Sál, The Shade Self

Erik Lugnet
4 days ago
2 min read

This month we discuss the Sál, the Soul, as it pertains to Ásatrú. The Old Norse word for soul comes from the Proto-Indo European word sóhiwl, and from this root we get the Latin saevus, the Proto-Celtic saitlom (life, age), the Proto-Slavic séila (strength, force, soul). Interestingly, the Proto-Germanic cognate saiwiz (sea, ocean) comes from the same root. This possibly stems from the belief that certain bodies of water were dwelling places of the dead and unborn.

This is the part of the self that is the true self. That which exists when no one is looking, no one except the Ancestors and the Gods. Beneath the Hamr, beneath the masks we wear for any given situation, is the Sál.

“But I don’t wear masks, Góði Dan!” Yes, we all do. We wear different masks for different situations with different people all the time. I don’t present myself the same way with my wife as I do my 2-year-old grandson. By the way, wearing a mask isn’t deceptive, nor is it dishonest. It’s a projection, a “skin” (Hamr), which is a component of the self.

But at day’s end, when we approach our Gods and our Ancestors, in prayer and even in the next life, it is the Sál, the shade self that is at play. In the afterlife, it is the Sál that stands before the Ancestors, is judged and accepted or rejected to pass into the Ancestral Halls.

If judged poorly, the fate you face is the Vargr on Náströnd—that is what is devoured and totally destroyed. The Sál is no more.

If judged to be worthy, it is the Sál that joins the Ancestors, or perhaps ascends to the Gods.

Sál is the totality of the soul, all wrapped up into … what makes you unique. It is the sum total of the self.