Vidar experiences in Greece
On 6 December 2008, Alexandros Grigoropoulos was shot dead by a policeman in Athens. The 15-year old’s fate has shocked Greek society and continues to elicit, every year on the day, protests that often lead to smaller or bigger riots.
On 6 December last year, I was due to give my first lecture in Athens on Vidar, the silent spirit of the north, at Pyrinos Cosmos, an esoteric bookstore that is located close to where Alexandros Grigoropoulos was murdered.
Untouched by lies
In the hours leading up to my talk I increasingly sensed the power of Vidar in the language of the events. Some roads were blocked by police and a tense atmosphere gradually took hold of the city. Many Greeks did not dare to enter this part of town and attend our event, which was organized by Cristina Baptista from Brazil and devoted to the silence of Vidar.
We were just about to begin, when a group of hooded protestors went past shouting and smashing windows. There were seven of us inside and we all felt that we needed to do something for the peace in this city, there and then – in silent commemoration and meditative contemplation.
When we stepped onto the road later on, the pungent remnants of teargas still hung in the air, assaulting our eyes and throats. I had spoken of Vidar and of how, since time immemorial, he had been associated with nature’s purity and its forces of innocence. How he was untouched by lies due to his silence, and how his firmness and steadfastness overcomes the wolf Fenrir.
In a shared meditation we practised and discussed six Vidar qualities: the peace of Vidar in thinking, the steadfastness of Vidar in the will, the peace of Vidar in the heart, his understanding of all beings and openness towards the world, and finally his harmony with the entire universe.
In commemoration of Alexandros Grigoropoulos and his life, cut short so arbitrarily, we tried to do work for peace and future reconciliation in reverent silence.
Down into the feet
Remarkably (in the sense of Vidar-like awareness), when we left the bookstore and the carpark somewhat hurriedly, the car rolled over the foot of one of our participants. In the car he said later that he felt as good as never before. Vidar must have had a positive effect on him, down into his feet.