The earliest known record of this tradition, known as årsgång in Sweden, dates back to the 1600s. Initially, its description sounds like something akin to the idea of lucid dreaming but, in reality, the walker is very much awake... and for some, that can either be a good thing or a bad thing.

This 'year walk' is rooted deeply in Swedish mythology and is no walk through the park. Rather, it's a solitary walk through a dark wood, usually with the goal of reaching either a church or a cemetery by the end of one's stroll. Swedish mythology conjures up images similar to Alice's walk through the forest in Alice in Wonderland only with less friendly encounters for many and a certain set of guidelines that must be followed, lest the walker experience the consequences for their broken silence.

The Clock Starts At Midnight

The årsgång is also referred to as the 'omen walk' as the intention is to foretell details about the year to come. It's believed that this type of divination opens the walker up to all things mystical, according to Norse mythology, and can reveal whether or not a person can expect good blessings, misfortune, or even new opportunities. While the ritual may differ now as many opt to take a regular walk at sunrise rather than a stroll through a dark forest at night, during the times when mythology was a guiding force, this walk had a much darker and slightly wicked feel to it.

In an article written by Imelda Almqvist, an international teacher of Norse Shamanism and Fornsidr, the author recounts a passage by the USC Digital Folklore Archives that details the tradition and it's very specific requirements. As told by the archives, a person must first make sacrifices before starting their walk by means of three things. The first is to perform the ritual on a specific night, one of which would be either Christmas night or the last night before the new year, preferably at midnight although some have started at the winter solstice. The second sacrifice is that of light and human interaction - the walker was required to sit alone inside a dark room for the entire day prior to the ritual. If you're thinking that this would already make a person nervous and hyperaware, you'd be correct. In an effort to encourage spiritual connection, the notion of cutting a person off from their ability to speak to others, or at all, and shielding them from the world of daylight was intended to do just that.

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Lastly, the walker was expected to do something unimaginable to many people. After leaving the darkened room, they were to leave at midnight and head straight for the town's church, walking in a counterclockwise direction around it once they'd arrived. After that, they'd perform a smaller ritual of blowing into the keyhole of the church while denouncing their faith, temporarily, for the sake of being open to the world of spirits in the hopes of witnessing their future foretold.

What Walkers Would See During Their Walk

Knowing this, it's almost unsurprising that those carrying out this ritual would have reported seeing strange and, quite frankly, terrifying things in the woods. One of those such creatures was referred to as the brook-horse, known as bäckahäst in Sweden. While a horse sounds harmless enough, the tale does start out that way: The brook-horse would appear in the woods and offer rides to children and for each child who mounted the horse, its back would grow longer and longer. When the children had been collected, the horse would dive into a nearby lake, taking their souls with it. In a similarly wicked way, the huldra is another creature walkers would encounter, although she took the shape of a beautiful woman, able to lure people in with her beauty. However, once she did this, one of two things would happen: She would either marry them or kill them, also taking their souls for her own.

While traversing the woods and following a rather frightful journey, the walker was eventually expected to come back to the church. There, they would peer into the church windows in anticipation of seeing their future foretold in its glass pane. Anything they witnessed within the glass was meant to be foretelling of the future, even if it only appeared as symbolic. After this, the walker would reclaim their faith having resisted the temptations of all the forest creatures who tried to persuade them. According to the archives, the ritual was as scary as it sounds - it's claimed that some lost their lives while others lost their sanity, not all who made it back able to reconcile who they were with who they'd become.

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