In the Beginning.......

 

There is, it seems, an Icelandic word ginn which refers to a 'Divine Principle', in the sense that this is unnamable and unknowable. In Iranian Lore this is AHU, a word meaning 'It Is'. There is a Sanskrit term 'TAT' which means 'that', which appears to be the same. Then we have the Old Testament 'I Am That I Am' which was transferred to the Demiurge but originally meant the 'Unknowable' - that which exists in the No-Thing-Ness. (*)

The word Ginn-Unga- Gap would not refer to the above, since 'unga' or 'inga' means 'offspring of' or 'son of'. The word 'Gap' means 'to yawn' or 'to gape', as well as 'chasm' or 'wide'. Ginn-Unga-Gap arises out of the Ginn (Unknowable), and from this arises the Twin Principle of Opposites - Ice and Fire. 

0 - 1 - 2 

The English word 'Beginning' has exactly the same meaning, since the prefix 'be' was not there originally, thus Ginn-ing which is Ginn-unga. The inference of the idea of 'gaping', 'chasm' or 'gap' is that of being 'wide' and we can see here a link between these ideas and the Ur-Rune. Again, in Iranian Lore we find the term uru meaning 'wide', and another idea that springs out of Ur is 'out of'. Ginn-unga-gap springs out of The Void. AHU (Iran) is the same as ASU which means 'spirit' or 'great spirit'. 

The following root-words apply to what has just be said -

IE Root *ghas- To yawn, to gape.

OE ginan, ginian, geoniam - To yawn.

ON gap - chasm.

ON gapa - to open the mouth. (**)

(*) There is a strange thing here in that in the spring of 1997 when I went through a profound mystical experience and Initiation at one stage I glimpsed into an unknown area, and it seemed that the ultimate rulership lay in a kind of Cosmic Joker. This figure seemed to be laughing, so maybe the ultimate reality is a joke played upon itself? I don't know. There is also an Icelandic word ginna which means 'to fool'. We have to also consider that when everything gets to the stage when mankind is unable to put right what has gone wrong, there is an appearance of a god-force, and this is linked to The Fool. We see this in the figure of Parsifal. 

(**) When looking at these ideas the 'Opening of the Mouth' comes into mind, and the swallowing of Woden by the Jaws of the Fenris Wolf. 

'The Joker' is a playing card that is not part of the card-sequence, and is used at any time of the game; it is thus the Card of Chance. It is this chance that can decide the outcome of the game. This is the Harlequin or Herla-Kin if we take the idea of Kris Kershaw. 

Ginn-unga-gap is thus the 'Magically-charged Void' that arises from the Unknowable - Ginn. We have the following root-words that relate to these ideas at this level -

IE Root *gheu- 

To pour, To pour a libation.

To yawn, to gape.

To call, to invoke.

From this root we get the following -

OE gama - 'jaw'.

Variant form *ghau- chaos (Greek).

OE god.

OE gydig, gidig - giddy ("possessed by a god').

Extended form *gheud- gut (intestine).

If we link these ideas together we get - Void-Chaos-Gaping Chasm-God. With these come the means to link with 'god' or 'the gods' - invoke, an offering - and then the result by going 'giddy' as the 'god' takes possession of the Initiate. All through my younger years I had 'giddy' spells which accompanied a vision of a very ancient book. After I started to study the esoteric these stopped. 

Ginn-unga-gap (0) out of which arises 'The One' - The All-Father, Ilu (Sumer-Babylon) Iluvater/Eru (Tolkien), and the ALU-Father who is HALU (Whole, The One), the All-Pervasive Force (Woden), (1). From 'The One' springs the Ice (North) and Fire (South), the polar-opposites, thus the conflict of opposites (2). 0 - 1 - 2. The Void is AFFA (1-6 : 6-1) AF showing the Unknowable, and FA being the Manifested One (All-Father). This was whispered to me in a meditation decades ago, accompanied by a strong 'humming' sound. 

In Gylfaginning we find that the highest and most ancient of the gods is All-Father, who has 12 names, and who lives throughout all ages. 

Ice and Fire - as these interact they produce a 'mist' (Ur) out of which arises Audhumla - the Cosmic Cow or Cosmic Mother - and Ymir (The Primal Giant). 

