Name Meaning:

Heaving Wave or Rising Wave

Colors:

Dark blue-green and black

Animal:

Jellyfish

Specialty:

Hevring has an affinity with the horizontal wave currents, just as her twin sister Hronn has an affinity for the vertical suction currents. She is a goddess of Mourning, and weeps continually. It is her lot to mourn for the depredations that humans have visited on the ocean and its inhabitants. She wears a live jellyfish as a cloak.

Her Gifts:

Working one's way through mourning.

Offerings:

Tears, freely and willingly given.

Altar items:

Green glass sea floats. Dried fishes. Dried egg cases. Dried horseshoe crabs. A small bottle of tears, collected.

Invocation

invocation by Galina Krasskova
image by Alison Pacuska

For the destruction I have wrought,
I beg forgiveness.
For the garbage I have thoughtlessly discarded into the world,
I beg forgiveness.
For each time I have feasted unthinking
Upon your hunted and threatened children,
I beg forgiveness.
For each time I have walked by trash
Littering your beach and done nothing,
I beg forgiveness.
For my waste, my carelessness, and my ignorance,
I beg forgiveness.
For each time I turned away, closed my eyes,
Chose not to see,
I beg forgiveness.

Goddess of anguish, who holds the grief of a dying sea,
Share with me Your anguish. I will bear what of it I can
That it may guide me in mindfulness and right action.
Let my hands be Your hands, my voice Your voice
So that I may do what is within my power
To right the wrong done to Yours by my species.
You are witness to annihilation. And for myself
And my people, I am ashamed.

Ritual: Mourning

As with her twin sister Hronn, this ritual requires you to be more or less fully immersed in water. This ritual is to let go of some great sorrow that has possessed you far too long. If you cannot be in the ocean, be in a pool or a deep tub to which you have added some salt, because you need to be able to heave and splash around. Again, tie long ribbons to your wrists and neck and waist so that they will wave in the water, but this time they should be grey as tears, as the ocean on a clouded day. Speak her invocation and ask her to take this sorrow from you, or at least to heal your heart so that you can bear it better.

Walk into the ocean and float (you can stay in the shallower area with a spotter if need be) or float in your pool or tub. Concentrate on your sorrow; pull it up out of your heart and weep. Hevring will not settle for less than real tears. You can also scream, thrash, fall under the water and come back up. Don’t worry about your dignity; this is not the time for it. This is the time to let go entirely. As soon as there are tears rolling down your face, dunk your head under the water and give them to Hevring. It's all right - even encouraged - to get twisted up in the ribbons while you do this. Cry and thrash as long as need be. When you feel half drowned and you cannot cry any longer, get out and slowly untangle yourself from all the ribbons, and thank her for her gift. Soon things should get better for you.

Of all the Undines, Hevring feels the damage done to the ocean the most. For her, it is most important to make an offering that helps care for the seas. As she is a goddess of sorrow, you really don’t want to upset her once you have asked for her aid.