Winifred Hodge Rose
Assigned reading:
Ahma Bindrune: Primary runes in this bind-rune: Dagaz, Ansuz, Tiwaz, Kenaz.
The Natures of Ahma, Ghost, and Deities
I realize that the two articles I’ve written about Ahma and Ghost can seem complicated and confusing, so I will start out here with a quick summary of the main points. I want to make clear which part of what I present here comes from ancient Heathen understanding, and which part is my own modern interpretation.
In some ancient languages (Old Norse and Gothic), they used Önd and Ahma to signify all these things: our breath, divine breath and spirit, our own indwelling spirit, other disembodied spirits and wights existing in the environment of Midgard, and some of our intellectual and creative processes. They had Ghost-related words, but they were more descriptive, rather than used as terms for actual beings. Modern Scandinavian languages use ‘ånd’-related words for the same purposes: breath, inner spirit, and outer spirits.
In some other ancient languages (Anglo-Saxon, Frisian, Old Saxon, Old High German), they used Ghost-related words to indicate spirits: the divine spirit, spirit embodied within us, and disembodied outside us. They rarely used these ghost-words to mean ‘breath.’ They had words related to Ahma and Önd, such as Athom and Æðm, and these words usually meant breath, sometimes meant divine spirit. Modern German and Dutch continue with descendants of the same words and meanings (such as Atem for breath, Geist for all types of spirit, in modern German), while modern English has lost the ancient ‘breath’ word, and applies ‘ghost’ primarily to outer, disembodied spirits.
In a nutshell, those are the ancient Heathen understandings of these words: Ahma / Önd / Athom, and Ghost, and their various related words. In my soul lore study I’ve taken these meanings further, wanting to adapt them to a modern context and general Western understandings of what ‘spirit’ means, while at the same time wanting to keep this adaptation rooted in Heathen lore and meaning. I’ve also spent years exploring my own spirit in a Heathen context, and I bring what I’ve learned into my presentation of Heathen soul lore.
So, the results of my adaptation are as follows, and as I describe at length in my articles. I use the Gothic word Ahma to designate the sacred breath-spirit, which I see emanating as a mist from the meeting of the polarities, Fire and Ice, in the center of Ginnungagap. I consider that our own Ahma-spirit, and the Ahma-spirits of the Deities and other beings, all emanate from Ginnungagap. This Ahma is the primal substance-energy of Spirit. It is beyond ‘personality’ and beyond the drives that influence us all here in Midgard. Ahma is the serene and tranquil Potential out of which all spirit-infused Being arises.
As I see it, our Ghost is a soul-skin, a hama, that wraps a portion of Ahma within it, turning Ahma into a personal being with its own ‘shape’: our Ghost. This ‘shape’ gives Ghost a sense of personhood, with the characteristics, abilities and limitations that pertain to personal beings. I see the Deities in the same light: they are personal, personified Deities because their own Ahma, their limitless Spirit, is wrapped in a godly soul-skin or hama, ‘shaping’ them as personal beings. Thus, our Ghost soul and the personal Deities have this in common: we are all made of unshaped Ahma-spirit wrapped within a shaping Ghost-hama.
The difference I see between us and the Deities is that their Ahma is not tightly enclosed within their Ghosts: their Ghosts are porous, elastic, and expansive. The Deities can shift with ease between a state of unbounded Ahma-Spirit, and a state of being a Ghost, a personal spirit-being. (They can easily shift between other states, related to our other souls, as well.) This easily-shifting nature of the Deities means that in our own spiritual practice, we can encounter them either way: either as personal Deities, or as unshaped spiritual power / essence / being. Both ways are true to their nature!
I will say that, when we approach them as a living human, the Deities seem able to shift from one state to another. In truth, I suspect they exist in all states at once, simultaneously, but that is hard for us to perceive and interact with. We encounter them in the form we expect or intend: it is our shift of intention, desire, expectation, or spiritual readiness, that causes their apparent shift of soul-shape. We actually just come toward them from a different angle, so to speak, shifting our perceptions of what they are.