Audhumla is represented by the Feoh-Rune which shows the 'horns' of a cow, though the name Audhumla can mean 'hornless cow' ('humala'). The root audr can also mean 'fate' and 'desolate'/'desert', and these two may hint at another part of her role. She is certainly the loving Mother of the Gods, the nourisher, the nurturer, who gives her 'riches' (audr = 'riches'). The idea of 'desolate' may be a hint that the Cosmic Mother brings breaks the 'desolation' of the 'Yawning Gap'; and 'fate', well we'll look at this later, since it brings Wyrd into play now.

Now, we know that Audhumla appeared either before or after Ymir, since Ymir fed from her milk. Ymir is the Primal Giant whose name has said to mean 'Twin', and who is the Yima of Persia and Yama of India. Since we find the Rune of Ymir in the Yr-Rune, which itself is a variant of the Ur-Rune, then Audhumla is Feoh and Ymir is Ur, presumably in this order. 

Ymir is also named Aur-Gal-Mer or Or-Gal-Mer, a name meaning 'The Primal Sound', and this is YM ('oom'), the AUM/OM of the Hindus. The Yr-Rune shows an Ur-Rune within which is the Irminsul; it means 'Yew-Bow' which is important. The Yew-Bow and Arrow is symbolic here of the 'hum' produced by the bow-string and also the 'hum' sound of the arrow in flight. Again, we have clues as to this meaning sound and hence sound waves. We read in the Eddas - "no soil, no sea, no waves; earth was not, nor heaven..." 'No waves' is an unnecessary use here, since this is covered by 'no sea', so this suggests a hidden meaning of 'waves' as in 'vibrations'. YM is the vibration of Matter and the Physical Universe is created by 'dismembering' YM(ir); every part of the physical universe is made up of the YM-Sound. (We should note the word 'humla' or 'humula', and the link to 'humble'; the sound 'hummmmm' links to Ym and Om. 'Humble' also implies 'earth' and thus 'matter'.) 

I will call this the 'Vibration of Matter' which is perhaps nearer to its true sense, and makes it easier to understand what follows. "A son and a daughter are said to have been born together under the rhimthurse's arm; foot begat with foot the strange-headed son of the wise giant." (Vafthrudnersmal). Both a son and daughter are born from the armpit of Ymir (Sweat-Born), and these we shall call the High-Born Joten. One foot begat with the other a 'strange-headed son', and thus are born the Low-Born Joten. The High-Born Joten are a Noble Race, the Low-Born Joten are a most Ignoble Race, strange-headed and monstrous. The 'strange-headed son' is Thrudgelmir, who is saved from 'The Flood'. 

For 3 days Audhumla licks the salt-blocks and the head of Buri appeared, and then the body and legs of Buri followed. This is the first of the Gods, and he has a son For who marries Bestla (daughter of Bolthorn, thought to be Mimir), and from their union are begot Woden (Inspiration), Will (The Will) and Weoh (The Sacred). These are also Woden, Heonir and Lodur. Woden, Hoenir and Lodur then create the First Man (Ask) and First Woman (Embla) from two trees. This Man is created with a link between the Earth (Roots) and the Divine (Branches). 

The Ur-Rune itself suggests 'wilderness', since the Aurochs roamed the wild heaths of Europe. It is the collective 'our', and applies to the 'wide' (URU) and that which is 'primal' or 'first'. At some stage the Wyrd Sisters appeared as Three Giant-Maids, representing 'Time' (Past-Present-Future) and they laid down the Ur-Lag) Primal Laws or Primal Layers which are the 'Warp' of their weaving, the vertical threads that are unchangeable. Wyrd is represented by the horizontal threads which can be changed, and are 'constant change that forever remains the same'. Wyrd is forever 'Becoming', and subject to 'worth', i.e. one's past actions decide what is to come. Wyrd is the Weft or Woof. Friedrich Nietzsche's idea of the Eternal Recurrence comes into play here, since the material universe is not finite, so everything that happens does so again and again. Wyrd sets down the Ur-Lag, the Archetypal Myths, and these are played out again and again, but subject to changes due to the Cosmic Cycles. Ur-Lag is also connected to the Dutch word oorlog meaning 'war' or 'conflict', this being the Conflict of Opposites that is set down in the Primal Laws. Man and the Gods are subject to the Will of Wyrd.