Month: October 2016

Between 2010 when Sherry and I first journeyed to Iceland and now, there has been a great change – not in Iceland but in the number of tourist. All Icelanders I talked with agreed that even within one year, the increase in tourism has been very pronounced.

Over the decades I’ve seen the same effect at various sacred sites around the world such as Machu Picchu in Peru. Don’t delay – join us next October, 2017 and journey with us to Iceland.

Learn about supernatural beliefs, culture, myths, and Iceland’s strange mysterious landscape. As we explore Icelandic nature and its landscape we will begin to learn about the country’s history. As we proceed in our seeking we will begin to believe in what most Icelanders already know; elves, trolls and other mythical beings really do exist.

Venture into a land of mystery where Icelandic folklore, mythology, tales and traditions will be revealed. Deep inside Iceland’s underworld, folk stories and fairytales about mystical beings, scary or funny, will have a different feel to them. In the landscape shaped by ice and geothermal activity, where the view of boiling hot springs and crystal clear cascading waterfalls awaken your imagination.

We will visit areas where the sagas of the Icelanders originated. These Norse sagas were written in the 13th and 14th centuries by unknown authors in Iceland. The stories are about life in Iceland around the year 1000 A.D. They are considered by many the most important historical records of Viking life and are also acclaimed by many as literary masterpieces.

In the sagas, tales of the supernatural abound from encounters of supersized ghosts and powerful sorcerers to dreams that predict a character’s fate. This belief is still strongly held in Iceland today.

Furthermore, we will delve deeply into the spiritual and warrior meaning of the Völsunga saga. This is a legendary saga, a late 13th century Icelandic prose rendition of the origin and decline of the Völsung clan (including the story of Sigurd and Brynhild and destruction of the Burgundians). The saga covers themes including the power struggles among Sigurd’s ancestors; Sigurd’s killing of the dragon Fafnir; and the influence of the ring Andvaranaut.

The Adventure of Fire and Ice Begins in Reykjavik and the Land of the Sagas

Our guide will meet you at the airport and transport you to Reykjavik and our lodging for our first night.

After breakfast, we leave Reykjavik and journey to Frost and Fire Hotel; on way we will visit Althing located in Thingvellir National Park—the most sacred site in Iceland. Throughout the Norse world, open-air governmental assemblies called þing (things) met regularly, usually once a year in most of the Norse lands.

The next day we journey to the mystical site: Hjörleifshöfði cave named after the Viking Hjörleifur Hróðmarsson. People have encountered a lot of unexplainable phenomena and many have been strongly affected by this place.

On our way to the cave we will stop at the Saga Centre which offers visitors a unique opportunity to explore the vast and fascinating world of the Sagas. As you step through the entrance of the Centre you will find yourself transported back in time. Visitors will be captivated by the deep and rich history of the Sagas. Experience the dramatic and fascinating story of the Viking age with all its romance, conflict, love, and death. Further on, we will visit Seljalandsfoss waterfall and the Icelandic Hermit Cave of Gljufrabui.

The Mystical Peninsula of Snæfellsnes

We leave the Frost and Fire and the South of Iceland and travel through Borgarfjordur, the heart of Iceland’s Viking country, to Snæfellsjökull – The Mythical Glacier on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula and Mt. Stapafell. It is here where we will spend the next two nights at the Hotel Hellnar over-looking the Atlantic Ocean.

This peninsula is a continuously evolving landscape of volcanoes, geysers and lava fields, the whole of Iceland is a geological treasure; and Snæfellsjökull is the absolute jewel in the crown. Used by Jules Verne as the setting for his novel Journey to the Centre of the Earth, the Glacier is an enduring source of inspiration for mystics, artists, photographers and poets. It is the well-spring of Icelandic mythology and Viking legends, looming over a strange land where dwarves still lurk in the crannies, elves hide in the mossy banks and ogres stomp across the ice. These are the Hidden Ones.