Exercise 4-1: Becoming Aware of Ahma and its Habitat
Alright, let’s take a deep breath here and settle down! If you’ve done pretty much any kind of formal meditation, then ways of becoming aware of your Ahma, your transcendent spirit, will probably be familiar to you, and you can build on that. What we’re seeking here is your own Ahma-Habitat, just as I suggested you find the ‘habitat’ where your Ferah soul is strong, clear, at home in its own place.
Still your mind, your senses, soften your breath. Let your imagination free to find a place of stillness, a place where the sacred breath of being is all that exists.
As you rest in this serene stillness, open up a space within your being. Realize that this space is not empty, it is full to the brim of something that you have no words for. Rest in a sense of passive knowing, not active seeking. Rest. Breathe. Sense the undefinable fullness.
Perhaps your senses will respond to this fullness; perhaps your emotions and feelings will respond. You might sense light or color, or tones of music. You might feel love, relaxation, quiet joy, a sense of beauty. You might feel longing and yearning, a distant sense of sadness. You might feel that you are almost ‘there’ and then it keeps slipping away from you. You might have goosebumps on your skin. It’s hard to predict how you will react.
Keep your focus on the emptiness that is really fullness, on the silence that falls after all the echoes drift away. After awhile, after one session or several, let your Ahma hand you a key: a key to its habitat. Let knowledge of this key gently arise into your mind. The key will be something like a token, a reminder, a cue, that will help you return more easily to this state of mystical Ahma-fullness. This key could be a sense or a feeling, a color or a song, a scene in your mind, a memory, a rune or galdor, a word or name, something material or something immaterial. None of these things are actually part of Ahma itself, they are only tokens or signifiers, aids on your path to seek a full experience of Ahma. You won’t need this token after awhile, and you don’t need to ask for one now if you don’t want or need one.
All of this activity may not happen right away, and you don’t want to push it or struggle toward it. Instead of ‘trying to reach Ahma’, look at it as ‘making an opportunity for Ahma awareness to arise within you.’ That opportunity you are making, that space within yourself, will fill with Ahma without you straining for it. Just rest gently and let it happen. Again. And again. Let it fill your life with sacred breath, let it breathe its power through you and out into the world.
Awareness
Odin’s gift of Önd / Ahma / Spirit-Breath carries with it the faculty of consciousness, of awareness. Here we’ll explore what that means, and how it relates to the ways our other souls experience awareness.
All of our souls are conscious and aware, but most of them operate in a framework of being ‘aware of something.’ Ferah is most aware of our sensory environment and experiences, of Nature and the life force, of our overall connection with Deities. Hama is most aware of our body and its functions, including activity, behavior, speech, recognition of others through appearance and voice, and social cues. Aldr is aware of the dimensions of Time, Ørlög, Wyrd, and how these play out to shape our lifespan and experience of life, our Werold. Mod is aware of maegen or main and mod-power: natural, elemental powers that flow through nature and can be shaped by Mod for our use. Mod is also strategically and practically aware, a problem-solver and a go-getter; its awareness is enhanced by courage, strength, determination.
Hugr has broad awareness of many things, including things not available to our conscious minds: some precognition, awareness of hidden motives and thoughts of others as they relate to ourselves; awareness of our own feelings of love, longings and desires, including those that are hidden from our consciousness; awareness of others in our social environments; intelligence and strategic awareness, as does Mod. Hugr’s awareness is enhanced by intention, desire, and watchfulness, and it serves as a spirit-guardian to alert us to threats and dangers that we are not consciously aware of, or are failing to pay attention to.
All of these descriptions are, of course, oversimplified since this is just a summary. Our souls have fuzzy, blurred boundaries, they overlap and interact with each other even though they retain their own characters, and hence their awareness-abilities and their focuses of awareness form a holistic, interactive pool of awareness within us.
