Neolithic Shamanism: Spirit Work in the Norse Tradition - Raven Kaldera 2012
Weaving
The Gray World: Craft
Raven: In many cultures, the spirits who rule Fate are women, and they do the women’s work of spinning, weaving, and cutting . . . only they do it with our destinies. When I weave, I first give thanks to the Fates (we call them the Norns in this tradition, and their names are said to be Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld) and ask them to be skillful with my wyrd, my destiny. As an offering, I ask them to take some of the weaving energy I put into the cloth and use it for their work. I’ve found that they take embroidery for this as well. As I work, I begin to see the warp as the threads of What Is, What Was, and What Will Be, and the weft as the threads of What We Choose To Do. The two together may turn out any number of ways. A cloth woven with this awareness of wyrd, taking the energy of wyrd into itself, is very powerful when made into a garment and worn. It can bestow clarity of sight, especially into the causality of past and future.
Galina: I rethought the power of weaving when I read one of the earliest accounts of the Norns, the Norse Fates: they are pictured as women weaving on a great loom, except that the loom is strung with intestines and weighted with skulls, and they weave with the blood and guts of our lives. Weaving is a mighty and magical act. Now, I don’t weave myself; I’ve no skill at textile work of any kind. I learned to knit and crochet largely because it formed a connection with my grandmother and other female ancestors who excelled at those things. It’s also for practical use—it’s easy to work charms into something knitted, as each stitch binds the magic to one’s will, just like weaving. I don’t possess much talent in this area . . . but still, I work with Spider, and I learned from this spirit that the magic of weaving is the magic of ordering a life. All magic starts with weaving: weaving reality, weaving will, weaving thought, weaving emotion.
Weaving is not a round art like spinning; it is an art of crisscrossing lines. It is a magical art along the lines of two rather than one; of I-Thou rather than I-Eternal. You have two sets of threads going in opposite directions that may or may not be very different, and they intersect along every possible point, creating a beautiful and useful pattern. Sounds kind of like a good relationship, doesn’t it? Actually, that’s the first exercise we give for this craft as a shamanic tool—cementing spirit relationships.
You can actually weave spirit cloth, or, rather, spirit-energized cloth. The simplest method is to visualize something over and over while weaving a piece of fabric on a loom. You can even chant if you like—the rhythmic bang of the beater is excellent for keeping time and creating a trance state. Because it takes a long time to weave something, that’s a lot of time and energy to put into a piece of fabric, which will make it all the more potent. The article can be a wall hanging for the house or a piece of clothing to be used for a spiritual purpose. It can also be used to make a power bundle, a collection of power-infused items wrapped in handmade cloth and used as a reservoir of power. Another method is to actually weave a symbol of the desired goal into the cloth, using tapestry-weaving techniques.
Any weaving undertaken with Intent, of course, is all the better if it is woven using thread spun with Intent. While we mention flax spinning in the Green World chapter, spinning of any fiber is a good place to start with spirit cloth. Fibers are traditionally all spun clockwise, or sunwise, so that they can be plied counterclockwise, or widdershins. The idea is that if all fibers are spun in the same direction, any two fibers can then be plied together afterward. However, for certain special uses—banishing evil energies or spiritually binding others against their will, or for some specialized advanced workings with the dead, the opposite is true. Special threads are made (usually out of wool that is naturally dark) that are spun widdershins and plied sunwise, and either used as thread or woven with the first thrust of the shuttle from right to left.
If you weave clothing with multiple parts from energized homespun thread, it’s best not to waste any of it. Unlike regular fabric, where one cuts off chunks and throws them away, unused and discarded cloth made with Intent becomes rather like hazardous waste. (In fact, it’s good to get into the habit as early as possible of cleaning up after yourself. The best way to dispose of fragments of power-infused items is to carefully cast them into a sacred fire made the old way, as we described earlier in this book. They may also be buried.) It’s better to learn piece weaving—the art of weaving specific pieces of cloth already the right size and shape for the garment parts—and make simple geometric garments that simply need the pieces hand-stitched together. The threads between each section, if you weave the pieces on a single warp, can be cut evenly between the garment sections and turned into fringe. If it’s long fringe, beads or bells can be tied to it. The less you waste of all this work, however, the better. This means that closely fitted garments are probably out, but, then, shamanic clothing should be loose and comfortable enough to move around in. If you want something closely fitted, do what the ancestors did and lace it tight around you.
Exercise: Weaving Cloth with Intent
If you want to weave a shamanic item, such as a piece of clothing dedicated to a particular spirit, or a ceremonial item, such as a ritual altar cloth or vestment, start with the warp of the loom. As you thread it, name off a quality of that spirit or a blessing with each strand, or just repeat a simple mantra or rhyme with each strand you pull through the heddles. When the loom is fully strung and you are ready to start the weft, wind the weft yarn onto the shuttle as if you were winding up a spring, ready to unwind and spring its energy into the warp. Singing or chanting as you wind helps. As a first project, we suggest making a piece of cloth—however small—in the colors appropriate to the spirit you are working toward a relationship with, and have your Intent be to find ways for you and that spirit to work together harmoniously. Visualize them in the warp—the eternal, balanced in tension—and yourself as the changeable, adjustable weft.
Take several deep breaths and begin to weave, concentrating on your goal. Make the first pass of the shuttle between the warp threads with your eyes closed. Then, with each pass, sing or say something—a line from a prayer or praise song, a simple chant, a spoken phrase. Bang! The beater becomes the exclamation point at the end of the sentence, and then you start over. You can get into something of an altered state from the repetitive motions combined with the repetitive words. When you start to get tired and lose the thread of the Intent, stop and work more another day. Weaving is an art that takes patience; it’s not about instant gratification.
When you cut the piece off the loom, be careful and waste no thread. If the warp is energized thread, carefully cut the little tied bits off and burn them. Hang the fabric out under either Sun or Moon for at least a few hours to introduce it to the world, and then craft it into its final shape. It goes without saying that you should keep your loom and other tools as energetically clean as possible. Cleanse them regularly if you must. Honor them as they honor you by providing support for your work.