We have reached the end of another full cycle of me going through my philosophical foundations. Here we end with wisdom and wisdom is both the goal and the beginning. So the whole issue of philosophy the process and a new beginning from time to time.
Every now and then it comes up in my head the issue of collective wisdom. I have no great respect for it to be honest. What constitutes conventional wisdom most of the time is things I would disagree with by nature. I am pretty contrary most of the time when people say something I am already thinking of counters and the opposite point of view. I am already becoming the antithesis to any thesis.
I guess my belief is built on finding wisdom through discussion and debate. I despise the sheep mentality that accepts what people say I should need and want. I know what I need and want and I don’t really need someone to tell me that. What I need and want more is the collective wisdom to tell me how to get it, not define it.
To the Wolves and Ravens:
“Feed the Wolves, but Listen to the Ravens first.”
Needs (Geri):
The wisdom of need is based on hunger for that which is needed. Something inside calls for something and no amount of collective wisdom can define that. The wisdom of others may give you options if it is truly wise. But it can never tell you what you really need. That has to be defined by you.
Wants (Freki):
What we want can only be governed by ourselves as well but does have to be placed through the filter of collective wisdom only in so far as does what we want to harm someone else. Which as any decent human being would not want to do anyway? Unless by not harming others, continued harm befalls yourself, but that idea would only be applicable to needs not wants.
Reason (Huginn):
This is where our own reason might butt heads against collective reason. If something is reasonable it seems to me that collective wisdom would accept it but this is not always the case. Passion rules reason, but that is popular wisdom not necessarily the most rational course for each person. Only the individual can truly know that and only if they involve reason in the process of there decisions. Otherwise. As Russell points out above, this is usually the moment where some individuals stand against conventional wisdom and rightly so.
Wisdom (Muninn):
Collective wisdom is not always wise. It offers a general guideline but not always the best course of action for each individual. Because of this wisodm also says to be a little contrarian and challenge the conventional wisdom – which I do – often. It is simply wise not to always accept collective wisdom until it can prove to be wise in my specific situation.
Conclusion:
I suspect I will always be contrarian in my search for wisdom. I just don’t think the conventional and collective mindset is always good for me. I find just accepting what everyone thinks is wise to be difficult. I feel far more strongly that Bertrand Russel has the right of it so I accept his wisdom on this.
I remain,
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
The more I engage the question the more I am now aware and can confirm that I am an atheist. I have no belief in any way shape or form in a god or gods. Even what people consider supernatural has a natural explanation. I am open to any rational explanation that would prove the existence of something divine or supernatural, but my experiences in the church and in particular being pentecostal have allowed me to see how you can boil everything down to magic tricks, groupthink, mass psychology, and psychological manipulation.
So the question people always level at atheists is what morals or ethics can you have without the divine? My response, you assume the divine/religion created morality. Given that all religions have similar statements of morality, is it not possible that they are all borrowing from the same source – humanity. It is why I can borrow the Nine Noble Virtues and be an atheist follower of parts of Asatru. It is a good list and it gives my moral philosophy a good foundation but all tose virtues can be found elsewhere including in the atheist moral philosophy.
This is the week I engage these virtues for their own sake and ask myself how I am doing regarding them.
Honor:
“Honor is the feeling of inner value and worth from which one knows that one is noble of being, and the desire to show respect for this quality when it is found in the world”
Principle – To possess a feeling of inner value about myself and my future with a desire to find the same in others.
Goal: Maintain a daily blog streak of one post per day for an entire year (365 days). (achieved)
Bucket List: Hike the Northern Lakeshore Trail along the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan by March 2024.
I struggle to be of value to me. It is not that others don’t say thank you and that they appreciate me. Rather, it is when I look in the mirror and think I can be more and do more. My sense of self-worth is probable below average right now and part of that is my unknown future. I just feel Grey at times.
Courage:
“Courage is the bravery to do what is right always.”
Principle – Act with Courage at the right time.
Goal: Cross one thing off bucket list every year. Deadline March 31st.
Bucket List: Go Back to Budapest, Hungary for a vacation by March 2029.
