First and foremost, to begin our discussion of earth spirits, accept that everything is alive - not like humans, but alive in its own way nonetheless. Therefore, a rock has an "aura" or etheric presence beyond its obvious physical properties, and a basic awareness.
These basic auras form together with other auras, of similar nature, within particular areas of local terrain. When this combination experiences a gestalt action, becoming a unified entity, and maintains cohesion, it becomes a rudimentary personality. This primary or elemental collective of basic auras, extant and functioning long before our ancestors rose up off all fours, was labeled by them after achieved self-consciousness as a "spirit."
Such a spirit usually covers a small area, and as a rule, centers the personality around one particular form present there. An example of this is the Icelandic story about the land spirit that got indignant and appeared in a dream complaining to a farmer who had moved "his home," a rock. The farmer must have moved many rocks from the land he was making fields in, but one particular one was the spirit's home, the focal point of its personality in the Midgard (the material world), and the spirit was facing dissolution without it.
The psychic appearance of these spirits can take anthropomorphic form over time. Absorbing the mechanical parts of a human soul-complex in the proximity, separated from the human body by death, probably contributes most to this. The etheric energies of human interaction also affect spirits' personalities, similar to what happens to domesticated animals. The spirits have also taken on animal forms under all of the above principles. Finally, our own impressions come to play, and this whole process gives spirits their localized folk look when we humans have the experience of "seeing" them. The Northern European heathens perceived these spirits as the traditional Teutonic elves, dwarves and so on.
Certain spirits have for years appeared to me mentally as old, dwarflike or elven, especially here in the Northwest, but I attribute that to my inheriting genetically this Teutonic way of seeing them. Other times, my mental images of spirits are decidedly like those of the Native American cultures in the area. Also, my great-grandmother was Native American, so seeing spirits in Native American form may also be an inherited ability. Not really interested in changing what was already working, in each area I've lived in or visited I've been a good Viking trader and did business the way the locals did it, as long as it was mutually profitable. Additionally, when flashing lights of different colors are seen during votive or ritual work, this suggests the spirits may be waving "hi." Personally I am content to just feel the spirits.
The Eddas, preserved heathen writings of the Northern Culture, state there were also spirits bigger than elves and dwarves, giants, which lived in the Outland - unpopulated wild areas where humans, children of the Aesir (the ruling deities) did not exert dominance over the terrain and life forms. The Indo-European creation myth preserved in the Eddas describes how the giants came to be. Self-willed higher consciousness evolved from, conquered and broke apart the "body" of the original self-conscious World Being, the brute force of Nature, the primal Etin-Giant Ymir. Some of the "escaped and surviving" children of Ymir, the reformulated pieces of this breaking up of the heretofore unopposed, dominant World Mind, are super-gestalt personalities developed from the collective gestalt of large areas, the spirit of the mountain compared to the spirits of the mountain.
These giants (and I'm only describing one kind here) ascertain humans as annoying bugs, if the humans approach them with no idea what they're doing. If you dare to approach giants, understand they will engage human interaction, but primarily any regard they have for you will be due to our spiritual progenitors. Here in the Americas, south of the Canadian border, they are hemmed in on most sides. This makes them acquiescent, but also more unpredictable if they get a chance to flex, since they are big enough to not have to be nice, even to a powerful Vitki (the Teutonic name for wizard).
Don't call upon giants without a patron deity warding, and thoroughly understand how that deity handles itself with those spirits. Personally, I advise not contacting them, unless you own a sizable acreage with, or within, a complete wild and undeveloped terrain, in which case you have to deal with them. Otherwise, you don't, so you shouldn't.
Another example of giant-human interaction comes from the Norwegian migration to Iceland: a wild land unaffected by human interaction for the most part, and therefore an etherically undomesticated clean slate full of spirits ruled by giants. The Norwegians, hoping to become Icelanders, before making settlement reverently approached the new land with patron deities warding. Soliciting the attention of the lesser wights for diplomatic purposes, they were aware it was best to keep the giants at bay. They moved their settlements if it was discovered the spirits weren't capable of integration, or when it wasn't worth the trouble to completely subdue in psychic collective battle a giant who just wanted no company.
Let's get back to the little guys.
I have personally been over the terrain of a good amount of the continental United States. This being the case, I can unequivocally say that the spirits here generally are like the Native Americans who lived in the various locales, in that many spirits in concentrated population centers have been significantly changed, and they generally are confused and damned angry about it. Some have become psychotic if they survived a destructive act of dissolution. We, as immigrants, have only been here in great numbers 500 years, and this recent arrival, in the time perception of the spirits, coincided with genocide of the only human friends they ever had. Therefore, the indigenous spirits are not inclined to immediately like us.
In my own rituals, after warding I give the friendly city-bound spirits that remain a chance to be around a nice concerned human, and after a while grant them some interaction, whether there is any energy exchange involving dispersal of intention or not. I interact in hope of freeing them from whatever in our suburban invasion has bound them by giving them a chance for decent interaction and to be themselves again.
Interaction with humans is not a common occurrence for them, and they do not react with friendliness quickly. We humans have poisoned their habitats, destroyed their homes and trampled on them in general. Come to think of it, we've done pretty much what we did to the native human inhabitants of this land. I recommend we give the spirits here in Vinland the respect our ancestors would have, and at the same time not force the issue. The spirits here already have evolved in a certain way and may be very attached to that way.
If they do like us, then it will be evident. The possibility will become reality if you respect the fact that they have an attitude from having lived, and having planned to continue to live, in the area longer than you.
The spirits really live outside. They occasionally live indoors, but only as a result of a dwelling becoming part of the terrain, so the structure becomes an odd mixture of tree and rock and metal to them. Since they really are outdoor creatures by nature, if you really want to get the true picture, meet them on their own turf and learn how to camp out. Otherwise you're dealing with a house pet, compared to dealing with a mountain lion who has some respect for you.
