As a Lakota and Scandinavian woman, I am considered the 'Medicine Woman' of my family, due to the magic I can hold, for healing and protection. I am no shaman, but I have delved the Mysteries many times. I do like using both Indigenous and Norse elements together, feeling an affinty for both, and it's very effective most times. Thank you for these videos, they are quite helpful!
American Indian paganism and European paganism share a cultural link through the arctic region, which is why theres so much overlap with Norse specifically. Both have been victims of Christianity. Cheers!
There is a case where a Lakotah man had been brutally beated and no one could figure out who did it. A Medicine man was brought in (Wallace Black Elk) to the hospital and he was able to call in Spirit using song(s) to help. During the Ceremony, Spirit dropped the car's license plate on the floor and told those there ( a Police Officer attended) where the car was as well as the whereabouts of the vicitm's missing rifle that he was beaten with. Then, Spirit requested the 'send them back song' at which point the plate disappeared. Upon further investigation, the Officer found the car and the rifle (that had been buried under a bridge) and the individuals involved were arrested. Shamanism" probably not. But Spirit-intervention and help none-the-less.
Once, I had a voice in the back of my mind say "get ready to meet your neice." That weekend, my brother invited us all over & told everyone he & his girlfriend were pregnant. Despite the fact that our family overwhelmingly tend to have male children (previous generation combined had 12 kids & only 2 were girls), it was a girl. I'd told my brother it would be a girl. After it was confirmed, I pulled him aside & said "Thank God I was right, so I don't look like a complete idiot." LOL I'm one of those Appalachian people whose family thought we had Native ancestry. Turns out we do, on top of a crap ton of other things, but it's only about 5% or less.
Yes please for a southern hemisphere calendar! I’ve been meaning to make one for years but haven’t had the time. I run a Meadery (Valknut Meadery) and I’m sure a lot of my followers would love one too. I’ll gladly advertise it for you. Huge fan btw. Long time watcher, 1st time commenting. Skål
Great video! Super happy to see you returning to this type of video content. Long informing videos are so much more needed and appreciated in this era of "quick fix" BS with zero actual source and/or understanding.
Honestly I think seid involving sexual acts is a ridiculous notion. The fact that it's 'ergi' for men can simply be explained by the fact that it can be very underhanded, like cursing someone. Women however cannot always physically defend themselves, from men for example, thus cursing is an understandable way for women to enact vengeance and protect themselves.
I don't think the sexual aspect is ridiculous, but I agree with you on the power of cursing, or more commonly, being the power behind the power figure. A woman, a wife or anyone involved with a powerful man could have moved events without direct violence. Information was power. "Gossip" is so often assigned to females, in a bitter or dismissive way, but it can be information, used for power. It would be easy for a bitter angry person to blame their problems on a "bitch/witch" figure who uses magic. "Don't tell anyone, wink wink, but apparently Helga saw Sven in the hayloft, and he was doing... "
@@dietrichess9997this reminds me of Marue Laveau. She used info she obtained from hairdressing the well to do white ladies and mixed it with her Voodoo. It catapulted her to being one of the most powerful people in New Orleans
Well researched, really good structure in the presentation. 😊 No idea if you've read it, but I highly recommend Neil Price's book "The Viking way - magic and mind in late iron age Scandinavia". He goes into great detail of the archaeological finds of völva graves and explores possible correlations with the written sources. 👌👌
I just recommend prices books. I have a better understanding now and live in America so I mix my germanic style with my local tribes style the Cherokee in the same fashion in a mixed ritualistic style and tool's, check out fjallvaettir workshop they make great stuff, that mix the to, and is part Cherokee, and Scandinavia and mix the 2 in his tools I got a hand drum with Scandinavia rock carvings, Rattles, all kinds of cool stuff.
Wow. I was literally just reading about this in one of my books like an hour ago. (Cringe Pagan Mode: Activate) Truly the gods smile down upon me this day!
The Aisir represent Consciousness. The Vanir represent Matter. Matter is the Eternal Source of Consciousness. Consciousness is impermanent - death and resurrection. That's why the Vanir survive Ragnarok. Matter, the Substratum, is eternal. Seidr, to bind, same meaning as Yoga. Sacred Marriage. Union with Nature by means of extatic trance.
