One of the liberating things for me about Stav was being able to explore and study a whole mythology without anyone expecting me to believe that it was all literally true. As a lifelong Methodist I was brought up with an understanding that the bible was clearly open to interpretation and Methodist ministers are supposed to be trained in contemporary biblical analysis and criticism. For example, the tale of Jonah and the Whale is clearly a myth, if not fairy story, about someone who attempts to defy God and learns that denying your true calling is not really an option. God will always find a way of bringing his servants back to the task in hand, even if he needs the assistance of a giant fish. You would hope that no one over the age five has ever believed that the story of Jonah was literally true and yet it does provide a highly entertaining example of faith and obedience.

Likewise, the story of Noah's ark has certain credibility issues which I don’t need to expand on here. However, about 11,500 years ago there was a series of cataclysmic events known as the Younger Dryas which resulted in sea levels rising hundreds of feet. Huge areas were inundated and whatever civilisations and cities might have been built in those low lying areas are now far below the surface of the sea. Writers such as Graham Hancock have made a compelling case that before the Younger Dryas there were advanced civilisations around the world which were destroyed by the rising sea levels and it took a long time before civilisation recovered. So, the myth of Noah and his ark may well have a basis in reality, especially since the Old Testament is by no means the only ancient text which describes of a flood myth.

When I arrived at college to begin my degree course which included courses in biblical criticism I was quite prepared for what followed. However, there were a good many bright eyed 18 year olds who had come from rather more fundamentalist traditions than mine who found the questioning of the literal truth of the bible very challenging and many of them soon claimed to have lost their faith altogether. Once I got involved in Stav I found the Norse Mythology quite fascinating and I read the Eddas and any other relevant material I could get hold of. I believe that if you are going to understand the runes you need a knowledge of the relevant mythology associated with each rune. There is a great deal to learn from the Eddas although some characters such as Thor, Loki, Freya, and Odin have many stories about their adventures and activities, and others such as Ull or Forseti, have very little recorded about them.

However, Snori's prose Edda was written down about two centuries into the Christian era and Ivar told me that he believed that his family had had a much simpler view of the gods. In his view there were really only three: The sky father personified by Odin, the earth mother personified by Hel, and Heimdal in between who represents the highest aspirations of humanity. All the other Aesir and Vanir are just different aspects of these three deities. Are we expected to believe in Odin, Hel, and Heimdal literally as real beings? The level of belief is up to the individual. I see these three as personifications of the cosmological realities of sky, earth, and humanity.

Stav aspires to be above all a practical system for living life in this dimension of time and space. As far as we know most planets, moons, and asteroids are incapable of sustaining life as we know it. And yet our earth supports myriad life forms on the many regions of land, in the waters, both sea and fresh water, and even in the air. The earth provides all that life needs, and the sky provides a protective screen that allows sufficient sunlight to pass through for life to flourish, and yet provides a barrier to deadly cosmic radiation. Our atmosphere also mainly burns up the meteorites which would otherwise constantly strike the earth. The protective sky is largely dependent upon the magnetic field field which is generated within the earth itself. This layer being known as the Van Allen Belt.

Hermetic thought teaches the idea of gender, that all things depend upon the balance and interaction of the masculine/positive/anode principle with the feminine/negative/cathode principle. The earth being negatively charged and the sky positively. This balance of energies causes the sky to discharge lightening to the earth and negative ions to return to the sky. Trees are negatively charged and clouds positively, thus rain in pulled from the sky by trees which is why forests are so important to the water cycle. All life depends upon electrical activity to activate the nervous system, trigger hearts to beat, and move water and other elements through the cells of plants and trees. The human body depends upon electrical activity to drive the nervous system and activate muscles, and stimulate general vitality and well-being. The traditional European name for this energy is Megin

On one level the stances are a form of exercise in terms of gentle stretching and movement. However, if the stances are performed out of doors, on the ground in bare feet, and preferably near trees and maybe even running water, you will be completing a circuit between sky and earth. If you want to be poetic about it you will be representing Heimdal linking the sky father with the earth mother and allowing the power of both to flow through you as Megin energy. Just as caring for your gut biome has become fashionable as I described in my last post, so has the idea of 'grounding'.

Of course you don’t need the stances to achieve the same practical result. The Chinese have been using similar practices for managing Chi since time immemorial. In India the energy is called Prana and some forms of Yoga are the method of cultivation and regulation of this force. If you have no inclination to learn a particular discipline of energy training you can just have a walk under trees in bare feet. From time to time just stop, breath deeply, and allow yourself to be a connection between sky and earth. Perhaps there is no real reason for anything more complicated.

Regards

Graham

PS Roland Zerpe has published an updated edition of the English Language version of his book: Stav: Runes, Martial Art, Philosophy. This version includes updated chapters and new insight into the runic reformation at the dawn of the Viking Age. You can find the Amazon page here

Roland will be teaching at Stavcamp in the UK on the first weekend of September, full details here