I had no expectations on my trip to Ljossalfheim since I knew very little about it.  I decided to take this journey while visiting with Anise, one of my Catskin Sisters.  In her apartment, an altar was created.  A goblet of beer and a slice of bread with honey were offered.  Anise blessed each of the offerings with the Sowilo rune.  Candles were lit, lights dimmed and I began to settle into trance…

I had a hard time focusing and making the transition into Midgard.  I had literally torn my way through the barrier in an exasperated attempt to journey over.  I had trouble seeing the world around me in Midgard.  I had never had this happen before so I called the Bear over to me and asked him to help.  The Bear licked my eyelids.  I was able to see slightly better, but I felt that I wasn’t fully functional yet.  I decided to try to ground/center myself in Midgard to see if it would help.  It seemed to enable me to go through with my journey.  I told the Bear that I wanted to visit Ljossalfheim and we headed off at a run up the trunk of the World Tree.  We ran for quite some time straight up the trunk, looking for the doorway into Ljossalfheim.  Thinking back to the Sowilo rune used in the blessing of the offerings helped.  I looked up to see a door made out of four large linked Sowilos forming a diamond-like shape hovering slightly off of the main trunk of the Tree.  The Bear had to jump into the ring-like portal and there was a sensation of being lifted upwards through it, like a vortex pulling at us.

Overwhelming brightness of a yellow sun.  The clear golden light is so intense that my eyes take a moment to adjust.  I look around to see a beautiful spring/early summer day before me.  A vast meadow clearing filled with a carpet of multi-colored alpine flowers surrounds me.  The idyllic scene seems to be missing a body of water of some kind.  At that thought, a small swift brook flows through the center of the meadow.  The borders of the area are ringed with slim-trunk trees that appear to be the edge of a dense Aspen forest.  I wonder at the mutability of this realm.  Experimentally, I try to picture physically changing a section of the field.  Immediately, a dark patch appears and begins to spread and ripple.  I quickly banish the thought and let the meadow return to “normal”.  I can see no one around.  I decide to announce myself (since that seems to have helped in past journeying experiences).  I reach out and pull the essence of the offerings into my hands.  I am now holding a goblet of beer and a small plate with the honeyed-bread upon it.   In front of me, a wide oak stump emerges from the ground, as large as a table.  I get the hint and set the offerings down on it.  After doing so, I am now able to see indistinct shapes of people moving and standing at the edge of the clearing.  They are hard to look clearly at–like pale and beautiful ghosts…

As I was trying to peer at these ephemeral shapes, I am startled by a sound and a splashing…somehow the goblet of beer has been tipped over, spilling all over me–clothes, arms, and body.  Remembering my fairy tales, I wonder if this accepted offering would in some way help me to “stay” more firmly in this realm.  I anoint my eyes and lips with some of the spilled beer.  I can see in a full spectrum of color now.  I see that the shapes moving along the edge of the forest are tall and beautiful men with long silvery-blond hair dressed in shades of green, staring out at me with calm and solemn eyes.  The Alfar.  I start towards the trees, only to realize that I am unintentionally rushing at them full speed.  I am slammed into a barrier somewhere in the middle of the woods.  I look up to see that I am at the edge of a grave mound ringed with stones–short orthostats about a meter high that gleam white in the sun.  I bow my head in deference and slowly back away.  I feel that I am not supposed to be there, so I ask,

“Please show me something beautiful, somewhere I will be welcome.”

I am caught up in the otherworldly energy of this realm, I feel like a child–acting on impulse.  One of the alfar approaches me and motions that I should travel on, pointing in the right direction.  I follow further into the woods.  I see a sparkling spring erupting from the ground, feeding a small stream.  I kneel down next to the spring and look up questioningly at the Alfar who have gathered around me.  They nod their heads.  I hesitate for a second, but notice that the Bear has already knelt down too.  I cup the water in my hand and drink.  This water is cool and sweet.  I feel a burden lifting–feel comfort, peace, and true joy.

Refreshed, I ask the Alfar how I should honor them.  I realize that I cannot hear them.  I had forgotten to anoint my ears…instead I had to “listen” in other ways.  They understood that I could not hear their voices so they spoke to me in images, with thoughts.

*Where the flowers are, we are there…in the hidden places where Nature is unspoiled, we are there*

*Honor us, honor your Ancestors.  Make us a shrine, an altar that is beautiful.  Flowers.*

“Is it always daytime here?” I ask.

(amusement)*No, we have day and night and many seasons here.* (shows me images of their seasons…they look like pristine and idealized expressions of Nature.  Night-time is beautiful here as well, a huge silver white moon a star-filled sky, a gentle breeze that rustles through pine boughs)

I nod in understanding.  I ask them for a favor, I ask for some of the spring water to take with me.  They consider this request for a moment…I fear that I have overstepped the boundaries of politeness.  I look at them and try to show them with my face that I have no ulterior motive, that my request is genuine and sincere.  They nod at me, giving permission.  I quickly go back to the spring and pull out a tiny crystal flask suspended on a silver chain from a pocket in my skirt.  I dip the flask into the spring.  On impulse, I pick a couple of the tiny pink flowers growing amidst the rocks along the edge of the spring and drop them into the flask.  Knowing that this was not part of the original agreement, I leave an offering of myself in exchange.  I pulled three of my hairs off of my head and plaited them into a ring.  I left this under a stone, roughly about where I had picked the flowers.  This water is a gift.  I can drink a little from the flask in times when I have forgotten what it feels like to be “happy”.

I return to where the Alfar are standing.  I tell them how much more beautiful their world is from mine–that I would love to return sometime and that this journey has made me feel glad.  I am careful not to say “thank you” as is recommended in the older fairy tales.  This implies an inequality of reciprocity to me.  The implication that you are not going to show thanks by doing or giving something yourself–that mere words are enough.  I know that my time here is done.  I climb back on to the Bear and we head off back toward the meadow.  The Sowilo portal was still there at the end of the clearing and we jumped back through it.  The vortex seemed to work both ways and we landed rather suddenly on the Trunk.  We travel back to my home.  I pull out some berries from my pocket and infuse them with the happiness of my time in Ljossalfheim.  The Bear ate them greedily.  I decided to save the last berry for myself and was delighted that it did, indeed, taste like Joy.  The Bear’s puzzled look prompted me to reach back in my skirt pocket for another treat to give him.  To our mutual surprise, I pulled out a live salmon!  The Bear was quite pleased by that.

I said goodbye to the Bear and slipedp back into the consciousness of normal reality.

*End note:  Ljossalfheim definitely feels like a realm that one does not visit as a “tourist.”  The Alfar were very kind to me, but it felt like a politeness, a civility that could be revoked if you behaved inappropriately.  I felt like a stranger who had wandered into someone’s cocktail party…as long as you are polite and don’t draw too much attention to yourself, no one is likely to kick you out…if and when I return to Ljossalfheim, it will be for a very good reason.  Also, this realm feels more “magical” than any other so far.  I feel like all of the old fairy tale rules apply here if one wants to travel around unscathed.