disingenuous in your, you know, chasing that clout.
1:00:03
Anyway. I need to move on from that.
1:00:09
There's my little tirade for the day.
1:00:11
It's a rare one, but you got it. So there it is.
1:00:16
But yeah, you. Know it's maybe, maybe maybe I'm
1:00:21
just seeing things through a specific.
1:00:23
Maybe this is what the algorithm is feeding me.
1:00:25
Maybe I'm seeing so much of this modern spirituality happening
1:00:31
online with images, videos, words, articles even.
1:00:35
Maybe. But yeah, all of that, all of
1:00:37
that, you know, theatrical stuff, the performative stuff.
1:00:44
But you know, some of the most powerful things of, of, of, of
1:00:53
spiritual nature, some of the most powerful spiritual work
1:00:56
happens when nobody's recording it, when nothing is being
1:01:01
posted, you know, nothing is, nothing is being hashtag,
1:01:06
nothing is being recorded, Nothing is, no one's watching.
1:01:10
I mean, there may be watching in the sense that they're there
1:01:12
observing it, but you know, it's not being retained in a video to
1:01:16
be shared and looked at by hundreds or thousands of other
1:01:20
people. You know, it's protective.
1:01:27
It's protective. When we do it this way, I think
1:01:29
it's it's, it's not closing it off to anybody, but it's saying
1:01:34
there's a boundary that we should not cross, there's a
1:01:37
barrier that we should not breach.
1:01:41
So that silence that would you do for cigar boat on your
1:01:45
business? We we celebrate.
1:01:46
I'm not telling, I'm not sharing my videos about it.
1:01:48
You know what I mean? Like I'll keep it within my
1:01:50
inner circle, like, but I'm not that that silence is a bit of a
1:01:53
resistance. It's, you know, resistance for
1:01:59
good, right? Resistance of this is something
1:02:02
of a cultural importance that if we continue to be casual about
1:02:10
how it's represented through social media, through all of
1:02:15
these public platforms, if we continue to be this.
1:02:19
Casual about it. It's we're, we're not helping
1:02:24
preserve any of the traditions. It's, it's watering it down.
1:02:29
It's, it's diluting it. The power of the ceremony, the
1:02:34
power of the ritual, the power of bloat, the power of all these
1:02:36
things that come from these cultures is through the people
1:02:42
that do it quietly behind closed doors in the sacred Groves with
1:02:48
their people and nobody else. For, for, for nobody else to
1:02:51
see. And I wish we would have more of
1:02:55
that. I wish there wasn't so much of
1:02:56
that. Look what I'm doing.
1:02:59
Look what? Look what's being done.
1:03:04
Yeah, that's, that's what I, that's what I wish would be more
1:03:09
of, you know, yes, our ancestors did value strength through
1:03:17
noise. Through speech Through.
1:03:22
Being heard. But also there was strength and
1:03:27
restraint, you know, in, in, in, in temperance, in, in listening
1:03:36
before speaking, observing before, before acting.
1:03:40
You know, the observation comes before the judgement kind of a
1:03:47
thing. So I don't know, you know, it's
1:03:54
and, and when it's all said and done.
1:03:55
When when? We we come back to, to
1:03:58
everything. I think that I think sometimes
1:04:02
the most powerful, I think the most powerful act of spiritual
1:04:11
behavior. I think that that I think that
1:04:14
anyone can perform. It's not in the videos.
1:04:18
It's it's not in the public. It's not in the drum circles.
1:04:23
Powerful medicine. Powerful.
1:04:25
Acts of spiritual work there. No, no, don't get me wrong, but
1:04:28
I think some of the most powerful spiritual acts that
1:04:31
anyone can perform is just to sit in silence and pay attention
1:04:37
and listen to what's being told to us because these messages
1:04:43
aren't going to come to us screaming at us.
1:04:54
So, you know, that quiet space might actually bring us
1:05:00
something that's worth listening to.
1:05:06
But that's going to be it for me today, tonight, this week.
1:05:10
You know, and I hope that it was worth your time listening.
1:05:16
I hope that it gives you something to think about.
1:05:18
I'd be anxious to hear. Yeah, very anxious always to to
1:05:22
hear what you guys think. And I do want to say thank you
1:05:24
to those of you that that comment.
1:05:26
I, I, I appreciate Frody is Ingson, the previous guest, he
1:05:32
likes to comment a lot and Chris Martino and John Delott and
1:05:38
other patrons on Patreon that come over and show your support
1:05:41
in that way and then take time to comment your thoughts on
1:05:44
these things. It's not a very huge engagement,
1:05:48
but I don't, I don't care that it's not, I care that you are
1:05:51
doing it, whatever, however many people want to engage in that
1:05:55
way. That's what I liked.
1:05:57
That's and that's what I hope everybody else likes.
1:05:59
You know, I don't want this to be just about me, what I like
1:06:02
and let's do what I like. And you know, I want us to, to
1:06:05
have the sense of purpose in our communication.
1:06:09
All right. So if it's meaningful for me to
1:06:12
comment or for you to comment something, then I want to give
1:06:15
that that comment the attention that it deserves and the respect
1:06:21
for the time that you took to to make it.
1:06:23
So thank you for doing that. And if you are just listening to
1:06:27
this show and you are able to leave a comment, feel free as
1:06:30
well. You can always e-mail in if you
1:06:33
can or or or don't have an option to leave like a comment
1:06:36
on the platform. That e-mail address is
1:06:39
midgardmusingstn@gmail.com. You can write in and, you know,
1:06:46
leave your thoughts about this topic or any other previous
1:06:49
topics or even, you know, suggest topics.
1:06:52
I do have reserve topics of importance to certain tier
1:06:56
patrons on my Patreon, but I'm, I'm, I'm willing to hear
1:07:02
anybody's thoughts on the topic and, and see how that would fit
1:07:05
into a, a future episode. If you, if you so choose, you
1:07:09
can call into the hotline. It's a 615-671-9832 leave a
1:07:13
voicemail. You can remain anonymous.
1:07:18
We'll feature your, your voice clip of the of the voicemail on
1:07:21
a on a future episode. And, and thanks to that.
1:07:25
So yeah, there you guys go. Thank you again for for the
1:07:28
support. I appreciate everything that
1:07:31
you've all done over the years and up to recently and including
1:07:36
the support on Patreon and abroad means a lot.
1:07:42
So thank you all very much. See you year round, and until
1:07:46
then, may the gods continue to notice you.
1:07:50
May your ancestors smile upon you.
1:09:07
None.