Birch Grove

Note: This article was written by Hazel, wisewoman, owner of the Spindle ‘n’ Broom group on Yahoo! and good friend. It was originally posted on Witchvox.

Her face hides itself in watching. It is her hands I see, on a forehead or grinding herbs in her mortar and pestle. A small sickle she has to take cuttings of herbs each in their season.

I see her snap a yarrow twig. She wears crisp white. She wears a tunic and ties a scarf about her head. She carries a white tote made of thick linen.

She is ever-moving, but stops in what others would call mid step. That implies being startled. She is not startled. She is stoic and practical. She stops to heal a wounded lamb, (next year’s wool for Frigga to spin). She has eyes blue as a healing candle, blue as Summer skies that call to a sick child, “Be well, the green world is waiting…”

Her hand is a most accurate thermometer; she is mother, hands cool on fevered head. Eir walks barefoot to bless the herb bed. She raises energy with silence. She takes a breath and blows three times in one to blow away the sickness.

Holy Healer, touch this pain
Hale and Whole, your child remains
Thread and stone
Flesh and bone
Strength and beauty your child regains
And her health shall e’r remain

Using red thread to clear away the harm, using your healer’s stone to lift the illness, learning herbs and chants and runes that heal; these link you to the Healer, the Handmaiden, Eir.

If you don’t have a Healer’s stone, you can ask the Universe to send you a stone and one will find you and it will be just right for you to use in healing yourself and others. I found mine one day after discovering the grave of an ancestor in Madison County, North Carolina. I saw the grave of Nora Peek. She died, only 17 years old. I saw that she had fallen into a creek and took a chill and from that chill, died. The same creek gave me my healing stone. It is dark, rounded on top and flat on the bottom. A gift from my ancestor?

With the healing stone, touch the forehead of the sick one – your left hand points to the floor, palm flat or fingers pointing; spread your feet. Make sure the patient’s feet are not crossed.

Use the charm above, which I wrote, or write your own. Hone your Healer’s skills and add ever to them. When in need, call on Eir. She is a steadfast help in times of sickness. She will not turn away friend or foe.

Eir is one of the Handmaidens. With Goddess Frigga, they complete a circle full of help for those who need them. Frigga is the Norse Goddess of Hearth and Home and twelve Handmaidens, Goddesses in their own right, accompany her.

These are the twelve:

Syn, the Advocate;
Saga, the Story Keeper;
Vor, the Veiled One who makes us aware;
Snotra, the one who weaves frith, that is peaceful relations between us and our community;
Var, the one who hears oaths, and upholds them;
Sjofn, who ignites love within us;
Lofn, who gains permission to love for those to whom society refuses this right;
Gefion, the Gifting One who brings harvest;
Fulla, keeper of women’s mysteries;
Gna, the Messenger;
Hlin, who actively protects the children of the Goddess and who dries our tears as well;
And there is Eir, the Healer…

I met The Healer a little over a year ago when I was in need of healing. My first glimmer came in the form of two medicine poems. One called Threshold brought me slowly past the threshold, back into health and one gave promise that the future would guide me home. Home, for me, is the mountains where I was raised and part of keeping health means being able to live there.

Though my emotional body began to heal, I was still suffering the physical damage depression can bring. I had bronchitis and the cough would not go away. One day, I drifted off into a dream and in the dream I was standing in the French Broad Co-op in Asheville, North Carolina. I was standing in front of the many jars of herbs that are sold there and a voice told me, “Don’t forget your Heartsease.”

That was it, one of those sudden dreams that happen all in a half-second, and then I awoke. My husband and I went to the Co-op looking for Heartsease, but I didn’t know this herb, had never heard of it, though I know herbs pretty well. We didn’t find it, so I went on-line and looked for it. I found it then, by the name Viola Tricolor. My husband returned to the Co-op, found the herb by that name and I started taking the tea from Heartsease and continued taking it until all sign of illness was gone.

It may not have been Eir I met in that dream, for the Healer has many names, but I have met Her and Her sister-Handmaidens since. Once Frigga filled my hands with spindle and wool, and my mind with these Thirteen Goddesses, I’ve found life too full for heartbreak and illness.

So now, I honor Frigga and Her Handmaidens and learn as much about them as I can. There is very little written but it’s all there for us to regain. One way is through meditation. In this way we see them and ask of them who they are and in what ways they can help us live this life in the most magical of ways.

Well, now I’ve introduced you to the Healer, Eir. You can get acquainted with Eir. Simply ask. Write your own Healing story if you’ve already found it. If this finds you still in that initiation experience that illness sometimes brings, why not ask for a dream, a poem, a step toward wholeness? Ask and She’ll hear you. Eir never turns anyone away who asks for her healing hand.