The folk magic of thriving, protection, and calling in ancestors through wheat and other cereal crops.
The Oro (Swedish), Takkrona (Swedish), Halmkrona (Finnish), or Himmeli (Finnish) is a traditional Scandinavian straw mobile made around the winter or summer solstice. They are fairly easy to make and can be a wonderful offering as a spirit house for the ancestors or it can be a thriving and protection spell for the home and family. It generally symbolizes the wheel and the sun turning, being a potent symbol of the cycles of time present in our lives.
Traditionally, the oro is made from the last wheat or barley harvest. The last harvest is thought to hold all of the power, luck, and benefit of the entire year’s harvest. Typically, the last harvest is kept and made into amulets and other talismanic items to transfer the luck of the harvest into the next year. These items are typically used in protection and blessing spells of different kinds, the himmeli is one example of this. Saving the last harvest is a practice present across many Northern European cultures, not just Scandinavia.
It is thought that as the himmeli turns, it turns luck and blessing into the house. It was also used as a spirit house for ancestors during the high holidays (Jul, Easter, St Lucy’s, Midsommar, etc). It could alternatively be used as a spirit trap or used to deflect ill luck.
In addition to using wheat or barley in your oro, you may also use red felted wool, beads, paper streamers, leaves, flowers, and other things that will move and turn when hung. In the photo above, you can see the maker of this oro also threaded mica alongside colored felt. The mica is reflective and bright when light hits it, including this material in your himmeli could be a potent way to deflect negative energy. Painted, gold-gilded, and plain hollowed eggs are also a common addition to an oro, as you can see in the photo below. Eggs can be used to symbolize fertility and abundance in your spell. Some modern practitioners will also place photos of beloved dead in the oro.
Once your himmeli is made, I recommend either dedicating the object to either be a spirit house for the ancestors & other helping spirits (plant spirits, fair folk, angels, etc.) or dedicating it to being a thriving and/or protection spell.
These are typically created around high holidays, most notably Midsommar and Jul, however, you can make yours at any time. They are also continuously added to overtime, becoming a living work of art and spell that you are actively building throughout many years. This is why some himmelis can be very large and ornate.
Typically an oro or himmeli would be hung by a single strand of a woman’s hair, which I find to be a really wonderful symbolism and energy to work with. I can confirm it does work and hair is strong enough to hold a fairly large mobile, so I encourage you to try to hang it this way. Himmelli is usually placed close to the ceiling in a place of prominence in the home, I like to hang mine over the dinner table.
If you do not grow wheat or barley, you can either purchase wheat online for crafting, or you can harvest tall grasses, rushes, or other hollow-stemmed plants to make an oro.
Enjoy and happy Wintertide.
For personal lessons on Trolldom, and Nordic folk magic feel free to reach out to me directly at hayley@hazelwoodhealing.com
Written by Hayley Huston, folk magic practitioner, and heritage educator
Photos courtesy of the Dalarna Museum
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