A new vision of the realms of Northern spirituality
In the cosmology of Northern Europe, Midgard, Innangard, and Utangard describe three distinct aspects of existence — not just as places, but as frameworks for understanding order, chaos, and the space in between. Each offers insight into how humans live, relate, and encounter both the known and the unknown.
Innangard and Utangard are old cultural and spiritual distinctions — within the fence and outside it — that speak to our experience of belonging, safety, danger, and transformation. They are symbolic and psychological landscapes that map how we understand home, identity, and the wild.
Midgard, by contrast, is a cosmological construct — the “middle enclosure” created by the gods. It was not just a dwelling place for humanity but a purposefully designed boundary and bridge: a liminal space between the divine order of Asgard and the chaotic freedom of Jotunheim. In myth, it holds the line between realms, and yet also touches both — making it a place of tension, choice, and potential.
In this article, we explore how a new vision of Midgard — one brought through in seership and ceremony — offers a deeper invitation: to understand Midgard not only as a boundary but as a negotiated space. A realm of becoming where we can meet the other, bridge difference, and remember what it means to create together.
footnotes from the sage
In some surviving traditions, including Christianised rites, we can still glimpse echoes of this cosmology. The blessing of water over a newborn child, still present in baptism or christening rituals, was originally an act of welcoming the soul into Innangard — recognising them as part of the tribe. Until that moment, the child’s spirit was seen to dwell in the wild, untethered realm of Utangard.
These realms were never meant as moral absolutes. Utangard is not evil — it is the place of becoming through fire, storm, and strangeness. And Innangard is not always safe — it can become a prison if its rules deny the soul. In magical and spiritual practice, we often move between these realms. We seek refuge and community in Innangard; we go into retreat or vision quest in Utangard. But these are not binaries — they are dynamic polarities, and much of our work lies in moving between them.
Midgard: The Bridge Realm
If Innangard and Utangard form the poles — the inner and the outer — then Midgard is the living road between them. Often translated as “Middle Earth,” Midgard is sometimes misunderstood as simply the mortal realm, a mundane place distinct from the divine or mythic. But in this emerging vision, Midgard becomes something far more sacred and complex: a negotiated realm — a bridge forged between opposites.
In the lore, Midgard was created by the gods from the body of the primordial giant Ymir — a being of great potential, chaos, and ancestral power. The Aesir fashioned the world from Ymir’s bones, blood, and breath, crafting a realm bounded by a great wall to protect it from the raw forces of Jotunheim. But what emerged was not a copy of divine order, nor a rejection of wildness — it was a space where both could co-exist, in tension and dialogue.
During the graduate ceremony of Yggdrasil’s Path, a powerful message came through from Odin — a vision that reshaped our understanding of this realm. He revealed that Midgard was designed as a third space: not Innangard, not Utangard, but something altogether different. A realm where neither the Aesir nor the Jotnar hold dominion — where the rules are not fixed, but must be forged anew each day through mutual respect, shared responsibility, and conscious collaboration.
But Odin also warned that humanity has forgotten this third space. We are quick to label — to place others as either “belonging” (Innangard) or “excluded” (Utangard) based on our own comfort, culture, or conditioning. The art of Midgard — the practice of staying in relationship across difference — has been lost. We seek to rule, or to avoid being ruled. We forget that the work of Midgard is to walk together, not as dominators or outcasts, but as co-creators of a shared reality.
To walk in Midgard is to choose the harder path — the path of presence, humility, and negotiation. It is to stay in conversation when we would rather withdraw. It is to let go of certainty and meet one another in the flux. It is to recognise that the realms themselves are not fixed, but shaped by how we engage with them. Innangard becomes rigid if we use it to exclude. Utangard becomes wounding if we cast others out. Midgard, if we abandon it, becomes a battlefield. But when we honour Midgard as sacred ground, we find the alchemy of transformation.
