Right now, the state of the world can seem grim and dark. Oppressive regimes subjugate their populations with brute force, weather patterns seem increasingly more extreme, economic hardships have people tightening their belts, and all manner of disease is spreading. But if truth be told, this has been the state of the world since long before you or I came to exist. In fact, we are alive in one of the best, most miraculous times throughout all of humanities recorded history.
How so, you may ask? Well, if you are reading this, it means you are connected to the internet, and have access to an incomprehensible volume of knowledge. Friends and family can communicate instantly from anywhere on the globe (and some who are orbiting the Earth). If you get sick or injured, you can be treated nearly immediately, with little to no risk of infection. Several diseases, such as polio or small pox, have been practically eradicated. And lets not forget the often taken for granted comfort of climate control. Most of us, especially in the western world, live better than the richest kings did only a few hundred years ago.
And yet fear permeates nearly everything we do these days. We are afraid we might contract a disease. We are afraid to let children play in the park. We are afraid another person’s opinion contradicts our own. We are afraid of failure. Of taking chances. We are afraid to speak our own minds.
So what am I getting at?
How Fear Affects The Mind
Fear sells better than sex ever will. This is because most humans experience a universal reaction to fearful things, and many mainstream media outlets have learned how to leverage those reactions with surgical precision. It’s not the fault of the reader for falling prey to this fear inducing marketing technique. Quite the contrary. Experiencing fear is an emotion that has kept the human species alive for thousands of years. It has a direct effect on our decision making processes, and typically those decisions are the ones that avoid pain. Just look at these examples:
Hundreds of Angry Protesters Burn Police Station!
[Insert Politician Here] is Ahead in the Polls!
Deranged Super Killer Eats Dozens of Children!
True, those are fake headlines, and yet some of you may have felt a creeping sensation in the back of your mind. That sensation is your survival instinct preparing you for the worst. It is a complex physiological process that involves hormones and other chemicals which do things like: improve your blood clotting ability, increase sensational awareness, give you a burst of energy to fight or flee. But it does so at a cost to your rational cognition, making you easier to manipulate.
Why would a government controlled media apparatus want to make the citizens of the world easier to manipulate? I’ll leave that for you to decide.
The next time you find yourself doomscrolling through news headlines, be mindful of the emotions they provoke. More often than not, they are carefully crafted to elicit an “oh my god” response, that compels you to click to discover what is going on. But, if you pay close attention, these articles are often a rehash of old information, or not quite as menacing as the headline would want you to believe.
Don’t worry, I’m just taking the long way to get to a point.
Viking POV
Remember how I said that the state of the world has more or less been the same through all of recorded history (and arguably worse)? One only needs to to be a student of history to know the truth of that statement. Because of this, most cultures and religions have a system of beliefs to fall back on that helps combat the despair of realizing the current human condition is not so ideal. Including one of my personal favorite cultures: the Vikings.
These guys were a tough group. Before modern heating and air conditioning, before technical fabrics and synthetic down puffy-jackets, Vikings were successfully eking a life out of one of the most inhospitable regions on the planet. They also happen to be a large part of my ancestral heritage. So when I decided I was going to make a business teaching survival skills, I wanted to invoke their ferocious tenacity against the fearfulness of life.
Whilst learning about Viking culture, I came across an old poem called the Voluspo, and it isn’t your typical Shakespearean tragic romance. In true viking fashion, it’s an epic, armageddon packed, in your face truth about the way of the world! To summarize, Odin raises a witch from the dead and tells her to spill the beans about life. She obliges, giving Odin all sorts of juicy details regarding fantastical creatures, how the world is at present, and even some of his own personal info. In dramatic fashion, she saves the best for last and reveals how the world will end and the gods will be destroyed.
Age of the Wolf
This witchy undead oracle goes on to say, and I quote:
“Bræðr munu berjask ok at bönum verðask,
munu systrungar sifjum spilla;
hart er í heimi, hórdómr mikill,
skeggöld, skalmöld, skildir ro klofnir,
vindöld, vargöld, áðr veröld steypisk;
mun engi maðr öðrum þyrma.”
Don’t speak viking? Neither do I, but here is a translation:
Brothers shall fight | and fell each other,
And sisters’ sons | shall kinship stain;
Hard is it on earth, | with mighty whoredom;
Axe-time, sword-time, | shields are sundered,
Wind-time, wolf-time, | ere the world falls;
Nor ever shall men | each other spare.
During the time before the end of all things, the world is going to be pretty terrible place. Brother will fight brother, every cardinal sin and vice will run rampant, and there will be little empathy for those who are suffering. The witch refers to this time as vargöld, a wolf-time, which can also be interpreted as “age of the wolf.” And if you don’t see any parallels between the Viking description of the end of days, and our present socio-economic/geopolitical climate, than you may need to pay more attention to your surroundings.
The Silver Lining
Did all this doom and gloom keep the Vikings down? Did they fall into a pit of despair, give up, and commit cultural mass-suicide? NO! Even the witch that Odin raised from the dead wrapped up her revelations by explaining that, out of all this death and destruction, the Vikings would triumph, and the world would be born anew. This time a paradise.
If this pattern sounds familiar, its because this cycle of death and rebirth presents itself in the mythos of many cultures, and there is a good reason for this.
Before the advent of screens and electric, handheld, personal distractions, humans had to entertain themselves by paying attention to nature. They crafted narratives from the seasons, and the movements of celestial bodies. They gave personalities to mountains, trees and wildlife, and fictionalized reasons to explain natural phenomenon. While doing so, they quickly realized the prevailing cycle of life and death, how nothing was permanent, and how this cycle permeates all things. Bad things, bad times, are born, exist for a while, and then end. Learning from those bad experiences, good things, good times are born, exist for a while, and then end. The cycle repeats on and on into perpetuity.
Building A Strong Foundation
Want to make sure that you are equipped, mentally and physically for your own Vargöld? Build an unstoppable foundation for success here:
- Physical Fitness: The Key To Survival Success
- Physiology: Body Basics That Can Save Your Life
- Mindset: Transform Fear Into Fuel
- Outdoor Safety: Essential Skills For Navigating Nature (link to course coming soon!)
- Planning Ahead: From Risk To Readiness (link to course coming soon!)
- Clothing: Dress For Survival Success (link to course coming soon!)
- Foot Travel: Trailblazing Techniques For Any Terrain (link to course coming soon!)
- Navigation 101: Map, Compass And GPS Fundamentals (link to course coming soon!)
- Survival 101: Essential Self-Reliance Techniques (link to course coming soon!)
- First Aid 101: Emergency Care Skills Everyone Should Know (link to course coming soon!)
Conclusion
Nothing lasts forever, not even something terrible. If we can find it within ourselves to reconnect with this truth, it will make the world a more tolerable place to inhabit. In the meantime, we can learn ways to prepare ourselves for the next Vargöld.
Learn Before You Go!
Enhance your survival and self-reliance skills before attending an in-person course:
- Online Survival Courses: Dive into a range of topics with our comprehensive online courses.
- In-Person Training and Gear: Explore survival and self-reliance training companies, and stores that sell great gear.
- Gear Store: Gear up with the latest equipment from our ever-growing selection.
Leave a Comment