Theodisc Gebetan: Becoming a Better Tribe Ive coined a term in Old English, “Theodisc Gebetan” meaning a “tribal bringing together” or “betterment of the people” to signify the wise methods by which we and our clans and families may become more whole. “Theod” is an old word shared across many Germanic languages meaning a tribe, a people or a nation. “Gebetan” means literally “to make better”, or to rejoin, to heal. This root of the Modern English “better” is also akin to Old Norse “bot” meaning “to repair” that which is “brot” or broken. Theodisc gebetan a process of tribal reunification that brings together and makes whole that which had formerly been unwhole, in parts and divided. The same idea rendered into Old Norse is even more to the point, with “to join into one (people)” being rendered with the word “getheodan”. To combine individuals, to conjoin, and become one whole tribe or people is “getheodan”. It is by no mistake that the ancient wisdom of the ancestors agrees with the latest scientific research, indicating that alienating individuals from each other has a tremendous cost to the physical, mental and emotional health of the people all the way down the generations. Conversely, reinforcing healthy social connection between individuals has far reaching benefits for both individuals and the people as a whole, by way of improved physical, emotional and mental health for members of every generation. The function of healthy culture, passed down from one generation to the next, is invariably to reinforce and realize interpersonal connectivity, consolidating the family, tribe or community. It can be shown human health is the result of “getheodan” or “theodisc gebetan”. In a healthy, ideal culture, traditions, customs and beliefs serve to increase social cohesion as a matter of course, with or without awareness or understanding of that fact amongst participants. It is currently the case for many of us, that the culture in which we find ourselves seems anything but healthy in many respects, replete with customs and beliefs many of which have only served to divide the people and alienate individuals from each other, thus adding not to health but to illness. While our current cultures have some redeeming features, they are to a very great degree sick cultures, leading to illness on many levels for not only the people, but also the whole natural world. Global environmental contamination, ecosystem disruption, extinctions, and disorders of both physical and mental health are just a few of the ill effects of current cultures. The Icelandic poem Voluspa presages the destruction of the world, and among the signs of impending doom is that brothers turn against brothers, fathers against sons, indicating to what degree the ancestral culture recognizes the ascendancy and social unity of the kin-group. Tribal solidarity must have been existentially important to be among the last things to perish before the total destruction of the natural world. Our own unprecedented destruction of the natural world, a process apparently evident all around us, can be shown today to be a direct result of the breakdown of the natural, tribal social order of human communities. The ill health of natural systems, including our families and tribes, are evidence that many of our cultures are broken, or “brot”. We are experiencing a failure of culture. Any wilful action which is not to add to the social chaos and environmental destruction must therefore be a deliberate effort to “make better”, to repair the problem, to fix our cultures. Getheodan or theodisc gebetan includes all such deliberate actions, traditions, customs and beliefs which serve to make whole again and add to the health of our tribes, families and communities. This may seem to run counter to certain other philosophical and religious schools which argue variously that humans cannot be redeemed by way of their own deliberate actions, or that no effort is sufficient, or that it is only non-effort that brings spiritual liberation, or that it is not for this world that we should belabour, but for the next, and so on. In so far as the health of the people is a measure of their interconnectedness, and in so far as realization of social coherence can occur naturally, which is to say with out without the conscious understanding or deliberate effort of the people themselves, the idea of health arising from non-effort is not contradictory to the doctrine of tribal reunification or getheodan. The question of what is rightly within the realm of human influence and what rightly is not may also be a point of contention with some thinkers. Deliberate action, in a traditional Germanic view, arises out of choice, which is the result of desire or passion. To make a choice and to follow it through in deed, from a thought to thought, from word to word, and finally into action, into actuality, into the world of form, into being, is to affect wyrd (that which is becoming, the way of things). Such an ability, the ability to make a cognitive choice that is precipitous of action, to start with an idea and give it the reality of form, is seen as among the most sacred gifts from the gods, essential to the human spirit. To be able to make a choice, “vili” in Old Norse, to “will” in Modern English, is the very essence of corporeal and spiritual freedom. We may make choices only because of our freedom, which is to be held, as ever, most sacred. The question must be asked, then, how should it be for us, for our families and tribes, peoples and nations, when faced with disaster and human suffering both great and small, we discover that all the while we might have forgone such a cruel fate had only we acted before it was too late? That it may true that there is even the remotest possibility that deliberate action on our part might delay or dismiss such a grim possible future is reason enough to make the ongoing attempt, despite personal discomfort and no matter the apparent failures and frustrations that will inevitably present themselves. For those who cleave to the idea of tribal reunification, of theodisc gebetan, making personal choices which align with the better health and best interest of their social collective, their families and tribes of which they are a part, is the truest and highest goal of wisdom. Each choice should be given as careful consideration as possible in the context of how it may help or hinder the health of the family, clan or social community. Some nuanced thinking, and tolerance for apparent paradox, may be necessary to best approach the problem of the individual freedom to make choices, a sacred gift, on the one hand, and the de facto interconnection every individual has with each other, without or without awareness, on the other. But it is enough to understand in a tribal Germanic view that the actions of one individual have varying degrees of potential impact on the health and well-being of the social collectives of which he or she is a part, that the luck or orlog of the entire tribe can be affected by the choices of one individual within it, with like impacts for generations afterwards. Particular direction should not be given too quickly, when advocating the reunification or consolidation of our respective kin-groups for the simple reason that the health and circumstances of our various families varies greatly across the full range. Some families being utterly dysfunctional, others apparently hale, and most perhaps somewhere in the middle. It may well be that the family environment is too toxic or requiring skills too great for many who would like to bring healing to their relationships. In such extreme cases, the wisest path forward may be to create a healthier family culture along with new companions. But for most, there are steps which can be taken which will add to the health of their families as whole social units, even if progress may be likely to be slow, intermittent, or of limited scope. For the lucky few, efforts to increase solidarity and health of their families may seem, happily, unhindered. In such cases those lucky families are likely to be in some real degree already healthy. Even so, adding further to good health only makes a good tribe better, adding to the betterment of the tribe, to theodisc gebetan. But in all cases there is something to be gained by making the effort, in the way of increased health and general happiness of not only the self, but also for ones companions. The well-being of the self is remarkably correlated with the well-being of ones folk for more that the obvious reasons. Certainly, because a tribe consists of individuals, is by definition a group of individuals, it can only be called a healthy and happy tribe if it consists of individuals who are in the main happy and healthy. It also follows that a hale and whole social group bolsters and heals those individuals who are ailing or feel less than whole. The relationship of the health of the tribe and the health of the individual thus operates in two directions, from the individual to the group, and from the group to the individual, forming a dynamic feedback loop.
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 04:23:55 +0000
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