A Finnish Path (under construction, but post if you wish)

[Arrowlake Riddler]

A Finnish Path
(Unless I come up with a better name)

To Start Somewhere…

I’ve never done a thread like this, but I guess it would be best to start with a short explanation of what Finnish recon is, and where I stand on that path. I don’t claim to be an expert on this subject – far from it, I’d say. This may leave many things unclear, and I’m not sure if I can answer all the questions, but I’ll try my best.

So, my path is an attempt to reconstruct the old Finnish religion. It has no actual name, though in Finnish it’s often referred to as “suomenusko”, literally meaning “the faith/religion of Finland”. To describe it shortly, it’s a polytheistic religion, and one of the main concepts is belief in the spirits called haltija. Those spirits are just as important as gods are, as they are often seen influencing the lives of humans much more directly, but they aren’t always worshipped like gods.

Most of my practice is based on what can be found from folklore and research by different scholars, but some things I’m also forced to do simply by what feels most logical. There isn’t too much to research on the practical side of things, and I have been practicing actively for only three or four years now. My first start on this path was through being introduced to Finnish folk magic as a child, and I’ve been learning about that and practicing it for longer than I have been an active Finn recon. Finnish witchcraft holds some importance to my path currently, too, so I might give it a section of its own in the end…



Table of Contents:
To Start Somewhere…
An Introduction to Mythology
The Spirits
Gods and Some Mythology
The Soul
In Practice
Role of Witchcraft
(And whatever might be added if I ever get that far)  

[Arrowlake Riddler]

An Introduction to Mythology

Finnish mythology comes mostly (= completely) from folk songs and poems that have either survived on their own or simply collected before they were lost. The myths also do have differences depending on which part of Finland the story in question came from, and of course who told the story or sang the poem, and other things like that, and I definitely don’t know even half of it all.

Most well known collection of folk poems and mythology is the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, which was collected by a man named Elias Lönnrot, in the end of the nineteenth century. Unfortunately, to quote a certain scholar, from a religious point of view the Kalevala can be inaccurate and partially even horribly misleading. It was never meant to be a religious text, after all. It was edited, some things were changed to fit in with the storylines, and some material was either added or taken out before publishing. Nevertheless, it has a lot of important information in it, and in many ways it can be considered one of the most important sources concerning Finnish mythology.

In addition to the Kalevala, there are of course other folklore collections and books by scholars, but not much in English, at least not that I know about it, so I don’t think it would help to list them (unless, of course, you speak Finnish or otherwise wish me to list some books).

I’m not going to present any of the actual mythology here; I’ll leave that for other sections. This was just an introduction to where the mythology comes from.  

[Arrowlake Riddler]

The Spirits

At first I was thinking of putting the sections for spirits and gods together, but then I came to think it might make it too long and confusing, and all in all it would be too difficult. So, I decided to first explain what the different spirits are and what is their role in this, and after that I’ll go to the gods in their own section.

In Finnish mythology, there are spirits everywhere. They are most often called haltija, and if talking about more than one similar spirits, more specifically väki (meaning “people” or “folk”). For example, the forest spirits are called metsän väki – the people of the forest. The word haltija would mean “owner”, “possessor” or perhaps “holder”, though in modern Finnish it’s often also translated as “elf”. To put it simply, the haltija are spirits that are a part of the place they inhabit, whatever it is, and watch over it. They can be seen as guardians, but if mistreated, they could cause trouble, too.

Now, there are two kinds of haltija – some who are bound to something and the others who could be described as wandering. The first kind includes for example, water spirits, veden väki. They are by their own nature a part of water and thus bound to it. A haltija like that isn’t necessarily bound to something larger like water or air, though, but they can be a haltija of a tree, a house, a river, or a person. Basically anything can have a haltija.

On the other hand, a wandering haltija is not bound to anything; they are separate beings, though they can join to something of their own will. They are believed to come and go as they wish.

In Finnish recon, these kinds of spirits are held in high importance. A haltija of a sacred or otherwise important place should be treated as well as gods are, to keep them happy. They are given offerings, they are prayed to, and they might have their own altar, or some other place of their own, if possible. A mistreated haltija would perhaps leave the place, but if bound to it, they’d probably cause troubles until made happy again.

Other kinds of spirits, similar to the haltija, are emuu (or sometimes emo – some of them are also seen as gods), and the rulers of specific nature spirits. These beings are often grouped together with gods, but I think it’s best to describe in here what they are.

The emuu, the word meaning “mother”, are sort of ancestral spirits of different beings. They are believed to be the one who created or gave birth to the being or thing in question, and they protect their “children” and are held responsible of them. To give an example, the emuu of bears is a spirit called Hongotar, and Loviatar is the emuu of wolves and a bunch of diseases. These spirits are often prayed to in matters concerning their children, whatever the matter in question is. Especially Hongotar did have a very important role in Finnish culture, because a bear used to be seen as a holy creature – some myths also mention the bear being the brother of humans. When a bear was killed, there was always a feast to honor the spirit of the bear, and Hongotar was prayed to and given offerings to assure her that her child was not killed for no reason.

Now, some spirits, mostly those that are a part of some larger entity, have also a “king” of sort, as they are often called. The king is simply the ruler of the “lesser” spirits, and people could pray to the kings if they needed help from the haltija of whatever it was the matter concerned to. The ruler of forest spirits is called Tapio, and his wife is Mielikki, and the water haltija have Ahti and Vellamo. Also, some sources mention the king of air spirits being Ismo, and sometimes Ilmatar – though the latter one would more or less literally translating just mean a female air spirit (sometimes the name Ilmatar is also given to a goddess. For example in the Kalevala, Ilmatar was the mother of Väinämöinen).

