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Chapter 8. The Making of a Seiðman 217
such as hives or rash. From a Germanic point of view all debts must be paid.
Consciously, an individual needs to be respectful when he enters the territory of
another. Ghosts-of-place such as certain river- or stream-ghosts are particularly
jealous of the lands that they lord over. Certain plants do not like to be touched
or bothered in any way. In Iceland, road crews have discovered that it is best to
go around certain rocks or other landmarks rather than to put up with the ill luck
following the removal of such a landmark. These can often be easily diagnosed and
resolved.
Modern times has brought with it the phenomenon of the ’nuclear family.’ These
are generally very small families which are also very mobile. Because of the high
mobility there is also poor attachment to place and specifically to ancestral places
such as farms or graveyards. Additionally, modern times tends to downplay the
need to honor ancestry as being folk superstition. The seiðman’s point of view, and
that of the Norse revivalists as well as folk from undeveloped Third World countries,
is that the ancestors must be honored because it is from the ancestors that all luck
flows.
Diagnosis of this kind of problem is usually fairly easy because the client will
generally complain of ’bad luck’ always coming his way. Some changes can usually
be made inside the client which will result in his altering his own views towards his
own ancestors. Results from this kind of session are usually fairly immediate within
four or five days.
Disease is not the only area that this seiðman has spent much time dealing with.
Because of my job and because of my clientele I was confronted almost on a daily
basis with either the dying or newly dead. These were of concern to me because
the newly dead can often cause their living descendants problems either by blocking
the flow of the waters, i.e. luck, or by simple harassment. Normally when a person
dies they were simply leave the Land of the Living and move on. However, religious
practice is becoming slightly less common even among the elderly, and death has
been removed from the home setting to the sterile setting of the hospital resulting
an increase in fear about death with far less acceptance of death as being part of
life.
I first began to notice the dying while I was still under the care of the ghost
pneumonia. I could ‘see’ that the individual’s ghost-body was beginning to peel
away from the corpse. Often the patients body was lying on the bed while the ghost
was sitting astride. I had the audacity to speak with several of these but it was clear
from their answers that they were sure what was happening to them. Sometimes
they felt as though they were dreaming; and other times they were completely
confused. It was clear that they were in the process of leaving but there was always
one portion of their ghost ’stuck’ to the corpse usually in an area near their butt.