I was late this month in my journey to see Freyja, and so I am late getting this to all of ya’ll, but hopefully it’s helpful or resonates with some of you. If you’re used to doing journeys from a script, great! Otherwise feel free to have some one read it to you, or record yourself reading it. Edit the intro and expand the outro if you need to, but please leave the middle intact, and don’t share the recording without telling them where to find my original post!
I recommend lighting a devotional candle and/or making a small offering to Freyja (perhaps a libation) before you begin. Prepare yourself however you normally would, to do work at an altar. For my part, that usually means wearing one of my devotional hair ribbons and perhaps donning magical jewelry, and acquiring something to go over my head while I journey.
Falcon Flight: Whose Wisdom Will You Seek?
Begin in stillness, and quiet, and darkness. Find your center, and align yourself with earth and sky. As you stare at the darkness behind your eyes, feel and see as mist swirls up from the ground, obscuring everything around you. After a moment, it begins to part, leaving you standing in a flowery meadow.
When you arrive in the meadow, take a moment to observe around you, turning until you see a path. At the entrance to the path are two shrubs, and as you move on that direction, you see trees as well. Shrubs give way to trees and undergrowth on either side of the path, getting taller and denser as you move onward, until they join overhead into an arch, forming a tunnel of trees that slopes downward, getting denser and darker.
Eventually, you notice that the path has become flat, and then it begins to rise. Now the trees are thinning again, branches giving way to brightness, and as the trees again give way to shrubs, you see a gate in front of a wide plain and beyond it, the great world tree. If you have any guides or guardians you wish to accompany you, ones who can join you in flight, call to them now, before you step through the gate and make your way towards the tree.
As you approach the World Tree, circle around it clockwise, until you see an opening beneath one of the great roots. Duck under this root and enter the tunnel beneath. There is hard dirt packed beneath your feet, and the entire tunnel seems to have been hewn from that same clay-rich dirt and sandstone. Not as many feet come this way — the floor is still rough in places, so watch your step as you continue forward. There are torches set into sconces in the rough hewn walls, and their light looks like fire but you feel no heat as we continue past, and you smell no smoke or pitch.
The tunnel curves gently and then begins to rise in a gradual incline, ending in a doorway, two huge stones on either side and capped with a third. Touch one gently as you step out into the fresh air — these are worn by the elements and smooth to the touch. If you look back to the entrance, you will notice that on this side, the tunnel leads into what looks like a large burial mound, standing alone in a large clearing, though the forest is slowly encroaching from all sides.
Smell the air — the pine sap scent is strong, and your nose can tell there is moving water somewhere nearby, even if your ears cannot yet hear it. Now you should continue, following a clear trail deeper into the forest. Your footfalls are muffled by pine needles, and the air seems still. The scent and after a while the sound of water is to your left as you walk, and after a short time, you arrive at a fork, with three paths to choose from.
You have been here before – normally we take the middle road. But today, coming walking towards you down that middle road is our Lady herself. She nods at you, and indicates for you to follow, leading you down the path to your left. A bit further on, she crosses a bridge over a small creek that is running high, and then the path turns again, and you can see that ahead of you it dead ends into a large field of some kind of golden grain, ripe and ready for the harvest.
As you come to the edge of a field, you see many people dressed in clothes of the early medieval period, singing and doing the hard work of harvest: those with strong shoulders swinging scythes, those with nimble fingers tying bundles, and others reaching down to collect the pieces that fall to the ground.
Two figures are larger than life and seem almost to shine with divine light, much like Freyja does. The man in stripped to the waist and wielding a scythe. With every swing of his scythe he cuts more than ten times any other person here. And when he turns to look at you and Freyja, you notice the family resemblance, how he is like a mirror of his sister: this is Freyr. The other figure is a woman with long golden hair that flows unbound around her. She is using her own hair in place of twine to tie the heaps of grain that Freyr cuts into bundles. As she looks up to smile at you, you realize this must be Sif*.
You may speak to either Sif or Freyr if you choose; or else join in the work and speak to the ancestors gathered here, to see what wisdom they might share about the work of the harvest.
[interlude]
When you are finished speaking with whomever you chose, say your farewells and return to Freyja’s side. You may speak to her as well, if you wish, on the walk back to the fork in the path. When you return to that crossroads, bid Freyja farewell, and then continue back the way you came: through the forest, to the mound, through the mound-tunnel and out from under the root, across the plain, and back to the gate, through the tunnel of trees, and back to the meadow. Then the mist will swirl up again, and take you back to your body.
* Okay, yeah, I know, Sif being a grain goddess is just supposition with no real evidence to back it up, but a lot of people do cast Sif in this role, and also when I tried to ask Freyja if I could equivocate without naming her as Sif, Freyja point blank insisted. Which still doesn’t prove anything, but my role here is to share what I’m told to share and I’m sure Freyja has her reasons.
Also, announcement: I’m currently migrating the website, so things might be a little wonky for a bit; bear with me, and as always, you can reach me via email and I’ll sort you out!