The Idises and Alfs are the ghosts of the forebears, who still ward and help the living. Strictly speaking, they are not really part of your own soul, at least not in the same way as the fetch and spae-wight are. However, knowing them is very important in Northern magic.
The idises, or dìsir, are the ghosts of your female forebears who still stand about you, warding and guiding; the alfs are the ghosts of your male forebears. The terms, as usual, are not as clear as we would like to have them: wights of both sexes are usually described as elves in folklore, while the dìs word has been lost altogether.
However, the idises in particular seem to act as a gender-specific group. This is especially important for women studying Teutonic magic, as there seem to be some mysteries that the idises will reveal only to their daughters. Obviously the idises can be called on by anyone for help in those types of magic generally classed as womens magic; for instance, Sigrdrìfa tells Sigurðr to bid the dÌsir aid when magically helping a woman to give birth. Herb-craft and the skill of faring forth to protect a loved one in times of crisis would also fall under the class of womens magic. In a similar capacity, the alfs - as the male kin - can be called on in all sorts of mens magic - hunting, fighting skills, law-giving, and so forth. The idises and alfs can both be called on for prophecy, healing, and general advice.
Fylgja (Fetch)
The fetch is a being which is closely tied to
your soul, embodying your most basic characteristics in animal form: a
fierce person might have a wolf-fetch, a strong and noble one a bear, a
cunning one a fox, and so forth. In some ways the fetch might be compared
to the totem animal of the Native Americans, with the difference being
that instead of many individuals being kin to a single great Wolf, Spider,
Snake or whatever, the fetch is independent of everything but the human
of whom it is an expression. The fetch can always be seen psychically or
electrically by anyone with the Sight (aka second sight), but when it appears
in the physical world, visible only to its owner - especially if it is
wounded - it is a foreboding of death.
Hugr and Munr
The hugr can take in all the non-physical parts
of the being. It is often used for intuition. It can also mean mood or
heart: one can be downcast of hugr or in ill- hugr. In later Norwegian
folklore, the word hug has taken over the functions carried out in earlier
days by both hamingja and fylgja.
Closely tied to the hugr is the munr (which can mean both memory and desire). This can include both personal and ancestral memory. The runes by which the munr may be accessed are Mannaz, Othala, and Ansuz.
Honour
The most important thing to consider when talking
about soul-might is honour. Honour is the strength of the hamingja, the
luck, the fetch, and the spae-wight. Without honour, magic has no might:
if the word of the magician means nothing in everyday life, let alone when
swearing an holy oath, then it will be no more than empty air when used
in galdor. In this way, a good magician will in the broadest sense be a
good person. The speaking of words, and doing of deeds of honour is the
most powerful means by which one can become able to shape the wyrd of the
world around one. Every word a magician speaks must be of worth: when you,
within your runic ring, call the god/esses and the worlds about to hear
what you say, the weight of your galdors is already measured by the degree
to which you have proven that your deeds back your words.
When the tales of our folk are considered, a great many of them stem from folk swearing oaths and striving to fulfill them - or dying in the attempt. An oath fulfilled is a load of soul-might won: the mightier the oath and the deed of honour that go with it, the more strength its completion brings to the swearer. Oaths must, of course, be carefully considered. A rash or foolish oath often leads to destruction of some sort, as is repeatedly shown in different sagas. To the extent that you can be trusted with your word, and so your honour, will other things, entities, deities lend themselves to dealing with you. Should you not be trustworthy, why should anything pay attention to your claims, because you can not be trusted with what you do say, even though it be given with good intentions?
A challenge to honour is in itself the destruction of honour. In such a case, ones soul-strength can only be regained either by doing some deed to prove the challengers words unjustified, or by meeting the challenger in direct fight. One who challenges someone elses honour and is not able to back it up loses the same soul-strength himself. The duel of nithing-words, or flyting, was carried out before battles for the specific purpose of weakening the enemys soul and thus his arm, as we see in both the flyting between Atli and Hrìmgerðr in Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar and others. Most often, these were sexual in character, striking directly at the root of the foes vital force - as seen by the frequent accusations of gelding. This is part of the power behind the niðing-pole: sometimes such poles were topped with horses heads (partially to draw up the power of Hel, partially because mare was a particularly strong insult which would break down a foes magical defenses), but sometimes they were topped with carvings of the victim in a passively obscene posture. We know one Teutonic magician who refers to his middle finger as my portable niðing pole. This may be a joke, but it can also be quite serious magically, as the simple gesture and accompanying phrase can be a very powerful swift-and-dirty attack on the recipients magical and psychological defenses; it is also a magically effective way to fend off or counter an attack leveled at ones own honour.
