In the Beginning was Hel

by Gittan Wigren

In the beginning was Hel, She was the primal Mother Goddess of life and death up in the North of Norway when the Ice covered Scandinavia, British Island and part of North Europe. Because of the warmth in the Gulfstream – (Waves of Eli) it was a place of abundance of animals. In Lofoten 1994 they found a skeleton from an Icebear and another bear who was 55,000 and 22,000 years old! (kol.14 method) Inside this area, with the big Ice around lived the Fosna people in 15,000 years. They lived in caves with the holy Fire – Eld in Swedish, under the Mother Goddess Hel’s protection in the cliffs and hills, the massive strong hills became a symbol for physical and spiritual survival, inside the womb of Hel. The old northern word for cliff was Hellir. Everything this people created and their culture under this long “prisoning” because of the Ice, they carried with them under the wandering to south when the Ice melted. SHE whose step we can follow in mountains, hills, lakes , villages and in the language of the people of the North! In Swedish Hel means hole, holy, den Höljda – covered. She is the whole circle, the word wheel in Finland is hel! The Swedish words helig-holy, hälsa-health. Healing! Helande-helhole and spirit-healing. Hälla-hill, Hall-hall, HELsingborg-Helsinki-Holland- Helsingland. There is 4000 thousand places in Norway, 3000 in Sweden, many in Finland and Holland. In the old Sweden they called the bird and for Helsingi, it have a ring around the neck – it is blessed by Hel because the bird carries the symbol of Hel-the Ring!

“Ing ”in old Swedish means “belongs to”! The name of the area I live in is Helsingland – Land belongs to Hel! We can follow the wandering of the people and the marks She left.

In the language as the different clans created is the original words bounded to Hel as al, el and so on. An example is the old word Altar, who is the same in all of the now talking language of the people from the north. And the word Hel and h-l-l seems to be a skeleton in the language.

The vocals glides and the letter h fall away, and al, el, ol, il is the beginning of many words. ELectricity, and ELd=fire. The word for society is samhälle-same hill!

We can find Her name in the Greek Sun Goddess HELios, means Hels Light. The Greek name Helice is a Swedish name of the first tree who grows up in the north after the ice age. It was Hels holy tree which grew around Her cultplace Vi. Hels Vi was the holy place which later became Hell! The Swedish name for Hell is Helvite! Vite means punishment.

The Jewish people call the Sun El and the Gods Elohim. The main stone in Stonehenge is called the Helestone! In the ancient Peru starfall was called Hali, the Basker people called the moon – Hill, and the Arabian people Hillal. The Hebrew people called the morningstar Helel! And so on and on…

I think its very interesting to see Her ”tracks” in the language, to follow her back in time.

Well, the outspread of the people took many thousands years. Different people from many other cultures and religions met, and the language mixed. The patriarchal people with Thor and Gaut arrived, we know them historical as Goter.

Circa 200 years AC arrived to north Europa a religion from the south, the so-called Asacult (Asia?) with the male Gods, Oden and Tor. They came with the worship of the sword and male power. Hel as the old Mother Goddess of Life and Death became only a Death Goddess, who they feared. When the Christianity came around 1100, it took over the power from the Asa cult and did everything they could to destroy the ”Old Religion”. Specially the beliefs in the ancient Mother Goddess Hel. She became the great ”hor” and the rest of the matriarchs, (we called them ”jordemödrar”- earthmothers) who know Mother Earth and her laws became demonized and punished to the burning Hell. And the rest of the honoring in life we knew as holy, ceremonies, rituals and sabbats expelled into the shadows.

This shadows still lives in our unconsiousness after this epoch. The split between the earth and the heaven, body and soul, female and male, the right and left brain is still affecting us. Hel gets split from the wholeness, holographic perspective down to molecular level and we lost the view. We have looked after our savior outside ourselves in a distant heaven beyond and forgot the Mother we live on.

But in the mists and behind the shadows and illusions we can still see, feel and know Her presence. The Old People of the Earth still carries the Wheels and Keys to Her Worlds and Kingdoms. We can still see her marks and holy places on the surface on her ground.

The witness of ancient cultures, technologies mythologies, paintings and symbols scars our mind and souls … She has survived deep down and deep in the darkness of our souls and wombs. She lives in our body memory! She is returning, rising up to the surface. She is shaking us.

The facts of His’tory changes all the time, but Her’story remains in our cells.

The strongest place I have been in when Her prescence is felt strongest is in circles with women. The moments of total presense. In all the ceremonies, rituals of Her. And of course in Her nature.

My own reflections is that I can see the collective story of Her in my own psyche and lifestory. It is a reflection of the changes the world going through. As a little girl sitting out in the nature I saw and felt the connection with everything around me. The wondering and her song in my hearth, the feeling of belonging and oneness.

I remember the feelings and sorrow when the people around (my father) me didn’t understand and repressed my life-force. They tamed my wild instinctual nature to fit in. I felt wrong. My teenage time as a very sexual being and the disgusting reaction and control from my father and men around me, they called me hor. I can see that my life’s theme is to heal the guilt and shame of being a strong sexual being, and a daughter of Goddess.

I think we need to go back in history to understand today’s problems both individually and collectively to bring back the balance and connection to our Mother.

What I have written here has been important for me to understand my life, my story, and the worlds condition.

The roots of the Goddess culture in which our modern Goddess spirituality is based is for me following:

Everything is born from the Feminine. The whole Universe is a great womb which births life, a never ending cycle of life, birth, death, transformation and rebirth. Life is a circle within a circle. We all came from the Mother and to Her we shall return. Life and life-forms are ever-changing. We as women are Her vehicle, carrier of life as She is. We have all the wisdom and knowledge we need in our wombs. All life is connected in the Web of life. What we are doing against the Web of life, we do against our selves. There are no separation – its an illusion.

Our bodies is a mirror of Hers, we can embodiment Her and Her different faces.

We are here on earth to heal ourselves and Her. We came from the stars and to the Stars we shall return. To restore the balance on earth we must return to Her. The time of Her return is here. We need to honour the Sacred Feminine, both in women and men to get peace between male and female. Spirituality and sexuality is the same creative life-force we need to honour, and our female bodies are ecstatic! We can gain enlightenment through the body.

To feel and know the Goddess is to have an ‘inside the body experience’.

The roots in our Mother are based on the importance to ‘mirror’ ourselves in her Nature and cycles to understand ourselves. To know Her land. If we take something we shall give something back. Life is holy in all life-forms and in its beauty. We are a part of it, we need to surrender to Her, create a personal relation directly to Her – no hands between is needed.

When I surrender and let Her put me at the place in Her Web She want me in, I’m home.

From that place I rest and receive without struggle, and drink deeply from the Source – The Goddess!

”I am Hel, the hill, the mountain, the ground.
I am the building stones, I am the bones.
I am the roots, I am the Tree with Holy names written on…
I am the magma, I am the spark, I am the three, I am the dark.

I am the mist, I am the disa, I am the fire, I am the ice
I am Wakan, I am Valan, I am Sejd, I am Voluspan
I am the branch, I am the bud, I am the egg, I am the mud…

My name is an echo in villages and lakes, I am the dawn, I am the fawn
I am the water, spring and wells, I am the Source from wich all life dwells

I am the presence, past and future, I am the Web of life, I am the Norns
I am rising from the underworld, cleansing from from false words

Hel is my name-Goddess of the North!”