Goddess Column: Freya
Our passion is our power, and there’s nothing shameful about embracing sexuality for self-empowerment. Sex is magick and magick is sex. Love is the all and its own form of magick, but there are many types of love, and sexual love is one of them. And if there were a goddess who was to invite us into the powers of love, sexual power and passion it would be Freya.
Freya is the Norse goddess of love, sex and pleasure, who also rules over sorcery, fertility, war and death. She is both the goddess of maternal and sexual love, helping us embrace the full spectrum of unconditional love so we can adapt to whatever a situation calls for. The wife of the Norse god Odin, Freya is also said to have been an ancient Norse mystic known as a Völva, a sect of shamans who were said to be able to control fate and weave together new beginnings. Freya is the goddess of sex, love and magick as well as sex magick; it is under the guide of Freya that we are able to weave our mystical and sensual path with that of the spiritual. Freya contains divine multitudes and it’s under her guise that we are invited to explore our own.
Freya embodies both the sacred and profane, reminding us that opposites are simply extremes of the same thing; in this case our physical relationship with connection and love. And since she’s a goddess of war, she also reminds us that love sometimes comes with strict boundaries, the reminder that we can be both submissive and dominant, fierce and docile, and that these multitudes we contain are indeed sacred. Freya is unafraid to embody her full power, claim her fullest voice and use it when necessary. She can be a patron for those of us who are working on taking up space, who are healing from assault, who are struggling with claiming what we deserve. Freya consciousness is that of knowing we deserve to feel as much pleasure as possible while also feeling safe and loved.
“Friday” is named after this Norse goddess of love, and is the day ruled over by the planet Venus which is associated with many of the things Freya is, including love, pleasure, beauty, sex and victory. Freya is also a goddess associated with the moon so Mondays, which are ruled by the moon, are also sacred to the goddess. The Moon ties into our emotional body, intuition and feelings, all Freya’s domain.
Sacred symbols and offerings
Working and honoring a goddess is more than anything, a relationship. A really beautiful way to start this connection is to create an altar in dedication of a deity. This will serve as an energetic focal point for your work with a goddess. Here you can pray, leave offerings, work magick and focus on your work and intention. Creating an altar is a deeply intentional and personal act and will hopefully help you create an intimate relationship with Freya.
Rituals of power, passion and desire are sacred to Freya. Think about how you can embody your fullest power and personal sense of sexuality and what that means to you. Maybe you make a sex or self-love altar, maybe your ritual of devotion is a prayer to Freya you read every morning as you masturbate. Get creative, meditate and ask the goddess for guidance. Trust your gut and honor what resonates with your self.
Crystals: Amber and gold (this is what Freya’s tears turn into). Stones of love like jade, rose quartz, and selenite. Stones of passion like bloodstone and carnelian.
Colors: Black, green, red silver
Sacred Associations: Freya is a member of a group of gods and goddesses known as the Vanir, who are associated with nature, wildlife and the wild and unseen realms. She is also said to have had a cloak of falcon feathers that help her fly, as well as a chariot led by two black or gray cats. Freya is also said to have boar that she rides when she’s not in her chariot, so boars, cats and falcons are all associated with this goddess, as is the natural realm and the faery realm as well. Freya rules over passion, luck, jewelry, magick, witchcraft and sex so talismans in these veins may be placed on her altar.
Offerings: Honey, roses, mint, sandalwood
Mantras
If you wish to work with mantras to connect you to the energy of Freya, here are a few suggestions. You can write these out and place them on your mirror, put alarms on your phone at 11:11 am and pm to say them, or say them whenever you need a boost. Say them at least three times each when you repeat them to yourself, and don’t forget to breathe!
-I follow the path of passion and pleasure
-I am sacred and so is my sexuality
-My desires are sacred
-I claim my power over and over again
-Pleasure is my purpose
-I am a goddess of divine love
Meditation: A movement ritual to get in touch with your Sacral Chakra
Before you begin set the space and pick the music. You’ll need about ten minutes of music that’s gonna get you in your body and FEELING YOURSELF. Think something sexy that makes you want to move your hips. Put the songs on cue and add a timer if you think you’ll need it to stop. And make sure you’ll have enough space to close your eyes and dance. Make sure any partners or roomies know not to disturb you (unless they want to join!) Turn your phone on silent. Burn some incense or sacred herbs. And when you’re ready put the music on.