Now we turn to Ahma and Ghost, and their forms of consciousness. Ahma itself, our transcendent Spirit, is pure consciousness. Not consciousness or awareness ‘of’ anything; it is just Awareness itself without any subject (I, myself) or object (anything else) of awareness. When your awareness rests in Ahma, there is nothing else to be aware of; Ahma / pure Spirit is everything and everywhere. This is the state of awareness that many forms (though not all) of meditation try to lead us toward.
In my understanding of the gifts that Odin and his brothers gave to Ask and Embla, Odin’s gift of Önd was (and is, for each of us) our Ghost: our breath of life and our personal spirit-shape which encloses Önd / Ahma within a soul-skin of personhood and personality. I perceive that Ahma is unshaped, unlimited, unbounded, while Ghost encloses Ahma within a shape, limited and bounded by the dimensions of our personhood. By doing this, Odin gives humans personal consciousness: the awareness of “Self” and “Other” that is meaningless at the level of Ahma’s pure awareness.
Ghost carries within it much of our sense of everyday, personal consciousness, our sense that we are a self-within-a-body, aware of our self and our surroundings. When we ‘lose consciousness’ through fainting or coma, our Ghost loosens its connection with our body, including its connection with our brain and the physical awareness that happens through our brain and its interface with our other souls. Sometimes this condition leads to out-of-body and near-death experiences, experiences where we are aware and observant of what is around us (whether in the physical world, or elsewhere), while our brain and body are not showing signs that this awareness is happening, or is even physically possible. The one who is aware in this ‘physically impossible way’ is our Ghost.
Ghost is also the soul who travels during shamanic journeys or other trance-working that involves very deep trance with full loss of consciousness, as is described about some of the famous Finn-magicians in Norse lore, and described in lore of other cultures as well, including shamans, sages, yoga-adepts, and profound mystics. When we are in a lighter trance, seeking knowledge, spaeworking or soul-faring, this is not likely to involve Ghost-travel: when our Ghost fares forth, we do lose consciousness, we faint and collapse. Obviously, in a light trance our Ghost is still involved through our consciousness, it just is not actually traveling away from our body. The lighter trance experiences, without full loss of consciousness, involve faring-forth of other souls, generally our Hugr, or if it involves shape-shifting our Ellor-Hama (alternate Hama) as well. And of course, light trance work and soul-faring are outstanding ways to access and explore all our souls with full awareness.
As long as we continue breathing, physically accessing Athom-breath, our Athom-Ghost is still connected enough to our body to keep the body alive. When brain-waves are not detected in the body but the body still lives, this means that the Ghost is elsewhere, fully absent from the body, connected only by this thin cord of breath / Athom to keep the body alive.
Our Soul-Spindle
I see our Ghost / ‘Spirit’, and our Saiwalo / ‘Soul’ as the two ends of the spindle upon which all our other souls and our Lich, our body, are wound. Ghost is the upper end of the spindle, with its true home in the God-Homes or divine realms, and Saiwalo is the lower end, with its home in Hel, the Womb of Souls. We ourselves, in our shape as personal beings, extend downwards from the God-Homes and the upper levels of the Tree, and upwards from Hel and the lower levels, meeting in the center in Midgard. This range of Worlds is where we are able to exist as personal beings and individual souls. When our awareness moves outside these realms, out into the realms of cosmogonic processes and of pure Ahma, ‘individual personhood’ is no longer a meaningful description for our state of awareness.
Continuing this analogy of ourselves as a spindle around which souls and body are wound, we can see the ‘fleece’, or the substance on the distaff, that is pulled out for twisting into thread, as Ahma itself, the spirit-mist-air floating above Ginnungagap, condensed from the energies of Fire and Ice meeting in the middle. Ahma is the Potential out of which all Being arises. Threads are twisted from the Ahma-fleece and wrapped around our personal spindle of Being, the spindle-shaft that is formed from Ghost and Saiwalo meeting each other in the middle. These threads are our other souls, each twisted into its own characteristics of thickness, color, smoothness, and so forth, and out of them arise our Lich and its functions, and our soul-parts or individual functions of our souls.
