He is not afraid to start with the implications in the use of Nordic/Germanic mythology by Hitler, encompassing Nietzche and Wagner. I would have been interested in his view of the possible influence of Nietzche's sister in this unholy trinity. A starting place - later in the book he explores the paranoid, annhilistic tendencies of the human race. He looks at the destruction of the goddess/matriarchal times and the church driven annihilation of millions, the majority women, in their misogynist paranoia against the pagans and witches; the uncountable holocaust of its time. Metzner explores the rise of the dominating influence of Western cultureand its devaluation of psychic communication and denial of spiritual energies . This domination and fear of the unseen has seen the destruction of indigenous peoples throughout the ages, resulting in the loss of so much ancient shamanic knowledge. Yes , we all have much recapitulation to do, globally and personally, on the genocide and ecocide that has been carried out in our name. We need the ritual of reconciliation. Only then can we open to the possibility of 'remembering' and accessing the wisdom of ancient times.
Odin, with his six legged horse Sleipnir, rides through the pages of this book, he is ever present. He is the God of Shamans ,with Mimir 'the rememberer'. Odin having hung from the world tree,( Yggdrasil, the axis mundi), collected the runes, sacrificing an eye for the secret knowledge they contain, is still here brought to life in the words on the page . We are taught the way of the shaman, the sacredness of all life, the interconnectedness of all things and the possibilities of communication with all spiritual intelligences in nature, alive or dead. Ralph Metzner is 'at home' with Odin and draws us in to the reality of his presence.
There is a chapter on The Eddas, Edda means 'Great Grandmother, and these poems carry the myths and legends of the grandmothers. Geographically these songs and poems came from Iceland, and Metzner relates the mythical and sometimes unearthly quality of them to the strange primordial landscape produced by the glacial and volcanic nature of the topography. - 'With the Eddas we are in the realm of word sorcery, where " words of power" , kennings, and magical formulas may be used as often to conceal as to reveal, or to reveal only to initiates, to those "who have ears to hear", - Have we ears to hear? I am inspired to develop mine and unlock the door to remembrance .
There are two chapters written by present day vision seekers, a clever way of linking the visionaries of the past with those struggling to find a way out of the chaos of our present day reality. The New Berserkers is written by Norbert Mayer and is the result of several vision quests, in the Native American way, a powerful personal story in his attempt to find a new way with the help of ancient spirits. The second chapter ' Visions of the Fourfold Goddess' written by Barbel Kreidt also the result of vision quest, in the desert allows us to meet Freyja in four of her aspects. As the Golden Goddess of Love, the Black Goddess of Prophecy , The White Goddess of Healing, The Goddess of Battle.
There are many more delights The Aesir Sky Gods, Ragnorak (translated as 'twilight of the gods),the Vanir Earth Deities. Merlin too has a place, how could he not. Metzner makes many links to the present, there are references to Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings' and Gandulf. The names themselves are magical. A colourful pathway is woven through the shadows of our duality, calling on all the help he can get from these mythical figures , to strengthen the growing renewal of interest in ancient shaman wisdom.
I am left feeling that there is hope in remembrance, I have ancient deities, dwarves , elves and nature spirits walking with me, this book gives them life makes them somehow accessible. As Metzner quotes in the words of William Blake ' men forgot that all deities reside within the human breast'
The Well of Remembrance, Shambhala, 1994 ISBN 1-57062-028-8
Copyright © 1996 The International Communique Ltd