Norse giantess/goddess of the underworld, daughter of Loki and Angrboda.
⇁ Embrace your differences, Hel was born with an appearance described as half black / half white, half alive / half dead, with many other descriptions available.
⇁ Go a day without make-up, if you typically wear
⇁ Honor the dead you know, and reach out to them if you have a proper channel to do so.
⇁ Volunteer time to those close to death (for lack of better words), or those who have led long lives. Get to know them, hear their stories, take this as a way to grow
⇁ Give love to your local pups; whether it be through a shelter, your own, or an acquaintances’, as Garm is the hound that guards her gates and Fenrir is her brother.
⇁ Leave offerings out for Garm.
⇁ Hel’s other brother is Jormungandr, the Midgard Serpent, so spending time with snakes is also an option.
⇁ If you have a fear of snakes, or dogs even, you can spend time researching opposed to in person interactions. Which snakes are native to your area? Which dogs are most common? Even taking a Buzzfeed quiz that tells you which dog you’d fit with based on your noodle preferences works here.
⇁ Try your best to avoid judging people and the things around you. One of Hel’s duties is to judge people after death, decide where they will spend the rest of their time. Avoid doing that here, honor her by letting her make those decisions.
⇁ Embrace the night, it’s a common belief that this is when the dead comes out for us.
⇁ Do something that scares or overwhelms you.
⇁ Try something new / experience the unknown.
⇁ Clean your sheets and blankets, even those in the living room / study / etc. Hel’s bed is called sick bed, so washing yours can be an act of preventing the likewise.
⇁ Serve a meal for family, friends, neighbors, people you’d just met - or donate to a local food bank in her honor. “Her dish is hunger, her knife is famine.” I’ve heard multiple variants of the above quote, the general base is that things involved in her dining are related to others such as hunger, starvation, and famine.
⇁ Visit a local cemetery, pull weeds that cloud headstones and leave flowers for those you know.
⇁ If you have a gate, whether it be garden etc, leave it open, as Hel’s gate is commonly brought up.
⇁ Light a candle, potentially black or darker in color and scents that remind you of her. I associate her with heavier, earthy scents.
Feel free to add your own! This post is subject to updates, but anything added from another source will get it’s due credit. You can request an additional Norse deity / figure here.
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