Does Witchcraft have a place in Devout Polytheism?

I've been asked this and pondering it for a little while now and want to first say - I cannot answer this question for all polytheists, traditions, belief systems, religions, or witches. That is between you and your Gods. I can only answer this for myself.

For me, the answer is yes, witchcraft does have a place in my Northern Pagan Tradition polytheism, specifically within my place as an earthly handmaiden to Frigga. One of the best ways to explain it, I think, would be to share with you a piece of my practice with Frigga.

A woman I know only through friends was in the hospital. Her baby was born early and was in NICU. I felt strongly that I should pray for her, even though we had never met. I went to Frigga and I asked that she lay her hands on this mother and child, to heal the child or, of the threads of Wyrd say that the child must not be with us in Midgard for long, that She ease the child in a painless passing and give the mother strength and compassion.
Frigga said she would be there for the woman and child, but that I must do the work. Nothing comes for free.
She instructed me in the making of a cap for the child and in a poppet and carrier for the mother. The cap was easy but I had no idea what I was doing with the poppet. The carrier was crocheted out of white wool (I used white acrylic for the cap for fear the baby might have a wool allergy). It was a small pouch, about the side of my palm, with a long strap so that the mother could wear it or hang it near the bed. I gave instructions to my husband to carve a wooden poppet in the form Frigga showed me. I then took it and carved on the belly the rune Berkana and coated the poppet in chamomile and a blessing before putting it within the carrier. I sent the piece on its way and knew that Frigga would be there with them.

The creation of a magical poppet or items of protection and healing are prime examples of witchcraft.
For an example of manifestation or modern, new age, or energetic witchcraft:

I decided to get back to work on creating a business around 6 months after my son was born. I felt ready. I also felt a little scared because I wanted to be successful, to do good in the world, to live my purpose. I went to Frigga to ask for guidance and help. She told me to stop reading tarot at events - my largest source of income before I had my son. This was not what I had in mind when I asked for help. I asked what I should do if I couldn't read the tarot at events. She said for me to trust Her, do her work helping other spiritual mothers, and to focus on my writing. She would see me through it if I had faith and did what she told me to do.
I said my affirmations, wrote them down, envisioned myself as a successful spiritual adviser to other mothers. I did all the manifestation ju ju I could think of and I had faith in my Lady.
It worked. Not only do I now have the first draft of a book I know in my heart will not only sell but touch the hearts of other mothers in the world but I am also making money writing articles in areas that I feel passionate about, I have a new method of tarot reading that is more beneficial to clients than any event reading could be, and am even taking a class on returning divination to an act of sacred service with a teacher I have long admired. All that in 6 months and I'm only just starting.

To me, our Gods might guide us, comfort us, protect us, teach us, etc. However, we have to do the work and, for some of us, that work is witchcraft.

A Devotional for Frigga (call for submissions)

Frigga has asked for a devotional.

It makes sense. She is Queen of Asgard, wife of the All-Father Odin, Mistress of Fensalir and shares the throne of Hliðskjálf. She too bears a great gold necklace of lore and has a retinue of Goddess handmaidens who are all great and powerful in their own right. She is a Seeress and Goddess of Wyrd and Spinning. She is a hearth-keeper, a Goddess of domesticity, and business minded. She is a Goddess of Mothers - having had 2 sons and lost one. She is a Goddess of diplomacy and has chosen the winner of battles as well as stopped battles from being fought.
With all of this and more - Frigga is more than deserving of devotions...and yet...where is her devotional? I've looked for one. I've found so many to Odin, Her husband. His following is great. I've found devotionals to other Gods, including a few of Frigga's handmaidens, some of which have a following larger than the Queen Herself. While Her shrine is lovely, her prayers are many, and most Heathens acknowledge Her, I was saddened not to see Her books. Yet, I didn't think much of it until She told me it was what she wanted.
I cringed at the idea at first. It felt like a awefully big undertaking.
I did my research, I meditated and...I admit...I procrastinated with excuses - the holiday season is coming up, surely we should wait until after that. No.
When I went to Her in prayer for another recently, I asked if there was any work I could do to insure that this friend's need was met. Frigga was not pleased with me and sternly told me
"Do what YOU are SUPPOSED to be doing!"
I knew she meant the devotional. I slunk away and began my work on the Call for Submissions. '

Frigga Devotional CFS

Calling all who honor the Queen of Asgard. Seeking prayers, rituals, recipes, poetry, essays, tales of encounters, stories, and fiber craft tutorials created for or inspired by Frigga.
Submissions should be under 10,000 words and any photos should be visible in grey-scale. If submitting a fiber art tutorial, please include a picture of the finished product.  Previously published pieces are welcome so long as you have permissions and rights to them.

