Winifred Hodge Rose
Assigned reading:
Primary runes in this bind-rune: Ehwaz, Uruz, Sowilo, Tiwaz.
The Nature and Strengths of Mod; Mægen
Mod (pronounced ‘mode’) is Will and Power, and all that can be influenced by these things within our self and our life: our behavior and actions, our character and aims in life, our strengths and our abilities, and our drive toward excellence, in whatever fields of action we choose. Mod fuels these drives within us to take action, to survive, to thrive, and to achieve.
All of our souls consist of certain forms and flows of energy, which have various sources and express themselves in various ways within us and within our world of Midgard. Here, I want to look more deeply into the nature of Mod’s energy, its mægen, and how it is shaped. Mod exists in three different but related forms. It is simply a form of energy, for one thing, and this comes across most clearly through the many medieval spells I’ve read, that seek to restore mod-energy to an ailing human or domestic animal, one who is weak, tired, lethargic, depressed, ill, unproductive, unable to take action.
Exercise 9-1: Sensing your Mod
In the exercises I offered in Study Guide 8, about the motivating forces of Mod and Hugr, you worked on observing your behavioral patterns as a way to understand these two souls. Now we’ll approach it from another direction: sensing Mod’s energy within yourself.
Absorb the discussions about Mod I’ve offered in all the readings, then sit quietly and gather your awareness. Direct it toward sensing, feeling, recognizing your Mod. First, try to recognize where the core of your strength lies, within your body. There may be more than one core or wellspring of strength. I feel one core in my solar plexus, and a second one in my throat and jaws. The solar plexus is a natural power core of our body, and I assume that most people feel Mod-power here. The core I feel in my throat and jaws could be because I express much of my Mod-power through words and singing, but this is also where I unconsciously suppress my Mod-power by clenching my jaws and tightening my neck. So throat, jaws and neck sometimes turn into a Mod-battleground for me!
There are often other mod-power centers within us, as well, including the pelvic region (encompassing genitals, womb and ovaries, sacroiliac, lower abdomen), thighs, hands. Eyes are a major avenue for expressing Mod. For example, very mod-powerful beings, like Thor and Jotnar, are sometimes seen to have flashing or burning eyes, as is seen near the end of Thrymskviða (Poetic Edda), when the giant Thrym pulls back the veil covering the person he thinks is his bride, Freya. Instead, this is Thor in disguise, come to retrieve his stolen Hammer, and Thrym cries out: “Why are Freya’s eyes so terrifying? It seems to me fire is burning from them.” This is a showing-forth of Thor’s mod-power through his gaze.
If you are working to connect your Mod-soul with Thor and the Thorlings (his children) pay special attention to their gazes when you interact with them, and pay attention to what their gazes trigger within yourself. The monster Grendel in Beowulf also showed a fiery gaze when he attacked Heorot: his Mod was in a state of ire, of rage, and an ugly light like fire shone in his eyes (ll. 726-7).
Secondary mod-centers can be anywhere, depending on where your Mod expresses its power, or wants to express its power. Be aware of any mod-power areas you might find, but for now focus on seeking the central Mod-core within you. This is likely to be in the same region of the body where Thor wears his megingjörd, his belt of megin- or mægen-power.
Once you feel this core of strength, try to sense your Mod-Will in the center of this core. Just relax and let it well up within you: any kind of sensation, thought, image, feeling, urge, emotion. I sense this as a rising-power, an uprush like a geyser or fountain, filling me with a sense of ‘I want, I need, I must, I can, I Will.’ When I feel this, I want to jump up and take action in some way, exert myself for some purpose, though I may not have anything specific in mind. This is its ‘native form’, I would say, the form it takes when Mod motivates me toward some action.
There’s another form Mod-Will takes in me, that enables me to stand my ground when I need to (or when I stubbornly want to!). It’s not an up-rushing geyser, but a consolidated, boulder-like feeling, heavy and rooted, not going to be moved. That’s Mod’s Will, too. I guess one could call these the Irresistible Force and the Immovable Object, which are both good descriptions of Mod!
We’ll be working more on Mod’s Will later on, but for now just try to get to know it a bit, from within yourself. Spend some time sensing strength and Will within you, exploring them with all your senses, thoughts and feelings. Are there any images that come to you, symbolizing these things? Could you express them artistically? Explore this in your Daybook.
Mod and Wode as States of Being
Mod is also a state of being, an ecstatic state that does not consist of love, peace and bliss, but of overpowering rage and determination to conquer, to achieve one’s will by barreling through all obstacles. This is described in Old Norse as Jotunmoði, the mod of the Jotnar, the Giants. They also used the term Asmoði, the mod of the Æsir, to describe the powerful force that the Æsir bring to bear against Jotunmoði. Thor is described as being capable of both, and in fact I’m not sure what the difference between them is, if any, except in how this powerful state is applied in action. This kind of mod sounds to me very much like wode when it refers to battle-wode, berserker-wode (not poetic / inspirational wode). The difference between wode and mod as states-of-being, as I see it, is a subtle one, and has to do with which soul the power is flowing through. (As a separate but related matter, I discuss in the assigned reading my idea that after death, our Mod-soul joins our Ghost-soul as a partner in the God-realms. As this takes place, I see a melding of their wode- and mod-energies to power their afterlife activities with the Deities.)
