Winifred Hodge Rose
Note: This article summarizes and follows on from all of my Soul Lore and Soul Lore Study Guide articles. It is best understood after these previous essays have been studied first, especially if you want to work the challenging exercise offered at the end of this article.
In my essay The Arising of the Self, I describe the Self as something that is created and sustained by the synergy of all our souls interacting during our Midgard life. I refer to the Self as a song, and the singers as our souls, singing our Self into being through interweaving harmonic vibrations.
In this article, instead of the song of the Self, I’m using a different metaphor for us to work with: our Self as a broad energy-field of Awareness and Will, that is woven from the different forms of awareness, knowing, sensing, understanding, and willing that are characteristic of each of our souls.
Will and Awareness can be considered as the active and passive expressions of Being, of each of our souls. Awareness gathers in knowledge, sensations, perceptions; it is a passive, indrawing state. Will extends the essence of the soul outward through action. Awareness provides direction for Will, Will provides expression for Awareness.
If you’ve worked your way through my articles on each of the souls, along with their study guides and exercises, and put some time and effort into thinking about and digesting this information, you will be able to sense that our different souls have different modes and focuses of awareness, and their wills are directed in different ways. In the following sections, I summarize the features of each soul’s awareness, and by implication, the focus of its will. I also note how each soul’s awareness flows through or interfaces with our Lich-Hama, our soul-infused body, which is necessary whenever it interacts in Midgard.
This article serves both as a summary of Heathen soul lore, and lays the foundation for the next soul lore challenge: integrating these Awarenesses and Wills to bring our Eormensoul, our great-soul, into being, in a conscious and active way. As a first step in that direction, at the end of this article I offer an exercise to promote conscious interactions among these Awarenesses.
Ferah’s Awareness
What is Ferah most aware of?
Nature and the flows of energies through natural entities. The laws, patterns, and rhythms of natural life and the physical world that affect each of us as well as all other natural entities. Our connections with the beings of nature, both physical and metaphysical beings. Our connections and relationships with all the Deities, and especially with those who are most associated with Earth, sky, weather, and other powers of nature. A sense of Heathen piety and devotion is often an outgrowth of such connections.
Our membership in the Feorhcynn, the Kindred of the Living, and the strong connections and natural ethics that are outgrowths of that membership. An understanding of, and respect for, the need for fair laws, rules and norms to govern human societies and groups, and an understanding of how these human laws need to relate to natural laws and patterns.
For some people, all of these influences together cause them to be drawn to Heathen priesthood, a path which can take on many different shapes in practice. And / or they may be drawn to the role of the Heathen Lawspeaker or Thyle, who studies, discerns, interprets and recommends patterns of behavior that can best serve Heathenry, based on lore, philosophy, ethics, observation and experience.
How does Ferah sense and know this?
Through the impacts of outer stimuli on the sensitive subtle body of Ferah, coming through both physical and metaphysical sensory systems. Through the wisdom and experience that arise from Heathen devotion and practice. Through interactions and connections with humans and their societies, with the beings of nature, and with the Deities.
What purposes or functions does this awareness serve?
The abilities of the Ferah serve to attune us to the rhythms, patterns, laws, forces and powers of nature, of human groups and societies, and of the Deities and their worlds.
When, under what circumstances, does Ferah’s awareness operate most strongly?
Ferah is most aware and active when we consciously allow our everyday mind to pay attention to the things that matter to Ferah. This occurs very naturally during childhood, when children learn through attraction and experience that they are part of the Feorhcynn and of Nature, and can sense some of the patterns and rhythms that arise from that. Children are also busy with the process of learning how to interact in groups such as family, school, neighborhood, and begin to learn the rhythms, patterns and ‘laws’ or rules of life in a community. Many children have a natural interest in religious tales, observances and other patterning influences of religion. All of these things are ideal Ferah-influences during childhood. As adults, we benefit from reviving or recreating our awareness of these influences and patterns in our own daily lives.
Where, in what domain, is Ferah’s awareness primarily focused?
