Dumezil & The Three Functions

Georges Dumezil went deeply into the idea of the threefold nature of Indo-European Society, and I would here like to look at his ideas in the hope that perhaps shed light on how we can build a movement based upon the Divine Order of the Gods, and how this is relevant to the Eternal Struggle against the Forces of Darkness and Chaos. The following is a sketch of his ideas -

First Function - Sovereignty.

This is made up of the rulers, the priests, and the legal specialists. This level is broken into -

The Magical - the Magician-Creator rules by his creative violence.

The Judicial - The God of Justice rules by his organising wisdom. 

Second Function - The Warrior-Hero.

This function is that of the Warrior-Caste whose role it is to have the strength to put the decisions of the ruling caste into action. 

Third Function - The Generative.

These are the healers, the youth, of luxury and prosperity, of peace and plenty, of virility and fertility.

• The Farmer-Provider.
• The Craftsman.
• Fertility, abundance & peace.

The First Function is that of command (The Head).

The Second Function is that of the fighters that defend the community (The Arms).

The Third Function is that of productive work and fertility (The Groin).

Through this three-fold system the harmony of the Cosmos and Society is upheld; here is where the Counter-Initiation have used the idea of 'equality' to break down this Divine Order, thus creating disharmony, confusion, disorder and chaos. Hence the importance of such a Divine Order to us today, without which order and harmony cannot return and the Heildom cannot be created.

Now let us look at the Germanic Gods and how they fit these roles, always recognising that this is not 'black and white' and there are 'grey' areas where their roles overlap.

First Function - Woden & Tiw.

Woden is the Sovereign Magician who rules through power and wisdom, and at times uses trickery to do the necessary work. 

Tiw is the God of Justice and the heroic legal expert; the God of the Thing. Tiw saves the Gods from the Fenris Wolf, and in doing so he makes legal that which is clearly not legal. The Fenris Wolf cannot be bound with the usual means, and the gods resort to trickery and magic to do so, thus making this 'illegal' in a sense. Tiw's sacrifice of a hand makes this a 'legal' act. 

We can see these roles in another way, for Woden sacrifices an eye which symbolises his role as 'The Head' (seat of intelligence), whereas Tiw sacrifices a hand, this being symbolic of justice (The Hand of Justice). 

Woden is a God of the Left-Hand Path since there are occasions where we see him working outside the bounds of society's 'norm', even acting illegally and immorally at times. Some scholars have thus seen him as an 'alien' god but this is certainly not so; he works thus in a sense of the 'end justifying the means' since when working with a devious enemy (The Dark Joten) there is no other way that they can be countered but at their own level. There is no doubt that such a god would never have been needed in the Golden Age, but in our Age of Darkness this has to be the 'High God' because his role is the counter-opposite to the Dark Forces, and he works at a much more 'sinister' level. But, he is balanced by the god Tiw, who acts at the legal level. 

Second Function - Thunor.

Thunor is the 'Defender of the Gods' and his role is to smash the tactics of the Joten and Thursar through his might and main. He fights at a physical level whereas Woden incites the ecstatic battle-fury through his magic. Tiw is also associated with battle, since he decides the time, place and manner of battle; law can be used to gain victory over an opponent or on war. We can see the role in Arjuna who is the physical fighter who is stirred on by the god Krishna, even though he does not wish to fight against his own kin. What is important to realise is that our forefathers saw the 'inner conflict' involved here, that some battles between kinfolk were incited and stirred by these Dark Forces. We can see this clearly in World War II. War was seen to be more of a 'spiritual conflict' and a 'hidden current' lay behind this as well as the outer physical conflict.

Third Function - Ingwe-Frey.

This is that of peace and plenty, of abundance of crops, of virility and fertility. But once more we have to recognise that war and fertility go hand in hand, because in times of war there needs to be an increase in births in order to replace the fallen heroes in battle. Every army would have both trained warriors from the Second Function with the vast number coming from the Third Function who would also bear arms in war. At all times a strong peasant-caste would ensure the defence of a nation when this was necessary. 

I think at this point it would be wise to note the difference between Ingwe and Ingwe-Frey, the latter being the 'Master of the Inga-Force'. Ingwe is the 'Fire-God' and the 'God of the Fire-Serpent', and it would seem that he was the force behind the very ancient Fiery-Serpent Cults which spread across many lands in order to aid and bring civilisation after a massive flood that created disorder and chaos across the world. These 'White Gods' that appeared came as peaceful, wise and creative men who gave their help to others. 

These three functions work in harmony to create order and stability, whether this be to the Cosmos, the Earth, or to any given society; this extends to that of any group or movement, since if we are to counter the Forces of Chaos and Destruction we need to recreate this Divine Order in microcosm, as best that we can in these times. But, there is also the need to recreate such a Divine Order within ourselves. The idea put forward by Jonathon Bowden of the 'Cultured Thug' can be taken even further, and beyond the 'Warrior-Thinker' (which unites the first two functions) to a stage when the New Man unites all three functions within himself. 

Woden-Tiw - The balance of the sovereign-magician with that of justice and that which is right. The willingness to sacrifice ourselves for something higher, for Truth and Justice. 

Thunor - The Warrior-Hero who fights for order and justice against the Powers of Darkness and Chaos. The gaining of strength, of might and main, of brute force that will crush everything that stands in the way of the final victory.

Ingwe-Frey - The striving for peace through victory, the virility and fertility of the Folk. The strength of hard work and toil in order to achieve what is necessary. Not enough emphasis is put upon the idea of hard work and struggle in order to achieve what we want, in order to overcome all obstacles. 

The one thing that is lacking here is the figure of Rig-Hama (Rig-Heimdall) who was the god who gave to the Folk this Divine Order. It is also true to say that the figure of Scef-Ing should come into this too, since he was the Divine Child who became Folk-King or Folk-Ruler after the Golden Age had ended. Like Agni of the Vedas he brought Sacral Kingship to the Folk. There is also the three-fold system of the Vedic-Gods -

Brahma - The Creator.

Vishnu - The Preserver.

Shiva - The Destroyer. 

Woden acts not only as the Magician-Creator but as the Destroyer in his role as the Wild Hunter-God. This is why I mentioned that things are not quite 'black and white' but that there are 'shades of grey' where the roles of certain gods overlap. Thunor certainly acts to preserve the Cosmic Order and the Divine Order, to preserve the tribe and the Folk. But Ingwe-Frey also acts to preserve the Folk, since he is the God of Fertility; and Freya has her role in this too, as that of magic and battle, just as the role of Woden has the same characteristics. But we can perhaps see in this the reason why Thunor is married to the Corn-Goddess (Sif), who is herself connected to Scef (Sheaf of Corn). Here certain roles are directly connected in the most mysterious ways.