Wode, in my understanding, flows through our Ghost, while mod flows through our Mod soul. Wode empowers Ghost to transcend the physical, to operate beyond the body’s limitations. Thus we see the berserker phenomena of fearlessness and absolute lack of caution, also of delayed reaction to wounds, bleeding, and other injuries. The wode-trance allows people to walk barefoot over burning coals, to ignore severe wounds and suppress bleeding until the trance has abated, and even to create physical wounds, marks or other changes in its Lichama through spiritual power, as happens in some types of religious ecstasies and shamanic trances. What happens here is that Ghost temporarily takes over the body and uses it as though physical limitations do not exist, which is how Ghost normally views the world. But except when it is in a super-high state of wode, Ghost is not able to convince our strong Lich-Hama to view things the same way…fortunately for us, for the sake of maintaining our normal physical life and safety, our awareness that physical limitations do exist, and that they do matter while we are physically alive!
Just as wode can flow into us as a gentle stream of inspiration, or pick up steam and grip us in a powerful state of creativity that must be expressed, or in rare cases explode through us in an uncontrollable ecstatic state, so mod-energy can act through similar, graduated expressions. Our everyday level of mod-energy sustains us in our daily activities, and if it is diminished we suffer from fatigue, lethargy, lack of motivation, and are more easily subject to illnesses. A stronger upwelling of mod-energy and Mod-will can spur us to achieve mighty deeds of various different kinds, when properly controlled through upright character and well-honed Will. If our character is weak or flawed, then higher mod-energy expresses itself as anger and bad temper, selfishness, moodiness, and overall unpleasantness. When the higher level of beneficial mod is steadily sustained, we are able to maintain a level of achievement and character that shapes a truly admirable and productive life.
When very high levels of mod-energy are present but are not controlled by a well-developed character and Will, then we have people who are characterized by rage, savagery, cruelty, hyper-aggression, sociopathy, uncontrolled passions in general. In contrast, people with a well-directed Will can sometimes access the highest levels of mod-energy during times of great challenge (for example, during Iron-Man or Olympic competitions), or during life-threatening situations (e.g. defending against an attacker, fire-fighting, or dealing with a storm while sailing), and use the power and determination they gain thereby to achieve deeds of almost supernatural strength and prowess.
Exercise 9-2: Do you squash your Mod-force?
In the previous exercise, you explored your sense of strength and will in your core, and how that strength and will naturally wants to express itself. I used the example of myself wanting to jump up and take some kind of action. There are, of course, instances in our life when this is not a wise move, like musing over our grievances and then wanting to jump up and beat the stuffing out of whoever we are mad at.
But I think it’s fair to say that we often have a situation where our Mod does want to jump up enthusiastically and get going with some kind of worthwhile action, physical or mental, and we find all sorts of reasons for not doing it. The main reasons are often inertia, stagnation, negative self-talk, lack of confidence, distraction, and the like. We end up simply ignoring or brushing off Mod’s enthusiasm, often accompanied by a sense of guilt about doing this. The semi-conscious uneasiness that results from this process leads us to avoid even thinking about the action that Mod wants to take.
This is very discouraging to our Mod, especially when it becomes a life-pattern that continues for years. Courage is a major characteristic of Mod, and dis-couraging Mod by dismissing its courage and energy is injurious to its potency and its fulfilment during our Midgard life. When Mod is frequently squashed like this, we find that when we really need Mod’s courage, strength, determination and Will, it may not rise within us as it should. We may also, usually unintentionally, do the same thing to other people: our children, spouse, family, friends, and people with whom we work.
For this exercise, keep the awareness of your Mod in the back of your mind as you go through your daily life, and especially when you may be ‘wasting time’ or engaging in avoidance activities. (True restfulness, relaxation, and refreshment are not ‘wasting time’; they are essential to our well-being, but not all of the activities that we claim fit into those categories actually work that way. Not being able to shut down the screen when it’s time to do other things like go to sleep or make a good dinner is an example of avoidance activity: something with little benefit that we persist in doing so we have an excuse not to do something else that is more worthwhile, but takes more effort.)
So, keep your Mod in the back of your awareness, and notice when Mod perks up with enthusiasm or energy, wanting to do something, even something small, quick, or trivial. Take a moment to notice this and consider what it is that Mod wants to do, what this spark of enthusiasm, urge or drive is pushing you toward. Then examine your reaction to it. Do you automatically deny it, squash it down, throw cold water over it? Do you sigh in long-suffering or resentment, and ‘punish’ your Mod / yourself for having such ideas? Consider, as you are pursuing this, whether you are doing the same thing to other people, intentionally or unintentionally.
It’s true that some of Mod’s urges can be unwise to indulge in, so the pause to consider, before taking action, is a good idea. It isn’t so good, though, when that pause for consideration fills up with excuses, dis-couragement, self-doubt, negative attitudes, etc., when Mod just gets brushed aside and disrespected no matter how worthwhile its urge to act really was. Years of this kind of behavior end up weakening our Mod and / or turning its activity into very negative forms.
Mod needs to take action and express itself in our life, and we need to be aware of this and cooperate in a wise and well-balanced way. With this exercise, you become more aware of how you are treating your Mod and its needs, and how this is impacting your life and affecting the many qualities and strengths that Mod can contribute when it is encouraged to do so.
