Reviews
Caitlin Matthews
Freya Aswynn’s remarkable formation and career is richly revealed in this unsparing autobiography, which must be seen as the pathway of a spiritual explorer. Many people assume that the topic for which an author is famous was fully-developed from birth onwards, but the truth is nearer to Freya’s own account. The main inspiration may arise, but it has to be hunted and pursued through a variety of turns in the labyrinth until the very centre is discovered. Such a heroic refinement of experience is Freya’s path.
Freya survived both a deeply-flawed family, and confinement in a narrow orphanage to emerge to the great sprawling slew of esoteric experimentation which typified the 70s and 80s. This was a zone where the spiritual search was played out against a smorgasbord of traditions – some less firmly screwed into the earth than others. And all this against the backdrop of the lifting of formal social constraints and the great loosening of sexual mores. Freya had her fair share of fellow companions in her quest ‘for the place just right’ who were, as yet, undeveloped human beings, while several others who were sexually predatory. Such people often affected a pagan seeker’s disguise as a stepping stone to more abuse – something that can be found littering every spiritual path and approach. However, Freya also discovered good companions, and excellent teachers – some of whom we, incidentally, share: Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki, Diana Paxson, and Daan van Kampenhout, who have also helped me steer my own path.
I recognised very many of the individuals and groups that Freya encountered or worked with in the landscape that she walked through, as well as remembering the stumbling blocks of poor teaching, colonial attitudes, and unhappy experiences that were hard to avoid during this period. However, Freya remained strong and undaunted in her search, realising that the folk soul of Europe was incomplete without its Friesian and Northern complement – which is also her own heritage.
All spiritual seekers in the 70s and 80s were more likely to encounter aspects of the Western Mysteries, as defined by the school of Dion Fortune. The teaching of these were reformulated and redefined considerably over the late 20th century, shaking off the often racist overtones of Theosophy, but these mysteries held centre stage mainly for one reason. The exclusion of the Northern-West European Mysteries of the Low Countries and Scandinavia remained locked in a forbidden room, due to the catastrophe of the Second World War and its outcomes. No-one wanted to touch the Northern Mysteries with a bargepole, because of their commandeering and misuse by the Nazis.
As Daan van Kampenhout has clearly shown in his excellent book, The Tears of the Ancestors, the Nazi appropriation of the North Western European gods for their own vile purposes, very purposefully slewed the tradition of gods of hearth and home, and left out the female divinities entirely, to pursue a solely war-like agenda, where might and supremacy was the chief purpose. Anyone approaching the Northern Traditions in the post-war period was suspect – sometimes with good reason – as some right-wing groups had been confused or enthused by the Nazi representations of that tradition, and there were just a few lone teachers brave enough to reveal the tradition for its true wisdom, without that awful overlay.
Freya fought her way through this ring-fence of forbidden research, being truly led by the wise gods for whose lore she has come to be so well-loved and respected. That she did so at great cost to herself and her life and comfort, has to be acknowledged by all who know her work. It cleared the way for all who followed.
Every ancient tradition cannot just be visited like a day-tripper. The detritus of the European Christian conversion – like any interrupted tradition – always comes with fear, pain and distrust which litter the hinterland behind us – we each have to come to terms with what we have lost, as well as what can be recovered and lived. Anyone who thinks otherwise is fooling themselves. Yet the ancestral mothers and fathers still abide and uphold us: as they regard us, so we are strengthened and brought home.
To this end, Freya has included meditations and pathworkings in her book that will lead the reader deeper into the spiritual terrain of the Northern Traditions in ways that will guide truly.
Walking with Odin is not an easy book, but I recommend it to all those for whom she has cleared the ground. It is the life-account of a true seeker. In a time of cosy New Age, Tik-Tok spirituality, Freya stands out as the honest practitioner who forged her way into the depths of Odin’s sacrifice, with the like same aim – to bring knowledge to the Earth. I am moved by her book. I’m also very grateful for the opportunity to bear witness to her life and work. The title of the book becomes very clearly and literally true, shining out as the reader rounds the end of this biography: the looking back is awesome, but the looking forward is prophecy.
