Freya: The Seidr Queen and the Magic of Desire

Freya gets what she wants. Always.

Not through force. Not through sacrifice. Not through hanging on trees or trading eyes for wisdom. She gets what she wants through attraction, through desire, through the magnetic power of knowing exactly what she wants and letting the universe arrange itself accordingly.

She's the Seidr Queen, the goddess who taught Odin magic even though he was the Allfather. She's the one who chooses half the slain warriors (the other half go to Odin's Valhalla). She's associated with beauty, love, sex, gold, magic, and death. She weeps tears of gold. She rides a chariot pulled by cats. She wears a cloak of falcon feathers that lets her fly between worlds. She owns the necklace Brísingamen, which she obtained through means the sources delicately avoid detailing.

She's powerful, sensual, sovereign, and completely unapologetic about any of it.

If Odin is the archetype of the seeker who endures ordeal for knowledge, Freya is the archetype of the one who attracts what she wants through the sheer force of desire aligned with power. She doesn't chase. She draws toward her. She doesn't sacrifice herself. She transforms what comes to her.

This is freya magic, and it's profoundly different from odin magic even though both are shamanic practices, both involve working between worlds, both require skill and power.

The question at the heart of Freya's teaching is simple but devastating: Do you know what you actually want, or just what you think you should want?

Because Freya gets what she wants. But if you don't actually know what you want, if you're chasing borrowed desires or performing wants that aren't genuinely yours, Freya energy will give you exactly what you're asking for and you'll discover it doesn't satisfy. The magic works. The question is whether you're working it consciously or unconsciously.

This article is about understanding freya and seidr magic, about learning to work with desire as a compass rather than a compulsion, about the power of attraction and its shadows, and about what it means to be a practitioner in Freya's lineage.

If the Odin article made you uncomfortable with its talk of sacrifice and ordeal, this article might make you equally uncomfortable with its talk of desire, sexuality, power through attraction, and the magic of getting what you want. Good. Both discomforts are worth examining.

The Myth: Freya the Seidr Teacher

The key story about Freya and seidr comes from the Ynglinga Saga in Snorri's Heimskringla. Here's the essential passage:

Freya was a priestess of the sacrifices. She first taught the Æsir the seidr magic that was practiced among the Vanir.

That's it. That's the source. But packed into that brief statement is something profound: Freya, a Vanir goddess, teaches the Æsir (including Odin) a magical practice that the Æsir didn't know. She's the teacher. Odin, the Allfather, the god of wisdom and magic, learns from her.

Seidr was considered ergi (unmanly) magic, associated with women, with the völur (seeresses), with practices that involved trance, prophecy, and fate-weaving. For Odin to learn it was transgressive. For Freya to be its master and teacher was natural. This was her domain.

The ergi nature of seidr is important. In Norse culture, it implied passivity, receptivity, being penetrated or entered by spirits or forces. It was considered shameful for men because it violated masculine norms of activity and control. But for women practitioners, the völur, this receptivity was power.

Freya embodies this paradox: she's receptive (seidr requires opening, allowing, receiving) but she's also sovereign and powerful. She's not passive in the sense of powerless. She's receptive in the sense of being able to contain, channel, and direct forces that come through her.

This is the core of freya and seidr magic: power through receptivity, influence through attraction, shaping reality not by forcing but by becoming magnetic enough that reality reorganizes itself around your desire.

Freya's Domains: Beauty, Power, Sexuality, Death

Freya isn't just a love goddess (though she is that). She's not just a beauty goddess (though she is that too). She's the integration of domains that modern culture likes to keep separate:

Beauty and aesthetics: Freya is beautiful, associated with gold and fine things, with the aesthetic dimension of reality. But her beauty isn't superficial. It's magnetic. It's the power that draws things toward it. Beauty in her domain isn't about looking pretty. It's about being so aligned with your own nature that you become irresistible.

Love and desire: Freya is associated with love, but not the domesticated, sweet version. This is desire, want, the pull of attraction. She knows what she wants and she pursues it (or more accurately, arranges for it to come to her). Her domain is erotic power, the creative force of desire itself.

Sexuality: Freya is sexual, openly so. The sources hint at (or outright state, depending on the text) that she's free with her sexuality, that she chooses her lovers, that she trades sexual favor for what she wants (the Brísingamen necklace). In a culture with strict sexual norms, Freya is the goddess who doesn't follow those rules.

Magic and seidr: Freya is the seidr queen, the master of trance magic, fate-weaving, prophecy, shape-shifting. Her magic is oracular, transformative, powerful. She teaches gods. That's not minor magic.

