The Third Industrial Revolution: How Lateral Power is Transforming Energy, the Economy, and the World

The Third Industrial Revolution: How Lateral Power is Transforming Energy, the Economy, and the World by Jeremy Rifkin  (Palgrave Macmillan 2011)

This is a very important and very new book by a stellar economic and futuristic thinker and activist. This book is about our changing situation and how it might re-manifest into a new form. Revolutions according to Rifkin are centered around new forms and relationships of energy and communications. This book is Rifkin’s “narrative” as to how this new post-carbon ‘Collaborative Age” may come about.

Rifkin sees this change coming about over the next 50 years give or take. The hierarchical and centralized business models are slowly giving way to what he calls ‘distributive business practices’ and what he calls ‘lateral power.’ This lateral power is a collaborative power. One important venue for the unleashing of this collaborative power is in the joining of internet technology and renewable energy. The possibilities for the new “smart grids” to collect and distribute energy, he says, will be a big factor in making these new relationships.

He notes that oil prices are based ultimately on supply and supply is dwindling and finite so prices continue to rise overall and this affects prices for food and our other basic needs. Eventually a tipping point will come when renewable energy sources will be more rewarding, especially to implement on the small scale in localized and regional networks. This is already happening all over Europe and some in the US but as technology gradually gets better and fossil fuel supply drops more it will be developed to greater degrees of input and efficiency. Actually I think it may take a little more than the 50 years but this depends on overall demand for energy around the world.

Rifkin refers to the so-called financial crisis that began in July 2008 as “peak globalization.”  This he calls the limit of economic growth in the fossil fuel age. He also calls this “global peak oil per capita,” which means ‘peak oil’ when averaged among the people on the earth. Actual peak oil production for the entire world is predicted sometime between 2010 and 2035 depending on who you ask. It may have occurred in 2006 as the International Energy Agency (IAE) states. But peak oil per capita is thought to have happened back in 1979 so according to that scenario the whole Second Industrial Revolution dependent on fossil fuels peaked then and has since been declining.

Rifkin describes the newer generation growing up with “social media” as living in world where the emphasis is on “transparency, collaborative behavior, and peer-to-peer relations.” He sees the recent upheavals in the Middle East as the transformation from patriarchal power structures to lateral power – being powered in a big way by the networking potential of the internet and social media. He says that the Second Industrial Revolution also peaked in the 1980’s with the completion of the Interstate Highway System in the U.S. when construction in suburbia bloomed. The communication revolution of the 1990s did not totally pan out and so the dot com bubble burst and later when people began spending more of their savings the sub-prime mortgages were offered with no downpayments which resulted in the current crisis. Of course, these were predatory lending practices offered to people who should have known better. Anyway, he says all this – including the current unemployment problems, is due to the deceleration of the Second Industrial Revolution. He calls the “entropy bill” for the Second Industrial Revolution the global warming thought to be occurring. Rifkin, along with many scientists and policy makers, makes the assumption that global warming and uncontrollable climate change is happening at full tilt with all the potential accelerations and catastrophic effects. Whether this is happening at such a rate or not it is certain that fossil fuel pollutes, is finite, and is likely to increase in cost as time goes on.

Obama’s vision of a green economy seems to have fluttered – perhaps bogged down by pilot projects and siloed programs. Pilot projects do not get the advantages of ‘scale up’ and so costs are typically higher at the pilot level. The ‘silo effect’ refers to isolated (usually pilot) projects that don’t incorporate synergies and holistic input.

Rifkin notes that steam power and printing merged in a First Industrial Revolution to create fast and cheap newsprint which resulted in mass literacy with public schooling further aiding a literate work force. The Second Industrial Revolution resulted from the convergence of electrical communication and the oil-powered internal combustion engine. Cars, electrified mass production factories, telephones and their infrastructure, radio, and television – then the highway networks and the population settling along their nodes – complete the picture. In the Third Industrial Revolution (TIR), “... hundreds of millions of human beings will be generating their own green energy in their homes, offices, and factories and sharing it with one another across intelligent distributed electricity networks – an intergrid – just like people now create their own information over the internet and share it on the Internet.”

He gives the five pillars of TIR as: “1) shifting to renewable energy; 2) transforming the building stock of every continent into micro-power plants to collect renewable energies on-site; 3) deploying hydrogen and other storage technologies in every building and throughout the infrastructure to store intermittent energies; 4) using Internet technology to transform the power grid of every continent into an energy-sharing intergrid that acts just like the Internet and; 5) transitioning the transport fleet to electric plug-in and fuel cell vehicles that can buy and sell electricity on a smart, continental, interactive power grid.” This all requires massive investment and initially the rewards will not be big – but gradually they will grow.

Rifkin sees “grid parity” – where the cost to generate renewable energy becomes the same as the cost to generate an equivalent amount of fossil fuel energy – happening in Europe in 2012 and maybe a bit later here as Europe is way ahead on TIR infrastructure. The mix of renewable energies includes solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, and biomass. Ethanol is not included in biomass since it takes as much energy to make it as it puts out. “Feed-in tariffs” have given green energy providers a price advantage. The observation that fossil fuels are only in certain places but green energy is available everywhere (though in differing amounts) makes it potentially attractive as a universal pastime. Wind farms and solar parks will no doubt be built but so too will renewable energy collection and distribution systems in most business and residential areas. Another incentive is the “green mortgage” where solar or other renewable energy would qualify one for reduced interest rates and later when payback on the renewable system is reached, that along with sellback to the utility could be leveraged against the mortgage. Creating the massive infrastructure would create many construction and installation jobs and create “millions of mini energy entrepreneurs.”

The third pillar – energy storage – is key to this set-up working but is yet to be established with any certainty and in any mass way. Presumably the technology is available (although Rifkin does not seem to make this clear) it just has to be implemented, better tested, and then mass implemented. Storage via hydrogen will make the so-called “net zero metering” more of a profitable reality.

Smart grids are essential for measurement and reduction of waste – for most utility systems – electric and water in particular. These are good investments for many reasons and will be implemented throughout the world as time goes on. Energy trading via internet could be profitable in bits as if and when prices change due to differing demand at various times of the day or in different weather. The best time to sell back to the grid would be at peak usage times which would also be the best time to conserve. The early idea was for a ‘centralized smart grid’ but now a ‘distributed smart grid’ seems more useful in that digitalized information can be up-to-the-minute. Advance electronic controls to allow the quick movement of these bursts of energy from storage to the grid will be required. IBM is a leader here as they are in water recycling technologies. Another notion that would likely happen is that of “unbundling” or “separation of the supply and retail business from the monopoly infrastructure.” This unbundling – particularly of the generation and transmission sides of the utilities, along with the mini energy entrepreneurs would be akin to the “democratization of energy” and the breakup of centralized utility monopolies. I don’t think this will happen quickly and without opposition and some chaos. New business models are required for these processes where energy management and information management become specialized. Apparently, IBM’s plan is for a reformist smart grid in the states and a revolutionary one in Europe who is ahead in development of a TIR infrastructure as well as being a more suitable venue for distributed power system.

The fifth pillar – plug-in transport – further turns the micro-power plants into electric and fuel cell vehicle charging docks. Parking lots and garages could be outfitted with charging docks as well as the $1000 residential ones that could soon be sold. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have energy storage capacity and could potential sell energy back to the grid when the price is right for a net gain. So in the final set-up the five pillars are synergized and optimized.

Rifkin goes on to give many examples of meetings of government heads and business leaders in Europe and of specific projects in Rome, San Antonio, the small kingdom of Monaco, and the city of carbon-zero city of Utrecht in the Netherlands. Each area has its own strengths, weakness, and idiosyncrasies.

Rifkin refers to fossil fuels as ‘elite’ simply because they are found in select places but also they spawned an elite form of management to assure their availability and control. This required mass concentrations of capital and worked well with a top-down centralized hierarchichal power structure. He goes through the history of discovery then the building of infrastructure – particularly the railroad systems – which employed many people and made possible many new enterprises. The telegraph emerged alongside the railroad. This allowed massive flow of commerce and decreased transaction costs. The result was the proliferation of brand name products (the same ones that are poisoning us now) and bigger business chain stores that could build up massive inventories and ship them all over. Economies of scale arose. Workers and management were separated and worker efficiency was optimized. This was the centralized and rationalized business model. This model carried over from the First to the Second Industrial Revolution as oil companies, auto companies, and telephone companies jumped into the model. Profitability eventually led to a very wealthy elite that increased manifold from 1980 till now with big CEO pay – this made possible the 1% that OWS is now rightfully complaining about. Trickle down theories aside there is an obvious disproportionate benefit to these top managers.

