23. Odin; God of Wisdom

The Germanic and Nordic, “Wotan”, “Woden” or “Odin” the premier God of the North; a god of war, wisdom and secret knowledge, who possessed the poetic mead of inspiration.

Odin is only one of two to three hundred names for this God, these including Ygg = egg, Jalk (English Jack) = youth, Sidhot = slouchy hat, and Sidskeg = the long beard. These names are a precise fit with the visible Amanita Muscaria Life cycle, which starts with an egg, growing into a youth, maturing into a slouchy hat, and finally into the long beard “mycelium”.

Odin has only one eye, he gave up the other one as payment to drink from the well of knowledge, if you pick a fresh Amanita Muscaria, remove the cap from the stem and look at the underside of the cap you will see what looks like a single giant eye.

Odin pierced by his own spear, hung himself on the world tree for nine days and nights distilling wisdom, fresh Amanita Muscaria must be dried before consumption, anciently it was threaded onto a string and hung up to dry, it having no wisdom or knowledge in it when it’s fresh.

Many of the Myths of Odin concern his attaining the Poetic Mead, the most precious drink in the universe; it was stored in three casks the Red, the Gold, the Brown, which are the three most common color phases of Amanita Muscaria. One Myth says Odin has a magic Goat that every day fills a pitcher with the poetic mead, the magic goat (mycelium) and the never-ending pitcher of Mead are just another version of the Holy Grail myth.

A separate Norse Myth concerns the “Golden Apples of Immortality”, which all the Germanic Gods had to consume daily to stay young and strong.

Most of the myths of Odin are found in the Elder Edda; which is a collection of the ancient Norse/German mythology saved from oblivion in the late middle ages. The similarity between the words Veda and Edda is no coincidence according to the Indo-European language experts, which believe they both descend from a common ancestral Proto-Indo-European word for Wisdom/Knowledge thus the Elder Edda means the Old Wisdom/Knowledge.

Christianity replaced the old German religion in Scandinavia only 1000 to 800 years ago and like it did everywhere it gained political control, it suppressed the Old Knowledge with persecution of all the remaining followers.

In response some of the Old Wisdom religion found it’s way into childhood stories like Jack and the beanstalk and of course there is Odin playing Santa Claus.

Jack and the Beanstalk

The Jack stories are very popular childhood entertainment throughout the Germanic world including England. As with all folklore, there are several different Jack stories and of course local varieties of the same story. The English name “Jack” or the Norse “Jalk” means a “Youth” and is one of the old names of Odin.

In the Jack the Giant killer stories Jack does exactly the same thing Odin does in his ancient stories namely overcome Giants, with only the name of the hero God changed to protect the storyteller from persecution. In Norse mythology things are not as they are said to be, in fact they are always named as an opposite, for example a giant in Norse Myth is not really a giant but a man. Once you understand that Odin is Amanita Muscaria and men are giants compared to him, his stories of “slaying Giants” is easy to understand and probably warded off the uninitiated person from even touching Odin the Giant killer.

In the Jack and the Beanstalk story, Jack trades a cow to an old man for three “magic” beans; the code breaker is the word magic or Maga which is one of the oldest names for Amanita Muscaria, in the Rig Veda the going rate for Soma is three Somas for one cow, so Jack didn’t get ripped off he just paid the going rate.

The magic beans in the story sprout into a gigantic beanstalk that reaches to heaven. In reality Jack would consume these three Maga and have visions, the theme of climbing the World Tree is common in Nordic Shamanism and by climbing up into heaven, or down to its roots in the underworld the Shaman’s spirit could visit all the regions of existence.

At the top of the beanstalk/world tree Jack discovers a Giant that wants to eat him, a bag of “Gold” that never runs out, a Golden Harp that recites poetry, and makes music by itself, and the Goose that lays Golden Eggs.

The never-ending bag of Gold recalls the Bhagas of the Rig Veda, the leather bags used to carry the dried Soma plants to the Soma ceremony, these bags gave the name Brahmans or “bag-man” to the ancient Soma drinkers. Now if you know where the Somas grow, your bag will never be empty, plus at three Somas per cow this knowledge could generate real wealth.

One of the most surprising effects of consuming dried Amanita Muscaria are the auditory effects, these can be very beautiful poetry, music or the spoken word. There is simply no comparison to real music as the auditory effects can be orders of magnitude better than ordinary music. Thus, the stories “golden harp” that sings and plays it’s own music.

The Golden Eggs supposedly produced by a “goose” are obviously Amanita Muscaria mushrooms, which when just emerging really are small golden eggs. In the Rig Veda Soma is called the Golden Embryo the most precious thing in all creation, while one of Odin’s names is Ygg, in English egg.

Santa Claus and Christmas

In Siberian folklore, reindeer, which love eating Amanita Muscaria and becoming intoxicated, are always associated with the mushroom. In the Santa story the reindeer not only pull a sled, but can also fly into the sky. This symbolism should be obvious, since people who have eaten dried Amanita Muscaria often report flying as one of the visions, such people would of course think a stoned out reindeer was also capable of this kind of shamanic “flying”.

Santa; the jolly little fat guy, with a long white beard, in a red and white suit, who can travel around the world in a single night leaving brightly wrapped “presents” under evergreen trees is obviously Amanita Muscaria personified.

Amanita Muscaria is little in size yet quite fat, full of laughter and joy when dried and consumed, it produces a long white mycelium when resurrected that resembles a white beard, it is the only brilliantly red and white life form in the northern forest, it can come up over a very large area in a single night, it is a symbiot with evergreen trees like Pine, Fir, and Spruce, and is obviously the brightly wrapped presents to be found under these trees. The Santa story is Norse/Germanic in origin, and the earliest known German Christmas tree ornaments are painted wood or glazed ceramic Amanita Muscaria representations.

This Santa story appears to be shifted six months on the Solar calendar, probably to avoid the church’s persecutions and to bring it into line with the Church’s calendar. Since, in the far north Amanita Muscaria fruits during or after the longest days of the year. While the modern Christmas or (Mithra’s birthday) is celebrated during the shortest days of the year, when Amanita Muscaria fruits in the much warmer Mediterranean basin area.

However, the ceremonial sharing of dried Amanita Muscaria at a midwinter celebration in the northern forests may be an ancient practice since the antibiotics it contains and it’s light increasing mood-enhancing intoxication would probably be most needed by the ancient peoples at this bleak time of the year.