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

The White World: Air

Hail to the North Wind that sings,

Hail to the South Wind that warms,

Hail to the East Wind that speaks,

Hail to the West Wind that weeps,

Hail to each breath I take into my body.

Here we come to our final element: Air. This is also the final element to come into the human body. A fetus may be a combination of Earth, Water, and Fire, but until the baby takes the first breath, it is not fully in the world. That’s why astrological charts start at the moment of the first breath. It is the solidifying moment when the infant’s wyrd crystallizes. In Northern legends, the shaman-god Odin gave humanity that final wyrd-giving and life-giving breath. He is breath-giver and, sometimes, breath-taker. It is that first sacred breath that begins the cycle of our incarnation, that cements us and drops us into the rhythms of the unfolding of our wyrd. As with other Elemental Powers, Air and Wind are (or should be) highly honored within this tradition.

As we’ve discussed before, the ancient northern Europeans lived in a harsh and often brutal climate that shaped their views of the Universe. When they looked at an element, they saw the harshest side of it first. Their myths about elemental Gods and spirits show this: Water is the ocean that eats you, Fire is the creature that devours you . . . and Air is depicted in the form of blizzards. The Gods and spirits of Air manifest themselves as snow, frost, ice, storm, and similar frightening and inconvenient forms. They are cold and reclusive and live in the coldest lands, which is where the frigid storms come from. At the same time, the word for breath in Old Norse is ond . . . and ond also means “life force,” the same substance that is identified as chi, ki, mana, prana, huna, orgone, and any number of other names. So Air is terrible and destructive . . . and gives life. There’s a deep lesson in there, if you look for it (and if you enter into this work, you will have no choice but to contemplate it).

The next few sections deal with weather-related spirits. Some people will look at them—especially Snow, Frost, and Ice—and say “But that’s Water! What’s it doing in the Air section?” It is true that those situations are a combination of Air and Water, as is Rain (which we put in the Water section). Why are they considered Air spirits? First, most of the water on this planet is liquid . . . but not all of it. The water that has crystallized into solid form did so because it was acted upon by the ambient temperature, and temperature is under the control of Air. So in a way, substances like snow, frost, and ice are Water that has been claimed by Air . . . as Rain is Water that uses Air without being changed by it. (Steam is actually Water being acted on by Fire in this system, even though it may look like Air, so it is described in the Red World, as is Smoke.) Second, snow, frost, and ice are all about weather, and when you deal with weather, you’re dealing with Wind spirits, period.

Wind spirits are capricious by nature, even more than those of Fire and Water. They love conflict; in traditional Tarot decks the suit of Swords is linked to Air, and it is always a story of conflict. Fire loves conflict, too, and for the same reasons: it stimulates creativity. Without it, there is nothing to pit one’s mental wits against—and Air is all about the mind. In other words, without Air, things stagnate. Air and Fire both crave challenge, because challenge inspires and hones. Nothing stimulates the mind like a problem to solve, and the Wind spirits know that, too. They are always running about looking for things to throw themselves into, although persistence is not their strong point. (That’s Earth.)

For the ancestors, the primary reason for forging a relationship with Wind spirits was for easing the weather. Farmers can quite literally live and die by the weather, and sailors depend heavily on it for survival as well. Weather is a huge chain that stretches around the world, and yanking on any one link in one area can cause backlash in another, so it’s not easy to mess with through force of will without causing reverberations that can come back to bite you. (For this reason, many master magicians consider weather magic to be the single most devastating type of magic, and the most likely to err into the unlawful—followed closely by love magic, by the way.)

The spirits of Wind and Weather know that chain much better than you ever could, and they know the best and most subtle way to fix it. If you have a relationship with them, they’ll want to dive in and help with your problems . . . although they cannot (and would not want to) guarantee that they can create the best possible weather at any given time. You may hate rain, but the plants may need it; you may hate snow, but perhaps without it there will be a drought in the spring. Weather spirits are part of the whole system of Earth, and they will rarely indulge your desires past the point of damage to the ecosystem—we are not the apex of the world, and they know it. Once in a while, though, they will go ahead and do just that, because as we pointed out, they are capricious. When that happens, you can bet that someone in another area is suffering for your desire, and that the bill will come due at some time in the future when you will suffer for theirs. That’s why weather magic is so tricky. It’s best to save such propitiations for times when it’s really important—like when a hurricane is coming straight for you.

One of the surprising shadows of shamanic wind-working in our modern culture survives in what we think of as the jester’s cap, with its four dangling points adorned with bells. Apparently the original model for this was the Cap of the Four Winds, worn by some ancient Saami shamans; each bell would be used to call a different wind. Europeans in more “civilized” areas saw drawings of the cap and decided that it looked silly enough that it ought to adorn their court fools, and so it remains today. It is a good sideways reminder, however, that the spirits of Wind are tricksy creatures, and one needs to remember to be quick-witted in their presence, and to laugh often, especially at ourselves.