Yggdrasil the Axis Mundi

You can watch the video about this subject in here: Yggdrasil the Axis Mundi


It was common in ancient civilizations the belief in an axis mundi, a central point around which the world existed, a connection between the heavens and the earth, the source of all life and also a connection between different reality planes. The very thing connecting the realms of the divine; the sky, the earth and the infernal. Infernal not in a Christian sense, related to Hell, because pre-Christian or pre-Abrahamic religions had not the concept of an infernal realm for punishment; infernal rather in a sense of an inferior realm, underworld, just like the world above is called supernal (celestial).  

To the Scandinavians and other Germanic peoples, this axis mundi was Yggdrasil, the world tree. Now, we have to take in mind, that the oldest documentations we have about Yggdrasil, are from the X century, and we have to be careful with this, because this was already a period in northern Europe when paganism was coming to an end, and since the IX century Christianity was already a force to be reckoned with in the north. And such polytheistic accounts were registered by Christians who perhaps had lost the true meaning of the pagan folklore, because they wrote such accounts many years after the conversion of the countries, and also, the Norse beliefs at this time had already a lot of influence from the new religion - Christianity. 

Speaking of this, let's take a closer look into two of the most important sources to understand Norse mythology - The Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda - which date from the XIII century. The Poetic Edda is a combination of poems that date far back before the coming of Christianity, but from oral tradition, and there's no telling how much these poems have changed with time. The Poetic Edda is the medieval version of such accounts. And the Prose Edda, written by Snorri Sturluson, is a manual of Skaldic poetry using periphrases or metaphors of mythological references. Snorri Sturluson turned to folklore, to poems contained in the Poetic Edda and other poems which survived in oral tradition to create this work. This work by Snorri Surluson is a synthesized and simplified view of the Norse mythology, in contradiction with other sources and influenced by Christianity since Christianity was the official religion in Iceland in Snorri Sturluson's time for two hundred years already. But about these sources I think it’s best to write another article, so let’s go back to the subject. 

We shall stick with the version we know from Yggdrasil, being the world tree. The term “Yggdrasil” comes from two elements: Yggr, which is one of the names for the god Odin, meaning “terrible” as in Odin being The Terrible/The Fearful/The Dreadful. And the term drasill, which refers to “the one who walks” something, “the one who rides” something, and it's also a poetic term for a mount, a horse. So, as you might rightfully guess, Yggdrasil is Odin's mount, vehicle, or horse. Meaning that this deity used the World Tree to travel between worlds; he uses this cosmic axis to journey into different worlds. But the term drasill can also be connected with the gallows, or hanging as a form of execution, which was compared, for some reason, with the horse. For example the XI century poem Háleygjatal, from Eyvindr Finnson, which refers to Sigarr's horse (a legendary Scandinavian king) as also being his gallows. This gives us the connection of Yggdrasil being the very thing Odin used to hang himself, kill himself, in order to be able to free himself to pursue the knowledge he so deeply wished for. We can see in here an old shamanic tradition of freeing the spirit from the body to reach the world of the spirits and gain knowledge, and communicate with the spirits and gods. 
There might be another possible explanation for the name “Yggdrasil”. It’s also referred as askr Yggdrasil, or “The ash-tree Yggdrasil”, meaning that Yggdrasil is an ash-tree, which might mean that this was the tree where Odin strapped his horse or where Odin tied a rope to hang himself. Well, after all, poets play with multiple meanings and what might seem to us a tree, it might be a metaphor for something else.  

This interpretation leads us again to a shamanic comprehension in how to reach the world of the spirits, through a symbolic but painful death, perhaps a ceremony around a great pillar, symbolizing the centre of the world, and maybe that pillar being made from the trunk of an ashtree, being a tree with magical properties and with a symbolical meaning to our ancestors that go far back since they began to have their first spiritual thoughts. Charlemagne, for instance, in the VIII century destroyed the great symbol of the Saxon faith. It was called Irminsul, and we still don’t know if it was a tree, or a great pillar, or some sort of idol. It was something big and vertical, possibly the remnant of this tradition of an axis mundi. So maybe Irminsul for the Saxons might have been what Yggdrasil was to the Scandinavians, “a great pillar”, a symbol of their faith and the connection between all living things from our world and the world of the spirits. The remnants of a spiritual shamanic tradition. 

This world tree isn't just the symbol of the shamanic techniques used to reach the world of the spirits, or a symbol of the very connection between worlds. Yggdrasil is also the symbol of that which gives life. In the poem Grímnismál, deer eat from the foliage of Yggdrasil, a great eagle lives on top of it, on the very bottom Nídhöggr gnaws upon its roots and that's where snakes also live, and a squirrel named Ratatoskr goes up and down the tree delivering messages between the eagle and the great serpent. This shows the amount of life a tree can give, it is the home of living creatures of the forest, a shelter and also the source of food.  

Another point, is that in the poem Voluspá, it is said that Yggdrasil is an evergreen tree, which is odd because the ash-tree is a kind of deciduous tree. But the Norns water the tree from the well Urðarbrunnr, supposedly magical waters that also give life, it's the Well of Destiny and it keeps Yggdrasil healthy and evergreen. And finally, as it is written in the poem Gylfaginning, three gods created the first humans from the bark of trees, one of those humans was a man named Ask, which means Ash-tree, making the ash-tree once again the source and creation of life, invoking the beliefs passed on by oral tradition, from a past far beyond memory, when our ancestors were much more attached to the natural world than we are today, unfortunately. But they already understood the importance of nature as the source of all life and as a means of communication with the spiritual and the divine. 

9,000-Year-Old Shaman Sanctuary in Europe

There was a recent discovery in Europe of a 9,000-year-old shamanic sanctuary which shows that there was once a culture very knowledgeable in spiritual working. There are thousands of evidences of shamanism in many places all arround the world, but in European ground ancient shamanism is still a very delicate subject. There are not many findings of shamanism in Europe, and that's why this recent discovery might bring a new light to the knowledge we have about shamanic practices by our European ancestors.

One of the major society figures of the ancient cultures was the shaman, or the person who held the power and the knowledge to communicate with the spiritual world. According to ancient accounts, the practitioners of shamanism helped shape the first human societies. They were both wise and feared by the communities of the ancient world. The role of the shaman was not only being able to commune with the spirits of the land, ancestors, deities and the spirits of the afterlife, but also able to heal both body and soul, curse enemies, cure the land, give good council and basically being the one person everyone went to for all sorts of things. The guide of the community.

This all thing seems something out of a fairy tale; complete fantasy to our modern mind. However, with the help of the human sciences such as Anthropology and Archaeology, we modern humans are getting closer and closer to understand this very delicate subject. So it seems that these people, these shamans of bygone days, were really capable of preforming these wonderful, amazing and also terrible things. The human mind is quite powerful and maybe we have forgotten how to properly use it in some fields of consciousness. This new discovery came to help us understand all these strange facts.

