Jormundgand the World Serpent
Iormungand
is the aquatic child of Loki and Angrboda, and, in a distinct contrast to her
parents and siblings, her form is serpentine and monstrous. Iormungand is the
World Serpent who lies in the sea surrounding Midgard, her tall gripped in her
own mouth. According to Æsir-centric mythology, Odin had cast the serpent into
the world sea, in an attempt to soften and postpone the inevitable blow of Ragnarok;
likewise, Loki was bound beneath the Earth, while Fenrir was chained in the
Gulf of Black Grief. But beyond this superficial tale is a figure who
represents an emanation of the great goddess herself.
In both traditional and contemporary Norse literature, the Midgard serpent is known by a number of names, with some of the most frequent ones being Jormungandr, Jormungand, Midgardsormr, and Iormungand. She is also known under a number of kennings, such as The Encircler of all Lands, Twisted Bay-Menacer, Holm-Fetter, Deadly-Cold Serpent, Stiff Land-Rope, The Coiling Eel, The Sea Thread, Steep-Way's Ring, Coal-Fish of the Earth, Sea-Bed Fish, The Water-Soaked Earth Band, and Fiorgyn's Eel. The name Iormungand has the most significance for those wishing to utilize the World Serpent's energy and wyrd in magick; this is because the name has the same source from which the serpent's rune, Ior, also derives its name.
The image and symbolism of Iormungand is remarkably nearly universal. Assuming the more cosmopolitan name of Ouroboros, she is distributed throughout the world, in a vast number of cultures and belief systems, from Europe to Asia and even to Africa. In most instances the meaning remains the same, that of an eternal cyclic force, destructive in essence, but also essential as a part of nature's regenerative process. These fundamentals are also true of Iormungand, a reality that now even some practitioners of orthodox contemporary paganism have grudgingly admitted. A link between the goddess and the serpent can be traced well back into the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic periods. Significantly, images of the snake goddess from this period are often accompanied by coils, zig-zags, and meanders; all symbols of water. Consequently, in mythology, the world serpent is invariably associated with water.
Beyond Northern cosmology, the principle appearance of the Ouroboros symbol is in Gnosticism. The venom of the World Serpent, and the Serpent herself, are symbols of the universal solvent, or the elixir of life that "passes through all things", the unchanging law that connects all parts of existence and creation. This role of the bridge between all realities is expressed in one alchemical manuscript which depicts her body half-black, symbolising the earth and darkness, and half-white, representing heaven and light. A similar idea is seen in Orphic cosmology, where the World Serpent was Aeon, who lay coiled around the Cosmic Egg, and represented the life span of the universe. This myth has it origins in the cosmology of pre-Hellenic Greece, where the Cosmic Egg was the progeny of the goddess Eurynome, and the wind serpent Ophion. Ophion coiled itself around the egg, until it cracked and all life emerged.
In Sumerian-Babylonian mythology, the mother of all life was Tiamat, the vast salt-water ocean, symbolized as a huge kormic serpent. She joined with Apsu, the sweet-water ocean, and in so doing, brought into being the first stages of the cosmos. Ultimately, in a mirroring of the Norse myth of Thor's attempt to kill Iormungand, Tiamat was killed by the patriarchal sky-god Marduk. However, she is by no means dead or absent from our reality, because she is the foundation upon which we walk. An almost identical tale is told by the Aztecs of central America, in which the creatrix Cipactli existed before all creation as a monstrous alligator swimming through primordial chaos. Life and the cosmos was created when her body was divided, by two serpentine gods, her lower body falling to become the earth, and her upper body rising to become the heavens. Again as in Sumerian myth, Cipactli continues to live after her primeval death, and at night she can occasionally be heard crying and sobbing, wishing all life would die back into her. Similarly in the creation myth of the Chibcha of Colombia, Bachue, the primeval mother, originated in the waters of a huge lake, to which she, and her son, and lover, returned as dragons after the creation of the human race. Nu Kua, the creator goddess of ancient China, was also serpent-bodied, while the Incas perceived the earth as Mamapacha, a dragon goddess who lived within the mountains.
