Winifred Hodge Rose
Primary runes in this Hama bind-rune: Ehwaz, Raidho, Gebo, Laguz, Ior, Wunjo.
Our Hama is, as I understand it, the soul which shapes our physical body, our Lich, and confers on it the ability to take action in Midgard. These two entities combined, our Lich and our Hama, are called the Lichama or Lich-Hama: the living body ensouled by Hama. Our Lichama provides a channel for our other souls to express themselves into Midgard; all Midgard activity of our other souls is dependent on Lichama. Our other souls also depend on Lichama for much of their information-input from the physical world. Lichama serves another vital function as well: it is an anchor for our other souls, holding them in Midgard and serving as a center of gravity for the Midgard life and activity of the souls.
Hama and Lichama are the basis of our ability to express ourselves: through our words and the intonations of our voice, through body language, gestures and actions, through facial expressions, and behavior in general, and through our scent, as well, though that is often covered up cosmetically in modern life. As our Hama shapes our physical body, it also shapes our social expression, our behavior, and our social persona. All of our other souls need to go through Hama and Lichama in order to participate in our social persona’s actions. Thus, the character of our Hama shapes the physical, Midgard expression of all our other souls. This is no small thing, and it leads us to consider how well our Hama, Lichama, and other souls mesh with each other, or fail to mesh well, and are thus prevented from full expression.
I don’t want to go into any detail about dysfunctions of the Hama, as I have with our other souls so far, because these dysfunctions are of a very sensitive and upsetting nature, having to do with handicaps that impact one’s ability to take physical action, to express oneself, or to behave in expected ways in social contexts. There is an article of mine posted on my website, where I talk about a specific method of Hama-healing that includes a little guidance for using soul lore to help compensate for harm to one’s Hama: Disir, Hama and Hugr as Healing Partners: Heathen Souls in Action #1.
I don’t mean to make light of these matters by suggesting that such compensations solve the problem; of course they don’t, though there are many examples of truly heroic people who have developed amazing and empowering responses to their challenges. But if one is interested in applying soul lore to one’s life in all possible ways, the article I mentioned above offers one suggested approach. I hope that other Heathens, who have more experience, knowledge and training in these areas than I do, might be able to see and develop other ways that soul lore could help one deal with such difficulties. As one example, a useful method for assessing and repairing day-to-day stresses and strains on the Hama and hamingja is offered by Cat Heath, pp. 109-110.
Hama as a Covering
So: Hama is a covering made of soul-stuff, full of soul-power, which shapes not only our physical body itself, but the abilities, behavior, expressions, and activities of our physical body and brain. It gives us a physical body which acts in physical space, and it gives us a ‘social body’, a social persona, which acts in social space.
Here’s something to think about: in all of human history up to modern times, our physical body and its expressiveness has been the necessary medium for all of our social interactions. With the rise of printed books, and later telecommunication, this began to change. Now, with the invention and takeover of cyberspace, much of our social interaction takes place with only minimal participation of our Lichama. We need our hands or our voice to input our words and pictures into cyberspace, we need our eyes and ears to receive input that others send us through cyberspace. But those are not actions we share with others, they are not physical interactions directly with other people; they are just personal mechanical operations.
Now, with the rise of various types of interactive video space, we do get a look at other’s faces, hear their voices, but it is still not the same as physical presence and interaction, when it comes to our Hama soul. It’s a question worth exploring: how much of our Litr, our Wlite, our soul-infused and soul-energized appearance, transfers over cyberspace, in comparison with face to face interaction? Yes, we see each others’ faces with our eyes, we hear their voices with our ears. It’s certainly a huge improvement over social isolation, and it’s great for getting together over long distances. I wonder how much is still missing, though, of the intangibles and the spiritual energies that our Hamas send out to, and pick up from, each other when we are face to face? This is a subject for future soul lore research! And for the first step toward this research, let’s turn to our exercises now, to begin sensing our own Hama and learning more about it.
Exercise 6-1: Sensing your Hama
Focus your awareness and enter into a still space. Sense your Hama as a covering. Feel yourself covered in something: skin, clothing, fur, blanket, shell, metal, camouflage, sand or grit, feathers, ornaments, bark, streamers, spikes, thorns, swirling winds, steam, tattoos….it could be anything. What do you perceive that your covering consists of? And why do you think your Hama takes that particular form of covering, or why does your awareness perceive that Hama takes this form?
What does this form of covering, or your perception of it, tell you about your Hama and yourself? Does it feel constrictive, protective, welcoming, irritating, defensive, offensive, reclusive, blatant, shining, beautiful? Does your Hama covering express your true self, or does it hide it?
Exercise 6-2: Sensing Hama-Shifts
Repeat Exercise 6-1 periodically while you are in different moods and surroundings, and during or shortly after different kinds of activities and events in your life: negative, positive and neutral. Does your Hama change its covering under different circumstances? Whether it does or not, what does this tell you about yourself and how you react to, and deal with, the various circumstances of your life?
