Odin's Nine Days
July 15, 2006

The story of how this image came to be is rather magical. The Friday Illo theme this week is 'Sacrifice'. When pondering this topic, a phrase came to my mind, "Sacrifice of self to Self". I did a net search on this and eventually found the tale of Odin, who for knowledge of the Runes, sacrificed his self to Self:


"To Yggdrasil bound, Odin for nine days..."
©JAL, 7-14-06

137.  I know I hung on that windy Tree
nine whole days and nights,
stabbed with a spear, offered to Odin,
myself to mine own self given,
high on that Tree of which none hath heard
from what roots it rises to heaven.

138.  None refreshed me ever with food or drink
I peered right down in the deep;
crying aloud I lifted the Runes,
then back I fell from thence.

From the Havamal (Bray p 103)

How strange, the parallels to my thoughts of my future selves, also part of this year's Book of Life project. The first Friday Illo theme this week was 'Aging'. THEN it was changed to 'sacrifice', (probably because aging was already done a year or so ago. How appropriate both are! The first one reminds me of the future, which will if I'm 'lucky' entail aging.

And then the next begs to me the question, as I envision a future me I'd like to see come into being, and hear mySelf asking myself, "So you have this vision of your future self and all that you'd like to accomplish? You want all this knowledge, this creation, this magnificent body of work, bringing down from the heavens the Fire? You want all this, and you want it by age 72, if not sooner? Then just what are you willing to do to GET this??? Would you be as Odin? Would you sacrifice self to Self?".

What will I give up, in order to have these? I suspect I must answer this moment by moment.

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