Odin, Sacrifice, Blood

Blood Sacrifice and An Eye

8/23/2016

Odin went to the Tree and supposedly he hung there, without food or drink, and then he stabbed himself with some sharp instrument. A blood sacrifice? For what purpose? To gain the runes? To save the world? Not unlike the story of another male god who hung on a tree and got stabbed.
We women can go to the Tree and have access to the Wisdom that is guarded by the Nornir, in the Wells, in the Roots. We don't have to stab ourselves to bleed. We do it naturally; it is our nature. Our bleeding is the Source from which new life emerges.
And why would Odin offer up one of his eyes to gain Thought and Memory? Did he not know that we see with our mind's eye and remember with our hearts?

1 Comment

2/7/2018 11:28:42 am

I think a literal interpretation may limit all of our abilities to see these stories in ways that provide wisdom today for our own lives. Because, yes, literally, what kind of idiot, especially a "god", would starve himself while hanging upside down from a tree and then pick his own eye out of his skull?

I think a clearer parallel of this story to the feminine would be related to transitioning to the stage of motherhood. Hanging on the tree is replaced by 9 months of pregnancy. Delivering the runes, is replaced by delivering new life, a child into the world. The sacrifice of the eye is replaced by the sacrifice of the life and the role of maiden, and stepping into the life and role of mother. And if you really want to analyze this, you can ask the same questions of giving birth: For what purpose? To gain a child? To save the world?

It is clear Odin is sacrificing what was and stepping into the new. In this story Odin gives up his way of seeing the world. Now, instead of two eyes focused externally, seeing only the world outside of him, he now only has one eye looking out. Symbolic of Odin now recognizing the world within, and how it effects and changes the world outside of him. As you said, connecting with the mind's eye and with the heart.

In this story, for Odin's growth and sacrifices, he is able to bring forth new gifts from within, the Runes. Gifts that he was not able to access while living in his old way of being.

To me this story imparts a lot of wisdom of the general growth and progression of the individual human saga. I don't believe, at least for me, that it answers the "why" of life. What is the purpose of this growth? Why is there a necessity for a constant letting go of the old to embrace the new? What are our motivations for doing the work required to offer our gifts?

I think each of us has to find these answers for ourselves.

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