The Multiverse

We have used the term 'Cosmos' so far to define the Universe, the totality of existence, as an organised system brought about through divine action. We now need to move on a little and examine just what we actually understand by the term 'Universe'.

The word itself is actually derived from the Latin Universus, meaning 'all together' - the totality of everything. It implies the same meaning as Cosmos, the totality of creation. However, in the sense of seeing everything as a 'oneness', it has come to be associated with a one dimensional view of creation. We tend to think of a collection of galaxies, stars and planets that we can see or at least may one day see. Even when we talk of the possibility of other Universes, we conceptualise them as physical things that are real to us in our present realm of existence.

However, this realm is only one dimension of reality. It is our human limitations of experiencing other dimensions that makes it so difficult for most of us to understand this. Only very few people are able to really experience other shades of reality. But, it is these people, mainly shamans, who have helped to develop our ancestors' collective understanding of them.

This multi-dimensional view of the cosmos is sometimes called the Multiverse. The different 'worlds', or planes of existence, co-exist with each other, but are for the most part invisible and intangible to each other. There is a Multiversal cosmos, a Multiversal galaxy and solar system and there is a Multiversal earth. Indeed, it is also possible to consider the human soul and psyche in a Multiversal way as did Carl Jung.

Mainstream Christianity also sees the cosmos as a Multiverse, although it does not use the term. Mainstream Churches mainly identify three realms; heaven, earth and hell. Put simplistically, earth is the world we inhabit; the world of material form. Heaven lies 'above' us and is where our spiritual journey leads us towards God. Hell lies below us. The definition of just what hell actually is varies between different Churches and has changed within Churches over time. Whether one sees it in terms of Dante’s inferno or as separation from God, it can be seen as a spiritually less advanced place. A positive life in this world leads to spiritual advancement and heaven - a negative life leads to the opposite. Many mainstream Christians also believe in a sort of 'halfway house' between heaven and earth called Purgatory. This is where souls go that are not ready for heaven, but which have advanced in this life and so should not go to hell. Purgatory is a place where we can continue our spiritual development until we are ready to enter heaven.

It should be pointed out that this cosmology is not shared by all Christians. Some Protestants believe that the human soul simply goes to sleep upon earthly death and will be woken at the time of judgement. Eternal life is here in this world, the New Jerusalem - glorified by Christ.

Our native mythology is quite different in many respects to mainstream Christianity. However, at a deeper level, it actually complements and strengthens our understanding of it. The recorded mythology, set out in the Norse Eddas, refers to a number of specific worlds, usually described as nine in all. The Anglo-Saxons had a similar view, but it is usually thought that they saw the Multiverse in terms of seven realms of reality.

In general terms, the mythology speaks of the realms of the Gods, of the Elves, Giants and Dwarfs as well as of humans. These terms are often used interchangeably and cannot really be relied on as fixed historical ideas. For instance, Ing Frey is described as both a God and an Aelf, to give just one example. The lesson from this is that we should not get sidetracked in the specifics of exactly how many realms they are, what they are called and who lives in them. It is more important to try to understand the higher principles these concepts are trying to explain.

The Multiverse is understood mythically as a giant tree, the Irminsul or Yggdrasil. Our understanding of this is established from the tale in Havamal in which Odin or Woden hangs himself from the tree in order to undertake a shamanic journey into the depths of the Cosmos. He did this in his quest for knowledge of the secrets of the universe and these were revealed to him through the Runes. His vision revealed three realms which made up the cosmos; the upper world, Middle Earth and the lower world. We need to be careful in how we apply these terms to a modern Christian cosmology though, as they do not equate directly with the idea of heaven, earth and hell. They reveal a much more complex and intricate understanding of the Cosmos.

To properly understand our ancestors’ image of the cosmos, we need to consider the Irminsul. This is a mythical tree that represents our folk understanding of the multiverse. The upper world is situated at the top of the tree in its upper branches. The middle realm is in its middle and lower branches and is connected to the upper world by a 'bridge' called Bifrost. The lower world, or Hel, is located below the tree’s roots. The Irminsul has three roots which extend into three wells, the waters of which are drawn from the realm of Hel and which nourish the Irminsul. This is an important distinction between our folk understanding of the cosmos and that of the mainstream Churches. We do not see hell as a place of torment and suffering – the realm of the damned. We see it as the primal world; the place of healing. So let us consider these three worlds in more detail.

The Upper World

Traditionally this is simply known in Old English as Heofenrice, the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God. The word suggests a safe place or 'haven'. It is possible that the Anglo-Saxons may have called it by this name even before Christian times. It corresponds to the Norse realm of Asgard, the place of the Gods, although the Norse tradition includes a separate realm for the Vanir called Vanaheim.

Heofenrice is the highest spiritual plane, to which we all aspire in our quest for wholeness and eventual fulfilment in the unity of God. It is the place of ultimate understanding and knowledge. Both the Norse and the Anglo-Saxon traditions see a separate realm of the 'Light Elves' as part of the upper world. This is the realm of these wondrous beings of light, who embody goodness and intelligence; the abode of Angels and the Saints. They represent the higher spiritual form, all that is good, pure and holy. All that we aspire to.

Middle Earth

This is called Middengeard in Old English; the middle realm, or Midgard in Old Norse. It is 'our' realm - the one we are familiar with and can see and feel. Our earthly bodies are 'in tune' with this realm which is why it appears real to us and why other realms do not. At other stages of existence, we will be 'in tune' with other realms, and it will then be them that appear real to us.

