Spákona

See Who You Really Are

When I met with the teacher who would lead the group that I now refer to as a cult, we initially began training in the art of spá, a type of Norse magic. I have learned more about spá on my own, preferring to explore a variety of different authors and historians than what the teacher originally limited us to (there could be a whole blog post about the manipulation involved in saying which writers were or were not good and how exactly she twisted already existing information, but that’s for a different day). However, originally, the teacher referred to the art of spá as being something like a “magical Sherlock Holmes.” Essentially, it was the art of noticing. By noticing, you can identify patterns that help you predict the future more accurately. 

For instance, let’s say I’m living in Scandinavia at the time of the Norse. I am a practitioner of spá, known as a spákona. I may notice that there are five moon cycles from the first frost to the first bloom, or essentially, winter. We also know that it is harder to grow crops in the winter, as observed by patterns. So I see the flour we have, and ration it to last throughout the winter. When spring comes and no one dies of starvation, I have done magic. Now we would call it science or applied logic or any number of things, but to the Norse, it was absolutely magic. 

So, when I was training in the art of spá, my teacher's approach emphasized understanding all of my own quirks and eccentricities. Having a firm grasp on who you are and how you operate will make it easier to remove yourself from the equation and observe truly. I will say that I often got frustrated throughout this section because, as a therapist, understanding yourself to better show up for your clients and assess them clinically is part of the job. 

One of the tasks was to find a scent that I could connect to myself. As I mentioned in the "Sif Sniffs" post, I have always been fascinated by scent, so my teacher thought that would be a good starting point. I instantly knew it was a berry, and I first experimented with açai berry mainly because I was familiar with its chocolatey aspects and figured that would be a good guess. It wasn’t hitting the mark (the berry closest to me is black currant, which will be discussed more in future posts), but I respected and cherished açai for being the first on that journey. 

So, when it came to formulating my second fragrance, I knew I wanted something clean and refreshing for those who didn’t really like fragrance. I know that seems counterintuitive, to make a perfume for people who don’t wear perfume. However, I also learned from my own experience that people often become frustrated by the level of chemicals and synthetics in fragrances. I envisioned a scent that was bare-bones and blended with the wearer's body chemistry to bring out their true essence. I wanted something natural, light, and suitable for those who frequently experience allergies to fragrance. 

Thus, Spákona was born. I was even able to sneak in a little açai berry as well.