Love, Laughter, and Loki

Journey to the Center of Being

I am first and foremost a devotee of Loki now, but for twelve years I have also had an off-again, on-again relationship with the Vanadis, the Vanir Goddess Freyja. I wrote of it in another work but I did not touch on some of the most important things She taught me. One of those was my introduction to Her special brand of magic, known to us as seidr.

I am just now beginning to fall back into being introduced and reintroduced to those practices. I am having to relearn a lot of the lessons that were interrupted by various personal issues and events that occurred in my life for the past decade or so, namely my disconnection from the Mistress of seidr and getting to know my God-Husband. So really this little article of mine is being written from the perspective of someone who should know a lot more than she does, but is in fact very much a beginner. I am no seidkona, having not earned the distinction of carrying that title.

A lot of people are also going to have a problem with me calling my particular practices seidr since it does not fit with their own brand of the practice. Most people in the Heathen community for example think of the brand of Oracular seidr practiced by the Hrafnar group. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it is not the only way to practice seidr. Much of what I know has been spirit-taught, instructed to me by Freyja Herself. It’s also complicated by the fact that I’ve been Gag-ordered on a lot of what I learned so I can’t share everything.

So there might be a tad bit of frustration involved for some people who read this, read of an experience I had or some bit of knowledge I procured, and will be all “How do you know, how do you do it…!” The short answer is, some of it I can’t share, and even if I were allowed to I can’t. A lot of what I learned can’t really be taught in a book or an essay. It has to be experienced.

So what this really is basically is a primer, some steps to get you started if you are really interested in this path. Actually interested won’t cut it…you have to know this is for you. Despite what you might have read in various sources seidr is not a “safe” art to practice or delve into. With seidr you are not interacting with safe archetypes who can’t hurt you if you piss them off or wandering around in Disney-type illusionary worlds where there are no “No Trespassing” signs. With seidr you are opening yourself up to interactions with Gods and wights who are very real, with Their own personalities and feelings, and if you piss Them off you can pay bigtime. The worlds you wander are real and the rules of common courtesy apply just as strongly to them as they do in the mundane world….in some cases even more so.

Forget about being elfshot by the Alfar or being stomped on by a pissed-off Jotnar though. The real danger is in getting to know yourself. Freyja’s first objective was for me to face all my own nooks and crannies, every single aspect of myself from the most wonderful and shiny to the most horrid and terrifying. Fortunately for me I had already experienced that at the hands of a more ruthless Master (although I suspect Freyja wouldn’t have been anymore easy on me than Loki was) so I was prepared for it and didn’t see things I hadn’t already been faced with. Other people might not be so lucky, and not everyone can handle it. The real danger, boys and girls, is in going mad when you find that missing shard of your soul you left behind when your uncle decided to play Touch and Grab in the back hallway of your parents’ house at the Christmas party when you were nine, or having all lose layers of denial peeled away to come face to face with the reason why you drink yourself to sleep at night and can’t sleep sober without nightmares. In other words you’re forced to face memories, feelings, aspects of your personality that you keep ruthlessly suppressed. Before you can help others with seidr you have to know Thyself and help Thyself. And since not everyone wants to know themselves (maybe you’re shaking your head right now and thinking that it’s no problem, but ask yourself honestly for a second…do you really want to strip away the layers of denial or knock yourself off that pedestal you’ve built for yourself and get to know yourself as you truly are, as others see you? Do you really? Think about it and be honest), then this path is definitely not for everyone.

Still interested? Still want to go on despite these warnings? Fine, have a party.

