Category: Spirituality

In Heathen and Norse Pagan practice there is an ongoing debate over the role of mysticism, folk magic and other similar practices in modern spirituality. The revival of the arts of seiðr and runic mysticism have gained a lot of momentum in the wake of the modern resurgence of Norse Paganism. For some these occult arts are a vital part of their understanding of spirituality. They provide a doorway to the Powers and greater understanding of the world around them. For others their use undermines the authenticity, seriousness and gravitas of the broader movement. One of the best discussions of these dynamics, along with a strong argument for using these mystical practices, is Dara Grey’s recent essay available on academia.edu titled, “Wiccatru, Folk Magic and Neo-Shamanism: Reconstructing the historical roots of magic and mysticism in Nordic pagan traditions”. The questions that will be discussed here are those of authenticity and guidance for how to best handle mystical practice regardless of if you incorporate it into your personal spirituality.

The best place to start in this discussion is history, the wellspring for all forms of Norse Paganism and Heathenry. There is little debate in the ancient days that runic magic, seership and other forms of folk magic were practiced by many members of society. Probably the most famous example are the well-documented völur, also known as völva when presenting as women or vitki when presenting as men, who were said to be versed in the arts of seiðr. They were reported, in many sources, to see visions of the future, interpret omens, speak to the dead and perform acts of sorcery. The völur were frequently consulted for guidance and assistance. Their works were also not uniquely the province of a specific group of individuals but could be done by others as shown by Thorgeir the Lawspeaker “going under the cloak” to seek a solution to the challenge of Christian missionary activities in Iceland. There is also evidence in the sagas of multiple individuals, including great heroes, using runes for magical workings and runic divination is a common practice in the present day.

Unfortunately, even though we know these practices existed, there isn’t much in the way of documentation or description of how such actions were performed or their metaphysics. Yet despite this limited information one consistent factor among the ancient practitioners is they seem to have employed some form of altered state of consciousness, also known as a trance or ecstatic state, as part of their workings. This piece of information is incredibly valuable for the modern spiritual seeker thanks to recent breakthroughs in the young yet growing field of neurotheology, the science of studying what happens to the brain during religious and mystical rituals. This research, pioneered by Andrew Newberg, has uncovered rather surprising results.

Newberg’s research, which was based on neural scans performed on Buddhist monks and Catholic nuns engaging in meditation and prayer, found the brain responds to such practices in unconventional and unexpected ways. Subjects who were engaging in meditative practices during these tests registered brain patterns showing a shift away from the parietal lobes, the regions of the brain responsible for tracking objects in three-dimensional space, a response which the subjects described as feeling one with the world around them. Chants and prayer saw increased activity in areas of the brain associated with regulating behavior and directing attention. Participants engaging in mediumship, channelling and other forms of possessory work saw the thalamus, the region of the brain responsible for processing information, increase while activity in the sensory lobes drop suggesting they were receiving something from an unconventional source. Subjects who felt moments of profound religious ecstasy registered increased activity in the same parts of the brain association with sexual arousal.

To be clear none of this research proved the existence of any specific entity, Power or divinity. What it does, however, show is such practices are certainly doing something that is engaging the brain and human consciousness is ways that are outside of the ordinary. Such experiences, according to Newberg’s research, were accompanied by flashes of insight, understanding and intuition in the participants. This strongly suggests that people who engage in mystical practices, regardless of their specific form of spirituality or religion, are experiencing reality in a different way than is normally the case and their experiences are providing them some sort of guidance for their daily lives.

Between the historical evidence, research on modern adaptations of these practices and the scientific research into brain activities during these periods there is little doubt that mystical practice can be rewarding for those who engage in it. This is not to say that such practices are a required or necessary part of modern Norse Paganism or Heathenry yet it does show there is a place for such mysticism for those who feel it has value for them. Whether or not you pursue such mysticism is, ultimately, a personal matter. Just as you have the right to engage in or refrain from seiðr or the more occult aspects of the runes you should also respect other people’s choices to pursue these paths.