What is the right thing is more of a question right now. I keep hoping and searching for something better but I don’t know what that is right now.
Truth:
“Truth is the willingness, to be honest, and to say what one knows to be true and right. It is often better to not say anything at all if one cannot be honest.”
Principle – To Be Honest, and Speak Truth to Myself and Others. To Be Silent in the presence of Fools.
Goal: To Write a Non-Fiction Book by March 31st, 2020
Bucket List: Read 52 books (one per week) in the year 2020.
Honest self-evaluation is hard right now. I don’t like a lot of things about where I am, what I am doing and what I am thinking.
Higher Virtue: Love:
It is the same old story right now of the tension of being concerned for others and a lack of concern for myself. My self-maintenance of love is a little low but I have to make an effort to remember to do it. I need to be myself, the problem is that it is very different from what people expect me to be and that is something that is going to make them uncomfortable which my empathic self will pick up on and then be uncomfortable as well. It’s a vicious cycle and one that doesn’t end well for me. Something needs to change and I am falling back to thoughts I had a few years ago. The tension is building and that is not good.
Morning Routine:
Stretching / Yoga
Shower, Personal Hygiene. Morning Meds.
Review Nine Noble Virtues (NNV), Principles, Goals and Bucket List
Meditation – 5 min.
Check Communications and Email.
Paper Journal: Create a Daily Log and To-Do List.
Get Dressed for the Day
This order is working out a little better.
I remain.
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
Last year I had very little time to discuss my favorite holiday – Halloween but also I was just developing in my understanding of pagan holidays and what they meant to me. At this point, with The Grey Wayfarer heading into its second year, I think and feel it is time to look at what we are celebrating at this time of year and have a little fun.
In pagan terms, Halloween translates to Winternights for the Norse Tradition. Winternights runs from October 29th to November 2nd so there is more to it than a single day although the Winternights Festival is October 31st. Winter begins officially for pagans on this day and the Wild Hunt is said to be released. It is at this point all the darker beings and spiritual forces are venerated or perhaps it is best said – appeased from the Norns to Hel the goddess of the dead.
This is after all about honoring the dead from the past year and harvest which is basically the beginning gathering dead plants and butchering animals that won’t last the winter in preparation for winter.
There is a custom I find interesting in regards to harvest and the Norse religion. Leaving the last bits of the harvest – the ‘last sheaf’ as it were – for Odin. The god of the dead and all-father gets part fo the harvest to signal its end as he is the one said to lead the Wild Hunt. The point being that roads and fields no longer belong to humans but to The Hunt.
Time to Look Through the Eye:
“To see the truth, change one eye for another”
Faith:
When I look at winternights from a faith perspective, it is not so much a celebration of all the spiritual forces for me but of the finality of life as being part of life itself. Everything comes to an end. The Hunt becomes symbolic of how the winter washes the leftovers away and begins life anew in the Spring. Nature is a wonderful force of life, death, and renewal and we need to have some awe and wonder about that.
Meditation:
I have been asked what meaning in life that an atheist can possibly have. It is a good question as many people think without life after death life doesn’t mean much. I would say then they haven’t really defined for themselves or discovered the meaning of their life. As an atheist, I define my own meaning and that is what scares people. People who think others should be controlled would not like this as they use either religion or politics to do so. For me meaning has been found in my times of meditation as I build my life myself. People who understand this level of liberty are truly free.
Theology:
Theology’s only use for me these days is to point out flaws in theology. It is a fun exercise to be a theologian who is effectively an atheist. In a sense, I start theologically now from zero and people need to show me how and why I should add to that. The issue for winternights is that I look at its celebration as recovering a lost heritage not some reference to gods or goddesses in any other way than that.
Spirituality:
Holloween offers me a chance to be in connection with my fellow weirdos as far as the general spirit of the holiday. I don’t have much money, so a costume is out but I think that my own addition to the creative spirit of this holiday will be to carve a pumpkin or two. Someday, I want to join this and other celebrations with a full heart and effort. But I feel some major change is needed both in the realms of practicality and in mind and heart.
Conclusion:
This opening part has been about the holiday. The next two will be some of my personal thoughts as we get closer to it and the final part will drop the day before Halloween itself. You might even get a few personal pictures as we head toward and through winternights.
