The Resurrection of Woden.

This work resulted from a number of points raised by Wulf Veldasson (Wotan's Krieger) which are of extreme importance to the study that we have done on Wid-Ar who is the archetype of the new world-age – the ‘Age of the Son’. The figure of Wid-Ar is not well known and has been seen as a god of the future by many Odinists. Within Wodenism we see Wid-Ar as being the resurrection of Woden after he is swallowed by the Fenris Wolf.

The points that Wulf Veldasson made originated from ideas by George Dumezil who sees Wid-Ar as a very ancient Indo-European archetype linked to Vishnu, through the prefix ‘Vi-‘. Whether the fact that the two gods have the same prefix for their name links them in any way is highly debatable, but they do seem to be the same archetype. Dumezil seems to think that Wid-Ar is –

•     Aligned with vertical space since he has his hands on the lower and upper wolf’s jaws, and horizontal space due to the wide steps he makes and his strong shoe.
•     Keeps the wolf from destroying the cosmos, i.e. he is the ancient god who appears at the right time to save the cosmos from destruction.  

Wid-Ar is the ‘Silent Ase’ and the ‘Avenging Ase’ and Dumezil equates his silence with that of a ritual silence undertaken prior to an act of vengeance. He is also known as Wid-Ar the Avenger. He is nearly as strong as the god Thunor and the gods rely upon him at times of immense difficulties.

Woden and Wid-Ar visited the three Wyrd Sisters in order to seek Wid-Ar’s fate. The three sisters answered thus –

‘Early begun!’

‘Further spun!’

‘One day done!’

Wyrd, the Primaeval Goddess of Fate, added -

‘With joy once more won!’

They learned that the circling ages roll on and change, past, present, future, passing away and beginning again. When the All-Father falls on Vigrid he is resurrected as his son Wid-Ar. Wid-Ar the Silent is the Avenging God and the God of Victory, for it is he that brings the renewal of nature and ushers in a new Golden Age.

The Myth of Wid-Ar tells us that Woden wed Grid who was a giantess living in a cave in a desert. The offspring of their union was Wid-Ar which tells us that he represents the union of Woden (Spirit) and Grid (Matter), and that he is incarnated into matter in order to avenge the Gods and Folk. He is the Forest Warrior who personifies the primaeval forests and the imperishable forces of nature. He lived in Landvivi (‘Wide-Land’) within the primaeval forest where deep silence and solitude ruled.

He wields a sword and is shod with either an iron or leather shoe, depending upon accounts we have given down to us. It is said that Grid gave him his iron shoe, but other accounts tell that his shoe was made of scraps of leather discarded by shoe-makers. Whatever the case the shoe needed to be strong enough to withstand the jaws of the Fenris Wolf. This, then is his prime role, to rip open the jaws of Fenris and allow the Spirit of Woden to escape destruction.

He is the symbol of resurrection and renewal which is the vital force that we need today in our dying world. It should be noted that both Wali and Wid-Ar are gods born for the sole purpose of vengeance, Wali to avenge Baldaeg and Wid-Ar to avenge Woden. Wali’s Day is now called ‘St, Valentine’s Day’ where he is remembered as a God of Lovers, his true role having been distorted through time. Since ‘St. Valentine’s Day’ falls on February 14^th this is his time of the year; he is followed by Wid-Ar whose time is around the Spring Equinox, for he heralds the New Dawn of the Cycle.

We have used the unusual spelling ‘Wid-Ar’ because this best suits our own Wodenic Lore since it can be broken into two parts, each of which tell us much more about this god – Wid – this can mean ‘wide’ which refers to his being the ‘Wide-Strider’ which links him to Orion the Hunter whom the Egyptians called the ‘Wide-Strider’. It can also be seen as ‘widu’ which means ‘woodland’, for he is the Woodland God and the Woodland Warrior. The Old English *wid or *wit means ‘wise’ and gave rise to the term ‘witan’. This root is also connected to the term ‘veda’ which means ‘wisdom’. It is quite possible that the famous Saxon Hero, Widukind (Wittekind), was the ‘Child of Wid-Ar’ and the ‘White Child’, for *wit could also be seen as ‘white’. This is the 'White Rider'. 

Wid   – ‘to see’, ‘to know’.

-   ‘to pierce’, ‘to perforate’.

-   ‘to break through’

From these meanings we can see that he is a god that ‘knows’, he is a God of Knowledge like his father Woden. He is also able to break through and penetrate which tells us that he is the god who breaks down barriers and forces his way through obstacles. Only Thunor is said to match him in his strength. There is a root-word sequence connected to his name –

Wad   Wed   Wid   Wod   Wud

Ar – This root-word of our word Arya which came to mean ‘noble’ but originally referred to the ‘Shining Ones’ or ‘Solar Race’. The root *ar- or *ari refers to ‘movement’ and thus to the Life-Force of the Gods and Life-Force of the Cosmos. The root-words ar, ara, ari, har, hari, harri, hara heri, here, heru, hero etc. are all connected to the term Arya.