The question of the validity of mystical practice and whether to incorporate it in your spiritual work is far from the only one that must be wrestled with. Mysticism carries with it more than just personal insights and spiritually fulfilling experiences. It also poses challenges to how we understand reality, the potential social power mystical workers can wield, the harm they can do and what these mean for all practitioners. These are problems that must be confronted regardless of your take on incorporating mysticism into your spirituality since they could directly impact your life regardless of the particulars of your personal practice.

When it comes to knowledge, reality and mysticism there are many potential pitfalls to be aware of. Mystical insights, while at times profound and potentially earth-shattering, are filtered through the pra0ctitioner’s understanding and experiences just like any other information is. This is further complicated by the vast gulf in capacity between humans and the Powers. Personal biases, assumptions and desires play as much of a role in interpretation as mystical prowess. All these factors pose serious problems for using mystical insights regardless of their source.

The best answer to these problems is to consistently apply critical thinking. Mystical knowledge is, at the end of the day, another form of information that must be processed using the same skills that apply to any other source. Any assertions or discoveries should be checked against available sources and extraordinary claims must be supported by additional, extraordinary evidence. This, of course, depends on the nature of the insight and its significance. There is a world of difference in impact between a seiðworker claiming Loki’s favorite color is purple and depending solely on runic divination for guidance on your mental health. When in doubt seek a second opinion that ideally should come from a different source. The same is true of any magical workings. If, for example, you cast a bindrune for getting a meaningful job it won’t do very much if you don’t actively seek work.

On the flip side of the coin from critical analysis is the question of power. Mystics of all kinds in the ancient world wielded enormous social power in their communities and the same is true, to an extent, in modern Norse Paganism. There are some consistent warning signs to watch for when it comes to mystical abuse of power. If a person is claiming their skills grant them special authority over others, such as claiming they are the chosen voice of a certain Power, you should correct them if possible or avoid them for two reasons. The first is such claims of authority are very difficult to challenge since there is no way of consistently verifying what has been claimed. The second is anyone making such a claim is creating a foundation for power that is prone to abuse. When someone asserts they are only answerable to the Powers then anyone who is caught up in their orbit will, sooner or later, face abuse thanks to the total lack of accountability to those around them.

The same is true of people making other difficult to dispute claims such as the all too commonly invoked, “ancient family secrets” line. Such groups or individuals have the problem of usually impossible to verify claims wrapped up in a veneer of respectable, indisputable authority. One notorious example of this is the Odin Brotherhood, an organization whose founder claimed his works were the product of a surviving line of Nordic practice that was secretly passed down completely unaltered within his family for nearly a thousand years. Such claims are usually very different from people who focus on working with surviving folk practices, such as folk magic or folklore, as those who genuinely work with folklore treat their sources as another form of information and not indisputable gospel truths. People making assertions of ancient, totally authentic secrets are just as prone to abuse as those claiming to be specially chosen by the Powers thanks to the total lack of accountability that comes with their claims to unimpeachable authority.

Ultimately the question of mysticism, if it is right for you, what it means and how to approach potential abuses of it is one that will remain in constant debate as long as modern practice exists. What matters most is answering if these practices are good for you and what practices you choose to incorporate. Whether or not you find mystical work useful incorporating it into your practice always a highly personal choice that should be respected so long as the practitioner is not using their skills as a tool for gaining untouchable authority over others. Regardless of your choice the information obtained by such means should always be treated critically, just like any other source, and never used as a tool for abusing or ruling over others. Such insights are a guide for practice and must never be a scepter for lording over others.

How we use the past in developing modern-day spiritual practice is a key question all Pagans must wrestle with. In the Way of Fire & Ice the answer is to adapt the examples of the days before Christianity in ways that honor their spirit while also being effective for meeting the challenges of the present. There may be some who would object to this approach, arguing this is a greenlight to simply making things up as it suits people today with no regard for their pre-conversion significance. What such a position misses is adaptation requires a foundation to build on. The roots of inspired adaptation rest in the past but these roots are not the sum total of practice or what is possible. They are what feeds growth in new, relevant that serve people in the present and build potential for a stronger, enduring future.

