Yule: a New Tiding

This day the New begins. From its depth the truly Old begets the truly New.  And of the darkest time the Wolken sparks Light and Wyrd shifts and Menning starts to shape, and of this new tiding is hope come to this world under thrack.

And so today a New Tiding has come.  So "Yowl!" with the Yule-lads at the rising of the Menning, a Green Sun to light the Earth, to quell the darkness, even so as these Hag-sons drive out the Draugs who make Dilgoth, make Eydhi of Edhli.

So now band with the Yule-Drylar in their fight to werf Wyrd, to make Menning on Earth for all time to come.  Hail Yule!

Tiding-- event.
Wolken-- the Mind of the Edhli (Biosphere).
Menning-- the ecological culture-civilization.
Draugs-- the deadly undead who scadhe the Earth.
Dilgoth-- the Extinction.
Eydhi-- wasteland.
werf Wyrd-- turn the course of Things.

The Drygand Hoves Aloft the Yule-tree

In the Yule-tide it is the Sid-hold that a carven likeness of the Drygand, often fawed in rudgel, be fastened atop the Yule-tree, as if hoving in heolorth aloft the World-Tree of All Life-Kinds, overlooking the weal of each kind and of the whole Edhli.

hove-- hover, float.
Sid-hold-- traditional observance.
faw-- color.
Rudgel-- orange (~red-yel).
Heolorth-- balance, poise.
Life-kinds-- species.
Edhli-- Biosphere.

The Leafy Head of Yule-tide

In the Yule-tide, Neorxna the Bode looms forth from the darkness in the likeness of the Leafy Head, wide-eyed with knowing.  And so, often will be made a Yule-tover belike to his seeming, of fastened evergreen growth and harvest ovets and nuts to hang upon the waugh so that all do know the true meaning of Yule, the looking ahead to the Menning-coming as the tide of the Time-wheel turns.

Neorxna the Bode-- the herald of the Menning, the coming ecological civilization.
Leafy Head-- the iconic form of Green Man.
Tover-- magical object.
Ovet (MEng)-- fruit. fr OEng ofet.
Waugh-- wall. fr OEng wag.

The Yule-Drylar

In the Mythos (Shaggy Sagenverden), Yule-proper runs from the day of Winter Solstice (Sunwend) through the day of Perihelion (Nearcome-sun) when Earth is closest to Sun.  But in practice, Yule is simply the fortnight from Yule Eve onward.  Yule Eve is called Mother Night and belongs to Gryla (~grue), the horrible hag-giantess who mothered the thirteen Yule-Drylar, to whom belong the thirteen days that come after-- hence, a fortnight in all.

New Year begins on the Solstice, the darkest time of Winter, when the sun is lowest in the sky and the day is shortest of all.  Till then, fearsome Gryla rules, and the unholy Draugs rise from their barrows and stalk abroad, wreaking bale-work in the land.  But when the Sun stops waning and then begins waxing upward, the dawning of a new year starts, and it is a time of festivity (frelsung) and merriment, and the thirteen Drylar-days are celebrated (frelsed) suchly.  And the frolicsome Yule-Drylar go out at once in behest of the Drygand to be his Wild Swarm, to harry and halse (exorcise) the fell Draugs so that all is safe from their attack (thrack) and the glee of  Yule-tide is freed to overflow.

Draug-- the undead monsters who dwell in barrows and who go abroad betimes to slay and devour and lay waste.

This year, Sunwend is Friday, 21st December at 6:12 AM EST.

The Meaning of Yule

In the darkest depth of the wheeling of Time, a new Menning of Hope shall come.  Neorxna's shine-show blazes forth from the mirk of Mistryne in an orgyte of Wodhe, a thwarly Byzen of Awe to light the World and cherren the Tide of Wyrd.  The Edhli-menning then shall wax as GreneSun wheels up from the Deep, and the Samen-flow floods and the Earth starts to heal as the Menning reaches into every stead to dwell.

And in a fortnight from now, the Yule Sun will end its lowering in the sky and will wend upward once more, and so we see the meaning of Yule as a betokening of the great Cherrenge that must come, when likewise Dilgoth gives way to Halsing and Healing of Man and Edhli so the two can live in Holy Frith of Thwaerness as One.

Menning-- the ecological culture-civilization, Edhli-menning. Edhli-- Nature, Biosphere.
Neorxna the Bode-- the Herald of the Menning.
Mistryne-- Mystery.
Orgyte-- manifestation (outpouring). Wodhe-- inspiration.
thwarly Byzen-- intricate Pattern.
cherren-- turn. Cherrenge-- the Conversion.
Samen-flow-- the seed-streaming of mystical life-energy.
Dilgoth-- the Extinction Event.
Halsing-- exorcism.
Frith of Thwaerness-- harmonious Peace.

The Drylar

The Drylar are land-wights, different from the Drygs in that they are manlike of body, and mobile-- they patrol the wilds, act as guardians of the Land-drygs and of their wild precincts.  They are allies of the Drygand-alfs (AKA Drywodhes) and differ from them only in being more otherworldly by a degree and so, often ancient of years.  While Drylas are wary of men and often hostile to them and their works-- they loathe machines and the products of modern industrial technology--  they may respond to respectful treatment and even can become fast friends of fellow-travellers.

etymology of Dryla--

troll (ONorse)-- originally giants, usually inimical to man and the gods, who have driven them into the remaining wildest places-- deep forest and mountains. eventually troll came to refer to various magical creatures of various size, something like dwarfs, or goblins and other baddies. as drolls, they became mischievous or amusing creatures.
troll (MEng)= to wander about, ramble.
droll (various langs)= hobgoblin, merry imp, elf, sprite, a humorous whimsical or odd character, a funny little man. in archaic English-- to jest, sport, make fun of.
trylla (ONorse)= to turn into a troll, to enchant. trolldomr (ONorse)= magic= trylleri (Dan/Norw).
Dry (OEng)= magic.
Drala (Tibetan)= a personal protective warrior-spirit without which a person would lose his luck,sicken and die.
Gryla (ONorse)-- the hag who devours naughty children, with thirteen trollish sons who as Jola-sveinar (Yule-lads) each hold one of the thirteen days of Yule. they are prankish and destructive and naughty children fear them. 

Hallowevening

(word-help below)

On this Hallowevening as the Edhli-Mind comes to loom in the Edhli, in the wild lands and waters, the Sagen-guysts, those weirdlings of the Sagenverden, do troop about in a wild ramble through the new-come night-world of Winter, casting a ghostly glow of Grene-fyre as they frolic, shinnying up the tree-boles which hold up their roofless hall, hooting from the now-naked bough-rafters, jinking through the tangled scrub, sploshing in the reed-beds, tripping oer the soggy meads, skirmishing in their glade-games.  All night they frolic, these uncanny guyst-wights, working their maysch into the marrow-beds of all the life-kinds they have waked from their drift to winter sleep, to tuck them down with a touch and a kiss to warm their winter dreams.  And so they all come to rest after their hearty doings as this night of hallowing wanes, this motley host of guyst-folk come each to dwell in his own right spot as a Land-dryg, to watch and ward the wildlife through their dreamtime of Winter. 