The Thorlings
This kind of courageous, driving, powerful energy was often called ‘mod’, but also called ‘mægen’ in the ancient Germanic languages, and very often these terms were used together, to give a complete picture of a powerful form of energy that can be directed by our Mod-soul. These two terms come together perfectly in the names of Thor’s and Jarnsaxa’s sons, Magni (main, mægen) and Moði (mod-y, filled with mod), and are further enhanced by the name of Thor’s and Sif’s daughter Thruðr or ‘strength’. Thor himself, of course, is the embodiment of Mod and mægen, as well.
There is a strange figure of a three-headed man shown on the Danish Gallehus horn, who is generally thought to be Thor. The following website shows clear illustrations and has a good discussion:
He is holding a long-handled implement, an axe or a hammer, and with the other hand holds a rope tied to a horned animal, probably a goat. Here are my own thoughts about this figure. I think it is Thor, and that the heads on either side of the central one represent his sons, Magni and Moði, with their powers which arise from his own. I think many or all of the figures on the Gallehus horn(s) show indications of ‘mystery cults’ or ritual patterns dedicated to various Deities, and that this three-headed figure represents one of those mysteries. It points toward Thor’s mystery of his ability to slaughter and eat his goats and then raise them to life again by hallowing their bones with his Hammer. The strange depiction of him with three heads, in my view, indicates both the multiplication of his mod-and-main power, and the budding of his offspring or emanations, Moði and Magni. All of these: budding or growing mod and main, sacrificing (the goat) to his need, and then bringing dead bones to life by hallowing with his Hammer, are part of Thor’s mystery, in my perception. There is much to ponder on here, as we seek to understand the full expression of mod and mægen, sacrifice and revival into life, and the great and complex powers of Thor expressed through his mighty Hammer.
Meditations, devotions, magical workings, and other focused attention on Thor and his children are very fine ways to develop and shape the energy of our Mod-soul. It’s my opinion that modern Heathens would do well to pay more attention to the ‘Thorlings’ or Thor’s children, not least because they were / are / will be Ragnarök survivors and thus among the divine leaders of the next cycle of the Worlds. The idea that ‘mod, mægen and strength’ are focused through them and into the worlds, both now and later, is not a trivial consideration!
This leads us to a point I brought up in the assigned reading about Mod: that the phrase ‘mod and mægen’ together was how the ancient Germanic scholars translated the Latin term ‘virtus’ or ‘virtue’, specifically the kind of virtue that refers to ‘special powers, outstanding potency’ of things like powerful herbs and magical implements. This understanding implies that the triple Thorlings, Mod-Mægen-Strength, can be called upon to imbue something with power and virtue, including our own Mod-soul, but also magical and healing items and spells, among other things.
This may have been an underlying meaning of the rune-inscription Wigi Thonar, ‘Thor hallow’, on the Nordendorf fibula: calling on Thor not only to make the inscribed item sacred or hallowed, but also to fill it with virtue and power, mod and mægen, for some special purpose. Being filled with power and focused on a purpose is what Mod-soul is all about, and the general idea of virtue in the sense of having a good character and strong will-power is also part of what our Mod-soul is capable of.
Exercise 9-3: Your Mod-magnets
Once you’ve been able to recognize the main source within you of your Mod-energy or power, and become more aware of how you consciously respond to it, then it’s time to think about how best to shape and direct this power. One of the ways we can build and channel mod-power in our lives is, in a sense, to work backwards. Instead of trying to grow mod-power directly, we can grow it through a process of ‘suction’ or ‘magnetism’. We do this by deciding where we most want to use our mod-power, and allowing our focus and dedication to these areas of life to pull our Mod’s energy and abilities in that direction. The importance, to us, of whatever life-areas we have chosen to focus our Mod on, draws energy and attention from our Mod-soul like the power of suction or a magnet.
Once this power / energy starts flowing strongly, it helps to break up energy blocks and pinch-points that our life experiences and circumstances have created, which hamper our access to our own mod-power. There is no concern about running out of mod-power, because our Mod soul accesses this energy from ambient sources: solar, telluric, lunar, elemental, planetary energies, their interactions and enhancements of each other, and the surging, intertwined flows of natural life-energy all around us. Mod has its roots as an elemental being or a wight of nature in some form, and naturally has access to these energies.
Since I’m suggesting the analogy of a magnet here, let me add another point of attraction: the similarity between ‘magnet’ and Magni Thor’s son. The word ‘magnet’ comes ultimately from Magnesia, a region named after one of the demigod sons of Zeus, Magnes, who was considered the founding-father of the ancient Greek tribe which settled in that region of northern Greece. Magnetic ore was found here, and was called ‘the stone of Magnes.’ (Online Etymology Dictionary.) Here we have two powerful sons of Thunder-Gods, with basically the same name, which is associated with the word for magnetic iron and thus can form a connection with Thor Thunder-God’s mighty iron Hammer and its flows of power (likewise with Zeus’s Thunderbolt). The title of this section, ‘Mod-Magnets’, combines our own two brother-Gods’ names and domains of power: Moði and Magni. As you pursue this exercise for Mod, ask Moði to power-up your Mod, and attune yourself to Magni’s power. Try to sense Magni’s magnetic energy, and ask him to help you find sources of such energy in your own life, to magnetize your own Mod and mægen and enhance its flow.