In the year of 2012, archaeologists uncovered an unusual site near Lake Świdwie, in north-western Poland. After analyzing the settlement the team of researchers concluded that it dated back more than 9,000 years ago. One of the most amazing finds in this area consisted in a circular design of approximately six meters in diameter where the foundation of the structures was still visible. A trapezoid-like building with poles, encircled by an arch of rocks aligned at equal distances from each other. Within this ancient design, yew sticks were piercing through the ground so that they formed the shape of the Big Dipper – a fragment of the constellation Ursa Major, also known as The Great Bear. A construction made by our ancestors some time during the end of the Mesolithic Era and the beginning of the Neolithic revolution (dates differ from place to place and it took a good thousand years to spread all over Europe. These were our ancestors who had just found farming, and had begun to settle down in specific places, constructing the first villages, the first communities, and now they also started to have a keen interest in astronomy.

This discovery is unique, because other shaman settlements were only found in Siberia and Mongolia and never so close to European ground. Apparently this structure served as a sanctuary from where the spirit practitioners engaged into rituals and out-of-body experiences which are obviously out of reach from written history, and very difficult for modern science to explain. Pieces of wood used in smoking rituals, bark, herbaceous plants and animal bones presumably used as offerings and for driving off evil spirits before a ritual were also discovered at the site.

A rich collection of different stones were also found inside the sanctuary. Among them were syenite, diorite, granite, quartzite, sandstone, gneiss, and even unusual rocks for the Pomerania area such as red marble and green syenite. These were not picked at random or to only decorate the sanctuary. Such stones had a purpose closely linked to spiritual working. It was also discovered black amber and pumice – an extrusive volcanic rock obtained when molten lava is spit out of a volcano. This is an extraordinary and rich collection of stones, unique among the previously known Mesolithic sites, located both within the vast European Plain, and in the zone of the foothills and highlands. These stones had to be brought to this place. and not only did they came from the surrounding area, but also from distant lands, the best example of which is hornfels, which occurs closest in the Giant Mountains and the Harz Mountains.

The archaeological site later proved to be very rich in items mostly made of wood such as pendants and wood masks used in mystic rituals. Thanks to the favorable conditions of the area, all the unearthed pieces were very well preserved.

This interesting discovery adds another dimension to our written history due to the fact that it proves that shamans once ruled the plains of Europe before pré-christian beliefs and Christianity itself, of course. It also demonstrates that ancient Europeans had knowledgeable advisors who could read the stars, use advanced remedies from nature, and probably a list of other good many things that have been lost to us.

The Sarmatian Shaman

In 2013, archaeologists found in Kurgan (Russia) what seems to be a Sarmatian burial mound. In the southern Ural steppes this amazing finding shows some peculiar items that may suggest that the individual buried there was a shaman.

A little bit of history is needed to know who the Sarmatians were. Most people though for an age that they were natives to Europe in the region we now call Poland. However, the Sarmatians were Iranian (an Indo-European people such as the Alans/Alani, very caucasian-looking) flourishing from around the 5th century BC to the 4th century AD. The burial mound found in Russia, dates to early in the range, corresponding to the Early Iron Age within the region. The Sarmatians spoke a Scythian language and later their territory corresponded to the western part of greater Scythia (mostly modern Ukraine and Southern Russia nowadays). Around 100 BC, the Sarmatian tribes ranged from the Vistula River to the mouth of the Danube and eastward to the Volga, bordering the shores of the Black and Caspian seas as well as the Caucasus to the south. The Sarmatians traded with the Mediterranean cultures to the west, although, they retained their own customs and traditions, rooted in their nomadic lifestyle.

In the burial mound, in the grave itself to be more precise, 26 golden deer statues have been found, which may have been representations of Gods or spirits to the people that put them there. Further excavations were carried out and a body was revealed. Archaeologists first found a bronze cauldron (of great size) in the entrance passage to the grave, which might have been especially made for the burial. It is definitely in the Sarmatian style as the handles are made from two griffons. Such animals are prominently features in the art of the region and may represent spirit animals since griffons are mythical creatures. 

The grave was richly furnished and, since the remains comprised those typically found with female burials, as well as a quantity of fine jewellery, the burial was concluded to be that of a woman. A small wicker case was found near the skull. It was stuffed with items including a wooden box, leather pouches, glass, horse teeth with red pigments, a cast silver lidded container, bathroom flasks, silver and earthenware and gold pectoral cages. There was also a large silver mirror that lay nearby. It was decorated with gilded stylised animals on the handle, and an embossed decoration on the back. The image of an eagle sat in the centre of the mirror, surrounded by a procession of six winged bulls. Mirrors at this time were very rare and such intense decoration suggests a spiritual use. It is common to link Iron Age mirrors to Shamanism because they were used for such purposes.

Archaeologists also uncovered equipment used for tattooing, including two stone mixing palettes and gold-covered iron needles, as well as bone spoons used to blend paints. The pens were decorated with animals. It is impossible to say whether the body had tattoos as only bones remain but, elsewhere, waterlogged kurgans reveal tattooed bodies with depictions animals such as those found in this burial mound. Tattooing at this time is often linked with shamanism and many of the other tattooed bodies contain items used in a spiritual lifestyle.

Later tests on the body revealed that the body found is not a woman at all, but actually a man. Now the items on the grave take a total different meaning.

In the Greek literature, there is an account about Enaree (a Scythian shaman described as effeminate or androgynous).Transvestite shamans in Scythian culture lived in the guise of the opposite gender. There are some details about these androgynous figures, suggesting that they received serious damage to their manhood through riding and therefore live the rest of their lives as women. Such transformation clearly marked them out as shamans. Blurring gender and sexual boundaries for spiritual practice still occurs in the area and is also found in many other parts of the world, where many male shamans live as women.

This might explain the items placed with the body in the Samaritan burial mound. This person might have been a male shaman living as a woman, and providing spiritual guidance to the local community. He was buried with his beautiful clothes and jewellery, vanity items, and also the tools of his shamanic trade. Given the wealth of grave goods, he was clearly highly esteemed by his community both during his life but also after his death.

World's oldest wooden statue

Scientists in Germany are ever closer to dating an ancient wooden statue which they say contains secret encrypted codes written around 9,500 years ago - possibly the oldest on the planet (so far). The Shigir Idol, as it was called, is twice as old as the Egyptian pyramids and was preserved as if in a "time capsule" in a peat bog on the western fringes of Siberia. Now Russian experts say the remarkable relic contains encoded information on the 'creation of the world' - a message to modern man from the Mesolithic Era, during the pré-historic time.

German scientists are now close to a precise dating - within five decades - of the remarkable artifact, which is a stunning example of ancient man's creativity. The results are likely to be known in late February or early March, 2015.

The idol, 'scraped' using a 'stone spoon' from larch timber, is around 4,000 to 5,000 years older than Britain's world famous Stonehenge monument. The idol stands 9.2ft (2.8 metres) in height but originally was 17.4ft (5.3 metres) tall, as high as a two storey house.