Edhli-Mind= the evolved mind of the Biosphere.
Sagen-guysts= mythic beings. Guyst= spirit. ~Ger. geist (same pronunciation).
Grene-fyre= the opposite of red-fire.
Maysch= magic.
Land-dryg ~land-wight. akin to Drygand. Persian draug= desert-demon. Norse draug= undead barrow-monster; ghost, spirit. Norwegian draug= banshee, bogie, water-sprite.

The High Hallows

(word-help follows)

The High Hallows mark the tide of wending from Summer to Winter, when the reaches of the two worlds of Mind and Reyndom can meld in thwaerness toward Edhlifrith and Menning.

The Hallows begin with Hallowevening, when the drowsy edhli-world is waked as the Sagen-guysts burst forth from the Otherworld of Deep Mind in a Wild Frolic oer our Efni-world of Reyndom, making merry jinks.  And gumen-folk do don the guise and don the wise of the Sagen-guyst they'd like to be that night, and gang along with the romping Rouse to fire the night with edtovering, as the worlds meld as one.

With the dawning comes the next Hallow, the Hallow-Allwighta, holy-day of all life-kinds, be they diarkin, wyrtkin, or morkin.  It is a holy-hold for arring the untallied manifoldness of living kinds in the Edhli.  It is a time to arren them all and to mourn those kinds who have fallen to the Dilgoth and to yearn to keep those which yet abide from cwinkdom.  And they are frelsed in a sumbel that night, and the arred high-guest of the evening is the Allwight, the Misching of all the kinds in the Allwighta.

And then comes the end-day of the High Hallows-- Hallow-All, when the whole Edhli and the Wolken, the Great Guyst of all the Edhli, are arred, and it is edminded that the Allwight has become the Drygand, who fights to ernern the life-kinds from Dilgoth and to edstall the holy Heolorth of Edhli, forever.  And along with the Drygand are arred his Alf-thanes who with him seek to work the Menning upon the Earth, so that Edhlifrith may rixen the ways of Man.  And so then all earnestly betroth themselves to thane our holy Sake of Edhlifrith, So That All Life May Live.

Reyndom= reality. fr ONor.
Thwaerness= concord, harmony. fr OEng.
Edhli-frith= Nature-protection. fr ONor. Edhli= Biosphere, here.
Menning= the ecological culture-civilization. fr ONor.
Sagen-guysts= mythic spirit-beings. fr Ger.
Efni-world of Reyndom= material reality.
Don the Wise= to act in the manner of.
Edtover= to reenchant.
Life-kinds= species of organisms.
Allwighta= all creatures. fr OEng.  Allwight= the Pan-chimaera.
Diarkin= animals. Wyrtkin= plants. Morkin= decomposers.
Holy-hold= holy observance.
Arr= honor, respect, reverence, admiration. fr OEng.
Dilgoth= the current extinction event. fr OEng.
Cwinkdom= extinction. fr OEng.
Frelse= celebration. fr OEng.
Sumbel= feast. fr OEng.
Misching= mixture, hybrid, chimaera. fr Ger.
Edmind= remember, commemorate. fr OEng.
Drygand= the transformed Allwight, the Haleth (hero, OEng) of the Edhli.
Ernern= rescue. fr OHGer.
Edstall= restore. fr OEng.
Heolorth= balance. fr OEng.
Thane= serve another. fr OEng.
Rixen= govern, reign. fr OEng.
Sake= cause. fr ONor.

Hal the Halsinger

Hal is the Halsinger.  His song is the Swegal of the Wide Earth-Life.  With his keen steven he stabs the evil of gumen overing like with a thirling ord and starts the healing of the gumen soul so that the Menning can wyrden and thus the harm mankind does the Edhli can heal.  Hal sings the Healing Song.

Halsinger (halse-singer)= exorcist.  from OEng halsian= exorcise. to halsung= exorcism.
Swegal (sway-sing)= music. from OEng swegel= music, OHGer swegalon= to play the flute.
OEng galan= sing, enchant, call.
Steven= voice. from OEng stefn.
Gumen= human. from OEng guma= man.
Overing= overreaching, arrogant excess. from OEng oferung, ONor yfrinn.
Thirl= penetrate. from OEng thyrelian. OEng ord= pointed weapon, spear,sword.
Wyrden= evolve. from OEng weordhan= to become. and wyrd= destiny.
Edhli= the Biosphere.

Halness

Hal (see last shtook) was named Hal because of a number of Old English words, which I have listed here:

Hal= whole, hale, healthy, safe.
Hael= health, safety, salvation, happiness; omen.
Haele/Haeleth= hero.
Halor= salvation. >Haelend= healer, savior.
Halsung= exorcism. >Halsere= exorcist.
Haelsung= augury. >Haelsere= augur.

All of this goes some way to explain the nature of Hal.

Hal the Erf

Hal the Erf, born of the Wolken, was taken in by the Twayne, Wildiar and Bilwit, to live with them at the Alx.  Great are the hopes for young Hal.


Erf= heir.
Wolken= Mind of the Biosphere.
Twayne= a complementary pair.  Wildiar is a wild gandalf (magic alf) of the woods. Bilwit is a mild godhi (temple-keep). Alx= temple.

Mennings

The Mennings are the Biosphere-folk, the far-flung citizens of the new ecological civilization, the Menning.

They are the Andmayth-- Untribe-- not a blood-kin, but brothers nonetheless, Menning-folk who live in frith-bond with the Edhli, seeking foremost to live in it doing it no harm.  They have gone beyond Gumendom to Neorxendom, sustainability.  Some call themselves Alfar.

Menning(Icelandic)= culture, civilization.
Andmayth= anti-tribe, untribe(O Eng. and-= opposite-to; maegth= family, clan, tribe, race(~blood-kin)).
Frithbond= a compact of peacefulness.
Edhli= the Living World, Biosphere (Ice. edhli= nature).
Gumendom= humankind(O Eng. guma= man).
Neorxna= ever-newing(O Eng. neorxnawang= Elysian Fields).
Alfar(Ice.)= the Elvenfolk, an advanced humanoid species.

