Why is Hel half dead, half alive?
Baldr is welcomed with a feast because he reached a place of need. If you look at her attributes, storm-increaser, it reminds an emotional upheaval/chaos; hunger, not satisfaction; starvation, not abundance; the walking pair of slaves, that is, mankind; and half dead, half alive, well, this can be best understood learning the meaning of the myth of Osiris, but essentially it has to do with reincarnation. If the higher gods and entities are not trapped by this cycle, they can be portrayed fully alive, and never subject to dying. But because the soul (Baldr) in the cycle of reincarnation experiences growth and decay, like a plant that grows and shrinks, but never really dies, it can be said that the soul that goes to Hel blossoms (after physical death), and, because it's a cycle bound to Earth, shrinks on the way down to Earth (death, Kor, deathbed). That's why Hel, the Being, and the State, is portrayed half alive (growth), half dead (decay), because that's exactly what the soul in this cycle experiences. But the point of this lesson here is that the soul never really dies, it is in fact immortal, and that death is an illusion.
This is precisely the secret behind greek mystery cults, because this doctrine could have never been taught openly, since the majority wasn't and isn't ever ready for such an idea. Maybe one day it will be, who knows. Now about Hel as a place of punishment, that idea comes openly from christianity, but just like the spiritual realms, what is conCealed(1) doesn't mean it doesn't exist, and the same goes to norse mythology. What growth is devoid of pain, the pain of growing? None. Furthermore, a soul coming into Hel, that cannot leave behind the attachment to the physical realm and its correspondent habits, is a soul that will experience pains of growth and cleansing(2) from former habits. That can be seen as a form of punishment, but it really isn't, it's just adaptation or the refusal to adapt to a new environment. What really is punishment, but this is according to the Hindu doctrine of Karma, is reaping the fruits of one's deeds in the next incarnation. If Hel is not a place of punishment, this world, or coming back to it, surely is.
Notes:
1 - If Hel means concealment, and if it comes from the into-european root kel, to cover, is that not analogous in concept to the name and concept behind the name Hades? Hades is usually translated as invisible, or the unseen one and he wears the aidos kynee, the cap of invisibility, which renders its user invisible.
"But they have made the representation of Zeus in human form, because mind was that according to which he wrought, and by generative laws brought all things to completion; and he is seated, as indicating the steadfastness of his power: and his upper parts are bare, because he is manifested in the intellectual and the heavenly parts of the world; but his feet are clothed, because he is invisible in the things that lie hidden below." Porphyry, On Cult Images, fr. 3
The aidos kynee can also be translated as the dog of Hades, or dog-skin of Hades, since kynee comes from kyon, dog. It is interesting that Aidos, written with a omega, was the greek goddess of humility, and that the same word meant humility. If we play with words as the ancient did, we get humble dog. The dog was also associated with the underworld. Greek Cerberus guarded the gate to the underworld, the Egyptian Anubis of the underworld was depicted with the face of a dog, the Indian Yama, god of death, has two guard dogs, Garmr in norse mythology guards the gate to Hel.
The symbolism reflects the bond between Man and Beast, the rational and the irrational, or on a metaphysical level, the bond between the rational soul and animal soul, and that the beast, the irrational soul, as the guard to the underworld, is like the guard of a person's house. It is not the person (real soul), but it also affectionately belongs to it, and is what stands between a person and the wild, or metaphysicaly, between the higher and lower realms.
2- Gehenna is a term, or better, a metaphor in rabbinic judaism to describe the purification process that the soul goes through after physical death, before reaching the garden of Eden. That term was subsequently used in the New Testament, and then taken to mean eternal damnation, which is not, that idea comes from the Apocalypse of John, and has got nothing to do with this. Fire is metaphoricaly used as the means to purify in Gehenna, but also snow. It can be said to be a particular "place" in the afterlife, and that those who do not surrender to its process can indeed remain there indefinitely. This idea though, doesn't come from Revelation, but from rabbinic sources in fact. Source: AfterlifeinZoharDAAT.pdf
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