In praise of minimalist altars

I often find myself impressed by the images of altars fellow Pagans and Polytheists share on social media. The setups are beautiful and with many objects like crystals, bowls, incense holders, wands, rocks, candles, flowers, etc. While I admire complex altars, I couldn’t have them in my practice. The first reason is that I’m too

Knowing Freya. Part 13: Freya and modern Heathens

The world of today is incredibly different to what it was when the worship of the Norse Deities was the main religion in Iceland and Scandinavia. The culture, the language, the values and technology have changed to the point that a Viking Age heathen would feel utterly lost if they somehow found themselves in our

Knowing Freya. Part 11: Seid

To the ancient Norse people and to many modern Heathens, the whole world was and is alive. There is nowhere where Consciousness is not. The trees, the stones, rivers, mountains and even human-made objects have soul. The veil between the physical world and the spirit world is thin, if not non-existent. And for many Heathens,

Knowing Freya. Part 9: Brisingamen

The Norse Powers and Deities are described has having a number of fascinating objects. Odin has a magic spear that never misses. Frey has a sword that fights on its own. And who can forget Mjölnir, Thor’s mighty hammer which both crushes Jötunn skulls and blesses weddings? But few objects in Norse lore are quite

Knowing Freya. Part 8: Chooser of the slain and Queen of Folkvang

Freya is a Goddess of many names. One of them is Valfreya, meaning ‘Freya of the slain’ or ‘Lady of the slain’. The reason for this is mentioned in the 14th stanza of Grímnísmál, a poem in which a disguised Oden tells the young Agnar about different realms and which Deities rule over them: ”Folkvang

Knowing Freya. Part 6: Animals

The old Norse religion, as well as much of modern Heathenry, could be quite accurately described as shamanistic. As such, it shares many components that are common in shamanistic spirituality. One of these is the belief in guiding animal spirits and power animals. The fylja, for example, is a personal guiding spirit which takes the

Knowing Freya. Part 5: Lovers

The lore tells us Freya loves Her Husband greatly and searches for Him far and wide whenever He disappears again. It also tells us stories about Her having lovers and a number of sexual escapades. Some would say the two are inherently contradictory but who are we to tell Deities They can’t have an open

Knowing Freya. Part 3: Her Brother

How does one even begin to speak of Freyr, this great Lord of peace, abundance and growth? He gifts humanity with all that gives pleasure and joy. Of Him, Týr said in the Lokasenna: ”Freyr is best of all the exalted Gods in the Æsir’s courts:no maid he makes to weep,no wife of man,and from

Knowing Freya. Part 2: Parentage

Family ties when it comes to the Gods doesn’t really work like it does for humans. Non-corporal Consciousnesses do share bounds with one another but to describe Them as parent, sibling, progeny etc is to simplify things to make it understandable to the human mind. The reality of things is much more complex and sometimes

Knowing Freya. Part 1: Goddess of…?

There is a film I saw as a child about Noah and the flood. I can’t recall if this is something I saw on TV or if it was one of those VHS films produced by my parents church, but there is one scene in particular that has stuck with me. In it, Noah is