Friday, August 29, 2014

Mimir


Mimir

Appeal: Wisdom, Advice, Peace, Knowledge, Past


Mimir2.jpgMimir is a primal oracular God who is renowned for his knowledge and wisdom.  The name Mimer means "the wise one or the rememberer".  He is the giant brother of Odin's Jotun mother Bestla and he is the guardian of the Well of Mimir, under of the roots of Yggdrasil.  He stands half-immersed in the water and on his powerful shoulders he is supporting the Kjolen Mountains.  It is said that he has been standing there since the beginning of time and that with the passing of millennia he became part of the mountain itself.

He became one of the hostages exchanged between the Aesir and the Vanir in order to preserve the peace between the two after their war had ended.  Mimir was killed and beheaded by the Vanir when his fellow hostage, Hoenir, proved disappointing to the Vana-Gods due to his lack of intellectual prowess.  They sent Hoenir back to the Aesir, carrying the severed head with him as a message of their annoyance.  Mimir's head was preserved through herbal magick by Odin to maintain the God's great wisdom.  His head now speaks at the Well of Mimir, where all of the God's enormous store of knowledge, wisdom and advice can be acquired by those who visit it.

When Odin went on his epic journey to find knowledge, eventually his footsteps led him back to Mimir's Well.  Mimir offered him control over Thought and Memory - and gave him the two ravens of those names into the bargain - but in exchange, he demanded that Odin rip out one of his own eyes and throw it into the well.  Odin acquiesced, now known as the One-eyed God.  To this day, one of his eyes glows like an underwater star in the well, providing what light there is to see in the depths of the waters there.

More than any other being in Norse mythology, Mimir seems to be regarded as the divine animating force behind the wisdom of past tradition and its indispensable value as a guide for present actions.

Chapter 51 of the Prose Edda relates that, with the onset of Ragnarok, "Heimdall stands up and blows the Gjallarhorn with all his strength.  He wakens all the Gods who then hold an assembly.  Odin rides to Mimir's Well, seeking council for both himself and his followers.  The ash Yggdrasil shakes, and nothing, whether in heaven or on Earth, is without fear."


Hail, Grandfather of the Well of Wisdom!

Eyes that see through the darkness

Of the stone and water,

We honor your sacrifice,

We honor your pain,

We honor that which was hard-won

Only by losing.

Hail, Grandfather of the Sacred Spring,

You who have given much in service,

When the time comes,

May you bless us with your wisdom

And may we not be afraid to pay the price.










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