Please send submissions by April 1st, 2017 to my email address - ddfbryant (at) gmail.com with the name of the piece and your name (or pen name you want the piece published under) and the piece either in the body of the email or attached in .doc or .docx. After the book is published, I will contact you for your mailing info to send you a complimentary copy of the devotional.
Devotionals will be published through Asphodel Press.

I am thrilled to be working on this project for the beloved Queen is due for some attention I think.
Hail to the All-Mother!

Blessings,
December

Lesson in Frith-Keeping

I've recently had a problem bordering on a falling out with a friend due to my own misspoken words and thoughtlessness. I've asked forgiveness and the offering of healing between us has been made. We shall see where it goes. In the meantime, I am meditating on Frith and My Lady's hand in my life to teach me to be a frith-keeper and compassionate handmaiden.

Hail Frigga, Frith-Keeper,
You who welcome all to your hall, Fensalir,
Your hospitality and kindness turn foes to friends.
Weaver of Orlog, Spinner of Wyrd,
Keeper of Hearth and Home,
Keeper of the Keys,
You who sit in the high seat,
 Teach us to have compassion and open hearts,
To see beyond our prejudices
And our small-mindedness.
Lead us, Lady of the Hall,
To show all whom we meet respect and graciousness.
Beloved of Odin, may our words bind us
And our deeds strengthen us.
Hail Frigga, Queen of the Aesir.
(From the Northern Paganism Frith Ritual)

The Unseen Ordeal

The Unseen Ordeal - Another way Motherhood is like Shamanism

Sigyn and Loki

With ordeals like Odin’s, it’s nine days and then it’s over. It’s the plucking of an eye and then it’s over. I mean no disrespect, but Sigyn didn’t know when or even if Her ordeal would ever be over. Not to mention no mother ever gets over the ordeal of losing a child, something Odin also understood.  But there is no glamour: you do what’s right, and you do it again and again and again, and that’s very unpopular. There’s no glamour, no sweeping gestures, and no one to sing your praises. The heart is a terrible thing.
                                 -Fuensanta Arismendi, Who is Sigyn?

I love this so much. It can be said not only of Sigyn but also of Frigga who strove so hard to keep her son safe but to no end, Baldr's death still came to pass and she lost him.

Frigga and Baldr

As a mother of a miscarried child and a mother of a living son - I feel this pain in my heart as well and I mourn for the lost sons and I mourn for the mothers who carry their burdens without end. There is nothing glamorous about being a mother and carrying on with duty without fail. There is nothing shiny about seeing fate and having to accept it.

Susun Weed says mothers are invisible, a woman's work is invisible, so no great tales were told, no songs sung, of what is in a mother's heart, even when she is a Goddess.

My heart is broken for my Gods.

Womb and Tomb

Frigga sent me to Hela.
I wouldn't have thought that Frigga was on speaking terms with the Goddess of Death, Loki's cold daughter, the Lady of Helheim. After all, this is the same Goddess that would not release my Lady's Shining Son, Baldr.
But my Lady is wise and knows that Hela is far seeing and a teacher that will not allow any student to wiggle out of a lesson.

Robed skeleton from Roman Cataccombs

I went to Fensalir for guidance about my lessons in divination. As I approached Her throne at the top of the steps, I saw Frigga standing and in Her seat sat a skeleton in a white dress decked out in crystals. The skull was tilted back and the mouth open wide. Even though the skull was eyeless, it felt like the skull was watching me, waiting to see my reaction.
I was confused and tried not to look at it. The skeleton looked grotesque in its shimmering white dress. I tried to remove myself from its unending sight but it followed me. I could not leave its presence. Frigga watched as well as I squirmed and spoke to Her even as I was unable to look away from the skull.
I thought I would go to Vor, another great Seeress and handmaiden to our Lady. It seemed like the best path for an earthly handmaiden to Frigga who wanted to become a better diviner, but I am not wise like the Gods and Frigga has her own plans for me.

