The three types of magic in the Asatru tradition are galdr, seidhr, and stadhr. Galdr is word magic and includes runes and poetic or musical spells. Seidhr, or seidh, is trance magic and includes spae (foretelling the future by contacting the dead), astral projection, lucid dreaming, and various forms of shapeshifting. Stadhr is position magic. It is usually an adjunct to one of the other two types. Stadhagaldr is runic yoga. Vanastodhur is runic kama sutra. Bersarkrgangr is the possession trance of the animal totem, which is usually accomplished by dancing. Dancing is a form of position magic.
Runic magic is much more widespread in modern Asatru than it was in ancient days, mostly because many Asatruars first encounter the Asatru tradition in books about rune magic. Each of the twenty-four runes of the Elder Futhark (runic alphabet) has both an inner and an outer meaning. Creation of rune tines (talismans) usually works with the inner meaning, and rune casting (fortune telling) usually works with the outer meaning. The inner meaning is also called North-Axis or esoteric, and the outer meaning is also called East-Axis or exoteric.
Fortune tellers also often have extensive lists of specific answers to questions for each rune, for example, each rune can be assigned to be either male or female, and to correspond with seasons, directions (left/right, up/down, north, south, east, west), or time periods (long ago, recent, at a specific time of year). Directions can be used to find lost objects or predict where a person you will meet is from; these are the types of questions that phone psychics and other fortune tellers expect to be asked. How likely the runes are to find a lost object depends on how large a ripple the object projects on the surface of the water of the well of wyrd. A lost wedding ring may make a medium circle; a lost nuclear missile will probably cast a large circle of ripples; a lost wallet will probably cast no ripples at all. Because each of the twenty-four runes has a specific number from one to twenty-four, runes can be used to find one's lucky numbers. Remember: The numbers are lucky for you, but someone else who is betting that day may have more luck than you do. Having a lucky runic number is no guarantee of winning.
The following rune chart lists the runes by name instead of shape. The shapes that correspond with the names can be found in any book of rune magic. One should get a book specifically devoted to the runes before attempting to work magic.
This is the type of rune chart one would use for the simplest form of runic fortune telling, choosing one rune to answer a specific question. A full rune casting is done on a casting cloth with three areas marked off, the inner circle representing the person, the middle circle representing other people and the immediate environment, and the outer circle representing the future. The runes have many meanings, and the interpretations interact with each other depending on position. Also, rune reading is not just about lore and assigned meanings; it is a form of object reading by psychic touch, and an experienced runovitki (rune witch) senses the energy of the runes.
There is no such thing as a blank rune. The blank rune was added to rune sets in the 20th century by an occultist familiar with the Chinese fortune telling system I Ching, which has a blank lot. A futhark is an alphabet. A blank rune is like a blank key on your computer's keyboard: its only possible use is for a user to assign a meaning.
If you possess a rune set that includes a blank rune, you can keep the blank as a spare in case one of your runes gets lost or breaks. My first rune set was made from rocks I picked up in a river bed near my house, and over the years I broke several of the stones and I had to get another set of runes.
However, the idea of using a blank rune in rune casting to mean “the unknowable” is alien to the world view of the runes. The runes are the forces that govern the way the universe works. They are like the laws of science. If any of them were unknowable, Odin could not be omniscient, and our entire religious system would break down. It was Odin who first learned the secrets of the runes and taught them to humanity, and there is nothing that is unknowable to him.
Runic yoga draws runic energy into the body by assuming positions that look like the shape of the rune. Runic kama sutra works the same way but uses two bodies to create the shape. Runic numerology counts the numbers of the runes in a runic formula or name and manipulates the numbers in various ways to derive other rune meanings. Information on runic yoga and runic numerology is available in Futhark: A Handbook of Rune Magic, by Edred Thorsson. Many Asatruars today no longer read his books, because he left Asatru, but his book is still a fine introduction to the runes.
Poetry is used in many contexts in Asatru. It can be used in toasts, in calling for the blessings of the gods and other spirits in elaborate blots, and in magic. Poetry used to work magic is a spell. Spells can also incorporate physical symbols such as stones, wood, colors, idols, herbs, candles, costumes, and so forth.
Traditional Norse poetry uses alliteration rather than rhyme. The following are basic rules of alliterative poetry in the ancient Norse styles: Each line must have four stressed syllables. Three out of the four syllables must alliterate. The most common alliteration structure is a-a-a-b, although others are often included in longer poems to vary the meter. Unstressed syllables are not counted. All vowels alliterate with each other. S, st, and sp only alliterate with those specific combinations; s and st do not alliterate with each other. Fornyrdhislaug is the specific poetic form most often used for chanting positive spells; mallahatr or curse meter is for negative spells. Fornyrdhislaug has eight lines, and the final line is often a close variation or a repeat of the line before it.
The difference between a spell and a prayer can seem purely semantic when the spell calls upon the power of a god to effect change, as in the following example. This is written as a spell in the fornyrdhislaug style, but it is effectively a prayer to Eir for healing. Even when the work clearly meets the definition of a prayer, most heathens prefer to call it a spell because the word prayer has Christian connotations and associations that heathens find undesirable.
What makes this work is not the quality of the poetry, but the wholehearted, unreserved desire for the outcome, what magic users call “True Will.” This is the reason each spell-caster should write his or her own spells; both spellcraft and prayer must come from the heart.
A Kidney for Katie
Eir the healer harken to heathen.
Eir the healer hear my hope.
My fair and fearless friend Katie
Has need now of noble generosity.
Hale and whole make her.