Shivishna

Over the summer I looked more deeply into Hinduism.  In particular, I wanted to try to understand the god Shiva better.  His origins are obscure.  The fierce, deadly storm-god Rudra from the early, Indo-Aryan Rig-Veda had fed into Shiva, and Pashupati, Lord of the Animals, who may have come from the Pre-Aryan Indus Valley civilization-- all we have to suggest this is a small seal with the image of a god presumably, very much like that of 'Cernunnos' on the Gundestrup cauldron, but the Lord of the Animals is common in world mythology.  It's possible that non-aryan tribal gods also fed into Shiva, who eventually became extremely multifarious, contradictory, and vast, with a very prominent cult.  He is part of the Hindu 'trinity', the Trimurti, as the god of destruction and reproduction (death and sex), along with Vishnu the preserver and Brahma the creator, and became one of the three major 'Gods' of devotional Hinduism, along with Vishnu and the Goddess.  I had investigated Shiva before, but principally as Pashupati and Rudra, but I now wanted to get my head around the dark,creepy side of Shiva, because I thought I might find a way thus to reconcile myself somewhat to the horror of biological existence in which killing and devouring of animals by other animals is evolutionarily inevitable.  I think that most people find 'Nature' repellent, a threat, for this reason, and generally experience 'Mother Nature' as the archetype of the Evil Mother-- indifferent, and cruelly destructive, which hampers the struggle to rescue the Biosphere from human destruction.

But Shiva actually means something like 'Kindly One', or 'Giver of  Blessings', which maybe is what you would call a fearsome god you wanted to stay on the good side of, like with the 'Fair Folk', the rather dangerous Faeries.  Rudra might mean 'Roarer', 'Howler'-- appropriate for a wild, deadly storm god.  The two gods were combined as Rudra-Shiva, which suggests a god both terrible and kindly.  Eventually, 'Rudra' and 'Shiva' were used interchangeably.  But let's just use Shiva here.

Shiva has a vast mythology and cultus accreted over millennia.  He's a god of opposites.  For Shaivites, his devotees, he's 'God'-- God of Everything-- and so must contain everything, all contraries, at once.  So he has various aspects, like many heads, or in epithets like Bhairava or Mahadeva or Rudra-Shiva.  Despite this complexity, though, his devotees must manage to carry around some kind of complex conception of who he is, that hangs together vaguely.  By contrast, Vishnu is mainly worshipped as one of his successive avatars, Rama and Krishna being by far the foremost, and these entities are more like human persons than the awesomely vast Shiva, and easier for many to worship as a personal savior.  The Goddess is conceived as particular entities such as Devi, Shakti, Kali, Durga, some of whom are more person-like and others more vast-- in Hinduism, you have the person-ish gods of mythology and epic coupled with their abstract, philosophical version, or as forms of a God (with a hyphenated name).

Vishnu seems to mean 'Pervader'.  His origins are obscure.  He's almost opposite to Shiva in most ways, which made me think of the Twayne, Wildiar and Bilwit, of the Shaggy Mythos, though the fit is better for Wildiar and Shiva than for Bilwit and Vishnu.  Vishnu, conceived apart from his avatars, is seen as a very grand ruler, upholding the good and the right, who fights terrible demons that threaten the world, who is surrounded by opulent finery and grandeur.  But he is, like Shiva, much more complex than the descriptions you find.

Because of the analogy I made between Shiva-and-Vishnu and Wildiar-and-Bilwit, I wondered why the former grouping hadn't been teamed or combined in a syncresis.  Their cults were in competition, each one asserting their own god as 'the God', but in India, unlike in Europe, it didn't quite come down to 'Your god is really the Devil! You must renounce him and swear fealty to the One True God!', with resulting savagery-- not quite, I think.  But Shiva can easily seem very like Satan to Westerners.  I eventually found that Shiva and Vishnu had been combined, as Hari-hara.  I had thought of Shivishna as a name for this syncresis.  But Hindus know him as Hari-hara (Vishnu-Shiva) or Shankara-narayana (Shiva-Vishnu), though this was really a philosophic concept rather than a personal god of devotion, I think.  Taken to be the Supreme God, it probably seemed a bit less like the unimaginable abstract deus otiosus of Brahman the Absolute, though neither of them had cults and temples, it seems, or mythology, and never really caught-on as a way to harmonize the conflict in the mythology and cultus between the two Gods, and their cults.  Then there's the Goddess-- she's left out here-- or is She?-- these Gods did have their consorts, often seen as the female aspect of their nature.  For all of Hindu philosophizing, there's still an inherent monism that permits a coexistence of entities in the tradition despite their apparent contradiction and a lack of a really tight conceptual structure to put them all in (nonrational is OK).

Well, similarly, the Twayne aren't One, they remain distinct persons (of a certain vagueness, granted), and aren't even gods, but folkish wights, I suppose.  I'll go more into their relation to Shiva and Vishnu later, as well as that of other Shaggy Mythos entities with those of Hindu and other pagan traditions.

p.s.-- I found Wolf-Dieter Storl's Shiva: the Wild God of Power and Ecstasy (pbk, 2004) to be a rich source on Shiva, Shaivism, and associated culture.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Well, I'm back.  I've had a long break from the grind, and I didn't just go to seed.  But I come back to the same old situation I spoke of in my going-away-for-a-while shtook-- the Shaggy Mythos is basically complete, and any new avenue of research can yield no more than adjustments to its fundamental pattern.  And unexplored avenues can no longer be found-- at best, I might benefit from going into greater depth in certain areas, but although I may find supportive background material there, and new vantages from which to view the Mythos, it remains in a stable state.  Which is a good thing, really-- it has held up under the test of time.  And this was always my aim, to develop a workable ecological mythos.  I've done it, and it's done, basically.  So what's to do now?  Hmm.

I haven't goofed-off all summer.  I've gone more deeply into aspects of Hinduism, about which more to come.  And I've also gone over the anthropology of early religions in greater depth.  Which all has changed the big picture a bit, in mostly inscrutable ways, but I do have a few things to show for it-- I'll try to give you the gist of what I've got in the next few shtooks, and you can see if it helps.  --Shtrahler

Summer Break

I, Shtrahler, intend to take an extended break from posting pieces on this site fairly regularly.  I've been working on the Shaggy Mythos continuously for about eight years, I think, and I've reached the point where I can't substantially develop the Mythos any more-- it's finished, it seems.  I've run out of likely avenues of research for material that might stimulate further creative growth of the Mythos.  And I've gotten a sense that it's a completed project and that I've done about as much for it as I can.  My mind, too, is now telling me that it's finished, and that it's time for me to open up to new creative possibilities.  But I don't know what will happen.  I'm not closing the door on the Shaggy Mythos-- it's come out of me, it is me, and I've put an awful lot of work into bringing it forth.  I hope it works for others as much as it has for me, as an ecological religious alternative, but although it's a living thing for me, I'm going to have to find some other outlet for my creative drive, possibly related to it, or an offshoot, or something new.  I'll just have to see.  But I still expect to post pieces when I have something worthwhile to present.  And wherever I eventually end up, I'll let you know.  So, I will be off...

