Wyrdwalkers, IV

IV.

Keeping Whole

337-411

IV.1

Spirit-Work Tabu-s

337-344

IV.2

Shaman Health & Shaman Sickness

345-394

IV.3

Spouses, Partners, and Other Bye-standers

395-411

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IV.1

Spirit-Work Tabu-s

337-344

p. 338 Cu`-chulainn (Setanta) violated his own personal geas (tabu), with fatal consequences

"Cuchulain ... has been commanded by the spirits never to violate certain taboos -- eating dog's flesh, refusing hospitality, etc. When ... he unthinkingly violates them all, ... out of lack of mindfulness ... He then loses his powers and is killed; ... a moral ... to this tale ... is about learning to manage one's taboos".

p. 339 differing tabu-s are enjoined upon different spirit-workers by their differing patron-deities

deity-imposed requirement

deity-imposed prohibition

"One spirit-worker might be forbidden to eat meat,

another required to do it.

One might be forbidden to cut their hair;

another must shave their head.

One might be vowed to celibacy or monogamy with their patron-deity spouse,

another required to have sex with any willing person their deity points out.

One might be forbidden to use entheogens,

another required to do it.

One might be forbidden to eat the flesh of their totem animal;

another might gain power from doing so."

pp. 340-2 effects on shamans of impositions by deities

p. 340

[quoted from Czaplicka 1914] "the Chukchee ... say that 'spirits' ... punish ... the slightest disobedience of the shaman, and that this is particularly so when the shaman is slow to carry out those orders which are intended to single him out from other people."

p. 341

"We [shamans/spirit-workers] are allowed to do what is not is not normally permitted -- to break ... taboos normally placed by the Gods on what humans may and may not do with cosmic energies -- but in return we pay for this with {ritual restrictions in} our lives. It {the divinely-imposed set of personal ritual restrictions} becomes the boundaries of our life, the container that holds us, and makes us safe for the people that we

p. 342

serve. ... Great power requires great responsibility."

Czaplicka 1914 = Marie Czaplicka : Shamanism in Siberia.

pp. 341-2 rationale of impositions by deities exercised upon shamans

p. 341

"Why must I wear these colors?

Why must I only touch this with my left hand?

Why can I do this small petty thing, but not that small petty thing?

It reminds me that ...

the shaman may only lie on the left side of a horsehide, or

must enter a hut backwards, or

cannot go anywhere without bells sewn to their clothing, or

must not pass a burial place without doing some small rite.

Sometimes we don't understand why they ask us to do these odd things, and we just have to trust it as a measure of gaining {spiritual} power. ...


The big surprise for most beginning spirit-workers, and especially for modern folk who get spirit-grabbed and turned willy-nilly into shamans, is that taboos are {supernaturally} enforced quickly and painfully. ...

If you're not supposed to eat a particular food, it will simply make you violently ill.

If you go where you shouldn't, you'll get sick.

If you try to say something when the Gods have gag-ordered you about it, you'll open your mouth and your vocal cords will seize up. ...

Gods and wights are perfectly capable of inducing fugue states, phobias, or mental paralysis in order to keep their vagrant servants from straying.


The only comfort I have on the matter is the advice of

p. 342

decades of watching this in myself, and I can say that whenever the reason for a taboo came clear to me -- perhaps over many years of doing it -- I realized that yes, indeed, the Gods did really know better than me {I do} on this one."

{The main reasons why the deities impose rules of behaviour on their mortal contactees is that such behaviour (which is noticed and recorded by numerous minor invisible entities) is able to keep such contactees locatable (by means of the records being maintained ongoingly by minor entities, who promptly point out the sought-for soul of the mortal contactee) for the deities involved in maintaining such contacts amongst mutually remote worlds. All such locating must be performed in terms of souls rather than in regard to material objects, for in general the material universe is not directly observable to deities, who must rely for information about it on its impression made on the souls of incarnate beings (as recorded by various minor spirits which may be guardians of various species of animals and of plants, etc.). [written June 23 2014]}

pp. 343-4 [by L.H.] valid & invalid prohibitions

p. 343

"taboos ... to find out ... which ones were there not to be broken ... . I tend not to break the ones where I've personally made an agreement with a deity ... .