According to Rifkin the new lateral and distributed energy regime that will arise will lead to a more equitable sharing of wealth. He goes through many of the changing business models that have arrived in recent years and beyond: the open-source movements, various media-sharing networks, information networks, social media and cyberspace commons, etc. Home energy production and marketing, so-called 3-D printing where people actually manufacture products at home with machines, and marketing of such products through on-line shops like Etsy could also spur profitable home businesses. He also mentions the personalization of relationships between buyer and seller through on-line networking and dialogue and conferences. The idea here is “empathic consciousness” to reestablish a sense of community in the worlds of business. This is in line with the TIR model of collaborative business practices. Micro-loans are another tool that has proven to be a great means to empower the poorest peoples and improve their living standards and ability to produce for their livelihood. This is more applicable to the poorer third world countries. This has proven to be a win-win for both lenders and borrowers. Other things he mentions are things like community-supported agriculture (CSAs), Zipcars and other urban car-sharing businesses, ‘couch-surfing’ – the networking of travelers and hosts who they stay with on their travels, and performance contracting and other shared savings agreements where efficiency and the eventual savings from renewable energy are built into contracts so that costs of greening will be mitigated and eventual benefits shared. Another model is that of ‘social business’ where profits are partially diverted to benefit the underserved.

He makes some interesting notes about the illusions of our so-called free market capitalism. He points out that government has always been involved in business and gives many examples including the developments of the highway system, the telephone/telecom business and infrastructure, and suburban housing construction via FHA loans. He also notes that that relationship was often hidden – particularly in the American version, perhaps to paint the illusion that the economic ideology (ie. free market capitalism) is the reason for success. The duality of capitalism good and socialism bad is illusory and detrimental and hides the fact that in practice all is a mix of these two theoretical ideological extremes. The power of financial influence and lobbying is well attested and a rightfully protested. We seem to demand a separation of market and state yet allow uncontrolled corporate influence of elections. Rifkin even suggests that our notions of Calvinism and hatred of big government contribute to a model of corporate greed where all regulation is seen as evil socialism. In contrast, he describes the nature of Third Industrial Revolution as:

“... an open and transparent collaboration between government, business, and civil society, which represents the interests of all the American people, not just those of a corporate elite.”

Not only are new business models emerging but also are new ways of thinking about politics. The tired American two party left vs. right system has long been dead in Europe. Rifkin talks about his meetings with Spanish president Zapatero and Zapatero’s new wave style of thinking that saw the need to dissolve the old hierarchy that was supported by the ethnic “machismo” of the culture. Network access to internet and social media has served to break down the ‘old orders’ of many types as people see that there are better and more functional ways to interact. Rifkin goes through many of his meetings in Europe with high level political people and heads of state and notes their variable political affiliations showing that overall a more flexible political foundation is becoming more necessary. It seems to me that in the US this duality has endured due to the greater apparent success of the economy and the lack of overall flexibility of the population. Rifkin thinks that the powerful big energy lobbies have slowed green energy development in America. This may well be so but ‘timing’ could also be a factor as green energy is not quite optimal yet in technological capability and cost effectiveness to be implemented on a mass scale.

Next he asserts the advantages of “continentalism” over “globalization.” Continents are connected by land and so by solid access and so continent-wide networks and models make better economic sense than global connections in several venues. This has the potential to function in business and politics as trans-regional unions are developed and refined. The European Union, the Asean Union, the African Union, the South American Union, and various pieces of a North American Union concept are examples. Here regions with similar geographic and cultural features are a natural fit for economic and infrastructure integration. A big feature of Rifkin’s vision is a transformation from ‘geopolitics’ to ‘biosphere politics.’ The biosphere is the region from the ocean floor to outer space. We may each own bits of the globe but we all share the biosphere as its processes know no geopolitical boundaries. Sharing the biosphere, he says, will foster “biosphere consciousness.”

Next we have Rifkin’s analysis of economic theory. He notes the vast influence of Adam Smith and his theories that synch with Newtonian physics with the supply and demand equilibrium being akin to equal and opposing forces cancelling one another out. But Rifkin notes that: “...real economic activity is all about the irreversibility of events – how energy and material resources are harnessed, transformed, utilized, used up, and discarded.”

Rifkin sees economics as more in tune with the – Second Law of Thermodynamics – which states that the total energy in a system is constant and that entropy always increases. Entropy is a term referring to degree of disorder or chaos in a system, originally referring to “energy that is no longer usable.” Several economists and theorists including Rifkin himself have written tomes about the relationship between economics and entropy. Energy ends up used up and discarded in all economic processes. Indeed, all biological activity results in net entropic gain. Acceleration of used up energy may lead to undesired climate change. Therefore efficiency and reduction of waste are helpful in reducing entropy – and in many cases in saving money as well. Rifkin refers to an “entropy bill” in terms of climate change, pollution, and destruction of ecosystems that is beginning to gradually become due so that all of our perceived profitability in the early Industrial Revolutions was somewhat illusory. Here is an interesting quote regarding our delicate relationship (as consumers) with nature:

“From a thermodynamic perspective, the most important lesson we can learn is how to budget our consumption patterns to conform with nature’s recycling schedules, so that we can live more sustainably on Earth.”

He mentions the idea of “biomimicry” – studying and imitating nature in order to achieve synergy and symbiosis with it. Increasing energy efficiency and reducing waste – I think – is a very key issue in sustainability – one of the most important. TIR smart grids will greatly increase efficiency and reduce waste as well as to provide further incentives to keep this up. Infrastructure improvements to commercial and residential buildings are also key to increasing energy efficiency. Initials costs of laying in TIR infrastructure are high – and this initial cost will likely delay its implementation – but efficiency improvements and better management will eventually result in sustained payback – especially with a boost of technological developments.

Ownership of property was a key point in the First and Second Industrial Revolutions, a core feature of capitalism, as Rifkin says. In tracing the history of property he notes that hunter-gatherer societies put little emphasis on property and that with the advent of agriculture, settled societies, and trade surpluses – property gained in importance. He thinks that access to “vast global networks” is replacing private property rights as a value. This breaks down the notion that humans are foremost competitive, selfish, and predatory as early Darwinian biology asserted. More and more we are finding that compassion and empathy and the collaboration and caring that it brings about – are just as human, perhaps even more so. Access is where it’s at and we are less and less willing to tolerate blocking of access to the networks that provide economic and educational possibilities and that are tending to break down outdated political modes. Internet has cut down on newspaper and magazine influence. Sharing of biological and genetic discoveries in ‘open-source commons’ has bettered scientific and technological collaboration. Many of us want free and open access to renewable energy. Social capital in the form of access to collaborative networks – or access to sharing on such networks – may well replace (at least partially) financial capital generated in the form of transaction of property. Already we see – network subscriptions – where we can share, use, and get some financial advantages  - winning out over simply buying and owing a product. Mark-ups/transaction costs and middle men are eliminated. Sharing is more in line with the reality of our finite transient lives than the illusion of ownership – so in that sense it is a more intuitive relationship of consumer with product. So I guess instead of being consumers we become subscribers. We are temporary users, time-sharers. In this sense property remains in the hands of the supplier and ideas of planned obsolescence fall away as it becomes in the best interest of the producer to make a product that functions as long as possible. The bottom line is that access is eclipsing ownership.

Rifkin makes an important observation that “quality of life” is replacing the old American Dream of independence, wealth, autonomy, and success:

“The dream of quality of life can only be collectively experienced. It is impossible to enjoy a quality of life in isolation and by excluding others. Achieving a quality of life requires active participation by everyone in the life of the community and a deep sense of responsibility by every member to ensure that no one is left behind.”

So in this scenario social wealth/health increases in importance over economic wealth/health.

Rifkin speaks also of a new scientific worldview where nature is seen as a series of relationships rather than as objects. Thus there is shift from making nature productive to making it sustainable. He sees this shift from productivity to generativity as our species re-integrating with the overall biological/ecological systems.

Next he tackles the needed restructuring of education. He notes that smart grid management is being integrated into cirriculums. Educating for productivity is being eclipsed by educating for ideas of newer times.

He gives an interesting progression of societal consciousnesses through time. Hunter-gatherers had mythological consciousness. Agricultural societies organized around writing developed theological consciousness. The First Industrial Revolution centered around print, steam, and coal changed into an ideological consciousness. Electronic communication brought about psychological consciousness. Today, he says that the convergence of distributed information and communication technologies and renewable energy is beginning to lead to biosphere consciousness. Since we are all part of a shared biosphere it should then be beneficial if we oriented our systems to this acknowledgement. We can then celebrate our interconnectivity in new and exciting ways. He notes that empathy is what provides for the coherence for us to look upon one another as familiar – friend rather than foe. He sees Homo empathicus as the next stage of the human. Many have suggested that we have become separated from nature due to differentiation and specialization of our daily tasks brought about by settled then urban society. Biosphere consciousness involves reintegrating with nature, thinking ‘ecopsychologically’ – seeing ourselves as part of a bigger system, or cultivating our ‘ecological self’ or reestablishing our ‘biophilia’ connection. Rifkin (and others) suggests that our social evolution has increased our self-awareness through time and thus has also increased our capacity for empathic behavior:

“The growing self-awareness of the human race is the psychological mechanism that allows empathy to grow and flourish. As we become increasingly aware of our individuality, we come to realize that our life is unique, unrepeatable, and fragile.”

