Winifred Hodge Rose
(HSL stands for Heathen Soul Lore.)
Now you’ve read and worked through the introductory material in Step 1. In Step 2 you’ve decided whether you’ll create one or more soul-tokens, and have performed the Opening Soul Lore Ceremony if you want to do that. Let’s move on to Step 3 here, focusing on the Ferah soul.
Reading:
First read Book I (Heathen Soul Lore Foundations), Chapter 3: “Born of Trees and Thunder: The Ferah Soul,” or the website article of the same name. This will give you general, research-based information about the Ferah soul.
https://heathensoullore.net/born-of-trees-and-thunder-the-ferah-soul/
Then read Book II (A Personal Approach) Chapter 3: “Exploring your Ferah Soul,” and work through the exercises there, using your Daybook. Alternatively, you can use the Heathen Soul Lore Workbook, which has all the exercises printed there, with space to write your responses. This will help you learn more about your own Ferah soul. The assigned chapter is also available here:
https://heathensoullore.net/study-guide-3-exploring-your-ferah-soul/
Practice Notes:
Studying soul lore can bring us closer to understanding and relating to our Deities. If this idea is meaningful for you, add an additional exercise to your homework and discuss which Deities and / or other spiritual beings you feel, or are beginning to feel, more connected to through your Ferah soul. The Ferah is also a soul through which we can connect with Landwights, Ancestors, and other beings.
There are no ‘prescribed Deities’ who are the ‘right ones’ to connect with through this soul! I do write in the background reading about Ferah’s connection with Thor / Perkwunos, Fjorgynn and Fjorgyn, and Jord / Nerthus, and hopefully you can sense these connections. But there may be other Deities and / or other wights with whom you can connect equally well, or better, through your own unique Ferah soul.
Bindrunes:
I have designed bindrunes that express some of my perceptions of each of the souls, shown in Book II and on the Ferah study guide on this website. These are offered for you to meditate on. If you have some rune-lore of your own, I encourage you to create your own Ferah bindrune and use that for meditation.
If you are not up for bindrunes right now, you’re also welcome to meditate on a single rune, or several, that seem related to your Ferah soul.
Work with your soul-tokens, if you are using them.
When you are doing the reading, writing the exercises, meditating, communing with the Deities and spirits, using divination or spaeworking, and working with bindrunes or single runes, keep your token(s) with you. If you are creating a specific Ferah token, such as a strand of yarn, cord, or thread that will eventually be braided or otherwise combined with tokens for your other souls, begin work on this now.
Divination and spaeworking:
If you like to use runes or another system of divination, by all means use them to explore more questions and insights about your Ferah soul, and record them in your Daybook. Likewise, if you are experienced with spaeworking, seidhcraft, or similar esoteric or magical work, these are excellent ways to explore the souls, but should not be pursued before learning proper methods and precautions.
Ferah Initiation Ceremony
If you wish to perform a Ferah initiation ceremony, and hallow your Ferah token if you have one, here is the text for the ceremony:
https://heathensoullore.net/ferah-initiation-ceremony/
End-notes
If you want to pursue spaework, seidhcraft or other esoteric or magical methods as a means of soul exploration, I highly recommend it, but not without prior experience and training. One useful book for this purpose is:
Cat Heath, Elves, Witches & Gods: Spinning Old Heathen Magic in the Modern Day. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn, 2021.
Here is a painting by Laurie Inn, expressing her Ferah soul and the Ferah bindrune. I encourage you to use artwork of any kind to express your own souls!