The Old English widre means ‘to withstand’, i.e. ‘resistance’ and this is an ideal meaning of this god who is the ‘God of Resistance’. This is also true of the German ‘widder’ which means ‘resistance’, and can also mean ‘ram’. Wid-Ar comes under the zodiacal constellation of Aries the Ram which is around March - April, covering the Spring Equinox as we have already stated. This also links him to Hama-Heimdall who is associated with the Ram and with Aries. There may also be a link to the pairing of Wudga and Hama, Wudga is the Witega of German Legend. Here is another link to this god as a god of foresight, seeing and wisdom, since the Old English witega refers to a ‘seer’ or ‘prophet’.

Certain German words related to 'widder' mean 'to return' and when we use the term 'widdershins' it means 'returning' rather than just 'anti-clockwise' or 'backwards'. This widdershins Swastika is thus the Swastika of Return. This is 'He Who Returns' - the god who returns at the start of a new Cosmic Cycle, as the Manu of the coming cycle. 

Wid-Ar is usually seen as slaying the Fenris Wolf by ripping open the jaws of the wolf, but in another account he plunges a weapon into the heart of the wolf. The term ‘sword’ is not used for this but is usually taken to be so, though the weapon could have been a spear. Widukind is usually seen as wielding a spear.

The ‘Greater Wolf’s Jaws’ are an Old Saxon constellation which centred around Andromeda, and the semi-circle of stars from Pegasus to Cygnus the Swan. The Greater Wolf’s Jaws faces across at the Pole Star, threatening the stability of the Cosmos; it also centres round the Dark Rift which is the ‘womb’ of the Milky Way and the Galactic Centre.

We have seen how Dumezil linked Wid-Ar to vertical space and horizontal space, and this may well be true in view of his being born of the giantess Grid, for a ‘grid’ is made up of vertical and horizontal lines. Indeed, the ‘grid’ seems to be associated with the Dragon Force that pulses through what is usually called the ‘Ley-Lines or Dragon-Lines.

We can compare Wid-Ar with the Egyptian god named Horus (Greek) or Heru (Egyptian). Horus is a ‘God of Silence’ (shown on the cover) and a ‘God of Vengeance’ (he avenges the death of his father). We must first look at the Myth of Horus in order to further understand the nature of Wid-Ar, and to understand his role as ‘The Avenger’.

There are various different accounts of the ‘Royal Myth’ which concerns Horus and Set, and the form varies considerably within these. The one account that is favoured over the others has Set slaying his brother Osiris, and Horus being born to avenge his father. This is the one that we shall look at here.

Osiris is slain by his brother Set whose name is perhaps related to ‘Surt’ meaning ‘Black’ and who is a desert-god whose role is rather destructive; he is sometimes seen as being linked to Apophis the Destroyer who is the enemy of Ma’at (Cosmic Order). Osiris is a culture-hero who brings the arts of agriculture, just like Scef, and who is usually associated with the constellation of Orion the Hunter.

In this main account Set binds Osiris and slays him, cutting his body into 14 pieces which are scattered across the land of Egypt. Isis and Nephthys, sisters of Osiris, mourn his death and Isis searches far and wide to find the 14 pieces of Osiris which have been scattered around the land. In the name of Nut, mother of Osiris, Isis revives her brother with various magical incantations. Isis places herself upon the Phallus of Osiris and is impregnated with his seed, from which is produced the son Horus who ‘was in Sothis’, this being the Greek name for Sirius which in Egyptian was ‘Sepdet’ which means ‘The Pointed One’.

In the battle between Horus and Set, Horus loses his eyes and Set his testacles, both regaining these afterwards. Horus gives his lost eye, now regained, back to Osiris that he ‘may become mighty before the Glorious Ones’. The Eye of Horus’, given to Osiris, is called the ‘Opener of the Way’. In this Horus, like Woden, sacrifices an eye, Horus to Osiris and Woden to Mimir. Osiris is avenged by Horus through the slaying of Set.

There are certain things that we should remember here, for Horus the Child is just one aspect of the figure known as Horus, for before the coming of Menes (who is Manu who appears prior to the Great Flood) an ancient master-race known as the Shemsu Hor (‘Followers of Horus’) ruled over Egypt. This dates back to pre-dynastic times and is an extremely ancient legend. The figure of Horus appears to be very like that of The Divine Fool since his father is slain by his uncle, and it is he who avenges the father. The Eye of Horus is a very strong symbol in Egypt and its connection to Woden is obvious.