The place where inspired adaptation starts is understanding the history, society, culture and spirituality of the ancient Norse peoples. When researching these topics you must never forget several key hard limits. There is a lot of information that has been lost whether due to the ravages of time, a lack of existing written sources in the first place or even possibly the deliberate destruction of sources or artifacts. When it comes to written sources only a handful were produced by the Norse peoples and the rest are products of outside observers, limiting their utility for a modern practitioner.

Even so there is quite a bit that can be gleaned from these sources and cross-referencing them with surviving bits of folklore. Scholars like Neil Price have delved deep into the existing evidence to reach some powerful, persuasive conclusions regarding what the practices of the ancient Norse may have been like. It is important when reviewing such research to remember this field, contrary to what many might assume, is constantly changing. Everything from new interpretations to new evidence can upend age-old assumptions.

One example is the case of the famous shield-maidens, warrior-women who took to the battlefield in ancient days. For decades many scholars dismissed these literary fabrications. Recently, however, the re-examination of existing archaeological finds in England and Sweden have uncovered warriors’ graves who were, based on genetic and skeletal analysis, biologically women. This has inspired fresh debate as to whether the earlier argument that shield-maidens were simply a figure of folklore and song was correct or the result of a lack of evidence combined with the pre-existing biases of the scholars making that claim.

You may be wondering what the point then is to inspired adaptation if the facts surrounding the Norse peoples are somewhat murky and subject to change. The goal of inspired adaption is not to use this body of knowledge as the ultimate arbiter on what modern practice is and means. Though the information you are working with is incomplete and may sometimes change there are deeper, more common themes that resonate throughout all the evidence. These greater ideas of hospitality, a world filled with many Powers, the importance of Fate and deeds as the weight of a person’s character along with many others remain true both in the past and the present.

This is the place where the process of inspired adaptation truly begins. Now equipped with a baseline understanding you can then ask the central question of inspired adaptation, “What about these ideas or practices are relevant to life in the present and how can I best apply them now?” A good example of this is developing relationships with the different Powers. We know, to some extent, that ancient worshipers interacted with the Gods, spirits of place and the dead in a variety of ways whether through offerings and ceremony. We do not know how, specifically, this relationship was built but based on records of sacrifices in several places in Scandinavia, discussion of practices like sitting on grave mounds and the discovery of Thor’s hammer pendants all over Scandinavia that there probably were a lot of ways people built these relationships.

From these examples you can then make an informed, inspired choice of how to adapt this broader concept of relationships with the Gods to the modern day. The fact that we don’t know, specifically, if the individual in that story engaged in regular meditation or daily devotionals to build this relationship doesn’t mean those possibilities are off-limits. If those methods are what you think works best for establishing a relationship with Thor or any of the other Powers then use them. Filling in the blanks in ways that works for you now is the essence of inspired adaptation.

Inspired adaptation doesn’t just apply to spiritual practices. It also can influence how we understand the Powers and how the example of the ancients should influence us in the present day. One example of this comes from modern digital culture that many are familiar with: internet trolls and internet moderation. The term trolling originally comes from industrial fishing and refers to deliberately provoking people, through controversial or inflammatory posts in forums and discussion spaces, into giving strong emotional responses. The main check against such activities are usually forum and chat moderators with the power to ban users from the space, a power that is sometimes referred to as the banhammer.

To be clear all of the terms and behaviour around these ideas are totally modern in origin. That said it is rather striking, for a Norse Pagan, how closely this all parallels both the folklore surrounding Scandinavian Trolls and the role played by Thor. Mythological trolls are known for actions running the gamut from mischievous and potentially annoying to actively malicious, much like how internet trolls run the gamut from being relatedly harmless pranksters to vicious bullies and AltRight provocateurs. Both groups of trolls are also banished by a hammer-wielding guardian of boundaries and borders of a given space. Even though this is a totally organic, unrelated development for a modern Norse Pagan it’s rather interesting how the Internet, something with no precedent in the ancient world, managed to develop a set of symbols, language and activities that closely mirror an aspect of pre-Christian Norse myth. There’s even examples of this overlap being explicitly invoked by Internet users.