She sent me down a dark road.
Fires burned around me but they were low, dying embers of funeral pyres creating shadows that I dared not peer into too closely. I felt a presence there, buring these embers to guide my way - a presence that was too quiet for me to guess at until He showed Himself to me much later, but that is another vision, another tale.
This was not Helheim, I understood almost intuitively. I was on a boarder road that would bring me to one of Hela's gates. I followed the lit path and entered a cavern. An unseen presence held me back. Ahead I could see a low fire with a cauldron hanging over it. Two chairs were there with a table between them.
A man was seated to the left, golden haired and pointy-faced. He wore his hair in a long bob and had a black and red cape. He seemed angry. He was bargaining with whoever sat in the other chair. Finally, not getting anywhere, he stormed off. He came towards me, not seeing me in his fury, and passed by on to a different road.
The presence that held me back released me. I moved forward slowly. I guessed at what would be in that chair and I wasn't in a hurry to face it.
The skeleton from before waited for me, now in black with only half Her face showing. I didn't sit across from Hela but I also didn't fidget or squirm any longer. I had always known I'd end up here.

I have known about my own mortality almost my whole life. It has been said that childhood ends the moment you know you will die. I'm not sure what caused me to understand that one day I will die at the age of six, but I remember distinctly lying in bed feeling the weight of that knowledge on my chest.
I developed thanatophobia, fear of death, early on and I never spoke to anyone in my life about it until I met my husband. I might not have told him but I was sitting up in bed, feeling an anxiety attack creep over me, and he, jolted by my eradic breathing and trembling, needed to know what was wrong.
I read once that fear of death is a lot like randomly remembering you are being chased by a lion. It is terrifying, comes on at random times, and there is no cure for it according to psychologists. Fear of death can't be handled like other phobias. No doctor is going to suggest you confront this fear because you could die in that confrontation. There is no avoiding it because we all will indeed face death one day.
I struggled with this fear nearly 2 decades. Then, I was pregnant.

It was my second pregnancy and I was confronted with mortality in the way that all mothers are. I'd had a miscarriage and I knew too well I could lose this baby as well. I also knew that maternal mortality rate in the US was higher than it should be. I could die having my baby.
I planned my pregnancy and birth down to the very music I would be listening to as I labored in water at the local birthing center. My fear of death was triggered as I passed my due date, had no signs of impending birth despite my continuous contractions, and my midwives said I needed to go to the hospital.
In short, I needed a cesarean. I could vividly picture every article I'd read the whole pregnancy that told stories of women who died, lost their babies, lost their uterus, and other tales of terror. I knew I was going to die and I was shaking so hard I had to grit my teeth to keep them from chattering.

image by Laurie Lipton

My family and the nurses all did their best to calm me. I could barely hear them. My world was cold and all I could hear was a strange white noise coming from within me. I turned inward as they prepped me for operation and I spoke into the void that I felt closing around me even in the bright lights over the operating table. "Anything. Take anything. Just let my baby live. Take me. Take it all. Just let him live. Let him live. Live."
My son was born on October 9th at 1:15pm. He was beautiful and real and alive. "Real and alive," I kept thinking over and over as I wept at the very sight of him. The doctors worked on me while my husband held our son to my breast to have his first meal. My anesthesiologist mentioned my blood pressure dropping and I was taken to post-op.
I was alone and I felt the void still there. As I tried to feel my feet and ignore the beeping all around me, I thought about death. For the first time in my whole life, I wasn't afraid anymore. I smiled and wondered, knowing otherwise, if it was the drugs.

I stood before Hela in her skeletal form and understood that I was always going to come here just as I was always going to be a mother. I understood why we were in a catacomb, a tomb deep in the earth with a hearth fire burning. I understood in a way all mothers understand, deep down, primally.
I listened as Hela told me I was sent to her because my journey on the path of divination demands that I see both into the future and into the past. The past is where the dead rule, where Hela has knowledge. The future is a spiraling of wyrd that ends in death, Hela's hand. I can see this now because I have been there, seeing the future held before me in the presence of a crying newborn, torn from my body and covered in my blood.
There isn't much difference between birth and death. Giving life and midwifing death often come with the same hand. They are one, the womb and the tomb.