Death and the slain: Freya gets first choice of the slain warriors, taking half to her hall Fólkvangr (the other half go to Odin's Valhalla). She's not just a life goddess. She's a death goddess, the one who gathers the dead, who has sovereignty over the transition.

Sovereignty and freedom: Freya does what she wants. She chooses her lovers. She leaves her husband (or he leaves her, sources vary). She weeps tears of gold when she wants to travel, then she travels. She's not contained by anyone's expectations.

The integration of all these domains is the key. Modern culture wants to separate these: beauty is superficial, sexuality is base, death is morbid, magic is fake, power is masculine. Freya holds all of it together. Beauty is power. Sexuality is sacred. Death is part of life. Magic is real. Sovereignty is not negotiable.

Working with Freya energy means integrating what you've been taught to keep separate. It means owning your desire without apology. It means using attraction as a form of power. It means being beautiful (in your own way) and powerful and sexual and magical all at once.

That's uncomfortable for people who've been taught that spiritual practice requires renouncing desire, that power is ugly, that sexuality is shameful, that beauty is vanity, that sovereignty is selfish.

Freya says: all of that is yours. Claim it.

The Völva's Lineage: Professional Seers and Seidr Practitioners

Freya is the archetypal practitioner, but the völur were the human practitioners of her art. Let's talk about who they were, what they did, and why they mattered.

Völva (plural völur) means "staff-bearer" or "wand-bearer." These were professional seeresses, traveling practitioners who would visit communities to perform seidr, prophecy, and other magical work.

The most detailed description of a völva comes from Eiríks Saga Rauða (Erik the Red's Saga), which describes a völva named Thorbjorg visiting a community in Greenland:

She wore a blue-black cloak fastened with straps and adorned with stones. She had a necklace of glass beads. On her head was a black lambskin hood lined with white catskin. She carried a staff with a brass-bound knob set with stones. She wore catskin gloves, and her shoes were made of calfskin.

When she arrived, the best seat was prepared for her, with a cushion stuffed with chicken feathers. She was given a special meal. Then young women who knew the songs (vardlokkur, spirit songs) were found to sing for her while she went into trance to do her prophetic work.

This tells us several things:

They had status. The völva got the best seat, special treatment, specific preparation. They weren't beggars. They were respected (and feared) professionals.

They had distinctive dress. The detailed description of clothing suggests this wasn't everyday dress. It was ritual gear, costume, a way of marking themselves as practitioners.

They worked with staffs. The staff is significant across shamanic traditions. It's a tool, a marker of authority, possibly a spirit house. The völva's staff was part of her power.

They required assistants. The völva didn't work alone. She needed singers to help create the trance state, to call the spirits, to support the work. This was collaborative practice.

They went into trance. Seidr required altered states. The völva would sit on a high seat (seiðhjallr), the songs would be sung, and she would enter trance to access information, speak prophecy, or work magic.

They were itinerant. Völur traveled from community to community. They weren't settled in one place. They moved where they were needed (or where they could make a living).

Their services were valued and expensive. Communities would prepare elaborate feasts, offer payment, compete for the völva's attention. This was not free charity work.

What völur actually did:

Prophecy: Answering questions about the future, upcoming seasons, whether someone would recover from illness, whether a venture would succeed.
Fate-weaving: Actually working with wyrd, with the threads of fate, to influence outcomes. This was more active than just seeing the future.
Healing: Removing curses, treating spiritual causes of illness, working with spirits for healing.
Finding things: Locating lost objects, lost people, stolen goods. Seeing what's hidden.
Weather magic: Influencing weather patterns, particularly important in agricultural societies.
Spirit work: Communicating with the dead, with land spirits, with other non-ordinary beings.
Curse and blessing: Both offensive and defensive magic. Völur could curse enemies or remove curses. They could bless undertakings or bind harmful forces.

This was the profession. These were volva practitioners, professionals who made a living doing magic and prophecy. They weren't playing at spirituality. This was their livelihood and their calling.

Here's the paradox of the völur: they had significant power and status, but they were also marginal, liminal figures.

Their power came from:

Knowledge others didn't have
Ability to see and influence what others couldn't
Connection to spirits and gods
Skill in practices that required years of training
Social role as neutral third parties who could speak difficult truths

Their marginalization came from:

The ergi nature of seidr (associated with feminine power, transgressive for men)
Their itinerant lifestyle (not settled, not part of normal social structure)
Their association with death and spirits (boundary figures between worlds)
Fear and suspicion (magical power always creates fear alongside respect)
Gender (most völur were women in a patriarchal society, though some men practiced)

They were needed and feared. Respected and suspect. Paid well and kept at arm's length. They could speak prophecy that even kings had to listen to, but they couldn't settle into normal community life.

