Good Yule Day #4: In Honor of Frigga

"Frigga Spinning the Clouds." Credit: John Charles Dollman, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

After reading a few posts, you can probably guess I'm not a traditional heathen in most respects. All of these Yule posts are generally UPG except for the fact that many heathens celebrate the Disir during Yule, others at different times of the year. 

I don't feel a great affinity for Odin besides being a leader among the gods. I have a stronger connection to the god, Tyr. I do, however, feel a strong affinity for Odin's wife, Frigga, aka Frigg, more than any of the other Norse goddesses. I used to see her as someone who puts up with a great deal of crap, but I've come to see her as more complex than that. She's known as the Queen of Asgard, the realm of the Aesir. She is the All-Mother to Odin's, All-Father.

In her excellent article at Frigga's Web, Of Being and Knowledge: Thoughts About Frigg, Nerthus, and Odin, Winifred Hodge reminds me of some of my early pagan days as a 90s Goddess girl, and I don't mean that as negative as it might sound as I find my path making interesting turns of late. Hodge shares her UPG (unverified personal gnosis) and knowledge of the lore to explain Frigga and Odin's relationship. Frigga, along with the Norns, is the weaver of wisdom as it's inherently part of her being, though she's quiet about what she knows.  Odin is the unraveler of the cords as he searches for wisdom. Between the two of them, the continuous weaving and unraveling is what empowers the space for the multiverse to exist.

There is speculation that Frigga and Freya were not always considered two separate goddesses. In my Goddess Spirituality/Eclectic Wiccan days, I would have considered this a remnant of ancient Christian attitudes towards powerful goddesses who embodied motherliness, sex, and death aspects and the patriarchal need to separate them. Often, I felt pagan groups would follow suit and focus on goddesses being either a mother or a sex fiend. This is cultural conditioning that we need to let go of in my opinion.

In my own UPG, I believe Odin would like to "have a word," meaning have me be a little more trustful of him. Frigga seems to be a possible bridge of understanding in that regard. But she's so much more to me and why I have a day devoted to her during Yule. This year, I'll give offerings of food and drink, praise for her, and prayers.

Frigga's Web has some lovely Calls and Boasts to Frigga to help in your celebration of her.

Good Yuletide to you, and Hail Frigga!

Work consulted not linked above:

McCoy Daniel. Frigg. Norse Mythology for Smart People, date accessed 12/24/2020.

© Trish Deneen