This particular topic has many different branches. One of the things that pagans encounter when they either have questions or need guidance is to be told that they should do a journey to talk with their deity/ancestor/spirit guide. It is good, well-meaning advice but not overly helpful. When we first enter this path we do not often know how to do these things. Early on in our reconstructed neo-paganism there was very little written down to help the new seeker and we floundered through various traditions trying to find something that would fit into our modern mindsets. Today we have all sorts of blogs, groups, pdf booklets, and YouTube videos to show us “how-to.”

I will say here that the plethora of material available to the modern seeker is both a blessing and a curse. With the open access that is allowed on the internet you have to really do your research to determine who is genuine and who is full of shite. Sometimes it is a very fine line and the newer people will not have the same bull-pucky detectors that those of us who have been around the bend a few times possess. I am not an expert in this area, though I have performed many journeys (both guided and solitary) for people. My post here is not about declaring that my way is the right way but instead to help you know what type of journey experience you are looking for and then sending you out to find what works for you.

So, what is a “journey”? Allow me to be really vague and say that it depends on the person inquiring. There are meditations, journeys, and trances to note a few of the main terms that may come across your search feed. Let’s start with some basic definitions of these three terms:

• Meditations – to spend time in quiet thought for religious purposes or relaxation (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
  • To put in basic pagan terminology this would be your quiet prayer times.
  • Sometimes these can go “deeper” and be both guided or unguided.
    • There is not always a visual place or cue.
  • There is generally not a goal to “go somewhere” but rather allow yourself to just relax and be where you are needed.
    • Sometimes the meditator will “hear” someone talking to them, other times not. It isn’t a requirement either way.
  • This is your basic connection to the cosmos as a whole.

• Journey – an act of traveling from one place to another (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
  • This is a more focused form of meditation. For our purposes in paganism this would be a mental journey rather than a physical one.
  • Most journeys include the idea of “going somewhere.” You may seek to go to Asgard, Helheim, Delphi, or Hadrian’s wall.
    • Basically you have a destination that you are actively seeking.
  • Journeys can be guided or not. If you have not experienced a full journey before I do not recommend doing this alone the first time.
  • While on a journey the person can experience this altered perception of where they are and still know what is going on around them in the mundane world.
    • This is an important point! If you become so immersed in the journey location that you cannot sense where your body is or connect to the mundane world on your own you are no longer journeying, but trancing, and hopefully you have a spotter waiting for you to help.
  • Journeys have a definitive start and stop point.
    • The best way to work through a journey experience is to have some sort of background noise. This can be chanting, drumming, the burning of incense, nature sounds, or even an egg timer. (yep, modern day paganism to the rescue!) These are your cues to start or stop the journey. They give you something to actively maintain a connection to while traveling. Through practice you can train your brain, and spirit, to recognize when these things “run out” and be able to set yourself back within the mundane world. This is an act of mental discipline that EVERYONE has to learn.
  • Journeys can be light or deep depending on the purpose behind them.
  • You don’t always meet who you expect on a journey.
    • Sometimes you are meant to meet someone else rather than the one you are seeking. This is okay. Don’t be disappointed if you are trying to seek out Odin but meet up with Thor instead. There is probably a reason for that and you will discover it another time. Experience the journey for what it is and learn what is needed.
  • You don’t always reach your intended destination on a journey.
    • Just because you are trying to reach Alfheim doesn’t mean you will get there. You may find yourself in Jotunheim instead. There is generally a reason for this (up to and including not taking the left at Albuquerque).
    • Having a destination is great. Actually getting there is a different ballgame.
      • We all want to have that transcendental moment where we stand at the doors of Valhalla and meet the Einherjar and Valkyries. Most likely you will be lucky to meet a dwarf in an open field. Do not expect to immediately go wherever you want. There will be a huge learning curve and most likely waystations along the path to ensure you will be at your best when it IS time to go hang out where the cool kids are. Also, you may not be welcome in all of those places. Walking this path means you earn your place. Even when it comes to the other realms.

• Trance – a sleeplike state (as of deep hypnosis) usually characterized by partly suspended animation with diminished or absent sensory and motor activity (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
  • This is a much deeper journey. ALWAYS HAVE A SPOTTER!
    • Seriously, don’t do this by yourself.
  • Trancework can be deeply rewarding and personal. It can also be scary as shit, especially if you are not fully prepared. I do not advise performing heavy tranceworkings without someone near that can help you get back if needed.
  • Trancework is much like journeywork except that you do not often have the connection to something in the mundane world that will anchor you.
    • You are often “gone” and cannot interact with those left behind.
    • All of the points within the definition of Journey can be applied to trancework with the addition of the intensity of the experience.
  • This type of work is VERY draining. It is not to be taken on by the faint of heart nor by the undisciplined.
    • NEVER drink alcohol prior to or for at least 6-8 hours after intense trancework.
  • When you are on the other side of the “veil” that world is as real as this one is and you experience it just as intimately.
  • Trancework is often the route taken by those performing Seiðr, Spæ, and general oracle work.
    • The practitioner will often let go of their hold in this world counting on a spotter to be able to bring them back.
      • You can lose moments or even hours in this state in the blink of an eye.
    • Some people lump astral projection into this category.

As you can see these definitions have a lot of blurred lines. They are also pretty simplistic in comparison to the full effect each of these experiences can have on the practitioner. I suppose the best piece of advice I can give you is this:  KNOW YOUR LIMITS! Don’t try to take on an intense trance if you have trouble meditating. The average person has no clue how attempting these are going to affect them personally. Start small and be smart. Do your best to read up on techniques and have someone willing to be there with you just in case. Adding these to your practices can help you build a much stronger base for your beliefs. It won’t happen overnight so stick with it and accept the failures as just another step towards success.

