Freyja

Culture: Norse   Domain: Love, beauty, fertility, seidr magic, and half of the war-dead

Freyja is a Vanir goddess of love and beauty, but also of war and death, claiming half of those slain in battle for her hall Fólkvangr, and of seidr, the magical practice she is said to have taught to Odin himself. She wears the prized necklace Brísingamen and rides a chariot drawn by cats.

Associations

Love and beauty, personal magic and seidr, gold and amber, war's other half, independence.

Ways people honor her (modern)

• Practice or study seidr or other forms of divinatory magic seriously
• Wear or keep amber as a personal token
• Reflect on beauty and strength as fully compatible, not opposites
• Read her role in the Þrymskviða, where she refuses to be married off to a giant

Approach any deity with respect and do your own research. Practices vary widely between traditions, and modern devotional practice often goes beyond what survives in ancient sources.