Stories behind 'Yawe ~The life and spirit of Being (s)'

They who love

Fria and Woen

Alja Zwierenberg

Aug 09, 2024

Hello Beautiful Ones,

Last week I found the names of the primal mother and father of my homeland; The Netherlands. Fria and Woen.

What is the importance you may think?

That's because something has been bothering me for a long time. For I was taught that my ancestors who once lived on the land I walk on, way before I was born, were barbarians. Savages who lived in the wild and for some reason I shouldn’t want to be like them.

I never felt barbaric or savage (nor someone who had sinned) ánd from a young age I was drawn to nature, to ‘the wild’. I love being in a forest, sitting under a tree, being with the animals and the plants, gazing over the meadows. To Be There.

Even now I am older I long to live in a cottage of my own in the middle of the forest. With the birds, the badgers, rabbits, foxes, deer, the fish, insects (preferably not mosquitoes), trees, bushes and flowers, with the rivers, the land and my loved ones .... In a silent conversation communicating with all living beings, listening to everything I feel and perceive. Living together with Fria and Woen.

When I was growing up it felt like forbidden ground to be in nature and to follow mine. Not that I listened... :) It created however a void inside myself that made me long for a place and space where I could be with those who ... loved me … unconditionally.

Even when I found the love of my life, I kept looking for a family, for the ones I belong to, I could recognize myself in and feel at home with.

This week I learned that Fria means vrij ~vrije, in English; free. The content of the word however didn’t mean having a day of or being able to do whatever one wishes. It means; she who loves.

Woen is related to Wuodan, Wodan and also Odin of the Norse Mythology. To the word ‘woede’ and in Dutch he was named; De Razende. In English this means nowadays ‘he who is in a rage’ and he would be seen as aggressive, someone who has lost his mind.

In essence aggression is a natural energy that is focused on, seeks rapprochement to and comes out; to connect and act. It takes care for life, preserves and protects it, enabling everyone to take their space and place in life. By nature the ego functions to direct this energy of aggression to serve life out of love for it.

When a threat is sensed and life is in danger the ego will do everything within its power to prevent life from being harmed, influenced or attacked. To prevent the state of life from changing and turning into a vulnerable one.

A state in which many are (mostly unconsciously) living in because of unhealed trauma’s. Not knowing how to handle their own struggle and pains other than projecting them onto others, making them responsible for something they have no part in. Thereby making life unsafe and insecure for them as well, following a narrow minded ego that uses aggression to survive instead of becoming alive.

It seems to be an easy way out, being convinced of one’s right to blame, shame and hate others instead of taking the courageous way to discover what happened once to themselves that numbed them, so they don’t feel and have to deal with the fact of once being ashamed, blamed and hated themselves. This all to avoid a confrontation with the void inside themselves. It’s a painful reality serving no one.

Besides this, as I interpret the word ‘razen’ it can also mean spinning around … in a dance. A skill Sufis try to master in order to experience a silence in which one can connect with and open up to receive a universal wisdom of life.

When Fria and Woen form a unity, complementing each other in the duality they live in, and in my experience everyone has a Fria (feminine) and a Woen (masculine) living inside oneself (active or still asleep), the ego is firmly grounded in a trust in life itself, is loved and open minded, life can be lived in a respectful freedom. In sovereignty. In harmony and peace with (every one’s) nature.

This doesn't mean that there will be an absence of struggle and pain.

On the contrary, the point is that the narratives of life are deeply understood. From the awareness that struggles and pains are messengers that can be guides as well, letting one know that the track that’s followed leads to more struggle and pain and one needs to find a way back. To heal and grow by becoming aware of what is still lingering in subconsciousness and bring it into consciousness.

Into the light so that its true form can be seen. Visible in the emotions and thoughts that keep the struggle and pain alive through one’s own actions, until insights in inner needs and one’s being heal the pain at its deepest level and what kept it alive is no longer needed. So that one can face life with an open mind again. Respecting one's nature and caring for it with love and attention.

Life skills Fria and Woen mastered and which made them visionaries, healers, poets and oracles. True leaders, standing for justice, who invited others to keep the space and place in which they lived pristine clean and to honor and respect those they lived with, so everyone could exist from their own intrinsic nature and follow it.

Becoming aware of who my far, far, far away ancestors, my family, really were fills the void in me and while my physical body is groaning and moaning, going through the healing season of menopause, my inner-self is slowly moving into a dance ...

Perhaps I should rename ‘Yawe’ and call it ‘Fria and Woen, They who love’ to honor them whose stories have faded away into oblivion … kept vivid alive by the ones who are still in touch with the tellings of life and whose bodies are well aware of the difference between a life truth and illusive thoughts.

How beautiful can life be!

With love,

Alja