This realization allows us to empathize with the life journey of others. One available aspect of empathic education is increased importance of community service, volunteerism, counseling, tutoring, and otherwise socializing with those who can be benefited by such contact. The dualistic model of teacher transferring knowledge to student is thus taking new forms other than this “top-down, one-to-one” set-up. The objectivity of knowledge also breaks down on closer inspection and so too are our methods of teaching and learning becoming more imbued with the subjective. Rifkin refers to ‘lateral learning’ where empathic sensibilities are emphasized.

He has an interesting section called – Rethinking Work – which suggests that in the future work will be defined differently. He lists the four areas where people engage in work as: market, government, informal economy, and, civil society. Market employment he thinks will continue to shrink as smart technology gets better and better. Government work should shrink for the same reasons. He thinks civil society, or ‘third sector’ employment will see big increases. Work for non-profits, NGOs, and CSOs (civil society organizations) is apparently way up. Rifkin suggests that the collaborative and empathic nature of such ventures is attractive to the internet generation.

This book offers very much to think about and is just as the author suggests – a narrative of what the emerging future might be like. There is as of yet much uncertainty and though things may end up being much different than the scenarios he lays out – I have yet to see a more thorough, detailed, and holistic attempt at what our economic future might be like. I hope he is right about increased empathic abilities developing among humans although there is still way too much cruelty in the world. I am currently reading his previous book which is a huge tome called – The Empathic Civilization.

Vedic Ecology: Practical Wisdom for Surviving the 21st Century

Book Review: Vedic Ecology: Practical Wisdom for Surviving the 21^st Century  by Ranchor Prime (Mandala Publishing 2002)

This is a beautiful book with beautiful content. It was originally published in 1992 as -  Hinduism and Ecology - and this is an updated and expanded edition with thick pages and beautiful black and white textured-style illustrations.

The author compares our present position in relation to the environment with that of Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita where he is about to begin a large battle with his own relatives as opponents. Arjuna’s dilemma is whether to fight this battle where he is justifiably defending. The current environmental dilemma of humans is whether to continue full force with consumerism and non-sustainable practices.

The basis of this book is the promotion of a simple life less intertwined with industrialism. In the developed countries this is only possible in a limited sense as we are so permeated with industrial society – but in places like the rural parts of India this is still possible. Indeed this is what Gandhi advocated as he warned against full industrialization for India.

The idea of an “ecosystem’ is inherent in the Hindu idea that the whole world is a forest. The author interviews and conveys the ideas of Banwari, a modern advocate of returning the forests and maintaining them in the tradition manner. Banwari mentions the three types of forests: shirivan – the forest that provides resources and prosperity; tapovan – the forest where sages contemplate; and mahavan – the great forest that shelters all species and is left to them. Since the value of trees to the ecosystem is unquestionable the notion of leaving sections of forest uncleared is a very good model. At the village level the ‘forest of prosperity’ was managed by a council of five elders. The health of the village relied on sustainable forest resource development. Temples also became stewards of ancient sacred trees – many that produce fruit such as mangoes. The ‘forest of sages’ was a place where spiritual endeavors could be pursued without the distraction in the villages. The early teachings of Hinduism and Buddhism come from the Upanishads and the Aranyakas – teachings of forest-dwelling sages and ascetics. Apparently, large swathes of forests were cut down in India to feed the industrial revolution of the British Empire – even up through WWII. Banwari and others hope to rekindle the traditional veneration of trees, particularly at the village level where each small village was once said to maintain five trees representing the five elements.

 The author next tells the story of Sevak Sharan, a retired electrical engineer, who in keeping with Hindu custom decides to devote the latter part of his life to spiritual practices on his small plot at the edge of the pilgrimage trail of Vrindavan. He had studied the Vaishnava texts and noted that Krishna and his consort Radharani are the presiding deities over the twelve forests of Vrindavan. Sevak notes that traditionally there was a balance struck between human settlements, forests, and water resources. Traditionally in this area of Vrindavan, ponds, or tanks were constructed to catch rainwater, particularly from the monsoon season. Many of these were decorated and maintained by temples and pilgrims as some factored into the lives of great saints. With the advent of piped water they have been neglected. Typically they were surrounded by trees to keep them from being evaporated too quickly. The rainwater gullies designed to fill the tanks have instead been reverted to sewage removal. Sevak advocates dismantling this and re-establishing the old rainwater collection systems and re-planting the trees around them. The author elucidates Sevak’s – Seven Steps of Human Ecology – as a progression of phases of our awareness of our relationship to nature:

1) Forest Splendor – knowing the value of nature and so venerating it – seeing the whole world as a forest; 2) Spirituality – knowing that we are a part of nature and nurturing ourselves as nature; 3) Culture – as an expression of spirituality – endeavoring for culture to be in harmony with nature; 4) Heritage – how we pass on the values of culture; 5) Pilgrimage – learning about culture and heritage by meeting it face to face; 6) Human Welfare – knowing that natural welfare and human welfare are inseparable; 7) Human Ecology – developing the full conception of our relationship to nature as a part of it.

The author has worked with Sevak to help implement many positive changes in the sacred area of Vrindavan which are outlined in the last chapter.

The next few chapters are traditional Vaishnava teachings beginning with the creation of universes as Vishnu’s Dream. Vaishnavas regard Vishnu as the Supreme Being, as the Cosmic Person, the Purusha. He spans the cosmos and is part of all. He is said to be present in three ways: 1) as the originator of all creation; 2) as an agent in all of nature as the secondary creators, the devas; 3) as the Supersoul (Paratman) in man alongside the individual soul (jivatman). He is also venerated as Krishna, as his personality aspect. A Vedic hymn called the Purusha Sukta describes the universal form of Vishnu as the Cosmic Person. This hymn is recited or sung during the worship of the shalagram, small smooth round black stones with circular markings gathered from a remote lake in the Himalayas. These are said to be the seed of Vishnu and so are venerated as an embodiment of Vishnu. Indeed the veneration of natural things (and making of statues and icons from them) as deity is as well a method of worshipping nature. The Tulsi Basil plant is also venerated as Vishnu. The author suggests that Vishnu and Vishnu as Krishna can be considered the god of nature. Also god of nature, as in most other cultures is the notion of Mother Earth, called in India, the goddess Prithvi. The author gives the “Hymn to the Earth” from the Atharva Veda – the last section of which notes that all beings are residents of the same house, the Earth.

Vishnu is said to incarnate when the spirituality of humans is out of balance in order to re-balance things. In the lore there are the stories of the Ten Avatars of Vishnu. These are as the Fish – to protect the world in a great flood (much like the Noah’s Ark story), as the Turtle - to be the foundation for the churning of the Nectar of Immortality, as the Boar – to save the earth from a greedy demon who mined so deep for gold that the earth fell out of balance, as the Man-Lion hybrid (Narasingha) – to protect the Vishnu-devoted son of a demon who tried to kill him, as the Dwarf (Vamana) – who protected the universe from the demon-king Bali, as the Warrior – who came to slay the warriors of the world so that war would wane, as the Ideal King (Rama) – who killed the demon Ravana and rescued Sita with the help of Hanuman (as recounted in the Ramayana), as the Cowherd (Balaram) – the brother of Krishna – who carried a plow so representing farmers and the management of the Yamuna River, as the World Teacher (Buddha) – who is said to have taught ahimsa, or non-violence, abstaining from meat, and control of the mind, and finally as the Slayer (Kalki)- who is said to have not yet appeared but will come to slay the wicked leaders at the end of the wicked age, called Kali Yuga.

It is said that in Hinduism there are three venerations: the cow, the tree, and the spiritual teacher (Brahmin). Krishna is known as the Cowherd of the Forest. In stories of his earthly incarnation he is not a creator god but an enjoyer of the simplicity of life. Krishna made honor to the earth, the sun, and to trees. He cared for cows, deer, peacocks, and other forest animals and trees.