In the domains of Midgard nature, at both physical and metaphysical levels. Within our physical body with its sensory and neurological systems, and their connections with our emotions and perceptions. In the social domains, with the patterns, structures, norms and laws that shape them. Ferah has access and connections to both physical and metaphysical beings of nature, as well as to the Deities, and thrives when these connections are honored and nurtured.
How does Ferah interface through Lich-Hama?
Through La, the life-power that runs through our Hama’s blood and the warmth of our body. Through Læti, the Lich-Hama’s power of movement and speech.
How can we improve the quality of Ferah’s awareness?
By tuning in to the subtle substance of the life-force that fills our body and contains our sensation-awareness. By connecting through our own life-force with the life-force, the forms and energies, of natural entities and phenomena. Through in-depth interactions with our Deities. Through a soul-deep understanding that we are members of the Feorh-cynn, part of nature, part of the society and culture where we are embedded, that we benefit in various ways from these connections, and have a corresponding responsibility to participate in, support, and improve these collectives of which we are a part.
Ahma’s Awareness
What is Ahma most aware of?
A sense of universal oneness. The flows of spirit through all levels of being. Limitlessness, being unlimited by time, space, boundaries, restrictions. Pure Being, and the incipient movements of Becoming that vibrate imperceptibly through this substrate of Being.
How does Ahma sense and know this?
It knows this because it is this. Ahma is the essence of Being, that arises from the cosmic wellsprings of Being and the potential to Become.
What purposes or functions does this awareness serve?
Ahma is the wellspring of the sacred breath of life: physical and metaphysical breath and life. At the level of Ahma, sacred breath, life, Beingness, and awareness are one and the same thing, but this awareness is usually not perceptible to our everyday consciousness unless we learn to access it.
When, under what circumstances, does Ahma’s awareness operate most strongly?
When we are detached from daily concerns, engaging in forms of meditation, breathing, contemplation: whichever forms that work for us, that shape our own pathway into Ahma’s awareness. This can sometimes involve rhythmic and repetitive physical activity that moves us into “the Zone.”
Where, in what domain, is Ahma’s awareness primarily focused?
At the level of cosmic-mythic phenomena, the upwelling energies of Ginnungagap, Hvergelmir, the Elivagar; the incipient formations of Worlds and Beings, including personal Deities, as they begin the transition from potential to actuality. These phenomena occur outside of time; they are always ongoing, and form the habitation of Ahma.
How does Ahma interface through Lich-Hama?
Through our breath, lungs and diaphragm, and through the vital energies we absorb from breathing.
How can we improve the quality of Ahma’s awareness?
The quality of Ahma’s awareness is already in a state of perfection or completion. Improvement occurs within our soular system as a whole, as we learn to attune our everyday awareness and the awareness of our other souls with Ahma: pure awareness itself.
Ghost’s Awareness
What is Ghost most aware of?
Ghost bridges our Ahma and its habitat, on one end, with our Midgard body and life on the other. Ghost’s awareness resides in our Ghost-Mind, which hovers over and interpenetrates our physical brain. It is powered by our breathing: not only physical breath, but the breath of Ahma, and by those metaphysical energies surrounding us that can be absorbed by breathing. Breathing, and the awareness of our Ghost and Ahma, are closely connected. Ghost is most aware of its own interests, perspectives, the intellectual and creative challenges that attract it. It is less aware of other aspects of our life, such as physical and social needs.
How does Ghost sense and know this?
Ghost works primarily through interfaces with our brain and its functions, and through our respiratory system and its metaphysical capacities that absorb and send out subtle energies through the atmosphere that surrounds us.
What purposes or functions does this awareness serve?
Ghost’s awareness serves the vital function of linking our Midgard-oriented souls and Lich with Ahma and the cosmic powers it is connected to. It channels wode, inspiration, spiritual energy and life into us, and through us into the world of Midgard.
When, under what circumstances, does Ghost’s awareness operate most strongly?
