Wednesday 30 April 2014

Havamal Snippets 140: Another stanza on Odin and the Mead of Poetry

I can't make head nor tale of this stanza, so I'll offer the interpretation of another man who is both a scientist and a pagan whose website can be found HERE.  (I've added comments in square parenthesis on the Nordic names for anyone who is unfamiliar with them, and hyperlinks as well):

Comment on the meaning
This stanza seems, as noticed the experts, is a little out of context. In my “prose explanation,” you could see that I explain this shift by a kind of side-remark on Ódhinn [Ódhinn is another way of spelling Odin - ed] feeling the need of bringing some details on the circumstances of his sprinkling at birth. This assumption supposes that Óðrœrir [a container for the Mead of Poetry - ed] existed before Ódhinn’s birth, i.e. there has been a primitive Óðrœrir or, in order to reconcile all versions of our mythology, that Audhumla’s [a cosmic cow which is representative of sustenance amongst other things - ed] milk is called here Óðrœrir because its magic properties.  
Ódhinn’s uncle was in charge of his education and gave himknowledge’, i.e. magic. This confirms the well-known importance of mothersbrothers in ancient Germanic civilization. These nine songs originate from giantsknowledge, often qualified as “very knowledgeable” in the Eddas. We will see in stanza 143 that the giant who brought the knowledge of the runes to his people is named Ásviðr (one of the Æsir’s Tree) what obviously refers to Yggdrasill [aka world tree, a symbol common in many mythologies and representative of the totality of existence - ed], and which thus seems a good candidate to name Ódhinn’s uncle.  
Stanza 143 is also often said to be disconnected from the others stanzas, which we just shown being false, in our ‘Mystical meaning’ above. This shows us that the major coherence of Rúnatal is observable only through a magical understanding of the poem.  
Again in my ‘Prose explanation', I consider this stanza as an announcement of the eighteen songs that Ódhinn will deliver in the last stanzas of the poem: it brings coherence between Rúnatal and Ljódatal.
 
Commentary on the vocabulary
Bölþorn means Böl-þorn = Bad-thorn. 
The verb ausa, here ausinn in the past participle, meansto sprinkle’. This verb can be used to indicate prosaic actions, liketo cover (dust)’, but it has also a ceremonial tinge. The children were “sprinkled with waterthen named by their parents in pagan times. It was a family-only ceremony. We do not know any further detail about it, but it probably was the ceremony by which the child was accepted in the family, and became exposed to the duties and rights of free person. In Roman antiquity, the ceremony of purification by water was done on adults by a magistrate, and was called a lustration. In the Christian culture, that looks much like baptism, it is thus necessary to distinguish thisGermanic Heathen sprinklingfrom Roman lustration and of Christian baptism. This why I propose you to simply call it a sprinkling since the sagas say: “the child was sprinkled with water.” 
The vessel containing the hydromel of poetry is called Óðrœrir (here spelled Óðrerir). It does Óðroeri in the accusative and the dative, here undoubtedly a dative. This name is made of óðr-hrœrir =intelligence-stirrer’. [Recall that óðr as a substantive meansintelligence, spirit’. As an adjective, it meansfurious– in our context, ‘furiousenclever do not oppose as it does now, because we took the habit to confuse anger and furor.] 
Source: http://www.nordic-life.org/nmh/NewHavamalEng138-145.htm



140
Fimbulljóð níu
nam ek af inum frægja syni
Bölþórs Bestlu föður
ok ek drykk of gat
ins dýra mjaðar
ausinn Óðreri

[2] I took [1] nine mighty spells
from the famous son
of Bolthorr, the father of Bestla,
and I got a drink
of the precious mead,
poured from Othrerir.


[End.]