In Exercise 4-1, above, I outlined a meditation for you to connect with your Ahma soul. This is meant to give you a taste (something you may already have experienced with other methods) of pure Awareness, of the sacred breath moving through your being, into and out of the world, through you as an unobstructed gateway. A state where you-as-personal-being step out of the picture to leave a clear path for the experience and flow of sacred breath and the power of pure Awareness to take over. Now, in the following exercises, we’ll turn first to experiencing the interface between Ahma and Ghost, and then to discovering the favored Habitat of your own Ghost.
Exercise 4-2: Tuning Ghost, Ahma and Lichama to the Same Wavelength.
Our Ghost is at its strongest and healthiest, its most creative and brilliant, when it is well-attuned with the energies of our Ahma, our transcendental Spirit. This attunement is fostered through breathing, and through understanding what breathing really represents for Ghost, Ahma, and Lichama, our living body.
Ghost is a soul-skin, like a pod or sack, which encloses and shapes Ahma within it. Though our Ghost is here in Midgard with our physical body most of the time, it also exists within a field of Ahma, outside of Space-Time, that overlaps our physical world. Within this field of Ahma / Önd, our Ghost pulsates (kind of like a jellyfish in the ocean!), drawing ambient Ahma into and out of its Ghost-skin. This is our Athom-Ghost in the process of breathing Athom / Ahma / Önd, the sacred breath, which gives our Ghost life. Our Ghost then stimulates our Lichama, our living body, to perform the same procedure with physical air, which gives our body life. Thus, as we breathe air in and out of our body, our Ghost breathes Ahma / Athom / Önd in and out of its soul-skin. Both acts are necessary for us to remain alive.
For this exercise, I invite you to try to sense this double process happening. First, become still and fall into a comfortable, natural rhythm of breathing. Relax into this state for a little while. Then, as you continue to breathe comfortably, open your awareness and explore this: ‘Someone’ is actually ‘breathing you’. There is a power surrounding and permeating you, and a force that draws that power rhythmically through your whole self, in and out. If you wish, you can meditate to the sound of ocean waves (live, or recorded) to enhance your awareness of this rhythmic flow of breath.
Try to set aside anything, any thoughts, emotions, reactions, that may be obstructing this life-giving flow. As you continue to feel like you are ‘being breathed’ by your Ahma and Ghost, you may also feel a desire to intone a galdor or a song, the Ansuz rune, some other rune that presents itself to you, or simply hum or vibrate your voice. This desire to vibrate very often arises naturally when we are in this state. Our Ahma and Ghost are tuning their vibrations together as we do this, and our Lichama, our body, instinctively wants to take part in this vibrational tuning. Throw out any inhibitions you might feel, and go with the flow!
This is a deeply revitalizing experience. The vibrations ‘wash’ all through us, clearing away sludge, throwing open the windows of our Being to the fresh air of pure and beautiful Ahma. Giving yourself a Ghost-bath in this way for a few minutes every day will tune and clear your Ghost and its access to Ahma, as well as your body’s access to your Athom-Ghost and the sacred, vitalizing breath that flows through it.
Exercise 4-3: Combine Tuning with Rune-Galdor and with Forms of Art.
If you work with rune-galdors, you will be familiar with this phenomenon, the flow of power through your voice-vibrations. You can experiment with combining your rune-galdor with your Ahma-Ghost-Lichama tuning. The power will then flow from the fields of Ahma, of divine inspiration, through your Ghost who, with the power of Ghost-Mind (gastgehygd, gastgemynd), shapes that power into the rune you are working with. Then your Lichama galdors your rune into Midgard, backed by the power of Ahma, Ghost, and your powerful Ghost-Mind. (We will speak more of Ghost-Mind later.)