It is also very important to note that Set is shorn of his testacles, i.e. he is made barren and unable to procreate. This is similar to the figure of Amfortas who is wounded in the ‘thigh’, and also to certain types of ‘Satanic’ figure who are ‘clipped’ between the thighs. In another version of the ‘Royal Myth’ Set is seen to be ‘from the marshes’ whereas Horus is the ‘Divine Child’ with the Sun-Disc on his forehead. There is also something that I discovered whilst studying the subject of Horus and Set, and that fits into symbolism used for the closing ceremony of the 2012 ‘Olympic Games’. In this account Set shape-changes into a hippopotamus which is the animal seen being ridden by ‘Britannia’ in the 2012 propaganda. It would seem obvious that the Occult Forces that were behind this propaganda linked their work to the god Set who the Egyptians saw as being the Lord of Chaos and Destruction. This is perhaps paralleled by the figure of Set being linked to an ass which was the steed of ‘Jesus’ and always symbolic of the downtrodden ‘masses’.

We have already seen how Set was equated with the ‘marshes’ and it is thus interesting to note that the Fenris Wolf can be seen as the ‘Wolf of the Fens’ or ‘marshes’. If we see the symbolism of the hippopotamus (Set) being ridden by ‘Britannia’ then perhaps we can see the triumph of Set over ‘Woden’s Isle’ (Merlin’s Isle). Or put another way the ‘Wolf of the Fens’ devouring the god Woden!

Woden is the ancient God of our Folk, and his so-called ‘death’ at the hands of the Fenris Wolf is in reality the key to his resurrection in a young and virile form. The ‘ageing god’ – Woden – is resurrected as his son, Wid-Ar the Avenger. The Spirit of Woden has been reborn in the form of his son – Wid-Ar the Avenger, a young warrior-god and as strong and mighty as the god Thunor. This is a very ancient archetype that appears in times of cosmic destruction; Dumezil equates him with Vishnu which is interesting to us in that Vishnu is the one god that incarnates upon earth as an avatar at various times during the Cycle of the Ages. It is the god Woden who incarnates upon Earth in the guise of his son, Wid-Ar who is the Avenging God and the Last Avatar known by the Hindus as the Kalki Avatar and by Wodenists as HelgiH – the Cosmic Spirit 88.

It would seem clear that this symbolism of the god Woden being slain and resurrected would have to be played out in the Cosmic Myth as an Archetypal Myth prior to the resurrection of Wid-Ar the Avenger. In an ancient Egyptian Ritual an iron ritual tool is used to rip open the jaws of the dead Pharaoh; this ritual is designed to allow the spirit of the Pharaoh (who represents Osiris) to escape and become a 'star', the spirit being resurrected as Horus the Avenger. Here we can see the same 'ritual' in the ripping open of the Wolf's Jaws by Wid-Ar, allowing the Spirit of Woden to escape and thus resurrect within his son.

In the Norse Eddas Snorri Sturlasson equates Wid-Ar with Aeneas which is very interesting. It has to be said that Snorri makes the Norse Gods into humans and equates them with Troy. It was very fashionable at one time to feel that Troy was the cradle of various royal lines, but we cannot dismiss all of these accounts as being false. What we need to remember is that Troy fell at the hands of the Greeks and as in many other defeats there would have been a number of survivors who escaped and wandered into other lands, seeking later fame for themselves and their race. This could certainly have happened with the defeat of Troy.

What is interesting in Snorri’s seeing Wid-Ar as the Greek Aeneas is that this Trojan Hero was the son of the goddess Aphrodite (Venus) and escaped the flames of Troy carrying his blind father, leading his own war-band to wander through various lands until they reached Italy. According to Virgil (‘The Aenead’) the descendants of Aeneas were Romulus and Remus who were the founders of Rome, and had the Wolf as their Tribal Totem. The Roman Empire, according to this account, was a direct descendant of the Trojans under Aeneas. We cannot tell how much truth there is in this, nor in Snorri’s assertions.

In the Vedic Tradition there is the triple-godhead of Brahma (Creator), Vishnu (Preserver) and Rudra-Shiva (Destroyer) and if Wid-Ar is the equivalent of Vishnu then he comes as the ‘preserver’ and as the Kalki Avatar in his final incarnation of this cycle. We can see from this that Wid-Ar is not a ‘minor’ god of any kind, nor is he a god of some future age, for he is Woden reborn into his ‘Son’ – the ‘Son of the Sun’.

In one aspect Wid-Ar is The Hidden God which relates to HelgiH who is The Hallowed One and The Hidden One. He is the god that at this time is ‘hidden’ from view and whose ‘silence’ is like the calm before the storm – ready to break upon the world like a hurricane. He is the God of Resistance whose symbol is the Wolf-Hook Rune which is the Symbol of Resistance.