Ritual for Jormundgand
Jormundgand, the Midgard
Serpent, does not speak or have language, so our ritual to the Big Snake had no
written script and was performed in complete silence. Because of this, I will
recount what we did for folks who might want to do the same thing.
First we found a lake that we could all get to in the middle of the night. While this ritual can be done in the ocean (and that’s probably the best place for it) not everyone lives close to the sea, and so any large body of water will do. The sky must be clear and starry, and the water such that people can walk in safely up to their necks or thereabouts. Clothing or lack of it is irrelevant; some of the folk taking part in the ritual put on bathing suits and some simply stripped and walked into the water.
We made a symbolic “serpent” out of a long piece of snake-printed silky spandex, sewn into a tube about twenty feet long. (It probably should have been longer.) One end was sewn into a taper like a tail, and the other had a rudimentary head on it. Then, in the middle of the night, we went silently to the lake. Everyone had been briefed as to the rules of the ritual, and no one spoke from the time we left the cars to start walking up to the lake, to the time we got back to the cars. (We did talk about the ritual later, when we got back, and compared notes.) We all undressed quietly and leisurely, and when everyone was ready we all walked into the lake together, again as quietly as possible. We stood there in the darkness and each took hold of the “serpent”, coming into a circle in the water while holding it in our hands. One participant held head and tail and brought them together in his hands. I raised my arms to the starry sky and silently asked the Great Serpent to come to us, and give us wisdom. Then I stepped into the middle of the circle.
Each of us took a turn in the middle of the circle and stood, shoulder-deep in water, meditating. Some stared at the sky, some closed their eyes. While they did this, the circle rotated clockwise around them in the water, holding onto the fabric “serpent”. It created a slight whirlpool effect around the seeker in the center, who was symbolically surrounded by the Guardian of Midgard . When each person was finished with their communion with the Serpent, they stepped back and took their place in the circle, relinquishing the center to the next person who wished to step forward. After everyone had had their turn, we uncoiled the circle into a line and walked out of the lake. We then dressed and walked, still in silence, back to the cars to drive home.
It was a ritual of incredible simplicity, but everyone who took part was very moved, and gained some kind of sacred wisdom from the experience. We later made another circle, this one sitting in a warm room, and shared the images that the Serpent had given us.
Artwork by ScaryLew.