Loren Morris
I came to Walking with Wodan already knowing Freya Aswynn by reputation and I’ve/am taking her Circle of Aswynn rune classes. She endorsed my own book on cord magic, called me a Nornic Priestess, and I have happily carried that with me ever since. But reading this book cover to cover gave me something different, it gave me the person behind the legend.
What I noticed most about Freya is something I don’t see often enough in our community: she changes, and she grows. She looks back at who she was and who she’s becoming and she doesn’t flinch from either one. In a world where so many people dig into their early opinions and defend them like fortresses, Freya just… keeps walking, and keeps learning. That character trait alone makes this book worth reading.
Her life story is not a comfortable one. She survived a childhood that would have broken most people, came up through the Dutch care system, taught herself the runes through sheer devotion and gnosis, and built one of the most influential bodies of work in modern Northern tradition. She was largely an outsider, largely alone, largely in spite of people who should have known better, and she tells all of it without self-pity and without sugarcoating. That’s a rare thing, and something that I definitely admire.
The interviews in this book are where I found myself underlining almost every page. Her thoughts on Wyrd alone are worth the price of admission, because she understands it not as fixed fate but as a blueprint with crossroads, and that distinction matters if you work with the runes. Her description of how the runes first came to her, that experience of them downloading into her energy field during a reading, and then making twenty-four moon cakes and eating one each night in Futhark order while journaling, that’s not academic runic study, it’s a living devotion, learning experience that surpasses anything formal.
Her voice throughout this amazing book is completely unfiltered. She is funny, blunt, occasionally profane, and always honest. When she’s done with something she says so. When something matters to her deeply you feel it on the page.
I feel lucky to know this woman. And I feel lucky this book exists. If you work with the Norse and Germanic traditions in any capacity, or if you’re simply someone who wants to read about a life genuinely and fiercely lived in service to something larger than oneself, this is the book for you.
Christopher McIntosh
Hi Friends, I would like to share my thoughts on a remarkable autobiography that I have just read, namely Walking with Wodan by Freya Aswynn (Oxford, UK, Mandrake, 2025). I first met Freya back in the 1970s and 80s when we were both neighbours in Tufnell Park, north London, and both involved in various esoteric groups that met in people’s flats in and around that part of town. Freya, whom I then knew as Ellie, had been through a horrific childhood in Holland, partly in her severely dysfunctional family and partly in a brutal children’s home. Compelled by an invincible inner drive, she embarked on a spiritual quest, which led her, via the Rosicrucian organization AMORC and the neo-witchcraft group of Alex Sanders, to the runes, the Edda and the world of the Nordic gods, which became her life’s path. By then she had settled in England. Later she moved to Scotland and then to Spain, where she now lives.
Freya is now known world-wide for her books such as Leaves of Yggdrasil, her lectures and workshops, and her performances with various pop groups, incorporating the chanting of runes and the recitation of passages from the Edda as well as her own poetry. Her remarkable life’s journey is vividly described in Walking with Wodan, which stands out as a fine example of the genre of spiritual autobiography.
The book includes an appendix with essays, pathworkings, reflections on the Nordic path and advice to those who would follow it
Joe Manning
A powerful story of pain, sacrifice, and victory on the magical path.
Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2026
Format: Kindle
I purchased the ebook of “Walking with Wodan”earlier this week and couldn’t put it down.
This book is a powerful and beautiful story of pain, sacrifice, and victory. I was glued to every page.
Following her personal story, this book includes several esoteric articles authored by Freya, a true expert on the Northern Mysteries. These articles alone could have been a separate book worth the same price of purchase all by itself. With the autobiography and these magical gems together, this book is truly a value buy.
I give “Walking with Wodan” my highest recommendation!
Killer Zoo
An authentic biography of a one of a kind priestess.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 February 2026
Format: Kindle Edition
It takes great courage to live authentically these days and Freya is one of the free that has and continued to live an inspiring and totally authentic life.
To share her journey in such an eloquent and uncompromising way takes more than courage it takes gigantic balls of steel!!
For those who want to know what it is really like to live a life dedicated to the Gods and to give everything you have to the people around you and the greater heathen community, and how much it really costs to do so, then this is the book for you. The good, the best and the ugly in a nutshell.
