The Ancestral Diet of the Germanic People

"Julaftonen" by Carl Larsson (1904)

As creatures of evolution we should ideally be consuming a diet consistent with our human biology, which arguably means looking at what our ancestors ate. As someone with predominately Germanic heritage (plus a little bit of Celt) I want to take a look at as many reputable sources as I can to understand what the indigenous diet of the Germanic people is, noting that it will overlap a good deal with the indigenous diet of other Indo-European peoples. 

Before humanity 

Humans are primates belonging to the subgroup known as great apes. Primates are believed to have evolved around 65 million years ago, following the mass extinction event which brought an end to the age of dinosaurs. Apes evolved around 25 million years ago, mostly or exclusively in heavily forested environments. Our primate cousins – monkeys and lesser apes – never really left their homes in the branches and tend to eat mostly leaves and fruit. Other great apes are still animals of the forest but they are bigger and able to roam forest floors. At least 87% of their diet is plant based (especially fruit), supplemented by insects. Chimpanzees, our closest relative, also eat meat. Our lineage separated from the chimpanzee line around 7 million years ago, so it is likely our ancestors have been eating meat (and other parts of animals, such as organs and bone marrow) for millions of years – ie, long before we evolved into modern humans. 

Live Where You Are

"The Ghost of a Flea" by Blake (1810s)

There is a fundamental difference between people today and our ancestors that has emerged, and sped up, over the last few decades. In the past we belonged to our communities and barely comprehended what was happening elsewhere in the world. When Rome’s Vestal flame was extinguished by Christian fanatics in the 390s CE people in India were unaware of this great tragedy and shed no tears. When Islamic invaders swept through India destroying Buddhist monasteries and wiping an ancient religion from its homeland in the 12th century CE the people of Europe knew almost nothing of it. When the last Viking settler died in Greenland in the 15th century only a few Icelanders could have guessed what had happened. 

By contrast today, here in Sydney, it seems nearly everyone I know is too interested in what is happening in far away places. For many, now that Game of Thrones has finished, there is a new Westeros (the USA) to think about. It is as if the Democrats are the Starks and the Republicans are Lannisters. It makes sense for Australians to be interested in US affairs up to a point, eg, Australians should want the US to have a strong military to match a strong alliance. But that is not the focus of so many Australians, because they are too invested in the stories which spit out of their televisions, their webpages and their social media. Their minds are not at home, and by living through stories happening in far away places they’ve launched mental and digital crusades in worlds that are basically illusory. 

Germanic Pagan Jewellery

The primary symbol of Germanic Paganism today is Thor's hammer, and there are a number of websites where you can buy really stunning Mjolnir pieces to wear, but they tend to be chunky and are clearly intended to be worn primarily by men. The hammer is a symbol of strength so it makes sense that men would want to wear a Mjolnir amulet, but I am no man and so here follows images of feminine jewellery that can be worn with contemporary dress while being evocative of Germanic deities. All of the pictures refer to the websites where you can buy them (as of September 2020). Click on the image to enlarge.

Odin, God of victory, wisdom, eloquence, wandering, death, inspiration and more

Silver pendant based on a 6th century image of a berserker
thevikingdragon.com 

Silver pendant, Valkyrie with horn replica
sonsofvikings.com

Raven feather earrings in oxidised silver by Aurum
aurum.is

While spears, wolves and ravens are more obvious symbols of Odin, horns are associated with Odin for a number of reasons. Firstly, archeologists have found a number of images of warriors with horned helmets who are thought to be connected to Odin. Secondly, Valkyries are said to bring horns of mead to the warriors of Valhalla, and thirdly, it is said that Odin gained three drinks of the mead of poetry (this is the origin story of the triple horn symbol). With this in mind I think the following high end jewellery from georgjensen.com is subtly Odinic.

Primordial Morality

"Lucretia" by Bassano (16th/17th century)

One sometimes encounters the notion that Christian values are foundational aspects of contemporary Western culture, but if this is so what happens when Westerners stop being Christians in large numbers? I have relatives who believe that within 3-5 generations without Christianity human behaviour will devolve into a hellscape, and fathers will start initiating their daughters into sex. I have total confidence that this will not happen (at least not commonly – such behaviour will continue to be regarded as aberrant and wicked). Not because I have confidence in any other particular moral code prevailing but because I suspect that most people have a gut instinct for what is fundamentally right and wrong, and that where that instinct is absent reason can fill in the gaps – absent other factors which may cause reason to lapse (such as rigid belief systems, psychological scarring, brain damage and general low intelligence – unfortunately all of these things are fairly common). What might ethics in a post-Christian world look like? Looking to European notions of virtue before Christianity prevailed may give us an idea, as may looking deeper into our own selves.

