Ginnungagap: An Essay on Norse Cosmogony

"The Norse view of the Universe, according to the Eddas, was an extremely complicated thing. It was seen as a natural unfolding of events, which were then forced into their present shape by the will of the Æsir. This essay, I hope, will aid the beginning student in their understanding of this strange and truly wyrd phenomena.

The first thing that both Eddas describe is the Ginnungagap, or primordial void. This is both an easy, and extremely difficult thing to explain. This void is not a lack of substance, but rather a lack of discernible shape. All things originally have the Ginnungagap as their origin. The best analogy I can think of is a good chicken soup stock; full of flavor, but no real form. This is akin to the "seed matter" in the Big Bang Theory (which further shows how logical the Norse view is."

Excerpt from Ginnungagap: An Essay on Norse Cosmogony By Brian Smith

AbyssMal

"Ginnungagap is the abysmal gap of origin which forms the border between (ie, at once separates and joins) the northern ice and the southern fire. It is out of this gap through the action of the giants and gods that the world is born - middle earth (Miðgarð).

As with the Greeks, the mystery lies in the joint of what belongs below (ice, north, night, giants) with what belongs above (fire, south, day, gods). It is the nature of human being, the creatures of Miðgarð, to be subject to this mystery and to the care and anxiety which follow from its difficult complexity."

Gigantomachia A fascinating site researching the theme of historic wars between gods and giants.

Einherjars´ End

It´s the end of the world and we know it
As we burst from the gates of Valhall;
With the war-lust of Wodan upon us,
Today for the last time we´ll fall.

Frost and Flame, which first became
The seed of Ginnungagap´s womb,
Unleashed now wreak havoc on Midgard´s plain,
Destroying all life in their doom.

We go with the Gods against giants,
We battle the hordes of Hel,
But the Ice-Jotnar kill with a deadly chill,
And neither side can prevail.

Thundering Thor to the thurses
Of fire deals furious death;
By a shattering blow, the Serpent´s laid low,
But he falls to her poisonous breath.

Heimdall and Loki, like Freyr
And Surt become each other´s bane;
Blood spills on the ice like a sacrifice
As Aesir and Etins lie slain.

Odin alone with grim laughter
Fights Fenrir that swallowed the sky;
I see Valfather fall, to the grief of all
Us Einherjar, who follow to die.

Then, stillness after the turmoil;
We´ve lost but we also have won;
Not in vain our toil on the blood-stained soil,
With the end something else has begun.

As the last crackling embers are dying
And we ghosts fade like smoke in the air,
A vision of future comes flying,
I behold it as though I was there -- :

Barren and burnt lie the lands, but see !
Muspelli´s ashes make fertile the earth;
Thawed from the Ice, rivers run free,
Green is the ground, again Jord gives birth.

A new sun is shining through twigs entwining
- Lo, runes I spy against the blue sky !
Over the plain, the Wind blows again
And whispers old lore to a new Age of Men.

© 2004 Michaela Macha
Common Domain License Document

"The woman who gave birth to Buddha Shakyamuni is called in the scriptures, Mahamaya, meaning Great Maya, or Mayadevi, the Goddess Maya. ... Not only the month but many other traditions attest to the great age and wide distribution of the Goddess Maya. She was more than the Maia who mothered Hermes; she was also Maga the Grandmother-goddess who bore Cu Chulainn's mother; and the Mandaean Christian's Almaya, called "Eternity," or "the World," or "Beings"; and Maga or Maj the May-maiden in Scandinavia. Like the Hindu Maya who brought forth earthly appearances at creation, the Scandinavian one personified the pregnant womb of chaos before the beginning: Ginnungagap."

From a fascinating multi-cultural essay called Buddha's Mother found at khandro.net ~ a "premier site unique in situating Tibetan Buddhism within a wider context". Lovely.

chaos?

"It is from the 1st century BC Roman poet, Ovid, that we are given more description of Chaos. Before the earth, sea and heaven (as well as the heavenly bodies, such as the sun, moon and stars), before even there was the deathless gods, Chaos existed as formless mass. It was lifeless matter, where all elements of creation were heaped together, so that nothing could be distinguished from one another." Timeless Myths

How is Ginnungagap different from chaos? Is it different?

"In Norse mythology, the yawning chasm that existed at the beginning of the universe. The ‘Voluspa', a poem in the ‘Poetic (or Elder) Edda' whose name means “Sybil's Prophecy,” describes a land “at the beginning of time, when nothing was; sand was not, nor sea, nor cool waves. Earth did not exist, nor heaven on high. The mighty gap was, but no growth.” This was Ginnungagap.