Getting Started

First thing’s first: You want to get involved with seidr that means developing a good relationship with the Mistress of the craft. That means solidifying a good relationship with Freyja, the Vanadis, Lady of the Vanir, Goddess of love, sex, battle, magic, Mistress of Folkvang, Chooser of Half the Slain, Twin Sister of Frey….get the idea? Freyja is the Goddess you want to get to know and establish a good rapport with. You don’t have to adopt Her as a Matron, but it is wise to be on friendly terms with Her at the very least. Give Her offerings at an altar you set up for Her…She likes candy, fruit, pastries, sweet alcoholic beverages, flowers, jewelry, statues of cats, poetry written for Her, sex (either with Her or done with a mortal partner in Her honor), nice things done for cats in Her name (like setting out food and water for strays, donating money and/or time and/or goods to a cat rescue, or even going so far as to adopt a kitty especially one that’s been declared a “hopeless case” due to age, behavioral or health problems, etc), music, flowery sweet incense, pork, and generally anything pretty. Talk to Her, listen to Her, meditate on what She says. When the time is right approach Her about seidr. If you are sincere about wanting to learn, are willing to do what She says, and She thinks you are ready, then She might teach you. If She refuses, best to wait a long time before asking again….if She refuses you, there is a reason for it. If this happens it’s a good idea to do some major self-work before asking again.

Getting Down to Business

I’m going to go into getting into trance under the assumption that you already know how to meditate and do it as a regular practice. If you don’t meditate or don’t know how to I heartily suggest you learn. I’m not going to get into how to go it here since there are already dozens of books on the subject. One I really recommend is Passage Meditation by Eknath Easwaran. It used to be published as just Meditation. In short his technique involves the recitation over and over again of some inspirational passage mentally in order to focus and calm the mind, and it is a very effective technique. Though he uses passages from the top five world’s religions in his book I’ve found any inspirational passage does just nicely. Someone of a more Northern Tradition bent might want to use a passage from the Havamal or a prayer from the various devotionals that have come out in recent years. Whether you go this route or another, you need to learn how to meditate and start doing it. Make it a regular practice. Even if you aren’t doing seidr or any other type of shamanic work it’s a useful skill to have. Just do it.

Meditation leads to trance, which is key to being able to practice seidr at all. You have to be able to shift your mind into another mode of consciousness, and the way to do that is through trance. There are other methods but they generally all involve entering into another stream of consciousness…you can take the Path of the Flesh if that appeals to you for instance, or the Ordeal Path. Somehow you need to go into a trancelike state…no trance, no seidr. Being able to go another place mentally is essential.

The traditional way in seidr is through the Path of Rhythm, via singing or drumming. Most people don’t have access to a whole chorus of assistants singing chants to induce a trance, so making a rhythm via drum is the way most seidr practitioners go. Or not. I myself do not possess a drum as of this writing. Not that I don’t want to, it’s just that I have yet to run across one that screams “I am yours! I’m your seidr drum! Pick me up!” For this problem, a solution was presented by none other than Herself:

There is another rhythm you can follow, use to enter the state of Being that is needed. The rhythm of your body. Your body has a rhythm all it’s own…your breath, the pulse of your blood. Pay attention to it. Close your eyes. Still your thoughts. Breath, deeply until you are no longer aware of your breath. Now listen. Listen to the pulsating blood in your temples. You can hear it. If you listen and relax you can hear and follow it. That is your drumbeat…let it carry you. Let your own pulsating blood carry you onto your Journey.

Since then I have found virtually anything with a steady beat works well for me. I once did it to the beat of the tick-tock of a clock in my in-laws’ living room. But it’s really best if I follow my pulse, as Freyja showed me. In fact following my blood just makes it easier to flow into the spiral.

The spiral is my name for the sensation and experience of flowing inward, down, down, down along the path of Yggdrasil. It’s really hard to describe. It’s like being gently sucked into a vortex only you do have some control over where you go. It’s not hard…for me I just keep my mind focused on where I want to go, and then I am there, gently placed down by the whirlpool of astral energy.

So Now What?