Stand straight and close your eyes. Start to breathe, feeling into your body. Start to breathe into your sacral chakra, right where your pelvis is, beneath your belly button. Breathe into this and start to move from here. Start to sway your hips, moving them from side to side and in circles. Continue to breathe into this space as you move more and more, dancing to the music. Take it slow. Start to breathe this energy in a figure eight up to your heart and then back down to your sacral chakra. Do this as you dance, moving more and more to the music and feeling more into your body. Eventually just let whatever comes up come up energetically, and let yourself get lost in motion. Let passion take over. Try moving your arms and moving in circles, letting your sacral chakra guide you. When you’re finished, take a full inhale and exhale, sending any excess energy into the earth through the soles of your feet.
A Self-Love Sex Magick Ritual to Own Your Pleasure
This ritual will utilize some simple breath-work, journaling, and sex magick to help you claim your sexual power and agency by connecting to the fierce energy of Freya. Remember, sexuality is different for everyone and if you don’t feel comfortable masturbating or performing sex magick as part of your ritual, that’s totally okay. Do what feels right for YOU and your body because no one knows that as well as you do.
You’ll need: A red chime candle and a holder, a cinnamon stick, a lighter, a pen, paper or a journal, an offering like roses, honey, liquor or mint. Optional: A sex toy, lube, Epsom salt, red rose petals, love oil.
I recommend reading through the ritual a couple of times before you perform it so you’re familiar with the steps and visualization. You can also print this out and have it next to you if that helps.
Step 1: Set up the space and ground
Like you did in the meditation before this, set up your space. Let any roomies or partners know you’ll be in ritual and not to disturb you. Put on some ambient or chill music (nothing that will distract you.) Turn your phone on silent. Set up your chime candle somewhere you can light it safely, like an altar or the top of a dresser.
Then take your cinnamon stick and burn it and use it to cleanse your body. Make sure you get the top of your head, the back of your neck, your palms, your arms and torso, between your legs, and the bottoms of your feet. Breathe into the cinnamon and use it to cleanse your candle. Then find a comfortable seat and close your eyes.
Inhale and exhale for equal counts of four, moving up to five or six if you can. Do this at least five times until you feel grounded. Then imagine a white beam of light moving from the heavens above you to the crown of your head, down your spine, down to the core of the earth. This white healing light is that of the universe, of divine light and love. Feel this white light cleansing away any energies that aren’t working in your highest favor. Imagine it washing away any impurities or imperfections. You can return to this visualization whenever you need.
Step 2: Invite in the energy of Freya
Now you’re going to invite in Freya. You can either invoke her and ask to unite with her by drawing her into your body (which is really your mind connecting with Freya consciousness) or you can invite her into your circle as an archetype and not actually call to connect with her so deeply. Think about what feels better and then in meditation or aloud, ask for a connection with her. You can say something like the following:
“I invoke the goddess Freya, goddess of war, sex, pleasure, love, magic and the moon. I invoke this archetype into my Self at this time so I may know the feeling of ecstatic bliss in my body. Freya, may your compassion and unconditional love extend to me at this time, and may this working be aligned with my highest good and with divine love. May this pleasure be a prayer and an offering. And so it is.”
You may feel something happen physically after you invoke this goddess, you may feel an energy shift, or you may feel nothing at all. Honor this and if something doesn’t feel right, ask to banish any energies that aren’t working in 100% light, imagine the white light from the heavens at the crown of your head moving through your body and stop the ritual.
When you’re done inviting or invoking Freya, you may open your eyes and move to your red candle.