And now, to gods…  

[Arrowlake Riddler]

Gods and Some Mythology
(Still under construction…)

This part seems to be a bit long. I included a lot of the actual mythology here (well, at least the things that I thought might be relevant to this), so I divided this in a few sections. I went by the base idea that whoever reads this, doesn’t know much about Finnish mythology, so I’m presenting the basics and introducing the most important gods without going too in-depth. If you wish to know something else, feel free to ask.

The Creators
I think the best way to start this section would be by introducing the three creator gods – Väinämöinen, Ilmarinen and Joukahainen.

The Kalevala portrays them as immortal heroes of different families; Väinämöinen as a powerful sorcerer and the son of the goddess Ilmatar. Ilmarinen was a smith who forged the sun and the moon, and also an enchanted mill called Sampo, which apparently was an eternal source of prosperity. Joukahainen, also a sorcerer, was a rival of Väinämöinen, and they had a famous spell singing fight that Joukahainen lost…

Not counting the Kalevala, the rest of the stories present these three a bit differently. Some mention Väinämöinen being born alone as the son of the maiden called Iro, but sometimes those three appear as brothers. According to the latter version, they were born in the sky, and Ilmarinen stayed there. He is a sky-god, who created the sun and the moon, and makes the weather. (Sometimes Ilmarinen is replaced by another sky-god called Ukko. According to some scholars, Ukko, who most importantly is a thunder god, is partially derived from the Norse Thor. After he got a place within the Finnish mythology, the role of Ilmarinen seemed to fade, and Ukko became one of the most important gods. In my personal path, I see these two as separate gods, though some see them as one.)

Now, Väinämöinen, the eldest of these brothers, and Joukahainen, the youngest, travelled down to earth. On their way they ended up in a fight, and Joukahainen took his bow and arrow, and shot Väinämöinen. Väinämöinen fell off from his horse and into the sea. Thus he is seen as a god of sea (though also a god of music and poetry), Ilmarinen as an air-god, and Joukahainen got earth. All three of them started forming the world. That’s the whole story put short.

The Gods of the Underworld
The underworld in Finnish worldview is a place called Tuonela (or also Manala). It is the place where everyone goes after their death, no matter who they are or how they lived their life. Some stories say that the souls spend their time there sleeping, but most suggest that the souls keep on doing what they did when they were alive, still “living” as some sort of shadows of what they were before.

More or less literally “Tuonela” means “the land of Tuoni”, as Tuoni is the god ruling the place. He is the god of death, and he has a wife called Tuonetar. There are more gods and other beings living in Tuonela as well, for example the children of Tuoni and Tuonetar. (Some sources differ on this, but apparently they have a son, Surma, and four daughters named Loviatar, Vammatar, Kivutar and Kipu-tyttö. They are the goddesses of illnesses, pain, suffering and so on.)

And the Rest of Them (at least for now – I’ll see if I can edit this part later. Now this will be just some quick, general info on the other gods that aren’t presented so well within mythology)
I already mentioned the thunder god Ukko, but now I could also mention that he has a wife, called Rauni. Often she’s also referred to as Akka, and I have seen many sources suggesting she and a goddess called Maaemo (literally “earth-mother”) are the same one. Rauni is often said to be the goddess of earth and fertility.

Since I mentioned the mother of Väinämöinen (and sometimes also Ilmarinen and Joukahainen) being Iro-maiden, I guess I should also introduce his/their father. Some sources say it’s a god called Iku-Turso. He is often said to be a bearded sea monster, and he made Iro pregnant by sea foam. He’s sometimes called also Tursas, which would mean “octopus”. There isn’t too much information on him, but normally he isn’t seen as a too friendly god. Some folk poems refer to him as “Iku-Turso, lord of North”, and in mythology, North is seen as the place where all evil comes from.

Pellonpekko, or “Pekko of the field”, is, as the name suggests, a god of fields and farming. He used to hold a very important role, though there appears not to be too much information on him. Apparently some stories say he’s not a god, but a haltija living in the fields, but I’m not too sure on that. Another god of crops is Äkräs, who is believed to be responsible of all the plants growing.

A less-known god, or a goddess, according to many sources, is Lempo. Not much to tell about her. She may have been a goddess of love, since her name resembles the older word “lempi”, meaning love, but most scholars say she’s the same person who is known as Lemmes – the emuu of alder trees.

Two goddesses, Päivätär and Kuutar, are quite literally the Sun and the Moon. There isn’t much more to tell about them either, but since they are mentioned quite often in folk poems, I thought to give them a line here, too.  

[Arrowlake Riddler]

The Soul

A short explanation on how the soul was seen in the Finnish religion.

The soul as an entity consists of three parts. One of them is called henki, literally meaning “life” or “spirit”. Henki is the part of soul that makes one to be alive, and because of this, if henki is lost, you die.

Another part of soul is itse, and that one could be translated as “self”. It is who you are, and once you die, it’s the itse-soul that is believed to travel to Tuonela. This part of soul can also be lost while alive, but unlike losing henki, losing itse is not fatal. Instead of causing death, it would make the person depressed and apathetic, and more or less “self-less”, until the soul returns.

The third part is called luonto. The word means literally “nature”, both in the sense of environment and person’s nature. Luonto-soul is different from the other parts of the soul in the sense that it’s a haltija, technically a separate spirit, though tied to the person. Luonto is seen as a guardian and a helper, and the stronger one’s luonto is, the stronger the person is, too, though not perhaps in physical sense.  

[Arrowlake Riddler]

Reserved for “In Practice” section - I'll try to get this down as soon as I can.  

[Arrowlake Riddler]

Reserved for “The Role of Witchcraft” section - will be done sooner or later.  

[Arrowlake Riddler]

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[Arrowlake Riddler]

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