The idea for this exercise is to seek and clarify the ‘magnets’ in your life, that have the power to draw mod-energy toward them and get the flow really moving for you. Where, at this time in your life, are the best channels for these things? One thing that doesn’t work for this exercise is to focus on what you ‘should’ be doing, but are not doing, or not doing well enough. Mod is all about enthusiasm and eagerness, and those things fall flat as soon as we start talking about ‘should’!
Yes, there are plenty of things we ‘should’ be doing in life, whether we want to or not, and we’ll talk more about that soon, in the context of building character. Once the flows of mod and mægen are running powerfully through us, they can light up those areas of life as well, helping us find ways to approach them with positive power and right attitude. But the ‘shoulds’ of life will not serve as a technique to maximize the flow of mod and mægen through our Mod soul; they are not ‘mod-magnets.’
For this exercise, use meditation, self-observation, and input from others who know you well (including Deities and ancestral spirits), to find and explore some area of life that fills you with enthusiasm, that mobilizes your energy and your Will with an eager power, that magnetically attracts you. It could be anything: a hobby, your vocation or calling (whether paid or volunteer), parenting, relationships, intellectual / artistic / esoteric interests, sports and physical activities, gardening, homemaking, helping others, crafts, decorating your home, ‘self-improvement’ of any kind that appeals to you, playing a musical instrument, interacting with animals tame or wild, creating a collection of some kind, whatever. It can be something that others might find ‘small’, ‘silly’, irrelevant, but you just enjoy it anyway, and feel a drive and desire to pursue it.
If you notice that these suggestions are similar to those I suggested in Study Guide 3 for the Ghost, this is not a coincidence. I wrote earlier about the similarities between Ghost’s wode-energy and Mod’s mod-energy. In practicing Heathen soulful-living, these are both powerful and amazing soul-energies that we want to develop and direct in beneficial ways, rather than having their negative expressions take over and impact our own lives and the lives of those around us. Working to align and coordinate our wode and mod energies is well worthwhile, not only during life, but after life, as well.
I discuss, in my article “Ghost Rider”, my idea that after death our Mod-soul joins our Ghost-soul as a partner in the God-realms. As this takes place, I see a melding of their wode- and mod-energies to power their afterlife activities with the Deities. There is every good reason to begin aligning these powerful energies, here and now in Midgard, by coordinating the urges and enthusiasms of our Mod and Ghost souls through the activities we prioritize in our life.
Mod’s Nature
So, here is our Mod soul at its best: filled with courage, strength, power, striving, character, will, purpose, determination, intelligence, capability, potency, virtue in all its highest and strongest senses. It’s easy to see how having this daemon-soul as a member of our soul-household or hiwship can potentially serve humans and humankind extremely well. However, we can’t forget that Mod definitely has another side, with potentially serious flaws of character and will, as I mentioned earlier and will return to.
I think that some of these ‘flaws’ are in fact characteristics of Mod’s origins as a non-human, elemental nature spirit, unconnected with and uninfluenced by human values. Mod has evolved along with humans; it retains its daemon or elemental characteristics, but its association with humans over many generations has given it the capacity to become more aligned with, and supportive of, human values and human ways of seeing and doing things. However, this does not happen automatically. The Mod soul within each person needs to be trained, needs to develop and mature, to learn from experience, including learning from the hard knocks of life. In my article Sefa: the Soul of Relationship, I discuss how Mod is ‘humanized’ by interfacing with our Sefa soul to form our Modsefa. (I recommend reading the section on Modsefa in that article, as part of this study guide topic.)
All the ways, within the family and within society, that we use to teach and train children about ethics, civility in all its senses, education, aspirations, goals, work ethic, relationships, self-expression and self-fulfillment, how to handle life in general…all of these are actually directed toward educating children’s Mod, Hugr, and other souls. And as we can easily see, sometimes the results are excellent, other times the results are dismal failures, and many lie somewhere in between. It seems to me that the better we understand our, and other people’s, Mod, Hugr, and other souls, their natures and their needs, the more effectively we can teach and guide children to develop their souls in beneficial rather than harmful ways.
I emphasize Mod and Hugr especially here, because these two, along with Sefa, are our most Midgard-oriented souls, the ones who are most often reflected in our everyday character, behavior, choices and deeds, for good or for ill. They are also souls that, in my understanding, are not shaped or influenced on our behalf by the Deities; rather, they are souls which arise from and act within the Midgard realm, with all its urgent and conflicting needs and pressures.
Building Character
Mod is one of our Midgard-rooted souls, along with Hugr. The two of them play a great role in our personality, temperament, character, attitudes, and our actions and reactions in Midgard life. Mod and Hugr can express themselves in very positive ways, and in negative ways, as well. Our discussion here applies to the issue of things we ‘should’ do in our lives, that we were deliberately staying away from in the previous section about Mod-magnets. This is a different dimension of Mod. Instead of exploring a magnetic force, a force of suction, to start our mod and mægen flowing strongly, as we did earlier, here we’re looking at growing a stable form to shape our Mod into solid strength and goodness of character. Force and form need to work together to shape substance.