The middle realm is not just the lands of human kind. Norse mythology identifies the realm of Giants (Jotenheim) on the outer edges of middle earth beyond the vast ocean of Jormungand which encircles it. It also identifies the world of Dwarfs (Nidavellir) a place hidden deep underground. Although part of 'Middle Earth', the mythology describes these realms as being set apart from our human world. They are separate to 'our' world, but not part of the underworld. Giants and dwarfs both represent forces that fashion the world around us, making the mountains and shaping the earth. Giants are the great cosmic powers that underlie all energy, without direction in themselves but harnessed by Christ to bring about creation. Dwarfs represent the more 'local' forces that shape the world around us. But we shouldn't see these two energies as entirely separate.

The Lower or Primal World

This is the most complex part of the Multiverse to understand, mainly because much of the surviving mythology surrounding it has been distorted to 'fit' into a Christian world view. It is the realm of the dead and, as such, embodies many of our fears of the supernatural and what happens to us when we die.

It is also the most difficult part of the multiverse to understand because, unlike the other two ‘worlds’, our folk understanding of it is fundamentally different to that of mainstream Christianity. Our ancestors called it Hel and this word was maintained by the Church, perhaps out of ignorance and perhaps to deliberately change peoples notion of the primal world. However, Hel and Hell mean very different things. We do not see Hel as a lower world at all in the sense of mainstream Christianity – but rather as the primal world. It is the place of primal matter from which our inert bodies received the gift of life from the Gods. It is the realm from which we are born into the middle realm of form. It is the place to which we go when we die, but is a place of the dead only in the sense of our earthly notions of death. In reality, it is a place of life, healing and regeneration. The word 'Hel' is actually related to words such as 'light', 'brightness' and ‘healing’. It is also cognate with 'hael', meaning 'whole' or 'holy'. This primal world, then, is a place of light and beauty with vivid landscapes, rivers, mountains and forests. It is the place of rest, comfort and regeneration. It is the Garden of Eden, Paradise and Purgatory rolled into one. It is far removed from the place of fire and eternal torture that Judeo-Christianity has assigned to it. So how did our folk understanding of Hel become the Judaeo-Christian Hell?

The Old Testament refers to Sheol (the Pit). This was an underground place of shadows where all the dead, good and bad are gathered. It appears to have something in common with the pagan Greek notion of Hades and may thus have more in common with our folk notion of Hel than the later Judaeo- Christian Hell. Later on, Judaism developed the concept of a place of fire where the wicked are punished for their sins. Their name for this place (Gehinnon) referred to a real location in ancient Israel, the 'Valley of Hinnom', which lies to the south-west of Jerusalem. Its Greek form, Gehenna, is the one commonly used in the New Testament. Infact, this place was the location of child sacrifices by fire to Baal in the 7th Century BC and would have had an association with evil and torture to Jewish priests.

The Christian religion has therefore taken on board the later Jewish notion of a place of eternal torment for sinful souls and given it a name our ancestors already used to describe their understanding of the Primal world. The realm of Hel became the Christian Hell.

According to Snorri, the underworld lies deep in the roots of the Irminsul. It is made up of the land of Niflheim (Nifelham) which is a place of bitter cold and perpetual darkness, a land of shadows. It is presided over by Loki's daughter, Hel. She rules over this realm from a citadel of the same name which has towering walls and a strong gate. It is into this Citadel that the 'straw dead' go, those who die of disease and old age rather than as heroes in battle. However, Snorri only gives us part of the picture. The real understanding of Hel is different to that of Christianity and so he probably did not feel able to properly describe it – or possibly did understand its real nature. A proper understanding has emerged through reconstructionist scholarship and comparison with surviving religions that derive from the same Indo – European tradition as our own folk faith. But the etymology of the word hel – light, health and healing is the real give away that this is a place of regeneration and not one of devils and pitch forks!

Hel is the 'source' of the Multiverse, the place where the seed of the Irminsul was nurtured and grew. The Irminsul is nourished by three roots, which draw from three wells each of which are fed from the realm of Hel. Urd’s well is where the Gods hold their Counsel and is the place of judgement and decision making. It is also the place of Wyrd or ‘fate’, where our destiny is shaped. Mimir's well is the source of eternal wisdom, the well that Woden drank from to receive the Runes. Hevergelmere is the source of life itself, alongside of which Woden, Will and Weoh (or Odin, Hoenir and Loður) 'found' the first humans in a primal state (expressed mythologically as trees) and breathed into them the gifts of life.

The nourishing of the Irminsul through the waters of Hel demonstrates how the primal world of Hel is the source of the other two worlds. It is not just the primal world of healing and regeneration. It is also the source of all knowledge and reality. To pass from the middle realm to the upper world, it is necessary to travel back into the Primal world. Christ descended into hell to carry the damned back to Heaven. Woden journeyed into Hel to gain understanding of the Runes. As part of our spiritual development, we too can journey into Hel through our inner selves to seek the knowledge and understanding of the Runes – though the Folk Church strongly advises that this is a spiritual practice to be undertaken only by those who are well trained and protected in shamanic practice as it can be extremely dangerous.

Hel is also not just the name of a realm within the multiverse. It is also another name for Urd or Wyrd – the Goddess of fate. The notion of Wyrd is intrinsically attached to that of the Primal world. Hel does not just spin out our individual and collective Wyrd. She is the source of life and the source of understanding and wisdom. It is from Hel that Woden obtained the Runes. She nurtures us and spins out our destiny, or Wyrd, which shapes but not dictates our lives. She is the source of knowledge and wisdom that will enable us to surpass mortal death and grow towards God. As such, she is the embodiment of the feminine aspect of the Godhead – known to many Christians as the Holy Soul or Sophia – divine wisdom. But she is also our mother – not mother Earth as such but mother of the realm of healing and regeneration.

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