Eco-alchemical Formula

(word-help below)

Take the Prima Materia, the primordial protoplasmic slime, the Ureld-ooze, and distill it to the subtle Samen-flowod, and from this essence condense the amoeboid Proto-Drygand, the Pan-chimaera.
His subtler Sidden, his magical influence, a duft on the luft, seeps into the mind and marrow of the Last Man, postmodern civilized man, and some among these who are ripe to go beyond, develop a new growth amidst their brain, the Lodestone, a crystallization of subtlest Samen, that when full-formed unleashes fantastic primal energies, Ur-nennings, that convert the Last Man to-- Eco-Alf!

ureld= primordial (Ger. uralte).
Samen-flowod= the magical life-fluid.
Sidden= magical influence (OEng. aelf-siden).
Duft on the Luft= haze (emanation, exhalation) on the air (Ger.).
Lodestone= guide-stone (~Philosophers' Stone).
Last Man= Nietzsche's characterization of modern civilized man in his final form, the antithesis of the Overman.  A rather bovine species.
Alfar= the next step.

The Drood

'Druid' is the Latin form of Keltic 'drui', possibly related to Greek 'drus' (tree).  Charles Dickens wrote a novel titled The Mystery of Edwin Drood-- his Drood could have derived from 'druid' and/or German 'drude' (witch), probably a Christian inflection of  'druid', and Drood sounds like 'dread', giving overall a dark effect.  The Church routinely tarred pagan gods and wights as agents of the Devil, or the Devil himself, leaving out those figures who could be converted to their holy host as saints and angels and fellow-travellers.  Similarly, the Druids, apparently a priestly/scholarly class related to the Brahmin caste of Hinduism, were converted into magicians, sorcerors, and witches.  Old English 'dry(mann' (sorceror, magician) probably derives from the Celtic form of  'druid'.  In legend, then, we have a disreputable, sinister figure.  Post-medieval Europe rediscovered the ancient Druid, and strains of Romanticism often converted the legendary druid-sorceror back into a holy man, of sacred oak groves and henges, despite  the Romans having written that the Druids  presided over human sacrifices. Now, with the contemporary Romantic Pagan resurgence, we have a further conversion-- the druid of the masonic priesthood of the modern druidic orders melded to the iconic Merlin and the Pan-Celtic holy man and the Pagan magician and the New Age shaman, making a very large amorphic presence.

I always found Merlin the only interesting character in the Arthurian legends.  Pagan Druidry, especially Eco-druidry, has a great appeal for me-- except the ancient Celtic druidry as a hierarchical order of priestly functionaries doesn't.  And I have never really gotten that whole Celtic mystique.  But since I'm obsessive about germanic vocabulary, the Old English and German offshoots of 'druid' allow me to embrace Dickens' Drood as a non-Celtic equivalent, though the only figures in the Shaggy Mythos I could fit to it would be the Twayne-- Bilwit and Wildiar (Bill and Will, vulgarly).  A 'shaggy' Drood would have to be something like the forest-god/holy man Herne in the 1980's Robin of Sherwood TV series.  Bilwit would be more of a Celtic druid, or even a Sacred King, as Arthur is now held to be, which taken together would resemble somewhat  a Norse Godhi (priest-chieftain).  Wildiar would be more of a Mad Merlin (Myrddin Wyllt)-- a wild man- shaman-magician.  So Bilwit is druidic 'Light' to Wildiar's magic-shamanic 'Darkness', and together they form the 'balance of Light and Darkness' of which TV-Herne would often speak.

The Twayne Together Make the Eormen-sule

(word-help below)

The Twayne are as twin snakes who weave at once up the Bole of the Tree of Life, making a braid together, about the bole, and then you have the Gandstaff of holy weald, the mayisch Life-stock. 

The Twayne are the Alxnar, warders of the Alx, the holy garth, be it forest glade or timber Helg-hof.  They are both Droods, though Bilewit is a Godhi and Wildiar a Galder, a Wyzwaza.  But when they weave together, about the Tree of Life, they make the Eormen-sule.

Eormen-sule-- Cosmic Pillar, in the form of a caduceus.
Bole-- tree-trunk.
Gandstaff (~OIce)-- magic staff.
Weald (OEng)-- power, authority.
Mayisch-- magic.
Alx-- temple.
Helg-hof (OIce)-- holy temple.
Drood-- druid (Ger drude-- witch, evil fairy/incubus-- a corruption of 'druid'?)
Godhi (OIce)-- heathen priest-chief.
Galder (OEng galdre)/Wyzwasa-- wizard.

Father of the Wildefree Edhli

(word-help below)

Feorginn is the Werelder-- Old Man Earth-- the caring Father of all life-kinds that, knit-together, make our Edhli.  He is God of the life-clad Feorgen-berg, the life-mountain that is our Earth-klode.  He wishes only that his kindren be left wild and free, to seek their thwaer together, as they have ever done, until Man got above himself.  And so Feorginn needs the help of we Alfar to right the World.

Feorginn-- OE firgen= forested) mountain; OIce Fjoergyn= Mother Earth. OE feorh/OIce fjoer= life.
Wereld= world.  OIce Edhli= Biosphere. Earth-klode= Planet Earth.
Kinder (Ger)= children.
Thwaer (OE)= harmony.

Neorxna Dream

(word-help below)

In Wolken-mist, Neorxna's shaggy head dreams the coming Menning, where gods of Edhli and Menning meld in thwaer.

Neorxna= god of the Future (Tocume). OEng. neorxnawang= Elysian Field.
Wolken= the Biospheric Mind. OEng. wolcen= cloud.
Menning (Ice.)= civilization, culture. Edhli (Ice.)= Biosphere. Edhli-menning= Ecological Civilization.
Thwaer (OEng.)= accord, harmony.

The Itten

Machines were meant to aid human purposes.  But we are past the point where machines primarily serve us.  Now we serve the Machine.  Ours is not a human world anymore, it's Machine-world-- Searuvel-- fueled by human need and greed, fear and hate-- the dark forces of the Id.

And the Searuvel has transformed the Id to a mandroid-- the Itten--a Frostfire Giant, a mad wraith in a mighty body, a titanic Draug, burning cold and hot at once, never resting, laying waste the Edhli and enslaving Man in hellish Searuworks.

Itten from Id(Latin for 'it') and MEng ettin= devouring giant.  The Freudian Id represents the part of the Unconscious containing the biological impulses and drives, which demand immediate gratification.
Searuvel= the Evil Machine.
Draug (ONorse)= a murderous undead monster who leaves his barrow to lay waste the land.
Edhli= the Biosphere.

Maying

(word-help below)

The coming of May marks a shift from the winter-half to the summer-half of the year.  On the Eve of May comes an opening between the two worlds-- a Twyrymet-- the Undermind rises to blend with the Edhli, if you can but see it, feel it, know it.  Much comes out into the open that has been kept elsewheres, much comes together that was sundored, and Alfen-folk head into the Greenwood to breathe-in the wodhe and bliss of this blessed tide.  In groves they dance to sway-gal that's merry and deep and fremd.  They leap oer the May-fires and sing and make skentings and gay banter with each other and eat and drink and play.  And it is all harm-free fun, to help make the shift to Summer.

And when the May-fires are spent, the folk go to their beds, and when the morning comes they arise as they will and then there is the Day of May, with wonderly helg-rynes, and then meeting and greeting, and walks about the land, and many other fair things to do, for Summer is come to stay for a whiles, and this is how the Alfen-folk like to mark it.