I usually imagine the underhanded indirect nature of cursing, especially for petty reasons, was probably what was considered unmanly more than any magic itself. An example that comes to my mind would be Wormwood from LotR corrupting the king. But that Loki quote was an interesting reminder how channeling spirits in voluntary possession was frowned upon. I keep picturing the dynamic between Zoolander and his dad, as being like a magician in the viking world. Shamans are viewed as having a different type of soul than the typical person, usually plagued by the spirits until the spiritual path is taken. It's the best word we have to describe the phenomenon, as it's not synonymous with being just a magician. There's also medicine man and witch doctor, but the average person wouldn't know those terms.
Not really. It was that Seidr was a special form of magic typically connected with intuition, empathy and animism. These were considered typical female attributes compared to males which were supposed to be more on the fighter side. Think of the male is warrior while female is shaman trope. I would consider Seidr a form of magic closely related to the mind which allows practices of divination, mediumship and seeing through patterns. Source: I originate from a colony of danes and saxons in southern europe which created seven villages and kept intermarrying between each other. Thus our traditions became a mix of Germanic paganism and Christianity. For example our protective archangel michael and later saint george was previously a Norse god which we called Wodan ( in modern german it is called Odin ). As far as I know magic in terms of cursing, hexing and jinxing was considered bad and not really practiced. However they were fine with death curses ( we had a past of mercenaries and merchants ) and they loved weather spells and herbalism. Ofc the old religion was almost lost, but the continuous wars between the Ottoman empire, various european empires, slavic states and Balkan ethnic people allows us to preserve our traditions until late 19th century. If there is constant war around you, you need to stick to your own to survive and you refuse outsider influences. Our traditions are a mix of Germanic and Celtic paganism with later christian influences.
1:59 it is common for Shaman to carry a mark since birth. That mark indicates that spirit has selected them to work with spirit. Thus, the purpose of Shaman is set by spirit, not utility for human culture nor training nor initiation. Shaman means "one who knows," and this gift of knowlege is from spirit. All of the descriptions of modern shamanism pointing to trance, guides, power animals, plant allies, channeling or possession, journey, healing, soul recovery are merely tools that can be used by any magical arts practitioner. Yes, modern shaman may choose to use these tools and even choose to serve human culture, but this is not a defining necessary characteristic for Shaman, nor exclusionary in any way. If Seidr was chosen and marked by spirit, then that individual was Shaman, in addition to being Seidr.
I just would like to distinguish very clearly that the priests and a few chosen to be sung about communicate with the gods while the shaman communicates with just about all possible. But only in early stages of hunter/gatherer societies have the 2 roles, the priest and the shaman, been by tradition played by the same individual. Wherever societies became agrarian, the priests became the ones connected to specific deities and who assure the communication stays open between the deities and the community. As such, they were kept within the community and well treated and honoured. Much unlike the shaman, who is shoved beyond the outskirts of the community, the last archaic natural metaphysical stand, the wild, the unknown, the shaman who communicates with just about all.
My mom always called me a Wetterhex ("weather witch" in German) because as a kid, I was really into studying and watching the weather. She also had a little docorative doll that was a witch on a broom hanging over the kitchen sink. It was partly like a cute decoration, but also had the feel of an endearing good luck charm.
Forn Siðr and seiðr is according to Vargs theory one and the same thing, long time ago. According to Varg, it got seperated in early iron age. But originaly it simply ment custum, womens domain. I like this idea becouse it explains the "magic and custum and religion was one and the same"
“Siddhe” Irish for fairy- also, a derogative term -“Siddah” Sanskrit for psychic abilities - how do you feel? These are related etymologically & thologically to Seidr ???