Next we come to Gandhi and his great urging to return the focus of life in India back to the village level. Here simple and sustainable ways of life could go on without the disruption caused by industrialization. He failed in that regard overall yet there is always room to cultivate these notions alongside modernity. Gandhi urged everyone to spend an hour a day spinning cotton so as to make one’s own clothing. Indeed there is power in doing things such as this – even in something like growing a small garden. Gandhi is known for his advocating of non-violence. This is a principle that can benefit our relationship to all of nature as well. He also advocated for self-rule as self-restraint. If each person could rule himself to refrain from greed then the system would follow. Another of Gandhi-ji’s contributions is the veneration of the dignity of work. In the Bhagavad Gita work is karma yoga. He believed in the equality of humans and also in the economic equality of humans. He promoted reduction of waste. Gandhi was worried about the dangers of the industrial economy. He advocated that Indians withdraw from it. Though this is hardly possible for us now we can do things like boycott the most destructive products and buy those that are healthy. We can use consumer awareness to buy organic, fair-traded, and cruelty-free products. Gandhi saw the real value of the local economy. He thought that the Hindu ideal of cow protection was a great feat of human evolution and a supreme and harmonious ritual of gratitude.

Among Gandhi’s successors are Vinoba Bhave, who founded the Society for Service to the People which teaches caring for land and life at the village level. Also influenced by Gandhi’s vision is Satish Kumar, a Jain monk who was educated and now lives in England. He says his vision is inspired by Sanatan Dharma (Hinduism). He notes the Isa Upanishad as pointing out the sacredness of all of nature. He notes three noble principles of Hindu tradition: Yajna (sacrifice), Dana (giving), and Tapas (penance through self-control). Sacrifice is called the replenishment of the earth.  In many traditions this involves keeping a reciprocal relationship with nature so one practices giving back what one takes. Dana, or giving, he calls the replenishment of society so it could be defined as keeping a reciprocal relationship with society – returning back to society the benefits one has derived from it. Self-control replenishes the soul, says Satish Kumar. Fasting, praying, meditating, maintaining silence, sexual self-restraint, and pilgrimage could all be forms of Tapas. There is a notion in Hindu society that at age 50 one renounces sexuality and focuses in pilgrimage and spirituality. So sacrifice balances the ecology of nature, giving balances the ecology of society, and self-control balances the ecology of the inner life. He notes this notion in the Hindu chant for Peace: “Om shanti, shanti, shanti” (“peace, peace, peace”) where the first shanti is ecological peace, then social peace, and then the spiritual peace within. So it is peace without, among, and within – the three fields of endeavor. He notes the behavioral influence of the inferiority complex among Indians fostered by British rule that keeps them thinking that their traditional behaviors are backward and outdated. This is true of many cultures that were radically transformed by both colonialism and industrialization.

Next is the story of Balbir Mathur, a modern Indian who achieved wealth in America but was still affected by the above mentioned inferiority complex. He had a change of attitude about his life course after attending the Kumbha Mela in 1976 (largest and longest running religious festival on the planet held every twelve years in India). He decided to spend the rest of his life fighting world hunger and planting fruit trees. He began by buying small lemon trees to plant for free for people but found that he was not well-received for the small trees required much care in the hot dry climate. He consulted a local holy man wanting him to bless the trees and his project. The holy man, reluctant at first, said he would on one condition: that the tree planting project would be “an act without consequences,” which means he should do the work without desire for success, for himself or others. This would make the act free of karma. The guru said that if he did things that way he would succeed. Suddenly everyone wanted these blessed trees. He had to be more practical in his selection of the type of trees so as to fit the needs of fitting in small spaces, bearing quick fruit, and adaptable to the soils and climate. He also found that the women of the villages were better at tending the trees so he dealt with them mostly. Now, whenever possible he had the trees blessed and they were presented as prasadam, or spiritual blessing.

Sunderlal Bahugana became the spokesman and messenger for the Chipko movement which began in 1973 as an original “tree hugging” movement to conserve the Himalayan forests that had been diminishing steadily through commercial logging since the early 1800’s. Often the large hardwood oaks and the deodar cedars were replaced by faster growing pine trees that were less desirable environmentally. The forests on the mountain slopes and foothills help to capture the monsoon rains and release them gradually in order to supply year-round water in the plains. Flashfloods, landslides, loss of topsoil, and drying springs were results apparently becoming noticeable in the 1950’s. The movement was populated with poor villagers, many of them women. Gradually there came public support for the movement. Sunderlal fasted in the tradition of Gandhi and eventually the government curtailed logging in some of theses areas. Also, in Gandhi’s tradition, he walked thousands of miles through the countryside taking his message to remote areas and peoples. He also opposed the building of the Tehri Dam across the Bhagarathi- Ganges River. Sunderlal gives his motivation as morality and selflessness as taught in the Bhagavad Gita. According to Sunderlal:

“Your actions should be dictated by your heart, not by your head. The combination of these three – head, hands, and heart – make a balanced personality. These three represent the basic elements of the Gita – Knowledge, Action, and Devotion. The difficulty today is that we have big heads – too much knowledge – so we try to solve all our problems with just knowledge. Unfortunately, our destinies today are being decided by intellectual prophets and technocrats. Modern man has a big head, very feeble hands, and no heart. We are unbalanced. The whole of life is unbalanced. That is the cause of the problems we are facing on every front.”

Sunderlal and the chipkos have employed folk songs and spiritual story-telling festivals in order to keep the movement inspired. He sees the three great enemies as war, pollution, and hunger. He says they are all linked together. Through wanting “more,” countries fight over land and resources to feed progress which pollutes and this progress, in terms of industrial farming, eclipses traditional farming which can increase hunger. His recommendations are: a heart of compassion; a head, or creative mind that can find solutions and; hands which are ready to serve.

Vandana Shiva was a renowned Indian physicist who became an environmental activist, philosopher, and folk hero. She tells her story in this chapter. She started with the Chipko movement and then became interested in traditional agriculture and collection of seeds for seed banks. One of her big interests now is in combating the negative affects of genetically modified seeds. She has advocated using the sacred Neem Tree as an organic  pesticide and has fought against pesticide companies patenting it. She notes the traditional story of the Ganges coming down from the heavens to cure a drought caused by an irresponsible dynasty. Shiva was asked to cushion the fall with his hair:

“It is very clear in the stories that Shiva’s hair refers to the forest of the Himalayas and that the force of the Ganges is the monsoon rains, which can tear apart the mountains.”

She notes the tradition of religious tolerance in India and warns of the dangers of intolerance such as Hindu nationalism. She gives three principles to live by:

1) Wishing for happiness for all – exemplified by the words, “May all beings be happy,”

2) Take only what you need  (here she gives this as a quote from Isa Upanishad)

3) Be a teacher, be a leader, be an example to others

The next chapter acknowledges the spiritual journey of Bhaktivedanta Swami, later to be known by the honorific title “Prabhupad.” He was the well-known spiritual teacher of the Vaishnavas that later became known as the Hare Krishnas and began ISKON. He came to America in old age with no money with only a plan to promote spiritual practices and found a big following. He promoted the spiritual community model of the Ashram, cow protection, a vegetarian diet, organic farming, and self-sufficiency. Although several aspects of this movement later did not keep the morality that he promoted it was mostly the fault of individuals. Detractors and the clash of societies were a problem as well.

The last chapter details the author’s efforts with Sevak Sharan in restoring Krishna’s forests. With the help of WWF and inspiring local people they have made headway in cleaning up the pilgrimage trails around Vrindavan, planting trees, cleaning up sewage problems, and restoring traditional rainwater collection systems. He describes the practices of pilgrimage and parikram, or circumambulation of temples and sacred sites. People have had to start before dawn because there are now so few trees to keep them cool enough in the heat of the day. Most of the trees have been removed for farming and some further away to build retirement homes for people from the cities. The author notes the story of Krishna having to subdue a demon within the Yamuna River that had poisoned it. Nowadays the Yamuna is a very toxic river filled with sewage and industrial runoff. The author sees this as the need of the future – to restore the river, the surrounding forests, and the surrounding villages. Even the new sewage treatment systems are apparently woefully inadequate. Symbolically, restoring these sacred areas could be a great triumph and as well as a great inspiration to others.

I bought this book several years ago when I last visted the Krishna Temple complex in at New Vrindanban in West Virginia.

Beautiful book!

Warrior of Zen: The Diamond-Hard Wisdom Mind of Suzuki Shosan

Book Review: Warrior of Zen: The Diamond-hard Wisdom Mind of Suzuki Shosan    edited, translated, and introduced by Arthur Braverman (Kodansha 1994)

Wonderful book. Shosan taught without bullshit and pretense. His teachings as depicted here come across as bare bones honesty about our situation regardless of what we might want to hear. I am quite sure he annoyed lots of people in his time with his brutal honesty. Even though he criticizes the pretentious Zen of his day he still comes across as utterly sincere and offers much to ponder about what we should be doing with our lives and about becoming free of the influence of Samsara and free of the limitations of our mind and its thoughts.

