1. The lowest level of understanding spirit. This is what we often think of as ‘I’ or ‘self’. It is our immediate earthly cravings that are a form of desire generated by our body’s mundane needs like eating, sex, sleep, shelter etc. During the end times / the wolf age / Kaliyaga, it might be noticed that society focuses almost solely upon these base elements of spirit. This element of spirit dies with the body. It does not live on eternally. If you are someone who is solely focussed on this lowest element of spirit, it’s likely that nothing of you will live on after death. This is one of the reasons why thralls are thought of as lower class people.
2. The middle level of spirit as we understand it is called Fylgia in Old Norse. It manifests in a mastery of skills and ability through devotion, honour, Fame, glory, opinion and the choices that we make. This element of spirit pre-exists our earthly bodies and can be inherited from our ancestors for us to improve upon or detract from depending on how we live our lives. It lives on after the death of our bodies. “Cattle die, kindred die, you shall also die but the good name never dies of one who has earned glory” (Odin – Havamal).
Interestingly, in our ancestor’s languages, they often used the same word to describe this element of the spirit as was used to name the umbilical cord, suggesting a connection of the spirit between family members and taken one step further, a connection to folk/race. This spiritual connection to family is one of the reasons why we venerate our ancestors. We should also look upon Fylgia as the main path that allows our descendants to inherit some ofour spirit. Examples of venerating our ancestors can be found in Alflblot, Disir blot and mothers night. Halloween is essentially ancestor veneration too.
In some European traditions, this level of the spiritual understanding was represented by an animal. In later years these animals would appear on the family coat of arms much to the distress of the church who saw it as very pagan! It is also suggested that the Berserkers would connect with their animal spirit in this way. I've noticed that many of the Icelandic Sagas suggest that only people from certain family lines could become Berserkers.
3. The highest level of how we understand and perceive spirit. This level of spirit is associated with order and the sacred. In all of the European traditions, there was a Goddess or God associated with order. From the P.I.E. root word ‘Rta’ or 'Rga'. This aspect of spirits primary desire is wisdom and knowledge which the Gods teach us will lead to the ultimate metaphysical truth so that we might walk the same path that the Gods themselves walk with no limits to how far we as a people might rise up, not even the stars in the night sky. It is worth noting that mans ego lets him think that he as an individual might rise up spiritually. Sadly, this is not the case. We can only evolve as a people rather than as an individual. This is how individuals hold us back.
This tells us that order comes from wisdom rather than the other 2 aspects of spirit and therefore chaos from a lack of wisdom. As this 3rd element helps us all rise up / evolve from what we were it also lives on after death but only through and for as long as the 2nd aspect of spirit is intact. This suggests we should search for harmony between the different elements of our spirit rather than focus solely on one over the others. I noticed the Poetic Edda poem Rigsthula tells of a God ‘Rig’ (thought to be Heimdal) who fathers the 3 classes of man bringing order. (maybe his name just sounds similar to the P.I.E. root word for the God ‘Rta’ ‘Rtg’? who knows?)
So, just to reiterate, we can not just focus on one level of spirit. There HAS to be balance between all 3. THIS IS IMPORTANT!
The 3 levels of spirit can also be broken down further into multiple components. Here's a list based on the attested Norse sources:
Hamr: 'skin'/'shape'/'form'
Hugr: 'mind'/'thought'
Mimi: 'memory'/'recollection'
Oðr: 'frenzy'/'inspiration'/'ecstasy', the essence who Woden is the master of
Fylgja: 'fetch' (spirit animal)
Hamingja: 'honour'/'luck'/'fortune'
Sal: 'soul', possibly related to the Rune Sowilo and the later word 'Sawol'
Önd: 'spirit'/'energy'/'life force'
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We could say that the Gods themselves also have 3 levels to their spirit. Throughout the Eddas, one might describe Odin's spirit as a man/wanderer at the lowest level, craving his base desires, A priest-king/noble at the middle level and a God always searching for wisdom and order at the highest level. This is why Odin sometimes appears to crave chaos and at other times looks to wisdom and order. A lot of people struggle to understand this duality (or should we say 'triality) to his character. Perhaps it is a lesson that we need more duality to our own characters to achieve a better spiritual understanding?