Tuesday 29 April 2014

Alternative Lyrics to Well Known Songs 24 - Fighter in bare-skin

This weeks alternative lyrics series deals with the topic of berskerkers [1], or more accurately with the state of mind that berserkers experience following their fury/frenzy.  The principle characteristic of a berserker is well known, it's the reason that the word 'berserk' or the phrase 'going berserk' is in the English language.  It's a state of mind which is associated with intense rage-like emotions which cause the individual to 'see red' and attack any obstacle that blocks their path.  Unfortunately the emotions that the berserker experiences following their 'rage' are less well known.  If people knew more about these emotions then perhaps they would see berserkers in a different light.  As individuals with attributes which can be advantageous or disadvantageous depending on the situation, rather than as 'mentally unstable' or 'thugs' or other derogatory terms.  The emotional weakness that berserkers experience following is described in the wikipedia entry given below.  (emphasis added):
This fury, which was called berserkergang, occurred not only in the heat of battle, but also during laborious work. Men who were thus seized performed things which otherwise seemed impossible for human power. This condition is said to have begun with shivering, chattering of the teeth, and chill in the body, and then the face swelled and changed its colour. With this was connected a great hot-headedness, which at last gave over into a great rage, under which they howled as wild animals, bit the edge of their shields, and cut down everything they met without discriminating between friend or foe. When this condition ceased, a great dulling of the mind and feebleness followed, which could last for one or several days.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berserker#Theories

It's this weakness, this emotional fragility that the song lyrics given below are about.  For every day their must be a night, for every up their must be a down and so on, so for the berserker they must experience the ontological opposite of what they experienced during their rage: coldness, loneliness, despair, acute awareness of self and other unpleasant emotions.

Odin is also mentioned in the song, and Odin's love for the berserker.  This may seem odd, saying that Odin loves the berserker knowing what we do that berserkers experience explicit loneliness.  One may think "What type of God would do this?" or "What kind of person would value a God that treats them this way, that makes them feel this kind of feebleness?".  Which is a perfectly reasonable question.  The only response that I can give is that most Gods in the Indo-European pantheon (which includes the Norse Gods) are dualistic, i.e. they have traits which lay on both sides of the proverbial see-saw, road, tree, or whatever.  In the case of Odin, his rage in the berserker period is balanced by the weakness following the berserker period.  This means that if you or anyone wants to experience something that a God has to offer (like the berserker rage), then you must experience the other half of the God (like the berserker weakness).  This is the only way that balance can be maintained.  It also explains why Odin loves berserkers even though he causes them to experience weakness, because at the end of the day, he is weakness as well as rage, so he loves them as much as himself.




Play the song in the music video above and sing along with the alternative lyrics given below.

# Fighter in bare-skin # 
Fighter in bare-skin
is-now are reaching the end.
His frenzy has ended
world turned on it's head
Anguish approaching
and also regret.
The might of these feelings
he cannot express.
Odin loves him.
Odin loves him.
Oh, Odin loves him.

Laying in darkness
as cold as the void.
His rage is all burned now,
it has left him behind.
No sort of comfort
anywhere can be found.
The rage that bought him here
has left him for dead.
 
Odin loves him.
Yes Odin loves him.
Oh, Odin loves him.
Odin loves him.
 
Fighter in bare-skin
has now pass-ed the end.
Regaining composure
regaining his mind.
Regaining some semblance
of his former self.
Why does he do this?
Experience this life?
 
'cause Odin loves him
Yes Odin loves him.
Oh, Odin loves him.
Oh, Odin loves him.

'cause Odin loves him
Yes Odin loves him.
Oh, Odin loves him.
Oh, Odin loves him.




Footnote
[1] Hence the name of the song 'fighters in bare-skin'.  You could change it to 'fighters in bear-skin' if you like.  Both names 'bare skin' and 'bear skin' seem valid explanations of the etymology of the name 'berserker' for different reasons: 'bare-skin' because the berserker is a manifestation of an extremely masculine trait, the trait of scrutinising or subjecting other things to scrutiny (the berserker is extremely assertive and so attacks and does nothing but attack).  Hence the berserker will be extremely sensitive to any thing that scrutinises him, including clothing because if something scrutinises him then it means that he is not being masculine/assertive enough.  Masculine is active and imposes it's will on others, feminine is passive and is imposed on by others.  Schopenhaur pointed this out when he said that male and female 'Will' is most clearly expressed in the reproductive organs.  'Bear-skin' is also legitimate because objects like bear skins are often used by shamans and other to induce a particular state of mind.  In the case of the berserker the individual uses a 'bear skin' to induce a bear state of mind.


[End.]

Friday 25 April 2014

Men of Yore: Rudolf Steiner

This is another in a series of posts about men from history who have either achieved great things in one form or another by pushing boundaries: either in themselves or in society or science or exploration of some form. Boundary pushing and growth is what men do, it's their nature: to grow and push outwards. We, as men, are the frontiers men, the first to discover/uncover new territory, in a metaphysical sense (i.e. including both material and the immaterial) that is later colonised and 'civilised' by the rest of humanity. 

