Generation, Coagulation, the Dwimor and Dwimoring
Winifred Hodge Rose
As we proceed with this study, I want first to make a clarification, and distinguish between understandings I’ve derived from the lore, versus on my own. I described traditional beliefs about the afterlife-being called by variations of the word Saiwalo / Sele / Sawl, etc., in The Soul and the Sea, in Hel-Dweller, and in What Happened to Heathen Saiwalo-Soul? Both the Saiwalo (soul) and the Dwimor (phantom) are old, native Germanic words and concepts, but the relationship between them that I present is based on my own ideas, and so is the idea that Saiwalo stays in Hel while sending up a Dwimor-projection into Midgard to support a living person. The more traditional idea is that a Saiwalo-soul enters a living person at birth, perhaps first drawn from a body of water (physical or spiritual) by a Goddess or Norn, and that the Saiwalo-soul heads back to Hel / the Hidden Land after death, perhaps also by diving through a body of water, or entering a cave or other landscape feature.
My own soul-explorations through the years have led me to further ideas that I present in my articles about the Saiwalo and Dwimor. These beliefs of mine include:
~ that Hel is a metaphysical ecosystem whose primary components are the Saiwalo souls, and that Hel and the Saiwalos are interdependent;
~ that this ecosystem and its alchemical processes play a vitally important role in the health and vitality of all the life-bearing Worlds, especially Midgard;
~ that Saiwalos remain in Hel and continue their work there, while also sending up Dwimor-projections to ensoul living beings in Midgard, which remain connected to the Saiwalos in Hel during life;
~ that the Dwimors return to Hel and their Saiwalos after death in Midgard, and that this Dwimor-traffic to and fro constitutes a major part of the important interactions and exchanges between Midgard and Hel, the Hidden Land.
I hope this helps to distinguish between the research I’ve presented about traditional beliefs, versus the new ideas that I am presenting through my soul lore work, for those who are concerned about such distinctions. Now, on to the next installment….
Spontaneous Generation
In The Alchemy of Hel, Part I, I discussed my understanding of the substrate / matrix / womb of Hel, which is Audhumla: a salt-being who offers herself, her being and nature, as the ground for a new World, the world of Hel. (Note that ‘matrix’ comes from the Latin word for ‘womb’.) Now we’re ready to look more deeply into the beings that populate Hel: the Saiwalo souls, and how they arise. Let’s look at a parallel development for a moment. Ymir was sacrificed to form Midgard, and Worlds that lie close to it. We are told that the Dwarves came into being as “maggots” consuming the flesh of Ymir after his sacrifice, and were later transformed into humanoid beings, the Dwarves, by the Deities (Gylfaginning, in the Edda, p. 16).
In ancient times, maggots were thought to arise through spontaneous generation from decomposing flesh. Apparently, ancient Norse considered this to be a logical explanation for the origins of the Dwarves, who burrow through the earth / Ymir’s body as maggots burrow through decaying flesh. This is somewhat distasteful and insulting imagery, perhaps not surprising since ancient Heathens had a rather negative view of Dwarves, with their tendency to consume or suck energy from other beings (such as humans and domestic animals) on occasion.
In the section on the Mod soul, in my article Esoteric Affinities of the Heathen Souls, I discuss a different way of looking at this mythic tale. I describe Dwarves as master mod-power transformers, who began their incipient existence as energy-larvae absorbing mod, might and main from mighty Ymir’s flesh, and condensing it powerfully within themselves. In fact, I like to think that it was the Dwarves, not the Deities, who initiated their own transformation once they had accumulated and refined enough mod, might and main from Ymir to achieve this great work.
The tales we are told in the lore reflect the rather prejudiced perspectives of humans and the Aesir, but I suspect that the lore of the Dwarves tells a different tale of their origins, perhaps more along the lines of what I have written. Those who are interested in more in-depth Heathen alchemy might want to consider approaching the Dwarves through the spirit-worlds, with respect, caution, a clear sense of what they are about, and an open mind toward the lore and the abilities of the Dwarves, which are deep and broad.
Simek notes that the dwarves were known for their wisdom and skill, and, in addition to their smithcraft, were also known as miners and as custodians of treasures (p. 68). They are strongly associated with Earth and its elements, minerals and metals. If we accept the alchemical ideas I’ve laid out, then we must also conclude that the Dwarves, feeding from Ymir, also partake of the ‘venom’ that Ymir is formed from. In alchemical terms, the venom can represent strong acids and bases that have the power to dissolve various substances, and are also used in the dangerous processes for refining pure metals out of mixed ores. It’s wise to keep this ‘venomous’ or dangerous aspect of Dwarves in mind, when dealing with them.
