Black Stone Sanctuary
If you've followed our work for awhile, you probably know that Black Stone Sanctuary seems to be a magnet for obscure Nordic goddesses, including the Holy Powers of Lyfjaberg: Mengloð and Her Court, known as the nine maidens Hlíf, Hlífþrasa, Þjóðvarta, Björt, Blíð, Fríð, Aurboða, and Eir.
According to personal gnosis, while They all work and associate closely with Mengloð, They are all powerful goddesses of healing in Their own right, and when addressed collectively They prefer to be called the Court of Lyfjaberg or the Healing Court of Lyfjaberg.
"Lyfjaberg" is typically translated as "Hill of Healing" or "Mountain of Medicine," depending on which sources you consult. Probably the best-known use of Lyfjaberg in modern popular culture is the Wardruna song by the same title.
Do keep in mind that all we know from Nordic/Germanic mythology about these nine goddesses is Their names, as mentioned in Fjölsvinnsmal. The Henry Adams Bellows translation contains the following note after the stanza that mentions Their names:
"54. The manuscripts and editions show many variations in these names. They may be approximately rendered thus: Helper, Help-Breather, Folk-Guardian, Shining, White, Blithe, Peaceful, Kindly (?), and Gold-Giver."
Most of the rest of what we've included in this issue is shared personal gnosis, so take that under advisement. We simply use the names, spellings, and associations They seem to respond to best through our liturgy.
With so little material available, it would be wise for devotees to compare notes. We invite others to share their own personal gnosis, correct any errors, and point us to other sources.
In The Seed of Yggdrasil, Maria Kvilhaug translates stanzas 36-40 of Fjölsvinnsmal ('The Speech of Much Knowing' or 'The Tree of Memory Behind the Doors of Death') into modern English (p. 262) as:
It is called the Mountain of Medicine
And it has long been
The joy of the sick and the wounded.
Healed is every woman
Even from ages of sickness
Who climbs that mountain.
…what are the maidens called
Who by the knees of Mengloth
Sit together in unity?
Life is one called, another Life Tracker, the third, Guardian of People, Bright, Kind, Nice, Peace, Healing Goddess, and Bids Abundance.
They offer salvation
When men sacrifice to them
In a high holy place;
Never is the need so great
That comes to the people
That they cannot remove the need.
"The joy of the sick and the wounded." That's worth repeating.
At Black Stone Sanctuary, we believe there is great unmet need for the medicine of Mengloð and the Healing Court of Lyfjaberg in the modern world.
Among those unmet needs of the sick and the wounded are modern dream incubation chambers — loosely based on what we know of the Greek sanctuaries of Asclepius — where retreatants may spend extended time in darkness for temple sleep or hypnagogic meditation in spaces devoted to deities of healing.
While there is no known record of such practices in the Old Norse corpus, the Sanctuary has been tasked with gathering knowledge from Indo-European wisdom traditions and applying it to building a modern "healing house of the sacred dark," as a service project in honor of Mengloð and the Healing Court of Lyfjaberg. In this context we note with interest that the goddess Eir, for example, has been compared to the Greek goddess Hygieia.
In any event, we think it's worth experimenting with incubation and temple sleep in service of the Holy Powers of the Hill of Healing. Toward that end, we consult writings by Hedvig von Ehrenheim, Edward Tick, and Gil Renberg.
As with our dark moon incubation retreats, the basic idea is that in the proper environment — when given sufficient time and support — some forms of healing can happen of their own accord, through deep rest, dreamtime, and connection with the sacred.
Once we find a suitable space for this work, we hope to commission an artist to create new images of Them to be used as icons for each of Their shrines. The images by Grace Palmer are the only modern artistic depictions of Them we've found so far.
Another long-time experimental project at the Sanctuary involves working with conifers (evergreen trees such as pines, spruces, and firs) in healing contexts. We craft aromatics, topical salves, steam inhalations, and tea blends with pine needles, Douglas Fir spring tips, and so on.
On that note, Maria Kvilhaug makes an interesting footnote in The Seed of Yggdrasil (p. 258):
“Image from Urn Lid in a Bronze Age Burial Chamber, Gentofte, Denmark — a Man reaches out to a Woman who stands by a Conifer or Pine Tree, surrounded by Pine Needles — a reference that appears to be present also in much later Edda myths such as that of Mengloth by the Tree of Memory and Gerdr in the Grove of Barri — The Pine Needle.”