This isn’t to say that Thor is definitely the God of Internet Moderators or that online trolls are the same thing as their folkloric cousins. The point is these totally organic parallels show how ancient ideas, practices and symbolism can be adapted for explaining modern day phenomena along with understanding the Powers’ relevance in the present day. Thor’s role as guardian and protector has clear parallels to other present-day jobs or roles for keeping spaces safe, ejecting those who abuse hospitality and confronting threats to a community.

Similar arguments or adaptations could be made for any of the other Powers in many ways, making space for them in the present that the ancients could never have foreseen. Odin, based on his ancient role as patron of the skaldic poets and world-weary wanderer, could also be associated in the present with investigative journalism. Skadi, as the protector of the mountains and snow, could also be associated with environmental conservation while Frigga, known for her patient labors and deep knowledge of many secret arts, could be just as at home in a research lab as she is by the hearth. When you consider how truly vast the Powers are and the broad concepts they are associated with there is plenty of room for seeing their presence in society in ways the ancients could never have foreseen.

The goal of inspired adaptation is to apply the knowledge, examples and practices of the past in ways that reflect and address the challenges of the present. Sometimes this means filling in gaps in what we know about ancient practices with new methods. In other cases this could mean developing new interpretations and perspectives on the ancient Powers so you can better understand them and the world around you. Though some may see this as nothing more than a lot of mental gymnastics justifying making things up that would belittle inspired adaptation and other similar methods while failing to honestly engage with the concept. Inspired adaptation is only possible through knowing the core concepts, values and ideas that run through ancient Norse society and myth. It is a process that challenges you to constantly re-evaluate how you live your spirituality, practices and interpretations to ensure you are effectively meeting your needs and the needs of the people around you. Its roots are firmly planted in the soil of the past while the trunk and branches reach through the present and into the future.

Being a living tradition is one of the core ideas of the Way of Fire & Ice. What this means is this Way, along with your personal application of it, is always adapting to best meet the needs of practitioners while drawing inspiration from the example and ideas of the pre-Christian Norse peoples. If you imagine the Way of Fire & Ice as a tree then the past would be the soil its roots are planted in, the trunk the philosophical and spiritual core while the branches and leaves are the ways it adapts to meet the challenges of life. Even though there are central ideas that serve as the guiding values of the Way there is also plenty of room, both individually and collectively, for deciding how you apply those values.

To some this may sound like it defeats the purpose of what spirituality or religion means. In the eyes of most of society matters of the spirit are inscrutable, unchanging institutions whose roots stretch deep into the mists of time. They are often seen as immovable pillars defined by unquestionably fixed principles that define everything about them. To some extent this is true. At the core of all spiritual practices, this one included, are certain ideas and philosophies that define everything associated with them. Yet even with this trunk of central traditions spiritual practice is, and can be, something that is always in motion.

Modern Christianity is a good example of this in action. Even though most Christians will point to the Bible and claim it is the unquestionable source of all that is true about their religion what this has meant changes over time. If you were to transport a modern Catholic Christian back to Medieval Europe there probably are some things they would recognize while many other practices, interpretations or applications of Catholic doctrine would be unspeakably strange and unfamiliar to them. If you go back even further to the days of the Roman Empire there wasn’t even a concept of a single Bible that was the ineffable source of all religious knowledge.

The same is true in Norse Paganism for even more potent reasons. Unlike Christianity, which has direct links to its past through a relatively unbroken chain of practice, modern Norse Pagans are a revival of a form of spirituality that was almost completely wiped out nearly a thousand years ago. The closest we have to any sort of direct connection are surviving fragments of knowledge that survived in folklore, a handful of texts that didn’t fall prey to the ravages of time, historical accounts that were all written by outside observers whose knowledge, not to mention motives, of Norse practice was limited at best and a growing trove of archaeological finds.