Exercise 6-3: Shaping your Hama
Once you begin to recognize and know your Hama, you can consider deliberately modifying your Hama-covering under different circumstances, depending on what you want to subliminally present about yourself. Sometimes you might want your Hama to be warding and protective, other times shining and beautiful, warm and welcoming, strong and steady, factual and businesslike, open for interactions or closed for privacy and time to yourself, and so forth. Try playing with these possibilities through changes in the nature of your Hama-covering.
But I suggest you keep this in mind, too: your Hama and your other souls who work through Hama may have a clearer idea than you consciously have, about what kind of covering your Hama needs to shape for you in any given situation. There is a lot of traffic going through Hama: all the stuff coming in from the outer world, being evaluated by your Lichama, Hama, and Ferah, and responses being developed and sent out by them. Then your other souls are expressing out through Hama and Lichama, especially Hugr and Mod, and there’s lots of traffic going through Hama there, too. It gets very complex, there’s stuff going on that’s outside the scope of our conscious mind a lot of the time.
There may be occasions where deliberately modifying the shape of your Hama, as opposed to allowing your Hama and other souls to shape Hama as they think best, is the less effective approach. All of our souls have their own wisdom, their own experience, and it’s wise to acknowledge that. Sometimes, it’s good for us to train and manage our souls in certain ways, as I talked about with regard to Ghost and Wode in the previous study guide. Sometimes, it’s best to step back and ask them to teach us what they know. The relation between our conscious, rational mind and our souls should always be one of mutual respect and cooperative action.
The Ellor-Hama
I’ve long wondered about the alternate shape which in Norse folklore is referred to as being hamrammr or ‘shape-strong’, and is referred to in many other contexts as shape-shifting or astral travel in another form. Do we, or do some people, have two different Hamas, one the human Hama which shapes our natural body, and the other an alternate Hama with an animal shape or a shape with paranormal powers like the witches’ flight? Or do we all have only one Hama, which for some people can morph into an alternate form?
I call this alternate form the Ellor-Hama, ‘ellor’ meaning ‘strange, alien, Other, Otherworldly’ in Anglo-Saxon, to distinguish it from our natural, human-form Hama. My original thought was that our human-form Hama would need to remain with our body at all times, since it is the shaper of our physical body. Wouldn’t our Lich fall into shapelessness, if our Hama went off astrally somewhere and left it behind? Thus, I thought that if some people are shape-strong, they must have a second Hama, an Ellor-Hama. But I gradually began thinking differently about this, and doing the exercises I described above solidified these different thoughts (or shaped them!).
Our Hama shapes our physical body, yes. But our Lich has a good deal of stability on its own, as all matter does. The brief, temporary absence of our Hama morphing into an Ellor-Hama for a little while would probably have little effect on it. On the other hand, our non-material social ‘shape’ or persona, also shaped by our Hama, may not have the same kind of stability as our Lich does.
What this all adds up to is a situation where a person may be able to astrally shapeshift and travel in that form, under the power of their own Hama, without substantially harming their Lich as long as this is not done for too long or too frequently. However, this absence or splitting of the Hama may well have a noticeable impact on the person’s behavior and actions, which may appear quite strange and abnormal during the time that the Hama is away. This means that their social ‘shape’ changes, along with the shape of their astral body as they take on the Ellor-Hama.
Thus, with this theory, two things change: social ‘shape’ or behavior, and Hama shifting into Ellor-Hama. One thing doesn’t change: the Lich. I think this description accords with many observations, lore and magic relating to shapeshifters. It also fits with words like hamstolinn or Hama-stolen, referring to people whose wits and behavior are addled or abnormal with respect to the customary behavior of their culture.
Evaluating Hama’s Communication
It’s important to discern whether we are sending out mixed messages through contradictory aspects of our Hama, and how those mixed messages may be affecting our relationships with others and their reactions toward us. Once we gain some ability to perceive our own Hama and its changes, this opens up some very useful perceptions concerning these mixed messages that we all tend to send out to each other from time to time, very often without intending to.
One very common mixed message, that we often don’t realize we are sending to others, is: “Come closer / back off.” We want to be closer to some people, but past experiences, lack of trust, past behavioral patterns, etc., cause us to push them away at the same time that we want them closer. This has a very disruptive effect on relationships, especially when both / all people involved in the relationship are doing this, and the timing of each person’s ‘come closer’ and ‘back off’ is not synchronized with the other person’s! Thus, when one person wants to be closer, the other one wants to back off, and vice versa. This generates misunderstandings, hurt feelings, and worse, and can occur in all our personal relationships, including between children and parents. This is just one example of the many mixed messages we may be sending out, and picking up from others.
Exercise 6-4: Are you sending mixed messages?
Use what you have learned from the previous Hama exercises to watch your own behavior toward others, and discern whether your Hama is sending such mixed messages. Your Hama might, for example, take the form of something that is attractive or beautiful, but also has a threatening or uncomfortable quality to it, like prickles or needles underneath lovely fur or fabric, or a beautiful covering that contains an irritant or poison embedded in it. Perhaps a seductive shape, clothed in such horrible, clashing colors that it makes others take a step back, just when they were going to step forward! Or a rapidly changing Hama that doesn’t settle on one kind of message but keeps shifting back and forth. Really, it could be anything.