Rudolf Steiner, 1905 (aged 44)

Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner
(25/27 February 1861[3] – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian philosopher, social reformer, architect, and esotericist.[4][5] Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as a literary critic and published philosophical works. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he founded a spiritual movement, anthroposophy, with roots in German idealist philosophy and theosophy; other influences include Goethean science and Rosicrucianism.
In the first, more philosophically oriented phase of this movement, Steiner attempted to find a synthesis between science and spirituality;[6] his philosophical work of these years, which he termed spiritual science, sought to provide a connection between the cognitive path of Western philosophy and the inner and spiritual needs of the human being.[7]:291 He emphasized clarity of thinking in his spiritual work, differentiating his approach from what he considered to be vaguer approaches to mysticism. In a second phase, beginning around 1907, he began working collaboratively in a variety of artistic media, including drama, the movement arts (developing a new artistic form, eurythmy) and architecture, culminating in the building of the Goetheanum, a cultural centre to house all the arts. In the third phase of his work, beginning after World War I, Steiner worked to establish various practical endeavors, including Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, and anthroposophical medicine.[8]
Steiner advocated a form of ethical individualism, to which he later brought a more explicitly spiritual component. He based his epistemology on Johann Wolfgang Goethe's world view, in which “Thinking … is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear. Just as the eye perceives colours and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas."[9] A consistent thread that runs from his earliest philosophical phase through his later spiritual orientation is the goal of demonstrating that there are no essential limits to human knowledge.[10]
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_steiner


Rudolf Steiner's work extended into many academic disciplines including agriculture, medicine, teaching, literature and others.  He was what you could call a polymath, or someone who had an holistic worldview.  This is quite different to the common perception of academics as people who 'learn more and more about less and less' (to paraphrase the author of THIS website).  This holistic approach may have arisen because of his interest in the spiritual/metaphysical.  Once you find the foundation-stone that the world is built on it becomes easy, or considerably easier, to comprehend the rest of the world and it's contents.  This happens because you have a context, a lense, through which you can view and understand the world, and understand how the parts of the world relate to each other (be they rocks, plants, animals, ideas or whatever).  Theologians (who specialise in understand the foundation-stone) have, alas, over-focused on the foundation-stone.  They have ended up basically ignoring the rest of the world, treating it as 'other stuff', which has unfortunately led to a kind of detached view of the world.  Rudolf Steiner would be able to relate a muck spreader to the divine, a theologian would not. 

Breadth of activity
 
After the First World War, Steiner became active in a wide variety of cultural contexts. He founded a number of schools, the first of which was known as the Waldorf school,[56] which later evolved into a worldwide school network. He also founded a system of organic agriculture, now known as biodynamic agriculture, which was one of the very first forms of, and has contributed significantly to the development of, modern organic farming.[57] His work in medicine led to the development of a broad range of complementary medications and supportive artistic and biographic therapies.[58] Homes for children and adults with developmental disabilities based on his work (including those of the Camphill movement) are widespread.[59] His paintings and drawings influenced Joseph Beuys and other modern artists. His two Goetheanum buildings are generally accepted to be masterpieces of modern architecture,[60][61] and other anthroposophical architects have contributed thousands of buildings to the modern scene. One of the first institutions to practice ethical banking was an anthroposophical bank working out of Steiner's ideas; other anthroposophical social finance institutions have since been founded. 
Steiner's literary estate is correspondingly broad. Steiner's writings, published in about forty volumes, include books, essays, four plays ('mystery dramas'), mantric verse, and an autobiography. His collected lectures, making up another approximately 300 volumes, discuss an extremely wide range of themes. Steiner's drawings, chiefly illustrations done on blackboards during his lectures, are collected in a separate series of 28 volumes. Many publications have covered his architectural legacy and sculptural work.


[End.]

Tuesday 22 April 2014

Alternative Lyrics to Well Known Songs 23 - Mad Baron

This weeks alternative lyrics song is based on the character Baron Ungern-Sternberg, a Baltic-German aristocrat who lived four generations ago during the Bolshevik revolution. 

He was a man of action rather than thought, which is also displayed in his metaphysical/religious outlook which tended towards the mystical (right hemisphere of the brain) rather than the analytical (left hemisphere of the brain) end of the spectrum.