🧭 Reflection:
What would it mean to walk in Midgard — not just live in it? What if this realm was not the space we leave behind on our spiritual path, but the very place we are called to bring our magic, our presence, and our willingness to build something new?
Walking the realms as a living practice
In our alumni ceremony for Yggdrasil’s Path, we journeyed through each of these realms — Innangard, Utangard, and Midgard — guided by the runes, the spirits, and our own deep seeing. Each participant brought back unique insight: visions of hearth and welcome, encounters with wild mentors, and experiences of Midgard as a space of flux, learning, and creative tension.
The work of the ceremony was profound, but it does not end there. These realms live within and around us always. They are not only mythic or energetic territories — they are patterns of perception, ways we make sense of the world and our place in it.
Too often, we fall into the trap of dividing experience into two categories:
➤ Innangard: safe, known, like-us, trustworthy
➤ Utangard: unsafe, unknown, other, dangerous
But this binary thinking flattens the richness of our world. It cuts us off from potential allies, learning opportunities, and spaces of transformation. It turns difference into threat and excludes the possibility of co-creation.
So how can we begin to honour Midgard in our daily lives?
🌀 Signs you (or someone else) is caught in the Innangard/ Utangard binary:
- Categorising people or places quickly as “with me” or “against me”
- Dismissing unfamiliar ideas without exploration
- Avoiding spaces or relationships that challenge your worldview
- Applying opaque, tacit rules for community gate-keeping
- Assuming harmony requires sameness
- Resisting anything that feels like change or a disruption to the status quo
🧭 Practices to reclaim Midgard:
– Pause and notice when you’re tempted to label — ask instead, what bridge could be built here?
– Explore discomfort with curiosity rather than retreat
– Practice rituals of welcome and mutual gifting, even in small ways
– Remember that conflict can be generative when held with respect
– Keep asking: What does this space ask of me? What does it offer to become?
The realms of Innangard, Utangard and Midgard are not fixed destinations — they are living landscapes we help to shape. In every encounter, every conversation, every choice to listen or reach across difference, we participate in the weaving of the worlds.
Let’s learn to walk the bridge.
✨ Begin Your Own Journey
If this exploration has stirred something in you — a sense of recognition, longing, or the call to step more fully into the weave of the worlds — you are warmly invited to begin your own journey into the wisdom of the Nine Worlds.
Yggdrasil’s Path is an intensive, small group programme rooted in Northern European magical tradition. Together, we open the gateways to the realms of the World Tree through ritual, journeying, story, and deep personal work.
The programme is hosted within the still-birthing online space of Midgard — a co-created, evolving container where we honour difference, practice sovereignty, and walk the bridge between worlds.
📚 References
Byock, Jesse L. Viking Age Iceland. University of California Press, 2001.
An exploration of law, kinship, and the social concepts of innangard and utangard in early Icelandic society.
Gardeła, Leszek. The Norse Sorceress: Mind and Materiality in the Viking World. Oxbow Books, 2021.
A study of magic, cosmology, and shamanic practice in the Norse world — useful for modern magical interpretation.
Hastrup, Kirsten. Culture and History in Medieval Iceland: An Anthropological Analysis of Structure and Change. Oxford University Press, 1985.
Provides context on cultural structure, liminality, and the lived cosmology of the Norse people.
Larrington, Carolyne (Trans.). The Poetic Edda. Oxford World’s Classics, Oxford University Press, 2014.
One of my favourite translations of Norse mythological poems that detail the Nine Worlds, the creation of Midgard, and the roles of gods and giants.
North, Richard. Heathen Gods in Old English Literature. Cambridge University Press, 1997.
A historical study on how pre-Christian beliefs and rites, including transitional rites like water blessings, were transformed in early Christian contexts.
Simek, Rudolf. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. Trans. Angela Hall. D.S. Brewer, 1993.
A comprehensive reference tool for understanding mythological names, places, and concepts across the Norse tradition.
A great on-line resource is Norse Mythology for Smart People https://norse-mythology.org/