Almost 6.5ft (2 metres) of the artefact went missing during Russian's 20th century political turmoil, though Siberian archaeologists drew images of all the pieces. It is a unique sculpture, there is nothing else in the world like this. It is very alive, and very complicated at the same time.

The ornament is covered with nothing but encrypted information. People were passing on knowledge with the help of this Idol. While the messages remain an utter mystery to modern man, the Russian academics have said its creators lived in total harmony with the world, had advanced intellectual development, and a complicated spiritual world.

There is a representation of a straight line in this idol, which could denote land, or horizon - possibly the boundary between earth and sky, water and sky, or the borderline between the worlds. A wavy line or zigzag symbolised the watery element, snake, lizard, or determined a certain border. In addition, the zigzag signaled danger, like a pike. Cross, rhombus, square, circle depicted the fire or the sun, and so on. But the marks could have multiple meanings for the ancient statue-makers who gave the idol seven faces, only one of which is three-dimensional.

If these are images of spirits that inhabited the human world in ancient times, the vertical position of figures (one above the other) probably relate to their hierarchy according to the researchers. Images on the front and back planes of the Idol, possibly indicate that they belong to different worlds.

If there are depicted myths about the origin of humans and the world, the vertical arrangement of the images may reflect the sequence of events. Ornaments can be special signs which mark something as significant.

Female Shamans and Medicine Women

Shamanism has been a spiritual practice that accompanied Mankind throughout history, since pre-history. However, such practices ended in most countries, but there are still a few shamanic tribal societies that kept these traditions going. In some of these societies, there is a preference for the practitioners to be female. There are lots of evidence abiut this fact, including in archaeological findings in Czech Republic, indicating that the earliest Upper palaeolithic shamans were in fact women and not men. Descriptions of female shamans describe these women as invokers of spirits of the gods, earth and ancestors, as well as being healers, herbalists, oracles, ecstatic dancers, diviners, shape-shifters, priestesses and shamanic journeyers. Female shamans or shamankas, are  located among the Tungus people, the Buriats, Yakuts, Ostyaks, and among the Kamchadals.

In the steppers and central regions of Siberia, the female shaman(s) possess greater power than the male shamans, or so it is believed. In general, the feminine element plays a very important and prominent role in terms of magic, sorcery, at least it is so among the Yakuts. Female shamans are dominant in some cultures where they ate to the forefront of the cult practice. Whether in ancient China or Japan, or Korea, South Africa, Okinawa, the Philippines, from northern California to southern Chile, female shamanism  is a widespread tradition.

Archaeological findings show us that all over the world, the female shaman was very important in the old societies. Such findings go all the way from the mediterranean, to scandinavia, far into the east of Siberia and down the southern hemisphere. For instance, the Ekven burial of a female shaman was found at Chukotka on the Russian side of the Bering Strait. A 2000 years old grave of an elderly woman with a wooden mask at her knees as well as other ritualistic and shamanic artefacts. Recurrent artefacts and examples of female shamanic practice are amulets, medicine bags, mirrors, and head-dresses shown by excavated regalia, as well as drums. Examples can be seen in southern Chile where female shamans of the Mapuche Nation use drums called kultran. Korean female shaman drummers use mudangs. Drumming would be accompanied by chants and invocations as is shown by the Mexican Indian shamans. An other example, during the Mesolithic period, it was found an interment at Bad Durrenberg which occurred 8,500 years ago. It was a woman around 25 years of age accompanied by a child of some 6 to 12 months of age. The grave goods and artefacts comprised those assumed to have a ritualistic and shamanic function.

Evidence of the primordial origin of female shamans is shown by the excavated burials during the archaeological works all over the world. Such burials have been found dating from the 5th century before our common era. These include the Priestess of Ukok ( as well as remains from south Kazakhstan, and the basin from the Ukraine to the Tarim. Archaeologists have determined that these ancient female interments in central Asia were shamanic priestesses. The mummified remains of a female shaman was from the 5th century BCE, and a kurgan of the Pazyryk Culture of ancient Altai. A Mummy of the Ukok princess was discovered and excavated in 1993-1997, and she has been dubbed as the Siberian Ice Maiden. This woman is also variously known as the Princess of Ukok and the Altai Princess, or Ochy-bala after the Altai heroine.

The burial of a female Natufian shaman was discovered in a cave site at Hilazon Tachtit ,in Israel, was dated to circa 12,000 B the common era. The Natufians of the southern Levant of 15,000 to 11,500 BCE were a nomadic people who lived along the east Mediterranean. The excavated remains were those of a diminutive, disabled ‘shaman’ woman of advanced years, in a specially constructed grave. The interment represents the ritual burial of one of the oldest human spiritual figures. There are many interments that show rituals and techniques, indicated by shamanic burials with especially placed animal bones, and in same places tortoise shells as well, and some times feathers.

Among north Amerindians, medicine women are as common as medicine men, especially among the Dakotas and the Creeks, with both occurring among the Inuit. As it is with shamans, the medicine woman and their healing practices, are not restricted to members of the male gender.

In ancient Greek mythology, in the temples of Argos, the goddess Hygeia was the daughter of Aesculapius. The fact that the great Mother Goddess Hera, as Lucina, propitiated at or presided over childbirth, and that the original goddesses were probably real medicine women. In remote antiquity women were engaged in the practice of medicine. In central Australia, the medicine is ranked equal to the medicine man just as the female shaman is the equal of the male shaman. Shaman women as medicine women, propitiated the spirit world and practised the healing arts towards their own sex. Medicine women were thus equal to the medicine man. Not only in the way they became, but also in social status, their role and function, but in all other aspects.

As has been shown by both female shamans and medicine women in many times, climes and cultures, it's not infrequently the idea that the female shamans prevails to such an extent that the most powerful shamans are women. The antiquity of the shamanic role of women is illustrated by the evidence of surviving rock and cave art which can be interpreted in terms of shamanism, fertility ritual, and rites of passage. Rock art in southern Africa can be analysed from two approaches, one that incorporates women issues within a framework of shamanism, and secondly, one that treats it as outside the understanding shamanism. Depictions on cave walls can be interpreted in terms of the shamanistic nature of the puberty rites of girls. A distinction has to be made between the meaning of the terms ‘shamanic’ and ‘shamanistic’. The word ‘shamanic’ refers to the practices and experiences of shamans, whereas ‘shamanistic’ refers to general beliefs and practices. The analysis can be, and have been, extended to an interpretation of cave paintings claiming that the art was the work of women. A recent study produced results, indicating that prehistoric female artists also helped create the famous ‘spotted horses’ cave mural and various others. The hand prints on the mural were dated to 25,000 BCE.  Many of the hand prints were smaller than female hands as established by analysis of digital ratios.The evidence appears to show that a large number of Upper Palaeolithic cave artists were women  confirming that  the women’s role in prehistoric society was much greater than previously thought. It is most likely, considering the role of women in primordial society as shamans, that ancient art was mostly the work of women. Hand prints on cave walls were analysed and show us that there was a gender difference between relative lengths of fingers. Men and women’s finger lengths are different. Even though another theory claims the hand prints may be those of adolescent boys, but some 75% of cave art hands are female.