What does it mean to ‘build character’? Think about this in the context of yourself. For me, it means to clarify my values and important goals in life, envision the person I want to be, and try to live up to this, day by day in my life. This is an ongoing process with several stages, all of them involving Mod as one who is acting, and Mod as one who is acted upon. (As an analogy, think of our muscles when we exercise: we’re using our muscles to exercise, and at the same time, our muscles are being changed and improved by our exercise. Muscles are both ‘actors’ and ‘acted upon’ when we exercise.) Mod is a strategic thinker and a primal motivator, very good at identifying goals, figuring out how to achieve them, and motivating us to do so.
Unfortunately, Mod is also very good at getting in our way when we try to do these things. It can draw us into ‘moods’ where we might not want, nor feel up to, doing what needs to be done; where we argue, complain, make excuses, become irritated and impatient, feel tired and fed up, and toss the whole project out, at least temporarily! Every time this happens, it strengthens the negative associations of what we’re trying to do, and makes it more difficult to get back on track.
What’s happening here is Mod being its own complex, contradictory self. It’s got a lot of strengths of character, and a lot of character flaws as well; this is true for each one of us, and it’s part of the nature of Mod (and Hugr) as a Midgard-oriented, human-oriented soul. Midgard, and life in Midgard, is a complex and contradictory place to be! We are subject to many competing needs, forces, goals, desires, that all tend to get in each other’s way. To be able to work constructively with Mod’s fundamental nature, we need to go back to the deep root of Mod and really understand it.
Mod as Will
I find it useful to understand Mod, at its deepest, most primal level, as Will itself, sheer Will-Power, that is capable of barreling through everything in its path. The thing is, at this level Will has little that is shaping and directing it. It’s very primitive and ‘just wants to BE’: just wants to express itself ‘because it’s there’, ‘because it can’. This is what the Norse viewed as a characteristic of the giants, and called it Jotunmoði, an overwhelmingly powerful but primitive determination to take what one wants and do what one wants, to crush all obstacles, and to Hel with the consequences! This is pure Power, and like other forms of power such as electrical and nuclear power, it can be devastatingly destructive when it is not directed and controlled.
Modern esoteric workers like to talk about our ‘true will.’ This is an important and valid concept, but it’s wise to understand that if we, as a living human, follow our Will down deeply enough, we’ll encounter this powerful, single-minded Mod-Will within us. This is when the would-be wizard can get side-tracked onto a destructive path of self-referencing, selfish aims and outlooks, and begin to misuse their power, as one can see all too often when looking at the life-history of famous esotericists. Only by being aware of this Mod-Will within us, and learning how to work with it, can we avoid such problems and harness it constructively.
Now let’s follow this Mod-Will up a few levels. Here we’re getting into physical life in Midgard, and this life has its own necessary requirements. We need food, shelter, safety, reproduction. Our Will is a useful driver to motivate us to do whatever we need to do to obtain these things. One of the essential ways humans obtain them is through social networks and social interaction, and we have essential needs relating to these social interactions as well. But things begin to get very complicated here, as we move on up the chain-of-being from primitive Will to complex human life.
Our Will is pulled in different directions all the time. Primitive Will says it’s fine to steal food from your tribe-members, and maybe injure or kill them in the process. You need food, right? And you’re going to get it. But then that destroys or distorts your access to social needs and social goods, and your Will is frustrated when you can’t get those. So then, you ‘behave nicely’ by whatever standards your tribe has, and gain some social goods, but have to suppress parts of yourself that your Will wants to express, and give up or delay some things you may want. More frustration, more complexity, and it continues to build, the more complex human society and human life becomes. Eventually our primitive Mod-Will, deep within ourselves, hunkers down and sulks and feels resentful, and breaks out through whatever gaps and cracks it can in our life to mess things up, just when we feel we have everything under control. Does this sound familiar?
Exercise 9-4: Shaping Character and Will
Your character and your will are very personal to you, shaped by your experiences, environment, family, genes, education—all the factors of your life. How much of your character and the direction of your will has been shaped by these things, and how much have they been shaped by your deliberate intent?
This is the kind of question that is good to ask ourselves periodically, to undertake an evaluation and an inner housecleaning, so to speak. How much of Mod’s power of character and will, or lack of such power, in your life is shaped by external factors (for example, advertising, ‘influencers’, peer pressure, etc.)? These things can creep in and influence us a great deal. They are not necessarily bad or wrong: we are social beings, and we all need to adapt in some ways to as to maintain the social fabric of family, friends and community, and healthy social ties. But these influences and adaptations should be a conscious choice on our part—choosing traits of character and exercises of will that we agree are good and desirable based on our own criteria that we develop with all our souls together.
For this exercise, spend some time honestly evaluating your character traits and the ways you enact your will in your daily activities and interactions. For example, how about your temper? Is it too hot, too cold, too pushy? Do you have a tendency to fudge the facts in your favor, or do you regularly tell the truth? Do you accept your responsibilities with goodwill, or do you tend to shirk them? And so forth….this is a lot of work, of course! But you can pick one or two traits of character that, upon examination, you are not really satisfied with, and work on making changes that will enhance your self-respect and self-confidence.