One final note: you have probably noticed all the wonderful pin-ups in this post. I love pin-up girls as an art form plus they are sexy as hell, and Halloween has a lot of them. This week all of them come from one of my favorite artists – Matt Dixon. I prefer the more vintage classic artists, but Dixon has his own style that is edgy and I like that.
I remain,
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
Well, I have reached the week where I look at my bucket list but I have also added the additional task of redoing my Routines. Mostly though my decision to be a writer first and whatever else to pay the bills means some changes to both. I have to develop two habits to do that 1) writing (on top fo the blog consistently every day) and 2) Reading. I need to work that in right now and have some goals or bucket list items attached to them.
My bucket list is really about long term goals and having those mile markers on the journey where I can say – ‘hey. life is good’. There are a couple bucket list items that looking at them may not be completely of this vein so I am thinking of changing them and they should reflect in some way the virtue I have attached them to as well. it has been a year for many of them so it is time for a look again because what motivates me and inspires me has probably changed.
Routine changes are more about finding what practically works. My morning routine works but my formal meditation time need some attention. The work and rest Day routines simply need to be ordered so the reading and writing get done every single day.
Honor:
“Honor is the feeling of inner value and worth from which one knows that one is noble of being, and the desire to show respect for this quality when it is found in the world”
Principle – To possess a feeling of inner value about myself and my future with a desire to find the same in others.
Goal:Maintain a daily blog streak of one post per day for an entire year (365 days). (achieved)
Bucket List: Hike the Northern Lakeshore Trail along the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan by March 2024.
I still want to do this. I do have as kind fo a side identity being a hiker and wayfarer in real life. I want to see this as my first big hike. It stays.
Courage:
“Courage is the bravery to do what is right always.”
Principle – Act with Courage at the right time.
Goal: Cross one thing off bucket list every year. Deadline March 31st.
Bucket List: Go Back to Budapest, Hungary for a vacation by March 2029.
I still want to do this. One of my other ones is to visit the lands of my ancestors and I don’t think anyone has ever mentioned Hungarian ancestry, but I still love the city of Budapest.
Truth:
“Truth is the willingness, to be honest, and to say what one knows to be true and right. It is often better to not say anything at all if one cannot be honest.”
Principle – To Be Honest, and Speak Truth to Myself and Others. To Be Silent in the presence of Fools.
Goal: To Write a Non-Fiction Book by March 31st, 2020
Bucket List: Read 52 books (one per week) in the year 2020.
This bucket list item has been learning Latin but I have just not been able to inspire myself to learn it. More fitting with a writer and a desire for a long term goal about reading specifically, I want to read 52 books a year and that comes out to one per week. I decided the calendar year would be more appropriate for this one andI will probably use Goodreads for this for accountability. I am going to however work this one in as soon as possible into the routine so once 2020 starts I will have developed the habit a bit.
Higher Virtue: Love:
I still struggle with this tension of being a natural care for others kind fo guy but neglecting myself at times. There are certain issues in my heart and head because of it. I have been meditating on this issue a lot but few things come into focus. its the age-old issue of self-love and care not getting done but me working hard to make others happy.
Morning Routine:
Stretching / Yoga
Shower, Personal Hygiene. Morning Meds.
Review Nine Noble Virtues (NNV), Principles, Goals and Bucket List
Meditation – 5 min.
Check Communications and Email.
Paper Journal: Create a Daily Log and To-Do List.
Get Dressed for the Day
I find the biggest obstacle to formal meditation is I am not awake enough to concentrate on it and I feel a little grungy too. I figure doing my stretching and getting a shower will do that. I also have split my medications and supplements into two things so the don’t upset my stomach as much. My payday is coming up and I want to order some candles and I found a company that produces valknut plaques of a sort for meditation. Time to get this meditation time truly formal as it helps me far too much to not do it or be hit and miss anymore.
I remain.