Iormungand also represents the cosmic force defined by science as entropy. Iormungand causes change, and in order to instigate this change, her nature is chaotic and disruptive. Because of this chaotic nature, Iormungand is an oft times unstable and apparently malevolent force; as her presence throughout history illustrates. When great periods of instability arises, be it as war, revolution, or natural disasters, they illustrate Iormungand thrashing her tail upon the world shore. No matter how much people may try to ignore this kind of side of history, it is an essential part. Similarly, Iormungand, lying in the world ocean, not only causes change, but also maintains stability in encircling and in some way protecting the world of Midgard. In the words of Benito Mussolini, "Blood alone moves the wheels of history", and so the blood that Iormungand spills enables time to move onwards, and the thrashing of her tail prevents the waters of humankind from ever growing stagnant. She ensures, as all the Rökkr do, that life is never predictable.
The necessity of Iormungand is shown in conventional Norse mythology by the very fact that the gods can never truly capture or bind the snake. In addition, Wyrd ensures that they can never do this, thwarting their attempts at controlling a cosmic force that is far greater than they are. The poem Hymiskvitha from the Poetic Edda, tells the story of Thor's fishing trip with the giant Hymir. Using the head of the giant black bull Himinbrjoter (Sky-cleaver), Thor caught Iormungand on his line. But as he tried to drag the snake up from the waters of Midgard, the giant Hymir, in what was obviously an appreciation of Wyrd, cut the fishing line, allowing the serpent to escape, and later fulfill her role at Ragnarok.
Hoped, yet the worm had fallen beneath the stroke;
But the wily child of Loke,
Waits her turn of Ragnarok.
Iormungand is an expression of chaos; entropic, but still controlled. The Great Serpent is not the force of a mindless kind of anarchy, or nihilistic destruction, but rather yet another vital strand of reality in the labyrinth that forms the Web of Wyrd. Thor, in a macho act, was trying to destroy a vital part of Nature, and Nature herself, as manifested through Wyrd, would not allow such an act to occur. The gods are the products of nature, not vice versa, and as such they are subject to her laws, will, and Wyrd, in the same way that mortals are. When Thor did finally slay Iormungand on the plain of Vigrid at Ragnarok, he too lost his life, proving that the removal of the force of the serpent incurs a disaster of far greater proportion than the serpent's continued existence provides. His attempt to catch Iormungand was not the first time the Snake had made a fool of him. When he and Loki travelled to the capital city of the Jotuns, he challenged the giants in a strength test. He was told to lift the cat of the Jotun king, Utgard-Loki, but after much exertion he could only lift one paw; it transpired that the cat was really Iormungand.
The rune of Iormungand is Ior, from the Fourth Aett of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc; it expresses many of the attributes of Iormungand, but also introduces other sides to the serpent's nature. In contrast to the destructive, and entropic, nature of Iormungand, Ior the rune has a beneficial and accessible aspect, and this is where the everyday magick of Iormungand has its source.
The magick of Iormungand and Ior is protective and binding in nature; this is expressed in Ivy (Hedera Helix) the plant associated with both the World Serpent, and the Ior rune. Like the serpent that it symbolizes, the ivy entwines itself around life, causing change by bringing death, and subsequently allowing new life to begin. Throughout this process, the Ivy remains evergreen (eternal) and constant, in an act of initial paradox, a plant of death, but also a plant of life.
Ivy displays the contrast within Iormungand by acting as a protector as well as assassin. When Ivy grows upon the outer walls of a house it protects the inhabitants from malicious magical attack, be it of a human source, as in a magician using the Nithsong, or a curse, or from a more supernatural being. The traditional carvings used on Scandinavian buildings evoke the protective powers of Iormungand and Ivy through serpentine and entwining designs, ensuring the safety of the inhabitants.
A more malicious aspect of Iormungand's magick is the use of Binding Magic, which invokes both aspects from the ivy's two sided nature. Defining malice, of course, depends on the practitioner's intent and their perception of what is personally right and wrong. Binding Magic in its various guises has a well-documented history. It was in battles during the Viking age to render enemies helpless, and here it had a particular association with the Æsir god of battle, Odin. He was the patron of a particular kind of binding known as the Herfjottur or War-fetter, which would confuse an enemy, making them vulnerable to attack. As with the form of cursing known as the Nithsong, the Thurisaz and Isa runes were often used to enforce a binding. In most instances, the binding is only a psychic one, which is applied in the same manner as a curse, but with a result equal to an actual physical binding, on either the body, the mind, or even both.
Artwork by Miguel Regodon.