Honoring Freyr
Lord of Peace and Prosperity
Hello everyone and welcome back to the Substack. This year has been great so far and despite the chaos, I feel like I have grown so much. My wife and I finally bought a house, I changed jobs back in December and have been adjusting to that change. We also adopted a second dog: a wire fox terrier named Enzo, and I started doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
I’m deeply grateful for all these things, but they also have presented challenges and caused me to feel overwhelmed and anxious at times, so I’ve been learning to manage my anxiety and stress. Through it all, I’ve been thinking a lot about the God Freyr.
Here’s some basic information about Freyr, I’m not going to go into a ton of detail on all the source material references and archaeological evidence, but I’ll put some links in the bottom if you are curious to learn more.
Freyr is one of the Vanir, a tribe of Gods that were at war with the Aesir at one point in time. The other members of the Vanir that we know of are his twin sister Freyja, their father Njord and possibly Nerthus, but I’m not sure where the connection is with her.
He’s widely accepted as being a God of fertility and agriculture. If we don’t look far beyond the surface we tend to see him as little more than Freyja’s horny brother, but he’s much more than that. Freyr was a very important deity during the pagan past and was worshipped by kings and commoners alike.
He is a God not just of fertility but of peace, and prosperity. Freyr represents a different side of masculinity that represents stewardship, empowerment, creativity and nurturing. I’ve been thinking of Freyr particularly as I’ve been navigating being a new homeowner, being patient with short tempered coworkers, and caring for a new dog that is more high maintenance than I’m used to.
I recently had the opportunity to attend a gathering down in Central PA hosted by my good friend Will of Central PA Pagan Circle / Fellowship of Northern Traditions. When we were talking ahead of time I was asked if I had any ideas for a ritual and I happily offered to run a ritual to honor Freyr, with no idea yet on how I wanted to go about it.
I decided to make gratitude the focus of the ritual and asked all the participants to write a list of things they were grateful for in addition to any other offerings they wanted to give. I think that in order to live a peaceful and prosperous life, we need to have gratitude. Otherwise, nothing we get will be enough.
Will and I found a beautiful spot across from a dried up stream, cleared out some of the deadwood and set up a space for a small fire. I dedicated the space and lit the fire, then played my drum and chanted the runes: Fehu, Sowilo, Jera, Mannaz, Ingwaz, and Othala.
When the participants arrived I invoked Freyr and addressed the group, then one by one they crossed the stream bed and gave their offerings, then helped the next participant up onto the bank. Then I found out that as the group approached the site, they saw a deer skeleton and so after the ritual ended we all picked out some bones to take home and keep. I ended up with a jawbone, a femur, and some rib bones. The femur I’m particularly excited about because I’m thinking about making it into a new drum mallet. It was a nice little gift that we all agreed represented an exchange between all of us and Freyr.
This ritual fit into a nice crescendo of interconnected themes for the weekend which were rebirth, gratitude, empowerment, and worthiness, and it made for an incredible weekend. I felt like it was something that I both really needed but also earned from everything I’ve been working through so far this year.
Thank you for reading! Below are some videos I watched as I was researching Freyr in preparation for running the ritual, if you are curious about some more background on historical evidence and commonly accepted perspectives.
The Norse Gods: Freyr || God of Fertility, Harvests and Peace
Freyr (Frey) Norse God of Fertility, Masculinity, and the Harvest
Gratitude is a powerful practice that keeps one focused on the positive