Roots, Trunk, and Branches
I’ve mentioned two aspects of Mod here: Character and Will. Will is the taproot, it sucks up ambient energy to power it; it is Mod’s base of power. Let’s think of Mod as a tree here, where the roots suck up ambient mod-and-maegen energy and shape it into Will. This energy is then channeled up through the trunk of the tree. This is a really important phase of action, because here is where the Will-energy is shaped and contained within a strong, stable structure: the trunk of the tree. The trunk can be seen as our Mod-character; people even use the expression of someone having an ‘upright character’ like a tree trunk. Our character may thin and flimsy at first, easily damaged and distorted, when we are young and immature. If we grow in right ways, however, the tree-trunk heals itself and grows stronger and taller year by year, and sends forth many stout boughs and branches above it. These leafy branches symbolize our actions and deeds: energized by Mod’s Will and supported and directed by Mod’s Character, they reach out in all directions, supporting and branching off from one another, to make a huge canopy above. This is our own World-Tree, our Tree of Deeds!
….And then the Seeds
Finally, there are the fruits and seeds, that the tree sends out and lets go of, to carry its essence far out into the world. The fruits and seeds symbolize the influence that Mod can have, that goes beyond its own place and time. This influence can take many forms; it is our own legacy, the outcomes of our words and deeds in the world. I also theorize that this is where new human Mod-souls come from: the Mod within a living human sends out a pod or a seed of itself, which floats around and attaches to an infant human as part of the infant’s new soular-system. If this is true, that makes it even more important to grow our own Mod-tree well, so that the pods it sends out to the new generation are grown from worthy roots and branches, and carry with them the essence of what our Mod-soul achieves in this life.
How does this work?
This all sounds very good, but how do we get Mod to work this way? Mod is obstreperous and ornery in many ways. How do we get it to grow like a tree instead of like kudzu, growing and twining and taking over our life with its tangled, willful energy? Based on my experience, I’d say this is not something that happens once and for all. It’s a matter of daily actions and choices, like the Norns patting layers of clay each day on the trunk of the World Tree, nourishing and supporting it. Our actions and choices need to take into account what Mod is like, what it wants and needs, what satisfies it, or we just end up fighting and struggling with it all the time.
Here is a key insight: Mod wants to take action. Mod is mody: it’s brave, energetic, up-front, determined, strong-willed, eager, striving. It needs to act, and if you don’t give it opportunities to take action and achieve as it’s capable of, then it will sabotage you right, left and center. It’s like a strong animal or an unruly kid who is just not getting enough exercise and freedom, and acts up in all kinds of ways as a result.
There are numerous ways to satisfy Mod’s need for action, and they’ll vary from person to person, and will vary throughout a person’s lifetime as they grow, mature, and age. ‘Action’ can very much include mental as well as physical activity, social as well as individual activity. But there are key components that need to be present for an action to satisfy Mod, whatever form it takes. These components include: striving, and expending energy in some form. Having a meaningful goal, purpose or intention, and directing your actions toward that. Solving problems, especially knotty, difficult problems that are really challenging and also meaningful and important to you. Reaching toward excellence, whatever it is that you’re doing.
Mod does not care about wimpy, half-hearted actions; it wants something it can throw itself into and excel at, and the more challenging it is, the better. Whether it’s an intricate knitting project, learning a new language, figuring out a better household routine, sorting out a relationship problem, improving your fitness or your job performance, or running for mayor of your city, Mod wants to achieve something it can be proud of and satisfied with.
What Mod hates is being surrounded by challenges, opportunities, problems that need fixing, and being held back from doing anything about them. That’s when it will start acting up and make things even worse than they already are, especially by kick-starting your own bad habits, attitudes and moods into a downward spiral. Mod is determined to act, and if it isn’t enabled and directed to act in positive ways, then by Thor it’s going to act in negative ones!
Exercise 9-5: The Power of the Gut
This one is totally mundane and gut-level, but it’s important, too! I’ve written, in my article Dances with Daemons, that I think a primary physical foothold of our Mod-soul within our body is our microbiome, and particularly our gut-microbiome. When someone is ‘mody’, is tuned into their mod-power, people say this person ‘has guts!’ We have a gut-feeling about something. When we go through an experience of awful emotional shock, it feels like we’ve been kicked in the gut.
These expressions are meaningful, and they relate to our Mod’s abilities of courage, character, knowingness, emotional power. The primary locus of Mod’s power-core within our body is in our solar plexus and abdomen, where there are major nerve-centers, and also where our gut-microbiome resides.
I wrote, in Dances with Daemons, about how the condition and activity of our gut-microbiome can affect our moods and attitudes, our mental abilities, our physical health and well-being. If you are not already doing this, take some time to learn more about the gut-microbiome, what it does, how it is affected by diet, stress, sleep-wake cycles, physical activity, intolerances, and other lifestyle factors.
Recent research is showing how the condition of the microbiome (of ourselves, and even of our parents) may play a role in many neurological problems like depression, anxiety, autism-spectrum, Parkinson’s, dementia, schizophrenia, behavioral problems, and others. Dr. Verny points out that the gastrointestinal tract, including the microbiome, is now understood to have a very strong influence on our motivational and emotional states (p. 81). These are all situations that affect and are affected by our Mod and its mental / emotional / physical power, or lack thereof. There is much more to be learned here, I believe, that is of great importance for our health on all levels—both our personal health, and the health of our society as a whole.