Examples of hand print art in caves have been found in southern France, in Australia, Argentina, Africa and Borneo. In northern Spain hand prints were believed to date back to 40,800 years old, where of 32 hand stencils, 24 were female. Hand stencils support the theory that, not only were women actively involved in cave art, but that they were in their role of shamans leaders in ritualistic, fertility and magical practices as well, and many of which were also linked to rites of passage for other members of the community.

Witchcraft and Shamanism

When we hear about shamanism, we immediately think about the type of shamanism from Siberia, or the Americas, spirituality connected to tribal rituals and traditions. When speaking of European shamanism, we have no clue what it is, or at least the first thing that comes to mind, is the type of shamanism practiced in the northern countries of Europe. However, there is an tremendous body of evidence, in anthropological and historical literature, that the historical european.style witchcraft was in fact a form of shamanism practiced by the different cultures of Europe.

Lets make it clear first, the definition of “shaman” in use here is an anthropological one. As I have written before, "shaman" is a word that originates from the Tungus language of Siberia, and has been somewhat misapplied to the religious beliefs and practices of Native Americans (which are quite diverse, some are certainly shamanistic, others not so much). 
 The shaman, in this context, is a magical practitioner who works with the help of spirits, usually on behalf of or to the benefit of his or her community, by means of healing, divination, and such. 
Shamanic experiences all over the world share some general characteristics. In the form of a traumatic personal experience and/or a visitation by spirits, the formation of a strong bond between the shaman and one or more helping spirits, and a working relationship with those spirits, frequently characterized by ritual invocation and spirit flight or trance states to achieve specific goals.

The pre-christian practices of the European peoples, had these characteristics. All the way from the Iberian Peninsula, to the far East and up into the cold North, the peoples of Europe had their own ways to communicate with the spiritual world and the natural world, which in most of the cases (speaking in such spiritual practices) are two worlds strongly connected. With time and the constant invasions of different cultures in each country, these European practices have been lost. However, during the medieval ages, these practices were very much alive and we can find it in most books that talk about the medieval times. People during that time still practiced the spiritual ways of their ancestors, it lived on in the most rural parts of each country, and it was often thought that this happened, because the people in the rural areas hadn't much access to what was going on in the city, and because these people were less educated, they continue to practice the old ways. None of this is true. In spite of each country have had a lot of invasions and the cultures changed, because people had been killed in masses, and temples have been destroyed and such, each invador kept alive the inhabitants that worked the fields and took care of the animals, because they needed people to work for them, people who already knew how to deal with the land, turning them into slaves for new masters. Those people kept the old ways and so they were passed on from generation to generation. During the medieval ages, these spiritual practices were still being held, but the christian faith was spreading fast, and people were accused of witchcraft and most people were killed. The last places to have these practices until the late medieval ages, were the peoples from the East and the northernmost parts of Scandinavia, because it was hard to get there, hard to spread the christian faith into those places.

Because of the mass executions held during the medieval times, most of the information we have about this subject, comes from trial records and interrogations. The accused were subject to torture, it can be hard to sift truth from confabulation. 
Several point out that the folkloric material was not what the interrogators were interested in, and in fact was considered a distraction, subjects of interrogation would be pressed to describe a formulaic encounter with the Devil wherein they traded magical power for their immortal souls. Instead, accused witches often described encounters with fairies and the dead. This is consistent with what we know about fairy beliefs, that Elphame or the realm of the Fair Folk was also the realm of the dead. External evidence for the folkloric material, including beliefs about fairies and specific beliefs to do with spirit flight, doubles, and familiars, combined with the fact that interrogators actively discouraged it, lend a degree of confidence to the picture they paint of what medieval witches were up to.

Witches during these times, worked alone, or in groups (but most of the time, alone). They often had named spirit helpers who appeared to them frequently, these spirits might be in the form of a cat, rat, toad, bird, a human being, or a non-natural creature. They also encountered other figures, including the King and Queen of Elphame, who sometimes presided over gatherings and sometimes helped them directly. They described leaving their homes and flying or going forth in the forms of animals, generally a cat or hare, which is also frequently mentioned in shamanic practices. Their interactions with spirits, flying, and other seemingly fantastic or impossible activities are described as straightforward experiences. They also performed numerous acts of witchcraft, ranging from healing or other beneficial spells without distinction between what we would now consider herbal medicine and what we would think of as “magic.” This is consistent with books of “home physic” from that time period and later, which often include both an herbal concoction and an incantation in a single cure.

This is absolutely similar with the way that shamans from other cultures describe their experiences as well, but is so far from current Western ideas as to be feared as pathological. Another thing to take into consideration is that becoming a witch fully is something that you can neither inherit nor study nor buy, but only receive as the gift of an ongoing relationship with the spiritual world from other beings, such as it happens with shamans. One does not simple becomes a shaman just because he/she wants it, a person becomes a shaman because it was chosen by beings, spirits, gods and so on, something out of the person's control. That has profound implications for how a witch seeking to be traditional will approach such things as training, teaching, and joining an initiatory lineage.

Going under the cloak

There are many processes that lead to spiritual work or just relaxation of the mind. This one is such a process, and I would like to share it with you, for it is very simple, but requires a lot of mind control. It is easier if you already know the basic steps of meditation.

As the title suggests, this is literally going under the cloak or a blanket, basically any piece of cloth that you can use to cover you whole. This process of relaxation can be done in short periods of time or long ones, depending on how further you want your mind to go, to delve into a different state of mind.
Do this exercise, get yourself a blanket, lie underneath it and you may or may not use an heavy object such as a rock, to help you in the process of freeing your mind. I'm speaking of rocks because the Druids used to do such things, placing a rock on the chest in order to depress the breathing to alter the state of mind. The heavy object can't be too heavy, or it will end up hurting you, o you will be very uncomfortable, but nether can it be too soft, or you will end up sleeping.

Pay attention, this process must not be performed by people inexperienced, even those used to alter their state of mind with such processes, must be accompanied by a crew able to monitor the pulse and breathing of the person.

The objective of being under a cloak, is to experience a different type of being all by yourself, as if in a cocoon or the "return" to the womb. Peaceful and quiet. Even if you choose to be by yourself in a room, with windows closed, in total darkness, there is always light in the room, light always finds a way to get in, so if you do this process, but under a cloak, you will experience a new kind of darkness, after a while, you will not even realize where you are.

Sauna - The House Of The Ancestors

The Sauna is a very old spiritual tradition, especially for the European peoples. Throughout history we find that the Northern European cultures have an important connection with the sauna. Archaeology in northern Portugal and Spain also found that the Celts and the Lusitanians used to have buildings similar to their houses only for the purpose of cleansing the body through heat and vapours. Nowadays it isn't hard to get into a sauna, but unfortunatelly modern saunas are very different from the old saunas that were used for religious purposes.

