The Saga of Eirík the Red describes the visit of a seeress to a Greenland farm, one thousand years ago. Her clothing and shoes, her staff and cloak, are detailed. She wears a blue-black cloak, shoes of calf-skin, a hood of black lambskin lined with white cat-skin, and her gloves are also cat-skin, and shaggy inside. Her staff is topped with a knob, and ornamented with metal and stones. At her waist is a pouch that contains her magical or sacred items. She is asked to predict the progress of the community; which has fallen on hard times. She eats a meal of the hearts of the farm animals, and the next day a 'high seat' or platform is made ready for her, where she will sit to do seidr, communicate with the spirits in trance. The women circle around her, and one sings a special song to call the spirits. The seeress, Thorbjörg the little-völva, then speaks from the high seat, giving a good future for the farm, for individual people, and especially for the woman who sang her song.
Such seeresses and seers, and others who are 'much-knowing', are common in the sagas. Some use seidr to call to the spirits to aid in their seeking. Some predict, some protect, some work for the community to bring it into balance, some work for the downfall of their enemies. Today's seid-folk work with the shamanistic cosmology of the north, journeying on the World Tree Yggdrasill to gain knowledge of the Nine Worlds, using chant, drumming, or entheogens to achieve altered states of consciousness, speaking frorm the High Seat in group rituals of Oracular Seidr, drawing on the energies of spirits of the land, and ancestors, to protect and heal, to bring communities of people, ancestors and spirits into balance. Seid-folk attempt to look along the strands of Wyrd, and sometimes to adjust these, with the help of the spirits, when required to do so.
Some journey or 'fare forth' in altered shape: this is hamfara. The way Heathens think of a 'person' is not a simple distinction of body and soul, or even body, mind and spirit: rather a 'person' has many dimensions to their spirit or soul and to the ways these link with their body. Each person has a fylgja or follower, usually seen in animal form, which is both part of the person and also acts as an animal ally during seidr. Your fylgja is with you from birth. Other spirits may also attach themselves to you: your kinfylgja or family spirit guardian, Dísir or ancestral women, spirits or other helpers who may take animal or plant forms. With the help of her or his allies, the seidworker negotiates between communities of human-people and spirit-people, especially ancestors (spiritual, cultural or physical) or people who have lived before in the place where you are.
The cosmology of the Nine Worlds is complex, and there are many beings who may become your allies - remember that they have their own Wyrd and that the help they give has to be negotiated. The great poem Hávamál says that 'a gift looks always to a gift'. They will expect something in return.
The Eddas - the literature of the North - describe some of those who do seidr, among the deities. Freyja first brought seid-magic to the Aesir, and taught it to those who would learn. As Heidr, the Bright One, she goes to houses to bring help. Ódhinn learned seidr, and travels through the nine worlds, often in altered shape, in search of knowledge. Loki too flies as a falcon (borrowing Freyja's cloak) to seek what is needed. All bring change to what they touch: ecstasy, inspiration, poetry, and - often - disruption.
Seidr is not necessarily 'shamanism'. In the past, seidr was shamanistic practice that was specific to time and place, things people did within the community and sometimes outside it. Similarly today: it is being rediscovered by today's people, for today's society. It's important to note that 'traditional shamanism' varies very greatly from one culture to another. Seidr in the past may have had a lot in common with Saami shamanism. However, not everybody in Heathen Norse or Anglo-Saxon society liked the idea of seidr, and by the time described in the sagas, seidworkers were distrusted, especially men who did seidr - and the gods who did seidr were also distrusted and often feared. For good reason: wisdom comes from the ancestors, and those who communicate with them, who go between the worlds of living and dead, are not always loved. Ódhinn is a death-god.
Today's seidworkers learn from their spirits, from the descriptions in the lore, and from Ódhinn and Freyja. The path of the seidworker is not easy. Seidr is a process of change - and not only change for others or healing for the community. It may change you, disrupt your life in ways that you will not foresee. In transformation lies beauty, ecstasy and discovery, but the process will not be easy.
Further reading:
The Poetic Edda, translated by Carolynne Larrington. World’s Classics, Oxford University Press, 1996.
The Edda of Snorri Sturluson, translated by Anthony Faulkes, Everyman, London, 1995.
The Icelandic Sagas, in any translation, especially the Saga of Eirik the Red, Laxdaela Saga, Eyrbyggja Saga, and Egils Saga.
Nine Worlds of Seid-Magic: Neo-shamanism and Ecstasy in North European Paganism. Jenny Blain. Routledge (forthcoming, Autumn 2001).
The Way of Wyrd by Brian Bates, 1983. London: Century.
The Wisdom of the Wyrd by Brian Bates, 1996. London: Rider.
Seidways, by Jan Fries, 1996. Mandrake of Oxford.
The website of seidman Bil Linzie, The Seidman Rants, at http://www.angelfire.com/nm/seidhman/index.html
'The Return of the Volva', by Diana Paxson, in Mountain Thunder, article available on the internet at http://www.vinland.org/heathen/hrafnar/seidh.html.
Spaecraft, Seidr and Shamanism, by Kveldúlfr Gundarsson, in Idunna, article available on the internet at http://thetroth.org/kveld/Spaekrft.htm.
Spirit Talk, issue 9 (special issue on Seidr from both Heathen and Core Shamanism perspectives) also available on the web at http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~snail/ST/Spirit_Talk.htm
Idunna, issue 37, on Seidhr, available from The Troth, Box 472, Berkeley, CA, 94701, USA, or order via webpage at http://thetroth.org.
Articles in academic journals:
Seidhr and Seidhrworkers: Recovering shamanic practice in contemporary heathenism. Jenny Blain. The Pomegranate, 1998, 6: 6-19.
'Seidhr as Shamanistic Practice: Reconstituting a Tradition of Ambiguity'. Jenny Blain. Shaman 7 (2,): 99-121, 1999.
'The 'ergi' seidman: Contestations of gender, shamanism and sexuality in northern religion past and present.' Jenny Blain and Robert J. Wallis. Journal of Contemporary Religion, 15(3), available October 2000.
To contact the author for further information on seidr go to http://home.freeuk.net/jenny.blain. My booklets about cosmology and Wyrd (the background to seidr), Understanding Wyrd: the Norns and the Tree, and Wights and Ancestors: Heathenism in a Living Landscape, are available from this website also. Email jenny.blain@freeuk.com.