Mother Holle

The best known story of Mother Holle survives through Grimms Fairytales. It is the tale of a stepmother, a good stepdaughter, a lazy daughter and Mother Holle!

She rewards hardworking, industrious women, but the flip side of that - laziness - is NOT tolerated. Mother Holle loves a well made bed and a properly kept home.

The origins of Mother Holle (also known as Hulda, Holda, and Halle) are Norse. She is associated with several major deities, including Hel, Frigg and Hertha. Aspects attributed to her can be gentle and beneficial, but, like any good mother, she has a disciplinarian side.

Some sources date Hulda possibly to Neolithic times. Before Odin, Thor and Freya, it is possible she was there. Presiding as a supreme goddess over birth, death and reincarnation.

In her Dark Grandmother and the White Lady aspects, she is the one who gathers the children who die as infants into her arms.

Mother Holle is connected to wells, spinning, and weather. She rides a wagon and taught humankind linen making from flax. To this day , a common expression in the town of Hesse, when it snows, is “Hulda is making her bed.”

Mother Holle is a fascinating Goddess and deserves a closer examination and our respect. Please come by the Temple to honor this wonderful, complex Goddess.