Freya Aswynn
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Freya Aswynn, born in Holland in November 1949 and now residing in England in the United Kingdom, in one of the most well known and reckognised Odinists, female shamans, runeologists and is the countries foremost authorities on the runes and their history.
She is a dedicated priestess of Odin and the old religion of the North, she has experience in divination, counselling and healing with the runes.
She was born into a Roman Catholic family.
She is a poetry reciter, musician, writer and artist.
She has been involved with the Odinic Rite.
She lives in Strathaven in Scotland and has a magickal lodge dedicated to Seidr in the mountains.
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[edit] Biography
Aswynn was aware of her natural psychic abilities as early as four years old, often able to perceive what would occur before it did. But, this, combined with her reactions to a hostile family environment and subjected to serious physical, mental as well as some sexual abuse, which was not recognized by the system as it was then, prompted the official diagnosis that she was 'maladjusted'.
Freya was given up by her family into the child care system and institutionalised for 9 years. She has stated that she was deprived of any secondary education and resorted to taking on cleaning work, until she met and married her first husband, George.
She has said that "George introduced me to the basics of philosophy (particularly the works of Friedrich Nietzsche) and classical music, predominantly Richard Wagner. He also was the first person who ever spoke to me about the esoteric nature of the runes. Sadly, after two years of marriage, George died of cancer; but he left me with a pension that, for the first time, gave me a measure of financial independence."
At the age of 19, with no real formal education except for the abilities to read and to write, Aswynn decided to develop her gift even further. She initially joined a spiritualist group, and later went on to study such subjects as Rosicrucianism, Astrology, Cabala and Thelema.
At the age of 30, Aswynn felt unable to progress further in Holland and left for England, where she was soon recognized by prominent magicians and witches as a "natural". With their help and training, she was initiated into the mysteries and made rapid progress as a ritual magician and High Priestess, being initiated into Wicca in 1980 by Jim Bennet under the supervision of Alex Sanders.
Aswynn taught herself English and German by means of books and tapes to make up for her lack of education and is now fluent in her Native Dutch, English and German.
After awhile, Aswynn began to question why the only gods mentioned were Graeco-Roman or Celtic in descent because they had no relationship to her own Dutch heritage. She then came to discover that there in fact were Nordic gods, and it was after a difficult personal experience that she became devoted to the Norse god, Wodan. She believes that it was Wodans help that influenced her to begin her research on the occult and the Northern traditions. Runes had had an important impact on her life.
[edit] Discography
- Shades of Yggadrasil
- Songs of Yggdrasil: Shamanic Chants from the Northern Mysteries
[edit] Written works
- Northern Mysteries and Magick: Runes & Feminine Powers
- Leaves of Yggdrasil: Runes, Gods, Magic, Feminine Mysteries, and Folklore
- Principles of the Runes: The Only Introduction You'll Ever Need (Principles of) by Freya Aswynn
- Personal Readings
[edit] Video and DVDd
- Introduction to the Runes - 'Introduction to the Runes' is a audio visual presentation exploring the Runes. Freya discusses the meaning of each Rune, accompanied by a sound clip example of Galdr. Learn the proper pronunciation of the Runes from a native speaker with the help of Freya's video.
