According to the Norse creation myth, at the beginning, there were three primordial realms:

• Niflheim - the world of mist and source of the Water.
• Ginnungagap - a middle area full of Emptiness.
• Muspelheim - the world of the Fire.

Some sources mentioned that Muspelheim was the first and Niflheim was created a bit later.

The middle world Midgard we live in was created during a complex sequence of events and transitions and interactions between Water and Fire happening in the middle Emptiness.

This process of world creation we reinterpret as an alchemical process that can be reproduced by practitioners in their microcosm.

Creation is the root of everything, the beginning that determines the end.
If something is mentioned in the creation myth - most likely it's very important.
We see three major "things" exist before everything: Water, Emptiness, and Fire. It's not "just elements" - they are independent forces which are playing significant roles not only at the moment of creation but during the entire lifetime of the universe.

Both Niflheim and Muspelheim were mentioned in various sources many times, but Ginnungagap was not mentioned in any other myth except at the very beginning of the creation myth.

What is mentioned in the rest of the myths is a concept of elusive but inevitable Fate to which even gods must submit. The idea of such a hidden director, who oversees the entire story from behind the scenes matches very well with the mysterious nature of Emptiness.

Considering this connection, these three primordial forces of Fire, Water, and Emptiness resonate with the Christian concept of the Trinity:

• The Father - symbolized by a burning bush, hence Fire
• The Son - symbolized by fish, which lives in the Water
• The Holy Spirit - The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.

We don't have Air yet, it waits to be created soon, but if one tries to sense the Emptiness, it's very natural to come to the metaphor of the Wind with an unknown source and destination.

This is a distinctive and very important feature of Norse mythology - it's not monistic nor dualistic.

Number three is the most important in Norse Tradition (alongside nine).

The very beginning of the universe is based on three principles:
Two opposites and something else in the center, the axis pointing upward, adding a third dimension of evolution to the flat ideal balance of duality.

Separation and Distinction

Nothing is said about what was before and we don't know what it was, but something was divided into two opposite parts and these parts were separated by the force of division and they remain separated, it means this force is still here, keeping our world from collapse back to unknown unity.

When we divide One into Two - nothing else remains, but Emptiness. If it was ever One, then One contained everything:

The upper part we call "Water"

The lower part we call "Fire."

The space in between and force that started division and keeps things separate we call "Emptiness".

These two opposites are not material water and fire we know, but something different and outside of our world, yet we can still access, feel, and interact with them.

Fire feels heavy, hot, and dense, more like lava than flame. There is an ocean of fire right below our feet, and one can feel the vibration of its power through the very soles.

The Water feels light, cool, and fluid. It feels more ethereal than the water we know, like the liquid light of stars, giving a menthol feeling when it pours onto the top of one's head.

Emptiness is not nothing but space, a source of order, just enough space to set us free.

Kenaz Rune

The separation process is represented by the rune Kenaz:

One of its meanings is "Torch," another is "Ulcer."

When you enter a dark cave, you see nothing. You can't distinguish anything in the darkness. If you bring your torch with you, the cave is lightened up, and now you can distinguish walls, obstacles, and the freeway ahead.

This separation process is the foundation of perception. It does not create anything but allows the distinguishing of one thing from another, so still, we can say perception creates the world of things.

Initially, the dark cave already has everything within, and it is holistic.

When we break down the incoming stream of universal perception into separate objects, it is a destructuring process that causes pain and longing for lost integrity.

Another meaning of this rune can be compared with a wound left by a scalpel, dissecting a whole and introducing emptiness between two parts of something that once was one.

As you see in the illustration, we place the rune onto a grid of 5 horizontal lines representing different levels or realms where energy can be or go.

The rune Kenaz has two rays beaming from the center point — upward and downward.

Niflheim is described as being in the north. In a shamanic sense, it's an upper world. Muspelheim is on the south and it's a lower world.

When we "play" this rune from left to right, we see how a single point in the center is separated into two points, which move up and down to the very top and very bottom levels. These two top and bottom levels we call the worlds of Water and Fire.

Both have their internal potential direction: Water "wants" to flow down, and Fire burns up.

The power of Kenaz keeps them apart, and you can feel this in a dualistic way:

• as the separation of the initial uniformity of darkness into two opposites,
• and as infinite zooming into the Kenaz tip, so the rays may feel static, but you, as an observer, are moving into the depths, closer and closer to the tip but never reaching it. It’s like you are moving along these rays downward.

For the world of Fire, there is a direct analogy with Muspelheim in Norse tradition. But for the world of Water, the analogy is not so straightforward.

Niflheim is not exclusively associated with Water. But we know primeval spring Hvergelmir is located there, the source of all rivers and Water from this spring is participating in the world's creation being frozen and re-melted in the process.

In the creation myth, there is another mysterious substance mentioned, yeast venom "Eitrkvikja". At some point, it's described as "hardening as a slug running out of Fire". In runic alchemy, based on practice, we believe this "yeast venom" originates not from the Water of Niflheim, but from the Fire of Niflheim and we will see later how Earth is condensed from the Fire.

Niflheim is associated with frost and Ice, and the role of Ice itself is much more complex than just being a source of Water; it is also a source of Order, as we will see later.