Working With the Norse Goddess Freyja for Sensuality

One of the preeminent deities in the Norse pantheon is Freyja, worshiped by many Norse pagans (also known as heathens) and others across the world. Her name translates to “Lady,” and she is known by many other titles, including Horn (“Flax”), Syr (“Sow”), and Mardoll (closely defined as “Sea-Bright”).

Who Is Freyja?

Freyja is a complex deity, unable to be defined simply as a love goddess. In addition to love, her purview covers witchcraft and magic, seidhr (an ancient Norse trance practice), passion, sex and sexuality, war, and death. Her worshippers seek wisdom and prophecy, as well help understanding one’s place in the world.

Freyja is also a goddess of the senses—a being who represents the idea that all of life itself is pleasure, making her an ally to turn to for healing sensuality. During times of stress and struggle, Freyja can ease trauma, and, if she isn’t able to take all one’s pain away, she can at least remind people that things will eventually get better. She can show us ways through pain and trauma, using the senses to reconnect the individual self with the larger Self.

Building a Relationship With Freyja

To heathens, relationships with deities are relationships of reciprocity. There is a give-and-take to any relationship, and relationships with the gods are no exception.

While many heathen rituals tend toward intricacy, the key to forming a relationship with the Norse gods is intention—an intentional offering, however simple, is the most likely way to form any relationship. Thus, there are many ways to connect with Freyja, which in turn to connects one with their sensuality.

Ways to Connect to Freyja for Deepening Sensuality

To begin this experience, take a moment to relax. Feel your breath entering and leaving your body. For heathens, breath itself is a sacred gift from the gods, so focus your attention and intention on your breath; feel the sacredness of it and the life it brings you. Consider the connections you form when your breath mingles with the breath of others. This, in its essence, is Freyja.

There are other ways to connect with Freyja in order to reconnect with your own sensuality:

• Find your favorite flower, whether in the wild, your own garden, or at a flower shop. Raise it to your nose, inhale deeply, and relish its scent. Try to take in as many scent notes as possible. Maybe it is sweet, or slightly smoky. Perhaps the flower is heavily fragrant and tropical, or subtle and earthy. With your mind full of this scent, think of Freyja and the ways she tends her garden in Folkvangr, her home. Leave the flower on an altar or somewhere special outdoors as a gift for the Lady.
  

• Prepare a meal from scratch. Whether you make a feast or a simple meal, pay attention to the mouth feel, scent, and taste of the ingredients. Hold a bite of food in your mouth for a moment and savor the taste; notice as much complexity as possible. Feel its texture when you chew—is it soft or crunchy? Is it bitter or sweet, salty or fatty? As you do this, think of Freyja, and thank her for her many gifts, including the gifts of the senses.
  

• Touch things with intent. Whether silk or cotton, iron or rock, wood or water, stop for a few moments to describe what you feel as you touch these different elements. Then, try not to think at all, but just feel. Reach out with your mind and share these feelings with the Lady.
  

• Burn incense. Many heathens find that spicier scents like musk, nag champa, and amber appeal to Freyja, while others find delicate florals more appropriate. Ask that the incense carry your prayers on the wind to Freyja.
  

• Ask Freyja a question, either aloud or in your mind or heart, then listen while sitting still and relaxed. The answer may come in the air, in the rustle of leaves on the trees, through the melodies of songbirds, or even the chirping of insects. In your heart of hearts, the still place in your center, just at the middle of your sternum, the answer will come.

Remember that for heathens, reciprocity is key. Do not ask for things without saying thank you. Offerings do not have to be complex; you may choose to simply offer flax or other grains to the goddess, or flowers, food, or drink. You could also light incense for her, or carve her name into the wax of a candle and burn the wick for her. What your offerings do need to be is meaningful to you, and offered with reverence and respect.

Freyja is a goddess worth having in your life. She is both powerful and playful, wise and war-like; she is full of magic, witchcraft, and foresight. She is the spark of an orgasm and the ruler of sex and sensuality, and she can choose to bless our lives with passion, love, and fulfillment.

Interested in more Norse pagan practices? Read: Modern Norse Pagan Practices for Beginners.