The Glacier and I have a special soul relationship. It is a powerful chakra and energy vortex—the Heart Chakra of the Earth and one of the great energy centers of the Earth. Supposedly, the Glacier is connected with Mt Shasta and the Keops Pyramid in Egypt—a ley line from the pyramid goes directly through Reykjavik and the Glacier. This ley line is connected with Orion star system.

Here we will visit many mystical places such as the Sönghellir (Singing Cave of the Viking shaman- Bárður), known for its echoes and ancient inscriptions on the walls. Bárður, a great Viking shaman, sensed the energy and power said to radiate from the glacier. He was born in the northern part of Norway, had a Sami grandmother who was a shaman, and was brought up among dwarfs in the Mountains in Norway where he studied shamanism.

Bárður is perceived as a guardian or a god of the Glacier and the surrounding area. Locals refer to him as Bárður Snæfellsás, which means Bárður, God of Snæfellsjökull.

Experiences of a Life-Time

We will conduct ceremony and incantations in Bárður’s cave. In addition, we will visit Bárðarlaug lagoon – the lagoon of Bárður where we will conduct an initiation, Einbúi – a rock structure and a dwelling of the Elves or Hidden Ones, the Black Beach – a source of power of the eternal alchemy of oneness with the merging of fire and water. These are only a few of the experiences of our adventure. It will be an awesome journey not to be missed.

For our final two nights we return to Reykjavik. As reward for an adventurous journey, we spend time soaking in the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa. The spa is located in a lava field in Grindavík on the Reykjanes Peninsula, southwestern Iceland. The warm waters are rich in minerals like silica and sulphur and bathing in the Blue Lagoon is reputed to help some people suffering from various ailments.

If you are adventurous with a Viking spirit, homesteaders they were not, make a small sacrifice of time and money and join Rev. Sherry Husfelt and Dr. JC Husfelt in this once in a lifetime experience. Enjoy and experience the myth, magic, beauty and power of Iceland.

Fee: $2995 includes lodging, breakfast, teachings, and transportation within Iceland. Does not include airfare to and from Iceland.

The light is dying as the dark strengthens. Winter is approaching bringing with it darkness and wind-whipped stormy days and nights. This is a time and season to honor our family, kin, ancestors and the hidden spirits of the earth. It is a time to go inward and strengthen our connection with the Otherworld.

At this time near the end of October the natural world appears to be dying in its natural cycle of death and rebirth. During this period of time, festivals of the dead celebrated and acknowledged the ancestors and the dead in general with offerings of food being commonplace throughout many cultures.

Burnings—Feeding the Spirits

Feeding the spirits of the dead could be considered the supreme compassionate, ceremonial, indigenous religious practice. Nonetheless, there is still one dark blemish on this premier spiritual practice: down through history and throughout various cultures, there have been times when humans, even children, have become the sacrificial food of the gods.

Feeding the spirits or doing a burning is one of the shamanic/religious practices and power handed down to my wife and I by the late shamans Mom and Vince Stogan. Since this knowledge was and still is orally transmitted, I can only reveal a few things. Before we open the ceremony by calling in the spirits, I paint myself and my wife with red paint, symbolic of blood. Three plates of food and drink are always required: for the ancient ones, the spirits of the land, and most importantly, the forgotten ones. The plates are then burned providing “food for the Otherworld.” Contrary to Festivals of the Dead that are held once a year, burnings may be done anytime during the year for such reasons as beginnings and endings—funerals, memorials.

El Día de Muertos

El Día de Muertos, or the Mexican Day of the Dead Festival originated in pre-Hispanic cultures who believed that during these days of the year the souls of the departed would return to the realm of the living, where they could visit their loved ones.

“The celebration includes offerings of cempasúchil flowers, drinks and food for the deceased placed alongside their photographs and poems. Another traditional practice is the making of the bread of the dead and the sugar, colorful calaveras (skulls), decorated and labeled with names of people (living or dead).

