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

The Blue World: Water

Hail to the Rivers that run to the Sea,

Hail to the Ocean that rises in Rain,

Hail to the drops that nourish the Earth,

Hail to the spring that comes forth from the depths,

Hail to the waterfall sparkling in Sun,

Hail to the blood that flows in our veins,

Hail to the element that makes most of our flesh.

In most Northern mythology, water surrounded the world of humanity. Whether it was the Atlantic, Pacific, or Arctic oceans, or great rivers, if you went far enough you hit water. For the ancient Norse, the world was surrounded and protected by a huge water snake. Water framed human habitation and consciousness all along the blue horizon. It is only in modern times that we can imagine a world where water is entirely bordered and contained, rather than being the constant border and container itself. Our ancestors depended on its bounty to sustain them. The Norse were avid and skilled seafarers and established trade routes that extended into Russia and Byzantium, and possibly even farther east. Compelling evidence indicates that they reached North America several hundred years before Columbus. Water was important to them, and they depended on it, feared it, and understood the need to honor it in ways we have sadly forgotten.

The first and foremost reason that our ancestors propitiated Water spirits was for aid in fishing. The net was the primary tool of fishing folk, and when the fish didn’t come to them, coastal people (or nomadic people who visited the coast for their yearly supply of aquatic protein) might go hungry. It was the shaman’s job to call the fishes into the nets, which involved asking the spirits of ocean or lake or river to sacrifice a certain number of their fish so that the humans might eat. The shaman might also sing luring songs to the fish themselves, but the communication with the Water spirits ensured that only a proper number of fish would be sacrificed. Balance would be maintained, and the spirits would not be angered and then withhold more fish the next year.

We tend to forget how much of our species’ primal protein was provided by water sources. In earliest times we tended to keep to coastline areas for the sheer amount of food the ocean provided. Our great migration out of Africa took place during a drought caused by the Ice Age glaciers tying up much of the landmass water, but when the glaciers receded, the coastline moved inward as much as twenty-five miles, and we lost the archaeological record of our epic journey. When we moved inland, we tended to follow rivers, and most human population centers are clustered around major water features such as rivers, lakes, and bays. Water provided food and transportation, a means for washing, and a source of primal nurturing. On some level we have never forgotten that we once crawled out of the ocean.

The second reason for propitiating Water spirits was safety in boating. Water is capricious and can capsize a small boat and drown its owners, sometimes leaving no trace of the bodies. For thousands of years, people went out onto the waters and never came back, leaving their relatives mourning. In many cultures of the Far North, where the ground is always frozen, the Underworld was under water, thus making the ocean the Realm of Death. People went forth and came back alive by the grace of the Water spirits, and often tossed coins, gold, or other offerings over the side of the vessel to please them. Even fishing by a lake had its dangers; stories abound of fishermen getting dragged in by water faeries with ill intent.

Clean water is also necessary for drinking and washing, and we all know that we are around 75 percent water ourselves—small oceans in bags of skin. The Blue World keeps us alive at our most basic level, and we are quite literally mostly made of the Blue World. It’s no accident that the mythological human realm of Midgard is the Nordic equivalent of the Blue World, surrounded by ocean and the undulating folds of the Great Serpent. No accident at all.