Orlæg & The Wyrd of Wortcunning
One of my favorite concepts that comes from ancient Wortcunning traditions, specifically those of Anglo-Saxon Heathenry, is orlæg. This term is steeped in mystery, full of power, and packed with answers to many of our biggest ‘why’ questions when it comes to the practice of herbalism and the quest for whole-person wellness. In this post I’d like to touch on what orlæg is, look at how it influences our hælu (whole-person health), and explore how wortcunning practices can engage directly with it and with another related power, wyrd.
What Is Orlæg?
While existing ancestral wisdom around this concept is spare, I think we have a mostly clear idea of what orlæg (pronounced like or-lay) is- especially since what we know makes a lot of sense and answers a whole lot of questions!
When we come into this life, each of us has a physical body and to some degree a personality. We also have a full complex of situations into which we are born- the location, culture, society, language, economy, etc. Ultimately, we did nothing to choose any of these things, nor did we perform specific actions that led to these things being the way they are- so how do we end up with the life we start with?
Orlæg is made up of two separate ancient words:
Or = origin, original
Læg = law, lay, what has been laid
When put together, we see that orlæg is the original lay, or the origin law of our being. It is the pattern that we emerge into in this life- what’s playing when we show up to the party. Three influences pour into the original lay that defines what we’re born into:
1 - the people who came before us; ancestors of blood, land, and tradition
2 - the people who birthed us; our parents and close relatives
3 - the immediate world into which we are born
The basket into which we are received at birth contains the patterns we start working with from our first breath.
Sometimes, for some people, this is quit fortuitous- other times not. We get healthy bodies, we get bodies with disease patterns already in process. We get good families, we get problematic families. We get good socio-economic situations, we get poor ones. Again, we did nothing to create this, not now and not in whatever life we may have had before. This pattern is neither random nor is it somehow our own creation. It is the point within the great web of life into which we emerged as we are for this life.
Form the moment we take our first breaths in this life we are experiencing our orlæg. It defines so much of what we come into, it would be an epic task to list out every aspect of how it manifests.
Something that’s very important when considering this concept is that orlæg is what we start with, not what we end up with. This is the first pattern, the one that gets the ball rolling. From this platform, we make all of the choices and take all of the actions that then become our wyrd, our manifest reality. As we grow, the influence of orlæg falls into the background as our foundation while we venture out to create a life for ourselves based on how we show up in the world and in our own beings.
Each thing we do- every thought, action, and word, becomes part of the water that feeds the tree of our lives. What we do now defines what is possible for us in the future. Orlæg starts us off on this path, then we begin to take over as we make more and more conscious, intentional choices which influence what the next steps of our life become. This is wyrd (pronounced like ‘weird’). It is what reality is now, what is emerging now, what is coming to fruition. Wyrd is this moment, these experiences, this unfolding. The wyrd we live now is a fertile soil into which we plant the seeds of tomorrow’s wyrd.
So, how can wortcunning help address an orlæg that carries on into our lives and is problematic for us? How can we approach things like ancestral illness, family toxicity, unconscious patterns, and self-depreciating behaviors?
In our traditional healing practices, namely Wortcunning, we have two approaches that help us work on things like orlæg and wyrd…
Me meet people where they are, who they are, how they are. There is no expectation that someone be ‘ready’ for the process or change in any way before engaging with the medicine. This is real come as you are type stuff!
We treat what we see. What is emerging now, how you feel now, and what patterns you are experiencing now are where we start the medicine. Getting to the root of things is always a goal, it’s on the back-burner. What your body and souls show us right now, in this moment, are the omen we follow in constructing formulas, protocols, and rituals.
This meeting of person as they are and in this moment allows us to interact with orlæg at its most current expression- meeting it at the moment of manifestation and addressing how it’s showing up for the person now. Trying to do this in reverse is rarely helpful- treating who you were ate age one rather than who you are now, is a scattered kind of medicine. We can go back through the timeline and nourish that part of you, but the past is ultimately unchangeable.
By working on what is showing up now and how it’s showing up, we start to soften, unwind, and loosen the patterns of orlæg that persist. This offers three powerful boons:
The individual gets relief from their experiences and starts to feel better and feel more hopeful.
The kinds of things the person does which influences what they’re capable of in the future moves into more empowered and harmonious states.
They change the way their own orlæg affects those who come after them.
To me, this is incredibly valuable. Being able to address existing patterns as they show up now with the intent of helping the person feel better, live better, and create better.
The many blessings of Wortcunning ways from herbalism to ritual, galdor to the celebration of seasonal tides, each bring us closer and closer into contact with ourselves so that we can plant good seeds now and harvest good food later.
Ár ond Frið,
Josh
