#spaecraft

[euphoricnaturals]

Busy Lughnasadh season. How head everyone been spending their season? #lughnasadh #seasonoflughnasadh #pnwwitches #pnwstrega #pnwdruid #spaecraft #witchyway #witchesgarden #wiccansofinstagram #witcheywoman #witchyman #healingspell #heathens #candlemagic #oldreligion #altar https://www.instagram.com/p/BnPIcvHA9Z0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=7o2q1nej42g8

[valkyrjura]

Oskmeyjar: Wish Maidens

Oskmeyjar: The Wish Maidens

"But Brynhild asked the helm | it said,

A wish-maid bright | he said she should be;

For a nobler maid | would never be born

On earth, he said, | if death should spare her- Oddrúnargrátr

Oskmeyjar "wish maidens" are minor spirits/beings within Norse tradition. As they were also titled Swan Maidens, Svanmeyja, because of cloaks they wore, alftarham, which were adorned with swan feathers. The cloaks similar to that of the Valkryjur, Valkyries, clothed themselves with. In respect to their relations to the Valkyrjur, there is much speculation if Oskmeyjar were Valkyries or vice versa. Originally they had thought to have been separate entities- however over time they have unified as one ethereal being. Folklore analyst, D. L. Ashliman, gives a definitive thought as to why this has become so: the reconstruction of the Heathen age and the alteration of the Valkyries from being "corpse goddesses" to weavers of victory. This due to various sagas depicting Valkyries being vulnerable without the influences of their cloaks- as well as their similarities of being prophetesses, maidens to Odin in Valhalla (Nafnaþulur, Skáldskaparmál) and often being encountered by/or having human relations.

As the role of a Swan Maiden, these feminine spirits would be able to travel by land, air or sea. Giving them the capabilities to shapeshift from youthful woman to a winged or swan form. Their cloaks giving them such abilities to either fly or swim. It is mentioned in certain sagas from Scandinavia that humans would often hunt or capture these maidens; stripping them of their cloaks and relentlessly begging them for [wishes] -marriage, protection, or to speak of prophecies. It is known that the swan was popularly associated with the concept of augury. For instance, the phrase, es scwant mir, it swans me, was a meaning allocated to the telling of omens.

Oskmeyjar had very close relationships to Odin. One of Odins alternative names was Oski loosely "wish fulfiller". Taking on the roles as Wish Maidens and of Odin, and as individuals, he would assign the maidens in aiding the slain once they reached Valhalla. Taking the duties of recounting their lives on earth, comforting them, and the granting of 'wishes'. These wishes ambiguous- though similarly thought to be related to sibyl work. However, the maidens often went against Odins wishes- the individual form. Taking flight to the realm of humans in relations to carrying out their own duties and the fates of mankind. The most notable account of this being from Völundarkviða, The Lay of Volund. This piece describes three Swan Maidens bathing by a lake and encountering Volund along his brothers.

There are clearly overlapping attributes to each the Valkyries and Wish/Swan Maidens. Along with perhaps other wight, disir, and likewise female entities within the Norse tradition(s). Equally, the sagas and Eddas themselves highlight these similarities and differences. It might be safe to say that the gnosis of these spirits is to largely be determined by practitioners and lore. Nonetheless it has always been my understanding that these maidens were very much different beings.

Sources/ Further Readings:

The Poetic Edda trans. by Carolyne Larrington

Prose Edda: Tales from Norse Mythology by Snorri Sturluson

Goddess of the North by Lynda C. Welch

http://www.vikinganswerlady.com

http://www.uppsalaonline.com

[euphoricnaturals]

May the Blessing of your Ancestors be strong and full of wisdom this night! #samhain #samhainblessings #witchessociety #witchythings #paganlife #witchlife #druidry #pagansofinstagram #wiccansofinstagram #spaecraft #harvestfestival #sabbat #samhainsabbat #sorciere #slavick #sistersofthemoon #malewitch #brothersofthemoon #hoodoowitch #portals #rimwalker #greenwitch #halloween #homesteadcoven #rosethornmanor https://www.instagram.com/p/BpnxiJ8nFvq/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=17goi93gtzw52

[euphoricnaturals]

