(Please note: I am not offering basic instruction for trance-work here; I’m offering some specific chanting tools for people who already know how to do this.  If you want good guidance for beginning or advanced trance-working, I recommend Diana Paxson’s book Trance-Portation: Learning to Navigate the Inner World.) Also note: the program here doesn’t allow me to space the verses of the chants clearly, so I mark the beginning of each verse using tildes (~).

Some kinds of Heathen-oriented spiritual activities involve entering into trance or other states of altered consciousness.  There are any number of ways to do this, and many different reasons one would want to.  Two main reasons are for spiritual exploration, and for raising wode and inner power.  Here are two chants, one primarily to use for a spirit-journey of otherworldly exploration, the other primarily for raising inner power through a deep understanding of the rune Nauthiz or Need.

These songs can be chanted or droned, preferably with something like dancing, drumming, musical background droning, clapping, stamping or other trance-inducing rhythmical patterning.  I have my own tunes for these songs, and at some point will try to post them here.  You can make up your own tunes if you like, but droning works really well, too: just pick a musical note that is comfortable for you, and drone or ‘buzz’ the song all on that note, with intensity.  Once you start doing that, you may well find yourself going off on a tune of your own, without even thinking about it; it just happens.  You can play background music of drumming or a didgeridoo, if you wish, but it needs to be non-distracting from the words of the song.  (And for purists, I am not claiming that either of these instruments was traditional in elder Heathen times!  But they work very well, nevertheless.)

Some of the words in these songs may seem rather mysterious in meaning, especially in the Nied-Runa Song, which is deliberate!  When we seek contact with Mystery, it’s best to use mysterious means to attune our minds to a trans-rational state of being, where logic and clear explanations have no place.  Instead, we want evocative, half-understood images, that tease our imaginations and offer any number of vague interpretations that we can use for our own entrancing purposes. 

The Dancer of Dreams

The Dancer of Dreams in this chant is a deliberately undefined figure, because each of us who uses trance-journeying has our own spirit-guide(s) into the otherworlds.  The guide may be a soul-being such as the Fylgja or Fetch; an ancestral spirit, a Deity, a figure from Heathen lore, a benevolent wight of some kind.  Wights and Fylgjur may take animal-spirit forms.  This trance-chant practice assumes that you already have such a spirit-guide.  Before you begin, call on this being and ensure that you both understand that “Dancer of Dreams” is referring to that being, for the duration of this chant-working.  Also, before you begin, use your customary practice to hallow and protect the space-time of your journey.

In place of the words “you, we” in the chant, you can use “I”, whichever makes most sense in the circumstances.

When singing this with a group, a chant-leader can chant the first two lines of each verse, perhaps with drumming or soft, rhythmic stamping accompaniment, then the group can drone the last line from within their trance.  They may choose to stamp or clap along, in unison, or all engage in dancing / stepping / shuffling in a circle or spiral while chanting.

The song, or individual verses, can be repeated to prolong the experience, and you can separate each verse with a time of humming, clapping, etc., if you wish.  Or the chant can be used as an entry process into your otherworldly exploration, where you use it to enter your journey, then fall silent.

There is a verse toward the end of the song that calls on your spirit-guide to dance a message for you, hovering over the edge of the world.  Allow time for this to happen; you can hum your drone-note during this time, to keep the trance going.

At the end of the song I’ve offered a call-back process; be sure to use this, or your own process for returning from the trance-world back to Midgard, and ground yourself afterwards.  Now, begin!

~~You are the drum,

You are the dance,

Follow the Dancer of Dreams.

~~Follow the drum,

Follow your blood’s song,

Follow the Dancer of Dreams.

~~Dance for the Holy Ones

Who set our souls afire,

Follow the Dancer of Dreams.

~~Dance for the Kin-Souls,

Whispers on the wind,

Follow the Dancer of Dreams.

~~Dance for the wights of Worlds

Who fill the Tree with life,

Follow the Dancer of Dreams.

~~Dance for the Beast-Souls,

Mighty on the Earth,

Follow the Dancer of Dreams.

~~Dance for the Bird-Souls,

Soaring on the wind,

Follow the Dancer of Dreams.

~~Dance for the Water-Souls,

Gliding through the deeps,

Follow the Dancer of Dreams.

~~Dance around the World-Tree,

Wreathe around its might,

Follow the Dancer of Dreams.

~~Dance Yggdrasil’s root-paths,

Dance the twining maze,

Follow the Dancer of Dreams.

~~Deeper, ever deeper dance,

Down to the root of Worlds,

Follow the Dancer of Dreams.

~~Dance to the deepest place

Where dream holds wisdom’s key:

Follow the Dancer of Dreams.

~~Wait here at the ledge

While over World’s Edge

Dances the Dancer of Dreams…

    Dances the Dancer of Dreams…

        Dances the Dancer of Dreams…

~~You are the drum,

You are the dance,

Called by the Dancer of Dreams…

Called by the Dancer of Dreams.

Call-back: Use whatever your usual method is, or you can use this one:

Four slow, deliberate drumbeats, stamps and / or claps, spaced evenly apart, while chanting the following word-patterns.  Repeat these patterns as long as you feel is needed.  These patterns change the surging-forward motion of the dance into a slower, more deliberate action, calling us to slow, pause, and turn around, back toward our Midgard-minds again.

