Odin - All Father

I have worked with Freyja for a long time. I was initially drawn to the Norse pantheon when I began my witchery almost 20 years ago.  Though I was drawn to the Norse, I was perhaps a bit hesitant to work with Odin. It is apparent that he is not a god to be taken lightly.  In the mythology, it is plain that he always gets what he wants, and is willing to go to any lengths to make that statement correct.  Perhaps I was intimidated by him, I cannot say for sure.

Anyway, as I have dedicated myself to the Norse for a year and a day, I have not taken this on lightly.  I have jumped in and am fully immersed in Nordic magick study and practice.  This means that I have begun working with Odin himself.

Odin is a powerful god, and I am glad that I waited to really work with him.  I feel that only now am I at the proper place to truly know him.  Each time I have evoked him I have felt his power throughout my body. Most recently, I asked of him a gift. 

According to Nordic tradition, a gift must never go unreciprocated. I asked Odin's assistance in a working, and in return, I promised a gift to him.  As part of my working, I made a particular bind rune to symbolize the request and desired effect.  My end of the bargain was yesterday, unfulfilled.  During this interim, the wood round onto which I burnt the runes began bowing in upon itself. I didn't really think much of it at the time.  I blamed it on humidity.  However, I began to fulfill on my end of the bargain today, and now the round is flat again.

Coincidence?  I think not....

What does (blank) Mean to You?

A friend of mine, whom I met for coffee this morn, is going through some intensive therapy, and so we often speak of various lessons he as learned as a result. Recently, his therapist spoke to him about "programs."  She told him that we are all running on various programs.  That is why we tend to replay similar situations in our life. For instance, we all know that one person that keeps dating all the wrong characters, all abusive (or insert other such character flaw). That person keeps running on the same program.

One way that his therapist has for identifying a person's programs is through a word association exercise.  Loving such exercises, I asked him to walk me through it. 

 

First, you pick a word, one that means a great deal to you, one that may be an end that you are striving towards.  He chose "love" when he did the exercise.  I, however, chose Clarity, as it has been an aim of my studies for a ridiculous number of years.

The next step is to write the first 5 words that come to your mind upon thinking of your chosen word.  My word Perception, Deception, Illusion, Clear, and Wholeness.  After writing these 5 words, you write 3 word or phrase associations.  From there you choose one of the three and write three more that you associate with that word.  At some point in this exercise, one of your words will refer back to one of the initial 5 words.  That word shows how you define your main word.  For me, as you can see from the photo above, I eventually wrote out the word "Whole" in response to another word.  This means that for me:

Clarity = Wholeness