Welcome to Freya's Shrine

Welcome to the online shrine of Freya, the Norse/Germanic goddess of love, beauty, fertility, sex,
war, and magic. Freya is a beautiful and versatile goddess with many, many followers, and we hope
to do her justice here on this shrine. She who wears the falcon cloak and the necklace Brisingamen,
she whose tears are drops of amber and spring up as snowdrops, she who inspires love in all hearts!
All hail the Lady of Love, the Vanadis!
Artwork by Maris Pai.
This shrine is sponsored by Beatriz Prat and Ember Cooke.

Who is Freya?

Freyja is most often summarized as the Northern goddess of Love and Beauty, and that she is - but
she is far, far more than that. Freyja is one of the few Northern gods who may actually have
unbroken worship, although modern Northern Paganism is not directly based on whatever folk
traditions may have survived to honor her.
Freyja is the Vanadis - the Lady of the Vanir. Her twin brother Freyr is the current Lord of
Vanaheim and Alfheim both. Their parents, also twins, are Njordh, Lord of the Sea and his sister,
most likely the Earth goddess Nerthus. The lore implies that Freyja was originally married to Freyr
before the first war was fought between the Vanir and Aesir. At the end of the war when Freyja,
Freyr and Njordh were fostered to the Aesir as hostages in exchange for Honir and Mimir, the Aesir
declared the sibling marriages of the Vanir unlawful in Asgard, and arranged new marriages for
each of them over time. Freyja's husband among the Aesir is Odr, who has since been lost, his
identity and provenance is a true mystery, although one of the most common UPGs is that Odr is or
became Odin. Freyja's daughters with Odr are the treasures, Hnoss and Gersemi. In modern
practice, we have found that the Vanir recognise both marriages, and Freyja often acts loverly
towards Freyr, regarding Gerd not only as sister-in-law, but also as sister-wife. Gerd is the lady of
Alfheim, as Freyr's consort, leaving Freyja as the primary ruler in Vanaheim, although she still
shares those duties with her brother and parents.
Freyja is indeed a goddess of love and beauty, of sex and fertility. In my experience, love is her
primary motivation, and a deep, abiding sense of the beauty of all things is the core of her nature.
She encourages self-awareness and self-worth regarding our own beauty and sexuality, and may be
anything from achingly gentle to forcefully dominant in showing people what they are worth. I have
known her to require people to stand naked in front of a mirror, repeating compliments they can
barely stand to say or hear, as she guides them word by word in the act of learning to admire
themselves.