Ash and Elm: a Worldview

Odin blowing the breath of life into the ash and elm tree is neither the beginning nor the end of the Norse creation story and cosmology. In the Voluspa found in the Poetic Edda (13th century), it is said that Odin found logs of a dead ash and elm tree on the beach and blew the breath of life creating the first humans-one male and one female. In this worldview, humans are seen as trees; trees are the ancestors of humanity. Thus the human being is viewed as the same as all other beings. There is no hierarchy of dominion or domination-just interconnectedness of beings.

I understand “male” and “female” as a way of talking about the Jungian notion of “the tension of opposites.” Odin himself was a gender-bender and Queer god, being known to practice seidr-a feminine practice.

Balance exists when the tension of opposites is resolved.

When Odin first made himself known to me, I did not know who he was-but he was unmistakable with his one eye and companion crows. Willing to do anything and everything to obtain knowledge he offered his eye and hung himself upside down on Ygdrasil to receive the runes.

Over time I came to know him more, and the story of the Norse-which actually includes Sandinavia, Germany, parts of France, and parts of Great Britain.

Nazi and neo-Nazi appropriation of the Norse pantheon and cosmology breaks my heart. I feel angry that what was mine ancestrally-first eradicated by the Romans and early Christians, now is misused and corrupted by white supremacicists.

To wit, I must acknowledege my earliest shamanic experiences and teachings came from indigenous people of color, who so generously shared with me. Without them I would have been unable to find my way back to what is me and mine. I attribute my shamanic knowledge to those lineages while intending not to appropriate. I practice in the way of my ancestors to the best of my ability. Remembering my own ways is the north star my personal development as a practitioner.