Hamingja

Hamingja is your soul energy, the spirit fire. This is similar to Prana from yoga, or Chi from the Far East. This energy helps your body as you go through your life and it has an effect on your apparent luck.

Have you ever met one of those people who just seems to get all the breaks? You now the sort; the traffic lights are always green and they always run into just the person the need to meet at the time they need to meet him or her. Maybe you've had a day where you felt great and everything just seemed to go your way. That is the effect of having strong Hamingja.

You use your hands to move things around in the physical sense. You grab the door handle and pull to open the door. Hamingja is the way you open doors in the spiritual world. For good or ill, depending on your character, your Hamingja helps express your will on the universe.

In Asatru, the only way to be whole is to be in balance with the body and the soul. You eat right and get exercise to strengthen your body; you must also strengthen your soul. You do this through proper breathing. Breathing exercises associated with meditation can help you get energy flowing through you. Think of it as fanning a flame.

Here's a quick way to help build and experience your Hamingja. For official purposes, please consult with your medical professionals before taking up any meditation practice such as this.

Step One:

Stand in a quiet place with your arms hanging down to your sides. Try to keep your back as straight as you can and hold your head even. In other words, stand with good posture. Close your eyes. Take a deep, slow breath. Hold it for a moment; say for a count of four. Push the breath out slowly and completely. Do this nine times.

Step Two:

In your mind, imagine that you are standing in a small circle of stones. The stones are large enough to come up to your knees. At your feet are some glowing coals, but they don't hurt. Above you, stars fill the clear, nighttime sky.

You breathe in the cool nighttime air from outside the circle. You hold the breath for just a few heartbeats while it takes on some of your characteristics. It flows through your body and becomes attuned to you.

You breathe out slowly and fully. The air you breathe out causes the coals at your feet to glow brighter. Even as they burn brighter, there is no heat or paid. The fire is attuned to you; it is energy like yours.

Take another breath, and as you exhale the coals burn brighter still. You hear them crackle as their fire intensifies.

As you repeat the breaths, the coals begin to flame. The flame height increases slowly, but with great intensity. The flames surround and fill you.

Step Three:

When you are finished, imagine stepping forward into the space your body occupies. As you step forward, the flames stay with you. They are part of you wherever you go.

Keep this up for as long as you can and repeat the meditation as often as you can, preferably once or twice a day. Eventually, you will stand in a pillar of flame that is your spiritual energy. This may not happen the first time, or even for a while, but eventually.

As with all things, the flame does not just stick around forever if you neglect it. You will always have some energy for as long as you live, but the quantity is dependent on your diligence in maintaining it.