Ginnungagap was not featureless or devoid of topography. Within it, to the north, lay Niflheim, a grim, mist-filled, icy wasteland. In the center of Niflheim the great spring Hvergelmir, the source of all rivers, churned and bubbled. The northernmost part of Niflheim was frozen solid. Its immense mountains of ice had been formed from Elivagar (or Élivágar, which means “icy waves”), a primordial river so ancient that its origins could never be known.

Some type of a poisonous flow had accompanied these waters from their indeterminable source. When the water had turned to ice, the vapor rising from the poison froze on top of it and turned to rime, and increased, layer upon layer. The northern part of Ginnungagap became filled with the weight and heaviness of ice and rime.

In the south of Ginnungagap lay Muspelheim, a region of fire, bright and hot, burning and impassible. A fire-giant, Surt, stood at the border of Muspelheim, ready to defend it, armed with a flaming sword.

Sparks and molten particles came flying out of Muspelheim up toward the center of Ginnungagap as the poisonous frost of Niflheim encroached from the north. Ginnungagap itself was as mild as a windless sky. Where the warmth met the ice and poisonous mist, the ice thawed and dripped, and the shape of a man formed. This was Ymir, whom the frost-giants called Aurgelmir (Mud Seether), and from him all the generations of frost giants descended. The next being to form was a great cow, Audhumia, who licked the ice and formed the progenitor of the gods, Buri. Buri's grandsons, the first gods, killed Ymir and brought his body to the center of Ginnungagap, and created heaven and Earth from it.

Niflheim and Muspelheim were not destroyed when Earth and heaven were created; they were realms that continued to exist in Norse cosmology. The Vikings believed that at the end of the world—Ragnarok—the fire-giant Surt would leave Muspelheim to engage in the battle and, with his flaming sword, would burn the whole world." Britannica Student Encyclopedia

"Long ago, before the Kings of Norway and Sweden and Denmark lived, before the Althing came to session every year, before the great Vikings found Vinland, before the Great Raids began, there were no men nor animals. There was no earth, no life, no water. Only a great and massive void, an eternal, an abyss called Ginnungagap. Out of the Ginnungagap came a terrible land shrouded in mist eternal, darkness everlasting. It was to the north, and it was known to all as Niflheim. In the midst of this dark and misty land burst forth a fountain known to the world as Hvergelmir, which was the beginning of twelve rivers which sprouted from it to travel throughout the void. To the south was the land of fire and brimstone, a land of heat unsatiable, of death and horror, Muspellsheim. Guarding the entrance to Muspellsheim was Surtur, who had a flaming sword. From this land came rivers of fire, containing poison the little by little gathered into solid mass. The ice flowing down from Niflheim and the solid poison from Muspellsheimm met whereupon the ice froze the poison. The heat from Muspellsheim melted the ice and borne from the poison was Ymir, the Father of the Frost Giants."

Not credited, but well written.

"Hel's womb in the earth ..."

"Hel was the Nordic Crone Goddess of the Afterlife whose abode was Niflheim. As Queen of the Underworld, it was said that she received the spirits of the dead, housing them in the elder tree until it was time for them to be reborn. In Denmark, she was worshipped as Hyldemoer, that is, Elder Mother. She was also seen as the Mountain Mother, dwelling in the earth where fire and ice meet. According to an Icelandic creation myth, in the beginning only a great chasm existed, called Ginnungagap, which was the opening to Hel's womb in the earth. On one side were the fiery volcanoes and on the other side, the ice and waters." In reference to the painting "Hel" by Sandra M. Stanton.

I've been a big fan of Ms. Stanton's work for a few years now ... beautiful Goddess images from every culture. Her full color prints are very reasonably priced and truly inspired. Highly recommended!

The Goddess In World Mythology

The Beguiling Of Gylfi

Gangleri asked: "How were things wrought, ere the races were and the tribes of men increased?"

Then said Hárr: "The streams called Ice-waves, those which were so long come from the fountain-heads that the yeasty venom upon them had hardened like the slag that runs out of the fire,--these then became ice; and when the ice halted and ceased to run, then it froze over above. But the drizzling rain that rose from the venom congealed to rime, and the rime increased, frost over frost, each over the other, even into Ginnungagap, the Yawning Void."

Then spake Jafnhárr: "Ginnungagap, which faced toward the northern quarter, became filled with heaviness, and masses of ice and rime, and from within, drizzling rain and gusts; but the southern part of the Yawning Void was lighted by those sparks and glowing masses which flew out of Múspellheim."