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
Anyone who has been a part of The Grey Wayfarer family knows that I talk often about my personality type. Myers-Briggs to me does a fairly decent job of defining personality through its simple four-letter designation. Well, four letters and dash with either an A or T behind it to indicate whether one’s identity is assertive or turbulent. In my case, my full letter combo is INFJ-A. I have found that in exploring the implications of this I have discovered more about myself and it has helped me with that struggle because as we will see in a moment, INFJ’s struggle with this.
My recent musings into the subject led me to discover a YouTube video that talked about how INFJ’s are walking contradictions. It is something I have heard and explored a little but the video offered some very specific contradictions that seem to be part of most INFJ’s and so after watching it I have to ask myself if they apply to me and more importantly what they mean for me.
8 Reasons Why INFJs are Often Described as a Walking Paradox
I like firstly how the video points out that it is not that we intend to be misleading or lack conviction but that our personality type puts us into these tensions. We have a high value on personal integrity and these contradictions are mostly due to our complex nature. With that let us dive into the eight contradictions and see if and how they apply to The Grey Wayfarer.
One – Craving deep connections, but being so private:
My standards of friendship and love are fairly high. This is the product of my desire for deep connection. I want a few good/great friends not a whole bunch of different ones. When it comes to love there are certain expectations I have coming back toward me.
The problem, of course, is that I am so very private as a person. It makes it hard to form those friendships and my wife is learning that love is something very important to me and she needs to spend some time nurturing it or I start to think very dark thoughts about our relationship. This happened once right after our last child graduated high school and I was expecting that now the two of us would get to spend more time together and rekindle some of that fire we had before kids, but that didn’t happen. It almost caused a divorce seven years later. Part of that was me having a hard time talking about it and the other was my high expectations.
Two – You find people interesting and draining at the same time:
I am definitely a people watcher but interaction with them is draining, to say the least. I can spend all day on a park bench watching people and studying them. I have been that way for a long time, pretty much most of my life. But in social situations where I have to interact with people I can only do that for so long and then I have to retreat and regroup periodically.
Three – You can understand people better, but you hardly understand yourself:
Oh yeah, this is why I probably spend so much time talking about my personality and how it works. It’s more about self-understanding and trying to figure myself out than anything else. I have to think about my motives and desires, where figuring out other people’s motives and desires because of my natural empathy is far easier.
Four – You love to help others, but you find people annoying at the same time:
Yep. It made me a good pastor but at the same time a pastor that was constantly annoyed with people continuing to make the same mistakes and continued to drain my time with the same problem. I find the fascinating part of people lasts only so long and then their flaws become so apparent that I am ready to head for the door and when I can’t head to the door I feel trapped.
Five – Being a perfectionist who often forgets small details:
Yep. I have a whole slew of small routines that are designed to make sure I don’t forget the little things and everything has its place mostly for practical reasons along the same line. I like things to be clean and things to go according to plan. When small details don’t pan out, I can feel let down for sure.
I also don’t notice the little achievements I make as much. I am looking for the big goal to be accomplished, so when small successes along the way to those big goals are present, I rarely notice them
Six – You are natural loners, but people often mistake you for an extravert:
“Ed, sometimes you are hard to read” and “But I thought you would like that (insert name of a social event)”. I have heard those two a lot over the years. Mostly because I am fun-loving and sarcastically humorous enough to wade through most social situations. I am confident and my ‘-A’ tells you I am also assertive. I was a pastor that dealt with people on a regular basis. I get mistaken for an extravert a lot.
However, I would rather be home alone reading a book or writing or name that at home alone activity. I am quite comfortable with my own company so I don’t ‘need’ social situations but I do need them periodically to remind me that I am a member of the human race.
Seven – You want to be in a relationship, but often choose to be single:
I am not single but the issues of being in a relationship that is loving are pretty high for me as I possess very high standards of what love is. This actually causes a lot of problems in this area as I am very aware of what love is but most cannot live up to what I think. The video is spot on about being in love being rare as it has only happened to me three times and when it does I tend to take it hard when it doesn’t work out.
Eight – They are complex, but they have integrity:
This video describes us as being like an onion that you have to peel layer after layer away to get to a true understanding of an INFJ, and I don’t know too many INFJs that would disagree. It can take literally years to completely understand all aspects of our personality. In the end, if you take that kind fo time you may actually understand us better than we understand ourselves.
