This accessible study of Northern European shamanistic practice, or seidr, explores the way in which the ancient Norse belief systems evoked in the Icelandic Sagas and Eddas have been rediscovered and reinvented by groups in Europe and North America. The book examines the phenomenon of altered consciousness and the interactions of seid-workers or shamanic practitioners with their spirit worlds. Written by a follower of seidr, it investigates new communities involved in a postmodern quest for spiritual meaning.
An experiential guide to the wisdom preserved in Europe’s far north • Includes shamanic journeys to connect with deities and your ancestral shamans • Provides step-by-step instructions to prepare for and conduct a seiðr ceremony • Draws on archaeological evidence and surviving written records from Iceland • Reveals the long tradition of female shamans in northern European shamanism Shamanism is humanity’s oldest spiritual tradition. In much of the Western world, the indigenous pre-Christian spiritual practices have been lost. Yet at the northern fringes of Europe, Christianity did not displace the original shamanic practices until the end of the Viking age. Remnants of Norse shamanic spirituality have survived in myths, folk traditions, and written records from Iceland, providing many clues about the ancient European shaman’s world, especially when examined in conjunction with other shamanic cultures in northern Eurasia, such as the Sami and the tribes of Siberia. Reconstructing the shamanic practices of the hunter-gatherers of Scandinavia, Evelyn Rysdyk explores the evolution of Norse shamanism from its earliest female roots to the pre-Christian Viking Age. She explains how to enter Yggdrasil, the World Tree, to travel to other realms and provides shamanic journeys to connect with the ancestral shamans of your family tree, including the Norse goddess Freyja, the very first shaman. She offers exercises to connect with the ancient goddesses of fate, the Norns, and introduces the overnight wilderness quest of útiseta for reconnecting with the powers of nature. She explains the key concepts of Ørlög and Wyrd--the two most powerful forces that shape human lives--and provides exercises for letting go of harmful behavior patterns and transforming simple knowledge into profound wisdom by connecting with Óðinn. Thoroughly examining the shamanic rituals of seiðr, the oracular magic of the Nordic cultures, the author provides step-by-step instructions to prepare for and conduct a seiðr ceremony, including creating your own seiðr staff and hood, and explores the ancestral use of shamanic songs or varðlokur to accompany the ceremony. Woven throughout these exercises, Rysdyk provides archaeological evidence from Neolithic sites supporting the long tradition of venerating wise women, grandmothers, and mothers in ancient cultures and the important role of female shamans at the heart of northern European shamanism. Providing an accessible guide for anyone trying to fulfill their shamanic callings, these powerful rituals can provide personal healing and a clear path for finding our way into a harmonious relationship with the natural world.
Sei�r is profound intuition and ineffable wisdom, and V�lusp� is the single most important text on Sei�r - the European 'shamanistic' tradition. This is the only book that explains them both with remarkable depth and clarity. A must read for anyone who seeks to rekindle Old European spiritual traditions in their every day life!
Seidr is the intriguing and powerful early Norse system of shamanistic trance practices. In this book, Katie Gerrard has contributed major work on the practices of seidr and trance prophecy, providing a practical manual full of dynamic group rituals and techniques based on known Seidr practices.
The study of Old Norse Religion is a truly multidisciplinary and international field of research. The rituals, myths and narratives of pre-Christian Scandinavia are investigated and interpreted by archaeologists, historians, art historians, historians of religion as well as scholars of literature, onomastics and Scandinavian studies. For obvious reasons, these studies belong to the main curricula in Scandinavia but are also carried out at many other universities in Europe, the United States and Australia a fact that is evident to any reader of this book. In order to bring this broad and varied field of research together, an international conference on Old Norse religion was held in Lund in June 2004. About two hundred delegates from more than fifteen countries took part. The intention was to gather researchers to encourage and improve scholarly exchange and dialogue, and Old Norse religion in long-term perspectives presents a selection of the proceedings from that conference. The 75 contributions elucidate topics such as worldview and cosmology, ritual and religious practice, myth and memory as well as the reception and present-day use of Old Norse religion. The main editors of this volume have directed the multidisciplinary research project Roads to Midgard since 2000. The project is based at Lund University and funded by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation.
This is not your Great Aunt Betsy's seidr. From total novice to experienced practitioner, there should be plenty to find with an interest in Contemporary Seidr. Starting with the basics of how to go into trance and introducing more advanced exercises, the reader will be certain to learn something. As a Contemporary Seidr worker, one can learn to travel the Nine Realms, heal others, and much more. Explore the terrains of the Norse worlds and of your own inner psyche.
This is a study of the history, lore, religion and magic of the Vanic branch of the Germanic way. Its contents will prove of extreme interest to those of the Wiccan path or modern witchcraft, for it is in the way of the Vanir, or Wanes, that their roots are to be found. From a manuscript originally titled "True Wicca." "This is an exciting book, and a breath of fresh air in a field that long needed the windows and doors thrown open!" -- Stephen A. McNallen, AFA
" ... presents the main features of Siberian shamanism, as they are relevant for comparison with Norse sources, and examines the Norse texts in detail to determine how far it is reasonable to assign a label of "shamanism" to the human and divine magical practices of pre-Christian Scandinavia, whose existence, it is argued, in many cases resides mainly in the imaginative tradition of the poets." -- Back cover.
