The Seidhkona’s Hidden Loom: All Threads of the Old Witchcraft Laid Bare Beneath the Raven Moon

Come, child of the hidden paths… draw the hood of thy cloak close, for the wind that now stirs carries the breath of the old ones. I am Brynhildr, seidhkona of Birka, singer upon the high seat, wanderer between the worlds. Tonight the moon is full and the veil thin as spider-silk. Sit thee upon the reindeer hide beside my fire, and I shall open for thee the deepest chest of seidhr — every key, every knot, every whisper that the Volva-spirits have entrusted to daughters of the North since the first frost giants walked.

I. What Seidhr Truly Is  

Seidhr is not the bright war-magic of rune-carved spears. It is the dark, soft, woman-rooted craft: the magic of spinning, of weaving, of unweaving.  

It is the power to see along the threads the Norns have spun, to loosen a knot here, tighten another there, and so change the pattern of a man’s wyrd.  

Men may work seidhr, yet it bends them strangely; the price is often their manhood’s pride. The greatest seidhr-workers have ever been women, or those who walked the edge between.

II. The Tools of the Seidhkona  

1. The Staff – carved from ash or rowan taken at midnight, topped with a knob of bronze or crystal. Upon it are cut the names of helping spirits and the secret signs of the nine worlds.  

2. The High Seat – two posts and a platform, draped with cat-skins or goat-hides. Upon this the Volva sits when she will ride the winds.  

3. The Drum – skin of mare or she-goat stretched over birch or pine, painted with blood-runes. Its voice calls the spirits.  

4. The Seidhr-Cloak – blue as deep night or black as ravens’ wings, fringed with living snakeskins or bells of silver.  

5. The Spindle and Distaff – for fate is spun thread, and the seidhkona may spin a man’s luck or unravel it.  

6. The Kettle – of bronze or iron, in which herbs, blood, and offerings are boiled to raise the steam of vision.  

7. The Wand of Hazel – nine knots, nine charms, used to point the way through the worlds.

III. The Nine Great Workings of Seidhr  

1. Spá – far-seeing and prophecy.  

2. Utiseta – sitting out on graves or crossroads to speak with the dead.  

3. Hamfara – sending the soul forth in the shape of beast or bird.  

4. Vardlokkur – the ward-songs and spirit-calling chants.  

5. Gandr – sending the spirit-wolf or spirit-bear against an enemy.  

6. Trolldómr – shape-strong magic, binding and loosing.  

7. Kjölfylja – weather-weaving, raising or calming wind and wave.  

8. Álag – laying of curses or blessings upon land, livestock, or men.  

9. Hjúkulag – love-magic, the binding of hearts (most dangerous of all).

IV. The Spirits One Meets Upon the Seidhr-Path  

- Disir – the mighty women-ancestors who guard blood-lines.  

- Fylgja – the fetch or following-spirit, often seen as mare, wolf, or woman.  

- Hamingja – the movable luck that may be lent or stolen.  

- Vættir – land-spirits of stone, stream, and tree.  

- Alfar and Dvergar – light and dark elves who love offerings of milk or blood.  

- The Norns themselves – Urdhr, Verdhandi, Skuld – though only the greatest dare call upon them directly.

V. How to Begin the Journey  

1. Purification  

Nine days of only water, leeks, and salt fish. Bathe each dawn in running water, singing the old cleansing chant:  

“Nine rivers wash me clean, nine winds blow the dust from my soul…”

2. The Making of the Seidhr-Name  

On the ninth night, go alone to a high hill. Offer mead to Odin and blood to Freyja. Speak aloud the name by which the spirits shall know thee ever after. Keep this name secret from all living men.

3. First Utiseta  

Choose a grave-mound of a known Volva or warrior. Bring bread, ale, and silver. Sit upon the mound from sunset to sunrise without sleep. The dead will test thee with terror. If thy courage holds, one will speak and become thy first guide.

VI. The Great Seidhr-Rite

When a whole district seeks prophecy, the Volva is fetched with high honor.  

- She is seated upon the high seat draped in black lambskins and white cat furs.  

- Young maids sing the vardlokkur, high, shaking songs that tear the veil.  

- The seidhkona drink the blood-mead, beats the drum, and begins to sway.  

- Her soul leaves her body; the staff falls from her hands.  

- In trance she rides the Hel-road, bargains with giants, dances with disir, until the answer is won.  

- When she returns, trembling and ice-cold, the people wrap her in furs and give rich gifts: silver rings, amber beads, a slave-girl sometimes.

VII. The Songs and Galdr  

Every working has its own chant. Here are three that may be spoken openly:  

For protection while travelling between worlds:  

“Hedge of spears around me stand,  

Odin’s cloak upon my shoulders,  

Freyja’s falcon-feather in my hand,  

Nine locks upon my lips.”

To call the spirits to the drum:  

“Come riding, come riding,  

Over stock and stone ye ride,  

White riders, red riders,  

Black riders of the night wind,  

Come to the drum, come to the kettle, come!”

To loosen a binding set by another:  

“Thread spun, thread broken,  

Knot tied, knot opened,  

By the spindle of Verdhandi  

I unweave what hands have woven.”

VIII. The Prices and Perils  

Seidhr is never free.  

- The body grows cold and stiff while the soul is away; many a Volva never returned.  

- Men who work too deep a seidhr grow womanish in voice and manner; the sagas call them argr.  

- Spirits demand ever greater offerings; some ask for the worker’s own blood or years of life.  

- To use love-magic wrongly brings madness upon the sender.

IX. The Seidhkona’s Daily Life  

She rises before the sun, feeds the vættir with milk at the doorstep.  

She sings to the loom, for every thread is fate.  

She reads the flight of ravens, the patterns of smoke, the dreams of the household.  

She keeps a black hen whose eggs are used in divination; when the hen dies, its bones are read like runes.

X. The Final Teaching  

Remember always: seidhr is not power over others. It is power with the hidden threads.  

The greatest seidhkona is she who can bend fate yet knows when to let the thread run free.  

For even the Norns themselves weep over some patterns they must weave.

Keep thy heart soft as new snow, thy will hard as glacier ice, thy tongue sweet as mead, thy silence deep as the sea.  

Then the spirits will love thee, the gods will hear thee, and the worlds will open like flowers before the summer sun.

Thus I, Brynhildr, close the chest again, yet leave one key in thy hand.  

Walk softly upon the hidden roads, daughter or son of the North.  

The staff is ash, the drum is mare-skin, the song is older than the mountains, and the night is full of voices that have waited a thousand years to speak with thee.

Hail the seeker.  

Hail the seen and the unseen.  

Hail the web that binds all things, shining and terrible beneath the raven moon.