Very interesting! Here's some more information I found on hembane seeds which fits perfectly with the rituals described: Atropine, one of the alkaloids found in henbane and other Solanaceae species, can be easily absorbed through the skin when mixed with fat or oil and rubbed to the body. Exposure to this ointment, applied mainly to the armpits or the genital area, produced the sensation of flying. Administered rectally after smearing on a stick or pole, this is reputedly the reason why witches are often depicted as flying on broomsticks. They contain several psychoactive alkaloids such as atropine, scopolamine and specially hyoscyamine. These are contained in all parts of the plant, although the highest concentration is found in the seeds. Henbane is also known as 'witche's plant' or 'witches favorite'"
@@gcanaday1at least where I live in Canada on the prairies. Zones 4a - 4b it is incredibly easy to find. It typically grows in garbage, uncultivated, dense soil where other vegetation has difficulty growing.
I'm a man and I'm into magick, and I'm sertainly not gay...but ever since I decided to be open about it Iv been treated like a weirdo by some of my male "friends" (some are not friends anymore) I don't do seithr, but other types of mental magick. The women that's in to it that I know of is treated like normal, so this mindset seems to still be present here in Skåne, Sweden.
Women won't like it either, unless you've been going out with one for quite some time & she's like minded. It's not good to broadcast that you're into "magic". It also can attract competitive negative types that either feel envy & want to compete or want to test you out. It's better & wiser to be discreet.
As a woman of Norse ancestry who is also "into magick" (my father's family is actually from Skåne) I'm going to say this has nothing to do with magick being a woman's thing, but because it's magick. Where I live in the US people of either gender are treated like weirdos if they're interested in magick. Some people are extremely prejudiced against male witches too, but it's usually only those who don't really know that much. You're in good company though.
@@ELCinWYO maybe it's because you're a woman and therefore have a difficult time experiencing these things as a man. In my experience it's accepted for women to do magick and spirituality. I'm not originally from skåne. My kin is spread out through Sweden, Blekinge, norrland, Stockholm even Vajle in Denmark and I have no memory of hearing of any man in my kin that was into these things, only women.
I am one of these people who doesn't believe in thing called Norse or even Indo-european "shamanism" because whole phenomena wasn't even first attested from any Indo-european tradition. They had some remains of this archaic practice like Koryos or otherwise Ulfhefnar and Berserker practice. It is quite likely that some Norse practises are influenced by Saami and Baltic-finns because they came from Siberia during Bronze Age. Even migration period Hunnic and Viking age native american influence is possible. A lot of people forget the fact that Norse sources are the ONLY properly attested texts about what Germanic religion really was and this is Norse and Scandinavian variant of it. We have very little clue how for example English (Anglo-saxons) or Continental Germanic tribes practised this stuff. Their religion and how they saw gods and magic may have been quite different from scandinavians
Traditional shamanism all over the world, is not just healing! This is what modern western practitioners do. Possession by Deities or ancestors, divination, prophesy, curses, shaman wars and killing are all part of traditional shamanism. It is nice you put all these sources together but your interpretation is sometimes off :( Singing is the most important part of seidr. Without someone singing the vardlokkur for her, Thorbjorg the völva in te saga of Eric the Red, could not perform the ritual. This is why the christian woman wat pressured to sing. Singing, beautiful or ugly is mentioned over and over again in connection with seidr in te sources. I don't understand how you can say it was not alwys part of seidr. There were a lot of men practising seidr, not just a few. And they were often respected High born members of the society. Not so very ergi, but respected warriors and sometimes leaders in the resistance against the Christian kings. A good reason to kill them and give them a bad reputation. And please stop sexualizing the practice of seidr! There is no proof for this except for the fantasies of some scolars.
The death penalty for calling someone a homo reminds me when I was in high school back in 1987 and a kid called another kid a f a g. The kid got out of his desk and they both starting fighting in class. That is what Gen x felt about being accused of being gay. My how the times have changed.
These practises went on for thousands of years, and the way they were perceived went through many changes. So if they at one point became something only women did at a certain place, then it is not strange that men having done it would seem "gay". It was just a way for people to associate the practice with the world of women, and probably had nothing to do with sex. For instance, how much does painting you fingernails have to do with sex?
In Pite-sami säjjde means offeringstone - place to make offerings. I don't know Sami but it sounds a lot like seidr. So perhaps the word origin of seidr could be Finnic.