Shosan (1579-1655) was born just after the end of the Warring States period in Japan when feudal lords were fighting for control of the country. Shosan was born to an old and powerful Samurai family and he and his brothers fought for one of the most prominent lords. He became interested in Zen while traveling around visiting temples during and between war campaigns. After becoming a monk he became disheartened by the then formalized nature of Zen which was apparently less radical than it was in previous times. Shosan spent some time alone in the mountains but decided that that was not the best situation in which to practice – for him and for most people he advocated practicing meditation as a part of worldly and daily life. Although he was a monk he taught a more secular form of Buddhism. He was known for sincerity, compassionate acts such as intervening with his brother Shigenari against government cruelty at the risk of his life, and his promotion of duty among the people. He wrote a text refuting Christianity which had made it to Japan by that time. Shinto and Confucianism had thoroughly mixed with Buddhism but Christianity tended to be intolerant and sought to destroy other religions. Wary of these foreign influences he had hoped that the government would endorse Buddhism as the religion of the people. He practiced Soto Zen but also encouraged the practice of Pure Land Buddhism, encouraging many to chant the nenbutso, the mantra NAMU AMIDA BUTSU which he himself was said to chant endlessly.  He fought against corruption and laziness in the temples often to no avail. His brother Shigenari had a tragic end after failing to convince the government to lower taxes – he was compelled to commit suicide in the traditional manner of “cutting the belly.” Indeed in Shosan’s talks he sometimes would mention alertness as readiness to cut one’s belly.

One idea he was well-known for is that of keeping the “death awareness” in order to raise vital energy and convert it into practice. This became known as “Nio Zazen” – the Nio being the wrathful temple guardians often in statue form at the temple gate with fierce gazing eyes. He presented ways of practice to each of the traditional four classes of Japanese society – Samurai, artisans, farmers, and merchants. He discouraged people from becoming monks due to the corruption he experienced in the monasteries. Shosan, as samurai Zen practitioners before him, emphasized the study of death:

“Put everything aside and only study death. Always study death, free yourself from it, and when death actually comes, you won’t be flustered ....”

He felt that the promise of enlightenment or of rebirth in the Pure Land kept one from experiencing the present. He tended to despise clever arguments as meaningless words. He warned against certification of monks as having kensho, or enlightenment experience. He said that a mind that contemplates impermanence requires a vast amount of energy exerted constantly in order to succeed. The translator notes that:

“The Nio do not practice vigorously with the object of becoming Buddhas. Vigorous practice is their nature; they see delusion everywhere and guard against its attack.”

The selections for this book were drawn from the Roankyu, the Donkey-Saddle-Bridge, a collection of Shosan’s talks in three parts by his disciple Echu. This is only one set of his teachings and emphasizes his main points of keeping the vital energy by constantly thinking of death. He wrote other texts teaching more traditional Zazen and cultivating the “unborn and undying” mind, but he suggests that those practices are less accessible to most people.

Shosan found that his ‘Nio Zazen’ worked well for him and for beginners at the Buddhadharma. He encouraged one to “ hone his vital energy like a Vengeful Spirit.” He compared the ki, or vital energy, of battle required of the samurai to that required to practice dharma. He noted that one should first focus on the Nio, guardians at the temple gate, and then the Fudo, the wrathful deities, before approaching the Tathagata Zazen of the peaceful Buddha. He called the Nio meditation, the ‘warrior’s glare.’

“In the Buddha Way, however, it is the living who make use of their vital energy. Unaware of this, some become gentle, pious, and withdrawn, thinking that this is the Buddha Dharma. Others walk around deranged, there noses in the air, entertaining the meaningless notion that they are enlightened. I know nothing about either piety or enlightenment. Twenty-four hours a day with my buoyant mind I am engaged in conquering all things. Having acquired this unwavering energy of the Nio and Fudo, all of you should practice so that you will overcome the deluded thoughts arising from bad karma.”

“If you want to follow my approach to Buddhist practice, rouse your vital energy, fix your gaze, and acquire the energy of the demon-conquering forms of the Nio and Fudo. Guarding this Nio-mind, you will overcome the delusion created by evil karma. I’ve never heard of anyone since antiquity who has practiced imitating Buddhist images like this. Yet it suits me, and frees me in all my activities.”

“Rather than carrying around your own views, it’s better to arouse death-energy.”

He pointed out that the energy for meditation is the same energy for war, for art, and for work. Periods and sustained habits of undistracted concentration lead to success in all these endeavors. He mentions (as in an above quote) the notion of the ‘buoyant mind.” This he explains:

“The buoyant mind is the mind that longs to enter the lion’s den. It is the mind that presses on, little by little, resolving to fight to the death. Without such vital energy, you will not be able to make use of this mind in different situations.”

He emphasized that while poison could become medicine, medicine could also become poison. Here he was referring to ‘experiences’ of satori, (sudden enlightenment) and the certifiable enlightenment experiences, called kensho, among the monks and institutions. He said therefore he preferred unrealized satori to realized satori. This kensho, or seeing into one’s own nature, he also claimed to have experienced but he noted that experiences come and go only sometimes leaving one with varying amounts of ongoing benefit. He describes some of his meditation experiences, days of blissful feeling, and how these experiences can delude one.

Shosan is often fierce and controversial in his dialogues but his genuine caring and compassionate nature also comes through. He describes when he decided to become a monk in his early forties. As a samurai he could have evoked the wrath of his lord but was lucky. He first shaved his head and went on pilgrimage, sleeping in fields, always disheveled. He practiced in the Risshu, or Precepts sect, performing vigorous physical austerities for a while. (Afterward he noted that performing austerities can take the vital energy practice too far endangering one’s health). This gave him health problems that improved when he changed focuses and ate a better diet. After his health improved he abstained from meat until his death. At first he wanted to retire to the mountains and practice but later he was grateful that he was to practice within society for alone in the mountains – “... I would have become a good practitioner, but remained ignorant of my faults.”

“I surpass others only in my aversion to death. That’s why I practice with the ‘warrior’s glare’. Actually it is because of my cowardice that I have come this far.”

He mentioned the corrupt monks of the day being caught up in preta-mind, or greedy hungry-ghost mind. He warns against attachment to anything at all, including thoughts and the “I”, experiences of satori, and the “bag of worms” that is the body. Attachment is the basis for delusion. Detaching from mind and body, and ‘exhausting the self’ are the practices for overcoming delusion.

He says that we should “live having let go of your lives.” Here he notes that it is easy to let go of life in the heat of battle but not so easy in peaceful circumstances. In this context a major goal of practice is to be able to let go of life, to be able to not hold on to life when death comes. As far as poverty and starvation he says that one would better fear attachment and greed (and the preta-mind it cultivates) than poverty and starvation.

Another practice he recommends to keep the vital energy is to do ‘glaring Zazen’ by fixing the gaze on an image of Bodhidharma – the great sage.

As far as focusing on the faults of others rather than the faults of oneself – as many of us tend to do – even though he does talk about the problems of greed – in answer to a specific questioner he says that:

“When you call someone greedy, you are almost always taking part in the greediness yourself. I have never thought of anyone else as greedy. In this whole world, I think that I alone am greedy.”

In regards to a story about a well-crafted sword he noted:

“Anything whatsoever that is prepared with diligence has value. Religious practice, in particular, demands that you work exhaustively to accumulate merit.”

In regards to excessive drinking (common among some monks and patrons at the time) he noted simply that:

“Practitioners should not enjoy activities that have no real purpose. Moreover, you should immediately cease any wrong actions that will be harmful to you.”

The following quote is his answer to – “What is the True Dharma?” – to which he replies  – The eradication of the “I”:

“Practitioners of wisdom establish a ‘wise I.’ Practitioners of compassion establish a ‘compassionate I.’ Practitioners of meditation establish a ‘zazen I.’ Practitioners of a {particular} viewpoint establish an ‘I’ with that viewpoint. Ordinary people tend to elevate themselves. One is always trying to elevate oneself above others. No matter how humble a person’s position, if he upholds the truth, I will step aside for him.”

“One day in an emotional outburst, he said: “How idiotic! Nobody from a hundred years ago is around today. All traces from them have vanished. But, forgetting this, we desire trivial things and become planners and schemers. What stupidity!”

Regarding our deep level of attachment he noted that:

“I still can’t stop treasuring this bag of dung. The thing that we call existence is deeply ingrained.”

He noted the practices of doing all actions as if one were a Buddha image. Regarding the different images he noted that he had mastered this way of the fierce deities but not yet the “Four-faced Bodhisattva” for he could not yet force his vital energy to operate behind him. As in many of his sayings – he notes the utter difficulty of attaining complete enlightenment and is wearied by the claims of enlightenment around him.