Now you can do a little bit of experimenting, with some caution. First, before you go otherworldly journeying, it’s best to take a primer on some otherworldly etiquette. I do want to reiterate that these worlds are real places, real homes of real beings who have real lives, personalities, and feelings. They don’t appreciate people waltzing into their homes like it’s some kind of Panama City tourist attraction anymore than you would. The denizens of otherworlds deserve the same type of courtesy you would give someone walking down the street of Los Angeles. Don’t go walking into people’s homes uninvited. Don’t harass people who are just going about their business…just because they are from another world doesn’t mean they exist to teach you, guide you, or even be nice to you. Always take no for an answer. Never lie. Always offer help so you’re not being an ugly mooch. More rules of otherworld etiquette can be found in Pathwalker’s Guide to the Nine Worlds by Raven Kaldera.

Don’t expect that you will be able to always go where you want either. Certain worlds…Asgard, Ljossalfheim, and Helheim in particular…are heavily guarded and you won’t be getting in without an appointment with some Deity or major wight who lives there. Others, like Muspellheim, are easy enough to get into but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be well-received unless you have a good reason for being there. In other words always look before you leap…petition a deity known to live in the realm you want to visit, have a good reason to visit (just wanting to gawk at things is not a good reason), and when you get there state your business to whoever asks and be courteous.

I’m getting ahead of myself here, as I haven’t covered yet some other important issues such as shielding. While there are some things in the Nine Worlds that wouldn’t be stopped by any shield a mortal can create if they truly were determined to mess with you, it is wise to at least acquire some skill in some basic shielding before you go waltzing around. The simplest method of course is just to envision a bubble of white light surrounding you and solidifying to encase you in a ball of protective energy. That’s pretty basic but shielding methods are one of those things that are covered a great deal in other books as well so I won’t get into them. I’ll just say that when I shield I like to do it not only with the white rotating sphere of fiery energy but I also like to cloud it up so it’s camouflaged….in my experience, going around with a visible shield just screams “I’m looking for trouble, please mess with me!” This way at least nasties won’t know what’s up until it’s too late for them.

So what are we going to do once we get to these worlds, shielded and armed with knowledge of how to behave as well as how not to behave in these other worlds? Well the most common thing seid-workers do is petition Deities and other entities either on their own or others’ behalves to ask questions or request a boon. Questions can be things like will I marry, will I get a job, how does my future look, and so on, and boons might be things like asking for help finding a job, asking for healing, and so on. Just remember that in the Nine Worlds, nothing is for free. Always be prepared to pay for the answer or the boon with a favor of some sort, and this especially holds true when asking something from bigtime Deities like the Norns. One thing I have had experience in dealing with the Norns is in separating a friend’s orlog from that of her biological family…for various personal reasons she wanted to part from them completely. The Norns granted it but she did have to do Them a favor. That’s just one example. Some people will bug Them to get their wyrd read too…They might do that but They might want something in exchange. It’s a definite gift for a gift system, and that holds true for Everyone, not just the Norns. The reason why I emphasize them is because those who delve into seidr deeply will end up dealing with Them a lot. It’s just how it is. Seidr works with wyrd, the attempted change of the wyrd of some as well as just merely influencing it especially when one does magic such as healings, blessings, or curses. Sooner or later doing such things will attract the attention of the Norns. When it happens, be respectful of Them, listen to what They have to say, and back off if They tell you to.

Is That All?

No it’s not, but as I said I’ve been Gagged on a great deal of what I’ve been taught and some of what I’ve been taught I couldn’t explain even if I could. There is a lot more to seidr then just going into trances and talking to Invisible People. Magic and spells, soothsaying and prophecy are big parts of the art as well. Is it possible to learn all of it? Well yes, but it takes time. One doesn’t become a seidkona/seidmadhr overnight. It takes years of disciplined and dedicated hard work under a watchful eye. I seriously recommend getting a good teacher if you can…being spirit-taught solely isn’t easy, and can in fact be dangerous at times. If you want to go it alone (not totally alone, but by the guidance of some Deity), great. Good luck with it.

I am still very much a beginner at all this but it is my hope that my words here have at least provided a starting point, or some food for thought, or perhaps some thinking material for those wanting to try this out. Still interested? Well, okay then.

Good journeying, and hail Freyja.