On the 9th of this month, a friend of mine went into surgery. Before then, he asked me to work a magical ritual with him to ensure that it went well. That it did go well is good, but I’m looking back at the ritual and the omen given for my own edification and to ensure that I did what I could.
Shapeshifting is not easy in any form. Magical shapeshifting, that of changing the hamr, requires mental discipline and an understanding of animals that isn’t readily available in today’s society. The ancient Norse had concerns about the ferocity of those that changed into wolves; without that mental discipline, people fell to the might of the werewolf by the nines. Even then, they were separated from the understanding of wolves. Those who engaged in the practice regularly and healthily were like a family, a band of warriors whose bonds were not easily separated. Those who dabbled were dangerous lone wolves, pun intended, who slaughtered and reveled in blood. Mind you, this is only one expression of shapeshifting in which the spirit-shape is what transforms, the mind and spirit of a person.
Shifting shape physically requires all that mental discipline plus the tolerance to pain to be able to achieve the form. Last I heard, there was a person offering $1 million US to anyone who could achieve this without the use of surgery or dangerous drugs (I think they were thinking ala Mr. Hyde), and I think no one to date has been able to collect. So the shapeshifting I’m talking about here is surgical, with all of the difficulties and dangers surgery possesses. The trans community undergoes this shapeshifting… not quite regularly, because a lot of local laws restrict it, but there is still a wide swath of the trans population that undergoes this surgery. It’s painful. It’s mentally taxing to go through the process. It takes a while to heal.
For the surgery, I called upon 5 Gods to aid and assist. Two of them were requested by my friend, Apollo and Freyr, as they are the Gods he works closest with. Two I called on were Asclepius and Eir as Gods of healing. I also called upon Loki, who has become something of a patron in the LGBTQ+ community. The omen (Thurisaz, Uruz, and Isa) was favorable, so we underwent the magical working crafting my friend’s perfect form in vision, with the Gods assisting in their various ways.
My friend is now out of surgery and recovering at home, and he’s doing well. The doctors did what they were supposed to, and as far as he’s mentioned he’s not in a boatload of pain. Now it remains to see how recovery goes. I wish him the best, honestly.
Mists and Ice 