And Thridi said: "Just as cold arose out of Niflheim, and all terrible things, so also all that looked toward Múspellheim became hot and glowing; but Ginnungagap was as mild as windless air, and when the breath of heat met the rime, so that it melted and dripped, life was quickened from the yeast-drops, by the power of that which sent the heat, and became a man's form. And that man is named Ymir, but the Rime-Giants call him Aurgelimir."

From Gylfaginnin, The Prose Edda

Creation Myth

"In the beginning there was the void. And the void was called Ginnungagap. What does Ginnungagap mean? Yawning gap, beginning gap, gap with magical potential, mighty gap; these are a few of the educated guesses." Nicole Cherry, Author

Norse Mythology Homepage

Eva Ryn Johannissen

I recently came across the works of Eva Ryn Johannissen. She is a Swedish contemporary artist who creates beautiful abstract paintings.

Here she discusses her Nordic Mythology collection:

"These abstract paintings were all, to some extent, inspired by the old Nordic mythology. Like all great mythologies (and all great art) the colourful sagas of my Nordic ancestors were an expression of man's constant struggle to make sense of the world and ourselves. In their imaginative interpretations of the beginning and the end of the world and the birth, life and death of the gods these ancient stories contain a wealth of wisdom. As a contemporary artist I'm interested in their timeless aspects. Amidst all the contemporary belief in our own superior thinking and the ever-escalating pace of scientific progress, these myths are a poignant reminder that deep down man himself remains the same: a creature with a possibility to do good, and a tragic tendency to cause death and destruction." Eva Ryn Johannissen


Check out all her amazing work at evaryn.com

Ancient Nordic Spirituality: A Quest for Wisdom and Balance

"In seeking to develop a personal philosophy that is both emotionally and intellectually satisfying, many of us shallow-rooted European-Americans have been drawn to the world views expressed by Native Americans or peoples of the Far East. Appealing as this approach may be, it is very difficult for most people to become completely attuned to a cultural heritage that is not their own. While one can respect and admire "the Other," most of us will always remain to some extent an outsider, a visitor in someone else's culture. The sense of truly belonging that we all crave continues to elude us.

Fortunately for people of Nordic descent, there is an ancient world view that is ours to claim by right of heritage -- a philosophy as noble and earth-healing as those of the Far East or Native America." Douglas "Dag" Rossman, Author

Exactly! A wonderful article.

{ Link from evaryn.com }

Not much about Ginnungagap, but a fun telling of the Norse creation myth:

"With its bounty of brawny, barrel-chested gods and buxom goddesses, the ancient Norse religion of the Scandinavian and Germanic countries is truly the creation myth for fans of both pro wrestling and heavy metal music.

According to Norse lore, before there was Earth (Midgard), there was Muspell, a fiery land guarded by the fire sword-wielding Surt; Ginnungagap, a great void, and Niflheim, a frozen ice-covered land. When the cold of Niflheim touched the fires of Muspell, the giant Ymir and a behemothic cow, Auohumla, emerged from the thaw.

Then, the cow licked the god Bor and his wife into being. The couple gave birth to Buri, who fathered three sons, Odin, Vili, and Ve. The sons rose up and killed Ymir and from his corpse created from his flesh, the Earth; the mountains from his bones, trees with his hair and rivers, and the seas and lakes with his blood. Within Ymir's hollowed-out skull, the gods created the starry heavens.

What can we say: Pure metal magic!!"

Spinneyhead

Ginnungagap by Therion, a Swedish black metal band


[In the beginning there was a void, a big gap of darkness, filled with the primal forces of creation. The heat of Muspel and the ice of Nifel made the essence of life come forth from the void. The first living being, The Giant Ymer, was born out of darkness and he is the ancestor of the creatures of the universe. The world was formed from his slaughtered body. Ginnungagap is the black hole from which everything came out and into which everything will return in the end.]


Fall deep into Void
(in the) black hole of Nothing

[Soprano:]
Hail, Flow of Vergelmar
Hail, Flow of Vergelmar
Hail, Flow of Vergelmar
Hail, Old Void!

[Alto:]
Hail, Flow of Vergelmar
Heat of creation
Hail, Flow of Vergelmar
Hail, Old Void!

[Tenor/bass:]
Spark in the Nothingness
Heat of creation
Make the ice start to melt
life wake up in the void.

Ymer is born, fire and ice
Chaos will form, Megin will rise

Fader Ymer drack fran urkon
En strom av mjolk som gav oss liv.

Oppna gapet i ryndend mitt
Floda av blod fran Ymers kropt
Varldar skapas utav hans kott
Nio (till) antal pa Yggorasil.

