Northern European Shamanism

Diachronic distribution of Celtic peoples. (Map Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celts)

Some of you who are interested in shamanism may find that generic “core” shamanism lacks the richness of ethnic shamanic traditions.  At the same time you may not feel an affinity or connection to the Andean shamanism that I wrote about in the last set of posts.  However, if English is your native language than you might feel a closeness to Northern European shamanism.  After all, some of it is already in your daily language.

For example, take the days of the week.  Did you know that the days of the week in English, except for Saturday, honor Northern European gods?  Let’s take a quick look:

• Sunday: Old English Sunnandæg (pronounced [ˈsunnɑndæj]), meaning "sun's day."  In both West Germanic and North Germanic mythology the Sun is personified as a goddess, Sunna/Sól.
• Monday: Old English Mōnandæg (pronounced [ˈmoːnɑndæj]), meaning "Moon's day." This is based on a translation of the Latin name dies lunae. In North Germanic mythology, the Moon is personified as a god, Máni.  The Latin roots show up in the Spanish word for Monday, "Lunes", where Iuna is "moon".
• Tuesday: Old English Tīwesdæg (pronounced [ˈtiːwezdæ]), meaning "Tiw's day." Tiw (Norse Týr) was a one-handed god associated with single combat and pledges in Norse mythology and also attested prominently in wider Germanic paganism.
• Wednesday: Old English Wōdnesdæg (pronounced [ˈwoːdnezdæj]) meaning the day of the Germanic god Wodan (known as Óðinn  (Odin) among the North Germanic peoples), and a prominent god of the Anglo-Saxons (and other Germanic peoples) in England until about the seventh century.
• Thursday: Old English Þūnresdæg (pronounced [ˈθuːnrezdæj]), meaning 'Þunor's day'. Þunor means thunder or its personification, the Norse god known in Modern English as Thor.
• Friday: Old English Frīgedæg (pronounced [ˈfriːjedæj]), meaning the day of the Anglo-Saxon goddess Fríge. The Norse name for the planet Venus was Friggjarstjarna, 'Frigg's star'.
• Saturday: the only day of the week to retain its Roman origin in English, named after the Roman god Saturn associated with the Titan Cronus, father of Zeus and many Olympians.

 
If you don’t have Celtic blood flowing through your veins then it might be Anglo-Saxon.  The Anglo-Saxons were a people who invaded and inhabited Great Britain from the 5th century forward. They were Germanic tribes who migrated to the island from continental Europe, their descendants, and indigenous British groups who adopted some aspects of Anglo-Saxon culture and language. The Anglo-Saxon period denotes the period of British history between about 450 and 1066.  To see how pervasive Anglo-Saxon DNA still is in Great Britain today take a look at this article.
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If, like many in the United States, you think that you don’t have a Celtic bloodline because your last name isn’t Irish, Welsh or Scottish then think again.  The map below shows the distribution of the Celtic peoples.

In the next series of posts I will explore Northern Europeans shamanism followed by the shamanism of the Celtic peoples in the U.K.  Hope that you enjoy.

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