When we are engaged in deeply creative, intellectual, or spiritual activities, explorations, and expressions of Ghost’s interests and powers. When we are caught up in a flow of wode, from the mildest to the wildest of wode-flows.
Where, in what domain, is Ghost’s awareness primarily focused?
In the domains of the mind, the spirit, and of spiritual energies. Ghost is less focused than many of our other souls on the daily activities of Midgard life.
How does Ghost interface through Lich-Hama?
Ghost’s primary interface comes through its overshadowing of our physical brain.
How can we improve the quality of Ghost’s awareness?
Through practices of meditation, contemplation, breath-work, and the raising of spiritual energies. Through attuning Ghost’s awareness with the awareness of our other souls, so they can work in concert rather than at cross-purposes with each other.
Hama’s Awareness
What is Hama most aware of?
The appearances and expressions of ourselves, other humans, and other physical and metaphysical beings, along with all the information and interaction that can be gained by this. Facial expressions, body language, the messages communicated through clothing, hairstyles, adornment, body art, etc. Everything that is communicated through verbal and tonal forms of speech. Impressions; the ability to identify who others are, and remember them. The stereotypes we have absorbed and formed, with their associated assumptions and prejudices, both conscious and unconscious. Status symbols, in-group cues, and ‘virtue signaling’. Any clues and cues that relate to social interactions with individuals and with groups.
Hama is aware of, and cares about, our own personal appearance and the messages it sends throughout the stages of our life. The fear of aging, of ‘losing our looks’ and our abilities, of blemishes and disfigurements, are rooted in our Hama, whose focus is on appearances, presentation, speech, and all the messages these can convey. Hama is also intimately aware of our own physical body and how it functions, its capacities, its skills and limitations.
How does Hama sense and know this?
Hama is enmeshed with our physical body, creating our Lichama. It uses our physical senses, our brain and nervous system, and the experience it builds during our life in order to interpret what it senses, and to shape itself, its Litr and Læti, according to the needs it perceives as our circumstances constantly change and adapt.
What purposes or functions does this awareness serve?
Some of the primary functions of our Hama constellate around the need to engage in human social interactions, create social ties and interactive social systems. Hama must also sense the pitfalls and dangers associated with these interactions, with help from some of our other souls like Hugr, and take appropriate action, which often involves protective camouflage.
To do all this, Hama needs to be able to identify and remember other individuals and groups of people, and to communicate with them. Hama is in charge of how we present ourselves to others, whether this presentation is a clear representation of our inner being, or whether it is presenting camouflage, or an “ideal” persona, or a specific role we are playing, etc.
Hama is also responsible for maintaining our physical body and its many abilities and skills. Its awareness needs to be attuned with all these functions so as to maintain them properly. All of our other souls must work through Lich-Hama in order to interact with the physical world, which means that Hama must also be aware of our other souls and have strong, shared links and channels with them.
When, under what circumstances, does Hama’s awareness operate most strongly?
During interactions with other people and our presentation of our self to others. During any threats to the wellbeing and functions of our Lich, including illness, injury, and threats to our self-image, our psyche, our social standing, our physical and social functions and abilities.
Where, in what domain, is Hama’s awareness primarily focused?
In the social and physical domains of Midgard.
How can we improve the quality of Hama’s awareness?
Hama is concerned with our physical appearance and presentation, and with the appearance and behavior of others. These things matter, but can result in overlooking or downplaying other important factors of our whole being and the beings of others. This focus can also lead to anxiety, depression, lack of self-esteem, extreme and unhealthy efforts to change how we look, etc, whenever we feel that we are failing to meet whatever standards of appearance and behavior that we believe are important. These matters can create a great deal of unhappiness and stress in our lives, and contribute to the same in the lives of others with whom we interact.
Hama is capable of taking quite a different functional approach. We can clarify our Hama by examining the stereotypes and assumptions about other people (and about ourselves), based on their appearance, that we have been taught by our family and society, and evaluate their true worth with regard to shaping our attitudes and behavior. We can work on clarifying the values that shape our Hama’s perceptions and behavior. Hama can work with our other souls to allow their fuller perceptions of, and expression into, the physical world.
