As the days grow dark and the mornings are cold, my thoughts go to my Swedish ancestors, whom I’m sure braved the cold with more grace than I can muster these days. For me, Winter is a time for going inward. Nurturing myself with hot bone broth and herbal teas, and reflecting upon the past year. While everyone else cares to rush around fulfilling last minute holiday shopping obligations, I prefer to go inward and connect in. Traditionally, Winter-time has held powerful opportunities for connecting in deeper with ourselves and our Spirituality. As I was thinking about and researching which Goddess I would want to talk about for this winter solstice article, I kept on coming back to the Norse Goddess Frigg. Frigg is a mysterious one- not much information about Her survives, and yet, perhaps that’s why I’m drawn to Her so much- for the mystery of it all. And, of course, because of that Ancestral connection with my Swedish ancestors.
The Goddess Frigg belongs to the pantheon of Norse Gods and Goddess, and Her husband is the mighty Odin. She is the Goddess of Spinning, Motherhood, Marriage, Domestic Arts and Fertility. She’s also a Seer. Her connection with the Winter Solstice lies in a tale from Ancient Norse Mythology. In this story, Her son, Baldur, was prophesied to die. Upon hearing the prophesy, Frigg goes to every plant and animal and asks each one to not kill her beloved son. One problem though: she forgot to ask little old mistletoe. The trickster God Loki makes an arrow from mistletoe and hired someone to kill Baldur with said arrow. In a happier version of the same story, the Gods were able to resurrect Baldur back to life, and Frigg declared mistletoe a symbol of love, and vowed to plant a kiss on all of those who passed beneath it, thus securing Frigg’s connection to Winter Solstice forever.
The Goddess Frigg is also a Fertility Goddess. Her handmaiden, Fulla (who may also be an avatar for Frigg Herself) is in charge of Frigg’s shoes. Feet in Scandinavia in those times were intimately connected with fertility. In fact, feet are connected with fertility in Chinese medicine as well, as it’s believed in Chinese medicine that the temperature of your feet corresponds with the temperature of your womb. In Chinese medicine, if you are trying to conceive, or just want optimal fertility, it’s important to keep your womb warm by keeping your feet warm.
Winter Solstice may seem like a strange time to do a fertility ritual with the Goddess, but actually it’s a fabulous time! We tend to think about getting pregnant around Beltane- when the May Queen and the Green Man unite in erotic love, and pregnancy occurs. Beltane is a fabulous time for fertility rituals, and to get pregnant, however, as a Natural Fertility Guide, I always recommend to my female clients to start nurturing their fertility five to six months before they want to get pregnant. Why? It’s because it takes around five to six months for an egg to mature in the ovary. While that egg is maturing, it’s being exposed to everything you eat and drink, all potential chemicals and toxins in your environment at that time, stress etc. SO, if you can take a five or six month window of time, detox yourself from environmental toxins, eat super healthy foods, limit your alcohol consumption, quit smoking, lower your stress etc etc, by the time that five or six month time period is up, you will have nurtured a good quality, healthy, mature egg inside of you! If you want to get pregnant naturally with ease, grace and joy, creating good quality eggs is the name of the game! If you start nurturing your fertility now, by the time Beltane rolls around, you will be ready with a good quality egg to get pregnant!
To start you on the right path, here are some specific suggestions you can incorporate this Winter Solstice to improve your fertility and the quality of your eggs.
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Incorporate chlorella or spirulina into your diet. Both of these are excellent at detoxing from environmental toxins.
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Visit a far-infrared sauna place a couple times a week OR purchase your own far-infrared sauna for home use. Another fabulous way to detox from environmental toxins and heavy metals. If you live in a big city, most likely you’ll be able to find a sauna place local to you that has far infrared saunas you can use by the hour or half hour. There’s also a brand of in home use far infrared saunas that I love called “Relax-A-Sauna”.
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Work on your gut biome health. For general health and wellness, you can improve your gut flora by minimizing or eliminating processed foods, flours and sugars from your diet; as well as incorporating fermented foods such as kefir and living sauerkraut into your diet.
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If you are currently doing drugs, smoking marijuana or smoking cigarettes, try to quit.
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Start taking some herbs to support your fertility now. One herb that’s a fabulous uterine tonic is called Red Raspberry Leaf, and you can get this herb in bulk from Mountain Rose Herbs OR check out HerbLore’s “Pre-Conception Tea”. HerbLore is a fabulous herbal medicine company that specializes in products for fertility, pregnancy and post partum.
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Look into incorporating as many local produce as possible, wild mushrooms if you can, and other healthy, high vibration foods.
Lastly, petition Frigg for Her support around nurturing your fertility, and improving your overall health, and the health of your eggs. Set up a beautiful table, for you and Frigg. Put mistletoe as decoration around the table and light candles. Set beautiful place mats and beautiful dishes. Make a delicious fish meal for Frigg and yourself, and perhaps some potatoes and vegetables as well. Dedicate the meal in Frigg’s Honor, and state why you made this meal for Frigg (because you want Her help and blessing in getting healthy to get pregnant) before starting to eat the meal. As you eat your meal, continue to talk to Frigg, thank Her for the assistance you know she will bring you, and offer your gratitude.
I’d suggest you do this feast for Frigg on Winter Solstice itself, but anytime this Winter will do as well. My experience with Frigg is She’s very supportive and loving, and will be willing to support you at any time.
In this busy season, I hope you will be able to find some time to rest up and nurture yourself this Winter Solstice. Your future child will thank you for it.
Sara Jacobsen is a Natural Fertility Guide, Holistic PCOS and Endometriosis Coach, Lactation Consultant, Doula, Prenatal Massage Therapist, Certified Mercier Manual Therapist, Energy Healer and Initiated Priestess of Yemaya. She helps conscious women struggling to get pregnant, get pregnant with ease, grace and joy. She can be found at conceivewithjoy.com.
