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. . Garman Lord on Viewing The Gods
Whenever I have seen gods, they have
invariably shown themselves to me in
human form. I have never supposed that that was their real form, of course, and have always assumed, for no particularly good reason, that it was just their way of making themselves approachable to me. I have also assumed that some portion of that form was filled in by my own subjective expectations or imagination, though I can't be sure, since quite often they don't necessarily look quite like I might have expected. They also quite often don't show up in any of the cliche ways I might have expected; the closest to expectation I have ever seen to date was Thunor, who was indeed red-bearded and very burly and energetic... though his hammer was what seemed to be of a rather unusual design from what I might have expected, as well as the ways he used it. I have seen Woden many times, but not always looking the same way, and in fact I don't remember ever seeing him as one-eyed. I have seen Tiw once, but don't particularly remember that he was one-handed. I have seen Ing Frea a couple of times, but don't remember him as ithyphallic. His manner and appearance struck me more like a smooth mellow good-natured rich-uncle type.
As to goddesses, I have never got
more than a glimpse of but one; Lady Freo,
and here there seemed some particularly interesting departures from cliche images. For one thing, while the gods have always appeared in garb that I would call "elder-traditional," I have seen Lady Freo variously dressed, including even in modern-looking garb, which may reflect some usual female penchant for dress-up, I suppose. It is this experience that especially inclines me to think that while the appearance of the gods may reflect our subjective expectations to some degree, they themselves must have some input into it too. Lady Freo seems more inclined, certainly, to decide for herself how she wants to put herself together, rather than to rely on me for her fashion designer.
She in particular has always been
full of surprises. Whereas before I ever
met her I might have pruriently expected perhaps some beautifully buff platinum blonde pneumatic Anna-Nicole-Smith-type centerfold-bimbo, she was nothing of the kind. The first good look I ever got at her, her hair was honey-blonde and coifed, her eyes were green, she was wearing a quite modern-appearing simple brief cocktail-type satiny-green dress, with elegantly understated gold accessories, she was lithe and limber and slim, like a dancer, with a very good figure but not at all a full figure, no big bazooms or anything like that, middling tall, perhaps five-feet-five or -six, late teens/early twenties, and of course strikingly pretty. Not pretty in any conventional paper-doll way, however. Sparkling eyes, a quick killer smile, face and nose a bit long, but shapely, long jaw with an almost feral energy and animation to it. What seems so magnetically beautiful about her face is not so much anything about its shape as a certain peculiar immediacy about it; the animation and expression, the mind and soul behind the eyes, the way she involves you and your attentions.
At this point, this level of detail
may sound more than a bit preposterous,
and yet even there I have always felt that perhaps it was telling me something. I have never gotten anywhere near as clear an idea of the gods, as to appearance, as of her, and in Lady Freo's case, since I feel I could almost paint her portrait from memory, I can only wonder how much of it might be an aspect of her own nature, and intentional. One has the sense that she is someone who means to be seen, to be approachable, purposely to fascinate and be admired wherever she goes, to be "that girl" wherever and whenever she walks in the door.
When she walked in my door, it was
uninvited, which of course does not
necessarily mean unwelcome. She knew I was seeking wisdom and purposely came to offer it to me, and was very generous about giving it. And the experience was profound, in more ways than one. Not only was the wisdom mind-boggling in itself, but the overwhelming sensation of hearing such deep vast lore, so many thousands of years old, from the pretty mouth of a girl who looks like a college sophomore, is itself an experience of a kind not soon forgot. On my own, I had never thought to approach Lady Freo, or known how to do it, but I daresay in hindsight that that was probably a mistake. Today my impression is that most any sound heathen can and should approach Lady Freo, surely the most cunning, most "connective" and humane of goddesses. Only on your best manners, however; I do have the impression that there are ideas about Lady Freo common around Asatru that would not be a good basis for approaching her, and also that she could indeed be a very dangerous goddess if one were to get on the wrong side of her. |