It can be argued that worship of the alfs and other such personal or local deities was a larger part of the religious lives of ancient heathens than worship of the pantheon of gods was. There are stories from the Conversion, such as that one related by Saint Martin, that even when people were so ready to convert to Christianity that they would allow temples to the gods to be pulled down, on no account would they allow things sacred to the alfs to be touched. And many are the stories of villages that worshipped the dwarf of a nearby sacred rock (as the folk tradition of the Gubich seems to indicate), or river, or mountain. There are endless stories of farmers who struck bargains with a particular troll, dwarf, or alf for the prosperity of the farm, such as the story of Kodhran. Every household had its own particular deities, female spirits known as disir. There were many important holy days set aside for them. Even individuals had disir who followed them around and saw to their luck, and protection, and development, and eventually their deaths. That some had cultivated deep personal relationships with these personal gods is evident from or suggested by such stories as Gisli's, and Sigurd's, and Wayland's. It is evident from a whole cycle of tales about swan-maids and other alfs. Seeresses (and to a lesser extent seers) also worked primarily with such personal deities, and made a living by telling the prophecies they received from them. (There is even reason to think that seidhmen and seidhwomen had such personal deities as elements of their practices.) There were women known as Horgabrudar who practiced prophecy and healing with the alfs for centuries after the Conversion, and there were whole churches organized for alfish worship similarly far past the fall of the cults of the pantheonic gods.
In modern Asatru little attention is paid to the alfs anymore. (Please note I an using the term alf as a catch-all for alfar, landwights, huldrafolk, disir, etc.) To be sure, regular sacrifices are made to the alfs. Blots are held that are nominally for them. But in most cases they are dealt with, even still, as a sort of an afterthought. Toasts are given the gods, and then the remainder is given the alfs. Rites are held for the gods and as an addendum a sacrifice is given the alfs. And almost noone holds an alf or alfs as patron. We are Reconstuctionists. Truly reconstructing the ancient heathens' religion means giving much more thought to the alfs, to local and personal deities, than we by and large currently do. I believe the source of this error comes from a little left-over cultural contamination, as it were, from the Christians. They have for so many centuries sold their god as "the" god, the one and only deity, that they have given the word god the implication of "the largest conceivable spirit possible", rather than the more common (and certainly more heathen) "a spirit-being that has some aspect of the natural world in his or her especial care".
We know of certain signs by which one might find such alfs as local deities, signs the ancient heathens looked for. One such telltale of a local god is the botrad, or "habitation tree". This is a tree of unusual size, or that has a hole or hollow in it. Such a tree is always inhabited by an alf or alfs, who oversee the care of the land around it. Stones that have hollows in the tops are held to be the habitations of dwarfs, who are the spirits of the land for a ways around the stone. (Proper sacrifice at such a rock includes pouring alcohol into the hollow, as if it were a cup.) Other stones that are unusually large, or strange looking also might be the habitations of dwarfs. Every river, stream, crick, lake, and pond has its spirit. The largest local one was usually worshipped as the giver of life to the whole land. Every mountain was inhabited by dwarfs, kobolds, and trolls. Often the largest local mountain had a spirit that was the chiefest local deity.
Any solitary Asatruar, as well as any kindred, should get to know their local landscape. Local botrads should be found, as well as dwarf-rocks. Local history should be studied, to find any folklore associated with nearby mountains, rivers, and such things. Once a map has been formed of the local spiritual landscape the wights in question should be made offerings, by name, individually, as the pantheonic gods are. Holy days should be devoted entirely, or at least primarily, to them. And anyone in Asatru who does not feel drawn to any particular pantheonic deity as a patron should realize that the system of patronage, while undeniably a part of ancient heathen religion, was certainly not endemic. It is perfectly valid, from the Reconstructionist point of view, to blot to the pantheonic gods on those holy days when it is appropriate (such as Yule), and to be primarily concerned with local deities. Indeed, it is even quite appropriate that one be drawn to a particular local god as a patron.
