Beschreibung:
This accessible 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. The book examines the phenomenon of altered consciousness and the interactions of seid-workers or shamanic practitioners with their spirit worlds. Written by a follower of seidr, it investigates new communities involved in a postmodern quest for spiritual meaning.
Preface; Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction: Shamanism, Ecstasy and Experiential Ethnography; 2. The Saying of the Norns; 3. The Greenland Seeress: Seidr as Shamanistic Practice; 4. Approaching the Spirits; 5. The Journey in the Mound; 6. Re-evaluating the Witch-Queen; 7. 'Ergi' Seid-men, Queer Transformations?; 8. The Dance of the Ancestors; Notes; Bibliography