Norse Goddess Magic (18 page)

Trance

I see a quiet young woman in her twenties with honey-blond or
light-brown hair and gray eyes. Her hair is very frizzy, curling in small
ringlets around her face like a halo. She has long braids, or one long braid,
which she twists meditatively and chews or sniffs on the ends. She is clad in
light, austere clothes made of thin material—lightness of both color and
texture.

I see her sitting in Frigg's garden, dressed as an English
countrywoman of the seventeenth or eighteenth century, wearing a broad-brimmed
straw hat tied with a wide ribbon. She is painting in watercolor. She offers me
a small snack, some sort of nut sweetmeat, feeding it to me with her fingers.
She has a lovely, low voice and is very intimate and informal without being
sloppy or vulgar. “It's fun to be out doing things, to just relax and take your
time, to learn to do something very well and share it with others,” she tells
me.

Snotra is spunky, with more humor than one might at first
suspect—very quiet but with a sort of impish, all-knowing smile. She cannot be
induced to lose her temper under any circumstances. Much given to daydreaming,
she knows more than she tells. She often assists people and other gods with
various projects and likes to be an advisor or helper. I often see her in the
company of other goddesses in Frigg's court. Such a solemn, quiet little
thing—but with that undertone of wry, dry, deadpan humor. She sits on a high
stool, staring dreamily into space, her hand holding a quill poised over
a long sheet of fine vellum on a desk, sniffing the ends of her hair.

That last image of Snotra with a quill is obviously an
anachronism, no doubt influenced by my own involvement with writing, research,
and other similar pursuits. Nonmagical writing and reading did not become common
in the Norse countries until the medieval era. However, if we consider Snotra to
be expert at every kind of study appropriate to a well-born woman, it is easy to
see how literary accomplishments would be added to practical skills as the
education of both men and women was broadened. After reading and writing became
more common, at least among the upper classes, a goddess like Snotra might
gradually come to also represent the guardian of scholars poring over
curly-edged manuscripts.

In our own world, this nontraditional aspect of Snotra's skill has even
greater importance. The truth must be faced—these are no longer preliterary
Viking times. The world we know today depends a great deal on the written word.
Therefore, in modern times Snotra can be assumed to have expanded her interests
to include reading, writing, and other scholarly pursuits, as well as all the
new skills required by our growing technology. However, Snotra's real forte
remains street smarts and common sense. It is important to be able to function
in the modern world and to take advantage of what technology and science have to
offer, but it is also vital for us to take care of ourselves on a very basic
level, to grow and make our own food and drink, to create things with our own
hands, to be able to survive on a backpacking trip and to care for our own
children. And, of course, the ability to know our limit, hold our tongue, and
keep our temper are timeless. In short, Snotra governs the ethical qualities and
personality traits that promote productivity and cooperation among people. She
empowers them to be able to take care of themselves and teaches the kind of
practical wisdom and understanding that allow people to survive and succeed in
the mundane world.

Ritual

A ritual to Snotra, then, could be performed for virtue in
general—for evenness of temper, moderation of lifestyle, wisdom of action,
diligence to duty—or for aid and inspiration, motivation, and stamina in any
kind of study, from baking to biophysics. Snotra might also be called on to
promote manners and appropriate behavior for any occasion, especially if you
have reason to believe people are likely to get too rowdy or start bickering
with each other.

The altar cloth or candles could be of light colors of gray, blue, dull gold,
beige, or off-white—probably any muted, tasteful shade. Symbolic pieces could
include emblems of the traditional housewifely skills, such as the distaff or
needle; traditional objects representing scholarly pursuits, such as the quill
or brush; or symbols of your own particular studies or enterprises—a pocket
calculator, a spreadsheet, a thesaurus, batiking equipment, or whatever. Another
nice touch might be finished examples of any kinds of crafts or skills you
practice or of your work—successful term papers, debugged computer programs,
perfect pastries, triumphantly symmetrical pottery, and the like. These emblems
of past success are not only links between you and the goddess who admires such
work but also function as proof to yourself that you have indeed been successful
in past endeavors and thus can expect to be so in future ones.

Other aspects of the ritual might include a pledge to modify your behavior in
some positive way designed to be pleasing to Snotra. For example, you could
decide to keep your room neat, to refrain from getting drunk, or to avoid losing
your temper and starting fights for a week or so. All these actions serve as a
sacrifice pleasing to a goddess like Snotra and work as a link to her, putting
you on the same wavelength, so to speak, so that you will be that much more
receptive to her energies.

Call to Snotra

Hail Snotra—worthy woman!
Wise one, clever one,
Daughter of the freeholder—

Gentle, prudent maiden,
Skillful woman of sense,
Calm, judicious counselor,
    a joy and comfort to the wise!

You who fare to the feast, cleanly clad,
    there to eat and drink the ale wisely with friends;
You who speak little and listen much,
    and quarrel never with drunkards or fools.
You who fare to
the Thing and offer counsel,
    weighing words, each against the other;
You who shape the peace and pledge the fee,
    and hold holy the peace-stead.