Our idealism, however, has a large amount of personal honor to it. It is no accident that the part of Asatru I struggle with the most is honor and it is the struggle I consider most important. I find it actually more upsetting to myself at my failure to uphold my honor than I give two shits about what others think of it.
Conclusion:
Being walking contradiction or paradox is probably the most accurate thing I have heard to describe me. Whether this applies to other INFJs I would not speculate but if it is common enough to talk about this way, it is probably mostly true.
I remain,
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
I have found a great deal of fascination in defining spirituality in terms of evolutionary development. I feel that religion is in many ways a codified attempt to explain where people were at certain times in their understanding of spiritual evolution. The problem is that religion has a tendency to anchor us to that moment. We don’t move on from there once someone says: “This is spiritual Truth” with a capital T.
We should recognize that these moments of spiritual understanding are not capitalized but are a moment of truth at is both evolving and fleeting because there is other truth with a small t to discover and the truth we are at that moment is just the next part fo the path that leads to other truth.
Spiritual evolution demands that we explore the truth and keep moving from one part of it to the next. This is something that I am learning right now and I am hoping my time stagnated in Christianity hasn’t robbed me of my chance to be a better person. Is the next step for human evolution to take our growing and developing consciousness to the next level?
Time to Look Through the Eye:
“To see the truth, change one eye for another”
Faith:
I am effectively an agnostic/atheist that explores spirituality because I think that inside spirituality, and to a lesser extent religion, is that spark of genius that given enough time might lead to human beings evolving to another level of consciousness. My start in this began with Asatru but much of what I do in meditation is straight-up psychology and neurologically proven stuff. Religion and spirituality do tap into something that neurologically works and I have assurance, not faith, that this is true. Much of what we know scientifically now is someone looking at what humans spiritually thought once upon a time and then science going and investigating if it was true. In this, they discovered some faith was bogus and other faith had the spark of truth that led to a greater understanding.
Meditation:
My meditation times have been taken up mostly with virtue and thinking on this concept of my own personal spiritual evolution. I feel very free of shackles right now when it comes to spiritual things. myu definition of spirituality is more about human consciousness and the idea right now is to explore my own consciousness with restrictions. I guess that is why I view my exploration of paganism as part of that because paganism acknowledges that each person is unique in their spiritual capacity and understanding of the world around them and they are not trying to proselytize anyone.
Theology:
Right now, theology is not something I can use that much as someone who has no effective belief in god. From an evolving consciousness point of view, I also am not looking to an imaginary friend to help me, but rather if there is any ‘god’; to be found it is this thing inside my head that makes decisions, engages the world around me and stretches out in relationships to others.
Spirituality:
My spirituality as defined as an exploration of my own consciousness and in bringing to myself a new understanding of who I am and that part of me that I still am learning about. I want to stay truly with understanding myself and why I do what I do.
Conclusion:
I don’t know what truths I will discover but this journey as The Grey Wayfarer has its bright moments. Those moments are usually spiritual in the sense of understanding human consciousness spiritual. There is a lot more road ahead of me to walk yet, and this is what makes me get up every single day.
I remain,
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
My meditations have been on my routines but I have to go back to my goals and look at the ones I have achieved and asked what part of my routines helped me achieve them. This really involves a lot of thought about Routines in the sense that they not only have to line up with goals they also have to practically work. If I don’t do them and they don’t actually help me achieve my goals then they need change.
This last goal that was achieved reminds me of the fact that feelings cannot be a measure of whether you decide to work on your goals. If I relied on feelings to achieve blogging every day I would have never made it. Any writer will tell you that you have to sit down and write regardless of feelings. Writer’s block to me is just another mythological excuse. I had to sit down at my computer and write regardless of feelings and still do as the streak of daily posts continue.
I need to learn to branch this out a little more to other areas like writing my novel and a non-fiction book, and doing the other things writers do – reading. The fact is the things I do despite feelings I am having good results in and the rest flounders because I let feelings determine if I do them or not. That needs to change.
