Ambrosia Society's Research: https://ambrosiasociety.org/research/odin-and-the-eddas/
Odin dropped his eye in the well at the roots of the tree of life, Yggdrasil, in exchange for wisdom.
https://norse-mythology.org/tales/why-odin-is-one-eyed/
The wisdom sought appears to have been the correct 'ancient' way of being as the wisdom was imparted by a Titan/Aesir/Giant named Mimir from before the time of the Gods. Additionally this is supposed to be where Odin learned the secret of the runes.
https://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-cr ... ers/mimir/
About Yggdrasil and the well of Mirmir: https://norse-mythology.org/cosmology/y ... ll-of-urd/
It is said that the cap of Amanita Muscaria is the dropped eye of Odin (if looked at from the bottom). [need to find source].
Additional information: Appears to be related to the eye of horus (which was exchanged for health, not wisdom) and also the 'all seeing eye' of the modern occult.
https://gnosticwarrior.com/one-eye-of-odin.html
Eye of Horus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_of_Horus
The Eye Of Odin
- Amanita Research
- Site Admin
- Posts: 198
- Joined: Tue Oct 01, 2019 7:44 pm
- Has thanked: 143 times
- Been thanked: 106 times
- UrsusSapiens
- Posts: 52
- Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2019 7:36 am
- Has thanked: 26 times
- Been thanked: 86 times
Re: The Eye Of Odin
There are several accounts, that link Odin/Wotan/Woden to the fly agaric.... Most of them differ by region. The south germanic tradition e.g. connects the fly agaric to the foam dripping from the mouth of Wotans horse during the wild hunt.
Common to all germanic heathen tradition is the link fly agaric and Odin/Wotan/Woden, because he is the shaman god, the god of wisdom and ecstasy. That's why the fly agaric is also called "Rabenbrot" raven bread, since the ravens Hugin and Munin bring news from around the world to Wotan.
There are as well many links to Yul (winter solstice feast), Wotan and the fly agaric...
Common to all germanic heathen tradition is the link fly agaric and Odin/Wotan/Woden, because he is the shaman god, the god of wisdom and ecstasy. That's why the fly agaric is also called "Rabenbrot" raven bread, since the ravens Hugin and Munin bring news from around the world to Wotan.
There are as well many links to Yul (winter solstice feast), Wotan and the fly agaric...
- These users thanked the author UrsusSapiens for the post:
- Amanita Research
Nature isn't mute - it's man who is deaf.
- Amanita Research
- Site Admin
- Posts: 198
- Joined: Tue Oct 01, 2019 7:44 pm
- Has thanked: 143 times
- Been thanked: 106 times
Re: The Eye Of Odin
Yes, there is so much to cover. At the moment I'm just signposting all the various areas that can be discussed. I'm going to add in the (western) Alchemy and cult of Mithras in the next few days.
I'd love to know more about the regional differences regarding Odin. I also want to look though the Celtic myths and see what parallels, if any, there are.
For example, here is an account of the 'silver branch' with 'golden apples' which, apparently, came from a land where sickness and disease were non-existent. Obviously this echoes the legends of Idun and her golden apples as well as the golden apples of the Hesperides. Also, interestingly, the silver branch suggests the connection to the silver birch, but, as with all these things, it's speculative as to what they were actually referring to. If one looks to China we see that 'Magu' was yet another young, female Goddess of Immortality, again associated with the 'elixir of immortality'/sacred wine and her name is thought to derive from Old Persian/Iranian (Magi) suggesting a direct route of cultural transmission, probably along the old spice road. I think (and correct me if I'm wrong) that there are stories that Odin originally came up from the south? I can't remember exactly where I heard it but I see it echoed here where they suggest his name is a derivation of an old word meaning 'magician/shaman'. Again, if one is to speculate, we know that the 'Magi' (or their precursors) were roaming around at this time and directly influenced Pythagoras, Zarathustra and many others. Whoever these people were, they certainly had an impact on the world, all the way down to the modern age.
It's my view that there was clearly some group, probably predating even the ancient Iranians/Vedics, who travelled around the world spreading these myths and stories. One of which was related to the 'golden elixir of life'/ ambrosia, or Soma or whatever one wishes to call it. Obviously my strongest suspicion is that it was something to do with Amanita Muscaria (especially after looking at the work of Teeter). Especially when one goes though the scientific papers and finds out how powerful it is on a metabolic/neurological level. If this is indeed it, it's quite a stunning discovery for an ancient people. One wonders what else they knew. I suspect it's something to do with the people who left the Tarim mummies. They seemed to have advanced surgical techniques (looking at the healing exhibited by certain mummies found) and that this surgery predated Chinese records of it by a thousand years or so. They also clearly had trade connections stretching from Europe to China yet we know very little about them. All highly curious. They date from around 4000 years ago.