He instructed a dying monk to be at ease and not worry about death as it is natural and not important but to guard the seed he has procured in a life of practice.

As for death meditation he recommends:

“Grit your teeth, fix your gaze, and observe your death at this moment. There is always a tendency to allow this energy to wane. So you have to feel it so strongly that it seems as if it is attacking you. Fearless energy comes from this. At this moment death is right before your eyes. It’s not something you can afford to neglect.”

Nearing his death he was asked by one of the visiting monks for some final instructions:

“What do you mean? Not having understood what I’ve said over the last thirty years, you ask this now?”

Shosan was also known to have taught about and drawn a version of the traditional – Ten Oxherding Pictures – representing the path to enlightenment. Shosan saw these representing a life of meditation in action, not as a man secluded from the world, but one partaking of it. His drawings actually changed a few of the pictures and he gives explanations as to why. Traditionally the ox is the mind and the oxherder is he that seeks to deal with the mind. Shosan changes the third and fourth pictures to denote the great effort needed to initially control the mind and the final, or tenth picture, called - Entering the Marketplace with Giving Hands - he draws people in the marketplace to signify the need to be compassionate to beings who cannot see the truth directly. There is a set of modern drawn pictures in the book with Shosan’s changes added as his originals are lost.

There is a section on teachings and instructions relating to koans. He relates that understanding the meanings of the words of stories and koans can be difficult and sometimes require a certain level of discernment. In reference to Rinzai’s “recognize your nature in accord with the flow,” Shosan says it means:

“if you want, you take; and if you are slapped, just be slapped. If you follow the flow in this manner,[the mind] will turn in accord with all situations, with no limits. This is not instruction for the ordinary mind. It is for the mature mind. I may not be able to make you understand this subtle meaning.”

He talks of generating and holding the ‘mind of fearless energy’ in order to keep the seed of doubt, Doubt, he says, has no objective body, and so is like the sky. Thus there is nothing for the demon to hold onto. Therefore he says if one places hope in the Pure Land (or faith in various scenarios and external deities I add) – a demon attaches to that belief. But if one keeps doubt there is nothing for the demon to attach to.

A layman asks Shosan about an old song which says, “It is good to live in the mountains because trees and grasses never discuss people’s good and bad points.” Shosan says he would just like to change one word: “It is deplorable to live in the mountains because trees and grasses never discuss people’s good and bad points.

In reference to a story about a question regarding where one will go at death Shosan replies:

You’ll go to the place you want to go. Whether its heaven or hell, you’ll go where your mind leads.’

In his practice instructions to the nun Shosei, he says:

There are two ways of approaching the practice of Buddhism: through reason and through activity. The man of reason awakens to the fact that all mutable things are like dreams, bubbles, shadows, lightning, or dew, and concludes that originally there was nothing at all. The man of action lays siege to the body and mind, uprooting the 84,000 delusions. Cherishing the mind and body to any extent is cause for falling into hell.”

“When you attain this mind {{fearless energy mind}}, delusion is wisdom, and life and death are nirvana.”

This he also calls the “free and unobstructed robust mind.”

Shosan was interested in a practical Buddhism that could be employed by all people. One teaching he gave was “The Subjugation of the Six Rebellious Delusions:” He praises practice of the “Six Harmonies” – of body, prostrating together; of speech, chanting together; of thought, sharing faith-mind; of precepts, sharing them; of view, sharing views of emptiness; of benefit from practicing together, sharing the fruits of practice.

He also praises the “Five Relationships of Confucianism;” justice between ruler and ruled, kindness between father and son, distinctions between husband and wife, order between young and old, and companionship between friends.

Shosan’s teachings were practical before all else. For him a workable sincerity of communication was better than simply speech that accords with statements of truth. Thus we see that he cared about his fellow humans and did not wish to see them make the  fundamental mistakes that he saw happening all around him – thus his notion that he was surrounded by hungry ghosts. If we could but listen and better yet summon and keep the ‘fearless energy mind.’

Treausure indeed.

Barbarian Rites: The Spiritual World of the Vikings and the Germanic Tribes

Book Review: Barbarian Rites: The Spiritual World of the Vikings and the Germanic Tribes  by Hans-Peter Hasenfratz, PH.D.  Translated and edited by Michael Moynihan (Inner Traditions 2011, originally 1992 in German)

The original title of this book is –The Religious World of the Germanic Peoples: Ritual, Magic, Cult, Myth. – It is an important well-sourced study by an academic scholar specializing in this realm of ancient history as well as comparative religion.  He makes interesting observations and comparisons, and suggests interesting underlying beliefs and behavioral motives. Hasenfratz makes note of how different these peoples were in supernatural view and practice than contemporary Western sensibilities. He makes use of old German editions of texts that are no longer in favor but apparently with much useful info.

The first question asked is – What is Germanic? The best answer he can offer is – those who spoke a Germanic language – and he gives this specific language branch a start date somewhere in the 2^nd century B.C. Dated to this time is the so-called Negau helmet found in Slovenia with the Germanic inscription “Harigastiteiva” – “which may mean “[dedicated] to the god Harigast” or [dedicated] to the god Teiva by Harigast.” Very few other early Germanic language inscriptions exist. There is one in Gothic from Bucharest in the 3^rd century C.E. - and another runic inscription mentioned from Norway from the 4^th century C.E. which reads – “linen and leek.” Linen and leek were used in magic according to later Icelandic texts in medieval Christian times. Another early source of information, though brief, is Roman historian Tacitus’s survey of the Germanic peoples from the 1^st century C.E.

A long account is given of the Rus, assumed to be Germanic Varangians (Vikings) along the Volga in Southern Russia/Eastern Europe given by the Arab diplomat Ibn Fadlan from the year 921. The actual manuscript was found in 1923 in the northeast of Iran but other versions of Ibn Fadlan’s account were known to past scholars. These men he called merchants. He described them each as being clothed except for the bare right arm. Each kept an axe, sword, and knife near him at all times and every man was said to be tattooed from fingernails to neck. The women were said to wear boxes, or brooches, around the neck with metal and jewels to the level of worth of their husbands. “Their most prized ornaments are green glass beads (corals) of clay, which ... they string as necklaces for their women.”

The Arab traveler was rather appalled at their lack of modesty in elimination and lack of washing. They were plunderers engaged in predatory trade. A Persian poet as well as the Arabic traveler abhors them as ‘wild asses’ which is an insult referring to their lack of chivalry and barbarian natures. They were known to take many slave women as well. Their wares were offered to icons – wooden carved statuettes near wooden stakes pounded into the ground. They offered their plundered wares to these “non-iconic pole gods” as the authors refers to them – asking for someone to come and buy or trade with them for these goods. If further buying was sought they would sacrifice sheep and cattle, affixing their heads to the poles and dogs would come in the night to partake of the flesh. Ibn mentions boat burials, where the deceased is burnt on the boat with goods and a slave who offers himself, but usually herself, to go with the deceased. These Viking funerals are fairly well known. The customs of “following into death” have been compared to the Hindu “suttee” rite where the widow emulates herself to be with her dead husband. Massive drinking was said to accompany these rites. The slave who offers herself would sing and drink for days, have sexual intercourse with many of the men until she would be killed by an older woman who acted as executioner. Horses would be run until they sweated, and cows, roosters, a dog, and other animals would also be sacrificed and cut up and offered. The author notes that the woman and the animals would be killed during their “maximum display of strength” so that their vitality could be transferred to the next world. He also notes that the revelry and display of sexuality of the sacrificed slave girl was so that she would relinquish her ties to the living and not return as a revenant, or destructive ghost. The men raise her up three times where she claims to see her relatives in the afterlife and her master in a comfortable and happy disposition there. Then she sacrifices a hen. She, having said goodbye to her friends, is brought to the ship where six men have intercourse with her and then they all make noise as she is stabbed and strangled. The Arab traveler thought that the noise was meant to drown out the screams that would disturb the others on shore but the author thinks it was to make sure she enters the other world and does not return. The Arab also noted that the nearest relative of the deceased would approach the boat naked with a torch, walking backward and with one hand covering his anus and set fire to the ship. The merchant-warrior community was arranged with the social tie of the ‘warband’ or “mannerbund” where elite warriors served the king. These mostly unmarried men gathered slave women as booty and travel companions for this stage of life. The mannerbund was apparently the strongest of social ties.