Maying-- celebrating May Day.
Twyrymet-- dual/overlapping space.
Edhli-- Nature.
Wodhe-- inspiration.
Sway-gal-- music.
Fremd-- strange.
Skenting-- entertainment.
Helg-rynes-- sacred rites.

Earth Fest

After Earth Day (April 22), there are seven days until May Eve (Walpurgisnacht, April 30), followed by May Day (Beltane), important holidays.  Maybe the time inclusive of these days (ten days) could be considered Earth Fest, with the intermediary seven days considered Earth Week, and it all culminates in May Eve/Day.

The Drygand Springs Up

(word-help below)

The Drygand springs-up from the ground like a Dryg's whorl unwinding upward, like a snake twining up a staff, stirring-up a whirlwind of Samen. He hoves at the midstead of his Thode, spinning-out his maysch about the nigh, held in heolor by the Lode in his head.

And, this adhel Teev, he can stir you, from within, bear you aloft in his shining Thode of living life-nenning.

Dryg-- a land or water wight.
Thode-- whirlwind.
Maysch-- magic power.
Heolor-- balance.
Lode-- Lodestone, the guiding Erkanstan (precious jewel).
adhel Teev-- 'noble deva'.
Samen-- living life-nenning.

The Nerning Thrysel

Drygs are one with their stead and cannot be elsewhere. The Drygand can pop-up and cwink-out anywhere in the Edhli. Alfar can fare over land and water. They all work together for the nerning of the Edhli.

Nern= rescue, saving (OHGer nern and OEng nering= protection, defense).
Thrysel (OEng)= threesome, three-parted.
cwink= to vanish (OEng cwincan).
Edhli= the Biosphere.

Drygand and Wolken

(word-help below)

The Drygand glides out of the Wolken and heads back into it, like a Chinese dragon wending into and out of his cloud. The Wolken, like a cloud, streams in itself, as it rests stilly in the Edhli, but the Drygand wends between Wolken and Edhli. He touches-down in the Edhli wherever he is needed, a whirl of Samen, that rises to hover in the Edhli like a Dust-teev, spinning his Maysch out, doing his deed, and then he sinks back into the Wolken.

Dust-teev= dust-deva, whirlwind.
Maysch= magic.

The Drygand's Thode

(word-help below)

Samen must flow strong through you, if you are to betake of the Nennings and the Maysch of the Wolken.

The Drygand is the Thoden-teev, he floats in stillness as he stirs Samen to a mighty rush of flow, a Thode about his shining Lodestone that sits behind his brow. His Thode holds nennings of great weald, leashed for use, to work maysch where it is needed.

If you would share the Drygand's Weald, then grasp him, hold tight, join him at the still midstead of the mighty speeding spinning of his Thode, and RIDE WITH HIM.

Samen= the vital fluid.
Nenning= energy.
Maysch= magic.
Wolken= the ancient Mind of the Edhli (Biosphere).
Drygand= the Pan-chimaera, Guardian of the Edhli.
Thode (OEng)= whirl-wind/-pool.
Teev= deva.
Lodestone= the guiding gem (erkanstan) made by the Wolken, found by the Twayne, given to the Drygand, and thereafter to his Drygandalfs, his Thanes.
Weald= power.

The Brain-Drygand Awakens

(word-help below)

In our time of overweltering Dilgoth, the Brain-Drygand awakens in the minds of some menschen. The Drygand is meant to be the Helping-guyst, bringing the great nennings of the Wolken, Edhli-mind, to the ernerning of threatened Life, and his mind is bent to this charge. Thus he is here to help Man overcome Man by wyrdhing into the Oekumensch, then to be Son of the Drygand, Driver of the great Wain of the Edhli-menning into the time-tocume.

Dilgoth= mass annihilation of the Biosphere (Edhli).
Guyst= daimon.
Nenning= energy.
Edhli-mind= the biospheric mind. Edhli-menning= ecological culture-civilization.
ernern= to rescue.
wyrdhe= to evolve.
tocume= future.

When the Earthen Dryg Rises

(word-help below)

When the earthen Dryg rises to twine his way up his Tree, as he winds his way up its bole, he flows like samen does a wending thread, he rises to the height of weighty boughs, of rich leafing, and in the most-midst he comes to stop, to dwell aloft a Tree, where Earth holds Sky. And o'er the land about, his greening heat he sheds, the livening warmth of Green-sun that's lain beneath the ground, now shines from him o'er all the life that sways now in galdor-song of rynisch weald the Land-dryg makes. The Land sings once more free.

Dryg= a (serpentine) Land-wight.
Samen= the Life-fluid.
Galdor= magic.
rynisch weald= mystery-power.

Yrkuthor Thracks the Ittins

(word-help below)

Yrkuthor, red with wrath, drives his Wain about the Lands, always seeking to thrack Frostfire Ettins.

His Wain is drawn by his doughty Draginn. And in the Wain behind him sits the Drangstan of ozly weald, by which Yrkuthor can hurl his whitelight Samen-bolts to plock into Ittin-brawn, to burn and so thaw the frore Life-nennings, which Ittins draw off the Verden to drive their Searuvel. And so the Ittins must drop their grip, and the Nennings are freed to flow back into the Verden, to find their thwarly byzenings, so that Life may thrive.

And Yrkuthor smiles blithe.

Yrkuthor- ON Oeku-thorr (Ukkr, Thor: thunder-gods; or 'Thor the Cart-driver'?) irk/yrk- to drive, harry.
thrack- to attack, do violence to.
Wain- wagon.
Ittin- giant (OEng eoten, Eng it).
Draginn- ON draga- to draw, carry. He's a helping-daimon.
Drangstan- Stone of Power. ON drang- standing-stone, Ger drang- pressure, urge.
ozly weald- godly power.
Samen- the life-fluid.
Brawn- muscle, flesh.
frore- frozen.
Verden- the Life-world.
Searuvel- the Evil machine.
thwarly byzenings- intricate patternings.

The Oekumensch: Driver of the Helg-wain

(word-help below)

The Oekumensch* drives the Helg-wain bearing the Weoh throughout the Landschaft, to wake the Land and Folk from the Time of Frost, the wintry Wasteland. Green springs again. The Edhli-menning calls.

*'oe' here stands for 0-umlaut, pronounced like 'eu' in French 'feu', approximately like 'eh' and 'ew' melded, or a softened 'ur'.

Oekumensch= Eco-man.
Helg-wain= sacred cart.
Weoh= an idol, sacred image.
Landschaft= landscape.
Edhli-menning= the Ecological Civilization.

