Once again I shall begin my benighted commentary with the (dry) remark "interesting insights above". This is spoken in honesty.
'Valkyrja' etymologically denotes when rendered into modern English "chosen-carrier". The 'val' part is an euphemism for "dead/deceased" - cognate with the Finnish (loan from Old Norse) word 'vaali' = selection/choice/election.
Compare with one of the
heiti-words for Óðinn: Valfǫðr or "chosen/slain-father". There's a complex of meanings behind this appellation as well, methinks.
But, what I surmise personally this thread to be about, is rather the "fylgja" = follower. In other terms Higher Self, the Soul, the HGA, Inner Self, Daimon and (dare I utter forbidden words?): in SoA's nomenclature "Azazel". We all probably are familiar & resonate with this concept...it's a person's innermost nature; usually experienced as an entity of the opposite gender to ourselves. Hence all the speech & ado about the Unio Mystica, 0=2,
fuck the cosmos and so on. Put in a nutshell "magic is [about] self-healing".
The confusion with the valkyrja may possibly arise from the Eddic, Wagnerian and other divers sources relating to the myth of Sigurðr (="victory-fated"). If we are to trust the sagas, his suspiciously Jungian anima-encounter was indeed with the valkyrja Sigdrifa (="victory-driver") who quite clearly was his feminine half i.e. complement...in accomplishing "the miracle of the one thing", so to speak. In other words, his fylgja was an actual valkyrja, while ours likely is not. We are real humans and not mythical characters. At least not before we make ourselves become such. Sieg heil (=hale)? Yet who can tell the difference, if such indeed exists?
So, the 'fylgja/follower' denotes nothing more or less than our completing (missing) half. In theory and in general magico-mystical parlance this may sound quite abstract, but in practice it's not so AFAIK. Rather it usually seems to be relatively straightforward to get in touch/carnal knowledge of your personal fylgja. And isn't it repeatedly stated in various primers on magic that this accomplishment is the
very first that the wannabe-magician should undertake? Id est, crucial to undergo lest you waste your time, power, effort & dangerously delude yourself in the process. Caveat evocator.
Speaking of Óðinn, I myself don't see him/it as representing a demiurge in the Gnostic sense. Rather as a Mercurian deity/archetype of the Absolute if we must use Theosophical concepts. Personally I see Óðinn and the corresponding Mercurial deities of various traditions & cultures (including especially our own Finnic
Väinämöinen) as often stand-ins for the concept of the Higher Self. Perhaps bizarrely I would also equate such with the fylgja itself - not that far-fetched if we consider the concept of the psychopomp. The valkyrjar are described as being such and so is Hermēs et al.
The "gods" of various different traditions/cultures seem ultimately genderless to me; at least according to my personal experience & research. Yes, historically (and in art) they have been alluded to as being either feminine or masculine, but this seems to be so because of their main characteristic powers are deemed active/passive = male/female in the traditional sense. Mere basic symbology. How can a deity or other "spiritual" entity even have a mammalian(?) gender, as they are without biology/corporeality?
The comparision of Valhǫll with the womb sounds interesting/fascinating to me. The road to rebirth/-incarnation for the "einherjar" (= "unique warriors") in a way? Could it then be assumed that those dead who instead went to Hel or Niflheimr were the "unprepared souls" aka profane individuals according to Theosophical doctrine? Aren't these separate terms rather describing merely various aspects/stages of the "devachanic" aka post-mortem existence between assumed incarnations? I cannot see why not, as they stem from a common Proto-Indoeuropean source at least linguistically.
I find there to be much food for thought & feeling & intuition in this here thread. To state the obvious the crux of the matter lies on
personal testing thereof. The Mystery always remains.