Freya you are truly one of a kind and I am honoured to share your journey.
Brian
5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome insight and powerful read 👍
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 February 2026
Verified Purchase
Walking Walking with Wodan comes across as a raw, unfiltered spiritual autobiography .
Walking with Wodan stands as a powerful contribution to contemporary Northern spiritual literature—part confession, part magical record, part cultural history. Its emotional honesty and devotional depth make it memorable, while its insider perspective on the modern pagan revival gives it lasting value. For anyone interested in the intersection of myth, magic, and lived experience, it’s a compelling and important read.
Lawrence Brightman
This book is a very readable yet thorough view of the personal, magickal and creative facets of Freya Aswynn’s complex and difficult life. She reveals these facets from her early childhood to recent times, in utmost honesty and candour. I find it all fascinating. There is a complete list of all of her creative output over the years in written form, musical output and personal appearances. The extensive appendices themselves are valuable for their explanations of esoteric aspects of Asatru, and of its relationships with other paths. These appendices could constitute a small book on their own. Freya wanted to set the record straight about many things – she does so in all honesty and in her own pithy manner.
Wendylana
5.0 out of 5 stars Best Autobiography
Rated in the United States on March 17, 2026
Format: KindleVerified Purchase
I have always been a fan of the works of Freya Aswyn so I was already excited to learn more about this Author. This autobiography does not disappoint. This honest and raw autobiography is a walk through Freya’s journey, written in such a passionate and detailed way to bring the reader right onto the path next to her, watching the events of her journey in true color. This journey is raw- honest- sometimes tragic but always inspiring- you will find yourself cheering for Freya as she faces the challenges in her life and invested immediately in the book from the first page. This is the most honest Autobiography I’ve ever read.
Irina Scott
For me, Walking with Wodan by Freya Aswyn, is more than a biography. It reads as a confession of a strong woman whose life has met with hardship. Yet the pain born of human cruelty did not break her — it tempered her. As the saying goes, what does not break us makes us stronger. Only through inner strength can one endure harsh trials, preserve the soul, and become who we now recognize Freya to be. This story is not about evil or revenge, but about inner strength and the unfolding of a path. It is the journey of a person who was neither broken nor embittered, but who came into this world with a quiet sense of purpose. Her book is also a message to those who step onto the path of occult knowledge. Freya gently lifts the veil, revealing that this path is not an easy one; it is often marked by loss, sacrifice, and a price that must be paid. The pursuit of knowledge asks for its due — such are the laws of the universe. Freya, we see today is one of profound inner strength — a teacher who shares her knowledge, an independent and integral voice. She speaks with honesty, does not bend, is unafraid to remain herself, and stays true to her path. May Walking with Wodan find a long and luminous life, meeting its readers at the right moment and awakening in them not only knowledge, but also a quiet curiosity for what lies beyond the familiar.
Olivia Sol
A compelling autobiography by a truly remarkable woman – Freya Aswynn is an awe-inspiring woman whose autobiography I have been awaiting to read, having received a reading from her that was highly accurate and helpful in a practical sense. In the same vein, her book offers her life story (that has made my respect for her grow even greater) as well as hands-on advice in the addendum of how to connect with the Divine, and concise information about the runes. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Paganism away from the New Age paradigm, and wishes to connect more deeply with the Northern tradition in particular. Freya is an absolute treasure, and her immense strength and resilience in the face of harshness that would be insurmoutable to others, leaves the reader with tremendous admiration for a truly remarkable woman, and profound insights into magic(k) and occultism. I’d give it 10 stars if I could.
Anonymous
A lot of modern pagans/heathens don’t know the debt they owe to people like Freya Aswynn.
They laid the groundwork for us all that enabled us to walk this Germanic path with ready information at hand.
They had to dig deep to find the insights and understanding of the Gods, the runes, the mythology and beyond, that we all benefit from today.
Walking with Wodan An Autobiography by Freya is a testament to this fact and journey a no holding back book that covers all aspects of Freya’s transformation from a troubled painful childhood to rune mistress and priestess of Odin.
Much respect and admiration a great informative read.
Full of wit and wisdom..