(HSL stands for Heathen Soul Lore.)
Winifred Hodge Rose
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. In Step 3 you’ve studied the Ferah soul. Let’s move on to Step 4 here, focusing on the Ahma and Ghost souls.
Reading:
First read Book I (Heathen Soul Lore Foundations), Chapter 4: “Ond, Ahma, Ghost and Breath: Basic Meanings,” or the website article of the same name. This will give you general, research-based information about Ahma and Ghost.
https://heathensoullore.net/ond-ahma-ghost-and-breath-basic-meanings/
Then read Book II (A Personal Approach) Chapter 4: “Exploring your Ahma and Ghost Souls,” 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 Ahma and Ghost. The assigned chapter is also available here:
https://heathensoullore.net/study-guide-4-exploring-your-ahma-and-ghost-souls/
Practice Notes:
Studying soul lore can bring us closer to understanding and relating to our Deities. Pay attention to the first few pages of the reading on “Exploring your Ahma and Ghost Souls,” where I talk about how our Ahma and Ghost souls are similar to the Deities in their unbounded, impersonal forms (Ahma) and in their delimited, personal forms (Ghost). For an additional exercise that is not in Book II, work with a Deity whom you are close to, and try, with the Deity’s help, to perceive what that Deity is like from the perspective of your Ahma soul: an unbounded, unlimited, undefined, pure Being. Write about it in your Daybook if you wish, or if you can: these experiences are very hard to describe!
Bindrunes
I have designed bindrunes that express some of my perceptions of each of the souls, shown in Book II and on the Ahma-Ghost 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 Ahma 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 Ahma 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 Ahma 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 Ahma 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. (There are two recommended books for this listed at the end.)
Ahma Initiation Ceremony
If you wish to perform an Ahma initiation ceremony and hallow your Ahma token if you have one, here is the text for the ceremony:
https://heathensoullore.net/ahma-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.