“The creation of the altar is an integral part of the celebration, with many of the ceremonial objects and familiar signature items of Mexican culture to many outside of the country. Altars are often decorated with flowers, whose brief life span is meant to be a reminder of the brevity of life and whose bright, earthly colors are believed to be a guide for the dead back to their loved ones. Brightly colored and intricately cut tissue paper decorates the altar, waving like multi-colored flags. Offerings of sweets, fruits, and other foods are joined by the staples of bread, salt, and water. Grooming supplies, such as a washbasin and soap, may be provided for the spirits to tidy themselves up after their long journey.”[i]

Similar to burnings where we prepare a plate for the forgotten ones, the Maya Ritual of the Dead, Hanal Pixán, honors the solitary soul. In this case, a home altar is “dedicated to all deceased who have no one to remember them on Earth, or who had no known relatives, or relatives who showed no interest in them…. This simple offering is placed on a small table with a white tablecloth, together with a large white candle, a glass of water and a plate of food.”[ii]

Samhain

This honoring of the dead was the primary celebration in the Celtic calendar until the rise of Christianity in the 7th century. This was a transition time between summer and winter and a time to honor the dead—the ancestors as well as the spirits of the land. The “dead ancestors were, in many ways, still considered to be an active part of the living community. The feast of Samhain and the idea of a link between the living world and the Otherworld are inseparably intertwined. The communal feast was the main event of Samhain. On the eve of October 31 each year, communities gathered together to partake in a ritual feast.

“There were two widespread strains of customs when it came to preparing food for the feast. The first involved preparing some food to specifically set aside for the dead ancestors to consume. In some cases particular kinds of food were made for the dead, while in other cases a portion of the food prepared for the living was set aside for the dead. This act, by acknowledging the presence of the dead, was a means for the living to strengthen bonds with dead ancestors, retaining the souls of the departed as active members of the larger Celtic community.”[iii]

Winter Nights

Pre-Christian Norse celebrated and honored family and community throughout the whole of winter. However, there was three very specific times of Winter Nights for celebrating, sacrificing and for caution. And the reason for the caution; the first Winter Night, Vetrnætr, was also the beginning of Óðinn’s Wild Hunt which reached its peak around the Winter Solstice. This was a time of cold-whipped wild winter storms reflected by the imagery of Óðinn astride his eight-legged steed, Sleipnir, leading his spectral host across the night sky—woe to those that venture out on a stormy and menacing dark night. (Of course, good advice and common sense.)

The first Winter Night was celebrated around mid to late October. The second Winter Night was celebrated mid-January or mid-winter until it was moved to coincide with Yule (ON jól) on the Winter Solstice. The third was celebrated around the middle to the end of April honoring the beginning of the summer season The Norwegians and Icelanders divided their year into two seasons: the light (summer) and the dark (winter). All dates of the celebrations could vary depending on environmental conditions. The reason: they were in partnership with nature and listened to the sounds of the earth, the ebb and flow of the tides and the winds and the birds of the sky. They were not separated from nature like our society and culture, which is ruled by linear time and obsessed with calendar dates.

Vetrnætr, the first Winter Night celebration, was a blót (sacrifice/blessing) honoring the successful harvest and protection from the harshness of winter. It was a blessing and honoring of the fertility gods and goddesses, the dísir (a certain type of female deity), the ancestors, the landvættir (land-wights) and the hidden spirits of the earth; elves and faëries if you need a name. Basically, a blót signifies honoring the deities through sacrifice. It also meant to strengthen the relationship between the kin and the Otherworld. This celebration was also an occasion for heavy drinking.

The most common blót connected with Vetrnætr was dísablót honoring the dísir. Additionally, Freyr was one of the deities honored during this time of the year for a fruitful harvest and peace. In conclusion, as we hold our horns high filled with ale or mead an excellent toast during this winter season would be til árs ok friðar (for a good year and frith/peace) – Skål.’