Hardy helper,     quiet counselor,
Goddess of the needle and the quill,
    of the workers and the craft-wise,
    of scholars and students all—
the painstaking, fine-wrought arts you love.

Grant us your calm and craft,
    your diligence and drive,
    your skill and silence,
    your well-deserved peace.

Snotra—Worthy One—Hail!

14

Lofn

The Champion

Lore

Lofn (ON Lofn, “comforter, mild one”) appears in Snorri's list
(Gylfaginning, ch. 35) as the eighth Aesir goddess and as yet another messenger
and attendant of Frigg. Her name is associated with the ON verb
lofa
(“to
praise”; “to allow, permit”). Her major function is to remove obstacles from the
paths of lovers and to win permission from Odin and Frigg for people to marry,
both women and men, even if the marriage has been forbidden. According to
Snorri, such permission was called “leave,” after the goddess. Lofn's name was
also used to denote love and anything that is beloved.

Besides this slender evidence, nothing more is told of Lofn; there are no
stories of her among the Norse myths. Again we see a goddess closely associated
with Frigg, in this case partaking of her functions as a goddess of marriage. In
early Norse society and later in medieval Europe, most marriages were contracted
by agreement between the families of the individuals involved, and love had to
come later, if at all. This was a typical practice among farming communities,
where the family formed an economic as well as a social unit. Marriage was
chiefly a financial and political transaction, and the main goals were the
continuation of the family line and the provision of future economic security
for both partners and any children they might have. Marriage was used to unite
powerful families, quell feuds, and increase the wealth and holdings of a
kinship group.

Thus the main considerations in the choice of a mate were rank, wealth, and
family affiliations. The past deeds and ancestors of the families involved were
particularly critical because not only did marriage affect a family's
socioeconomic status, it also formed a spiritual link to the luck and honor of
the two clans, which affected everyone in both kinship groups. Still, the
consent of each of the prospective spouses was considered necessary to complete
the bargain, and few cases in which the relatives coerced a marriage against the
inclination of one or both parties turned out well in the end.

The sealing of a marriage bargain involved a complicated and extensive
exchange of gifts between the couple and their families. The bride brought a
dowry consisting of a substantial sum—this represented her share of the family
inheritance—as well as the bed, linens, furniture, dishes, and other household
goods. Although her husband and his family had the use of this gift throughout
the marriage, it was the woman's property and reverted to her possession in case
of divorce or her husband's death.
¹
The husband, in turn, made a
hefty monetary gift to the bride's family to compensate them for the loss of a
valuable member. The man made a further substantial gift to his wife the morning
after their wedding night, designed to ensure her economic future.

A couple's ability to acquire all the wealth necessary for a respectable
wedding proved that they were capable of supporting themselves and a family.
However, the giving of gifts reflected more than a financial exchange; it also
had the spiritual effect of linking the energies of the two parties together in
a holy bond. Accepting the marriage gifts promoted close spiritual ties and
enhanced the status and reputation of the parties concerned.

A woman hungered for love in her marriage, and she knew that only a man of
worthy deeds and honor could win her respect. Thus maidens, as well as their
kinfolk, judged their prospective suitors by their wealth, their honor, and
their fame rather than valuing good looks or flashy clothes.
²
A man
was equally concerned with the honor and family heritage of his prospective wife
because, as the mother of his descendants, her ørlög and soul would become part
of his entire family line for generations to come. The woman was the bearer of
spiritual power, of the ancestral soul, from one generation to another, and
hence the husband and his family were equally concerned with a potential mate's
courage, strength, wisdom, wealth, and ancestral line.

Overcoming Obstacles to True Love

So Heathen marriage was founded on love after all, but that love
did not manifest itself until after the final gifts had been duly exchanged.
However, once the gifts were given, love could not fail to grow. The modern idea
of the romantic hero or heroine pining away for unrequited love would not have
seemed romantic to Heathen Germanics but rather would have been regarded as a
sign of mental imbalance. Because of this, it is hard to imagine how the
situation of star-crossed lovers in need of Lofn's aid could arise. However,
human nature being what it is, love often defied both economics and custom, as a
number of sagas and verses testify.

Many types of obstacles might arise to thwart a couple's wishes. Problems in
obtaining wealth enough to ensure a proper and desirable wedding might affect
either member of the pair. The family of one person might not be considered to
have enough rank or fame to suit the other family, or there might be a skeleton
in someone's closet, projecting its ill luck throughout the family line and
warning off suitors. A feud or a murder involving members of either family would
make an alliance seem impossible. Even a random incident, like a storm at sea or
a sudden journey, might intervene to frustrate a romance. With so many potential
obstacles beyond a person's control and with so much at stake, it makes sense
that there would be a deity to intercede in such situations.

The first step in many Germanic marriages was taken by the couple themselves,
who undoubtedly began dropping hints to their families regarding who they might
wish to wed. The young man often would send an aunt or another female relative
to visit his intended's family to find out if she was free to be betrothed and
to feel out how they might regard him as a son-in-law. In almost every society
where choice of a mate rests with parties other than the lovers themselves, the
figure of the clever matchmaker appears in stories and folklore. The more
restrictive a society is toward its young people, the more cunning and ruthless
this figure becomes.

