Odinn has two ravens who sit on his shoulders, named
Huginn and Muninn. They are actually an
extension of Odinn himself. The name
Huginn means “thought,” and that translation is pretty direct. But the name Muninn is a bit more complicated. There is no direct translation for it, but it
carries the concepts of “thought, desire, and emotion.” Muninn is often translated as memory.
So the two ravens sit on Odinn’s shoulders, and they
whisper into his ears. Very early every
day, Odinn sends Huginn and Muninn out to fly over all of Midgard (the world we
humans live in) and bring information back to him about what is going on in the
world. In this way he keeps abreast of
what is happening and makes his decisions accordingly.
But, you see, Odinn has a problem. He’s worried, and he’s becoming more worried
every day. Odinn says in Grímnismál, a poem in the Prose
Edda book, the following: “Huginn and
Muninn fly each day over the spacious earth.
I fear for Huginn that he come not back, yet more anxious am I for
Muninn.” He is worried that he will send
his thought out and it will not come back, but he is even more worried that he
will send his memory out and it will never return.
These
are his faithful messengers, and yet he is very worried that they will leave him
one day and never come back. Most especially,
he fears for Muninn, his memory. But why
would they leave and never come back?
Some
scholars have compared the idea of sending Huginn and Muninn (thought and
memory) out as a sort of shamanic practice done in a trance state. The idea is that there is always the danger
that the shaman cannot return from his journey (many cultures used drugs to
induce trance). But I don’t think that’s
what it is. I think it’s a little
simpler and more practical.
We
are nothing without our thoughts and memories.
They make us who we are. If you
lose your ability to think, then you lose your ability to plan and reason. If you lose your memories, then you’ve lost
all the experience upon which you would have based your plans and reasoning in
the first place. So yes, it would be
worse to lose your memory than to lose your thought.
Yet
daily around us, if we are watchful, we see the hidden hands constantly
reaching out to steal our thoughts and memories. Foolish distractions, irrational fears, mounting
terror, gluttony, sexual perversions, electronic toys, etc., all try to steal
our thoughts with their icy hands. But
the worst by far, I think, is the rewriting of history that is going on around
us. The distractions and fears, etc.,
attempt to steal our thoughts, but the rewriting of history attempts to steal
our memories.
And
what is history? It’s a just a record of
what happened in the past—a memory. But
whose memory is it? Well, we are told
that history is written by the victors, so that memory is pretty
subjective. Since World War II we have had
a slow but continual erosion and rewriting of history. At first it was subtle, but the effects were
cumulative as time went on. In the past
decade, however, it has picked up speed at an alarming rate. If you are old enough, you will know what I
am talking about. It was a different
world 30 years ago, and I am not talking about electronics. The world itself was different. And 30 years before that, it was even more different.
Many
people are walking around scratching their heads, wondering if everything they
learned when they were young actually is wrong, and the new way of thinking and
believing is actually the right way. If
you are doing this: STOP NOW. You are giving Muninn away. You are giving the most precious part of
yourself away, and you don’t even know it.
Muninn is your thought, desire, and emotion all rolled up into your
memories.
They
are YOUR memories, and I don’t care who the victor is, you don’t have to lose
Muninn. Worse, you don’t have to
willingly give him away. So please pay
attention. If something gives you a bad
feeling or stops you in your tracks or just doesn’t sound right, THAT IS
MUNINN. He is whispering in your
ear. He is reminding you of what is
real. PAY ATTENTION. Trust yourself. Do not waiver from what you know is
right. When you do this, Huginn will
return. What good is thought without
memory? Our propagandists and merchants
know this only so well.
Lastly,
remember that Odinn the All-Father was a death and battle God, and ravens are
carrion birds. When you properly place
yourself into an “Odinn frame of mind,” you will utterly eradicate and destroy
the enemy. Give no thought to
mercy. Annihilate the enemy completely. Then let the ravens feast.