Oekumensch <[aka(OIce)= to drive or draw a vehicle, to convey in a vehicle. ekja= carting. ekju-= cart-. Oekumadhr(Ice)= driver. Oeku-thorr-- a descriptor of Thor, possibly derived from the Finnish thunder-god Ukkr, but possibly also referring to Thor's famous cart. In pagan Scandinavia a sacred cart bearing an idol of a fertility god would be drawn around the land before springtime to bless the land and give it fertility of plants and animals. / Oekumene(OGk)= the inhabited world (~Biosphere)> oekumenisch(Ger)= ecumenical (universal). Oekologie= Ecology. Mensch= person.] So, Oekumensch= Eco-man, if this all makes sense.

The Wild Man of the Fergen-geberg

The shaggy Wild Man dwells in the great range of forest-mountains where Samen* springs, where all the life-kinds fiercely feed and breed and thrive in a great ever-inwreathing of Life. And many of these do kill to eat and so to live. This is the way of the Edhli, as it has always been, as it can only be. It is terrible and it is beautiful-- it is Life. It is the way things are and we must accept it, for there is no soul-magic without it. And the wild, rude Man who dwells there, at one with all the kinds in the Fergen-geberg, is a hunter, a feeder on others; but in love, and in great soul-magic-- he is a protector of all life-kinds.

Fergen-geberg= the Life-mountains. geberg= mountain range (Ger. Gebirge); MEng gebergan= preserve, protect.
Samen= the sacred life-fluid. ~Vedic 'Soma'; Ger. Samen= seed.
Edhli= the Biosphere.

Alf-takn/Drygand-takn

The Alf-takn (symbol) is like a Roman 'A' with an added line downward from the middle of the horizontal. This bar and its support can also be made into a shape like a short, shallow chalice. The Drygand-takn is the Alf-takn inverted, so it is like a head with three horns (thry-hyrned) like that of an ancient depiction, apparently of a Scythian whirlwind-daimon having three 'horns'. These takns' similarity is appropriate because the Alfar are 'Sons of the Son', as the Drygand is the son of the Wolken (which in turn is the offspring of the Edhli).

Wolken= the Edhli-mind.

Chosen Identity

One can make the choice that one's personal identity (self-cwide) fits the new ecological mazeway (the Menning) that is evolving (wyrdhing) . One can say,"I am of the Menning," and be a Menning-mensch. The Symbol (takn) of the Menning is the Eco-logo: an oval at rest with a horizontal bridging its extremes. The takn of the Menning-mensch is the same, but enclosing a line-figure with arms bent upward and legs bent downward, braced to support the Biosphere (Edhli) and its Menning.

The Lode Will Guide

A culture in byzantinish stagnation and rigidity threatened with internal disintegration and external assault might be revitalized by a new cultural mazeway of appropriate restorative and innovative elements in an array that creates a new sustainable equilibrium state.

We must look forward and backward at once, ransack cultures of all times and places, then, for the necessary elements. At this stage, we are in a kind of quest. Intellect alone will not suffice to 'engineer' a new ecological culture-civilization. We must be guided as well by promptings of the Deep Mind, because for a new mazeway to work on a large scale, it must feel profoundly right, it must inspire a settling of mind and life into a new pattern that in its fundamentals is plain enough to keep before one and to believe in, though the complexities of it are not to-hand but vanish into the distance all around.

The Lodestone is meant to guide our efforts toward a new Menning-mazeway of Ecology. It is born of the Wolken, the Deep Mind of the Biosphere, and is shaped by the questing minds of the Drygand, the Twayne, and the Alfs. The Lode will be your guide, if you seek it out, work to find it, and then it will arise in your Ferth* as the Green Sun of the Menning, to wodhen your wyrdhing*, and then the Firgen-wisdom* of the new Age of Ecology will run strong throughout you.

Ferth= psyche.
wodhen your wyrdhing= inspire your evolution.
Firgen (O Eng)= the Life-mountain (Earth).
Fjarg (O Norse)= heathen god.
Fjoergynn (O Nor)= Mother Earth.

Dim to Bright

The Lodestone lights the Ferth, but the light of the Lodestone can dim in the dimness of empty living in the Searuvel and before the onslaught of its deadening shattering Screen-world. The Real, the Soul, is lost to us and must be won again. Call to the Drygand, the Twayne, the Drygs, then, to touch thee by the spark of Wodhe and so the Lodestone catches fire, to flare the Ferth and charge the Soul and brightly light the Sheerstone, body of light.

Lodestone= the life-guide.
Ferth= psyche.
Searuvel= the Evil Machine.
Dryg= a Wight of land or water.
Wodhe= inspiration.
Sheerstone= the transparent body that the Lodestone clears.

The Future-present/ the Tucume-now

(two versions here)

The Mythic Age is Now, Future descends on Present: the Future-now, where Ecological Civilization can be constructed-- because extinction threatens, and apocalyptic consciousness intervenes. The mythic ancient and mythic future combine in the new civilization, and the present global regime of catastrophic proportions must become mere history. Live now in the mythic age of Future-now and make civilization.

The Sagenverden is Now, when Tucume lights on Andward: the Tucume-now, where Menning can be worked, for the end of all things threatens and end-witting breaks-in. The sagen-fornald and the sagen-tucume meld in the new Menning, and the andward world-wide wealdom of dilging ormeteness must become but bygone-telling. Live now in the Tucume-now Sagenverden and work Menning.

Bilewit and Wildiar

Bilewit and Wildiar are the Twayne, the two who went in seech of the Lodestone, and when they had found it, brought it to the Alwight, who became then the Drygand.

The Twayne are a team, but a seeming ill-matched one, though one cannot be without the other, as together they are the Alxnar, the keepers of the Alx (temple).

Bilewit is the Helgeking, Sacred King, and also the Green Man. His name means 'gentle, mild, gracious, simple, earnest, honest, moderate, just, merciful, reasonable'. He is treeish. He is an Agathodaimon: a 'good wight'. He is a steady (focused) and strong striver: orderly, systematic, thoughtful and prudent. He teaches by being an example to all, a good influence who can inspire others.

Wildiar is the Wyzwaza: Trickster-shaman-wizard, and also the Wild Man. His name means 'wild animal'. He is feral, a bit of a bad boy, but to the good. He is mercurial, with a kind of ADHD brilliance, erratic but creative, energetic, a protean shapeshifter. He teaches by provocation and through magical influence.

By their natures, the Twayne are a pair of opposites, though each has some of the other in him. In a way, they embody the opposites of Fundamentalism (Bilewit) and Proteanism (Wildiar), according to Robert J. Lifton's dichotomy as presented in The Protean Self*, though he has a bias toward Proteanism (which sometimes seems like postmodern liberal humanism) and against Fundamentalism, while I see Fundamentalism and Proteanism, as they are both produced by similar trauma, as both necessary responses to a crisis situation. Either tendency can be good or evil, but I tend to look for some kind of workable creative combination of these opposites as optimal (as it often seems to work better than pursuing one of a pair and fighting the other-- but it depends on the specific case). The Drygand represents this combining of opposites as he both contains the full natures of Bilewit and Wildiar within him and also inhabits the space between the opposites, which makes him further from human than are the Twayne.

*= "a fluid and many-sided self in constant motion".

