Everything about Seid Shamanic Magic totally explained
Seid or
seiðr is an
Old Norse term for a type of
sorcery or
witchcraft which was practiced by the
pre-Christian Norse.
Sometimes anglicized as "seidhr", "seidh", "seidr", "seithr" or "seith", the term is also used to refer to modern
Neopagan reconstructions or emulations of the practice.
Terminology and etymology
Seid involved the incantation of
spells (
galðrar;
sing.
galðr). Practitioners of seid were predominantly women (
völva, or
seiðkona, lit. "seid woman"), although there were male practitioners (
seiðmaðr, lit. "seid master") as well.
Old English terms cognate with
seiðr are
siden and
sidsa, both of which are attested only in contexts which suggest that they were used by elves (
ælfe); these seem likely to have meant something similar to
seiðr (Hall 2004, pp. 117-30). Among the
Old English words for practitioners of magic are
wicca (m.) or
wicce (f.), the
etymons of Modern English
witch.
Old Norse literature
In the
Viking Age, seid had connotations of
ergi ("unmanliness" or "effeminacy") for men, as its manipulative aspects ran counter to the male ideal of forthright, open behaviour.
Freyja and perhaps some of the other goddesses of
Norse mythology were seid practitioners, as was
Odin, a fact for which he's taunted by
Loki in the
Lokasenna.
Sagas
As described by
Snorri Sturluson in his
Ynglinga saga (
sec. 7
), seid includes both divination and manipulative magic. It seems likely that the type of divination practiced by seid was generally distinct, by dint of an altogether more metaphysical nature, from the day-to-day auguries performed by the seers (
menn framsýnir,
menn forspáir).
In
The Saga of Eric the Red, the seiðkona or
völva in
Greenland wore a blue
cloak and a headpiece of black lamb trimmed with white cat skin; she carried the symbolic
distaff (
seiðstafr), which was often buried with her; and would sit on a high platform. In
Örvar-Odd's Saga, however, the cloak is black, yet the seiðkona also carries the distaff (which allegedly has the power of causing forgetfulness in one who is tapped three times on the cheek by it).
Mythology
The goddess
Freyja is identified in
Ynglinga saga as an adept of the mysteries of seid, and it's said that it was she who taught it to Odin: 'Dóttir Njarðar var Freyja. Hon var blótgyðja. Hon kenndi fyrst með Ásum seið, sem Vönum var títt' ('Njörðr’s daughter was Freyja. She presided over the sacrifice. It was she who first acquainted the
Æsir with
seiðr, which was customary among the
Vanir').
In
Lokasenna Loki accuses Odin of practicing seid, condemning it as an unmanly art. A justification for this may be found in the
Ynglinga saga where Snorri opines that following the practice of seid, the practitioner was rendered weak and helpless.
One possible example of seid in Norse mythology is the prophetic vision given to
Odin in the
Völuspá by the
völva,
vala, or seeress after whom the poem is named. Her vision isn't connected explicitly with
seiðr, however: the word occurs in the poem in relation to a character called Heiðr (who is traditionally associated with Freyja but may be identical with the völva: see McKinnell 2001). The interrelationship between the
völva in this account and the
Norns, the fates of Norse lore, are strong and striking.
Another noted mythological practitioner of
seiðr was the witch
Groa, who attempted to assist
Thor, and who is summoned from beyond the grave in the
Svipdagsmál.
Origins
Shamanism is a tradition which has been maintained widely throughout the world and it's probably of prehistoric origin. Since the publication of
Jakob Grimm's socio-linguistical
Deutsches Wörterbuch (p. 638) in 1835, scholarship draws a Balto-Finnic link to seid, citing the depiction of its practitioners as such in the sagas and elsewhere, and link seid to the practices of the
noajdde, the
patrilineal shamans of the
Sami people. However, Indo-European origins are also possible (for references see Hall 2004, 121-22). Note that the word
seita (
Finnish) or
sieidde (
Sami) is a human-shaped body formed by a tree, or a large and strangely shaped stone or rock and doesn't involve "magic" or "sorcery"; there's a good case, however, that these words do derive ultimately from
seiðr (Parpola 2004).
Contemporary reconstruction
Diana Paxson and her group,
Hrafnar, have attempted reconstructions of seid from available historical material, particularly the oracular form.
Jan Fries traces seid as an inspiration for his "seething" shamanic technique, though he's less concerned with precise historical reconstruction. See further Blain 2002, which discusses different ways in which seidr is being re-constituted today, in Scandinavia, the UK and the US.
Within British
Heathenry, seidr according to Blain (2002) is becoming an intrinsic part of spiritual practice. This isn't necessarily 'reconstruction', but may relate more to associations of people, land, and spirits.
It has been suggested that during seances the seiðkona would enter a
state of trance in which her soul was supposed to "become discorporeal", "take the likeness of an animal", "travel through space", and so on. This state of trance may have been achieved through any of several methods:
entheogens,
sleep deprivation,
sensory deprivation, for instance. To
galdra, that is, the
chanting of
galdrar was also involved in creating the state of trance.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Seid Shamanic Magic'.
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