The spiritual development of the Celtic folk soul – Part 3
(To part 2)
Very little is known about the Trotten, apart from what Steiner has written about them [1].
In northern Scandinavia and in Finland, in the post-glacial periods, when an increasingly mild climate developed, with rich forests of pine, birch and aspen in the south, with the later addition of fig, elm and linden, the oldest and highly spiritual mysteries of Northern Europe flourished, called the Trotten Mysteries. According to Steiner, the spiritual development of Europe has been able to unfold thanks to the Scandinavian Trotten. All that we can find about the Edda and in the ancient Germanic myths and sagas can be traced back to the Trotten or Druids, for the author of these works was undoubtedly an initiate of the Mysteries of the Trotten.
These sagas are not only a symbol or an allegory, but also something else.
Think for instance of Baldur, the god of Light and hope of the gods, who was killed by Loki (Lucifer). Baldur was the son of Odin who was the central figure in Norse mythology. (Odin was a high-ranking angel who forgoes further promotion in order to work in the human soul.)
The story of Baldur has a deep mystery. Anyone who wanted to be initiated had not only to know the story of Baldur, but also to live it.
The apprentice’s first assignment was to find Baldur’s lost body. Baldur, it was thought, is the eternally living man who does not belong to the material sphere. The disciple had to seek this Baldur and bring it to life, not in matter outside himself, but in himself. He had to conquer matter, and in this way he could develop into a leader of mankind. In all spiritual schools everywhere, this path is the same.
Much of what is described in the Edda actually transpired in the Trotten Mysteries. An enormous power lay in the hands of those ancient Trotten priests, a power over life and death. Unfortunately, everything has been corrupted over time.
Yet Druidism was once the highest and holiest. Before Christianity began to expand, there was a lot of black magic, so that eventually Christianity became a redemption.
The Trotten Mysteries thus created a soil and prepared a spiritual life in Europe on which Christianity could develop.
(To be continued in part 4)
Reference:
[1] Rudolf Steiner: Die okkulten Wahrheiten alter Mythen und Sagen, GA 92 (1999), (English: rsarchive.org)
