The Swedes have described the lights throughout the centuries as dancers doing the polka or a folk dance. An old tale from Estonia describes them as a glow from a celestial wedding, in which the horses and sleds of the guests all shine with a mysterious radiance. In Scandinavia folklore the lights are said to be the final resting place for the spirits of their unmarried women. They busy themselves above mountain Konnunsuo by making fires, cooking fish, dancing and waving their white-gloved hands. Many cultures believe the aurora represent the entry point to 'The Land of Souls'.
Some cultures believe the lights to be the actual spirits of their dead.
This deity was called upon to ease women through the pains of labour. The Japanese believed the lights to be connected to the life-giving mysteries of conception. The Lakota Sioux thought the aurora might be the future generations at play, waiting to be born. The aurora has been a helping hand to cure disease and was called upon by the most powerful of the Inuit Shamans as a spirit. As recently as the 1950s, a healer on Kodiak Island, Alaska, relied on the light to cure heart ailments.