The first purpose of the sauna is to honor the powers of the elements, fire, water and stone (earth) and how the spirits of such elements together make "magic", creating steam, thought to be the very breath of the earth and the ancestors. Without these elements, the spirits will not come to you.

For religious purposes, the sauna must have a good source of heat from wood with real flame (nowadays modern saunas have the source of heat through an electric sistem). Also, there is the need of adding stones, most modern saunas have them, as long as there is wood and real flame, it is fine. Now, something very important that isn't taken to account by the people who build modern saunas. Ventilation. Many modern saunas make people sick because the oxygen levels fall too low. Any type of opening will do, the fire needs oxygen to "breath". The best way is having an adjustable vent near the floor, to vent the cooling sinking air, and another higher up to vent the excess heat that follows later.
Also, like I've written, having stones, to throw water on them. Don't pick up river stones, usualy blow apart during temperature changes. You will also need water of course. Our ancestors used to collect the rainwater for these purpose, coming from the sky, it was a direct blessing from the deities. The type of wood used to come from the birch trees, I believe that I have already written about the birch tree in another post, those were consider to be very magical in many cultures, especially the ones ruled by a druidic order.

Do whatever you want in the sauna, but know that the real purpose of it, wasn't to party, so if you really want to do any type of spiritual work, you must behave of course. Being in a sauna, one must be quiet, meditative, peaceful, solemn. This is an opportunity to be in touch with the spirits of the elements, a rebirth ritual, so our ancestors used to go into the sauna, completly naked, the way they came into the world, deprived of any clothing.

Of course people may feel shy for being naked in a community sauna, that is understandable, but modern community saunas don't have the ancestral spiritual purposes. Community saunas used to be mixed gender, however, some rituals during the year only for men or for women, were held inside the sauna (at least part of the rituals) so in that case, the sauna was occupied by only one gender.

The first saunas were made out of stone, but during the later 5th - 6th centuries, these were being built our of timber. The hearth was considered to be the altar of the sauna (the sauna being the temple/house of the ancestors).
The door to a traditional sauna used to be shorter than a an average door, people had to stoop to get into it, showing reverence for the ancestors.

The very first saunas were smoke saunas, the Finns refer to them as savusauna. The fire was lit under stones, and the smoke went out through a hole in the wall or ceiling. The smoke heated the entire room and then the hole was shut and the window opened to let in fresh air come in. There are different claims on the health risks of these smoke saunas, or savusauna. Some say that the smoke is bad for your lungs, others that the smoke creates a bacteria-free and oxygen-rich environment. Don't try these in any circumstances if you are new at this or alone, these might be better in community and with someone outside the door.

The traditional ways of making fire for the sauna, would take long (compared to modern ways of course, it wasn't that long) but it would take longer to get the sauna ready for the spiritual purpose, so people used to sit outside and play the shamanic instruments to call upon a spirit to enter the sauna. In some cases, people would also wait for a family member to die in or near the sauna, so they would be able to call upon them during the sauna rituals.

Our ancestors would call upon guardian spirits to protect them. There was/is one very popular in Finland, named Saunatonttu, a little gnome or sort of faery. It was customary to warm up the sauna just for the gnome every now and then, or to leave some food outside for him. It is said that he warned the people if a fire was threatening the sauna, or punished people who behaved improperly while inside it. The Saunatonttu doesn't seem to be an Alfar (Elf) but more like a being that belongs to the "little people" race. In Russia there was the Bannik or banyanka, also a spirit that protected people from evil spirits. Our ancestors would take refuge in the bath houses and saunas to pray to these spirits for protection.

The purpose of the sauna was to honor the ancestors, to call upon the spirits for protection and to be connected with them and the elements of nature, creating the very breath of the earth, ancestors and gods. Through this "breath" one would cleanse the body and soul.

Working with the Gods: Thor

Thor is one of the most famous deities in the Norse Pantheon, and for those who do spiritual work with him, they must have two things in mind. Thor prefers to work with male bearded spiritual-workers and he loves the color red, any kind of clothing that you may have with that color is fine.
Thor is the tipical warrior god, sturdy, stalwart, stoic but very kind and friendly, faithful to friends and the bonds he creates with those who work with him.
Nowadays isn't hard to find a symbol that represents him, Thor's Hammer, it is actually very easy to get and you should wear one when doing spiritual work with him, or use a real hammer as a as a symbolic token.
Thor also likes beer, it is actually his favorite alcoholic beverage, but for him the most important thing is to have someone to drink with, as I have mention it before, he is a god that likes to creat friendships and maintain them. He shows you the importance of friendship, not just the merrymaking, but the bond between friends, a brotherhood kind of connection, always being there for a friend when help is needed, being faithfull to them.

Working with the gods: Odin

In shamanism people didn't just work with the spirits of animals, trees or the ancestors, they used to work with all kinds of spirits, including the ones we called gods.

Shamanism in the Norse trandition isn't something we are used to hear about, but it existed and nowadays like all the spiritual work in all the other religions, is being brought to us once again and only to a few people these deities show themselves and actually have anykind of contact with us mortals. Through altered states of consciousness we can have similar experiences that shamans had and still have, but being a shaman isn't something you choose to be, it is something that is chosen for you, however, you can choose to do spiritual work, but that doesn't make you a shaman, being a shaman is more complex. Finding a real shaman is a great challenge, nowadays there are too many spiritual workers, too many that call themselves shamans, but in truth, shamans are fewer nowadays then before, a great clue to know if a person is a real shaman, is that the person will never ever tell you that he/she is a shaman, shamans hide that from all, only the communitie calls them shamans, they don't give to themselves any kind of title.

I'm not here to talk about my personal experiences, I'm here to tell you about a mixture of experiences of various people with whom I have contact, including my own experiences, debating these same spiritual experiences reaching a more concrete conclusion, though not entirely correct.

Lets start with Odin. For those of you already familiar with this deity, there is no need to talk about him in the myths, or who he is, what he does or what kind of god is he, this is entirely in a spiritual prespective.

Odin

For the spiritual work with Odin, it is a good thing to have at hand some kind of alcoholic beverage, it can be either mead or wine, not for you and maybe not for Odin, he will only accept it if he is in the mood for it, this is just like offering a drink to welcome a guest, politeness

 He likes red meat and vegetables. You might want to be dressed with clothings with blue, grey, and black colors, those are his favorites.

Odin is a god to be called upon if you need counsel, advice, he likes ver much to talk, and solve disputes, so if you are in need of these things, he is the right god to do spiritual work with. Whenever you speak with Odin, never mention delicate matters in which he or someone or some deity close to him might have been involved, keep the conversation in what you really need, because Odin isn't a god that likes to talk about his problems, his affairs, he is a god that likes to communicate with the objective to help others.

Odin isn't a god to be taken lightly, he can be very ruthless, but he is extremely wise, treat him with the utmost respect.

Those who work with Odin can be either male or female, and should ideally be people sworn to him. 

