I have always felt that there is a mystical presence in the forest, by a lake or by the sea, as if you are not completely alone, even when there is no one else around. It installs a feeling of respect as if I know that I’m in a domain where I, as a human, need to be vigilant and show respect.
In Swedish Folklore my blood ancestors named this presence and personified it as the Skogsrå, Sjörå and Havsrå (skog = forest, sjö = lake, hav = sea, rå = guardian/keeper). They are benevolent if you show respect to the landscape, that they are the guardians of. If you do not, there might be dire consequences.
These guardian spirits are depicted as female or feminine energies. There are some male nature and farm spirits in Scandinavian Folklore. But for the forest, the lake and the sea I feel it’s appropriate to see them as feminine energies and as aspects of the great Earth mother. They can also be seen as ‘elementals’ instead of spirits or as nature deities, which is something that many cultures have in their mythologies in different forms, often in female form.
The Scandinavian female nature spirits were seen as sexually deviant and as creatures who lured men with their seductive powers. Forces of nature are powerful and uncontrollable. Female sexuality has also historically been seen as dangerous, deviant and even something that needs to be controlled. It is often still looked at as, if not deviant, then at least mysterious and perplexing.
By reconnecting to these personifications of nature in our own ancestral cultures we can reconnect to the natural forces themselves and to our own sacred sexuality and connection to the Earth as our primal mother.
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May the Divine Feminine rise from all ancestry lines and soul lineages...
