The Norse Shaman: Ancient Spiritual Practices of the Northern Tradition

by Evelyn C. Rysdyk

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781620555934
Publisher:	Inner Traditions/Bear & Company
Publication date:	08/27/2016
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	281,740
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Evelyn C. Rysdyk is an internationally recognized shamanic healer, teacher, speaker, and author of Spirit Walking: A Course in Shamanic Power, Modern Shamanic Living, and A Spirit Walker’s Guide to Shamanic Tools. She is a founding member of the Society for Shamanic Practitioners and a presenter for international events such as the Shamanism Global Summit and the Year of Ceremony. She enjoys living and working on the coast of Maine.

Read an Excerpt

10

Preparing to Perform Seiðr

The seiðr worker is one who is adept at entering trance. She, or in some cases he, was able to alter consciousness for the purpose of gaining information, to seek council with the spirits of nature or the ancestors, to work magic on behalf of the people, and to generally attend to the spiritual well-being of the community. For these reasons, a Viking Age seiðr practitioner may be considered that culture’s shamanic equivalent.

Elements of Seiðr

Practitioners in modern Europe and in North America have reconstructed several variations of seiðr rituals. Rather than share their methods, I would like to explore a shamanic framework for this work. While we do not have any accurate records of a Viking Age seiðr ceremony, these elements were recorded in the sagas:

1. The seiðworker prepares herself or himself for the work to come, and a ritual space is prepared before the ritual is performed.

2. The seiðworker sits in the seiðhjallr while she practices. This sets the practitioner “above the crowd” or perhaps more pointedly, outside of ordinary reality.

3. The seiðworker carries a staff, which is often adorned with precious stones. This is both a badge of office and an object used during the ritual.

4. The seiðworker may employ ritual clothing including a cloak or hood.

5. The seiðworker has a group of people (most often women) who form a protective circle around her.

6. Singing seems to have been an essential element for the trance induction of the seiðworker, a prerequisite for the “seeing” or connecting with ancestors, the objective of seiðr. The seiðworker did not sing for herself, but usually had a group of people singing special spiritual songs called varðlokur.

7. Dreaming or entering a solitary state of deepened awareness—particularly in nature—is another common facet.

8. While in an altered consciousness, the seiðworker receives information that would have been otherwise hidden from ordinary perception.

9. The seiðworker brings that information back to the gathered people.

10. Upon completion of her duties, the seiðworker returns to ordinary consciousness to rejoin the community.

Like shamans of other times and places, the Viking-age seers followed specific rituals and used specialized tools and songs to assist in their work. The information below address each of the elements of seiðr and the exercises that follow will assist you in making preparations for exploring this ritual from a shamanic point of view.

Creating Your Own Seiðstafr

The seiðstafr or völ is a staff that is a ritual tool of the seer. It not only functions as a symbol of office, it amplifies the spiritual power available to the seiðworker for her or his work. Choosing and creating a seiðstafr is a multi-step process. The following journeys guide you through this process.

Choosing a Branch or Sapling

You may not have access to a blacksmith who can make you an iron seiðstafr like those depicted in figure 10.1. Instead, you can make your seiðr staff from wood. Wooden examples of magical staffs have been found in excavations of völur graves and were typically either carved with runes or are of wood that is naturally twisted or crooked. To find your seiðstafr, go out onto land on which you have determined it is both safe and legal to harvest wood. Prepare yourself by wearing the right outdoor clothing and sturdy walking shoes. Bring your rattle or drum, your offering materials, a notebook, food and water for yourself. If it is unfamiliar land, bring a map and compass or GPS receiver so that you won’t get lost. It is also a good idea to let someone else know when and where you are going to be extra safe.

When you get to the land but prior to stepping onto it:

Call your shamanic ancestor to you and your power animal.

Next, make an offering to them and then the spirits of place or landvættir and let them know of your intent.

Ask the female forest keepers, or skogsrå, to support you in your work. When you feel ready, alter consciousness with your drum and or rattle. Connect with your shamanic ancestor and ask her or him to take you to Freyja or the Earth Goddess/Shaman in one of her other forms.

Ask Freyja to aid you in choosing a piece of tree for a seiðstafr. Since she is both the Goddess of Nature and of Prophecy, all of the actions from choosing the wood, to empowering the staff, to performing seiðr are under her auspices. Here is a nine-line chant or galdr you may sing/speak to Freyja when you meet:

Freyja! All Mother, Great Goddess
Lady of beasts, Mistress of Nature,
Seer before all others,
You gave birth to prophecy.
You know the breadth and depth of Wyrd
And what the Norns conceal.
Guide me to the staff I require.
Thank you for clear sight.
Thank you for my deep heart knowing.

Once you have received Freyja’s guidance, reverently step onto the land and begin connecting with the tree spirits. Each species of tree has a different energy. Notice what varieties of trees draw you and how you are being led.

When a specific tree has been chosen, ask that living being for permission to have some of its wood.

Look around under the tree. A branch may be there ready for you to harvest. Only cut the flesh of a living tree when no other source is possible! Remember that shamans understand that every living being has spiritual sentience.

Before you cut its flesh with knife or saw, make an offering and pray aloud your thanksgiving to the tree. As you are cutting, sing the tree your power song. This lets the spirit of the tree know who you are and the sacred heart-centered place from which your work flows.

Only take what you absolutely need and no more.

