The Sacred Heart

The sacred heart in Nordic mythology is an enrichment for shamans today at the
Shamanic Centre Austria.

The shamanic work is based on the Fiölsvinsmal songs of the Edda and makes a broad connection to shamanic symbolism.

Path of initiation in healing shamanism
As in Goethe’s Faust, the searching soul must first „go to the mothers“. Winkald in Fiölsvinsmal is purified by Mother Groa, only then is he allowed to climb the „Hyfiaberg“ to win the goddess Menglada (Fv 48).

european shamanism

Heart knowledge
But first he must win the branch of life, the blinking sickle.
He must make her glow within him, otherwise he will not be allowed to enter her spiritual realm.
He should, as described in the 30th verse, „carry the blinking sickle in your millstone“.

Thinking from the heart
The symbol for the spiritualised heart can be found here in the symbol of the mill.
The image of the mill of destiny on the initiation path existed long before the Catholic doctrine.

Millstone
This stood for the sacred heart in which the world ground, the vast empire, rests. The foundation of the world as the inside of man.
This is where the grain is poured into all hearts.

In the Edda, in the song Vafpruonismal, it also says of Bergelmir (progenitor of the giants) that
„he is sheltered in the millstone“.

the sacred heart in shamanic journey

Shamanic initiation path
The lower millstone holds the world and in its centre lies the millstone, a cosmic point of illumination.

Shamanic transformation
The grain is ground into flour. A reference to the transformation of shamans on their path.
A reference to an act of purification that must be accomplished on the shamanic path of initiation.

High self
The third section of the song (verses 31 – 50) describes the young man’s ascent with all its challenges, but in the end he finds the gate of the underworld, his gate of initiation.

Sacred heart
With the words „Here I will find peace“, he is granted entry into the realm of peace and connects with the goddess Menglada, his High Self.

the sacred heart in shamanism of the future

Spiritualised heart
The initiates saw the spring waters that kept the mill going.
They saw the holy beings that moved the wheel of the mill and caused the world and the hearts to turn.

The songs of Fiölsvinsmal are rich in symbols and here only a small selection could be summarised.

In the shamanic training at „Licht aus der Jurte Shamanic Centre Vienna“, we deepen our ancestors‘ perspectives and open our hearts step by step until we reach the Sacred Heart.

Regina Hruska    Stephanie König    Contact