As we age and gain in life experience, the gradual fading of our outer appearance and physical abilities can make room for the inner beauty, strength, wisdom of all our souls to shine through our Lich-Hama into our world. As we do this, we learn to perceive and value what lies under the surface of other people as well, and not rely only on their surface characteristics. This opens up many new directions for worthwhile interactions with others in all domains of life.
Aldr’s Awareness
What is Aldr most aware of?
Subtle energies that are present in food and drink, and in our ambient environment, which can serve to nourish, heal, and sustain our Lich and our souls. Time, and the passage of time, along with the natural and wyrded changes in our Lich and our Werold that are caused by time, ørlög, and Wyrd. Continuity in time, and the interplays and impacts that are brought about by the nexus of time, ørlög, wyrd, and forms of ‘luck’ as they affect us personally, and as they interweave to form what we perceive as causality, change, evolution, history.
A recognition that specific beings, phenomena, and events come to an end in the fullness of time: an instinctive awareness of entropy. Also an awareness that entropy itself is a deep substrate out of which new waves of Being arise. This comes about through entropic inversion within Hvergelmir, the Roaring Cauldron or cosmic wellspring, where non-being forms into Being.
Aldr itself comes to an end at the wyrded time, subject to spiritual entropy as a phenomenon of time, and returns to the Norns’ Well. Though it has ended, it becomes part of the Well of Wyrd, from which new Aldr-souls arise, which influence new beings and events in Time. This mirrors, on the personal level, the entropy-inversion that occurs within Hvergelmir. (There will be more discussion of this phenomenon in forthcoming writings.)
How does Aldr sense and know this?
Through its close connection with the Norns, their knowledge, and the Well of Wyrd. Through its nature as a fluid network of subtle channels that fill our Lich, which sense, gather, and channel subtle energy throughout our soul-body complex. Through its nature as our ‘body in time’, which can sense and perceive its time-surroundings as our Lichama and Ferah can sense and perceive their surroundings in space. All of these matters are part of Aldr’s instinctive or intuitive awareness, embedded within Aldr by the Norns, rather than intellectual and rational forms of awareness.
What purposes or functions does this awareness serve?
Aldr’s awareness serves to govern our life in time, and our connections with the Norns, ørlög and wyrd. It is focused on nourishing and healing our Lich and our souls with subtle energy, extending our life-span, and weaving our Werold.
When, under what circumstances, does Aldr’s awareness operate most strongly?
It operates most strongly through its connections with the Norns and their powers, with Time and changes through time, and through the impacts of ørlög and wyrd.
Where, in what domain, is Aldr’s awareness primarily focused?
In the flow of Time, ørlög, mortality and causality, and of time-based events and impacts on our life, Lich and Werold. In the realm of the Norns. In the realms of subtle energies that flow through physical and metaphysical worlds, and have the potential to nourish our whole soul-body complex when channeled rightly. In the ability to grasp our life as an interconnected wholeness, and find meaning in it.
How does Aldr interface through Lich-Hama?
Through La, the life-giving energy flowing through our blood and warming our body. Through the biological mechanisms of time and change. Through the nourishment it feeds into our body and souls.
How can we improve the quality of Aldr’s awareness?
Aldr naturally has a deep awareness of its own domains and functions. Its awareness is rather different from what we are used to from our daily experiences, however. Improvement can come about through gradually expanding our everyday awareness into the strange domains of Aldr’s otherworldly awareness. Important directions for such expansion include: becoming aware of the subtle, nourishing energies that surround us and penetrate material life forms such as food, herbs, water and air, and becoming aware of how to respectfully obtain those energies for our nourishment and healing. Learning to understand more about the Norns, their powers and actions. Meditating, pondering, examining our Werold, our personal history of experiences and actions; learning from this, understanding its deeper meanings, and coming to truly appreciate our own unique Werold. Pondering the strange phenomena of Time and ørlög, and our relationship to them.