The fact that both the eddas and sagas were written down by Christians might at least in part account for the negative attitudes toward males who were shamans. Here in Norh America the Christers really hated the shamans and did everything to undermine them. That and the deep homophobia of that cult. Consider how they attacked other Christians they considered heretical as engaging in buggery. A lot of these texts have to be treated with a grain of salt, since sadly we have no pagan texts.
Dear Thor, What is your opinion on Varg Vikernes's interpretation of the myths and his opinions regarding Óðinn? While Óðinn is the lord of the posessed, is he also the accumulated wisdom of your ancestors and related to reincarnation?
@11:50 this and the concept of shape shifting makes me wonder if they held individuals with what we would call manic depression/ bipolar in high regard. I would expect they were viewed as exceptional for raiding or spiritual matters.
I think you’re on to something, I would also include schizophrenia and a number of other so called “conditions”. Investigate how the western med industry names or identifies psychological maladies, hint; it’s bullshyt. How many potentially talented individuals are being labelled, stigmatized and drugged up for profit$? To be a spiritual leader these days you must go through indoctrination programs and get your certificate issued by the government for a registered religion. The ancient ways haven’t been tolerated for many years, for if you are discovered practising or healing you will be incarcerated, if found...
Can you make a video on viking higene? i remember saying they actually smelled good and i wanna know more about it, especially if there are perfumes or w/e that are made to be historically close to what they used or something./
Unrelated tradition of the near East, the goddess takes off one piece of clothing for each of the seven doors to the underworld. Perhaps something similar happens in seidr...
Most religions are based from some form of shamanisms. Calling on angels, gods. Saints. Holy spirit and even God to come to them or in them and bliss them and others . Even some call up demons, Evil spirits or devil's. So it's still going on. But in a different way.
Thank you very much for the video and information!! So as someone still learning of my Norse Pagan heritage, and very new to it, should I practice Seidr as a man? If not, what magic can men practice??
Thank you for talking about this stuff, lest it's forgotten. Even if "shamanism" is not the right name, we can't ignore a people's spiritual mores. It's important to understand it so to compare it and hopefully draw some practices that are useful to us too, right now
@@vilijanac Fellow member of the koryos - remember the principles of guerilla warfare. They cannot attack if their homelands are decimated behind them.
Favorite video you've done so far. Very well done. As a practitioner of seiđr, accurate information is a joke. Ironically enough I was just paid to do a talk on seiđr yesterday then saw this. 😊
Your sources is written Down 200-300 years after viking time by priests. And we know there is alot lies in it. The best sources are the Church, Constantinopol and islamic writtings. And no one about their believes….
I have scandinavian, nordic, icelandic, germanic, french, irish, and british DNA. These videos always make me so happy. Learning of my ancestors and their possible practices. I love it! I intuitively have studied norse mythology, and norse paganism even before i knew my ancestry. ❤
Sounds a lot like Sieida worshipping (Seita / Seidan palvonta in Finnish). Do you have something to tell about Smiergatto / Trollkat? Stories tell that a woman witch could give a part of their soul to animal forms or objects like broom, so they could fly on it, or live through the animal form. But if the broom or Smiergatto were destroyed, the witch would also die or get hurt. Seems like there has been different practicing for women, cause they had to trade their life after death for powers. Men usually seem to get services from spirits against some trade that needs to be done when they are still living.
I'm 1/3 Lakota Blackfoot and Cherokee, and one half German Saxon, and can tell you for a fact that there are far more similarities between the shamanism practiced by those two cultures than there are differences. Also, the ideas or images people have in the West concerning witches come from Germany. All of Disney's witches are German. The name of Snow White's evil stepmother is "Grimhilde the wicked", for instance.
Remember,. the feminine form of the title Shaman is Shamanka. It sounds so much cooler I think, and nicely rolls off the tongue. I believe there was also a female punk band called Shamanka. Off topic a bit, I know... 🙂
Shamanism applies to ANY spiritual practice of indigenous and or tribal societies not affected nor influenced by Abrahamic Religions. Not just the Siberians. Thanks for interesting content.