Societal ones -- well, if I don't recognize the validity of their foundation, I'll break them ..., especially if they once had validity but the reasons are not longer there and they are outworn."

p. 344

"In tribal societies, the spirit-workers are allowed to break societal taboos ... partly because they have their own sets of strict taboos ... in exchange for that ... . They usually have to break the social taboos visibly, and that's true today too; a lot of us [spirit-workers] have to do weird things where [ordinary] people can see them. ... So you're not just allowed to violate those taboos, you're expected {by deities} to. It shows that you're beyond the normal boundaries, and also that you're more powerful {spiritually} than the [ordinary] people."

{So-called "societal" rules of behaviour are being upheld by mainly punitive-type divinities, who impose irrational and inconvenient rules on the general populace simply to punish the populace for lack of sufficient interest in, and curiosity about, the functionings of divine realms in other planes-of-existence. Whenever the general populace shall realize this situation, and will mend their ways by becoming more metaphysically astute (i.e., more devoted to understanding the divine organization and structure to the planes-of-existence), then punitive regulations of societal behaviour shall be able to be rescinded for society-at-large. [written June 23 2014]}

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IV.2

Shaman-Health & Shaman-Sickness

345-394

p. 345 "Communication from a bunch of Gods to me"

[quoted] "You live in a body, and you are here in that body for a reason.

No matter how much you wish you were not tethered {by means of the astral silvern cord, etc.} to this flesh, it is needful for many reasons ... and

you know what they are, if you ... will think about it.

{These reasons of self-evident : not becoming lost in desolate and inhospitable regions of the universe, etc.}

No matter how often you leave {out of the material body by means of astral projection, or by means of dream-pathwalking through the 9 Worlds}, you must come home to this gift. Yes, it {the material body} is a gift to you -- our gift."

p. 345 health of the spirit-worker's bodies, both material and astral

"We spirit-workers do things to our astral bodies that ... has repercussions on your physical form -- the hame {astral body} affects the lich {material body} and vice versa. As long as you live, there is no way to fully separate the two, or protect them from each other. This means that part of your job as a spirit-worker is to take care of yourself, on both levels ... . Ignoring the physical is one of the biggest risks we run, spending so much time as we do outside of it. ...

There are three areas of concern when it comes to the health of spirit-workers :

taking care of the physical body,

taking care of the astral body, and

surviving shaman sickness should it occur."

pp. 346-7 neurology; hypoglycemia & diabetes

p. 346

"We've found that the following conditions are frightfully prevalent in spirit-workers : epilepsy, non-epileptic seizure conditions, Tourette sydrome, and chronic migraines. ... it should be pointed out that seizures and migraines are some of the conditions developed by ... people after beginning spirit-work."

p. 347

"The second area of complaint is blood sugar issues. Both hypoglycemia and diabetes are found in pre-onset spirit-workers, and hypoglycemia is especially prone to appearing in post-onset spirit-workers.


The third area of comnplaint is immune disorders; a malfunctioning immune system is again symptomatic in both cases.

There is also a side set of endocrinal problems often found alongside of immune-system glitches : polycystic ovarian syndrome, hypogonadism, and various intersex conditions".

{In our considered aestimation, these sorts of ailments are a result of total lack of any socio-oikonomic scheme-plan for society-at-large, and absence of any radico-liberal political activism, on the part of the sort of "spirit-workers" being described. To attempt to exist in total isolation from the pressing problems of the socio-political climate of our age may be regarded as the height of frivolity by any deities-and-wights involved, however excessively-sensitive politeness on the part of such divinities may be an obstruction forbidding those divinities from asserting direct reprimands to this effect; the deities, do not, howbeit, refrain from afflicting with physical ailments in order to demonstrate their displeasure with these "spirit-workers'" socio-oikonomic negligence. That the ailments commence "after beginning spirit-work" is simply an indication that the deities (who cause such ailments) regard active "spirit-workers" as having a greater degree of socio-political responsibility, and therefore as deserving more severe afflictions on account of their unexcusable neglience when evading duties of radico-liberal political activism. [written Feb 28 2014]}