Ymers gap - Ymers runa
Ymers ond - Ymers urlag



"Some things don’t translate very well and that’s why we kept them in Swedish. That’s why the first song is beginning in English and ending in Swedish, these lines translated to English wouldn’t make any sense." Christofer Johnsson, Therion

(quote from Metalbite)

"Ginnungagap (Scandianvian Norse). The "cup of illusion" literally; the abyss of the great deep, or the shoreless, beginningless, and endless, yawning gulf; which in esoteric parlance we call the "World’s Matrix", the primordial living space. The cup that contains the universe, hence the "cup of illusion".

...

The gaping void of Norse mythology; space as an unimaginable abstraction, without form and void. The formless void that preceded creation, and the abode of the gods during the long night of nonbeing. The prefix "ginn" is found only in conjunction with such words a ginnheilog (the supreme divine essence), ginnregin (the highest gods, superior to the aesir and even the vanir). Ginnungave represents the "most holy sanctuaries" -- the universe. Odin in his loftiest aspect is referred to as ginnarr, connoting the aether or Sanskrit akasa. The verb ginna also means to delude or play a trick on.

According to the Edda's poetic description, before the existence of worlds, there was naught but Ginnungagap. All matter was frozen in a state of nonbeing, for in the absence of the energizing impulsion (the gods) nothing moved, no atoms existed, hence no matter. This state of non-existence was portrayed as the frost giant Ymir, which resulted when heat from the fiery world, Muspellsheim (home of flame), met the vapors from the world of mists, Niflheim (home of nebulae), creating fertile vapor in the void."

From A Wisdom Archive on Ginnungagap

From a fabulously verbose review in Stylus Magazine of the heavy metal band Ginnungagap:

"Ginnungagap is THE Void—the one that predated all the let-there-be performative polysyllabic spew; the selfsame chasm as Hesiod’s chaos, as the Pre-Socratic void-as-some-sort-of-gap principium sapientiae, as a pinprick of a point affixed to a Euclidean Plane where matrices decide its transformation in an axis wholly arbitrary. Pre-universe, pre-particular, pre-pre’s basement’s basement, there was the neuroscience drenched Nordic yawn, the reaction involuntary to a Boredom disseminated from the Gape of Nothingness. Whilst reading the Eddas, one’s clued into cosmology’s state pre-cosmology: there was once this boundless boundlessness; a period of no heaven nor earth placed at the end of a declarative sentence devoid of syntax, or judgment—logical or illogical. There was only Space. —Space w/out top nor bottom. Space populated only with a mist/fog that flew from a central fountain; an origin that originated twelve rivers that ran upon one another; and in the grip of the Great Cold, froze, filling the void as water weighs its well. Contra Newton’s notion of Space as absolute, as the great Unchanging Unchangeable, the Nordic Void altered out of alteration itself; boundary belted across the waist of the Primordial. — Hence Ginnungagap. Thus Ginnungagap, once keeping Muspell (flame’s locus) and Niflheim (mist’s locus) seemingly contained, loosened its grasp: warm winds wore down ice and birthed Being: Ymir. Like the Christians’ Christ, Ymir was ‘blood ransom’: for the Earth to be rendered extant, he was slain. Ymir’s body became terra firma; bones broke into ranges of mountains; blood slipped into seas; hair hardened into trees; his skull split into the clouds and became the heavens. Common dictum: To make, one must have material."

From Morgana's Observatory site:

Odin is the All-Father. He is the oldest and most powerful of the Gods. Through the ages he has ruled all things. He created heaven and earth, and he made man and gave him a soul. But even the All-Father was not the very first.

In the beginning, there was no earth, no sea, no sky. Only the emptiness of Ginnungagap, waiting to be filled. In the south, the fiery realm of Muspell came into being, and in the north, the icy realm of Niflheim. Fire and ice played across the emptiness. And in the center of nothingness the air grew mild. Where the warm air from Muspell met the cold air from Niflheim, the ice began to thaw. As it dripped, it shaped itself into the form of a sleeping giant. His name was Ymir, and he was evil.

As Ymir slept, he began to sweat. There grew beneath his left arm a male and a female, and from his legs another male was created. These were the first frost giants, all of whom are descended from Ymir.

Then the ice-melt formed a cow, named Audhumla. Four rivers of milk flowed from her and fed Ymir. Audhumla nourished herself by licking the salty blocks of ice all around. By the end of her first day she had uncovered the hair of a head. By the end of her second day the whole head was exposed, and by the end of a third day there was a complete man, His name was Buri, and he was strong and handsome. Buri had a son named Bor, who married Bestla, the daughter of one of the frost giants. Bor and Bestla had three sons: Odin, Vili and Ve.

