Skáldskapr: Investing in our culture.

Because of the onslaught of cultural dilution that has occurred over the last several millennia many of us find ourselves deeply pondering what culture are we exactly, and what possible influence does it have on our lives. Sometimes it takes some searching, sometimes it takes an investment in the culture, most of the time it takes a lot of reading. It takes different kinds of reading. Firstly, it takes a historical perspective. Truly understanding what our ancestors were thinking and feeling. Secondly, it takes a spiritual dive into what they may have understood as the boundaries of this physical life time. As well we need to look at their understanding of the spiritual world around us, and how they interpreted that.

What many have overlooked in this modern day era of extremes, is that it was the Christian church who initiated this practice. By creating an associated punishment practice paradigm, the early architects established a delineating line of the “haves” versus the “have nots”, and encouraged the highlighting of this deficit. If we note in the modern day, the political, fashion, even the “win at any cost@ mentality that has permeated youth sports, this paradigm is thriving throughout the world. There is no middle ground anymore, both sides refusing to compromise. Please don’t misunderstand me, there are many people who accept the ideology of Christianity, yet have room for discussion. However, it was this same mentality that began the systemic eradication of cultural beliefs on a grand scale.

What many have seem to have forgotten is their individual connection to their ancestry. Some may ridicule, others may sneer, the fact that we need our ancestral culture to assist us in connecting to Mother Earth, of Freyja. As I researched my feelings, and the historical information, my ancestry (to include in this discussion) began in France. Before my ancestors were previous generations who carried the understanding and realization of, what anthropologists call, Celtic. What exactly does this mean, and just as importantly, why did it fade away? What does it mean to be Celtic?

To speak of what it meant to be Celtic, is to understand what many of the indigenous tribes currently embrace, with a few names changed due to language and other local influences. We see in the historical record the word “Freyja” appear just about the time that my ancestors moved from deep within the Iberian peninsula, to (what was called) Brittany, or northern France today.. It is from this context that I speak about investing in our future. Freyja represents the “divine feminine”. Or nurture as part of nature, and certainly not mutually exclusive. She represents the love parents offer their children, the love between two soul mates who discover each other the vast oceans of the human population. She represents support, and willingness to ensure the pain of eternity for our children, and their children. Freyja represents the light, and what good in the balance of this existence. She is peace, harmony, light, and ultimately the absolute center of love.

This is what I’ve come to know Freyja as. A god capable of supporting all life that passes through this physical existence, of the illusion we’ve created called “time and space”. Physical life forms throughout their physical existences are the only group that recognizes time and space as a relational set of laws. Even our spiritual self doesn’t recognize it as a force necessary to understand or deal with. These laws do do affect Mother Earth as she continues to care for the physical life forms who visit the physical plane.

Early in antiquity, there were some who recognized the power contained within the cultural belief and practice. They saw that many feared the unknown, or mysterious powers of the natural world. How right they are, as many still fear them today, so they set about creating narratives that stigmatized these understandings. The modern churches formed after the turn of the geological epoch to the year 1 simply brought a method of controlling the masses.  By being able to overwhelm the Druids and Shamans of those days with simple control mechanisms, these early authors used the financial engine to influence the ruling classes, thereby forcing the adoption by the masses. Subscribe or die became the order of the day as this new practice swept the lands. It had become death.

Yet, within the understanding that I have received from my gods, and spiritual sources, being Celtic has many influences from the indigenous tribes of the Germanic steppes during those day before the Roman occupation. It is these beliefs that connect the human heart to the spirits of the lands, and therefore Freyja. By recognizing the spiritual brothers and sisters of other life forms, and recognizing our value within the circle of existence, being an indigenous Celt has given a much greater reverence for the powers of the natural world of Freyja.