Land Wights, Or Landvættir

Land Wights

In Animisum, and most of Nordic Paganism there is the concept of energies and magics. Energies and magics that exist in a specific place. Places where we go to to do specific things.

In a modern pop culture example, Frodo and Sam go to a specific place, mount doom to destroy the one ring. Mount doom is a place where the energies are right to do the job in hand. The knowledge of the Landvættir or Land Wights is not just a Germanic thing, the Romans called them Lemures.

In Iceland the Alfs, or Elves are an example of this energy of Land Wights, and the ‘Wee Folk’ from celtic myth too.

Energy

Everything has an energy, and the Wights are the personification of that energy. Your house will have an energy, your car, your work, the forest, the trees in the forest. That pug.

All these wights have their own vibrational pull and power. They need to live the same way we do, it’s just their needs are slightly different. We eat food and water, they eat energy.

One of my favourite stories is about the Land Wights that lived in the hospital where I worked. This story is not to scare, it’s to illustrate the point. When walking around the hospital late at night, or early in the morning, I often felt or saw entities. They would be in the shadows, and when they realised, they were scene they would go away. I’d previously put this down to over tiredness and stress.

Then one day, I saw this creature over the bed of a lady who was dyeing, of old age, and very expectedly. She was very peaceful, and her family were a few of hours away, some overseas. We kept a close eye on her over night. At three in the morning she started to deteriorate. I went to check on her and one of the creatures was feeding off her energy, her pain. I did my nurse-y things and, turned to the creature, who looked surprised I was engaging with it. And told it to go away and leave her alone.

You know when you catch a cat doing something naughty, and it gives you that look? That was the look this entity gave me. It left. I made the lady comfortable, and the feel of her room got a lot better. Her family made it to her bed side a couple of hours later before she left her body.

What this story illustrates is the entities, the land wights that live in a place follow the adage of ‘you are what you eat’ same as we do. I am currently in recovery from ‘lock down chocolate eating’. The same as Seaguls and Rats become adapted to living off our waste, land wights live off the energies around them. In the hospital where there is lots of stress, anger, grief and pain, that’s what is available to eat. So that’s where they go to get the food. Interesting the ones in maternity are much more fun and almost angelic looking. As they feed on mostly joy and exultation.

The energies of the place are what land wights feed on and are influenced by, organic, nature based Land Wights are very similar to the environment where they live, feeding off the energy around them. The ones in rocks are much slower and harsh, the ones in young woods are free and easy, the ones in ancient woodland are indifferent and stoic. The ones in grave yards are slow and deliberate. Think about the areas where you go, what are the energies that are there that the land wights can feed on?

Are they high? Or low, or angry, or sad, or pain or joy?

One of the happiest (by my standards) land wights I met was living in a student bar, where the energy is mostly young people trying to get laid and having fun.

Land wights feed on the energy around them, and if we are respectful and feed them energy they like and fills them up they can tinker with they wyrd and aid you in small ways. Like increasing you Hamingja, your luck. That is why when you are in the woods, or anywhere it is good practice to ask permission to enter and to leave a gift. For example tidying the beach and removing trash, or some cake.

All land wights will choose to feed on good emotions and feelings over negative ones, kind of like the scares team at monsters inc. Laughter is 10x as powerful as fear.

If you are doing a ritual in nature, then make sure you call in the spirits of the place, and give them an offering or sacrifice, do not kill a person. Sacrifice some mead or cake or chocolate. Don’t leave the wrapper, as the trash will be toxic and poison the land wight. And the land.

So in essence…

Land wights feed and nourish the energy of a place, and in turn feed off the energy of the place. The better stuff we put in the more good stuff the land wight can put out. And the same is the reverse.