Finnish people were by far the first europeans. In the area of sweden norway and denmark for example there very only finnish people and they spoke finnish. Much much later came the black eyed "latin" speaking ( called mleccha by indian richis/sages) indoeuropean mixture " swedes "etc and blended with the pure blue eyed white finnish people in the whole europe area.The first vikings were finnish and they travelled around the world , the finns had already been south and spread their blue eyed/blonde/red hair genes. Scientist in countries know this but the roman empire and propaganda swedes do not want YOU to know these facts. The finnish people did ride on mooses used as tanks which the swedish mafia church later in c:a 1200 wanted to ban , also the priests was told to stop flying with the finnish shamans, the finnish also knew how to levitate heavy objects. " Runsten/runestone" comes from the finnish word runo ( dikt in swe/ poem in eng ).The oldest runestones in scandinavia are written in finnish language later stones in latin dialect.The rediculous thors hammare is stolen from finnish word turso and the hammer symbol is not a hammer it is two people standing back to back. European culure originates from Finland. Finnish people were democratic people and women were ecual to men , they had kings ( kuningas ) only in war times when a kunnia ( honored man ) was to rule. The mafia roman empire was the opposite as it is today. The roman empire did its outmost to conquer finnish people and the enlish king sent thousands of men with the order to " kill them all ". The swedish mafia/roman empire have destroyed lots ancient places buildings and and runeostones in finland and the finnish museums and arcives are still today controlled by korrupted non finns ! hiding artefacts and destroying probably still destroying things/findings. Once for example a golden crown was found and the sw... sent it to Turku and smelted it. All the ritual altars in ancient greece were built to finnish female shamans.The four first faraos in egypt were finns, later the farao thing got bad and was put to an end when finnish ( ship people/vikings) ( then demonized / desribed by egyptiians as the blue eyed "devils ") came and destroyed it. Once a swedish king went to Karjala to find him a wife, soon the wife killed the swede and went back to Finland. At one time the swedish "capital" was Sigtuna and finns from Karjala again ( Karelia ) came over and burnt the whole place down to the ground only ruins left and the capital was after that located to "Stockholm ". There another bad behaving swede king was hanged by his finnish wife. The oldest bow weapons in the world are found in Finland everyone in europe wanted them/couldnt manage without them. In the swedish "stormakts tid" the finns were always sent into battle first , it is said thet 100 thousand finns lost their life under that period in mafia swede wars ( today it would equal to 1 million ).One swede officer wrote in letter to swe " what a wonderful life, to kill and plunder ". It is written in swedish history documents thet finland was the wall against russia and the supply stock to sweden. The swede mafia had orgies on finnish expense. Swedish crown sent to finland settlements and swedish people. Land and rights to fish were taken away from finnish people and given to invading thieves.Finns braking mafia rules was punished. Hyper borealis = Suomi/ finnish people.Greek culture is built on finnish culture...etc etc etc. --------- At the meetings of the Nordic countries before the 2nd world war, the countries agreed on cooperation.. the north was said to be an area " not worth for any foreign power to hunt in ".LOL When the Soviet Union suddenly attacked Finland on Nov 30, 1939 (until March 13 ) the fear increased in Sweden and Sweden immediately declared itself neutral.. Prime Minister Ryti stated a few days before the end of the winter war that none of those who had signed up as volunteers had arrived. Of the total of 8,260 not 10,000 from Sweden as the propaganda says, some were in the vicinity of the Salla front and most of the casualties fell from the food line due to frostbite 130, other injuries 55 and 33 died after Soviet had located them and shot with artillery.When Mannerheim finally had called the swedish volunteers to action, the swedes protested and said that they are waiting for new winter coats, that had not arrived from sweden, to which M replied annoyed that our boys had participated straight away in only civilian shoes and clothes and , slammed the phone and mumbled something to the rest of the staff . In the continuation war, the swedish svrikompanie was at the Hanko area from where parts of Finnish troops were moved to the karjala front and the recapture plans of Hanko were dropped and both sides just watched and waited . In October 1941, the Russians found that it was not worth keeping Hanko and decided to leave the area. The reason was that the H base ended up too far from the fronts , troops were needed elsewhere and the Red Army's