Intimations of Ancient Being

I was a spaced-out child, rather stupid and day-dreamy. I would go about in my personal dream-haze, drawn to things of the imagination, feeling-images, strange states of mind. I'm sure that my memories are selective, but what I remember now, half a century on, are these perceptions alternate to reality, and mostly I remember those relating to Nature. Is it that I was conditioned to respond to Nature in terms of Nature-romanticism? There was enough of that around, in children's literature, children's television programming. The first movie I ever saw was Bambi! But I probably had a bent toward this, and not much to cars and jets and sports and such, despite that being normal. Nature was where the wonder was. We were surrounded by woods, in our small apartment development, and there was also a meadow and stream. People, by contrast, were alien, incomprehensible-- what could you do with them? The meaning of life came from dream-visions, that were elicited by television, or books, or just day-dreaming, and when the season was favorable, by being outside with trees and grass and sky. And it all blended together.

When adolescence changed my life, the "strangeness factor" came to the fore. I was drawn to almost everything that was uncanny, mysterious, odd-- in short, Romantic. I knew I was a weird kid; I even took pride in it. But there was so much that was strange about, if you looked for it-- especially in certain stretches of the public library shelves-- and it all blended not very well, and so there was tremendous teenaged cognitive dissonance confusion, to add to all the other traumas, one of which was from being a teenager in the Sixties, when too much was happening at once, too much to make sense of it all.

But Nature still loomed large in my inner life, and I still spent a lot of time wandering in the woods, or day-dreaming on my bed, remembering places, some of which I had never been. One of the great appeals of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings was all the description of wild places-- in my romantic imagination transformed into otherworldly panoramas, with the sort of mystical states of mind illuminating them as when I was a child. I wanted to live in Middle Earth-- at least, the nicer parts of this Other World. This was where the meaning of life was, in these dream-visions. If only I could stay in this blessed state forever.

One thing about Middle Earth was that it was so ancient. Ancientness, or timelessness, was an important part of the meaning. I can remember on a family vacation trip when we drove through a very rugged upland valley, and the trees were so real, and the rough rock-faces were so stark, and I got this powerful feeling of timeless gnarly ancientness, primeval majesty. And now I recall other times, while vacation-traveling, having similar experiences, or in bed-top reveries. There was a powerful mystical presence in wild Nature that you could experience sometimes, more real and meaningful than anything else. Nobody else seemed to know anything about it. All they cared about was human things like cars and houses and shopping, and entertaining yourself, having a good time.

But I wonder if there was a time when everybody had these intimations of ancient Being from Nature, a strong sense of the unique essence of particular nature-spots, of the ancient everness of them. And because few of us do, anymore-- we're so adapted to incessant flux and distraction and innovation and novelty and upgrading and stuff to cram our lives with-- we blithely, heedlessly destroy the Earth so we can have the good life for ourselves-- cars and houses and shopping and all the goods and experiences that make life worthwhile, that you've got to have-- what life is all about. So they say.

But give me the mystical-visionary experience of Ancient Being and Natural Mind in unspoiled Nature, not the ersatz monstrosity that passes for real life in the human world.

The Role of the Alfs

There's an Anglo-Saxon word, "aelf-siden", which means "elvish influence". Under Christendom, elves tended to be feared. They certainly weren't Christian (and, so, of the Devil, right?). They attacked cattle and people with "elf-shot", which caused afflictions, and they were also responsible for nightmares (even of a sexual sort--"It was an elf, Father! Not me!!!"). And of course elves could always cast a glamour or a spell upon one for malign purposes. That sort of influence, then.

The interesting thing about "siden", though, is that the dictionaries don't say what it derived from. I tended to think it was allied to Norse "seidhr" (~A-S "sidesa"), which was about exerting magical influence on others. But now I prefer to see it as allied as well to A-S "sidu" ="custom, virtuous conduct, morality", "sidian" ="to arrange, set right, order", and Norse "sidha" ="to mend, to improve one's life and manners".

In the Shaggy Mythos, the role of the Alfs is as ecological agents of a higher level of civilization than that of the general run of humans, and as such they seek to use their influence, by all means, magical or not, to stop humans from destroying the Biosphere and to form (with alfisch assistance, of course) a new Ecological Civilization, which is the only recourse to ultimate Dilgoth, an extinction event that's likely to bring down our present global civilization, and the human animal perhaps to its doom, and to either make the Earth a sterile husk or knock the Biosphere back to a drastically truncated form. This may seem like fantasy fiction sometimes ("This can't be real!"), but it is real, and the Mythos is a "real" fiction-- it's meant to be about the real crisis of global civilization now-- the human-caused destruction of the Biosphere-- which is happening now and will continue to happen. So the Mythos isn't meant to be taken as a mere fantasy, an entertainment. It's applicable to the grim reality of our time.

And as for Alfs, there must be a self-conscious, worldwide class of people who are, in effect, the Alfar, with the consciousness, the sense of responsibility, the determined will to act against the Ecocatastrophe and to form the Ecological Civilization in a prudent and effective manner. Someone must. This class of people exists already, of course, and their movement exists, and when you read the Eormennisch material of the Shaggy Mythos, you can do your own translation into real-world terms (with a little glossary help). If you are one of these people, these Alfar, then the Mythos is meant to be of use to you, as a spiritual support, as it is to me, in the struggle to save the Earth.

The Wodhewyzer

(word-help below)

The Wodhewyzer wanders through the Land, having of it what it gives to him, what comes, to see and hear and smell and taste and feel. And this settles in his mind and in his marrow and brews a mead that seeps through his flesh and wants to go forth to drench the Land and all its kinds, and it sweats out and breathes out and as the Wodhewyzer walks, he sheds this drench, this bletsing, and with his fingers he flicks a mist of mead upon the luft, and the ground and the leafage, and all about him shines with the farben of Twyrymet. And there can be read many things that come not freely to the mind, like the mode and will of the Land-dragon, who shimmers half-seen in the bush, and the feelings of the kinds- growers and goers upon the Land. And he hears the song of the Land, so still on the luft.

And this is what the Wodhewyzer gives back to the Land. And in his wake you may catch slightly a trace of this shine about you, if you walk his way.

Wodhewyzer= inspired sage.
kinds= species.
drench= fluid.
bletsing= blessing.
luft= air.
farben= colors.
Twyrymet= space blended of Edhli(Nature) and Immynd(imagination)= Edhli-immynd.
mode= inner feeling of heart, soul, spirit.

What Lurks Within the Earthy Sowel

(word-help below)

The Sowel seats in the Marrow-bed, most strongly in the rich ground of the Brain-marrow.

The Sowel is the Ur-mind, and so it is feelsome and fleshly, the fat rootstock of the Self.

In its heavy, warm, dark depth is our Derlic Self and our nearness to all Life, all growthly things, now and ere-now.

All things are melded in the Sowel, but not lost so, for there is a guiding knowing embedded in its heart that keeps them all fast, and it handles them together as is done, for it is one with the Edhli-verden. And so the need of all living things together is heard by this heartsome beingness.

It is the Lodestone here of which I tell, whose guiding hand upon the Sowel is felt by us betimes, and if we listen in stillness, we too will feel, we will know, how to be, how to go. And so the Life-drang will urge us forward and the Nennen charge us, and we can do good and right for the Sake of Edhli and all Life-kinds from our earthy Sowel.


Sowel= soul.

Ur-mind= original psyche.

Derlic= animal.

Edhli-verden= the Realm of Nature.

Life-drang= life-force.

Nennen= energy.