My view is that the reason for these cultural 'echoes' around the world is that they all stem from the same source, somewhere far back in pre-history. This is what I'm currently interested in. I wish I could get a clearer view on it all. Sadly, the best I can hope for is via some form of comparative mythology. So yes, if you have any more information on the regional variations of the stories of Odin I'd be very interested to know more.
I'd love to know more about the regional differences regarding Odin. I also want to look though the Celtic myths and see what parallels, if any, there are.
For example, here is an account of the 'silver branch' with 'golden apples' which, apparently, came from a land where sickness and disease were non-existent. Obviously this echoes the legends of Idun and her golden apples as well as the golden apples of the Hesperides. Also, interestingly, the silver branch suggests the connection to the silver birch, but, as with all these things, it's speculative as to what they were actually referring to. If one looks to China we see that 'Magu' was yet another young, female Goddess of Immortality, again associated with the 'elixir of immortality'/sacred wine and her name is thought to derive from Old Persian/Iranian (Magi) suggesting a direct route of cultural transmission, probably along the old spice road. I think (and correct me if I'm wrong) that there are stories that Odin originally came up from the south? I can't remember exactly where I heard it but I see it echoed here where they suggest his name is a derivation of an old word meaning 'magician/shaman'. Again, if one is to speculate, we know that the 'Magi' (or their precursors) were roaming around at this time and directly influenced Pythagoras, Zarathustra and many others. Whoever these people were, they certainly had an impact on the world, all the way down to the modern age.
It's my view that there was clearly some group, probably predating even the ancient Iranians/Vedics, who travelled around the world spreading these myths and stories. One of which was related to the 'golden elixir of life'/ ambrosia, or Soma or whatever one wishes to call it. Obviously my strongest suspicion is that it was something to do with Amanita Muscaria (especially after looking at the work of Teeter). Especially when one goes though the scientific papers and finds out how powerful it is on a metabolic/neurological level. If this is indeed it, it's quite a stunning discovery for an ancient people. One wonders what else they knew. I suspect it's something to do with the people who left the Tarim mummies. They seemed to have advanced surgical techniques (looking at the healing exhibited by certain mummies found) and that this surgery predated Chinese records of it by a thousand years or so. They also clearly had trade connections stretching from Europe to China yet we know very little about them. All highly curious. They date from around 4000 years ago.
My view is that the reason for these cultural 'echoes' around the world is that they all stem from the same source, somewhere far back in pre-history. This is what I'm currently interested in. I wish I could get a clearer view on it all. Sadly, the best I can hope for is via some form of comparative mythology. So yes, if you have any more information on the regional variations of the stories of Odin I'd be very interested to know more.
- UrsusSapiens
- Posts: 52
- Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2019 7:36 am
- Has thanked: 26 times
- Been thanked: 86 times
Re: The Eye Of Odin
This topos is indogermanic and is shared throughout the indogermanic language group.... Interesting is, that it is an "apple" (as far as I can recollect from my course in Old Norse) there stand "fruit".... The apple is NOT an autochthonic plant in Europe and came from central/west asia via Persian, Greeks and Romans up to the north to the Celtic and Germanic people... So the reference of the land where no sickness and disease existed could be quite simply the origin of the apple (just as well as a reference to the other world, where the gods live).For example, here is an account of the 'silver branch' with 'golden apples' which, apparently, came from a land where sickness and disease were non-existent. Obviously this echoes the legends of Idun and her golden apples as well as the golden apples of the Hesperides.
Well, there are stories, but please consider, that the heathen way of associating directions with otherwordly realms (e.g. "going north" means also "going to the underworld") can be quite irritating, when someone tries to interpret such stories.I think (and correct me if I'm wrong) that there are stories that Odin originally came up from the south?