Metaphysical/Religious views are somewhat easier to understand if you place them on a spectrum that's roughly comparable with the stereotypical division of the brain into two hemispheres each with it's own character.  The spectrum would have 'mysticism and personal experience' at one end, and 'logic and scientific explanations' at the other.  This spectrum is visible in many of the religious systems of the world, for instance within Christianity, Orthodox tends towards personal experience (activities from the right hemisphere of the brain) and so is rich in multiplicity, colour, music, sensory stimulation etc.  Protestantism on the other hand tends towards reason (activities from the left hemisphere of the brain) and so is rich in dualities, monochrome, writing, mental stimulation etc.

Ungern-Sternberg, by his own admission, was a man of action rather than thinking, which possibly explains why he preferred mysticism over conventional religion.  Action leads to a kind of mental blindness (absent-mindedness) which is known as 'flow' in psychological jargon.  Flow is related to religious experiences, like mysticism.





# Mad Baron #
When I was a young man
At the Naval Cadet Corps
I got into lots o' trouble
For defying orders
The school they expelled me
Because I was unsound
From that moment forth
My name was Mad Baron.
 
Mad Ba-ron
Mad Ba-ron
M-M-M-M-Mad
M-M-M-M-Mad
M-M-M-M-Mad
Mad Ba-ron
 
In the First World War
My reptuation grew
For recklessness
And ruthlessness too
I wanna war and war
go and war some more
thinking is for cowards
Doing is for the Mad Baron
Mad Ba-ron
M-M-M-M-Mad
M-M-M-M-Mad
M-M-M-M-Mad
Mad Ba-ron
 
After the Tsar was deposed
I went on the war path
eager to reinstate
Tsar and Bogd Khan.
Monarchy is what Europe needs
Democracy is corrupt.
It makes the soul weak,
Hear me the Mad Baron
M-M-M-M-Mad
M-M-M-M-Mad
M-M-M-M-Mad
Mad Ba-ron
 
When the Bolshies captured me
They put me in a kangaroo court
and made me confess
to crimes I did not commit.
I wanna tell you dear listener
Although I will be shot
I will incarnate once more
'cause I am the Mad Baron
the Mad Baron
M-M-M-M-Mad
M-M-M-M-Mad
M-M-M-M-Mad
Mad Ba-ron

Wednesday 16 April 2014

Havamal Snippets 138: Hanging on World Tree

This verse moves towards mystical wisdom and away from practical wisdom that has characterised the Havamal so far.
 
I'm no expert on mystical systems, and cannot claim to have had any experiences (either drug induced, prayer induced, or isolation tank induced), so I cannot really provide you with any mystical insight into the verse.  (Mysticism, as I understand it, is a kind of emotionally-experienced wisdom, in constradistinction to thoughtful-emotionless wisdom, the latter is evident in academia).   The only point that I can make with any confidence is that the tree mentioned in the verse is Yggdrasil, which is the World Tree, and represents the totality of existence.  (Think of the tree as something like a universal fractal pattern)..  When Odin hangs himself on it, he is really fusing with it.  Joining with the tree and thus attataining a kind of 'one-ness' with it.  This 'one-ness' is very much like when Buddha sits under the Boddhi tree (which is also a symbol of the world tree) and gains enlightenment.  These two characters, Odin and Buddha, represent the two different paths that one can use to gain enlightenment (or knowledge, to a lesser or greater degree) of world tree (or the cosmos if you like):
- The active path, which is full of action, tends towards an active body & inert mind, and also suffers hostility from others.  This is Odin's path or tree.
- The passive path, which is full of peace, tends towards an active mind & inert body, and also experiences gentleness from others.  This is Buddhas path or tree.

Both paths, trees, are viable options to gaining understanding of the world and things in it (even if it's understanding of something small and seemingly inconsequential).  It's up to each man to decide which path he chooses to gain that knowledge.


138
Veit ek at ek hekk
vindga meiði á
nætr allar níu
geiri undaðr
ok gefinn Óðni
sjálfr sjálfum mér
á þeim meiði
er manngi veit
hvers hann af rótum renn 
 
I know that I hung
upon a windy tree
for nine whole nights,
wounded with a spear
and given to Othinn,
myself to myself for me;
on that tree
I knew nothing
of what kind of roots it came from.


[End.]

Monday 14 April 2014

Alternative Lyrics to Well Known Songs 22 - Rousing Feelings

This song is about the rousing feelings, the inner-fire, that a father gives to his son by BEING a positive example himself. By having a ‘sparkle’ in his eye and a ‘warm heart’ does he give encouragement to his son.