fleet had been weakened. so troops were evacuated to Leningrad. Last troops left Hanko on the night of 2-3 December 1941. Heavy artillery remained but was destroyed by the russians or the luftwaffe the first day of war. On the morning of December 3, the Finns found Hanko empty and came to an empty town during the day. That became the LOL swedish propaganda history conquest of Hanko. Of the 1,694 infantry company there, not much remained when swir was moved eastward, what remained was 404 at different times and as many as 9 men during the entire Continuation War and not 10,000. A Swedish volunteer had gone back home to Sweden and there trudged into the Soviet embassy with information about Finnish positions, which meant big finnish losses... how much the swe volunteering cost Fin on just that bravado. The ammunition swedes sent to finland was manufactured wrong and could not be used in winter war and later also wich contributed to the loss of Viipuri . On one occasion 157,000 grenades came to Finland via/from Sweden but picked apart in two , and sent on separate occasions, the last load arrived the day before peace (deliberately) and grenades were not used, swedes were cunning they did not want to anger Stalin. Sweden were then a mediator during peace negotiations, which M afterwards cursed and said was a disaster. In addition, F had to pay huge damages to the attackering Soviet. Finnish people had to give away, near the end of war, their gold rings / wedding bands to sweden for ammunition and the goldring were replaced with ironrings....ammunition never came. LOL Reading in Swedish propaganda that the Swedish volunteer corps is completely unique in world history. LOL There were more volunteers from Estonia in the Continuation War (25 June 1941 - 19 September 1944) 3,273 killed 126, missing 72 and wounded 286, Ingermanland 777 of which 169 killed, Sweden 1,693 of which 79 killed, 3 missing and 203 wounded, after hanko 4 Dec 1941 until Sep 1944 there were 404 voluntary soldiers left, not 10,000..Norway just over 1000 who were recruited by Germany, 196 died. Denmark 18 fell.....I read once somewher on wikipedia a swedish crap text that swedish ( lol ) volunteering in war was a unique phenomenon. Finnish volunteers fighting against Turks in 1877 war between Ottoman Empire and Russia : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1nehkhIOa-0.html
I think generally we can use the word "shamanism" for any such practices around the world. Yeah it comes from the syberian culture, but that's because that's where it was first anthropologically recorded. I practice native south-american shamanism, known here as "pajelança", but the tecniques are pretty similar to other shamanic ones around the world in the basics
It would be an interesting study comparing Sedir to the Jewish Seder which came about during the middle ages after their being inculcated into Germanic culture.
Similar to shamanism but your interpretations are inaccurate as a matter of fact they are quite reversed. And you need to really check your resources very thoroughly because most of them are nothing but conjecture and playing off of that new age bull crap. And the new age is nowhere near the original traditions of practice in both ritual and purpose. Please fact check yourself because I really enjoy your enthusiasm but your accuracy is not there bro.
Good day to you! I don*t want to sound rude and sorry for my grammar and spelling skills. I just want to point out that you actually miss the word "Galdra" it means magic. It was used in similar ways as "seiðir" and in Iceland we have famous men that had no shame over the magic and even had it written in their names. In the old sagas the word seiðir is most often used in sentences describing the act of doing magic, and if someone was doing seiðir/magic they were said being galdrakona/völva/seiðkona and galdramaður/galdrakall/seiðkall. Ypu should check out Galdraloftur and his story.
considering that it comes from the vanir, fertility gods it makes total sense that it was a sense of sexual possetion by a god. i can see how it would come about in that way. a staff, raised platform and being drawn in by an invisible string to weave and be possessed from above sounds a like a sex trance tbh. like offering yourself to be under a god while you take them. doubt it was solo thing because again, raised platform, staff and theres 3 norns. also makes sense for odin to be heavily associated with this with his own spear to be the male counterpart to the ritual possessing the volva and allowing them to access his wisdom. similar to shapeshifting in a lot of old beliefs. sounds very gay to me but you do you fellas
Harald Hårfagre had way too many sons, and manipulated them to the point where, for instance, Erik Blodøks ended up killing two of his half brothers. So if one of his sons practised seidr, that would be seen as a threat, because magical power was added to political power. Harald Hårfagre only wanted sons he could easily manipulate and dominate. So this is about power.
