Of the thousands of myths and symbols generated by the collective consciousness of mankind, the history of Odin - the supreme god of the German-Scandinavian pantheon - stands apart, since only she managed with laconicism and brightness to illustrate the fundamental ethical truth, that thorny path that leads to any significant inner achievement and a qualitative leap.
In an effort to gain the wisdom needed to rule the universe, Odin takes a seemingly ridiculous step - he himself hangs himself by the leg on the World Tree Yggdrasil. One day gives way to another, hunger and thirst torment him, cold winds and birds of prey torment the body of God. Already the ninth day has passed and the ninth night is at the end, the light of life begins to extinguish in Odin, and now in the last death throes, he directs his gaze to the earth and the highest knowledge, the magic of the runes, is revealed to him; the rope breaks, and the god falls down, reborn. But even that is not enough for Odin, for he knows that in Jottunheim, the land of giants, there is a magical spring, one sip of water from which gives the highest wisdom. The giant Mimir, his uncle, guards the source and does not allow anyone to drink from it. Only after long admonitions by Odin Mimir concedes, however demands,so that in return, God cut out his own eye. Without hesitation, Odin takes the knife and fulfills the required. After filling the horn with water and draining it in one gulp, Odin finally joins the wisdom he longed for and with his one eye begins to see better and further than he ever saw with two.
The myth of Odin contains a whole constellation of intuitions in the mechanism of self-change, transformation of our inner and, as a result, the outer world. First of all, he shows that a huge gain requires a huge loss, requires a pre-existing sacrifice. Further, he emphasizes that it is always a sacrifice to oneself, a bloody struggle with oneself and one's own will, that “I” acts as both sides of this harsh contract. This is understood by Odin, who sacrificed himself to himself on the Yggdrasil tree, Mimir also understands this, demanding from Odin the eyes of God that are completely unnecessary for the giant himself. Mimir wants to test Odin's determination to overcome his pain and fear, the determination to pay a high price and go through the chosen path to the end, so that the cosmic law is observed - only through loss is an increment possible.
People for the most part are so inert, so little capable of change precisely because of their own unwillingness to pay the price requested by any transformation - discomfort and pain, the greater the more ambitious the tasks are. Our spirit, just like our body, are equilibrium systems, for the most part striving to maintain the status quo, their current state. Any attempt to raise the bar a little higher is met with resistance and a range of unpleasant sensations from discomfort to agony. It is the adaptation to these stress factors that is gradually able to bring the point of maintained balance to a new level. Muscles, undergoing metabolic and mechanical stress, expand and improve cellular equipment. Busy with information processing, the brain, overcoming nervous fatigue, learns, forms new connections and even new neurons. At the same time, the volume, intensity and duration of stress that are required for spiritual and creative growth are not comparable to the needs of physical and even intellectual development, which is why so few have advanced along this non-trivial path.
It is important to understand that at the point where we stop experiencing discomfort, pain and fatigue, our progress either ends or slows down incredibly. Having mastered something well, we notice how much easier this once difficult process became given to us, it even became easy and pleasant. Thus, a writer who has filled his hand gradually ceases to experience that “despair in front of an empty sheet of paper” about which Chekhov and Marquez wrote, his pen now glides on the paper with joy and confidence. Satisfied with the skill and style he has developed, he ceases to subject himself to the constant pressure of dissatisfaction that truly ambitious authors experience all their lives, never satisfied with the level of skill they have achieved. Unwilling to come to terms with their own limitations and boundaries, they constantly push them higher and higher,are in permanent tension - this is how geniuses do, they write with their own blood. Nietzsche wrote about it this way: “It is expensive to be immortal - for this you die alive more than once.”
Does this mean that a creative life, a productive existence should be a torment? History teaches that this is often the case, because the more we demand of ourselves, the more bills we have to pay, but there is a way to significantly soften the agony of transformation and learn to draw a kind of joy from it. To do this, we need to look at Odin's determination in making the sacrifices required by his tasks. Behind this determination is the wise realization that every healthy, growing life must be accompanied by some degree of discomfort and pain. We are used to considering them negative phenomena and feeling guilty that we are experiencing them, while the opposite situation should instill anxiety in us - if we suddenly feel too comfortable in this life, because this means,that the forces of decay and entropy have already begun their work and are pulling us down.
