'Healing Patrons- Warriors of Spirit'. By: Stephanie Lynne Thorburn

- Thor-

'Healing Patrons, Warriors of Spirit'.

Prose & Images:  Stephanie Lynne Thorburn.

My forthcoming work on Thor- Norse Pagan God of Thunder is almost finalised.  

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Homage to Thor...

Thor, God of the people is my lifeblood.  Realisation of this project is in support of my new

web domains Culture Webs & Humanitarian Healing Webs.  My book on Thor is fundamentally a humanistic etude that serves to highlight the cultural legacy of the Viking era on the construction of our everyday reality.  My text is a homage to the British Museum and the Freud Museum. The British Museum's recent exhibition on the Vikings unveiled many nascent archeological truths of the Vikings that simply make sense to me as a Thorburn.  - From Scandinavia to Scotland, the Vikings path of conquest may be traced through genealogy.  My work on the mythological Pagan Gods is humanistic, focussing on the psychodynamic aspects of the human archetypal deities.

As we shall see, Thor is a galvanising Norse God, a premier doyen, representing the mystical Pagan era.  Yet the pages of my text reflects the fact that Thor's Viking spirit is alive and well within the heart of humanity today. 

-Welcome to the world of the Norse Gods. Norse deities are epicurean, primordial and mercurial souls, they are as unpredictable as the raw elements to which they are allied...

#Stephanie Lynne's work is crafted with love: -

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*Art/ Prose: Copyright 2018...

Stephanie Lynne Thorburn's Kindle book on Thor will shortly be released to her

Amazon Author's Page:  See

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Stephanie Lynne Thorburn- Kindle Titles.

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'Warriors of Spirit'.

Thor is a senior Patron in the forthcoming 'Warriors of Spirit' series.  There has certainly been a remarkable 21st century cultural Renaissance of interest in the lives and legends of The Viking people.  This fact is affirmed by British Museum’s 2018- 19 exhibition, with ongoing outreach work.  http://www.britishmuseum.org/vikings

My revisionist text on Thor offers a niche contribution to existing research by focusing not simply on the Vikings per se, but on the Pagan Norse Gods they cherished through an intimate culture of shared oratory.  The Pagan Gods provide an exemplar of the potential dominance of the unconscious mind in the construction of classic mythology.  The warrior Gods are expressive of a seminal patriarchal society in transition. Human fear of mortality, entropy, fate & the heathen forces of Mother nature are placed to the fore of narrative driven Norse legends.  Norse legends thus demonstrate the strident force of the unconscious mind when we allow our primal drives to dominate.

The Norse myths were assimilated by many authors, who each invested the forces of majestic grace into the iconic character portrayals of these archetypal elemental masters.  As stated in my biographical commentary, the Norse Pagan Gods may be considered as doyens of the domains of sex, love, war & magic!   Far from heathen, Pagan oratory is both nuanced & socially reflexive. i.e. Sex and war were considered male domains, whilst love & magic are construed as the preoccupations of the divine feminine drives of the animus...

It might be observed that the Pagan polytheistic Gods both affirm and contradict classic psychodynamic theory.  Thor for example, is an archetypal patriarchal deity, yet he is not a Lothario or satyriasis.  Thor is a universal father archetype, epicurean in his humors, with his propensity for consumption of real ale complemented with an entirely loyal, courageous sense of social altruism.  Thor is a primordial mobiliser of tools- Thor’s hammer Mjolnir enables him to tirelessly defend the domain of Asgard; the sphere of the Gods.  Thor is forever engaged in a perpetual battle to protect human kind from the forces of universal destruction & entropy.  Odin his father is characterised in opposition to Thor. Odin is frequently conveyed in critical sources as a principal deity- wise, yet burdened with prophetic knowledge of his own demise at the advent of 'Ragnarok'.  This foresight generates a sense of tense angst within Odin’s character portrayal.