Use your soul-intuition to observe your Hama and other people’s Hamas, and watch how they respond to each other. There is a great deal that can be learned from this! It’s often difficult to make such observations at the same time as your interactions with other people; there are too many things to pay attention to at once. Another way to go about this is to review the interaction later, in your memory and imagination. As you do this, as you set the scene in your mind, tune into your Hama and ask it to appear in this memory-scene in the covering or appearance that it was using during the transaction.
Your Hama may also be able to perceive the other person’s Hama as you construct the memory-scene, which can be very enlightening. Keep this important point in mind, though: your and your Hama’s perceptions of the other person’s Hama are just that: your perception. This perception is valid and important, because this is what your Hama was picking up on and reacting to during the interaction. But your perception of the other person’s Hama may not be what they were actually sending out, or intending to send out.
Once you’ve sorted out as much as you can from this memory-exercise, it’s best to go back and have a conversation with the other person, and do some cross-checking about what they thought was going on between you. Then use this information to fine-tune your and your Hama’s perceptions for future interactions with that person.
“Come closer / back off” is just one of many mixed messages that we may send out. Other examples include “I’m competent / I’m incompetent”; “I’m willing / unwilling”; “I care / I don’t care”; “I’m listening / not listening”; and many others.
One thing I like about approaching this matter through our Hama, is that it helps to defuse the natural defensiveness that we all feel when anyone (including ourself) criticizes us or suggests that we’re doing something wrong. If we’re unconsciously sending messages that we don’t truly want to send, and someone points this out to us, we may well react defensively or deny it.
However, if we’ve learned to enjoy perceiving and playing with our Hama, and the realizations about our behavior come about as a result of this Hama-play, we are less likely to be defensive and in denial. Instead, we can be intrigued and challenged, and enjoy designing a new Hama for ourself, one that is more in line with what we truly want to communicate.
Taking this approach turns an insight that might otherwise seem threatening and uncomfortable, into an enjoyable challenge to our creativity. I might mention that these are enjoyable exercises or activities to share with children. You may learn a good deal yourself, by such sharing: kid’s Hamas are very creative and flexible!
When we have designed our changed Hama, we need to follow up by keeping it in place during our daily interactions that are relevant to the new Hama (there are likely to be other situations in daily life that have no relevance to the new Hama, that need a different one).
Changes in physical appearance, such as clothing, colors, hairstyle, etc., can reinforce the Hama changes we are working on. Physical changes such as our posture, volume of our voice, eye contact, and many others also go along with this. Our Hama, appearance, actions and behavior are all interconnected. When we want to change these things, we can start with any one of them, and those changes will influence all the other areas of our Hama.
A word about Hamingja
In Norse folklore, Hamingja is both a form of luck-energy, and a spirit who bears and gives that luck to the person with whom it is associated. As with Hama, Hamingja is considered to reside in the womb / caul / afterbirth. It accompanies the child it was born with throughout life, as long as nothing dire occurs to destroy its luck or its connection to the person. The Hamingja-spirit is the link between flows of hamingja-luck energy in the environment, and our physical / metaphysical body and souls, especially Hama.
I believe that our Hama-soul and our accompanying Hamingja-spirit are closely related. Both of them come into being within the womb when a child is conceived; as I understand it they are embedded within the tissues of the womb itself. Both have strong influence on the child as it gestates, and continue to do so throughout its life. But one of them is a personal soul, one of the members of the person’s soular system or soul-household, while the other, the Hamingja, is an accompanying spirit that is not a member of our soular system. While of great interest and relevance, the Hamingja spirit is not a subject of the present study, which is focused on our inherent souls.
Summary
Our choices of clothing, hair styles, accessories, tattoos, piercings, our personal care including scents, and other ways of presenting our appearance are also ways that our Hama expresses itself. Hama can also change its size and density in response to our emotions, such as becoming very strong and firm when we feel sure of ourselves, and shrinking when we are unsure or intimidated. Becoming aware of our own power to attract and repel, to invite and defend, and to send messages about who we are and where we stand through our Hama is very empowering, as well as interesting and fun, and I encourage you to pursue and strengthen these abilities! It’s also important to discern whether we are sending out mixed messages through contradictory aspects of our Hama, and how those mixed messages may be affecting our relationships with others and their reactions toward us.
Hama is deeply involved with our appearance, body language, speech, behavior, physical activity, and with how all of these phenomena shape us as interactive social beings in Midgard. Hama is equally involved in perceiving and interpreting all of these things that other people around us, in our social space, are doing. In addition to our physical appearance, Hama takes on different metaphysical or subliminal appearances in response to different situations and conditions we may be in at any given time. We can learn to discern these shifts in ourselves and others, through our Hama soul, and learn to consciously control them in ourselves so as to communicate more clearly and respond more appropriately to any given situation.
Bookhoard
Heath, Cat. Elves, Witches & Gods: Spinning Old Heathen Magic in the Modern Day. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn, 2021.