Bifröst, Heimdallr and Heathen Enlightenment:
Today I wanted to write a quick article giving an overview of the purpose of the Norse God Heimdallr, his symbolism and significance and how the rainbow bridge, Bifröst, that Heimdallr guards relates to similair ideas within tantric Buddhism, Yoga and Indian paganism, AKA Hinduism.
For those unfamiliar with the myths surrounding the God Heimdallr, he is a norse God who is now unfortunately not well known as most of the poems and prose that was directed towards him has been lost to time or more likely actively destroyed by Shabbat Goy Christians.
In Norse mythology, there are 9 realms (dimensions of spacetime) within our universe, only one of which we reside in and can typically perceive, known as Midgard/Middle Earth. All 9 realms exist within the world tree Yggdrasil (the electromagnetic spectrum containing layers of visible and invisible branches of light such as UV, infrared, visible, radio, WiFi and more).
A bridge known as Bifröst is said to occasionally join Midgard, our realm, to Asgard, the realm of the Gods and resembles a rainbow in the sky. At the end of the rainbow near Asgard is Heimdallr's house, and he can see people trying to enter from 100 leagues away.
I think it is always useful when dealing with concepts within European paganism to translate names and terminology (as I have done before with Othinn, Ragnarok, etc) and to understand the etymology. If one can understanding the etymology, then the origin of the concept becomes clear. The name Heimdallr loosely translates as "the one who illuminates the world". Now, there is nothing about Heimdallr character (his gold teeth perhaps? Though I doubt it) that could be interpreted as literally illuminating the world. Heimdallr only carries a horn and a sword, not a lantern, light or anything like that. So Heimdallr does not physically illuminate anything. So if he does not physically illuminate the world, how does he figuratively illuminate the world?
The answer is that we do not know Heimdallr's complete role within Norse religion, though we know he was important. There were poems dedicated to him which have since been lost and are unlikely to ever be recovered.
Here is a stanza from Völluspá in the Poetic Edda which makes reference to Heimdallr:
Old Norse:
Hljóðs bið ek allar helgar kindir,
meiri ok minni mögu Heimdallar;
viltu, at ek, Valföðr! vel framtelja forn
spjöll fíra, þau er fremst um man.
In English:
Listening I ask from the holy races,
From Heimdall's sons, both high and low;
Thou wilt, Valfather, tell well the
Old tales I remember of men long ago.
Since Heimdallr does not have any literal begotten sons in any of the Eddas or scripture, and that even if he did they would not be "high and low" as if scattered around the world, it would stand to reason that the "sons of Heimdallr" are those with the wisdom enough to see his symbolic significance and who have his permission to know Asgard.
And who are the helgar kindir, the hallowed kindred? I do not endorse the interpretation that the “hallowed kindred/holy race” refers to all of humanity, but rather those who are made holy by their attentiveness to Heimdallr/the waykeeper of enlightenment.
It is my personal view that it makes the most sense to see Heimdallr, Asgard and Bifrost as a metaphor for the path towards enlightenment, and that the 7 colours of Bifrost which make up the bridge to the realm of the Gods represent the 7 chakras that must be balanced to attain Nirvana in eastern religion. Bifröst represents the path from Midgard (the physical everyday, "Middle Earth") to Asgard (the realm of the Gods and enlightenment). We know that many such esoteric philosophies such as those of chakras were present in Western religion as well as Aryan religions in India, one example being Otzi the iceman who had marks on his skin indicating he used acupuncture and heat therapy to treat his arthritis.
Thus, an opening of the chakras leads the way from this Earth to Asgard, whatever Asgard may be. As we will no doubt come to in later articles, Asgard at its most basic level could be described as a realization of the infinite through a sharpening of awareness and the senses. Asgard in many ways lies parallel to the Hindu Vaikuntha, the abode of Vishnu. The etymology of the term Vaikuntha derives from Sanskrit vi kuntha, meaning the “un-blunt”. This in my view likely relates from the idea that what we perceive with our physical eyes, IE undeveloped consciousness and undeveloped Ajna, or third eye. Through opening Ajna and the other chakras, an individual meets Heimdallr/enlightenment, who allows them to cross Bifröst/the path and reach Asgard/Vaikuntha, the place where things are clear and not blunt.
The stabilisation of the chakras and hence the begetting of Heimdallr within each of us is said to occur, according to Hinduism, with a Kundalini awakening. The Kundalini is a point at base of the spine which is the base of an electromagnetic field within the body which runs all the way to the pineal gland at the seat of the Odinn/soul in the brain, which is the crown chakra. Perhaps even the world tree Yggdrasil itself can be seen as a metaphor for the chakras within the body, with 9 present in Norse esotericism rather than the conventional 7. It certainly could make sense with Jottunheim, the realm of the evil giants, Helheim, the land of Hel, and Svartelheimr, the land of the greedy dwarves at the bottom of the tree, with an ascension up through into this world, then onto the more refined Vanaheim, land of the Vanir, Alfheim, land of the elves (from proto-Indo European Althaz, the white ones) and then finally Asgard and Gimle, the highest hall of Asgard.
For reasons it is best writing about more extensively in a later article, it seems that the further up Yggdrasil one goes the whiter one becomes, with Gimle only being inhabited by elves that "are purer and brighter than the sun to look upon" according to Snorri Sturluson. In fact, the mischevious and perhaps even evil darj elves that live in Svartalheimr are called "Svartalfar" the black ones.
I hope you found this very brief overview to be useful in your spiritual journey. If you keep learning I’ll keep writing! This was only meant to be a very brief overview of some concepts just to pique your interest, but I will be expanding upon them in future and looking into their implications in much more depth. In the mean time, it is well worth watching this video by Asaheim Wulfgard, who goes into great depth to explain concepts from this article and way beyond. He is very underrated.
Open the mind to wisdom, the body to strength, the plexus to power and the throat to a might voice for truth! Hail Heimdallr!