Mod’s Awareness
What is Mod most aware of?
Opportunities, challenges, threats, problems, adventures, things that need to be ‘fixed’ in any way so they are better for us. The needs of everyday life. Things that it wants, especially opportunities for taking action of any kind: physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual. Our own Mod-Will, and the Mod-Will of others that may be cooperative with, adversarial, or neutral toward our own Mod-Will.
Mod is mindful of these matters not only as they involve and affect ourself, but also as they affect the groups we are a part of: family and kindred, friendships, religious establishments, workplace, neighborhood, volunteer groups, clubs and associations, city / state / nation, culture, ethnicity: any groups toward which we feel loyalty, obligation, reciprocity, dependence, and the urge toward service (including leadership) to the group. In this way, Mod reaches toward Sefa and their shared space, Modsefa.
How does Mod sense and know this?
Mod works primarily through its Will. In a way, Mod’s will is like a sensory organ: Mod can feel or sense the impact of outside events and actions on its own will-senses, on its own Will’s urges and needs, and responds accordingly.
What purposes or functions does this awareness serve?
The Mod-soul or Mod-being wants to live and act through us. It is integrated with our Lich and its actions and awareness, and works with (or sometimes against) our other souls to pursue what it wants. It is in Mod’s best interests to share its awareness with our Lich-Hama and our other souls, so as to participate fully in all the activities of our Midgard life.
When, under what circumstances, does Mod’s awareness operate most strongly?
Threat, challenge, opportunity, pursuing desires shared with Hugr, Sefa, and Ghost.
Where, in what domain, is Mod’s awareness primarily focused?
On Midgard life, with all its challenges and complexities.
How does Mod interface through Lich-Hama?
Through Læti, the physical abilities and activities of our Lichama, including speech, as well as the physical body itself, the Lich, including its power-centers. Through the powerful gaze of the eyes. Mod projects the power of its presence through our Litr, our soul-infused appearance and the impression that our physical presence makes. The condition of our Mod—weak or strong, healthy or unhealthy, charismatic or withdrawn, very much influences the appearance of our Hama’s Litr.
How can we improve the quality of Mod’s awareness?
Mod’s awareness is best improved by becoming more self-aware: entering into a state of Mod-awareness and observation, learning more about who our own Mod is, its strengths and weaknesses, and the nature and expressions of its Will. There is also great potential for improvement by pursuing better understanding between our Mod and our other souls, and between our Mod and the Mod of others—humans, animals, powerful natural phenomena and the otherworldly beings who are involved in them.
Hugr’s Awareness
What is Hugr most aware of?
Communication from ancestors (conscious or unconscious), hidden knowledge (includes spaecraft, runecraft, other divination, hunches, intuition, etc), motivations of others, strategic advantage, general powers of observation and thought, framework of thought, love and desire, friendship and trust, opinions, world-view, Midgard life and activities in general.
My own Hugr wants to add this, as a general observation about Hugr-souls: “I see in the light and in the dark, dayside and nightside. I can open doors into the past, and catch glimpses of the future. I seek knowledge and insight from many sources; I’m good at interpreting it, and at reading people and situations. But if I am not clear / clarified, my interpretations may be skewed by the attitudes, moods, opinions, distractions, and desires of myself, and maybe of other souls of our Hiwship. I have longings and desires; I reach vigorously toward what I long for. Many of the intentions of our whole soul-household are mine, or come through me. I know what lies in our heart; I know and work with Sefa, and I watchfully ward Sefa.”
How does Hugr sense and know this?
Hugr is a daemon-soul, a being in itself, who has the abilities of perception, thought, judgement, decision-making, reasoning, etc. Hugr is heavily involved with all the ways that we are used to learninging and knowing what goes on around us.
What purposes or functions does this awareness serve?
The many areas of Hugr’s awareness are enmeshed in our everyday Midgard life, as well as the metaphysical extensions of this life. Hugr is a major player in the conduct of our Midgard life and in navigating its many complexities.