Odin and his brothers hated the brutal frost giant Ymir, and they slew him. So much blood flowed from the slaughtered giant that it drowned all the frost giants save Bergelmir and his wife, who escaped in a boat made from a hollowed tree trunk.

From Ymir's flesh, Odin and his brothers made the earth, and from his shattered bones and teeth, they made the rocks and stones. From Ymir's blood, they made the rivers and lakes, and they circled the earth with an ocean of blood.

Ymir's skull they made into the sky, secured at four points by four dwarfs named East, West, North and South. They flung sparks of fire from Muspell high into the sky to make the sun, the moon, and the stars. From Ymir's brains, they shaped the clouds.

The earth was made in the form of a circle and around the edge of it lay the great sea. Odin and his brothers gave one area, Jotunheim, to the giants. They also established the kingdom of Midgard, protecting it from the giants with fortifications made from Ymir's eyebrows.

One day, as they walked along the shore of the great sea, Odin and his brothers came across two logs. Odin gave them breath and life; Vili gave them brains and feelings; and Ve gave them hearing and sight. These were the first man, Ask, and the first woman, Embla, and Midgard was their home. From them, all the families of mankind are descended.

Below Midgard is the icy realm of death, Niflheim. Above it is the realm of the Gods, Asgard, where Odin sits on his throne and watches over all the worlds. Asgard and Midgard are linked by a rainbow bridge, Bifrost.

At the center of all the realms is a great ash tree, Yggdrasil, whose branches shade the world, and whose roots support it.

The Elder Voluspa
And thus it was before that first aeon, when stood only the great Irminsul, Allpillar, of Skyfather Teiwaz, and about it swirled only the Ginnungagap, its great expanse; for all else in the cosmos was not yet to be. Neither the land nor the sea, nor sky, nor depths, not even time herself; the void was all, save the pillar, and the pillar all, save the void, and thus it was in the begining, before time. From this immemorial begining, order was yet to be imposed upon the terrrible void, but lo, already, there had arisen three great roots to the pillar.

And these roots were to find firmament, and gather onto themselves all manner and means of athem. The first was height Urthra, the second Verthrandi, and from these first arose the third, Skouldth; and they were to weave the very fabric of the universe, like a tapestry, but not yet.

And there was a loud booming cry, the wantlust of becoming, and this first sound, Orgalmer, set in motion the roots, the eldritch Norns. As these great three Norns awoke, so did that column, in the East, was worldly Erdtha from the West washed over Aegir, in the South burned bright Logi, and in the North wind-swept Kari. And these were the first beings of the multiverse They gave rise to all that followed, the etins and gods, Dis and Alf, and between them the children of Ask and Embla.

Kari opened her eyes and from their brilliance the Irminsul first was seen, Teiwazfader. And he placed a son named Buri deep in the ice of Nifelheim as it was comming to be; sprung forth from Hvergelmir, daughter of Aegir and first wave bourne of the seas. Buri and Greta had begotten one named Tiw, and he was the flyjja-sprig of his Great Grandfather and the brightest star in the heavens.

The mighty Logi spit fire upon the Sky and the twins Tiazzi and Surt came forth, and together they begat Muspellheim. Their daughter Zeisa took with Teiwaz to beget Groa, whose fire burns bright in the Northern Skies.

Njord washed down about the pillar, and his child Aegir had taken Ran, and begat the Nine Waves, who in turn, mothered Heimdall, from them spring all manner of sea-wight and maid. From their waves the Ice of Nifelheim formed.

Amongst the earth-wights Ertha was first, and she had a daughter named Fulla who's sister is Frigga. And from her line all twelve handmaids spring, eldest is Frejya, and first of the Dis bourne of the Earth. They are the Mothers and Antecessors of all nine tribes.
From this Past becomming arose the race of Etins too, the twin , Ymir, who was to beget Augelmir and Bergelmir...and so too, he was placed in the ice, though much later in the formation of Nifelheim.

At the top of this World Tree perched the Eagle, eyes of the Brilliant and Glorious God, and he surveyed the work of the three Wyrd Sisters. Even as They grew up from the bottom, so too did He grow down to the firmament from the Sky. As it happened above, so too below it came to be.

These creatures at the root, who were together height the Nornir, the weavers of the life of the Nine Worlds yet to be, Measurers, and Keepers of Time, marked this the beginning, and so it was.

Thus did the first three worlds came to be, the land of Fire and that of Ice, and the force of order between them, called Gladsheim. There those Elder Watchers met and held counsel, there the plans for the Nine Worlds were laid, and there, all-doom sealed.

Ginnungagap
From the Voluspa section of the Norse-Icelandic Poetic Edda:

Of old was the age, when Ymir lived;
Sea nor cool waves, nor sand there were;
Earth had not been, nor heaven above,
But a yawning gap, and grass nowhere.