Individuals, ranging from mystics to warriors to farmers, would sometimes strike up a deal with a particular alf, often the dis or fylgja attached to that same individual. (A fylgja is a spirit being that belongs to one individual.) The fylgja is that individual's personal god, a teacher and protector, and the source of that individual's luck, and other types of personal deity function in much the same manner. Such a spirit rewarded actions she or he approved of with increasing good luck, and could punish actions she did not approve of with bad luck, and even death (especially in the cases of fylgjar). This sort of religious practice, whether directed at the fylgja or at some other particular alf is a cult of the personal deity.
Such an individual religious path would vary greatly between one person and another, as each individual god would have entirely individual styles, standards, and goals. But one thing seems likely about such people who are so drawn to this particular religious path: they are most likely going to be visionaries (those with the Second Sight), mediums, and/or prophets. That is to say, people who are given to perceiving and interacting with spirits that are not part of the traditional pantheon of gods, for how else would a person find such a divinity?
Some elements would be constant to all such personal-god religious practices. One such is obviously that the spirit in question must be contacted, whether by chance, through a prophetic or medium trance, or through traditional divinatory practices such as rune-casting. Another such is that a deal must be struck for that spirit's aid. This involves finding out those practices and beliefs the spirit most approves of, for one thing, and finding out how much of them must be adopted to gain the spirit's approval for another. It also involves finding out specifically what the spirit asks and what the spirit offers in return. And most of the time it will involve doing some sort of work, performing some sort of deed, or something else that proves to the spirit that the supplicant is worth the spirit's time and effort. This all means that in the long run other devotional acts will have to be performed for the spirit (as they would for any god), and particular rites be written for blots and sumbels and such that the spirit approves of.
There are many different ways this kind of personal relationship can be cultivated with such an individually oriented god. It may take the form of a teacher-student relationship. It may be a friendship. It may be analagous to a form of employment (with either the spirit or the human as the employer). It may be like the relationship between comrades-in-arms. It may be like the relationship between a poet and some distant unattainable muse. It may be a love relationship. The spirit may simply be a counselor. And it may be combinations of various of these. Historical records, such as they are, show great variety.
Some in Asatru argue that the worship of such individual deities is a lesser thing than worship of the pantheonic deities, and so should not be taken seriously as a valid form of religion. But I think such arguments are missing a critical point of view. While the traditional pantheonic gods are "larger", more powerful, and maybe even more knowledgeable, they are also more distant, more removed, and have more demands on their attention. What is lost in sheer power is made up for in direct one-on-one interaction. I do not think those who follow a god personal to them in any way lack anything that those with a more pantheonic bent have.
But as all of this is still vague and ill-defined, I will give here an account of my relationship with my personal deities, my goddesses, my disir, for though Odin is my patron so my religious life has also always centered around them.
As a child I had repeated, though infrequent, visions of a woman who came to comfort me in times of great stress. (In some ways I had a rather violent, stressful childhood.) These visions eventually and spontaneously started becoming true ecstatic states, unitary states (to speak like a scientist). An in the throes of such ecstasis I came to love this woman, child though I was, and to want to stay near her. But I had no idea who she was, or what larger context she fit into.
As a teenager I was very lonely, and had also just discovered the path of Reconstructionism, and so prayed to the goddess of nature and love in a rather vague but heartfelt way to send me someone to love, offering myself in her service as payment. It seemed she heard my prayer, and was moved by it, and sent me herself. And for the rest of my adolescence I was infrequently visited by one or the other of the vision-women.