When, under what circumstances, does Hugr’s awareness operate most strongly?
Pursuing self-interest, including both self-centered interests, and generous impulses due to caring about and taking an interest in others and in the functions of society. Pursuing love and friendship. Protecting us from manipulation, lies, seduction, exploitation, gaslighting, etc., by others. Discovering hidden and arcane knowledge. Using its many powers, both mundane and esoteric. Advising, counseling, foreseeing, warning us in our own best interests. Connection with ancestors and with past lives.
Where, in what domain, is Hugr’s awareness primarily focused?
Hugr is primarily focused on both mundane and metaphysical aspects of our Midgard life, as well as the domain of the ancestors.
How does Hugr interface through Lich-Hama?
Through Læti and Litr, the activities and the appearance of our Lich-Hama and those of others.
How can we improve the quality of Hugr’s awareness?
By clarifying our Hugr, and attending to the ongoing ‘care and feeding’ of Hugr’s framework of thought. By training and practicing the skills of awareness in the domains of life that our own Hugr is most interested in, whether social life, intellectual pursuits, esoteric practices, personal relationships, genealogy and ancestral awareness, or whatever it might be.
Sefa’s Awareness
What is Sefa most aware of?
A sense of ‘self’. The understanding that other persons are likewise a ‘self’, and that common ground exists or can be created between these selves. Comfort and safety for ourselves and others we care about. Relationships of all kinds: kinship, family, romantic relationships, work relationships, friendships, community relationships, relationships with nature and natural entities, with Deities and other spiritual beings, etc.
Sefa is also focused on our ‘household’ or soular-system of souls in the same way it is on other kinds of relationships. Sefa tries to promote communication and interaction among our souls, tries to resolve conflicts and get our various, sometimes contradictory souls to work in concert, or at least not to pull so hard against each other. Sefa is aware of the nature of each of our souls, their feelings, their condition and wellbeing.
How does Sefa sense and know this?
Sefa comes into being through the combined energies of all our other souls, and therefore is well able to sense things about, and through, those souls. Its very energy and nature is that of ‘self’ and of ‘self in relation to other selves.’ It knows that no self exists in a vacuum; that interdependence is the nature of life in Midgard.
What purposes or functions does this awareness serve?
Weaving and maintaining the fabric of frith at all levels of human interaction, both within us as individuals, and among us as groups. Sefa’s awareness serves the essential function of coordinating anything and everything: people, souls and their abilities, activities, communities, cooperative action, frithweaving, etc. It does this through the outreaching, inclusive quality of its awareness. Sefa is our sense of self, plus our understanding that others also have this sense of self, and the relatedness that this implies. Sefa wants happiness, safety, wellbeing for itself, and realizes that others want the same. It uses this awareness to promote interactions in order to achieve what it and others want.
When, under what circumstances, does Sefa’s awareness operate most strongly?
When Sefa perceives the need for anything that it can do to promote its values and desires for frith, relationship, interaction, happiness, safety and wellbeing.
Where, in what domain, is Sefa’s awareness primarily focused?
In all relationships and other interactions among people, souls, spirits, and other entities. In the realm of ideas and concepts: finding relationships, discovering interactions, making connections in domains of the intellect and of inspiration.
How does Sefa interface through Lich-Hama?
Through our Litr, all aspects of our appearance, and the messages our appearance sends: warm, inviting, stern, aloof, etc. Through Læti, our behavior, actions and speech.
How can we improve the quality of Sefa’s awareness?
Sefa’s awareness can be broadened by the practice of wise and sensible compassion. Sefa can also benefit from improving its objectivity and judgement, without leaving its loving nature behind. Sometimes Sefa is not able to evaluate situations or people objectively, and makes mistakes that bring discomfort, harm or disappointment to itself and others. Sefa is easily embarrassed when it makes mistakes, and this may cause it withdraw and hide itself, or become blustering and obnoxious to cover up the mistakes. Working closely with Hugr and Mod, and developing Modsefa more strongly, will help Sefa improve its abilities of objectivity and judgement, and help to avoid misjudgments and mistakes with their undesirable consequences.