When you are through, leave another heartfelt offering of gratitude behind to thank the tree for its sacrifice.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Simplified Pronunciation Guide to the Norse Words in This Book

INTRODUCTION

The Power of Norse Shamanism

1 Visionaries in Our Family Tree

Engaging with Fire

2 Long Ago and Far Away: Discovering Our Ancestors’ Gifts

Using Fire to Meet a Shamanic Ancestor

3 Power in the Female Body

Journeying to Meet the First Shaman

4 Worlds of the Shaman

Journeying to Explore the Nine Realms of Spirit

5 The First Shaman Becomes a Goddess

Journeying to Meet the Nature Goddess/First Shaman

6 The Norns: Mistresses of Cosmic Patterns

Journeying to Urð—The Moment of Manifestation

7 Ørlög and Wyrd: Creation Has No Beginning or End

Journeying to Better Understand Ørlög and Wyrd 86

8 Seiðr as Shamanic Ritual

9 Seiðr and the Sami Connection

10 Preparing to Perform Seiðr

Creating Your Seiðstafr

Getting Your Seiðr Ritual Songs

Empowering Your Seiðr Hood and Cloak

Receiving Varðlokur for a Community Seiðr Ceremony

11 Other Accoutrements of the Völva

Journey to Shape-Shift into Your Power Animal, or Fylgja

12 Útiseta: Connecting with Nature’s Power

Útiseta Journeys

13 Performing a Group Seiðr Ritual

The Seiðr Ritual

14 The Many Faces of Seiðr

Discovering How You Will Use Seiðr

15 Learning to See: Meeting Óðinn

Meeting Óðinn to Learn to Surrender Unbeneficial Ways of Being

Meeting Óðinn to Safely Drink from Urð’s Well, Urðarbrunnr

16 The Nurturing Tree

Entering the Regenerative Womb of the World Tree

Dedicating a Sacred Tree on or near Your Land

CONCLUSION

Ragnarök or Renewal?

Appendix A
An Introduction to Shamanic Journeying
Journey to Meet a Power Animal, or Fylgja

Appendix B

Making a Seiðr Hood
Sewing Instructions

Appendix C

Resources

Notes

Glossary of Terms

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Editorial Reviews

An exceptional, authentic, and wonderfully informative exploration of the ancient ancestry, landscape, and mythology of Northern Europe and Norse shamanism—interspersed with accessible practical exercises reconstructing traditional practices of seiðr for contemporary personal use. One of the best books on this subject I have read. If you are looking for a book on Norse shamanism, this is it.

editor and founder of Indie Shaman magazine June Kent

I love how this work blends the wisdom we find in mythology with the insights that modern technology, science, and new physics has given us. Evelyn is a shaman who embodies the knowledge and practice of Norse shamanism through ancestry, calling, profession, and daily life.

Colleen Deatsman

This fascinating book weaves together the history and evolution of shamanism in northern Europe with the impact of climate change and human migration at least 12,000 years ago. Rysdyk has generously illustrated aspects of shamanic life with her original pen and ink drawings. Materials and instructions for journeying are offered throughout the book. It is an essential read for anyone interested in shamanic traditions."

author of The Goddess Within and Persephone Woman Jennifer Barker

The Norse Shaman skillfully weaves scholarly insight with an abundance of guided, hands-on experience. In an exceptionally clear and thorough voice, Evelyn Rysdyk inspires us to make the earth-honoring wisdom of the far north—and the magic of the distant past—come alive in our hearts, and in our world, today.

Llyn Roberts

Wise woman Rysdyk opens the mysterious portals to the ancient ancestral female shamanic traditions of Scandinavia and invites us to connect with the spiritual power found therein. She is a knowledgeable, trustworthy, and generous guide.

Mama Donna Henes

Evelyn Rysdyk has written a very important book. For anyone longing to deepen their personal transformation, enhance their shamanic practice, help our modern society restore balance and harmony with nature and its inhabitants, and bring back the sacred feminine in all aspects of their lives, I recommend this book as an integral part of their toolbox.

Claude Poncelet

This book is a gem! Part historical review, part instruction manual, the author stokes the fires of her Norse heritage to warm the hearts and kindle the minds of her readers. Evelyn Rysdyk is a triple threat—a brilliant illustrator, a renowned shamanic healer and teacher, and a gifted writer at the height of her craft. A very satisfying read. Highly recommended.

Paul Bowersox coauthor of Seeing in the Dark

Evelyn Rysdyk uses her shaman’s discerning heart and wide-ranging intelligence to unearth precious, hard-won wisdom from our northernmost European ancestors, integrating it with the latest findings in anthropology, genetics, and the unsettling lessons of quantum physics to offer us exciting new ways to understand our humanity and place in the Universe. This is a book to change your life. Do the exercises and you’ll never feel alone and helpless again.

author of World Shaman and Thoughts in the Mind of Ellen Winner

. . . brilliantly written, very well researched, and filled with fascinating historical stories and a wealth of exercises to help readers fully experience the powerful ancient shamanic practices of the Norse shamans. This book is superb!

Sandra Ingerman

According to Norse mythology, whoever drinks from the Mead of Poetry will gain the abilities of a scholar-poet and be able to solve any riddle or problem presented to them. With this beautifully written and powerfully instructive book, Evelyn Rysdyk has popped the cork on this precious elixir and is offering us a taste of the wisdom to be found in the teachings of northern European shamanism.

author of Exploring Shamanism and Traveling betwee Hillary S. Webb