Jew World Order

By Elsa-Brita Titchnell

This is one of the several lays and stories that treat of the illusory Nature of the worlds of matter wherein consciousness is deceived. Vaftrudnir means “he who enwraps in riddles.” It is a theme which recognizes the fallibility of our sense perceptions. Hindu scriptures also emphasize the deceptive nature of matter. In Sanskrit, illusion is called maya, a word derived from ma, which means to measure, hence it refers to anything that is limited, that can be measured, however large or small. This applies to both space and time and to all things existing in space-time. Only infinite space in eternal duration, beginningless, endless, boundless, and unimaginable, can in truth be called Reality. The seeming duality of space-time is itself illusory — an inescapable phenomenon pertaining to finite existence however vast in scope and however much we try to reach beyond it in consciousness.

It is important to realize that illusion does not mean nonexistence. Illusion exists; illusory things exist; we are surrounded by illusions and in fact are very much a part of the illusory universe. So accustomed are we to taking certain fallacies for reality that we are hardly aware of them. For instance, science tells us that matter is mostly holes — minute particles moving rapidly in proportionately large volumes of seemingly empty space. Our senses disagree with this knowledge as a stubbed toe will readily confirm, yet we do not doubt the structure of matter built of atoms we have never seen. We see a beautiful sunset and watch the red-gold globe of light disappear beneath the horizon, though we are aware it had already disappeared eight minutes earlier because the light we see took eight minutes to reach us across some 93 million moles of space. We see red flower because it absorbs all but the red rays of light; what we see are the colors the petals have rejected. We also perceive things differently one from another. Since the senses report to the mind and feelings of a personality, their report is largely dependent on the attitudes, moods, understanding, and predisposing experience of the individual. Because of our differences in outlook, someone who knows more than we do — a specialist in any field unfamiliar to us — appears to perform feats of magic.

Nonetheless truth must exist: the universe exists, hence knowledge about it also exists. In the Lay of illusion, the god-self, Wotan, the searching, probing consciousness, enters worlds of matter, descending through cosmic shelves of substantial existence to face the giant Vaftrudnir and “see how his hall is furnished,” for it is by traversing spheres of matter that divine consciousness gains the mead of wisdom which nourishes the gods. But Wotan refuses to settle on the bench in the hall of Illusion. Consciousness is not at home in this sphere.
During the first half of the tale it is Vaftrudnir who questions the god: matter is being informed, inspired, is growing and learning from the entering consciousness who here calls himself Gagnrad (gainful counsel). In the latter portion it is Wotan who learns, questioning the giant until at the final denouncement the visitor reveals himself as Allfather. This is essentially the course of events related in many scriptures: first, the spiritual giving its energies and impulses to the material, organizing and building forms for its habitation and embodying in them. Thereafter it is matter which is drawn inward, as it were, lending substance to the growing, perfecting, and enlarging of spiritual nature. Thus the two sides of existence are forever related and paired, with the tendency being first one way, then the other. The consciousness which has entered the realm of the giant, even though it may temporarily be captivated by the webs of illusion, will, as Vaftrudnir says of Njord, “in the fullness of ages … return home with the wisdom of woe” So shall we all.

Vaftrudnir is taught, and we are reminded, that the grounds of the gods and those of the giants are separated only by the ever-flowing stream called Doubt, whereon no ice-bridge can ever form; also that the eternal battlefield (life), where the destructive and the beneficent forces do battle in man and Nature, exists for that very purpose. The god is here indicating the source of evolution of beings whereby the matter-side of existence can earn access to the “ground of the beneficent gods.”

Thereafter the giant world cedes its wisdom as Wotan elicits the story of the past creation from the host. Verse 23 gives Mundilfore as the parent of sun and moon and indicates their use as a measure of years. Mundilfore is the “lever,” or axis, that rotates the galactic sphere, the central power that imparts motion to our Milky Way. The next response, in verse 25, speaks not only of the terrestrial day and night but also of the moon’s phases, which are named also in Voluspa. It is a small hint, but we may surmise without undue temerity that the bards possessed some knowledge of astronomy and of seasonal events sufficiently important to be included in the time capsule of the myths. Verse 42 is remarkably revealing when we consider that this is the giant responding: the matter of nine worlds is he, stemming from the “hells below Nifhel” — the rootless root of matter.

In contrast with this, the spiritual human element “Life and Survivor… lie concealed in the memory hoard of the sun” during the long Fimbulvetr, the cold winter of inactivity when life is gone with the gods from our ecosystem. They will be fed morning dew and bring to birth the ages to come. Here again we see a new life following the death of the present systems of worlds. Those who are now Asir will be succeeded by their offspring, a new Thor and a new Wotan (in his son Vidar), who will “avenge the death” of the Father of Ages.

At last Wotan reveals his identity by asking the unanswerable question — unanswerable by anyone but the deity himself: What had Wotan whispered in the dead sun-god’s ear? Well may we wonder what secret was perpetuated beyond the realm of death by the Allfather of past and future worlds.

Via Ron McVan