Hermit-spiritual achievement, awareness and growth through the path of self-discovery. Big change is on its way and we must now set aside to listen to the guidance and discern which helping tools or opportunities are on the horizon. Quite apropos for this time of year! #euphoricnaturals #euphoriccauldron #spaecraft #paganprietess #pagansofinstagram #witchesofinstagram #wiccansofinstagram #tarotlovers #witchinghour #druid #hedgewitch #traditionalwitch #tarotdivination #tarotlovers #divination #cartomancy #cardoftheday #spiritualjourney #wrach #vedma #raganu #norn #heks #bruxaria #hoodoo #voodoo #conjure #oldways #enchanted #mystic https://www.instagram.com/p/BodTIQwHVuG/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1xwxzbmv8vzgd

[northern-seidmadr]

Tempting to put together something about seidr and spaecraft that is entirely without appropriation of shamanistic practices and stereotypes. It’s not only racist but it’s ahistorical and inaccurate.

But tbh it sounds like so much work that it’s scary. Although I think ... :-| Okay Freya, I hear you. *starts lining up resources* Good thing I got those book credits... heh.

[northern-seidmadr]

Closely akin in function to the womanly word völva, but not used as loosely, is the manly word thule (Old Norse þulr). The word comes from the same root as þula, ‘to speak’; it also appears as the Anglo-Saxon þyle, a title used for Unferth in Beowulf and glossed as ‘orator, jester’. Unferth appears as Hrothgar’s champion, though he battles with words instead of weapons; he is clearly a highly valued member of the court, for he has a place beside the king even though he killed his own brother. The word was current as a religious title for human speakers in Old Norse, as shown by the famous Snöldelev stone which honours ‘Gunvald, son of Roald, thule on the Sal-howes’ (Moltke, Runes and their Origins, pp. 165-166). The word þulr is also used for the etin Vafþrúðnir, who tells Óðinn of the end of the worlds (Vafþrúðnismál 9); the dwarf Reginn, foster-father of Sigurðr Völsung (Fáfnismál 34), and Óðinn himself, who goes by the name of Fimbul-Þulr (the Great Thul)

Kveldúlfr Gundarsson Source

[northern-seidmadr]

Spae-craft, Methods and Practice

The practice of spae-craft varied in the old days. Sometimes it seemed to call for special trance-techniques, as in the case of Þórgeirr the Lawspeaker who went ‘under the cloak’ for two days before deeming Iceland’s religious future (and made the decision which preserved the religious lore of the North until it could be written down; had christianity been enforced in Iceland rather than accepted quietly, we would almost certainly have lost all the tales and elder lays of our god/esses). Other times, as in Þiðranda þáttr ok Þórhalls (Flateyjarbók I, pp. 418-21), where the words hyggja (to intuit) and bjoða (to bode) are used by Þórhallr spámaðr to describe his premonition, spae-craft seems to have been a matter of psychic sensing with no special effort made. The matter was clearly a question of both personal character and the situation at hand: Þórgeirr had a specific problem which he needed to resolve, whereas Þórhallr sensed the doom hanging over the upcoming Winternights festivities. Both types of spae-craft are highly useful. One can grow in the latter by careful attention to fore-bodings—by considering one’s feelings, especially before large happenings and holy feasts, and writing them down, then waiting to see what comes of them. Close attention paid to personal feelings and outside omens, and their following consequences, at the three greatest feasts of the year (Yule, Ostara, and Winternights) and those on which divination is traditionally done in the North (Waluburg’s Night and Midsummer)—can also help one recognise and develop one’s own spae-craft, if one has the root talent.

Source

[northern-seidmadr]

The word völva itself comes from a root meaning ‘magical staff’; the same root appears, for instance, in the name (or title) of the second century Semnonian seeress Waluburg (Simek, Dictionary of Northern Mythology, pp. 370-71). As Eiríks saga shows us, the staff does indeed appear to have been characteristic of the völva even towards the end of the Heathen period. Völva is a looser word than spákona or seiðkona, being used indiscriminately for both: in practice, it appears to indicate a professional seeress or female magician, who may be a seiðkona, a spákona, or even a practitioner of galdr-magic (we may also compare the valkyrja-name Göndull and corresponding Óðinsheiti Göndlir, both meaning ‘wand-bearer’).

Kveldúlfr Gundarsson Source