Their are three characters in this song from the Norse Pantheon (including one who you all know): Thor, Magni (one of Thor’s sons), and Nidhoggr (the most wicked serpent who lives at the bottom of The World Tree, Yggdrasil).

In this song, Magni feelings are roused by looking into the face of his father as Magni battles with the evil serpent (Nidhoggr) who dwells at the bottom-most of The World Tree. Nidhoggr desires to end the world, this world, your world, my world, because he is evil and hates goodness, and it is Magni (which translates as ‘Great’, like in the word ‘magnificent’) who will destroy Nidhoggr with his mighty hammer.

It’s a curious thing: that on this occasion evil trickery is ‘not’ destroyed by a mighty brain, but is instead destroyed by a mighty arm. It’s reminiscent of Alexander the Great solving the puzzle of the Gordian Knot by using a strong arm wielding his sword. If you find yourself confonted by the forked silver-tongue of a woman, politician or whoever, and feel like they are over-whelming you with lies then you might consider using the Magni approach: physical prowess, be it prowess in your arms or in your prowess in your voice.



Play the song in the music video above and sing along with the alternative lyrics given below.

# Rousing Feelings #Well Nidhoggrs forked tongue,
Makes my heart hurt.
And Nidhoggrs forked tongue,
Makes my heart, makes my heart hurt.

The sparkle in Thor's eyes,
Keeps me alive.
And the sparkle in Thor's eyes,
Keeps me alive, keeps a me alive.

Nidhoggr.
And Nidhoggr wants me down.
Nidhoggr and Nidhoggr yeah,
Nidhoggr wants me down.

Nidhoggr's forked tongue,
Makes my heart hurt.
And Nidhoggr's forked tongue,
Makes my heart, makes my heart hurt.

Yeah-hey...
(Yeah-yay-yeah-heaa)
(Yeah-yay-yeah-heaa)

The fire in Thor's heart,
Keeps me alive.
And the fire in Thor's heart,
Keeps me alive.
And still in Thor I find,
Rousing feelings.
And still in Thor I find,
Rousing feelings.

And Nidhoggr.
And Nidhoggr wants me down.
And Nidhoggr and Nidhoggr.
Nidhoggr wants me down.
And Nidhoggr and Nidhoggr and Nidhoggr.
Nidhoggr wants me down.
And Nidhoggr and Nidhoggr and Nidhoggr and Nidhoggr.
Nidhoggr wants me down.

Ah...

Hey-yeah...
Hey-yeah...

And Nidhoggr.
And Nidhoggr wants me down.
Nidhoggr and Nidhoggr wants me down.
Yeah Nidhoggr wants me down.
And Nidhoggr.
Yeah Nidhoggr wants me down.
And Nidhoggr and Nidhoggr wants me down.
Nidhoggr wants me down.

(Hey-yeah)
(Hey-yeah)
(Rousing feelings)
(Rousing feelings)


[End of Lyrics]

Sunday 13 April 2014

Havamal Snippets 137: A window into the Viking pharmacy

This verse deals with practical advice that Vikings used for physiological and psychological maladies.  (If you have any stomach complaints then please speak to a respectable qualified professional first.  The Havamal shouldn't be your first port of call for medical advice!)

One of the lines in the verse refers to a belly that is over-filled with acidic beer should be treated with alkali soil.  This makes sense when you remember that in the tropical rain forests, both humans and animals that live on a diet of acidic plants quite often eat mud to counteract the toxic effects of the plants.  People living in industrialised countries suffering from stomach acid also consume soil but soil in a bottle, that has been carefully prepared by a chemist, e.g. milk of magnesia.

 
137
Ráðumk þér Loddfáfnir
en þú ráð nemir
njóta mundu ef þú nemr
þér munu góð ef þú getr
hvars þú öl drekkr
kjós þú þér jarðar megin
því at jörð tekr við ölðri
en eldr við sóttum
eik við abbindi
ax við fjölkynngi
höll við hýrógi
heiptum skal mána kveðja
beiti við bitsóttum
en við bölvi rúnar
fold skal við flóð taka       
 
I advise you, Loddfafnir,
to take advice;
you would benefit, it you took it,
good will come to you, if you accept it:
when you drink ale,
choose for yourself the might of the earth,
because earth fights against beer,
and fire against sickness,
oak against constipation,
an ear of corn against sorcery,
the hall-tree against domestic strife,
-- one must invoke the moon against wrathful deeds --
alum against bite-sickness
and runes against misfortune;
the earth must contend against the sea.