To Be or Not to Be a Monster

The archetypal Destructive Monster (Skadhe) is extremely common in world mythology, notably of the cosmogonic myths. It must be killed, or fettered, or perhaps held under rule by a stronger power. But rarely tamed, I think-- that's a later version.

Humans are the Destructive Monster (World-Skadhe). We are an alien species-- we are very different to the other animals-- we are a freak of Nature. We once were like them, integrated into the Earth's Ecosystem, but we are no longer shaped-to-fit by natural selection to remain a coordinated element in a relatively stable equilibrium state. We have evolved beyond that, so that we are naturally destructive of the Biosphere, and we are increasingly so-- we are out of bounds, out of control, destroying our very home, our Life-world (Hame).

However we became the Skadhe of Edhli, and that is still under discussion, it is principally by changes in culture that we have become more dangerous and damaging. And it is culture which can tame and train the human monster to relative harmlessness. If we can engineer a heroic shift of world culture into ecological sustainability-- and there's no doubt it would be extremely difficult, the most difficult thing we've ever tried to do-- then perhaps our species has a future, and the Biosphere as well. Considering the alternative we have been engineering, how can we not make the heroic effort?

We may always be a freak of Nature, not really naturally a coordinated part of the dynamic Ecosystem, but we can give ourselves a special role in the balance of Nature-- we can engineer ourselves, culturally, and perhaps out of necessity, otherwise, to become something better, more, than human-- become the guardian of the Biosphere, call it what you will-- the Overman, the Oekomensch, whatever. And a crucial part of this, along, of course, with the actual effective defense of the Biosphere from the Monster, is to forge and keep a true ecological culture-civilization, which I call the Edhli-menning.

A Wraith Seeking Soul

(word-help below)

The man of today is a restless, rootless wraith, jinking about the Searo-mindworld seeking what he has lost-- Soul. He hasn't got it and he can't find it in the Searuvel, but for pale afterglow glimpsed, but not to grasp, for the Searuvel cares nothing for soul, has no use for it, hasn't got it. It has made itself from frits, broken bits, wrested from Santh, but not growing of the Forn-Edhli. It is skrurk, a searu-thing, it has not a soul. And yet it is there, and so it is taken to be with-soul, but that is only a seeming.

Soul lies with-out the Searuvel. It is buried in the Body, which the Searuvel has not made, and in the depth of the Ferth. And it lives-on in the Edhli. And as a man seeks the Menning, Soul in the Body, Soul in the deep Ferth, and Soul in the free Edhli-world come together in One. The Soul, and the Meaning of Man, lies in the Edhli-menning, and there alone, and the task before him now is in the Making of the Menning, binding the Searuvel, leaving wraithhood behind, coming to ground on the earth and in the life-world of Edhli, Soul won, for good and ever.

Searuvel= the evil artificial civilization destroying the Biosphere. Searo= clever artifice, cunning snare.
Santh= the real world. santh= reality, truth (~sooth).
Forn-Edhli= the ancient life-organism of Earth.
Skrurk= false.
Ferth= psyche.
Edhli-menning= the future ecological culture-civilization. Edhli= the Biosphere.

A Meed for Worth

(word-help below)

Who is given the Lodestone? One who earns it, by his worth of self and his good deeds. An Alf-thane, then, onfons this gift as a meed, and in edcher swears an oath of troth to the Drygand, Lord of the Lode, and Dryghten of Alfs. For he is the Helgekyning, who draws-forth the Life-drang to ernern the Edhli so that all life may live-on in this Fyargin, the Great Life-Holy, this world we call Hame.

Meed= an award for merit.
Lodestone= a source of great power and guidance that supports those who would save the Biosphere.
onfon= to receive, accept.
Edcher= return.
Dryghten= a leader.
Helgekyning= a sacred king.
Life-drang= Life-force.
ernern= to rescue, deliver safe.
Edhli= Nature.
Hame= the Biosphere

The Wanderung

Wanderung (Ger)= migration, peregrination of peoples.
Neorxnabode= the Greening Home.
wyrdhe= evolve, develop.

We are in a time of Wanderung when the plight of the Eorth has sent a scattered people wheeling about in the Searuvel, casting about for a way out of it, like wild men in a wasteland who seek Neorxnabode. It is the new Menning they seek. The Lode calls to them, it draws them, but the Menning cannot be found in the Wasteland-- it must be made, and they must do this, but they know not how. And so they wander a mazey way through the Searuvel, daunted at every turn.

But as they grope their way, they find each other and band together, and share the knowledge they have gathered, found at hand or seen but dim, a patch of the puzzle glimpsed in the Mistryne.

And so, stepwise, they wyrdhe beyond the Searuvel, become free to dwell in the Menning as they make it about them, become the Men they are meant to be, a new thing upon the Eorth-- the Wise Warders of Edhlifrith, the Meaning of Mankind, their rightful stead in the Edhli.

Land-nam for Free Edhli

'Land-nam' is to edbespeak umrun (re-claim environment) and also to ednim (reclamate) it, for the free Edhli; that is, to ward it from harm, under Edhlifrith (Nature-protection), so that it can begin to heal. This is helped by rousing the Land-dryg (wight) of the neighborhood from his dreaming. When he is busy in the doings of Edhli, he lies wound-up in the land as a dreaming whorl. But when he is aroused, he unwinds to rise rampant as a winged Orm (serpent), to ward the land and waters from harm. A bindrune for this is the ea-rune (a vertical stave balancing a 'w') topped by a small ing-rune (diamond-shaped), as this is belike to the shape of the risen Dryg. It can be malled (painted) on a bole or stone, which warns men that this land is under frith, but also to call the Dryg to one's mind so that he can be reached in the twyrymet (dual space) of his dreaming, where immynd (imagination) and Edhli meld. Here, one feels the helgoth (sacredness) that edgalders (reenchants) the land.

The Shaggy Saga

(word-help beneath)

The Lodestone was fostered, deep in the Wolken, like a bairn in the womb, over long time. In time, the Wolken called to the Twayne, to their marrow, so soft and still it called to them. And they were drawn as if blind into its mistryne, going by feel only, and the murmuring of their blood, toward the Lodestone, a long and wayward faring through the Twyrymet. They neared its stead, in the midstead of the Wolken, and it was made known to them that this great madhom was not theirs to have, but they must bring it to the Allwight. So they together lifted it from its seat and set it in their heads, and sought the Allwight in the Myrkwood where he lived wild and free, frisking about the Edhli at play, diving in and out of body-shapes of all life-kinds in endless frolic, falling from one to other as samen-flowod flows twixt them, as it flows about the whole knit-working of the Edhli. He had learned all there was to be known of the whole of life, the hungers and fears, and winning in gladness and losing in sorrow, in all his kinren, his bredhern. He was beloved child of the Wolken, free to play as he would, but never straying far from its hearth.

When the Twayne came to him, he saw that the worsening Dilgoth meant that he must cherringe to something never seen before, and that he must fare forth from the life he had known, but he could not. But the Wolken spoke soft and still to him and he saw his way ahead and took the first step.