Keep in mind that Mod’s nature of powerfully ‘wanting and willing’ reflects in part the effect that our gut-microbiome exerts on our diet and other lifestyle choices. A gut overrun by yeast or microbial overgrowth, for example, can cause us to crave the desired food of these organisms, which is sugar, thus throwing us into a vicious cycle of unhealthy eating and related unhealthy lifestyle patterns. These things exert more control over us than we may realize.
Focusing on our gut seems so mundane, but it truly is a significant source of our Mod’s strength and balance. If you want to develop and fine-tune your Mod and mægen to a high level, you need to keep your gut-microbiome healthy and functioning as optimally as you can. And to do this, you need to learn by experience about the ‘care and feeding’ of your own microbiome, including figuring out what is harmful to it, and act on that knowledge.
I recommend not getting too caught up in expensive supplements and treatments, but rather figuring out the kind of diet and lifestyle that best nurtures your own unique microbiome, which varies from person to person, and varies from one stage and condition of life to another. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, which is why you need to depend on your own observations and experiences.
You can tell how you are progressing in this effort, by observing your moods, energy levels, mental alertness, sleep quality, and overall sense of wellness. I can say, based on years of positive and negative personal experiences, that this is an important area of knowledge and action for us as holistic soul-body life-practitioners. Your Lichama, Aldr and Ferah will thank you for this, as well as your Mod!
Exercise 9-6: Where is Courage?
If someone asks the question, “What is courage?” there are some fairly standard answers. “Courage is when you keep going even when you’re afraid or exhausted.” “Courage is facing things instead of running away.” And the like. These statements are certainly true, but do they always touch us where they need to? When we say these things to ourselves during times of difficulty, do they really help us then? Maybe sometimes they do, but maybe not so much, especially during extreme circumstances.
Let’s try a different approach. In this course of study we’re paying a lot of attention to our inner feelings and sensations, and even to parts of our body and its functions where particular souls are rooted or most express themselves. So let’s explore this question: not “what is courage,” but “where is courage?” Where, within my total being, can the motive energy of courage be found? The tougher a situation is, the less helpful are intellectual ideas like “courage is…(whatever)”. Instead, we need something at the gut-level, something instinctual that we can tap into whenever we need it.
Like all our exercises, this is not something with a prescribed answer that you’re supposed to guess at; it’s something unique to each of us, that we each need to find for ourselves. Courage lives within you; it is part of the life-force that expresses itself through you, and every other being. Now the task is to find where it pools and collects within yourself, where it takes root within you and feeds your Mod-tree that we talked about earlier.
First, sit quietly and clear your mind. Explore in your feelings, sensations, and imagination: what does courage really feel like? Not a definition of “what is it?”, but “how does it feel?” It is unlikely to feel like ‘fearlessness’ or lack of fear. Fear is always there inside us; it is an important instinct that, in its healthy forms, helps us protect life, safety, and wellbeing for ourselves and those we care for. If courage really erased fear within us, it would deprive us of this important source of information that we cannot afford to ignore. Courage helps us not be blinded, handicapped or defeated by fear, but it does not erase fear, nor should it.
Sit quietly and ask yourself “where is my courage concentrated within me? What does it feel like?” Let your responses arise within you, focusing more on feelings, images, sensations, than on verbal answers. After exploring this for awhile, then ask “how does it feel when I can’t find my courage, when it seems like it’s not there?” Remember instances in your life when your courage was low, versus when you were able to respond with courage, and compare how those experiences felt in your body-sensations and analog-senses. Use both these sensations—the presence of courage and its apparent absence—to refine your perception of where your courage is rooted within you, and what it feels like when it is active.
Absorb news, documentaries, history, movies, books and stories old and new, to see examples of people who deal with their circumstances with courage, and people who fail to do so. How do these examples make you feel and react? Can you recognize the root of your own courage within you, as you share in these other people’s experiences and their responses?
When you’ve made progress with that, then work in your imagination and memory, to figure out what makes your courage grow and be accessible to you, versus what makes it shrink and be hard to find when you need it. Again, focus on sensation in your Lichama, your Mod, Ferah, Hugr, and other souls. Keeping yourself as healthy and well-nourished as you are able, on all levels, is likely to be supportive of your courage, though it is true that people who deal well with serious health problems are among the most courageous of all. Exercise of your courage in daily situations, and growing your positive experiences of courage, day by day, helps a lot. But these are just words, generalizations; you need to discover and practice what works for you.
This exercise may require many repetitions, and is likely to be uncomfortable, at least to start with! You’re trying to find your ‘courage-muscles’ and figure out how to strengthen and train them, and this is probably an unfamiliar approach to the questions “what is courage? How do I get more of it?” I hope this exercise will support you on your way to finding and growing your own deepest levels of courage.
Exercise 9-7: Partnering with Mod
You’ve gone through a number of Mod-exercises now, to learn to sense who your Mod is, what its power is like, how it behaves, what it wants. Now it’s time to begin consciously partnering with it, to harness its energy in your life, and work to ensure this energy doesn’t backfire into negative expressions. Take it for granted that Mod wants to take action in your everyday life. Now, look for opportunities to tune in and ask your Mod how it wants to handle things.