Usually the greatest experience one might have when working with Odin, or just by meeting him somehow, is to be turned into a wolf or a raven and experience the natural world in that way, even if for a few seconds. It is a different point of view that will give you both freedom of spirit and cleverness, you will learn to respect, to behave while in a group, you can either lead or be led. Working in group is very important to Odin, the old Norse who worshiped Odin and made a cult around this deity, always worked in group and behaved like wolves in a pack.

Odin is a god that will constantly test you, before you call upon him or he decides to show himself to you he already knows a lot about you, he knows your fears, and every test is so you might know yourself better. You might think that you are very courageous, he will test that to see how far you can go with all your bravery, or you might think otherwise, the complete oposite, and you might find out that you are stronger than you thought.

Note:  If you have any questions for me or if you want to see my artistic works, check out my Facebook page and make a Like if you can by following this link --> http://www.facebook.com/ArithHarger

Shamanism in Seidr and the Völvur

The other day I wrote about Shamanism in the Northern Traditional Paganism and I left you all with the glimpse of the idea that women were the only ones to work with magic, rune Reading, shamanism etc. in the old Norse comunities, and in this post I will go further on that and explain why women were so importante in these fields of expertise.

We know of many Norse deities that are connected with the runes and magic, with shaman practices who are both male and female, the Aesir, Vanir, Jotnar, Alfar, Duergar and such others from the Norse cosmology work with such magics and are linked to them, but the powers of Seiðr are in fact an exclusive spiritual path that belong to the Vanir tribe of gods, and from them, all others gained the knowledge to work with such powers, as such, the Vanir gods aren't just connected with Nature, Agriculture, Fertility and Love, they are also connected to Magic, to shamanism, to Seiðr. Afther many gained this knowledge, including Odin, taught by the Vanir deities, it was also passed down to us mortals, and such works were only practiced by women in the Norse communities, this doesn't mean that men couldn't do it, but to the eyes of the Norse society of that time, it wasn't seen as the right thing for a man to do, nor was it dignify. So women were the workers and practitioners of  Seiðr, and were so called Vǫlva ( or Völva in Icelandic ), plural vǫlur in Old Norse and völvur in Icelandic.
Freyja is the divine archetype of the völva, a professional practitioner of the Norse/Germanic magical tradition known as Seiðr. This was a form of magic concerned with discerning and altering the course of destiny by re-weaving one part of the destiny’s web. To do such things, one would enter in trance, such as a shaman does, and go throughout the Nine worlds in the spirit form and accomplishing her intended tasks.
Freyja as a female deity closely linked to sexuality, fertility, love, magic, household, sensuality, is the perfect patroness of women in the old Norse community and the one closely connected with women that did spiritual work.

During these ages, the völva wandered from town to town and farm to farm prophesying and performing other acts of magic in exchange for room, board, and often other forms of compensation as well. it was their job and all jobs must receive any kind of payment according to the importance of the job. The most detailed account that we might have access to of such a woman and her doings comes from The Saga of Erik the Red,  but numerous sagas as well as some of the mythic poems (most notably the Völuspá, “The Insight of the Völva“) contain sparse accounts of seidr-workers and their practices.
As we know well that any other northern Eurasian shamans was set apart from their communities, the völva was no exception to the rule, these women were set apart from their society as well in both a positive and a negative sense, a Völva was simultaneously exalted, sought-after, feared, and, in some instances, reviled. However, the Völva is very reminiscent of the veleda, a seeress or prophetess who held a more clearly-defined and highly respected position amongst the Norse/Germanic tribes for many centuries both after and before the common era. The women practitioners of these arts held a more or less dignified role among their people.
Speaking of a dignified role among society, such wasn't usually the case for male practitioners of these arts, of Seiðr. According to traditional Norse/Germanic gender constructs, it was extremely shameful and dishonorable for a man to adopt a female social or sexual role. A man who practiced Seiðr could expect to be labeled ergi (Old Norse for “unmanly”) one of the gravest insults that could be hurled at a Norse/Germanic man in those times.  Still, this didn’t stop numerous men from engaging in seidr, sometimes even as a profession. the female position in society and their professions was very important in the role politics and economy, while men took care of the defence of a community, or other warfare acts, hard work in the fields in agriculture, fishing and so on, women were left behind most of the time to do all the hard work in the farms as well, while men were gone at war or died, and also taking care of the house, the great halls, the children, and anything that might have been done in a community of those times. Think of it as time of the Great World War II, most men were dead or crippled, and society was forced to take the women in and scattered them in many fields of expertise, in order to save the economy and keep the countries running, but in Norse/Germanic societies, this was completly normal and accepted with no problem.

Note: The artwork to illustrate this post is a drawing made by me of two women practitioners of Seiðr. If you have any questions for me or if you want to see my artistic works, check out my Facebook page and make a Like if you can by following this link --> http://www.facebook.com/ArithHarger

Ullr's Hidden Cave

This will be a post only to talk about my latest spiritual journey and share it with all of you, a spiritual journey that I thought to be interesting and I really would like to discuss this with all of you.
 
I am not a Shaman but I do practice Norse Shamanism, the difference between a shamanic practitioner and a shaman is complicated, but summarizing that subject, lets just say that a practitioner of shamanism doesn't experience half of what a Shaman does, and a practitioner of such a spiritual work, never makes his/her spiritual journeys when, how or where he/she wants, and has much less work and trouble than a shaman who makes this his own job, and his life and the lives of others depend on it. Basically for a practitioner of shamanism, every spiritual  journey is a fortune and a blessing, it doesn't happen a lot of times, so every time with get this chance, we have to absorb as much knowledge as we can.

Now going back to the main subject of this post, my latest spiritual journey was quite strange because the other spiritual journeys I had,  I experienced things that I already knew from the lore or with conversations with others, or after I had such experiences I went to search for them in the lore and there they were, so I managed to prove to myself that many things, places, beings, deities etc from the lore are real. But the last spiritual journey I had wasn't such a case, as a matter of fact what I have experienced is something that I have never found in the lore, and so far others that do such journeys haven't managed to find the same thing I did, so hold tight to your chair and if you have experienced something similar, please share with me, so here it goes:

