#seidr magic

[runeboon]

I've been reading Seidr Magic by Dean Kirkland and it's all about reconstructionist Norse shamanism.

And it's really frickin neat, but also I think the author misses some opportunities for creativity for the sake of adhering to a constructed purism that doesn't totally work in today's world. And like. That's what reconstructionism IS.

But when you're finding your seidrstaff, you're more likely to find it if you set your intentions at, say, a walk through Home Depot instead of just a regular walk. The only wood around here is in people's yards and I am not knocking to see if I can have/purchase a piece of their garden. I am adorable:I would get snatched.

And then, the staff itself and it's embellishments have so much potential if you're not trying to be a Ye Olde Norse. For example, the top of the staff has a knoppr (a knob) of some kind. The knoppr acts as a temporary home for spirits as you transit around the various planes. It acts as a shelter.

The staff itself can also be metal. In ye olde times it would have been either wood or iron. But now? In the days of steel and alloys?

You could use a mailbox or birdhouse with a post as a staff. You could make your staff out of a CLOSET ROD, or a pipe. You can use a tiki torch and include fire in your rituals. You can make a staff out of a wooden stair post.

I figure as long as it resonates, and technically fills the brief, then it ought to be good enough.

[dvktheartist]

Gullveig's Return

"Burned, broken, but never lost. She speaks in embers and sees what the gods fear."

They called her Heiðr, the Shining One, yet her fate was forged in fire. Three times she burned, and three times she rose—each time stronger, her veins filled not with blood, but with the molten whispers of Seiðr magic. Now, clad in blackened ceremonial armor, adorned with golden runes, and flanked by two crows, she walks the line between prophecy and defiance.

She is Gullveig reborn, a forgotten Vanir sorceress who sees the unraveling threads of fate, knowing that the gods themselves fear what she might reveal.

She carries the Scroll of Ash, an artifact that holds the rewritten history of those who tried to silence her. The words on its pages shift and burn, revealing truths only to those who dare to seek them.

In the fields of battle and the halls of kings, her name is whispered in awe and fear.

[runeboon]

I've been thinking about the Ginnungagap. It's sort of a violent contradiction. It's full of things that oppose and clash with one another, and that conflict is what yields its potential.

There's a sort of intentional message that conflict is the process through which we grow, that we are meant to scratch up against each other and that that is necessary in order to be polished and remade.

And then we get Dean Kirkland, saying to ceremonially toss your seidrstaff into the Ginnungagap to provide it a connection to the raw potentiality of the void in order to allow it to develop and grow. (Seidr Magic, 2024, pg 62-63)

And actually - that's such a good idea?? Providing a direct connection between your magical tools and the raw primordial forces from which magic came to be? Genius, actually.

Before you do that, you have to use galdr and sing a song spell (vardloka) to awaken the spirit in your staff. The Vikings appeared to have a strong sense of animism - anything can have a soul, but that soul might need to be sung to in order to awaken.

It sort of reminds me of a mother singing a lullaby to their child. All things can have spirits, but we have to ease them into awareness through thoughtful care and music.

Anyway - step one: wake up your staff spirit.

Step two: wrap the staff in black cloth.

Step three: wrap the cloth in red cord or yarn nine times (nine is a sacred number to the Norse).

Step four: tell the staff that you are casting it into the darkness if the Ginnungagap in order for it to develop and grow. Kirkland suggests this be done in alliterative verse that you've composed beforehand.

Step five: marinate somewhere dark, where light cannot get to it. The duration is up to you, but Kirkland suggests some iteration of nine. Nine days, nine weeks, nine months, you get the idea.

Step six: remove from darkness and carefully unwrap. Kirkland says to welcome it like you would welcome a new baby into the world, and suggests it be done in alliterative verse.

Step seven: give your new staff spirit a name reflective of it's purpose

Step eight: (optional) "blood" the staff if that's something you're comfortable with.

So - those are the steps, but it's possible to do with anything. You can yeet runes into the Ginnungagap. You can put altar items into it. You can put whatever you want in there. It's free real estate, and it increases the potency of the magical item to have touched the forces from which magic came.

[runeboon]

I just launched a whole-ass business

If you want to get a free reading or even spellwork, hit me up at runeboon.com!

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[runeboon]

"Soul loss is an important affliction to understand and a crucial one to heal... If a soul part is missing at the time of a person's death, the rest of the soul cannot penetrate the barriers and make a transition to whichever afterlife it is destined... Someone who dies holding additional soul parts also remains... until those soul parts are released. To remedy the situation often involves a very complex process, swapping a series of soul parts between several different people before any of them can move on to the afterlife."

Dean Kirkland, Seidr Magic, 2024, pgs 164-166

I just find it fascinating that you don't have to be wholly yourself in order to become whole. A lot of people who go through trauma find that they can't return to who they were before they encountered the things that changed them. And you can take pieces of other people and try and fit them inside of you - learning new ways to cope and grow even after you're changed.

[heilir-aesir-heilar-asynjur]

Article about Seidr with a list of further readings at the end!