by Katie Gerrard

Discover Seidr - the intriguing and powerful early Norse system of shamanistic trance practices.

Katie Gerrard shares her own experiences on the path of the seer(with more than a decade of research and experimentation), and also draws inspiration from original sources in the old texts of the Sagas and the Eddas, as well as contemporary researchers and groups working with seidr in Scandinavia, Europe and America.

Foremost amongst these techniques is the prophetic rite of the High Seat, where the Volva (seer) sends her consciousness to the underworld realm of Hel to gain answers to the questions posed to her.

Techniques for achieving trance, levels of trance possession, coming out of trance, the vardlokkurs (chants), necessary equipment, and the requirements for the roles of the different participants, are all discussed in a clear and concise manner, as is the relevance of contacting the ancestors, the dead and the appropriate gods, including the goddesses Freyja and Hel, and the Allfather god Odin. The rites emanate practical effectiveness, a result of their regular use over many years for successful exploration of the mysteries of trance prophecy, the High Seat rite and Norse witchcraft.

In Seidr: The Gate is Open, Katie Gerrard has contributed a major work on the practices of seidr and trance prophecy, providing a practical manual full of dynamic group rituals and techniques based on known Seidr practices.
As befits such an inspirational book, the author provides both the relevant background information for the eleven rites contained within, together with explanations of their inclusion and purposes.