Dark Side of Nine Simple Words
Most people who read my blogs know what the Nine Simple Words and the Nine Knoble Virtues are. Did you know that each of those has a dark side or negative effect? In this blog I will briefly highlight the other side of these “words.”
The first word is Courage. We all need courage in our life, sometimes, just to get out of bed in the morning. Without courage self-doubt can set in and cause fear to fester inside our minds. How can courage be a bad thing? Glad, you asked too much courage can work against our self-interest and lead to one making mistakes and getting needlessly injured. This can set us back in our jobs, our life, and even in our relationships.
The second word is Truth. Truth is a simple word we should strive to use in our everyday lives but sometimes we cannot. Just like everyone needs water to survive, to much can cause one to drown. Like water, to much truth in the wrong situation can be unnecessarily harmful and destructive. Let wisdom be your guide here.
The third word is Honor. Most know the saying, “Our words are our deeds.” This is the driving force behind what most define as honor today. We should do what we say we are going to do, but more importantly, we should avoid making promises we know we cannot follow up on. The negative side of honor and making promises is knowing when you can break them. This is a very grey area as most oaths should not be broken unless there is extenuating circumstances. Do not show up at someone’s house with a bloody stump for an arm because you promised to help them move. If you promised to let someone, use your truck and it is totaled, you are not oath bound to rent a $200.00, truck. Now, if your brakes are grinding metal on metal and you have the money and time to fix them, but you don’t want to do it that is another story. Wisdom, Perseverance, and Self-Reliance come into play here.
The fourth word is Fidelity. Fidelity walks hand in hand with Honor and like honor one should now when too much is becoming a bad thing. Staying in a situation long after it has become toxic is not fidelity. Staying in a job that is crushing you instead of taking the dream job you have always wanted does not benefit you or your employer.
The fifth word is Discipline. This word can show up in a couple forms, mental and physical are the most basic. Disciple is almost always a good thing, but when it is not it can actually kill you. Yes, I said kill you! Mentally one can take the drive to learn new things to the extreme. You can spend more money that you have to find new knowledge or get caught up in an activity for so long that you “must” do it before you can do anything else. Physically the most prominent way to overdo it is training for a physical activity. Working for your first MMA event or a marathon. There is a medical condition known as rhabdomyolysis. Rhabdomyolysis is a serious condition characterized by the breakdown of muscle fibers, leading to the release of harmful substances into the bloodstream, which can cause kidney damage and other complications. This is the part that can kill you, it requires immediate hospitalization. Now most people will not hit this particular roadblock, but it is a possibility. Let wisdom be your guide.
The sixth word is Hospitality. Hospitality can be seen as a gift given, this is why the Gebo rune is tied to it. This is another one of the Simple Words that Germanic Paganism is known for. But again, even hospitality taken to the extreme can be a bad thing. You should avoid giving beyond your means. It is noble to help other, especially when you can. But when you can’t, it becomes damaging to you and your family. When you have nothing left “you” are the one relying others to help you out. The meaning of a great host is one who gives without putting their family’s needs in danger. This is why women were put in charge of hospitality; they tend to be clearer headed when the family’s needs are involved.
The seventh word is Self-Reliance. This is a powerful virtue to maintain and tends to help one out the most when in trouble. The dark side of this one is separating yourself from others and thinking you don’t need anyone else. We all need help and belonging to a community does not make you less self-reliant. Knowing the difference between self-reliant and isolation is very important. It is amazing how wisdom seems to always be the guiding light.
The eight word is Perseverance. Perseverance is essential in everyone’s life. We all have something we must complete. We all have bills to pay, chores to do, and jobs to go to too, so how can there be a dark side to this one. Too much perseverance can prevent us from growing due to a belief in what life should be. It can lead us to avoid giving up on something bad for us because of the belief that if we just hang in there, this will be the year things get better.
The ninth and final word is Wisdom. Wisdom has been the guiding light for the other eight, Simple Words, so a dark side is highly unlikely right? Well, even Wisdom can be a bad thing, and it usually has to do with confusing knowledge with wisdom. I have been caught up in this particular trap myself. I am always driven to uncover what my ancestors did, how they did it, and why they did it. As my wife, Crow Spirit pointed out the other day, I have been neglecting to take the time to take that knowledge and forge it into wisdom. Collecting knowledge simply to say you know something is as useless as not knowing it to begin with. Knowing that a fire can be started by rubbing two sticks together is far from the same as being able to do it. Here is where the rest of the virtues/words can be your guiding light on how to use Wisdom.
I hope this post has helped the reader get a deeper understanding of the “Nine Simple Words” and why they are important in our daily lives. While the nine noble virtues were invented in the 1970’s, by a few sketchy people that does not make the words bad. Our ancestors had creeds and codes they wrote down and lived by hundreds and maybe a thousand years, see my book, “Fire and Ice Shamanism.”
