Freyr: A Meditation
In 1904, a bronze statuette identified as a depiction of Freyr was discovered on the farm Rällinge in Lunda parish in the province of Södermanland, Sweden. It was found in the fill of a burial mound in close proximity to the oldest labyrinth in Sweden. The labyrinth dates back to the Bronze and possibly the Iron Age. Archeologists have concluded that ancient fertility rites were celebrated at the site.
The statuette features Freyr as a bearded male, sitting cross-legged, with a large erect penis. He is wearing a pointed cap and stroking his triangular beard. The statue is nine centimeters tall and is displayed at the Swedish Museum of National Antiquities. What follows is a meditation on this figure of Freyr.
This meditation on the statuette of Freyr is a reading at this particular time by this particular person. It is my perspective only and is not intended to be proscriptive for others. Each person who meditates on this statuette of Freyr will have their own unique and valid perspective.
While it is difficult not to start this meditation with Freyr’s large erect phallus, I start with some general observations. First, this depiction of Freyr does not strike me as a sex object in the modern sense of the word. He is not a popular consumer icon, not “the sexiest man of the year”. He is also not a romantic, Harlequin heart-throb.
In this depiction, Freyr is earthy and grounded and yet obviously erotic and sexual. He sits motionless, silent and still. He strokes his beard and not his erection. His gaze is somewhat pensive, either turned inward or off into the distance, perhaps into the Other World. He is in a trance, an altered state.
He is calm and peaceful and yet erect and dynamic. He is aroused and radiates energy. There is no indication that he arouses himself or is aroused by another. It is as though the same energy that flows up from the earth and gives rise to the stalks of flowers and grain and trees flows up into Freyr, fills his whole being and gives him a rise. Or maybe it is his arousing life-energy that gives rise to everything else that rises up into erection. His erection is an erection of life, health and abundance.
The arousing upward flow of energy is reflected in all of the upright triangles in the figure. The overall shape of the figure is an upright triangle. There are additional upright triangles formed by the Freyr’s arm that stokes his bread, the top of his thigh and his right side. The bottom of Freyr’s beard and jaw form the base of a triangle that has the point of his cap as its peak. His nose is an upright triangle as are his conical cap and large erect phallus.
However, there are also downward pointing triangles. His right arm is one. His elbow is the point of the triangle. His beard is another. Even his nose feels like it points downward. All of these downward-pointing triangles balance Freyr’s upward flowing energy and keep him well grounded and rooted in the earth. All of the triangles reinforce the overall sense of grounded but rising energy.
The upward flow of aroused and arousing masculine energy reaches for the womb-like sky. It penetrates the womb above. Earth and sky are joined as one.
Freyr’s arousal is arousing and demands our attention. How can we look at him and not look at his erection? It is solid and firm, ready and waiting. It seems incomplete by itself.
When I breathe in and call up Freyr it is this image of Freyr that I imagine and invoke. His energy flows up and into me from the earth below. His energy fills my whole being and I embody Freyr, erect phallus and all. Then I am ready to join in the sacred embrace with Freyja - my Lady, my Goddess, my Queen, my love with whom I am wed.