Published by Avalonia
ISBN - 10: 1-905297-52-1

Reviewed by Rig Svenson 2011©

Seiðr the Gate is Open  Working with Trance Prophesy, the High Seat and Norse Witch Craft by Katie Gerrard

Table of Contents

1. The Volva
2. The Seer
3. The Sorceress
4. The High Seat
5. The Dead
6. The Other
7. The Gods
8. Seidr in Antiquity
9. Contemporary Seidr
10. Conclusion
11. Further Reading
12. Bibliography

The author Katie Gerrard is a writer, researcher and workshop facilitator with a passion for the magic of runes and seiδr. In my dealings with Katie, I have found her to be an honest straightforward helpful individual with a passion for magic and a flair for the truth. Seidr the Gate is Open reflects the author’s experiential journey within the framework of modern oracular High Chair trance working reconstructions based on elements of Diana Paxon’s experimental Hrafnar (means ravens) style of reconstructed California Boot Strap *seiδr or rather Spǽ workings which I experienced during the early 90s as well as incorporating several ideas taken from Galina Lindquist’s “Shamanic Practice”, the Greenland Saga and other authors on the subject matter such as Dubois, Thorsson, Blain and Stromback. What I found refreshing in this book is that the author devotes several pages early on in her work towards protection, keeping order and psychic first aid. Sadly this area has been found wanting in other Spǽ reconstruction Groups during the past and especially in the early days of this experimental form of platform magic.

The author states clearly on pg 76 of her book, "I am anxious not to look to suggestions that some things are seiδr and some are not, but I have sort to focus on practice that has been inspired and reconstructed from the original texts, even though often this might be far removed from what was originally done." But perhaps this is the crux of the matter, that way too many versions of *seiδr are being randomly reinvented incorporating just about any magical current to make it work including African voodoo and shaking trance by the intellectually lazy or the non academic magical fraternity? The usual excuse is that because in their view so very little is actually known about seiδr, that it is OK to re-invent the whole subject area to fit in and suit their post modernist mindset. Historical seiδr on the other hand is described at length in a number of Old Norse sources and is approximately pronounced ‘saythe’ rhyming with the modern English ‘swathe’ with an inflected ‘r’ sound at the end, thus ending up in as ‘sayther’ or Seiδur. Seiδr historical it seems was actually a collective term for whole complex of practices under what could be considered to be Norse magic. The general notion however inflects that seiδr comes under the auspice of trance prophesy or the high seat, clearly it does not. Seiδur in my view is very sexual in nature, (Jochens 1996:217) something dismissed by many modern reconstruction groups who disregard that part of our lore outright mainly because of personal biases towards sexuality or bearing a post modernist Christian mindset rather than a heathen one. To her credit, the author gives references to cursing seiður with a view to cause impotence in a man with a particular woman in mind as related in Njals saga. This off course is very old magic attacking the intended victim with songs and chants outside their home and during the hours of darkness possibly on a raise platform whilst the intended target of the curse remains in a dream state and vulnerable to mind bending seiδr magic suggestions by the attacker.

The very first specific study of seiδr came as far back as 1892 with Finur Jonson's landmark paper in Icelandic Festschrift to Pali Melsted although the earliest work seems to have been carried out discussing the role of seiδr by Johan Fritzner in 1877. There occur five categories of sorcery in the sources apart from seiδr:

1) galður
2) ganðr
3) utiseta
4) odinic sorcery
5) popular magic

Based on the lore, history and mythology, historical seiður has five fundamental working areas which are:
1)Galður The Anglo-Saxon word galðor (Old Norse galdr) refers to a kind of magical charm that is chanted or sung but I would suggest that some of these songs had a deliberation to mislead the novice listener from the real reasons which are the deception arts.

2)Runes FuÞark runes were in my opinion used in conjunction with elixirs and potions as a means of simple timing as well as an illusion art to confuse a perspective client as to the precise natureof the spell work.

3)Secrecy There were many reasons for secrecy. Amongst the most important in my view was to preserve the art from those who have no right to know, would steal it and twist our ways into something intangible. But more importantly, to maintain a kind of captive market where only the limited few knew about these arts.

4)Symbols(eg:Tree,Well).Symbols to me are a useful tool to enable passage to other realities or serve as a meeting/returning point and perhaps more

5)Sexual Acts Various heroic poems in Eddaic lore were extended to imply that the Valkyrie besides serving ale to the einherjar also gave sexual pleasure to the chosen warriors. Völurs by all accounts were considered sexually dangerous.

Ráðomk þér Loddfáfnir  I advise you, Loddfafnir,

en þú ráð nemir  to accept advice;

njóta mundu ef þú nemr  you'll do well if you do, 

þér munu góð ef þú getr  it will be good for you if you get it:

fjölkunnigri konu  in the arms of a sorceress

skalattu í faðmi sofa,  you must never sleep

svá at hon lyki þik liðom  so she can lock you with her limbs -- 

Havamol 113 Ursula Dronke Vol III Mythological Poems 2011 translation

The following according to scholarly research is what West Nordic seiðr purports to be:

1) Divining the future
2) Killing arts
3) Inflicting misfortune
4) Depriving people of their wits, or augmenting them
5) Depriving people of their strength, or augmenting it
6) Revealing the hidden
7) Opening mountains, stones, underground places and burial mounds
8) Binding the inhabitants to these places

I found the author’s Chapter on the Sorceress both interesting and fascinating. On the subject of Night Mares, the author discuses the evening rider or Kveldrida. The kveldriður can be found in the Icelandic law codes as trollriður or riders of witchcraft. If you are comfortable with ceremonial magic and role-play, you will certainly enjoy the layout in which the author has set out the High Seat Rite. It is very structured and well thought out. My own view is that no historical evidence whatsoever exists to suggest that seiðr was ever practiced by groups of individuals collectively selected from the general neo-pagan populace. Historical seiðr remains a solitary and very skilled profession taking many years to become accomplished in although a seiðr-practitioner might have attendants or even an apprentice in training. Rarely do the sagas report a group of seiðr-workers practicing together; If anything they were usually kinfolk, such as a pair of sisters, a mother and her daughter or family tradition, and the like (Ellis-Davidson, 37-38). The solitary path of one master and one child apprentice via personal family traditions is more believable using the oral traditions. That is to say nothing was ever written down and these arts were entirely transmitted orally from a very young age and committed to memory. This is something inherently lacking in today’s modern schooling of the “Old Ways”. Seiδr or at least the practice of magical arts was restricted to very specialized professionals whose skill were prized and respected within their communities (Jochens, Old Norse Magic and Gender, 307; Ellis-Davidson,37)

A great deal of thought and research has gone into this book and although I do not hold with the views on the High Seat as where our focus should be regarding the subject of reconstructed seiδr practices in the modern world, this work is none the less well thought out structured and referenced throughout with some excellent advice for those interested in trance possession work within the framework of the sagas. The author in her conclusion sums it up well: "The Gate is Open is the product of more than a decade of researching, experimenting and evaluating. It seems however, still to be only a scratch on the surface of my work with seiðr".

My thoughts: ..........perhaps the most inaccessible magical phenomenon in West Nordic History, namely seiδr

Emanuel Linderholm but quoted by Gertrud Gidlund 2000:325 (Stromback's daughter)