Alchemy, Ginnungagap, & the Coalescence of Hel
Winifred Hodge Rose
In this multi-part series I present my own thoughts about the nature and dynamics of the Saiwalo soul, its Dwimor or phantom-image, and about Saiwalo’s ecosystem: Hel, the Hidden Land of mystery and power. These writings are expressions of Heathen esoteric philosophy; they are my own exploration into the deeps of Heathen mythology based on my perspectives and experience. For more research-based studies about Saiwalo, please refer to my articles on this website: Hel-Dweller, The Soul and the Sea, and What Happened to Heathen Saiwalo-Soul?
Alchemy in this Context
Approaches to alchemy range across a wide area, from the precursor to modern physical chemistry, to various forms of material transformations—including the production of medicines, to the rarefied reaches of psychospiritual development. Alchemy is “a form of chemistry and speculative philosophy….any seemingly magical process of transforming or combining elements into something new.” (Dictionary.com) “Alchemists attempted to purify, mature and perfect certain materials…the perfection of the human body and soul was thought to permit or result from the alchemical magnum opus (great work), and, in the Hellenistic and Western mystery tradition, the achievement of gnosis.” (Wikipedia.)
I like Greer’s explanation of alchemy as more than simply a field of study. He sees it as a universal method, in the same way that science is a universal method, with its own procedures which can be applied to explore many fields of knowledge and transformational processes. The basic approach of alchemy is called solve et coagula (dissolve and coagulate or bring together): find the primal material, separate the subtle from the gross (material) components, purify and transform them, then recombine them into something similar to, but more powerful and pure than the original (Greer p.145-60).
One of the theories about physical alchemy in older times was the idea that minerals evolve, as long as they are underground and subject to heat and moisture, transforming from lead through various other metals and finally into silver and gold. (https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/magazine/gold-secrecy-and-prestige.) (This idea of evolution was around a long time before Darwin and Wallace; I wonder whether it had any impact on the development of their theories of biological evolution?)
The understanding was that while minerals do evolve while they are buried underground and are subject to various chthonic influences, once they are brought up under the light of the Sun and Moon, they cease evolving. Alchemists who sought to bring about further evolution of metals into gold tried to duplicate these chthonic processes in order to bring this evolution about, and as a result, invented many of the processes and equipment used in modern chemistry. This idea about underground evolution of substances no longer fits into most modern scientific ideas of material transformation, except for the transformation of sedimentary and igneous rocks into metamorphic rocks, but it still holds meaning for some forms of spiritual alchemy, as we shall explore further in this series.
Among the many applications of alchemy, the one of interest to us here is using it to understand something about cosmogony: how the Worlds and some of the beings of the Worlds come into existence through processes of transformation, including the type of transformation that is mythically expressed as “sacrifice.”
By describing the nature and processes of Saiwalo, Dwimor and Hel in very simple alchemical terms, I am not trying to force what I understand about these things into any specific theory of alchemical processes, of which there are many complex variations. I am simply using some basic alchemical and ecological concepts to describe my understanding of this soul-ecosystem.
I began the discussion of Hel’s ecosystem in Hel-Dweller, and I began discussion of Saiwalo’s alchemy in The Soul and the Sea. In this series I will lay out a broader picture, as I presently understand it, of how Saiwalo and its ecosystem of Hel function. What I present here can be understood as a perspective on mythic-alchemy and mythic-ecology, under the umbrella of Heathen metaphysics.
The Mighty Gap of Potential
“Early it was, in ancient times, when Ymir settled into being. Neither sand nor sea, nor cool waves were there. Earth was not, nor high heaven; only the yawning gap of mystery, nowhere green.” (Voluspa vs. 3, Poetic Edda, my rendition.)
Starting from the beginning, we are told in the prose Edda (pp. 9-11) of how the first powers and beings came about, within the space called Ginnungagap, the Void containing all potential. Even here, in an organized tale narrated by one person, there are contradictions in the story, and it is likely that Snorri’s account was somewhat garbled, distorted, and misinterpreted, as many oral records are. Nevertheless, we will work with this! The 12th-century author, Snorri Sturlason, tells us that Hvergelmir, the Roaring Cauldron, formed in the center of Niflheim, the world of mist and cold, and out of it flowed the Elivagar, a river(s) of cosmic power. According to Snorri, the name means ‘eleven rivers’, which he names in the text. In other places in the lore, Elivagar is treated as a single river-ocean that surrounds Midgard and separates it from Jotunnheim. In this understanding, ‘Elivagar’ may mean ‘stormy sea’, an interpretation that fits better with other Indo-European myths about the world-circling ocean. (Simek p. 73.) My own view is that Elivagar is an outflow of cosmic power from Hvergelmir, the wellspring of the cosmos, which branches off in braided patterns to surround, support and nourish each of the Worlds of our mythology.