Intriguingly, the Proto-Germanic names of the brothers Odin, Vili, and Ve would have been, respectively, Woðanaz, Weljon,[and Wixan.This alliteration can hardly be coincidental and suggests that the triad dates back to the time when the Proto-Germanic language was spoken – well before the Viking Age began in approximately 800 AD, and quite possibly no less than a millennium or two prior to that date. The names Odin, Vili, and Ve – respectively, mean Inspiration / fury, Conscious Intention, and the Sacred which could be seen as representations of the 3 levels of spiritual understanding that we have talked about here today.
Throughout all of the main pre xtian European tribes, Gods and men alike were described as having 3 parts to their souls. It is an alien concept to the rest of the world. This was one of the reasons why other people struggled to accept the reworked European version of xtianity which borrowed from our own European traditions. You might remember the holy trinity from those unfortunate Sunday school classes a lot of us had to attend as children (#child abuse)! Folk in the Middle East and Africa etc couldn't understand this concept. It was alien to them. I would also suggest the cultures in parts of the middle east and Asia that adopted our Aryan culture only gave consideration to 3 levels of spirit after our ancient European P.I.E. ancestors migrated to those regions though it was such a long time ago I doubt we will ever know for sure.
A representation of the 3 levels of the spirit can be seen all over Germanic mythology and indeed in other European cultures too. A great example is in 2 accounts of Odinist temples that have survived; 1 in Iceland and 1 in Uppsala Sweden. In both accounts it is written that 3 huge god poles take centre stage at the temples. 1 of Odin, 1 of Thor and 1 of Freyr. You can see how Freyr represents the 1st level of spirit in regards to fertility, crops, food and the seasons etc, Thor represents the 2nd level of spirit - the honourable freeman warrior and finally odin represents the search for the sacred, wisdom and order. You might also think of the valknut, Odin's triple horn symbols or the trefot to help you remember the 3 levels of spirit. The celts in Ireland had their famous triskele symbol, The celts in Gauls had their carvings and stone statues of Gods with 3 faces, the Greeks, early Romans, Baltic and Slavic peoples also had similar symbols which represents the 3 levels of spirit.
Just a final note to highlight that these levels of human spirit must all exist in balance with each other. A person who focuses on one level over another is not superior to another person. Much in the same way the 3 classes of man exist in balance with each other and are designed to enable us to evolve spiritually as well as physically. The 3 classes of men being Thrall, Freeman and Noble. Men can fall or raise themselves up freely based on their actions or lack thereof! No one is referring to times when the 3 classes were kept in place by force. No one is talking about oppressing others. I love the idea that we should aim to be the CULTURED THUG! There has to be a balance between the physical and higher spiritual aspects.
We should also remember that all things have spirit in one form or another be it a rock, a tree, the land, other species of human/outlanders, the sea, animals, fish, birds etc etc. Most of us feel a spiritual connection when we walk through the forest because the spirits of the land and trees etc are so close to the surface that we connect with them instinctively. The spirit and the tree are one and the same. The trees spirit is not as complex as ours. Modern man after a 1000 years of fake religions has a stunted and almost broken spirit. The only spiritual connections most of us feel are love and when we walk through nature. I've noticed European folk love their dogs and support environmental protection whereas some countries eat their dogs or even hate them as part of their fictional religions. The difference being that the Gods breathed life into our spirit (European Aryan folk) I refer you to the story of Ask & Embla, Heimdal giving his seed to the 3 classes of men and Tiw/Tyr/tiuesto giving his seed to Mannaz the first king. The Gods have gifted our folk with their spirit. We are the children of the Gods.
References:
Julius Evolva
Plato
Poetic Edda
The Sagas of the Icelanders
The Seed of Yggdrasil by Maria K
Savitri Devi
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