The ancient goddess Nehalennia
Nehalennia is a very ancient Vanic goddess. She is goddess of the ocean. She is related to hounds, trade, the sea, ships, and the harvest of the sea itself. She rules over passage from one state to another, such as the transitions from living to death (or my theory is the other way around too), and any journeys by water. She is an ancestor goddess of Njord, Freyja, and Freya. Her nature seems to be calming, gentle and providing, yet wild and untamed, in many ways like the character of the sea itself. She is seen to have very water like appearance. Some see her as very beautiful, with wide bright young eyes like a young girls, a perfect and lean figure, and wearing a hound necklace, being topless and wearing a very tiny mini skirt, and wearing a fishing net as a shawl. Her color is a blue green like the sea. I feel her runic energy for sure is laguz in a big way! Alternate spellings of her name are Nehelennia, and Nehalenni.
Some consider her a goddess of the dead, but I feel that isn’t exactly correct. She isn’t a Goddess that comes to claim the dead, but more one that helps them to safely make their journey to that realm. She basically rules safe passage from one place to another (either places being earthly places or even places as in states of being as in travel from the world of the living to world of the dead). This is more of a protecting and nurturing thing. Not harsh like for example Hel can be at times. Basically the historical offerings to her that have been found, they seem to have found were ones given in thanks for sailors making safe passage. Travel in general is associated in movement from one realm to another. This is connected with the rune laguz. This seems to be her energies. She is very connected to the goddess and female mysteries of helping beings pass from one state to another. Since women are the ones who give birth they rule over this aiding of beings coming from one realm to the other. Birth is a transition from the spiritual realm to the physical realm, in the same way birth is a transition from the physical realm to the spiritual realm. What is interesting also about birth and about the womb is it is a realm filled with water. This is very connected to the mysteries of wells or caldrons in the Norse cosmology. There are three important wells, and it is considered that wyrd (the Norse concept of fate or karma) for all beings flows through these wells. It is of course water that flows through wells so it seems wyrd and water are very connected. Since Nehalennia is a goddess that can be seen as the personification of water itself, it only makes sense that she rules over this mystery of the passage of wyrd or the passage from one state to another or even journeys or movement in general. Another rune connected with this mystery is perthro, but perthro may be considered the captured state of the flow of water in a sudden given moment. Yet Nehalennia seems to be more the open oceans, waters freely flowing without restriction, thus she is more related to laguz, not really to the parts of this process connected to perthro. Perthro is more the well structure itself, the vagina, laguz is more the water contained in it. A vagina is of course a very wet comforting place. ;) These mysteries are very Vanic in nature, since the Vanir are connected to both sexuality and to water and ships.
The drawing I have of Nehalennia is made by Amarina and used with her permission.
More about Nehalennia:
Amarina’s experience of Nehalennia.
Another very good post Amarina wrote about her impressions of Nahalennia, and the Vanir as a whole.
Info based on spiritual experiences of Nehalennia on Amarina’s blog.
Info on Hehalennia from livius.org.
She is written about in Our Troth Volume 1, pages 394-395.
She is also in Exploring the Northern Tradition, page 118.
An invocation to Nehalennia:
Hail Nehalennia! Beautiful goddess of the hounds, trade, and the sea! Lost lady of the Vanir! Ancestor of Njord, Freyja, and Freyr!
Vikings video 1
It is important to learn about the Vikings and their culture in studying and learning Heathenism.
Volmarr’s daily spiritual rituals and practices
This is shared so as to inspire others to perhaps take up a similar set of daily practices. It really does help a great deal to have such a daily practice, and it is the key thing in making ones religious practice truly spiritual.
Every day I do the following and in this order:
Short invocation prayer to Sunna, which comes from Northern Tradition for the Solitary Practitioner, page 53.
A Hammer hollowing ritual to banish negative energies and invoke protection and positive energies.
Short devotional ritual to Freyja in which I offer incense and candle flame, and draw one rune for the day. The ritual used is the one from Northern Tradition for the Solitary Practitioner, the morning devotional page 161, adding my own invocation at the start of it, and not doing the oil consecration part.
A set of short prayers related to most of the gods/goddesses (Aesir and Vanir). They are some of the prayers from chapter 5 of Northern Tradition for the Solitary Practitioner. That book says to do the prayers using prayer beads, but I don’t see any need for the beads, just go through the prayers I like each day. The ones I do are section I, section V, and the first part of section IX stopping at and including Njord. You can find those on pages 110-115.
Daily offering blot of grape juice to the god, goddess, or wight of the day. Fridays I offer separately to both Freyja, and Freyr. On Saturdays I now offer to Njord since he does not have his own day, and also to my ancestors. Other days the god, goddess, or wight whom the day of the week is named for. This daily blot is simple, I step outside with a horn filled with grape juice, raise the horn, speak the invocation, drink half the juice and pour out the rest for the god/goddess/wight.
On Tuesdays additionally in honor of Tyr I read through the thews (virtues) which I follow which happen to be the Vanir Virtues
15 minutes sitting silent meditation.
At night I do a short nightly devotional ritual to Freyja, similar to the one I do in the morning. It is the one listed in Northern Tradition for the Solitary Practitioner, as the evening devotional page 162-163, adding my own invocation at the start of it, and not doing the oil consecration part. In that ritual I thank Freyja for all positive things that have happened during the day. Thanking your god or goddess for positive things that happens helps to encourage more of similar things to happen in the future for you.
All of this may sound like a lot but it takes less than an hour to do the morning part, more often around 40 minutes, and makes a huge difference in how I feel in general and in greatly improved events for the day. The night part only takes 5 minutes if even that long. I even do that part in the middle of a moment I have woken from sleep if I happen to fall asleep before doing it, and then go right back to bed after.
Very insightful video on elves…
The elves and related being are a very important part of Heathenism. They represent a large variety of beings. The Norse term used for spiritual beings in general is wights.
Video on the Heathen Nine Worlds
Though I disagree with the haphazard lack of directions and levels at which she places the worlds and realms, the overall information is excellent.
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