Step 1. Repeat the previous exercise: feel your Ghost breathing Ahma in and out of itself, as your body breathes air in and out.
Step 2. Then begin chanting your chosen rune-galdor. Sense the rune-power flowing from the fields of Ahma, through your Ahma, into your Ghost, from there into your body and your voice as you chant the galdor. Feel a thread of inspiration-power connecting voice, breath, Ghost, Ahma.
You can use the same process to feed inspiration and eloquence into your speaking, and beauty and power into your singing. All art is produced by the same process: the flow of Ahma-Inspiration into our Ghost, the shaping and directing of our vision by our creative Ghost-Mind, and the expression of the result into Midgard by the power of our Lichama, our living, Hama-ensouled body, with its physical talents of expression and of making. Experiment with the creative tuning process I describe here, applied to any inspired art, craft, or talent that you work with.
Exercise 4-4: Your Ghost-Habitat.
The previous exercises have focused on your Ahma-Ghost-Lichama interface and interactions. Here we’re going to just focus on your Ghost soul, on discovering its favored ‘habitat’ where it feels most at home. My perspective on the Ghost is that it is intimately linked with the Gods and Goddesses and their realms, whichever Deities and whichever religion one follows. The Ghosts of Christians are linked with their Holy Spirit / Holy Ghost, Hindus have many choices that embody Divine Spirit, and so forth, though really it’s not my place to try to understand other faiths’ Ghost-connections. In any case, for Heathens we have a rich field of Deities from whom to choose, or who choose us, to form bonds of troth and friendship with our Ghost.
For people who are spiritual but who do not feel any closeness to personal Deities, or any sense that they exist, I believe that these people are most at home within their Ahma-soul. Ahma is non-personal, is pure Spirit not shaped into personal being. Ahma is a state-of-being that is, I think, congenial to people whose beliefs and interests are more on the ‘philosophical’ side of spirituality than they are on the ‘religious’ side of spirituality. Their Ghost, with its Ghost-Mind, is still very much real and powerful within them, as it is with each of us. Perhaps, in some way I don’t understand, their Ahma shapes their own Ghost, without the help of any Deities, and this is why these people do not feel connected to personal Deities. If this description applies to you, you may find that your most comfortable Ghost-Habitat is actually the field of Ahma that we’ve worked with in our previous exercises.
For those who do feel drawn to personal Deities, there are many choices in our Heathen pantheon, each with their own realms or God-Homes towards which our Ghost may be drawn. Now, it can be confusing if we want to specifically find our Ghost-Habitat, because our souls other than our Ghost and Ahma also are likely to have their own connections with our Holy Ones. We may feel drawn to and close to any number of our Deities, and the connections between us and each of the Deities could be due to any of our souls, not only Ghost. Our Hugr could be closely linked with one Deity, our Mod with another, and so forth. There is also no requirement that our Ghost (or any other soul) feel close to only one Deity.
So, to find your preferred Ghost-Habitat(s), enter into your Ghost-awareness and see what it is like. This will give you clues as to which God-realm is most compatible. Your Ghost is a channel for ‘inspiration’; it leads the flow of divine inspiration through yourself and out into Midgard.
Questions:
What is it that most inspires you? What excites and elevates your Ghost with inspiration? This could honestly be anything; it doesn’t need to be artistic or intellectual inspiration, though of course it may be that. It could be your love of, and dedication to, your family. It could be a love of order, that expresses itself in many ways in your life and gives you a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment when you achieve it. You could be inspired by physical challenges like mountain climbing or sports, by runes, by mysteries and trying to solve them, by preparing food and feeding people, by creating beauty in your garden and your home, by managing people well in your workplace, getting the job done and helping them find fulfillment in the process. Helping others to heal. Coming up with creative solutions for problems in any area of life. Anything. How does inspiration flow through you and express itself through you into the world? What area of life is it, that from within yourself (not imposed by other people) reaches out and challenges you to be the best that you can be?
