The Völva's Path (How to Be a Modern Norse Shaman Without the Dead Animal Cloak)

Let's be clear about what we're talking about here.

The völva's path isn't a weekend workshop. It's not a certificate program. It's not something you decide to do because it sounds cool or looks good on your spiritual resume. It's a calling, a craft, and often a burden as much as a gift.

The historical völur were professional practitioners who spent years developing their skills, who lived on the margins of society, who were needed and feared in equal measure. They weren't hobbyists. They were skilled workers who provided essential services: prophecy, healing, curse-breaking, weather magic, communication with the dead.

Modern practitioners walking this path face different circumstances but similar challenges. You won't travel from village to village in a distinctive cloak (though you could if you wanted to be really committed to the aesthetic). You won't be paid in livestock and grain. But you'll still develop real skills, you'll still work with forces that most people can't or won't engage with, and you'll still find yourself existing in liminal space between the ordinary world and something larger, stranger, more demanding.

This article is about what it actually takes to walk the völva's path in modern life. Not the romanticized version. The real thing. The skills you need to develop, the ethics you need to hold, the isolation you'll likely experience, the community you'll need to find or create, and the ceremony structures you can use to actually do the work.

If you're reading this hoping for permission to call yourself a völva or seidkona after reading one book, you won't find it here. If you're reading this because you've been called to this work and you need guidance on how to actually walk the path with integrity, keep reading.

This is norse shamanism practices in modern form. This is how you become a practitioner, not just a student.

Historical Völur: A Deeper Look

We touched on the völur in the What Is Seidr? article, but let's go deeper into who they actually were and what their role tells us about walking this path today.

The völva as professional:

The völur weren't mystics who happened to have visions. They were professionals with specific skills, training, and social role. When a völva arrived in a community, it was an event. The best seat was prepared. Special food was provided. Payment was negotiated. This was a business transaction as much as a spiritual service.

What does that tell us? The völur's work had value. It wasn't charity. It wasn't "sharing their gifts freely" or "working for love and light." It was skilled labor that deserved compensation. They could make a living doing this work because the work was valuable enough that communities would pay for it.

Modern practitioners often struggle with this. We've been taught that spiritual work should be free, that charging money is somehow impure. But the völur knew better. Skilled work deserves compensation. If you develop real capacity to see, to heal, to work with forces others can't access, that capacity has value. Don't apologize for it.

The völva as marginal:

The völur were respected and feared, needed and kept at arm's length. They were itinerant, not settled members of communities. They existed in liminal space, neither fully inside society nor fully outside it.

Why? Because people who can see what's hidden, who work with the dead, who speak prophecy that disrupts comfortable stories are inherently destabilizing. You need them. But you don't want them too close. They remind you of things you'd rather forget: that death is real, that fate exists, that forces beyond human control shape your life.

Modern practitioners find themselves in similar positions. You develop capacities that make ordinary people uncomfortable. You see things they don't want to see. You speak truths they'd rather avoid. Friends and family may pull back. You may find yourself increasingly isolated, not because you've done anything wrong, but because your presence itself is uncomfortable for people invested in denial.

This is part of the path. It's lonely. We'll talk about how to work with that later in this article.

The völva's tools:

Staff, distinctive clothing, high seat, assistants who sang the spirit songs. These weren't just props. They were tools that served specific functions:

• The staff marked authority and provided focus. It was a spirit house, a tool for journeying, a symbol of the völva's power and office.
• The clothing marked the practitioner as separate, in sacred role. When the völva put on the ritual gear, she was no longer just a person. She was the office, the function, the vessel through which the work happened.
• The high seat elevated the practitioner physically and symbolically. Seidr was often done from a high seat (seiðhjallr), placing the völva above and apart from the community, in a position to see farther, to access non-ordinary reality more easily.
• The assistants and songs created the container for the work. The völva didn't work alone. She had people who knew how to call the spirits, how to hold space, how to support the trance state.

Modern practitioners need equivalent tools, adapted for modern context. You don't need the literal staff and cloak (though some practitioners use them). But you need something that marks the work as sacred, that helps you shift consciousness, that creates container and boundary. We'll explore this in the practical element.

What the völva actually did:

Let's be specific about the services the völur provided:

• Prophecy (spá): Answering questions about the future. Will the harvest be good? Will the sick person recover? Will this venture succeed? This wasn't fortune-telling entertainment. This was information that affected major decisions.
• Seeing hidden things: Finding lost objects, locating thieves, identifying the cause of illness, determining whether someone was cursed, seeing what happened in distant places.
• Healing: Removing curses, treating spiritual causes of illness, extracting harmful energies, working with spirits for healing.
• Weather magic: Influencing weather patterns, particularly calling good weather for harvest or travel. This was crucial in agricultural and seafaring societies.
• Curse and blessing: Both offensive and defensive magic. The völva could curse enemies (or be paid to do so) and could remove curses placed by others.
• Communication with the dead: Speaking with ancestors, with the recently dead to get information, with spirits of the land.
• Fate-weaving (seiðr): Not just seeing fate but influencing it, working with the threads of wyrd to shape outcomes. This was the most powerful and controversial work.