pp. 348-9 [by E.V.] time-passage differential between Worlds (for a hypogycemic)

p. 348

"If I don't sleep for at least six or seven hours, I won't dream, and my dreams are an important part of my life as a spirit-worker -- I often have prophetic dreams or get messages through them, which can't happen if I'm awake. ... Otherworld journeying is the hardest on me ...; although I practice hamfara or astral journeying, rather than having to physically pathwalk ... . ... Part of that may be because of the time

p. 349

differential between this and the rest of the Nine Worlds; even if only an hour or two passes in this world, if my journey lasts for days in the otherworlds,

{Likely this episode of which " lasts for days in the otherworlds" is a downloaded memory from some other entity who actually was in those Otherworlds for that duration of time. [written Feb 28 2014]}


then I feel just ... as if I'd been traveling and doing things for an equal amount of time here. ...

But because there's always a chance that I might have a low blood sugar episode after I return anyway,


I make sure to have something to eat or drink ready at hand for when I come out of trance."

{A practitioner who is interacting with Kun.d.alini must eat some food every hour or so throughout every waking period, in order to evade severe discomfort and disability.}

pp. 350-1 effects of foods, of "ritual work", etc.

p. 350

[by G., seidkona] "Raw vegetables fresh from the garden are the best".

{Cooking is destructive of some nutrients, and of many medicinals.}


[by J.M.] "I have become much more sensitive to trance states ... . ... I'm much more sentitive to foods ... . Various aspects of the work have reduced ... sex drive to near zero; ironically my early training

p. 351

included sex magick, which changed me in other ways. Things like heavy ritual work, {pathwalk?} journeying, or working with sacred plants {ingesting psychedelics?} can leave me run down for days ... . ... Unhappy wights have several ways to make sure that we don't cross their paths again ... . ... Pay attention to shields and personal energy fields, and take care not to anger any spirits."

{"Unhappy wights" are that way straightway upon their discovering lack of any radical-liberal socio-oikonomic program on the part of the "spirit-worker"; while it will "anger any spirits" for a "spirit-worker" to lack radical-insurrectionist political program.}

p. 355 [by Aleksa, spirit-worker] exhausting astral-body travel

"I get utterly exhausted astrally ... . Often there are so many balls in the air at that

I'm never all in the same place, so there is a sense of disjointedness and missing time.

{This could easily be a result of engaging in several simultaneous telepathic communications with praeternatural entities, who undertake deleting of useless memories of insignificant communication.}

Spirits usually have priority over my time ... . I get nausea a lot when my astral body isn't well ... . Astrally speaking ... I can end up with ... aches in metaphysical joints (if I had to shapeshift to make the journey, for example).

I'll get the sensation of not being all in the same place, or of being half present."

{Communications with praeternatural entities become useless and insignificant if they lack relevance to the insurrectionary goal of overthrow of capitalist governments. The entities may impart nausea etc. as a reprimand for such uselessness and insignificance. Disjointing and rendring "not being all in the same place," are supernatural ways of disrupting the "spirit-worker's" superfluous and repraehensible sympathy for the class-enemy. [written Feb 28 2014]}

pp. 362-3 errors by bodyworkers in treating spirit-workers; necessity for training of bodyworkers in order to warn them against making such blundres

p. 362

"Bodyworkers and energy workers who do not understand the nature of spirit-work, and especially the nature of the astral modifications of a particular spirit-worker, should not take it upon themselves to mess with that spirit-worker's hame. The Gods and wights can sometimes make permanent changes to our astral bodies that may look bizarre or wrong to an energy-worker with vague second sight and no understanding of why things flow in this weird way.

We've heard horror stories of spirit-workers who went in for a simple massage ..., and the massage therapist happened to

p. 363

also be an energy-worker, [who] took one look at their unusual hame configuration, decided that it was a terrible problem that needed to be fixed, and attempted to "fix" them without their knowledge or permission. In each case, it did damage to the spirit-worker and took them some time to get it all back to working function.