I was at Asgard, a place iIhave been a few times, and when I mean few, I seldom have that chance. The place where I was, was far from Gladsheim, I went to a mountain chain, I think the direction was northeast, this zone itself was a rocky ground, of a very dark stone, resembled granite, but in a nearly black color, very slippery, filled with ice and some parts with snow. The god *Ullr came to me, he was at the junction of two mountains, at a high level, because I was in a valley between mountains. This was the first time I met this deity, and he came to me. In that valley he showed me a gap on the ground, large enough for a grown man to go through, it wasn't dark, I could see the floor, it went deeper, decreasing, covered with snow, I went with him till the end, until we were near a wooden house, only the front to my right, and still the roof  was that long gap, the light entered this zone, a pale light, it was daylight but the sun was covered by the mists of the mountains, and everything in this place had a mixture of colors of light blue and tones of grey, and that dark stone was everywhere, some of it wasn't covered by snow. Ullr showed me the entrance to that wooden house, it was built inside the dark rock, there was some people doing some chores outside, and Ullr stayed there with them. I went inside, alone, in here the only light was the light of candles and torches, a lot of people were sleeping in beds made of straw, covered with an old brownish rag. In front of me there were two wooden doors, one to the left and one to the right, both led to two different caves, there was nothing inside those caves that was manmade, only those wooden doors, the rest of the caves where just... caves, dark and wet, both led to a chamber and I got the impression that beyond the caves, there was another corridor on each one of them that led deeper into those caves. But in these chambers, on the cave to the right, more people slept in there, but this time, all of them slept like animals, naked, on the rocky floor, in the darkness, most of them facing down, there was a glimmer of a fire in the middle of the chamber, the fire almost extinguished... there they were snoring like bears or wolves, the sound echoed in the cave. Now.. when I was at this cave, I heard sounds coming from the other cave, similar sounds to the cave in the right, but louder, stronger and more beastlike, so I got out of this cave and stepped right in front of the wooden door that led to the cave in the left, someone told me that that cave was dangerous, and I had to be very careful, if I was to go in, I would do so by my own account and if something bad happened, no one would intervene. So I just opened the the door, and I saw that the cave was similar to the one in the right, but what was sleeping there gave me a chill down my spine, humanlike beasts, big and stout, hairy, actually.. with fur, and claws, similar to werewolves. Now I knew what that place was, some kind of cult, training place, or even a school, to learn how to shapeshift into wolflike beasts, and the head of this school or whatever, was Ullr himself. As far as i know Ullr isn't a shapeshifter, but it is true that few things are known about him and the lore doesn't say much about him, that is my problem... but what it does say, is that he is a very important god, and he is like a diplomat of the Aesir tribe of gods, such as Bragi, but with much more importance, sent in very hard diplomatic affairs, most of the time into Jötunheim. This is what is known about him, and what I can take from this, is that... as far as the lore tells us and what shamans have experienced, in Jötunheim there is a large woodland called Ironwood, where the tribes of the Jotnar live, a place where Angrboda reigns, this is the only place in the Nine realms, known so far, to have werewolves, I just call them werewolves, so you might have an idea, because they do resemble such myth creatures, so probably Ullr learnt some kind of magic or shapeshifting technique and gathered people to teach them this, hidden in the mountains of Asgard, and it doesn't seem to me that this is a secret to the Aesir gods, they probably know, at least a few of them or maybe just Odin, but to others, this might be a huge secret I don't know, nor do I know by writing this experience I had, if this will bring any trouble... but Ullr showed me this and I don't think he expected me to be quiet about it or maintain the secret. So this isn't probably a secret, but at least, no one that I know of, knows about this, so please, if any of you out there knows about something similar to this, share with me.

*Ullr is the god of skiing, hunting, archery, skating and winter, a god of great importance it seems, for when Odin is out of Valhalla, it is Ullr that stands in his place and reigns over Asgard and all the Aesir gods.

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Shamanism as an anthropological study

I have writen about shamanism at my blog a couple of times, what it is, why is it done and how, but today i want to write about it as a anthropological study, more turned to those who are a bit sceptical about it, or need science to prove the existance of such a work as entering the world of the spirits, which is perfecly natural, if science can explain the natural world and the behaviour of us humans in the past towards it, the better we may understand our paths and the way the universe works.

Shamanism, summarizing it, is the ability to leave this world and travel to the realms of the spirits, or the otherworld, it has always been a part of our human condition since the dawn of times, since we humans exist and work in such ways. Anthropology has been evolving and improving, becoming increasingly a discipline which can be learned by meeting the traditional communities still alive in our world, be those of South America, Africa, Australia and of course Siberia. Anthropology tried to explain shamanism in a shallow way, telling us about the items, tools and clothing people wore and how they arranged their ceremonies, no one mentioned the actual journeys the shamans made into the otherworld, the only explanation for that was the "logical" conclusion that shamans probably were clinically deranged, and all sorts of new and different illnesses were invented. Anthropologists had never head of the otherworld or the realm of the spirits before, and of course never had experienced it, so this was understandable, the way they behave towards such phenomenon. But time passes and we evolve, and we are always eager to learn, so anthropologists decided to take their studies into a different level and began to follow these shamans in their practices in this world and the otherworld. To the surprise of the anthropologists, they had similar experiences to those described by the shamans, and this opened a new field of research.

The studies went on and it was established that the shamans go into trance in order to facilitate their entry into the otherworld. This was tested in laboratories during the 1960's and 70's, and the experimentations showed that certain hallucinogenic drugs could induce into similar trance states, or altered states of conciousness, also field research found that some shamans use natural forms of these same drugs to assist in their journeys to the otherworld. All of a sudden everything began to make sence in the world of sciences, because after these experiences, anthropologists ignored the trance and that could only make them understand part of the shamanic world those people lived in, because the existance of the otherworld and the spirits, was exactly the reason that lead people in these communities to make everything they do. This was also an huge step to Archaeology, which showed that if these people live their lifes around trance experiences, so did the peoples of the past. Anthropologists by this time had already shown that they could enter trance and journey to the otherworld as easily as traditional people, and that all humans have the same ability to do so or to experience similar altered states of conciousness.All such trance is facilitated by a stimulus, even archaeologists looked into the records of the past and they found a lot of drugs that were already in use for such practices, from opium, to burnt seeds and even mushrooms.

Drugs aren't the only means of inducing trance, also listening to repetitive drumming at a certain beat and frequency is also very effective, which explains why Neolothic people designed the forecourts around burial tombs to resonate drum beats just this frequency, it was also found burnt stones, which were used in saunas, and we also know that shamans in Siberia also induce their trance by inhaling steam in a sauna.

Many people see geometric shapes after entering in trance, but these are formed entirely within the eye itself with no outside stimulus. Scientists call them phosphenes. This fact allowed archaeologists to recognise them in the past, since the first forms of art anywhere in the world, all of a sudden these shapes of trance were everywhere in every archaeological digging, even on 70.000 year-old stones from South Africa.

Studies showed that moving deeper into trance, these shapes coalesce into a tunnel and if one follows it till the end, a new landscape reveals itself which of course shamanic people identify as the otherworld. The concept of a long tunnerl leading into another place may have induced palaeolithic people to follow passages into the earth and thus the myths and stories of caves, tombs, holes in the ground and later wells and such things were entrances into the otherworld.

The more people delve deeper into trance, the more they can identify whatever symbols and images that were painted or carved on the walls of caves and tombs in ages past by our ancestors. Animals are often seen in these altered states of conciousness, but not just animals we are use to see, but also creatured of similar shapes and forms but somehow different, also the otherworld is inhabited by the spirits of the dead, which explains many of the rituals and traditions surrounding burial activities and a strong reason why people went to these practices again and again and again. Neolithic people build huge tombs with long passages leaning to an enormous chamber, to symbolize the experiences they had while in trance, an idea that it seems that people believed the dead also took such a journey to arrive into the otherworld.

