Embracing the wild

So I have had an idea going through my mind for some time now but could never quite figure out how to formulate it into words. Then yesterday I am pretty sure I was given a little bit of inspiration from a spirit I have been working with on how to do this, or in his case how not to do this. 

As I look out at the world today I can’t help but feel that we as a species have lost our connection to the Earth. Everybody is running around like a panicked deer trying to find ways to make more money to buy things that they don’t need and will only cause more desire (maybe it’s my Buddhist training who know). I make a decent living but I need to earn it by putting in 40+ hours at a lead foundry. I notice however around me that many other people can never seem to make enough money, but then I look at them as they are leaving and they are wearing designer clothes and getting into a BMW.  The amount of money I make allows my wife and I to live a simple but honest life without too many worries, but this article is not about my job it is about what I feel people are missing in life.

People need to remember that they are not beings separate of the Earth but are rather a piece of the Earth itself. I do not mean this in the flake, hippy way but literally we have evolved from the dirt of the Earth and for untold millennia have existed in harmony with the Earth. Even the great, ancient empires of the Earth always maintained a connection to the Earth and practiced it as part of their spirituality. In all great societies of the past the Gods either represent the natural world or else use the natural world as a means to speak through us. It is only recently that we have begun to worship our “new” gods in a technological dystopia. People now worship the god of television, the god of computers and many other things which pull us further from our Earthen roots. I was at the park near my home a few weeks ago and saw people walking on the hiking trail through the forest and texting the entire time. The beautiful world was right in front of them and rather then take it in and feel it’s power they had to see what their zombie friends were putting on Facebook.

To me you not only need to remember your savage, primal side but you need to honor it. People must remember to walk barefoot through the grass. People must remember the simple joy of grappling and wrestling for fun with friends. People need to remember the ancient ritual of sitting around a fire and speaking with your “pack” face to face not over a screen.

I don’t speak much about the Gods I work with. By Gods here I am referring to the masculine aspects I work with. I tend to speak with the Gods who represent the savage nature of truth, the Gods who are neither human in appearance nor spirit. The two I most work with and Fenrir and Jormundgandr, the sons of Loki (the sound of every Nordic Wiccan dropping their monocles all at once is deafening). These Gods both have a very human intelligence but that is as far as their humanity extends.

I have spoken with Fenrir on several occasions and have grown to take much strength from him over the months. I first started trying to get hiss attention when people were attacking me over my beliefs and just put out a basic plea for help. The next thing I knew while meditating a gigantic, black wolf appeared and told me in a gravelly voice “fuck em”, that is pretty much the core of Fenrir. He told me that they only try to bring me down because they are afraid of anything new and them losing their grip over the sheep who follow them. Since then I have traveled to him in meditation several times both as a human and in totem form when I am feeling scared or just need advice for connecting to my “primal” side. Offerings to the dread-wolf for me are simple I place a candle with a bowl of water and a bowl of mead next to a piece of raw meat outside over night. To me though the most important part is to show him that you are not trying to subjugate him as a lowly animal. I sit on the ground before my offering and sip the mead and water as well as share the raw flesh with him.  The last time I did this there was a dust print on the patio door in the form of an almost perfect wolf silhouette, I know that sounds crazy but I swear on the Gods that it was there and unmistakable.

From speaking with him I realized that he is a much deeper character then most people realize. He is not a ravenous monster who ends the universe but rather a symbol of responsibility and paying for your actions. Everything involving Fenrir is simply cause and effect like everything in our lives, maybe remembering his story will help you remember that everything you do has a cost.

• Odin kills Fenrir’s mother and kidnaps his family, Fenrir kills Odin
• Tyr breaks his oath to Fenrir, Fenrir takes his hand (Tyr is also later killed by Fenrir’s cousin Garmr)
• Fenrir kills Odin, Fenrir is later slain by Odin’s son Vidarr.

Jormundgandr is slightly more difficult to describe, and before I will do him any injustice I need to spend more time formulating how to write about him. For right now we can just say that to me he represents the human subconscious and that he doesn’t speak. I did however perform a ritual to him when a friend of a friend was lost at sea. The message came through clearly and bluntly ” HE’S DEAD”, that was all he said. The next day his body was found in the ocean.

I guess to sum this whole thing up I am saying that the human race needs to put down technology (yes, I get the irony there) and spend time in the wild. We need to run through the forests and play on the Earth with our pets and children. We need to remember our base instincts, eat real food, howl at the moon and have sex. Our true nature is being repressed and hidden behind false glamours put up by people who wish to enslave you. Sometimes just like Fenrir you need to say enough is enough, break your chains and take command of your own fate.