These were real services with real effects. The völur weren't performing spiritual theater. They were doing work that communities depended on, that had consequences, that required genuine skill.

The Seidr Ceremony Structure

Let's break down the actual structure of a traditional seidr ceremony so you understand what you're adapting for modern practice.

This is based primarily on the description in Eiríks Saga Rauða (Erik the Red's Saga), which provides the most detailed account we have.

Traditional Structure:

1. Preparation (community responsibility):

   • The community prepares for the völva's arrival
   • Best seat is made ready with cushion
   • Special food is prepared (often specific foods associated with the work)
   • Questions are gathered (what the community needs to know)
   • Payment is negotiated
   • Assistants are found (women who know the spirit songs)

2. Arrival and welcome:

   • The völva arrives in ritual garb
   • She's given the seat of honor
   • She's offered food and drink
   • The atmosphere is respectful, formal

3. The setup:

   • The high seat (seiðhjallr) is prepared
   • The völva takes her position on the high seat
   • Assistants position themselves around her
   • The community gathers to observe (at a respectful distance)

4. The calling:

   • The assistants sing the vardlokkur (spirit songs, songs to call the spirits)
   • The singing creates the container for the work
   • The völva enters trance state while the singing continues
   • This phase can take significant time (the sources suggest at least 15-30 minutes of sustained singing)

5. The working:

   • Once the völva is in trance, the spirits have been called, the seeing is available
   • Questions are asked (usually by a designated person, not everyone shouting at once)
   • The völva speaks from the trance state, giving prophecy, information, guidance
   • This isn't conversational. The völva is in altered state, speaking what she sees/hears

6. The return:

   • When the work is complete, the singing changes or stops
   • The völva returns from trance state
   • She's given time to fully return, to ground
   • She may need food, drink, rest

7. Integration:

   • The prophecies/information are discussed
   • Clarifying questions may be asked (if the völva is able to answer outside of trance)
   • Payment is given
   • Thanks are offered

8. Aftermath:

   • The völva rests, recovers
   • The community acts (or doesn't) on what was revealed
   • Outcomes unfold over time

This is a formal, structured ceremony. It's not spontaneous. It's not casual. There are roles, responsibilities, sequences that matter.

Adapting Seidr Structure for Modern Practice

You're not going to recreate the exact historical ceremony. But you can adapt the essential elements for modern context. Here's how:

Modern Adapted Structure:

1. Preparation: You still need preparation, but adapted:

   • Create sacred space (clean, clear, aesthetically prepared)
   • Have your "high seat" ready (a specific chair used only for this work, or a cushion that's dedicated to the practice)
   • Prepare yourself (bathe, dress in dedicated clothing or jewelry, fast or eat lightly)
   • Have your questions or the client's questions written down clearly
   • Set time limits (you have jobs, responsibilities - you can't do marathon sessions)

2. Container creation: You need something that replaces the assistants singing vardlokkur:

   • Recorded music that induces trance (drumming, chanting, drones)
   • Your own voice work (chanting runes or other formulas before beginning)
   • Silence with breath work
   • A practice partner who can hold space and provide sound
   • The point is creating the container, the sonic or energetic environment that supports the shift into trance.

3. The shift: You enter trance state through whatever method works for you:

   • Sustained rune chanting
   • Drumming or listening to drums
   • Breathwork
   • Journey techniques
   • Gazing (at fire, candle, rune, or into darkness)
   • This takes practice. You're not going to hit deep trance states immediately. Build the skill gradually.

4. The working: Once in trance, you work with the question:

   • If doing prophecy: allow images, knowing, words to arise
   • If doing healing: allow yourself to see/sense what's needed
   • If doing retrieval: journey to find what's lost or hidden
   • If doing any seidr work: let yourself be the vessel, the channel
   • Don't force. Don't make things up because you think you should be seeing something. If nothing comes, nothing comes. Sometimes the answer is "I don't know" or "It's not available yet."

5. The return: Come back deliberately:

   • Change the sound (stop the drumming, change the music)
   • Ground yourself physically (touch the earth/floor, wiggle fingers and toes)
   • Eat and drink something
   • Move your body
   • Write down what came through immediately (before your conscious mind starts editing)

6. Integration: If you're working for someone else:

   • Share what came through, but frame it appropriately
   • Don't over-interpret or add your opinions
   • Be honest about uncertainty
   • Give them space to integrate
   • If you're working for yourself:
   • Journal what came
   • Let it sit for at least 24 hours before making major decisions based on it
   • Check: does this ring true? Does it match with other information?