For example, when you first wake up in the morning, before you get out of bed, tune into your power-core, sense your Mod and ask it where and how it wants to take action during the day in front of you. Agree that you will work with it, allow it to take action. Whenever you’re facing a challenge, issue, problem during the day, tune into your Mod again. Show it some trust, ask it to step forward and use its strength, skill and will to address the issue. A primary way to communicate between your conscious mind and your Mod is through trust: trust that this deep, instinctual, powerful soul within you has a great deal to offer, that it needs to offer it, needs to learn and gain experience and fulfill itself by acting in the world.
Use what you’ve learned about how and where you feel your Mod-strength and Will, to conduct these ‘conversations’, or really, ‘sensation-conversations’ within you, to figure out what Mod wants to do. And use this clue to tell whether you have actually accessed your Mod: your level of enthusiasm. Mod’s energy expresses itself very frequently as enthusiasm, the positive flip-side of rage. You may be quite amazed by how much your enthusiasm increases, even for things you’d rather not do, once you let Mod step forward and take action. The more you practice this, the more it will become second nature for you. Try consciously letting Mod step in on small, insignificant events of life first, for practice and to build trust between your conscious mind, other souls, and your Mod. As trust and skill grow, you can extend this practice into more important and far-reaching actions in your life.
It’s also useful to practice this in your imagination. Imagine a situation in your life, then seek your Mod-center and its energy, feel it flowing out toward the situation, and follow that flow of energy with your attention. Stand back and observe, in your imagination, how Mod would deal with the situation. (Of course, Mod is dealing through you; you are taking action yourself, but guided now by your Mod-soul.) Then afterwards, review your Mod’s actions and see how well it worked, whether there are ways your Mod needs to improve its approach, etc. Mod has a great deal of power, and the potential for really going wrong, but the response to this knowledge should not be to just suppress your Mod. It should be, as I’ve said here, an increasing awareness of your Mod on your part, ongoing practice for your Mod to handle itself, through you, in real-life situations, and ever-increasing trust and reliance on this powerful soul of yours.
Also allow your Mod to choose some leisure activities for you to engage in: hobbies, sports, games, music, cooking, activities with family and friends, with the emphasis on mental / physical / social activity, not on passive ‘consumption’ of whatever input! Mod wants to have fun, and for Mod, that means activity of some kind: physical, mental, social, using your skills. I don’t mean to suggest that rest time is unimportant, of course it is necessary and beneficial too. It’s a matter of striking a healthy balance.
If you remember the study and exercises for the other souls so far, you’ll notice that there’s lots of overlap between what satisfies Mod, and what fulfills other souls, too. Thank goodness, or you’d never have time for it all! Mod and Ferah can go hiking and exploring in the woods or other wild lands together, go bird-watching or fishing, work at landscaping your garden, or engage in devotion and worship. Mod and Ghost can enjoy intellectual and creative hobbies and interests together. Mod can express itself through the many skills and abilities of the Lich-Hama. Mod can definitely work with Aldr’s ability to feed nourishing energy into our body and souls, to support our health (including microbiome) and extend our life-span. Mod and Hugr have so much in common that when you’re working with one, the other is likely to be deeply involved as well. Mod really wants to ‘do stuff’, and is quite happy to do stuff that other souls want, too! This is one way a jumble of souls shape themselves into a supportive and interactive soul-household.
Exercise 9-8: Who or What do you Admire?
One of the things that helps to shape Mod-energy is admiration and emulation. Just like a healthy youngster looks up to admired elders and wants to be like them, Mod is motivated by admiration, whether it’s for a person, or for ideals or achievements. Mod wants to ‘be like that’, or ‘do that thing, as well as, or better than, others are doing it.’ By choosing what to admire, we can help shape our Mod into something admirable.
Think about this for yourself. Are there people or ideals that you especially admire? Are there, perhaps, even better people or ideals that you could set your admiring sights on? You won’t know that until you find out about them, which you’ll do by gaining more knowledge, whether it’s through history, biography, literature, news, getting to know more people, learning more about your own ancestors, or however it might be. This is another activity for your Mod! Pursue what is admirable and honorable, and encourage your Mod to shape itself in accordance with the best examples and ideals that you can conceive, rather than letting it run wild and landing you in trouble!
Help from the Holy Ones
Let’s turn to Thor and his sons and daughter again. I suggest that you call upon them as you work through all the material on the Mod-soul. Moði represents our Mod and its power. Magni represents the magnetic force that can pull out mighty flows of that mod-power in a direction that we choose. Thruðr, ‘Strength’, represents strength of character and Will. Moði is the ‘substance’ of Mod, Magni is the ‘force’ of that substance, and Thruðr is the ‘form’ that shapes the expression of the substance and the force. Thor himself ties all of them together: a God not only of might and main, but also a God of trustworthy character, of right and beneficial action, and a God whose actions are powerful and effective. All of them can add might and main to our efforts to grow and shape our Mod-soul! One resource for building a connection with Thor is Baer’s Hammer, Oak and Lightning: A Thor Devotional.
Bookhoard
Baer, Jeremy. Hammer, Oak and Lightning: A Thor Devotional. Philadelphia, PA: The Troth, 2019.
Verny, Thomas R., MD. The Embodied Mind: Understanding the Mysteries of Cellular Memory, Consciousness, and our Bodies. New York: Pegasus Books, 2021.
Revised April 2022.