This may not be something that can be answered during a half-hour meditation! These avenues of inspiration through your Ghost may well change over time, too, with some things being greatly inspiring in our younger years, and changing as we get older. The practice of awareness that works for this exercise is not ‘going elsewhere’ in your mind. Rather, it is being aware of your attitudes, feelings and choices during your daily activities, and your daydreams and thoughts, to detect the strongest flows of inspiration and see where they lead. And (guess what!) working on this question: “What most inspires me?” is a great exercise for your Daybook! This exploration is an act of self-awareness that leads to deep understanding and personal growth. It also can point us toward specific Deities who in some way embody or oversee those fields of inspired activity.
Personal Example
Here is a personal example. It may come as no surprise that I am greatly inspired by soul lore and practice, by what is often called ‘mysticism’, and by philosophy that relates to these things. I feel personally close to almost all our Deities, and very close to a fairly large subset of them. I’ve worked with my own souls for long enough now, that I can understand pretty well which of my souls are drawn to which Deities, and why.
One of our Deities with whom I work most closely is also one of the most obscure, with only a few very brief mentions in the lore. This is Vør, the Goddess of Awareness, whom I see as a daughter of Frigg, offspring of her own great powers of awareness and wisdom. Another Great One with whom I work is Mimir and his Well of Memory and Inspiration, which inspired Odin himself. My preferred Ghost-Habitat is actually the Well of Mimir, which I experience as “World-Mind”, as well as a meditation-space I go to with Vør. And Frigg is a guide into the realms I want to explore: she throws her spindle, and I follow its unrolling thread across the wide fields of Knowing. Tuning in to these presences is my way of placing my Ghost into its habitat, where it feels at home, where it deeply wants to be. (On my website, I have the poem “The I in Mimir’s Well”, and the articles “Vor: Goddess of Awareness”, and “In Thanks to Frigg, the Silent Knower”, which express my sense of soul-habitat relating to each of them, if you’d like some examples.)
Ghost-Mind, Intellect
These subjects prepare us to turn to the next topic: Ghost’s powers of Intellect and Mind. Inspiration flows from the fields of Ahma and into our Ghost, very often with inputs from the Holy Ones along the way. As it first flows into Ghost, inspiration is a brilliant, scintillating, but unshaped form of energy, just as Ahma is. It is the task of our Ghost, our Spirit-Shape with its powerful Mind, to shape that brilliant energy into something that is meaningful for humans living in Midgard.
What Ghost Loves to Do
Ghost loves this activity, loves to work and play with intellect, inspiration, mind. Some of our other, more practical and Midgard-life oriented souls with high intelligence of their own, can make great use of these Ghost-activities, bringing them into action in practical ways in Midgard. One example: some people’s Ghosts love abstract mathematics. For these Ghosts, mathematics are a delightful game and an inspiration to explore ideas and insights, develop theories and structures of knowledge, and ideas of how they might be applied. But Ghost is not the primary one who will take that mathematical knowledge and actually build a bridge or a power grid or a computer system out of it. The Mod soul is likely to take the lead in such an activity, using its own ability to harness abstract or disembodied energy and direct it toward a practical or strategic goal. This can be seen as teamwork between a wild-haired, absent-minded professor who likes to shout ‘Eureka!’, and a laser-focused engineer who likes to say ‘let’s get down to business’. When they are able to understand and communicate with each other, great things happen!
To illustrate the flow of this example: Inspiration-energy flows from Ahma into Ghost. Ghost-Mind takes that energy and shapes it into a mental form, in this example, mathematics. Part of this form involves some intriguing, but perhaps impractical, ideas of how it might be used. Mod picks up this idea-energy from Ghost-Mind, concentrates and directs it in Mod’s own ways, and applies it to a practical goal in the physical world. Obviously, any pursuit that involves action in the physical world is going to involve our Lichama, our ensouled physical body, as well. And more often than not, our other souls also participate, depending on what we are doing and thinking about. Thus, inspiration comes from Ahma into Ghost, is shaped by Ghost-Mind, and then expressed directly from Ghost-Mind into Lichama, our living body, in many different creative ways: dance, sculpture, writing, crafts, music, etc. Ghost can partner with our other souls and Lichama to create new inventions and new ways of doing things.