Yet these limitations should not be a cause for alarm or some sort of challenge to the legitimacy of Norse Pagan practice. All forms of religion and spirituality have always been growing, changing and adapting over time. In our case this simply means we have more blank space to fill in between the handful of fragments available for crafting our mosaic. Where some might see emptiness others might see freedom to innovate, create and shape a new interpretation that merges the best of the old with the needs of now.

In the Way of Fire & Ice this open space is embraced. What we know of the lives, ideas and practices of the ancients is a jumping off point for developing meaningful applications of these older ideas. It is a source of inspiration for charting a new course forward into the shared challenges of today and tomorrow. Where you have material to work with, whether that is text or carvings on runestones, is a point of reference for developing answers for the places where the past falls silent.

This isn’t to say there is no place for the past or the wisdom of the ancients; far from it! After all this entire spiritual practice draws its origin from the ways of the ancients. A key part of the Way includes honouring the dead, both from the distant and recent past. Instead what this means is to give homage to what came before without treating pre-modern practice as some sort of upper limit or hard line on what we can and cannot do. It would both be incredibly arrogant for modern people to assume to claim the necessary absolute knowledge for making such claims when it simply doesn’t exist.

Walking hand in hand with the limits of historical knowledge are the deep mysteries of spiritual practice itself. To put it quite bluntly there is simply no way any one person could possibly claim to have greater objective, provable knowledge of the nature of the Powers than anyone else. The spirits of place and the deceased function in ways the living can only grasp the edges of. The Gods themselves are beings that are, simply put, completely beyond us on every level. They are entities whose knowledge of what we refer to as the sciences is so incredibly complete that they were capable, collectively, of crafting stars, galaxies, planets and life as we know it.

Any moments where people interact with them will always be filtered through the realities of the human condition. Needless to say, this puts them so far beyond the prejudices of daily life that suggesting the bigotries of modern people are even a concern to them is laughable. This also means any knowledge we have of the Powers is best gained through collective discussion and shared investigation rather than trusting in solitary revelation or wisdom handed down from on high.

Limitations of modern knowledge of the past along with the challenges of knowing the Powers, as this implies, are not the only reason why the Way is a consciously living, adaptive form of spiritual practice. Meeting people’s needs is the other. History since the time of conversion is, simply put, littered with the evidence of what happens when any sort of spirituality becomes an instrument for power over others. Part of what enables this is when adherence to the abstract takes precedence over serving practitioners. Every part of this world has been scarred by the whips and brands of authoritarian spirituality which, in every case, justified atrocities by invoking dogmatic adherence to specially authorized interpretations of the sacred.

It is from this desire to both serve the needs of practitioners and learn from the mistakes of the past that the Way uses the past as a springboard for leaping forward. Even though there are some core ideas and values that make up the essence of what the Way stands for these principles are points of reference rather than hard and fast dos and don’ts. These broad ideas leave room to you for interpreting how, exactly, you apply these principles and interpret the significance of the Powers. If there are methods that help you better understand the Powers and how to live your life then feel free to pursue them regardless of if ancient Norse peoples did so. The core question posed by living practice is, “Do my actions reflect the values of the Way?” and not, “Would the ancients approve of how I’m doing this?”

The ultimate challenge presented by living spirituality is taking charge of your own life. Following a living practice means everything you do is ultimately your responsibility. At the end of the day you have to, at least, be able to live with yourself and the weight of your deeds. While this may seem to be a heavy burden to bear it also gives you tremendous freedom. Letting your practice live, grow and change gives you the power you need to be the author of your life.

You may be wondering, as many often do, why I or anyone else would be building a spiritual practice based on the Gods and beliefs of an ancient society whose lives were dramatically different from our own. This is a fair question ad I hope this essay will give some kind of answer. At the time of this writing thousands, possibly even million, of people all over the world have turned to all kinds of pre-Christian Gods, cultures and beliefs for guidance, comfort and creating meaning in an often cruel, unpredictable world. In spite of all of the reasons modern people may find Pagan spirituality irrational or even dangerous it clearly appeals to a lot of people. Others turn to the symbols, mythologies and aesthetics of these societies for inspiration.