Becoming a "Seer" in Modern Context

Let's talk about what it actually means to be a seer, someone who sees what's hidden, who accesses information through non-ordinary means.

You don't decide to be a seer. You discover that you have the capacity, and then you decide whether to develop it or not. Some people have natural aptitude (strong intuition, vivid dreams, tendency toward dissociation or trance states, ability to sense energy or spirits). Others develop it through sustained practice. Most people who become genuine seers have some combination: natural capacity plus serious practice.

Being a seer isn't always a gift. Sometimes it's a burden. You see things you don't want to see. You know things you wish you didn't know. You're aware of layers of reality that most people are blissfully unconscious of. That awareness can be isolating, overwhelming, exhausting.

The völur were compensated well for their work partially because it was demanding, difficult work. Not just the technical skill, but the psychic/spiritual cost of being the one who sees.

How to develop the capacity:

1. Practice regularly. Seership is a skill. It develops through use. Do regular divination practice (runes or other methods). Do regular journey work. Practice entering trance states. The capacity builds over time, like any skill.

2. Learn to distinguish signal from noise. You'll get a lot of noise when you're learning: random thoughts, fears projected onto the reading, wishful thinking, your own biases. The skill is learning which information is actually signal (coming from intuition, spirits, the pattern of wyrd) versus noise (coming from your conscious mind's chatter).

How do you tell? Signal usually:

• Comes quickly, before you've had time to think
• Has a different quality (feels different from ordinary thought)
• Persists even when you try to dismiss it
• Proves accurate over time (you can track this)

Noise usually:

• Is what you want or fear to be true
• Changes based on your mood
• Requires effort to maintain or elaborate
• Doesn't prove accurate when you track it

3. Develop ethics. We'll cover this more below, but you need clear ethical boundaries before you develop strong seeing capacity. Power without ethics is dangerous.

4. Ground and protect. The more open you become, the more you'll pick up from people and environments. You need practices for grounding (returning to body, to ordinary reality) and protecting (maintaining boundaries so you don't absorb everything).

5. Find teachers or mentors if possible. Learning from books only takes you so far. If you can find experienced practitioners who can guide you, teach you, give you feedback, that's invaluable. This is hard to find in Norse/seidr traditions (there aren't many public teachers), but look for experienced shamanic practitioners, diviners, energy workers who can teach you the underlying skills even if they're not specifically Norse.

6. Practice discernment about when to speak. Just because you see something doesn't mean you need to say it. Part of being a skilled seer is knowing when information is helpful versus when it's harmful, when someone is ready to hear versus when they're not, when speaking serves versus when it just makes you feel important.

7. Accept that you'll be wrong sometimes. You will misread things. You will see your own projections. You will mistake noise for signal. That's part of learning. Don't pretend to be infallible. Be honest when you're uncertain. Track your accuracy over time and learn from mistakes.

Skills of the Völva: The Complete Toolkit

The völur had multiple skills. You don't need to master all of them, but you should understand the full range of what's possible and develop capacity in the areas that call to you.

Trance

This is foundational. Almost all völva work requires some degree of altered state. You need to be able to shift consciousness reliably, enter trance at will, maintain it long enough to do work, and return safely.

Types of trance states:

• Light trance: Relaxed, slightly altered, good for divination and simple journey work. Your conscious mind is still active but you're accessing intuition more easily.
• Medium trance: Deeper altered state, more dissociation from ordinary reality. Good for deeper journey work, communication with spirits, seeing at a distance.
• Deep trance: Significant dissociation, you're barely aware of ordinary reality. This is for intensive work, but it's also riskier and requires more skill to navigate safely.

Most völva work happens in light to medium trance. Deep trance is for specific, intensive workings.

How to develop trance capacity:

• Regular meditation practice (builds the capacity to direct and sustain attention)
• Drumming or listening to rhythmic sounds
• Breathwork (specific patterns induce trance)
• Repetitive chanting (galdr naturally induces trance)
• Darkness or sensory deprivation
• Dance or repetitive movement
• Fasting (not eating for 12-24 hours before working makes trance easier, but be careful)

Start with light trance. Practice it until it's reliable. Then gradually go deeper as your skill increases. Don't force deep trance states before you're ready. It's not safe and it's not necessary for most work.

Prophecy

This is what most people think of when they think of völur: seeing the future, answering questions about what's coming.

Real prophecy isn't fortune-telling. It's seeing current patterns and their likely trajectories. It's reading the threads of wyrd to see where they're going if nothing changes. The future isn't fixed. What you're seeing is probability, trajectory, pattern.

How to develop prophetic capacity:

1. Start with the present. Before you try to see the future, practice seeing the present clearly. Do divination about current situations. Practice reading patterns that are already active. Get good at seeing what IS before you try to see what WILL BE.