This is the pattern for magical practitioners across cultures: power and marginalization go together. The one who can see and work with what others can't is both essential and dangerous. You need them, but you don't want them too close.

Modern practitioners in Freya's lineage often find themselves in similar positions: valued for their gifts, but marginal, liminal, not quite fitting into normal social structures. That's part of the path.

Working with Freya Energy: Desire as Compass

Here's the core practice of Freya energy: using desire as a compass.

Not desire as compulsion (wanting everything, chasing every impulse, unable to discern). Desire as compass: the deep, true wanting that points you toward your actual path, your genuine needs, your real longings as opposed to manufactured wants.

Desire as compass works like this:

You pay attention to what you actually want, not what you think you should want. You notice what draws you, what lights you up, what makes you feel alive. Not just pleasure (though pleasure is data), but the deeper pull of "yes, this, more of this."

You distinguish between:

Authentic desire: The deep yes that comes from your core, that persists over time, that's about what you actually need to become yourself
Borrowed desire: What you think you should want based on conditioning, social expectation, what would make others approve
Compulsive desire: The addictive grasping that's about filling a hole rather than moving toward something real
Reactive desire: Wanting something because someone else has it, or because you were told you can't have it

Authentic desire is your compass. Follow it and you move toward your actual life. Follow borrowed, compulsive, or reactive desire and you waste years chasing things that don't satisfy.

How to use desire as compass:

Get quiet enough to hear it. Authentic desire isn't loud. It's not the screaming urgency of compulsion. It's a steady pull, a quiet knowing, a felt sense of rightness. You have to get quiet to hear it under all the other noise.
Ask: Does this make me feel more alive or less alive? Authentic desire makes you feel more alive. Borrowed and compulsive desire often makes you feel smaller, more contracted, even as you're pursuing it.
Check: Does this persist or is it fleeting? Authentic desire persists over time. It may get quiet sometimes, but it doesn't disappear. Compulsive desire is intense but fleeting. It passes once you get the thing or once the high wears off.
Notice: Does this align with who I'm becoming or who I was? Sometimes we want things from an old identity we're outgrowing. That's nostalgia or regression, not compass. Authentic desire pulls you toward who you're becoming, not back to who you were.
Feel: Is this want or need? Want is fine. But need is different. Need is what you require to become yourself. Want is what would be nice to have. Freya energy helps you prioritize need (even when it looks like want to others).

Practice: The Desire Inventory

Once a month, do a desire inventory:

List 10 things you want right now (don't edit, just list)
For each one, ask: Is this authentic, borrowed, compulsive, or reactive?
For the authentic ones, ask: What does this desire actually want? (Often the thing you want is a symbol for something deeper)
Choose one authentic desire to honor this month: What's one action you can take toward it?

Freya doesn't chase. But she also doesn't ignore her desires or pretend she doesn't have them. She knows what she wants, and that knowing is power.

Shadow Side: Manipulation, Using Others, Addiction to Being Wanted

Now the uncomfortable part.

Freya energy has immense shadow. The power of attraction can become the power to manipulate. The sovereignty can become narcissism. The free sexuality can become using others. The magnetic quality can become addiction to being wanted.

The Freya shadow manifests as:

Manipulation through attraction: Using your magnetic power to get what you want without regard for others' well-being. Attracting people and then using them. Leveraging sexual or aesthetic power to manipulate. This is Freya's sovereignty without responsibility, her power without ethics.
Addiction to being wanted: Needing to be desired, needed, wanted by others to feel valuable. Collecting admirers. Cultivating mystery not because you're genuinely mysterious but because it keeps people hooked. This is Freya's magnetic quality turned into dependence on others' desire.
Using others as mirrors: Needing constant reflection of your beauty, power, desirability. Using people to validate you rather than relating to them as full beings. This is Freya's beauty turned into narcissistic supply.
Confusing desire with identity: Believing you ARE what you desire or what desires you. Losing your center in the constant movement of want and attraction. This is Freya's desire-as-compass turned into desire-as-everything.
Refusing commitment or depth: Always moving to the next attraction, the next desire, unable to stay with anything long enough for it to ripen. This is Freya's freedom turned into restlessness.
Entitlement: Believing you deserve everything you want simply because you want it. Using your power or beauty or magnetism to take without reciprocity. This is Freya's sovereignty without Gebo's (gift/exchange) balance.
Spiritual bypassing through aesthetics: Making everything beautiful but never letting it be real. Using beauty to cover pain rather than transform it. This is Freya's aesthetic power turned into avoidance.
Sexual manipulation: Using sexuality to get what you want, to control others, to avoid actual intimacy. This is Freya's sexual sovereignty turned into weaponized sexuality.

