Hello, fellow Steemians!
Today I have a special post for you. I am sure many of you have already seen and read the wonderful post by @blog-fictions titled “Medusa - The Misunderstood and Raped Gorgon”. If you haven’t please go and check it out it is an interesting read and I promise you will enjoy it.
When I saw @blog-fictions’s post I immediately thought of my favorite goddess, the goddess Hel or Hela. Through the ages, this amazing goddess has survived the purge of the old gods by the church, yet (as with many ancient goddesses) she has been greatly misunderstood.
Who Exactly is Hel?
Hel, or Hela, comes from the Norse pantheon of gods and goddesses. She is the goddess of the dead, She controls a realm in the underworld where those who have not died in battle reside. Hel has been the target of Christian influencers since the forced conversion of Europe and has been used as a tool to scare people into a righteous life. Hel has been depicted as an evil, collector of souls and as with many women figures of the Christian dogma the root of sin and the enemy of righteousness. However, this is simply not the case.
Being the daughter of Loke, Hel was given the special duty of guardian of the dead by Odin the Allfather. She was so grateful for this appointment that she gifted Odin with two ravens, memory and thought. Odin’s ravens act as messengers that can travel between all planes of existence.
Hel is a goddess of darkness, but that does not make her evil. In nature there is darkness and there is light, there is order and there is chaos; however, good and evil does not exist. It is the same with the gods and goddesses, they just are. Hel has even been depicted as an image of half dead / half alive or half black / half white. This image of duality is most likely another product of the Christian church, not existing in nature.
Hel accepts all of the dead into her realm, and it is said she has a special affection for children who have died and also for women who have died in childbirth. She offers them protection and solitude while their souls wait to be reborn into their ancestral line. Life, death, and rebirth are the natural way of the universe and the underworld is a pit stop along the way, a piece of the cycle no different than that of the living world. It is even possible that Valhalla exists in the underworld only given the idea of existing in the sky like heaven, again, by Christian authors.
Hel is also associated with her magic abilities. She controls the veil between life and death and is often called upon for protection and knowledge. It is said she will only speak to one person at a time as to what she says is too important to waste on several ears. She is the goddess of death, I mean who could possess more knowledge than her?
A Modern Adaption of the Church
Most of our modern understanding of the old gods is based on the historical record depicted by the church. The first archeologists and historians were all male, additionally, they were all men of the church. Luckily, with the help of some surviving oral traditions and modern archeology, we have been able to shed some light on this goddess of darkness and who she really is.
A Little More About the Underworld
For our pre-Christian ancestors, the underworld was never an inferno for damned souls to rot in torment for all eternity, but a place of darkness and stillness. Think of it like a cave where our first ancestors dwelled. The outside world was scary and dangerous and caves were a sanctuary for our ancestors to be protected.
This can give us an understanding of the concept of the underworld. Life is full of emotion, stress, love, color, and chaos. Death is calm, silent, and brings order to our existence. Once we became aware of our mortality, we probably began to imagine what happens after death. And thus we have a concept of the underworld, a place of stillness and rest.
To our ancestors, the underworld existed in the same way that our world does. There were many different layers and inhabitants, not only for the dead to reside. The realm of the dead may just be a small part of the underworld, which is ruled by Hel.
To me, Hel is one of the most important goddesses of the European people. She looks after the souls of the dead, welcomes all into her realm, and possesses all of the knowledge of the nine worlds. She is not an evil deity and is certainly not trying to manipulate and collect souls to torture for all time. She is caring and nurturing, however, you certainly do not want to get on her bad side.
Thanks, everyone for reading and please let me know what you think!
Thanks for post
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Thanks for reading it! I had a lot of fun making it.
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Well that’s a great piece of info as the majority of us met Hel through Holywood. Somehow the ancient layers of the afterworld were not so scary as they are pictured today by Christianity (no matter which church). All of them regarded death as a natural cycle and though losing someone dear was never a simple thing, regarding the end of this cycle as a natural and orderly thing surely made their life easier.
As I think that religions usually serve one main goal, that of controlling masses, it surely was easier to regard death this way in order to justify the sacrificies being requested in times of war and usually , it made the action of “going to war” easier to accept from the perspective of the soldier.
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I have to agree. Our perceptions of gods and afterlife change with the conditions we perceive in life. People of the ice age envisioned a hell of ice and cold. And the same goes for what you said, sometimes giving the ultimate sacrifice will grant you rewards in the next life. In times of famine, people would pray for fertility and so on. Our gods are created in our image. Granted the Hollywood versions are much more interesting :)
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Haha..under Thor Ragnarok Hel has a completely different version...thank you for showing the true picture and letting us know about her real self..she's not bad after all it's just people who have created such an image on our minds..