Both Anthropology and Arcaeology recognize that there is more to shamanism than just the physical characteristis of the rituals done by shamans or shamanic practitioners, this is an huge step, we can now delve into our deep thoughts and journey out of this world, take similar experiences and know more about the way ancient people live their lifes and how their mind worked, we can understand these things by living the same experiences. Archaeology and Anthropology helps us to prove that these experiences are not made up or a figment of a deluded mind and our past is real and very much alive, something natural and attached to every human brain.

To our ancestors these experiences were their day by day life, and it was easier for them to believe in the existance of the world of spirits and such things, they lived it, they depended on it, and from there came the inspiration for the creation of art, tools, music, jewelery, clothing, architecture and so on. Today for us it is hard to believe, we underwent through a series of events in our human history, the creation of lots of religions, the disbelief of the same, the coming of sciences trying to explain everything, even if there isn't a good explanation for the natural world itself, we are poisoned by the amount of television programs, religious and political propaganda, a mixture of events that drives us crazy and the most welcoming thing to stop all that madness is scepticism and everything that turns away from that path, seems too fantastical, unreal, impossible, but we must go through this veil and see things as they were and still are.

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The Oseberg Longboat

The lovers of Archaeology and of Northern European History, surely have heard about the Oseberg Longboat found by the norwegian archaeologists at Oseberg south of Oslo. The great archaeological treasure is a real master piece of northern european design, culture and art, beautifully carved with images of animals, skillful knotworks, entirely made of oak. Inside the Longboat, there were two dead bodies of women, there were also dogs, horses and an ox. A four wheeled cart was at the far end of the Longboat, the first viking cart to be discovered and there were also four sledges there, also beautifully carved. But what makes this finding so spectacular is the possible identity of the two women. Both of these women were considered elderly for the time, on was 70 and the other 50 more or less between these ages, analysis showed that their diet was very rich, meaning that these women were of an higher status in their viking society. At first archaeologists thought that these two women, buried in a burial mound far from the sea, they could be the wives of local farmers, but a treasure like this one, these couldn't be mere farmer's wives, with the help of the knowledge about traditional burial rituals and spiritual paths of the northern european peoples and with the finding of a small leather purse, these women would reveal their secrets. The small leather purse contained cannabis seeds, which induce trance when burnt, and there was also a rattle, a musical instrument also very much used for the same purpose. There were also tapestries with the women, which may have illustrated the shamanic rituals held in these times.
In the Norse society, shamanism or seiðr was the work of women, as i have written in an other post about the northern magic workers The practitioners of seiðr, known as seiðkona or völva, entered in trance using drugs, chanting or rythmic sounds with musical instruments. In the case of the Oseberg women, the cannabis seeds and the rattle may have helped them entering in trance.

The images carved or painted in stone in prehistoric times and even in more recent historical times and in folklore show us that in many cases the boat was the vessel which helped shamans reaching the other world in their shamanic journeys and helped the dead to reach the afterlife, we see this many times in Norse burial rituals when the dead were placed in a long boat with many gifts and then it was burnt, or burial mounds in a shape of a boat made out of stones. To the far north, there are thousands of images of shamans beating their drums while sailing in ships into the otherworld.

In the case of the Oseberg women, they were clearly practitioners of seiðr - Norse Shamanism - and the Longboat was obviously designed to stay on land and not with the purpose of sailing, at least not sailing in this world.

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Dark Shamanism

Most of what i have written about shamanism, is either helpful or.. let's just say.. the light version of things, how shamans work, the help they can give, comunication with the spirits and with the spirit world, how they can heal a person in so many ways, their journeys and how they do it and why well and so on... but not everything in shamanism is pleasant or positive.

The shaman not only has the powers/skills to cure some one but also he/she knows how to curse, they can inflict illness upon an individual, by sending what is often called Spirit arrows while they are in trance. In order to take away these spirit arrows from some one, the shaman must have the knowledge and understand how they work and how they were sent. Once the shamans are able to find it, they will send the curse or the illness back to the dark shaman, cursing them in the same manner they cursed others. This might seem fantasy, a battle between good and evil extracted from a movie, but this is very real, i suppose there is always an evil side in everything as there is a good one, everything must have a balance. However, i may know much about shamanism, but in this dark side of a shaman i'm afraid my knowledge is purely theoretical, but if a shaman can find illness in someone and cure it, i'm sure he/she can do the opposite, i mean.. if  shamans can extract malevolent energy, it is likely that they can send it back. Lets put it in these terms, we often defend ourselves from other's and the harm they try to give us, in our defence, we can fight, verbally protest, sometimes with legal acts, when the law is on our side and so one.. so the shamans can do the same, but it is a kind of self defence in spiritual terms, a bit difficult to understand because our minds have been so closed and away from those matters for too long and society is closing it self in a routine quite monotonous and away from spirituality, and we are all running around the same places, doing the same things everyday, in our stressful city lifes. But speaking of self defence in spiritual terms and in shamanism, there is a very good exemple of this in the Jivaro tribes in the Amazon, they would captured the heads of their enemies and shrank the heads in order to trap the soul of that person in there, so the person couldn't take revenge, coming all the way from the other world, more powerful then ever.  To them, this is not an evil act or a bad thing to do, it's for their own protection and the protection of their communities, because they could turn quickly into violence.

People nowadays are very curious about shamanism, and we are going back to those studies, gaining knowledge or relearning our ancestral spiritual paths, trying to be more connected with the natural world and with ourselves, making somehow a link that binds our soul with others and with the world, but the kind of shamanism that suits us better is in fact the peaceful kind of shamanism, involving healing, herbs, safe ways to enter in trance, music and the list goes on, which is better in my opinion, because the world had and unfortunately still has too much violance, but lets not forget that shamanism had many sacrifices, and in some places still has, of both flesh and blood, the kind of tribal shamanism has always been that way, brutal, cruel, and it would give the sort of nightmares we don't want to dream about, but this is history and we learn from it, we can't just deny the truth, we have to understand it, go deep into that matter even if it makes you want to puke. Blood sacrifices are extremely common in tribal societies and are often connected with rituals in shamanism, there is a huge difference between our Western practice of shamanism and the darker ways of traditional shamans from these tribal societies, such as trying to put a malevolent soul into the body of an animal so it stops doing harm to the person the shaman is trying to cure, and after that killing the animal to trap that soul, in order to stop it doing evil to others.

So this post was to remind you all that shamanism isn't a trivial thing that you can play with. Lately it has been so publicized and trivialized, that all people think they can practice it and it is very beautiful and healthy. Well in some manners it is of course, and it can actually help a lot, it is also useful for our souls and our minds, it helps us to evolve, but we always have that tendency to cover up the bad side, people need to know the truth always and from there, make their own choices. It is the natural order of things, if a shaman doesn't know how to curse, how does he know how to heal it?

If you have any questions for me and if you want to see my traditional works, check my Facebook page and if you can, make a Like on it here: http://www.facebook.com/ArithHarger