Gems of the Goddess

Hel, Goddess of the Underworld

The Norse goddess Hel is one of the most misunderstood goddesses of all time, largely due to the incorrect association with her name and the Judeo-Christian mythology’s realm known as “hell.”  Through this misconstrued association, Hel is often represented as an evil entity looming in the darkness to steal lost souls. This is far from truth.

The youngest of three children born to the god Loki and the giantess Angrboda, she and her brothers, Fenrir the wolf, and Jormundgand, the Midgard Serpent, lived with their mother in Jotunheimr, home of the giants. Having received prophecies that these unique siblings would cause great mischief and disaster together, Odin ordered them to be     taken from Jotunheimr and brought to Asgard.

Hel was eventually appointed as ruler and guardian of Niflheim, the Mist Homeworld. She welcomes all souls who die of illness or old age, or are killed in any form other than battle, and takes a special interest in women and children who perrish during childbirth.

As a goddess of death, she has the ability to shelter and protect with the care of a mother goddess, but also the tendency to be vengeful toward those who try to interfere with the progression of natural law, which includes allowing everything to take its own course from birth to death.

Some say she was born with her skeletal system on the outside of half of her body, the other half being that of a beautiful woman, thus representing the totality of the life/death cycle. She is both the dealer of death and the re-giver of life, a goddess of lessons sometimes taught the hard way when leniency has failed. Having the ability to exist in a simultaneous state of life and death, she is sometimes known as Goddess of shadows.

It is she who thins the veils between the worlds allowing shamans passage into her domain and granting them permission to render themselves invisible. In divination, she can best be reached through meditation of the rune Hagalaz.

Correspondences –

Colors – white, black

Moon phase – dark, new

Animal – owls, ravens, dogs, horses

Herbs – Wormwood, Belladonna, Hellebore

Tree – Elder, Sycamore

Aspects –  change, compassion, death, reincarnation

Wheel of the Year –  Samhain and Yule