On closer examination, there is evidence within the Poetic Edda of Odin’s adherence to the primal truth of the Oedipal complex. (1) Thor & Odin share a distinctly masculine camaraderie that becomes at times distastefully hyperbolised.  Despite Thor’s relative youth compared with his father, he is conveyed with a more trustworthy, loyal disposition to Odin.  The truth of the Oedipal complex is partially reversed.  Further, the relationship between Thor and Odin also serves to unearth an unexpected aspect of Pagan mythological theology.  The Pagans were rhetorical social orators no doubt- certainly not heathens; yet was Norse culture Polytheistic?  Jackson Crawford, an academic specialising in Old Norse linguistics has suggested that the Pagans mindset was indeed Polytheistic, yet hierarchical.  Thor’s story remains a magnum opus vignette within Pagan mythology- he is conveyed as a premier proletarian God. 

My work seeks to consistently trace humanity’s evolving relationship with divine spirit and with the soul of Gaia- Thor’s natal mother.  The Elemental Empowerments placed at the base of the text explore the human creative capacity in relation to elemental animism.  Thor is perceived as a conduit to the galvanising force of divine quintessence. Visual meditations are accompanied with a direct evocation of the voices of Thor & Gaia.  Thor’s elemental empowerments open out an expressive language of soul, healing, harmonising the human spirit. 

The Pagan people are a living culture- Norse deities were not obliterated through the progressive transition to Christianity during the Viking’s reign.  Pagan mythology & semiotics are still prevalent today.  Christians and Pagan’s alike adore Thor vernacular ‘tales of the unexpected’ as conveyed through the Norse Bible- the ‘Poetic Edda’. We should truly value the contribution of Pagan mythology to the human understanding of faith, of semiotics and the illusive world of the mortal psyche.

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In text citation:

Thor:  An excellent summary of Norse deity Thor by Daniel McCoy:

Thor- Pagan God of Thunder.

Endnotes:  

1.  Thor & Odin- The Oedipal Complex:

Discussion by Dr Jackson Crawford

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Poetic Edda- Oxford Classics, Sept 2014.

Carolyne Larrington.

Precis:

"After the terrible conflagration of Ragnarok, the earth rises serenely again from the ocean, and life is renewed. The Poetic Edda begins with The Seeress's Prophecy which recounts the creation of the world, and looks forward to its destruction and rebirth. In this great collection of Norse-Icelandic mythological and heroic poetry, the exploits of gods and humans are related..."

The Poetic Edda - Oxford Classics.

Dr Jackson Crawford- Poetic Edda: Stories of the Norse Gods & Heroes.

Annotations on the 13th century Poetic Edda offering insight into the belief, motivations & values of the Norse-Icelandic people, as expressed through mythological verse.

Hackett Publishing- 2015  Jackson Crawford- Poetic Edda, Hackett Classics.

Recommended Reading:

Norse Mythology- Neil Gaiman, Feb 2017.

Bloomsbury Publishing.

Norse Mythology

The Viking Spirit- An Introduction to Norse Mythology & Religion.

Daniel McCoy.  The Viking Spirit

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Audio sources by Dr Jackson Crawford.

I have enjoyed listening to the Poetic Edda via audio reconstruction.  I have also listened to many hours of Dr Crawford's lessons on Old Norse, combined with the legends of the Norse Gods.  Audio sources reconstruct the original oral oratory that created the magic within the Poetic Edda's verses.

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Thor & Odin dispute- the Oedipus complex.

The Freud Museum:  Freud Museum- London UK

The Freud Museum in London was home to Sigmund Freud during his last year.  His daughter Anna lived within his London home until the 1980's.  Freud Museum, UK is dedicated to a programme of extremely diverse educational events related to  psychoanalysis, combined with many related social, political and humanistic issues. 

Freud's home is characterised by the legacy of his library of book!  As we know, Freud has an affinity with mythology, his 'Oedipal complex' presents an ironic commentary on the legend of Oedipus Rex.  Pagan mythology relates directly to many foundational truths of psychoanalysis- it is a latent cultural treasure!

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Namaste, September 2018.

Images:  From Darlands Trust collection by Stephanie Lynne. x

*To support the work of Stephanie Lynne Thorburn, please see her catalogue of organic Kindle titles: -

Stephanie Lynne Thorburn- Author's Page, Kindle.