Freya's 5 Lessons in Power

What if the goddess of love and the goddess of war were the same woman, and she never had to choose?

Prefer to listen or watch instead? Scroll to the end of this article for the full episode.

Freya is the Norse goddess of love, war, beauty, sex, and magick, and if that list feels like it's pulling in a dozen directions, that's the point. This isn't a post about her myths or her correspondences (you can find all of that on her page on my site). This is about her energy, and what working with Freya can actually teach you about your own power.

Freya Has Permission to Be ALL of It

Freya is the goddess of love, beauty, and sex, and she is just as much the goddess of war and death. Norse mythology never asked her to pick a side. The other gods and goddesses in her pantheon understood that her duality wasn't a contradiction; it was the whole point of her power.

If you've ever felt like you have to choose, love and light or your shadow side, softness or strength, deeply feminine or deeply masculine, Freya tells you that you don't have to pick. You can hold both. Not only that, but holding that paradox inside you is what makes you stronger. Freya refuses to be boxed into one archetype the way a lot of goddesses are. She holds dueling, even contradicting, energies at the exact same time, and she's honored for it, not despite it.

If there's any duality you're wrestling with right now, work with Freya. She'll help you stand in both sides of yourself equally and powerfully instead of picking one.

Reclaiming Witchcraft Itself

Freya is a practitioner of Seiðr, a specific form of Norse magic tied to prophecy, divination, trance work, and shaping fate. It started with the gods, and it was overwhelmingly practiced by women. Odin, the head god of the Norse pantheon, had learned nearly every kind of magick there was, except Seiðr, because Freya could do something he couldn't: she could bring the dead back to life. So Odin went to Freya to learn what was considered "woman's magick," because he understood it held the last bit of power he was missing.

The king of the Norse gods went to a woman to learn the deepest form of magick in his own pantheon. That says a lot.

If your practice has gone stagnant, if life happened and you stepped away from your rituals, your spells, your craft, Freya is one of the best goddesses to talk to about getting back into it. She'll help you honor the magickal energy that's already flowing through you, and help you figure out what direction to take it in, whether that's divination, intention setting, boundary work, or trance work.

You'll see some modern pagan sources call Freya the Queen of Witches. I want to be honest with you here: there isn't a historical myth that actually backs that title up. It's more of a modern connection people have drawn because of her deep ties to Seiðr, divination, and fate. If that title resonates with you, work with it. If you feel more pulled to Hecate, the Greek goddess of witchcraft, that's valid too. Either way, Freya can deepen your witchcraft and your magickal practice.

Boundary and Warrior Energy

Freya is equal to Odin. When there's a battle, the two of them go out and collect the dead for the afterlife. Freya claims half of all who die in battle and takes them to Folkvangr. Odin takes the other half to Valhalla. She isn't asking Odin's permission. She isn't negotiating. They are equals, and that's huge.

She's also connected to the Valkyries, whose name literally means "chooser of the slain," and many see her as their leader. So, in this one area of her mythology, you get her warrior energy riding into battle and her boundary-setting all at once. She's telling Odin, "These people are mine, I'm taking them, I'm not asking." That's what boundary setting actually looks like. It's not a negotiation. It's a statement: this is what I will accept, this is what I won't, and this is how it's going to be.

If you've been asking for permission too much, shrinking yourself to placate other people instead of claiming what's yours, Freya can help. If you've got a battle coming, legal or otherwise, and you know you're going to have to fight for something, her energy is a strong one to call on.

Grief as Sacred, Not a Weakness

In one of Freya's myths, her husband Odr leaves, and she is devastated. She weeps tears of gold, later reimagined in poetry as amber, and she does it openly. She's not hiding in a corner because she thinks crying is weakness. She understands that you don't have to be put together to be strong, and that grief carries just as much power as joy or happiness.

Grief and rage are, honestly, more transformative than happiness, because they crack something open. There's almost always something underneath anger and rage, and a lot of the time, it's grief that hasn't been processed yet. Grief is a doorway. It's an invitation to ask why, to notice where you feel it in your body, and to figure out what the emotion is actually trying to tell you.

Freya shows you that grief and power can coexist without one canceling out the other. Just because you're grieving doesn't mean you're weak. You can be angry, you can be devastated, and still be completely powerful at the same time. If you feel like you have to show up perfectly every single day and that you're not allowed to feel the big, heavy emotions, Freya can teach you otherwise.

Sensuality and Self-Worth are Powerful

This one leans more into modern pagan interpretation than ancient mythology, but it's a strong thread. Freya is the goddess of love and beauty, and by extension, she's become a symbol of empowerment, sensuality, and courage. She takes qualities that get dismissed as "soft," like sensuality, and proves they can exist right alongside power and confidence.

In one of her myths, Freya traded a night with each of four dwarves to have them forge Brísingamen, her signature necklace. She wanted to adorn her body with something that made her feel powerful, sensual, and worth a million bucks, and she was willing to negotiate hard to get it. To Freya, beauty and self-expression weren't shallow. They were worth bargaining for.

Caring about how you look isn't vanity. Dressing with intention, wearing a scent that's just for you, putting on jewelry that makes you feel like yourself- these are forms of self-respect. If you've ever been told that taking care of your appearance makes you vain, it might be worth asking where that belief actually came from, and whether it's still serving you.

Signs Freya is Calling You

You might feel her presence if you're surrounded by feral or wild-energy cats, if you're being pulled to reclaim your sensuality or beauty as a source of power instead of shame, if you're moving through grief while also stepping into a stronger version of yourself, if you're done asking permission and ready to set real boundaries, or if you're feeling drawn toward divination or trance-based practice specifically.

Freya doesn't ask you to be one thing. She asks you to be all of it, at the same time, without apology.

If this resonated with you, listen to the full episode of Busy, Gritty, Inked & Witchy, where I go even deeper into each of these five areas. New episodes drop every Wednesday.