Winifred Hodge Rose
An “or-deal” in a Heathen philosophical sense means ‘the primal roots of a given ordeal-circumstance: the ørlög, the weaving of wyrd, which has been dealt out for me to face here and now, in this place, in this time.’ An ‘ordeal’ has the connotation of a struggle, a challenge, a personal testing, and it is that, but it is more. It is fateful, it is a weaving of wyrd, a drawing-together of the strands of our life into a nexus-point of deep significance. Much of our past has gone into reaching this nexus-point of the ordeal, and much will lead forth from its outcome that will shape our time to come.
In my understanding of Heathen philosophy, life itself is an ordeal in this sense: a complex, patterned knot or nexus of strands of ørlög, arising from the past, gathered together in the present, and shaping the future to come. The ordeal of life is a challenge and a struggle, indeed, but more than that, it shapes the whole pattern of our Being, and shapes the meaning that our life holds. Our purpose in life is not to avoid or escape true Heathen ordeals, but to rise to the challenge they offer: the challenge not only to meet the ordeal successfully, but to use it as a vehicle to emerge from the ordeal with greater wisdom, soul-qualities, and strength than we had when we went into it.
My concept of the Heathen ordeal does not involve the deliberate infliction of pain, as ‘ordeal’ is sometimes understood in other contexts. An ordeal, in my view, is defined as a serious challenge or difficulty that has developed in our life through the workings of wyrd and orlog. In some cases it may be caused by mistakes, neglect of our responsibilities, or wrongdoing that we have committed and that we must work our way through, not seek to escape or excuse. Other times our ordeal may result from mistakes, neglect, or wrongdoing committed by others. Sometimes our own ordeal consists of the need to help others through their ordeals, such as caring for a family member with serious health problems. For example, I supported my mother on a daily basis through eleven years of Alzheimer’s; this was an ordeal for her, me, and our other family members.
Sometimes we may choose to go through a deliberate, ceremonial ordeal, which usually
involves the imitation of some challenge that our Holy Ones have endured. Not using one
hand for a period of time to temporarily imitate Tyr’s challenge is one example, or standing /
sitting under (or ideally up in) a tree and fasting for a significant period of time while meditating on the runes would imitate Odin’s challenge. A spiritual seeking for some dimly-seen spiritual goal would imitate Freya’s challenge of her search for Oðr, while working to mitigate danger and harm to others would imitate Frigg’s effort to save her son Baldr. For any of our Deities we can come up with a ceremonial ordeal, dedicated to them, to bring us closer to them and their wisdom. Our choice to engage in such a ceremonial ordeal would likely be the result of our own wyrd or orlog nudging us in that direction.
All of these efforts are things that we need to or choose to ‘deal with,’ and thereby develop our
qualities of character such as courage, determination, patience, compassion, insight, devotion,
spiritual discernment, or whatever qualities are called for in that situation. Calling on the
Norns, Tyr / Tiw, and our other Holy Ones can help us perceive the deeper meaning of the
ordeal and its connection to our orlog, whether the ordeal is forced upon us or whether we
choose it, and help us face it with courage, strength, and wisdom.
‘Or-log’ means the ancient, primal layers of fate which have been laid down and which affect the present. ‘Or-deal’ refers to the dealing-out of our personal orlog that results in a specific challenge or difficulty occurring at a specific time in our life, the nexus-point where these orlog-strands from the past come together and create this ordeal. The ordeal calls not only for courage and strength, but even more importantly it calls for wisdom and insight. An artificially-created episode of deliberately inflicted pain is not likely to be rooted in wyrd and orlog, nor dealt out to us by the Norns as part of our path toward wisdom. Thus, I do not consider this kind of artificial ordeal as a true Heathen ordeal in the philosophical sense: a Heathen ordeal which must be rooted in and arise out of orlog, and lead us toward the wisdom of the Norns.