Ginnungagap is the abysmal gap of origin which forms the border between (ie, at once separates and joins) the northern ice and the southern fire. It is out of this gap through the action of the giants and gods that the world is born - middle earth (Miðgarð).

As with the Greeks, the mystery lies in the joint of what belongs below (ice, north, night, giants) with what belongs above (fire, south, day, gods). It is the nature of human being, the creatures of Miðgarð, to be subject to this mystery and to the care and anxiety which follow from its difficult complexity.

The Fall Through Ginnungagap
by Amon Amarth

Once I was - Now I am no more
A burst of flames threw me into oblivion
The life I knew - Seems distant and unreal
A fading dream, a memory I can't recall

Am I real - I can no longer tell
A notion tells me I still exist
Infinite dark - Through this void I float
Resting, waiting for the day

When I will live again
Eons pass or maybe I just blinked
Deeper into this hell I sink
Falling through Ginnungagap

I'm pulled towards an unseen gate
I seem to hear my name being called
I float towards these cries of fate
Faster than - the speed of light

I am falling through universe
Stars flash by - Before my eyes
The time has come to return
Out of the dark - Into the light

Back into life I am cast

By my side - A demon army rides
We ride to reclaim that once we lost
Eons have passed, I'm back from the dead
Victory lies ahead

Ginuap As Goddess

I imagine ...

She walks among us. Still The Void, yet she thinks herself into being and travels from her home between fire and ice. Nothing becomes Something and She is bright and awesome.

She is a sister to chat with about troubles. She is the Hag who does not turn the other cheek. She is the Grandmother who gives advice. She is the caring Mother who offers comfort, yet encourages independence. She is the Queen, overflowing with power and willing to direct it wisely. She is the child, innocent and filled with joy.

In the guise of a woman, she walks the world taller than most, wider than most. She takes her space. She is a Giant Maid, draped in a cloak deep as the blue sky right before it turns to black. Her hair is thick flaxen gold and falls to her knees; her warm, kind eyes are violet.

She is strong beyond measure yet gentle to all with good hearts. All creation adores her, drawn to her like a lover. Cats, wolverines, blue jays, raccoons and crows are called to her side.

She comes to teach women, but also herself ... Life learning from life. She opens the door to intuition, to calling power up and through ourselves, stirring our creativity. Reminding us of the Gap, Womb, Void that she is. How to draw strength in every aspect of our lives.

To those with hearts free of malice, She is loyal, wise and loving. She is abundant, fertile with creation. She knows we've all chosen our individual journeys before this life and blesses us in both happiness and sorrow. We are invited to borrow her energy; but we're only drawing on the conduit of Life within us.

Author Unknown ... to read and think on ...



ginnungagap
the holy gap
a wonder
we can not replace the all-pervading silence
with a god
gods are worldly ~ ginnungagap is not
actions are in the world ~ the gap does not take part
it is not the creator
yet without it
nothing in the created world can exist



Open up the inner space and enter. The treasure is there -- in here not out there.

This little great book, Óðsmál, is a clever depute into the understanding of the ancient wisdom of our revered heathen ancestors. We can call their wisdom the profound knowledge contained in heathenry, or paganry, ethnic religion, folk traditions, or ásatrú (asatru), or Frey-cult, or shaman, or we can call it the wisdom of the ancient Norse, the eternal tradition, or the theosophy in the sacred texts of edda.

Whatever one prefers to name it, this little chatters give insight into the essence of pure spirituality and great science contained in the much misunderstood -- and sometimes deliberately misinterpreted -- edda of the North, heathenry of the spiritual heritage of Norse folk. We shall have to start by understanding ginnungagap. Once we master that intellectually, we will be able to unfold the veil that gently covers the eternal Truth. But Truth can not be perceived intellectually only. That is where the trouble begins for the profane mind. Nature is a veil, created matter hides Reality, ginnungagap, out of sight.

But never worry. It is not a heathen way of life to worry, anyway. The so-called mystic is easy to understand, and easy to find, once we have this simple guide to tell us what mystic is all about.

So we start with the gap. Everything starts from the gap and without it nothing can be. The name that modern science has for the mystical part or the universe, or for the All-pervasive Universal Spirit, is The Unified Field. We can find It wherever we look for It, but It can not be seen with our worldly eyes. Neither can It be registered with contraptions that extend our worldly sight and other senses. Nor can It be detected with data-collecting device or any kind of measuring instruments. That is because in The Field - perfect silence is, perfect stillness prevails.