I really don't vibe with trying to get prophecy or fate that is sheep-thinking we create our future every single moment we exist, When it comes to what will happen to you it's not written in stone. I use sorcery for much more practical purposes protection from attack curses enchanting warding & a lot of stuff having to do with plants.
We are going to find out . The world is actually like the world tree .as above so below . I really don't think there will be a squirrel. 😂 ps their is shapesifters . Glad I'm human 😊
DNA research shows that Eastern Hunter-Gatherers came to what is now Norway from the north thousands of years ago, even before the Sami people, and their descendants eventually settled along the coast of Northern and Western Norway.
This video was so informative. You covered so much. I love the archeology stuff at the end as well as the broomstick lore. Grateful for the knowledge you share! You also have a beautiful smile. Looking forward to more videos from your channel!!
Its interesting how Finns are associated with this type of magic and it even carries over into sailor superstitions in the 1800s. There was a story from a memoir book I read that ship captains believed Finnish sailors had magical powers to control the weather. There was an account where an American ship was stuck in a bad storm and the captain yelled at the Finnish sailor that he was not doing enough to calm the storm and even threatened to flog him over it.
Tak bra! 30 years ago in Berkeley California, the modern practice of seidhr was revived through intense Eddic study and mantic contact with willing seidhkonas-in-spirit, and direct transmission from Freyja and Odhinn by the author Diana Paxson and her group, Hrafnar. I was in that group as a seidhkona and primary consultant on shamanic trance technique (in which I had depth experience) and can testify to the long hours of period reconstruction like an authentic seidhjallar high seat with hen feather rune-embroidered cushion, each seidhkona finding and singing their own power song, and the group “choir” singing and drumming of the main journey song and call-back song to the hamr. You are entirely correct, it takes a large crew to pull the thing off, shapeshifting’s gonna happen (!) and the rede you get is often staggeringly accurate….and sometimes entirely inaccurate, depending on the seidhkona/madhr. Yes, we had seidhmadhrs. Most were gay, others were not. All were fine human beings and earnest scholars and reconstructionists. The group became quite popular and went on to tour many pagan festivals regularly and probably still do. They are findable online. If you practice seidhr in America today, you have Hrafnar to thank. Look up Diana’s book on the subject as well as that of Jan Fries that describes the “seething trance” from Dutch resources. These are foundational, but the real teachers you’ll find in spirit, and the Æsir and Vanir themselves. Again thank you for this wonderfully reminiscent video. Subscribed & grateful for your service, my brother. Wes thu hal!
@Marwe Wow! What a strange coincidence. 25 years ago, in Connecticut, I did a training with Hrafnar. There, Patty Lafayllve, Victorria, Cat, Lisa and I formed Björnsàl. At a Starwood festival, Patty and myself took the high seat with Lorre. Wes Thu hael, Denise
Thanks for the information! My only single critique is that you mentioned that Valhalla may have been a viking age era concept, when in reality it actually most definitely came from the early proto Indo Europeans. The celts, Scythians and Greeks seem to have had a unique hall or place for the warrior classes in the after life. For example the celts had a unique island called Magh Meall. We don’t know to much about it other than that it was a unique island for the local hero’s and that it’s a place where people feel no pain or hunger. The Greeks also had the Elysian Plains where “honorable men” go to rest. Like the celts it was depicted as more of an island where the people feel no hunger or physical pain. So in my opinion the concept of Valhalla or at least an afterlife for warriors is something that likely came from our proto Indo European steppe ancestors.
@@slutteebitc, when you twist and turn the mythologies of so many ethnic groups, erasing their true similarities and making up new ones that never existed just by pretending they all had the same mythography, you're either coming forth with a new theory which you'd better fundament or it can't be validated or you're just venting and nothing relevant is being said because it's wrongly explained. So, if your data are not substantiated, you can't simply change what History, Archaeology, Anthropology, Literature, Linguistics, Semantics and Semiology have given us so far. It's not about agreement or disagreement. It's about facts.