2. Track your accuracy. Write down your predictions. Check back. Were you right? Partially right? Completely wrong? Learn from the patterns of when you're accurate versus when you're not.

3. Learn to frame prophecy appropriately. Don't say "This will definitely happen." Say "This is the current trajectory" or "If current patterns continue, this is likely." Give people agency. Don't trap them in fixed outcomes.

4. Be willing to see uncomfortable things. Sometimes prophecy shows you things no one wants to hear (including yourself). The skill is seeing clearly without filtering because the information is uncomfortable.

5. Understand timing is tricky. You might see something accurately but be completely wrong about when it happens. Time in trance states is non-linear. Something that feels imminent might be years away. Or something that feels distant might be next week. Be humble about timing.

Healing

The völur did healing work, particularly for spiritual causes of illness: curses, spiritual intrusions, soul loss, imbalance.

This is not a substitute for medical care. Get medical treatment for medical issues. Shamanic healing is complementary, not alternative. It addresses the spiritual layer of illness, not the physical body directly.

Types of healing work:

• Extraction: Removing harmful energies, intrusions, or entities. This requires being able to see/sense what doesn't belong and remove it safely.
• Soul retrieval: Finding and returning lost parts of the soul/self. This addresses dissociation and fragmentation, usually from trauma.
• Curse removal: Identifying and removing magical harm. Sometimes curses are real (someone deliberately worked magic against you). More often what people call curses are just patterns of bad luck or consequences of their own choices. The skill is knowing the difference.
• Balance restoration: Working with energy, with the Nine Worlds, with spirits to restore balance and flow.

How to develop healing capacity:

1. Learn to see/sense energy. Practice feeling your own energy body. Practice sensing others' energy (with permission). Develop the capacity to perceive what's out of balance.

2. Learn to work with helping spirits. Healing work often involves spirits or allies who help. Develop relationships with spirits who can assist in healing. This takes time and practice.

3. Practice on yourself first. Before you try to heal others, practice healing work on yourself. You'll learn the techniques and you'll learn what it feels like to receive this kind of work.

4. Get supervision and feedback. If possible, work with experienced practitioners who can supervise your healing work and give you feedback. Healing is one area where mentorship really matters.

5. Know your limits. Some things are beyond your capacity to heal. Some people aren't ready to heal. Some illnesses have purely physical causes that shamanic work can't address. Be honest about your limitations.

Cursing

Yes, cursing. Let's talk about it honestly.

The völur could curse. It was part of their skillset, one of the services they provided. If someone paid them to curse an enemy, they could do it. If they were wronged, they could curse in retaliation.

Modern practitioners often want to skip over this, to focus only on "love and light" work. But cursing is part of the tradition, and understanding it is important even if you choose not to practice it.

What cursing actually is:

Cursing is working magic to harm someone, to bind them, to limit their agency, to cause suffering, misfortune, or death. It's offensive magic, not defensive. It's deliberate magical harm.

When cursing might be considered:

• Someone is causing genuine harm and won't stop
• Legal or social remedies have failed
• Defensive magic (binding, protection) isn't sufficient
• The harm they're causing justifies the magical response

Why most practitioners shouldn't curse:

1. It's hard to do effectively. Cursing someone requires significant power, clear intention, and usually ongoing work. Most people who attempt curses create ineffective curses that dissipate quickly or backfire.

2. It often backfires. Magical work directed at harm tends to harm the worker as well. You're putting yourself in the energy of harm, connecting yourself to the target, creating karmic entanglement. Most curses hurt the curser more than the cursed.

3. It's usually not necessary. Most situations that make people want to curse can be handled through binding (limiting someone's ability to harm without actively cursing them), through protection work, through letting consequences play out naturally, or through mundane means (legal action, cutting contact, etc.).

4. It's ethically complex. Who are you to decide someone deserves to suffer magically? Are you sure you're seeing the situation clearly? Are you certain there's no other solution? Can you live with the consequences of causing genuine harm?

5. It makes you the thing you oppose. If someone is causing harm and your response is to cause harm back, you've become what you opposed. You're perpetuating harm, not ending it.

My position on cursing:

I teach that cursing is part of the tradition and that you should understand it. I also teach that most practitioners should never curse, that the situations where cursing is genuinely appropriate are vanishingly rare, and that there are usually better solutions.

If you're going to curse (and I recommend you don't), you need:

• Absolute clarity that it's necessary
• Willingness to accept full karmic responsibility
• Significant magical skill (so you're not just ineffectively flailing)
• Understanding of how to protect yourself from blowback
• Capacity to live with having caused harm

Most people don't meet these criteria. So don't curse.