The glory of Nature is not a field trip. It is a tougher and higher glory than the warm fuzzies and thrills we get from reading about it or video documentaries. These spirits, who are of Nature - the Great Outdoors - only initiate those who become part of it, by being in it long enough to be taught by it directly. I achieved this when still safely within my 20s, coming out of a stint of doing hard manual labor for a living, so I was in great shape. If you wish to get on the road to this experience, build slow, aiming when you can manage it to finally sleep overnight, naked, wrapped in a blanket on the bare earth, with no shelter. If you don't wake up totally refreshed, you haven't got in tune with it all yet. Go slow, don't recklessly hurt yourself or expose yourself for mortal damage. That is bravado, which is not strength or courage, but akin to stupidity and could help you permanently meet your ancestors before the appointed time.
Spirits are connected to the elements, which are amoral and impersonal from our human view; and until they develop a relationship with you and like you it is foolhardy and irresponsible to trust them. There are many stories about wights working great favors for heroes and folk, sometimes from friendship, sometimes under duress. There are just as many stories of hassles and death. You need not fear, if you are patient and wise.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, the Great Indoors is where the majority of daily spirit contact is for us techno-village moderns, with those hopefully friendly critters that have attached themselves to our homes as an added part of the terrain.
This brings me to ritual workings involving the spirits. Our ancestors were living in a world they pretty much originally had to themselves, and after settlement counted on their High Ones and spirits they had made friends with to remain consistent, just like the ritual sites they had did. Therefore spirit interaction was generally by allegiance and locally centered. Nowadays, we do things differently. However, whenever ritual is done, you still have wights who participate in the action, for when etheric energy is going on, they are drawn like moths to the candle.
This in mind, American Teutonic revivalists from the '70s, who had experience in the Craft or ritual magick, developed a warding, a votive deific calling. Some of the Teutonic wardings available in print now stem from the old Asatru Free Assembly (AFA) rites. There also are wardings developed from the Hammer Hallowing of the Rune Gild founded by Edred Thorrson, who obviously has studied magickal systems of many kinds, as any wizened Vitki should.
Such wardings were not a ritual magick exertion of personal energy to keep a safe space, but a sign of being worthy of being protected and infused. The operator of the rite was assumed to be ethically mature, or the High Ones were being mocked. When true worship existed, Asgard (the home of the ruling deities) would smile, and the spirits interested in allegiance would gather to participate as helpful wights. The Aesir and Vanir (the two ruling deity families) were present also with the watchful eyes that drive away any unwanted wights. This was good, because as previously mentioned, some spirits are psychotic from the treatment we have given them, and any chance to hassle a human entering an etheric awareness is an opportunity to face, and torment if possible, a member of the race they have come to identify as the enemy.
The warding is a protective measure in its dealing with spirits, not an invocatory one. If you wish to invoke spirits, then you move into ritual magick. In spite of the plethora of popular literature on how to do this, I caution every reader that they'd better know what the Hel they're doing, or eventually they'll draw down the trouble of instability on their results.
The Teutonic tradition has an approach of reverent fellowship with the wights, rather than dominance. Northern Europe is where the classic dwarves, elves and whatever really live. If you would like to see classic dwarves, elves and whatever here in Vinland, get familiar and comfortable with various descriptions of them; they are described in many ways by our forefathers. Work votively at first, safely warded, and state your desires for interaction with spirits here that would like to work with you.
Again, I counsel, that if you do that, you and your associates better really be qualified, for the spirits will, I'm sure, finally manifest. If you wish to dress them classically, you'll probably be automatically successful, because they have found someone who will pay attention to them. If the spirit does not appear that way, so what? Remember it's your trip, and they don't have to like it.
So get your Viking adventure up and listen to a tale from another time and people, from the spirits here that have their own perspectives and have had them for millennia. Honor, logic and intelligence suggests you have some respect, if you want something besides a little entertainment or self-gratifying power mongering. The spirits sense our potential immortality beyond the body but are equally amazed how etherically dull and blind we are to what they see so easily. In this respect, a relationship, or way of being aware of and working with spirits, is mutually beneficial. Be impertinent and they will ignore or toy with you. Be responsible, and they will work with you as friends.
Some other cautions: They certainly have no respect for humans who have treated them as deities. They are not, and they will become insatiable when venerated this way. This has many times in history led to much chaotic or fearful blood being spilled to feed the beasts so created.
On the other hand, now that the horror movie trailer is over, let's talk possible tragedy: The spirits can even grow to be almost human, and this too can be a catastrophe, for they cannot incarnate except through possession, and then only temporarily. This can happen sexually too, the infamy of incubus and succubus. You have a responsibility to let the Way of the Universe keep its own way, and not let these spirits lose their essential qualities of being what they are; therefore you have a responsibility not to obsess too much with them, which will entrap and ultimately addict them into a perverse osmosis with the passion energy. They are amoral and like a dog that will eat till it barfs, then eat some more if it is available. Cave canem (Beware of the dog)!
Our ancestors developed a tradition from experience, not to make the crux of personal power depend entirely on any force of nature. We need to keep this in mind every time we do anything pertaining to spirits - they are an outdoor energy, not a TV, or a computer, or the latest portrayal in some fantasy novel. They do not naturally follow our sense of artificial empirical order, though they can accommodate it.
Last but not least, remember to offer gifts to those who would work with you. The old food offering tradition is a good one, plus anything else you feel might apply. They will tell you. Happy hunting.
TyrLugus's Seattle Runa Workshop meets every second Sunday of the month at 2 p.m. For further information write: Havamal Alliance, P.O. Box 1479, Maple Valley, WA 98038.
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