Finnish Mythology: Concept of The Three Souls

Three souls

Concept of three souls is something that can be found from the ancient belief system from all people who have spoken uralic languages. Idea that outside our physical body people had two other souls. First soul for the ancient Finns was body soul ruumissielu/löyly. Löyly was all the functions of the body. Like the heartbeat and breathing. It was believed that person was born into their body soul from the first moment when they catched their breath to the day they died and took their last breath. Similar words to löyly can be found from different finno-ugric languages. In Hungarian löyly is lelek which means both spirit and soul. In Estonian löyly is leil and it means life and spirit. In northern Saami word liewl means spirit, steam, soul and breathing. In Komi language word lol means soul and life. Ruumissielu the body soul was attached to person´s body and when body soul left then the person would die.  (In modern Finnish language löyly refers to the steam that rises when you throw water into the sauna stove).

Second soul was itse the self. Itse is more closer to the concept of psyche and it was also known as vapaasielu the free soul. Itse was persona, the identity of the person. There was many ways itse could attach itself to the body. It was believed that itse would become part of the person when child was accepted as part of the family. This usually happened during the naming ritual. Concept of itse was tightly connected to the family and the community. For example among the Saami people child who had a name also had the right to own reindeers.

​Concept of the three souls is also connected to the belief for re-carnation. People often named their children after their ancestors and passed away relatives. There was belief that ancestor´s itse would recarnate itself in the child. Unlike löyly which was always connected to the body itse could leave the body and come back. For example during nights when person was sleeping their itse might go out and return the next morning. This is why it was forbidden to suddenly wake up a sleeping person. Their soul might not have returned just yet. If itse would not travel in the dream world or in other realms person who lost their itse got very ill. Only person who could bring their soul back was the shaman. Shamans were only ones who´s itse could travel in the underworld within the trance state.

Third soul was haltija (also sometimes called as luontohaltija). Each person was believed to have their own haltija, an invisible guardian spirit who would look after the person. Some people were believed to have extremely strong haltija especially if they were succesful in their lives. Person who was not so succesful they were believed to have very poor and weak haltija. Haltija could also aband the person if they thought they were not worth of them. Luonto in Finnish means nature and also refers to the nature of the person. Aggressive person might had shorth-tempered haltija when a kinder person had a very good-willed haltija. ​

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