Musings: On Mountains, Spiritual Experiences, and Enviroment

Mountains truly are spiritually alive. When you are awe-struck by the beauty of a powerful mountain, we are experiencing a piece of Divinity in our reality. The Thunder-God, Thor in the Germanic tradition, is typically associated with mountains, and when you see the raw strength of a thousands of feet tall mountain, it is impossible to consider anything except the might of the Thunderer. To Anglo-Saxons and other Germanic peoples, mountain peaks were considered holy sites, and places where Divinity is experienced. I have never been to the peak of a mountain, but such an experience must be a certainty, considering the Divine energies one can experience just by being in their presence.
Spirituality increases when one’s enviroment is geared towards the Spirit. The Otherworld is much more open and active in places it’s spirits feel welcome to run free, and such places must be cultivated to achieve such spiritual “openness” to the Otherworld. This idea can be explored with the idea of a vé, the Germanic sacred-space. In such a place, the very area, piece of Earth becomes more “alive”. It has been “opened” to the Otherworld. In context, one would feel more spiritually awakened and alive in an enviroment they feel spirits of the Otherworld.

When somewhere where the very landscape itself feels sacred, one can certainly become more spiritually-awakened and aligned. In the presence of Divinity, there is no choice but to become cleansed by It.

Take care of your sacred-spaces, and take care of the Earth. Your spirit, my spirit, and the Gods will thank you for it.

Musings: On Modernity, Modernites, and Comfort

Staring into my glowing computer screen, I cannot help but ponder some of the paradox of Modern living (pay attention to the capital M) and reconstructing the folk-path of my ancestors. My surroundings, the artificial cave, with it’s industrial rumble of air conditioning and perceived safety; as opposed to the surroundings of my fore-fathers, the hand-built home,and in place of the machine-cacophony, the crackle of the hearth. We choose, and I express the choice of this word strongly, to perceive this as human progress. We as a species are more comfortable in the artificial cave, but in the wild ground, the natural world, we experience serenity (and Divinity!) in an indescribable way as opposed to being in the Hive-cluster of mass produced artificial caves. Now, as a creative type, when you are comfortable with the territory you are covering, you are not making true art. This can be extrapolated to the rest of your life. In general, when you are comfortable, you are complacent.

When you are uncomfortable, that is when you are at your most dangerous. Many of the world’s revolutions, and great changes are due to a lot of people being made very uncomfortable for a long enough time. That is why the Modern system is designed to make us comfortable, to create an artificial clone of Nature for us to play pretend in. It is even arguable the Abrahamic belief systems have a part in this, as there is the reoccurring belief that faith in God/YHWH/Allah is the way to salvation after death, a guarantee to eternal life; an extremely comforting thought. So, it seems we define progress as the continued infantilization of Man, and his removal from Nature, and the Divinity it contains. When Man removed himself from Nature, where He could look up and the beautiful blanket that is the Milky Way, and moved into the cities with their electric false-stars, a piece of Him died. People try to recover this piece of their Soul in a number of ways, but are simply just filling in a hole by digging a second, larger hole right next to it. They will become your run-of-the-mill Starbucks-frequenting environmentalist who’s connection to the land is running in the L.A. foot-hills, or perhaps they’ll take a week-long trip to Nepal or India and lecture you on how Buddhism and yoga works wonders and their “life-changing journey” with Eastern mysticism, even though they were born in Oregon.

In my world-view, there is one way, and one way alone for me to have recovered this piece of my soul, and that was finding the my natural folk-way. Certainly, this is not the religion for everyone, and neither do I want it to be.

Staring into my glowing computer screen, I hold my belief in the Gods steadfast, knowing the paradox of reality is just another step in the path.