Sýn and Self-Care
- 10 hours ago
- 3 min read
The idea of self-care is very big business today. Everybody wants to sell you all sorts of lotions and potions and this and that. It can get very expensive, and all of the bubble bath in the world doesn't necessarily mean that your Self is being taken care of.
So, how does one start to truly take care of themself? The first step is to make sure that you are maintaining a whole self to take care of. We are faced these days with a plethora of entities that chip away at who we are, what we are, and our very beings. These entities swirl around us every day, attempting to convince us that our wholeness isn't important, that our selves don't matter, and that boundaries are horribly cruel and selfish. No amount of scented candles can undo that damage that this sort of barrage can cause, if listened to.
How, then, do we begin?
We begin by saying "No."
To do this, we can look to one of our Ásynjur, a handmaiden by the name of Sýn. She is featured in the Gylfaginning as the one who "..guards the doors of the hall and shuts them against those that are not to enter..". Sýn is appointed at the Þing to refute false accusations, and her name means refusal or denial. She is the guardian of thresholds both literal like doors and borders, and figurative like our minds and our energy. Sýn stands in the doorway and determines who gets to come in, and who needs to keep it moving. This sense of boundaries was important to our people from the start, and is now more important than ever. The things that we let in directly affect not only us, but our family and our Folk. guarding our boundaries is not only a good idea, it is necessary to ensure a healthy Folk Soul.
As mentioned above, this mindset is not promoted in modernity, and it may take some practice. Start in your mind. Visualize a wall around you. What this wall looks like is up to you, but I use the rune Thurisaz on mine. This rune carries the energy of those boundaries that preserve us against hostile forces, as long as we remain proactive.
Pull behind your mental wall the things that you treasure. Your family. Your peace. The things that make your life run right. The hope that carries you throughout the day. Nobility. These are all of the things that your doors are open to.
Push outside of this wall whatever you don't want to allow in. Negativity, emotional drains, chaos, things that take your time up for no reason other than you let them. Your doors are shut to these things.
I like to conclude this exercise by making an offering to Sýn at my alter, with a simple prayer:
Hail Sýn! Guide us to guard ourselves Guide us to guard our Folk. Let us shut our doors to chaos, But let us open them for Hope. Hail Sýn!
You can employ breathwork, lifting, and/or physical pushing and pulling into this. Make this yours!
It is entirely up to you who you let into your home and life. Rest assured that the right decision will always be the one that preserves your whole self. A whole person is an orderly and functional person, who can then create orderly and functional things. You have the Folk at your back, and we're rooting for you!
Gyðja Anna Plourde
~ From The Runestone, April 2026 ~