[End.]

Friday 11 April 2014

Men of Yore: Thomas Wakley

This is another in a series of posts about men from history who have either achieved great things in one form or another by pushing boundaries: either in themselves or in society or science or exploration of some form. Boundary pushing and growth is what men do, it's their nature: to grow and push outwards. We, as men, are the frontiers men, the first to discover/uncover new territory, in a metaphysical sense (i.e. including both material and the immaterial) that is later colonised and 'civilised' by the rest of humanity. 


Thomas Wakley

Thomas Wakley, the youngest of Henry Wakley's eleven children, was born in Membury, Devon, on 11th July, 1795. Henry Wakley was a country squire who bred racehorses. After being educated at the local grammar school, he left at the age of sixteen, to be apprenticed as an apothecary in Taunton. Thomas enjoyed the work and decided to become a surgeon. After training at Guy's Hospital, London, Wakley qualified in 1817.
Wakley established himself as a doctor in Argyll Street, one of the most expensive areas in London and in February 1820 married the daughter of a wealthy iron merchant. Six months later the Wakley's house was destroyed by fire. Wakley's claim for insurance was refused as the fire had been started deliberately. Thomas Wakley claimed that the fire had been an attempt to murder him. While waiting for the insurance company to pay him for his losses, Wakley became a doctor in a less prosperous part of London.
In 1821 Wakley met the radical journalist William Cobbett, who published the weekly newspaper Political Register. Wakley told Cobbett about how the need to reform in the medical profession. Cobbett suggested that Wakley should publish a journal that could be used to campaign for these reforms.
Wakley liked the idea and in October 1823 began publishing The Lancet. In the journal Wakley criticised the autocratic powers of the council that ran the Royal College of Surgeons. He also campaigned for a united profession of apothecaries, physicians and surgeons and a new system of medical qualifications to help improve standards in the medical profession.
In 1828 Thomas Wakley became involved in the campaign for parliamentary reform. This brought Wakley into contact with other political reformers in London and in 1832 he was asked to become the Radical candidate for Finsbury. With 330.000 potential voters, this new constituency was one of the largest in Britain. With the support of his two closest political friends, Joseph Hume and William Cobbett, Wakley campaigned for an extension of the vote, the removal of property qualifications for parliamentary candidates, the repeal of the Corn Laws, the abolition of slavery and the suspension of the Newspaper Stamp Act. Wakley was defeated in 1832 but he won when he tried again in January 1835.
Thomas Wakley spent the next seventeen years in the House of Commons. Thomas Wakley's maiden speech was an attack on the decision to convict the Tolpuddle Martyrs. Wakley was the main spokesman for the campaign to have the men reprieved and when their freedom was celebrated in 1838 by a vast procession through London, Wakley was the guest of honour, in recognition of the fact that he had done more than any other person in Britain to secure their pardon.
Thomas Wakley was also one of the main opponents of the stamp duty on newspapers. As part of the campaign, Wakley published six issues in 1836 of an unstamped newspaper called A Voice from the Commons. Wakley was also a passionate opponent of the 1834 Poor Law and in 1845 helped to expose the Andover Workhouse scandal.
Wakley remained a strong supporter of parliamentary reform and was one of the few members of the House of Commons who defended the activities of the Chartists. However, Wakley did not agree with all the six points of the Charter. Although he wanted an extension of the franchise, he never publicly argued for universal suffrage. Wakley also had doubts about the wisdom of annual parliaments arguing that he would prefer a triennial system of elections.
As a former doctor Wakley took a particular interest in medical reform. He was mainly responsible for the setting up of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1843 and the General Council of Medical Education and Registration in 1858. His long campaign against the adulteration of food and drink resulted in the passing of the Food and Drugs Act in 1860. Wakley died on 16th May, 1862, and like many other Radicals of the period, was buried at Kensall Green Cemetery. 
Source: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRwakely.htm
Quite often we place too much trust in other people, other people who like to call themselves experts.  Experts in medicine, experts in economics, experts in metaphysics, experts in fitness.  Experts who are vocal in pointing out how correct they are and how incorrect the proverbial unwashed masses are.  When these types of experts end up gaining a large amount of prestige and power in society they cause the masses to suffer.  This was the case during the Victorian era when the priesthood of the doctors was prominent in Britain.  Doctors could do what they want and charge what they want and not be held accountable for their actions.  Their theories and beliefs went unchallenged, and this caused much suffering for the masses.  Thomas Wakley was one man who challenged the priesthood of the doctors, who challenged the status quo and demanded that doctors prove that they were the good doctors that they claimed to be.