Saiwalo-Dwimor’s Awareness
What is Saiwalo most aware of?
Images, with all of their overtones, nuances, symbolism, history, back-stories, and the personal energy they carry. Its habitat in Hel, the Hel-environment around it, and the images that populate it. Its own internal environment, with its own alchemical-ecological processes of transformation that mesh with those of the other Saiwalos around it, and together form the great spiritual wetlands of Hel.
How does Saiwalo sense and know this?
Saiwalo-Dwimor is attuned to these energies of imagery and transformation; it is not separate from them, but is formed from them at the cosmic level of being.
What purposes does this awareness serve?
Saiwalo is the first type of individual soul that arises from the cosmic processes of the Worlds coming into being. This formation itself involves transformation into shapes or images of Being. Cosmic energy is translated into form / images as the Worlds arise into Being, and Saiwalo itself mimics this activity on a smaller, personal scale. Saiwalo’s awareness is focused on its functions in Hel, while its Dwimor’s awareness is focused on gathering images with their associated energies. Dwimor’s primary task is gathering and holding all the other souls and their energies within its alchemical matrix, thus keeping us in a living state in Midgard. Dwimor regards our other souls and their image-energies as the primary ‘prizes’ in its treasure-hoard, and grasps them firmly for the duration of our life in Midgard.
When, under what circumstances, does Saiwalo’s awareness operate most strongly?
The circumstances of Saiwalo’s awareness are rooted in Hel and are unchanging. Dwimor’s awareness is alerted by the personal energy contained within the images we absorb and generate, while we are waking or sleeping, interacting with others, or musing by ourselves.
Where, in what domain, is Saiwalo’s awareness primarily focused?
In Hel, and in the mindscapes of our images.
How does Saiwalo-Dwimor interface through Lich-Hama?
It does so only indirectly, through the effects that its collection of imagery may have on the functioning of our Lichama. Some imagery may inspire physical actions, some may be healing, some may cause or exacerbate conditions of poor health or imbalance. Some images may influence our Litr, the appearance we choose to present to others. We might adapt our own appearance so as to look like our ideal of beauty, strength, sophistication, misery, dangerousness, or whatever kinds of images have been imprinted in our Dwimor.
How can we improve the quality of Saiwalo’s and Dwimor’s awareness?
I do not know of any ways to actually change the awareness of Saiwalo, other than the cumulative effects of its Dwimors over time. When it comes to Dwimor’s influence on us through the images it carries, our other souls can help us select, winnow and reshape those images so they stimulate beneficial effects on our body-soul complex.
It is, however, an interesting and worthwhile exercise to improve our own conscious awareness of this chthonic soul and its work, who is so very different from the usual entities we interact with, including our other souls. I’ve discussed approaches for doing this is my study guides and articles about this soul.
Eormensoul
Thus, within the holism of our Being, there are multiple fields of awareness that bloom forth from each of our souls, merging and blending at the margins, narrow or broad, where they overlap with our other souls. We are likely to be very much aware of some of these fields or soul-ecosystems, and may be quite unaware of others. If we seek to grow to the full stature of our Eormensoul, our Great-Soul or Oversoul, we must become more conscious of these different soul-fields of awareness, and learn to mesh them in functional ways that enhance the strength and quality of our Eormensoul.
The word Irmin in Old Saxon, Eormen in Anglo-Saxon, meant ‘great, powerful, wondrous, immense.’ The Anglo-Saxon word eormen-cynn, Old Saxon irmin-thiod, meant ‘human-kind’, the great-kin or great-tribe, while eormen-grund meant the ‘great ground’: the wide world. Eormen-laf meant a great legacy: what is left for us by those gone before. The word shows up in the Norse name of the gigantic, world-girdling Midgard Serpent, Jörmun-gandr, as well. The Irminsul was a great wooden pillar or tree with religious meaning to the Heathen Saxons; effectively it was the axis mundi, the World-Pillar. I have followed on from these meanings to invent a new word, Eormensoul, to indicate our own Great-Soul, Over-Soul, or ‘landscape of awareness’ that is formed from the interweaving of all our own souls’ awarenesses and beings.