Life from death: a donor destine.
Eir catch a kidney for Katie.
Eir carry a kidney to Katie.
Although alliterative poetry is the most traditional, any type of formal poetry can be used for a spell.
Seidh is traditionally women's magic. Most of what was preserved in the Sagas were heroic tales and the deeds and interests of men; women's magic was suppressed during the time period when oral tradition ended and things were written down. Modern-day seidh practitioners have reconstructed the ritual of the spakona, or spae-woman, described in the lore. She sits on a high seat and is aided into trance by drumming and chanting. She journeys to the bridge into Hel with her audience, then leaves them at the gate and continues inside to speak with the dead. The audience members ask her advice, and she answers, usually in Delphic-style riddles or with dream-like imagery. Then she returns. In the old days, the spakona wore special clothing including cat-skin gloves, and prepared for the ritual by eating the hearts of one of each type of livestock in the holding of the audience. This practice is no longer followed. Those wishing to learn seidh are advised to apprentice with a seidh practitioner. Passing the gate of Hel, or going under the blue archway on the bridge to Hel, is dangerous to attempt without training in how to find your way back.
In the old days, seidh was also used for healing and hexing, but the reconstruction of those techniques has not been completed. It is a promising avenue of research for those wishing to be the first to find something new about the old ways.
The recent modernist vs. traditionalist schism split Asatru attitudes toward male seidh workers. In the era in which the Sagas were written down, it was thought unmanly for men of the warrior caste to practice seidh, even though Odin practices it. Seidh is a trance in which the practitioner channels spirits, is possessed by gods or spirits, or leaves the body. The spirit that enters the practitioner is seen as spiritual receptivity, which is considered a female gender role. Seidh is used to contact the dead, so necromancy is also seen as women's magic in heathen culture. Traditionalist Asatruars expect male seidh workers to act feminine in one of two acceptable ways. The seidh man can be a gay man who adopts feminine mannerisms, modes of speech, and other social signals considered appropriately feminine in modern American culture. Or, a seidh man can practice ritual transvestism, that is, he can adopt female dress and a female gender role for ritual purposes, a practice that may have been influenced by the cultural contact of ancient heathens with Saami and Siberian shamans. Traditionalists regard gender as socially determined, something that can be put on and taken off like clothes. Modernists hold the opposite view. Modernists believe that any gender can practice any type of magic. Most modernists reject ritual transvestism. Modernists differ from each other in the extent to which they are accepting toward trans, gender fluid, and nonbinary people, and toward performers of transvestism and drag, but most modernists consider ritual transvestism to be invalid. However, some heathen gatherings that may include traditionalist and modernist Asatruars may have official programming that includes male seidh workers engaging in ritual transvestism, in addition to other transvestism and drag related programming such as wedding drag contests in honor of Thor.
Bersarkrgangr is also a form of trance magic, but because 1) in the ancient world it was not considered remotely similar to seidhr; 2) it was never considered womens' magic; and 3) it is achieved through dance, which is position magic, it is therefore considered under Stadhr.
Bersarkrgangr is also a form of trance magic. As mentioned previously, in the Asatru tradition, position magic such as yoga and dancing is usually used as part of another form of magic. That is also true of bersarkrgangr.
In the Sagas, bersarkrs were presented as literal shape-shifters. One could meet a bear or a boar or a wolf and not know it was human until it reverted to human form after death. Modern bersarkr tradition holds that the transformation is purely spiritual, and only highly attuned aura readers and those with The Sight can perceive the form of the animal totem wrapped around the human host.
Bersarkr literally means “bear shirt.” In the old tales, most bersarkrs had bear totems. Today, with fewer bears in the world, and fewer human/bear encounters, most bersarkrs are actually either “ulfhedhinn” (wolf brothers) or “Chatti” (cat people). Boar or sow was also a common totem in the old days, although if this totem had its own special name for its people, it has been lost. Only the words bersarkr, ulfhedhinn, and Chatti survived. Bersarkrs can have more than one totem. Most totem spirits are mammals, but other animals and even trees are claimed by some modern-day bersarkrs.
The word bersarkrgangr means “going forth in the bear shirt,” or journeying while possessed by the totem. In the Sagas, bersarkrgangr was used for combat, physical labor, and sports. Modern bersarkrs usually only use the bersarkrgangr trance for spiritual purposes and for ritual dance display at festivals. In the 21st century, there is a movement to revive bersarkrgangr as a martial art.
Bersarkrs are usually thought of as Odin's warriors, filled with the divine madness of his inspiration. However, the Chatti tribe of cat bersarkrs, from what is today France, followed Freya.
One question that comes up when people become interested in heathen magic is: where does magic come from? Magic is the original state of all matter and energy in the universe. Magic is what was in Ginnungagap, meaning “magically charged void,” the unified field of potential that existed before the universe exploded into being. Although this describes the universe before time began, we can still access the original forces of creation by reaching outside of the limits of linear time through magic.
In addition to traditional heathen magic, many familiar forms of magical practice can be adapted to Asatru. For example, those familiar with Ceremonial Magic and/or Wicca usually begin magical rituals by “calling the quarters,” invoking four guardians, one for each of the cardinal directions, to invoke sacred space. If you are comfortable with this in your magic, you can easily adapt heathen symbolism to it. Many Asatruars use the Hammer Rite from Futhark: A Handbook of Rune Magic by Edred Thorsson to draw protective circles.
An Asatruar can use many different types of magic in addition to the three kinds unique to Asatru. Those interested in herbs and so forth should obtain several books devoted solely to that subject.