It was certainly a good thing that didn't


happen to spirit-workers who have heavy wards

{If it had commenced to happen to a spirit-worker having "heavy wards", the ward would praesumably have warned the spirit-worker while the process was as yet underway.}


and "booby-traps" on the various modifications to their astral bodies, because that could have gone badly for the energy worker as well."


"The ideal, of course, is an energy-trained bodyworker who understands spirit-work, is willing to learn about your particular "system" and what it's been altered to do, and can deftly work around it. But ... right now, ... it's ... up to the spirit-worker to "train" their own energy-worker, should they need one. To be fair, there also needs to be ... more pooling of information between us {spirit-workers} about this issue before we can give comprehensive instructions to bodywork schools. For example, we need more information on the different kinds of energy-oriented bodywork and how they affect different sorts of spirit-workers. Cranio-sacral therapy, for example, has been anecdotally cited as a frequent offender when it comes to screwing up {disorienting, disordering} spirit-worker hame "systems", and ... we feel that it is strongly contraindicated for spirit-workers with serious spirit-created astral modifications. In some cases, we've even heard of ... Reiki['s] ... causing mild damage".

pp. 365-7 shaman-sickness

p. 365

"The term "shaman sickness" ... denotes a period of illness ... which is caused by the Gods and wights in order to completely remake someone and turn them {him or her} into a shaman. ... It is the hallmark of the classic shaman in many parts of the globe."

p. 366

"Here is an account by a Yakut-Tungus shaman ... of how he became a shaman : "When I was twenty years old, I ... began to see with my eyes, to hear with my ears that which others did not see or hear; nine years ... I did not tell any one ... . At last ... I was on the verge of death; but when I started to shamanize I grew better; and even now when I do not shamanize for a long time I am liable to be ill.""

p. 367

"The young novice, the 'newly inspired' (turene nitvillin), loses all interest in the ordinary affairs of life. He ceases to work ..., ceases to talk to people, and does not even answer their questions. the greater part of his time he spends in sleep." [This is when (p. 366 supra), in "the preparatory period of a shaman ... "he gathers shamanistic power"", and while "the inspiration comes mainly through dreams."]

pp. 368-72 the One Road (& the spurious "Other Road")

p. 368

"The One Road is the Death Road ... . Spirit-workers on the Death Road come down with physical illnesses ...; there may be months or years of hideous, painful, chronic illness ... . In fact, the "classic" end {final crisis} to this road culminates in a near-death experience ..., sometimes {usually} with a vision {or rather, vivid dream in an unearthly Otherworld setting} of dismemberment where one is actually taken apart and rebuilt by spirits. Usually it's not only one specific illness, but a cascade of them ... . ... Shaman sickness is remarkably resistant to modern treatments. I walked the Death Road. Between a combination of medication-resistant lupus and secondary congenital adrenal hyperplasia, I sickened further and further ... . ... if i'd had the luxury of knowing what was going on ..., I might have gotten to the end {conversion to becoming a shamanic practitioner[ess]} much

p. 369


sooner. ... Most of what I went through was entirely necessary to make me what I am today.


The Other Road is the road of Madness. ... . ... if you are walking the Madness Road as part of a spirit-triggered shamanic rebirth, They {deities} may prefer to {psychiatry, for} you to experience it fully ... . ...

p. 370

Other tools ... that some modern spirit-workers swear by for "getting ready to survive the Madness Road" are DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy) and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming). ... What the spirit-worker going down this road desperately needs is a sane, reasonable person that they trust who shares the same or at least a similar world view to them {to theirs (to their world-view)} to be their reality check."

p. 371

"A functioning shaman may have odd social behaviors that are the result of his {or her} bargains with the spirits ... . ... They need to be sane ... because the {shaman /spirit-worker} job ... requires them to understand and empathize with many different clients. ... It's important to have faith in the wights who guide this process, as they {the wights} understand how to bring someone back from it {madness}, but it's also important to have a human support system {consisting of persons}


who can help you with regular infusions about how you look and sound to "normal" people."

{Typical such infusions (the sort which I have received) are warnings not to dress like a foreigner, and not to say anything against social conventions in front of authorities such as one's landlord.}

p. 372

[by K.F. :] "many {essentially all} cases of "schizophrenia" are just untreated, or {still worse} badly treated, cases of shaman-sickness ... .


