Thought & Memory
Huginn & Muninn | Odin's Ravens and Quest for Knowledge & Understanding
This is a blog I wrote in 2018.
I have seen and encountered a lot of ravens and crows lately on my walks. They are playful with me. They follow me. They caw at me. They sometimes dive bomb me and wake me up and shake me out of my inner dialogue on long walks when I am beginning to spiral. I consider them perspective friends…at times.
They help me see what I am missing in my view and on my daily pathways and wanderings.
In my research and in my readings I stumbled upon the Norse Mythology and this reference to Odin's ravens. What I read was fascinating. It led me onward to read Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology published that same year.
I like to think that we all have two invisible ravens, one on each shoulder. And it is our duty to keep them both well fed and healthy. If one of them starves, it will fly away. This means that while we need to stay sensible and thoughtful of our life choices, we also need passion, desire and dreams for the future. Both Huginn and Muninn whisper in our ears, and we need to listen to them both. There must be a balance. We can’t rush towards whatever looks tempting to us at the moment, this would mean acting without listening to Hugin. But we should not always choose the logical, safe and sensible option, that would make Munin fly away.
So while we should never live each day as if it were our last, we should realize that life does not go on forever. Pursue your dreams before it’s too late, but do so while keeping both ravens on your shoulders. - Bjørn Andreas Bull-Hansen
Have you read Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology yet? I highly recommend it.
