Chapter IX

THE KING OF THE GODS

BY appropriating a part of the Rhinegold, repre-
senting the universal spirit and forming it into
a ring symbolical of the fact that it (the spirit), has
neither beginning nor end, the ego came into existence
as a separate entity. Within the confines of this auric
ring it is supreme ruler, self-sufficient, and resents
encroachment upon its domain. Thus, it placed itself
beyond the pale of fellowship. Like the prodigal sen,
it wandered far from the Father, but even before it
realized that it was feeding upon the husks of matter,
religion stepped in to guide it back to its eternal
home, to free it from the illusion and delusion inci-
dental to material existence, to redeem it from the
death incurred in this phase of the dense embodiment,
and to show it the way to truth and life eternal.

In the Teutonic myth, the warders of religion are
represented as gods. Chief among them is Wotan,
who is identical with the Latin Mercury, and Wotans-
day or Wednesday, is still named in his honor, Freya,

THE RING OF THE GODS 79

the Venus of Norway, was goddess of beauty, who fed
the other gods on the golden apples which preserved
their youth. Friday is her day. Thor, the Jupiter
of the Norsemen, is said to drive his car over the
heavens and the noise then heard is the thunder, and
the lightning the sparks that fly from his hammer
when he strikes at his enemies. Loge is the name of
the god of Saturday. (Lorday in Scandinavian, a
derivation from lue, the Scandinavian name for
flame.) He is really not one of the gods, but related
to the giants or nature forces. His flame is not alone
the physical flame, but is also a symbol of illusion, and
he, himself, is the spirit of deceit, sometimes currying
favor with the gods and betraying the giants, at other
times deceiving the gods and helping the giants to
further his own schemes. Like Lucifer, the fiery Mars
spirit, he is also a spirit of negation, but delights also
in obstructing life like the cold Saturn.

There is in northern mythology a reference to the
still earlier cult wherein the deities of the water were
worshiped, but the gods we mention superseded them,
and are said to ride to the judgment seat every day
over a rainbow bridge, Bifrost. Thus, we see that
this religion dates from the dawn of the present epoch,
when mankind had emerged from the waters of At-
lantis into the clear atmosphere of Aryana — in which
we are now living — and where they saw the rainbow
for the first time.

It was said to Noah, when he led primitive mankind
out of the Flood that so long as the sign of the rain-

80 MYSTERIES OF THE GREAT OPERAS

bow remained in the clouds, the alternating cycles of
summer and winter, night and day, should not cease,
and the northern myth also shows us the gods gathered
at the rainbow bridge in the beginning of this era. It
and the gods remain until the moment when this
phase of our evolution is ended, an event which will
be shown to be identical with the description given in
the Christian Apocalypse, which the Scandinavian
myth will materially help to explain.

Truth is universal, and unlimited. It knows no
boundaries, but when the ego enveloped itself in a
ring of separate vehicles which segregated it from
others, this limitation made it incapable of under-
standing absolute truth. Therefore a religion em-
bodying the fullness of pure truth would have been
incomprehensible to mankind and unsuited to help
them. Hence, as a child who goes to school and learns
a few elementary lessons the first year to prepare it
for more complicated problems later, so . humanity
were given religions of the most primitive nature to
educate them to something higher by easy stages.

Thus the warders of religion, the gods, are repre-
sented as desirous of building a walled fortress so that
they may entrench themselves behind that wall and
focalize their powers against the other faith. The
spirit cannot be limited without enmeshing itself in
materiality ; therefore, the gods, on the advice of Loge,
the spirit of deceit and delusion, makes a bargain with
the giants, Fafner, and Fasolt, (representing selfish-
ness), to build the wall of limitation. When that wall

THE RING OF THE GODS 81

surrounds the gods they have lost the universal light
and knowledge ; therefore, the myth tells us that part
of their payment to the builders of Valhal was to be
the sun and moon.

Furthermore, when religion has thus limited itself
behind the wall of creed, the spirit of decay is intro-
duced; it waxes old as a garment, and, therefore, it
is also said that Wotan (wisdom or reason), agreed to
give the giants, Freya, the goddess of beauty, who fed
the gods on her golden apples to preserve their youth.
Thus, by listening to advice from Loge, the spirit of
deceit, the gods have sacrificed their light, their
knowledge, and their hope of eternal youth and use-
fulness. Still, as already said, this was in a manner
necessary, for mankind could not have grasped truth
in its fullness then: we cannot understand it even
now.

