There hadn’t been much activity on my end since my last trip to Ljossalfheim.   I’d been meaning to visit Svartalfheim for awhile now, but hadn’t really felt that it was appropriate to just “drop by” for no particular reason…though if one thinks hard enough, they can usually find a good excuse to go traveling.  I decided, based on both my mundane and metaphysical interests in the mineral kingdom, that I’d introduce myself and perhaps try to create a relationship with the Dvergar in the off chance that they’d have the desire to teach me some “gem” of knowledge about that topic.  Yeah…watch out for puns.  :)

Upon later reflection with my fellow catskin sister, Tamilia, I am not going to reveal how exactly I got to Svartalfheim.  Suffice to say that it was much more of a hidden place than the other worlds I’ve been to so far.  The inhabitants very much appreciate their privacy, and I can respect that.  Upon reaching the door to the world, I had been obsessively thinking about a particular rune, which I blessed the offerings with.  This rune popped into my mind again when standing before the impressively large and solid door to the world.  At this point in the story it is also important to mention that I had generously dabbed myself with Yggdrasil oil before entering a trance state (complements of Tamilia’s recent purchase from the lovely Sarah Lawless aka Witch of Forest Grove).  There was also a fair amount of resins in the air and (I am slightly embarrassed to admit) some tequila in my system left over from the margaritas that accompanied my dinner out at a Mexican restaurant an hour or so before.  At the time I thought the alcohol had mostly metabolized.  I am still not sure if it was still present, or perhaps the Yggdrasil oil just packs a hell of a punch.  Seriously…it’s not for fun and games–it’s powerful stuff!

Back to the story at hand…with this combination of “influences” I didn’t really reflect upon the consequences of what I was doing with the door until it was too late.  It was just an idea that popped into my head and I was trying it out to see what it would do (I know, I know…not my brightest moment)…and yeah, I effectively “picked the lock” of the door into Svartalfheim without really intending to.  I was going to make a formal announcement at the door with my offerings and the whole nine yards–promise!  It wasn’t until the door swung wide open with a blinding flash of light to reveal a whole bunch of Dvergar (and other beings…no idea what they were) standing in a semi-circle crowd around the door…basically with “WTF?” expressions on their faces that I realized what I had just done.  Awkward.  You bet there was some hurried explanations and offerings and all around attempts to smooth things over going on.  I was pretty much resigned to the fact that I probably couldn’t show my face in there again, when one fellow stepped forward out of the crowd and motioned for me to follow him.  The rest of them dispersed and went back to whatever they were doing before some idiot stranger stumbled through the locked front door without knocking.

He seemed about a meter tall with long hair (balding) and a long beard both of which were curly and mostly silver-grey.  He led me through a passage branching off to the left and lit by torches.  The entrance way and this passage were all underground and hewn out of rock.  There were steps leading up and a door above (kind of like storm cellar doors) which he pushed open.  We emerged out on top of a mountainous landscape, craggy, rough, yet green and lush with alpine foliage in places.  I had a good vantage point and could see for miles around…it was bright there, but I instinctively felt like it was still underground somehow, or sealed off in some way.  He started to go back through the doors and back the way we had come, I quickly followed behind.  We had just stepped down into the passage when I noticed that the door hadn’t led back to the first location.  Instead, I was standing beside a highway from our physical world, watching cars zoom by with bright headlights.  I made sure to catch the door before it slammed shut, because there was no visible handle on the outside of it, and it was more or less completely disguised and practically invisible to the naked eye.  There are many doors in Svartalfheim that lead to many places, but most are not designed to let outsiders gain entry through them.  This was the impression that I got…I’d need to visit again and talk with the Dvergar to confirm this.  After I had been briefly shown how the doors worked, I sensed that it was time for me to leave.

I left the same way that I came, though by that point I was so deep into trance it was difficult for me to come back out of it.  After all of my awkward apologies regarding how I made my first impression, I was told by the fellow whom I had been interacting with that I could come back again if I wanted to.  I’ll be sure to be much more careful of how I interact with the front door when visiting again at a future date!