Hur frambringa "Od" [Fornnordiska: óðr] hos dagens nordbor (bärsärkar)

Odin’s name is derived from odhr which refers to an ecstatic state of consciousness. The Greek ekstatis literally means “standing outside,” and an ecstatic state is one in which we are transported outside ourselves, in which we become more than what we are. In discussions of Germanic culture and myth, odhr sometimes is called wut or wodh, for the exact same linguistic reasons that Odin is also found under the names Wuotan and Woden or Wodhanaz.

Odhr comes in three forms, corresponding to the three Dumézilian “functions.” Odhr can manifest itself in religious ecstasy, a feeling of being transported out of oneself and directed toward the numinous. Odhr also manifests itself in the fury of the warrior or berserker, a rage or fighting frenzy in which one can lose oneself. Finally, odhr can show up in a “third function” form, as the ecstatic transport sometimes felt in manual labor, in agricultural festivals, in fertility rites, and in sexual intercourse. These forms of odhr exist, of course, in a hierarchy, with the highest and purest being religious odhr.

Odhr corresponds roughly to what Plato calls spirit (thumos). (There is also a somewhat similar notion in Hegel, called Geist, also usually translated as spirit.) Plato’s spirit is one of the three parts of the soul discussed in the Republic. The other two are reason, and appetite or desire. Reason is the ruling part of the soul (or the part which should rule), and corresponds to Dumézil’s first function. Appetite deals mainly with the satisfaction of physical drives, and thus corresponds to the third function. Spirit is what is manifested by the “guardians,” the soldiers of Plato’s city. Spirit involves fealty to an ideal. Spirited men take concepts like honor seriously, and are willing to die for them. In The Phenomenology of Spirit, Hegel shows how a concern with honor is the first and most basic type of spirit, and that there are higher and more refined modes of spirit in which the ideal we are directed toward is a religious or philosophical ideal.

For both Plato and Hegel, and for many other philosophers, having spirit is the most basic way in which we are distinct from the animals. Animals do not yearn for or fight for an ideal, or transcendent principle, and do not “go outside” themselves (for, indeed, they have no selves). Thus, Odin, as the god of odhr, represents what is most human about us. This is not to say that, properly understood, Odin is really just man, and that man is God. Odin (or, rather, Odin-Vili-Ve) is those characteristics which make us human, but these are characteristics which we must strive to realize in ourselves. Dogs do not have to strive to be dogs, they just are. But humans must strive to be human. Our nature, in some sense, stands outside us as something which must be reached. Do not forget that humans are created from Askr and Embla by having certain properties bestowed on them by Odin-Vili-Ve.

Vili means will, which is man’s capacity to alter the given according to his aims and ideals; his capacity to impose himself on the world. Only human beings have this will. Ve means something like “sacred” or “holy.” This is the third aspect of the human spirit which makes it uniquely human. Ve represents the openness of human beings toward the transcendent, or the Absolutely Other.[111] Only human beings possess this openness, and the sense of a divide running through nature and human existence—a divide between ideal and nature, God and man, sacred and profane, etc.

It can easily be seen that these three moments of the human spirit are bound up with each other. The divine openness, the sense of the Holy, provided by Ve is necessary before the higher forms of odhr can be experienced. It is also in odhr that we often become aware of our capacity for openness to the divine. Without openness to the divine, odhr would become a directionless frenzy of annihilation, or a drive for mindless sensualism. Will is the imposition of our ideals or plans onto nature. However, without openness to the transcendent, to an eternal order, will would become a purely personal affair, and potentially destructive (see chapter 1, “Knowing the Gods”). It is hard to see how openness to the transcendent needs to be “moderated” in any sense by either odhr or will, and thus the trio Odin-Vili-Ve emerges as roughly analogous to the Platonic triad Spirit-Desire-Reason, where Reason “measures” or orders the other two.

Cleary, Collin (2011-07-15). Summoning the Gods (pp. 123-125). Counter-Currents Publishing. Kindle Edition.

Somafera is a term we have coined to describe a large number of related practices in different cultures around the world. It is a combination of Greek and Latin translating as "the body wild". It is the art and science of altering the body's physiological state to enhance its functioning in certain ways. The physiological state is simply the state in which the body is functioning: the particular arrangement of hormones, muscle activity, mental focus, neurotransmitters, and so forth. Most people are familiar with the two most common states of physiology: waking and sleeping. Some few are familiar with more unusual physiological states, in which some danger or need brings out unaccustomed strength or dexterity, such as when a car in the other lane suddenly swerves into one's own, or when a mother suddenly becomes able to move a burning car off of her child. But even so, most people assume this particular state of physiology arises purely by accident and/or external forces, and cannot be controlled.

However, there is a long history the world over of practices developed to trigger this sort of change in physiology, and control it. And because these practices mostly developed before the scientific revolution, they are largely described from a personal, subjective (rather than impersonal, objective) point of view. They are described in terms of spirituality, and of effecting a physical change via changing the state of one's spirit. (And this pre-scientific point of view is why the practices are largely ignored in today's world.) Some of these practices are mostly religious in their focus, such as the maenadism of ancient Greece and the isawiyya of the ancient Middle East. Others (the more common varieties) are combat oriented, and are a form of internal martial art, such as the berserkergang of the Norse, the heroic feats of the Celts, and the boxers of the Chinese Boxer Rebellion.

The goal of this site is to explore this phenomenon from all angles. The scientific, the spiritual (the authors of this site are of the opinion that there is no conflict between these points of view, and that that merely speak of different sides of the same things), the philosophical. To explore their methodology. To examine both ancient and modern views on this subject. To examine personal experiences and to redevelop understanding of these largely lost arts through application of scientific method.