Monday, February 12, 2007

Freyr's Expansive, Sensual Conviviality

Freyr can inspire an expansive and inclusive energy that wants to reach out and pull others into the embrace. This is a strong, warm, loving, innocent and sensual feeling, full of depth and even spiritual-animal passion, but not lechery or lasciviousness. It is instead, a kind of sensual conviviality that can come on quite strong, and so one must have the ability to recognize it, feel it, and then decide whether it is an appropriate energy to channel into activity of some kind, or just to enjoy as a passing moment. Freyr mey hann né grætir né manns konu, grates no maid nor man's woman, but on the other hand, if a couple does consensually invite in more energies to share in the love, that constitutes no "grating", but instead a multiplication of love. Tricky this kind of energy can be. Again, its warm, open, expansive feeling gives it a different feeling than mere lust, or triangulation, or anything of that kind. To feel this archetypal energy it is unnecessary to enact it ; it can be enough to radiate it, through one's shining-body (one's energy body), through one's voice, and through one's eyes. The impulse is to include energies in, and to give back to the world. Whether one is single or monogamous, this kind of energy has to be negotiated with nimbleness, gentleness, and courtesy, to be certain how everyone feels. (The same if one is polyamorous, but then one has skills and a community.)When the feeling is right, and is shared by all parties, there are no theoretical limits to how much sharing can happen. These tend to be ephemeral sharings, tending towards the creation of a temporary "egregore" or group-organism/orgasmicity, but they can have a lasting glowing effect of trust in the world if they are handled correctly.
One can discover a part of oneself that wants to share yourself with everyone, in a spirit of freedom, all who will meet you in freedom. (Not literally "everyone", but a general openness towards encounter, and those with an affine spirit.) When one feels this feeling, it feels so innocent and free, childlike and wonderful. It is important to not suppress the feeling, and yet one must find a way at the same time to honor one's commitments. (One possessed by this archetype with no skill or differentiation could find themselves innocently walking out on their commitments, and then later realizing what a mess they're in! What we are discussing here is nimble, skillful relationship with the archetype.) One can find a creative place in this ever-difficult but important balance between honor and freedom. In some cases, this may merely be a desire to open oneself to playfulness, a liberated, open kind of conviviality that Freyr always fosters. As with all things Freyr, it has an eros to it, but it is possible to experience this free eros without a compulsive need to sexualize it. In the right milieu, with the right communication and negotiation, many things are possible, but one must always be careful of everyone's feelings, especially those one most loves and is committed to. The idea is to let a liberated spirit incarnate amongst those involved, and thus is a spiritual experience that requires disciplined and open subjectivities to channel it.
Freyr can create a situation where explorations that would ordinarily feel threatening or taboo can feel all right --- a completely different kind of atmosphere exempt from the restrictions or anxieties of everyday life --- a kind of playspace or festival-reality that as King Frodi, King of the Festival, he can facilitate --- or anyone who feels possessed by that grand, broad, gentle, loving, joyous spirit -- a fantastic director of playspace. Within the festival sphere, its special wombspace separates it off from the dog-eat-dog fear-world, and actually possibilizes more "Golden Age" incarnations, incarnations the world at large may not yet be able to tolerate or sustain on an everyday basis, but which may be able to become "temporary autonomous zones" (as Hakim Bey puts it), as it were : non-violative, non-competitive, gentle sharing.
This spirit is expressed here :

Freyr, freer of folk
Wand-waving o'er worries
Vanishing, vanquished, victory of
Love o'er ligatures that lure us in
To fear, and the force of fighting each other
Banished with the bold rebirth of frith.
Turning out takers and terrible etins
Shame shaking out, he sharing gathers
The folk to feel more fully for each other
And, shining with the sureness of sharing freely,
Bearing-forth brightly the bosom of open hearts.
Speaking spells of special zones
That melt mundane laws into marvel
God lowering guard into goodness fostered;
A special softness within the circle
Where laughter and love may loving play
Without threat or thurs threatening frith.
A festive freeing found with care
That frees up frith into fullness blossoming;
Exception-space seeking freondship
Freeing, freed, within the frithgard.

This energy can be a "slumber party" kind of experience, with an impulse towards games, giddiness, laughter, and playful wrestling. It is a kind of "champagne" feeling which makes one feel effervescent, warm, and open to more porous, membranous boundaries that allow peaceful, loving exchanges. However it is experienced or channeled, it is important for those working with Freyr's energies to familiarize themselves with it, because it may arise, and one wants to be able to meet this gift intelligently in a way that enhances one's life and commitments, rather than wreak havoc or mayhem. Freyr never asks for an oath to be broken, but one may be asked to challenge oneself to love with even greater radiance to share one's energies with the larger world, which is how creatures share fertility with each other. It is a matter of calling special others in to share the harvest, and after all, Freyr is the harvest-god.