Honor:
“Honor is the feeling of inner value and worth from which one knows that one is noble of being, and the desire to show respect for this quality when it is found in the world”
Principle – To possess a feeling of inner value about myself and my future with a desire to find the same in others.
Goal:Maintain a daily blog streak of one post per day for an entire year (365 days). (achieved)
Bucket List: Hike the Northern Lakeshore Trail along the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan by March 2024.
Goal Achieved and that is three out of nine for the year. My thoughts though are this goal is going to be regularly about getting past feelings nad getting habit in my life I need to be a successful writer.
Courage:
“Courage is the bravery to do what is right always.”
Principle – Act with Courage at the right time.
Goal: Cross one thing off bucket list every year. Deadline March 31st.
Bucket List: Go Back to Budapest, Hungary for a vacation by March 2029.
I’m picturing in my head getting a new job, saving up some money and then getting my tattoo on my shoulder. This would cross off two goals and a bucket list item off this list. it is the next real major milestone in the journey and need to get there soon. The job search is also one of those things that need to get past feelings.
Truth:
“Truth is the willingness, to be honest, and to say what one knows to be true and right. It is often better to not say anything at all if one cannot be honest.”
Principle – To Be Honest, and Speak Truth to Myself and Others. To Be Silent in the presence of Fools.
Goal: To Write a Non-Fiction Book by March 31st, 2020
Bucket List: Learn Latin by March 31st, 2021 to the point I can take a test and show my self proficient.
In order to write my non-fiction book, writing needs to be every day. Another place where – “I don’t feel like it’ cannot be present.
Higher Virtue: Love:
If I am going to balance out everything else with love of self, getting past my feelings is the key. Literally. I need to start putting my feelings to love others in a proper perspective and I need to have some feelings about loving myself that are more developed. That requires an objective look at feelings – why I have them and what they accomplish. Loving me has become I priority if I am going to move forward with my life and stop these anchors from the past from holding me back.
Morning Routine:
Review Nine Noble Virtues (NNV), Principles, Goals and Bucket List
Meditation – 3 min.
Check Communications and Email.
Paper Journal: Create a Daily Log and To-Do List.
Stretching / Yoga
Shower and Personal Hygiene
Get Dressed for the Day
I am starting today looking at every line of my routines and asking questions about what I need to make them work better and more consistently. For the Morning Routine, the thing that is missing is a meditation altar and I am going to spend some money to make one with some candles, incense and I found a valknut plaque to be a centerpiece. It’s kind of a project that hopefully will make meditation a little more formal and thus effectively done.
I remain.
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
We don’t pray here – we figure God, the gods, goddesses, or whatever powers that be either know already, don’t give a fuck, or are busy with more important matters than our petty stuff. We also kind of assume that they expect us to do stuff that we can do for ourselves and that we will do them ourselves and not be lazy. We also believe in being good friends, so we don’t presume on our friendship with the powers that be by asking them all the time for stuff while giving them nothing in return.
We also don’t take an offering here. We figure the powers that be probably don’t need it. Let’s be honest, offerings are not given to the divine powers, they are given to an organization to support it. Just being honest. God, the gods or whatever never sees a dime, farthing or peso of that money; it all goes to the church, mosque or shrine.
Theme Song: “Wolf Totem” – The Hu
I discovered this group that has more of a Mongolian feel but the song is titled ‘Wolf Totem’ which, given Tyr’s one story involves Fenrir the great Wolf, seems fitting.
Lyric Video:
Meditation:
Text:
If you want more details about Asatru, I can’t recommend this book enough.
Sermon:
The god Tyr’s name still lives on every time you say Tuesday. It is his day and it probably speaks of this god’s importance more than any other than right up there with Odin and Thor. Tyr is much discussion of Tyr’s sphere as it would be simple to say he governs war, truth, and justice but the seems to be a mixing of the three ideas so in truth he may be more the god of trial by combat. That truth and justice are ultimately played out in martial combat or a trial by combat is what Tyr represents and if there is a god that represents honor, it is Tyr.
Tyr’s appearance in Norse mythology is twofold. The first is minor in the creation of beer for the gods but it is mentioned that he is the child of giants. As a spiritual concept, I find this interesting as it seems to be saying that nature’s force has a way of bringing about justice and Tyr is simply a more civilized manifestation of that.