Ghost loves to play with ideas, and each person’s Ghost has its own favorite kinds of ideas it likes to play with. I gave examples of mathematics, inventions, and of artistic creativity, but there are many, many more types of ideas that Ghost can get into. The love of ‘mystery’ is another big area, that can cover anything from fictional or real-life crime mystery, to philosophical pondering, to scientific research into unknown phenomena, to esoteric studies, to enjoying puzzles, riddles and mental games.
Creativity and inspired intellect can reach into and enrich every corner of our personal lives and our lives shared with each other in community. I think it’s clear from what I’ve written that the more open and unobstructed the channels are between Ahma and Ghost on one end, and Lichama and our other souls on the other end, the better able we are to access and harness the flow of inspiration, creativity and creative intellect.
Disembodiment
I think you may also have picked up on the fact that Ghost’s talents are disembodied, not embodied in the physical world. Ghost needs our other souls and Lichama to express itself into Midgard. On its own, Ghost lives in abstract space: in the fields of Ahma, in the God-realms, in the world of ideas and thoughts. It is not strongly tied to Midgard on its own; it depends on our other souls and Lichama to anchor it in Midgard, or else it will go drifting off on its own into abstract space.
Ahma, Ghost, and Saiwalo are the souls who have the easiest time of it when we go through the physical death-process. They are already so attached to their afterlife-realms, even during our physical life, that it isn’t normally that hard for them to just let go of our body and settle into their natural habitats. Some of our other, more Midgard-oriented souls may put up a much bigger fight or struggle.
It does sometimes happen that the Ghost becomes a haunt in Midgard, when it refuses to let go even though it can’t really hang on, either. This is part of the larger topic of soul-wounds and soul-healing in general, which is beyond the scope of this stage of our study. But to make just a brief reference to it: I think that when a Ghost becomes a haunt, it has lost its ‘filling’ of Ahma-Spirit-Breath. It’s like a deflated balloon. It is no longer connected to life in Midgard through Athom / Breath, nor through its Lichama and the other souls, who all have their own fates after physical death. It has also lost its connection with the Deities, with the field of Ahma, and with the flow of inspiration which triggers intellect and creativity. This Ghost-Haunt floats around in its own little world within the spirit-domains of Midgard, a shape without inner substance and without connection to its natural habitat. It’s my sense that this cannot happen to Ghost, unless it somehow chooses that path, by refusing all of its other natural afterlife paths into the God-Realms or the field of Ahma.
Nurturing your Ghost
It is totally unnecessary for Ghost to suffer such a fate, and in fact Ghost has to struggle against its own nature if it chooses the path of the haunt after death. The lesson to learn here is to keep our Ghost healthy during life. Foster the activities of Ghost-Mind, allow it to play with ideas and thoughts, to develop and use its intellect in ways that it is drawn to, even when you don’t see any ‘good reasons’ or ‘practical applications’ for it (though of course, practical applications are good, too). Just think about and learn about things that are interesting, for no other reason than because they’re interesting. If you put those ideas to use at some point, fine; if you don’t, that’s fine too.
Ghost is an intellectual hobbyist, it likes to sit and tinker for hours with some abstract idea or thought or learning, detached from practical demands of everyday life. Give it some time for doing this, whenever you can. Allow inspiration, intellect, and creativity to flow richly through you and express themselves into the world in your own ways.
