The Handmaidens

When talking about Norse mythology we often heard the word "Handmaidens" refering to a female being which helps a particular deity. There are many Norse deities, male and female, who have their own Handmaidens, like Odin's Valkyries, however, there is a huge list of Handmaidens helping and working with Frigga and Freyja and so on. Little is known about the Handmaidens, not even those listed in the lore and the ones people work with through spiritual work.

It is clear that these Handmaidens prefer to work with female spiritual workers, so there is the need to have at hand female objects such as dresses, jewelry, precious stones, rings, bracelets, necklaces and such. Also if you can get any handiwork object, especially if done by yourself, the better. One of the Handmaidens we know about and how she behaves during spiritual work is Fulla. She prefers female, young and unmarried spiritual workers. The spiritual worker will probably be joining an already existing female group of other women working with Fulla.

Another Handmaiden is Eir, unlike Fulla, she is very patient and comprehensible, better to work with when dealing with spiritual problems, psycological problems and so on. She is also very simple, so this is one of the handmaidens which wearing rings and bracelets isn't required, because she is also good to work with for those who do healing spiritual works. For those who work with medicinal herbs, Eir is the one to turn to for that kind of work. She hasn't any preferences in gender, any one can work with her.

There are other Handmaidens, I have mention a lot of them in previous posts, but when it comes to spiritual work, little is known about them. For instance, people also do spiritual work with Var and Hlin, but only few things are known about these two. Or even Vor, which is more turned to spiritual workers who are into divinatory types of work. Some Handmaidens will give you a lot of knowledge, others are better to deliver a message to a specific deity.

Asgard - Home Of The Aesir (5th part) - Fensalir

Fensalir

The post about Asgard and its places continue, this one is exclusively about Fensalir the hall of Frigga.


Like many of the Halls of Asgard, Fensalir also has a golden roof, it is a beautiful hall surrounded by birch trees, because this is the tree of the goddess Frigga. It is delightful to look upon this hall especially during autumn, while the leaves of the birch trees are yellow and the white bark of these really match the colors of the hall. The lawns around the hall are filled with chamomile. Behind the hall lies a vast fens with a real mystical athmosphere.

Fensalir is like a small village but with a huge hall standing there with many small houses around it. After reaching the great white door of the hall, inside of it a cosy and homely feeling fills all that set their feet on the floor of the hall. It is a bright hall with good food and the smell of dried herbs. n the area around Frigga's hall there are other halls, smaller ones, barns where livestock is kept and also workshops.

Frigga is the most powerful goddess of Asgard and she is one of the members of the council of Asgard. Frigga is a peace-maker and a peace-keeper. She is also a great seer and the patron of marriage as well as the patron of all the home works such as crafts, cooking, weaving and so on.
Frigga can be usually found at her home, her hall, always busy along with her helpers.

As I have written before, there are smaller halls around Fensalir which belong to Frigga's handmaidens, however, not hall of Frigga's handmaidens have their hall near Fensalir, some live in different parts of Asgard far from Fensalir, others don't even have a hall because they prefer a smaller house or to live inside Fensalir itself, but most of the time the helpers of Frigga can be found inside Fensalir, most are women and it is impossible to mention all of them.

I can name a few though, I could say I will mention the most important, but all of them have their importance as you might imagine. 
One of Frigga's handmaiden is her own sister Fulla, the goddess of abundance. She is the keeper of Frigga's wealth, all of it and whatever it is.
Fulla lives in Fensalir and lets put it in these terms, she is the second in command when Frigga is busy or not in Fensalir.
There are also human servents in Fensalir.

One of the most important handmaidens of Frigga and highly sought by many is Eir the healer of the Aesir. She keps her own hall around Fensalir, like a hospital.

There is also Gna, Frigga's messenger who lives in Frigga's hall, however she seldom is in it. Gna is always working and running on horseback in the errands that Frigga sends her to. Her horse is named Hofvarpnir whose parents are Gardrofa and Harmskerpir.

