Freya Aswynn

Odin and the Runes

"As soon as I put my hands out to the runes, that was it:

'They're mine!'

It was like a lightning flash.

That was it - it was the path I had to go!

After that I borrowed this idea from the Craft; I made rune cakes and each night I ate one, evoked Woden and Freya, and wrote down what I got.

Then I started to do workshops on the runes ..."

"What happened with the workshops was that I got more and more information.

I now know that what I did was channelling, but I had never heard of that. I was just tripping out on the runes and Odin - I was flaming all over the place. And everybody got sick of hearing about "Odin, Odin, Odin".

Because I was driven by a Force to push that because I noticed that god was enormously frustrated when I had all this excellent stuff and nobody was interested! There was no one who was really into the runes and Odin.

So far as I was concerned, - Odin first and foremost!"

 

"I have never been able to get possessed by Odin. All I get - it is like my mind is bigger, incorporated into a greater mind and then I just get the information. I have never claimed to be able to do what other people claim they can do - basically it ends up the same as spiritualism, mediumship: a lot of ego, competition, and a lot of faking.
I'm finished with that side as well. It's not for me.
I can do Seidhr; I don't go trancey - asleep - I go hyper.

I start moving around; I've got the runes and I start giving the information - someone will ask me a question, then pick a rune, put it in my hand, and I'll start giving the information.
Most people who work with trance narrow their consciousness down; I expand it. I go hyper rather than under the radar. It's probably another form of trance, I don't know. I've never fitted in with anybody's system.

"I've never been one for big rituals and paraphernalia. I've got the bag with runes and a few cloths, and that's what I work with. I've given up dressing in the Viking period gear - I don't need it."

"But I do rune readings on the Internet now. I use Skype. But also, I take the photograph and put it on my altar and it takes about three days. I look at it and meditate and have a wee spliff and then I make a note then something else comes through - and then it builds up into a profile.
I then e-mail to them and I have not had one single complaint ever. If they do, then the money goes back. But I don't do a lot - I'm lucky to have about two a month. I make about sixty dollars a month. I've got to keep doing it - you know what they say: 'use it or lose it' - And that's true for everything."

"It's not just that that rune in that position means that. There is a signature - a ground tone, if you like - of the meaning of that rune in that space in the context of the question ... But then it turns into a stream of information, which [?] fire a lot of different associations which are no longer pertain to the literal meaning of that rune. So it opens up clairvoyant perception in that sense.

"I married Odin on November 29th 1993 ... and this does entail a life-long vow of celibacy, which I've kept.

The Norns and the Antinomian Odin

"The Norns are the ultimate power - they are the ones that write the Laws for Aesir and men. And in that respect Odin is the archetype of the antimonian, who says 'Ah well perfect'.
Thus his whole objective of submitting himself to the ordeal of the Tree and the Eye, and travelling down to the Origins.
Some people say that Odin hangs upside down on the Tree because of the Tarot Hangman. But that's a load of crap. The Tree is upside down. And he goes back to the primeval primeval origins to grasp the runes.
I am not referring to the Futhark runes; they are only the physical imprint of twenty-four cosmic streams of energy and principles of the Universe. And He uses that to postpone Ragnarok. And in this He is obviously the Antinomian - he is looking for immortality. Submitting to the decree of the Norns? : Odin and the Norns are not always on the best of terms, I presume.

Power and Service

"Edred's Thorsson's path was about power, mine was about service - we complemented each other in that regard. We crossed swords a couple of times."

"Magic works on the level of personal power because all kinds of magic goes against the grain. It is antinomian by its very nature. You can't use magic to change society because you're dealing with 'group mind'. A group mind of seven or eight magicians working together can never combat the group mind of - shall we say - the Catholic Church, or the Government. On the mind level it's a numbers game; there are more of them than there are of us.

I have no desire to change society's social structure.

Why should I: what have they done for me?

I work for myself and those people I care about.

Yes, society is all degenerate, but so what? I just keep myself outside of that strata. Once you start working magic for social or political ends, it becomes a materialistic pursuit."

 [from Freya's Lecture at Treadwell's Bookshop in September 2009]