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 There is a tremendous amount of global earthquake activity happening right now, these last couple of weeks, as well as a volcano erupting in the ocean just off the coast of Oregon and plumes seen rising from many supposedly extinct volcanic craters.
There are some who would say that times of war, revolution, rioting, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc. are caused by Jormungund thrashing in the great ocean of Midgard. Has this enormous serpent played a role in the past, perhaps triggering or causing massive destruction or even extinction events in the history of the earth? Do we really think we can detonate nuclear bombs in the body of the Earth, pressure shot chemicals into her and gouge out enormous craters and not have repercussions? Even the greatest forces of so-called order, religion, politics, society and science, are no match for the power of destruction that is unleashed when the great World Serpent thrashes in the waters of Midgard. These are just a few of the points we discuss in the Nine Worlds class when talking about the realm of humans. The live, completely unedited audio recordings of these nine classes are available for purchase. Please contact me by Email if you're interested. Ingrid, the Rune Woman Changing Lives With Ancient Wisdom Please help support my Journey to the Missing Grandmother A Story That Needs To Be Told  Conny Fridh/imagebank.sweden.se What significance is there in the telling of the tales that Freya, goddess of death, gets to chose first from among those warriors who have fallen in battle? Does she not chose the best? And how does their dwelling in the great hall of Folkvang compare to the drinking and rekilling that goes on in Valhalla?
Do Freya's warriors ride out with Odin at Yule, at the time of the Wild Hunt? And what happens to those warriors who die at sea and are pulled down to the halls of Ran? As usual, more questions than answers in the Nine Worlds class. Why does there need to be a bridge between Midgard and Asgard? How powerful are the Norns really? This series of classes is 9 weeks long, 2 hours each week. The audio recordings are available for purchase. They are live and absolutely unedited. Contact me if you're interested in purchasing them. Ingrid, the Rune Woman Changing Lives With Ancient Wisdom  Traditional Wooden Grain Stores - Image by Fredrik Broman/imagebank.sweden.se Wiser than the Aesir of Asgard.
Power over the weather, fertility and crops. Gods of natural abundance and fertility of the land. The phallic god of nature's force. The beauty, pleasure and sexuality of the female's sacred mound. Guardians of the wisdom of the Ingwaz rune. These are the Vanir whose home is the realm of Vanaheim. Of the Nine Worlds, only two use the word Gard, indicating either a fence or a fortification or boundary around them. The others all end in the world Heim, the home of the Vanier included. This seems to indicate realms that are more wild or natural, less domesticated and orderly. Where did the Vanir come from? Perhaps they sprung up from the earth. The well-known Freya and her brother Frey are the off-spring of Nerthus and Njord , the goddess of the earth and the god of sea coast and sailors. Even though the Vanir are often portrayed as being more gentle and peace-loving than the so-called warrior gods of the Aesir, it was the Vanir who cut off the head of the giant Mimir, uncle of Odin. It was the Vanir who started the war with the Aesir. According to the Poetic Edda it is Frey who at the doom of men 'will come back home among the wise Vanir.' As always, the discussions in the classes of the Nine Worlds series leave us with more questions than answers. In the photo above do we see the Vanir, turned to wood, standing guard over the grain storage bins? Live, unedited audio recordings of the Nine Worlds classes are available for purchase. Email me at Ingrid at IngridKincaid.com for information. Ingrid the Rune Woman Bringing Back The Wisdom Of The North Please support my Journey to the Swedish Sami Reindeer Grandmother and the completion and publishing of my book: The Lost Teachings of the North-The Runes, The Wheel and The Tree. GoFundMe Campaign  As I've been teaching the Nine Worlds classes it's felt to me more and more that I move/float/ travel back and forth between the realms in ways that show up as slowing down and speeding up of time, and less importance being given to what day it is, often necessitating me to truly check my date book first thing in the morning to be sure and even then it doesn't always convince me. Alfheim, Lichtalfheim, Ljossalfheim, home of the Light elf, alf in Norse mythology was the realm explored in Week 7 of the Nine Worlds Class Series and visiting it reminded me of how much lore and how many stories there are about time moving differently in the realm of alf and fairy. What might seem to be a few moments spent in dancing can in fact be months or even years. There are tales of people vanishing, only to return years later, confused and wandering.