[LINGUIST GEEK MODE ON] Odin (or Wotan in the South) derives from old high german "wout", germanic "uodanaz" meaning "rage" in the sense of "ecstasy/frenzy". He is a god of ecstasy and of the dead (so far his function as a psychopompos "leader of souls into the underworld"). The world "shaman" comes probably from the sami langauge, where it is a reference to the "sweating" during ecstatic practices. [LINGUIST GEEK MODE OFF]. So far, "Odin/Wotan/Woden" lends their name from the same semantic field as the word "shaman", without having morphologically spoken a genetical relation. But since the germanic belief as a "natural religion" was heavily based on shamanic elements, he could be considered as a "shaman god".I can't remember exactly where I heard it but I see it echoed here where they suggest his name is a derivation of an old word meaning 'magician/shaman'.
- These users thanked the author UrsusSapiens for the post:
- Amanita Research
Nature isn't mute - it's man who is deaf.
- Amanita Research
- Site Admin
- Posts: 198
- Joined: Tue Oct 01, 2019 7:44 pm
- Has thanked: 143 times
- Been thanked: 106 times
Re: The Eye Of Odin
Thank you for that, very interesting.
Regarding Odin, the stories I was referring to were those that suggested he was originally a Scythian warlord who was forced to move north as a result of Roman expansion. This is a poor source, so please forgive me, but this covers that story. Interestingly I see that he surrounded himself with '12 priests', again, like Christianity, echoing Astrotheology/ Sun worship. Alternatively there is the line of research that suggests Odin was representative of a 'new' norse God who came up from south/south-east Europe, presumably with whatever people brought the runes with them. Looking at the runes specifically, they also appear to have originated in Southern Europe.
If one reads this all together, that Odin was a 'new' God to the norse peoples and was central to the invention of runic scripts, it would appear likely that there was some sort of cultural or population migration attached to this event. Most likely from the south to the north. Obviously we can't know for certain, at least not on current evidence. What does seem clear, however, is that he did not originate in isolation.
Regarding 'apples', yes, I agree fully. I think using 'apple' to describe these ancient fruits was largely a metaphor, although buckets of apples have been found in Viking burials . Also, regarding the what the silver branch referred to, it was Tír na nÓg , the island of eternal youth. The supposed people who lived there, according to the celts, were themselves ancient celts and that those islands lay to the north. This parallels the 'island of the immortals' in Chinese and Japanese myths. On its own I'd put such similarities down to coincidence. However, when one looks at the legends of the Taoists and their stories of heating 'cinnabar' (mercury) in such a way as to give a 'golden elixir' this clearly parallels Western Alchemy of the same period yet claims to derive from an entirely separate route.
In case you are not aware, this is how cinnabar looks.
The old legend goes that if you heat Cinnabar in a certain way then it gives a 'golden elixir' that brings wisdom and heath. To try and turn the actual mercury that comes out of heated cinnabar golden the old alchemists used to add sulphur to give it a hint of gold/yellow. This, unsurprisingly, led to the deaths of thousands. This is equally true in Western Alchemy where they were looking for the product of the 'red king and the white queen'. Again thought to be sulphur and mercury. Even Newton is thought to have driven himself mad by drinking potions made from these exact same substances. I find it very curious that there exist these almost identical traditions of trying to make spiritual 'gold' out of mercury and sulphur. The Taoists say it came from people who came over their western mountains. Chinese Emperors sent out armies looking for the 'red mushroom of immortality' and searching for the 'isle of the immortals'. The Western Alchemists thought it came from Egypt via Persia. All very odd, and these people took it all very, very seriously. It was only later interpreted as a metaphorical spiritual quest (in both China and Europe). This was probably in no small part due to the amount of people killing themselves and driving themselves mad drinking their various 'elixirs'.
Anyway, to bring it back to the celts and their sacred isle for a moment, this ties in with all the discussion of 'Hyperborea', which the ancients found fascinating. I also note that they also suggested that it was the Scythians who were the original 'Hyperboreans' which again ties back to that origin story for Odin. These Scythians were a nomadic group who wandered everywhere from Europe to China. Perhaps they carried these stories with them. I guess we'll never know for sure, but it is all very interesting. What I think makes all this relevant to this forum is that it is my view that there was a common shamanic element throughout this period, one that I suspect involved the use of Amanita Muscaria. This is why it is behind the various myths we see around the world, from the Golden Elixir of China, to Soma, to Western Alchemy and arguably Christianity and so on.
It's all very complex, but the similarity in these various stories does suggest there was some sort of very specific cultural transmission over a very large area in prehistory. The various tribal/cultural belief systems only becoming fixed upon the advent or writing. From what we can tell, these were legends in the time of the first emperor of China at least, suggesting an historical root even further back in history.
