“I hung on the windy tree.”
The windy tree.
Odin is not a comfortable father-god. He is a wanderer with one eye, having pawned the other at Mimir’s well. He hangs on Yggdrasil, wounded, without bread or horn, until the runes reveal themselves. He collects poetry from a stolen sip of mead. He knows Ragnarök is coming and prepares anyway.
The Allfather’s wisdom is expensive and incomplete on purpose. He trades comfort for sight, again and again.
Inspect
INTERPRETATION
Odin is the hunger for a knowledge that will cost you a version of yourself. Not all sacrifice is noble: some is compulsion. The rune is worth it if it changes how you live, not only how you speak.
The shadow
The other eye, still in the well. Wisdom purchased and then left unused.
Four lookings
Campbell
Which eye are you being asked to give up: comfort, certainty, reputation?
von Franz
What knowledge have you already paid for and still refuse to use?
Hillman
If the ending is not yours to prevent, what image is still yours to serve?
Coelho
What would you hang on the tree of your week, not as drama, as looking?