The Black Sun of the Ancient World

It has always been puzzling as to why there are two distinct and different tales told of Baldaeg and 'Blind' Hod, one by Snorri who has Balder as the hero, the other by Saxo who has Hod as the hero. Maybe here we have the Eternal Battle between the White Sun (Balder) and the Black Sun (Hod)? this would explain why there are two versions of this myth. Indeed, in the Saxo version we find that the Wyrd Sisters intervene in order that Hod gets the sword Miming that will give him victory over Baldaeg. 

Miming means 'Memory of Ing' or even 'Memory of the Blood'; this is thus associated with Blind Hod. Woden has one eye open and one that is 'black'; he also appears as a 'Black Void' inside a Black Hood or Red Hood. The name 'Ingus' means 'son of' and in Welsh Lore a figure called Mabon has the same meaning to his name - 'son of'. Of interest is a legend connected to Mabus who is the Divine Child. 

We find a mysterious hunt for Mabon, the Divine Child, in Culhwch and Olwen where a series of totem animals are asked as to the whereabouts of Mabon. These beasts clearly represent the theme of great age, each one being an older race than the one before it. Only the oldest of these, the Salmon of Llyn Llyw, knows where the Divine Child is imprisoned. This suggests to me a dim remembrance of the Black Sun that shone above Thule-Hyperborea in the most ancient times of the world. This is why only the oldest of the beasts - the salmon - knew of the whereabouts of Mabon. 

The theme around Mabon is that of a Divine Child who is taken from his rightful place, found by the question as to his whereabouts being asked to a number of totem animals and birds, and restored to his rightful place. This theme is not unlike that of another Welsh figure Bladud, whose alternative name is Baldadus according to Geoffrey of Monmouth - Balder! Bladud is the son of Rhud Hudibras, clearly the Norse Hodr. The word 'Rhud' is most likely 'Rhod' meaning 'wheel' (from the Teutonic Rad-Rune), the 'Wheel of the Sun'. The name 'Bladud' means -

Bal/Bla - bright, light.

Dud/Dydd - dark.

This name is the same as that of 'Robin Hood' - "Fame-Bright Hood' - who is Woden or Hooden as found in Kent. There is something of extreme importance here, and that is the theme of Baldaeg and Hod returning after Ragnarok, hand in hand. I have suggested before that any return to a Golden Age would not be as 'innocent children' as before, but as 'adults' with the faculty of knowing what we do, with a consciousness of knowing through the strengthening of the 'I', and not its dissolution into the 'All'. This suggests a balance of the conscious and subconscious minds - balance of Light and Darkness. Thus Bladud and Robin Hood, a fusion of Baldaeg-Hod or Rhod Hudibras-Baldadus. 

This imprisonment of the 'Divine Son' is perhaps the imprisonment of the 'Divine Sun' - a play-on-words. We find the ancient Kronos imprisoned on an island, awaiting the time when he will awaken again. Kronos is the Roman Saturn who is also the figure of Old father Time. Saturn, it appears, is 'imprisoned' by the Rings of Ice which one day may melt away, freeing this figure from the clutches of the Dark Powers.  If Saturn is Surtur then this planet (or its moons) will play a part in the Fires of Ragnarok, when Surtur wields the Sword of Victory and throws fire on the Nine Worlds. 

An alternative name for the Cweorth-Rune is TRIS which, backwards, spells SIRT - this is a Rune of Fire, the Fire-Twirl that whisks the cosmos into creation. This force is one of Creation-Destruction like Rudra-Shiva and Woden as the One-Eyed Hunter-God who leads the Wild Hunt. Interestingly, the rune-name Sweorth also suggests a Flaming Sword. Surtur wields the Flaming Sword - the Sword of Victory - at Ragnarok. In the Ar-Kan Runes the Ear-Rune is 'The Hanged God', but it is also the 'Bound Giant' since the hands are 'bound'. The Cweorth-Rune is that of the 'Bound Giant' who has been freed and thus wields the Flaming Sword. 

Now, the words Sword and Sun are connected in their root-words, and here we do have a hint of the Black Sun in these two runes, the latter being a Rune of Transformation. Through the figure of the Long Man of Wilmington these ideas are connected to Waendel and thus to the Precession of the Equinoxes. It was perhaps no coincidence that on August 10th 1999 I went to the Long Barrow on Windover Hill above the Long Man and buried there 8 Ale Bottles in the shape of the Fylfot-Swastika. Each one had the label of a 'Millennium Ale' bearing 'Old Father Time' holding a blond-haired, blue-eyed baby in his arms. Each bottle also contained the words of an invocation. The next day at 11.00am on 11th August 1999 this talisman was empowered with the Solar Eclipse - resurrecting the god known as Ingus. 

None of this was done consciously but was obviously for a purpose unknown to me at the time. The Long Man is also symbolic of Cygnus the Swan, the marker for the Black Hole at the centre of our Milky Way Galaxy. There seems to be more importance to the god Ingus that we find within Norse Mythology with the figure of Ingvi-Frey. What we do know is that Frodi was associated with the Golden Age, thus linking this to Ingus. 

