From Jan Fries/'Helrunar: Manual of Rune Magick' 3rd edition
'The Norns and other Germanic trinities.
Nyrnir means ‘weavers’, the word refers to the spiders who build their
realities by weaving, creating and devouring long strands of protein,
creating a universe consisting of structure, connection and the spaces
between them. The Norns weave fate, they cast lots which bind destiny and
prophecy a future that creates itself through being divined. The Edda
mentions three Norns by name:
Urda, who refers to the past, has the syllable ‘ur’ in her name, which
denotes great age, originality, and the primeval (especially in German).
(see Uruz rune).
Werdandi is the same word root in another time. ‘Werden’ in German means ‘to
become’, and refers to the present time.
Skulda can be found in the English ‘shall’ and ‘should’, and refers to the
future. The modern German Schuld contains her name, it means ‘a debt’ or, in
a negative complex, ‘guilt’. The original word had no negative implications.
It simply pointed out that the bill is not paid yet, for good or evil.
The three together are ‘wyrda’, or the ‘weird sisters’. Modern writers
frequently pretend that these three Norns are the only ones, a centralized
fate-producing unit for all worlds. Such centralized notions (‘they bind the
fate of all’) are typical for our modern outlook. In the Edda we are told
that there are many more Norns, some of them Aesir, some elves and some
dwarves. Perhaps we should conceive destiny as a complex weaving that is
done by many Norns in many places, each of whom processes space and time in
her or his own way. Ultimately, this leads to a model in which every mage
functions like a spider, building a mandala of realities and projecting it
on the substance of the world. Indeed we are the Norns of our own lifetimes.
Another trinity evolved around Odin/Wotan. In the prose Edda we meet him,
for example, as Har (the High), Iafnhar (equally high) and Thridi (the
third). These three hold a riddle game with king Gylfi, in which each aspect
supplies a different point of view.
Then there is the trinity of the brothers (aspects).
1. Wotan.
2. Willi. 3. Weh.1
1. Wotan is unity. This refers to pure self, pure awareness and energy.
Wotan, as you read in the history chapter, was originally a god of rage, of
shamanism, of wild trances, song and ecstasy.
2. Willi connects with our word ‘will’, and the ‘true will’ being the
individual expression of the universal and evolutionary will. This will
includes change, evolution, transformation.
3. Weh or Ve. ‘Sanctuary’ or ‘holy grove’, i.e. the natural temple. Modern
German Weh is something painful, like the English ‘woe!’ German Wehen are
the pains of childbirth, while a Weihe is consecration and initiation.
Sometimes the Edda gives us ‘Honir’ for Willi, Honir is a silent watcher
figure, and ‘Lodur’ for Weh, who is ‘flaming’, an aspect of Loki. These
three created human beings out of the ‘ask’ (ash tree) and the ‘embla’
(alder or elm). In the Voluspa we are told that Odin gave soul, Honir gave
sense and Lodur supplied blood and rich colour. It is no surprise that the
triskell, (the triple spiral), can be seen as a symbol for the Norns and
Wodan alike.
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