The World of the Dwarves is considered to be ‘underground’, beneath the level of Midgard, as Hel is, also. I think there are a number of parallel processes in these two ‘underworlds’, including a process of spontaneous generation of the native beings or dwellers in these worlds, arising out of a primal matrix as the Dwarves did out of Ymir. I might note also that Dwarves are sometimes associated with the dead, as shown by some of their names, such as Nar (corpse), Nainn (ditto), Dain (died), Blainn (blue-black). The World of the Dwarves, full of riches and infused with danger, death and power, and the World of Hel, the Hidden Land of Saiwalo souls, filled with hidden wealth, power and mystery, have some significant overlaps that are worthy of exploration.
Coalescence and Coagulation
So now let’s take a look at this parallel process: the Saiwalo-souls arising spontaneously within the substance of Audhumla / Hel. Here, instead of the ‘decomposition’ of Ymir’s flesh and the extraction and condensation of his-her mod-power by the Dwarves, we have coalescence and coagulation of individual Saiwalo-souls out of the foundational matrix of Hel. ‘Coalescence’ means a process of gathering together around a center, and ‘coagulation’ refers to thickening and sticking together more firmly.
This process is driven by the alchemical properties of salt and water. Audhumla’s body, as all bodies, is earthy, but it was generated from salty ice, that is, from salt and water. In a previous Saiwalo article, The Soul and the Sea, I quoted a fragment from the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, and reiterate that quotation here.
“As souls (psyches) are born through the death of water, water is born through the death of earth. And as water comes into being from earth, so from water does the soul.” (Heraclitus fragment DKB 36, my translation.)
I see this enigmatic saying of Heraclitus as a way of describing the process of the Saiwalo soul arising. First there is elemental earth, and this serves as a metaphor for Hel, the Hidden Land that lies below the surface of the Earth. In a certain locus, earth ‘dies’ and transforms into elemental water, thus becoming like a water-well surrounded and contained by earth. The water in this well is permeated by elemental Earth in the form of salt. This describes my perception of the Saiwalo soul, a salt-water being nestled within its earthy-watery ecosystem of Hel. Please note that these ‘elements’—earth, water, salt (and venom)—are not the literal substances we’re familiar with in Midgard, but are metaphors that carry clues to their subtle alchemical and elemental natures.
Then the water in the center of the well ‘dies’ and is transformed into a soul surrounded by water. This is a metaphor for our Dwimor: a salt-being condensed from, and projected by, our watery Saiwalo-soul in the form of a phantom, which is our earthly soul-image. This water-well, surrounded by earth and condensing salt out of itself, is an image of a Saiwalo-soul condensing its Dwimor-projection in preparation for a new life in Midgard.
These ‘deaths’ or transformations come about through solution and coagulation, alchemical solve et coagule. A spot of ‘Earth’, of Audhumla’s body / the World of Hel, melts and dissolves into a salt-water Saiwalo soul. Then the salt in the water coagulates, condensing into a salt-being, the Dwimor or phantom soul-image that Saiwalo generates as its projection into the Midgard-plane.
The coagulation and condensation of the Dwimor is necessary because Saiwalos are diffuse, non-material entities, very different from the environment of Midgard. Even though the Dwimor is a ghostly phantom, only vaguely materialized, it is still considerably denser than its Saiwalo, which is necessary so that Dwimor can carry a body-image with it and cohere with the Hama and Lich in Midgard.
The energy for Dwimor’s condensation and projection comes from our Ferah-soul, a soul aligned with elemental Fire and Earth. The Ferah-soul comes into being in Midgard when egg and sperm unite in the womb, during the process of conception, and Ferah’s coming-into-being is accompanied by an intense flash of lightning. The alchemical fire of Ferah’s conception provides the heat necessary for the condensation of a new, salty Dwimor-phantom to form from the salt-water Saiwalo-soul grounded in Hel. The Dwimor rises up, a projection from its Saiwalo in Hel, and is drawn to join with the newly-conceived Ferah-soul, the Fire of Life, to form the spiritual foundation of a new living person in Midgard. (See my articles The Awakening of the Souls, The Soul and the Sea (Saiwalo and Dwimor) and Born of Trees and Thunder (Ferah) for more details about this.)
The Dwimor
Dwimor comes from Anglo-Saxon gedwimor, and has two sets of meanings. One is ‘phantom, ghost, apparition,’ and the other is ‘illusion, delusion, error,’ a meaning which was heavily used by those in the Christian religious establishment to castigate Heathen ideas and beliefs. Dwimor’s root goes back to Proto-Germanic as *dwemra = ‘vapor, smoke, apparition’, and is related to *dox = twilight, dusk. *Dwemra in turn comes from Proto-Indo-European *dheu, meaning ‘to rise in a cloud’ as dust, vapor or smoke. It is also related to words indicating breath, and ‘defective perception or wits’. The Proto-Indo-European root and its Germanic descendants go off in several directions, including ‘to rise as a cloud’, ‘to die’, ‘to dwindle, diminish (dwinan)’, ‘to lead or go astray (gedwelian)’, ‘beclouded in one’s senses and perceptions,’ dizzy, drowsy, doze, hence the meanings of ‘illusion, delusion.’ Gedwolcraft means ‘occult art, magic,’ perhaps dealing especially with illusions.
