“Hammer in the North, hallow and hold this stead
Hammer in the East, hallow and hold this stead
Hammer in the South, hallow and hold this stead
Hammer in the West, hallow and hold this stead.”
Many who have practiced heathenry are familiar with these words, often spoken at the beginning of Ásatrú rituals. This invocation is used to consecrate and sanctify the ground, dedicating it as a sacred space. But how well do we understand the deeper origins of this practice?
To understand the act of consecration, we must first grasp its purpose. It is a form of ritual cleansing—purging a space of the mundane and making it sacred, worthy of honor and reverence.
In Germanic heathenry, fire plays a central role in this process. As a primal element, fire is eternal, existing throughout time and space. From the mythic clash of fire and ice in the Ginnungagap, fire is a force of creation, giving rise to life itself. At the same time, fire embodies destruction, as seen in Ragnarök, where it purifies the world of corruption. Through fire, the profane is cleansed, and what remains is consecrated.
“Those who came out later on deemed that the former settlers had appropriated too extensive lands to themselves; but King Harald made them agree to this, that no man should appropriate more land to himself than he and his ship’s crew could carry fire across in one day. They should make fires when the sun was rising in the east (and also smokes should be raised to give them an idea of each other’s bearings) but the fires they made in the east were to burn until nightfall, meantimes they should walk (carrying fire) until the sun reached the west, and there they were to make other fires (which with the fires they had made in the morning were to form the bounds of the landtake).”
Landnamabók (V.1)
“Gotland was first discovered by a man named Þielvar. At that time the island was so bewitched that it sank by day and rose up at night. That man, however, was the first that brought fire to the island, and afterwards it never sank again.”
Gutasaga ch. 1
Thus, when we hallow the space, we are using this ancient element. Fire, in its eternal and transformative nature, burns away impurity and sets the foundation for sacred ground, a place of power and respect in the eyes of both gods and men.
The idea of calling to the corners is found in Christian text when it is said that ” Among the surviving records of the Angelic Operations is A Book of Supplications and Invocations which “deals with the Invocation of the Angels who preside over the Four Quarters of the Terrestrial sphere.” It was later utilized by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which became the centralized method of concentrating for esoteric practices and Wicca.
In Nordic tradition, Austri, Vestri, Norðri and Suðri are dwarves that hold up the sky as we are told in Gylfaginning:
” They took his [Ymir’s] skull also, and made of it the heaven, and set it up over the earth with four corners; and under each corner they set a dwarf: the names of these are East, West, North, and South.”
While some may argue that honoring the dwarves for upholding the sky is a meaningful gesture, this is not a method of consecration. We strongly recommend utilizing the examples from our lore and the primal elements when creating sacred space.
-Kyle