The spiritual power of religion is symbolized by the
magic wand of Aaron in the Bible, by the magic spear
of Parsifal in the Grail myth, and by the spear of
Wotan in the story of the Niebelung. To bind the
bargain with the giants, magic characters were cut in
the handle of the spear, which was thus weakened,
and in that manner it is shown that religion loses in
spiritual power what it gains in material ways when
it makes a bargain with the world rulers and panders
to the baser appetites.

According to the teaching of the Norsemen, those
only who died in battle were entitled to be taken to

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Valhal. Wotan desires none but the strong and the
mighty warriors. Those who died of illness or in
peace upon their beds were condemned to the realm of
hell, the underworld. In this also there is a great
lesson, for none but the noble and the fearless who
spend their days fighting the battle of life to the very
last breath are worthy of advancement. The shirkers
who love ease and peace, rather than the work of the
world, are not entitled to promotion in the school of
life. It does not matter where we work or what the
line of our experience may be, so long as we faithfully
battle with the problems of life as they appear be-
fore us. Neither will it suffice if we do this for a
year or two and then lapse into inactivity; we must
keep on working and striving until the day of life is
done.

Thus the old Norse religion teaches the same les-
son as Paul taught when he counseled ''patient per-
sistence in well doing." Even if we realize that we
have not all truth, that we are placed under limita-
tions by separateness — the egoism symbolized by the
Ring of the Niebelung and by creed and convention
symbolized by the Ring of the gods, still if we fill
our appointed niche to the best of our ability through-
out our whole life we shall be certain of advancement
in a future age. "We shall see more clearly through
the veil of egoism when we willingly live the life where
we have been placed, for the Recording Angels make
no mistakes. They have put us in that place where

THE RING OF THE GODS 83

we have been given the lessons needed to prepare us
for a greater sphere of usefulness.

From what has been said, it is evident that the
creedbound condition of the various churches — the in-
sistence on dogma and ritual — are not unmitigated
evils, as it may have appeared to many, but in reality
the necessary outcome of the limitations incidental to
the material existence through which the human spirit
is now passing, and thus each class is being properly
taken care of. It receives as much truth as it can
comprehend, and as is good for its present develop-
ment. There is no need of worrying about anyone.
No one can or will be lost, for, as in God we live, and
move, and have our being, so, if one were lost, a part
of the Divine Author of our system would be miss-
ing, an unthinkable proposition.

But while a great majority of mankind are thus
being taken care of by the orthodox religions, there
are always a few pioneers — some whose faculty of
intuition tells them of greater heights unsealed, who
see the sunlight of truth beyond the wall of creed.
Their souls are starving on the husks of dogmas, and
they long ardently for the apples of youth, and love
sold by the gods to the giants. Even the gods are
growing old rapidly, for no religion which is devoid
of love can ever hope to hold mankind for any length
of time. Therefore, the gods were forced to seek
again the advice of Loge, the spirit of deceit, hoping
through his wiles to extricate themselves from the
dilemma. Loge tells them how Alberich, the Niebe-

84 MYSTERIES OF THE GREAT OPERAS

lung, has succeeded in hoarding up an immense treas-
ure by enslaving his brothers. With the consent of the
gods, he uses deceitful means to capture Alberich and
forces him to disgorge all his treasures. He then plays
upon the avaricious nature of the giants and finally
succeeds in ransoming Freya.

Thus the curse of the King (egoism and selfishness)
has tainted even tho gods. For the sake of the Eing
(power,) Alberich, the Niebelung, forswore love. He
oppressed his brothers and ruled them with an iron
rod. Religion, on its side, forswore love by the sale
of Freya. It also stooped to deceit to force the rulers
of the world to pay tribute and when the ring of the
Niebelung passed into the hands of the giants the evil
fate followed it, for one brother slays the other that
he may be the sole possessor of the wealth of the
world.

The gods have indeed regained Freya, but she is
no longer the pure goddess of love. She has been
prostituted; hence, she is but the semblance of her
former self and fails to satisfy those whose intuition
sees deeper than the surface; such are called Wal-
sungs in the Scandinavian myth. The first syllable
is the derivation of the German word, walhlen, to
choose or the Scandinavian, vaelge. The last syllable
means children. They are children of desire for free
will and choice, who want to choose their own path
and who seek to follow their own divine instinct.

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