The second and main story that Tyr is known for is the story of Fenrir the Great Wolf. In that story demonstrates his honor in that he refuses to remove his hand from Fenrir’s mouth and does to get Fenrir to trust the god’s final test of strength with the chain that actually binds Fenrir for Ragnarok. But before that what strikes me as interesting is he seems to be the only god not afraid of Fenrir. This actually speaks of the notion some warriors have of honor making one fearless. Tyr seems to invoke that image in his story rather well.
To the followers of Asatru Tyr, of course, is remembered every Tuesday and his story is one that is repeated to demonstrate courage and honor. Something that all Asatru followers hold highly given they are two of the Nine Noble Virtues. I guess I find in the story of Tyr much the same along with the concept of how much are you willing to sacrifice for both victory and honor? Tyr reminds us all that the price can be very close to home and should not be considered wasted if it leads to a good end.
Tyr is revered by those who seek justice so military and police officers who are Asatru gravitate to him as well as those who seek a balancing of the scales with Christianity. For myself I find his story inspiring as far as honor and courage.
Hail Tyr, God of Truth, Justice, and War! God of the Northern Star. Hail!
Parting Thought:
I remain,
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
Now for the part of this where I ask the question about ‘is there something else that could be added?’ What stands outside the commandments as edited by myself that should also be on par with the other ten. In this regard, most people don’t realize the original ten commandments does the same thing. In one place after the ten, more are listed and it has a lot to do with additions or other ideas that need to be addressed. I think that there is a call for me to do this as well. Some other things should be emphasized.
Additions:
#11 – Until a child can make decisions for themselves, they should not have parts of their body removed, be abused or otherwise manipulated to further the agenda of adults.
Sorry, I think children should be protected and make such decisions about circumcision, sexuality, and other religious and political matters when they are old enough themselves. Adults should respect it is their body and their choices and until they can make informed decisions they should be protected until they can do so themselves.
#12 – In case it wasn’t already clear, the following activities should not be done as they are morally bankrupt: rape, genocide, and slavery.
I don’t really need to say anything here do I. Other than I have just contradicted many of the commands of the Law of Moses and the ‘history’ of the Biblical Story of god’s people to say so. Christopher Hitchens is right. The reason these are not in the original ten is that God’s people will be asked to commit genocide and will later both enslave and rape the survivors.
#13 – Don’t do to others, what you would not want to be done to you.
Kind of a catch-all and a negative version of the golden rule. This is because the negative so it actually prevents bad behavior in this case.
Final Copy: The Grey Wayfarer’s 13 Commandments:
#1 – You were born free. People will try to enslave you through many means; Don’t let them. Respect the freedom of others; Don’t enslave them.
#2 – Be an artistic human. Express yourself and enjoy the expression of others.
#3 – Uphold the truth and be truthful with your words. When you’re wrong – admit it.
#4 – Take one day a week off and do what you want to do. Life is too short not to enjoy it.
#5 – If you have children, remember that was your decision, not theirs; so be responsible parents, earn their respect, and teach them to be good human beings.
#6 – Don’t Murder
# 7 – Engage in responsible and consensual sexual activity.
# 8 – Don’t Steal
# 9 – Don’t lie to convict or harm the innocent.
#10 – Think Freely. Never accept any tyranny, especially that of the mind.
#11 – Until a child can make decisions for themselves, they should not have parts of their body removed, be abused or otherwise manipulated to further the agenda of adults.
#12 – In case it wasn’t already clear, the following activities should not be done as they are morally bankrupt: rape, genocide, and slavery.
#13 – Don’t do to others, what you would not want to be done to you.
They still need refining, but a definite improvement. In the end, I think I have demonstrated that it does not require religion to come up with a solid moral code. Rather, it seems that one simply being human can actually come up with something better than the supposed ten commandments of God through Moses.