If I had received "psychiatric help"during my 1994 episode of shaman-sickness, I might well have decided I was insane. ...

{This (willingness to trust any which agent of reactionary governments) is an inhaerent difficulty in not being an anarchist mystic. A dedicated anarchist will automatically distrust any agent of repressive capitalist regimes -- including any political-state-hireling psychiatrist.}


Winding up ... self-medicating with marijuana was one of the luckiest breaks I ever got".

{The One Road (of chronic sickness) cannot befall a person who is simultaneously a believer in the supernatural and a socio-political radico-liberal activist. The deities are sufficiently pleased by a combination of belief in them and a dedication to eradicating socio-oikonomic ills, so that deities will not afflict with chronic ailments any mystic social activist.} {The "Other Road" (consisting of madness) will not befall a person who is dedicated to the eradication of such false religions as atheism, monotheism, or ascription of intolerance to deities -- provided that public denunciations such defective theologies are regularly enunciated.}

p. 373 an instance of condemnation of all deities other than those of one's own denomination

"in Margery Wolf's ethnographic paper The Woman Who Didn't Become a Shaman, a Taiwanese woman ... started having ... {deity-}possession incidents ... speaking to unknown gods.

Local shamans were called in and examined her, but decided that she was mentally ill and not actually suffering from any culturally acceptable form of shaman sickness." {Please do note that what was "culturally acceptable" for such local yokels, would be unacceptable for any other locality and/or culture anywhere else in the world, and they themselves would be denounced accordingly as "mentally ill" everywhere else in the world!} ...

{These "shamans" were, of course, sectarians ready to denounce as insanity any contact with any deity not already traditionally worshipped by their own peculiar denomination, an intolerant local cult. This sort of sectarian intolerance is, indeed, characteristic of virtually every existing established (political-state-recommended) religious denomination on this planet. This is also why any truly universal religion is effectively compelled to reject nearly all existing class-divided traditional religions as hopelessly incapable of ever co-operating with any other.}

This means that someone who ends up on the Madness Road is going to have to be very, very careful as to what they say to any mental health practitioner."

{Though well-intended, this sort of advice is very nearly useless. Regardless of how little or how much, or whatever, one may say or not say to any state-insane-asylum "psychiatrist", upon being brought into the praesence of any such, the victim is always labeled "schizophrenic" and committed to involuntary imprisonment (which in the Deep South of the U.S.A. is automatically for life, or until successful break-out and escape).}

p. 374 "Art Road"

"Recently I learned that there is a third Road, the Art Road. This was described ... as being the road for the spirit-worker whom has dedicated themselves {himself or herself} to some Art."

{This is not a distinctive situation, for all connection with deities must perforce involve much art -- music, graphic arts, etc. etc. Deities all demand art (especially music), so that any association with them must entail art (such as music), whether in waking life or in dreams or in both.}

p. 375 [by L.H.] Kun.d.alini sickness

"I want to distinguish between Kundalini sickness and shaman sickness; they are related, but not the same thing. ... A woman that we know actually died from it. She had a website dedicated to the dangers of Kundalini sickness."

{This (Kun.d.alini sickness) is caused by having started in the wrong place, and not having undertaken the right initial procedure. One must start with Id.a (at the back of one's head), and must use mainly Id.a (with only a minimum of Pingala) to activate Ajn~a (in the centre of one's head) before proceeding to rouse Kun.d.alini -- such a commencement is necessary in order to evade severe mishaps thereafter.}

pp. 376-7 [by L.H.] extinction (symbolic deletion) of inappropriate portions (impiety, etc.) of one's character

p. 376

"We ended up having a full-on funeral for a very large part of who I was. A part of me was laid to rest and chose to die ... . ...