But The Unified Field is real all the same. The Unified Field is Reality, while the matter part of the world is not stable at all. The Unified Field is eternal whereas the matter-world is partial and ever changing. The Unified Field is integrating while worldly phenomena decompose as a part of perpetual natural cycles.

Change.

In the relative world there is duality, good-bad, creating-decomposing, gods-eotens, love-hate, etc. In The Field there is only that harmonized oneness. Can The Field be the real thing? We can not see it anywhere. Can the material part be mirages only? We can grasp matter and thoughts, but we can not grasp the concept of ginnungagap.

It is All Possibilities, it is Silence, it is Knowledge. Not a "thing" but Reality. Unbounded and is Eternity. It has no attributes, yet we are It. If we can follow this explanation, this seemingly lofty and irrational speculation, not explaining anything we can let it go. We are in The Universal Spirit. We are It.

And we can say that It is everywhere, omnipresent, omniscient. Everything created has its basis in It, and depends on It. All worldly things and phenomena. It is he space inside atoms, inside quarks, inside every, however tiny, material bit. Behind any faintest vibration that we can perceive of, It is. Even inside our feelings and inside the music we compose. It is the huge emptiness inside all, which modern science tells us about. But It is not Nothingness at all in spite of It being infinite silence. It is The Great Void that is swelling with creativity and potential.

It is the Origin of the whole universe.

There are no substantial bonds or links between ginnungagap and the created bits and peaces and vibrations. It is completely detached from Its creation. Should the flickering vision of the material world cease within the Great Void the universe would crumble down, just as easily as a thought goes away in our mind.

Just as thoughts come and go all the time, without any regret on our behalf, actually, so are the phenomena in the world only contemporary thoughts to the Great Void, the gap ginnunga. Human thoughts are worldly stuff. Within them is the Great Void, The Universal Spirit, The Unified Field. It, the ginnungagap, is the origin of our human thoughts as well as It is to be found inside everything else in this our beautiful mirage that we name world. We have to stop and think here, as this is the most vital part to understand if we want to understand the essence of heathenry, the mystic of unworldly Reality, pure spirituality. It is a good thing to understand The Unified Field of science. And when we want to learn how to gain the powerful infusion from ginnungagap we should realize that that is exactly the same thing.

That is what heathenry is all about in its purest form. Science does not call it mystic. Scientists call it plainly modern science. A fully understandable and explicable (explainable) "thing", that is no "thing" at all, only the very origin of all things. But I must repeat: All thoughts, good and bad, are worldly. We can learn all these concepts intellectually. We see that. But, as our thoughts belong to the physical world only, we have to leave them there, where they belong, if we want to transcend and emerge into ginnungagap.

In that realm of pure knowledge there is infinite silence and our thoughts can not, because of their very nature, their worldly nature, go there. The sphere of Reality can be lived within only. Within and beyond the worldly sphere where our thoughts belong. At each time only a small part of humanity has reached a state of consciousness where understanding is possible.

What is the purpose of life?

The purpose of life is the expansion of happiness

It is enjoying the evolutionary path towards perfection

Understanding by taking one step at a time is the best way. The gradual easy steps are most promising. There is no over-night revelation to pray for, as expectations and eagerness might lead to thoughts only. Thoughts are worldly, and thoughts draw our attention to the world. We find the gap inbetween thoughts.

Heathens in the North name the All-pervasive Spirit (the Unified Field) "ginnungagap". Gap (pronounced: gaab) means: an enormously huge empty space. Ginn means: very sacred, very holy, entirely pure. Ginna (verb) has another meaning: To deceive, mislead, trick, lure.

This is our first joke and puzzle to learn. The double meaning of the concepts used, is a part of the game. Get used to that tricky way of teaching about the mystical. The mythology of the Norse is full of smilies and enigmas. The fun and tricks are a part of the very message. The deception bears a message in itself. We better take that frolic into account from the very beginning. Concepts of a double meaning and of multiple levels are used all the time to convey the messages. These slippery concepts are piquant spices in the Norse game of seeking Truth within man.

A bad thing to happen to a man is to believe, unless it is only the certain notion that we are the gap. That is the only believing that promotes evolution.

Heathens do not believe in institutions. They believe there is might found within, believe that everything comes from the gap. Belief is an all-worldly trap. To have found the "only right" something is actually our blindness. But this must not have us stop looking for the peace within.

The first riddle:

What is super-sacred (ginnhelgt), an all-pervasive void, is everywhere, was before the first trace of matter, before Ymir. It contains all potentials, is a deception, is nowhere when you look for it. It is here especially when you are not looking. It is everywhere, but cannot be seen by worldly eyes. It is within us - it's within me and within you - within that stone over there and our human thoughts. It is bigger than the biggest, smaller than the smallest. Most importantly, without it there is no universe; the world would simply tumble and vanish in a puff of irrationality if it was not for it.

