Patreon Topic 36: Connecting with Mímir

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From Streakingfate comes this topic:

“I’m not sure if you’ve written about connecting with / your experiences of Mimir much or not, but something around him might be interesting.”

Most of my experiences with Mímir are generally quiet. I have worshiped Him for a little less than the time I have Óðinn, so around 13 years. That being said, He has always been there.

I have visited His Well in hamr, but not to sacrifice anything, just to visit. He is Himself a well of wisdom, and just His Presence is a kind of low rumble of power. He exudes this patience, not serenity, but a kind of calm collectedness, of knowing. His spiritual voice to me registers very low, not low in terms of volume, but register.

There have been times where I have made specific offerings to Him. Some time back when I skinned a deer and went to macerate her head, I was asked by Mímir and Óðinn for her eyes. I had to take them out whole in offering to Them. Otherwise, my offerings tend to be the same as for my other Gods: water, coffee, whiskey, beer, mead, and other drinks besides, sacred herbs, and occasionally food.

I have had times where I ‘loaned’ Him my eyes for a set period of time, but these were few and far between. One time was in response to where I felt like He wanted my eye for wisdom. This deal of Him ‘borrowing’ my eyes was a kind of compromise to where He was with me for a period of around 8 hours. The sensation was something like having someone stand beside you, but take that sensation and put it behind your eyes. It was odd, but not uncomfortable.

Much of my worship with Him follows along the lines of our other hearth Gods. We pray to Him regularly during our meal prayers and night prayers. We make a lot of the same offerings to Him as our other hearth Gods. When Mímisbrunnr Kindred meets, He is generally the first among the Gods we honor and offer to. If we had a motto, it is from Him: No wisdom is gained without sacrifice. His is a consistent reminder that not only is there a price for wisdom, it must be paid.

Question 7: Symbols, Sacrifice, and Significance

From Dreaming in Smoke and Fire:

What do you think is the symbolism/significance of Odin giving an eye to the Well of Mimir as opposed to some other sacrifice?
– Do you think this may or may not have affected his decisions and the potential outcome of Ragnarok?
– Does this affect your enjoyment of pina coladas?

I can see Dreaming is on a pina coladas kick, but the quick answer is no, it does not affect my enjoyment of them.  I mean, it might if I had enough, but I’m sure enough pina coladas and anyone’s enjoyment would be affected by the potential outcome of Ragnarok.  Don’t mix thinking about Ragnarok with alcohol.  Bad things ensue, I am sure.

The significance of Odin giving His eye to the Well, to Mimir, is that He is willing to do anything to ensure He has the power, coming from wisdom, to achieve His ends.  Truth be told, all of the sacrifices Odin makes, from His offering His eye to Mimir, to His Hanging on Yggdrasil, to His hanging between two fires as described in the Grimnismal, to sacrificing the solid ground His gender may have stood on to learn seidr (and I think spá) with Freya, His sacrifices are to give Him the power and ability to do what He knows must be done.  No less than Loki’s many gifts, are Odin’s many gifts needed to see all the Gods, Aesir, Vanir, and Jotun, through the hard times.  No less than Thor’s might, Freyr’s prowess or Skadi’s skill are Odin’s gifts needed to see through the hard times.  He goes through pain and torture to attain His goals, and in my experience, and the experience of others who hail Him and follow Him close, He asks much the same of us.

That He gives half of His vision to lay in the Waters of Wisdom is indeed rife with significance and symbolism.  One eye to see in the Worlds as it presents itself, another to see in Wisdom.  He sees all without from His throne, Hlidskjalf and hears all from His Ravens, Hunin and Munin.  His drinking from Mimir’s Well, His sacrifice to Mimir is indicative of the lengths He is willing to go to achieve Wisdom, and alongside it, the Power to do what is best and, more important, necessary for the survival of Gods, and the Beings of the Nine Worlds.

Keep in mind He came to Jotunheim at that time leaving everything, from Sleipnir to His spear, His helmet and armor, aside.  He then riddles with Vafþrúðnir, betting His head against the wisest of Jotun to find Mimir’s requested sacrifice in the first place.  As Vafþrúðnir tells Odin, no one has yet to make that sacrifice.  He has to lay one of His two eyes in the Well of the wisest of all Beings.  So He drank from Mimir’s well and saw the future.  More importantly, He saw why things happened as they did.  Whether one sees Odin as actually still seeing through His given eye or it merely being there as a symbol of His sacrifice in the Well, He gave what no other would for Wisdom.  It is a piercing Wisdom that see through veils and bullshit, that cuts away the dross and lays bare the truth as it is.

The symbolism of Him sacrificing His eye, His full vision, is very different from, say, Tyr’s sacrifice of His right hand.  If the eyes are indeed windows to the soul, and given we see the liche (body) as part of the soul, then Odin’s sacrifice of His eye has powerful symbolism.  He has given a window to His soul, a way for Him to see the Worlds around Him for insight and Wisdom.  Tyr sacrificed His oathing hand to bind Fenrir; the symbolism is far different, but no less poignant.  Where Tyr bound a danger to all the Worlds (and particularly Odin), Odin unleashed Wisdom, seeking ways to avert annihilation.  If nothing else, Tyr’s sacrifice gives Odin the time to gain that Wisdom, to gather the forces, to do what is necessary to avoid the demise of everything.  Neither one is a failure; both are needed for the Worlds to be remade at Ragnarok, and both are said to die during the event.  They both give Their all to help the threads of Wyrd continue.  Both do as Their Wyrd requires, and the Worlds live on.

So for me Odin’s sacrifice of His eye indicates the lengths He is willing to go, the dedication to a course of action, the strength He employs that action with, and the reward such action brings.  There is Gebo, despite the pain He goes through to gain that Wisdom, and the pain the Wisdom itself brings.  That reward for His pain allows Him to do the necessary Work at hand, giving Him the ability to see that everything that must be done through to the end is, in its own time, done.

At the Well

Words bubble up from the Well

A gurgle at first

Whispering words of promise

Like quills on a porcupine’s back

Curving into spines

Wisdom well-guarded

Gift for gift not asked

Demanded

Another sacrifice for wisdom

Power

Eagerly ripping the orb’d flesh

The splash, water gulping it down

The pallid flesh moves

Its mortified flesh

Filling the whole

Surer than a surgeon

Like a cup running over

With the Water of Wisdom