6 December Namnsdag Nikolaus
Ni-ko-laus (no-cow -useless)

We are in the sacred days of Ullr. Today we honor our kindred, the female reindeer. In a culture with some 150 words for snow and an equally large number for reindeer there is no useless cow. Reindeer allowed the Northwind people to survive 10,000 years in harsh environment.

Is it mere coincidence that today a jolly man named Nickolas rides a magic sleigh filled with gifts, pulled across the heavens by female reindeer? (in winter only the females retain their antlers)

The myth:

The age of wholeness (Hel)

Long ago in a cycle before this one lived a culture deeply entwined with nature. Humans were part of the whole and a whole of the part. It was a time of the culture of Hel. Hel is one of the first words it means whole, complete and healed. Holy and health come from this word. Hel was a nordic goddess containing two whole parts, light|dark, life|death in one entity. Her image is much like the taiji, the yin/yang symbol. She represents the cycle of constant change within an integrated whole.

We read in the Kalevala of the end of this culture when the land went atlandis, behind the ice and the wisdom was being stored for the future:

Music from many waters
Music from the whole creation,
oft have been my guide and master.
Sentences the trees created,
Rolled together into bundles,
Moved them to my ancient dwelling,
On the sledges to my cottage,
Tied them to my garret rafters,
Hung them on my dwelling-portals,
Laid them in a chest of boxes,
Boxes lined with shining copper.
Long they lay within my dwelling
Through the chilling winds of winter,
In my dwelling-place for ages.

The myth of Hel has her filling copper-lined boxes with all that is precious. She piles them on her sledge. It grows so heavy that even Thor the mighty thundergod cannot lift it. Yet, Hel’s huldra kats, wild cats of the forest who are of the hidden ones that can see through the darkness, pull her sledge as if flying.

The age of separation:

Freyr and Freyja, the twin flame children of the Vanir (ancient -ones) were two wholes, man and woman joined in completion. Odin kidnapped them and carried them into the age of the Aesir an age of duality. But Freyja was a powerful goddess, an independent female not to be controlled. She continued to drive the sled across the skies with her cats.

Age of patriarchy:
As time went by Freyja gave way to Frigg. Frigg was the faithful wife to Odin. Her earthbound sled was pulled by hounds another symbol of loyalty.

Today, in our commercial world, who rides the sleigh through the night sky, what are his gifts? Interesting to contemplate no?