During ancient times the existence of the tribe, as well as the elders and the wise, gave us a safe feeling of belonging. During these times it was both Divine Femininity and Masculinity. Also the clairvoyant women (called sejd or völva, meaning “she who carries a stave” or “she who is clairvoyant”) strengthened the position of the women.
The clairvoyant women went into trance and told the village people what they should expect to happen, which gave these women a central position of power. In many cases these women were met by great deal of respect, since their prophecies often proved to be true. They could influence people, animals and nature by entering into trance, where they could connect with the spirit world. Soul-travelling was seen as something natural for all people when they were dreaming, but clairvoyant women could also with some effort achieve the same magical condition when they were awake.
Sometimes it required a “beautiful song”, to attract the spirits and to recall the soul into the person’s body. This is also something common for shamanic people in Siberia and for the Saami (called the nåjd). There has thus been a time when women’s natural intuition and creativity was seen as something valuable, as a gift to be used for everybody’s wellbeing, just like the men’s natural physical strength and concentrated focus.
Clairvoyant women could also enter into another person’s body or more common enter into an animal’s body. This was something the aseir Freja and Odin was particularly good at. Changing of body (changing of harbour) has close connection to the Native American’s drum travels and use of magical animals. Other similarities is the stave and the drum, important tools to attract the spirits and create magic. People during the times of Vikings also had fylgjor, protective spirits in the shape of animals that strongly reminds us of the magical animals of the Native Americans.
The Norse Clairvoyants were eventually almost obliterated, mainly due to the believers of the official religion of Christianity, which were priests who in the Norse Clairvoyants saw a threatening rival for the attention of the people. Also the royal rulers saw in the clairvoyance a form of (with modern words) unparliamentarily movement, with possibilities of political actions and power created by charismatic women and men. During the same time all over Europe there were myths about the female ability of clairvoyance, and statues has been found of mythical women with staves, that strengthens this theory. Romans used for instance German clairvoyant women, when they wanted help to see the future.
In historic documents it is usually the male shamanic people that are more commonly described, which probably has to do with the fact that women by tradition were responsible for the inner sphere (of the family, of the group, of the tribe). When “strange Western researchers” arrived in the beginning of 1910-1930, to observe the ancient traditions, it is therefore likely that it was a male nåjd and not female who these researchers came in touch with. The female nåjd existed, in other words, but were not formally observed and written about in historical documents. (Which in fact is the same pattern in most areas of our society.)
Above text originates from my book Spiritual Social Activism, which you can buy here.
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