The Twayne, who bore the Lodestone inside them, came themselves to him, one to either side of him, and he bowed to anfon their gift while they raised their hands to clasp about his head, and by the will of the Wolken the Stone was dubbed into his brain and settled there, thorough-melding it. Now much that was worked over long time in the Wolken now worked quickly in his brain, edmaking his ferth, bringing his being and knowing and life-drang under a new mynt, to fight the Dilgoth so that the Edhli could live on, that all life could live. And when this Cherringe was fulfilled, the Allwight had become the Drygand, Halleth of the Edhli, and so to the Twayne now, he dubbed back the Lodestone to their brains, and there was something to it now of the Drygand, so that as it melded to their own selfness, it edmade it to a greater Self, a Eormen-self of the Edhli-mind of Wolken and with the new mynt of the Drygand. And Wildiar and Bilewit, for so they were named, became free Thanes to the Drygand, his first Drygandalfs, helped always by the Lodestone to fight for the Sake of the Edhli, and for the new Menning, the only hope for Edhli and Man.

And so these three went everywhere, offering to gift the Lodestone to everyone fit and willing to undergo the Cherringe, to wights of the lands and waters, and alfs, and to men, who then became Drygandalfs. They told man-kind of the Dilgoth and of the Edhlifrith Sake and of the new Menning to come.

That is how this great Cherringe of Wyrd began, out of fearsome plight and need, to stop the Dilgoth, to make a new Menning of Edhlifrith on Eorth, so that Life may live.

Wolken= the cloud-being of all Edhli (=living Nature) which wraps the Earth.
Mistryne= mystery.
Twyrymet= a melding of Edhli and Wolken in a liminal consciousness-space.
Madhom= a treasure-object.
Samen-flowod= the shining life-fluid that runs throughout the Edhli; the misty mind-stuff of the Wolken.
Kinren= creatures.
Dilgoth= the current Extinction Event.
Cherringe= change, conversion.
Anfon= receive, accept.
Ed-= 're-' in Old English.
Ferth= psyche.
Drang= force.
Mynt= an aim, intention, purpose.
Halleth= heroic warrior-savior.
Eormen= vast-entire.
Wildiar= wild animal. Bilewit= simple, pure, sincere, just, gentle, gracious; a good wight.
Sake= a cause, claim.
Menning= a culture-civilization.
Edhlifrith= Nature-peace, -protection; 'Ecology'.
Wyrd= the trend of things.
Plight= danger, risk.

Think Piece

I think that the strong Neo-primitivist urge of the Neopagan/New Age movement is problematic in that it turns us toward a lost past instead of the present and future, and it creates a lot of wannabeism that is futile because we cannot become anything like authentic tribal people in the innocent, naive, Noble Savage mold in which we imagine them. The appeal of the the urge to go back to a simpler, nonharming, integrated, spiritually fulfilled and saner culture is understandable in these times, but this ideal state, if it ever existed as we imagine it, is out of our reach, and we couldn't fit ourselves to it if we could reach it. It becomes ever more distant and vanishing as modern civilization progresses, in the way the world changes inexorably, and we can never recover what has been lost or destroyed. We can't go back, even innerly, because we are shaped by the world we live in, which is radically different from that even not too long ago. We have to accept that our nature, our mentality, is novel. We don't have to like it, but it is where we are, and wanting, trying, to go back, is not going to work. But we don't have to passively succumb to the fatal trend of civilization-- we do have some independence from our environment, some freedom to assert some resistance to its influence, so we can influence our own thoughts and feelings and desires, our behavior, our influence on others. Personal transformation, a major idea of the New Age movement, may be an unrealistic goal for all but a few, but we can still try to make the best of what we cannot help, try to 'turn ill to good'. Specifically, we can try to take advantage of our Postmodern unmoored fragmentation of identity and psyche and world-picture to try to save our Biosphere and our species. In this regard, I've been thinking about personal transformation. It is certainly the major idea in the Shaggy Mythos after Ecology. Two thinkers about transformation have had a particularly strong influence on me. The first is Robert Jay Lifton, a 'psychohistorian', whose concept of Protean Man as a characteristic, iconic figure in the traumatic twentieth century was the first major idea to really change my worldview when I first went to college at the end of the Sixties, and it has stayed with me more than any other basic intellectual concept I was exposed to then. Then, in the last few years I came across anthropological theorist Anthony F. C. Wallace's writings about Revitalization Movements and Mazeway Resynthesis as a response to historic/cultural trauma of the sort that Lifton studied, but with different results. You might want to look up these authors and their work.

The reason I mention these thinkers and their ideas is that the Mythos has been shaped in its organic evolution by ideas such as these, which I have sought down every byway I could find. And so there is ideology inherent in the elements of the Mythos, inextricable from it. The long, halting, inchoate growth of the Mythos has been driven by material unearthed in my researches, in my reactions both conscious and unconscious to it, and in the creative interplay of the conscious and unconscious. I suppose this is my kind of shamanism, the only kind I seem to be capable of, and also the closest I can get to scholarly analysis, since I lack a sharp, orderly, complexly capacious scholarly mind. So when you read one of my pieces written in mythic language, like the foundational myth of the Shaggy Mythos which will be the next post, be aware that there is an embedded ideology-- not that I am some rigid, doctrinaire ideologue, but that an ideology has evolved organically together with the Mythos, though I don't like to state it baldly, as it detracts from the magical mystery of myth-- it's deadly, really. But I just want you to know that there has been a lot of dithering and worrying about what was good for the ecological mythos and what was not, and especially about having it be cohering and practical and something that worked, despite being not really a true authentic, organic creation like a visionary revelation, but a thought-out, tinkered-with, agonized-over fiction invented for a specific purpose, which I suppose is to help one engineer, as far as one can, personal transformation through a coherent system of mythic icons, toward ecological salvation.

The Helg-sagen of the Shaggy Sagenverden (Hieros Logos of the Mythos)

The helg-sagen/sacred myth of the Shaggy Sagenverden/mythos is the telling of the Drygand's Cherringe/conversion from being the Allwight/Pan-chimaera into being the Drygand/magic-magic thing, who is the great halleth/hero of the Edhli/Biosphere, the inbodyer of Edhlifrith/Ecology, fighter of the Searuvel/Evil Machine, bringer of the Edhli-menning/ecological civilization.

You will soon have this telling.

To Shift the Wyrd of Eorth

We must shift the Wyrd of Eorth, for the overbiding of the Edhli and of our own. Without the Drygand's Eored of Alf-drengs, his DrygandAlfs, the deathly Searuvel cannot be shifted into the Edhlimenning-- and we must be of a strength of strength-enough to work this Cherringe over the Eormen-Eorth.

Overbide= survive.
Eored= a force, band, troop.
Dreng= warrior, thane.
Eormen= immense, whole, universal.
for further word-meanings, read other shtooks.