Freya's Gifts
by Ember Cooke
Freyja has a fairly large range
of domains, and as such can be asked for just about anything, really. Here is a
list of Her most prominent domains for those who do not already have a personal
connection with Her:
Love - whether looking for a lover, or working on your own ability to accept love from others. Offerings in this case include love poetry, honey, mead, cider, fresh fruit, and chocolate.
Sexuality and Fertility - both in the purely functional sense of increasing fertility in humans, animals, and plants, and for helping people find acceptance with themselves and others for whatever sexuality they may have. Offerings of erotic poetry or art, honey, bread, pork, or chocolate are appropriate here.
Beauty and Self-Worth - finding your own beauty and the beauty around you. This is deeper healing than may be obvious - She can help with intense anxiety and depression, as well as self-esteem issues, eating disorders, addiction, and so forth. A mirror is essential to this work. The offering here is usually the work itself.
Death - Freyja is a chooser of the slain, and as such may be asked for help with guiding the newly dead to their appropriate home. Pouring out whatever you are drinking in honor of the dead is appropriate here, as are spoken prayers to honor the Ancestors. I have never known Her to require anything personal in return for caring for the Dead.
Protection - Freyja is a warrior goddess. She is especially invoked to help protect women, and I have known Her to be extremely defensive of women who have been abused by lovers - although I expect She is just as defensive over anyone who has been abused, especially if by a lover. Any offering you can spare is fair game if you are the one in need. If you are defending another, be prepared to follow Her instructions. Blood magic may be involved if the situation is severe.
Animals - People often ask Freyja for help with their pet cats. It's fair to ask for Her help with the health of any animal, actually, especially female farm animals (including horses) in heat or giving birth, any cats, raptors (particularly hawks and falcons), and swine (boars, pigs) whether wild or domesticated. Tokens of the animal in question, or humanely acquired animal parts (feathers, snipped fur, etc.) are appropriate when given to Her on Her altar.
Magic - Seidh especially, but also Galdr, hedgecraft, leechcraft, and so forth. I have found Her to be especially good at helping people smooth out their trance work. Obviously as a goddess of both sexuality and magic, She's particularly helpful with sex magic. Mead seems to be Her preferred offering for any given visit for instruction in Magic. Ongoing instruction requires that you form a relationship with Her, which will probably include making a small altar for Her, and possibly some temporary or long-term repeating obligation to Her.
It should also be noted that blood from humanely-killed food animals is very much one of Her offerings, but it's one She only asks of people who know what they are doing, or need to learn, and who actually use the parts of the animal in question in some way. She has explicitly told me on multiple occasions that if you don't use an animal, you aren't responsible for knowing how to raise it and kill it properly. In this sense, despite Her relationship to fertility, farm animals, and blood magic, She is surprisingly compatible with Vegetarians.
Artwork by Thorskegga Thorn.