Roman Virtue

Ancient Roman polytheism was primarily concerned with the proper conduct of ritual rather than personal morality, but meritorious conduct was not entirely divorced from the realm of the religious, as Cicero lets us know in On the Laws. In that work people living in an ideal society are described in the following way:

“Let them worship deities … who have won a place in heaven through their merits, such as Hercules, Liber, Aesculapius, Castor, Pollux and Quirinus; and those qualities through which men may gain access to heaven – Mens <Mind>, Virtus <Virtue>, Pietas <Piety>, Fides <Faith>; of these virtues let there be shrines but none of any of the vices … Let sacrilege committed that cannot be expiated be deemed impious …

Except for the servants of the Magna Mater – and they only on their fixed days – let no one beg for contributions. He who steals or takes away what is sacred or in trust in a public place, let him count as a parricide. For perjury the punishment is destruction from the Gods, shame from men. The pontifices [priests] shall punish incest with the capital penalty … Let them fulfil vows scrupulously … Let them treat their dead kinsfolk as divine. Let there be limits to expenditure and mourning for them [cited in Beard, North and Price, Vol 2, at 353-355]”.

From this we see that Cicero condemned begging, stealing, killing family members, lying under oath, incest and excessive mourning rites. He praised:

• The healthy mind, which a Roman would understand to include intelligence and mental courage.
• Piety, meaning unflinching devotion and loyalty to family, friends, country and Gods.
• Faithfulness, by which is meant trustworthiness and reliability.

Polytheism for Beginners

"For Karin's Name Day" by Larsson (1899)

After over a decade of being consciously polytheistic I think perhaps it is possible that I may have some useful advice for people new to polytheism. All of the advice below comes from years of studying mostly Roman and Germanic sources, as well as some others (such as Celtic polytheism, Buddhism and Hinduism), as well as my lived experience.

There is no one and true way

The first and most important piece of advice I can give is to completely ignore anything that follows if it does not resonate for you. I am not a guru, and I suggest you be wary of anyone else who holds that they have discovered the one and true way to be a polytheist. Polytheism does not just imply a plethora of Gods but also a plethora of approaches to the divine.

There are no texts which are the polytheistic equivalent to the Bible

Polytheism predates literacy and flowered in an age of limited literacy. Therefore there are no texts that should be regarded as absolutely authoritative. The closest you can get to this in Germanic polytheism is the Havamal, which is part of the Elder Edda (also known as the Poetic Edda). If you are new to Germanic polytheism I suggest reading The Saga of the Volsungs, then the Elder Edda (because many of the poems relate to the story of the Saga of the Volsungs). If you want something really easy to read then the Prose Edda is a great starting point, though fallible. 

In Roman polytheism there is nothing quite like the Havamal, in terms of spiritual guidance, but if you can get a handle on Ovid’s Fasti and Cicero’s On the Nature of the Gods you will learn a great deal - though neither of these texts are particularly easy to read for beginners. A good beginners text is Beard, North and Price’s Religions of Rome: A Sourcebook, and to get an overview of the Roman mindset Shelton’s As the Romans Did is great. There are a number of good scholarly books dealing with Roman polytheism but they tend to focus on Roman polytheism as a State religion, with only glimpses of how polytheism would have been experienced by ordinary Romans. Of ancient texts Ovid’s Metamorphoses is perhaps the easiest bridge to understanding Roman polytheism, as well as Apuleius’ The Golden Ass. 

