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The places you can go, falling through the aether.

Occasionally people ask me what it's like to travel like I do. In the practice of seiðr there is a need to travel to other realms, Realms of other beings that may have knowledge, answers or resources. This skill has many names, the name that I use is Faring Forth

How I Go

Preparing the items I will be taking with me, usually just my wand and offerings of cookies or gems, I sit and calm myself. I try to clear the worries and anxiety from the brain, and I also begin selecting senses to stop. Sight is the easiest by just closing my eyes, touch is also rather easy, I can either lie on the ground for prop myself in the corner. To Eliminate smell distractions I usually burn incense. Hearing has been the hardest for me to ignore pr switch over, I used to use ear plugs or large headphones, not anymore though. Now i am able just to do it as part of all of the other things. I sit or lie in my circle, and hum a little, enter a trance, and try to focus on my destination.

A sample location

On a normal practice journey I will go to the same place. A place that is a small hall or chapel or meeting room. The ceilings in the main part of the room are about 15 ft high and angled, there are two rows of columns going down the room. There are about 8 columns in total, in two rows, about 30 feet apart. They are about 20 feet from each other in their row.

The columns themselves serve to mark out the center part of the space, the area where the ceiling is higher, on the outside of these rows the ceiling is much lower. The floor is normally covered in hide and furs of perhaps cow, sheep, or goat, below these furs the floor is wood. I'm in the middle or towards the rear of the room clenching at the furs in my fingers, sometimes kneeling sometimes lying down. The position I begin my transe in does not dictate the position I will arrive in. Towards the front of the room is a long trough of fire and coals, around the fire the floor is stone. At the head of the room there are a series of chairs facing the rest of the room. The center one is wider than the rest with ornate carved legs. It is hard for me to see the carving, but the texture feels somewhere between a braid and a spiral have been carved. The chairs in this part of the room occasionally have extremely soft furs on them, rabbit or Fox Maybe. The columns that support the roof and all of the surrounding structure are made of wood. The wood feel smooth and Polished over years of handling the soft portions of the grain of worn down much farther than other parts. On the sides of the hall here are small windows that are rather low, not much light enters through these. There are also frequently benches stored by the windows, when they are not placed in the main part of the room. Most of the light enters through more windows at the top of the hall along the roof, it seems they also serve as smoke vents when there is a fire going.

There are two ways out of this room. There is the front door in the back of the hall, opposite of the chairs. It is a set of double doors that open to the outside. The other way to exit this room is behind the chairs at the front, there are small doors to either the left or the right, that lead to the same back room. Here there is sometimes a cooking fire and a large kettle. Various bits of fabric hang from the ceiling along the walls, it seems like there is more back there but I have not yet been permitted to check. Out the front door is, not surprisingly is the outside.

The seasons here don't seem to match the seasons of Illinois. I have seen snow in early May, and green all the way through November. In the nearby area I have yet to see or discern any other buildings. However on a clear day there are Hills or low mountains in the distance. Not a great distance, maybe about 20 to 30 miles, the highest peak is mostly cliff faced on the left side and curves down on the right, I'm able to see a few other peaks but this is the only one that has any describable features for me. There are few if any trees here, and the cliff face has visible strata though indistinct at this distance.

What I Do Once I’m There

Normally when coming to this place, The Lady, or one of her handmaidens / daughters / aspects is waiting for me. On one occasion, while doing what can only be described as a skills test for a magical research project, I was greeted normally and asked to step outside. She had said to me that

“The place here, is related to how it covers the shape of the Realms. It covers a structure that cannot be perceived, but that structure can be moved. If you understand how to shift the structure underneath you can shift where and how you are placed. Look there in the distance, see the hills and the sky, now rotate them aside and see what is beneath. “

After a few tries it seemed that the entire world winked out of existence and I was falling through a bright but dense fog. I could still hear her voice “I have taught you the shape of a great soaring bird, use it.” Rather quickly I was able to stop falling and glide about. With the diffuse light, and gentle winds, I was able to get a good look at the shape I was in. I'll have another post about that and my exploration into the nature of the Valshamr. After flying around for a little bit, I nearly crashed face-first into a large tree, bigger around than anything I've seen in person, the tree is covered in coarse ridged bark, and in my brief panic I had become a human again. I hear her voice again, “You have other shapes that you know, surely you will not be brought to a stop by landing on a tree.” In a brief moment of consideration I chose the form of a raccoon. the hands were easy enough and provided better grip than human hands. The feet soon followed, I add a tail for balance and a nose for direction, I was soon scaling the side of the tree in relative ease. My vision was only limited to about 10 to 12 feet in front of me. Eventually I was able to find a small branch to rest. Once there I faced the tree and placed my right hand upon it as I switched back to my human form. With it there, I said “I wish to go to Freya's Hall”, and did that odd rotation that had gotten me here.

The whole world went dark, and I was falling again. The noise was actually the first thing to hit me, before my face hit upon wide beam. The cacophonous and din of a celebration or gathering was all around. I could discern some laughter, both men and women, I could hear maybe flutes, maybe some form of pipes, string instruments, drums, singing, and the rhythmic sounds of dancing. The place I had landed was maybe 50-60 feet off of a floor, below me were rows of tables, running along the length of a great hall, greater than any hall I could have imagined. I could tell that I was on some form of open rafter or truss in the ceiling, and off to one side. The hallways Maybe 150, or 200 feet wide, and long enough in each direction that I could not see the end. This was not a place that I had been before, it was much larger and chaotic. I slowly backed up until I felt the wall behind me, and imagine those furs that I had landed on at the start. I fell through the wall and floor, and landed with a thud on soft sheepskin. Sitting up, I see that she was still here, She greets me “Many places that you try to go will not be what you expect, be careful”.

Worn out and exhausted I thanked her for her time, and went home. Once I got back to my body the pain has mostly subsided. I was only left with the mundane pain and a slight knot in my stomach. I took a deep breath, and made sure that all my parts are back, I got up and had some tea.

Thank You

I hope you've enjoyed recounting this journey with me. If you like, I can share more places that I have been. Feel free to message with any questions.

Always, *Hugs*

--nina

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