What I offer is only my opinion on the matter and speaks only for myself. I think the best way to explain it is through discussing the key elements of Norse Paganism. From where I sit these are the many Powers, what they mean for us and the ties of Fate that bind everything together. This only just scratches the surface of what Norse Paganism is but I think it is enough to at least get started. I hope by explaining my reasons you can better understand this practice and hopefully your own reasons for pursuing something like this one. If you choose to follow this path you will quickly find out this rabbit hole is a lot deeper than you could possibly imagine.

The best place to begin is the most obvious: the question of why believe in a world of many different, sometimes warring Powers, ranging from spirits of place and the dead to the mightiest of Gods? For some this is nothing more than pointless superstition or even worse empty idolatry. For me the multifaceted, complex and sometimes conflicting nature of the cosmos is a far more satisfying understanding of the wold than either that of one Almighty God or with none at all. A world of many Powers is one where there is, much like life, no single force in the driver’s seat. It’s on where we are not judged for failing to reach some sort of perfect ideal but are simply yet another bunch of flawed beings doing our best to make our way in the world.

The existence of many Powers also offers many different sources of wisdom and guidance. Some times you may feel drawn to what Thor shows, by his conduct and what he is associated with, is the right way forward in a time of tension. Other times the example of a local river or your deceased great-grandmother could be what helps you resolve a major dilemma. Just as much as the example of different Powers can help you the fact that they are flawed also means their mistakes teach just as much as their successes. This makes their example all the more relevant for those of us struggling to live our lives, face the world and do the best we can with what we’ve got.

There is also more to these Powers than just that they are many. In the existence of spirits of place and the dead there is more to be had than what some might dismiss as simple superstition. Accepting their existence means accepting a world where everything has to be given a basic level of respect from the tiniest creatures and plants to the needs of whole communities. Such an assumption has profound implications for how we live considering that rampant abuse of the planet we share with many other living things has brought all life to the brink of extinction. Trees, oceans and animals stop just being things we can use and become beings that must be respected.

Finally there is the complex web of Fate that binds it all together. Fate, to many, simply means what will be will be. This is very different from how Fate works in Norse Paganism. For us Fate is made by all things. Your actions, the actions of others and those of the people and beings who have gone before you shape the world. They expand and limit the possibilities of everything they touch. They also make the world you live in that determines your options in life all the way down to the time you are born into, where, what this means for your life and how it shapes the lives of people around you.

To sum it up your actions, and the actions of everyone around you, matter. Your choices, deeds and decisions help shape the world. The actions of others do as well with none of these happening in a vacuum. What Fate shows is an interconnected world. Actions influence other actions and the sum of all of these deeds is the vast web that binds everything together. It is also a web that we can change. That the world is truly in all of our hands is a powerful message especially in a time when so many feel utterly helpless. We can, individually and collectively, make this world a better place.

In many ways the ways of the pre-Christian Norse peoples hold up a mirror to modern society that forces us to really question if how we are living is truly how life should be. To be clear I have no problem with the many advantages, comforts and developments that come with living in the 21st century. I’m quite happy with not having to jump into a ship, sail across one of the roughest bodies of water on Earth and bury an axe in some stranger’s face while hoping I don’t catch an arrow with mine to make a living. What makes for great songs and stories doesn’t necessarily make for a good life.

It’s when you dig deeper that the true knowledge their ways offer becomes apparent. In the harsh time and place where they came from the Norse peoples found a clear, effective way of understanding the world. They saw a way that, in spite of the challenges and inevitabilities everyone faces, gives hope and guidance in dark times. For me Norse Paganism challenges the seemingly unmovable, unalterable facts of the world with their own weaknesses and all of the real strengths of humanity. Norse Paganism makes me consider the impact of my actions, urges me to live mindfully in a world of empty consumption and gives me many sources of guidance which only ask for my best instead of demanding impossible perfection. Far from being a belief system outside of its time it is one that is perfect for the moments we are living in now.