There is another handmaiden called Gefjon, a strong farmworker. She is the patron of manuel laborers, either men or women, and she is also the patron of unmarried girls. She has four sons and not a single daughter.

Snotra, another handmaiden, the goddess of virtue and hard working.

Lofn is the protector of lovers and romance and also love. She protects and helps all of those whom relationships are disapproved by someone, or a group of people or even society. She might be one of Frigga's handmaidens but she spends a lot of time in Sessrumnir working with the goddess Freyja.

Sjofn is another, also frequently seen at Sessrumnir, she is the handmaiden of peacemaking between couples. She is the relationship counselor. She has her own cottage and there is a very important rule, before anyone attempts to enter, all weapons must be laid outside. Interesting enough, she also works with the god Forseti.

Var, the goddess who witnesses oaths, is a mostly silent witness, rarely seen even at Fensalir unless someone is doing something that she needs to witness.

Hlin, the handmaiden of mourning, gives comfort and consolation to those who are grieving. She is also a battle Goddess. Hlin is a weaponsmaster, and for those few whom Frigga finds worthy, will teach both Her skill and wisdom in warcraft. (Not the game as you might think)

Syn is the doorkeeper of Fensalir, and another goddess of oath taking. She lives in Fensalir.

Vor is another rarely-seen handmaiden. She is a seer and wisewoman.

Huldra, the hardworking handmaiden of flocks and herds, is often conflated with Holda. However, some say that they are the same, and some say that they are completly different. Huldra is the patron of the Huldre-folk, small earth wights of Midgard.

The Nine Handmaidens of Mengloth

In a previous post i talked about Mengloth, the goddess of healing in the Norse pantheon and her handmaidens. This post will be about those nine handmaidens what what are their healing expertise for those who sick the specific kind of healing of each one. To have an idea what i will write about, i advise you to read the previous post.
 
Who is Hlif?
 
Hlif is one of the nine handmaidens of Mengloth, the Norse goddess of Healing. Her name means "Help", she is specialized in women's problems. She works with all the women who are pregnant, or those who unfortunately are unable to become pregnant and want to and all problems that might appear in women's reproductive organs. She can be invoked for a safe birth, and she is extremely protective when it comes to infants, she can also help women who became recent mothers, in those early stages of the baby, when he/she is too fragile and needs the best care and nourishment possible.

Who is Hlifthrasa?

Her name means "Help-Breather", and as the name suggests, her speciality is the respiratory sistem. She can be called upon those who have any kind of problem in the lungs or other difficulties associated with the lack of oxygen. She helps people with colds, coughs, lung cancer, she also helps people who are trying to heal their lungs when they quit smoking after so many years, but also if people were expoused to any kind of chemical, pneumonia, tuberculosis etc.
Breathing is the natural impulse which gives life to our body by letting the air flow in it. without this natural element the functions in our body are not the same and we wouldn't be alive.

Who is Thjodvara?

Thjodvara's name means "Folk-Guardian", her expertise involves all the physical mechanics of the body, bone, muscle and tendon. Her skills and knowledge are about physical therapy. She can be called to those who might have any kind of bone diseases, or in the movement of the body which helps the external and internal body by exercising the limbs. She also helps with skin problems.

Who is Bjort?

Bjort is the old Norse name for "bright", and this goddess is very concerned with the body temperature, this might seem familiar, when we have the fever the first thing we check is the body temperature. But it's more than that, because too much heat or too much cold in the body, might affect the tissues, not only of the skin, but also of our internal organs, and it can complicate diseases. Like everything else, there must be a balance between these things, and Bjort can help with that. Think of it as the heat or cold therapies, the ones today and those of our ancestors, like saunas for instance, the purification of the body, the physical body, its welfare reflects in the state of the mind. Like the Heat of the sun, it has certain effects on people, the kind of natural energie the body needs, not excessively of course, but always trying to keep the balance.

