Odin: The True God of All Witches

[muninnskiss]

“You’re walking on gallows ground, and there’s a rope around your neck and a raven-bird on each shoulder waiting for your eyes, and the gallows tree has deep roots, for it stretches from heaven to hell, and our world is only the branch from which the rope is swinging.”
~American Gods, Neil Gaiman

Comments

[muninnskiss]

> Interesting thing is Odin was a practitioner of Seiðr, which was supposedly "woman's magic" and shameful for "normal men" to perform

[bearfairie]

I agree with much of what you write. Odin is not one to be fluffy-bunnyed. But he is also the god of ecstasy, of poetry, of gambling. Warriors *wanted* to end up in Valhalla b/c they knew Odin throws the best parties.

But this bit is incorrect according to Lore and to most heathens: He is the "true god of all witches" and the last face you see at the Gates of Death (Arddhu?). Are you willing to face him? He is terrible, he is to be feared, he is unpredictable, but all come before him and "every knee shall bow."He's not the last face you see, unless he's specifically chosen you to be among his warriors. And he's picky about whom he chooses to be Einharjar. And he is not the Arddhu - the Arddhu as far as I know is another entity from another pantheon

[muninnskiss]

> I agree with much of what you write. Odin is not one to be fluffy-bunnyed. But he is also the god of ecstasy, of poetry, of gambling. Warriors *wanted* to end up in Valhalla b/c they knew Odin throws the best parties

Part 2 because I'm very long winded when I write and it wouldn't post as one post...

[muninnskiss]

Sorry for rambling. My point is that I look at the similarities between various traditions and religions and cultures, because there is underlying Truth that I'm distilling out of them. While Odin and the Arddhu are not "the same", being from different pantheons, having different lore and stoies, having different roles, there is underlying Truth that can be gleaned from where they interact and intermingle