Happy Baldersvaki
Published: Fri, 06/21/13
Happy Baldersvaki or Baldur's wake as the Midsummer Solstice is
known in Scandinavia. Baldersvaki both celebrates and mourns the
death of Baldur. Midsummer is an appropriate time for
acknowledging that today we celebrate the maximum amount of
daylight in a twenty-four hour period. Here in Somerset it got
light just after four and it won't be dark until around ten pm
tonight. That is very nearly 18 hours of daylight, in the more
northern parts of Norway and Sweden it will hardly get dark at all
today. We also mourn the fact that the sun reached its zenith
today. From now until the midwinter Solstice in six months time
everyday will get a little shorter. I will consider Baldur's
death in more detail in a few days time when I write about Sol and
Bjork. It is the inevitability of change and the need to prepare
for it that relates to Nod.
Nod has three personalities associated with its meaning. These are
the Norns or the 'three wyrd sisters' who represent past
(Urd), present (Verdandi) and future (Skuld). It is not clear what
manner of being the Norns are, they are not Aesir or Vanir nor do
they fit in with any other category of mytholgical being such as
dwalf, elf or giant. However the idea of three women with powers
of prophecy comes up time and again in mythology from the Graeae in
the Myth of Perseus to the three witches in Shakespear's
Macbeth. Perhaps the three mysterious women are simply an
archetype with universal resonance.
In rune counselling the Norns provide the framework for the whole
process of 'reading the runes'. Urd knows all that is
past, Verdandi spins the present and Skuld is veiled and secretive
but still has an inkling of where a particular trajectory will
probably lead. If Hagl deals with the the unpredictable nature of
the future then Nod is about the inevitable. There is a great deal
that we cannot know about the next six months but (barring some
catastrophic celestial realignment which we probably wouldn't
survive anyway) it is certain that by December the 21st every day
will be dark for several hours more than it is light. If you know
the latitude you will be at then you can look up the exact time the
sun will rise and set on that day. Some things are that
predictable.
The second line of the rune poem for Nod goes; 'The naked
freeze in the frost.' Today, at midsummer you may be thinking
how nice and warm it is and how few clothes you can get away with
wearing. But at some point you are going to need to have paid your
fuel bills, bought winter clothes and boots and be ready for a
another winter. Or revised for that exam, or saved some money to
repair your car for it's MOT, or planted the vegetable garden
if you intend to harvest any crops. Today is the day to get ready
for the future.
regards
Graham
PS Something else predictable, 10 out of 12 places gone for the
Summer Camp at time of writing so if you protcrastinate too long
someone else will get your place, so if you intend to come book now
at http://www.stavcamp.org/