The Secret Yoga of the Vikings

Book excerpt: With their secretive poetic lore and even more mysterious pantheon of gods led by Odin the All-Father; Thor, the great Hammer-Striker; Loki, the Evil One, and Heimdal, the Cosmic Horn Blower, it is almost impossible not to love the Vikings. But there are even more fans of the multi-faceted yoga systems devised by the ancient Hindustani in India more than five thousand years ago. Steven A. Key makes the case that transcendental yoga has not only endured over the millennia, but that it has traveled in different forms of spiritual or religious expression in The Secret Yoga of the Vikings. Drawing on the writings of Joseph Campbell, the famous mythologist who hinted at a link between the cultures of the Eastern Hindus and the Northern Vikings, as well as other great thinkers, the author shows that yoga has influenced Buddhism, Christianity, and yes – even the tenth-century Vikings. Discover how a spiritual cult of anonymous Odin warriors who died long ago was likely responsible for the writing of the Poetic Edda itself as well as the role transcendental yoga played in the life of the Vikings.