Step 3: Carve the Candle
Grab your pen and on your candle carve the sigil for Venus ?. Then carve the sigil for the moon which is a crescent. If you wish, you can anoint your candle with love oil or rose oil. This candle represents your passions, your connection to sexuality and ecstatic bliss. Your connection to unconditional love in all its forms. It has the sigils for Venus and the Moon, which are both associated with Freya. And it will serve as a vessel to transmit your intention of connecting to pleasure and passion.
Continue to breathe, and when you feel ready, feel Freya once again and light the candle. Gaze at this flame and breathe into your body and then find a comfortable seat with your pen and paper.
Step 4: Write the letter
With Freya’s blessing and the candle lit, your task is to focus on yourself. Write yourself a love letter. Yes, really. Think of it like a love letter meets a sext. I want you to get raunchy. Get real. Get honest. Say what you love about yourself, about your passion and pleasure. Appreciate your own majestic self and sexuality and soul. I want you to have fun with this; like you’re writing a love letter to a sex goddess; which you are- your SELF. Take away the inner critic and leave a shiny mirror from the divine in its place. What’s reflected in your depths, what do you see? Turn yourself on. Write the date, address the letter to someone, and sign it.
When you’re ready, stand in front of the red candle and read your letter to yourself out loud. Get into it. Let yourself feel it. Feel Freya in your body or standing next to you witnessing you read this. Honor this ritual in itself. When you’re ready, you’ll begin raising this energy.
Step 5: Raise the energy
Now it’s time to get sexy. Grab whatever sex toy and lube you’ll need and make sure it’s at arm’s reach, and then close your eyes and start to breathe. You’ll be doing the heart breath, which is an inhale and exhale that’s equal with no stop in between. Start by inhaling for four, and exhaling for four counts. Them, start to imagine white light moving from your sacral chakra , where your pelvis is under your belly button, up to your heart as you inhale. And then as you exhale, this moves back down to your sacral chakra, forming a figure eight. Continue to breathe in for four counts as you imagine the white light moving to your heart and out for four back as this light moves back to your sacral chakra. Then start to masturbate, continuing to breathe as you shift and connect this energy. It’s okay if you lose track of this visualization for a second, but do your best to stay present in your body and feel all your feelings in it. You can ask Freya for her blessing and channel her as you move your hips. Keep breathing and raise energy as much as you can.
When you’re about to climax or at the peak of your energy, draw the energy from your sacral chakra, up your spine to your heart through the crown of your head out into the universe as an intense white beam. Send this energy of pleasure to the universe, and after you’re done continue to bask in this energy.
Step 6: Thank the energies and ground
Once your ritual is finished, find a comfortable seat once again and close your eyes. If you invoked Freya or invited her in, thank her and let her know the ritual is finished. You can say something like the following:
“Freya, thank you for honoring me with your presence, power and passion. I thank you and bow in gratitude for your gifts. The ritual is finished and you are dismissed. So it is and blessed be.”
Imagine the beam of light from before that’s connecting you to the heavens, moving from the ground up your spine, out the crown of your head and moving back into the universe. Press your forehead into the floor, like in child’s pose, and imagine any excess energy returning to the core of the earth. Thank the universe for the support and love.
Step 7: Leave an offering
Leave an offering for Freya on your altar, whether it’s honey, roses, fresh mint…etc. After a few days when this starts to go bad, you can move this outside, or declare that the energy has been transmuted and that the offering is finished before throwing it out.
Keep your letter to read to yourself whenever you’re feeling down. You can also keep this in your magical journal, or grimoire.
Let the candle burn all the way down, placing it in the sink if necessary. If there is extra wax, throw this out at a garbage can at a four way intersection.
After the ritual is finished, drink some water, eat some food, and celebrate!
Chakrub: The Prism
The Chakrub to help you get in touch with Freya, as well as passion and pleasure is that of the Prism Chakrub.This beautiful and mesmerizing stone is made out of clear quartz, which is one of the most high vibrational crystals we have. This Chakrub can help us connect to the crown chakra as well as the energy of the cosmos, and since it’s clear quartz, it can be programmed for whatever intention you have. Use this as you raise energy in the ritual above to really help you connect with Freya and get clear about your intention with working with her.
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