There is also a connection with ‘breath, breathing creature’, leading to Proto-Germanic *dheuzam = ‘animal’. Its descendants include deor = wild animal in Anglo-Saxon, Tier = animal in German, and modern English deer. It is also the root of thymos, an ancient Greek soul very similar to Hugr and Mod, which was said to exit like smoke from a dying person. The herb thyme was burned as incense, rising up in smoke. (Linguistic roots from Watkins p. 19-20, Hall p. 91.) I show more information about these word-roots in my article Ond, Ahma, Ghost and Breath, Table 1, and discuss it further in Ghost Rider, where I note the connection between these words and shamanic practices.
The Dwimor in Midgard
Here is my understanding of the soul-processes that occur during human conception. The heat from the lightning-flash of Ferah-soul’s conception condenses the salty Dwimor out of its watery matrix in Saiwalo, and draws it up into Midgard to join with Ferah. Dwimor bears with it the image that Saiwalo has generated for this new, living person. The flare of power that is released when Dwimor and Ferah merge gives rise to the Hama-soul, which is then imprinted with the physical image of the newly-conceived person. The Hama then takes over the process of shaping the infant into a physical human being with its many characteristics and abilities, based on Saiwalo’s image that has been imprinted in the Hama by the Dwimor.
The other life-souls—Ferah, Ahma, Ghost, Hama, Aldr—each have their own specific ways of keeping a person physically alive and embedded within living systems. Ferah is the vital life-force that circulates throughout the world of Nature, and links Midgard Nature (including living humans) with the Deities and other spirits of Nature. Ahma and Ghost provide the breath of life and inflowing inspiration, energizing physical, mental and spiritual life. Hama shapes and maintains the living physical body with its many skills and abilities. Aldr fills, nourishes and heals the living person with a dense, close-to-physical energy, and governs their lifespan and the timing of important life-events.
Saiwalo is also traditionally considered a life-soul, whose departure from the body coincides with death, yet unlike the other life-souls, it is not clear from the oldest lore in what way Saiwalo contributes to life. Later concepts of “the soul”, radically changed through influences from Christian, Classical Greek, Neoplatonic, and other schools of thought, present “the soul” as the entire inner person, complete with life, personality, emotions, thought, etc.; and this is how the term is used today. But the earliest traces of Saiwalo show something much more limited, obscure and shadowy, unengaged in everyday Midgard life and individual personhood, even though its presence is essential to maintain this life. I will consider this traditional perspective and its changes in more detail in forthcoming articles, but here I will return to alchemical metaphor to describe my own view of how Saiwalo maintains life within us during our time in Midgard.
Here is the basic principle: salt is a grasping substance; it attracts and holds ‘moisture’, which we can view as a metaphor for ‘life-energy.’ Hvergelmir exudes a ‘salty’ flow from itself, which shaped and fed Audhumla. Audhumla transformed herself into the World of Hel, and from her salty substance Saiwalo-beings emerged through spontaneous generation. When the Ferah-soul arises in a flash of lightning during conception, the heat from this life-fire reaches into Hel and condenses a core of salt from a Saiwalo-being, drawing it up into Midgard. This core is the Dwimor, a phantom-being projected out from Saiwalo to join with a new life in Midgard.
Dwimor’s salty nature forms a core of alchemical attraction at the center of our being, around which our other souls gather as gestation proceeds in Midgard. Our other life-souls: Ferah, Aldr, Ahma, Ghost, Hama, constantly draw ambient life-force in various different forms into our body-soul complex, as our Mod-soul draws in mod-power as well. But it is Saiwalo, through its Dwimor, who provides the salty medium that absorbs and holds those life-forces within our soul-body matrix, ensuring that we remain alive in Midgard. Saiwalo, through its Dwimor, uses alchemical ‘salt’ to coagulate and preserve all of our soul-functions during Midgard life. When the body dies and Dwimor returns to its Saiwalo in Hel, the removal of its coagulating force leads to separation among all the souls and the Lich; our soul-body complex is dissolved and death occurs.