I remain,
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
The cold hard reality of justice is that you may never receive it. Ever. No matter how much you desire it or want to think you deserve it, justice may elude you. It this injustice of life that causes people to think if a final cosmic justice after death where the scales are balanced and everyone gets what they deserve. Every type of life after death mythos has this in it in some way. The problem is that there is no evidence that this will ever happen. It might be something hoped for, but it is likely to be all nonsense and wishful thinking.
When people ask me what I believe, I tell them that I have no active belief in any god of any type. That makes me for all practical purposes an atheist. I occasionally conceded it would be nice if deism was true, but believing in a creator cause is a far cry from all the other claims of theism of any kind. Including any form of a goddess, that holds a scale in her hand one hand and a sword in the other and is blindfolded. That is mythology.
The sad real truth is many people will never receive justice for what has been done to them and in some cases, you have to be content with it. Notice, I didn’t say forgive because in my opinion forgiveness should not just be given toward injustice. Forgiveness being encouraged is often simply an excuse for those who have the power to get away with wrongdoing and abuse. A man who sexually abuses and rapes his daughter should have his dick cut off; not be forgiven.
There are other ways to get peace about things that happen to you, forgiveness needs to be carefully measured and viewed in the light of contrition from the person who did the harm in the first place. Without contrition and restitution upfront, forgiveness is not deserved in my opinion. Justice is a better option until those things take place.
Justice can take many forms and merits a discussion in regards to philosophy outside of any final afterlife balancing of the scales. So…
To the Wolves and Ravens:
“Feed the Wolves, but Listen to the Ravens first.”
Needs (Geri):
To illustrate my meaning here, I will use my own unpleasant experience with and desire for justice to take place toward The Dirty Pig. I need justice in this regard as I know like so many others who have wronged me, they haunt me like ghosts to this very day. I never get over them and that is simply how I am. I learn to cope but it never sits right with me ever. The only exception has been when I learned later that karma or the universe had bitten them in the ass in much the same way. The leadership of my former denomination that was instrumental in my downfall from my second church is a good example as later I learned their own bad actions caught up with them and they too were discredited.
I need something similar to happen to the Dirty Pig for my conscience’s sake. Such justice allows me to smile and truly walk away and not look back.
Wants (Freki):
I want justice in regard to The Dirty Pig as well. Pardon me if I think people who are fake and false friends should be seen for it. That an honorless person should be exposed as being honorless. That people who have a trail of broken friendships they no longer saw as useful to them or that were necessary to shuck off to cover their own ass should face the consequences of being narcissistic self-righteous assholes. Yes, pardon me for think justice should be enacted on people who are sanctimonious jerks who use people to entertain themselves. Sorry, I don’t just want to see it with the Dirty Pig, I want to take the sword from lady justice and use it myself.
Reason (Huginn):
All that said with my wolves howling for justice, the raven of reason caws and reminds me I may never see it, or be the one who holds the sword, and I need to be ready for that. I need to be content that it may be someone else he has wronged (there are many of us) that brings down the old boar known as The Dirty Pig. In such a moment I need to be content with simply toasting that bringer of justice’s good fortune. I may also have to accept that he may die having never received justice. Then my contentment will come from toasting in contempt of his memory and I won’t be alone in that regard.
Wisdom (Muninn):
The raven of wisdom caws – patience. Yeah, I can do that. Mostly one day I know he is going to need friends and because he has thrown so many of us away as no longer worthy, he will be lacking in that regard. The potential and probability for poetic justice are very high given his behavior and patterns. He also isn’t as smart as he thinks he is and that means he has the potential to make a mistake with the wrong person who will show him for what he is. Yeah, I wait and watch. My fury can stay smoldering and focused on the right time to act.
Conclusion:
In the last two years, I can say three traumatic events have happened in my life. I loved and lost Miss Salty. I nearly got a divorce from my wife. Someone I thought was a good friend turned his back on me. He lied to me and used someone I loved and a congregation I loved to get his own version of honorless justice to prove he was the kingfish. He slandered me, lied about me and stabbed me in the back. In doing so he demonstrated his lack of honor, friendship and concern for anyone but himself. Of the three it is the only one I am still angry about and want justice for. But, I realize patience and keeping myself open to the many forms justice may take is necessary.
I remain,
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
The Grey Wayfarer 