As an adult I undertook the study of galdr and seidh, and these two spirits became my teachers and guides. They aided me, instructed me, and even protected me, warning when there was danger afoot. The further I took my studies, the greater were their demands. Eventually the first of them came to me in a dream, and gave me proof she was no mere dream-image, and harangued me about all my shortcomings in the areas of physical, mental, and spiritual development, and pushed me to start pushing myself much harder. The second of those women appeared before me in a very strong and physical-seeming vision to tell me I was hers and she was coming to claim me. As things progressed in my learnings from both teachers, there seemed to be an element of love coming from these spirits, of more than just simple approval. So for the next several years I came to feel pulled in two different directions, down two different paths, one leading to each spirit. Though never could I call upon them, they came to me only when they wished it.
I came to learn, from further interactions, that the first spirit was one of Odin's valkyries, and the second was a woodwife, a spirit of the trees.
Eventually my seidh studies progressed to the point where I wished to try invocation (or channelling). I stupidly thought, for complex and irrelevant reasons, that one of Odin's wishmaidens might be the safest thing I could start out with (for invocation is a dangerous practice). The rite was successful, and I found myself with an invoked spirit and nothing for her to do. So we sort of just played. She seemed quite taken by this, and so then I had three spirits, though the wishmaiden seemed more of a friend.
Still later I had made further progress with those deficiencies my valkyrie had complained of, and she came to approve of me enough to offer me a deal. She would come to me and do her best to help me whenever I asked, in return for dedication to a truly Odinic path of training ever harder, of pushing myself always beyond my limits. Once this was done I came to find and take up the deliberate practice of the berserkergang. And once that was done I was able to enter into religious ecstatic states with much more ease. So I was then able to call upon my woodwife and my wishmaiden, and proffer them similar deals.
And then one day my valkyrie came to me and told me that she loved me, and wanted my love in return. And at about the same time my woodwife came to me and reminded me of why I had called upon her in the first place, and reminded me of what I owed her. And all of this was further complicated by the fact that at about this time I picked up still another spirit. This one was an alf, who I had met through helping a friend in my capacity as a seidhman deal with a bunch of alfs she needed help with. This alf had been less of a guide and more of a thusbet, or personal destructive spirit. She told me quite freely she was bent on my destruction and undoing, in revenge for my meddling. But I was protected by my other spirits and quite immune to her harm. Only then she had to go and decided she loved me too. (Though "love me" in a romantic sense and "love me" in a consuming sense, as with food, seems to be a distinction she doesn't much make.)
So now religious life and my love life have become blended together in a most confusing way, though it makes sense in rather a lot of ways. Each of them is a teacher, lover, friend, counselor. Each of them pulls me quite powerfully in a different direction. And so the inspiration I am finally opened up to, coming from all of them, is much deeper and stronger than it would be otherwise. Like shamanic practitioners the world over, I now have a number of spirits who are eager and/or willing to help me out, each in a different way, with different talents. Which is quite appropriate, as I am a seidhman. And also my first and primary teacher/lover is a valkyrie, a servant of Odin, who is my patron. So love of her binds me ever more strongly to his path, for love is a powerful motivator. Furthermore, looking at this in a psychological sense, my unification with these spirit-women unifies me also with my Anima, with all the benefits that brings. (Though I am a hard polytheist and do not consider these spirits identical with my Anima, just connected with it.) Also this allows me to become a berserk via a different path than the ancients did. Rather than relying on pure rage to produce transcendent ecstasis, I can mix it with love, and be free from the dangers the ancient berserks undertook. (Such as killing their own friends in a blind fury.) And perhaps, as a man of Odin, it is not entirley surprising that my love life in some ways has ended up like his.
And this is a big part of the role I believe such individual deities have in any practitioner's life, whatever the particular form of the relationship. Such an intimate connection is capable of wreaking deep-seated psychological changes, along lines quite outside those usually taken by traditional psychological efforts or traditional religious activities. And these can be changes for the better. As it is also more immediate and personal than relationships with the pantheonic gods tend to be, such a relationship can serve to integrate the practitioner more firmly and securely into the larger world of the greater gods, and as such is an invaluable resource for those with an especially close connection with one of those greater gods.