Write a saga about them. Write the end of the saga "And then they died to save me." ... They have to want to do it. ... It's actually much better if they can do it themselves, because then you who are left don't take the karmic load. ... If they kill themselves, they take it with them. It's easier on what's left. ...

p. 377

Then you have a proper funeral and mourn them, really mourn them. ... But if you are going to do that, you need to talk to other shamans. ... Of course, I don't think you should even contemplate it without advice from your patron deity."

pp. 377-8 [by E.V.] self-description of personal shamanic illness

p. 377

"I had several violently psychotic episodes as well as "missing time" and memory lapses. There were numerous bouts of insomnia, some of which lasted as long as four days at a time. ...

p. 378

I was being internally rearranged as well ... . ... My family turned out to be surprisingly understanding when I finally told them what was going on ... . Then one day, Loki said to me that I was done, the shaman sickness was over."

pp. 381-2 [by G.K.] another self-description of personal shamanic illness

p. 381

"My shaman sickness involved losing myself. I started having intense visionary experiences with the Gods that I was honoring. ... I think I did go mad for a time. It was as though my emotional landscape was {were} being ploughed up, forced through a sieve, ... and carefully planted with new seeds that would eventually blossom into skills of priestcraft and shamancraft."

p. 382

"The whole purpose of the sickness is to break a person down, change and re-pattern them {him or her} into something the Gods and/or spirits can use ... . The person as they {he or she} were before the sickness essentially dies. What returns is different .... . ...

So if you're going through this, pray. Utilize consistent devotional techniques ... .

Avoid psychiatrists -- they don't understand the spiritual ... . You'll likely have no luck with most modern "core"-type shamanic practitioners, because they haven't gone through this and the nonconsensuality of it may frighten them. Try to find other classic shamans and spirit-workers, those who have already been through shaman sickness."

p. 383 [by S.R., spirit-worker] support-system needed during shamanic illness

"Then there are bouts of ... extreme spacey-ness, forgetfulness, various kinds of madness ... . ... Your whole world suddenly becomes very precarious. ... Having a good support system is really important. ... There is, in the end, no use ... in denying yourself potential support. My advice is to find other people who have experienced these things firsthand."

pp. 384-5 [by Aleksa, spirit-worker] still another personal shamanic illness

p. 384

"My shamanic sickness took ... years and resulted in ... a completely changed personality. ...

The only advice that I can give is ... contacting friends you trust and

p. 385

people who may have lived through it for ... guarding you during the difficult period is helpful.

Life would have been far easier if I could have just gone into seclusion and dealt with the spirits ..., but ... there's nowhere for novice shamans to go."

p. 385 [by Del, spirit-worker] coping with shaman-sickness

"Contacting your local pagan organizations can yield the names of pagan ... social workers, who can help with ... negotiating the real world consequences. Some people find that they can no longer hold down a day to day job, so talking to a social worker about SSI income and Section 8 housing will keep you from homelessness."

pp. 386-8 subtle-body modifications

p. 386

"modern spirit-workers ... are beginning to talk about ... the fact that our hamar are different from those of other people."

p. 387

"the second chakra ... is associated with the reproductive organs {gonads = testes/ovaries} (as opposed to the sexual organs {penis/clitoris} with are root {1st}-chakra) ... . ...

Sex magic, of course, uses the root chakra ... and tends to make slow changes ... there.


Both shapeshifting and body-temperature control seem to make strong use of the third chakra, over the diaphragm {which is used in breathing}.


Heart chakras are ... frequently disconnected in spirit-workers. ...


Throat chakras tend to get slightly modified from doing

p. 388

years of galdr or other "shaman singing".


Third eye and crown chakras are often heavily modified by the spirits, especially ... for god-possession. When I underwent my shamanic death, my crown chakra was permanently shut down and moved to


the back of my head,

{location of id.a, the power capable (through ajn~a) of hindring pingala from drastically overheating Kun.d.alini}


where it became a sphincter-like "port' that could be opened to receive information, energy ... and deities, should they wish to use my body for their purposes."

pp. 390, 392 [by L.H.] widening the subtle body's tubing; opening the cakra-s

p. 390

"Astral body modifications are changes to your astral/energy body that make it different from that of usual people. ... The milder modifications are usually widening of the pipes that carry ch[>]i around your body and reinforcing them. ... You can do that yourself ... . ... .

p. 391

... three little emeralds ... were in my head ... . ... I can just triangulate."