In 105 BC two tribes, the Germanic Cimbri and the Teutoni, which may have been Celtic, got together and wiped out a couple Roman legions. They apparently left Jutland (Denmark) due to flooding and moved south towards the Mediterranean. Caesar’s campaigns against the Gauls put the Celtic tribes on the move. Beginning in the 200’s CE the Huns (Ziongnu),thought to be from Southern Russia and Western China, moved west with their warrior horsemanship. All these factors made for various tribes migrating all over the place. The Celts who formerly occupied much of Germany went west. Germanic tribes went south due to weather, east and west due to Roman pressure, and west and south due to pressure from the Huns. This was known as the ‘Migration Period.’ Many of the southern Germanic tribes ended up in France and Spain. All this migration may have fed or reactivated the mannerbunds in workable lives as raiding parties. By late in the 8^th century the Varangians (oath comrades) – East Norse Vikings, were traveling down the Russian rivers (Don, Volga, Dnieper) in small boats. They gave the name Rus (oar people) to the early Russian kingdom. They also crossed the Black Sea and became mercenaries and the elite troupe and body guard the Byzantium emperors. The Varangians subjugated some Slavic tribes and founded the kingdom of Kievan Rus. Not long thereafter the Vikings and Germanic peoples began to be Christianized. They built magnificent cathedrals and perfected the Gothic style of architecture.

The author suggests that the ‘cult of the dead’ played a big role in perpetuating the lifestyle of raiding excursions. It was said that men would full their burial sites with their plundered riches in order to take them to the next life. Inheritances were few and young men would be encouraged to plunder their own fortunes. Hasenfratz notes that conversions of Germanic peoples were peaceful (time period of late 300’s to 1000 CE) but some were violent due to political and power building goals – such as Charlemagne’s brutal subjugation of the Saxons.

The origins of the social classes are explained in an Eddic poem. The system is tripartite and very similar to other Indo-European forms and even many post-Christian schemes as the author points out. The thralls, or slaves, were obtained as war booty. The lower class, Karls, were agricultural workers and craftsmen. The nobles, Jarls, were merchant-warriors. Rulers were kings and priests. The warrior ideal was the most venerated and the basis for all glory and renown. Kings were responsible for sacrifices and fertility and were occasionally sacrificed themselves in bad years. The ideal peaceful king was noted in the legend of King Frothi (a living version of the god Frey according to Snorri) who eventually became greedy and was slain.

Women, although sometimes noted as “peace weavers” were also quite often known to goad on feuds and revenge taking. According to the literature, these societies tended to be male dominated and so the stages of life of males are depicted. The male child was venerated more if he preferred warrior training over work and was allowed at age 12 to carry weapons and with them to attend the Thing. Young men were part of the mannerbund and went off on raids and later returned and got land which they worked in between further raiding. Old men were often ridiculed as weak. Death in bed, a “straw death” was considered dishonorable and some would merely be cut with a spear, ie. “spear marked” in order to make a connection with Odin before death. Some elderly were killed or leaped over cliffs to die honorable deaths.

Social ties included the Sib – one’s clan relatives. Peace was kept within the sib but all outside it were potential enemies and blood feuds were said to be common. Release form vengeance could be had by paying a fee, called wergeld. Other social ties examined include fosterage which began at age seven and was between families of slightly different rank. Oath brotherhood was important and often practiced between fostered children and an elder male. This included ‘blood brotherhood’ where blood was mingled by dripping it into a footprint and a rite where they made their way under an uplifted yet still connected clod of turf to signify being born from the same womb. As in the Aesir and Vanir gods joining in the ‘spittle treaty,’ these magical substances commingled signified the commingling of fates. Hospitality to Guests was another custom of social ties. Included among this honor code was the practice of so-called ‘guest prostitution’ were the wife or a daughter of the host was offered to the guest for sex. This was custom rather than frivolity and is/was practiced in several other cultures as well. Gift Giving was another big former of social obligations as legends recount. The Mannerbund, or warrior band, was a very important social tie and this band was typically dedicated to Odin, as the god of the ecstasy of battle. This ‘berserker rage’ was likely developed through shamanistic techniques. The author notes that guilds, masked societies, and criminal and youth gangs as well as some of the Nazi manifestations were continuation of mannerbund structures. The Retinue refers to the hierarchy within the mannerbund and helped with organization of raids and distribution of booty. The Cultic Society was another social obligation where often a code of peace was in effect as weapons were laid aside on sacred occasions and at the Things, or assemblies, which also included land distribution and matters of law. There were conflicts among these ties as stories from the sagas attest. The conflict between sib ties and sib ties by marriage is a common theme. The Saxon story of Hildebrand and his son Hudabrand who get caught in different armies confronting one another are set for single combat against one another. One recognizes the other but can’t convince the other that it is he and so the father kills the son. Nearly exactly except for certain details we see this story in the Persian Epic of Kings and also in the Irish Tain Bo Culaigne. This nearly exact parallel in these three traditions and also the general similarity of the situation recounted in the Bhagavad Gita of the Indian Mahabharata is rather remarkable.

Treatment of outlaws and criminals varied. Some were hanged as sacrificial victims to Odin were hanged but the author notes that these hangings should be differentiated. Some criminals were drowned in bogs. Type of execution may have had something to do with social rank as some Indo-European researchers have indicated. Oath-breakers could also be banished as outlaws and termed as a “wolf,” a lone scavenger without recourse to a society. Some were hung with a wolf as well as stabbed.

The next section is on Rites of Passage. Birth rites included a simple taking of the child onto the father’s knee, sprinkling with water, and giving a name (name fastening) and received a gift. A boy was often given the name of the grandfather, or a dead father and was thought to be the grandfather reborn. This motif occurs also with the Eskimo and probably other Siberian tribes and could reach far back in time as an idea of migrations of the dead. The continuation of the family name was also considered important and a kind of reincarnation.

The initiation rituals of the mannerbund were kept secret, especially from women and children. Here was entrance to Odin’s Wild Army of the Dead. Rites consisted of mock hanging, spear marking, and likely tests of courage. Odin himself was the first to be hanged as he obtained the runes and supernatural knowledge. This was thought be an ascetic shamanistic means whereby one was hung just until he lost consciousness and quickly revived so that fear of death was approached and extremes of consciousness were explored. There may have been other rites with plant entheogens as well as is suspected in the ecstatic berserker tactics. Here shamanic techniques of shapeshifting and soul travel were used to develop hyper-states. Immanence of death was used to keep awareness sharp and present.

Marriage customs are recounted in the later Eddic account of the Lay of Thrym where Thor’s hammer is stolen by the giant Thrym whereby he demands Freyja as ransom. Thor and Loki dress as maidens to retrieve it. Thor is dressed as Freyja, the bride. The groom hands over the keys and then lays the hammer on the lap of the bride readying to swear oaths before Var, the goddess of pledges. At this point Thor grabs the hammer and destroys the giants. The keys are thought to represent the bride’s rule over the affairs of the home. The hammer is the phallic symbol of fertility whereby Thor beats the moisture out of the clouds and dispatches the hostility of nature (giants).

There were also rites around resettling land and land-taking. These involved cattle as money (as in the cattle cycle of sacrifice recounted by Indo-European studies). For resettling – high seat posts and coffins of important newly-dead were taken on the boats and in a few stories floated ashore, the settlers building where they landed. This was rather oracular which is fitting for a new life in a new place.

Care of the dead included washing, covering the head of the deceased, averting contact with the eyes of the deceased, shutting the eyes, and conducting rites from behind the corpse. Much of this was done to keep the otherworld from drawing one in. Shoes were made for the deceased so that they might travel in the next world. In Iceland, these were called “Hel shoes.” Mourning and tears were discouraged as disturbing to the dead.

Certain corpses were thought to be able to animate and shape-shift. Some of these dangerous people were bound with rites and their corpses barriered, stabbed, and/or laid over with heavy stones. Certain humans, nobles and kings especially, were said to dwell after death in nearby mountains and mounds. A land of the dead at the bottom of the sea among Northern Germanic peoples and at the bottom of lakes among Eastern and Southern Germanic peoples was known. The word “soul” is thought to derive from a root that meant ‘belonging to the lake’ or ‘deriving from the lake.’ Other lands of the dead are the underworld, Hel – ‘the hidden’ ‘the veiled’ ‘the concealing’ – it was not considered to be a place of punishment. Valhalla was the home of warriors who would do battle and drink perpetual beer from the udders of the sacred goat, Heidrun. Folkvang – or ‘meadow of the folk’ is another afterlife conception – which may apply to the Vanir and Freyja’s folk and is also mentioned as the green otherworld land of the Rus. The dead could be in two or more places at once as well. Those thought to be destructive ghosts, or revenants, were sometimes killed again, both physically and ritually. This may be thought of as a sort of proper soul component disposal as per shamanistic cultures. There were then many destinations of the afterlife – with various gods as well as one place of punishment for criminals and oath-breakers known as the ‘corpse strand’- a beach made of serpents and where poison abounds and animals tear at their dead flesh. According to the author this depiction may be influenced by Christianity.