Step, step, step, step.

Turn, turn, turn, turn.

Back, back, back, back.

Step, step, step, step.

Then a pattern of three somewhat faster beats or claps, repeating as long as needed:

Mid-gard calls / we are home / Mid-gard calls / we are home…

Finally, a flurry of quick drumbeats or claps, and a cry of “Wake up!”  Breathe deeply, stretch and move, and ground yourself with food and / or a pinch of salt, and water.

Nied-Runa Song

This song or chant presents mysterious images, evocative of the bone-deep power of life’s strongest urges, felt at all levels of soul, mind and body.  It is a magical rune-chant, an embedding-within and a celebration of the Need-Rune, Nauthiz:

“Need is a constriction within the chest, though it often becomes a source of help and healing to ‘affliction’s children’ (nitha bearnum: human beings, subject to troubles and afflictions), when it is heeded in time.” 

This song honors the ordeals, challenges and constraints of our life, and the driving courage embedded within our very life-force that urges us to strive and overcome the constrictions of Need.  It is a song sung by our Self to our self, to raise and strengthen our inner powers through the challenge of the constraints we face, and focus these powers on the greatest Needs of our souls and body.  It is full of symbolism that I sense through my life-experience, and I hope will provide meaningful symbols for you, perhaps quite different from mine.  That’s the advantage of ‘mysterious allusions’—they can morph into different shapes for different people!  And you may like to add your own verses to this song, expressing your own most meaningful symbols and experiences relating to the mystery of Nauthiz / Nied.

I find it powerful to repeat the song several times through, singing / droning more slowly and intensely each time.  You may also want to pause and drone after any of the verses, or repeat specific verses, if you feel power rising especially strongly from that verse.  You may also feel inspired to extemporaneously insert your own verses as you chant, especially after repeating the song several times.

This power-raising practice is especially helpful, any time you are facing a real challenge or difficulty in your life, when you need to raise your personal power, courage, and determination to meet the challenge, or face the difficulty and overcome it.  Using a physical action to complement the chant helps in this process: drumming, stamping and clapping, martial arts movements, powerful dance, rowing movements with your arms, or other physical action that feels right.  I especially like the rowing movements, because they feel not only like rowing a boat strongly through oncoming waves, but also like my arms are tearing away bands of constraint across my chest, as described in the Need rune-poem.  The rhythm of the verses works perfectly with the back and forth movements of rowing, too.  If you have an exercise machine, like rowing, cycling, treadmill, or stair-steps, chanting this while working on the machine will add power, too!   Throw yourself into this, body and souls.

~~Of Need and Desire,

Of the smoking fire,

Of the stringent birth

And the true soul’s worth,

            I sing you the Runa of Nied!

~~With Need’s cinch drawn taut,

The battle is fought,

Still blinded by smoke

The flame I awoke,

            Singing the Runa of Nied!

~~Through birth-passage dim,

Through crushing weight grim,

The birth-gate I seek,

Aglow with blood-heat,

            Singing the Runa of Nied!

~~Of the rushing Ond,

Of earth, blood and bone,

Of the Mother’s breast,

And the wild God’s quest:

            I sing you the Runa of Nied!

~~The narrow path sings,

The echoed horn rings,

Through the craggy pass,

Through the deep-cleft gash,

            Singing the Runa of Nied!

~~By power withheld,

By a soul bespelled,

By the Poet’s Mead,

The silent word heed—

            Singing the Runa of Nied!

~~Through hottest Needfire,

Through life and desire,

Through power constrained,

The path of might gained,

            Singing the Runa of Nied!

This chant works very nicely for an individual or group re-birthing or new beginning ceremony.  I have used it this way: find an outdoor space where two trees are growing close together, to serve as a birth-passage.  For an individual ceremony, stand, sit or lie between the two trees while reading or chanting the poem, then crawl, walk or leap through, and spend some time in meditation. 

For a group ceremony, the leader(s) (ideally two, one beside each tree) stand on one side of the tree-passage, while participants line up, one behind the other, on the other side.  The song is chanted or read all together, one time through.  Then the leaders chant it again, as each person in turn steps between the trees. 

Additional ritual elements: sprinkle or wet the head of the person stepping between the trees, and / or bless them with a Thor’s Hammer.  If they want to take a new ceremonial name, speak the new name while blessing with water and Hammer.  To make the birth more challenging, of their own choice people can crawl rather than walk between the trees, or leap as high as they can while going through. 

Another option is to offer each participant a ‘birth-gift’ of some kind, after they have gone through the passage.  A nice rendition of the Nauthiz rune is ideal, or a bind-rune that includes Nauthiz.  Here is one of mine that I like: as well as Nauthiz, it includes Perthro for birth and wyrd, Ingwaz for the hero and the seed of courage, Jera for bringing our changes into fruition, Laguz and the Anglo-Saxon rune Ac / Oak for the sea-journey of life and the oaken ship that carries us through it, with Eihwaz, Kenaz, and other runes hiding here, as well.