In regard to Rhud Hudibras, the Welsh version of 'Blind Hod', the first part 'Rhud' could mean 'wheel', from the Welsh rhod. There is a Saxon God named Krodo or Hrodo who seems to have been the same as Sataera who gave his name to Saturday - Sataera's Day. This is the equivalent to the Latin Saturn, and also to the Greek Kronos. Interestingly, there is a Slavic equivalent in Rod which means 'generation' or 'birth', but also 'to be born', 'homeland' or 'motherland'. 

Sataera is shown on various depictions from Germany and also here in England, and even in Cardiff, Wales. He is shown with a six-spoked wheel (usually 6-spoked but there is a variant), a pail containing flowers and stands on a fish (perch), the latter perhaps being his 'standing on' the Age of Pisces. He is a Germanic God whose name, Krodo, comes from an ancient Germanic Chrotto, a word which gives us our modern 'grotto' (and thus links to 'Santa Claus'). He was worshipped in Thuringia as the 'Spirit of the Caverns' ('grotto') - in the famous Harz Mountains, famous for 'witchcraft'. Some Saxon depictions have the Sun as an eight-rayed star/wheel, and Saeter with an eight-spoked wheel rather than the six-spoked wheel. These depictions suggest the Golden Sun (White Sun) and the Black Sun. It seems that the name Krodo was the original, later called Saeter or Sataera. The name Hrodo may be the original since the 'H' would have a gutteral sound, later change to a 'K' for convenience. 

The idea of a god worshipped in a 'cavern' suggests the Underworld; various gods, such as Osiris, seem to have been gods of culture, culture-bringers, vegetation-gods, etc. and then to have become God of the Underworld. Sataera is said to have been a god of agriculture, as was Saturn too; these seem to contradict the usual interpretations of this god, and yet may have a deeper, hidden meaning. The name Waendel means 'wend' 'turn', and 'wind' and is clearly the 'World-Turner', here again suggesting a wheel or a Wheel of Time. It also suggests the Chakravartin or 'Wheel-Turner'. In the Grail Mythos seen to be associated with the Long Man a large 'black man' comes from a cave beneath the hill-figure, and is defeated by Peredur. 

The prefix hrud/hrod is very similar to the Germanic hrod/hroth which we find in Hroth-beorht which is coincidentally the basis of 'Fame-Bright' or 'Victory-Bright' which is added to Hood to get 'Robin Hood' - Light and Darkness. It should be noted that the prefix hr may well be sounded at the back of the throat, and in doing so the 'r' is 'rolled' naturally. Thus hrod/hrud/rod/rud/rhod/rhud are all the same variants of one word meaning 'wheel'. The name Rhud is also written Rhuth. There is an Irish ruith meaning 'wheel' and an alternative roth which means the same. 

All of these variants are, of course, derived from the Rad-Rune meaning 'wheel' or 'wheel of a chariot', 'chariot', 'turning' etc. The suggestion is 'turning' or 'rolling', a wheel that has no beginning nor end. The Rad-Rune is also the 'Crucified God' or 'Hanged God' as the glyph shows here, a man hung upon a pillar. This shows a reversed Sigel-Rune on the World Pillar (Is). The reversed Sig-Runes are found on the Wewelsburg Black Sun. 

The Odal-Rune features in Miguel Serrano's ideas on the Armanen Runes; this is not actually in the Armanen Runes since it cannot be fitted into the Hag-All Crystal. In our Ar-Kan Runes this is found as Number 23 or Number 24, the Edel-Rune and Daeg-Rune being interchangeable. There is an interesting idea here, for this rune shows a White-Son - Black Sun in their true colours, white as the Sigel-Rune and Black as the reversed Sigel-Rune. These are the balance of Light and Darkness in harmonious working. Now, in Karl Maria Wiligut's Armanen System, which was derived from Guido von List but contained many different ideas, he uses the symbolism of the hourglass which, when turned over, moves the power from one sun (UR) to the other sun (SUN), from Santur to Sunor. The 'hourglass' is the Daeg-Rune turned around; we have thus the Edel-Rune next to the Daeg-Rune, and both are interchangeable. This does suggest two interchangeable features, in this case the White Sun-Black Sun.

As the Divine Child Mabon is the son of Sovereignty, and his service is to the land, and he has no personal life through this wyrd. He is Mabon, Son of Modron, and he is born again and again upon the Earth in a redemptive role. As the 'Son' he has parallels in Ingus and Krist(os), these two both being the 'Son of Man'. 

The Brunswick Chronicle sees Crodus (Krodo) as an 'old man in the form of a reaper', which is how we see the 'Grim Reaper' whose title contains the idea of 'Grim', a name of Woden connected to a mask. The Grim Reaper is shown bearing a scythe with which he reaps the harvest - this forms part of the 'Wild Hunt' theme. 

It would seem that this Ancient Sun, which has become the 'Black Sun', shone upon the Thuleans or Hyperboreans in the most ancient times, in the lost and fabled Golden Age. This was ruled by Kronos (Greek) or Saturn (Latin) and was known as the Satya Yuga by the Hindus, a word containing 'Sat' as 'Saturn' does. It would appear that, in different cultures, this god was known as Sat- or Kro-/Hro-/Ro- and had connections to the 'Wheel of Time'. Interestingly, Saturday turns into Sunday in the days of the week, from 'Sat' to 'Sun'. There are more mysteries here but we shall leave these until later.