This is my understanding of the role of Saiwalo in Midgard life: it uses its alchemical nature to create the bonds which hold our soul-body complex together, allowing the formation, circulation and preservation of all the patterns of energy and matter that coalesce to form our Midgard life, body, personhood and functionality. The rune Hagalaz, associated with Hel and considered to be a primal seed-crystal in modern runic thought, can be seen as the underlying pattern for this activity. Hagol in Anglo-Saxon means ‘hail, hailstorm’, which is associated with thunder and lightning, phenomena which are, in turn, associated with the Ferah soul (see my article Born of Trees and Thunder). Looking at the process runically, we have a thunderstorm (Ferah) generating hail-stones (Saiwalo producing Dwimor in response to Ferah-fire). The hail-stone forms a crystal, mimicking the formation of souls and body around the Dwimor-core. After a (life-)time the hail melts, releasing the accumulated souls from its crystalline bond, which leads to our next topic.
Dwimoring
I’ve offered my thoughts about the alchemical involvement of Saiwalo and Dwimor at conception and during Midgard life. Now we’ll look at the end of Midgard life, when our Dwimor is ‘Dwimoring’ (a word-form I made up). As it is leaving Midgard, the Dwimor undergoes another alchemical process, mirroring its condensation into salt at the beginning of its journey: that of sublimation. Sublimation occurs when matter changes directly from the solid to the gaseous state, without going through a liquid phase first. You can sometimes see that happening over a field of snow under the sun, when the air is too cold to melt the snow, but the solar energy draws up a haze of vapor from the surface of the snow.
I believe that our Ferah-soul emits a flash of light and heat as it separates from our Lich and other souls at death, just as it does when it forms at conception. I see this flash as a metaphysical form of atomic energy, which is mythically expressed as the power of the Thunder-God’s Hammer and the lightning it causes. At conception, we have the fire of fusion between egg and sperm. At death, we have the fire of fission: the explosive separation of that which had been fused together. I think that this fire of fission causes the sublimation of the Dwimor, transforming it from a metaphorically ‘solid’ core which holds us together, into a waft of vapor that can be perceived as a phantom spirit set loose from the body at death.
Let’s review the meanings of ‘dwimor’ and related words, that I discussed earlier: phantom, ghost, apparition, illusion, delusion, dizzy, dozing, vapor, rising as smoke or dust, twilight, dwindle, diminish, beclouded in wits and senses, to wander astray, etc.
I’m going to suggest here that if we imaginatively put ourselves in the place of our own Dwimor as it is released from our body and heads back to Hel, we would experience all of the meanings that are described in the section about the Dwimor. We would be sublimated out of the physical body, no longer in the form of crystallized salt around which a living person coagulates, but now rising as a cloud, as sublimated vapor. Others who perceived us would see us as a phantom or apparition, and imagine we are an illusion. As we head back toward our Saiwalo in Hel, we would perceive a dim and twilight world around us. Separated from the other souls and body we shared life with in Midgard, and not yet joined with our Saiwalo in Hel, we would feel diminished, dwindled away from what we were in Midgard. Norse tales tell of the dead having no weight or sound to their steps, as they cross the bridge to Hel: they have dwindled from what they were as living beings.
Our Dwimor’s senses and perceptions, no longer fortified by the Lichama, Ferah, and the other souls, would feel dizzy, dim, confused, beclouded, dozy, during the dying process and after leaving the body. This is the Dwimor during the temporary state between its life in the physical body in Midgard, and its return to its Saiwalo in Hel. Dwimor is not a stand-alone soul, it is a phantom, a projection of the Saiwalo, and it cannot function well in its dwindled state when it is detached from the other souls and the Lich. Many of the tales of afterlife experiences and observations are told from the perspective of this Dwimor-experience, and show Hel and the afterlife as Dwimor sees it at this stage of its existence.
This stage of sublimation of the Dwimor, though unsettling, is a temporary one, part of a natural process of transformation that it undergoes. The Dwimor itself, bewildered and diminished, is unaware that it bears a rich cargo of treasure from its life in Midgard, as it heads back to its Saiwalo in Hel. This is the subject of The Alchemy of Hel, Part III: the involvement of Saiwalos, Dwimors and the ecosystem of Hel in generating and transforming the ‘treasure-house of images’ that flow constantly into and out of our awareness, and influence our thoughts, actions and reactions as we pursue our lives in Midgard.
Book-Hoard
Hall, J.R. Clark, with supplement by Herbert D. Merritt. A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th Edition. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, Canada, 1960.
Heraclitus fragment: www.heraclitusfragments.com
Simek, Rudolf. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. D.S. Brewer. Cambridge, England, 1993.
Sturlason, Snorri. Edda, transl. & ed. Anthony Faulkes. Everyman, Rutland, Vermont, 1987.
Watkins, Calvert. The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, 3rd ed. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston. 2011.
This article was first published on this website, December 2020.