and wisdom. This thirst for knowledge led Odin to seek out the runes, and He did so by sacrificing Himself on the Norse World-Tree: Yggdrasil. Modern Northern Tradition Shamans such as Raven Kaldera refer to Odin as the God of the Ordeal. The Ordeal Path as practiced by modern Northern Tradition Shamans (and others) involves the “intentional and careful use of pain in order to put the body into an altered state.” One could say that the use of pain in such a fashion lies at the heart of Odin’s sacrifice to win the runes.

    The story of Odin’s primary ordeal is told in the Havamal, one of the lays of the Poetic Edda. The reader is told that in search of wisdom, Odin hung Himself for nine days and nights on Yggdrasil, the World-Tree. Although Odin is usually viewed as a God of kingship, He also holds a place within the Northern Tradition as a God of shamans. The idea of a great cosmic tree that supports the universe and which can be

utilized by shamans in spirit-travel is common to many northern European cultures, most notably the Yakut and Buryat. The Tree shows up again in Jewish Cabbala in the guise of the Tree of Life, and has one of its earliest manifestation in Sumerian stories of the Goddess Inanna. It is by traversing the World-Tree that Odin is able to move from His role as sacred king to that of Shaman. The key to this transition from temporal to liminal power was His sacrifice by hanging.

    During this ordeal, He starved Himself and stabbed Himself with His own spear, shedding His own blood. Eventually He died. It is through His death and rebirth that He gained access to the runes, the keys to the secrets of the universe:

    I ween that I hung on the windy tree,

    Hung there for nights full nine;

    With the spear I was wounded, and offered I

    was

    To Othin, myself to myself,