Nine Worlds of Seid-Magic: Ecstasy and Neo-Shamanism in North European Paganism

Nine Worlds of Seid-Magic: Ecstasy and Neo-Shamanism in North European Paganism
Jenny Blain | 2001-12-14 00:00:00 | Routledge | 208 | Mythology
This accessible case-study of Northern European shamanistic practice, or seidr, explores the way in which the ancient Norse belief systems evoked in the Icelandic Sagas and Eddas have been rediscovered and reinvented by groups in Europe and North America. Drawing on ethnography, religious studies, anthropology and sociology, the book examines the phenomenon of altered consciousness and the interactions of seid-workers or shamanic practitioners with their spirit worlds in historical and political contexts.

Written by a follower of seidr, this study not only investigates, but also addresses those new communities involved in a postmodern quest for spiritual meaning.
Reviews
Jenny Blain is AFAIK the only author who analyzes what is really there AND describes various attempts to reconstruct Seidr today. Off course she disappoints lots of people who like to create a new magical fantasy world or want to live in a New Age world created for them by an author. The less we really know the better for the New Ager.....But she is an Ethnologist, totally commited to truth and a practioner of Seidr herself.

Jenny Blains description of Seidr is a realistic piece of hard research work and I can feel the oblique and powerful craft of our ancestors in her work. It's definetely not a game, it never was and Jenny warns her audience about the consequences throughout the book. That's another aspect New Agers "dislike" because it is not only blond Elbs, funny dwarfs and honest gods you will find in that other world. So better be prepared and protected. There may be bitter consequences if someone is doing just one little mistake during a Seidr trance "The whole luck of a person can change 100% for the rest of her life with one offended spirit in a session." Ooops! But she doesn't hand out "Do it yourself" ritual kits to her readers anyway. Her real Seidr is far too dangerous for that. She is practizing in a well protected group and she reports incidents I don't want to be part of.

Very well done! The only points that turn me off are that postmodern academic phony discussions about i.e "Transgenderism in shamanic blababla...." ;-)))

But you can't have it all....
Reviews
I think that the title of her book is misleading, there was very little in the way of 'magic'. Though maybe my definition of magic may be different than some. She barely talks about ecstasy as I understand it as well. Oracular Seidhr as she writes it, to me is basically jumped up 'led meditation'someone leads you there, then you go on your own way. But this may not be her fault, I just wish she'd written more about utiseta which seems to me to be the closest thing to 'shamanism', not seidhr itself, or to be specific, oracular seidhr. It also could be WHEN she wrote the book... every day, there is more information out there and opinions change over night.

Not knowing much about Heathenism, I really liked her book. A good balance of involvement and distance. I think the 'involvement' of both the writer and the heathen population in ergi is humorous, which I think is due to the fact that a LOT of heathens are of the hard mead drinking "let's go bang our swords' type, to whom ergi may be a serious consideration. As some know, a lot of people actually chosen by the spirits to do 'shamanism' have issues with dualism and sexuality and 'being normal'. To some, being normal is more important than anything else in life and to them, ergi would be a big problem. I say let them be afraid of ergi and the rest of us do what we wish, they can discuss it into the ground and they can avoid seidhr. Who cares? Give them a bigger sword and they will feel better.


Reviews
Blain does an excellent job of examining the shamanic aspects of Seid. She does seem to come off as mildly apologetic that an academic would be involved in such inquiries. This is most apparent in the intensity with which she qualifies and defines the various concepts addressed in _Nine_Worlds_.



As the subtitle indicates, _Nine_Worlds_ focuses on the shamanic aspect of the Old Germanic Religion. It does so from a distinctly Asatru perspective. I've said many times that the 'Trar can be a bit too serious at times, and Blain is no exception. But in this case, the earnestness can be endearing. One comes away from _Nine_Worlds_ with a great deal of respect, and a bit of compassion, for Blain's intense attitude.



_Nine_Worlds_ is a survey of Seid shamanic practice, and in no way a how-to manual. That being said, it is a must-read for anyone interested in European Shamanism.




Reviews
Ms. Blain does an excellent job of studying seidr not only from a practical stance but a historical and philosophical one as well. She mixes scholarship and historical theory with stories of personal experience and accounts of modern-day practice. It does only cover one way of practicing seidr though, that being the Hrafnar style oracular seidr of Diana Paxson's group. As limited as the scope is however it is still an excellent work.
Reviews
This was an interesting read...The author explores her own participation in a subculture as well as explaining the historal aspects of the subculture. She does a fairly good job explaining some of the historical roots, and to some degree the present activities of the subculture. She could've touched on the contemporary subculture more though.



A lot of her analysis seemed focused on how she reconciled the differences between herself as a heathen and as an academic. This was particularly interesting, but what stood out to me was that she could never entirely just submit to an experience but was constantly analyzing it...so that for her it seemed the identity of an academic was predominant over that of a heathen. It does lead one to ask whether she really critically engaged the experience in and of itself or used the academic way of thinking as a distancing tool. Nonetheless she does question her own attitudes and this is evident in her work.

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