His drive to improve standards and to tear down the edifice of superiority worked.  He established the Lancet medical journal which was like a Promethean publication of the era, allowing men to publish their own ideas and importantly allow them to be scrutinised, critiqued, by others in order to allow them to be purged of errors.


[End.]

Wednesday 9 April 2014

Havamal Snippets 136: Make sure your door has a good lock

This stanza is a continuation of the previous stanza 135 (which stresses the importance of treating guests well) because it highlights that in addition to treating guests well, hosts should also have a good & securable door (in Viking times this meant a beam across the door, in modern times this means a Yale lock) which the home-owner can use to keep out unwanted or malevolent people.

136
Rammt er þat tré
er ríða skal
öllum at upploki
baug þú gef
eða þat biðja mun
þér læs hvers á liðu
 
Powerful is that beam
that must move from side to side
to open for all;
give a ring,
or it will call down
every evil on your limbs


[End.]
 

.

Friday 4 April 2014

Men of Yore: Guglielmo Marconi

This is another in a series of posts about men from history who have either achieved great things in one form or another by pushing boundaries: either in themselves or in society or science or exploration of some form. Boundary pushing and growth is what men do, it's their nature: to grow and push outwards. We, as men, are the frontiers men, the first to discover/uncover new territory, in a metaphysical sense (i.e. including both material and the immaterial) that is later colonised and 'civilised' by the rest of humanity. 


Guglielmo Marconi

Guglielmo Marconi was born at Bologna, Italy, on 25th April 1874. His father, Giuseppe Marconi, was an Italian landowner, and his mother, Annie Jameson, was from Ireland.

Marconi was educated at the Technical Institute of Livorno and attended the University of Bologna. In 1890 he began experimenting with wireless telegraphy. The apparatus he used was based on the ideas of the German physicist, Heinrich Hertz. Marconi improved Hertz's design by earthing the transmitter and receiver, and found that an insulated aerial enabled him to increase the distance of transmission.

After patenting his wireless telegraphy system in 1896 he established the Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company in London. In 1898 Marconi successfully transmitted signals across the English Channel and in 1901 established communication with St. John's, Newfoundland, from Poldhu in Cornwall.

Other inventions by Marconi included the magnetic detector (1902), horizontal direction telegraphy (1905) and the continuous wave system (1912). He shared the Nobel Prize for Physics with Ferdinand Braun in 1909.

Marconi's system was adopted by the Royal Navy. During the First World War wireless telepathy was widely employed by wartime ground forces. Large naval vessels were fitted with radios, although when they were used, it did make it easier for enemy submarines to discover where they were. Reconnaissance aircraft that had enough power to carry wireless sets (they weighed 50kg) were able to communicate the position of enemy artillery.

After the war Marconi lived aboard his yacht Elettra, which served as a home, laboratory and receiving station. In the remaining years of his life he experimented with shortwaves and microwaves. Guglielmo Marconi, who was a strong supporter of the Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini, died in 1937.

Source: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWmarconi.htm


[End.]

Wednesday 2 April 2014

Havamal Snippets 135: Treat guests well

This stanza stresses the importance of being hospitable to guests.  It's a trait that prevails throughout much of humanity, and due to the fact that it continues to exist amongst human society shows that being hospitable to strangers is on average more beneficial to both hosts and guests than being inhospitable to strangers.  The idea put forward by mainstream historians over the past umpteen generations that Vikings were a totally savage and war-like people is challenged by stanzas like this, and the Havamal in general, which encourages hosts to treat guests decently.  (Though, of course, that's not to say that Vikings were totally peaceful people, because they did have a strong fighting ethic just like other hunter-gatherer tribes.)


135
Ráðumk þér Loddfáfnir
en þú ráð nemir
njóta mundu ef þú nemr
þér munu góð ef þú getr
gest þú ne geyja
né á grind hrekir
get þú váluðum vel            
 
I advise you, Loddfafnir,
to take advice;
you would benefit, it you took it,
good will come to you, if you accept it:
do not revile a guest
nor drive him away from your gates;
treat the wretched well.


[End.]