[i] https://edsitement.neh.gov/october-2010-history-and-origins-halloween-and-day-dead-celebrations

[ii] Hanal Pixán, 24.

[iii] Jessica Richard, Samhain: How Ritual Formed and Formation of Irish Celtic Identity, 448.

Trump with his sun in Gemini in the 10^th house means there are two Trumps—which one will show up if elected—who knows! Clinton has her sun in Scorpio in the 12^th house—the hidden house which means there is the potential that she will present a false face.

In contrast, there is the Mesoamerica concept called Ollin—The Heart that Sees. The following is excerpted from my book Return of the Feathered Serpent, Shining Light of First Knowledge:

The shaman-priests of Mesoamerica brought a concept to their people called Ollin. It symbolizes the ‘motion principle’ in Mesoamerican thought, but in addition, it has the meaning of a purified heart or a ‘heart that sees’ through the illusions of life. This is the Ollin heart. And this type of heart is a microcosm of the ‘heart’ of the universe that maintains balance and harmony through its constant motion or movement, whether it is expansive or contractive.

With an Ollin heart, we are able to discover our true path in life and follow it. We discover joy in our true identity as we fulfill our destiny in life. With a ‘heart that sees,’ everything in life is sacred and every action that we take is hallowed. There is no stagnation in our life, only movement. This movement is always towards destiny and away from the mediocrity of a life that has been lived in self-blindness.

With an Ollin heart, we bring our inner self out into the world for all to see who we are. This is a concept that is foreign to our culture and society. Many live a lie, but few live truth. We are taught to hide ‘who we truly are’ from others, including our co-workers and neighbors. We present falsehoods and false faces to the world. And depending on the circumstance or the environment, we even wear different false-faces—one face at work, another face at home, and still yet another face alone. With the ‘heart that sees,’ there is only one face—our true heart-face—this is the ‘heart’ of Quetzalcóatl and the heart of Oneness:

“The Nahua peoples believed that we are born with a physical heart and face, but that we have to create a deified heart and a true face. The ordinary word for heart was yollotl, a word derived from ollin, movement. Thus the ordinary human heart is the moving, pumping organ that keeps us alive; but the heart that can be made by special efforts in life is called Yoltéotl, or deified. The phrase used to describe the face that we must make if we are to be truly men is ixtli in yollotl, which signifies a process whereby heart and face must combine. The heart must shine through the face before our features become reliable reflections of ourselves.

“Thus heart-making and face-making, the growth of spiritual strength, were two aspects of a single process which was the aim of life and which consisted in creating some firm and enduring centre from which it would be possible to operate as human beings.”[i]

 

[i] Mexican and Central American Mythology, Nicholson,74 – 75.

If you’re traveling to Iceland, please respect nature – land and sea. Don’t have a part in destroying what makes Iceland so special and unique—one of the few happy places left on earth.

And the following knowledge, adapted from Return of a Green Philosophy: The Wisdom of Óðinn, the Power of Þórr, and Freyja’s Power of Nature, will assist you in becoming one with the land and sea:

Landvættir and Huldufólk

Landvættir are the land spirits linked with the land itself. Being in friendship/partnership and honoring the landvættir could bring prosperity to a family in farming, hunting, and fishing. Additionally, they provided protection to the children and animals. These elemental spirits primarily dwelled in mounds/mountains, waterfalls, groves, and areas of unusual landscape.

According to Hilda Roderick Ellis’s The Road to Hel, there is recorded a: “statement at the beginning of the heathen laws that men must not sail to land with grinning and gaping figureheads on their ships, but must remove them while some distance from Iceland, so that the land spirits may not be frightened by them. The idea of the land spirits as protective beings, whose friendship is a valuable one, is brought out again by the little incident in Landnámabók, of the lucky man called Björn who was assisted by the land spirits so that his herds increased and he prospered greatly:

…Men with the gift of second-sight watched all the land-spirits following Hafr-Björn to the Þing, and Þorsteinn and Þórðr (his brothers) hunting and fishing.”