Almost all of Greek and Roman comedy, and later Commedia dell'arte, centers
around the adventures of young lovers who thwart their fathers, usually with the
aid of devious servants or concubines. This comic theme is continued in
Shakespeare's England, Molière's France, and even crops up now and then today.
This rebellion of youth against age and authority must have been a common one to
have been so widely represented in drama through the ages. Another common aspect
of these stories is an almost universal sympathy for the lovers and ridicule and
contempt for the old people. Despite the standards of society, people seem to
instinctively recognize the folly and error of age in trying to meddle in young
love. It is almost like the archetypal battle of youth and age, summer and
winter, that surfaces so often in old rituals.

In this light, Lofn appears both as a conventional goddess concerned with
marriage and love and as a firebrand revolutionary, bucking authority and the
rules of society to promote the aims of individualism and freedom.
Interestingly, she is said to win permission from both Frigg and Odin for her
lovers. It is unusual to see Odin in the position of matchmaker. His connection
with Lofn could be due to the fact that, as the leader of the gods, he
represents the ruling powers and therefore would have to be consulted before
overruling their authority. He might be included because he is Frigg's husband
and together they represent the happily married couple that the besieged lovers
hope to become. On the other hand, as a god of deceit and cunning, an unraveler
of knots and a breaker of boundaries, his presence might indicate the rebellious
and individualistic nature of Lofn's work.

Trance

I see a woman sitting by an indoor pool in Frigg's hall. She
stirs the water with a stick, moodily; her face seems to shift and change from
moment to moment. As she looks into the pool, she sees events happening in the
world of humans, and what she sees upsets her.

A mistress of craft and cunning, Lofn does not hesitate to
resort to sneakiness and trickery to help the lovers she chooses to protect, for
she knows they work under a disadvantage and must use all means in their power
to triumph. She is an expert at disguise and intrigue. She is young, in her
early twenties, with a pale face and wide-set blue eyes. Her hair is dark red,
or auburn, hanging about her, luxurious and straight. Of medium height and
build, she is stronger than she looks. She wears a dark cloak and a light gown
and carries a concealed dagger.

Lofn smiles when she sees me; her face becomes very
animated as we talk. “It's so rare and wonderful to find someone you can truly
love that one must fight with all one's might to keep that love.” She is
passionate—a champion of the individual against authority, youth against age—and
empathetic to the sorrow of others. Her emotions are strong and sudden—she is
quick to decide and quick to act. I see Snotra following behind her with a small
smile, as Lofn, now clad in brown breeches and tunic, strides purposefully off
on another mission, eyes blazing and the wheels of her mind clacking away on
another scheme.

Note how Lofn's use of the pool to view events happening in
Midgard is similar to Hlidskjalf, the high seat from which Odin and Frigg can
see all that goes on in the Nine Worlds. Notice also the reappearance of Snotra,
acting in her preferred role as helper and perhaps exercising the skills in
matchmaking that an accomplished woman should possess. Lofn appears as
archetypal youth—rebellious, passionate, idealistic, rash, moody, strong, and
noble. She seems like a mix of girl and warrior, of lovestruck maiden and
Machiavellian plotter.

Interestingly, another woman with whom I had shared my ideas concerning using
tranceworking to flesh out the stories of the Norse goddesses experimented with
Lofn before I worked on her. Whether this woman's results influenced mine or
whether we were both tapping in to the same source is hard to say, but we both
recorded similar motifs relating to Lofn, notably the dagger, the red hair, the
clothing, the youth, and the fearlessness of the goddess.
³
This is an
example of how recurring images tend to surface in the workings of different
individuals, and these overlapping symbols are especially potent to use in
invocation. Their recurrence is suggestive that they are collective images and
not merely individual whims.

Easing the Way, Even Today

One might perhaps think that today, with sexual freedom and a
fair amount of autonomy for adults, we don't have much need for a Lofn. However,
the course of true love is still often rocky. Parents no longer have life and
death power over their grown children, but anyone who has brought home a
potential mate for family inspection knows that it's much easier to say you
don't care what your parents think than to actually endure their objections.
There are also all kinds of potential issues affecting any love
relationship—problems of money, distance, time, social mores, and even legal
difficulties—all of which can hinder a pair of lovers. Lofn seems particularly
effective when invoked by people who truly desire to be together in peace; I
know a number of couples who have asked her for help and gotten remarkably
prompt and efficient results.

Although she is very much a goddess of youth, Lofn can be invoked by lovers
of any age and sex. She would be called on specifically to remove obstacles of
any kind preventing people who are already interested in each other from being
together; she is not the one to ask for help in attracting lovers or inspiring
passions. These obstacles can include objections from parents and other family
members, legal difficulties stemming from previous marriages or problems with
obtaining a marriage license, troubles concerning the marriage ceremony itself
and any accompanying celebrations, issues involving money or travel, and
societal objections to the relationship. Snorri's description of Lofn's ability
to get leave for both men and women to marry is plural in the original and could
therefore be interpreted as including same-sex unions, so Lofn might be called
on by gay or lesbian couples for special assistance.