Nine Worlds of Seid-Magic Quotes

“how will my journey change me? I asked the seeress, and she replied, seated on Hlidskjalf: 'l cannot see beyond the trees but they are calling you, only the trees.”
― Jenny Blain, Nine Worlds of Seid-Magic

“The sagas, however, do not mention any entheogens in any context that I can discover: the special meal prepared for the seeress in Eiriks saga rauöa is of the hearts of animals and is eaten the night before her seiör is to occur. References to drinking in the Eddas (e.g. Mimir's well, the mead of poetry) are ambiguously metaphorical at best (though in a highly speculative mode, Steven Leto (2000) suggests that the use of both A. muscaria and R semilanceata may be represented metaphorically in various poems or sagas). Archaeology, however, gives some evidence, from several hundred henbane seeds found in the pouch of a burial considered to be that of a seeress (Price, pers. com.) and a very small number of cannabis seeds present in the Oseberg burial (often considered to be that of a seeress or a priestess), carefully Placed, Neil Price tells me, between the cushions and feathers piled by the bed.”
― Jenny Blain, Nine Worlds of Seid-Magic

“If answers are produced, where do they come from: Gods, spirits, those who have gone before, the seeker's subconscious? Rational- liberal anthropology, of course, says the latter. Jungian psychology would suggest a collective-unconscious origin. The answers do not always have meaning for the speaker, but they do seem to for the questioner. Practitioners have their own answers. 'It's not archetypes and the collective unconscious, or at least it's more than that as well,' says Jordsvin. 'I expect most of this is coming from the dead people, because that's where I go.' He journeys within Hel's realm: in Norse tradition, wisdom comes from the dead, from the mound. Others may focus on deities as the source of the answers, depending on what is asked: rituals may involve deity-possession (described by Wallis 1999b: chapter 2).”
― Jenny Blain, Nine Worlds of Seid-Magic

“My reasoning for going to the spirits, rather than calling them to us is not grounded in anything but my darker self, my suspicious nature and my mistrust of the behavior of other human beings. This culture has no training or grounding in how to respectfully treat the spirits that come. Forgive this harshness, but I have seen a great, disrespectful stupidity in many pagan communities, including our own.”
― Jenny Blain, Nine Worlds of Seid-Magic

“Scientific/ rationalist thinking has a knowledge-domain a large one ---- where it is an eminently suitable tool for the tasks within that domain. But as you pointed out in your paper, any conceptual approach comes with its own built-in blind spots, and science is certainly no exception. There remains a large -- I would say infinitely large domain where science/rationality is in many ways one of the more inferior tools which could be applied to acquire knowledge about it...One of the things one must know as a craftsman is 'which tool is right for the job?”
― Jenny Blain, Nine Worlds of Seid-Magic

“Within today's anthropology, therefore, there are attempts being made to find ways to discuss such experiences, dealing with concepts such as the reality of the experience to the participant, and within it (or its narration) the use of what is seen by outside observers as symbol and metaphor. Goulet and Young (1994) speak of such 'extraordinary experiences' in terms of multiple realities. Within one reality mode, so to speak, we construct experience and meaning by attending to sets of symbols and sensations that within another reality mode would go unchecked. As we shift mode, new possibilities become apparent, and old ones disappear. Ms Paxson's commentary on her experience illustrates this point. By her account, she had to work rather hard to prevent her rationalist preconceptions from disrupting her journey; and the subsequent events involving finding her teacher led her to consider that she was not simply inventing a scenario. I know that I can make up stories, Diana said. Was I inventing this one now?”
― Jenny Blain, Nine Worlds of Seid-Magic