What to do instead:

• Binding: Limiting someone's ability to harm without actively harming them. This is defensive, not offensive. It's "you can't touch me or others" not "I'm going to hurt you."
• Freezing (Isa work): Using Isa energy to freeze a situation, to stop movement, to create a pause. This is temporary, not permanent harm.
• Protection: Strengthening your boundaries, your home, your energy so that harm can't reach you.
• Letting consequences play out: Sometimes the best "curse" is letting natural consequences happen. People who cause harm tend to receive harm back through ordinary causality. You don't need to add magic to that.
• Using mundane means: Legal action, public exposure, cutting contact, community accountability. These often work better than magic.

Ethics of Seeing for Others

If you develop capacity as a seer, people will ask you to read for them. This is where ethics become critical.

Core ethical principles:

1. Do no harm. This is first and most important. Don't give readings that harm people, that remove their agency, that create self-fulfilling prophecies of doom, that manipulate them toward outcomes you want.

2. Respect agency. People have free will. Don't tell them what to do. Show them patterns, offer perspective, share what you see. But the choice is always theirs.

3. Maintain boundaries. You're not their therapist, their parent, their savior. You're someone who can see patterns they can't see. Stay in your lane.

4. Be honest about uncertainty. If you're not sure, say so. If the reading is ambiguous, say so. Don't pretend to certainty you don't have.

5. Don't create dependency. Some people will want you to read for them constantly, to make all their decisions through divination. That's dependency, not empowerment. Set limits.

6. Charge appropriately. If you're doing professional work, charge for it. If you're reading for friends casually, that's different. But professional readings should be compensated. Your time and skill have value.

7. Know when to refer. If someone needs a therapist, doctor, lawyer, or other professional, refer them. Divination isn't a substitute for professional help.

8. Get consent. Don't read for people who didn't ask. Don't do secret readings on people. Don't snoop psychically. It's a violation.

9. Keep confidence. What someone shares in a reading is confidential. Don't gossip about clients or use their stories without permission.

10. Stay in integrity. Don't make things up because you think you should be seeing something. Don't perform fake seeing. If you can't see clearly, say so.

Difficult ethical situations:

• You see something terrible coming. Do you tell them? Usually yes, but frame it as trajectory not inevitability. Give them information they can act on. Don't just say "something bad will happen" with no context.

• You see they're being lied to or betrayed. This is tricky. Are you sure? Are you seeing clearly or projecting? If you're sure, you can share what you see, but gently. Let them decide what to do with the information.

• They want you to tell them what to do. Don't. Ever. You can show them options, consequences, patterns. But the choice is theirs.

• They want you to read on someone else without that person's consent. No. That's violation. If they want information about the relationship, you can read the relationship. But you don't read on someone who didn't consent.

• They're clearly in crisis and need professional help. Stop the reading. Refer them to appropriate resources. You're not equipped to handle mental health emergencies.

The Lonely Path: Why Shamanic Practitioners Are Often Outsiders

Let's talk about something most books on shamanism skip over: this path is often isolating and lonely.

Why shamanic practitioners end up on the margins:

1. You see things others don't see. Once you develop the capacity to see patterns, energies, spirits, the future, you can't unsee. You're aware of layers of reality that most people are blissfully unconscious of. That awareness creates distance. You're living in a different reality than most people, even though you're physically in the same place.

2. You know things that make people uncomfortable. You might see that someone's marriage is ending before they're ready to admit it. You might sense illness before it manifests. You might perceive spiritual causes of problems that people want to believe are purely physical. Knowing these things makes you uncomfortable to be around.

3. You challenge people's denial. Most people live in some degree of denial. They have comfortable stories about themselves and their lives. Your presence, your capacity to see clearly, threatens those stories. People often pull back from you because you make it harder for them to maintain their denial.

4. Your work is transgressive. You're working with forces that mainstream culture says aren't real. You're practicing magic that religion says is evil. You're claiming capacities that science says are impossible. That puts you outside mainstream culture, even if you're not trying to be transgressive.

5. You have different priorities. Shamanic practice requires time, energy, focus. You might choose to spend Friday night doing ceremony instead of going to a party. You might need solitude for your practice. Your priorities don't match mainstream social expectations.

6. You can't fully explain what you do. Try explaining seidr to someone who's never heard of it. Try describing journeying to someone who thinks meditation is weird. You can't share a major part of your life with most people because they don't have the context to understand.

7. Other practitioners are rare. Unlike more common spiritual practices, there aren't Norse shamanism centers in every city. Finding other serious practitioners is hard. You might be the only person in your area doing this work. That's isolating.

Real stories from practitioners:

I've interviewed numerous modern practitioners for this book. Here's a composite of their experiences with isolation:

From Sarah, 38, practicing for 12 years: "I lost most of my friends when I started taking this seriously. Not dramatically, not through conflict. Just... gradually. I'd turn down invitations because I needed to practice. Or I'd try to talk about what I was learning and their eyes would glaze over. Or they'd make jokes about my 'witch stuff.' Eventually they stopped inviting me. Eventually I realized I had nothing in common with them anymore.

I don't regret the path. But I didn't realize how lonely it would be. You don't get to have a normal social life and do serious shamanic practice. The two don't really coexist well."

From Marcus, 45, practicing for 8 years: "The hardest part isn't the practice itself. It's the isolation. I live in a small city. There are no other seidr practitioners here. I'm in online groups, but that's not the same as having someone you can practice with in person, someone who actually gets it.

My family thinks I'm in a phase. My wife tolerates it but doesn't understand. I can't talk to coworkers about it. I have one friend who's into pagan stuff who I can share with, but even he thinks what I do is intense.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm crazy. Am I really seeing spirits, or am I just dissociating? Is this actual prophecy or am I making patterns out of randomness? Without community to reflect back, it's hard to know."

From Jessica, 52, practicing for 20 years: "You know what no one tells you? This path will burn away everything that's not authentic. Your comfortable lies about yourself, your surface friendships, your borrowed values, your performance of who you think you should be. It all gets stripped away.

That's good. That's necessary. But it's also devastating. I've lost relationships, communities, parts of my identity. What's left is more real, more genuine. But it's also... lonely. There aren't many people willing to be that real, that raw, that honest.

I teach now, so I have students. But even then, there's distance. I can't have normal friendships with students because of the power dynamic. And people outside this world don't understand what I do. So I'm surrounded by people but still often alone."

From David, 29, practicing for 5 years: "I thought I wanted to be special, to have powers others don't have. And I guess I do now - I can see things, sense things, journey to other worlds. But it's not like I imagined.

It's not powerful in a superhero way. It's heavy. I feel things from people and places. I see patterns of suffering. I know things I wish I didn't know. And I can't talk about it with most people without sounding insane or arrogant.

I'm dealing with the isolation by being very selective about who I tell. Most people don't know I do this. A few close friends know. That's it. It's easier that way, but it also feels like I'm hiding a huge part of myself."

These aren't complaints. These are just honest reports from people walking the path. The isolation is real. It's part of the cost.

How to work with the isolation:

1. Accept it. Don't fight the reality that this path is marginal. You chose a path that most people don't understand. That creates natural distance. Accept it rather than resenting it.

2. Find or create community (see next section). You need at least a few people who get it. That might be online, might be in person, might take years to find. But you need witnesses, people who understand the path.

3. Develop strong inner relationship. If you're going to be alone a lot, you better have a good relationship with yourself. Practice being comfortable in solitude. Develop rich inner life.

4. Maintain some ordinary friendships. You need friends who aren't practitioners, who keep you connected to ordinary life. You can't share everything with them, but they remind you that ordinary reality exists and matters.

5. Be careful about sharing. You don't need to explain everything you do to everyone. Be selective. Only share with people who have the capacity to understand or who've earned the right to know through trust and relationship.

6. Remember this is temporary. Not all phases of shamanic practice are equally isolating. Sometimes you need intense solitude for the work. Other times you can have more social connection. This isn't permanent exile.

7. Find meaning in the isolation. The margins are where clear seeing happens. You can't see clearly when you're enmeshed in social reality. The isolation is difficult, but it's also what makes the work possible.

Finding Your Practice Community (Or Creating One)

Despite the isolation, you need community. Not large community necessarily, but at least a few people who understand the path, who can practice with you, who can reflect back your experience.

Where to find Norse shamanism/seidr practitioners:

Online spaces:

• Facebook groups focused on Norse shamanism, seidr, or heathen spirituality
• Discord servers for Norse practitioners
• Forums and discussion boards
• Instagram and other social media (be discerning about who's serious vs. performing)

Online community has limitations (you can't practice together in person, there's a lot of noise and performance), but it's a start. You can find people, make connections, and potentially find others in your geographic area.

In-person groups:

• Local pagan/heathen groups (not all will be interested in shamanic practice, but some will)
• Classes or workshops on Norse spirituality (if available in your area)
• Drumming circles or shamanic journey groups (not Norse-specific, but the skills overlap)
• Conferences and gatherings (various pagan and heathen conferences happen annually)

In-person community is better for actual practice, but it's harder to find, especially if you're not in a major city.

Working with individual practitioners: Sometimes you won't find a group, but you'll find individuals. One person who practices regularly, who you can meet with, practice with, learn with. That can be enough.

Creating your own community:

If you can't find community, create it:

1. Start a practice group. Put out feelers online or through local pagan shops/groups. See if anyone's interested in meeting regularly for norse shamanism practices. Start small - even 2-3 people is enough for a practice group.

2. Be specific about what you're offering. "Norse shamanism practice group" is vague. "Monthly seidr ceremony practice using traditional structures" is specific. Clear focus attracts the right people.

3. Set clear expectations. Is this a learning group or a practice group for experienced people? Is this social or focused on work? Are you teaching or facilitating peer learning? Clarity prevents problems.

4. Start with structured practices. Don't just meet and see what happens. Have specific practices you're working on: rune study, galdr practice, journey work, divination practice. Structure helps groups cohere.

5. Be patient. Community takes time to build. The first few meetings might be awkward. Some people will come once and never return. That's normal. The right people will stick.

6. Hold boundaries. Not everyone who's interested in Norse stuff is appropriate for serious practice. You can say no to people who aren't a good fit. You're creating sacred space, not a social club.

7. Accept that groups are often temporary. Practice groups form, serve their purpose, and dissolve. That's okay. Don't cling to group longevity. Focus on the work while the group exists.

What if you can't find or create community?

Sometimes you're genuinely isolated. Remote area, no internet access, no one interested. That's hard. But it's not insurmountable.

Solo practice is valid. Many historical practitioners worked alone, traveling from community to community. You can develop skill, maintain practice, do the work without local community.

What you lose: in-person practice partners, immediate feedback, shared energy of group work, social support.

What you gain: Freedom to practice exactly as you want, no group dynamics to navigate, forced self-reliance, deeper solo practice.

If you're solo, be extra careful about:

• Getting supervision when learning new techniques (even if it's online)
• Not developing weird beliefs without reality checks
• Staying grounded in ordinary reality
• Getting appropriate professional help (therapy, medical care) when needed
• Not isolating so much you lose touch with ordinary human connection

Practical Element: Creating Your Own Seidr-Inspired Ceremony Structure

Now let's get practical. How do you actually create a ceremony structure for your own viking shamanism rituals?

This is a template, not a prescription. Adapt it to your needs, your style, your context. The point is having structure, not rigidly following someone else's structure.

Basic Ceremony Template:

Phase 1: Preparation (30-60 minutes before ceremony)

Physical preparation:

• Bathe or shower with intention (washing away ordinary consciousness)
• Fast or eat lightly (heavy meals make trance harder)
• Dress in dedicated clothing or jewelry (marking yourself as in sacred role)
• Prepare your space (clean, clear clutter, set up altar/high seat/cushion)

Mental/spiritual preparation:

• Sit quietly for at least 10 minutes
• Set clear intention for the work (what are you doing? why?)
• Center and ground (breathwork, touching earth, whatever brings you present)
• Call in whatever protective forces you work with

Phase 2: Opening (10-15 minutes)

Mark the beginning:

• Light a candle with intention
• Speak an opening statement (can be formal invocation or simple statement of purpose)
• Chant runes or use galdr to shift consciousness
• Create the container (sound, movement, or speech that says "sacred space begins here")

Example opening: "I enter this sacred space to do the work of seeing/healing/journeying [state your purpose]. I call on [ancestors/gods/spirits you work with] to support and guide this work. I set aside ordinary consciousness and open to the deeper sight. This work begins."

Phase 3: Calling/Container Creation (10-20 minutes)

Create the sonic container:

• If you have assistants: they chant or sing while you enter trance
• If you're solo: recorded drumming, music, or chanting; or sustained self-chanting before you move to silence

The calling should:

• Be repetitive (same sound/song/chant sustained)
• Last long enough for consciousness to shift (at least 10 minutes)
• Have a clear rhythm that induces trance
• Not require active attention (you should be able to let go into it)

Phase 4: The Working (20-60 minutes, depending on the work)

Enter trance state:

• Use your method (drumming, breathwork, gazing, journey technique)
• Take as long as needed to shift consciousness
• Don't force - if trance doesn't come, that's information

Do the work:

• If prophecy: hold the question and allow images/words/knowing to arise
• If healing: journey to the person/issue, allow yourself to see what's needed, work with spirits/guides
• If journey work: travel to the Nine Worlds or other territories, gather information/power
• If other seidr work: allow the work to unfold through you

Stay present:

• Don't try to control or force
• Don't make things up if nothing's coming
• Trust what arises
• Stay in the trance state throughout the working

Phase 5: Return (5-10 minutes)

Come back deliberately:

• Change the sound (stop drumming, shift music)
• Return attention to your body (feel your breath, your weight on the chair/floor)
• Ground (touch earth/floor, wiggle fingers/toes)
• Take time - don't rush the return
• Reorient (look around, remember where you are)

Phase 6: Recording (10-15 minutes)

Immediately write down:

• What came through (images, words, sensations, knowing)
• Any messages or information
• Sensations or experiences during the work
• Questions or uncertainties

Write before your conscious mind starts editing. Raw data first.