Aesculapius – God of Medicine

"A sick child brought into the temple of Aesculapius" by Waterhouse (1877)

Mythological origins of Aesculapius

In the Roman tradition Aesculapius is the God of medicine. Myth proclaims him as the son of the God of healing (Apollo); the father of the Goddess of good health (Salus);* a favourite of the Goddess of skilfulness (Minerva, who gifted him the blood of Medusa, which could restore the dead to life), and as a child he was said to have been a student of Chiron – a centaur renowned for his wisdom and skill as a doctor. There are a number of stories associated with Aesculapius, most of them Greek in origin, like the God himself. In The Nature of the Gods Cicero (1st century BC) tells us:

“As for the sundry figures called Aesculapius, the first is the son of Apollo and is worshipped by the Arcadians; he is said to have invented the probe, and to have been the first to use splints for healing. The second is that [he is] the brother of Mercury mark two. The story goes that he was struck by lightning, and that he is buried at Cynosura. The third, the son of Arsippus and Arsinoe, was reportedly a pioneer in the application of purgatives and the extraction of teeth. His tomb and grove are open to inspection in Arcadia [3.57]”.

In the same work Cicero informs us that Aesculapius was not born to Godhead, but was one of those “men who conferred outstanding benefits [and so] were translated to heaven through their fame and our gratitude … These men were duly regarded as Gods because their souls survived to enjoy eternal life, for they were both outstandingly good and immortal”. Other examples of men who became Gods include Hercules, Liber, Romulus and the brothers Castor and Pollux (Cicero, 2.62). The most popular story of the apotheosis of Aesculapius describes how he brought back to life Hippolytus, who had been killed in a chariot crash; Jupiter then struck Aesculapius dead in retaliation for disrupting the natural order.

“Hippolytus, after [being] … torn apart by stampeding horses … came again to the heavenly stars, and the upper air beneath the sky, recalled by Apollo’s herbs and Diana’s love. Then the all-powerful father, indignant that any mortal should rise from the shadows to the light of life, hurled Aesculapius, Apollo’s son, the discoverer of such skill and healing, down to the Stygian waves [Virgil, The Aeneid, 7.641-782]”.

Pax and the Roman Understanding of Peace

3rd century denarius depicting Pax 
(moneymuseum.com)

The worship of the Goddess Pax (Peace) in ancient Rome first comes to prominence during the reign of Augustus, when in 13 BCE the Senate commissioned the Ara Pacis Augustae (Altar of the Augustan Peace) to mark the safe return of Augustus from Gaul and Spain. Significantly, it was dedicated on the Campus Martius (field of Mars), which until the 1st century BCE had been used primarily as a military exercise ground. This is a powerful hint as to how ancient Romans understood Pax, ie, that Pax and Mars have a relationship with each other. In the Roman mind, Mars (war) establishes the necessary conditions for Pax (peace) to flourish.

“One of the legacies of the classical world is the belief that a secure peace can be obtained only through war … Cicero … said: ‘If we wish to enjoy peace, we must wage war. If we fail to wage war, peace we shall never enjoy.’ … The Romans believed that war and peace alternated as cause and effect. The civil wars broke out because of the extravagance that followed the wake of earlier wars. The luxury and prosperity of the late Roman Republic and Empire, and the enervating effects of peace effeminated its citizens and made them the prey of barbarian invaders … 

The Roman concept of peace was fragmented. One way of looking at this is to remember that during the regal and republican periods of history there was no God or Goddess who personified peace. While it is true that Saturn was said to have established the Golden Age, a time of peace and harmony, and that no war could be declared during the festival of Saturnalia, the Golden Age was no more. Peace was an abstract … concept that was imported into Rome and personified as a Goddess. At the same time, there were several [long established] deities who personified war, such as Mars and Minerva … 

Another way of looking at the slow development of the Roman concept of peace is to examine the changing meanings of the word pax. According to the Oxford Latin Dictionary, pax originally meant a pact between individuals, or a blessing conferring freedom from divine anger … Pax took on the meaning of a broad concept or policy only in the time of Augustus with the Pax Romana, a state of tranquility within those parts of the empire that had been pacified … the classical Roman concept of peace assumed that peace must be preceded by a total victory imposed by the victors, which assumes the existence of war … Augustus had derived the concept of peace from the Greek Goddess Eirene, who had been known to the Greeks since the time of Hesiod [8th-7th century BCE]. Although the Greeks had fought their wars ferociously, they, and the other city-states of the ancient Greek world, had generally restored peace through negotiated peace treaties rather than demanding total victory … [By contrast, a] Roman peace treaty was imposed on enemies after a crushing victory … Roman coins often depict Pax linked to the Goddess Victoria, with the latter wielding a sword and shield and displaying war trophies. This reinforced the idea that peace was something to be imposed, hence the motto Mars pacifier [Manning at 31-32]”.