That Diligent Ape

“As long as you have to force yourself to move, dance, breathe, love etc, you are at war with yourself.”

I have been all night upon the open heath.

Somehow in the distant past, a group of apes developed into human beings. It happened, as far as we know, in a series of rather sudden mutations. To each stage of this development, the previous stage appeared both wise and primitive - wise because the 'older type' had plenty of time to find a good way of life, and primitive, as each new mutation had an altered consciousness which somehow transcended the abilities of its ancestors. To each new type, the older types were 'giants

In Scandinavia of the Viking period the original forms of pantheism were somewhat distorted. Such ideas as 'only those who die fighting go to Valhall' were fairly unknown on the continent, they are later developments, meant to motivate warriors into suicidal fighting rages. Similarly the mainland 'Wode' is an important deity, but not a patriarchal 'chief of the gods' as the Scandinavian Odin. That deity changed from a storm god (Wode) to a god of ecstasy and rage (Wodan) to a god of rulers and warriors (Odin), and will change again, attuning to a new aeon, to assume a mask that fits our time.