BTW, it was well over a year after I first started trying to meditate before I had a full-on experience so don’t worry that you are doing it wrong if it takes a while. 😉

Hello, newbie Heathens!

Allow me to welcome you to one of the most interesting yet complex practices in modern paganism today. The main topic of discussion in this post is going to be one of the areas of complexity you will not be able to avoid in this path…

Reading the Eddas

(cue ominous music here)

I am sure that as you were drawn to this particular hearth culture you have already been told to read your lore, probably more than once. This is extremely unhelpful to those that are passionate about their calling and want to jump right in. Unfortunately, jumping right in is not always best.  In the past 25 years or so there has been an increase in resources that will help those wishing to embrace this path. Not all of those resources are good ones but they do tend to stress reading the mythology. I am not here to tell you to do something different, but rather how to navigate through it. Reading and understanding the lore are two very different things, especially with the Eddas. You will run into people along this path who will not even discuss things with you if it becomes clear that you do not know the stories of the past. You will also run into people that will not bother with you if your focus is solely on those stories. Those people usually base their entire practice on fabricated UPG (unverified personal gnosis). I will discuss this later on.

You cannot possibly have a good understanding of the belief system without reading the lore in the first place. Look at it as you would building a house, without a solid foundation the structure will eventually fall down. The Lore is your foundation. Your actual practice are the walls and roof that are built upon it. This blend of scholarly material and UPG is actually the perfect way to practice modern day Heathenry. At least in my opinion.

“But the Eddas are HARD! How do people understand all those crazy looking words? It’s hard to read these lines! What do they even mean?!”

Here are the two biggest secrets to understanding the Eddas…

1.) Don’t try to pronounce the words while you are reading for the first time.

2.) Don’t try to memorize the cadence of the meter while you are reading for the first time.

Seriously, you were not born and raised in Iceland. Our educational system, here in the States, has not trained our minds to process the literary genius that is the Eddas right out of the gate. Stop trying. Working with skaldic meter is hard for Icelanders, let alone those of us without a working background. If you try and focus on meter and pronunciation of words you have only seen a few times you miss the whole point of the lore; the stories themselves. You have plenty of time to learn pronunciation. By the way, no one speaks Old Norse anymore. No one knows exactly how it is supposed to be pronounced. Icelandic is the closest living language but there are a lot of spelling and sound changes that have happened over the centuries, including words that have fallen completely out of usage, so they will be the first ones to tell you that all the “how-to” videos on the internet are just guesses. (No matter how convincing they are that their way is the right way.) Keeping this in mind removes some of the stress of “saying it right.”

Now that you know not to worry over pronouncing the various names and places you can focus on the story that is laid before you on the pages. Except! (why is there always an “except”?) You should really not start with reading the Eddas themselves.

“What? Didn’t you just tell me that I should read the lore?”

Yes, I did. However, you need to start before the Eddas. Before you pick up one of the many different translations it is far more important to understand what you are reading. I am NOT talking about the meter, no need to panic. I am talking about the history of the material. I am talking about the actual sources and the history of the culture where the stories originate.

“Oh man, a history lesson?”

Yep. A history lesson. I am not going to give you that history lesson but instead guide you to do the research yourself. This is how you learn the differences between good source materials and shoddy ones. It also helps your growth and development in a path that is so rich in material and archaeology. This how-to will help you in understanding the simplicity and the complexity that runs rampant within the Eddas. Use this checklist to start off your research:

1. What is the history of the Icelandic settlement?
   1. What was going on in other Nordic countries that impacted the settlements?
2. What is the progression of paganism into Christianity for early Iceland?
   1. What outside forces were actively influencing this?
      1. What did they have to gain?
   2. What outside forces were inactively influencing this?
   3. What inside forces were actively influencing this?
      1. What did they have to gain?
3. When did the Icelanders begin writing (as in pen and ink)?
   1. (Runic inscriptions are an entirely different topic so just focus on the written materials at first.)
   2. What did they write?
   3. What materials were in Latin versus the vernacular Old Norse/Icelandic?
4. How did the language shift between early settlement and the early 13th century? (This is what will eventually help you with pronunciation, identifying the differences in names, and even the meter.)
5. Who was Snorri Sturlusson?
   1. Why did he write down the material in the first place?
   2. Where did Snorri get the material he presents? (This answer is more than just a person’s name.)
   3. What was going on around the world at the time of Snorri’s writings? (Think political. This is important to know as it impacts the interpretations of the mythology itself.)
      1. What was going on environmentally/geologically?
         1. How did the topography of the land influence descriptions present in the lore?
   4. Why is it important to take Snorri’s writings with a grain of salt?
6. Describe the argument of the writings being historical fact versus historical fiction.
7. Who wrote the Poetic Edda?
   1. What pieces are in the manuscript versus what we see printed today?
      1. Why are the pieces in the printed version compiled together?
8. What other sources, besides the Eddas, are available to us?
   1. Who wrote them?
      1. Were they present for the events described or were they relaying them from someone else?

^^All of this sounds complex, right? It isn’t really. To use the “building a house” analogy again knowing the answers to the above fulfills the obtaining a permit, excavating, and grading of your path to make way for pouring the foundation. Don’t just wikipedia the questions, read through the sources used to make those entries and go find them yourself. Researching the material listed above will give you a huge head-start in interpreting both what is and is NOT said within the lore.

Feel free to message me with questions and I will be happy to steer you in the right direction.