[ **up: [[Germanic peoples]] | [[Germanic paganism]] |[[Prophecy]]** ] --- # Seeress (Germanic) > In Germanic paganism, a seeress is a woman said to have the ability to foretell future events and perform sorcery. They are also referred to with many other names meaning “prophetess”, “staff bearer” and “sorceress”, and they are frequently called witches both in early sources and in modern scholarship. In Norse mythology the seeress is usually referred to as *völva* or *vala*.[^1] --- Practices “utiseta” (sitting out)—sitting out on the land, gazing in silence and watching the signs of nature.[^2] [^1]: ‘Seeress (Germanic’, *Wikipedia*, updated 16 March 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seeress_(Germanic). [^2]: Max Dashu, [[Dashu. 'Witches and Pagans_ Women in European Folk Religion, 700-1100', 2017.|Witches and Pagans: Women in European Folk Religion, 700-1100]] (Richmond, CA: Veleda Press, 2017), p. 80.