The meaning of this is not at all that, according to the well-known principle, we must sometimes "leave the comfort zone." Quite the contrary, it is required to move to this zone of discomfort for permanent residence and it is from it that you sometimes leave. Different degrees of stress, dissatisfaction, setbacks and anguish are not problems that need to be eliminated, signals that something is going wrong, but the necessary conditions for the game, stimulating challenges to our abilities and the only path to what we want. With an organic understanding and acceptance of this, the tension we experience itself is reduced and transformed. The archetype of the cheerful genius, the cheerful creator, existing in the history of culture, contains its clue in this. The point is not that it is not hard for such people and they do not know defeats and difficulties - the secret isthat they are accustomed to living in this harsh climate and deriving joy from constantly overcoming resistance to reality, partly even from failures and mistakes.
At the same time, we are not talking about those “everyday” discomfort and stress that torment an ordinary person at work and in relationships with other people, not even about the stress caused by the daily dissatisfied seething of the soul, and certainly not about geographical and climatic difficulties. We are interested in the creative discomfort that arises in the process of purposefully overcoming our own limitations, due to the fact that it has a powerful creative potential. In this "zone of creative discomfort", contrary to the appearance, not only few people live - the majority have only been there by the edge of their legs. And if the destructive forms of stress mentioned above are to be overcome, then creative discomfort, on the contrary, must be accepted and loved. It was the readiness for it that led Odin to gain wisdom, and Nietzsche,endless hours at the school of copying antique masters, taught to flawlessly master the language and thought.
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One of the fundamental types of creative discomfort that needs to be approached is the agony of refusing to satisfy some desires in the name of others, momentary desires for the long-term. The extent of the ability to do this is the most important demarcation between people. At the most primitive level, this phenomenon has been investigated in the framework of the study of delayed gratification / gratification - the ability of people to overcome the desire to satisfy a need immediately in order to receive more reward in the future. In the famous Stanford Marshmallow Experiment, which was not referenced only by the lazy one, children were offered either one goodies immediately or twice as many after 15 minutes. The participants split into two groups: those who chose immediate gratification and those who chose to wait. Then,When, over the next 30 years, scientists traced the life path of participants in this and a number of other similar experiments, it was found that the measure of the ability to delay gratification directly correlates with all indicators of success and development, including the level of education and health. In other words, the more a person is able to sacrifice momentary needs and endure the discomfort of refusing to satisfy them for the sake of their goals, the more they achieve. Therefore, it is necessary to be prepared not only for victims, but also for the need to pay some bills for many years, sometimes postponing gratification not only by 15 minutes, but by 15 years. This refusal itself, however, as any practitioner knows, brings a subtle and slightly masochistic pleasure, for it is sanctified by the purpose that gives it meaning.
Lesson number two: the power of paradox
Apparently, it was from the myth of Odin that the image of the Hanged Man, depicted on the twelfth lasso of the Tarot, was born. On the map, we see a man suspended by his leg on a cross. Despite the severity of his position, the Hanged Man's face is absolutely calm, and his head is surrounded by a halo of supreme illumination - the knowledge Odin gained. To emphasize the intention and purposefulness of the sacrifice, one of the man's legs is laid behind the other in a meditative gesture. The Hanged Man is the same as Odin, but we will turn to him for the second semantic dimension of the German-Scandinavian myth.
The figure on the cross is represented, as they say, in resignation - in the position of final humility, refusal to fight; The Hanged Man surrendered, but this is how he achieved complete victory. The Hanged Man not only teaches that acquisition is inseparable from rejection, and the more we want to receive, the more we have to give. He shows that the right solution to a problem is often paradoxical, unobvious, outwardly contradictory. The set goal can be achieved not by effort, but by refusal to act - by non-action, by waiting. Victory can be won through the refusal of the offensive, gentleness is capable of what the pressure did not cope with. Lao-Tzu wrote about this: “There is no more pliable under the sky than plain water. There is no equal to water under the sky in overcoming solid, lasting. The weak will overcome the strong, the soft will overcome the hard. Anyone knows this truth. Nobody recognizes it as true."
Where we most want to insist on our own, it is sometimes necessary to step back, where our desire is strongest, it must be abandoned, what we want to hold onto must be released - and only then we will succeed in the first. In many situations, we achieve what we want only by performing these paradoxical and contradictory actions. Unlike the first lesson from Odin, the Hanged Man's wisdom is not universal. We do not always get this card and the solution is not always a paradox (that is, what is true, although it seems to be the opposite), but this happens often enough not to forget about it.
© Oleg Tsendrovsky
