Customer Reviews

Seidways: shaking, swaying and serpent mysteries

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Jan Fries quickly became one of my favourite magickal authors with his book "Helrunar", in which he mentions this (at the time) forthcoming book on shaking trances. I found his lack of pretence to "ancient tradition passed down through the ages", and his use of Chaos methodology without the egoistic "spookier than thou" attitude which often infects it exceptionally refreshing. When I finally found a copy of Seidways, it impressed me even more than Helrunar. As usual, he begins with a historical survey of shaking or convulsive trances, including both the Norse background from which he derives the term "seid craft" (seid is pronounced "seeth"), and various tribal and shamanic cultures. While the selected bibliography he provides suggests to me that his material is factually accurate, his approach to history emphasizes a potent mythcrafting over academic explication, and presents a powerful tool for self-transformation. After the historical section, he moves on to the practice of convulsive trance. His suggestions for preparation and emphasis on slow, gradual practice renders independent practice much safer than might otherwise be the case. He also gives step by step instructions that are easy to follow, and includes a chapter on communicating and co-operating with what he (and now I) calls the Deep Mind. An altogether excellent book.

I knew about this book for years before buying it earlier in 2007. I always felt it would be a revolutionary text for me, yet somehow I never got around to buying it (admittedly in part due to Mandrake's poor distribution in Australia).

After about 10 pages I decided that Fries is the greatest author on Germanic magic alive. He is able to consider so many perspectives, casually avoids the rigidity of authors such as Thorsson that I found so discouraging as a newbie, and is very open about where research stops and personal opinion starts. His ideas are extremely unorthodox, and the extent of "authenticity" can be questioned about this book in various ways - but Fries never pretends to be anything he is not, and this open honesty is far more preferable than the pompous pretend-authenticity of many other books about historically inspired magical practices.

When I finished the book I immediately read it again, and took about 40 pages of notes. Anyone who knows me would find such conscientious reading totally alien to my usual habits!

His descriptions of seething experiences brought up so many memories of experiences I have had during my life, experiences which I have known were magical and which I loved and longed for... but which I felt unable to explore, to grasp a hold of. Well, Fries gives plenty of encouragement and ways into the conscious induction of trance and seething and I have been regularly and spontaneously delving ever since!

This keen attention and love of the experience of spirit, not just the the forms and images of it, is what makes this book so powerful. It correctly assesses mythology to be a door into that which cannot be said, rather than an end in itself.

His summary of different cultural practices is also extremely interesting and helpful. He is clear that all cultures are not interchangeable, but he is also clear that there can be similarities across culture. So rare to find an author with the political good sense to recognise that culture is neither hermetically sealed nor dissolved into the new age sewer!

This book has also helped to awaken my latent connection to snake energy, which I have felt for years and never been able to make sense of. Given that I see Odin as a snake god (Bolverkr, anyone?), I have been given a huge new lease on life in my relationship to my patron god.

A lot of people I know have bought this book at my urgent insistence, I get very aggressive about it. YOU have to read this book. If you get 10% of what I got from it, then you've easily gotten your money's worth.

Fries fills his book about Seidr, an old and oblique magic resp. shamanic tradition of Germanic tribes in pagan times with a potpourri of descriptions of "shamanic" traditions around the world. From Haiti's voodoo to the Sami in northern Finland: Fries finds similarities: they are all shaking - a bit or like a rattlesnakes tail but it's all the same...... And maybe there is some truth in that but I doubt the significance. Anthropological reseach doesn't see shaking and trembling as a most favorite shamanic way to induce a deep shamanic trance.
That's the best part of his book.

In the next step Fries wants us to believe that shaking and trembling were THE trance-techniques of the old germanic Seidkonas and Seidmadres. Sorry, but there is no proof for that at all. Sources about Seidr are rare and thin but what we know is: the Seidkona is seated in a Seidjallr ( a kind of thronelike chair) and contacts spirits and gods for healing, sorcery, divination in a trance. Or the Seidkona /Seidmadr is lying on a round wooden platform also called Seidjallr and undertakes pathworking trance journeys. Runes were used during, before and after the trance for protection, sorcery etc. Little is known about the trance itself, maybe they used drugs or music or maybe a good Seidkona didn't need tools at all, just a little trigger. Like a song for example. There is an icelandic story about a Seidkona who ordered a special song sung by lady for a really good deep, trance. She didn't need more and she wasn't shaking.......

But It's getting worse when it comes to practice. Fries wants us to buy some Voodoo CD's from Haiti to induce a Seidr trance. Yes, it's sad but true and not the only example of occult shopping in Seidways. Feels like a cheap occult circus where someone uses a label that's new in the New Age marketing arena and fills it with anything lying around. But what are the roots of Fries's approach? I strongly doubt it's shamanism not to speak of Seidr.....more old Uncle Aleisters "Magick" maybe......

Please avoid this book if you want to learn about Seidr and Germanic paganism. Jenny Blain wrote a fantastic scientific book about old and modern Seidr that will show you quickly that Fries is not writing about Seidr at all ;-(((

Anyway: for his homework about shamanism worldwide he gets two stars instead of one. Some of this info is useful but please handle with care

I have not finished this book yet, but I already love it. This book is very well written, great for beginners and more advanced alike. Before being introduced to the practice you are taken through different cultures and how they use trance work, which i find very beneficial. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in seidr.