Modern Freyan shadow patterns:

The influencer who cultivates persona and following but has no genuine self underneath, who needs the attention like air, who will do anything to maintain the gaze of others.
The artist/creator who collects admirers and uses them for inspiration/validation but discards them when they become inconvenient or demanding.
The healer/teacher who uses charisma to gather followers but who's actually feeding off their energy and devotion rather than genuinely serving.
The person who's always falling in love, always chasing new desire, never staying with anything long enough to move past infatuation into actual relationship.
The beautiful/charming person who's learned to leverage their attractiveness to get what they want but who has no depth, no substance, just surface manipulation.

These aren't bad people. They're people driven by Freyan patterns they don't understand, consumed by the need to be wanted, unable to distinguish authentic desire from compulsive attraction-seeking.

How to Work with Freya Energy Without Becoming Its Shadow

If you recognize Freya patterns in yourself (and many practitioners do, particularly those drawn to seidr, divination, healing work that involves magnetism and attraction), here's how to work with this energy consciously:

Ground your desire in ethics Yes, you want what you want. Yes, you should honor your authentic desire. But not at others' expense. Check regularly: Am I getting what I want through genuine exchange, or am I manipulating? Am I attracting consciously or unconsciously using?
Develop substance, not just surface Freya's beauty isn't empty. It's the visible expression of inner power. If you're cultivating beauty, magnetism, aesthetic power, make sure there's something underneath. Do the inner work. Have depth. Be more than what others see.
Distinguish being wanted from being valuable You're valuable whether anyone wants you or not. Your worth isn't contingent on others' desire. If you need to be wanted to feel okay, that's shadow. Work on self-worth independent of external validation.
Practice commitment and depth Freya does move freely, but she also has her hall, her realm, her domain. She's not only movement. Balance the freedom to move with the capacity to stay, to go deep, to commit when commitment serves.
Use attraction to serve, not just to get Magnetic power can serve others or serve only yourself. If you have the power to attract attention, resources, desire, ask: How does this serve something larger than my ego? How can this power be generative rather than extractive?
Be honest about your desires, especially the uncomfortable ones Freya owns her desires without apology. That includes desires that aren't socially acceptable, that aren't "spiritual," that aren't pretty. Shadow work means acknowledging what you actually want, including the stuff you're ashamed of. You don't have to act on every desire, but you need to see it clearly.
Integrate death with beauty Freya holds both. She's not just the beautiful goddess of spring. She's the one who gathers the slain. She knows death. If you're working with Freya energy, you need to integrate the death side, not just the beauty side. Everything beautiful dies. Everything desired passes. Hold that awareness.
Develop reciprocity Freya gets what she wants, but she also gives. She teaches Odin. She chooses warriors for her hall. There's exchange, not just taking. Make sure you're in reciprocal relationship, giving as well as receiving.
Question your desires regularly "Is this what I actually want or what I think I should want?" Ask this constantly. Your authentic desire changes as you evolve. Don't chase old desires out of habit or identity.
Remember sovereignty is responsibility Freya is sovereign, free, uncontained. But sovereignty isn't the same as having no consequences or no responsibility. You're free to choose, and you're responsible for the outcomes of your choices. Freedom and accountability go together.

What Comes Next

You've explored Freya, the Seidr Queen, the goddess who taught Odin magic. You understand both her gifts (desire as compass, magnetic power, sovereign claiming of what you want) and her shadows (manipulation, using others, addiction to being wanted).

Together with the previous article on Odin, you now have both patterns: the seeker who endures ordeal (Odin) and the sovereign who attracts what she wants (Freya). The masculine and feminine (not in a binary sense, but as complementary energies). The active and receptive. The forcing and the flowing.

You need both. Over-identify with Odin energy and you exhaust yourself in constant striving. Over-identify with Freya energy and you become all attraction without action. The complete practitioner integrates both: knows when to seek and when to attract, when to endure and when to flow, when to sacrifice and when to receive.

Now that you understand the gods who walked this path, now that you've learned the runes and the practices, now that you've explored both divination and galdr, the question becomes: What does it actually mean to walk the völva's path in modern life?

The historical völur were professional practitioners. They traveled, they performed ceremonies, they saw for others, they lived on the margins of society. They had skills, ethics, and a specific social role. They weren't just people who were "into" Norse spirituality. They were practitioners with a calling and a craft.

Explore the Norse Sacred Calendar to discover how to align your practice with seasonal cycles and holy days, or learn about working with the ancestors to understand the deeper connections between the living and the dead.

This article is part of our Mythology collection. Read our comprehensive Norse Gods guide to explore the ancient wisdom and mystical power of Norse spiritual traditions.