The author divides magic into: incantatory, rune, death, divinatory, cursing, and destructive magics. The suggested distinction from Icelandic is that of galdr (“screaming” “incantatory magic” “sorcery”), gandr (“magic stave” “sorcery””witchcraft”), and seidr (“cord” “fetter” “sorcery”). There was permissible magic – typically galdr, and impermissible, or black magic – typically gandr or seidr.

The author considers cursing and destructive magic to be of the impermissible type and the rest to depend on how it is used. Magic to destroy an enemy could also be considered protective magic.

Galdr incantations were considered to be verbal charms. An example given in Old English is a charm to protect against nightmare demons. It could be spoken into both ears of the potential victim or written out and worn as a charm. Written or runic charms were considered most effective and were often sealed in blood or a red liquid representing blood. For protective purposes they were also often enciphered. The Runic script is thought to have been derived from a northern Etruscan alphabet in the 2^nd century BC. Germanic tribes were known to trade with the Etruscan empire. The casting of sticks with cyphers drawn on them described by Tacitus is likely a runic divination rite. Leeks, onions, and garlic were thought to have anti-demonic, antiseptic, and aphrodisiacal powers and so the rune for leek, laukaR, could be worn as an amulet rather than deal with the smell. Death magic refers to necromancy, or divining through one’s ancestors. If one summons the dead not of one’s immediate ancestors for knowledge it would be considered black magic. ‘Waking songs’ were composed to wake the dead. Rune songs placed in the mouth of a corpse were another method. While some sort of conjuration of one’s ancestors could have practical implications for the family energy it was considered sacrilege among the Christians and so stamped out as a folk practice.

There were said to be wandering seeresses, the volvas, who were said to wear a blue cloak and animal fur and carry a staff. She was said to eat a special diet with her meat being mainly the hearts of animals. She was seated on a high platform to go into a shamanic trance through singing and chanting and proceed to divine the future as she was adept as soothsaying and divinatory magic.

As an example of cursing magic the Icelandic notion of the “scorn pole” is mentioned where a horse was killed and its head placed on a pole facing the intended victim of this scorn magic. This is seen as black magic for it intends to ‘outlaw’  the victim and supersede the rules of the society. This may be the origin of the horseshoe over the door charm several times removed. Destructive magic proceeds much like any magic but may include reversal magic of sorts with the non-sunwise, widdershins direction being preferred.

The author also notes examples of magic given in Burchard’s Corrector which is a confessional book from about 1000 CE where the people are questioned about doing certain folk practices, encouraged to confess them, and vow to refrain thereafter. Two love magic methods are mentioned: one is cooking menstrual blood into the food given to husbands to engender lust in them for the wife. Another is having bread prepared on the bare hindquarters of the wife then baked and given to the husband to engender more love for the wife. These descriptions go on and into destructive magic and get rather bizarre and may have been partially thought up by the Christians as they all seem to be directed against women. There is an interesting one given about weather magic where a maiden is fastened with a henbane plant. Apparently ingesting henbane produces an auditory hallucination akin to the sound of rain. This practice of the “rain maiden” is also known from the Balkans where during a drought the maiden is bedecked in green and sprinkled with water from twigs.

There is mention of the “traveling soul” or projected shapeshifted body, or astral body. Another form is that of the doppelganger, or body double. In the north the fylgja, as body double – is often depicted as a woman, the fylgja-kona, or “woman who follows.” This humanized double is usually unseen by the host and if seen usually predicts the death of the host. I recall similar notions in Scotland.

Supernatural beings such as the jotun (giants, trolls, etc) are interpreted as hostile aspects of nature in spirit form – whether rocky and infertile – the rock giants, or icy – the ice giants. Giantess maidens woo the gods. They tend to attack Freyja – and so are generally enemies to fertility. Thor champions their demise, dispatching them in many stories.

Dwarves are slightly more friendly, but still dangerous, and are known as great smiths and makers of jewelry. Wights (landvaetti) are land spirits that can be friendly but are often hostile. Nixes are water spirits. The author likes to classify the elves (alfr and disir as male and female) as ancestral spirits. Other nature spirits include animals and trees, such as the boars of Frey and the sacred oak of Dunar. Various stories of the gods and their structure, organization, and destiny are recounted. When the gods deceived the giant who built Asgard it began the cycle of oath-breaking, according to the author. He makes connection of deities to the various social ties: Thor and Var are associated with the bonds of marriage and so to the Sib. Tyr is related to the swearing of oaths that transcend the Sib. Odin rules initiation and the mannerbund. Odin, as a war god, is seen as trans-moral especially as an inciter of violent acts. He is also a master of ecstasy, poetry, intoxication, magic, and battle strategy. The author seems to suggest that Tyr was an older war god overcome by Odin and later relegated to a god of Justice but I don’t know if that would be accepted by others. The Romans aligned him with Mars – as the god of the assembly.  Thor is beloved of the people and the peasants as the strong champion. Thor was known to eat his sacred goats then reanimate them by making sure not to damage any of the bones. The author notes that this may refer to a shamanistic practice in sacrificial butchering, assuring re-assembly in the next life. Curiously a Tibetan Buddhist Mahasiddha – Drukpa Kunley, from 1400’s Bhutan was also known to re-animate slain goats after a meal. He notes that Frey may have been key in a cultic marriage rite to assure fertility.

As for the story of Balder’s death and Loki’s binding the author notes the following possible interpretation:

“We can interpret the history in two ways: in a nature-mythic sense – that is, as a seasonal myth in which the blind Hodr, representing the dark season, conquers the god of light, Balder, who represents the light half of the year – or in a cultic-mythic sense, as an initiation myth, with the test of courage by Balder (the “bold one”) and his death at the hands of Hodr (the blind “battler”) being a reflection of Mannerbund initiation ritual and the “little death” that this entails.”

The story is reminiscent of another story where a mock hanging initiation goes awry and the candidate is killed.

The binding of Loki and Ragnarok as a final battle apparently has a parallel in Persian  or Zoroastrian  myth where the demon Azdahag is chained to the highest peak of a mountain awaiting the time when he will be freed and able to fight in final battle between good and evil, personified as Ahura Mazda and Ahriman. The various attributes of Freyja, Frigga, and Njord are also recounted. Whether the southern Germanic Frija is Freyja or Frigg or a combined form is left as uncertain. Freyja is associated with both fertility and sexual promiscuity. The author sees the earth goddess Nerthus as a female form of Njord – father of Frey and Freyja – so in that sense, male/female twins/mates beget the same. Fol and Folla are another twin set as are the youthful male twins, the Alic, or Elk twins, which are likely akin to the Vedic Asvins, or horse twins, of ancient India but also venerated under the same name in Lithuania. The Matrones, or fertility mother goddesses of Romanized Cologne are also noted. The southern Germanic Loll has been compared to Frey so Frija-Loll has been proposed as the pair in the southern areas. This Lollus was depicted as a naked youth holding his tongue with his fingers – thus the phrase –“lolling the tongue” and the word ‘lollipop.’ The three Fates- Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld – were considered to be more powerful than the gods. The Norns may have overlapped with the Matrones. Fate as Wyrd was considered the highest power and may well be related to the Vedic rta, or right order, as well as to karma. There was a notion that Fate was final and could not be altered. The magic of appeasing the potentially hostile land wights seems quite much like a form of feng shui, or geomancy – which fits well with land spirit work.

The author also mentions human sacrifice as a form of magic thought to be most effective and certain torturous sacrificial methods employed by the Vikings such as the blood-eagle sacrifice to Odin where the victim’s ribs and lungs were torn out while still alive and spread out like wings.

There is also mention of an Anglo-Saxon field blessing as a public ritual although the one given has been Christianized.

The final section is on Cosmology and Time and includes an analysis of the Ragnarok prophecies. The author notes that they have been compared to Christian scenarios but concludes that they follow much closer the ancient Iranian models and so seem to be a not uncommon Indo-European theme

Germanic peoples as well as most other ancient peoples can be seen as barbaric and violent but it should be remembered that the world was much different then and that cultivation of violence also served a protective function. Much of these customs are appalling and certainly the plundering of the Vikings went too far much of the time with rape, murder, sacrifice, and torture being way too common. On the other hand, there is much of value in terms of magic, craftsmanship, shamanism, social custom, oath-keeping, and hospitality that is admirable. I think that it is likely, or at least possible that further back in time before the period of migrations and the rise of the powerful Roman empire that life was probably a bit simpler with less violence and travel-plundering. The mannerbund can also been seen as the same model as the Vratya brotherhoods of post-Vedic India that led to the forest-ascetic tradition of the Upanishads and whose members initially trained the Buddha in meditative methods.