Luck
To the Germanic folk, luck meant more than the
odd favourable happenstance, though it was reflected in even the smallest
matters. Our forebears knew that was everything, including magical and
bodily protection from all the hazards of life. The word most often used
for luck by the Norse, heill, meant not only luck but wholeness and holiness;
it was a greeting or farewell of blessing, from which we also get the modern
English Hail!
Even such a matter as luck at dice was the sign
of Wyrd, as Tacitus describes in Germania when he tells how, should
one man lose all he has in gambling and have
to hazard his freedom, should he also lose that, he goes willingly into
thralldom, believing that to be his own doom.
Without good luck, there was no hope, whatever else one might have in
one's favour.
Luck is partly inherited, partly won: it is a combination of ørlög and hamingja. That which is inherited is given by the lesser or family norns - the dísir who pass on aspects of the ancestral soul to the child at name-giving - and is often determined by the actual name given, which was one of the vehicles through which reincarnation took place. Our forebears tried not to name a child after someone who had died young or been otherwise unlucky, lest it should inherit that ill wyrd. It will often be marked that folk with particularly ill luck come from unlucky families, while the opposite is usually true for those with good luck. This was part of the understanding of the Germanic peoples in regards to the special soul-strength of athelings and kingly lines: it was their luck, often inherited from the deity who had fathered them, that brought them to their heights and made them as much mightier than others in magic and spiritual workings as they were in everyday life.
Luck can be won or made greater by deeds of honour,
as spoken of above.
Ørlög, Rebirth
Ørlög means ur-law (primal law) or
ur-layer. It is the first layer of being which shapes wyrd: the doom which
is spoken at birth - or, more precisely, at name-giving. To be without
ørlög is to be without might, powerless to shape the world.
This is why, as well as humans being named, names are also given, for example,
to the most powerful weapons: they have ørlög of their own.
The largest part of your ørlög is shaped already, given with your name by the idises of your clan. Øÿrlög is also carried from past lives, often, as mentioned above, together with the name. It is not quite like the popular understanding of karma, which generally carries the connotations of reward/punishment: it is more a spiritual imperative to become yourself to your fullest. Someone whose soul includes the ørlög of a Viking raider, for instance, is more likely to end up as a mercenary in this life than as the victim of mercenary soldiers raping/pillaging/burning. However, the acts of swearing an oath, taking a ritual name or title, or anything else which defines your nature and actions, all help to shape and add to your ørlög. This should not be done lightly, as ørlög is often a dark force - its result is inevitably to bring about its bearers death, and the strongest ørlög usually has the most spectacular, if uncomfortable, end. However, the folk honoured by the Germanic peoples were those who took up the strongest ørlögs and carried them out to bloody death - the heroes of our ancestors. This is something that the Teutonic magician must keep in mind. The magician of the Northern Tradition is not a quiet intellectual, but one who is ever facing grim forces and throwing him/herself into the breach: Beowulf and the Völsungs are all fit models, for magical action and heroic action are essentially the same, in that, through the combination of power and careful setting in the Well of Wyrd - and intense personal risk - these are the actions which can shift and reshape wyrd. A great ørlög makes this possible, even as it exacts full price.
Here ends the notes derived from Freya Aswynn's
Runic Lessons.
Blots in the O.R. and meetings in the ROT
How they differ. The O.R. blots differ in terms
of the establishment of the ve, and of the nature of the work done after
the ve has been established, and the rite begun.
R.O.T. varies according to the work, whereas the O.R. is more ritualised
in a sense.
Personal Experience - High Seat, Shape Shifting,
etc.
These were given during the lecture, and should
the reader have any questions, comments, etc., they may email him at: