Neolithic Shamanism: Spirit Work in the Norse Tradition - Raven Kaldera 2012

Salmon
The Brown World: Animals

Raven: Sometimes the air isn’t the best way to travel. When I journey, sometimes I hit water that is too large to fly over, or I need to find something underwater. That’s why I have energy forms in reserve that can run, fly, or swim. I also have at least one that can burrow underground. You never know what you will be faced with, and it’s better to be versatile. Consider the story of the goddess Cerridwen chasing the child Gwion Bach, who had stolen her magical potion. He became a hare and she chased him as a fox; he became a perch and she a pike; he became a salmon and she an otter; he became a sparrow and she a hawk; he became a grain on a threshing floor and she turned into a hen and ate him . . . and then found herself pregnant. Well, we do have to watch what we do in astral form. But it’s still good to be versatile. (Her child became the famous poet Taliesin, born with all the shape-shifting gifts of Cerridwen’s cauldron.)

Galina: I began to work with Salmon when Loki asked me to have the fish tattooed on my body. In one of our sacred tales, he took the form of a Salmon to escape pursuers. I was going through a series of grueling shamanic ordeals, and Loki offered to walk with me through this process, not an insignificant gift. In return, he asked me to have a salmon leaping out of the waves tattooed on me. This fish is associated with wisdom, a very magical animal, and her gifts lie in transmutation. If she chooses to share her wisdom with you, she can teach you how to subtly shift and alter circumstances to your advantage, how to unlock hidden sources of power, and how to ride the flow of wyrd to your best advantage.

Of all the different kinds of fish that swim in the rivers and oceans of northern Europe, the one mentioned exponentially more often in myths than any other is salmon. While the European ancestors found all fish valuable—and we do forget that fish made up a huge portion of the protein in their diets—it seems that the salmon was the king of fish. Celtic myth speaks of the Salmon of Knowledge, who swam in the Well of Wisdom and ate the magical nuts from the hazel trees surrounding it. (This salmon was, of course, killed and eaten by a passing hero.) A similar Welsh variant has the Salmon of Llyn Llyw, who was a wise counselor. In Norse myth, Andvari the dwarven craftsman hid his hoard in a cave under a waterfall and guarded it in the form of a salmon swimming in the pool below. Loki caught him in a net and stole his treasure, which Andvari cursed so that it would leave a trail of broken lives behind. Later, Loki remembered Andvari’s trick and hid in salmon form from Thor and Odin after he killed Baldur, but Odin found him and had Thor catch him in a net.

As a fish, Salmon spirit will have very different energy from the warm-blooded creatures you may be used to. Cold-blooded animal spirits are more pragmatic than compassionate. They may point out the obvious and not understand why you don’t do what is clearly necessary. They have much deep wisdom, especially about letting go and moving on, but they are not very sympathetic. Don’t expect it of them. When you talk to fish and frogs and snakes, you get what you get. Listen closely, because they’ll say it only once. If what they say is mysterious, wait and see if the meaning reveals itself—their minds are very different from those of mammals.

As we’ve discussed in other areas, taking on a spirit alliance often brings taboos and responsibilities. If you end up with a fish ally, you now have a responsibility to fish. It means that you will need to look into the problems of water pollution, overfishing, and sustainability. It means that you will have to think about boycotting water-based food that is gathered in ways harmful to the long-term existence of fish, and instead support sustainable fish harvesting. It means that you may have to help clean up rivers or interrupt campers as they dump their shampoo into the lake. The viability of your allies is linked to the luck that you build through your own deeds. This is the best offering you can give her.

Monterey Bay Aquarium has a Seafood Watch program that lists which fish by region can be safely eaten because they are sustainably farmed, and which to avoid. That information can be found at www. montereybayaquarium.org/seafoodwatch.aspx. Anyone working with the spirits of animals living in or around water should give some thought to how they interact with its flesh-bearing creatures. This is part of shamanism as well. It does not take you away from the physical world; it connects you more fully to it in a harmonious way.

Exercise: Swimming with Salmon

The first thing to do to make contact with Salmon is to take her into your body. Yes, really, this is necessary. Fish are very aware of the cycle of life and their place in it; they know that they are all food for larger fishes and mammals, just as smaller fishes are unrepentantly gobbled up by them. However, if you are going to do this in a ritual manner, don’t just pick up any old can of salmon. Make the effort to buy sustainably harvested salmon. By doing this, you are helping to keep her species, and fish in general, from dying out due to our greed.

Before you eat Salmon’s flesh, send her a prayer asking her to come to you and give her aid. Then eat, and be aware of her energy in each bite. Feel it passing into your body and suffusing you with salmon-ness. Then go to some secluded body of water and immerse yourself, as far as you can safely go. Call to Salmon, and ask her to come to you. If you know how to swim, do it; if you can’t, at least move around in the water. If she comes to you, just swim with her silently for a while. Let her taste you and decide if she likes you. She will know what you want; the other interesting thing about cold-blooded animal spirits is that they rarely care about verbal language. The best way to communicate with them is to picture the thought and punctuate it with body motions. Tell her, in this way, that you want to learn to take on her form for journeying. If she agrees, she will circle you a few times and then dive at you, probably from behind. Let it happen—let yourself feel your energy body shaping itself into fish form. It will be a much more painful and awkward transition than becoming a four-limbed mammal or bird, and you may have to work at not resisting it. Keep swimming, and if possible, duck under the water.

Then you swim with Salmon, in salmon form, for a while. Thank her, go home, and enter a trance. Visualize yourself back in the water, and see if you can connect with her again. If so, resume the salmon form, feeling how it moves, without actively being in the water. You might want to keep a bottle of water from the place you met with her around to use as an anchor, or else make a tiny salmon spirit house that you can wear on your body while doing utiseta.