As we continue to move our outreach work onchain, the Sanctuary would like to offer the following hails for devotional and liturgical use by those who wish to venerate Mengloð and the Healing Court of Lyfjaberg and seek Their guidance on matters of healing.
We follow our standard liturgical structure of four-line hails: three lines recognizing Their virtues, kennings, powers, epithets, and roles, followed by a closing line.
We recite each hail in call-and-response format with the first three lines read by the monastic conducting the rites, and the last line repeated by all the worshipers in unison.
As with our other hails, we find that slow, rhythmic, trancelike repetition of the eleven-syllable cadence in the last line enhances the flow: Hail-to-the-Heal-ing-Pow-ers of Lyf-ja-berg.
We recite them in the following order:
Hail Mengloð, Our Lady of the Healing Hill.
Hail Mengloð, Our Invitation to Blend.
Hail Mengloð, Jötunn Lady of Gastropnir.
Hail to the Healing Powers of Lyfjaberg.
Hail Hlíf, Our Lady of Shelter.
Hail Hlíf, Our Shield-Helper.
Hail Hlíf, Protector of Life.
Hail to the Healing Powers of Lyfjaberg.
Hail Hlífþrasa, Our Lady of Sacred Breath.
Hail Hlífþrasa, Healer of Respiratory Malady.
Hail Hlífþrasa, Tracker of Önd.
Hail to the Healing Powers of Lyfjaberg.
Hail Þjóðvarta, Our Lady of Bones and Flesh.
Hail Þjóðvarta, Healer of Muscular Conditions.
Hail Þjóðvarta, Guardian of the Folk.
Hail to the Healing Powers of Lyfjaberg.
Hail Björt, Our Lady of Brightness.
Hail Björt, Healer of Inflammation.
Hail Björt, the Radiant One.
Hail to the Healing Powers of Lyfjaberg.
Hail Bleik, Our Lady of Purification.
Hail Bleik, Healer of Liver, Bladder, and Skin.
Hail Bleik, Who Cleanses Mind, Body, and Spirit.
Hail to the Healing Powers of Lyfjaberg.
Hail Blíð, Our Lady of Kindness.
Hail Blíð, Healer of Mind, Bringer of Joy.
Hail Blíð, the Mild and Happy One.
Hail to the Healing Powers of Lyfjaberg.
Hail Fríð, Our Lady of Balance.
Hail Fríð, Bringer of Contentment.
Hail Fríð, Beholder of Beauty.
Hail to the Healing Powers of Lyfjaberg.
Hail Aurboða, Our Lady of Earth’s Bounty.
Hail Aurboða, Beloved Plant-Healer, Mother of Gerð.
Hail Aurboða, the Gravel-Bidder.
Hail to the Healing Powers of Lyfjaberg.
Hail Eir, Our Lady of Mercy.
Hail Eir, Holy Medic of the Wounded.
Hail Eir, the Consummate Healer.
Hail to the Healing Powers of Lyfjaberg.
To summarize, these hails depict the domains or specialties of Mengloð and each of the goddesses of the Healing Court at Lyfjaberg as follows. The modern English spellings of Their names are in parentheses.
healing hill, mountain of medicine, invitation to blend (Mengloth)
shelter, life (Hlif)
sacred breath (Hlifthrasa)
bones, flesh, muscles (Thjodvarta or Thjodvara)
brightness, inflammation (Bjort)
cleansing, purification (Bleik)
kindness, joy, mental health (Blith)
balance, beauty, contentment (Frith)
Earth's bounty, herbs, plants, abundance, gravel, stones (Aurboda)
mercy, help, medicine (Eir)
Other sources consulted include the LiveJournal Asyniur: Heathen Goddess Studies group, the Northern Paganism online shrine, and Wyrd Dottir.
Header image: Menglöð and Nine Maidens by Lorenz Frølich, 1893 (US public domain - source)
The Wayback Machine hosts the original version of this post, first published Jan. 15, 2023, on Substack.