Elivagar contained something that is referred to as venom or poison, as well as salt. As the water of Hvergelmir flowed out, it began to freeze, filling the northern end of Ginnungagap. The venom separated out on top, and as the cold winds blew ice and rime across the Gap, the heat from the world of fire, Muspelheim, at the southern end began to melt the venom-filled rime. As heat and cold met across the layers of rime, the venom-filled rime melted and formed into Ymir, the hermaphroditic proto-Giant. The implication is that Ymir, and all the giants after him-her, are composed of venom / poison, condensed and coagulated from frozen Elivagar.
Then, Snorri describes how Ymir was fed. The second being who coalesced out of the rime was Audhumla the Cow, whom I call the Ur-Mother: I perceive her as a shape-changer. Audhumla fed Ymir with her milk. She fed herself by licking the ice and frost still filling Ginnungagap, which, having had all the venom drawn out of it to form Ymir, was now salty rather than venomous. As Audhumla licked the ice, she gradually uncovered the sleeping body of Buri, who would become grandfather of Odin, Vili and Ve, and fed him with her salty milk, as well.
I want to note here that when the old Germanic languages translated the Christian terms ‘create, creation’, with reference to their view of cosmogony, the native words that were used involved not ‘creation out of nothing’, but rather ‘shaping’: skapa in Old Norse, gesceap in Anglo-Saxon, etc. ‘Shaping’ is also what the Norns do with wyrd / ‘fate’. In this scene, Audhumla is ‘shaping’ Buri out of ice with her tongue, bringing him into being in the living world. She is one of the primal Heathen shapers.
So, here we have the first alchemical processes: the fire and ice providing transformative energies, and the outflow from Hvergelmir condensing into ice which contains venom and salt. It’s said in the story that Ymir’s body coagulated from the ‘clinkers’ or fragments of frozen venom as Elivagar froze into ice and rime. This equates to a process of purifying the ice from the venom, which was all drawn out of the ice in order to form Ymir, much like the process by which alcoholic drinks like applejack are distilled by freezing. Once Ymir is formed, venom no longer remains in the ice, but salt does. Both Audhumla and Buri are formed through coagulation or freeze-distillation from this salty ice. They are salt-beings, but do not contain venom.
Though we are told by Snorri that Buri fathered Borr, the father of Odin-Vili-Ve, it is a mystery who the mother of Borr was. My own view is that she was Audhumla herself, whom I consider the Ur-Mother, able to shift her shape. Other Indo-European myths link ancient Mother-Goddesses with cows, as well. I believe that Audhumla mothered Borr (thus becoming the grandmother of Odin-Vili-Ve) before going on to the next phase of her existence.
The Coalescence of Hel
And what is that next phase? We hear no more about Audhumla (nor about Buri) in the lore: she’s done her job of feeding Ymir, shaping and freeing Buri from the ice and feeding him, and perhaps mothering Borr. Then she apparently wanders off into the mists, never to be seen again, though perhaps the Milky Way is a clue to her path! I have another idea about her: that she actually becomes the world of Hel.
Let me talk about some other examples of sacrificial transformation of primal beings, before I turn to these thoughts about Audhumla. (1) Ymir was sacrificed by Odin, Vili, and Ve so that they could shape the Earth out of his body: the physical world with its sky and its encircling waters, where humans and other beings live. (2) I believe that Mimir’s baffling execution, while he was hostage to the Vanir, was also a cosmogonic sacrifice. (Ynglingasaga p. 3, in Heimskringla.) Wise Mimir, admired by all, was beheaded by the Vanir, supposedly because they were annoyed with his fellow-hostage, Hoenir, who was handsome and charismatic, but lacked the qualities of wisdom needed by a chieftain. Hoenir, however, suffered no consequences for his apparent vapidity; it was Mimir who was executed. The Vanir returned Mimir’s head to Odin, who preserved it using rune-power and placed it within Mimir’s own Well.
There is no logic to this story, which leads me to look for a more mythic, symbolic underpinning. As I perceive it, these events led to the coming-into-being of World-Mind or the Noosphere, represented by Mimir’s Well of Memory and Inspiration. (Noosphere is a word formed from Greek nous meaning ‘thought, mind’ plus ‘sphere’, and is used in a modern context to parallel the biosphere, the domain of physical life. It’s a good word, but I like World-Mind even better!) World-Mind is the intangible space, the energetic matrix, where thought occurs: both individual thoughts and the thoughts of multiple beings which influence and build upon each other.
As Ymir’s body became physical Midgard, Mimir’s head / brain / mind became the metaphysical space where Thought occurs. The skull of Ymir became the sky of Midgard, and his brains became the clouds. I see Mimir’s head / World-Mind superimposed over Ymir’s skull and brains as the sky of Midgard, with the movements of clouds and winds in the physical world mirroring the movement of thoughts through the Noosphere / World-Mind.
I think that Mimir and his sister Bestla, the uncle and mother of Odin-Vili-Ve, were the two beings who grew under the arm of Ymir (Gylfaginning p. 11, in the (prose) Edda), the first generation of cosmic offspring along with Borr son of Buri. As I see it, both Ymir and his-her son Mimir were cosmogonic sacrifices, sacrificed by the Aesir and the Vanir. They were sacrificed at different times: Ymir at the beginning, the foundation of the physical world, and Mimir much later, after beings capable of Thought had multiplied in Midgard and the other Worlds.