{Possibly cf. the Emerald Tablet (of Hermes Tris-megistos) alluded to on p. 410 infra.}

p. 392

"There's ... debate as to whether it's better to open up one's chakras from the top down or from the bottom up -- the water method or

{The Taoist method is usually ascending along one's back, and descending along the front of one's thorax -- to achieve the effect of rotation, as if a vertical waterwheel rotated by a waterfall.}


the fire method.

{This could be Agni Yoga.}


We generally think it's safer to used the water method, dripping down from the Source".

{This could refer to the Tantrik dripping-down of the melted "moon" from over the head.}

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IV.3

Spouses, Partners, and Other Bye-standers

395-411

p. 395 primacy of spirit-worker's spirit-work over a spouse

"the spirit-worker is a god-spouse and the mortal {marital} partner isn't even the primary one, but even those who work for and with the Gods will have to put them {Deities instead of spouses} first. ... that means getting out of bed in the middle of lovemaking because

there are dead people at your window who need help".

{Because souls of the dead tend to redincarnate promptly, the entities at the window are unlikely to be actual "dead people"; however, they may well be praeternaturals who are assisting the guardian-angels of persons who died recently, and could use assitance by a mortal spirit-worker in such a venture.}

pp. 400-1 [by H., seidkona's spouse] altar-work of a seidkona

p. 400

"a partner who has to rearrange the furniture in the house because the Gods want a room all to themselves, just for altars ... and then she would spend half the night in there, talking ... . ...

p. 401

Anyway, ... she has to do some things or the Gods will hurt her, ... they break things they don't like."

pp. 404, 406 attitudes of the spirit-worker's helper

p. 404

"The gods and wights are a much more tangible presence in my life ... . ... I have become a deeply religious person."

p. 406

"Suddenly, gods and wights are everywhere, whether or not you perceive them. ... Every conversation comes back to one spiritual thing or another."

pp. 408-11 Meng-lo,d {'mingle hospitality' (etymology in "G&PM", p. 45)}

p. 408

"Menglo[,]th is the Lady of Lyfjaberg, the Jo[,]tun goddess of healing. ... In the lore ..., all who need her help must get to the top of her high mountain ... . When I went to see her, ... She appeared as a tall and rather plain giantess, swathed in white robes, with dozens of necklaces jangling ... . ... I had been referred to Menglo[,]th by Eir the healing oddess of Asgard {A`s-gard} ... . ... She easily told me the story of her courtship by Svipdag, and the strange truth behind it (published in the Jotunbok ["CMJ"])."

p. 409

spoken by Meng-lo,d : "Mountains have roots, and so must you. ... Then ask the land-wight to take you into its arms and eat you.


Don't fear -- landwights can eat you and regurgitate you without harm to you or it. ...

{This is the classical Siberian (and Eskimo) process of being transformed into a shaman.}


Ask it to eat you, and then release you in a little while ... when the Sun sinks to a certain level of the trees. ...

p. 410

As above, so below".

{quotation from the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistos}


But later, ... the Otherworlds pull you across that line ..., and

p. 411

you begin to see the physical world as ... something to be fled. That is the beginning of Death."

{The linga of markat.a (emerald) is venerated by Yama, divine guide into the world of the dead.}

"G&PM" = Svava Jakobsdo`ttir (transl. by Katrina Attwood) : "Gunnlo,d and the Precious Mead". In :- Paul Acker & Carolyne Larrington (edd.) : The Poetic Edda : Essays on Old Norse Mythology. Routledge, London & NY, 2002. pp. 27-58. http://books.google.com/books?id=j4bufbA_UpQC&pg=PA45&lpg=PA45&dq=

"CMJ" = ""The Courting of Mengloth" from The Jotunbok". http://www.northernpaganism.org/shrines/mengloth/information/mengloths-story.html

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Raven Kaldera : Wyrdwalkers : Techniques of Northern-Tradition Shamanism. Asphodel Pr, Hubbardston (MA), 2007.

Abbreviated names :-


G.K. = Galina Krasskova

L.H. = Lydia Helasdottir

J.M. = Jessica Maiestas

E.V. = Elizabeth Vongvisith