Who is Bleik?

As i have spoken about  purification in Bjort, well.. Bleik is the handmaiden in charge of purification. Her name means "White". She helps with the detoxification of ills in the body, of all organs. She works with the different ways to cleanse to body and the purification of the same.
There are many ways for the body to be intoxicated or poisoned, but the most obvious way is the problem we all face in modern times, the mass pollution everywhere in our daily environment.

Who is Blith?

Her name means "happy", this goddess' expertise is with the brain and all mental problems. She helps people with mood disorders of any kind, even grief. She also helps those who can't sleep, because of insomnia or because other problems in the brain such das epression, or even physical pain, she helps those people to have a good sleep, for the lack of sleeping only worsens the other mental disorders.

Who is Frith?

Frith is the goddess in charge of integrating the systems of the body, helping people to find the inner balance, or what is out of balance and putting it right. Her name means "peace" or "order", so by this you can already see the connection of the name with the problems of the body. She is the figure who finds out what people have and diagnoses the patient. Everything in the body must have a balance, however, it  may not be the perfect balance, but some times the organs or anyother thing in the body is so out of balance, that help is needed, and she can link things, so the body might work naturally healthy.

Who is Aurboda?

Aurboda is married with Gymir, they are the parents of Gerda, Freyr's wife. Aurboda's speciality is the compounting of medicines and she has the knowledge of their effects and the effects of each substance has on the body. The powers of each herb, which is something our ancestors worked with, the traditional medicine. When people take any kind of remedy, all sorts of questions pop out in their heads, if that will actually help? what are the side effects? for how long will we have to take that? if it causes any kind of pain? and so on... well Aurboda knows about it all, her vast wisdom helps in these cases, when so many doubts in healign terms affects us. She is Mengloth's Delivery Woman, carring herbs to so many in need. She reminds me of my grandfather's (from my mother side ) grandmother, or shall i say, my great-great grandmother, she had the knowledge of so many herbs, and she knew where to catch them, for what purpose, to heal what and what were the effects, she know how to brew each of them in the specific manners required.

Who is Eir?

Eir might be the same healing goddess of Asgard, she is not only Mengloth's handmaiden, but also a very powerful colleague, helping Mengloth in Jotunheim, as Mengloth might also be called by Eir to assist her in Asgard. Eir coming from Asgard, the realm of warriors and gods associated with war, it isn't a surprise that her specialty is surgery, healing and taking care of physical wounds, flesh wounds from the battlefield, in other words, she knows how to open the body and repair it, healing the massive injuries that constantly happen in a battlefield. She is the goddess with the tough job of making the fast decisions in all the situations a patient is between life and death, much like any surgeon, people who have to face the most terrible and frightening sounds. She can be called upon those people in a very bad state, almost dying, when life is hanging by a thread, but she can also be called upon all those who are there to help healing the wounds, we might see her as the patron of surgeons.

Working with the gods: Mengloth

We are used to hear about gods of healing in many religions and spiritual paths, they have always been important, because our fragile mortal body can be sick and get a lot diseases, not only physically but also psycological.
There is a goddess in the Norse pantheon who is an expert in healing, many gods are in their own ways, even healers of the land, of the soul, mind and body, but this goddess is the right one if you have any problems of the body or mind, her name is Mengloth.