In this story so far, we have a group of the earliest progenitor-beings, and most of them are involved, either as sacrificers or as victims, in sacrifices for cosmogonic purposes, in my understanding. I think that Audhumla follows the same path, except, in contrast to the usual fate of cows, she is not sacrificed by others, but gives herself over to a self-directed process of living transformation.
I see the coming-into-being of the world of Hel as two overlapping processes, or rather, as an alchemical process that can also be represented by mythological beings, which is frequently how alchemy is presented in traditional lore. Alchemically, here is my vision. The primal polarities of Fire and Ice generate the Roaring Cauldron of cosmic energy, Hvergelmir, within the center of Ginnungagap, which sends up clouds of mist and steam over the Gap. (The account by Snorri places Hvergelmir in Niflheim, but my own understanding is that it lies in the center of Ginnungagap. It is the cosmic energy-wellspring balanced and energized between the polarities of Ice and Fire.) This mist that rises from Ginnungagap is Ahma or Ond, primal Spirit, out of which all that is, is formed. As Ahma-mist rises over Ginnungagap and attains some distance from the roaring cosmogonic energy-fountain, it ‘cools’ or steps down its energy and condenses into the first of the worlds where human souls are able to exist as individual beings: Hel, the place I call the Womb of Souls, among other names.
Here is a mythical picture of this process. Audhumla can be seen as the Cosmic Mother, but she is not the mother of individual beings, except perhaps of Borr. The womb of the Mother, and the womb of any mother, is a hidden place, a place of shelter, shaping, and magical growth, a place that is different from the living-spaces of physical Midgard, and within the womb lie beings which are both like and not-like already-born humans in Midgard.
There are a number of Germanic Goddess-names that derive from Proto-Indo-European *kel = to cover, hide, conceal, through Proto-Germanic *haljo. Their names include Hel, Holle, Nehalennia, Hludana, Hlodyn. This covering and concealment refers, presumably, to the grave and to the world of Hel, but it also refers very clearly to the state of the child in the womb, who is covered, concealed, nourished, shaped and protected by its mother’s body. After-life and before-life in reference to Midgard have many similarities and connections, as I have written about in a number of my previous soul lore articles. The mother who holds before-life within her has many similarities to the one who holds after-life within her, the Mother of Souls. In many beliefs around the world, she is one and the same being, a Goddess through whom life and death pass as they come and go through her doorway.
My view is that Audhumla, as the Ur-Mother, transformed herself into Hel the Womb of Souls, and that later Germanic Goddesses connected with Hel are transformations or ‘daughters’ of her essence, as well. She offers her transformed body as a place of concealment, sheltering, nourishment, a place where beings in the afterlife can go through their own transformational processes.
Audhumla’s name means “The Hornless Cow of Plenty / Wealth”, and that ties into the idea of Hel as a place of hidden treasure and wealth (see Hel-Dweller). This shows up not only in Germanic folklore but in other mythologies as well, such as Greek and later Latin Plouton / Pluto, one of the names of the God of the Underworld, whose name means ‘wealth, riches’.
As for Audhumla’s ‘hornlessness’: cow’s horns are often considered to be a symbol of the moon in the feminine mysteries. In Hel, I think that there is no visible moon. Hel is the interior of Audhumla, the nourishing, hidden land, permeated by its own mysterious, unearthly light. Audhumla has no horns; Hel has no moon. And, having no moon or sun, Hel is a place well-suited for the chthonic processes of alchemical evolution and transformation, as we shall explore further, later on.
We saw, earlier, that Audhumla was formed out of salty ice, and fed by licking salty ice: she is a salt-being. Salt is a preservative, keeping things from spoiling, and is thus symbolic of the preservative qualities of Hel where Saiwalo souls continue their existence and empower living souls in Midgard. Through Audhumla we can see Hel as containing alchemical salt and water, as well as elemental earth in the form of her body. This leads us on to the next development: the arising of the salt-water Saiwalo souls in their earthy underworld of Hel, discussed in The Alchemy of Hel, Part II.
Bookhoard
Asgardson, Ulf. Yggsbok: A Bold New Runic Vision. Authorhouse, 2005.
Greer, John Michael. A Magical Education: Talks on Magic and Occultism. AEON Books, 2019.
Jonsson, Finnur. De Gammle Eddadigte. G.E.C. Gads Forlag, Kobenhavn, Denmark, 1932.
Larrington, Carolyne, transl. The Poetic Edda, revised edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford, United Kingdom, 2014.
Simek, Rudolf. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. D.S. Brewer. Cambridge, England, 1993.
Sturlason, Snorre. Heimskringla, or The Lives of the Norse Kings. Ed. and transl. Erling Monsen and A.H. Smith. Dover Publications, New York, 1990.
Sturlason, Snorri. Edda, transl. & ed. Anthony Faulkes. Everyman, Rutland, Vermont, 1987.
This article was first published on this website, December 2020.