Odin’s Steed…

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We have to travel far and wide before we can comprehend this story,

but in psychological terms ‘Loki’ is straightforward enough.

He represents the shadow side of the personality.

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In the Myth Cycle as a whole,

Loki’s binding brings on the destruction of the world,

but at this stage of the story he is introduced to us in all his ‘glory’.

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Given free rein in this way, Loki advocates a hazardous

solution to a seemingly insurmountable problem for the Gods.

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When this looks like going awry he manages to save the day,

 and brings a much needed boon to the Nine Worlds,

in the wake of a costly transgression of oath.

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‘Solemn oaths were broken

word and bond

and binding pledges

which had passed between them.’

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The shattering of the Rock Giant’s skull,

after he has previously been granted safe passage in Asgard,

reflects the, potentially, ‘Qliphothic’ shattering of the personality at transition.

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To claim Loki is misunderstood, or undersold in these stories,

would be an understatement!

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This myth also appears slightly disingenuous

when it states that Loki stayed away from Asgard, ‘for some time’.

As the gestation period of a mare lasts between eleven and twelve months

the information given here could, perhaps, have been more pertinent.

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The colt which Loki bears and then gifts to Odin can be identified

by returning its description to a riddle form.

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What is grey, can out pace all other earth-bound steeds,

can move over the sea, and through the air, and uses its eight ‘legs’,

or phases, as it traverses the night, into day?

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The answer is, the Moon…

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As a ‘heavenly steed’ the moon

is even swifter than the sun,

covering the same distance in one month,

as the sun covers in a year.

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Looked at in this way, the story has far more antiquity

than initially meets the eye.

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NUANCES OF NICOLL

The Keys to Heaven

Stuart France

Available via Amazon

Psychologist, Maurice Nicoll studied under Fourth Way exponents G.I Gurdjieff and  P.D. Ouspensky, and presented his own philosophy in a series of works published during the Mid Twentieth Century.

In his seminal work, Living Time… he makes no bones about insisting that the psychological states and concepts that he is expounding, and their utilisation, are ancient and stretch back through Christianity, Judaism, the Greek Philosophers, and on into the mysterious climes of Pre-Dynastic Egypt…

In re-presenting these ideas as a series of poetic explorations, author and essayist, Stuart France uncovers a series of links with the Mediaeval Traditions of the Northmen and the Matter of Britain!

What is the original story of our week? How does the moon harrow hell? Prepare to be enthralled, entertained, educated, and enlightened, as new light is shed on the enigmatic figures of Wotan, Merlin, and King Arthur.

They do not write books like this anymore if indeed they ever did!

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