Festival of the Mind : The Rede

Now we honour mind and thought. 

In mind there is growth and diminishment, both we must accept but fight against diminishment. For it is truth that deeds start with a thought and the power of thought is subtle, mysterious and potent. It is for each one of us to strive to learn, to gain knowledge and use that knowledge to aid our individual selves, our community and the soul of the world.

If the mind decay shall the spirit soar? Shall great deeds be done? No: that is perverse teaching. Better gear than good sense a man cannot carry. Never quarrel with a fool. Let those who waste their energy chasing strange shadows be sent away, for they see not what is theirs, neither by the Sun’s golden light nor by the Moon’s silver rays.

Be proud of knowing and doing. Remember also that wisdom can be harsh, but that it is better to face a harsh reality than to seek shelter in pleasant falsehood, for the shelter that gives is a sham and cannot endure ultimately.

To know, to be aware, may mean your deeds and words are hated by the man of power and derided by the witless mass: the fodder of the giants. It is easy to stoop down, harder to rise – yet rise you must if a noble life and victory are to be won.

The will to know, to remember, to build – these are holy gifts from the gods, and the way forward. To shrink from knowing and doing is to drop into the morass of decay and the beastlings will hold sway.

Drink deep from the cup of the gods, taste the magic mead. Know beauty! Cherish it, guard it remorselessly! Let your wisdom shine in these dark times! Let it aid the forces of life, and confound the forces of evil. Know also ugliness, oppose it relentlessly. 

Listen to nature’s eternal wisdom, hear the voices of the gods without and within. Still your mind from the hubbub of the unnatural order which seems dominant, the deep wisdom will overcome it. Free your thoughts from the grasp of the perverse and the pseudo-intellectuals who preach falsehood and folly and filth. Let your senses soar above the inane jabber that hums all around.

Reject the sweet seeming draught of ignorance, it is bitter in the end, but be avid for the food of Asgarth. Seek the path that leads upwards and forwards. Revel in the gifts of the gods. Soul gave Odin, sense gave Honir, being and blooming gave Lodur, above the beasts we are bidden to stand and meet with the High Ones.