Iceland’s National Coat of Arms portrays four landvættir who are protectors of the four quarters of Iceland. The four land guardians are: the dragon (Dreki) in the northeast, the eagle or griffin (Gammur) in the northwest, the bull (Griðungur) in the southwest, and the giant (Bergrisi) in the southeast. These guardians are ever watchful and alert for invaders. There is another word connected with the concept of the landvættir. The word is landdisir (“dísir of the land”). According to Rudolf Simek, the “landdísir were perhaps identical with the dísir, female protective goddesses, or else are related in some way to the landvættir, Icelandic protective spirits. The fact that the landdísir were thought to live in rocks, where they were also venerated (hence the term landdisasteinar), could mean that this devotion was a form of ancestor cult and that the dead were venerated here.” In short, the land spirits—the elementals who are everywhere and are an embodiment of nature itself—must be respected.

Another aspect of the unseen ones are the hidden folk (hidden ones)—the huldufólk. These unseen ones could be referred to as the Alfar—elves or faeries. It is interesting to note that the elves could have been the male counterparts to the dísir.

As I well know, they often have contact with us humans. It is best not to offend them. When traveling to new places, it is best to acknowledge the spirits, the unseen ones, of the land, not only the huldufólk but the landvættir as well. The ceremony does not need to be extensive but from our hearts. It is important to ask permission to be in this new land, to do our spiritual work, and for health and protection while journeying through their land. Since these symbolize a gift from the unseen ones, we need to give back—a gift demands a gift. This gifting could take the form of alcohol left for them or poured on the earth, or incense/sacred herbs burned as a gift of sweet essence. Even leaving a few flowers on the ground would be a right action. Finally, a small sacrifice as a gift—pull some hair and leave it on the earth. End with thankfulness and a blessing for the well-being of all the unseen ones. In over thirty years of journeying to distant lands, my wife and I can attest to the effectiveness of this practice.

Before I speak to the current state of affairs in Iceland, my wife and I would like to show our appreciation to the adventurers on our far travel journey of Fire and Ice to Iceland. Two of the seekers were from Sweden and seemed like kin to Sherry and me – a brother to me and a sister to Sherry. It was an awesome journey even with the hordes of rude, unaware tourist. Each day of our journey we were gifted with sun, no rain and four nights in a row – the Northern Lights.

Selfies—the I in the Me and the Me in the I, a phrase presented by one of our adventurers at our final night’s dinner presentation—typifies Iceland 2016. When I first set foot on the volcanic lands of Iceland in 2010, crowds of tourists were nowhere in sight. Each year I’ve returned to this land of fire and ice, the hordes have slowly increased.

Iceland 2015 was overrun by inconsiderate rude tourist not respecting silence or nature. But 2016 was even worst. Talking to the locals it seems that half are in favor of the hordes and half are not. There is one glaring truth—the infrastructure of Iceland is not able to handle the great, and I mean great, increase in tourism. And the hotel building boom is on…

Iceland has even increased the size of the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa located on the Reykjanes peninsula. And next, a five star hotel. Currently there are no five star hotels in Iceland. In the spring of 2017 the Blue lagoon will open the first one (80,730 sq. ft.) in Iceland.

Rationally, the airport infrastructure cannot handle in an efficient manner the numbers of tourist and planes departing. Our flight scheduled to leave at 5:00 PM was one of five to depart at the same time. Never before in Iceland have I had to take a bus to a plane out on the tarmac. Too many planes not enough departure gates. And this happened – just in one year. And now Icelandair is adding flights from Tampa and Philadelphia!

If you do decide to visit Iceland, please respect nature, silence and others. And catch my friend’s Viking Boat excursions—Reykjavik Viking Adventure.

Will we guide another group of far travelers to Iceland? Having talked to some of my Icelandic friends, I know of some sacred areas not yet polluted by tourists. So yes, we will far travel once more to the land of fire and ice in the fall of 2017. If interested, please let us know.

Skál