So what is it?

We are looking for it because we do know that it exists. Our quest is to understand.

This leads us seemingly nowhere, but living a life is the game itself, the game of life. First we fill our heads with questions, then we are told that thinking is what we have to get rid of in order to understand.

The Unified Field (The Universal Spirit) is pure knowledge. It is The Universal Consciousness. Our human consciousness is thereof. This Field is the real essence in us. It is Brahman of the Veda. The Great Sacred Eternal Oneness in here. Our divine essence.

So, if we are going to find it, we look within ourselves. But our thoughts can not take us there. We need to leave them in the relative world where they belong. Only our divine part, our individual consciousness, goes on, inwards, beyond, and emerges into the Universal Consciousness, The Unified Field, ginnungagap.

The nature of the mind is to think. Thoughts are so natural to the human mind, that we can not just tell the mind to stop thinking. Transcending the world of matter comes naturally to us, because seeking rest and tranquility in our very essence. Therefore natural and easy. Strain spoils, expectations spoil. "Curiously spying down" the Hávamál calls it.

But too much thinking ruins the whole game.

However inbetween our thoughts that come and go there is a gap. That is The Gap, ginnungagap. But as soon as we try to detect the gap intellectually, we have lost it to an all-worldly thought about the sacred gap. That is not the gap itself, only a worldly thought.

Therefore it is recommended to do "thoughtless" research in consciousness:

An easy technique to transcend, TM®, can be learned. The process is delicate, without strain, easy, suits the busy modern man. It is the best therapy against stress of the world. There are TM-centers in many towns all over the world. 20 minutes twice a day is all we need. It is fun to leave our thoughts effortlessly.

The mind, nor even a thought can enter, only our self. But we take advantage of the nature of the mind to seek happiness and bliss. Because the Great Silence has a greater charm than the amusing worldly thoughts, the mind naturally tends to seek "home" to ginnungagap. We learn to understand how it works and enjoy it easily.

The nature of the mind is to think (worldly thoughts of our worldly mind) and we do not fight that, but our innermost essence is The Great Silence, so it is very natural to us to reach It, luring the mind to seek bliss, and that is what we do by charming the mind to rest, still fully awake, and it becomes infused by the eternal power.

Ginnungagap, Brahman, samhita, The Unified Field, "the wonder", is what heathens, scientists, gnostics, buddha-men, hindus, are determined to find. Some know that we find it inside and that we are IT, some seek all over the place (world) without finding that nirvana, the blow-out of human thought to become IT exclusively -- fully alive all our lives over and over again. We are in It, but It is not in us. We are It, as indivituals we are It, and when we transcend we are only IT.

Ginnungagap by Micha F. Lindemans Encyclopedia Mythica

"Ginnungagap - 'seeming emptiness' [I like this definition! Only seemingly empty. Very interesting!], in the cosmology of Norse mythology, is the primordial void separating Niflheim and Muspell, the land of eternal ice and snow and the land of eternal heat and flame.

In the beginning, before the world of men and gods existed, the spring Hvergelmir, deep in the frozen wastes of Niflheim, gave rise to eleven rivers known as the Elivagar. Over a long period of time, water of the Elivagar ran across Niflheim and poured into the northern part of Ginnungagap. The water froze, forming vast sheets of ice in the void. Hot air from Muspell melted some of the ice, creating a zone of meltwater amid the ice and snow. Here life began, and the first living thing was a frost giant (Ymir)."

I've been researching deeper into Nordic myths. I want my personal archetype Goddess to come from the same people as I do. Not just a symbol of the greater truth, but a symbol of MY greater truth, ethics, values.

So first comes conception and birth.

I'm attracted to Ginnungagap - 'wide open gap' - the huge void before the world began. It was located between Nifilheim (the world of mist, ice, fog) and Muspelheim (a place of fire, flame, sparks).

I'm seeing the great birthing cunt of Mother Earth, from which all life springs. She is the gap. She is the void, the nothing before something.

I'll be thinking on it all and researching Ginnungagap.

Beltane ~ A good day for fertile creativity.

I've been thinking about this for a long time, decided to create an online journal to explore my ideas further.

In my experience, religious systems are taught from the outside in. I don't want to follow the ethics, rites and symbolism of any spiritual tenet other than my own - I want religion from the inside out.

I'm going to create a personal Goddess archetype from things that just naturally feel right. If I'm a microcosm of the microcosm that is God/dess, then I imagine the spiritual framework right for me is self-installed.

Let's see what I discover.