Ørlög, Wyrd & Hamingja

[WayFarer]

Greetings all. I thought I would post this as a different way to understand a few concepts that can be hard to get a good handle on. Perhaps through discussion it can be refined further.

Orlog are the roads/highways of life. They have been laid out long before you decided to get up and drive to work or wherever you are planning on going.

Wyrd are the way you're driving while heading to the destination you had planned out.

Hamingja are the driving conditions and variables. It doesn't change your plans, but it makes the trip either harder or easier.

Orlog
You want to go on a vacation. You pick your destination and start driving. Well the road you wanted to take might be closed for repairs, or wiped out by a flood or snowstorm or whatever. You have to deal with that.

Wyrd
You can "go with the flow" and take easier routes or be adventurous and take the path less taken. What you have the opportunity to see and do along the way is decided by this choice.

Hamingja
So you've been a courteous driver. Maybe you've even helped someone with a flat or gave them a lift to get gas along your way. Maybe if you get a flat someone stops and helps you... or maybe not.

You (free will) decided the route you wanted to take, but you did not decided where (or if) things/objects/views would be placed along the road. Or for that matter where the road is (has been laid) in the first place. You may have made your choices based on what you thought should be at a certain place if you head down that way. But maybe it was closed or burned down or something. -Outside of your control.- Maybe you get a flat tire. (hardship) and you have no spare or it is flat. Well what are you going to do? Sit around and wait for help or start walking? (cell phone dead area) Maybe somebody stops and helps you. Maybe you start walking to get to a gas station you passed to get help. Along the way you find a $100 dollar bill along the highway, or maybe you twist your ankle half way there. Lots of maybes that may or may not change your life, but they can make the trip either easier or harder.

The Gods are like the entities that are there because the road is there. Cops, highway department workers, emergency personnel or whatever. Sometimes they can help you on your way, sometimes maybe they stop you in your tracks. They are there for a different reason that we are. They have different rules. You can ask for their help and get it so long as something more pressing isn't on there agenda... and if they want to. Sometimes all your asking and pleading wouldn't change a thing. It depends.

 

[GiantHouseKey]

Greetings

I've been known to use analogy to its death in the past. I like to use analogies to help better explain concepts that might be difficult to understand (Like you said)...

...The main problem I have here is... I don't actually know what they are in regular explanation. Analogies can help me understand, but I need to have some sort of understanding of what they are in terms of reality, rather than analogy, for it to work

So, saying that, in all my ignorance, can you please explain the above terms for me? Because the 2 different analogous forms of explanation you've used for each term don't seem to connect together in my brain at the moment, and they seem interesting

GhK.

 

[WayFarer]

Sorry about that. I may have been putting the cart before the horse there.

Orlog is thought to be the original law which is beyond our (or the Gods' laws -even they are bound to it) (in another variation it is "Orlay"). This law was lain down by that which created the universe. Typical Asatru creation stories talk about the creation of this cycle. How this cycle got started, that is. Long story short the universe was split up at the end of the last cycle between Muspelheim (the land/realm of Fire) and Niflheim (the land/realm of Ice) and the empty space in between was called Ginnungigap. The fire and ice moved towards each other as they did primordial beings thawed and the processes that brought forth this cycle came into being. Why did Muspelheim and Niflheim come close enough to cause this? It was Orlog. Who created Orlog (from a classical Asatru perspective) is unknown/lost in previous world/time cycles.

Wyrd is kind of a version of karma that plays out in this life. It is your actions and the (spiritual/cosmic) reactions to those actions.

The influence of the Hamingja is felt as luck. The Hamingja are kind of like a guardian spirit/angel and stay with you throughout your life. - In most cases if you do something so bad as to be horrendous/unforgivable they leave you and you are lost. - They try to advise you (conscience) and are with you as your defense attorney (so to speak) when you die and go before the Judgment of the Gods to face your doom. (Doom just means judgment.)

Another way to look at it is that the universe is unfolding like a tapestry. A tapestry being created for the original Creator who started everything/created Orlog. With individual lives being the threads. Your Wyrd (actions and reactions to those actions) bring you in contact with other threads and parts of the pattern that makes designs. The better your actions the more prominent your part in the overall design. Orlog is the plan of what the tapestry should look like in the end. And the Hamingja tries to help make your being woven into the tapestry the best way possible for you.

I hope this was a bit more helpful for getting a handle on a few of the concepts. I guess I just jumped into the middle of that one. Sorry about that.

 

[GiantHouseKey]

That makes much more sense than your original explanations

Thank you

GhK.