Perhaps it is not a curse as so often portrayed but rather just the consequence of crossing the threshold into other realms. Why are there warnings about dancing with them, following them, eating their food? Why are the alfer so often associated with illness or as being the cause of physical ailments of humans? Elf shot. Elf locks. Elf stroke and so on. Why in Norse Mythology is the Vanier Freyr said to be lord over Alfheim? And why is it said that Odin placed him in that position? Even though the stories don't tell that Freyr and his Jotnir bride Gerda had any offspring, could it be possible that the light alfer are their children? Are they also shape-shifters as the Jotnir are? And what is the reason that these beings are so often mentioned alongside the Aesir? In the Havamal, Dain is mentioned as being one of the lords of Alfheim and he received runes at the same time that Odin grabbed up the futhark and Dvalin and Asvid received theirs. What are these runes? Where are they? How are they used? "Runes you will find, and readable staves, Very strong staves, Very stout staves, Staves that Bolthor stained, Made by mighty powers, Graven by the prophetic God. For the Gods by Odin, for the Elves by Dain, By Dvalin, too, for the Dwarves, By Asvid for the hateful Giants, And some I carved myself: Thund, before man was made, scratched them, Who rose first, fell thereafter." I love asking questions. It's not always possible to find answers, nor should we want to. The realm of all possibility lives in the questions. If you're interested in participating in these classes, live, unedited recordings of each of them from the Nine Worlds Series are available to purchase. Email me for more information. Ingrid, the Rune Woman Wise and Irreverent Changing Lives With Ancient Wisdom You can help support my journey to the Arctic Circle in Sweden and the completion of the book: The Lost Teachings of the North. Donate to my GoFundMe Campaign  The Nine Worlds
Dark forests and tops of mountains, rocky crags, the snow of the vast wilderness and the feared wildness of Nature, Utgard, outside the fence, the place of the self-willed beasts. This is the realm of the giants. This is Jotunheim. Separated from the orderly, law-abiding, civilized, domestication of the high gods by Ifing, the river of Doubt. Yet even the so-called high gods carry the bloodlines of the Jotnfolk. Mimir’s well of wisdom is in Jotunheim, as is Gastropnir, the healing palace of the giantess Mengloth. And deep in the heart of Jotunheim you will find the Myrkwood, home to Angrboda, Wolf Chieftess and ruler of the nine clans, mother of monstrosities who were fathered by Loki. The word giant often conjures up images of stupid, lumbering, huge beings that are most often destructive. Yet in ancient Norse and Germanic tales the Jotunfolk of Northern Traditions were keepers of ancient wisdom, and the deep elemental knowledge of the forces of creation and destruction. Even the gods sought them out to take counsel from them. There are those who believe in a single god, creator of all things and who strive to communicate with him through various channels such as the angels, the saints and the resurrected son. There are those who believe in the many gods, pantheons of divine powers indwelling in all life and perhaps it is not we who seek out these beings but rather they contact us. These concepts expressed above opened up a grand and lively discussion in The Nine Worlds class and presented an opportunity to explore the river of Doubt and cross back and forth over its fast-moving waters that never freeze. Such conversations are necessary and vital. As Raven Kaldera states in Jotunbok - Working With The Giants Of The Northern Tradition: “We are finding ourselves in a place and time where civilization has run out of balance...we are as menaced by the side-effects of progress as our ancestors were by the feral wolf pack, and we are finding that a new respect for and partnership with Nature is now necessary for our survival.” It’s time for us to remember, reconnect with and honor the primal beings of Jotunheim. Ingrid, the Rune Woman Changing Lives With Ancient Wisdom You can help support my journey to the missing grandmother and the writing and publishing of my next book, The Lost Teachings of the North. Donate to my GoFundMe campaign. As the ice is melting, more and more wisdom is being revealed, wisdom that has been safely hidden away in the North, held in the crystals of ice. Like the drips of water from the icicles and the glaciers, this information is on the move. In my Lost Teachings of the North class we open up to explore and share what is being remembered.
After our last discussion, Lara Vesta, artist, teacher, author, was inspired to write this touching piece about the Audhumbla, the Reindeer cow who licked the ice. I was there in the beginning. I watched her meander through the mist, emerging, her antlers hung with velvet. I watched her give birth, her calf dropped to the sacred snowy ground, the sack freezing on contact even though the air had begun to warm. Mist rises, rises from the icefall from the collision seeping beneath the surface of beginning, of begun. She licks the calf, stirring, and slowly he emerges reaching up to her milk warm teats. Life is birth and nourishment both in that hard land. She licks and licks again and I am with her somewhere, sometimes hidden, sometimes in her. Whatever I am emerges too from that land, that catastrophic merging that birthed the death I now am. She licks and eats the food of her own body, she is self-sustaining but he is not. He suckles and grows. Days hum or night too in that place, all whirls from the center that is her. Her gentle action, taking and giving, the pulse of the mother all life. Sometimes I am so near I can smell her salt and hair, wholly mammal. I bury my face in her many layers and sleep a while. Dream I am at the beginning again and again and again. Days hum and then night and he dies. He dies. This is how: a bellow, nothing changes, an urging, this is time. His eyes know: She is not alone, but she is one and together they must be many. They mate, he kneels weary, bends his head and with a breath becomes. From his head, the forests, from his body mountains, from his veins the rivers from his blood the sea. He dies and completes and she swells with life and births again, and again, and again what will be. I would wake screaming from this story, howling with the pain of creation and death. My mother came for me then, not as she is now but young and soft and still so full of sure love. She cradled me, my whole side last, my bare side first. In memory my bones click together, the hearth fire a little higher, my mother sensitive to warmth. And my brother licks me and lays his head in my lap. And my other brother wraps us all, the length and breadth of him bringing us so close. We hold each other and somewhere we know this is our beginning, and all the holding in the world can’t prevent the end. |
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Photo by Brianna Santellan on Unsplash
Ingrid Kincaid lives in the Pacific Northwest, at the confluence of two rivers, in the presence of two volcanoes. Portland, Oregon USA |
Photo by bady qb on Unsplash
Read updates on Ingrid's work and the latest musings regarding runes, creativity, women's wisdom and more. |
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