Where We Come From
In my community of three years, Wild Soul, we’ve made a commitment to not just unlearn the ingrained habits of whiteness, patriarchy, and individualistic superiority but to also actively seek out and learn our own lost ancestries. This is vital work. The illusion of whiteness is anchored in a caste system that was always meant to keep the wealthy in power, and it does not serve us in our communities or in our souls.
As my friend Malialani reminds me, everyone is indigenous to somewhere, and for a lot of white people, we have no idea where that is or what it means. We have forgotten the land we come from, the traditions that sustained it, the rituals and spirituality that nurtured it, and the communities that loved it. What should have been our inheritance was colonized and stripped away. For our ancestral people who looked enough like their oppressors, only assimilation into a cultureless soul loss was waiting in return. Instead of healthy, ancient, thriving cultures and practices, we have inherited hollow, empty wells.
This has led to cultural appropriation. Most often not from maliciousness but from a deep longing for what we cannot remember.
It is with all of this in mind I have carefully developed the guided visualisation of Inner Territories. I am still actively learning my own ancestry and what is native to me. I extend what I absorb and personally practice into the journeys I lead, but I leave wide room for the ancestries, practices, traditions, deities, spirits, ancestors, and guides of every practitioner. It is never for me to direct where their energy, work, or archetypes lead.
Recently I taught a class in Wild Soul on the Völva, the ancient Norse seeress. Some of what I understand about a complex soul system comes from the practice of seðr, some comes from years of research and study, and some is sheer instinct and intuition.
Soul Parts
Norse mysticism recognizes nine parts of every soul:
The Hamr (Hama): This translates to shape or skin. Think of this as the measurable auric field that surrounds every living creature.
The Hugr (Hoo-gah) and Minni: Translated as thought and memory, which equates with the mind.
The Fylga (Fil-cha): The astral body, translated as one who follows. This part is also called the fetch. We use the fetch when we go into our inner territories. It’s the part of ourselves that we send out or in.
The Hamingja (hah-meen-jah): Luck. But this is likely not the way you think of luck. Within Norse mysticism, luck is more akin to your ancestral inheritance and the life path you’ve chosen, either consciously or subconsciously.
The Ek (ick): The ego.
The Lyke (like): The physical body.
The Odr (Ohd-ver): Divine Consciousness.
The Ond (oh-n): Sacred breath. This is poetry, the use of breath to speak truth, to divine, and to ken for guidance.
If you are interested in how IFS (Internal Family Systems) identifies soul parts you can find that HERE.
How We Integrate Our Parts
Within this soul system, the work we do inside our Inner Territories is done by first extending the Hamr and then sending out the Fylga. And this is because the Hamr is the part of our souls that casts sacred space, or a circle. Meaning that if you can learn to feel it and control it, your practice will grow by miles. Other cultural shamanic systems have different names for these soul parts, and I highly encourage you to study the one(s) that is ancestral to you.
The Hamr is the soul part we’ve called the aura or the astral body. In Druidry (another system that is ancestral to me), it is called anam. This is the part of you that others perceive through sensory observation. It is the part of you that gets tingly or heavy or light walking through the grocery store. Other people’s Hamr are interacting with yours and you’re feeling it.
One interpretation is that it is a natural covering or a membrane like the skin shed of a snake.
In fact, Odin claimed to know spells that would keep witches from returning to the Hama or their home skin.
Druids have a ritual called Defining Your Edge which is essentially the act of extending your Hamr to merge with another’s. When you hear stories about shamans or spirit workers or Druids who have shapeshifted, this is precisely what they are referring to. It is a skill that is slowly learned over time and with practice and there is far far more to it than I am sharing today.
Using these forms they travel through other realms and through their own inner landscapes in ways they wouldn’t be able to otherwise. They learn from the forms of animals, plants, and other bodies as if they were guides, deepening their connection to everything in existence and to Wyrd (the Norse idea of fate that is not fixed, but interwoven and changeable.
The Hamr, like all parts of our souls, is an element of Nature. It is capable of change, of new directions, and of impacting everything around it.
“You can’t walk this path without deeply understanding, how much a part of Nature you are as well, and you can’t do that while insulating yourself against Nature. It is a two-sided relationship, not one of convenience.”
Our Ongoing Work
All of my guided journeys are anchored by energetic consent and with reverence for what is ancestral to each of us. If you do not know what is ancestral to you, that’s okay. A lot of people aren’t familiar with where they came from. I encourage you to seek it out, to follow all of your unique red threads. Wild Soul is full of classes that may help with your personal excavation, but there are also books, websites, creators, and podcasts that will certainly help you find your ancestors.
It is equally as important to me that all of the work I do honors the wide and beautiful spectrum of genders, sexualities, and individual life paths. It is essential as an Inner Territory Guide to be always deconstructing internalized transphobia, homophobia, misogyny, and white supremacy. This is a vital part of our life’s work. So if you are considering the Inner Territory Guide Training please know that this will be a part of our curriculum.
Inclusion of Archetypes and Mythology
A wide range of mythological and practical archetypes feed the soil of our Inner Territories. Within their stories are wide worlds of important information, lessons, and map lines to get us through the world as it was, as it is, and as it will someday be.
I personally work with archetypes like Inanna, the World Womb, La Loba, Lilith, The Deep Sea, the Inner Home, Bonfires, the Wolf, Shapeshifting, The Great Goddess, Yeshua, The Magdalene, Medusa, Persephone, Demeter, Selkies, Thresholds, Lanterns, and so so much more.
The Inner Territory Guide Training will include plethora of archetypes, stories, and mythologies to draw from, but I hope you go looking for the ones that personally resonate for you.