skills to develop before seiðr
Seiðr (for the sake of my keyboard, I will be using the Swedish spelling "sejd" for the remainder of this post) is a Norse magic practice that's hard to define, and harder to find resources for how to practice. In my own practice, I would define it as a trance-based spirit work practice, that can be used to influence fate and understand it, but this still only feels like the tip of the iceberg. Because the nature of sejd is so personal, I don't intend on writing a "how-to" manual based off my own practice. However, as someone who was stuck at the beginning, I did want to share my thoughts on skills that I think are important to develop before/during the development of a sejd practice. My disclaimer: this is based on my own experience, and the experiences of another practitioner could be wildly different from my own.
Experience with Divination
While sejd is a divination tool of its own, before starting sejd, it's extremely helpful to be experienced with at least one form of divination (I recommend two - one designed for clear yes/no answers, and another that can elaborate and give nuance). Answers received in sejd can often come through as confusing imagery, and being able to clarify your experiences through divination is extremely helpful (especially in the beginning). I've found that it will help you work through interpretations, as seeing is often easier than understanding. I've also found it very important for remaining grounded, rather than running off into fantasy based on a sejd image.
The ability to keep a secret is so important in sejd! Sejd is a practice that involves a lot of spirit work, and not every spirit wants all of their information shared. You may have experiences within sejd that spirits may tell you not to share with anyone. While you can find teachers to learn sejd from, it is a spirit-led practice. If you can't respect the privacy of the spirits you work with, it will become very hard to continue to learn from them.
The importance of being able to respect privacy, however, is not only because of the spirits. As you meet other sejd practitioners, many of them will become informal teachers and mentors. If they share an aspect of their practice with you, it doesn't make it yours to share. Sejd can be incredibly private, and it is a violation of trust to share another practitioner's experiences and methods. It's so important to respect the privacy of other practitioners, or you will struggle to learn from community as well.
Stilling and Focusing Thoughts
Often, when people approach meditation, they picture it as thinking no thoughts. For sejd, I've found it very important to be able to still and focus your thoughts (as opposed to clearing your mind). This means being able to focus on one line of thought, goal, etc. Your mind wandering is very normal and very human, but being able to bring yourself back to the task at hand is very helpful. When I began working on focusing my thoughts, I began by simply closing my eyes and focusing on breathing in one color and out another color for 20 minutes daily. There's a lot of ways to go about this! Experiment with methods that work best for you.
Breathwork is one way to alter your state of consciousness, and because of how accessible it is to use in a variety of environments, I consider it a core skill for sejd. Different breathing styles can invoke different sensations and effects on consciousness, experiment with them! Breathwork, for me, is also very connected to being able to still myself and focus my thoughts. As a result, I often revisit my breath during trance to go deeper, breathe through a challenging experience/visual, or to loosen my desire to control what I'm seeing.
Beyond altering states of consciousness, breath (as life and as spirit) is very important to Norse cosmology and sejd. Breath can be used to send out spirits, as well as to take them into the body. Through this, your own spirit (or soul parts) can enact magical change or journey for knowledge, or spirits can come to you to answer questions through you. Working with your breath before sejd can open lots of doors for you later in your practice.
Trance and Altered States
Although I mentioned breathwork as one way to alter your consciousness, there's a variety of methods available to you. I've found that different methods of achieving an altered state can be very useful for different purposes, or even combined to enter deeper trance. Different ways to invoke altered states can include movement (like dance), focused work (like art or writing), use of certain plants (do not experiment with using plants to alter consciousness without an a deep understanding of their effects on your body), etc. Work to understand the different effects different methods have on your mind and body, and think about how these different states can achieve different goals.
Visualization/Conceptualization
To start, I do want to give the disclaimer that I do not think that the ability to visualize is necessary for a strong sejd practice. There's many ways to "see" with your mind's eye without seeing, and if you're able to, you can rely on your other senses. If you're not able to "see" with any of your senses, conceptualizing, speaking, or writing what's going on is another way you can "visualize". Working on "visualization" can also help you understand what channels spirits might communicate through. I've found visualization to be important to me in order to accomplish specific goals, but often in sejd, it comes to you without effort or trying to "see" something. A simple way to work on visualization that I used was to sit, close my eyes, and "walk" around my home, out the door, and continue.
Sejd is a practice that is inherently rooted in Norse mythology and cosmology. When working on developing this practice, a lot of answers are hidden in myths and folklore. Understanding the context that this practice is rooted in is necessary. There are many trance-based and spirit work practices around the world, and another practice might be more aligned with you if the Norse cosmology doesn't feel like a right fit.
While understanding Norse cosmology is important for understanding the context that sejd lives within, it's also so helpful for interpreting sejd-imagery. The stronger the connection to a visual framework, the easier it is to decode symbology. I've found that a lot of sejd images are a mixture between personal symbolism (as within dreams) and symbols within the Norse framework.
I would divine sejd as a practice that relies on external power. While sejd-practitioners may have certain skills that make this work easier, these skills are usually gifts from spirits. Answers received in sejd are not based on the power of the practitioner, but the spirits that come forward to give them. I feel like it might be necessary to note that humility is important to sejd. Because sejd is so dependent on spirit relationships, a basic understanding of spirit work is important. Begin developing relationships to spirits (aspects of your soul can be a great place to start, such as the fylgja or hamingja).
I think a very large part of sejd is dependent on animism. The understanding that spirits are all around you, and you are interconnected to the world around you, is vital to the work. It might be a very good idea to start connecting to the spirits around you, that you might unconsciously be interacting with every day.