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Yes, ma'am. The only thing is now I am going to have to watch the movie! I'm too intrigued. As long as she is badass, I guess that's okay! :) haha
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Yes..the movie she's too powerful..although you might want to watch the whole series of Thor from the beginning though haha...as Thor Ragnarok comes at a later part of the series...
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I will do that! :)
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Cool :)
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howdy sir balticbadger! fine article sir and very educational and the images are really impressive as well! great job.
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Thank you very much sir! Glad you enjoyed it :)
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Thank you so much for this. Pre-Christian deities are not so black and white as they would like to make us think, and it's great that such traditions have survived over time and we have some idea of how they should have been instead of how they are portrayed now.
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I think that's why it's important to share their stories so so they continue on in the future! Thanks for reading my post :)
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Thank you for your kind words! Those cards look amazing. I have never felt with tarrot but I do a lot with rune magic and rune staves. It has helped tremendously even aided in my immigration back to my ancestral home. I plan to write more on the gods and goddesses. Specifically the earth deities, everyone always focuses on the sky gods and unfortunately there is not much to go on anymore. It seems like the church was extra scared of earthy deities since they consisted mostly of female spirits and were likely very powerful! Thanks again i really enjoyed your comment :D
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Although I linked to an online shop that sells tarot, the Goddess Knowledge Cards are not a divination deck, at least not explicitly. There is an artwork on the front and information on the back, more like trading cards that we might have collected as children. The artworks on the front are exquisite! So glad you enjoyed my previous comment! 😊
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Ahh, I see! That is really cool! Interested to see if they are available on amazon.de that would be cool!
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They are but dang 100 euros!
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That is an insane price!
I've had my deck about 15 years, but I think I only paid the equivalency of 17 euros at that time. Amazon in the US has them now for around 7-8 euros. Amazon Germany must be charging an import tariff or such.
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Nice post. I recently read up on Norse Mythology and was particularly intrigued by Odin's Wild Hunt. I'd be reading a write up on this for sure if you were looking for another subject for content! Monty
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Thanks, Monty! I was thinking about doing a few more. There are so many great stories that need to be retold. Thanks for stopping by. Loved your post today!
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Hey I'm wondering if you can pass me a link or just the info on how to put a source link on the pictures and also make those bold headings? Maybe you're using a program for it. I'm not so cluey on this new format (non-html).
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All i do is use the mark down style guide. A little HTML but not too hard. For headings, you can just use a hashtag.
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This is a good write up that the cyberworld needs. Short and sweet, thanks.
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Thank you! That is much appreciated.
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Is she the god of Hades, in other words? I mean, is she like the god of Purgatory, a place between Hell and Heaven? Did you say that Hel has power over life and death like Hades, or Death, the king of the underworld, right?
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Hel is her domain. There is no heaven in pre-Christian paganism. Only realms for the dead, those who die at sea, and those who die in battle. I guess purgatory is kind of a way to describe hel. Some believe you can never leave, but others believe that the soul is reincarnated in the family line. I don't think hel has power over life and death maybe she can influence it but your death is known as soon as you are born so I'm not sure how she could.
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Christianity was around pre-Christian in the form of Judaism as Christianity is a branch of the Jewish faith, of the people of Israel, of the Hebrew people.
Purgatory
Yeah, I wanted to compare Hel with purgatory. Yeah, incarnation is interesting. Also, fate, predestination, the future. Is it written in stone? Do we have freewill? Can she see our future? Great questions.
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Very true, they are indeed great questions. All we have to is live an honorable life the best we can, love the best we can, and cherish the world around us until we can't. Thanks for your valuable input. Much appreciated!
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Yeah, honor is an aspect of eternal love.
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Interesting post. All I really knew about Norse mythology was from playing Age of Mythology, and interacting with this particular race in the game. A lot to learn here. I'm yet to see the film in which Hel is depicted, so will make sure to be aware that it may not be a completely accurate portrayal when I do.
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I'm going to ha e to check out the game, not sure if I know it! That is for stopping by and commenting!
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It's the third instalment of Microsoft's Age of Empire's series. Really good, and you can probably find it really cheap now. It's quite old, but still a bit of fun!
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Holy cow, age of Empires II was one of my favorite games back in the day. Awesome they have the 3rd one.
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Gud post
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Thanks for stopping by, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
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any friend of @blog-fictions is a friend of mine :)
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Thank you! She is great!
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