An image I have of the Eormensoul takes the form of a great and varied landscape, comprised of different ecosystems and topographies. In this imagery, our conscious awareness and our sense of everyday life can take the form of our body and whatever gear we want to have with us, and can roam at will over this great soul-landscape. We can seek nourishment and treasures, find adventure, meet challenges, seek ways to improve ourself, search for knowledge, and meet with other beings who are associated with our souls: Deities, ancestors, wights and spirits of various kinds. There are endless ways to enrich our life and our Self by exploring and participating in the features of this great Eormensoul-landscape.
Developing the Eormensoul is a demanding endeavor, and will not be covered here. It is the subject of future work, but it depends on all of the foundational work outlined in my soul lore articles and soul lore study guides. However, here is an important first exercise in this direction, to get you started. Here, you can envision your souls meeting together in council, with the opportunity to learn more about each one through its participation in your soul-council. This is a challenging exercise, needing many iterations in order to achieve its purpose, but it is worthwhile and fascinating to explore and integrate our knowledge of these broad fields of awareness that comprise our Eormensoul.
Exercise: Experiments with your soul-council
It’s a difficult but worthwhile exercise, to try consciously removing our awareness from one of our souls at a time, to see what kind of difference that makes in our experience of our life and our actions and thoughts. It’s definitely a weird sensation to try to do this, and should only be done for brief periods of time, as an experiment. You’ve spent so much time and effort here, becoming more aware of your souls, and it does feel strange to try going backwards into ignorance again!
The point of this experiment is to make your conscious mind and all your souls more aware of the contributions and roles of each of the souls, by ‘removing’ them one at a time, for a brief period, from the overall awareness of your soul-household. The best (and least disruptive) way to do this is in your imagination. Take some quiet, private time, and get out your Daybook. Imagine a complicated situation that would benefit from the powers of all of your souls, especially the more Midgard-oriented ones, acting together.
A good example is to imagine some important, life-impacting decision that you need to make. You call all your souls into council together, and present the situation to them by writing the scenario in your Daybook. Then, ask one of your souls at a time to ‘leave the room’, to withdraw its awareness and powers from this group of souls who are trying to make a decision together. Using your understanding of each soul’s awareness that we covered earlier, imagine how the decision would be addressed if that kind of awareness was missing from your decision-making process. In other words, you try your best to ignore the field of awareness of the temporarily ‘absent’ soul, as you proceed with this effort.
In your Daybook, record the decision-making process and outcome, as it happens with each soul in turn effectively missing from the action. What are these different scenarios like? Does the outcome of your decision look different, depending on which souls did, and did not, participate in making it? What can you learn from this challenging exercise?
Now that you’ve had a taste of how each of your souls contribute to your life-actions, consider the fundamental importance of having all your souls working together, each in their own ways, on any matters in your life that are really important. Even souls who are not intimately involved in everyday Midgard affairs may have surprisingly relevant input for you, again in their own unique fashion.
This input may include, among other things, the awareness that one or more of your souls could sabotage your efforts if you ignore it. (At the level of Saiwalo-Dwimor’s beloved fairy-tale images, this is the situation of the evil fairy, angry because she was not invited, coming at the end of the child-naming ceremony and turning all the well-wishing and blessings upside-down with a curse.) This action of your uncooperative soul could be deliberate sabotage, or more likely, simply be the result of its own particular energies not meshing well with the energies of the other souls who are involved, because no effort was made to integrate it into the process.
The topic of how to actively mesh and coordinate all our souls together, to pursue all of our life’s aims more effectively, is a very great one, deserving of detailed attention. I will be returning to it in my future books and articles on Heathen soul lore. For now, I believe there is plenty to work with, getting to know each of your souls in depth, and beginning to get a sense of how their presences shape your consciousness and your life as a whole.