Mengloth is the Norse goddess of healing, although being a minor goddess, she is very important and powerful. She is the healing goddess of the Jotun people, so do not confuse her with the healing goddess of the Aesir called Eir. She dwells in the mount Lyfjaberg in Jotunheim in a fortress called Gastropnir, and the gatekeeper is her own uncle Fjolsvid, a very large daunting giant, but friendly, enjoying a good conversations with those who come to and fro. Mengloth is married with Svipdag son of Aurvandil and Groa.
People used to pray to her for healing and left offerings by her shrines, she helped in any health issues, she also wanted to give her knowledge to mortals, however, it wasn't anyone at random, she would only take as a student, someone sent by an other god or goddess she trusts, so people would actually had to make a close contact with another deity, ( possibly a deity with healing powers or connected with Mengloth somehow ) before they could learn from her.
The best gifts someone can give her, is jewelry, especially when those objects are made with materials that can't be mined, or are hard to mine, in her homeland.
Working with her, she has nine handmaidens, whose names are Hlif, Hlifthrasa, Thjodvara, Bjort, Bleik, Blith and Frith ( who are twin sister ); Aurboda ( Mother of Gerda, Frey's wife ); and Eir ( no one is certain of she is the same healing goddess of the Aesir who serves Frigga ). These nine handmaidens help Mengloth in all sorts of healings needed, they are some kind of specialists in a certain area, if anyone has a problem which lies in one of those areas of expertise, they might want to go to the specific handmaiden who can treat the problem with more competence.

I will write about each of these nine handmaidens at another post.

You might think that nowadays medicine is very advanced, the doctors are more competent, know what they are doing and medical research, is constantly evolving, well fortunately that is true and great, but Mengloth is known to be a goddess of healing called by the desperate, she doesn't waste her time in those who can be easily healed or those who can get help elsewhere, this is why her fortress is in a high place, in a mountainous path, well guarded, difficult to reach, because only the really desperate will pass through so many difficulties to heal themselves or those they love. Mengloth will only help when all other healing options have been exhausted and excluded, however, her handmaidens will help people less desperate.

The fact that only those who are willing to go through difficulties to be healed or heal their loved ones, reminds me of a true story, when my great-grandparents ( from my mother side ) made everything to save my grandfather. They lived in a small village in a valley, surrounded by thick forests and mountainous paths, and my grandfather was very sick, dying as a matter of fact, they had to go to a hospital in the city, and it was far off and in those times very few people had cars in the early XIX century. My great-grandparents had to make it on foot through the forest with my grandfather at their back, a dark and cold forest at winter, filled with wolves and wild boars. They reached the city, safe and sound, and my grandfather was saved. Today when he goes to sleep, he can still hear the sound of my great-grandparents' accelerated breath, while they ran fast up the steep paths to reach the city in time.

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The Handmaidens

The Handmaidens

As there are many handmaidens, and little is known about working with most of them, only time and trial will give us all the research. However, of the few that we know of who have graced gatherings or consultations with the presence, some preferences are known. In general, they all tend to like sweet wines and fussy German pastry, so make sure that there is plenty of strudel.

Fulla wears green and wants jewelry, and perhaps precious or semiprecious stones to play with, and bless. If you can crochet her a golden snood, so much the better. She requires a female spirit worker, preferably a young woman still able to access the Maiden archetype. Give her an unmarried female attendant with a playful sense of humor. Ideally she should come to a group made solely of women, as she is all about women's mysteries.

Eir is very centered, soft-spoken, and detached; she will generally ground and center the spirit-worker on the way out, and leave them feeling in better shape than a ride from most other Gods. She prefers utilitarian clothing, and no rings on her hands or arms, as she will likely be doing some sort of healing on people. Give her a selection of good-tasting medicinal herbal teas, which she will drink some of and pass on the rest to specific people, blessed. Give her healers of any gender as her attendants; the same goes for her spirit-worker / student. Ideally, anyone who works with Eir should be a vessel that is used to passing on psychic energy healing.

Var likes to wear dark colors and have a staff handy, and likes clear vodka. It is very important not to misspeak around her; watch your words carefully and weight everything you say. Hlin also likes a staff, and she may teach women to use it. Vor wants a dark veil over her head, and some sort of divinatory things about her, which she won't use because she doesn't need them, but she may bless them. Don't call Gna unless you are ready to work with her - of the biological sort, that is - and really the only reason to call her is to beg her to take a message to some Aesir deity.

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