What the Norns Told Me (cosmology/philosophy version)

[Faemon]

I recently ran across this wicked awesome rundown of polytheism as deals with aspects of the gods, as the writer heard from a Norn. The metaphysical model as presented, follows thus: the aspects of the gods that we meet, are predetermined by subconscious-spiritual resonance, before they become something like a UPG-theophany-experience processed by the conscious mind. Unless you consciously call for a deity in a specific aspect, and maybe if the connection between your conscious and subconscious-spiritual faculties are strong enough that that's what you'll actually be doing. I think it's pretty good stuff.

My own UPG of the Norns, was that of an information dump, which I would like to relate presently. I can multitask: while finishing up on washing the dishes and then browsing the fridge for something else to dirty them with, I pondered on the nature of events, conditioning, and choice in the lives of human individuals. I used to believe in chaos, and choice, and free will, and parallel universes. Now, though? The structure of everything seemed so perfect-- not good, in fact, severely and suffocatingly limited-- but perfect. There was a chasm between these two belief systems I held, and, not knowing how I got so far away from one to another-- I thought about how I wanted to bridge it.

Now, I'd like to think I know what an epiphany feels like, when these floaty sort of ideas coalesce into a point of singularity. This wasn't like that. This felt more like something else was injecting ideas into my mind without so much as a "Won't feel a thing!" And, it felt big. Big and feminine and just a little crowded. And, quite cold-- nowhere near as warm at all, as a Norn was described in the link. Did I mention they felt big? So, I identified them as the Norns and have not been corrected by them since.

So, the idea that I've been struggling to put into words for the past several weeks, and because they're details rather than pure information I'm sure I got some wrong, was this: Everything does run on quite tightly interlocking gears. Plum or grape shake? Might feel like free will to choose one over the other, but it's just a crest in the ocean of conditioning-- the currents of which run strong and deep.

This is me, now, noticing that to recognize the forces that one is ultimately subject to, seems to lead to either fatalism or transcendentalism. Or both, one after the other. Or both simultaneously? Maybe it seems like one from another person's outside perception, that is really the other inside. Maybe they're on a spectrum rather than a dichotomy.

Anyway, back to a message from our sponsors: the union of the conscious and perspective of the super-conscious produces the ideal of free will. Free will is not something we are all given and choose to utilize, but something we are all given to work towards and to work to keep (not to mention the work at actually using it once we've got it.) It's not the work that we might usually think. There is no boss, there is no real payoff, there might not even be a progression of recommended practice-- but people have reached it. And because it's beyond the aforementioned metaphorical ocean, that is a mystery.

I wondered what happens, if one subject to fate meets another who has transcended. It seems to partially depend... mostly... on the transcended party, who now make a choice, rather than the illusion of one. It sounds like a quality that exerts some great influence on the world, but really there is no power gained than what was already always there. (I guess it should be more like "intrascended"? It's not ascending somewhere else or transcending to become something else.)

When I thought about all that, my reaction was... well. "That's Buddhist!" I accused. "Weird! Why are you Buddhist?" The answer (I have to say, I'm not sure anymore if this was from them or is from me,) seemed to be that, just as aspects of gods would approach a dedicant first of all depending on the subconscious resonance... so, too, is cosmic information only planted when something like it is already in there-- when I've been introduced to the idea in the mundane way. That might come from/in/through divine inspiration of the text and stories endemic to the belief system... or from outside it.

Apart from the risk of cultural misappropriation, it's a little discomfortingly convenient, then, this idea that the gods can only tell me what I already know. Or, well, gno (with the sis at the end). (On a tangent, it kind of explained a recent single-draw tarot card reading I had, of the Justice card, that I felt warned me of retribution from somebody I felt had done me more wrong than I could ever manage to repay in kind. I connected with the Lady Justice to point this out, and she replied that she was aware of this and agreed to my assertion. So I whined, "Then whyyy?" and got the psychic equivalent of a garbled signal in reply, although she seemed to have a secure knowledge of what was happening, and a steady way to explain it.)

In addition to thoughts on this, I also wondered if there was an equivalent model of Soft and Hard polytheism, that applied to cosmology and philosophy?

[Faemon]

In addition to thoughts on this, I also wondered if there was an equivalent model of Soft and Hard polytheism, that applied to cosmology and philosophy?

I can't believe I forgot to mention: another reason I attributed the presence to the Norns, was that I was pondering on the nature of the custodians of fate. Would they ever be going, "Dance, my puppets, dance! Mwahahaa!!" or what? The impression I got was sort of that different gods might have different plans, and the jostle of cause-and-effect ruled on that plane as well. Therefore, (at least popular Norse mythology already had it that) gods are themselves subject to fate, and gods of fate no less so.