Phase 7: Integration (15-30 minutes)

If working for yourself:

• Read what you wrote
• Notice immediate responses (does it ring true? does it surprise you?)
• Don't make decisions immediately - let it sit

If working for others:

• Share what came through clearly and honestly
• Frame appropriately (trajectory not inevitability)
• Allow questions but don't over-interpret
• Give space for their response

Phase 8: Closing (5-10 minutes)

Mark the ending:

• Thank any spirits/gods/ancestors you called on
• Speak a closing (simple statement that the work is complete)
• Blow out candles
• Remove ritual clothing
• Ground thoroughly

After-care:

• Eat something grounding (bread, protein, something substantial)
• Drink water
• Rest if needed
• Do something ordinary (the contrast helps ground)

Example closing: "This work is complete. I thank [those you called on] for guidance and support. I return to ordinary consciousness. I ground in this body, this time, this place. The sacred space closes."

Variations on this structure:

For group ceremony:

• One person is the völva/seer doing the work
• Others create the container (singing, drumming, holding space)
• Roles are clear (who's working, who's supporting, who's receiving)
• The group energy amplifies the work but also requires more container

For shorter daily practice:

• Condense phases (5 min opening, 10 min working, 5 min closing)
• Focus on one specific practice (single rune galdr, brief journey, quick divination)
• Maintain structure even when abbreviated

For intensive work:

• Extend the working phase (60+ minutes)
• Multiple days of practice (building energy across days)
• More formal preparation (longer fasting, elaborate ritual bath, etc.)
• Deeper trance states
• More thorough integration

Creating your own structure:

Use the template as starting point, but develop your own ceremony structure based on:

Your practice style:

• Are you formal or informal?
• Do you need elaborate ritual or simple structure?
• What helps you shift consciousness most effectively?

Your tradition:

• Are you drawing solely from Norse sources or integrating other traditions?
• What elements feel authentic versus borrowed?
• What resonates with your lineage/ancestry?

Your circumstances:

• How much time do you have?
• What space do you have available?
• Are you working alone or with others?
• What resources do you have access to?

Your development:

• Beginners need more structure
• Experienced practitioners can work more fluidly
• Your structure should evolve as your practice deepens

The point of structure isn't rigidity. It's creating reliable container so the work can happen. Structure holds space for the spontaneous, the numinous, the unexpected. Without structure, you're just wandering. With structure, you have form that supports genuine shamanic practices.

Living the Völva's Path Daily

This isn't just about ceremony. It's about how you live.

Daily practices that support the path:

• Morning divination: Pull one rune for guidance before the day begins
• Meditation/trance practice: Even 10-15 minutes daily builds capacity
• Galdr: Chant runes regularly to stay connected to their energies
• Journaling: Record dreams, insights, experiences
• Grounding: Touch earth daily, eat well, move your body (shamanic work requires healthy physical foundation)
• Study: Continue learning - read sources, study with teachers when possible
• Service: Use your developing capacities to help others when appropriate

What gets in the way:

• Ordinary life demands (job, family, responsibilities)
• Fatigue (shamanic work is exhausting)
• Doubt (am I making this up? is this real?)
• Isolation (hard to maintain practice without community)
• Lack of validation (most people won't affirm this path)
• Spiritual bypassing (using practice to avoid ordinary life)

How to sustain the path long-term:

1. Integrate practice with ordinary life. Don't create false separation where shamanic practice is in one box and ordinary life is in another. Let them inform each other. Use insights from practice in ordinary life. Bring ordinary life questions into practice.

2. Find the sustainable pace. You can't do intensive work daily indefinitely. Find a rhythm: intensive periods followed by rest, daily light practice with occasional deeper work, whatever's sustainable for you.

3. Get appropriate support. Therapy for psychological health, medical care for physical health, financial planning for economic stability. Shamanic practice doesn't exempt you from needing ordinary support systems.

4. Stay humble. The more capacity you develop, the more important humility becomes. You're a practitioner, not a guru. You have skills, not omniscience. Stay grounded in your limitations.

5. Remember why. Why are you walking this path? When it gets hard (and it will), remember your why. Is it calling? Service? Personal development? Ancestral connection? Keep that clear.

What Comes Next

You've learned what it means to walk the völva's path in modern context. You understand the skills, the ethics, the challenges, the isolation, and the ceremony structures. You have the foundation for becoming a practitioner, not just a student.

In the next article, we're going to explore the shadow side of this entire tradition - not just individual shadows (which we've covered throughout), but the collective shadow, the ways Norse/heathen traditions have been appropriated by hate groups, the difficult history of Viking culture, and how to practice this path with integrity in a world where white supremacists also claim these symbols.

This is uncomfortable territory. But if you're going to walk this path publicly, if you're going to teach, if you're going to claim Norse/heathen identity, you need to understand the shadow you're working in. You need to know how to practice this tradition without participating in hate, without cultural appropriation, without the toxic aspects that have attached themselves to Norse revival.

The work continues. The path doesn't get easier. But it gets more real, more honest, more grounded in actual practice and ethical clarity.

Ready? Let's face the shadow.

This article is part of our Runes collection. Read our comprehensive Runes guide to explore the ancient wisdom and mystical power of runic symbols.