It’s vitally important to create space and encouragement for children to engage in such activities as well, allowing their Ghost-Mind to expand and grow. I think that modern life does not encourage such development in children, doesn’t encourage the activity of just letting thoughts and ideas and creative urges roam freely in a quiet, undemanding, nonjudgmental space-time. Heathens with a good understanding of our souls, and who are connected with children in any way, should work to counteract that trend. Especially by setting the example themselves: that is always the best way to teach children! There are so many enjoyable ways to allow intellect and creativity to run loose in an interactive environment between loving, insightful adults and lively, curious children.
If your Ghost is drawn to relate to the Deities in personal form, develop and foster those relationships, which will continue after physical life is over. If your Ghost is more drawn to abstract, impersonal Ahma / Spirit, work on keeping energy and consciousness flowing freely between your Ahma and your Ghost. In this situation, it seems likely to me that after death your Ghost will dissolve back into Ahma, since you will not need a Ghost-body with its personal characteristics and relationships in the afterlife. Thus, it behooves you to keep Ghost and Ahma closely integrated through spiritual practices such as Athom-work during life, so they can easily merge in the afterlife. What I’ve described in the foregoing paragraphs are all ways to nourish Ghost, to keep it healthy and well-connected, rooted and balanced.
Exercise 4-5: Expressing your Ghost
Think about what I’ve written here and describe ways that your Ghost expresses itself in your life right now. Do you feel any urges or suppressed enthusiasm from your Ghost, to express itself in new ways that you haven’t yet pursued? Were there ways that your Ghost was more actively expressive in the past, that have kind of fallen out of your life now? What do you feel that your Ghost needs now, to thrive, be healthy and at its best?
Exercise 4-6: Choosing Words for Ghost-Practice
Study the section “Ghost and Mind”, and Tables 3 and 4, in Ond, Ahma, Ghost and Breath: Basic Meanings. There are many terms described there, in different Germanic languages, for concepts such as thought, meditation, spiritual practice, intellectual abilities, sources of inspiration. These can be considered as soul-parts, faculties and attributes of your Ghost-soul. (Words relating to Ahma are also included here, since Ahma and Ghost are so closely related.) Choose some of these words that relate best to your understanding of your Ghost, or to things about your Ghost that you want to explore and develop. You can use these words to shape a Ghost-practice for yourself, and also as a checklist to make sure you are not overlooking any of Ghost’s many abilities.
For this exercise, list the words you want to focus on now, and write about what they mean to you and how you will use them to shape your Ghost-practice at this time. If you have other words, in modern English or another language, that fit better for you than the ones in the article, then write about them, instead.
Exercise 4-7: Fostering the Ghost / Spirit of Children
If you are presently associated with children as a relative, teacher, caregiver, what are some ideas that you could pursue with them, to promote their freewheeling exploration and growth of their own Ghosts, and yours along with theirs?
Obviously, there is no need for you to actually use the rather intimidating word “Ghost” with children, unless you are working with them in an openly Heathen context and you think they would understand your explanation about it. But caution is recommended here; you don’t want to scare the children instead of inspiring them! And of course, you could always use the more neutral term ‘spirit’ with them, instead, if you feel it’s needed. For children, activities are more likely to capture their attention than long-winded explanations, so special terms such as ‘ghost’ may not be necessary. Just focus on activities.
Bookhoard
Heath, Cat. Elves, Witches & Gods: Spinning Old Heathen Magic in the Modern Day. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn, 2021.
Paxson, Diana L. Odin: Ecstasy, Runes & Norse Magic. Newburyport, MA: Weiser Books, 2017.
~~ Taking Up the Runes: A Complete Guide to Using Runes in Spells, Rituals, Divination, and Magic. York Beach, ME: Weiser Books, 2005.
~~ The Essential Guide to Possession, Depossession, and Divine Relationships. San Francisco, CA: Weiser Books, 2015.
~~ Trance-Portation: Learning to Navigate the Inner World. San Francisco, CA: Weiser Books, 2008.
~~ The Way of the Oracle: Recovering the Practices of the Past to Find the Answers of Today. San Francisco, CA: Weiser Books, 2012.
Revised April 2022