Anyway, I'm far from an expert in any of this, so please forgive any errors I may have made. It is my plan to document all of this properly via the wiki and we can then see whether there is anything we can learn from all this. I intend to go through this in a step-by-step manner so please forgive my broad brush descriptions above but I hope you see what I'm getting at.
It is my view that there is something significant here. On the other hand they may just be a collection of loosely similar myths. We won't know for sure until we lay out all the evidence.
Regarding Odin, the stories I was referring to were those that suggested he was originally a Scythian warlord who was forced to move north as a result of Roman expansion. This is a poor source, so please forgive me, but this covers that story. Interestingly I see that he surrounded himself with '12 priests', again, like Christianity, echoing Astrotheology/ Sun worship. Alternatively there is the line of research that suggests Odin was representative of a 'new' norse God who came up from south/south-east Europe, presumably with whatever people brought the runes with them. Looking at the runes specifically, they also appear to have originated in Southern Europe.
If one reads this all together, that Odin was a 'new' God to the norse peoples and was central to the invention of runic scripts, it would appear likely that there was some sort of cultural or population migration attached to this event. Most likely from the south to the north. Obviously we can't know for certain, at least not on current evidence. What does seem clear, however, is that he did not originate in isolation.
Regarding 'apples', yes, I agree fully. I think using 'apple' to describe these ancient fruits was largely a metaphor, although buckets of apples have been found in Viking burials . Also, regarding the what the silver branch referred to, it was Tír na nÓg , the island of eternal youth. The supposed people who lived there, according to the celts, were themselves ancient celts and that those islands lay to the north. This parallels the 'island of the immortals' in Chinese and Japanese myths. On its own I'd put such similarities down to coincidence. However, when one looks at the legends of the Taoists and their stories of heating 'cinnabar' (mercury) in such a way as to give a 'golden elixir' this clearly parallels Western Alchemy of the same period yet claims to derive from an entirely separate route.
In case you are not aware, this is how cinnabar looks.
The old legend goes that if you heat Cinnabar in a certain way then it gives a 'golden elixir' that brings wisdom and heath. To try and turn the actual mercury that comes out of heated cinnabar golden the old alchemists used to add sulphur to give it a hint of gold/yellow. This, unsurprisingly, led to the deaths of thousands. This is equally true in Western Alchemy where they were looking for the product of the 'red king and the white queen'. Again thought to be sulphur and mercury. Even Newton is thought to have driven himself mad by drinking potions made from these exact same substances. I find it very curious that there exist these almost identical traditions of trying to make spiritual 'gold' out of mercury and sulphur. The Taoists say it came from people who came over their western mountains. Chinese Emperors sent out armies looking for the 'red mushroom of immortality' and searching for the 'isle of the immortals'. The Western Alchemists thought it came from Egypt via Persia. All very odd, and these people took it all very, very seriously. It was only later interpreted as a metaphorical spiritual quest (in both China and Europe). This was probably in no small part due to the amount of people killing themselves and driving themselves mad drinking their various 'elixirs'.
Anyway, to bring it back to the celts and their sacred isle for a moment, this ties in with all the discussion of 'Hyperborea', which the ancients found fascinating. I also note that they also suggested that it was the Scythians who were the original 'Hyperboreans' which again ties back to that origin story for Odin. These Scythians were a nomadic group who wandered everywhere from Europe to China. Perhaps they carried these stories with them. I guess we'll never know for sure, but it is all very interesting. What I think makes all this relevant to this forum is that it is my view that there was a common shamanic element throughout this period, one that I suspect involved the use of Amanita Muscaria. This is why it is behind the various myths we see around the world, from the Golden Elixir of China, to Soma, to Western Alchemy and arguably Christianity and so on.
It's all very complex, but the similarity in these various stories does suggest there was some sort of very specific cultural transmission over a very large area in prehistory. The various tribal/cultural belief systems only becoming fixed upon the advent or writing. From what we can tell, these were legends in the time of the first emperor of China at least, suggesting an historical root even further back in history.
Anyway, I'm far from an expert in any of this, so please forgive any errors I may have made. It is my plan to document all of this properly via the wiki and we can then see whether there is anything we can learn from all this. I intend to go through this in a step-by-step manner so please forgive my broad brush descriptions above but I hope you see what I'm getting at.
It is my view that there is something significant here. On the other hand they may just be a collection of loosely similar myths. We won't know for sure until we lay out all the evidence.